Hardware

The HTC Desire features a 1 GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, 576 MB RAM, a 3.7 inch Super LCD screen with a resolution of 480×800, and a 5 Megapixel camera with an LED flash. It includes an 8 GB MicroSDHC card, but supports up to 32 GB. The camera is capable of 720p video once it receives the 2.2 “Froyo” update to the Android operating system. For physical buttons, the Desire has a power button up top, a volume rocker on the side, an optical trackpad below the screen and four other buttons (home, menu, back, and search). It connects to the computer, and charges with a micro USB port and features a standard 3.5mm headphone jack up top. The only problem I’ve had so far with the buttons is that the headphone jack and power button are reversed from what the Apple iPhone (which I’ve switched from), so I’ve accidentally turned on the screen when placing the phone in my pocket, and pressed the headphone jack in vain more than once. Both the SIM card and the microSDHC card are housed behind the battery cover, and the battery has to be removed to get at them. This is mildly disappointing, but how often are you really going to be switching memory cards? The battery is a 1400 mAh Lithium-ion, and while many reviews have complained about the battery life on this phone, I’ve found it to be far better than that on my old iPhone 3G. The only thing about this phone that I was nervous about, while waiting for it to ship, was the screen. I had read on a number of sites that the Super LCD screens had a far worse contrast ratio when compared to the AMOLED screens the Desire is using elsewhere (Samsung has decided to hoard all the AMOLED screens for themselves, so HTC had to switch). I have to say, however, that the screen is simply beautiful, and far better than anything I’ve seen on a phone, with the possible exception of the iPhone 4. The phone also lacks a front-facing camera, like the ones you’ll find on the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant with Bell, but it’s always seemed more of a gimmick to me, and I don’t see myself wanting that feature. In the box, the phone comes with a micro USB cord, an AC adapter, stereo headphones and a bunch of guarantee info and user guides. I was mostly unable to test the quality of the headphones since they wouldn’t fit in my ear (a problem I have with more non-in ear ear buds), and I just got frustrated and switched to my normal headphones.

As I mentioned before, the Desire has a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and 576 MB of RAM. Even with all the UI flourishes that are added with HTC Sense, the phone is extremely snappy, and never sluggish. It easily blows away my old iPhone 3G and my sisters 3GS, and matches, at the very least, the iPhone 4. I am just amazed at this phone. Especially when I consider that about 10 years ago, the first computer that was actually mine, had lower specs than this phone.

Software

The HTC Desire runs Android OS 2.1 (“Eclair”) with HTC’s Sense UI on top of it. HTC has rolled out the 2.2 (“Froyo”) update in Europe, but it has yet to hit Canada. The Sense UI just makes Apple’s iOS look antiquated. Everything from the colour screen, to the widgets, to the full application menu, to the notification system, is just… better. I haven’t played with the stock Android UI, but I have toyed around with MOTOBLUR on the Motorola Dext and the UX Platform on Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10, and I have to say that the HTC Sense is my favorite of the bunch. Both the MOTOBLUR and UX Platform just feel over complicated compared to the HTC Sense.

Like many Android phones with a custom UI, the Desire has 7 home screens. The layout is definitely iOS reminiscent, however, it does manage to avoid feeling like it’s trying to clone iOS. It feels more like they took the good aspects of iOS, removed the bad aspects and just improved it. I do have to agree with Tyler Hardemen at thewunderbar, that Palm’s WebOS handles multitasking better than Android, however I’m not sure if I agree about the notifications. I never actually owned a Pre, just played around with them at the Bell store, so I’m not sure how it’s notifications worked. (I also have to disagree that TELUS doesn’t have a phone to rival the Galaxy S, but more to that later).

Applications

As an expatriate of the Apple iPhone, I was a little nervous about the app situation. While Android’s app numbers are growing, it still pales in comparison to the Apple App Store. That said, the apps I needed the most are either already on the Android Marketplace (Facebook, Soundhound), or have replacements (Seesmic instead of Tweetdeck, Mileage instead of Roadtrip Lite). Another thing I love about Android is that it’s ok to release an app that replaces the functionality of what was included on the phone. For example, I’m really not a fan of the stock Android keyboard, but a quick search brings up a number of alternatives, including SwiftKey. It’s not all roses with the Android Marketplace, however, as finding new apps is a pain. Rather than search the Marketplace, I’ve just been looking for articles on recommended apps on sites like Engadget. This is one thing I really miss from the Apple App Store.

