It's a shame, but I have been visiting this forum for a year or two now and must say - this forum is dead. It's a shame because , looking at new tablet pcs and similar devices entering the market, I think athena still is a good device, offering a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately I know nothing of ROM cooking and all the cooks have left us. Too bad
mietulo said:
It's a shame, but I have been visiting this forum for a year or two now and must say - this forum is dead. It's a shame because , looking at new tablet pcs and similar devices entering the market, I think athena still is a good device, offering a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately I know nothing of ROM cooking and all the cooks have left us. Too bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, this is the way with all devices these days..... I still use my Athena as a backup unit in case I muck up one of my other units....LOL
Later........... B)
I also think the HTCx7500 continues to be a good device. The things that is attractive with the new devices is the advancement of touch screen technology. Cypress true touch technology for example offer not only multi touch but also the ability to do hovering because the screen can sense the finger as soon as the finger is near the screen.
Undeniably Nice to play and might offer conveniences to a certain degree. But unless there is a way to browse the net as fast as a proper laptop or a way to do document processing or powerpoint slides editing 70% as efficiently as a desktop, what the newer device can offer as compared to HTC x7500 is just cosmetics. I can get the same job done with not much of a problem with the Athena as compared to the newer devices.
So, the things that will attract me to newer devices will be
1. Faster internet browsing
2. Document processing / slide editing
3. Looonger battery life
4. Snappiness of the operating system even after installing many programs
5. softwares availability - not specially controlled by a central "market" and all software makers have to pass their work to them and let their work be distributed by one central point where users can download and use free or paid.
Zooming with 2 fingers or 5 fingers is interesting but zooming by just pushing my athena directional buttons up and down isn't such a difficult job either.
Special today's page / Home menus like the ones in Androids or iphones are also not something difficult to reproduce or customized under windows mobile.
Athena still rocks!
Glad I chose to sell mine when I did. It was a device that was ahead of its time. Shame Android never took off on it.
Something different
The prices of these babies have dropped so much that I just bought one recently... after using various newer HTCs, etc, that are all basically the same, this ancient gadget was actually a breath of fresh air. Besides the marginal interior updates, OS versions, and the gradual screen size upgrades, I really can't figure out what's inherently different with almost all smartphones today... although using the athena needs somewhat of a change in mindset (especially of what is a phone), having something different to play with is already a big plus and an actual experience.... please phone makers, lets make the effort of trying to do something different and not just marketing something as different.
I want to browse the internet, do some emailing, write something in my blog, check auction sites, watch youtubes, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - Opera mini, streaming player, etc)
I want to do some word processing, write a novel, edit some documents, and make sure the work can be in sync with my laptop/desktop. Can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - pocketword. document2go, softmaker textmaker, pnotepad)
I want to go through my powerpoint slides and rehearse, re position/re sort the slides, correct a few wordings and make sure i can keep both the slides i have in my desktop and my pocketpc in sync, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - pocket powerpoint, clear vue slides, ...)
I want to enjoy listening to some mp3, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - tcmp player, coreplayer)
I want to watch some movies in avi, wmv, flv, rm, mp4 format, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - tcmp player with the correct codecs)
I want to do some voice recording, can the Athena handle that? (YES - resco audio recorder)
I want to share some photos album with friends sitting together in a restaurant, can the Athena handle that? (YES - resco picture viewer)
I want to connect to internet using 3g/ HSDPDA, because WIFI is unavailable, can the ATHENA handle that? (YES - just make sure 3G services in my data card is active)
I want to transfer file from pc, mobile phone to Anthena or transfer from my athena to my friend's mobile phone without using wires, can the Athena handle that? (YES - bluetooth connections, mocha ftp server, ...)
I wan to play some games, ?? (YES - gba emulator, nes..., playstation 1 emulator, Java, Just games made for pocket pc, etc)
I don't see what the other devices (androids or Ipods) can do that i cannot do with my ATHENA. Yes, I would love it if there is a way to try out putting ANdroids os in my athena but it will be just for fun and to know that there is one more choice of os i can use if i feel like it. Honestly, if there is a 7 inch windows mobile device, I might consider.
One of the MOST important thing that keeps me monitoring the android development is actually BATTERY LIFE (7 hrs with wifi on) and fast zooming.
Many people who try to impress me with android will show me how smooth the screen scrolls here and there with just a flick of the finger. Impressive but when i stop to think over, I realized that i am not going to spend my whole time flicking the screen here and there and just for the thrill to see how the screen can actually change simply by a flick of a finger.
What i will do mostly is click on a program i need to use and start typing or imputing. Scrolling and panning is only useful when i am reading long documents like webpages or ebooks. That is why i like isilo because it allows you to scroll without the need to use the scroll bar.
Fast zooming is another thing that i would like to see on mobile devices. The kind of fast zooming used in opera browsers and netfront browsers are heading in the right direction. FAst zooming is already something that is fast developing even under windows mobile environment.
So, in the end, it comes to a matter of which operating system uses less battery power and will allow longer battery life.
My Athena is going on ebay this weekend because I have one of these now, might be something to look into for the rest of you, as there is an active hacker community too:
http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pandigital_Novel
I only used the Athena as a nightstand emailer/websurfer/weatherchecker, so I have no use for a phone. It worked well enough for that, but the PDN is even better for my needs, and now works with android market. Very cool not to have to activesync to move downloaded cabs to the athena, plus there won't be much activity for winmo anymore since everything is incompatible with wp7 as I understand, while android market is just beginning. Just found a solution that works for my needs, and thought I would share it. Athena was good to me, but it's time for her to move on about her life's work.
Fashion
It does seem a shame that just as big screen devices like this one are coming into fashion this forum has fallen into disuse. It doesn't stop it from still being a very good device, and still very usable in my view. Plus with the amount of ROMS to choose from on this forum there must be one to suit most people. You never know, we may get another cook some time.
regards
Jay
Yes, the Android os is very interesting to look at. If someone created a 7 inch - 10 inch screen tablet with windows mobile 6.1, (or even wm5,6), I would seriously consider but of course the battery life must be good and the processor and ram should have enough power to improve internet experience.
I've used all sorts of devices, from Psion to OQO, Everun, Zaurus, HTC BA etc etc. Recently I bought the Ameo and I can say that after some customisation this little device fits my bill perfectly.
The Ameo has been more flexible (keyboard/Tablet, case, landscape/portrait, 3G/WiFi) than the Archos 5IT it replaced. Sure, Android is nice and iOS is fluid and modern, but the Ameo kills them all with a large 4/3 screen.
I'm using it right now with a Logitech wireless mouse, it's been on all day with a 30% battery drain, browsing with Opera Mobile 10 over 3G.
I wish manufactures would revisit the 4/3 aspect ratio, not everybody wants to watch widescreen films all day, and books look terrible in portrait on thin devices.
Many thanks to the members of these forums for all the tweaks and custom ROMs. this Ameo isn't dead yet.
Last week I bought one of the android tablet made in china. It is called APAD 7 inch styleflying.
The android os has somethings going but I have a number of complains. One of them is why did they do away with "scrollbars." While it is true that Many many people enjoy swiping the screen up and down and feel the screen moving at the command of the finger but it is also true that SCROLLBARS do make sense. Without scrollbars, i believe that many users have experience accidentally opening a program while they were trying to flip the screen up and down. android wants to do things differently I guess but in the process, they took away something very practical and useful. Just my personal opinion. If they want to do something that appears different, they can do what HTC hd2 did. When I look carefully, i realise that in fact, HTC hd2 has a kind of scroll bar on the main screen. It doesn't look like the traditional scrollbar but it does the same job. It allows the user to accurately move from page to page by pushing a slider. And who said programs in Android doesn't crash or hang or stop responding. In my experience, they do.
Anyway, it is a free operating system and it is open source so I hope it will improve in time to come.
Meanwhile, my Athena HTC x7500 rocks! If only I can wake up one morning and find my 5 inch screen Athena grow up and become 7 inch screen! Heh Heh!
5 inch is good size. But i would surely not mind having a 7 inch screen HTC x7500 in my collection.
I am new to the Athena myself by just having bought one for about 200 USD - and it was a great find as it is in perfect shape, looks brand new, no scratches whatsoever!
I sold my Acer F900, as I am through with touchphones, I hate them - it's too bulky and smart for a phone, but too little to do productive work (for me that's office and remote computer administration, mainly). So I decided to scrap the smarthphone, and go back to the roots: buy a small and light cellphone with physical buttons and a PDA.
So I went for the x7500, and I love it! It's 3 years old, and still getting the job done!
My only complaint now is with WiFi: it seems to 'forget' the passwords for APs for some reason...
Btw I use an extra light Taxist WM6.1 ROM (42 Megs), as I have my own proven programs I am using for years, so everything except the OS is unnecessary junk.
it is a shame it is not popular.
I have this device since June. I guess I am getting old, and the little screen of my Polaris was just not fun anymore. The screen of the Athena and the real keyboard were really the 2 attractive points before I touched the beast for real.
So here we go for a search and I found one almost new 5 months ago over the net for 200 Euros.
That's probably the best deal I have done.
I have the device at work and at home, also at customer site. I receive my calls (through Bluetooth), while taking notes or making reports. Even camera pictures are good to fill in reports. WM6.5 works great on this fast device, the only thing I miss is the letter recogniser mode when I have to take notes not seating somewhere. But vocal notes do the trick.
i check my mails both personnals and professionnals, review a presentation in the plane, give free phonecalls to my family while travelling, and finish by a good movie or the news on streaming TV.
It is said to be big, but in fact not bigger than a decent leather covered organizer.
So bad they stopped it...
And so bad there is so few brands believing in this all-in-one concept !!!
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
KukurikU said:
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For dead links to ROMs, the trick is to Google the exact name and see if some kind soul has uploaded them somewhere - try it, it sometimes works.
