Yes, it’s called Sense UI. But in the case of this piece, I’m not referring mainly to the User Interface. HTC’s Sense is what I’m discussing, in reference to the updated Android 2.0 Operating System. So, from this point on, within this segment, Sense UI will be known as Sense.
The wait for Android 2.0 has been almost painful for those with an HTC Hero. For whatever reason, it’s still not here. And like it or not, it’s pretty much common practice for HTC to keep silent about what’s coming, up until the very hour something gets released. There are rumors that the upcoming Passion/Dragon, also from HTC, will showcase Android 2.0 with the Sense UI (subsequently called Sense 2.0); but those rumors also slate the phone for a mid-December release, so seeing an update to our existing Sense-infused handsets before then seems pretty faint.
So, I got to thinking about it. I’ve been playing around with the DROID since its release, checking out the features that Verizon and Motorola have been swooning over, and I realized something: I already have those features on my Hero. In fact, in some ways, I have more features, or more robust usability. Of course, I don’t have Bluetooth 2.1, and I don’t have voice-activated Google Navigation (or Navigation at all, for that matter); but I’m not going to cover what I don’t have, versus what the DROID does (no pun intended). Instead, I want to point out that I’m excited for an update, which consists of features, the majority of which, I already utilize.
First, Facebook sync. The first time you start up your DROID device, it will run through the standard Google set-up process. But then it will ask you to synchronize your Facebook profile, with the contacts on your phone. This automatically adds the contacts from your Facebook profile to your phone, and adds phone numbers appropriately. However! If you do not have a contact in your phone already, and want to edit a contact added from Facebook . . . Well, you can’t. You’ll have to go through an extra step to add the contact manually, input the name and number (and whatever other pieces of information you want to add), and then save what you’ve changed. Of course, it will automatically combine with the appropriate Facebook contact, so it’s not that big of a deal. What I don’t like about this, though, is that it does add your Facebook contacts onto your phone. Personally, I don’t need all of them in there, because I don’t frequently talk or text or even chat with them.
The difference? I set up my phone the same way as the DROID, including synchronizing my Facebook profile with the device. But instead of every Facebook contact being added to my phone; the phone will correlate contacts saved on the phone, pulled from the cloud via Google Contacts (accessed usually by Gmail), or those you put on the phone manually, and then aggregate that information to match contact names with Facebook profile names. Contact information basically gets synchronized with a picture, and then furthermore to the profile on Facebook. No additional contacts added to the phone proper. And so my small amount of contacts get nicely updated, and I’m not forced to have a load of people in my phone that I don’t talk to right from the start.
That wasn’t enough for HTC though. They also included Twitter, which corresponds with the native Twitter application present on the phone (affectionately called Peep). And then again, you have Flickr, which can be synced to the phone as well. I don’t even use Flickr, but it’s there, just in case I ever do want to use it.
Another feature would be quick access to different means of communication with a contact. It’s called Quick Contact, and it basically allows the user a faster means of getting to a text message. By pressing on a contact’s picture (or name), you can bring up a list of options: call, SMS, email by default. It’s a great feature, and a welcomed one to Android, but one that HTC already gave me with Sense. And I use it a lot. The compiled communications, seeing SMS, emails, and calls via the contact card, make it a lot easier and practical to use those Quick Contact features than ever before.
Okay, that’s just a quick look at what those with a Hero, or an Eris, already have versus what’s coming with the Android 2.0 update. And yes, there are a lot more features integrated into Sense that are being introduced with Android 2.0, but I wanted to focus on some of the bigger features. But, here’s a list of what’s different, and what we should be excited about:
Google Navigation with voice search
Voice search
Updated Android Market (which now includes screenshots of the applications)
A new unlock screen (this hasn’t been confirmed to change on the Hero, Hero for Sprint, or Droid Eris)
Faster browser
Bluetooth 2.1
Updated calendar features, including the ability to invite
Some of those are pretty big changes, and it just shows me all over again why I’m still excited for an update that, for all intents and purposes, will probably do nothing more than refine features already on my phone. So maybe this is why HTC didn’t jump on getting Android 2.0 ready for their Sense UI. There are other theories out there right now, but this seems to make the most sense to me. Pushing out an update, one as major as an Operating System overhaul, is quite the task with something like Sense layered over it, so why put the time and effort and money into updating a system that you’ve already managed to provide?
November 21st, 2009 at 10:57 pm
The droid has this same feature for Facebook. I skipped the step you mentioned and then added the facebook app later. With the app you have the option to sync "all' of your facebook contacts, only sync those that match your existing contacts or don't sync any at all. I chose the second and it did just what you said; any of my contacts that match facebook friends got an updated picture from facebook and all of their published facebook info was there in addition to what I already had.
The facebook app also gives you an option to add a Facebook folder to your home screen which contains contact info for all your facebook friends.
It really doesn't change your point, still nothing new that Sense doesn't already provide. Just a clarification.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:14 pm
That helps that phonebook out, a lot. And thank you for the heads up. And that folder is the same all the way around. That's actually an update from 1.5, with Cupcake. Very handy to use, though.
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:36 am
Interesting post that I'll consider. Good to hear that you like using Sense on the 1.5 OS. I have an HTC Magic and have yet to install the new Sense upgrade that just came out for it. Haven't gone the root/custom ROM option either, as it looks pretty onerous.