Summary

The question I’ve been asked over and over again since buying this phone is “is it better than the iPhone?” Personally, I think it is, however, if you want an iPhone, buy an iPhone. While I think this phone is far superior, if you’re looking for an iPhone, you will find a reason to hate the HTC Desire. If, however, you are looking for an amazing smartphone, and were debating between Android and Apple, give this phone a serious look. The only phone, in Canada, that could possibly rival the Desire, in my mind, is Samsung’s Galaxy S Vibrant. This is, simply, the best phone I have ever owned, and I absolutely love it. It’s a little disappointing that TELUS hasn’t been advertising this phone at all. When they got the Milestone, they pushed it like crazy, and Bell is running a number of ads for the Galaxy S Vibrant, and I’m worried that this phone will get looked over. If the freaking wunderbar managed to forget about this phone, I have to wonder how many non-techie’s will notice it.

For starters, he’s off when it comes to how Google, Microsoft and Sony operate. As publicly traded corporations, they do not enter a market if they don’t think they can make a profit. If they started entering random markets just to be charity cases, the CEO would be replaced pretty quickly. True, when they first released the systems, both Microsoft and Sony sold their consoles at below cost, and Sony still loses money on the PlayStation 3, but they aren’t losing money in the industry. Microsoft and Sony both receive a licensing fee from games sold for their systems, as well as a cut of DLC, and, in Microsoft’s case, $60/year on every Xbox Live Gold account. He used the example of “not needing to make money” for working in Microsoft and Sony’s favour and causing the Sega Dreamcast to fail. The Dreamcast, while an amazing system, failed for a number of reasons, and not being involved in other industries wasn’t one of them. The fact of the matter is, the Dreamcast ultimately lost because its predecessor, the Saturn, was a failure, so many were hesitant to give Sega a chance. When the PlayStation 2 was released, Sony easily trounced Sega, mainly because of positive brand recognition from the first PlayStation. The PlayStation 2 won over the Dreamcast because of better brand recognition and marketing, not because Sony also made cameras and could sell the PlayStation 2 for less. When the PlayStation 2 was released, there was a shortage and many people were paying upwards of $1000 on eBay for it, so price was not an issue. Also, Sony and Microsoft aren’t the leaders in the video game market, if we go by sales, Nintendo is with (based on October 2009 figures) 50.39 million Wii’s sold worldwide (warning: PDF). Microsoft follows with (based on January 2009 figures) 31.20 million Xbox 360′s sold worldwide and Sony taking up the rear with (based on July 2009 figures) 27 million PlayStation 3′s sold worldwide. I realize it’s unfair to pick figures form different time spans, but I was too lazy to look for worldwide sales figures from the same month. Besides, it’s highly unlikely that Microsoft has over taken Nintendo in that 9 month span (I apologize if they have).

Similarly, when Google enters a new market, it does so with the intention of making money. True, their amount of capital allows them to take a loss for a while, but the end goal is to make money, not to do something “for funzies”. Usually, their method of choice is to make money from advertising, as opposed to outright sales. While Google often does dominate the markets it enters, such as search, email, online maps, it does so not because its competitors can’t compete with free, but rather because they offer a better service. For Google Maps, Google makes money with advertising, and while I haven’t had the chance to use a Motorola Droid (not available in Canada), or Google’s turn-by-turn navigation, I imagine they plan on implementing it into that as well. When you type, for example, hotels, into Google Maps, it will have at the top of the results, a sponsored link, as well as a sponsored link in the map itself, when giving a list of hotels.

To think that Google is not planning on doing this (if they have not already done so) with turn-by-turn directions is foolish. If you are in a strange city, looking for a place to stay and the first place to come up when you type in “hotel” is the Days Inn, there’s a very good chance you’re going to go there, instead of a Holiday Inn or Super-8. If Garmin and TomTom cannot compete against Google, it’s no one’s fault except Garmin and TomTom. They still have an advantage, currently, in that Google’s turn-by-turn navigation is only available on the Motorola Android for the time being, and changing cell phones just for free turn-by-turn is a little impractical. Obviously, the goal is to make it available on all Android devices, and people will take that into account when buying a new phone, but there will always be people who want an iPhone or Blackberry instead, and even many Android owners may wish to have a dedicated GPS. What Garmin and TomTom need to do is to tell consumers why we should spend our money on their dedicated devices, rather than use the free app on a Motorola Droid, much like companies that make MP3 players already do. Garmin and TomTom have an advantage over MP3 player manufactures, however, in that they can also make apps for other devices, such as the Apple iPhone and Motorola Android. If Garmin and TomTom are going to neglect the advertising model, or the software app angle (as Garmin so far has), and they lose out to Google, that is not the result of an unfair advantage, or monopolistic practices by Google, it is the result of companies refusing to adapt to changing conditions. On the other hand, if Garmin and TomTom continue to make products that are so good, that people will pay for them, despite having free alternatives, good on them.