I am using AGB 3.0 - to be honest, the device is slow by modern standards, and it not really finger-friendly, it takes quite a tap with a finger to get the thing to respond.
However, yesterday, a young American looked impressively at it as I used it in the train, and asked if it was a phone or a tablet - and what OS it ran. I told him it was old, several years old, and ran WM (albeit a new version). OK, he was disappointed - but that is it, this gadget was way ahead of its time, if they did it again, it would succeed with a few tweaks (modern CPU, faster and better battery).
rjstep3
KukurikU said:
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check Michy's sigs in any of his comments - there is a link to all of his ROMs, he removed it from rapidshare.
I recommend his Clear Edition 6 R1 or something version - I found it quite usable as I wasn't able to revert the WM6.5 start menu, found in the AVG 3 rom, to 6.1.
Nah, not dead, still in daily use by many. My Athena was 3 years old last month and I still haven't found a phone that I might want (the HD2 is close, but I got one for my wife and the screen still just feels too small). Still carry it every day.
Me too! I have tested HD2, tested Androids but the Athena is still amazing!
help making it alive agine....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849080
Related
I never thought id see the day I'd get rid of my beloved Athena, but yesterday I had an awakening.
Only a few days before i'd had a play on an IPhone and marvelled at its intuitive, smooth and just bloody BRILLIANT interface. it almost shocked me just how crude, ill-thought-out and unsatisfying windows mobile is in comparison. Now please don't baulk at this statement; i'm NOT going to buy an IPhone, it doesn't do enough for me and it's overpriced. But remember, this is Apple's FIRST. need I repeat FIIIIRRRSSST attempt at the mobile os market. how have they got it right so effortlessly while Microsoft, with all their years of experience in the field continue to make such crap?
I have shaken off my bias towards Microsoft and now simply resent their seeming inability to produce a mobile os that works well.
I don't wish this thread to be about the iphone. We all know its only 2g, can't do mms and doesn't have a particularly good camera. what it does do it does WELL though.
The same is true of Nokia's n800 and n810 internet tablets with os2008. they play YOUTUBE with flash 9. they render web pages smoothly and effortlessly. they look and feel nice. my n95 also - its web browser loads up data-heavy web pages PHENOMINALLY quicker than my Athena, despite its processor and ram spec being distinctly inferior.
why am I getting rid of my Ameo?
Put simply: it just doesn't work. it works a hell of a lot BETTER thanks to PK and the developers, but to all intents and purposes, when you really need it to work, it just doesn't. This is true of ALL windows mobile devices.
How often have you needed to use Internet Explorer to check something on the fly and been frustrated by a constant 'connecting' or 'opening' message for no apparent reason? How often has your windows mobile device crashed, frozen or botched up for no reason? I could go on, but I prefer to give my own personal remedy to the situation, and here it is....
dig out my old Hermes, dust off the cobwebs. use this for all my organising, scheduling etc...
install WmWifiRouter so my Hermes acts as a perfect wifi access point when its HSDPA capabilities are required.
buy a shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook for a little under 230 quid.
connect shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook to Hermes access point when internet is required away from home.
sell Athena to anyone who hasn't realised Windows Mobile is crap yet.
it seems to me that Microsoft are about to fall under the shadow of Apple and Nokia quite abruptly. somebody tell me i'm wrong!
p.s. - Athena for sale if anyone wants one
sounds like you either did a bad flash or got a bad batch coz my athena has never crashed once or had any of the problems you described.never the less,how much are you selling it for?is it an x7501 or x7500?
i can see what your on about , but personally i find that my Athena(Ameo) ticks about every box i want it to.
I want an all in one device for browsing, streaming, phoning and texting and running some other apps and the Athena is the only all in one device that ticks all those boxes for me. I like the thought of the Eee PC but only if it can run XP properly but still you need 2 devices which isnt what i want to do.
Hi Leoni1980,
I think its a question of how you configure your device. I agree that WM6 in its native mode is crap. It takes too many strokes to start an applicatio. It does not tell you what applications are active. It is difficult to switch from one to another. Yes, the list could be long.
However, I also find that with WM6 there are so many good third party software to overcome these limitations. While it takes too many clicks to start an application, iLauncher allows me to put every single applications on the today screen. While Wm6 does not tell you what applications are alive, wktask puts every running application on the taskbar and let me switch to anyone easily. WM6 lets me multitask. While pocket IE is crude in its navigation, pieplus makes it all pleasant.
For me, everything works extremely well. Athena is almost perfect in terms of portability, battery life, screen size and connectivity..
However, I agree that internet browsing is too slow. Even comparing it with a dialed up connection on a pc, it is relatively slow, unless I use the "mobile" versions of webpages. With the mobile versions, everything is snappy and instantaneous. Is Nokia not like that? Is Nokia able to let you browse the desktop version of webpages without any response time delay? If it is, microsoft would truly got to wake up and do something about it. Another thing that we have to be careful is not to fall into the trap of thinking grass is greener on the other side. According to Nokia customer support the N800 does not support 802.1X authentication with EAP-TTLS and PAP. Also, despite being a Linux based device the N800 lacks out of the box support for Ogg format media files.
So, Nokia is able to play the desktop version of youtube. I agree that this is a glaring disadvantage of Wm6 at the moment. W don't have the latest version of flash. Why is this the case is hard for me to understand. Why can Nokia have it and not WM6? Now, the only way to watch youtube desktop version is to download the flv files. Would be nice to be able to watch them without having to first download the videos.
You're now carrying two devices. A subnotebook and an old Hermes. This is definitely not a good way for me, because the subnotebook is too big and too battery short for me to carry it with me all the time. Not to mention that now there are two pieces of gear to carry instead of just one.
Having an all in one requires some compromises. You won't have the best digital camera in the world with this arrangement. Similarly, you won't have the biggest screens to go with it. There is always room for improvement, but for now, I still think Athena is the best device available in the market.
if i had to carry the subnotebook about ALL THE TIME i would agree, however i have the hermes for when i'm unfortunate enough to have to use internet explorer mobile.
The EEE is not actually THAT MUCH bigger than the Athena, and has very good battery life- almost twice that of the Shift running Vista. It is also capable of running full Xp. there are lots of videos on the subject and the EEE manual even tells you how to do it. Although on paper the EEE has a poorer battery life it is also far more responsive and thus allows me to do things in a quarter of the time it would on the Athena. As such battery life is not really an issue.
With regard to the N95's ability to display full web pages - I promise you this is the case. I've even found it capable of accessing sites the Athena was not capable of.
I initially wrote this off as perhaps a better 3g transmitter on the N95, but i tested my Athena over wifi for the first time the other day and still it rendered web pages in a painfully sluggish manner, despite our relatively fast broadband connection. The same was true when tested with Opera. This makes me believe that there is an inherent problem with the architecture of windows mobile which even the greatest developer couldn't overcome.
I wholly disagree with shortyboy's bad flash assertion - I've owned windows mobile devices for years and this problem has always existed.
Nor is it a configuration issue. I spend most of my days off tweaking phones to improve their performance. The fact is that no amount of tweaking will make an Athena as good at rendering web pages as a nokia or an iphone. Once microsoft sees this they might (we hope) scrap their plans to release wm7 with (no doubt) its FEW performance tweaks, the cute little flag in the top left-hand corner and the new, hardly-improved I.E. and build a whole new O.S. from scratch which makes the most of modern mobile cpus, doesn't look 10 years old and does everything it should out of the box. That way stupid hybrid devices like the Shift would never get off the ground as there would LITERALLY be no need for them.
Yes the Athena ticks every box in terms of connectivity - unfortunately this fact clouded my judgment of its actual performance - and that of all such devices - yes you can purchase all the third party software under the sun to make windows mobile usable but this software only makes life a little better, it doesn't FIX the problems.
Just have a play on an n810 when it comes out this month and you'll see what I mean -os2008 is so smooth, well-considered and functional. Just try browsing the internet on it, or watching a video on it. It just WORKS and works well. Even OS 2007 outperforms windows mobile.
Cex sell n800s for 200quid. This month they will all be upgradeable to os2008. The pocket gadget side of me is SORELY tempted!!
p.s. its an x7500 t-mobile branded. It has the 4-in-one and lots of other bits.
I agree with many of your points on the Athenas lack of usability.
Mine is used for little more than a wireless access point these days, I'm in prison typing this on my Asus Eee pc running XP, which is much more of a pleasure to use for email and web browsing. (Not in prison as an inmate, I'm an officer...)
This nokia N800. It does not have a GPS, does it?
How about third party software?
I hope to check out on this myself. Anyone knows where in Sydney I could try out this device?
athena project need an athena
Midget_1990 said:
athena project need an athena
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its here if you need it Midget.
eaglesteve - the n800 has no inbuilt GPS receiver, although it is compatible with map software (including gmaps and Nokia Maps) and any bluetooth receivers. Many people prefer separate gps receivers as they can be positioned more effectively in the vehicle. It is pretty much identical in hardware terms to the n810 aside from the built-in keyboard and GPS. processor and ram are the same and it has two SDHC slots as opposed to the single one on the n810.
I think it's a bargain myself.
Took delivery of my black eee pc today and I'm so impressed by its size and performance. Everything works out of the box, from BBC online to divx stage six to youtube. It even picks up and syncs with my Ipod, and you can mod the look of the os to your heart's content.
ALL FOR JUST OVER 200 QUID!
It's bigger than the Athena, sure, but I had to carry the Athena in a bag anyway and the weight/mass difference is negligible in this scenario. The battery life is not technically as good either - but it boots SOOOOOO quick that this almost isn't an issue. I can fire it up and use it when I need it if I'm out, and merrily use my old Hermes for practical pocket pc/telephone duties - even Wifi access point functionality.
I literally don't need the Athena anymore.
