If you work in an organization with no image capturing equipment policy, look here! The HTC Touch2 non-camera phone was released recently, adding itself to the list of non-camera smart phones (Nokia E51, Sony Ericsson G700, HTC Snap, Gigabyte Gsmart S1200, etc).
But is the HTC Touch2 non-camera the phone you are waiting for? Or you are hoping that Apple releases iPhone non-camera? Well, while you are waiting for Steve Job to announce it (if iPhone non-camera even exists) and you don’t mind a WinMo (Windows Mobile) phone, probably you can give the HTC Touch2 a try.
Bought the HTC Touch2 non-camera just a while back and been using it for perhaps 2 weeks or so. Let me jot down my review of this phone.
Key Features
- 2.8″ 65K-color QVGA display
- Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS with TouchFLO
- Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz CPU and 256MB RAM
- Quad-band GSM support
- 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps
- Wi-Fi connectivity
- Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- microSD card slot
- Touch-sensitive zoom bar
- Standard miniUSB port and Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Opera 9.5 web browser
- YouTube client, Facebook integration
Some not so good points
- Low-end display resolution
- No accelerometer sensor
- Poor screen sunlight legibility
- No handwriting recognition
My iPod Touch and iPhone used to be on 2.0 firmware and it works great with my third party video out cable which I got for 10 bucks online. The video cable ceased to work after I upgraded to 3.0 and subsequently 3.1.2 as it keeps prompting “This accessory is not made to work with iPhone” whenever I try to play a video file.
Good news if your iPod Touch or iPhone is jailbroken – a patched iapd file solves the problem. Backup-ed the original iapd file in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IAP.framework/Support. Put in the patched iapd, set its permission to 755 and reboot. Viola! Cheap 3rd party cable is working again!
Finally I can bluetooth files between iPhone/iPod Touch and my handphone! The bluetooth on iPhone/iPod is designed in such a way to disallow these types of file transfers. Previously in the firmware 2.0, iBluetooth allowed users to bluetooth files freely but firmware 3.0 rendered the application useless.
iBluenova to the rescue! Seems like the author rewrote the bluetooth stack and it is working on my iPhone and iPod Touch on firmware 3.1.2. Some users reported that it is working on 3.1.3 as well. Finally I can bluetooth files between handphones! Weee!
Had some problem with YouTube on sis’s iPhone 3G after jailbreaking the 3.1.2 firmware sometime had. The application keeps prompting “Cannot connect to YouTube” whenever she tries to launch YouTube. After Googling, realized that the problem is due to blackra1n.
Most websites ask you to install PushFix from the cydia source – iphoneil.net. But the application cannot be found! Found another source to restore the YouTube certificates – cydia.pushfix.info. Sis is enjoying herself on the iPhone once again. Yay!
After spending 1+ hours on the iPhone, I finally managed to:
- disassemble the iPhone 3G
- take apart the screen assembly
- pry the damaged LCD screen from the frame
- stick the new OEM LCD screen onto the frame
- attach all the ribbon cables onto the board
- fix back the iPhone
Cost: $50 for the LCD, 2 man-hour for the “operation”
Now my sis got a iPhone with fixed LCD!