Main goal of project is to provide native binaries for tools and make it possible to develop Android applications on FreeBSD powered system without Android SDK for Linux.
The third release of the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) is now available for download from the Android developer site.
It can be used to target devices running Android 1.5 and higher. In addition to a few bug fixes and improvements, this release includes the following new features:
Coming from the .NET world and having programmed Java a very long time ago (back in 1995, which as I recall was right about when the language first came out), I was anxious—and a bit apprehensive—about where Java stood as well as how far the tools had progressed in the fifteen or so years since I last attempted to write my first Java program.
I have used the HTC Hero exclusively as my primary mobile phone/internet device/portable music player.
What follows are some of my thoughts of this amazing device.
Hardware
Processor
Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Operating System
Android 1.5™
Memory
ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288 MB
Dimensions (LxWxT)
112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ( 4.41 x 2.21 x 0.57 inches)
Weight
135 grams ( 4.76 ounces) with battery
Display
3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution
Network
HSPA/WCDMA:
900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device Control
Trackball with Enter button
GPS
Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity
Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
3.5 mm audio jack
Camera
5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Audio supported formats
MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media® Audio 9
Video supported formats
MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media® Video 9
Battery
Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1350 mAh
Talk time:
Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 470 minutes for GSM
Standby time:
Up to 750 hours for WCDMA
Up to 440 hours for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
Expansion Slot
microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter
Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features
G-sensor
Digital Compass
* HTC Specs from the HTC Website
Even though this is an Android 1.5 Device there is one thing that sets it apart from all the other Android devices out there,
and that is HTC Sense, from the mouth of HTC, Sense is ” a holistic experience that is based on putting people at the center, by simply making things work the way they should, an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles – make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected.”
Having unification on a Mobile device is certainly a first for me.
Stay Close
First up is the People app, think of it as Contacts on steroids, Contacts can be associated with Facebook and Flickr profiles.
In other words you can pull in information from these services, for Facebook, it pulls in the Contact Picture and Birthday,
then giving you the option to use the Facebook picture of the Contact instead of the one defined in the contact.
The People app presents the info in the following way, the 1st screen is called “Information” giving the user common communication methods “Call Mobile” “Send message” and “Send mail”, then extended information like, birthday, ringtone and notes.
Now here is where HTC Sense starts to shine, in the Messages tab, provides a list of of recent SMS messages, following Messages, is the Email tab this integrates with the native “HTC Mail” app on the phone, giving a list of mail messages from the relevant person, here is some of the cool stuff, Updates and events, giving you the person’s latest Facebook status update and possible events organized by that person, next up is Albums, giving you access to Facebook albums and photos on Flickr.
Call History, provides a List of incoming, outbound and missed calls.
Perhaps one of the outstanding features is the keyboard, with intelligent autocomplete.
The Smart Dial provides a quick and easy way for you to find the people you are looking for.
Another bonus of the Messages app is the fact that it organizes conversations per person, then splitting the “stream” according to day, and a nice little touch is the Avatar(Contact Picture) of the person next to the message.
Make it Mine
One of the big selling points of HTC Sense is that you can have such of different ways of customizing the interface and with 7 Home Screens it’s a real winner. You can truly set it up to suit your needs, a good example is “Scenes” you can save you Layout’s as “Scenes” then switching to them when you use. HTC has loads of Widgets for Making it yours a good example is the clocks, the Hero has 12 different clock to choose from.
The Weather widget is gorgeous, having little animations, just wants make you lick your screen. The Music player is straight forward, it shows cover art, Music is sorted via Artist, Album, Playlists, Songs, Genre Composers and Purchased Music. You obviously have 2 nice Widgets to control the player.
The Email and SMS Widgets are out of this world!
The Camera is cool, taking great pictures and shooting video, but there is a little thingy here you have to tap the screen to focus and a shoot with the trackball. A side note here Pinch to zoom works in the Albums, I have to add this about Albums … of course it provides Unification giving you direct access to Friends on Facebook and Flickr’s Photos. Totally Awesome!
Discover the unexpected
The more you use the phone the more you appreciate HTC Sense, obviously the phone is powered by Android which makes it Super Duper! Getting Apps is fun and easy. This was the First Android phone I could show my iPhone friends and say …. “Erm can you do this ?” or “Do you have that?”
Wrap up
I used it everyday I used 3G/Wifi/GPS and I got a full day, the phone never died on me,
the performance was great compared to my HTC Dream.
Calls was crisp and clear, the Headset supplied is stylish and functional.
To conclude if I have to rate the Hero on it’s goals, Stay Close, Make it Mine and Discover the unexpected,
I must say the HTC Hero passed with flying colors.
I can blabber forever on the HTC Hero, it really surprised me and it made me happy using it!
Thanks to HTC for sending the me Handset.
Here is something extra the HTC Hero Product Tour :
