A.R.S.E.

Posted this at Whingepool, but thought you guys might know too....


I am about to come off contract with Optus, and went into one of their stores today hunting around for the HTC HD2. The sales rep hadn't heard of it, no surprise there, but when I said I would grab an iPhone to get the $79 plan with 1GB of data and just buy a HD2, she said the other phone wouldn't work on the iPhone plan. Now I am 99% sure that is BS, but she sowed a seed of doubt in my mind. I am a telecom tech by trade and can't think of a single way they could stop me doing it. Am I right or wrong?

My plan is to get the iPhone and sell it to fund the HTC HD2. Then I can just use the HD2 instead of the iPhone and sell the iPhone and everyone is happy.

Yep, I realise the iPhone will be locked, but you can pay to unlock it or jailbreak the fucker.

As long as you get the HD2 unlocked with the right frequency, I can't see the problem.

I too am waiting on the HD2 for Tesltra (Stupid 850mhz) but T-Mobile are getting it apparently, that means I can get one! yay!

Santaria wrote:As long as you get the HD2 unlocked with the right frequency, I can't see the problem.

I too am waiting on the HD2 for Tesltra (Stupid 850mhz) but T-Mobile are getting it apparently, that means I can get one! yay!

http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/phones ... ?phone=HD2

19th Jan according to my sources.

I got something similiar when i first switched to my first iphone at telstra. they told me i needed an "iphone plan" otherwise half the features on the phone wont work. Really all he meant was data as I started a 2nd plan to get it then just put my original simcard in and it worked fine

It seems that HTC are starting to to take off in Oz. How do you rate their other phones Norbs?

AstrO wrote:It seems that HTC are starting to to take off in Oz. How do you rate their other phones Norbs?

They are all quite snazzy. That said, there are a load of cool phones about. I actually got to play with the HD2 today, albeit it a tester, and it is fucking huge! The screen shits on the iPhone. When you see them side by side, it is chalk and cheese. It is marginally bigger than the iPhone too which I don't like, but for that screen I would put up with it. The biggest problem I am going to have is getting one included with a plan. I reckon I will be stuck with an iPhone whether I like it or not. Will be a compromise like the N95 was.

Using the HD2 after using the iPhone was like using the iPhone after my N95. A huge step up. I expect the next iPhone to trump it, although I don't know if they will have the same sized screen.

The Touch Diamond 2 is also a nice looking thing, although a lot slower than the HD2.

WinMo is a lot slicker than I expected.

A girl at my work brought in her HTC Hero that she picked up from Hong Kong - she's on a plan that doesn't allow data, but will be going on one that does

Very nice phone, and the interface is quite good along with the touch screen

The HD2 is using windows mobile isn't it?

I read the blurb on the HTC website and it had the word "holistic" in it - so that put me off

but I cant see why it wouldn't work on an iPhone plan Norbs

Brett_S wrote:A girl at my work brought in her HTC Hero that she picked up from Hong Kong - she's on a plan that doesn't allow data, but will be going on one that does

Very nice phone, and the interface is quite good along with the touch screen

The HD2 is using windows mobile isn't it?

I read the blurb on the HTC website and it had the word "holistic" in it - so that put me off

but I cant see why it wouldn't work on an iPhone plan Norbs

Yeah, uses WinMo, but that looks a lot slicker than I expected.

This could turn into a 3 way phone OS war in a few years, Windows Mobile vs Android vs Apple (maybe BlackBerry too???). It will be interesting to see how companies like Nokia hold up.

AstrO wrote:This could turn into a 3 way phone OS war in a few years, Windows Mobile vs Android vs Apple (maybe BlackBerry too???). It will be interesting to see how companies like Nokia hold up.

I would love to see Apple's 3.1 OS on a faster hardware platform. It is a dog next to the 1ghz HTC running WinMo. I hope to be getting a look at an Android unit or 2 tomorrow if he comes back in. I took some photos of this guys car, so he owes me a few favours.

I can't see Apple allowing clone phones any time soon

hmm, I just got the HTC Hero (Android) from HN & put it on a monthly (optus, because I have a few other phones with them) plan for now. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it but coming from a Nokia 6300 it's bloody fantastic

I think too many sales people know fuck all

When I bought my first PC I was advised not to but a 2x CD-Rom cos though it may be faster for data, if I wanted to play music they would all sound like chipmunks

Bauer wrote:I think too many sales people know fuck all

When I bought my first PC I was advised not to but a 2x CD-Rom cos though it may be faster for data, if I wanted to play music they would all sound like chipmunks

It is probably one of the most frustrating things for someone like me who does a fair bit of research before a purchase. Knowing more than the sales staff drives me mad. One guy at the Telstra shop told me not to get the HD2 because it doesnt have any memory. FFS.

When I was buying a new dishwasher one guy told me to get brand X because you can put it on a timer and it will wash using off peak power and hot water. When I asked him if it was the same hot peak as the hot water system, he assured me it was. I then asked him where was the special power point for that. He just looked lost.

