HTC Magic Review (Verdict: A Good Start)
By Simon Sage on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 10:45 AM PST In Android, HTC, Reviews, Rogers
Applications
As mentioned, geography is still a pretty big bottleneck for Android. While the whole world shares the same Android market, we don’t have any paid apps north of the border, nor any of the voice control options that have been coming out recently, nor has the Google fleet done their Street View thing for Canada yet, although after seeing a few GoogMobiles in Ottawa and Toronto, it’s surely in the way. That’s really what it boils down to – it’s all on the way, it’s just a matter of being willing to wait for the improvements, and to be fair, it’s not just only improving on what’s already there, but bringing new offers to the table; official apps from Google like the Barcode Scanner, My Tracks, Sky Map, and My Maps Editor are all outstandingly fresh additions to the Market and really flex Google’s creative muscle.
Transit directions in Maps was a perfect example of the need for improvements. Google Maps for BlackBerry had walking and transit directions, which worked in Ottawa just fine for a long time now. Lo and behold, when I booted up Maps on the Magic, neither of these options existed. I tweeted up a storm on the matter, but a whole two days later, Google Maps for Android gets an update with transit and walking directions. How convenient… I do have a feeling Google is trying to ramp up their Canadian support in light of the launch, but there are doubtlessly other areas around the world that are experiencing similar limitations. Before you start thinking it’s just Canada getting the short end of the stick, remember that the Rogers version of the Magic plays nice with Exchange, while T-Mobile opted to go “with Google”, and so won’t support ActiveSync.
[...] tight integration with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) services like GMail, GTalk, Maps, and lots more. I just finished a review of the HTC Magic which is coming soon to the US as T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) MyTouch 3G, and was amply impressed.The [...]
[...] Unfortunately, Android doesn’t support Bluetooth file transfers yet. I know, it sucks, was one of my major complaints after using the HTC Magic. [...]
i have been using winmo for last couple of years (o2 xda orbit), and am looking for change. from my perspective, android, lacks the punch.
no synching with exchange server for emails, lack of radio(!), no office document viewer, no bluetooth file exchange … etc etc these are all deal breakers for me.
at the price it’s selling, business features are expected in the device. now i am left with either some blackberry (i dont like storm) or or iphone (i already hv an ipod touch) or some HTC winmo once again.
@Shreyas Kulkarni: Dude!! The phone has all the features what you told are not there !! Check it out the magic now comes with the cupcake update ! you can finally move from Winmob to Powerful Google android! And forget about ifail(iphone)