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Rogers Rebrands HTC Magic as the Magic+

Categories: Android, HTC, Rogers
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 6:29 AM

The HTC Magic and Dream have enjoyed quite a rollercoaster ride on Rogers over the past few months. An urgent 911 call fix that needed major attention prompted Rogers to put all HTC Dream data on hold and make OS updates mandatory. Word also came out that Rogers HTC Dream users would not receive any OS updates past Android 1.5, which had many a user up-in-arms. Rogers responded by offering a free upgrade to the Magic, which, seemed to work quite well. In addition to this, the Magic was even pulled from the shelves for some time while Rogers waited for the 911 fix from HTC. All appears to be good now, and things are back on track.

So much so, that Rogers feels it is necessary to rebrand the Magic as the Magic+. What do you get when you ad a + character to the name? In reality all you’re getting here is the addition of Sense UI to your Android installation. Don’t get me wrong, Sense UI is frickin’ awesome and is definitely my favorite way to experience/interact with the Android OS. But if you can look past the +, it’s still the same old Magic, 3.2″ touchscreen, 3.2MP camera with video, you know, the same old Magic…PLUS Sense UI… and it’s still available from Rogers for $79.99 on a 3-year contract.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

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About The Author

James Falconer

James was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. Almost 15 years ago he started out in the 'real world' as a web and graphic designer. Through the years he has finely tuned his skills in SEO, internet marketing, conversion strategy, and project management. To date, he runs his own successful consulting business where he advises companies all over the globe. A co-founder of www.crackberry.com, and sole proprietor of www.mactropolis.com, James in recent years has become very active in the tech blogosphere. Online community building and strategy is fast becoming one of his passions. Watch for James' no frills attitude, unique perspective and to-the-point comments here on IntoMobile!

  • Jon (Tehkseven)

    No 3.5mm headphone jack I’m guessing?
    Not really a deal breaker, but it would be damn nice to have :(

  • Ahmed Eltawil

    Yeah I used to own an HTC Magic, but then I realized the screen was too small for my liking. Holding off for a more than 3.5″ screen with snapdragon processor…that can freakin’ run on Canada’s wireless networks.

  • Ahmed Eltawil

    I think Rogers didn’t want to get a new HTC phone with a bigger screen and faster processor so they only got the HTC Sense UI ROM and placed it on one of the oldest Android phones ever made. Genius.

  • Slyde

    Personally, I was getting upset with Rogers’ complete lack of any forethought pertaining to the Magic, or the Android OS in general. The fact that they were completely ignoring the public’s request for updates to something that FREE updates existed for, made a lot of people, including myself,l quite irate!

    However, after a lot of prodding from the community, they made the update that needed to be made, and added Sense UI. I had done the piddly little update from last summer which did make my phone run faster, but ultimately, it slowed to the speed of frozen molasses just as it had before. It just took longer… With Sense UI, while I have experienced those slowdowns, they happen FAR less fruequently, after much more time has gone by, and only if you leave a lot of programs running. In general, my phone is more stable, and certainly faster than it used to be

    With this planned update to 2.1 already being announced, they are already pre-empting the volley of “Where’s my 1.6, I want 1.6″ whining. The are PLANNING a 2.1 release, and it is coming. Soon! I count this as a win in the Rogers column (finally).

  • billybongboy

    i cant wait for 2.1 but just disappointed with all the paid apps now when i first got my magic there were no paid apps just developers asking for donate which i have done for a few apps once i used em and really liked em think developers are getting too greedy .

  • Basil

    I think it s time to switch carriers, Rogers is falling so far behind Bell and Telus its just stupid.