However, in the long run, I'd rather have a broad based public upgrade like Android 2.0 over the proprietary Sense UI, to insure full future compatability of my data and applications with future Android devices. I am certain that if I stay with Android, I'l be switching manufacturers every year or two, and Sense will not be available on those non-HTC devices.
I'm surprised that the industry pundits don't consider the reality of ongoing smartphone replacement costs – and connect this issue to a future where a wide variety of traditional and nontraditional manufacturers will roll out Android smartphones.
While there will be premium priced models with some proprietary features like HTC's in the future as today, there should also be a number of generic models – unlocked, no proprietary software, for far less money than todays current smartphones.
I went through ten years of Palm Pilots and Treos, and my devices rarely lasted more than a year due to loss, damage, etc. A primary reason I did not get an iPhone is the bitter reality of a nonwarranty replacement with the iPhone. (Just FYI, in Singapore thru Singtel, the replacement cost for an over the counter, nonwarranty replacement iPhone 16Gb GS is currenty $1,300 SGD, or about $900 USD). Why dosen't the industry talk about this?
So, I may install Sense, but what I really prefer is for my manufacturer to supply me with the latest and greatest Android OS upgrade ASAP.
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 am
Technically, the hero does have navigation. There is a navigation app by Sprint that is pre-installed on the phone. It’s not quite on par with Google Navigation, but it works for now until Android 2.0 is released for the hero. The hero even has multitouch in the browser, where Android 2.0 does not.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:07 am
@Jay,
Yes, Sprint does offer that, and the Eris does have access to Verizon's TeleNav; but I was focusing more on the Google-oriented features. Navigation is a great feature, especially when you see it in action, and it is definitely one of the reasons I am looking forward to the update. I will go ahead and admit that I don't have the Sprint Hero, but the unlocked, European Hero; so if subsequent posts regarding the Hero seem to come off in a "non-Sprint" manner, that is probably why. I'm not doing it intentionally. But that's why we have the comment system, so comments like yours get heard.
@mshamp,
Above all, I couldn't agree more with your last sentence. I wish, more than anything, that HTC had been able to give me Android 2.0 two weeks ago. Or even a week ago. Or right now. But that's not going to happen. As I mention in the article, it's probably not coming until mid-December, and that may have a couple reasons, but they are intrinsically connected:
First, is that HTC is waiting to present Sense 2.0 with the release of their next major phone model: the Dragon/Passion, which is also rumored to release on Verizon Wireless, in just a matter of weeks. And the other reason, is that HTC might not have been able to get access to the Android 2.0 SDK until they "confirmed the rumors". If that's the case, then HTC isn't really at fault here.
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
the facebook integration in sense isn't really all that great.. i have to open the contacts app to see updates, etc.. why wouldn't i just open facebook? flickr was ok, but same deal. twitter integration is non-existent.. they just created their own app, and you can't associate twitter users with contacts
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
@Brandon,
Personally, I can say that I have only one person in my contact list, who I talk to on a regular basis, that is also part of my twitter feed. So, I'm happy that Twitter does not integrate into the contact list in any way. But you're right about the Facebook integration; it does act more as a pain for the common user. But this isn't the first time HTC has made a phone, or a user experience, that maintained constant "perusal" through the contacts portion of the phone. I'm of the mind to believe that HTC wants you personally invested in your contacts, at all times. In this way, you have to go into your contact list to see updates, things like that.
I'm one of those people. I go into my contact list pretty regularly; whether that's to update my own status, or just to see at a glance who updated what. I'm more interested in those in my contact list, anyway, rather than a high school acquaintance's updates. Plus, the Facebook/Flickr integration is more about having access, right there on the spot without opening an application, like Facebook, or going to Flickr.com and looking at pictures there. I can do it all from the comfort of the phone itself, you know?
November 24th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Why is there even a fight I have a Motorola Cliq and I can't believe I can't upgrade my phone. MotionBlur, Sence shouldn't prevent people from upgrading. This blog shouldn't even exists why would I chose motion blur over Android 2.0 makes no sense. Is Motorola getting consulting advice from GM. How could a phone maker possibly believe this is a good strategy It's mind boggling. Don't even get me started on the Android app store.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
@John,
I can understand the frustration, but the point of the article is that while upgrades are "awesome", in the case of Sense, there isn't much that Hero (Sprint Heo and Droid Eris included) owners are missing. In the case of the CLIQ and MotoBlur, it's the same thing. You've got the same connectivity that the Sense UI offers, but minus perhaps some of the personal connectivity that HTC has offered in its phones for quite some time.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Some people dont relize what they have and always want more from a cell phone. Weather it’s windowas Mobile or Android, HTC does a fantastic job of optomizing OS’s to their full potential. The Hero does have more advantages than 2.0 but because it’s newer everyone cries that they want 2.0.
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November 26th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Well of course. Newer is better, right?
November 26th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I’m glad HTC skipped 1.6 and are going straight to 2.0. I’m rocking the Sprint hero, so I already get features like multitouch browser and navigation, but I’m still excited about the market upgrade and faster browser. I hope HTC is just taking their time so they male sure the upgrade is fully functional and optimized.