Does this mean we shouldn’t keep an eye on Google, to make sure they don’t become an monopoly that controls ever facet of our lives? Of course not. So far, Google has provided only competition, and as long as they continue to do that, there is no issue. That being said, if Google starts taking over the marketplace, we obviously want to prevent that, but that’s why there are anti-trust laws. We don’t want Gmail to be the only way to get email, or Google Maps to be the only mapping service available, and the anti-trust measures that are in place should be enacted if that starts to happen, but until then, we can’t blame Google if its competition refuses to adapt, and as a result, goes out of business.

This is just shameful. There is no reason for ISPs to throttle internet access and is simply counter-productive. Many Canadians wonder why we are always behind the rest of the world, technologically speaking, and this is out answer. The CRTC refuses to regulate our ISPs and enforce net neutrality, thus letting the companies do whatever they want. TV is dying, and new media is the future. Unfortuantly, new media access in Canada will be stunted due to the fact that P2P traffic, such as bit torrent will be restricted and bit torrent is a cheap way for people to distribute files, such as podcasts, Linux image files and WoW updates. Yes, it sucks that it’s going to cost the ISPs more money for upload, but so what? It’s a cost of business. If you never want to embrace changing technology, get out of the technology industry. It’s shameful that not only can these companies rule in a virtual monopoly, they can take advantage of that situation and screw over their customers, knowing that they will not be able to take their business elsewhere, unless they want to go back to dial up.

According to the latest episode of TWiT (this WEEK in TECH), the FBI is investigating this matter. While no one is arguing that Revision3 should not have made their tracker public, Media Defender should not have reacted this way. When Media Defender noticed that this tracker was open, and that one could obtain copyrighted content using it, they should have contacted Revision3, as the forum member did, and let them know about this. By DDoSing Revision3, Media Defender broke the law and caused Revision3 considerable financial harm.

Perhaps the most interesting thing, however, is not the attack that Media Defender committed, but rather when it committed the attack. Media Defender was silent for the five weeks when Revision3 was unknowingly providing access to copyrighted content, but the second that Revision3 cut off access to the illegal content, they attacked. It seems that they did not care so much about copyrighted content as they did to having access for their files. Once the tracker was locked down, they responded the same way a two year old would at the grocery store when you take away the candy he wants to buy, throwing a massive tantrum.

On TWiT, Jim and Leo Laporte speculated that perhaps this whole incident occurred because Media Defender and so-called old media companies that back it do not understand the concept of new media organizations such as Revision3, and cannot grasp the idea that BitTorrent would be used for anything other that piracy. This brings out a major problem with old media. Old media is a dinosaur losing out to new media. People are getting sick of paying $20-30 for a DVD or Blu-ray disk, then being told what they can and cannot do with it. Companies such as Revision3 give you their content and basically say “you can whatever you want with it as long as you aren’t making money with our work”, and people love this. A person can take the latest episode of Diggnation or The Totally Rad Show and put a copy on their iPod, a copy on a DVD and another copy on their laptop, and watch them wherever they want. Aside from their monthly internet bill and the time required to download the shows, there is no fee and you get high-definition and high-quality content. Even shows with advertising such as Diggnation, The Totally Rad Show, Hak5 and TWiT, the advertising is minimal compared to that of many television shows, which like layer it on in excessive amounts.

The only way for companies such as CBS, NBC, Fox and Disney to survive in the long run is for them to finally embrace new media, and remove many of the restrictions. Let the user download the latest episode of their favorite television show, even if they don’t live in the United States (hint, hint Comedy Central, NBC and MTV), DRM-Free, and let them do what they want with it. Restricting the rights of their customers is nothing short of suicide and will lead to the inevitable downfall of television, music and possible movies.