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Hermes or Universal?

Hello All,
Which is the best between these 2 machines? What are the main differences? Please help....
I have a choice of these 2 PDA's and have no idea which to choose....
Many thanks.
Jimmy

One vote for Universal

407,592 votes for the Hermes
So far from my experience with both the Hermes has been the easiest to work with in terms of size and suitability for use as a primary phone.
EDIT:: Check the wiki pages for the main differences.....take into account the sizes however.

It all depends on whether you really need the VGA screen. If you don't, go for the Hermes.

Well I couldnt let the Universal go... I picked one up off Ebay for £45.
It was an old couple who had received it as an upgrade and didnt want it... It is in perfect condition, and has a 2GB SD Card.....
I have just got to learn how to use it now...
I have posted this somewhere else on this forum, but can anyone tell me about the GPRS? I need to ensure that I don't use this feature on the phone, otherwise I will get a massive bill....... Wifi is free and is almost everywhere so I can use this. Can the GPRS be turned off, or does it need this to work at all.... If it cannot be turned off, how do I make sure that I dont use it, and only wifi or the normal GSM...
Once again.. Many thanks... And I am a total beginner to PDA's and the likes.. So be gentle..

Enjoy your Universal! It's been my first cellphone ever and even until today one of the most sophisticated handhelds ever produced in my view. It misses a few things like builtin GPS, HSDPA (normal 3G is quite ok though), a 3D chip (purely optional at least for me) and the RAM is a bit on the skimpy side. But there's still one of the best hardware keyboards I've seen and the VGA screen that always made me wonder how anybody can still use QVGA (and how HTC didn't make the switch a long time ago). So many things (from PDFs over ebooks to webpages) are totally unusable with QVGA and only performance reasons are speaking for this resolution.
Apart from that swivel format was and is probably not the best choice. In the beginning there were lots of programs that totally didn't get along with the inverted screen (or the landscape factor) and even now that that is fixed the hinge sure is one of the weak points of this device. And while I haven't managed to break mine so far it sure is not as sturdy anymore as it used to be. What's more is that the Uni definitely is one bulky device, but I actually never minded when people stared incredulously at me holding "the brick" to my ear ;-) With a 4.800 mAh battery attached it's beyond good and evil anyway...
I just realized how many weak points I mentioned and how I actually couldn't care less about them. The Universal always seemed a bit like a case study and an experiment and it might very well end up being a one of it's kind in HTCs lineup if the Omni proved indeed to be vaporware. But like all good things it just gets better and better (I'm pretty sure that it is the perfect candidate for an early Android release as well) as time passes and I can hardly imagine myself replacing the little bugger before it has lived through its third year. So once again, have fun starting out with one of the greatest and most prominent WM phones on the market!

Multitouch on Windows Mobile without touching the Screen !!!!

​
Microsoft has a new technology to show around its called SideSigh. According to them SideSight removes “touch” from the device and makes it a function of the paper, tabletop, or even the air that’s next to the device. What does this mean? According to Microsoft, it opens up the possibility for “touch” functions to be built into tiny devices that don’t actually need a touchscreen.
Source : News Link

im not sure that I can see this as replacing touch screens, but I do however see this being used as a new form of "buttonless" design. On screen markers that shows what part of the phone to "touch" for the button... Though I would think it would be highly inaccurate and buggy.

shadowline said:
....Though I would think it would be highly inaccurate and buggy.
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Click to collapse
as is all emerging tech. One day it might mature into something very usefull though

Ive seen this on the HP Touchsmart PCs. The IR panel is a bit thick (2-3mm) but i could see this technology easily making it to smaller applications. I wonder how much battery a system like that would use.

seems like a tech bound to result in the process of putting ones phone into
ones pocket ending up with some sort of nasty zoom of hasselhoff's crouch :S

[CONCEPT] The NAK Thread ...