I don't like a separate GPS unit. It means I need to carry two devices when I play golf, and can't get the fix prior to entering my car. Also, when I get off the train and walk, I can't use it to tell me direction to my destination as easily as Athena.
I still think Athena is the best for now. But I'm all ready to switch if there is a better product. I don't see such a product yet.
WM6 = WM5
Just think about that and try to realize that Windows Mobile 5 is A LOT OLDER than the OS'es on the iPhone and N800/N810.
WM7 will change a LOT on an HTC. (Different shell, different hardware)
And before you insult HTC, you need to wait on the new OS.
Agree.
WM6 is still based on ce5. Ce6 is about to be released. Looking forward to major major improvements
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
p.s.: how is that i can only insert four smilies?! had to remove three because i typed seven of them, wtf
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
spacecat said:
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
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Click to collapse
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
leoni1980 said:
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like i said wait till dual comes out. the team had a breakthrough yesturday and a new app will be in dual.. more details when rom comes out.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder what your thoughts are on Softmaker office Textmaker, which should be superb on the athena in 96dpi? You may not even get the slowdown that you describe in Word. I use PlanMaker (their spreadsheet) and it works quite well in (96dpi) on my athena.
leoni1980 said:
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my current thinking is to get one and leave it at work, which is where i do most of my 'ATHENAring' ...is that a word !
And use my athena as an HSDPA modem for the Eee with XP installed on it.
I would then keep my Athena for when im out and about and NOT at work, hence keeping the full Athena mobility including the important ability to make calls and send texts.
Im not in a terrible hurry to do this and i understand that Asus are going to bring out upgraded versions of the Eee.
Bigger drives , 10 inch screen etc. Mind you its the small form factor that interests me esp as i may want to carry the Eee at some point.
I am however still well into my Athena and by the rom updates, looking forward to the DUAL rom which sounds exciting but im clueless as to what it can do more than PK3.0
Hey all,
A while ago I've started my hunt for a UMPC. My demands were not simple:
1. Relatively cheap - up to 700$
2. 3.5G connectivity
3. TV-OUT port
4. ~7" screen size
5. Good battery life
6. Keyboard of some kind
7. GPS
I've looked around and couldn't find anything that answered those demands. The biggest issue with UMPCs I've looked at is poor battery life. After a while, I started to think about the Athena as a UMPC alternative. It answers almost all of my demands except the smaller screen and of-course being a WM device its not a fully capable PC. I wanted to ask you Athena owners, if you think that the Athena could be the device for me. Do you feel the need for a more capable OS? Do you wish to replace it with a bigger UMPC? Do some of you have a UMPC and the Athena and feel they complete each other?
Thanks a lot....
EDIT: Just realised that I've posted this in the wrong forum. I'll put a new one in the main Athena forum.
I have owned the Athena for nearly a year now. I also own a Sony Vaio U70 (See info at this site: )
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/sony_vaio_U50.htm
Although both are small, portable, lightweight, same screen size, etc... I find more effective use of the Athena. The main features that make this a plus over the UMPC you have already stated, GPS, a keyboard of sorts, and HSDPA. I can travel for up to a week or so without the need for a laptop computer without compromise in keeping up with e-mails, opening almost every form of attachment, browse the web, connect with Hotel WiFi and have phone capabilities in one device. Carrying one charger is also a benefit. I can (have) connected the Athena to a full size monitor, a full keyboard and added a USB mouse. No reason a Bluetooth mouse shouldn't work as long as you pick your external components wisely.
I don't use the Athena every day as a UMPC replacement, but given the chioce while travelling, carrying it is always better than carrying a phone and the Sony or a phone and an 11 pound (5 kilo) laptop. The perfect UMPC has not yet been created in my view. The HTC Shift is getting closer, but is MUCH LARGER than the Athena and can not serve as a mobile phone. In time, the real UMPC that does it all will come, but when ???? is anybody's guess.
I was in the market for a new phone and laptop, and after getting the Athena I'm not looking for a laptop at this point. As the last poster said, its not perfect, but its close.
I own a Asus R2H UMPC along with my Athena, and i dont think that the athena type devices will replace umpc's or laptops in the near future, I believe that its windows mobile that limits their usefulness,
On my UMPC, i can open multiple windows at the same time, have tabbed browsing, be chatting to 3 of 4 people in messenger and very easily switch between them all.
In theory, my Athena can do all of these things, but in practise, the graphics are way too slow to switch between apps quickly (i believe this is a lack of driver issue though), you cant do tabbed browsing, and msn messenger on the athena is less than useless for me !, everything in WM seems very clunky and slow compared to my UMPC, the 2 do live side by side, but there's too many features that overlap between the 2 devices really, and i will likely be selling my athena soon to get a smaller mobile phone with a gps in it for sat nav (and one that has a graphics driver in it so that my phone can update tomtom at more than 1 frame every 3 seconds !!)
Overall, i think you either need to accept the limitations of the athena and use it as it is, or get a smaller mobile and a decent umpc like the R2H
Mosser said:
I own a Asus R2H UMPC along with my Athena, and i dont think that the athena type devices will replace umpc's or laptops in the near future, I believe that its windows mobile that limits their usefulness,
On my UMPC, i can open multiple windows at the same time, have tabbed browsing, be chatting to 3 of 4 people in messenger and very easily switch between them all.
In theory, my Athena can do all of these things, but in practise, the graphics are way too slow to switch between apps quickly (i believe this is a lack of driver issue though), you cant do tabbed browsing, and msn messenger on the athena is less than useless for me !, everything in WM seems very clunky and slow compared to my UMPC, the 2 do live side by side, but there's too many features that overlap between the 2 devices really, and i will likely be selling my athena soon to get a smaller mobile phone with a gps in it for sat nav (and one that has a graphics driver in it so that my phone can update tomtom at more than 1 frame every 3 seconds !!)
Overall, i think you either need to accept the limitations of the athena and use it as it is, or get a smaller mobile and a decent umpc like the R2H
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera, netfront 3.5 and mozilla all do tabbed browsing on the athena !
Mosser said:
I own a Asus R2H UMPC along with my Athena, and i dont think that the athena type devices will replace umpc's or laptops in the near future, I believe that its windows mobile that limits their usefulness,
On my UMPC, i can open multiple windows at the same time, have tabbed browsing, be chatting to 3 of 4 people in messenger and very easily switch between them all.
In theory, my Athena can do all of these things, but in practise, the graphics are way too slow to switch between apps quickly (i believe this is a lack of driver issue though), you cant do tabbed browsing, and msn messenger on the athena is less than useless for me !, everything in WM seems very clunky and slow compared to my UMPC, the 2 do live side by side, but there's too many features that overlap between the 2 devices really, and i will likely be selling my athena soon to get a smaller mobile phone with a gps in it for sat nav (and one that has a graphics driver in it so that my phone can update tomtom at more than 1 frame every 3 seconds !!)
Overall, i think you either need to accept the limitations of the athena and use it as it is, or get a smaller mobile and a decent umpc like the R2H
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use MSN for chat. Try IM+ instead. It lets you simultenously chat in Yahoo, google, and eveything else that exist all at the same time.
I've used many UMPC before although they did'nt call it by that name then. The battery last too short, it takes too long to boot up, it is too big to be used as a mobile device and too small as a desktop.
If you tom tom update 1 frame every 3 seconds, something is wrong with your setup. Athena does not have such limitation, and there is no reason to accept such limitation.
eaglesteve said:
Don't use MSN for chat. Try IM+ instead. It lets you simultenously chat in Yahoo, google, and eveything else that exist all at the same time.
I've used many UMPC before although they did'nt call it by that name then. The battery last too short, it takes too long to boot up, it is too big to be used as a mobile device and too small as a desktop.
If you tom tom update 1 frame every 3 seconds, something is wrong with your setup. Athena does not have such limitation, and there is no reason to accept such limitation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second what eaglesteve said about the slow frame rate. Not even when I was running factory ROM it wasn't that slow. I suggest you try backing up and reinstalling the latest ROM for your device. IM+ is the best thing I've seen thus far for the Athena although, I didn't have any issues with msn messenger. I strongly recommend IM+ and just do a little research before the down the device. Plus it packs so much power for such a small device it's worth every penny.
Maybe i just need mine setup better then ?, I've never tried IM+, does it allow you to chat to many people at once ? and can it save your chat history ?, these are the 2 features i must have as i get told a lot of technical information when using messenger which i need to refer back to hours or even days later which is why i use a umpc, and is there an easy way to keep minimise rather than close running programs ?
The battery life on my umpc is fine, but then it goes between car and house and in both those places, i have a power lead for it, so it rarely needs to run on the battery, and i have an additional long run battery for my R2H anyway
tootallk2000 said:
I second what eaglesteve said about the slow frame rate. Not even when I was running factory ROM it wasn't that slow. I suggest you try backing up and reinstalling the latest ROM for your device. IM+ is the best thing I've seen thus far for the Athena although, I didn't have any issues with msn messenger. I strongly recommend IM+ and just do a little research before the down the device. Plus it packs so much power for such a small device it's worth every penny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What frame rate do you get then ?, i have been watching youtube videos comparing the athena to hp pda's and tomtom running on the ameo is ridiculously slow, i actually miss turnings with mine sometimes because it takes so long to update the screen !
Mosser said:
What frame rate do you get then ?, i have been watching youtube videos comparing the athena to hp pda's and tomtom running on the ameo is ridiculously slow, i actually miss turnings with mine sometimes because it takes so long to update the screen !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use mine all the time, and it is not that bad at all, you would have to be cornering at 80 MPH for the athena not to keep up with you, SERIOUSLY
PS I think you have a GPS fault on your receiver, either that or the port baud speed might be incorrect !
kramerica2 said:
I've looked around and couldn't find anything that answered those demands. The biggest issue with UMPCs I've looked at is poor battery life. After a while, I started to think about the Athena as a UMPC alternative. It answers almost all of my demands except the smaller screen and of-course being a WM device its not a fully capable PC. I wanted to ask you Athena owners, if you think that the Athena could be the device for me. Do you feel the need for a more capable OS? Do you wish to replace it with a bigger UMPC? Do some of you have a UMPC and the Athena and feel they complete each other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Athena is not perfect but a very good device - it is let down by WM which is a poor OS really given that MS have been trying for years on mobile devices and it is now version 6. If the Athena could run a proper OS then I think you would have what you want. For the time being we all put up with WM failings and mostly enjoy our Athena experience.
