This morning when I woke up, I noticed a message on the phone “There is a system update available”. I set it off to download, it restarted, installed the update and restarted again. I was left at the HTC Hero starting screen – I assumed that it might take a while before updating or something, so I left it plugged in and on while I went off to the Gym at 9am. I returned at 10:30am and the phone was in the same state -i.e. Not working. Maybe reboots, took sim out, tried the rom screen (Power & Back key while switching on) and nothing I did made it work.

Calling T-Mobile

Now on 4th April I will be calling T-Mobile anyhow to cancel my 18 month contract but this does not mean I should accept that a firmware update (or whatever it was) killed my phone for good, I may want to use a different sim or sell it etc. The told me the phone was in warranty till Nov 2011 and I should return it to a local store where thy will send it off for repair and give me a replacement loan phone.

Not so much a replacement phone

I did as instructed and they gave me a nokia 6400 I think it was, a basic phone with no internet or touch screen and such. I could not be bothered to argue my case to be honest as I have a work phone – I should get the phone back in two weeks time by which time I can call them and cancel my contract and wave goodbye to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile in the UK have made a change to there data use policy, from February 2011, all users will be restricted to only 500MB a month. “If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband,” said T-Mobile in a statement. A T-Mobile spokesman told Computer Weekly, it is reducing its fair use policy (FUP) in line with the industry. “As the average mobile internet customer uses only 200MB of data each month, this will only affect a small minority of users, whom we have begun notifying,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman also said customers who exceed the data limits will not be charged and will still be able to access email and web browsing services. Only file downloads will be restricted.

“Customers who have a need for higher volumes of data will be encouraged to take up a separate mobile broadband plan,” said the spokesman.

T-Mobile merged with Orange last year to form Everything Everywhere (E2) to become the biggest mobile network operator.

Why did this happen?

My own personal view is that more smart phones are out on the ground meaning people are using a lot more data than before such as watching YouTube Videos, streaming Video to sites such as Ustream and Justin.Tv as well as using there phones as a 3G router.

If all the operators roll out a similar policy then the end user does not have much choice, much the same way broadband was capped for example if you used it too much. I suspect 4G might help this as it has more bandwidth but I also see this as a mean for the company to make yet more money.

UPDATE : 12 Jan 2011

I Called T-Mobile today to ask if I could cancel my contract as they have changed the package I originally bought and thus breaking contract. They informed me that if I had read the FUP (Fair Usage policy) they can in fact change this as required without any issues. I argued for a while but got no where on this regard. My Contract runs out on 4th May – no dount they will be calling me on the 4th April to beg me to stay and also offer me the world. I personally would not stay for the world – as soon as this contract runs out – we wave goodbye to T-Mobile who are only to happy to sell you a product but turn there backs once your locked in.

I have just read the latest news and this came in:

The company initially said that it would slash the amount of data all of its customers could use to 500 MB.

For Android handset owners, previously allocated 3GB per month, the drop would have been more than 80%.

But the company has now said that the changes would be introduced from 1 February, “to new and upgrading customers only”.

“There will be no change to the data packages for existing customers for the duration of their contract and we apologise for any confusion caused,” said Lysa Hard, VP for T-Mobile UK.

At Mobile World Congress 2010 Adobe announced Adobe AIR would support mobile devices by the end of this year.  Adobe AIR, a key component of the Adobe Flash® Platform, enables developers to use a single development platform and reuse existing code to quickly build applications that run outside the browser, across multiple screens, devices and platforms. Because the source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes (AIR and Flash Player), it also gives developers a way to more rapidly target other mobile and desktop environments.

Today we reach another important milestone by posting the Adobe AIR runtime to the Android Market thus enabling our developers to distribute their applications to Android smartphone and tablets.  Some of these apps are already available as AIR applications running on the desktop and iOS.  We are also on track to deliver the next version of the AIR SDK  by the end of 2010.  Additional information regarding Adobe AIR for Android is available at Adobe Labs.

With the support of our Open Screen Project ™ partners, soon Adobe Flash Platform tools will allow for AIR apps to be compiled and delivered to Android, iOS, BlackBerry™ Tablet OS devices and more.    Come see us at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles on October 23-27 for first access to industry leading tools that enable the development of applications across multiple screens, devices and platforms.

