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	<title>iMore &#187; htc fuze</title>
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		<title>Round Robin: TiPb vs. HTC FUZE Q&amp;A!</title>
		<link>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/15/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-qa/</link>
		<comments>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/15/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-qa/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rene Ritchie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SPE Round Robin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htc fuze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[round robin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.theiphoneblog.com/?p=6034</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, </em>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_keyboard1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_keyboard1" width="500" height="290" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5983" /></p>

<p><em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, and <a href="http://www.smartphoneoutlet.com/motorola-h9-bluetooth-headset-open-box/9A32A101818.htm">Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset</a>! <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">Full contest rules here!</a></strong>] </em></p>

<p>So the WinManiacs kicked my butt a bit over the HTC FUZE review. David Pogue was wrong, neither Apple Nuts nor BlackBerry nuts hold a candle to WinMo users scorn. However, I&#8217;d counter by saying they were so busy being indignant, they didn&#8217;t really stop to consider the point of the round robin, or the points raised in the preview or final review. In other words, coming from where we&#8217;re coming from, iPhone users approaching other devices, we were right, and the enraged WinManiacs&#8230; well&#8230; read on after the break!</p>

<p><span id="more-6034"></span></p>

<blockquote>Justin Says: It is abundantly clear that the iPhone is excellent as a multimedia device, but lacks some of the productivity tools that a business user is looking for, a Blackberry is really the oposite. I want something that can fit both of those bills, how does this phone handle that?</blockquote>

<p>It doesn&#8217;t do both well, it compromises to do both from poor to fair to okay. It&#8217;s power is considerably hampered by its unease of use, and its overall experience is a confusion of inconsistent TouchFlo 3D and archaic Windows Mobile 6.1. I&#8217;d almost recommend getting a BlackBerry and an iPod Touch. If, as I mentioned in my review, you&#8217;re really into tweaking hardware and controlling every little aspect of your device, then go for Windows Mobile and you can <em>make</em> it the best of both.</p>

<blockquote>Jim Says: Just how easy (or hard) is it to get the FUZE to work with an Exchange environment?</blockquote>

<p>Theoretically it should be a snap. I couldn&#8217;t get it to work, however, as Windows Mobile claimed my Exchange certificate was invalid, so while on the iPhone I could just tap &#8216;ignore&#8217; and keep going, this was a dead end on Windows Mobile, as was the convoluted process required to move my Mac desktop certificate over the device. (Yeah, I know, they don&#8217;t support Mac &#8212; not acceptable).</p>

<blockquote>Brooks Says: Speaking of HTC phones, how’s the HTC Touch HD? Is it available in the US?
</blockquote>

<p>Haven&#8217;t tried the HD but it looks good based on <a href="http://www.imore.com/2008/12/13/saturday-fun-htc-touch-hd-iphone-3g-video/">Dieter&#8217;s hands on</a>. Not available in the US, and not going to be, unfortunately.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>WatersWest Says: Would I be able to load up a fuze with music, photos, and videos to the same extent that I do on my 16GB iPhone, and would it be as easy?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yes and no. You can load it up pretty much with everything you want, but nothing in my experience currently matches the ease of use of the iTunes and iPhone integration and sync.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>WatersWest Says: My newest favorite feature on the iPhone is the wireless downloading of podcasts. Would I still be able to do that on a fuze, and would it be as easy as it is on the iPhone (where it is so easy, it’s a pleasure)?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Dieter loves him and recommends him some Kinoma player, which streams podcasts (though I don&#8217;t think downloads them). I didn&#8217;t try any direct downloads, so I&#8217;m not sure if those are possible. Nothing on Windows Mobile was as easy, however.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Touch Me Says: let’s assume that the bulk is acceptable to me and I am more at home with a physical keyboard. Further, once I get the device set up to do what I want the software becomes more-or-less transparent. Where does that leave the Fuze-iPhone comparison?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It leaves it manipulated to the extreme <img src='http://www.imore.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  More specifically, it leaves a bulky device that you had to invest significant time tweaking compared to a slender devices that&#8217;s really not tweak-able to any significant degree.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Touch Me Says: Will the Fuze work more easily with other carriers besides AT&amp;T? Is its replaceable battery a significant advantage in the field? Does the screen look as good as an iPhone’s especially outside? Is Window’s vast array of applications, not to mention the Palm applications it can run, a plus? Is every program efficient with the iPhone’s touch interface or are some uses better with a keyboard (text input, forms) or stylus (database, some games like backgammon)?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>An unlocked GSM device is an unlocked GSM device, so until the iPhone 3G is software unlocked, the FUZE is more transportable. I had a replaceable battery on the Treo 680 and never used it, so for me it made no difference. The screen is higher resolution, I believe, than the iPhone and looked gorgeous, but the plastic matt finish vs. glass gloss of the iPhone will depend on individual preference. Are more applications better? No. Look at the 10,000 App Store apps, when many more are more realistically CrApps. So, this will also depend if there are applications you really need that are Windows Mobile or Palm emulator-only (like Office suites, currently). Keyboards and styluses will likewise be individual preferences. I never used keyboards well on the Palm, and didn&#8217;t like styluses, so the iPhone&#8217;s paradigm suits me far more. As to types of programs, that&#8217;s really down to the designers &#8212; they should be able to make any app work with any input method, the same way Photoshop works with a mouse or with a tablet.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Dimietriev Says: I don’t remember if this has come up, or if some other round robing review has talked about it. But are the many buttons re-mapable in any way? </p>
</blockquote>