I don't see a long life UMPC coming too soon that will deliver everything that you asked for ....
In my belief, there can't be a perfect UMPC (or atleast better than athena) in near future ...
When we talk about a laptop or mobile device, we all need small size, good battery life, full connectivity etc etc ... Athena offers all that, except that it does not runs a fully blown windows, though: it may be running a full linux soon, there is a magician sitting and working towards it, his name is Cr2, find him on this forum.
Athena UMPC Features:
1. Emails: Athena can do wonders using Flexmail. I have it set with our IMAP server and with IMAP idle its as good as it can get. You get emails instantly, you get to view all attachments and everything that outlook can do on windows xp.
2. Browsing: Opera 8.5 alone itself is good enough for most of the websites, Netscape 3.5 and Opera 9.5 beta installed can take you 99% close to laptops or windows xp exp. Wait for some months and you won't even see that 1% difference.
3. Document editing: Install Softmaker office 2008. Once installed you will get to work on any document you want, make small changes and save/send them across.
4. For developers: Install Cedit, resco explorer (with ftp add-on) and there you go, you have a programmers editor and ftp support to download/upload pages from your website.
5. For db admins: Download and install PocketSqlMan, this will enable you to administer any mssql server (and you don't need to install anything on the server machine, just install PocketSqlMan on your ppc and connect to any ms sql server).
6. Chat: IM+ is the way to go, simply awesome. Multi chat, quick interface.
7. GPS: Set it right, do a simple search on this forum and you will find the correct settings, i don't remember them of hand.
8. Multimedia: With 8gb storage (and 12 gb minisds already in market) you cannot ask for more here. Install TCPMP, the core pocket media player and you can play almost anything, youtube videos, divx etc etc
9. Games: There are a handfull of games for pocket pcs, i am sure you will find something to keep you busy (while i prefer to keep it light and spend time on solitaire mostly).
10. System admins: There is PocketPutty for Linux admins and Remote desktop installed on the device already.
I mean what else people are looking for in a UMPC ... maybe i am those satisfied types, but do let us know what is missing and probably people developing Pk 4.0 can pick things up from here and make it an even greater ROM release.
...
dheerajjuneja said:
In my belief, there can't be a perfect UMPC (or atleast better than athena) in near future ...
When we talk about a laptop or mobile device, we all need small size, good battery life, full connectivity etc etc ... Athena offers all that, except that it does not runs a fully blown windows, though: it may be running a full linux soon, there is a magician sitting and working towards it, his name is Cr2, find him on this forum.
Athena UMPC Features:
1. Emails: Athena can do wonders using Flexmail. I have it set with our IMAP server and with IMAP idle its as good as it can get. You get emails instantly, you get to view all attachments and everything that outlook can do on windows xp.
2. Browsing: Opera 8.5 alone itself is good enough for most of the websites, Netscape 3.5 and Opera 9.5 beta installed can take you 99% close to laptops or windows xp exp. Wait for some months and you won't even see that 1% difference.
3. Document editing: Install Softmaker office 2008. Once installed you will get to work on any document you want, make small changes and save/send them across.
4. For developers: Install Cedit, resco explorer (with ftp add-on) and there you go, you have a programmers editor and ftp support to download/upload pages from your website.
5. For db admins: Download and install PocketSqlMan, this will enable you to administer any mssql server (and you don't need to install anything on the server machine, just install PocketSqlMan on your ppc and connect to any ms sql server).
6. Chat: IM+ is the way to go, simply awesome. Multi chat, quick interface.
7. GPS: Set it right, do a simple search on this forum and you will find the correct settings, i don't remember them of hand.
8. Multimedia: With 8gb storage (and 12 gb minisds already in market) you cannot ask for more here. Install TCPMP, the core pocket media player and you can play almost anything, youtube videos, divx etc etc
9. Games: There are a handfull of games for pocket pcs, i am sure you will find something to keep you busy (while i prefer to keep it light and spend time on solitaire mostly).
10. System admins: There is PocketPutty for Linux admins and Remote desktop installed on the device already.
I mean what else people are looking for in a UMPC ... maybe i am those satisfied types, but do let us know what is missing and probably people developing Pk 4.0 can pick things up from here and make it an even greater ROM release.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't play pc games on the Athena.
The USB ports are only 1.1 so very limited with respect to copying files over, and even viewing content is a bit laggy.
UMPCs usually have at least 40gb storage out of the box.
For decent, UMPC-style input you need a separate keyboard. The squishy, unlit, and uncomfortably laid-out Athena hardware keyboard is not up to the job - particularly for word processing and extensive emailing - necessitating an external keyboard for decent 'umpc-style' usage.
No p2p or limewire clients. I remember there was winmobile torrent but that wasn't very good and you had to pay for it.
reolution is low compared to many current UMPCs
Photoshop, Premiere, blah-de-blah - all editing suites are infinitely better in windows, particularly with a higher-resolution screen.
Thank you all, I got my x7500 today. Looks good so far.
lucky guy, 2 weeks, and I'll have [another] one of my own
how you finding it? and is it a branded one, or just plain htc... or is even the x7501 :O ? lol
Rory
rorydaredkign said:
lucky guy, 2 weeks, and I'll have [another] one of my own
how you finding it? and is it a branded one, or just plain htc... or is even the x7501 :O ? lol
Rory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far its been pretty good. You can see my thread with questions, so not everything is perfect for me. Its a plain HTC X7500 device.
dheerajjuneja's post looks something i could take note of too.
thanks. ciao!
maybe look into the HTC shift. it's only just released and is MUCH bigger but i think it may meet your needs
The shift IMHO is doomed to be a failure:
1. Battery life is far from sufficient.
2. Quite expensive.
3. The WM is too crippled, and from what I've heard isn't very usable.
Anyway, after almost 1 week with the Athena it seems that I've made the right choice and the size is perfect for me.
Glad to hear that ... yes, you made a very good choice.
If you are coming from linux background, linux is going to come to Athena soon ... our magician Cr2 is working on the drivers (Please confirm Cr2, if you are listening)
Anyways, enjoy your device ...
Greetings,
I 'upgraded' - though I use the term loosely and don't wish to sound detrimental - from an Athena to a Nokia E90 communicator on the 13th February. My experience of different mobile operating systems over the past 12 months has been extensive (not to mention expensive) but for the most part i've drifted back and forth between Windows Mobile and Symbian.
There are comparisons available on the net of the two devices, but these are generally based on the Windows Mobile 5 factory install without tweaks, and - in the case of both phones - don't take into account the multitude of apps that people use for pleasure on their phones, and the tweaks which make the user experience all the nicer.
I decided to give a little rundown of what I miss about the Athena and a few summary comparisons between the Nokia E90 and the Athena based on real-world usage.
SIZE
Both devices are generally deemed large, though the Athena is positively Brobdingnagian in comparison to the E90 - which kind of resembles a Nokia N70 with a big jacket on!
FORM FACTOR AND CONSTRUCTION
Needn't go into too much depth about the Athena's construction here as I'm sure you're all familiar with it. My personal opinion is that its keyboard is a design catastrophy with mushy feedback, no backlight and an unadjustable screen/keyboard gradient. HOWEVER the minimalist styling of the device when the keyboard is removed is very pleasurable.
I thoroughly enjoyed texting and emailing with fingertouch and Touchflo in unison and miss this feature more than anything else.
The E90 uses a fully hardware-based input system since it doesn't have a touchscreen however the QWERTY keyboard is fabulous, with individual number keys and a plethora of shortcut buttons, including two customizable ones - AND a backlight.
When closed all the functions of the phone are still available albeit using a qvga display - making it act analogously to most regular Symbian smartphones.
Both handsets are of a very well-constructed metallic finish but all the weightier for it.
Personally I like a bit of weight to my phones.
The E90 gains a few extra points in my estimates for the fact that its main screen is protected in my pocket without the need for a case.
CALL HANDLING
The E90 offers more choices to the user as once folded it can be used as a normal (large) mobile phone. The Athena on the other hand only has a loudspeaker, which is fine if you're on your own but not so good when in company. Both devices can be used with handsfree kits - either in-car or earpieces and both have perfectly good voice command software available. Out of the box the E90 offers voice command functions such as dialing individual contacts by name without the need to program each number in.
The E90 wins here easily for me as it just offers so many options and therefore more convenience.
THE SCREEN
Despite the fact that it makes the Athena MASSIVE I do think the screen is bright, crisp and beautiful. The E90's screen is less bright but VERY readable outdoors.
The clarity and resolution of both displays is a breath of fresh air, however the Athena's is better for the long haul, particularly if you like E-books and word processing on the go.
It's nice to have a touchscreen, and I miss the feature with my E90, though only to a small degree as there are so many shortcut keys on the Nokia device that a touchscreen would be fairly redundant and affect readability in daylight.
USABILITY AND SPEED
The two devices are on a par to me, though out-of-box the E90 is simpler as closing down and switching between applications is facilitated by a hardware button.
There are a selection of free third-party applications for Windows Mobile which allow simple application switching functionaility from within the today screen.
Individual tastes dictate which OS you prefer. Personally I like both in their own way, though given its predominantly touchscreen based UI I don't think Windows Mobile is as finger friendly out-of-box as it should be, but this isn't an Athena issue per ce.