Android Device Requirements for Adobe AIR

• Google Android 2.2 Operating system
• ARMv7-A Processor
• OpenGL ES2.0
• H.264 & AAC H/W Decoders
• 256 MB of RAM

Downloading Adobe AIR for your Android device.

You only need to download Adobe AIR once from the Android Market and it will work with any AIR based application on your device. If you download an AIR application to your Android device and AIR is not already installed, the application will take you directly to download the AIR runtime.  In the future, AIR will be preinstalled on many newer smartphones and tablets therefore eliminating the need for the initial download.

Thoughts……

I am sitting here with an HTC Hero Phone which is running V2.1 and no sign of any official upgrade from T-Mobile or HTC. This means such things as Air won’t make it to my device and come to think of it, many devices that are running 1.6 still to this day for example. In this day and age, we have to admit that once a phone is One year old – you shoudl write it off if and upgrade, it’s a pity then the contracts are 18 and 24 months long right ! Time for the Carriers to change me thinks.

If your a Fan of Firefox and own a Android or a Nokia N900 Phone – then your in Luck, there is a Beta version for you to try today. You can find out more HERE as well as download the latest nightly build. I shall be trying this and giving a much fuller report later but for now – you can check out the app yourself and report back your findings.

In the news today I read that Skype had finally released – you can read it on there blog and basically it states it is for all Android phones running 2.1 or 2.2 of the OS. There was me in my previous post getting rid of Skype due to lack of use and today we see it can be used on my phone – deep joy.

First thoughts

Well it looks like Skype and it once I had logged in – it presented my contacts. I was un-sure were you went to exit the program or put yourself away for example – I did not want people calling me while I was busy at work. The shocking truth is this – there is no way to exit the application apart from using a task killer or rebooting your phone. I cannot imagine it helping the battery running all day – so this is bad idea on skype behalf.

My First Call

I added the Echo Test service and once I was connected back home on my Wireless network, I called this to see how it would work out. The first I noticed was how the test voice was breaking up badly and then after a few calls to test it out, most of the time it dropped the call before the end of the test.

My thought was this – is the HTC Hero not powerful enough to run Skype and give perfect voice coverage? Was the Test Service at fault on the phone, maybe a real person might have been different? Was the connection somehow bad even though it had a full signal and is on a 50Mbps line?

Good but not good enough

A service that cannot provide clear communications when this is the primary goal of the software is pointless. Are we at the stage were a HTC Hero which is One year old (it was new to T-Mobile in Oct 2009 in the UK) is now a pointless paperweight?

In an ideal world, this is what could have been – I could have plugged the phone into the USB to charge it while at the computer and take skype called via means of hands free because I know the hands free is perfect when using it as a phone. As it is on a mobile network, I could have un-plugged it and roamed around the house with some headphones on, in other words a perfect replacement for the Skype Phone I bought years ago.  

This is not an ideal world though and while writing this Blog post, I re-installed the application to get a Screenshot of the interface but no matter how many times I tried to log in (and yes I know the password thanks) – it said it could not and I should try again. Maybe I shall just stick to Calling people – its not like I am short of Free Minutes (800) or SMS messages (Unlimited).

I would like to write a story About Android Phones, I would like to add into the mix HTC and then add some finely chopped T-Mobile to that mix with the idea to come out with the HTC Hero running Android 2.1 with all the trimmings and also easy enough for a normal customer to complete right? Without ruining the story, if it was possible to go back in time – I would be sitting here right now with an iPhone 3GS  - yes you heard that right….

In the beginning…

I had read about the Android offering Turn by Turn maps and I was in the market for a new mobile phone, this time I was happy to go on contract BUT I wanted the shorted time, none of this locking me in for 2 years – a lot can happen right. The iPhone come at a cost and then a monthly fee but along to the other store and we had the HTC Hero which came free, had a 18 month contract and gave me 800 Minutes a month and unlimited everything else. I went off and looked this phone up, seemed pretty news and good review all around. Now my mind worked like this – given that the HTC Hero was Very new when I got it – I imagined it would be supported and updated for some time and I never thought for one second that the phone in June 2010 would be cast aside by HTC and T-Mobile for newer and better things – GASP…

The never ending promised upgrade

Never a month went by that a blog somewhere would proclaim that 2.0/2.1 was here “the next month” and this started in January and carried on all the way up to now – July 2010. Each month I was tempted to Root my phone and upgrade to 2.1 but I lived in the hope that it would come “soon” and also I was afraid I might brick my phone. The phone had some faults such as telling me when I was on wireless that in fact there was no internet – yet there was.

