Now that every Joe has blogged about the iPhone

Now that every blogger on the planet has reviewed the endless stories about the iPhone, I have decided to do a head to head honest comparison with HTC HD vs iPhone (I am sure this is done somewhere) but I couldn't resist putting this one in as my friends got HTC HD 4G and I am the lone iPhone player waiting in the wings to jump at the iPhone 4 but a wise man waits ...waits...waits and waits...and then writes a comparative review ...and then waits a little more...

I took eight sections concerned to me to make a good decision (Design, Screen Size, Cameras, Battery, Apps, Networking, Multitasking & Music)

The HTC HD known as HD on the widows platform, EVO as the android version at first look attacks the iPhone on the gorgeous screen size 4.3" compared to 2.32 inches of the iPhone of which you really only get 2.28, end to end screen and more real estate on the HTC makes it a winner when you want to fire up those YouTube videos and movies. Talking about movies HTC comes with two free Tranformers in HD quality ...IPhone (you got to buy them thru iTunes...bummmmerrrrrr...grrr!!) ---Winner - HTC

Design - Now this is a shady area (no offense aimed at you Glen!...(his nickname is Shady)) ...beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. The HTC sports a lot of plastic, but the new iPhone has lots of aluminum (shiny!!) like the first generations one's. Form form factor point of view iPhone clearly takes a win here, it is just better to hold, light weight flat glass surface. HTC HD & EVO though sleek in in its design, the hold  while conversing is not that good but the big screen makes up for it.

Screen Resolution

The HTC HD and EVO for android as mentioned earlier wins in the screen size but the iPhone resolution is higher with what they call as the new kind of display 'Retina Display'. Reso wise iPhone wins 960 x 640 vs 800 x 480. Personally on small screen higher resolution is not a big deal for me so I can live with the HTC's resolution.  Outdoor viewing HTC definitely has work to do... but I don't watch movies while driving or sitting on the patio....

Screen Size

HTC wins ...iPhone loses.

Cameras

HTC EVO has a 8 mega pixel camera, the widows HD version has a 5 mega pixel camera...I didn't understand the logic here though the android and windows versions have almost same specs except for the camera department. But the iPhone has two cameras...clearly a winner in this section, I want two cameras...with the future for video chat and skype, I wonder why no one thought of this one before....plus two points for Apple. The iPhone has a 5 mega pixel camera. (When will any one integrate a minimum 12 mega pixel camera with a zoom lens)

Battery

Battery life on head to head battle the Apple wins over in talk time, stand by time and even wi-fi internet browsing.  Though the HTC does well on the 3G network, Apple takes a stride here over the already strong 3GS network with first one to enter in 4G fray. It all now depends how AT&T pulls their end of the work. Apple wished it controlled the cell towers...! But the big advantage over the HTC EVO is the replaceable battery.

Apps

Apple emerges a winner at this moment with 200000 plus apps and a strong quality control against Windows Mobile 50000 apps and Android's 50000 apps. However this will change in the coming few months with the launch of windows mobile 7 and by the sheer volume of developers on the windows platform. The biggest win for the HTC HD is the integration of live and the access to all Microsoft Office live goodies...For this just one feature from an enterprise level point of view I will give the HTC to tie with the iPhone. But that said...iPhone has a lot of free apps a...lot compared to the windows marketplace.

Networking

HTC HD is a clear winner in this area. You can connect to all remote servers with remote desktop apps that come standard. The iPhone integration with Exchange seems to be seamless now,  connecting to servers is still a pain. The Apps are expensive in this arena for apple, unless Apple comes out with a free app that is easy to use and comes standard with the iPhone OS4.

Multitasking

We all know iPhone was late in this area but the way they implemented this feature from UI point of view is beautiful. The only addition I would like to have is a snap in feature where it shows me how much memory is being used by each app. From a UI point of view iPhone wins but from usage and historical point of view Windows mobile wins. So we have a tie here.