<p>I didn&#8217;t test for this. The fine folks at WMExperts likely know, but my guess is <em>everything</em> is configurable on Windows Mobile if a) you dig deep enough, b) spend time enough.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The_Reptile Says: How about a history lesson? This platform has been around in one way shape or form since the PDA days. What innovations has Mr Softie come up with and why is this not a me-too platform/device?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>History available from Wikipedia, where you can discover that, unlike the iPhone which leverages the same core as Mac OS X, Windows Mobile is really Windows in name only. Now, if we go by CES shows, then Mr. Gates et. al. have created magical devices that take our entire computing environment with us where ever we go. However, that&#8217;s all been vaporware. Instead, we&#8217;ve got an aging OS chasing Palm&#8217;s garnet on the way to obsolescence, with a next generation version delayed to the point being vaporware itself. So, it&#8217;s not a me-too platform/device, more like a never was. Sorry folks, but Microsoft, like Palm, should have given us an iPhone-class experience 5 years ago. Their complacency has cost them.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>ekabe Says: How does the turn by turn GPS compare.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The iPhone doesn&#8217;t have turn by turn GPS, so it&#8217;s not comparable. Google Maps is a much, much, much better experience on the iPhone. Turn by turn is nice to have on everything else, but I don&#8217;t use it much so I&#8217;m not missing it like others might be.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>James Says: How well does the touchscreen on the phone work?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Uh&#8230; watch my video review. It&#8217;s resistive rather than capacitive, which is good news for stylus lovers, bad news for those who have gotten used to the iPhone, Android G1, or BlackBerry Storm.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Todd Says: I had a question, is the Fuze screen quality way better than the iphone bc it is a VGA device?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It has greater pixel count and density than the iPhone, so you get more dots in less space for a theoretically sharper picture overall.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Glenn Says: What is the biggest difference between windows mobile and OS X on the iPhone, does the htc blur this difference??</p>
</blockquote>

