advice for first time smart phone buyer

The only way to know which phone you'll like best is to demo them for yourself. The obvious candidate is the iPhone, which you can test at any Apple Store or AT&T store; Google's Nexus One; Motorola's Droid; and pretty much anything from HTC, the Nexus One included.

As for what to look for, it depends on what you want to use your phone for. Each phone and OS has its own ups and downs. For example, the iPhone makes data syncing really easy by using iTunes as the intermediary between your iPhone and your calendar app, your contacts app, etc. Android phones like the Droid and Nexus One integrate tightly with Google's services, so if you're an avid Google Mail/Contact/Calendar user, an Android phone might be the best route.

It really depends on what you want to use the phone for. Also depends on if you want to wait a little while. The next iPhone is coming in June, and there are always more Android phones on the way.

I'm on my HD2 writing this. Yeah its pretty good but the thing that annoys me most about it is the lack of flash support - meaning I can't watch video on most websites, which given the awesome screen is a crying shame. Having said that, I think the iPhone has the same issue. My advice is wait for the Windows 7 phones, or if you can't wait that long wait for the iPhone 4g or whatever they end up calling it...

No phone has Flash. The iPhone has a Youtube app to get around that.

Eye Phowne

That sall

"Desides wrote:

No phone has Flash. The iPhone has a Youtube app to get around that.

Yeah, the HD2 has likewise.

The Windows 7 phones will have Flash support - not sure about the iPhone 4g.

As for Skyfire, I'll check it out, thanks for the heads up. :)

"Medieval954 wrote:

Windows Mobile phones can run the Skyfire browser. Skyfire can do flash.

I'm presuming it runs Flash Lite, in which case, it doesn't run Flash. Lite is Flash in name only. And more to the point, if you base a phone purchasing decision on whether or not it has Flash, then maybe you're in the market for a netbook and not a phone.

"Cass wrote:

The Windows 7 phones will have Flash support - not sure about the iPhone 4g.

Windows 7 phones will also be terrible, so you have to consider that in your argument.

The iPhone will probably never have Flash. No need.

"Desides wrote:

No phone has Flash. The iPhone has a Youtube app to get around that.

????? More info please, my politically opposed brother from another mother. Or do you mean it has YouTube or is there workaround for viewing flash based content?

If you're gonna go with an HTC phone, I'd recommend the Hero from Sprint. I'm not sure if the HD2 is Android, but the Hero is. Great phone. I've had it for a while now and love it.

Yes, the Flash thing sucks. Unfortunately, I don't think Android has an app for Flash (could be wrong though). There are Youtube apps, but I haven't found one I like yet.

Android Market is great, but it does have a LONG way to go before it compares to the Iphone Store.

EDIT: Also, both Iphone and Android phones have access to Tapatalk, which is hands down the best app for browsing and posting on forums.

"Finascious D wrote:

????? More info please, my politically opposed brother from another mother. Or do you mean it has YouTube or is there workaround for viewing flash based content?

A while ago, Youtube began storing two versions of whatever videos were uploaded. One version would be Flash, the other would be a video file encoded with the H.264 codec. The iPhone Youtube app will play any Youtube video that has an H.264 version available. So it doesn't play Flash, it plays an alternate version of the same video you want to watch.

Not everything on Youtube is available in this alternate format, but a good number of videos are, so much so that you can bypass Flash in your browser and load those H.264 versions instead of the Flash versions through Youtube's beta test.

tl;dr It's not Flash but you can watch it anyway.

"HardKoreXXX wrote:

EDIT: Also, both Iphone and Android phones have access to Tapatalk, which is hands down the best app for browsing and posting on forums.

+10

Best $3 app you can buy

"Desides wrote:

A while ago, Youtube began storing two versions of whatever videos were uploaded. One version would be Flash, the other would be a video file encoded with the H.264 codec. The iPhone Youtube app will play any Youtube video that has an H.264 version available. So it doesn't play Flash, it plays an alternate version of the same video you want to watch.

Not everything on Youtube is available in this alternate format, but a good number of videos are, so much so that you can bypass Flash in your browser and load those H.264 versions instead of the Flash versions through Youtube's beta test.

tl;dr It's not Flash but you can watch it anyway.

Ahhhh i see.

I got my hopes up for a sec. I'm a graphic designer, so I often HAVE to make Flash based content for web sites.

"Finascious D wrote:

Ahhhh i see.

I got my hopes up for a sec. I'm a graphic designer, so I often HAVE to make Flash based content for web sites.

