Opening up the Market: HTC Legend UK update

I was pleasantly surprised to discover my new HTC Legend alerting me to the fact that it had a firmware update waiting for me earlier today. I knew there was one in the pipeline to address the Market issues that I alluded to in my last post (a number of mainstream apps missing for the Legend) but I wasn't expecting it so soon. As far as I can tell it's an update specifically for UK Legend users on the Vodafone network.

I was given the option of downloading it there and then over my 3G connection, or to wait until there was a wifi connection available. It was only 9MB but I decided to go for the wifi option. The update sat patiently in my notification bar until I returned home, and then it promptly started downloading.

About 5 minutes later, after download, install and restart, I checked the phone's Software Information screen (to get there, go to Settings -> About Phone -> Software Information) and then listed at the bottom was the all-important Software Number, listed as 1.32.161.4. I had been upgraded!

I promptly checked the Android Market and sure enough, all those essential (but previously missing) apps I had been looking for had now appeared. I'm now set up with the full complement of apps that I wanted and pleasingly, they're all pretty much identical to their iPhone counterparts. I've got a few Android-specific ones in there for good measure as well. In no particular order then, here's what I've got (links are to the webpage specific to the Android app):

Evernote - Note-taking app, allowing you to upload photo notes, audio notes and text notes to your online scrapbook for later reference and searching.
Dropbox - Access to your Dropbox and its contents, and again letting you upload files direct from your phone
Shazam - For quick and easy identification of music that you hear, but don't know what it is!
Wordpress - Blog tools and management
Opera Mini - Good browser for when your 3G connection is slow
Google Listen - Podcast downloads, playback and search
NewsRob - RSS reader that syncs with your Google Reader feeds with excellent user interface, and offline caching
BBC News - App for direct access to all of the stories on BBC News
Google Sky Map - Point your phone at the night sky and the app will tell you what constellations you can see
c:geo - Geocaching app allowing you to locate and manage Geocaches, also syncs with your geocaching.com account
My Tracks - Lets you record your journey on Google Maps, complete with times, speeds, elevation etc and upload it
Barcode Scanner - Useful for price comparisons, and increasingly for finding and downloading other apps via QR codes
Astrid - Task manager and to-do list

Any others I should have? Let me know in the comments.

Paranoid Android

As you will already know, I've wanted an iPhone ever since they were first announced. I'm a massive Apple fan, but I've never managed to take the iPhone plunge - and the main reason is that the cost has always been an insurmountable obstacle. I've had mobile phones for the last ten years, and I've never - NEVER - paid more than £15 a month for them. I've had Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson handsets, so I'm not particularly brand-loyal. I just can't bring myself to spend £30 a month (or more) on what is, essentially, just a phone.

However, I was starting to come round to the (fairly obvious) idea that if I wanted the Jesusphone, I'd just have to suck it up and pay the money - there's really no way round it. I was doing the sums to see how the different plans and upfront handset costs compared in terms of total cost over the life of the contract. The way things stand at present is that all three UK carriers (O2, Vodafone and Orange) offer their cheapest total package for £30 a month, on an 18-month contract. The handset cost for all three is £99, bringing the total to £639. For that princely sum, O2 offer you 100 minutes and unlimited texts, Vodafone give you 75 minutes and 250 texts, and Orange can let you have 150 minutes and 250 texts. Depending on how you like to use your phone (if you're a texter or a talker) then the choice is really between O2 and Orange (Vodafone don't seem very competitive in this price bracket).

If, however, you're looking at the smallest possible monthly outlay, then you need to be looking at O2, as they are the only ones who offer a £25 per month deal. But this is over 24 months, and the handset cost goes up to £149, bringing the total cost of ownership to a massive £749. Doesn't really seem cost effective to scrimp on that extra fiver a month does it?!

All of these calculations are based on getting the 8GB iPhone 3G, not the 3GS. Clearly if you want the better phone, then you're looking at between another £100-150 on top. You might think that you could do without the 3GS and live with the 3G, but bearing in mind the announcement about iPhoneOS 4.0 this week, and the fact that the 3G won't support a lot of the new features, then that more basic phone suddenly doesn't look like so much of a bargain.

So - you have a lot of decisions to make: how much you want your monthly outlay to be, whether you're getting the necessary amount of minutes and texts and how much you're prepared to spend upfront on the handset. For me personally, the £30 18-month contract on O2 would be the sufficient for me, as I don't make many voice calls but I do text a lot. However, knowing what we now do about OS4.0, I'd have to get the 3GS and not the 3G - so total cost £738. Of course, there's a new iPhone in the pipeline due to surface in about June or July, so it would probably be prudent to wait until then. Perhaps the 3GS price will become the entry level model and the price will drop, or perhaps the new handset will have some great new design or features that make it a must-have. So what's a potential iPhone purchaser to do, bearing in mind all these factors?

Let me tell you my current thinking - don't get an iPhone at all. Get an Android phone instead.

