By 
I’ve got a meeting with HTC Executives coming up here shortly and I’ll likely have another opportunity later this evening to speak with the folks at HTC and Google. I’ve got some questions already lined up but what do YOU want to know about the HTC Hero and HTC Sense?
I’ll try to get as much information as I can but I want to know your burning questions! Leave them in the comments…
Shall we can update G1 or ADP1 to HTC Sense UI officially ?
Considering the similarity in hardware specs throughout the HTC lineup (MSM7200 processor family) on Android-based and Windows Mobile devices, will HTC ever offer an operating system choice for their phones?
Where does the physical keyboard fall in HTC’s product roadmap. Currently, their only hard-key device is the Dream with the Hero & Magic filling in the softkey space.
Can they share any information on the Lancaster or other to be released phones with a hard-keyboard?
Nice opportunity to ask my questions here :
– Will there be a way to desactivate that HTC sense on HTC Hero in order to get the original Android user interface?
– Will Android updates have to be modified (and then cause delays) to works with that custom UI ?
First question of all…
1. Would it be available for current HTC Android models? (i.e. Magic and Dream)?
2. When would it be available for upgrade?
cam.shaft
This phone does not keep the “powered by Google” phrase. Will we still be able to synchronyze the apps with our google account? (mail, calendar and so on?)
When will it be released in the US?
There isn’t much of a step-up in hardware from the G1 to the Hero – only a little more RAM and the same processor – how will this be able to handle the new flashy interface and the adobe flash?
I find my G1 already slows down once you have a few widgets on the homescreen
Will it be hitting America anytime soon?
– engadged says we cant access the android market is that true
– when will it be released in the middle east
– the video from adobe said tat THE CURRENT FLASH CAN OPEN 80% OF THE WEB WERE IS TE OTHER 20% WHAT IS THAT
– IS THERE ANY OTHER IMPLEMENTATIONS OF THE MULTI TOUCH IN THE PHONE(PICTURES, SHORTCUTS IN KEYBOARD )
– will there be accessories like cradle and extended battery available for this babe and how about pouches 4 it
– will there be an htc sense physical keyboard pone
-can owners of the magic and dream get sense
will all android applications be also compatible with HTC Sense and are there any adjustments necessary or even possible?
is the HTC Sense more or less just a “skin” or an application?
Hi.
First I must say I like the new UI (Rosie = Sense = Great!). Still I am a little concerned. Not long ago Google published a norm regarding how application icons should look – slightly tilted, with a certain tinted shade – to make sure the feel and look of the UI stayed relatively uniform. This is not the case with the Hero, judging by the images I’ve seen. I hope what we are seeing now is not the start of a million different versions of UI’s (like in the Unix/Linux world)? Looking at Android as a brandname, I would think it imparative that the look and feel of any Android should be uniform, both compared to other Android phones, but also throughout the phone itself. (Standarized icons). It’s an open platform allright, but still there should be limitations in my opininon. Open source shouldn’t neccesarily mean: “do what ever you like!”, especially regarding the UI. Thanks :-)
yeah, if the price for the eye candy is loss of openness, then it’s a no go…
Is it true that the Android Market is not accessible with the Hero (because it’s not *Google Experience*)? How do we get all the nice Market Apps then?
My main question would be when a mobile phone with Sense will come out that has a physical qwerty keyboard.
My second question is if the HTC has any phone planned with a higher resolution screen and if Sense is able to cope with alternate resolutions.
Mixing the two up: Will HTC bring out a mobile phone with a higher resolution screen, with HTC Sense and a phycial keyboard
Why does the Hero (and all the other Android devices) have the resolution 480×320 and not like for example windows mobile 800×480?
Will any of the Sense features make it back into Stock Android? Will the HTC Widgets work in Stock Android and will any of them be made available in the Market (either free or paid?).
What happened to the lancaster?
I have a G1 Developer phone, can I get the sense UI on it?
Whats the U.S release date?
Which U.S. carrier?
Will the Android market be available?
Is that Exchange support out of the box we are seeing in the videos?
@Tom
I don’t think it was Google’s intent to have Android stand out as a consumer brand or to have all the phone makers have similar looking phones. Yes it does cause a problem with icons and applications from the Android market but they could clear this up through themes.
As for the Linux world having “a million” UI’s nothing is wrong with that. Thats called choice. You can pick the one that suits you best and use it. You can’t please everybody with just one offering. The fact that so many variances exists proves that.