My First go at updating

I tried to follow a post on how to create a “Goldcard” – this involves patching the SD Card but when I then progressed to the next stage (to flash a older Rom on there) – it would always fail telling me that it could not see the HTC Hero. I left it alone – thinking I had done it all wrong.

The official Part 1 of the update

The update they send you is a small patch which prepares the phone for the full 2.1 Update. I set my phone forward one year to activate the check up, it found and downloaded an update and rebooted the phone. It started to install and got half way through – then it had the Triangle of death:

If you press the Home button and the Power – you get a DOS Looking screen – this was almost saying it had trouble with the Rom version installed. I tried wiping the phone and formatting the SD card but alas – got stuck every single time.

Call to T-Mobile

Now you would expect that if I called the people who sold me the phone, they would know what to do right? I got the initial agent who took all my details and was stumped at what I was saying – an update for a phone, is this even possible? Eventually she passed me through to the Support team. The First problem is they had no idea what an HTC Hero was, only when I said G2 Touch (which is exactly the same thing) did they progress to “There is an update, we never knew about this” – wow, wow and WOW!!!

I got them to take out one of there HTC Hero phones and I walked them through how to get the update (Set the date forward) and then show them the error screen and even what key to press to show the error listing. It comes to something when a customer knows more about supporting there phones then the Support section do right? The promised they would call me back – never mentioned which damm year though !!

Taking matters into my own hand

When I got some time, I booted my VMWare Windows XP Pro SP3 machine up, plugged in the Phone via USb, Installed HTC Sync (to the get the drivers) and then tried to flash the proper t-mobile firmware (one that was already on the phone) as I heard this works but it failed. I then go another generic one – and this worked. Once the phone rebooted, I noticed a few things – one been that there was NO T-Mobile branding.

Once the phone started, it told me that there was an update – this downloaded and rebooted the phone, no Triangle as above. Once we started again – it told me there was another update – I left this one running (took a while to download and even longer to install). Once we had finished, I was the proud owner of a HTC hero running 2.1 with no T-Mobile branding. Live wallpaper did not work (were not even there) and some apps kept crashing but the look and fell is a lot better.

Thoughts

While I agree I am of technical nature, it was hard to understand why each part was failing when it did and at the time was not each to hack the phone to enable me to get 2.1 on there. The question is though – should I be doing this or should T-Mobile or HTC not make it easy for me to upgrade my phone – the thing I am paying money for each month.

T-Mobile are in the business of selling voice and data plans, this new era of smart phone and updates are taking them by surprise and why on earth do they need to brand a phone in this day and age? Is it not enough that it says T-Mobile on the top? They need to get there support staff up to speed and quickly and they should not be taken off guard when a update come out.

HTC are in the business of selling phone and they keep producing these by the month it seems. They seem to forget that a person gets locked in for 18-24 months and cannot just change there phone. Android is in the business of software and why not have the same feature set on each phone?

To be totally honest here, I cannot see myself renewing with T-Mobile when my contract is up. Why should I trust HTC when they already junked the Hero? I can understand now why people go out and buy an iPhone – I for one wish I had..

It’s good to have your own personal wireless network, both for reasons of security and convenience – and now, with a little help from us, you can set one up with your HTC HD2.

So, if you like the sound of using your HTC HD2 as a wireless router, follow these simple steps:

1. Before you do anything, make sure that your HTC HD2 has a SIM card in it and its connected to the internet – 3G, GPRS and EDGE are all good – and the computer you’re using has a built-in or external Wi-Fi adaptor.

2. To set up your phone as a wireless router Tap Start and go to Wi-Fi Router.

3. If this is the first time you’ve opened Wi-Fi Router there’ll be a little introduction, which you can either watch or skip. After this, tap Next.

