Introducing... my new baby!

So last saturday I finally got myself an HTC HD2. Radio Shack had it for $150, and they offered me $142 in store credit(a program I had NO idea even existed, but will use from now on!) for my Touch Pro 2. I didn't wanna give it up, but an HD2 for $8 was simply too great a deal to pass up. Oh, how I have pined and drooled over this phone and now it's finally mine. MY PRECIOUS!!! Okay, enough of that shit. Lets get serious here.

I figured I'd do a quickie review of it just in case anyone cares or actually reads my damn blog. I'll be comparing it to my last phone, the Touch Pro 2, since that was the most awesome phone EVAR until I got this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Teh awsum...

The CPU.

The TP2 had a 528 mhz ARM processor that got the job done, but lagged at times. The HD2 has a 1ghz Snapdragon processor that kicks SO much ass it makes me wanna vomit in joy. This phone is snappier than a sorority girl's chewing gum. No more video lags!


The screen.

The TP2 had a 3.6 inch screen, which was very nice but had issues with 'oil spots' and dead pixels. On mine I think I counted 25+ dead pixels. The HD2 has a 4.3 inch screen which made me orgasm in my pants on first sight of it. It's bright, crisp, clear, and godlike. Pictures and videos look AMAZING. No dead pixels either! This screen is so huge in fact that the HD2 can *almost* be classified as a small tablet PC with phone capabilities.


No more "wake-up" issues.

The TP2 had serious issues with not waking up when you press the power button. It was a widespread issue, present over every ROM & carrier. No wake-up issues at ALL on the HD2! Yesssss.

No more answer delays either.

Every other Pocket PC phone I've ever had has been on Sprint, which is CDMA. They have all had issues where I was not able to answer the phone without serious delays or having it go straight to voicemail. It had something to do with the data connection not dropping properly when the call came in, or something like that. My phone would ring, and I'd hit answer over & over again and SOMETIMES it would answer but most of the time it'd go to VM & I'd have to call them back. This might just be a CDMA issue, but it is no more an issue with the HD2. My calls pick up instantly. Thank god. I was sick of calling people back & explaining that I TRIED to answer but my damn phone glitched out.

The camera. Oh god, the CAMERA!!!

*Homer-drool* HTC finally got a camera right on the HD2. I have never had a PPC phone with a good camera before. My Mogul's & TP1's were OK, the TP2's sucked, but they were all intolerably slow to launch & take pictures. It used to take me a good 45 seconds to launch the cam & take one pic. Not anymore. I have the camera mapped to my left homescreen soft key, and it now takes me roughly FIVE SECONDS to hit the home button, launch the camera, and snap the picture, even with all the settings set to auto & even if the flash goes off. The HD2 has a 5mp camera, and the pictures it takes are simply SUPERB. Crisp, clear, bright colors, etc. The camera on the HD2 is so good that I've actually begun leaving my digital camera at home. I have a lovely little Samsung 8mp camera that I used to tote around everywhere cause my phone cams all sucked so bad, but I no longer need to carry it everywhere anymore.

And... THE FLASH!!!

Thanks HTC, for bringing back the flash! And it's a kickassed flash too, dual LEDs with a built-in flashlight app. Awesome.


No more overheating.

The TP1 had a severe overheating issue, and the TP2 had a bit of a heat issue too. No heat issues with the HD2. Now, it can get warm if I use it a lot while charging it, but that's the extent of it. I can listen to streaming internet radio for 2 hours at a time & it stays cool. I can be on the phone for hours also & it stays cool then too. WIN.

New power button location.

Huzzah! They moved the power button from the top of the device to the 'end' button! Much easier to turn on if you have small elfin hands like I do. It used to give me a hand cramp to have to palm my TP2 & reach up top with my index finger to hit the power button. I've been wanting them to move it to the end key for years now. Hellz yes.

Ample onboard memory.

With 512mb of ram & 1gig of onboard memory, you will never experience low ram messages or have to install another app to your storage card ever again.


The stock T-Mobile ROM is quite good!

Only once before have I ever actually LIKED a stock ROM, and that was with my Mogul. The T-Mobile HD2 has probably the best stock ROM I've ever used. I went ahead & unlocked it & tried a few custom ROMs anyway just for shits & giggles, but I ended up back with the stock ROM cause it was just better, plain & simple. Minimal bloatware, lightning fast, does everything I need it to do. Love it. But then again, T-Mobile is well-known for being the least invasive cell carrier(probably because they're a European company, and Europe is famous for the L.I.T.H.A. approach to cell-branding), injecting the least amount of crap on their phones. Unlike Sprint & Verizon, who practically rewrite the whole damn OS to advertise themselves.

Build quality.

The TP2 had great build quality, don't get me wrong, but the HD2 feels like a work of art in my hand. It's just beautiful. It has a tempered glass screen with an aluminum body. At least I think it's aluminum, the battery door is for sure though. It's solid but not too heavy, and feels very "rich". The screen is supposedly totally scratch resistant too, there are videos on Youtube of people trying to scratch up the screen to show how tough it is(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcEaehKWr2s), but I still use a screen protector cause I'm just paranoid like that. There are some sharp edges on this phone though, on the camera & by the earpiece. LOL in fact, you could probably grate cheese on the earpiece.