<p>iPhone OS X is a modern, desktop derived operating system, built from the ground up to support multi-touch and other next generation mobile features. Windows Mobile is currently an out dated system built for last generation embedded devices. HTC&#8217;s TouchFlo 3D attempts to mask this, but ultimately fails due to inconsistencies of its own, and &#8212; worse &#8212; the necessity of dropping back into Windows Mobile proper all the time, which creates a completely Jekyll and Hyde user experience. (Again, I&#8217;d be really interested to see TouchFlo 3D given a little more consistency and backed right into a Samsung Instinct class consumer device).</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The last WM device I owned was an T-Mobile MDA Vario II (HTC TyTN*), which was a WM 5 device. Lots infuriated me about it, but nothing so much that it didn’t automatically connect to Wifi networks (even if you’d joined them many times before). Is that fixed now in WM (like in iPhone)?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It might be; I was running off 3G fast enough I didn&#8217;t couldn&#8217;t bring myself to try to enter my long, pseudo-random WPA key into Windows Mobile with a visibly state-changing keyboard. However, going to the settings screen and seeing just how many wireless configuration apps were just sitting there scared the bajeebers out of me. I&#8217;m sure they all provided cool functionality &#8212; maybe tethering? &#8212; but that many similar looking and similar named icons is just depressing from a UI point of view. Collect &#8216;em up!</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Andrew Says: The physical keyboard for me looks like a win. I don’t have an iPhone, but the iPod Touch Keyboard is annoying for my big fingers, unless in landscape mode, which isn’t always possible…</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You know, I have fingers big and smushy enough that typing on a hard keyboard if very frustrating for me, and with the iPhone, I find I barely ever use the landscape keyboard. Maybe it&#8217;s my alternating typing style, but the portrait keyboard works just find for me. For those who want a hard keyboard with some room to it, the FUZE was definitely a nice, wide slider.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Bla1ze Says: What I wanna know is…Why does the device lag so bad with all that processing power behind it, I mean TF3D really suck up that many resources?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Windows Mobile 6.1 + TouchFlo 3D = Vista Aero on a &#8220;capable&#8221; 2006 machine.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Joshua Says: If you do a hard reset and not allow the ATT software to load, this device is so much faster. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you, like Apple, stand up to the carriers and say &#8220;No crapware, frakyou very much!&#8221; it runs faster still!</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Steve Says: When I look at those screen shots I can’t even make out what it is I’m looking at. It’s a typical cluster-f**k of Windows icons, menus, and tabs. What do I click on? What will happen?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That&#8217;s a very real concern. The device is not intuitive. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>PhilR8 Says: I also with you would have addressed some of the comments from the preview thread that gave you suggestions on how to better use TF3D (like mine). Were these tips helpful? Did you even try them? Or is it still not for you?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The tips did help somewhat, but I think my usage method was just too iPhone-trained to really do a good job with it in only a week. Switching to my nail made it better, but it never did what I intended it to do. I would even try just hitting the icon I want, when it was off to the side, and different things would happen at different times, and no matter what anyone says, if I drag sideways on the music app instead of up and down, no way should that activate the tab bar (which is nowhere near where I pressed) and shoot me into different apps.</p>

<p>Nailing touch is hard. I think we all know that. HTC names their like Touch. That’s a really brazen thing to do if you don’t nail the experience utterly and completely. I’d argue Apple did with the iPod Touch, and HTC absolutely did not with their line.</p>

<p>Maybe I could have gotten used to it if I spent more time with it, or if I’d spent money on it and knew I couldn’t return it, but — again — I don’t think, in 2008, I should have to.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>ekabe Says: But after a month of using this phone ive never had a random application generator moment using touchflo. You sure you where holding and dragging? Its not meant to be flicked.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I switched to even just trying to press the icons. Maybe I should have held and dragged, but can&#8217;t I even just press the icon I want to launch an app? From testing: nope.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>pinguino1 Says: I’m not a fuze guy, but many of your negative comments are because you just didn’t do what 99% of people in this planet do: . Read the manual! . The other 1% are iPhone guys.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I never read an iPhone or iPod Touch manual, nor the Android G1, nor the Treo Pro, and I shan’t be reading the BlackBerry Bold why should the FUZE get, never mind need, special consideration?</p>

<p>And if it does, that sorta makes many of my points. I really don’t want a phone I need an instruction manual for, especially after having used PDAs and Smartphones for a decade already…</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Darrell Pittman Says:  You know, irony can be so ironic.
  I think back to that 1984 Super Bowl ad, where the Mac’s avatar strides up to the big screen and supposedly, strikes a blow for the everyman against Big Brother. Now look at you lot, grateful for being able to spend big money on a phone, then set it up AT HOME. Then when you do, you can install only Apple-approved apps. You can’t even change your own battery. It’s sad, for people who profess to love freedom.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If I go to a gourmet French restaurant, look at the menu, and then proceed to throw a fit because I can&#8217;t order pizza, is that a blow against my personal freedom? Of course not, that would be silly. If, on the other hand, I want to go to the trouble of cooking for myself at home, I can make anything I want. I enjoy cooking, and I enjoy restaurants. Cooking can be a lot of work, so sometimes I eat out. Setting up a Windows Mobile device (or Linux distro) can also be a lot of work, so currently I choose to use an iPhone. What&#8217;s really ironic is all the so-called freedom exponents with little no respect for the choices of others. Part of being free means the freedom to chose proprietary solutions.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>PmMann Says: As much as they say “Think Different”, every ipod I have seen is exactly alike. Heaven forbid you want to change the skin of the UI, or even choose a different UI..</p>
</blockquote>

