Few Quick Q's

[Guest Digitalize]

Basically, got iPhone 3G with Contract, loved it, bought 3G S on Launch Day, week ago dropped 3G S, screen shattered, being repaired, but feel like a change for a couple months (Been looking at the same OS Since Dec 2007 and the iPod Touch)

HTC Hero looks like the phone for me, very similar features to the iPhone, but has the Awesome Sense UI.

How does Tethering work on the Hero? Read something about making it into a Wifi Access point using your 3G Connection?

Modded Roms, whats the advantage? And is the phone fully smooth with the New ROM? Coming from the 600Mhz 3G S on the iPhone OS, im used to a very speedy fluid Operation.

How easy is it to theme the Sense UI? Saw a theme that was darker than stock, and looked awesome.

Im assuming if i buy a Hero for about £390 (Brown) My O2 sim will work fine, which has a true unlimited data plan :(

How does the Facebook intergration work, do you have to add each contacts FB? Does it search for similar names? Dont want all my FB Friends in my Contact list :S

Finally, Texting, probably an annoying Q, but how similar is it to the the iPhones? Seen an app that makes it basically the same, but i dont want apps for every part of the phone :)

Cheers All.

[Guest Parano!d]

have a look at these 3part series video of iphone 3gs vs htc hero

however iphone wins there, but believe me after using htc hero you would definately say what iphone toy u were wasting with :)

i'm new to android been winmo geek for months,

iphone is just full of icons vs hero's amazing sense ui

teether works fluid on hero!!

modded roms makes you get the best out of your phone,optimised for best performance!!

you need to just login your facebook a/c ,and you its so easy to integrate contacts, like u have a phone contact called Jack,slide to your facebook tab,you will get all suggestions of your facebook friends named jack,simple :(

texting is far better in hero then iphone,i bet

thats all for me,no matter what the video says

the video was shot on early days,rom updates are available plus you have modaco's super fluid rom which makes all the difference!!

go for hero rightaway & welcome to android@modaco

cheers!!!

Edited October 14, 2009 by Parano!d

[Guest yabbas]

iPHone 3GS wins on the fluidity front, but using an iPhone is akin to force-closing every application on an Android device and running HTC Sense + 1 app at a time. Like that, everything flies on Android!

Here's a typical scenario on how I used my device on the road the other day:

I have my phone tethered to my bluetooth stereo.

Music is set to play via A2DP.

At the same time, I have a navigation application loaded guiding me to my destination. Navigation audio is overlayed over the music.

At the same time, I have another navigation application loaded guiding me to the same destination. This I'm doing because I'm evaluating Sygic vs CoPilot performance today - it's odd hearing 2 nav apps telling me to turn left at different times, but I'm impressed that I can, lol.

Incoming phone call - it's from someone I have on my GBlocker block list - the phone disconnects them automagically.

New Facebook notification sound plays from Bloo - I must have been poked or something stupid.

I select a CoPilot point of interest for the company I'm visiting and go to dial it, it takes me to the phone menu with their 0845 number, 0870! (an app) intercepts the number dialed, does a quick search on the internet for an alternative number, and suggests a cheaper local number to dial that uses my free minutes. It then dials that number for me instead.

ok, the 0870 bit at the end was a lie since all the numbers on CoPilot are local anyway, but it would've worked had there have been a premium rate number there :(

All the above running at the same time still left the phone "smooth and functional" (and I never mentioned things like Tweeter and other background apps that just play nicely.)

Modded ROMs are faster and leaner than non-modded ones. Contain a few more apps. Discard the crap apps. And give you features like App2SD and rooting.

Sense UI isn't themable as such. But you can change the backdrops.

Facebook syncs automagically and adds contacts with numbers to the phone. No you can't select which is which, but since it's all google contacts related - you can edit them on the computer afterwards as it's only done once. It searches fo rsimilar names.

Dunno anything about iphone texting, but I hate texting anyways. I installed Moto phonetools and I can now text through a webpage on my PC running off a webserver on the phone through my unlimited text data plan...that's much nicer for my fingers :)

[Guest hp1]

I haven't managed to tether my heros 3g connection to my laptop using any app yet, either wifi or bluetooth. However if its important to you that you Can share your phones internet connection (it is to me!) THEn it can be done out of the box via USB. It's not as clean as doing it wirelessly but it Works.