If you want to inspect Flash content on the go, you're really looking for a notebook or netbook. There really is no Flash solution on a mobile phone, at least not until 10.1 comes out later this year. Even then, I doubt it would be anything but a battery killer.

"Desides wrote:

If you want to inspect Flash content on the go, you're really looking for a notebook or netbook. There really is no Flash solution on a mobile phone, at least not until 10.1 comes out later this year. Even then, I doubt it would be anything but a battery killer.

I'll be damned if I'm giving up my iPhone for Flash. I was just kind of hoping that's all.

Why do you suppose it would kill a battery faster than any of the apps would though?

Not having read everything in this thread, I can already agree with Desides. Flash is useless imo. I (personally) avoid flash sites like the plague. it's a bunch of overly graphics bunch of slow moving crap that has no place on my PC much less my mobile device.

"Finascious D wrote:

Why do you suppose it would kill a battery faster than any of the apps would though?

Flash is notorious for chewing up CPU, especially on Macs and notebooks. High CPU use means lower battery life.

Flash 10.1 on smartphones won't be any different. It'll still eat up CPU, just not quite as much as it did prior to 10.1.

thanks for the input guys. anyone have any more?

Does the wake-up alarm make my phone a smart phone?

"eric wrote:

thanks for the input guys. anyone have any more?

I LOVE my iphone. One buddy has a Black Berry Curve, another has a droid. We've come to the conclusion that Black Berry is great for business but nowhere NEAR as sexy as the iphone. Droid is a bit of a mixed bag..the possibilities are huge with their openness, but that's also a drawback. Once again the OS isn't nearly as sexy as the iphone. The touch screen isn't nearly as intuitive.

I love my iphone and couldn't see anything else....

until Apple declared war on Adobe. A few weeks ago (on the Eve of the Adobe CS5 media launch) Apple announced that in essence they will not be accepting any apps that weren't made by one of the two native pramming methods. This was a HUGE blow to a major selling point for CS5 was a converter allowing flash apps to be exported to play on an iphone or ipod.

As a designer that REALLY pissed me off. It was a huge blow to many small software companies who had been working on apps to do just that. Now they're closed out of a market that they were planning on.

Apple has a long history of closing out Apple and pushing HTML5 as a flash replacement, but this was a big move. It's really perplexing when you consider that Apple survived the 90's almost solely because of designers using Adobe products on their machines.

Are there any concrete details on the new iphone such as oled display, 4g, etc?

Will it be a big enough upgrade to wait till June for.

I'm in the same boat as eric. Leaning towards AT&T due to work based discount and family being on AT&T. Having a hard time deciding between droid and iphone though.

"Medieval954 wrote:

You're presuming incorrectly. Skyfire runs Flash 10 and Silverlight 2.0 within the browser. I had it when I used to have an HTC Touch Pro 2 and it worked very well.

In that case, very slick, but ultimately useless.

"TJamesW_Phinfan wrote:

Are there any concrete details on the new iphone such as oled display, 4g, etc?

Gizmodo's teardown of the iPhone prototype they illegally obtained shows a front-facing camera with evidence of video chat capabilities, a larger battery, a flash function on the camera, and probably some minor things that I'm forgetting.

I wouldn't count on an OLED display, nor is it really all that important for the display to be OLED. I also wouldn't count on 4G/LTE, because there are no LTE networks to use the phone with. Maybe on the 2011 model.

"TJamesW_Phinfan wrote:

Are there any concrete details on the new iphone such as oled display, 4g, etc?

Will it be a big enough upgrade to wait till June for.

I'm in the same boat as eric. Leaning towards AT&T due to work based discount and family being on AT&T. Having a hard time deciding between droid and iphone though.

I'd wait. We're almost there, and the typical process for apple is to discount their older models (16 3GS) down to the $100.00 range, and increase the capacity of the new phones (32 GB new phone?). You're looking at saving $100 or upgrading your hardware.

after looking into it, im pretty much sold on the htc hd2.

it has:
a removable battery
micro SD slot
LED flash for the camera
5.0 megapixle camera
FM radio tuner
1 ghz processor
4.3" touch screen

these arent all of the features, but these are ones that the iphone either doesnt have, or arent as good. everyone pretty much compares any phone to the iphone so this video was a big selling point.

YouTube- HTC HD2 vs Iphone 3Gs Comparison

Since the iPhone 4/HD is coming out at the end of next month, I'd be hesitant about comparing the HD2 to the 3GS and coming away thinking the HD2 is the best phone for you over the life of its contract. If you really want it, go for it, but it's probably smarter just to wait and make sure.

when will we know everything about the new iphone? i dont know if i can wait till launch to find out.