Music

Finally music! With 15000 plus songs in my iTunes, apparently iPhone ensures I will come back to them, but hmmmm though iPhone clearly wins in this area I know the nerds at the office always figure out a way to get free music and with expandable mico chip memories for the HTC that will flood the market they can go up to 64GB and 128 GB memory in the future. And the MACites can only hope the in the next year iPhone will come up with at least 64 GB memory for those music and video hogs. So the winner here again ....well I will give it a tie.

So we have three ties...4 wins for apple and 2 wins for HTC but I am guessing my friends will argue the three ties will have to go to HTC...well let the office arguments begin!!!

I am enjoying the wait.....

Sam Kurien

Now that I have a iPhone -Darn!...Windows Phone 7 comes out

Well everybody is feeling it, I am just saying it aloud. After the first leaks of the widows phone 7 user interface t it seems the user interface is mind blowing – "totally awesome". Tiling and Spacing and the money muscle of Microsoft is going to change the landscape of the smartphone markets. If you haven't seen the videos of this awesome interface check out Giz's post for pics and videos.

The one thing I want to point out here is smart intuitive user interfaces is another key for market acceptability, market capturing and market leadership. The software as I suspect is going to integrate with Microsoft Auto's - My Synch and your media center PC at home. True integration of the automobile, home and your self. Now you are truly mobile indeed...!

Microsoft expects the first phones running the software to be available by the end of the year, and says that network operators including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Verizon and Vodafone, and vendors including Samsung, LG, Sony-Ericsson and long-time partner HTC have committed to offering devices running Windows Phone 7 Series.



Also Check out Win Phone 7 Visual Tour here...

Sam Kurien

Raving About Some iPhone Apps

Smartphones have changed the way we work, communicate, translate, and do almost anything that our work and personal spheres entail us to do. I have been liking the way I intereact with my iphone and use some apps to enhance the productivity of my life. You will find anywhere on the internet the top 10 or the top 50 or the top 100 iphone apps but here I am going to introduce the ones that have changed my life.

Top on the list is EasyTasker a Project management App that allows you to track work projects, projects due, emails, and ability to push work to assigned individuals and synch tasks when and where you needs them all wirelessly. The ther cool things it can do is track timesheets, invoices, user groups and even paypal integration to buy tools that may be necessary for the project. All activites can be synchronized across all your computers.

TurboScan is next on the list, it allows me to to scan receipts, bills, documents save them as images and push them tas PDF to my business or personal email accounts.

aNotes or Awesome Notes is an app that helps me takes notes and classify them into folders, sticky notes, and collate them into books. The app allows me to synch and transfer to my gmail accounts Google Docs, Evernote and the unique ability to add wallpapers and pics as backgrounds to my notes. A plus for the traveller to paste that pic while note taking for your blog or your memoir. It’s also really easy to move notes around, change their look (there are eleven different themes), and sort them by name or date. An annoying feature for me but a boon for the many who forget to put titles on a note is aNote initially auto assigns from the first line, but can be easily changed by tapping the title in notes view. If ‘cool’ user interfaces is what you’re looking for, Awesome Note comes out with flying colors (literally!).

If your looking for a Genie among Apps look no farther, the App Genie is 26+ tool app set  that I love and among them one stands out the scanning of barcodes and isbn to check prices of products and books (in my case) and shop or order it from the cheapest place possible. You genie makes you an intelligent shopper indeed! The translator tool is not bad and helps you talk or email in multiple language. The country facts app in the tool set is a favortie pastime as it helps me brush on country facts and all the trivial useless facts that hopefully may come handy some day. The unit converter and the battery indicator has a guy that voices out the status of your battery and conversions. And the best part is its only $1.99...so go for it...you will have no regrets.

The Bing and Google search Apps are next favorite on the lists and the best part is geo voice searching features, pulls up the nearest starbucks, car mechanic, shopping mall, anything and everything you are searching for. Intelligent/smart searches will be a subject I will be writing on in the future but these apps are wonderful and the best thing is these search engines are increasingly becoming "accent" sensistive which means they are able to understand English words spoken by non-native speakers a plus in times of trouble. Personally among the two I I have seen Bing working better with voice search but with added features of visual image search being more attractive than Google.