<p>&#8220;Think Different&#8221; was a Mac, not an iPod campaign. There are plenty of devices you can tweak to your hearts content, but does market share show them to be as popular? Nope. Why is that? Could it be that while some groups are especially loud, they don&#8217;t consider that there&#8217;s a far larger, albeit more silent group, that doesn&#8217;t really want to tinker, doesn&#8217;t even really care for technological details, and just wants their music to work? Apple considers that, and the market has certainly born them out.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the great questions! </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Round Robin: TiPb vs. HTC FUZE Final Review</title>
		<link>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/10/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-final-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/10/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-final-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rene Ritchie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SPE Round Robin]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.theiphoneblog.com/?p=5971</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, </em>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_keyboard1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_keyboard1" width="500" height="290" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5983" /></p>

<p><em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, and <a href="http://www.smartphoneoutlet.com/motorola-h9-bluetooth-headset-open-box/9A32A101818.htm">Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset</a>! <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">Full contest rules here!</a></strong>] </em></p>

<p>I thought my review last week for the Palm Treo Pro would be my toughest, little did I suspect Dieter would double up on my HTC and Windows Mobile experience (actually, triple up on HTC as I had the Android G1 for the first review). That&#8217;s a LOT of Windows Mobile, especially for someone who abandoned the platform a long time ago, first for Palm OS, and now for the iPhone.</p>

<p>Reviewing the same OS two weeks in a row is a challenge. I originally focused on the PIM apps last week, including calendar, tasks, and notes, and through in email and web for good measure. This week I planned on focusing more on Windows Mobile from a media and &#8220;under the hood&#8221; perspective. However, something changed that: TouchFlo 3D. Turns out, not only was the FUZE&#8217;s slider keyboard a big old hardware differentiator, their &#8220;skin&#8221; running on top of Windows Mobile was a fairly compelling software differentiator as well. So, instead of doing a poor job rehashing tech-specs that any writer over at WMExperts could run circles around, I&#8217;m going to go with the TouchFlo.</p>

<p>Just remember: I&#8217;m not coming at this device from a neutral point of view. That&#8217;s not my job here. My job is to give you an iPhone user&#8217;s opinion. So, consider me bias, a n00b, an iFanboy, a complete idiot, but consider this as well: my final, full review&#8230; after the break!</p>

<p><span id="more-5971"></span></p>

<h2>Introduction</h2>

<p>Never had an intro on one of these before. Never needed it. Do now. I don&#8217;t run Gentoo Linux as my primary, secondary, tertiary &#8212; my any-ary &#8212; OS. I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;s powerful, configurable, and Stalman et al could give me a thousand reasons why I should. I only have one reason why I don&#8217;t: user experience. I just don&#8217;t want to work that hard. I&#8217;ve talked about this before, and I will again (fair warning, that!) but my smartphone should work for me, not the other way around. The WMExperts forum gave me tons of useful tweaks (thanks for those!) but I really don&#8217;t want to tweak. I&#8217;m too tired of tweaking. I don&#8217;t want to have to edit registries, tinker with ROMS, remember shortcut keys, or do any of the winzillion things I need to do to make a Windows Mobile device &#8220;just work&#8221; for 90% of what I want it to do. The barrier for entry is too high.</p>

<p>I&#8217;m in the process of deciding there are several segments of the smartphone market. BlackBerry hits productivity/business. Android hits early adapters/enthusiasts. Windows Mobile hits tinkerers. It hits people who want exactly what they want, and enjoy working at it almost as much as using it. Rather than tricking out the ultimate drag racer in their garage or building a robot in their basement, they&#8217;re going to make their Windows Mobile smartphone do exactly what they want down to the 3rd alt-shortcut key in the 4th tabbed option screen (skinned, of course).</p>

<p>It&#8217;s for those who enjoy the journey as much as the destination. (I suspect that&#8217;s why Dieter has enough Windows Mobile devices to make a <a href="http://www.viddler.com/explore/WMExperts/videos/9/">manwhich</a> out of!) There are several cases where I&#8217;m exactly that guy. This isn&#8217;t one of them. I want my smartphone to work pretty much effortlessly right out of the box, and I want it to perform as well or better than the best smartphones available in 2008. That&#8217;s what I want.</p>

<h2>Hardware</h2>

<p>Yes it&#8217;s creaky. I&#8217;ll get that out of the way right at the beginning. The iPhone is a solid slab. Anything made out of plastic that includes a slider hinge that moves half of the device half the way off the device will be, decidedly, not so solid. Still, HTC makes really good plastic hardware, and much like the Android G1, the individual pieces of the slider by themselves <em>are</em> solid.</p>

