It would appear I have joined the Android revolution and upgraded to a HTC Hero which should be delivered on Monday. I realise its now an older and slower phone but it will be a massive step up from my basic Nokia 5200.

Personally I would of held off as the Hero is being updated this month to HTCs new models and it would of slotted in at the same price but with snapdragon CPU and higher res screen etc. but hey ho.

http://www.slashgear.com/htc-2010-roadm ... d-0765239/

Its older and slower but can be upgraded to new software than mine provided you get a HTC one and not one from Orange who are woefully slower at refreshing firmwares etc. HTC also provide flash for it too. which most android/iPhone can't do yet.

There has been an update from Orange to address performance of android on the device so if that is what you have then make sure its updated before you start filling it up with data etc.

I've been really happy with mine and I think one of the features from the hero that would help mine is the trackball for web browsing.

Hows the Hero then?

Well the order was cancelled for some reason yesterday after I called Orange when I got home as it wasn't delivered. It should be delivered tomorrow to my mums with some luck - if not I shall wait it out until the end of the contract and then take it from there.

Oh well it will be there soon.

I just checked my phone and I'm running Android 1.6, you are running 1.5, this might be why your app selection is different to mine as they rely on a particular ROM Version 1.6 has the new market etc. some details

There is an orange update on the htc site release 5 days ago, can't tell what it is though as it in some odd code format that doesn't tie in with the expected 1.5,1.6,2.0,2.1 etc.

try this direct link to the equalizer app from your phones browser

http://market.android.com/search?q=jp.c ... itheqtrial

thats for the free trial one, seems to imply in the readme that 1.5 is supported.

http://cyberfort.jp/android/eng/index.html

It would appear that the Hero doesn't have a 1.6 firmware and will be upgraded straight to 2.1 when its released sometime in March (with some luck).

Well that is even better, 2 onwards comes with free navigation (though Orange will likely not include it as they want to charge for data service via their map software)

You'll also be able to do bluetooth tether and wifi access point with that version, something I can't wait for as USB tether only works on windows and I don't have that shit, though again many phone companies remove the tethering option to offer you a chargeable service

So you are a month into your Android ownership, found anything good?

FYI, if you ever used google checkout and its the same account you use on the phone, ensure you remove you card details from google checkout as their is no security on the phone to stop people buying stuff if the phone is nicked, makes buying stuff from the market a pain but hey ho.

Well I am still getting used to - I have not made/taken enough calls yet to be fully comfortable with it yet but its getting better. I haven't yet found that many decent apps that I want (including games) but I am hoping the Android v2 update will expand the apps I can use as we found out 1.5 doesn't support that many.

Looks like you Hero boys will be getting your 2.1 update next month

HTC 2.1 News

Lucky you My phone manufacturer has remained quiet and in fact will be launching a new model the Liquid e with the update, does this mean no plans to roll out the update on mine.... I dunno Not that I'll gain a great deal as 1.6 was the major update, 2 is mostly cosmetic, some bluetooth updates etc.

I'm still loving the phone, been working with a lot of remote guys in other countries and have spent a lot of my time doing VOIP on the Android with the likes of Skype, all for free via 3UK, its bloody superb, hours a day on the phone free of charge, does it all via phone service too rather than requiring 3g etc so its rock solid everywhere and uses no data allowance, all the free stuff 3 gives I hardly seem able to use my credit shame more people I call aren't on the network, I'd never spend a penny then, what with free 3to3, skype and free texts etc.

Amusingly one of the guys is doing similar to me on his iPhone but any time he gets a text or low battery notification the phone kicks him from the conference call because it can't multitask, get a proper smart phone

google has finally release free Navigation for UK, yay.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... roid-users

Picked up another Android phone today, Sharyns Sony Ericsson T715 has been pants since she had it and finally started to crash a lot, although the phone is going back for repair its crap and she wanted something different, unfortunately we are locked into a contract for another 6 months so no chance for an upgrade for something different and don't really have a load of dough to waste on phones.

but Three have just launched this

ZTE Racer, Android 2.1 smartphone, £99

Thought we'd give it a punt, Specs wise, the device features a
2.8-inch resistive QVGA touchscreen,
a 3.2-megapixel camera,
2GB of storage,
Android 2.1,
Bluetooth,
FM Radio,
Wifi
GPS

That is a lot of tech for the money, its quite bloody impressive too, I was expecting it to be a bit slow and laggy for what it costs but blimey it flies along at a fair lick, unfortunately being a 3 phone they have stripped out a lot of stuff so its not the full 2.1 Android experience nor can I see what hardware its packing, but its unlikely to be anything near as powerful as the Hero some of you guys own which bodes well for 2.1 unleashing a lot more performance from your handsets.

Oh and it has hard buttons for dial/drop a call that's the only buttons it has additional though so no improvement for gaming, not that this thing is likely to have the grunt for the full 3d experience anyway as despite the rev of 2.1 half the games I have on mine which is running 1.6 don't show on the market for this device most likely because its not quick enough, still saying that it pulled 50fps in neocore, couldn't test linpack or quadrant though, whatever, gaming on a mobile device using tilt without proper buttons is pretty shit most of the times in all but the most simple of titles.

All good then right...well no, not quite unfortunately to do the phone at this level compromises had to be made and for a touch screen phone its in the worst place, yup, the screen

Its a resistive screen with a low res it hampers the experience, well at least coming from mine (unfair comparison really, mine is 3x the price), its a shame really as its all good otherwise, its not bad when you get used to it and it seemed to get better over time but the capacitive screen on mine makes it a joy, fingers just have to glide, this one needs a lot more pressure, still it does work I guess you can't expect it all at that price. Viewing angles aren't great on the LCD either, not too much of a biggy on a phone, i'm really being a bit picky, what's new

Other down side is a non standard charging port, I hate that.

All in all even with the negatives its a cracking phone for the price, its keyboard wasn't bad either, not as good as what comes with the HTC but better than the stock android one I've been using, this prompted me to look for another keyboard and found a pretty decent one.

Swiftkey beta, works quite nicely, takes decent advantage of my res and screen size too.

Turns out it is a standard cable, i've just not seen it before, its microUSB I'm just so used to things coming with mini USB that I expect that to be the default on everything, I guess there will be a shift to a smaller connector eventually.