Time I Had a New Phone

[yawner]

I've blundered along with an old PAYG phone for ages. Yes, I get to share a blackberry storm with Mrs Y,  but she usually ends up claiming it for business emailing. DAMMIT its time I had a new fangled sparkly phone of my own. Something like Sammy Hammy would have. 

So what do you recommend? I quite like the look of the HTC Magic, even better the HTC Touch Pro 2, perhaps the new Nokia N97, or should I just hang the expense and go for an iphone (which I guess is lots of fun to play with?)

Recommendations please gadget kings and queens. 

[Shirker]

I resisted the iPhone for a long time Mr. Y but young Samuel was so insistent on here that it was good I finally gave in. Bloody marvellous thing it is too. I bought Mrs. S and Kevin who works for me one each since as well - she hates it (too complicated - it needs an app which just turns it into a normal phone for her ), he loves it. Made my old N95 look like an old toy. Go for it.

[Charisma Bypass]

+1 for the iphone.  Even us oldies can learn new tricks Mr Yawner.

[Chris H]

Nokia E71 all the way!

[Tony]

HTC Magic is quite nice, I had one on loan for a weekend - lacks a flash player at the mo, but it does have a youtube player.

Even I got used to it after a couple of days, and I'm a bit of a luddite with phones - on screen keyboard is nice as well

[orydian]

Another vote for teh if-one.

ory.

[yawner]

Even us oldies can learn new tricks Mr Yawner.

so long as it has a wind-up handle I can cope 

[keri]

The iphone is a cracking bit of kit, i'm holding off for the next one which allegedly will be with us Q1 next year which is about when i can ditch my current phone.

I know several people with various HTC phones and none of them are too impressed, in fact they all see to think HTC stands for Hard To Communicate

[samhs]

do I even need to say it? IPhone all the way. I've had Nokias (including N series), loads of HTCs, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson - nothing is as usable, reliable and well thought out as the iPhone. There are "missing" elements when you compare spec for spec, but in practice these become less important than you thought they would be. No choice IMO.

[Matt]

I trialed several phones from 02 before Iphone but honestly - nonecome close

[purplelime]

Another iPhone vote over here 

[yawner]

Now then....

3G or 3GS ? 

[Shirker]

Not tried the 3GS yet. I have the 3G.

[yawner]

Is it worth it going for greater than 8GB?

[SLEE]

I own a HTC Touch wit windows mobile on it and it is pretty good it has a 5mb camera, large screen and it 8gb. i can open edit etc all office files and pdf files which can be really helpful. only thing that i really like about the iPhone is the apps they just cant be beaten. so if you are into apps then go for the iPhone. def go for 3GS and size will depend on the amount of music or files you want to carry around with you

[Shirker]

Is it worth it going for greater than 8GB?

Depends what you're going to use it for. I don't use mine for much music as I have a full 60GB iPod for that and don't want to kill the phone battery on music then have no juice left to make calls. The phone has about 20 apps, about 800 contacts, 2881 photos and a few other bits n bobs and I have 4.2GB still free on an 8GB 3G if that helps.

[yawner]

I have 4.2GB still free on an 8GB 3G if that helps.

It does my dear Shirkipobs 

[samhs]

I have 1gb free on a 16mb ;-)

[purplelime]

3G or 3GS ?  

Definitely the 3GS - has video functionality and more besides. Just think of all those videos of young Rocky you'll be able to share with us on Twitter The 3GS comes in 16GB and 32GB capacities - I think the 16GB would be ample unless you intend to put a lot of music/photos/etc... on.

[samhs]

yeah - I think 16GB is the one to go for, and I agree about the 3GS. I regularly had to stop particular podcasts from synching on the 8gb model, 16gb handles it all for me (just) and I guess I'm quite a heavy user of podcasts/videocasts etc, so should be ideal for the average user.

[Shirker]

I have 1gb free on a 16mb ;-)

See, Mr. H-S can work miracles. Praise the lord for Jesus is risen.