<h3>Buttons</h3>

<p>When the device is closed, the front is very clean. There is a large central button. At first I thought this was just a big &#8220;okay&#8221; button, but commenters told me it had some gesture ability and was also a d-pad. The gestures were too inconsistent for me to really get into, an it&#8217;s quite emphatically not a d-pad&#8230; however, the area around the large central button IS a d-pad. The integration is awesome &#8212; so awesome I initially missed it, but if you press the entire facade on any side, it will tilt down and register a button click. Very nice!</p>

<p>But they&#8217;re not done! The facade also holds 4 buttons. The first, &#8220;home&#8221; sorta brings you home. I&#8217;m not sure what &#8220;home&#8221; means to this device, as it doesn&#8217;t bring you back to the Today Screen the way an iPhone does the Home screen, at least not consistently. Sometimes it brought me &#8220;back&#8221; instead, which is strange given that the next button is &#8220;back&#8221;.</p>

<p>Since the Android G1, I&#8217;ve really liked the idea of a &#8220;back&#8221; button. It works well here, especially when you&#8217;re new and you sometimes take a wrong turn, or when you&#8217;re moving in a rush and hit a wrong app or function. </p>

<p>The last two buttons are an upside down, and downside up phone. These are what, on other devices, are usually the green and red &#8220;phone&#8221; buttons. I like the minimalism of the HTC design, if not the penetrability of the iconography. Like other Windows Mobile handsets, the left &#8220;phone&#8221; button sends you to the call app, and the right &#8220;phone&#8221; button ends a call&#8230; and takes you to the Today screen (memo to Redmond: the home button is a great idea, and a better usability experience).</p>

<p>Strangely, none of these buttons turned (woke) the device for me. None of them. Only the top &#8220;power&#8221; button did that. I&#8217;m not sure if I prefer this to the Treo Pro&#8217;s seemingly random &#8220;every button but center and okay&#8221; with &#8220;center to unlock&#8221; arrangement. Like many things, there are some advantages, some drawbacks.</p>

<p>Oh, and it has volume and PTT (push to talk). I miss the Treo Pro (and iPhone) mute button.</p>

<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_bottom1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_bottom1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_bottom1" width="100" height="56" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5975" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_left1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_left1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_left1" width="100" height="56" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5985" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_top1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_top1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_top1" width="100" height="56" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5991" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_right1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_right1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_right1" width="100" height="56" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5990" /></a>
<br clear="all" /></p>

<h3>Keyboard</h3>

<p>Star Destroyer class. I&#8217;ll say it again, this keyboard has everything imaginable on it. I&#8217;m not a fan of sliders. The way I type, the less &#8220;travel&#8221; the better, so the traditional Treo (i.e. 650) keyboard is more to my liking, but it&#8217;s hard to hate the FUZE when it&#8217;s almost as full as a Netbook!</p>

<p>Compared to the G1, the feel of the FUZE keyboard felt better to me, and the lack of a &#8220;chin&#8221; was a huge plus. Again, since hard keyboard can&#8217;t change to reflect state (i.e. when you hit shift or alt, the key doesn&#8217;t change to show you exactly what you&#8217;ll be typing) it did cause some self-doubt in password fields, but that&#8217;s an uncommon enough situation. Also, since the keyboard slides in and out, it can be hidden when you don&#8217;t need it. That&#8217;s an advantage over the front-facing Qwerty&#8217;s, but it comes at the price of making a <em>really</em> thick phone. I found it a bit chunky, but it won&#8217;t be a deal breaker for most.</p>

<h3>Screen</h3>

<p>Bright and beautiful, it reminds of the G1&#8242;s absent the capacitive touch. Since it&#8217;s a touch screen device, that means it makes you really want to touch it, but resistive technology is outdated enough to make it a less than premium experience. Instead of tapping and flicking like on an iPhone or G1, you have to press hard enough to smush the layers together, or press and drag hard enough for them to register movement. After the iPhone and G1 experience, it&#8217;s like touch in quicksand. This is something we&#8217;ll revisit when you meet TouchFlo 3D.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_keyboard_on1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_keyboard_on1" width="400" height="224" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5984" /></p>

