*Android OS – It’s Linux. ‘Nuff said

It’s been about a week since I started using the HTC Hero as my primary phone/PDA/media device. Here are some observations I have made during that time.

The Good:

• Android OS – It’s Linux. ‘Nuff said
• The device – Build quality seems good and it’s a beautifully designed device. The teflon coating is a nice touch.
• The trackball – I never would have guessed it but I really appreciate the trackball. I don’t find myself poking at the screen like a mad man nearly as often as I used to with my iPod Touch.
• Python support – Python runs on the phone (sort of) thanks to the Android Scripting Environment (http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/)
• Linux syncing – Banshee recognizes the phone right away and copying media is as simple as dragging and dropping from your music library. Files can also be copied to the SD card manually.
• Android Market – Has all the free apps I need: FBReader for reading ebooks, NewsRob for syncing with Google Reader, Astrid for managing tasks and imeem for streaming music.
• Phone quality – Excellent call quality, pretty good reception and a decent speakerphone.
• The keyboard – It’s a step up from the standard Cupcake (Android 1.5) keyboard. I would even say that it’s almost on par with the iPhone’s software keyboard.
• Software development – Unlike the iPhone, I can use Ubuntu to write applications or scripts and I don’t have to pay $100 to install and test them on my device.
• 3.5 mm audio jack – Unlike other HTC Android phones, the Hero doesn’t need a proprietary adapter for headphones.

The Bad:

• Lack of an app for audiobooks – This is something I really miss. The built-in player is good enough for music but it’s not really suitable for audiobooks. It doesn’t remember where you left off listening and scrubbing is slow and inaccurate.
• No paid apps in Estonia – The Android Market doesn’t show paid applications here in Estonia. Google has promised to expand the list of supported countries, though, so I remain hopeful.
• Media playback – Music sometimes (rarely, but still) stutters for a second or two at the beginning of a song. Otherwise the music player looks slick and is really easy to use.
• Touchscreen responsiveness – Sometimes the screen does not register touches when your hand is not making contact with the metal frame around the screen. It doesn’t happen much, though, and most people won’t even notice it.
• Slight lag – The Sense UI is great but it might lag in time to time. You probably won’t even notice it unless you are used to an iPhone or an iPod Touch. The lag is definitely not as bad as some reviews make it seem.

The Ugly:

• The bundled headset – After a while the complete lack of bass will make you want to hack the HTC headset into little pieces and set them on fire. I am by no means an audiophile but even I hate these headphones. I actually miss the pair that came with my iPod (yes, the ones from HTC they are that bad).
• Video playback – Nothing like the silky smooth playback of an iPod. Even at low resolutions and bitrates I couldn’t get consistent playback speed. Video slows down for a second or two and then plays faster than it should be to catch up again.

The Hero has it’s issues, the least of which are problems with performance/responsiveness. This can be fixed with a software update, though, and as far as I know, an update is due in the next few weeks. Hopefully HTC has fixed the media playback and lag issues with the update. But despite a few shortcomings, HTC Hero is in my opinion the best Android phone out there and certainly a viable alternative to the iPhone.

Here’s a simple Python script for converting videos for iPods or iPhones. You’ll need ffmpeg with libfaac enabled (I recommend Medibuntu packages) and python-notify for this script to work. You can customize default encoding options (video: 1000kb MPEG4, audio: 128kb AAC, no picture scaling) in the script. Copy it to ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts and it’ll be accessible through Nautilus’ Scripts submenu.

Download

If you think you might have a use for Revisioner you can install the package from my PPA at http://launchpad.net/~hkaju/+archive or check out the current source code from trunk and submit bug reports to the Launchpad bug tracker. Keep in mind that it is currently in pre-pre-alpha stage and I can guarantee you things will break regularly.

Revisioner discussion thread at Ubuntu Forums: Revisioner source code manager

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