I’ve had my Hero for a while now so I have a better idea of how I like it. I must say, I never knew what I was missing! Some people refer to it as an “iPhone killer” because the iPhone is basically a iPod that makes phone calls….I can’t speak to how true that is but I can tell you about the Hero.
1. Anything internet related, anywhere, anytime, unless its a video. Then, all bets are off. It may work, it may not! Even though it was designed with youtube videos in mind, actually playing them can be painful!
2. 5 megapixle camera! It has replaced all but my Canon 5D. I have a Kodak camera somewhere, I can’t remember where since I bought this. The down side is that you can’t transmit a 5 megapixle photo anywhere. too big for Flickr, too big for Facebook, too big for WordPress. Thus I’ve had to set the resolution down to 1 or 2 megapixels to be able to do anything with the pictures. I’m not sure whos fault that is.
3. While Facebook “works” on the phone, the mobile site often mixes old, and I mean weeks or months old, posts with new ones. Again, I’m not sure who is at fault here. I also began to use an app called Bloo that is for Facebook. It is much better, but limmited in what you can do on Facebook.
4. I’ve found that I have no need for the “scenes” in the Hero. I’ve began to just stick with one. Maybe I am just to boring for seven scenes?? One seems to be all I use anymore. Other people may may find them more useful though. I’ve heard of people “rooting” their phones, basically, un locking them to access core functions, that have figured out how to have 32 “scenes”, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why you would need that many.
5. Weather. Its nice. Cool graphics and all. When it rains there is even a windshield wiper that swipes accross your screen. It would be nice if it would update itself consistantly though, instead of me having to try to force it to update.
6. Yahoo Email….works great, unless you have WiFi turned on, then it just refuses to work unless you actually go to the Yahoo web site and check your mail that way. The native email program also refuses to acknowledge any Yahoo folders other than the default ones.
7. As a mechanic, I find the white track ball a issue! I would like one grease colored! Though I must admit the grease has worn off of it nicely!
8. The security feature of the phone is that you, upon turning the feature on, must draw a secret pattern on the display known only to you to allow access to the phone. As a mechanic though, anyone could trace my greasy, dirty finger track in a heart beat!
Those are most of the downside I have found thus far. As we say in the trade though, “You have to be 10% smarter than the piece of equiptment you are trying to opereate!” so this could mostly be from operator error….it is a “smart” phone afterall!
I am still amazed by all of the things I can do with it. I downloaded a UPC scanner the other day. I can scan UPC codes and look for cheaper prices on the net. For those emergency service calls, I downloaded an app that flashes my sceer blue and red to the tone of a police siren, I have a flash light app that turns my phone into a light source.
Many of the original coml=plaints about this phone have been addressed in an update recently released by Sprint. Sprint and HTC have also commited to upgrading them to Android 2.0 when it comes out in a few months.
Previous complaints about the phone were battery life. Since the update this has improved a great deal. While I don;t have the phone glued to my head all day, it will last “me” a solid 8-10 hours.
Camera quality was also an issue. There were many comlplaints about the quality of the pictures. I found this kind of ironic because I often complained about the quality of phone calls I could make on my Cannon 5D. Come on people, its a phone that takes pictures, not a camera that makes phone calls!!!
Music…another issue, truth be told. This one may really just be me though. I’ve had a difficult time with the music player repeating the same song overe and over even though “repeat” was turned off. Also it seems to like to display random album covers, though I really think this is more my fault than the phones.
Overall though, its the best phone I’ve EVER owned!!!
This post was made for 2 people in particular, they know who they are:)
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