The HTC Magic disappointment
Mobile-wise, I’m from the past. Is not that my Nokia is 3 years old, has no colours, no camera, no browser, no WiFi, no nothing, the problem is that it has dust between the screen and the plastic cover and it plain sucks.
I’ve been waiting for quite a long time for an all-in-one device that should enable me to browse, email, listen to music and take some pictures of my drunk friends, no rocket science required. The obvious choice would be the iPhone, but I’m so sick of Apple’s closeness that I just can’t think about it (rejecting an app on the AppStore because a top-less in page 3, WTF?).
So, I’ve been waiting for the HTC Magic, also known as the G2, an Android-based device that promised a lot. Today I popped by my local Vodafone store to see it in action and left happy. It’s slim, light, the screen is responsive and the Internet plan is only 30 quid a month with enough texts and minutes.
Came back home and started looking for comments on the Internet, and that’s when the disappointment began. Being based on Linux, you would’ve thought that it would come with software for synchronizing it in Linux, right? WRONG. The HTC Sync software requirements are:
** Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or higher or Microsoft Windows Vista
** Microsoft Office Outlook 2000/2002/2003/2007, Windows Address Book (Outlook Express), or Windows Contacts
Not even Macs for fuck sakes. The alternative for Linux is SynCE, but I just don’t fancy expending hours reading blogs and forums to try to make it work.
Let’s move on, what about the music? What capacity does it have? Answer: 512mb. Yeah, that’s right, you read it correctly: 512mb. You can, however, expand the memory by using microSD cards. Ok, not nice but not a huge deal, I can buy a 16gb card anywhere for 40 pounds. But, oh, wait, what about the headphones?
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
That means no standard 3.5mm jack, you have to buy from HTC yet another stupid cable when you have another thousand headphones already.
I don’t know, maybe these issues are not as big as they look now, but while I was coming back from the shop I was a happy geek thinking “I could buy it tomorrow” whereas now I might wait until June when new Android devices are expected from other manufacturers.
I hate companies.
May 8th, 2009 at 01:46
SynCE is not that hard to make work :) But I agree, the new Android devices would be good…
May 10th, 2009 at 06:11
Doh! I was also quite excited about this device. Didn’t even thought about sync, but now you say it it’s quite a turn down. I guess it will still take a while until companies spend money on a small % like we are.
May 12th, 2009 at 15:06
Sorry, for Spanish newbie… what’s “30 quid”?
May 12th, 2009 at 15:10
30 quid = 30 English pounds : )
And note that “quid” is always singular!
July 2nd, 2009 at 01:38
Thank you so much about your post. I’ve made some little research about Smartphones and was thinking about iPhone (plus my mobile company “iPhone plans” are really expansive for me) and one with Android. Since my mobile company will bring the HTC Magic this month, I thought it was worth checking it.
Now I see is better wait.
Some mobiles from Huwei will arrive this year – but I hate the Huwei modem my ISP provides. I hope their mobiles are waaaaaay better. And with decent apps to sync. And no fancy phone plugs.
Cheers!
July 29th, 2009 at 16:56
I just got one yesterday – without really doing any online research. I knew iPhone would be a better one for the price I could pay, and though I fancy Steve Jobs, I’m just not a Mac fanboy (and I dislike having something too common). I was also looking at E91.
Anyway, getting SynCE to work is not that hard, but the important question to make is, do you need to sync your stuff (contacts/calendar/mails) to your machine when the point of having an Android is to sync them up to Google’s services?
Yes, I don’t quite like the idea that HTC doesn’t have a client program for us on our Linux machine. I also hate the proprietary micro USB port. Otherwise, I’m quite satisfied with what the phone is giving me thus far.
I will be hacking the phone when I have some free time, soon. :)
yc
July 29th, 2009 at 17:01
Oh, to put it with today’s buzzword – Android store things into the Cloud.
yc
August 16th, 2009 at 15:50
[...] things I don’t like so much are: proprietary mini-USB connector. As opposed to the Magic, this one has a standard 3.5mm jack but still the USB connector is HTC only. This is so bloody [...]