CONNECTIVITY
both devices offer WLAN, bluetooth, HSDPA and GPS. Signal strength is great on both devices, though I find that when I open the E90 to browse I sometimes lose my signal entirely, seemingly for no reason. I suspect the receiver is blocked by particular finger positions.
HSDPA is supported up to 3.6mbps on the E90 but only 1.8mps on the Athena; crucially though the E90 will only work on Edge or GPRS in the Americas as the US HSDPA bandwidth isn't supported.
The Athena offers USB host which enables memory sticks and USB HIDevices to be used. This feature is not offered on the E90, though its screen is probably too small for a mouse to be of any use anyway. I used the USB host feature occasionally but for me it was more of a party trick and I don't miss it.
The E90 has bluetooth 2.0 EDR, while the Athena has only 2.0
The Athena also has video output - a feature that I used rarely but nonetheless have missed on a couple of occasions - it's certainly handy for showing presentations and slideshows.
GPS is comparable on both devices. My E90 gets a lock within 5 seconds using A-GPS and I don't recall the Athena performing any better. The Athena wins here though because there is more compatible navigation software for the Windows Mobile platform.
WEB BROWSING
Both phones are great for viewing web content. The E90 takes the upper hand in terms of its width of 800 pixels versus the Athena's 640 but the Athena's larger screen makes content clearer and less strenuous on the eyes.
Neither phones support flash, though with FL3.0 due for release in the next E90 firmware update this will be fixed somewhat in the case of the Nokia handset.
Both Symbian and Windows mobile will be getting the flash and java friendly Skyfire browser, with Windows Mobile being the first. They will also be getting Opera Mobile 9.5. I have no experience with either of these browsers though, and can only say that I prefer the Safari browser in the E90 to either the Opera browser OR the Internet Explorer browser on the Athena, since it seems snappier and works with more of my oft-visited web pages.
HOWEVER I prefer opera mini to ALL of these.
VIDEO PLAYBACK
The Widescreen display of the E90 is more suited to the Hollywood aspect ratio, and also newer television broadcasts in 16:9. Combined with hardware acceleration and an adjustable viewing angle via the hinged screen the E90 wins here for me.
The larger screen of the Athena is a nice size for longer-term video playback, but I always had issues with lip-sync and jerkiness on the Athena unless optimising movies for the device.
CAMERA
Indisputably I prefer the E90 here. Although on paper the two devices' cameras are comparable the reality is that the E90's is snappier, sharper and produces more realistic colours. it also records video at VGA 30fps, which steals the show for me.
The Athena's camera is good for a Windows Mobile device though - the best I've seen - and I particularly like the depth it gives to black and white photography. Shame the shutter speed is so rubbish.
STORAGE
The Athena wins here with its 8GB microdrive versus the E90's....nothing. The E90 supports any size of Micro SDHC though and these are getting very cheap of late. In practice I used the microdrive very little as it took too long to copy things onto the Athena using either Activesync or WM5torage.
SOUND
Both devices perform very well with music playback: the E90 feels more portable though and is easier for one-handed operation. It is let down by a 2.5mm headphone jack instead of the 3.5mm standard seen on the Athena. The E90 has a radio which is handy on occasion, though it requires earphones to be plugged in at all times - not much use if you use bluetooth headphones.
BATTERY LIFE
No noticeable difference with either - I always end up recharging before the day is through!
SOFTWARE
Many people cite healthy software development and availability as a reason for Windows Mobile's flexibility, but in the past few weeks I've found some great free software for Symbian. Among my current favourites are:
Symella: A gnutella/limewire-style p2p filesharing client.
Symtorrent: I'm sure you can guess this one
Sportstracker: track your walks and runs via GPS with a full live rundown of speed, distance travelled and orientation, followed by a comprehensive report (which even tells you how many calories you've burnt off)
Google Maps: includes internal GPS support
software to enable the internal GPS to be used via bluetooth as a standalone GPS receiver
Opera Mini - goes without saying, but is more enjoyable on the E90 owing to the fact that Java is better integrated in Symbian OS.
Joikuspot: share your HSDPA over WLAN (as WMWIFIROUTER by Chainfire)
Windows Live Hotmail: integrated within the messaging application.
Nav4All: free navigation software.
EM tube: standalone youtube browser and flv downloader with a snappy and beautiful UI.
MP3editor: edit MP3s on-the-fly through your phone: edit tags, merge clips and save segments of songs to use as message and ringtones.
Only a month has gone by, so who knows if my experience will change. Maybe I'll end up going back to the Athena - who knows. I'd be interested to hear from people who have gone the other way round - E90 to Athena, and what their experience has been like.
Nice summary ! - and I find this interesting as I also "sidegraded" from an Athena (ameo) to an E90
( Here is a little background - I have always used ,and enjoyed using Nokia Communicators , from the 9110i to the E90 I have had them all - I have also been quite a fan of WM devices also , and , to be honest , the WM devices have been my favourites )
So , as soon as the E90 was announced , I had to have one ! Fortunately for me , I was unable to afford one initially , then , I was unable to find stock (due to the production halt ) - by the time I got my act together , they had released the stable version (Nov 07)
I was actually very happy with my Ameo in every way , except the obvious one ! , yep , thats right - it's "usability" as a telephone , I am not proud , and am quite happy to use the speakerphone most of the time - but occasionally I would be in a position where it was a bit of a pain
So it was innevitable I'd get an E90 , and I must admit I was very sceptical - I WANTED a new S80 communicator ! this S60 was for little chavs to have on their MOBILE PHONES as far as I was concerned - it wasn't a "proper" PDA OS , so I was a little worried as to how good an S60 Communicator would be - but in the end , I was quite impressed
It was not like I just "Dropped" the Ameo though - I would use the E90 for a few days , then I'd miss something about the Ameo - and switch back ,and Vice versa
It is only after 5 months now that I have settled on a device , and I am shamed to say (seeing as where we are !) that it is the E90 I have settled with - Don't get me wrong , I still use the Ameo occasionally , and when I do it still impresses me ! - it is just that the E90 is "easier" for my daily activities now
I do think , that maybe a Tytn II would be the ideal middle ground between the two devices ? and I may just get one next time I have a spare £400 + ( or if someone offered I'd be tempted to swap my Ameo for a Vario III etc ? )
I am in quite a favourable postion TBH - If the E90 died , I'd just go back to the Ameo , and if the Ameo died , I'd be happy to stick with the E90 !
leoni1980, I pretty much agree with all your findings!
How great is it that we have a choice between the two platforms ? As far as I see it , before the E90 , the top end WM devices (IMO ) had no competition at all ! Just as an aside , I bought a P990i (as Orange are knocking them out for £90 ) and it is Diabolical ! - How things have changed ! the P900 was a real contender once !
if your ameo is in good condition you can trade it at Cex for a vario 3 with a 12 month warranty and have an 18 quid credit note to boot. check out www.cex.co.uk. Alternatively you can buy one outright for £225.
Personally I wouldn't be happy with a QVGA screen though, and compared to the E90 the video and camera side of the Vario 3 leaves a lot to be desired. From experience of owning a Vario 2 - which i still have - I also prefer taking calls on the E90 as I have fewer dropped calls and inadvertant dial-outs. It's also quicker to send a quick one-handed text reply on the E90.
If gps is more of a concern then the Vario 3 might be a good swap for the Athena as you will still have the high-res browsing of the E90 at your disposal coupled with a more capable GPS unit (the Vario iii).
Each to their own as they say
Zoidster, you might be interested to know (if you don't already!) that a firmware update came out today with:
Flash video (youtube etc) playback
Web runtime
demand paging
a million tweaks and fixes.
The E90 has definitely stepped up a notch now....just gotta wait for Opera Mobile 9.5 which should be a lot faster than the Standard browser.
Unbelievable !!
I had been checking NSU on a daily basis for the last couple of weeks - then the last couple of days have been too busy ! - and here it is
Thanks for the heads up !
apparently it's been taken off the nsu again, not sure why or whether you got there in time
I missed it !
Tried a few product codes, then thought something must be up ....
Checked around and found out what has happened - A bit gutted , but a few people are reporting browser instablity - I supposed they must have pulled it for a reason
I suppose it's the waiting game again !
zoidster said:
I missed it !
Tried a few product codes, then thought something must be up ....
Checked around and found out what has happened - A bit gutted , but a few people are reporting browser instablity - I supposed they must have pulled it for a reason
I suppose it's the waiting game again !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive not really had any problems as yet with the new one, but at least you know a new firmware is definitely on the horizon. Try opera mini 4.1 beta by the way, it now allows downloading from within the browser so you can download stuff you cant with the built in browser, such as unrecognised video types and torrent files (for symtorrent). There's also less text popup boxes and autocomplete. Be sure to set the font size to small for maximum screen real-estate. Just thought you might like to know
I have and love a Kaiser. Right now I have a Dutty Rom on it and love it as I commute, on a train, about 3 hours a day.
Anyway, I made a bet (6 pack of beer) that I can use an Athena for a week instead of the Kaiser. [We have one that sits unused in our office]. I have the Black Rom on it and wasn't overly excited when I made the change.
What should I install to ease my life and win my bet?
Use TCMP for videos, the Athena has a nice big screen. Both the NetFront pre release and Opera leaked alphas are good for browsing the internet. I would recommend using RealVGA if you would like to really utilize the large screen, 96 DPI is awesome. Compared to the Kaiser the Athena has a bigger screen, more storage and at least on paper a faster processor. I personally use a software keyboard and ditch the magnetic one to reduce to size of the Athena.
does the RealVGA thing work on the kaiser also?
chadvavra said:
does the RealVGA thing work on the kaiser also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Kaiser isn't a VGA device and if it were, the 400MHz Qualcom would struggle. It would probably be dog slow.
what a stupid bet
Well ok, I no longer have an Athena and I got rid of my TyTn 2 after a week so perhaps it's not my place to comment..
BUT WHAT THE HELL KIND OF BET IS THIS????