[samhs]

easy mistake to make

[Matt]

Bigger HDD the better tbh, I struggle with the 8GB of the 3G, but then its free and paid for completely by work, so I cant moan too much. When my o2 contract is up Im getting a 3GS I think.,..

[yawner]

Devils Advocate time:

There again - why do I need a compass on my phone? 

All these 'apps' for the iphone. Are these the sort of things that you "never knew you needed"? A bit like all those items in the sunday newspaper supplement magazines?

You get my drift - as much fun as all these apps are, do any of us really need them?

[Chris H]

Do you need them Mr Y, that's more the question?

Think carefully before you part with any money!

[samhs]

As a sample, a non exhaustive list of apps on my phone:

- ebay: useful for bidding/keeping track on watched items, keeping track of items currently selling
- midomi: useful for finding out what you're hearing on the radio, or the tune stuck in your head (I also have shazam)
- ifooty: useful for following minute by minute reports of matches when forced to be out during play
- fStream: radio over the internet - all the BBC channels for example (or any other radio station that also broadcasts via the web)
- tweetie: twitter (say no more!)
- Last.fm: as per desktop
- wordpress: should use this more than I do to post to blogs
- wikipedia: again, could use Safari and often do, but a direct link to the wikipedia infobase
- flickster: look up movies, get trailers, reviews etc
- rMote: control XBMC from iPhone - useful for dedicated media pcs
- uStream: never use this
- Evernote: photograph stuff like recipes, cool signs, nice design - tag it and bag for later viewing in desktop app or over web
- WhatTheFont: same as website, but with ability to take photo and upload directly in the app - instant font gratification
- Prowl: only useful if you use a mac - this tells me when FTP has finished uploading, when I've got a new mention on twitter, or when Firefox has finished downloading files etc etc etc
- Remote: useful for controlling iTunes when out the office but near the remote speakers
- Pocket Guitar & Guitarist - Jee persuaded me on these - I don't honestly use them very much, but they're quite cool
- TED: if you know the site, you understand why
- pic2shop: photograph barcodes to get details of item later...
- RSS Flash G: RSS reader that syncs with google reader - very handy.

- Various games including Columns (don't work no more since updated version installed though ), MOnkey Ball, Crash Kart etc etc
- google: this is of limited use to me as I don't use gmail
- Various news apps: sky news, NYTimes etc
- Various eReaders: Stanza, eReader et al
- iTalk: voice memo - although Apple have since included a voice memo app within the standard build so I stopped using this

And finally, I've got a couple of apps I'm testing (in development), but I can't talk about those

I could live without quite a few of the apps, but there are some (like tweetie, Midomi, Remote, Prowl and eBay) that I use several times a day and would miss.

[Shirker]

Do you need any apps Mr. Y, nope, not at all. They are useful though and it's nice to be able to change the phone's functionality very easily. I use the facebook, favourites, and twittter apps daily, along with games when I have a few mins to kill. Also use SPL, a PDF trader and AroundMe pretty much weekly when away and a couple of other odds n sods. I have a load more I almost never use.

[samhs]

you on twitter Shirks? What's your username?

[yawner]

Interesting! A special thanks to Sam for taking the time to present such an informative list.

I must admit, I'm remarkably near to being convinced. 

That said, it still makes me laugh when I see a compass touted as an exciting new facility on the 3Gs. When I was a kid, we could get (kids) shoes with compasses in the heal. ('Wayfairers' - they also had various animal tracks on the sole IIRC) Oh I HAD to have those shoes. PLEASEDADPLEASEDADPLEASEDAD Dad relented and bought the shoes. The first day I spent "on safari" with my new compass shoes. Fantastic. Never used the compass after that.   

[samhs]

the point of the compass isn't for the app (that's a "bonus"), it's so that you can use the phone for sat nav - it needs to know which direction you're facing.