<h3>Fit and Finish</h3>

<p>The fit an finish isn&#8217;t quite up there with the Treo Pro in that I think Palm looking over their shoulder made HTC sweat the details more. Yet it remains a solid device with an interesting faceted back plate (identical, far as I could tell, to the its eponymous &#8220;diamond&#8221; cousin). One interesting addition, however, is that the stylus on this device is magnetic, so when you pull it out, the FUZE automagically turns on, as it does when you slide out the keyboard. Given the paucity of buttons with which to wake it, these are both excellent touches.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_back1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_back1" width="400" height="224" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5974" /></p>

<h2><strike>Windows Mobile</strike> TouchFlo 3D</h2>

<p>I joked in my video that TouchFlo 3D should more properly be named &#8220;Press Really Hard and Stammer 2D&#8221; and I stand by that. As a user experience goes, it mixes brilliant animation with resistively-challenging control and inconsistent gestures to truly confusing ends.</p>

<p>I love the visuals. The visuals are killer. Introduced after the iPhone, it&#8217;s obvious HTC decided to take the fight to Apple on the iCandy front, and when you consider the bright, vivid animations, the results are just gorgeous. Mad props to HTC&#8217;s design firm (which I think they recently bought out &#8212; smart move!)</p>

<p>Taken as set pieces alone, I&#8217;ll go so far as to say that in some cases they look even better than the iPhone&#8217;s older alternatives. For example, I love the weather app. The animating clouds and rain &#8212; or snow in Montreal&#8217;s case now &#8212; are stupendous and I&#8217;d love nothing more than for Apple (or a 3rd party weather app) to steal them immediately. </p>

<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_weather1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_weather1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_weather1" width="200" height="129" class="aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-5992" /></a></p>

<p>The picture and contact apps are likewise beautiful. </p>

<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_photos_chooser1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_photos_chooser1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_photos_chooser1" width="100" height="70" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5987" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_photos_photo1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_photos_photo1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_photos_photo1" width="100" height="70" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5989" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_photos_options1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_photos_options1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_photos_options1" width="100" height="70" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5988" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_contacts1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_contacts1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_contacts1" width="100" height="70" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5976" /></a>
<br clear="all"/></p>

<p>The music app would garner similar praise if not for the downright awkward integration of the control buttons along the right side. Surely something more fitting the rest of the design could be worked up?</p>

<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_music1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_music1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_music1" width="200" height="124" class="aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-5986" /></a></p>

<p>Bringing it all home, literally, we have the Today screen which I must admit is a bit of a let down. It&#8217;s still very pretty, but the huge clock means there&#8217;s not as much room for the actual &#8220;today&#8221; content I&#8217;ve always loved from Windows Mobile. I&#8217;m sure it, like everything else, can be tweaked, but it&#8217;s a strange choice for the default. </p>

<p>Since the iPhone has no built-in Today app, the programs tab for the FUZE is the closest match for the iPhone&#8217;s Home screen. (I am ignoring the entire secondary program tab AT&amp;T injected into the experience &#8212; and WMExperts will give you helpful instructions for defenestrating it entirely if you so choose). Opera is where my focus was &#8212; though it turns out it wouldn&#8217;t run off AT&amp;T. Bummer.</p>

<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_home_011.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_home_011.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_home_011" width="200" height="135" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5981" /></a><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_home_021.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_home_021.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_home_021" width="200" height="137" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5982" /></a>
<br clear="all"/></p>

<p>Now for the negatives. As previously stated, touch on a resistive devices is like moving in quicksand after you&#8217;ve had a chance at a capacitive device. WMExperts will also tell you how to tweak preferences to speed this up, but check out my introduction for why I won&#8217;t bother with that. Given the technology, that&#8217;s understandable. What&#8217;s unforgivable, however, is the poor usability chosen for TouchFlo 3D. My video shows this off better, but basically there&#8217;s no consistency from one interface to the next. For mail, you have to start by swiping down. For photos, you have to start by swiping up.  For music, even though the album art is presented horizontally, you need to swipe vertically. Going back to photos, once you swipe up and press really hard to choose your photo (yes, I know, use my nail, not my finger &#8212; fine!), you then have to swipe sideways to move between photos.</p>

<p>And the tab bar itself? Don&#8217;t get me started. It&#8217;s stroke-inducing to use from a pure touch point of view. Not only is it more random application generator than launcher, compounded by the above inconsistency, if you ever gesture in a way incorrect for the exact application you&#8217;re on at the time, the tab bar will gleefully decide you meant to engage said random app generator, and send you on a quick journey to precisely somewhere else.</p>