Fine, the Athena is a bit big, but what the hell is your problem with applications? IT'S THE SAME OPERATING SYSTEM so it shouldn't be much of a hardship unless you're an absolute doink.
Perhaps a better challenge might have been to live with a Motorola StarTAC for a week....or even a Nokia 6210.
Tsk.
leoni1980 said:
Well ok, I no longer have an Athena and I got rid of my TyTn 2 after a week so perhaps it's not my place to comment..
BUT WHAT THE HELL KIND OF BET IS THIS????
Fine, the Athena is a bit big, but what the hell is your problem with applications? IT'S THE SAME OPERATING SYSTEM so it shouldn't be much of a hardship unless you're an absolute doink.
Perhaps a better challenge might have been to live with a Motorola StarTAC for a week....or even a Nokia 6210.
Tsk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking the same thing as you, but in less words. Anyway Leoni when are you going to come back on the "wm" side of the world, i'm sure you miss the touch screen. Symbian...tsktsk! lol
tootallk2000 said:
I was thinking the same thing as you, but in less words. Anyway Leoni when are you going to come back on the "wm" side of the world, i'm sure you miss the touch screen. Symbian...tsktsk! lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm not so sure. Maligned as it might be I can't help but love the old N95 classic. I've got an 8gb card for it and it's the most satisfying phone I've ever used....still. it even has embedded flash support and an accelerometer so the screen rotates automatically when i turn the phone.
Unfortunately there's nothing in the Windows Mobile world to touch it yet - I'm very much a multimedia guy and there's nothing comes close to the carl zeiss optics of the N95, the 30fps video, the flash support, the hardware acceleration, the huge array of multimedia applications and (finally) proper GPS support with Garmin XT or Route66.
The nearest phone to the N95 in the windows mobile world is probably the TyTn 2 and i'll never go back to that again:it's an inferior toy in comparison.
I'd wager a bet you can't list five things i'd do on a Kaser that I can't do on an N95 (aside from the obvious outlook calender issue which is not an issue for someone like me who doesn't use outlook)
one day i'll be back though no doubt.
chadvavra said:
. . . I made a bet (6 pack of beer) that I can use an Athena for a week instead of the Kaiser . . .I have the Black Rom on it and wasn't overly excited . . . What should I install to ease my life and win my bet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leoni1980 maybe you could be more specific. What do you do with your Kaiser and why do you like it? Why weren't you happy with the black rom on the Athena? Why is there an expectation of hardship/w Athena?
You said that there was a train commute. So . . .your thinking entertainment? To "ease your life,"; since we know nothing about you or your life that's a hard one. Don't you think?
In general: Windows mobile devices are all-in-one mobile devices that do alot of things ok/good. In my opinion, they rarely do anything specificly the best. Read e-books--likely the kindle does it better. Listen to music--buy an ipod. Surf the net--desktop or laptops are more powerful. And so on.
So you need to figure what it is you like to do. Then evaluate whether windows mobile fits your needs. Then tweak the Athena in that direction with hardware and/or software.
Seems alot of work for one week.
If I had a three hour commute, I'd surf the one-day deal sites, & winmobile/news sites. I'd read e-books, listen to music and do writing. Maybe listen to sleepy music/set my alarm and take a nap. I don't even use the phone side, rarely watch movies,have no use for a pim.
Another guy would want to chat on the phone, and watch tv. Still another guy would want to sms, play games . . .
Keep track of your time, finances, diet, movie collection, appointments . . . Facebook, chatrooms, twitter, look at porn, read the Bible . . .
I mean . . . you can do all kinds of things.
I have created this thread after asking this question in a different thread. drupad2drupad suggested i create a thread and sticky it. I agree, thought it might be useful to others. Hope its helpful.
I used to always use Windows phones (back in the days of WM6.5), but the draw of android tempted me. Now i am considering a returning to the the land that is Microsoft. The titan looked like a really good bet for me, but i had the following concerns:
Single core: I know microsoft says there is no real need for dual core phones, but a friend of mine has got a sensation XE, and compared to my desire HD, it flies! Even though my desire is clocked at 1.8Ghz the sensation is running stock 1.5Ghz x2. Can WP7 be that different?
512 MB of RAM: This seems pityfull in todays phones, my old HD2 that! Does WP7 have better memory management than android?
No SD Slot: This is just plain criminal, i have a 32 Gig card and its almost full! Adding a slot could not add that much to the price/Bulk of the device.
Screen Resolution: That lovely big screen was a major attractant to me, But 480x800. 640x960 is becoming the norm with screens nearly a inch smaller in size.
Beloved TomTom: This is more of a general WP7 Gripe. I used TomTom with my old WM6.5 devices, it is hands down the best navigation software. I know android has no TomTom but this would get me back to windows handsets in a flash! I use sat nav for 3-4 hours a day at work, mostly in rural places. Nothing matches TomTom for accuracy or re-routing. Come on TomTom, sort it out!
Please don't take any of this as criticism over the phone. I was seriously tempted when the titan came along. Just me venting my thoughts.
Sorry if i hijacked the thread, just seemed like a good opportunity to ask.
So the big question is, to stay with android or run with WP7?
Have you or any other WP7 users got any thoughts on that?
Regards
Your friendly HTC Titan Moderator
Android To Titan?
original_ganjaman said:
Hi there
This might be a good question(s) for you, as you have come from a android device.
I used to always use Windows phones (back in the days of WM6.5), but the draw of android tempted me. Now i am considering a returning to the the land that is Microsoft. The titan looked like a really good bet for me, but i had the following concerns:
Single core: I know microsoft says there is no real need for dual core phones, but a friend of mine has got a sensation XE, and compared to my desire HD, it flies! Even though my desire is clocked at 1.8Ghz the sensation is running stock 1.5Ghz x2. Can WP7 be that different?
512 MB of RAM: This seems pityfull in todays phones, my old HD2 that! Does WP7 have better memory management than android?
No SD Slot: This is just plain criminal, i have a 32 Gig card and its almost full! Adding a slot could not add that much to the price/Bulk of the device.
Screen Resolution: That lovely big screen was a major attractant to me, But 480x800. 640x960 is becoming the norm with screens nearly a inch smaller in size.
Beloved TomTom: This is more of a general WP7 Gripe. I used TomTom with my old WM6.5 devices, it is hands down the best navigation software. I know android has no TomTom but this would get me back to windows handsets in a flash! I use sat nav for 3-4 hoursa day at work, mostly in rural places. Nothing matches TomTom for accuracy or re-routing. Come on TomTom, sort it out!
Please don't take any of this as criticism over the phone. I was seriously tempted when the titan came along. Just me venting my thoughts.
Sorry if i hijacked the thread, just seemed like a good opportunity to ask.
So the big question is, to stay with android or run with WP7?
Have you or any other WP7 users got any thoughts on that?
Regards
Your friendly HTC Titan Moderator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
I am so glad you asked this!
Probably your question and my answers need to be stickied somewhere, because I have been long time user of WinMo 6 and 6.5 and then Android's so called openness tempted me. I gave it a shot too. Ran gingerbread stock ROM with 1Ghz processor, ran Cyanogenmod 7 as well as custom gingerbread ROMs. Over clock to even 1.3 Ghz make that android pant for breath and oh those force closes! I still get those nightmares about things force closing right when you are trying to show off how cool your phone is with all those apps in it!
So I gathered courage (and money) to jump the android ship even after the reviews saying ICS will make it all better for android. Guess what? I don't regret it at all. I am so glad I made that switch.
Windows Phone 7 - is what professionals can design. Android is what open source can give. I just tweeted this morning about an interesting article that said, why Android will stay sluggish compared iOS and WP for rest of it's life until they do something what Microsoft did - it's in their framework.
They need that huge processor and huge dual cores because they got their framework wrong. The way they manage memory is ridiculous now that I have understood the difference between WP and Android. I know this will make my post long, but I think it's best if I summarize that article:
1) The UI rendering in android isnt done by separate dedicated thread in framework like WP7 or 7.5 does. So the priority of rendering UI is same as anything else on the phone = more memory requirement
2) In WP each view is rendered separately and stored in the memory. However in Android the UI is flattened before rendering. So this makes android to redraw the whole screen elements from scratch = more processing power
3) About memory - I think this is very much a personal preference. I don't sync my documents to my phone, I keep them on the SkyDrive most of the time. The only things that take up my memory is my songs, lots of them. But my requirement is nothing compared to yours. Say roughly 250 songs = 1GB, I will need to have 8000 songs that I listen to. Honestly, by the time I finish listening to these 8000 songs even once, I am sure there will be atleast 200 new songs. So I don't bother with music or storage much. 12GB serves me well.
4) Screen Res - If you are using AMOLED on Android, you will miss it for may be 3 days. If you are using LCD - you won't notice much difference in resolution. It would have been nicer to get higher res as you suggested, but for this price - it's much worth it with this UI!
5) TomTom - you've got to try Bing Maps! Come on, if you are on android and already don't have TomTom, I bet you've settled for something else. So if you can settle for something else on Android, why not on WP? And the market apps are being added, I don't think TomTom is much farther.
After such a lengthy post, I think I should add, that I've used exactly same spec and same size phone i.e. HTC Sensation XL on the side with HTC Titan. Sensation XL runs Android, Titan runs WP7.
I can bet anyone £500, without rooting and overclocking Sensation XL - show me that it works and looks as good as Titan! - It doesn't.
Every evening I try to play with Sensation XL, trying to make myself regret buying WP because I don't have so called 'must have apps' - but that counts for nothing as soon as I see live tiles on WP and think of the flawless working.
Hint: I bought both phones 3 weeks ago. I got 8 force closes and 2 reboots on Sensation XL so far. I haven't got single freeze or reboot on Titan. - see how different WP7 is compared to 6.5?