Comes with a case!

HTC packaged a black silicone skin case with the HD2, which I think is just awesome. These are the kinds of cases I normally buy anyway, and having something to protect it while I'm waiting for my purple eBay cases is really nice. Kudos, HTC.

It comes with a 16 gig card!!!

How freaking cool is that?! And the card is preloaded with both Transformers movies too. Nerdgasm.

-------------------------

And what's not quite as groin-grabbingly awesome...

The battery life is not quite as good as the TP2's.

The HD2 has a 1230 mAh battery, which I find bafflingly small for such a high-powered device. Now, it does do OKAY. I can get through a full day with no problems unless I'm at work streaming Stars Radio all day, in which case I have to go charge it in my car during lunch or else I'd be outta juice by 3 or 4. I do think the CPU must manage power better than the older 528-ers, cause I can't imagine why HTC would downgrade the battery so drastically otherwise. BUTT- you can find 1600mAh batts on eBay for $9.99, which is almost 400mAh more than stock & should be more than adequate for most people including this nerd.

New micro-USB port.

This isn't necessarily a BAD thing per se, it just annoys me to have to buy a new car charger cause all my previous phones were mini-usb.

The capacitive screen.

Never having had a device with a capacitive screen before, I did not know what to expect with one. It's a HUGE learning curve coming from a resistive screen. It's neat to be able to shut the iTards up by showing them that they're not the only ones who can pinch & zoom anymore, but a capacitive screen is harder to use. I used to type with my nails & had no issues flying along with the onscreen keyboard on my TP2. In fact, I was so good at it that 95% of the time I didn't even use the slide-out KB to type texts & emails. Now, I don't have a choice but to use a screen keyboard, and with a capacitive screen I have to type with the pads of my fingers. Typo city. With Finger Keyboard & the 'decrease screen sensitivity' hack, it's workable, and I AM getting better, but I still stand by my prior assertions that resistive screens are easier to use. Resistive screens operate off of pressure, you can actually see the stylus indenting on it if you watch as you tap. Capacitive screens work off the conducted electricity in your skin, which is why stylii won't work with them. They DO have capacitive stylii, but they're specially made to carry the charge from your flesh to the screen & are not very accurate. Also, if my hands are cold or very dry, it messes with my screen taps. I find myself licking my fingers a lot if I have trouble tapping a link or whatever. There is a visible grid of dots on the HD2's screen at certain angles. This does not bother me, it's just the capacitive matrix, but I've read some reviews where whine-bags bitched about it so I figured I'd mention it.

Still no d-pad.

*sigh* I'm beginning to abandon my hopes of ever owning another device with a d-pad, trackball, or joystick.


Speaker quality.

Its... not very good. The TP2 sounded FANTASTIC, but the HD2 is somewhat lacking in the speaker dept. Loud sounds on the speaker are very distorted & tinny sounding. I'm really hoping HTC comes out with a fix for this. I'm pretty sure its mostly software-related because the distortion transfers over to the headphones if the volume is up all the way, and the SRS WOW cab seems to help. Maybe a new sound DLL is in order...? damn my lack of coding ability!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's all I can think of to yak about for now, I'll update if I think of anything else to rave or bitch about.

kabuk1's verdict- I LOVE THIS PHONE!!!!!

This is by far the best phone/PDA/secret lover I have ever had. It pleases me in ways I didn't even know I could be pleased. This will most likely be the last device released with REAL Windows Mobile, so get it before MS fucks everything up with Windows Diarrhea 7. I dumped Sprint to get this phone, and I do not regret it one bit. I can easily see myself using the HD2 for years to come.

Art pr0n...

You know what always cheers me up? Aside from a hot piss of pee from Fjeurg Van Der Ploeg's Swedish Bockery, beautiful surrealist paintings from Jacek Yerka always do the trick. I don't know what it is about his art, but everytime I look at it, it takes me away to another world where everything is strange & alien, but somehow you still feel completely at home. Kind of like whenever I listen to Owl City. You cannot look at a Yerka painting without being forever changed.

One of my favorites of his is this one, 'Back to Nature'. I dont know what it is about this painting, its downright wierd, but I love it. Most of his works have water as a prominent theme, and since I'm terrified of water, maybe its a morbid fascination or something. Behold~


Another one I like is this one(I dont know the name). I love trains, and it also evokes a sense of home, but with a faint sense of urgency. You've got your furniture, your cozy little home set up, but you're inside a train station, so you never know when you won't have a home anymore. The trains don't come very often, but when they do, they give little notice and you always have to scramble to move your stuff in time. It makes you feel a sense of constant vigilance, and having to sleep with one eye open. I know this feeling well.