[Guest Digitalize]

Yes i realise i left this a while :D

I Dont need convincing to switch, but i love my iPhone, so no bashing, it is the best phone around :P Just too, 'limited'

Getting ready to sell my 3G S now, but im having trouble finding the Brown Hero for sale anywhere, anyone got some good links? I Really want the brown hero, not the white hero, even though im paying for a colour ;)

[Guest jgtthd]

Yes i realise i left this a while :D

I Dont need convincing to switch, but i love my iPhone, so no bashing, it is the best phone around :P Just too, 'limited'

Getting ready to sell my 3G S now, but im having trouble finding the Brown Hero for sale anywhere, anyone got some good links? I Really want the brown hero, not the white hero, even though im paying for a colour ;)

hi there! i have an htc hero white and unlocked i will swap for your iphone 3gs. my wife really wants one and i have been offered a free htc hd2 coming next week. if you interested let me know! email me on [email protected]

cheers

[Guest headmonkey]

Hi.

I was just wondering whether or not you made the switch. And if so, how have you got on with the Hero. I was in the same boat as you with an iPhone 3Gs away for repair (water damage as a result of using in a rain storm with a cracked screen. Long story). I was so glad that I had taken up my Banks offer of free mobile phone insurance as going to the Apple Genius Bar was a real "Computer says no" experience.

Anyway I bought a T-Mobile G2 Touch on ebay, unlocked it and uploaded the custom rom within an hour of receiving it and away I went.

After zero help from O2 in regards to setting up the phone for data (another "Computer says no" experience). I manually set the phone up using info found on this forum and have had a lot of fun exploring what this little phone can do.

The freedom to tether and to upload and sideload apps that I've decided I want without Apple scowling and wiggling their finger at me is a breath of fresh air. The fact that my phone is also my flash card for transferring files quickly between laptops is a breath of fresh air. The fact that there is a community of modders that can eek even more functionality out of there devices without threat of legal action or of being cut off from their network is a... well you get the idea.

Now all this functionality and more I also had with my Nokia N95 8 Gig and coming to an Android device has made me realise what I had given up when moving over to Apple's cash cow. So really none of this should excite me. In fact I feel let down by Apple's complete lack of faith, trust, and respect for its customers. All of the above capabilities and more is what should be expected from a smart phone. Not sneaked out of the back door by means of jailbreaking.

But...

The 3Gs is such a great user experience IMO. And that is what makes it such a massive hit. Hype only goes so far and then the consumers experience takes over and its that experience is what generates the momentum that devices like the iPhone enjoy.

For all of the functionality of Nokias offerings its Symbian interface makes accessing that functionality a pain in the nether region. Android kicks Symbian's arse when it comes to usability but I find that the iPhone OS x is still kicking Androids arse. Everything that is a pain on every other smartphone I've used (I can't be bothered to go into WinMo. I hope that 7 will be the one that signals Microsoft's arrival in this sector as I find everything they've done so far in the mobile domain just to sad to contemplate) can be a pleasure on the iPhone. I love the build quality and feel of the iPhone. It's speed and slickness and ultimately its usability. I can't give that up I'm afraid.

I know that there are a huge number of users that disagree with me. That will slap the Apple Fanboi label on me but this is just an opinion. By saying which device I like best I am not saying that by definition all other devices are crap. Because that is not the case. It won't be long before someone comes out with an Android device with rocking hardware and skinned with an interface that blows away Apples (For some people the Hero is that device, but for me the Hero's hardware is just not quite powerful enough). The day that happens will be a good day because in my fantasy world Apple will react to that by opening up the iPhone to the outside world and allowing developers to add real multitasking and sideloading and tethering and real access to its storage capabilities without hacky workarounds or warranty killing jailbreaking. To finally justify it's iconic status.

Or maybe someone can create an Android build for the iPhone. Dual boot iPhone with Android and Os X anyone? I would be one happy bunny.

Sorry...this turned into a bit of a rant. How is your Hero experience when compared to the iPhone. Are you glad that you made the change. Or is there anything about iPhone that you miss.