HTC One series Announced

HTC announced the One series of  phones with  Quad Core powered  phones.  HTC hopes to make it's mark in 2012 with the One series of phones.   HTC One X promises blistering speed with a  4.7" screen.  The One S which HTC says has a "True Digital Camera."  The One X with it's 8 megapixel camera, it   has face focus and smile detection. And finally the One V listed as the essential smart phone.  All the One phones will be running  Android 4.0. These look like a great addition to HTC's Android line up, but can they compete with the new phones from Samsung like The Note? I hope so.

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

Very happy about the news out of Nokia world. I've used a version of Nokia maps on a N95 and it worked great, as good as google navigation. So the new Nokia navigation should be awesome. Nokia cameras have also always been excellent. I had a 5 megapixel on the N95 and 8 megapixel on a N86, they were ahead of their time. So I am looking forward to the Nokia Lumia 800.

Very happy about the news out of Nokia world. I've used a version of Nokia maps on a N95 and it worked great, as good as google navigation. So the new Nokia navigation should be awesome. Nokia cameras have also always been excellent. I had a 5 megapixel on the N95 and 8 megapixel on a N86, they were ahead of their time. So I am looking forward to the Nokia Lumia 800.

HTC Wildfire review

Image from Three UK Media Centre

I've used the HTC Desire for awhile now, so I have a good idea what HTC can do well. I want to look at the HTC entry level Android phone the HTC Wildfire.  It's smaller and lighter (cuter?) than the Desire but the screen size is still good at 3.2 inches.  It fits in your hand very nicely, the screen is bright, clear easy to read.

The biggest drawback of the Wildfire is it's processor at 528 MHz, so although the interface and some apps run well, you do find yourself faced with lag, most of the time the phone is fine but if you want to use the power apps like Google Navigation, it works ok but you'll find the maps lagging behind from time to where as with the Desire's 1GHz processor nothing slows down.

Surprisingly both phones sport 5 megapixel cameras, only the Desire has 720HD video recording. The Wildfire falls short with video at 320 x 288 video recording. I thought the cameras would have been the same, but my camera seems to work better on the Desire with quicker focusing and better image quality than the Wildfire.

Web browsing seems ok on the wildfire but with the processor slower you'll not find it not quite as smooth as other more powerful HTC phones.

My Wife likes the Wildfire well enough, but she says the the interface is slowing down.  It's a relatively inexpensive, well built Android phone.  HTC Wilfire forum.com says the Wildfire will not get Gingerbread but the phone came with the latest Froyo, and with limitations of the processor speed it sometimes feels too much like an entry level Android phone. If you're not a power user, or worried out the latest version of Android running on your phone, and want a lovely, well built phone for a good price, then the Wildfire is a good choice.

For me the HTC Desire would be minimum spec for a phone, 1 GHz processor at least. I've had my Desire for awhile, check out my long term test of the HTC Desire;

http://www.tekimage.net/2011/06/htc-desire-30000-mile-road-test.html
http://www.tekimage.net/2011/06/htc-desire-30000-mile-road-test-part-ii.html


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NikonD7000 PT I

Nikon D7000 faken with a Canon EOS 20D

The Nikon D7000 is a great update to the D80/D90. It adds HD video to the mix of what I believe is an excellent camera. It just feels right in my hand, it has a good weight and my fingers land intuitively on the right place.

For shooting images the autofocus is a joy to use. The specs says it has has 39 focus points and 9 cross type sensors, but whats important to me is that the autofocus works  close to perfect.

The camera has a good size LCD screen on the back which you can see and set your menu items easily and preview images clearly.  You use the back LCD as a monitor for video which is good but when shooting video in daylight it can be hard to see.

The buttons on the back of the camera give you the menus, preview etc, but for me the best thing they've added is an ISO button. Press it and quickly set your ISO. It's one of the things I love about the EOS 20D I shoot with, quick access to ISO settings.

I've used a lot of film, aps and digital cameras.  For film I was purely a Nikon man.  With DSLR I have favoured the Canons' and their autofocus systems.  But with everything the D7000 has going for it I have no qualms about switching to this camera. Have a look at the specs at Nikon.com.

The camera specs says it handles high ISO for images and HD video and that's what I am going to experiment with and discuss in Part II of this review.  So for photography, if you want a fab Nikon DX camera, this is it.

Above images taken with the Nikon D7000

All photos by Fred Weimer

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HTC Desire 30,000 mile road test Part II

HTC Desire Image

The final part of my road test for the HTC Desire is the camera.  Although it is 5 megapixels, the images are appealing for the most part.  There is low light noise but overall I've been extremely happy with the camera.


The video since updating to Froyo is 1280x720, and again I've been very happy with results. I've shot mostly with new gear that we've got at work, but it does a very good job. HTC Desire Video


The imaging capability of the HTC Desire also gets a thumbs up.  

HTC Desire 30,000 mile road test

The HTC Desire was released in early 2010.  I've been using a Desire now for 9 months. We all like shiny new phones, but how does this phone shape up after extended use. First of all I still enjoy using the phone. The phone has stood up to daily use and a few drops.  The screen is as responsive as when I first had it in my hands.  The app market has improved since I first had the phone. And I was able to upgrade to Froyo very shortly after it came out.  I am still waiting on Gingerbread, I suppose checking for updates every day is a bit obsessive, but what can i say.

Many of my friends have iPhones, a few have Android. The iPhone crowd talk apps. I just want my key apps to be great, like Google maps, navigation and sky.  I love google docs on the phone. I never understood why there was no built in text editor, but once they brought out google docs for the phone, problem solved. My favourite app is Twitter for Android. Twitter for Android has been updated regularly with  better features each time.  I tweet mostly from my phone now because the Twitter app is so good. As soon as Twitter announced it's own photo service, there was an update available and I was using it within a few days. Facebook has quite a few features on Android like places, chat, and the normal Facebook usability, but it is a memory hog. This brings up one of the shortcomings of the Desire, it really needs more system memory.

My only issue with the HTC desire at this point is Android itself. It is a good operating system for a phone, plenty of apps via Market plus the new Amazon app store. But is it like the iPhone, what  Paul Thurrott calls an app bucket.  Hats off to Apple for creating an "app" market, but will that be the only thing that defines phones in the future?

The HTC Desire is the first phone that I didn't want to trade in after a year, and for me that is saying a lot. However with the Nokia Windows Phone 7 on the horizon I could easily let go of the Desire.

After extended use I have to give the HTC Desire a thumbs up.