HTC Hero (Week Four: Software/OS/Sense)
Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 9:58AM 
I've been using the HTC Hero on Sprint for right at one month now and after the hardware review of a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd share my impressions of the Android operating system (v1.5), some of the software on the phone and apps I've downloaded, and the HTC Sense user interface experience.
HTC Sense
I'm starting with the HTC Sense interface as it's the way you interact with the phone. HTC probably has a lead on other manufacturers when it comes to "skinning" a phone operating system, having first cut their teeth covering up the mess that has been Windows Mobile for some years now. Essentially Sense is an outgrowth from the original Touch Flo and Touch Flow 3D that first showed up on the scene almost two years ago as a short of "shell" that ran on top of Windows Mobile 6 (and later versions) adding functionality and capabilities that were better than those found on the "stock" Windows Mobile OS. I used Touch Flow 3D on my old HTC Touch Diamond and found it to be head and shoulders above the standard Windows Mobile experience.
HTC has since brought this new interface to their latest Windows Mobile offering, the HTC HD2, and their line of latest Android handsets starting with the global version of the Hero and the US versions (HTC Hero on Sprint and Droid Eris on Verizon). Recently announced handsets will include a newer, enhanced version of Sense and when the Hero and Eris get the Android 2.1 update in another month they'll receive something similar.
Sense on the Hero I'm using is pretty darn impressive! Instead of the standard three screens that plain Android has you get six screens with Sense. This is very handy if you find that you like to use those numerous Android widgets for stuff like social networking updates, news updates, or to have quick access to items such as your calender, contacts, frequently used apps, music player, and many more. In fact, I'm not even using all the screens! I have my main "home" screen (seen in the above pic), a screen with frequently used apps, a screen with the music player, one with a couple of widgets for search, weather, and news, and one for my calender. Those are the things I use the most and it is very handy to have quick access to them. I use the two unused screens for when I want to test out various other widgets.
Another feature of Sense, and one that I have not really found a use for personally, is Scenes. You can have the phone set up for a "work" scene that brings to the forefront all your business related information and apps, a "vacation" scene that is customized for one on vacation, a "social" scene that is heavy on the social networking side of things, the standard scene that is default and the one I use, or you can create your own. As I said, I've not used this feature other than to look at them, but I can see where it could come in handy for some.
When you first start up the Hero it goes through various set up routines including linking to social networks Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter (which happen to be the three I use the most). This has come in very, very handy indeed!
A few other features that HTC brings to the mix is their own version of the on-screen keyboards for landscape and portrait modes that works pretty well and is responsive as well as true multi-touch for the first time to the Android platform (which played a part in the recent lawsuit by Apple).
Android 1.5
Android is the open source operating system originally intended for cell phones that Google gives away freely to device manufacturers and has been in use for almost two years now. It's in the last six or seven months though that it's really started to take off and become a serious competitor in the mobile landscape.
After coming from the Palm Pre and it's most excellent multi-tasking capabilities I was worried that it would not be very well implemented with Android. It's a good thing/bad thing sort of deal. The good part is that it DOES multi-task multiple applications. The bad part is in the implementation. You do not "quit" an application when you stop using it, rather it sits in the background still running. Android keeps your six most recent applications available to you by holding down the Home key. You then switch back to that application, which in most cases is in the same state you left it. For example, I can have an ebook open in Aldiko and then switch to the browser and then switch to the music application, or any other apps I have installed. When I go back to Aldiko it will be on the same page that I left off on, ditto for the web browser being on the last viewed page. However, if I end up using more than six apps I have to relaunch any that I had been using before, most times not at the same state I left them in.
There are a few downsides to this approach. The first is memory and battery usage. Open applications use memory that is then not available to other programs and also tend to slow the phone down a bit as well as to continually pull juice from the battery. Daily reboots of the phone then become necessary, sometimes more than one reboot. Via the Android Marketplace there are various task managers one can download, many for free, that will "kill" open programs, thus freeing up memory and battery drain. My experiences with those programs leave much to be desired though and I do not use them. That should tell most who know me something about the state of those apps.
With that being said though, I have to say I do like Android. I can see the promise that the platform has and based on what I have been reading about the updated Android 2.1 that is coming out on more devices, and to older devices via software updates, this platform is set to take off. The thing that will make it a successful mobile operating system goes to the heart of the concept. Manufacturers can use the "plain" Android experience or create their own such as Sense by HTC or Motoblur by Motorola which enhance the end user experience.
The one thing about Android that I find the most useful is the tight integration with the various services offered by Google (Gmail, contact management, Google Maps, Google Calender, etc). It just works, and works well. I've been using Gmail for my email of choice since 2004 and having a phone that just "gets the job done" with that is a huge plus in my book. Other phone operating systems can do it but out of the ones I've used none do it as well.