Hi, I'm back ... I start this new thread to expose my concepts about phones, I'm not a professional but I try to imagine some original devices with some originals spcecifications ...
All your comments (good or bad) are welcome ...
I'm usually inspired by HTC and my latest concept is one of them ...
The entire concept and the others are here --> NAK PHONE DESIGN
[NEW] 3 March 2011 --> Second part of the concept, the TUBE TABLET (2nd post) ...
[NEW] 21 April 2011 --> Third part of the concept, the STICK PHONE and the TUBE LAPTOP (3rd post) ...

Hi, here is the second part of my HTC TUBE Concept ...

Hi, here is the third part of my HTC TUBE Concept (and the last) ...
The entire concept and the others are here --> NAK PHONE DESIGN
Here's the HTC STICK PHONE for the TUBE Tablet ...
and the HTC TUBE Laptop ...

Interesting concept but why make the whole cartridge thing? I don't think many people will be swapping out the internals of their phone often enough to justify it.

Nice concepts!

Interesting...like the size & curves!

I had already seen pictures of the concept and find it gorgeous
I wouldn't be interested by the multiple cartridges (I had already the dual boot on my former HD2 and for my daily use I don't see the point in sticking with more than 1 OS. It's cool for testing but otherwise ...Just my opinion ).

iDroidFan said:
Interesting concept but why make the whole cartridge thing? I don't think many people will be swapping out the internals of their phone often enough to justify it.
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Click to collapse
I have to agree with this point.
I just don't see the concept clicking with what customers want.
The only possible advantage IMO would be that if you dropped your phone and damaged the casing or screen, you could quickly and easily replace it yourself but beyond that, it doesn't seem like practical concept.

I would love a cartridge based phone that would let me have multiple ROMs loaded onto the cartridges, and switch OS by rebooting with another one.
Not for everyday use, but rather for developing

cool, al like this

For the interest of the cartridge, more than the choice of the hardware level (and of the price !!!...), you will see soon the part 2 of this concept ... In next few days ...

good
i like this design.

What if the concept was beyond just the cartridge though? After all, a smaller cartridge footprint could enable you to have the internals in different housings. For example, a much smaller housing for a more discrete phone, say for going out in the evening, when you don't want the bulk but still want all your 'stuff'?
Or a rugged housing for sports/camping/mountain biking/etc?
Or perhaps an in-vehicle version where you just slot the thing into a console in the vehicle, rather than the phone into a cradle?
Finally, you could have an at home/office version where you slot it into a small footprint dock that has higher spec hardware but still uses the data and applications on the device.
I personally can see far more uses for the internals in other housings idea rather than the single housing, multiple internals. That said, both would work together as you can use any internal module in any housing..

From a manufacturer's point of view this *could* work. One standard screen/housing/connections with multiple options of different phones "internals".
Interesting idea.

rTiGd2 said:
What if the concept was beyond just the cartridge though? After all, a smaller cartridge footprint could enable you to have the internals in different housings. For example, a much smaller housing for a more discrete phone, say for going out in the evening, when you don't want the bulk but still want all your 'stuff'?
Or a rugged housing for sports/camping/mountain biking/etc?
Or perhaps an in-vehicle version where you just slot the thing into a console in the vehicle, rather than the phone into a cradle?
Finally, you could have an at home/office version where you slot it into a small footprint dock that has higher spec hardware but still uses the data and applications on the device.
I personally can see far more uses for the internals in other housings idea rather than the single housing, multiple internals. That said, both would work together as you can use any internal module in any housing..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this point completely. I'm actually already sorta doing this type of thing by swapping my SIM card to and from my Galaxy Tab and my Galaxy S. I'll usually bring my Tab with me to work, but use my Galaxy S for when I'm traveling light and hanging out with friends etc.
It would be even cooler though if my semi-internal hardware cartridge could remain powered on while I hot-swap it from my phone to my tablet to my desktop dock or car dock etc etc. THAT would be super cool, and practical. Kinda like what Motorola is trying to do with the Atrix, but maybe in a more elegant manner.

