Installing HTC Hero on Windows 7

The proposed workaround stopped working. Why? I had a newer driver. Strange…

It seems like a newer driver update is available at WindowsUpdate :S Arghh!… I had to:

• uninstall the driver – something like HTC Dream, if I remember correctly
• disconnect the network
• connect the phone
• install driver locally according to the proposed workaround

Let me say my first experience with HTC Hero is a mixed one:

• excelent: market!!!
• good: cool hardware and display; cool desktop
• --- : not so intuitive as expected… the menu and cancel buttons…
• bad: no out of the box sync over USB; no network support over USB

Still a great mobile!

 

<update>

Cool things:

• Icons look beautiful – they learned the lesson with Apple
• Very well built
• The gadgets makes the difference: accelerometer, compass, multi-touch
• Google apps integration – incredible with gmail
• Syncing with my carkit headset – didn’t ask for those dreadful ‘1111’, ‘1234’, … ‘9999’ low security stupid keys, just hacked them!
• Getting a bunch of apps from Market; apps like Layar

Not so cool:

• As a phone, it could be better:
  • Slow and cumbersome access to my 2K contact list, some bugs. Probably HTC software’s fault
  • Easy to miss receiving calls, and to miss we are making a call :S
  • Low cell signal
  • Not the greatest of phoning sound quality
• Button position could be better. Back button is just hard to reach for right handed people
• Slow access to my Exchange mail
• Why do I have an alarm icon on the top of the phone?!?!
• Ok, I know I’m not the typical phone user, but my after a bunch of installations my Hero is not as responsive as it used to…
• Battery life could be better, could hardly make it through the day. But then again it is as appealing that I' could have overused it…
• Couldn’t get the SDK up and running. Ok, probably my fault, I’ve downloaded Eclipse and SDK and tried to install it with no internet access. Well it seems that Google demands internet access on install. Go figure…

The verdict: I’ll probably wait for a faster CPU with a wider screen. And a cheaper one. Could Nexus On be the one?

</update>

 

<update II>

I’ve been using an average of nearly 20MB/day of 3G traffic. Oops, I’ve just wasted my monthly limit in less than a week. Be it because Android pushmail is too demanding on traffic or just because Android is a new gadget I’ve been exploring, one thing is for sure: I have to return this baby soon or upgrade my traffic account…

</update II>