4. Now, you need to set up the phone’s Wi-Fi network by entering a network name and a ten digit WEP key.

Note: You can also use the provided default Network name and WEP key. In Internet Connection, find the data connection your phone uses, then tap Start.

1. Once your device is ready to accept connections it’ll display instructions on how to connect your computer to the Wi-Fi network.
2. Once you’ve done this, the instructions on your mobile should disappear and the Wi-Fi router screen should be displayed again.

Connecting your PC to your HTC HD2 wireless network

1. On your PC, select Start, then Connect To (Vista) or Connect to, followed by Wireless Network Connection (if using Windows XP)
2. In the Connect to a network box, select the name of your HTC HD2 network, then select Connect.
3. If your phone’s network doesn’t show, click refresh.
4. Enter your WEP key and then select Connect.
5. To turn your HTC HD2’s wireless router off, simply tap Stop on the Wi-Fi Router screen.

The smartphone war is well and truly underway, the big players including Apple, HTC, RIM, Samsung and Nokia are all vying for position in an already saturated mobile handset market.

Smartphone vendors are releasing handsets like never before but is it the best way to  increase the all-important revenue stream that keeps these companies in business?

To me, there are some fundamental mistakes that smartphone vendors are making when bringing their products to market and I believe they can be amended. All is explained after the jump.

1. Make All Smartphones Carrier Independent

When new smartphone handsets are launched, most are only available via one mobile carrier. A lone mobile carrier is quick to offer new handsets at lower prices, subsidizing the cost of the phone with a longer contract length in order to recoup some of the money invested in acquiring the phone.

This is dangerous, especially in countries where there are significant differences in the quality of service offered by different mobile carriers. For example, Apple have been scrutinised for offering the iPhone exclusively via AT&T, a network that customers have said offers poor customer service, bad coverage and costly tariffs.

Internationally, Apple initially offered the iPhone exclusively to one network but have since liberated the device, the company recently adding eight new carriers to reach of total of 151 worldwide. Cnet report that “including hardware, accessories, and payments from carriers, Apple made $5.3 billion off of its smartphone” last quarter.

It’s a bold move for vendors, especially as it impacts the companies that distribute its handsets. The market will always demand a choice, a mobile carrier should be one of them.

2. Concentrate On Quality NOT Quantity

Driven by Moore’s Law, smartphones also fall prey to being superseded by the bigger, better, more powerful device on the block. Personally, I have been in the position where I spend weeks trying to decide on a device that I feel is the best smartphone on the market, purchase it, only for the smartphone manufacturer to decide to release a new model that has double the processing speed and a huge number of extra features than my device the week after.

Back in December 2009, numerous tech outlets caught wind of the codenames of some of HTC’s upcoming handsets; Bahamas, Bravo, DesireC, Dragon, Dream, Espresso, Halo, HeroCT, HeroC, Hero, Huangshan, Incredible, Legend, Liberty, Memphis, Paradise, PassionC, Passion, Sapphire and Supersonic. Some of these have been released, some are due to launch very soon (a couple have been renamed).

I’m in the fortunate position to know how the HTC Incredible (due April 29th) differs from the HTC Evo (formerly Supersonic, due Summer 2010) yet the average consumer would have a hard time differentiating. Both devices offer 1GHz processing power, 512MB RAM, 8MP camera and run on the Android operating system, so does this mean the Incredible is being released to plug the gap until the slightly fuller featured Evo launches later in the summer? To me they are both great phones, why not release one instead of both and capitalise on it’s unique feature set?

If a customer purchases a new HTC handset, are they likely to be downcast when they learn that a new handset called the HTC Evo is due to be launch in 3 months and will feature 4G capability, HD recording and a front facing camera? My guess is yes.

3. Regularly Update Supported Devices

Most modern smartphones receive regular updates but its dependant on the device you own as to what software/firmware upgrades you can expect to get. If you own a smartphone that runs a proprietary operating system – in this case RIM, Apple and Windows Phone 7 – you are generally at the whim of the manufacturer as to what features are added when you do update.

