I decided against iPhone because i couldn’t get on with the keyboard (i was practising on my iPod touch) and *oo controversy* i actually think it’s starting to look a little dated! I have a feeling they will give it a cosmetic makeover though next year.

Anyhoo, what i ended up with was this, a HTC Hero!

Read More after the jump….

And i love it! The software (a HTC skinned version of Android) is brilliant, i love how customisable it is and i like how (unlike iphone) you can have fabulous widgets and apps running in the background. It has a Marketplace which is an app store similar to the ones you get for iPhone and Blackberry though not as large as iPhone’s appstore obviously (yet). But you know, after all the rave reviews android seems to be getting i do think that this could be the one to topple apple. In fact the HTC Hero just won phone and gadget of the year in T3 magazine. I gather Stuff has also named it gadget of the year. Not bad considering how young it is. Take that iPhone *insert Karate chop here*

I updated the firmware and that has made a big difference to lag which i know was one of the complaints with this phone. I’m getting no lag at all now. Also improved is the camera. You now get touch focus so in other words touch the screen somewhere and it will focus on whatever you point to. No flashgun but the pics are much better than my Blackberry Bold. The video recorder isn’t great though, quite low quality and if like me you’re used to recording in HD then … well, keep your camcorder or dedicated camera with you!

Some niggles (and they are only niggles) all of the facebook apps for this phone are useless. Nowhere near as good as Blackberry. The twitter widget is also a problem on Vodafone networks for some bizarre reason. But there are other Twitter apps that work fine. For messaging/email/facebook and twitter the Blackberry is still unbeatable.

As i type this i’m sitting with my headphones on streaming music from last.fm. The sound quality is surprisingly good! So much so i’m considering installing the premium version of Spotify enabling me to take a music collection everywhere without having to store it!

As a gadget freak i love this phone. It’s so customisable, it looks great, you can tweak the hell out of it. And i LOVE it!

**Update**

After much playing i’ve started replacing one or two default apps as well as adding quite a few new ones and it has made a big difference. Power manager is helping to save the battery and Advanced Task Manager is helping manage the memory making the phone run much better. Anyhoo …

Barcode Scanner

Barcode scanner can be used for scanning barcodes on CDs, books, and other products, then look up prices and reviews, or search for a word in a book and find where it occurs.

You can also scan QR Codes containing URLs, contact info, calendar events, and more. Scan the code by these applications to go straight to their dwnload page on your phone.

Handcent SMS

This is a replacement SMS app and it drastically changes the look of your SMS application. You can give each person a different background and speech bubble type (for example my Friend Jason who is a Madonna fan i have given a madge background with colour matched bubbles, very cool). You can also give each individual person their own notification sound so you know who is texting without even looking. You can have a pop up window that shows even when the screen is locked – it can either show the full message and you can quick reply from there without unlocking the phone or if you want privacy it can just show who sent the SMS. Or you can disable that feature all together.

BeebPlayer

Unofficial player of BBC iPlayer.
TV programmes
Live TV channels
Live radio.

Shows video in higher quality when viewing over wifi.

Spotify

This only works if you subcribe to Spotify (£10 per month) but honestly it’s well worth it.

You can search for and add albums to your phone/computer instantly! You can either download to your devices SD card or stream over 3g or wifi to save space. There are millions of songs to choose from and is sorta similar to iTunes in how it looks. You add albums as playlists and they get beamed to every device you have running Spotify.

Camera Zoom fx

I replaced my default camera software with this app and wow what a difference it makes to the pictures. This app adds image stabilisation which is very handy for dimly lit indoor pictures as demonstrated here with a photo i took indoors in a room lit by a single lamp:

Find more Hero tips, tricks and recommended apps here.