Apps
The Android Market has many thousands upon thousands of apps available for download, which is falls into that good thing/bad thing again.
The good thing is that there are a large selection of apps to browse through, many of which are free or offer limited free versions to try out. The bad thing is that there are a LOT of crappy apps one has to dig through to find the few gems that are out there. I'll limit this to my usage as to cover the whole thing would take too much space.
As a smartphone user for some time now I have a few niche application needs and wants for my daily use and lifestyle. A few "must haves"...
- A good ebook reader application that supports ePub, Mobipocket, and others
- A good weather app
- Some good social networking apps, specifically for Twitter and Facebook
I like to read. A lot. I just do not like to lug around a bunch of books with me everywhere I go. If I can get away with not having to take a single book with me then that is a plus. This is where a good ebook reading application comes into play. On my first three smartphones I was able to use Mobipocket Reader which is an excellent solution. However, starting with the Pre I realized that Mobipocket is coming to a dead end with no recent development taking place on that front. After much time a few decent ePub capable readers came out so I converted all my ebooks that didn't have any sort of DRM attached to ePub. The Aldiko reader for Android is just about the best experience with ebooks I have had to date, and it's FREE! At the moment I have around 40 books on my SD card in the Hero and I'm always adding to the collection. It's nice to be able to bring up something to read at a moments notice, and have a variety of choice to pick from! I have a few ebooks that I purchased from the former Shortcovers (now Kobo) and I have that app installed for those titles as well.
A good weather app is a must have in my case. I'm a user of public transit which means I spend a lot of time outside so I like to be able to quickly pull up the local weather and radar picture. I started using Weather Bug on the Pre and it was the first thing I downloaded to the Hero, opting to pay for the "Elite" version that offers a lot of features I use almost daily. My favorite has to be the radar that locks onto my GPS location and centers on it. Nice. Sense includes a home screen weather app but it's often out of sync with what's happening "now" so I rely on Weather Bug more.
Twidroid Pro is my Twitter client of choice so far with Android and it gets the job done well enough for now. It's a bit more laggy than I'd like but I think that is a limitation of the Hero hardware more than anything else as quite a few other programs suffer the same symptoms.
Conclusions So Far
The HTC Hero is by far not the best smartphone I've ever used, that title still belongs to the Palm Pre. Do I regret selling my Pre and getting the Hero in its place? Not really. Why?
Android is still a young OS and manufacturers are still figuring out all the things they can do with the platform. A look at some of the more recent handset announcements from Mobile World Congress and CTIA show that a whole new crop of more powerful and more capable phones are coming within weeks. I've got my eyes set on the HTC Evo 4G (the formerly known HTC Supersonic). I purchased the Hero to get my feet wet with Android and figure out if it's something that I could use daily and it is. My complaints are more with the limited hardware that the Hero is packing more than the operating system and apps. The Hero essentially has the same hardware that shipped with the first ever Android phone, the G1, almost two years ago. In fact the memory and CPU are identical to what was in the HTC Touch Diamond that launch about the same time.
With the newer crop of phones running Android will come all new hardware. Just look at the stats on the Evo 4G, 1Ghz CPU, more than twice the memory of the Hero, 8MP camera, front facing 1.3MP camera, WiMax 4G radio, and a 4.3 inch screen! That will be one rocking phone! I've watched various "hands on" videos from CTIA this past week of the Evo 4G and if that is how the phone is running with "unfinished" software on board then I cannot wait until the final product ships this summer. There is a rumored release date of June 26 and I'm already planning to put in for that day off from work so I can go buy that phone.
When I look at just why I bought the Hero then I have to say I'm happy with the purchase decision. I'm learning Android, I'm getting an idea of the app ecosystem, and this is something that will translate over to a new device later this summer.
Android, Google, HTC Evo 4G, HTC Hero, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile in Mobile
Reader Comments (13)
Thanks for the great info! I'm a Pre user now and have my eye on the Evo 4G as soon as it comes out. One of my friends has the Moment, so I've seen Android before and like the direction it's going. I want to love the Pre more, but it just seems like developers aren't making the investment in apps for it. I live in Seattle but travel back to Raleigh frequently, so I'm looking forward to Sprint's 4G offerings and taking advantage of that speed!
I had the Pre up until last month and I really, really like WebOS environment but I think that Palm basically blew it by doing stupid advertising, holding off on including other carriers, and waiting almost a year to deploy a serious SDK to developers. Also, they are not introducing anything new in the way of hardware other than the "Pre Plus" which just bumps the memory up.
I got the Hero to get familiar with Android and as soon as the Evo 4G goes on sale I'm buying one and already have a buyer waiting for my Hero.
Android has some limitations that annoy me but there is every indication from Google that they are set to address those issues THIS year.
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