Step666 said:
I have to agree with this point.
I just don't see the concept clicking with what customers want.
The only possible advantage IMO would be that if you dropped your phone and damaged the casing or screen, you could quickly and easily replace it yourself but beyond that, it doesn't seem like practical concept.
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Click to collapse
It's more practical and cost efficient if you think about it. This is a really slick and just awesome design, but what if you hardly use your phone? You aren't going to need a 1.5 Dual Core processor with a 12 MP camera, you may just want the starter pack.
Then people don't have to pay for a high end phone with features they aren't going to use. It's actually really smart and practical....I like it.
You need to send this to HTC, go to the manufacturing plant, and start building this phone!
EDIT: I just went on your site, and you really need to send these ideas to HTC or something. You have some really nice ideas, designs, and talent..I'd seriously buy all of these phones.

missparker76 said:
I had already seen pictures of the concept and find it gorgeous
I wouldn't be interested by the multiple cartridges (I had already the dual boot on my former HD2 and for my daily use I don't see the point in sticking with more than 1 OS. It's cool for testing but otherwise ...Just my opinion ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Valid Point, I dont why you would want all the confusion, Not to kill your concept NAK but at least a 32GB also 4G should be available on all model. that just me!!!

Amazing concept! I would sell a kidney to get one Just kidding, but its a really awesome design

oh~man! This is great! I would like to buy one

Do you accept preorders for this beauty?
Love it.