Sorry, I forgot to add - if you are a phone user whose life depends more on apps than flawless UI, integration and speed - Don't switch from Android. WP will need at least 12-15 months to have even half the apps (good or ****e) any other platform has.
original_ganjaman said:
Hi there
This might be a good question(s) for you, as you have come from a android device.
I used to always use Windows phones (back in the days of WM6.5), but the draw of android tempted me. Now i am considering a returning to the the land that is Microsoft. The titan looked like a really good bet for me, but i had the following concerns:
Single core: I know microsoft says there is no real need for dual core phones, but a friend of mine has got a sensation XE, and compared to my desire HD, it flies! Even though my desire is clocked at 1.8Ghz the sensation is running stock 1.5Ghz x2. Can WP7 be that different?
512 MB of RAM: This seems pityfull in todays phones, my old HD2 that! Does WP7 have better memory management than android?
No SD Slot: This is just plain criminal, i have a 32 Gig card and its almost full! Adding a slot could not add that much to the price/Bulk of the device.
Screen Resolution: That lovely big screen was a major attractant to me, But 480x800. 640x960 is becoming the norm with screens nearly a inch smaller in size.
Beloved TomTom: This is more of a general WP7 Gripe. I used TomTom with my old WM6.5 devices, it is hands down the best navigation software. I know android has no TomTom but this would get me back to windows handsets in a flash! I use sat nav for 3-4 hoursa day at work, mostly in rural places. Nothing matches TomTom for accuracy or re-routing. Come on TomTom, sort it out!
Please don't take any of this as criticism over the phone. I was seriously tempted when the titan came along. Just me venting my thoughts.
Sorry if i hijacked the thread, just seemed like a good opportunity to ask.
So the big question is, to stay with android or run with WP7?
Have you or any other WP7 users got any thoughts on that?
Regards
Your friendly HTC Titan Moderator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Single core - My experiences with WP7 have gone back to the beginning and the single core has never been an issue. Even with loading all my email, text message, pics, games, and apps that i use. I'm one to reset my phone (and reformat my PC) just to keep it fresh but I haven't had to do that with the Focus from day 1. I can't say the same for my Captivate which, when I compare it to my Focus being both 1GHz processors, had its slow moments and I've reset that a couple times. WP7 has been more responsive at the same single core speeds. To me this became a non-issue based on experience.
RAM - My experience here is the same as with the single core question. I must say, when they built WP7, they did an excellent job with how it handles memory it would seem. As a programmer and project manager myself, I've seen apps just explode over time (been doing this since the late 80's) because of memory requirements or space requirements. It seems that MS has done a good job keeping the overhead down.
No SD Slot - I agree with you 100% here. As someone who isn't into putting all their stuff on the web I also think an SD slot is called for in all of todays phones. Especially when you reach this stage of feature phone that is supposed to be your one-in-all device. Manage what you have and it will be ok but it might be tedious depending on how often you need to change things up.
Screen Resolution - After handling the Focus, the Titan, and the Vivid on AT&T, I would say that this should be a non-issue for most. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Titan looked on the bigger screen. Side by side, there was no real difference. People might say there is (to a purist techy, yeah) but in using it, there really isn't.
TomTom - There are a couple big names that already have GPS apps for WP7. TomTom will follow shortly I'm sure. Garmin already has theirs as well as others. WP7 is finally getting traction in the real world and companies are starting to get that. I think it was a "wait and see" scenario from a business perspective for most companies but they're starting to realize the market really is bigger than they thought it was going to be.
Hope this helps...
-Cyber
Echo sentiments on memory and cores. I'll add that the best way to manage music is through playlist. I pick albums to sync via playlists on my Focus. Remove an album from the playlist, add a few more, whatever, makes it easier than manually syncing. I also set up auto playlists for recently added and recently favorited music.
GPS, I used the new flavor of Bing Maps and the direction assistance. Pick a destination, it picks the route. The screen goes into a split mode with the upper half a map auto rotating with current direction and the lower half with the next waypoint. Double tap the screen for audio assistance telling you distance, street name and direction. Once you execute the correct turn, the phone confirms you're on the right path with a ding. Just double tap the screen again for the next step spoken to you. Very easy to do while driving with a level of interaction that keeps you on course with out nagging. I loved it.
Single core:
and
512 MB of RAM:
My HD2 runs winmo 6.5 much better than my friend's captivate runs android. Winmo was much leaner and faster (though prone to locking up) and WP7 takes after that, but never locks up. Winmo also uses roughly 150-180MB leaving an excess of memory... my friend is anal retentive about ending processes on android and I don't remember exactly how much, but he always has significantly less memory available than me. WP7 also inherited this good trait. Honestly, the only drawback is I don't think you can play 1080p video with only 1Ghz, but with the wvga resolution that isn't something worth doing anyway.
No SD Slot:
Kind of annoying, but aside from media, my SD card is otherwise entirely filled with cabs and exes and apks... tools not yet available for use on the titan/wp7. The reason there is no SD expansion is because by locking down the file system size they were able to increase performance. If you invest in a larger data plan and the zune market / get the zune music pass, media storage isn't really a concern. You could even set up a home server and just stream your music, or set up playlists on youtube and get the metrotube app, which can load youtube playlists and it still plays the audio from videos while the phone is off (think: music from youtube).
Screen Resolution:
Since there is no HDMI out, resolution is a non issue. WVGA is fine, there is no stretching or pixelation, you'd never even know it was wvga from looking. This saves space as well, as you don't need to waste space with HD videos; if you properly convert all your videos, you save a lot of space and lose no quality.
Beloved TomTom: Garmin has an app, there are other apps, and there are apps to come. Bing works fine. I really don't see the difference between tomtom / garmin or other major brands: they both work fine and those who like one over the other are generally nit picking extremely irrelevant features, or had one bad experience with one and now unfairly judge it as nonfunctional.
WP7 is a new OS, and for a new OS it's doing very well. Android SUCKED when it first came out, but has grown quite well. WP7 will do the same, in both updates and through here, with the hacking / dev community. The base for WP7 is still windows CE, and technically it can support winmo 6 stuff, technically we can do everything we used to on our old winmo phones... when someone hacks that ability in
Here's hoping we can still dual boot with android in some years
original_ganjaman said:
Your friendly HTC Titan Moderator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am I misreading this, or is the moderator of the Titan forum not a Titan owner, not even a Windows Phone user?
Wow. That explains so much.
YES you should make the jump! Love my Titan...not sure Android will ever be as smooth and efficient as WP, no matter how much processor and RAM you throw at it.
This device’s brilliance isn’t limited to the hardware either. Windows Phone Mango is really, really good. Nearly nothing about Microsoft’s OS works anything like iOS, while still feeling very fresh and accessible. It’s exactly the opposite of the way that Android normally feels, which is an uglier and slower version of iOS.
Speed is one of the biggest pitfalls that befall Apple’s rival operating systems. Time after time, touch is proven the biggest reason that iOS feels better to use.
At first, people blamed it on specs, or types of touchscreen. But now that phones are all coming with dual-core processors saddled with blazing GPU’s powering mutitouch tech that is potentially just as good as what Apple is running, it’s a different story.
There is simply no excuse for any mobile device not to scroll, zoom and navigate smoothly any more. Period.
It’s crazy to me how many Android devices still fail this simple test, dramatically. The Lumia 800 is a different beast. With a 1.4GHz CPU, underpowered by most modern standards, the scrolling and zooming experience is absolutely flawless.
Menus scroll and flow with well-timed inertia, pinch-to-zoom is brilliant in the browser as well as in apps like Bing Maps. It really is a first class interaction experience that is matched only by the iPhone in terms of smoothness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From http://www.thenextweb.com/microsoft...device-that-would-make-me-give-up-the-iphone/
drokkon said:
Am I misreading this, or is the moderator of the Titan forum not a Titan owner, not even a Windows Phone user?
Wow. That explains so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have not misread, i am not a Titan owner let alone a WP7 user. I have gone through a few OS's now, Theming and developing for them. As of yet i have not tried WP7 (but that might well change)
As of the second comment, it is not helpful. If there is anything i have done that you are not happy with, please feel free to point it out. I try my best to keep everything nice a tidy and keep everyone happy, the great users here in the Titan forum help me out, which i am most grateful for. I do put my time into this free of charge, Its all for the love of this great forum.
Anyway, i am here to moderate not to help with the device itself.
For most of thing i have seen, i think you should have bought the Sensation XL. It is Titan in Android, have almost everything you listed.
But personally, when i chose Windows Phone 7 for another 2 years, i have already kept the idea of no other mobile-based OS. Everyphone got its own optimized hardware for the OS it uses. I would prefer my Titan has the Metro UI instead of a custom build HTC Sense 3.0 .
original_ganjaman said:
You have not misread, i am not a Titan owner let alone a WP7 user. I have gone through a few OS's now, Theming and developing for them. As of yet i have not tried WP7 (but that might well change)
As of the second comment, it is not helpful. If there is anything i have done that you are not happy with, please feel free to point it out. I try my best to keep everything nice a tidy and keep everyone happy, the great users here in the Titan forum help me out, which i am most grateful for. I do put my time into this free of charge, Its all for the love of this great forum.
Anyway, i am here to moderate not to help with the device itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give WP7 a try. It might surprise you. I enjoyed flashing ROMs, testing versions of Sense, battery life issues, glitches, incomplete features, app launching, instability, ...wait... no I didn't.
WP7 is the only OS on the market. The others are app launchers with afterthought to social networking and notifications. Metro UI is clean and efficient while still delivering plenty of info with out launching an app.
I used to moderate message boards back when I was an editor and reviewer for a tech site. It isn't easy, so much respect.
HalcYoN-Fuze said:
Give WP7 a try. It might surprise you. I enjoyed flashing ROMs, testing versions of Sense, battery life issues, glitches, incomplete features, app launching, instability, ...wait... no I didn't.