The new HTC Desire is a phone that matches the iPhone on a lot of levels, and in some ways surpasses it. It may not be made by the mighty Apple, but having done the research it seems just as good if not better. For a start the screen on the Desire is a 3.7" 800x480 pixel AMOLED. Compare that to the iPhone's 3.5" 480x320 TFT. The Desire's camera is 5MP as opposed to the iPhone's 3MP. The Desire is packing a faster processor and more RAM than the iPhone. Other than that, they both have accelerometers, digital compasses and assisted GPS and are both the same size and weight. Hmm, iPhone - you're suddenly not looking so clever.

Software-wise, the Android operating system is open-source, customisable and supports true application multitasking out of the box.

However, where the iPhone is, of course, a winner is in regards to its App Store. Yes, there's an Android Market, but at the moment it's really not in the same league as Apple's. But, as it currently stands, all my regularly used apps - Wordpress, Evernote, Shazam, eBay, Last.fm, Spotify, Facebook - are already available on Android, with the only exception - Dropbox - being on its way in the coming weeks. What you lose in apps, you make up for in Google integration. As a heavy user of Google's products - gMail, calendar, contacts, reader, Picasa, Youtube, maps - this is a definite bonus. And with the Android Market expected to increase massively over the next 12 months, I can see the gap between the two offerings becoming much narrower.

And that brings me on to the price - what's all this talk of Android? Why bother? All things being equal, just get the bloody iPhone. But things are most certainly NOT equal.

If I want my 100 voice minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet (as offered by O2) then T-Mobile have quite the tempting offer. The upfront handset cost for the HTC Desire is £164, and then the monthly tariff is either £15 over 18 months, or £10 a month over 24. Total cost over 18 months £434, or £404 over 24 months.

Let me reiterate: 100 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet, 18-month contract. Total cost of ownership for an iPhone 3GS on O2 = £738. HTC Desire on T-Mobile = £434. £164 for the handset upfront as opposed to £249. £15 a month instead of £30. A saving of £304 in total.

As the youth of today like to say - NO BRAINER. Android here I come.

Mac software essentials

Once I'd taken delivery of my new iMac, I had the task of setting it all up the way I wanted it. Fortunately, being a Mac, that is all very easy. When you first switch it on, it asks you if you've got a Time Machine backup that you'd like to use to restore your previous data. Obviously I had been using Time Machine, so pointed it in the right direction. It then asks exactly what you want restored - music, photos, applications etc. I decided to just go for my personal data, as I was aware that I had clogged up my old machine with no end of applications that I had only ever used once before deciding they weren't for me.

Everything restored just the way I wanted it, but then I had the task of putting back just the applications I REALLY wanted, and this was quite a useful decision-making process. So what did I install? Here's my round up - and you'll be pleased to know it's all free!

The first thing I went for was trusty old Firefox. I prefer it over Safari for a number of reasons - I like the plugins you can get for it, particularly Xmarks, favicon support and its Google search defaults to the UK site. Small things, but for me it gives it the edge.

The next essential app is Skype. It's even better now I have a Mac with an iSight camera, as obviously I can now do video chat. All my friends have an account, and not only does it do voice and video chat, it's also a very decent instant messaging program. Add in the fact that I've also got it installed on my iPod Touch and mobile phone, it's an absolute must-have.

Next up, Dropbox. I realise that you can just use it direct from the web interface, but the Mac app adds so much more. I've got it set up to automatically synchronise with my Documents folder, so I know I've always got an up-to-date copy on Dropbox if I ever need a file, and the drag-and-drop nature of the desktop app means it's all much simpler than the web uploader.

I'm going to bundle these two together, as they are very similar in their functionality - Perian and Flip4Mac. In actual fact, there's nothing that you need to do with them once they're installed, but they give you access to all the different web video codecs that you're likely to come across. Flip4Mac handles WMV files within the Quicktime player, and Perian does the rest.

On a similar video-based theme, the VLC player is very handy for playing any truculent videos that don't like the Quicktime player. Not only that, it's essential to get my next app choice to work properly. Which brings me on to...

Handbrake! A fabulous piece of free software, it allows you to rip DVDs to a variety of formats and sizes. It works in conjunction with the VLC player, so make sure you've got that installed if you want to use Handbrake. There are a lot of settings to play with if you're so inclined, or just go for the presets.

If you're a Twitterer like me, then a Twitter client is a must-have rather than constantly visiting the website. My client of choice is Twitterrific, which is free if you can put up with the occasional advert. It's slick and unobtrusive, and there's a matching iPhone/iTouch app too.

One of the finest ideas in a long time, Spotify is quite something. Internet-based free music, supported by the occasional advert (or ad-free if you want to pay a subscription). I think it's brilliant. Great for discovering new music before committing to a purchase, and I really like the iTunes-like interface.

If you like to dabble in a bit of BitTorrent, you can do a lot worse than this very fine client app, Transmission. Small but perfectly formed, it does everything you need to do without any bloat or unnecessary features.

Should you need to FTP anything, then Filezilla is a great fully-featured free application for doing just that. Not much more to say really. Easy to use, does everything it needs to including secure FTP if you require it.

And finally, if you just can't help yourself and you find yourself installing stuff that you later discover you don't want then you need to get rid. You could just drag it to the trash, but that's not very sophisticated. AppCleaner will also get rid of all the associated files and folders leaving you crud-free. Splendid.

So there you go - all tried-and-tested, top notch free applications. So are there any that I've missed? Your suggestions in the comments if you will...