Back to the phone, the HD2 is what I want, the N95 is what I need, and the iPhone will be what I end up with, sadly.

Mate ive had 3 WinMo phones in the past 7 years and loved em... but after having the iPhone for a while It really shows how far behind MS are with winmo.. 6.5 is an improvement but still no multi-touch.. so may things apple do better..

Sure HTC have jazzed it up but its still winmo underneath.. Desktop integration is woe-full.. the media player is WMP, browser is IE

Id think seriously before shelling out big dollars for it.. even tho its got a screen the size of WA!!

As for speed and the iPhone... the 3Gs is pretty snappy.. its not 1GHz but its ample..

pixelboy wrote:Mate ive had 3 WinMo phones in the past 7 years and loved em... but after having the iPhone for a while It really shows how far behind MS are with winmo.. 6.5 is an improvement but still no multi-touch.. so may things apple do better..

Sure HTC have jazzed it up but its still winmo underneath.. Desktop integration is woe-full.. the media player is WMP, browser is IE

Id think seriously before shelling out big dollars for it.. even tho its got a screen the size of WA!!

As for speed and the iPhone... the 3Gs is pretty snappy.. its not 1GHz but its ample..

The HD2 has multi touch as far as I am aware. Browser is Opera and it was great. I doubt I will be able to get the HD2 despite wanting it, so in to the Apple pool I will have to dip.

norbs wrote:
The HD2 has multi touch as far as I am aware. Browser is Opera and it was great. I doubt I will be able to get the HD2 despite wanting it, so in to the Apple pool I will have to dip.

maybe wait for the new Google phone Norbs, 1ghz snap dragon, 512mb ram, 3.7" etc and i'm sure you will get it on a plan in Australia

or get the Iphone 3gs, sell it on ebay for ~$700-750 (for a locked optus one) and buy a HTC HD2 from blueflymobile for $815 delivered yo your door

to confirm that your phone works on the iphone plan simply throw your sim into another phone before selling the iphone and see if it works, i'm willing to bet that it will work and optus are full of shit

ohh my HTC HD2 get's delivered tomorrow!!!! Can't wait!

ohh little video for you guys, full playstation 1 emulation on the hd2, enjoy

[youtube]GfGoa6jmTFk [/youtube]

Doso wrote:maybe wait for the new Google phone Norbs, 1ghz snap dragon, 512mb ram, 3.7" etc and i'm sure you will get it on a plan in Australia

Yeah id wait for a week or two and see what happens with the nexus.. it looks nifty

Well that Tekken on PS1 Emulator I guess is OK as a proof of concept / show off of hardware, but it looks unplayable and less than the original frames per second

When is the Nexus One released in Australia?

One thing I don't understand is why new phones (e.g. Nexus One) cost more than netbooks, which have far more power and features. Anyone want to have a stab at that?

plastik8 wrote:Well that Tekken on PS1 Emulator I guess is OK as a proof of concept / show off of hardware, but it looks unplayable and less than the original frames per second

When is the Nexus One released in Australia?

looks full frame rate to me

heres another video with Driver 2 (brings back sooo many memories!) with a FPS guage, and it doesn't look like it drops below 60fps at all

AstrO wrote:One thing I don't understand is why new phones (e.g. Nexus One) cost more than netbooks, which have far more power and features. Anyone want to have a stab at that?

same reason why laptops cost more than a comparative priced desktop, size a Intel Atom CPU is huge in comparison to a mobile phone CPU and draws a hell of alot more power

The Atom is less than 26mm² and on a 45nm process. The only thing I can find about the Snapdragon is that the current 1GHz model doesn't use a 45nm process, so it might not be that much smaller (considering the features it has).

When I look at the amount of components that go into a netbook and then compare that to something like the Nexus One, the price just doesn't make sense to me...

im using a Vodafone branded HTC magic (android) for almost 6 months and ive been very happy so far... that nexus one looks pretty snazzy though, may have a play when it lands in oz

AstrO wrote:The Atom is less than 26mm² and on a 45nm process. The only thing I can find about the Snapdragon is that the current 1GHz model doesn't use a 45nm process, so it might not be that much smaller (considering the features it has).

When I look at the amount of components that go into a netbook and then compare that to something like the Nexus One, the price just doesn't make sense to me...

a laptop CPU has a fair number of other components than just the CPU, you have North bridge, South Bridge, Video card, Ram, Bios Chips etc etc

a phone processor is completely in house it isn't even x86 compatible and nearly all these things are integrated into one package (have you even seen laptop ram by itself would by 1/2 the size of my phone)

you also note even the netbooks require a heatsink and fan something that can't be installed on a phone

...and that's my point. Netbooks have a crap load more components to make up a device, most of which are far more complicated to produce that those found in a phone running an ARM based processor. Also laptop ram is a package, one ram chip soldiered to the mainboard of a phone can't cost that much to produce.