Coffee break- blogging from the HTC Advantage
I am at a local coffee shop and of course I had to try a blog post from one of the two devices I am testing. Funny enough when I was leaving I looked at the OQO and the Advantage and picked up the HTC. Haven’t regretted it for a minute, it’s so darn fast. And this keyboard is pretty good too.
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We need some good pictures of the HTC, I still don’t even know how it folds with the keyboard, and how do you type on the keyboard, with index fingers?
The definite “Advantage” the HTC has over the “crippled laptop” OQO 02 is the “instant on” and battery life factors! its always on and simply works when you need it! I currently own several mobile devices (HTC Advantage, OQO 02, Samsung Q1 Ultra, Q1, Sony UX) and came up with the that conclusion. I enjoy downloading youtube music videos converted to mp4 and watching it from the built in 8 gig storage!
Chris, it’s really the whole point of the “Advantage” isn’t ? When it was announced many people went: “Why?”
It’s a device with a fantastic screen : 5 inches. It is instantly on and it can go for hours and hours. In many ways, it is far superior to a full blown UMPC if you can work with the more simplistic applications. I bought a Dopod 838 Pro, the HTC Hermes last spring but it’s the Advantage I should’ve bought. It looks like a wonderful reader device too.
By the way, here is an excellent on-screen keyboard for the htc ported from the iPhone version! it greatly improves your ability to type the right letters better and quicker! especially on the 5″ screen of the advantage.
Link on article:
http://www.maxasia.net/2007/07/04/iphone-like-keyboard-for-windows-mobile/
Link for the application: (Happy Tapping keyboard)
(uses LZH file extension, use winRAR or other unzippers)
http://pub.idisk-just.com/fview/GZNm_K0Y8HGEZznfCgPsXQeIfkwOTCEPpRRPljalrnzevw3Pbsb3xICNQKIDe6QRj2hThPU00Y7qTOiBzDsNqw/SGFwcHlUYXBwaW5nS2V5Ym9hcmQuMTAy.LZH
Link for the skin: (iPhone Skin for Happy Tapping keyboard)
http://proxy.f3.ymdb.yahoofs.jp/bc/4466e3b8_1b67/bc/%a5%de%a5%a4%a5%c9%a5%ad%a5%e5%a5%e1%a5%f3%a5%c8/3ef7/iphone_modoki.zip?bcgWTuGBpFu6WNgj
Only gripes with a windows mobile OS is the support for flash to play youtube videos from the site. Am using ORB to get around that for now.
I strongly considered the Toshiba G900 before buying my oqo- thought the same thing as you have surmised in your early testing- instant on, runs quiet, cooler, smaller, and is cheaper to boot. But my big sticking point was not the apps (as Pocket PC has some great 3rd party support) but rather the browser. Since many sites I visit to do my work (my companies’ help desk site, support chat operator web client, yahoo mail beta, and more all use Ajax and other technologies I didn’t think could be handled with any of the PPC browsers. That was a very sad fact to me – that the PIE app which is written by the same people that write the most popular browser on the planet is crippled so as to be useless for most real working modern site.
I think I’d probably be holding a different device in my hands if it were not for that one single reason! Does Opera support all of that good stuff on WM6?
As far as the Advantage, to me the two things that kill it as a contender are:
the 640×480 screen- that, while big for a WM device, is still going to be too small for most web sites. As it is some ajax sites like Yahoo mail beta, warn you when you use 800×480 that your screen may not be big enough for the full experience!
That keyboard- good if you’re going to use it like a mini laptop, but not good for being truly mobile- I walk around with my oqo and type on the keyboard which would be awkward at best on the Advantage. I wish the advantage had the keyboard that the other HTC UMPC is going to have- that would be the perfect solution!
My OQO 02 heats up really quick at times, and its not the type of bearable heat either.Does yours?
@ Chris: The lack of Flash support cannot be blamed on Microsoft but on Adobe, however Adobe is planning to release better support for Flash on pocket devices soon.
The Advantage isn’t special. It’s a Pocket PC with a VGA screen, except it’s ginormous and not readily pocketable. I don’t get the device at all, really.
@ cr0ft: Or is Advantage a UMPC running Windows Mobile? Advantage blurs the border better than any other device I have seen. The user experience is very close to a full-scale computer (not quite there of course) but you get instant-on, better battery life, 3g & HSDPA connectivity which is not a slapped-on addition but perfeclty integrated etc.
I have been using Advantage for 3 months or so and while my initial reaction was much like yours, I have grown to love it.
On a related note, I do not get the obsession with “pocketability”. I use HTC Excalibur (T-Mobile Dash over there, MDA Mail over here) which is pocketable and I use HTC Advantage and Samsung Q1Ultra which are not. Each serves different purposes. Pocketable device is great for convenience, but you give up usability. I would not want to be browsing web for hours on my Dash – but I sure have done that with my Advantage. I have edited long office documents on Advantage quite comfortably, which is something you won’t do with any pocketable device (and no, OQO is not pocketable as far as I am concerned).