<p>Very frustrating.</p>

<p>Also frustrating, just when you&#8217;re getting used to the fresh, modern, 2008 UI of TouchFlo 3D, it will dump you back out into the cold, archaic, 1999 UI of Windows Mobile 6.1. It&#8217;s an entirely different user experience and frankly, it&#8217;s jarring. It&#8217;s bait-and-switch. It&#8217;s &#8220;she ain&#8217;t pretty she just looks that way&#8221; gone wired.</p>

<p>I previously said HTC should take TouchFlo and rather than slap it over Windows Mobile, turn it into a complete Samsung Instinct-type OS. I was only half joking. If they could get more consistent with the gestures, add a capacitive screen, and get rid of the Windows Mobile sword of Damocles, they could have a really compelling offering on their hands.</p>

<h2>Windows Mobile Redux</h2>

<p>Here are some screen shots. Tweak your hearts out.</p>

<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_winmo1.jpg'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/fuze_winmo1.jpg" alt="" title="fuze_winmo1" width="306" height="400" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5993" /></a></p>

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

<p>See introduction. I wasn&#8217;t sure how many would actually make it this far, so I pulled a little bait and switch of my own. </p>

<p>But there&#8217;s more: After two devices in so many weeks, Windows Mobile has failed to win me over. It&#8217;s powerful, yes, and configurable, bless it&#8217;s kernel, but it&#8217;s just not for me, not any more. Maybe Windows 7 will change my mind, but I think Microsoft&#8217;s mind needs changing first. Ballmer says (in between monkey boy dances, no doubt), that Microsoft &#8220;just keeps coming and coming and coming&#8221; and that&#8217;s certainly true, but they need to get there soon or the smartphone train will have left the station.</p>

<p>I think I&#8217;m going to officially toss my hat into the ring of those who think a ZunePhone (Xphone?) wouldn&#8217;t be a bad idea, but I&#8217;m going to throw an even bigger hat into an even bigger ring and say Microsoft needs to leverage Microsoft.</p>

<p>Apple provides a 360 degree ecosystem for the iPhone. If Microsoft could just get their multi-marketplace&#8217;d ducks in a row and offer seamless integration from Azure Cloud to Server backend to Windows Desktop to Xbox console to Zune mobile (with consistent branding to go with it, b&#8217;okay?)&#8230; well, I&#8217;d be very worried for their competitors.</p>

<p>As it currently stands, however, it&#8217;s old gen tech that doesn&#8217;t play nice even with it&#8217;s own. Great if you&#8217;re anticipating Cylon invasion, not so great if you&#8217;re a smartphone platform in 2008.</p>
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			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/10/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-final-review/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>94</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Round Robin: Questions About the HTC FUZE?</title>
		<link>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/09/robin-questions-htc-fuze/</link>
		<comments>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/09/robin-questions-htc-fuze/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rene Ritchie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SPE Round Robin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htc fuze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[round robin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.theiphoneblog.com/?p=5946</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/picture-52.png'></a>

<em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, </em>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href='http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/picture-52.png'><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/12/picture-52.png" alt="" title="picture-52" width="477" height="269" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5947" /></a></p>

<p><em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, and <a href="http://www.smartphoneoutlet.com/motorola-h9-bluetooth-headset-open-box/9A32A101818.htm">Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset</a>! <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">Full contest rules here!</a></strong>] </em></p>

<p>My time with the FUZE is just about over, my review almost finished, and with it both HTC and Windows Mobile will leave me, a little poorer, a lot less frustrated.</p>

<p>I&#8217;ve read the comments on my video preview. WinMo users think I&#8217;m a &#8220;moran&#8221;. Fair enough. But I&#8217;m supposed to be looking at these devices from an iPhone users point of view, and that means the usability bar is set almost as high as the configurability bar is low. WMExperts will give you every little tweak, CrackBerry, TreoCentral, and AndroidCentral will give you the keyboard comparisons, TiPb is focusing on the touch experience and the overall user experience out of the box (since that&#8217;s all you get with a non-Jailbroken iPhone!)</p>

<p>But here&#8217;s the thing: TiPb&#8217;s main purpose is to service you, our readers. So what if any questions you might you have about the FUZE. What would you like to see better explored? Compared more directly with the iPhone?</p>

