Apple-verse vs HTC Magic - Android phone

I've been looking at various smart phone options for almost a year. I'd pretty much narrowed the choice down to either an Apple iPhone 3G S or a phone based on Google's version of Linux, known as "Android". I considered the Palm Pre to be a wild card worthy of investigation. Blackberry's are too boringly business-oriented for the lone-wolf mobile phone user like me.

I already have an Apple iPod Touch 8GB. I have used it daily - hourly! - (minutely?) - since I got it in December. The interface is pretty good, though I grew tired of risking hand cramps from pinching and squeezing web pages constantly trying to make links accessible to my large finger tips. That magnifying glass thing when trying to place the cursor when editing text also annoyed me. The predictive text only offered one word (that I could see) and it wasn't clear how to either select it, or make it go away. The requirement to use the wretched iTunes, combined with Apple's chokehold on the platform itself put me off deepening my investment in the Apple-verse beyond the bare entry-level access the wifi-only iPod Touch affords. For example, what do I now do with the music I have bought via iTunes? It's locked up tight in the Apple-verse. I can't listen to it on anything else.

I wanted freedom.

Last Friday I took delivery of my new Android-based HTC Magic mobile phone. I got it for $519 from Vodafone on a new, two-year Smart 80 plan. I'd always been on prepay. I went for Smart 80 because that roughly matched the amount I have been spending each month on my prepay. Well....it's a 'wee bit' more...but in the zone. The Smart 80 gave me access to 250MB / month and additional 3G data at only 10 cents / MB. A lower plan would have seen additional data costing 25 cents / MB. So with this plan, I can do 500MB / month for $105. That's cheaper than the Smart 130 which gives a lot of minutes and txts I don't use anyway, beyond the time provided with the Smart 80 plan.

Since then, I've been playing with it fairly intensely, working out what it does, what it does well, what it could do better. I have to say, I'm happier than I expected to be. The Magic has some great features that struck me right up front.

I can connect to a PC, mount the phone and copy MP3 files or video files onto the phone and just play them. No iTunes. It also plays happily downloads and plays *.ogg (Ogg-Vorbis) sound files.

When editing text, I can place the cursor where I want it with a simple touch. The predictive text offers me a list of words and I can pick one before I've even finished typing my current word.

When web browsing, the trackball on the Magic allows me to scroll through page links and select the one I want without pinching or spreading my fingers again and again. Easy. The web browser also has a magnifying "square" I can scroll around the page using the trackball and then select the area to be magnified. Good.

The 3.2 megapixel (woohoo!) camera integrates nicely with any new app that can accept a photo or video as input.

The Magic is a nice, handy shape. It's thin and slips easily into any pocket I use. It's light. The 3.2 inch screen is big enough.

The phone is stable. No crashes so far. (My old Vodafone 715 used to crash frequently, especially handling image data.)

Android multitasks. You can have several diverse, 3rd-party apps open in the background doing their basic functions. Twidroid notifies me of new tweets. Earthquake tells me of the latest earthquake anywhere. BuddyMob tells me about new posts. Or I can shut any or all of them them up and check manually. I can move away from Skype for a few minutes and when I come back, I'm stilled logged in. It does time out though. Not sure how much time I have, but it seems to be at least 3 minutes.

The wifi on the Magic is more sensitive than my iPod Touch. Yesterday morning I found myself connected to the wifi at work while on the next street over from the office. By comparison, the iPod Touch would lose the connection if I crossed the street. Similarly, parked at the local shops near the offcie I was on the office wifi, whereas this just isn't possible with the iTouch.

I'm not saying no other device does these things. I'm saying the HTC Magic, running Android, does do them.

The apps for Android aren't as many or diverse as for the Apple-verse, but most of the core apps I want are there and good enough and judging from the Android Market's list of apps, there are new apps every day.

But I still have my iPod Touch. It's not going anywhere. After I turn my HTC Magic into a wireless AP (because I can!), my iTouch will be even more useful than it is now...and I'll have simultaneous access to both the Apple-verse and the growing Android community of applications.

Freedom. Loving it.

[2009-11-24 - Update: I rooted my phone and got wifi tethering running. The tethering part was as easy as installing an app (either "tetherWiFi" or "Tethered wifi for root users"). No tricks or fiddles. I'm now using my Apple iPod Touch anywhere, tethered via wifi to my HTC Magic and sharing its 3G data connection. That happily works in the background thanks to android's multi-tasking ability. I'm currently running Cyanogen Mod 4.2.5 as the android version on my phone. Yay! ]