However, I think my absolute favorite of his is 'Base'. This painting makes my heart physically hurt. It hearkens back to a time in my life when I didn't have a stationary 'base', AKA a home. Well, I did, but I was always on the run. It was back in 2000, when I met the guy I would fall insanely in love with for the next 10 years. We spent 3 months on the road, just driving around, doing whatever we wanted, and sleeping in the car. It was the best and worst time of my life. During this time we fell completely in love with each other, and its a love that's persisted to this day, despite the fact that we can't be together. Anywhere I was with him was home, even if we were sleeping on the grass in a city park. I could have slept comfortably on cold, wet rocks as long as he was holding my hand as my eyes closed. The 2 beds huddled together on the vast expanse of the tire-scarred ground perfectly signifies this, and the raindrops are perfect too since this time took place during a rainy spring. It's like Yerka was in the backseat the whole time, and captured everything between us into one single painting. I can't look at this picture without feeling overwhelmingly emotional. Its almost too much to bear, but its also strangely comforting.


A similar one that also evokes a lot of emotion in me is 'Susan'. You could say that this one represents me now- a single bed out in the twilight... *cries*


Another one I love is "Illegal Light Making". Dunno why, but this painting just makes me feel happy & homey when I see it.


The first painting of his that I obsessed over was this one, 'The Oligocene Gardens'. Like I said earlier, a lot of his work features water, and spigots & spouts everywhere, and a lot of algae. I used to stare at this painting, imagining the vast world of creatures that must be lurking under the yellow algae cover, alternately horrified & fascinated at the same time.



Thats all for now. Enough art spam!

Some good news for WinMo!

Looks like MS WILL be keeping classic Windows Mobile around! They will continue to support 6.x.x until demand dies out.

Thank god. I can unclench now.

My Birthday Haul

So this year my mom got me some cool stuff for my birthday that I actually WANTED. Oh hosanna, not a single bottle of lotion!



NERD BOOKS!!! The horrendous plaid abortion they're laying on is a really comfy brand-new birthday coat. I had the choice of solid purple, solid black or pink plaid, but I figured the turquoise & brown plaid would go a bit better with my status as an unfashionable social outcast. I love it. I really needed a new coat too. I've been wearing thin little hoodies & freezing my ass off every winter since 07, when my old coat was stolen. This one is cool, it has a removable fleece liner that can be worn as a separate jacket. Now all I need is a pocket protector. Yaaaaay!

OH- and guess what else I got? After lusting after it for the past year but never being able to spare the dough, I finally got a bottle of my favorite perfume(Max Mara Le Parfum, for future gift referencing, wink wink nudge nudge) from my friend Gay Steve(who claims he's NOT, lol), via the discount magic of Ebay. Thanks, you creepy mongoloid :)

Dweeby $3 solution to the missing Touch Pro 2 flash!

As all TP2 users know, the omission of the beloved camera flash from the phone has been a thorn in many a side, including my own. The flash on the previous models could be modified via special apps to function as a flashlight, which was just unbelievably convenient. The flashes on the Mogul & TP1 have saved me from countless broken necks while fumbling in the dark. I got quite used to having a flashlight at my fingertips 24/7, so I was understandably confused, frightened, and angry(lol) when I found that the TP2 would have no flash.

Butt- I have found a readily available, extremely cheap remedy! Readers, if you guys don't have a Hastings where you live, A. I pity you cause Hastings is awesome. B. If you don't know what Hastings is, it's a huge Borders-esque store that sells new & used movies & books, and also offers magazines, coffee, free wi-fi, and random doodads. All kinds of neato stuff can be found there.

Behold! The Lümpod! A tiny, stick-on LED flashlight for cell phones. Yes, I bought 2 cause I have 2 phone cases :P






PROS:

*Incredibly Cheap. $2.99 at Hastings(you can order it at Hastings.com & several other websites if you don't have any stores in your area).
*Very bright dual LEDs. Lights a dark room right up.
*The LEDs have a 30,000 hour life span. That means you could keep them lit for 3 & a half years before they burn out, so basically this device will last forever with normal usage
*4 colors- black, white, silver & pink.
*Very strong 3M adhesive- will NOT fall off.
*Replaceable batteries. Not a "throwaway" product.
*Does not use your phone's battery(major plus, since using the camera flash used to eat battery like no one's business).
*Makes you look even nerdier :)

CONs:

*Adds slight bulk. If you already think the TP2 is too big(I don't, it could be bigger, IMO), you may wanna skip this.
*You have to hold the button to keep the light on(but that's kinda good cause it won't get accidentally turned on in a purse or pocket)
*Big con- Makes your phone kinda wobbly if you lay it on it's back.
*Feels kinda wonky when texting.
*Makes you look even nerdier :(

Anyway, just thought I'd share this in case nobody has seen these. I know a lot of you TP2 users are really wishing for your flashlights back & this is as close as we're gonna get for a while.

OMG!!!

Look what we got todaaaaaay! her name is Saphira & she's a stray rescue. She's sooooo sweet, she didn't make a peep on the ride home & took to me & Jeff right away.

I'm officially a cat lady!!!