[Q] Things that irritate about phones in general

Although the subject is rather troll like I hope I can do it in a non troll way.
There's a number of things that are really hacking me off about phones these days. I thought I'd have a major slam out to let off steam with the off-chance that someone might say "Ah but if you try X you can avoid that".
...some of the challenges in the mobile phone area these days...
1) Battery capacities aren't good enough as we all know. Getting through a single day is really the basics for me. Why not have hot swappable batteries? For me I expect to be able to go for 3-4 days. I don't know why... I just kind of expect that kind of efficiency.
2) Samsung Galaxy series... seems amazing but the batteries overheat, no?
3) So many people are ignorant of security to the point that most people are walking around with devices and apps that can just completely own you. Yeah there's sandboxing but it doesn't really work, it's been sidestepped. The iPhone just hides what's going on, rarely fixing the issues.
4) Licensing, all that stuff. Companies reinventing the wheel, fighting, all the rest. You can't buy a phone that does X and Y because company X won't license tech X to company Y
5) Trying to get everything perfect in one device... it's a bit of an ask but needed for portability. If things were separate we could have the better of most worlds, but that doesn't seem possible
6) Closed source. Just a bit irritating to see the inefficiency of it all in general. Bit of a hash moan but for those who can imagine better it seems like the dark ages in some areas still.
7) Closed source binary blobs. See Replicant on Samsung phones as the best we can do... the modem is arranged such messily and it's just not true a solution because of that. Kind of irritates me that there is no phone that can really guarantee it's not recording my phone numbers, conversations and credit cards because it's fully open source. Certainly an issue for companies. Companies in general are happy to rely on the word of Blackberry for thier integrity but for those of us who can imagine a solution that is secure by design it's not the best.
8) App whitelisting. Similar to the reactive rather than proactive security we tend to see as the trend in general. Manually checking all apps in the app store, trying to block and check them all.... doesn't seem the best. We've also had censorship. There are alternative stores, that's good.
9) Wakelocks. The Dalvik VM not managing or helping us track them down. Further, it's hard to tell if the app that you want to use is going to shaft your battery... once installed it's hard to tell if the app is ruining your battery too. It's messy.
10) IMEI security is a pain in the butt. It slows down the criminals but it also slows down everyone more so. In the case of Turkey it's another way to screw people with tax. Again, imperfect design.
11) As a man, if you have a phone at waist level that reduces your sperm count. Almost nobody notices or cares.
12) Just the usual society things... people looking at phones rather than each other. Can't really complain about that... the interface of looking at a screen is a bit basic. I've had speech recognition available to me... but I don't use it because there's always people around me and I'd rather be quiet... just one of those funny inventions
13) Screen don't work in bright sunlight still. We've got Motheye coming though which is great but we've had eink for ages and still no eink phone. Further, it can't be hacked onto an existing phone. Some of us aren't interested in games and movies and are focussed on getting stuff done. I feel Mirasol & PixelQi are being blocked or delayed as they try to slow things down until the point we've run out of ideas to make things better so only then does that tech get deployed.
14) Networks interfering with phones. I always go prepay because it's cheaper if you do the maths in many countries and also it allows for freer trade. Networks are always trying to get thier fingers into the mobile phone pies. Thank you Samsung for helping get against that, and also custom ROMs.
15) Apple are great but it's not clear what's going on behind the scenes.
16) eink displays would help battery life. A NookTouch can last for a month. How much would that help a phone on standby? Yet no eink display or anything like that.
17) Great to see the back of proprietary connectors but they still come back sometimes.
18) I hate the way things are made to break. Watch out for this. There's usually one thing on a phone that is designed to break. Sometimes it's a moveable part, like a ribbon cable in a slide phone. Sometimes its the USB connector. You can't buy port savers. When they fail you're screwed. Mitigate against this if you can. Try to figure out what the weak spot on your phone is.
19) Lock in software. I have an old backup phone... but I still have to keep the sync software... bit annoying. One day it probably won't work on Windows9 or whatever. People say throw it away but that's just it, throw away society. No, fix it, get it to work and be in control.
All of these things can be mitigated against. But you have to think about these things when you select your new phone.
If the commercialisation of the industry, cut throat tactics and so on aren't good enough as they are for me one thing you can do is buy a slightly older, but popular phone. In my case I never buy a new phone and instead go for something that I already know is popular with the hacking community. I know you guys can give me an insight into what I'm really looking for in life. As an example my last phone was a Galaxy S i9000. Way out of date in a sense. That's the way I find the best way to go. Go with something popular. That way you have some real support like a real man able to handle things yourself, not AppleCare and a 1 year limit. A philosophy for life. You can't have it all but with a bit of thought you can do a lot to get a bit closer to it all.

Here come tanless watches

When I was growing up my dad always wore a wrist watch. On the few occasions he ever took it off, it looked like he was still wearing something around his wrist due to the absense of the massive tan he got from working outside.
I think a wrist phone is a great idea, but wouldn't buy one unless it could actually function as a phone. I personally hate wrist watches, but would start to like them if I could remove the phone from my pocket, and I'm sure a lot of others would too.

Ha, I just got my Gear 2 and started wearing it when I take my daily walk. The first thing I thought of was that this was going to mess up my tan.

JimSmith94 said:
Ha, I just got my Gear 2 and started wearing it when I take my daily walk. The first thing I thought of was that this was going to mess up my tan.
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Click to collapse
How shallow are you people...

They should hand these out at the park - save my eyes :laugh:

vulcanvillalta said:
As a Vulcan, I don't see the point of tanning, aside from fulfilling your human need for vitamin D. Tan lines are no indication of a man's character.
The usefulness of this watch clearly compromises the curiously vogue impression of the importance of attractiveness.
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Click to collapse
The importance of attraction is different to people in this day and age, for some people, they feel a lot better mentally when they know they're looking good.

Don't Think It Is Possible
fuzzy7k said:
When I was growing up my dad always wore a wrist watch. On the few occasions he ever took it off, it looked like he was still wearing something around his wrist due to the absense of the massive tan he got from working outside.
I think a wrist phone is a great idea, but wouldn't buy one unless it could actually function as a phone. I personally hate wrist watches, but would start to like them if I could remove the phone from my pocket, and I'm sure a lot of others would too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think this would be possible. With the moving parts and displays on the watch, it would be impossible for it to be tan through. But it is a great idea!