WP7 is the only OS on the market. The others are app launchers with afterthought to social networking and notifications. Metro UI is clean and efficient while still delivering plenty of info with out launching an app.
I used to moderate message boards back when I was an editor and reviewer for a tech site. It isn't easy, so much respect.
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Click to collapse
I am most tempted by WP7. Just waiting for my ideal phone. Thought it might be the titan, but the lack of a SD slot is a real issue for me. But i am sure the twelve gig you get is fine for a lot of users.
Thanks for the support. It is much appreciated.
Peace!
original_ganjaman said:
You have not misread, i am not a Titan owner let alone a WP7 user. I have gone through a few OS's now, Theming and developing for them. As of yet i have not tried WP7 (but that might well change)
As of the second comment, it is not helpful. If there is anything i have done that you are not happy with, please feel free to point it out. I try my best to keep everything nice a tidy and keep everyone happy, the great users here in the Titan forum help me out, which i am most grateful for. I do put my time into this free of charge, Its all for the love of this great forum.
Anyway, i am here to moderate not to help with the device itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're totally right. I didn't mean any offense - you're doing a bang-up job, and this Titan forum is great.
I confused this forum with the generic WP7 forums, in which EVERY thread devolves into a WP7 vs. Android debate. It's tiresome to the point of being entirely counter-productive.
As a moderator, do you think you could talk to the "powers that be" and request a few things?
First off, not all of the WP7 devices, 2nd gen specifically, have their own forums yet, even thought they've been on the market for a while now. Focus Flash and Focus S users are left to post in the 1st gen/original Focus forum. Here's a list of WP7 devices.
Also, the drop down at the top of every forum screen that says "Devices by OS or Manufacturer" only has Android and "Windows Mobile" listed as OSes. If you click on the latter, the Windows Phone devices appear at the very bottom of a tediously long list of old WinMo handsets. It would be more efficient (and more CORRECT) if the "Windows Phone" OS were split from the "Windows Mobile" OS.
Sorry to hijack your thread, and my apologies once again for my counterproductive comment. I don't have much experience with Android, but my thoughts on the Titan specifically may be found here.
I switched from HTC Desire to Titan yesterday. So far so good Everything looks and feels nice and fancy
original_ganjaman said:
I have created this thread after asking this question in a different thread. drupad2drupad suggested i create a thread and sticky it. I agree, thought it might be useful to others. Hope its helpful.
I used to always use Windows phones (back in the days of WM6.5), but the draw of android tempted me. Now i am considering a returning to the the land that is Microsoft. The titan looked like a really good bet for me, but i had the following concerns:
Single core: I know microsoft says there is no real need for dual core phones, but a friend of mine has got a sensation XE, and compared to my desire HD, it flies! Even though my desire is clocked at 1.8Ghz the sensation is running stock 1.5Ghz x2. Can WP7 be that different?
512 MB of RAM: This seems pityfull in todays phones, my old HD2 that! Does WP7 have better memory management than android?
No SD Slot: This is just plain criminal, i have a 32 Gig card and its almost full! Adding a slot could not add that much to the price/Bulk of the device.
Screen Resolution: That lovely big screen was a major attractant to me, But 480x800. 640x960 is becoming the norm with screens nearly a inch smaller in size.
Beloved TomTom: This is more of a general WP7 Gripe. I used TomTom with my old WM6.5 devices, it is hands down the best navigation software. I know android has no TomTom but this would get me back to windows handsets in a flash! I use sat nav for 3-4 hours a day at work, mostly in rural places. Nothing matches TomTom for accuracy or re-routing. Come on TomTom, sort it out!
Please don't take any of this as criticism over the phone. I was seriously tempted when the titan came along. Just me venting my thoughts.
Sorry if i hijacked the thread, just seemed like a good opportunity to ask.
So the big question is, to stay with android or run with WP7?
Have you or any other WP7 users got any thoughts on that?
Regards
Your friendly HTC Titan Moderator
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1) and 2)
HTC Titan is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast !! ^_____^
I understand what you are saying. I had doubts too ...
1.5 Ghz and 512Mb of Ram grants on titan the faster smartphone I experienced so far.
3) Here you have a point. I would have appreciated an SD slot too. I didn't see any Windows Phone 7 with SD card so far. Could this be a way to fight piracy ? (to force people using zune to trasfer files? really dunno).
4) Trust me, the screen is amazing, you won't argue about resolution or anything else every time I turn up my Titan all that I think is "WoW!!"
5) There are several alternatives to Tom Tom. Some are free, some are not, some are 'hidden' ... I hear strange voices in the wind whispering " ... use nokia drive ... "
Microsoft of nowdays keeps on giving us high quality products ...
So : YES, buy a Titan over any Android and enjoy the experience
dragonide said:
1) and 2)
HTC Titan is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast !! ^_____^
I understand what you are saying. I had doubts too ...
1.5 Ghz and 512Mb of Ram grants on titan the faster smartphone I experienced so far.
3) Here you have a point. I would have appreciated an SD slot too. I didn't see any Windows Phone 7 with SD card so far. Could this be a way to fight piracy ? (to force people using zune to trasfer files? really dunno).
4) Trust me, the screen is amazing, you won't argue about resolution or anything else every time I turn up my Titan all that I think is "WoW!!"
5) There are several alternatives to Tom Tom. Some are free, some are not, some are 'hidden' ... I hear strange voices in the wind whispering " ... use nokia drive ... "
Microsoft of nowdays keeps on giving us high quality products ...
So : YES, buy a Titan over any Android and enjoy the experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a Samsung focus. You could add a MicroSD to it. We were effectively able to upgrade both of our Samsung Focus' with a 32gb MicroSD card. The phones had 40gb of memory. Very nice. Be warned though, that when you try to remove the card and reset the phone, the MicroSD card is locked and cannot be used by anything else, EXCEPT your Windows phone. Yes, it locks the MicroSD card so that it cannot be read by any other device.
drokkon said:
You're totally right. I didn't mean any offense - you're doing a bang-up job, and this Titan forum is great.
I confused this forum with the generic WP7 forums, in which EVERY thread devolves into a WP7 vs. Android debate. It's tiresome to the point of being entirely counter-productive.
As a moderator, do you think you could talk to the "powers that be" and request a few things?
First off, not all of the WP7 devices, 2nd gen specifically, have their own forums yet, even thought they've been on the market for a while now. Focus Flash and Focus S users are left to post in the 1st gen/original Focus forum. Here's a list of WP7 devices.
Also, the drop down at the top of every forum screen that says "Devices by OS or Manufacturer" only has Android and "Windows Mobile" listed as OSes. If you click on the latter, the Windows Phone devices appear at the very bottom of a tediously long list of old WinMo handsets. It would be more efficient (and more CORRECT) if the "Windows Phone" OS were split from the "Windows Mobile" OS.
Sorry to hijack your thread, and my apologies once again for my counterproductive comment. I don't have much experience with Android, but my thoughts on the Titan specifically may be found here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly apology accepted, no hard feelings and thanks for the positive feedback
On the first part of your question, i do agree with you the forums are not up when the phones are available. I have had many problems in other forums because of this (Focus S being one of them). But with the sheer number of devices that get released at one time, its hard to keep up and know which ones will be popular. There is a thread somewhere explaining it, but i cant remember where i read it now, sorry!
The second point is a difficult one, i do tend to agree with you. But what about the other builds of android? They could be thought of as different OS, So we get a Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich (not counting the ones before that) So the OS list might get a little complicated. And before you shoot me down saying there not different OS's. Other Android users might totally disagree. Its all a balance of keeping everybody Happy. As i said i personally agree with you, but not so sure others would.
What i will do is post your comment in the MOD section. See what sort of comeback i get and let you know.
Thanks for your feedback and if you have any more questions/issues, please feel free to ask i will do my best to sort them.
Glad you are enjoying the HTC Titan Forum
PEACE!!
rvbarton said:
I used a Samsung focus. You could add a MicroSD to it. We were effectively able to upgrade both of our Samsung Focus' with a 32gb MicroSD card. The phones had 40gb of memory. Very nice. Be warned though, that when you try to remove the card and reset the phone, the MicroSD card is locked and cannot be used by anything else, EXCEPT your Windows phone. Yes, it locks the MicroSD card so that it cannot be read by any other device.
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I did read about the locked SD card. Sounds like locking you down to zune is what microsoft wants. Not a massive issue, i would assume its still easy to use zune to transfer your music/video?
original_ganjaman said:
I did read about the locked SD card. Sounds like locking you down to zune is what microsoft wants. Not a massive issue, i would assume its still easy to use zune to transfer your music/video?
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Click to collapse
transferring through zune is very easy and i love the interface, i wish it would be faster though...
there are solutions for unlocking the sd card. the most common one is to format it using a nokia symbian phone. there is also an app made by xbmod which unlocks the sd card but i don't know if it works on any device. i used it on my htc hd2 running yukixda & xbmod's "back to the future" wp7 rom.
however, unlocking the card won't give the ability to transfer usable files to the phone. the wp7 partition has a special format type which cannot be read (yet). unlocking the sd card is necessary if you want to:
- partition your sd card and use part of it as removable storage space. again, this was made possible by xbmod on the hd2.
or
- replace it with another one and transfer the wp7 partition to the new card. also, you will be able to delete the wp7 partition from the old card and format it to be usable again on another device.
Ok so I should be getting my Titan by the End of Next Week and am curious about the Navigation on the phone. With my Android phone all I have to do is cache some of the maps zones using google maps than I can turn off data completely and just have the GPS chip work it's magic. So I guess the question is does the built in maps do this on WP7 and is there a way to completely turn off Data and only have Wi-Fi running so I don't run into overages as I cannot afford a higher tiered plan than the 200mb one. If not I will most likely wind up selling the phone or returning it as I cannot have my Data running my bill through the roof.
try turn by turn nav. You can cache your route at home over WiFi before you set off