<p>Let me know in the comments and you&#8217;ll also get another chance to win our iPhone 3G prize pack.</p>

<p>(And remember to head on over to our <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/">sibling sites</a> for more chances to win a Blackberry Bold, Palm Treo Pro, WinMo HTC FUZE, and Android G1!)</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/09/robin-questions-htc-fuze/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>32</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Round Robin: TiPb vs. HTC FUZE Video Preview!</title>
		<link>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/08/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-video-preview/</link>
		<comments>http://www.imore.com/2008/12/08/robin-tipb-htc-fuze-video-preview/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rene Ritchie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SPE Round Robin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htc fuze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[round robin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.theiphoneblog.com/?p=5928</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Note: Some people are having trouble seeing the video (comes back as unavailable). It&#8217;s working fine for me, but if it&#8217;s not for you, please let me know in the]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div align="center"><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s2vH8EHxLLc&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s2vH8EHxLLc&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></div>

<p>Note: Some people are having trouble seeing the video (comes back as unavailable). It&#8217;s working fine for me, but if it&#8217;s not for you, please let me know in the comments, and please try this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2vH8EHxLLc">direct YouTube Video link</a>.</p>

<p><em>[This is an official <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com">Smartphone Experts Round Robin</a> post</strong>! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a <a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">chance to win</a> an iPhone 3G, <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a>, and <a href="http://www.smartphoneoutlet.com/motorola-h9-bluetooth-headset-open-box/9A32A101818.htm">Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset</a>! More below!] </em></p>

<p>Did I need to review two HTC Windows Mobile devices in a row? Would it have been better to have the G1 or Bold in between, or would I then have back-to-back front-facing Qwerty or Slider bloat? I don&#8217;t know. Last week&#8217;s <a href="http://www.imore.com/2008/11/26/robin-tipb-palm-treo-pro-video-preview-2/">Palm Treo Pro</a> and this week&#8217;s HTC FUZE are differentiated not only by form factor, but with the FUZE&#8217;s addition of Touch Flo 3D (which, during the video shoot, I came to lovingly re-brand &#8220;Press Really Hard Stammer 2D&#8221;).</p>

<p>Fair enough, coming from an iPhone I challenge any non-Apple device&#8217;s ability to deliver the same experience. They can&#8217;t. But that&#8217;s the point of the Round Robin: for each editor to look at every other device from their own smartphone&#8217;s point of view.</p>

<p>Will the humungous slide-out keyboard be enough joy to cancel out the Touch Flo blues? I don&#8217;t know yet; we&#8217;ll find out together in my final, full review later this week.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, check out the video above, and if I&#8217;m wrong, mean, or just stupid, let me have it in the comments, or &#8212; better yet &#8212; head on over to the <a href="http://forums.wmexperts.com/showthread.php?t=174411">WMExperts Forums</a> and help me see the error of my ways.</p>

<p>Likewise, Crackberry Kevin is suffering without his keyboard and trackball, so be sure to give him all the assistance you can before he he comes gunning for our iPhone in his own video!</p>

<p>Doing so, of course, gives you a chance to win the iPhone 3G and HTC FUZE&#8230; and a ton of other cool smartphones and accessories. Prize details after the jump&#8230;</p>

<p><span id="more-5928"></span></p>

<p><img src="http://www.imore.com/images/stories/2008/11/sme_rr_tipb_prize.jpg" alt="" title="sme_rr_tipb_prize" width="288" height="354" class="alignright size-full wp-image-5470" />  Every day you comment here, you get one entry to win not only a supra-shiny <strong>iPhone 3G</strong>, but the <a href="http://store.theiphoneblog.com/case-mate-naked-case/4A123A4213.htm">Case-Mate Naked Case</a> which allows full touch through access to the iPhone&#8217;s amazing screen. Smartphone Outlet is also kicking in the revolutionary <a href="http://www.smartphoneoutlet.com/motorola-h9-bluetooth-headset-open-box/9A32A101818.htm">Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset</a> AND a runner-up prize, $50 coupon good at any SPE store, including the new <strong><a href="http://www.smartphoneoutlet.com/">Smartphone Outlet</a></strong>, where you can find refurb Smartphone Accessories at very (very!) low prices.</p>

<p>Check out our <strong><a href="http://roundrobin.smartphoneexperts.com/contest-rules.html">full contest rules</a></strong>!</p>
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		<slash:comments>88</slash:comments>
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