I too think that is a good idea.

JimSmith94 said:
Ha, I just got my Gear 2 and started wearing it when I take my daily walk. The first thing I thought of was that this was going to mess up my tan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I do not recommend you to use the smartwatch under the scorching sun for too long, I think that the screen may be affected

fuzzy7k said:
When I was growing up my dad always wore a wrist watch. On the few occasions he ever took it off, it looked like he was still wearing something around his wrist due to the absense of the massive tan he got from working outside.
I think a wrist phone is a great idea, but wouldn't buy one unless it could actually function as a phone. I personally hate wrist watches, but would start to like them if I could remove the phone from my pocket, and I'm sure a lot of others would too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand so many things about this. You're right that this would be popular; I've read a lot of people making the same comment, but why?
A. Full Android watches with SIMs and everything have existed for years. If that's what you want why don't you have one already?
B. The whole point is to be able to to have a personal area network with a single control unit managing the experience across all of your contacted devices, not a series of independent devices each vying for your attention in a disjointed way. Think of the watch as an extension of your existing phone that you can access without having to pull the phone out of your pocket, enter your pin, find your app, and finally do an action. This also allows the watch to offload the heavy processing tasks to the powerful device you already have in your pocket 99% of the time. What good is having your phone, and a second, less powerful processor in your watch both running 100% of the operations in parallel?

Rather look pasty white than have skin damage, in the worst case skin cancer is not very attractive.

Incognitum said:
I don't understand so many things about this. You're right that this would be popular; I've read a lot of people making the same comment, but why?
A. Full Android watches with SIMs and everything have existed for years. If that's what you want why don't you have one already?
B. The whole point is to be able to to have a personal area network with a single control unit managing the experience across all of your contacted devices, not a series of independent devices each vying for your attention in a disjointed way. Think of the watch as an extension of your existing phone that you can access without having to pull the phone out of your pocket, enter your pin, find your app, and finally do an action. This also allows the watch to offload the heavy processing tasks to the powerful device you already have in your pocket 99% of the time. What good is having your phone, and a second, less powerful processor in your watch both running 100% of the operations in parallel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason your logic isn't working is because you assume that people would still carry a second device. Not everybody wants a powerful device because not everybody plays games, or surfs the internet or other things that require a larger screen.
Another question similar to the one you are asking is, why would people buy a tablet when their phone can already do everything and more than it can do.
If there was a choice between a pocket phone with an optional wrist device, or a wrist phone with an optional reading device, a lot of people would go for the smaller, highly mobile wrist phone.
It wouldn't interfere with mobility and it would be readily available.
Something else that may be bogus, but would probably factor into some people's decisions is that it would distance the RF source from reproductive organs.

Ziago said:
Honestly I do not recommend you to use the smartwatch under the scorching sun for too long, I think that the screen may be affected
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Click to collapse
will it really be affected? i mean all the gears are out there... and there are to be worn and designed most of the time and probably under scorching sun?

I also thought this seemed like a good idea, Android on your wrist. So I bought a cheap one to see.
I got one from Chinavasion(can't posts links yet obviously). The one I got was the "3G Android Watch Phone 'FineWatch' - MTK6577 Dual Core 1GHz CPU, 2 Inch IPS Screen, 4GB ROM, 8GB Additional Memory" because it seemed to have be biggest screen and the best hardware of the no-name ones.
But the android version is horrible on the device, and I kinda wanna install a new one. Watch can't log on to my google account, due to it not understanding the 2-step vertification procedure. And it has no Google play, browser doesn't show any images when browing play.google.com etc. All-in-all horrible, is there a way to fix this by installing a more normal version of Android? Like without bricking it or using the old version?
Can someone point me in the right direction to make this watch the best I ever wore?