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Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

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Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#51

Post by dannyr »

Twisol wrote: post #47
old-gregg wrote: post #20

Nexus One. I'm surprised you're even asking. Fully Linux-friendly, hackable, powerful and doesn't have any crapware from carriers or hardware manufacturers. Buy it at full price and sign up for a $59/mo month-to-month plan from T-Mobile. Enjoy built-in tethering and guaranteed upgrade to the latest version of Android. I own N1 and iPhone 4 and I believe that N1 is a superior phone. It doesn't need to be plugged to a…

Wasn't the N1 discontinued? http://google.com/phone says you have to be a registered developer to get one, and I don't plan on developing for it anytime soon.

Being a registered developer is easy. http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#52

Post by wwortiz »

Twisol wrote: post #47
old-gregg wrote: post #20

Nexus One. I'm surprised you're even asking. Fully Linux-friendly, hackable, powerful and doesn't have any crapware from carriers or hardware manufacturers. Buy it at full price and sign up for a $59/mo month-to-month plan from T-Mobile. Enjoy built-in tethering and guaranteed upgrade to the latest version of Android. I own N1 and iPhone 4 and I believe that N1 is a superior phone. It doesn't need to be plugged to a…

Wasn't the N1 discontinued? http://google.com/phone says you have to be a registered developer to get one, and I don't plan on developing for it anytime soon.

I'm pretty sure it is free to register as a developer, so there isn't really much of a hindrance in registering to get one.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#53

Post by Twisol »

wwortiz wrote: post #52
Twisol wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't the N1 discontinued? http://google.com/phone says you have to be a registered developer to get one, and I don't plan on developing for it anytime soon.

I'm pretty sure it is free to register as a developer, so there isn't really much of a hindrance in registering to get one.

From dannyr's link: "There is a one time $25 registration fee. We charge this fee to encourage higher quality products on the market"

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#55

Post by cesare »

I have an HTC Desire and I'm really happy with it.

Recently, the Google Maps Navigation has been activated here in Italy (with voice search, which I thought was available exclusively on the Nexus One).

Last week HTC released an OTA update with android 2.2, which also added an app for tethering over wifi (tethering via USB was already available) and 720p video recording.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#56

Post by woadwarrior01 »

jonknee wrote: post #45
tjstankus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Java is popular in the broad sense, but it doesn't seem to be very popular with the developers I know that are creating and interested in creating mobile apps.

Is that because they are iPhone users or because Objective-C is a better language for mobile development?

Probably a combination of iPhone's traction and the general negative sentiment towards Java. I personally feel Objective-C is a good fit for mobile development, because its so easy to drop down to C at any time. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks its conceptually simpler than Java (The Obj-C all just C structs and functions under the hood).

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#57

Post by tshtf »

dimarco wrote: post #24
rpledge wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he's running Linux I'd be hesitant to recommend an iPhone 4, but I've never tried. I suspect lack of iTunes would be annoying. Is there a good iTunes substitute on Linux now?

I'm an iPhone user & Linux-only person for the last 2 years and my experience with the iPhone has been great.

How did you activate your phone with Linux only?

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#58

Post by StavrosK »

cesare wrote: post #55

I have an HTC Desire and I'm really happy with it. Recently, the Google Maps Navigation has been activated here in Italy (with voice search, which I thought was available exclusively on the Nexus One). Last week HTC released an OTA update with android 2.2, which also added an app for tethering over wifi (tethering via USB was already available) and 720p video recording.

I've been drooling over the Desire for a long time, but now, with rumours of the HD Desire coming out soon, I might wait for that...

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#59

Post by jRoden »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #17

Given that you're satisfied with AT&T, I'd recommend the iPhone 4. However, Linux support is non-existent. You can use iTunes via WINE, but experiences have been varied. Luckily, you don't really need iTunes all that much. You only really need iTunes for activation, and that can be done for you at the Apple Store. Media and app purchases can all be done on the phone itself. As for synchronization of data: I recommend…

If you're totally on the fence and any modern smartphone would suit your needs, I would (and did) go with the iPhone 4 (caveat: having mac/pc access would make it much easier). It's sleek, it's smooth, it's got the X-factor and you'll probably have a lot of fun with it. The screen is stunning, the video and still cameras are great (I've officially retired my digital point-and-shoot), FaceTime is a fun gimmick, iOS is incredibly smooth and responsive, and then there's the app store. You can also sync the calendar to your google account, just to clarify, since old_gregg implied that you couldn't. And yes, it also automatically identifies phone numbers and email addresses in text. In fact, it picked up "wednesday at noon" in an email and gave an option to make a calendar event out of it.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#60

Post by orangecat »

mahipal wrote: post #31
old-gregg wrote: post #20

Nexus One. I'm surprised you're even asking. Fully Linux-friendly, hackable, powerful and doesn't have any crapware from carriers or hardware manufacturers. Buy it at full price and sign up for a $59/mo month-to-month plan from T-Mobile. Enjoy built-in tethering and guaranteed upgrade to the latest version of Android. I own N1 and iPhone 4 and I believe that N1 is a superior phone. It doesn't need to be plugged to a…

The choice of Java is one of the most mind-boggling things to me. There must be so many developers turned off of the platform because of it. Luckily, you can now distribute Python scripts as APKs ( http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/wiki/SharingScrip... ).

Java isn't ideal, but I much prefer it to ObjC. You can also "in theory" use any language that compiles to the JVM, like Scala: http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/scala-ide/Developing_for_A...

Thanks for the Python APK link, last time I checked you couldn't deploy standalone Python apps but now I can play with it.

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