I have the
European HTC Hero (Nicely curved at the bottom to fit the curve of your face
)
I love that phone to the bone. Though I must say I'm a tek person and installed a custom ROM on it to make it work just a tad better/faster. The sound quality while making a call is at least on par with the Nokia and Sony Ericsson 'dumb' phones I've had.
What I like about Android and iPhone OS is that they combine old tricks from the PDA's with new technology like compass, accelerometer, GPS and other sensors.
Examples of this:
* When you go to work your phone will recognize the area by GPS coordinates and switch your Agenda to the company agenda, contacts, etc. Or when you go to the pub it will lock the phone numbers of non-friends to prevent you calling them in a drunk wave.
* With Google Sky Map you can point your phone at the night sky and see what the name of that bright star is, or find the constellations. It uses the compass and the GPS for this.
* You are in another town as your home town, sitting in a restaurant with your girlfriend and you ask yourself if there is any cinema near. You open Layar, start the Movie layar and you can see where the nearest cinema is, what movies they play and at what times and you can even contact them to make a reservation, either by phone or internet. After you make the reservation you get directions how to get there by way of navigation.
And so there are many examples of the renewed holistic thinking in smartphone apps. This will only get better and more creative the coming time and I welcome it.
Kind regards,
The Traveler
www.smh.com.au