As an owner of an Apple iPhone and a HTC Hero, I have experienced two entirely separate approaches to keeping a device current and feature rich.

Apple has been chastised for their inability to include what many mobile users consider default features; copy and paste, MMS and multi-tasking to name a few. But they do release steady updates for their customers, pushing the capability both old and newer iPhone models forward.

HTC on the other hand are very hit and miss. Owning a Hero, I have yet to receive the proposed Android 2.1 ROM update which has been threatening to be released any time now. My device is still chugging along on it’s default 1.5 Android build, yet Android 2.2 could be pushed to owners of Google’s Nexus One device as soon as May 19th.

The issue isn’t HTC specific but it doesn’t stop it being frustrating.

4. Increase Battery Life

The life of a smartphone battery is a short one, especially if the handset is in continual use. Handset vendors are constantly researching ways to get more out of Lithium batteries but most devices are unable to last a full day before they need recharging.

There are a number of different technologies in development that will allow for longer lasting batteries but in the meantime it would be interesting to see technologies such as photovoltaic cells incorporated into handsets to allow a handset owner to partially charge their phone using solar radiation.

Owning an iPhone, Blackberry fanboys will always play the “I get 3 days between charges” trump card when comparing the two phones. If a smartphone owner can get more than a day of use out of their handset they would be more likely to stay with the same manufacturer.

Conclusion

Most smartphone vendors are in a difficult position because ultimately it isn’t the vendors who sell devices to the end user. Agreements have to be drawn up with different mobile carriers to market and sell the handsets and as the mobile industry continues to grow, it’s the carriers who hold more weight with consumers.

What do you think vendors could do to retain your custom? Is it as easy as lengthening battery life or would it take something special to stop you ditching your current phone for an Apple iPhone or HTC Evo?

In the world of Apple with the iPhone, the same company sells you the phones as the one making the operating system but in the world of Android – One company makes the phones, another writes most of the OS, another bolt on a GUI and finally the Phone operators add there little bit to the phone – we have in fact Fragmentation.

Android Phone overview.

One of the popular people making Android phone about now is HTC and they have at the present time 36 Different types of phone on offer. Another month goes by and they make yet another model – this may be based on Windows Mobile (with an Android Looking skin) or Android itself. They might make a bigger screen, a better camera, faster CPU or some go faster stripes.

Updating Older phones

If you walked into a store and locked yourself into a 18 or 24 month deal – you may hope that the phone you just bought might get updated at some point via software, to fix the bugs and add new features. As each month passes – they promise that the next month is due for the update – honest and they know you cannot do anything as you are probably locked into a deal. At the same time – you see they have brought out an updated model of your phone, called it something else, stuck in a faster CPU and it has the updated software – this makes no sense.

The passage of blame

You call up the mobile phone operator – they do not have an update and blame HTC. You then call up HTC who either tells you its the mobile phone operators fault as they have to add there own modifications to the phone or in fact it is google – never there fault. They cannot give you a date for the software update and in fact tell you it might not happen.

Do they never learn?

While this culture of blame might get them off the hook, it has a much wider ramification – the downward spiral of people buying any phone made by them. In my own view for example that while the phone that I bought just about does the job – it has many little issues like the phone rebooting itself sometimes, having a hard time locking onto wireless signal and so forth. When the time comes to renew my contract, I shall have some serious thoughts:

Will I stick with T-Mobile due to there support been so bad? Probably not.

Will I buy another HTC phone when they so quickly brushed my request aside? No

Will I keep going with the Android platform? Probably not at this stage.

Android is a lot like Linux

Linux has that many different distributions, driver problems and looks that it can never hope to leap forward and go ahead of Windows or Mac. Android is the same – depending on what device you have, depends on what you can do. Why is my Facebook App so different from the one on the Windows Mobile (but still Android) version yet from the same people?

Getting there Act together

It is time for someone to take control, I guess Google and make this something to be proud of otherwise people will just fall back onto the iPhone. A good example here is I can buy an Alarm Clock, Radio, Car Dock and many other devices and the iPhone not only slots into them all but they work using the iPhone as a devide to either display the time or play a tune or even a GPS – can you imagine me trying to do the same with my HTC Hero?