Will the UI be backward compatible with G1 & Magic?
if not, will some of their widgets be released?
If not, please will they leak it “unofficially”?
With Apple upping the anty with the specs of the 3GS, when will we see an android phone from HTC with higher processing power, currently the G1 cant compare to the pre or the iphone, where i believe the android OS is very strong it hasnt been applied to a strong enough hardware platform to show its full capabilities.
And consider this my push to get the Hero in Tmobile USA by the end of my tmobile contract (if you are listening tmobile+htc, keep me as a customer bring on the hero!)
i’m now getting quite concerned that this handset might not include all of the inbuilt google apps syncronisation…. the email app on the desktop isn’t gmail etc etc.
I did read that there were going to be three types of android variants, some with google and some without… http://phandroid.com/2009/05/28/18-to-20-android-phones-will-launch-this-year/ if this is one of the ones without them i’m out!
does htc have any plans to include an internal harddrive into one of there phones. why do so many of their phones lack an led flash for the camera? Why is the processer so slow, my g1 is sometimes sluggish now letalone running flash. Would the costum interface be downloadable as another home replacement such as, ahome ,openhome etc.
I read that it is multitouch. Does that mean that they modified the os or it works like that just for some particular application?
U.S. availability: When, and will it only be T-Mobile, as is evidenced by many recent “G1 Touch” headlines? Multitouch: Is it here to stay? Have apple’s lame restrictions on it finally gone away?
really curious what effect (especially the UI changes) will have on the G1…seeing as most of us here are android lovers that own the G1 and will not/can not change to another phone (darn contracts!)
ya one question i gave the first look video ten looks and here is what i fou
1- for all above yes the market is there 0:48
2- there is 3 messeging apps
1-gmail
2-mail
3-messages
wtf that will be confusing can u ask what with that
3- can u ask if there is any other color scheme than the black
Ask them why they have a chin on their android phones
If you haven’t gotten to the interview yet… I think one of the most important things would be to get a fuller understanding of how HTC’s OS modifications play with the base Android OS and how updates will be handled:
— Since you’ve (HTC) modified the Android OS, when Google releases an Android OS update, what will happen?
1. Can users download that directly? (doubtful)
2. Will HTC incorporate Google’s changes into the Sense OS, and re-release it? What would be the extra turn-around time?
3. And, somewhat related, will GMail and Google Maps be included in the Sense framework?
Will HTC give back by sending some of its optimizations upstream to the standard android stack?
Will HTC be releasing parts of its Sense UI to the market (like widgets, its keyboard, its dialer, etc) for non Sense UI phones?
Will HTC be releasing an officially sanctioned ROM to update the Google Ion to Sense UI?
1. Given we can’t update to later versions of Android, presumably to prevent it breaking sense, will HTC be releasing Android OS upgrades packaged with sense updated as appropriate?
2. Does the mail client sync with Gmail in the same way as the standard google client?
3. Can we still download the google apps?
4. If we do download the google apps will the 2 mail clients be in sync or act like totally separate apps (I’m guessing the latter).
5. Does HTC plan to contribute any of sense to the Android project?
6. Will the bugs/crashes be fixed before release? (silly question I know as they can’t be sure until the problems roll in).
Some more:
7. Why oh why haven’t they included a flash?
8. Is the camera as good as the ones on Nokia/Sony/Samsung phones (I’m guessing not).
– is Market going to be available ?
– and will widgets work on it ? i mean the widgets developed by market developers for the default home screen, would they work on this ?
– lastly, will it get future android updates ? such as the donut ?
– First time activation, do you have to log into gmail or not ?
seems the biggest questions are:
1. Is market going to be available through the HTC Hero?
Couple of Questions/Requests
1) More Memory like the iPhone e.g 16gb or 32gb model
2) Ability to update OS like iPhone
3) Podcast support for the music feature
4) 3.5 Headset Jack (please put it in all phones)
The above features are want I believe makes the iphone such a great phone. How about putting these features in an Android phone. I would buy one tomorrow if they did.
(sorry for the double post(if possible, Rob, could you merge my recent post with this one? thank you)
My answer to that question is yes, it should be possible. Android was made by Google and several other companies. Even though it doesn’t say “with Google” on the back, Google still made android. So yes, it should be possible for the HTC Hero to access the market.
2. Is the UI “HTC Sense”(aka HTC Rosie) going to be made available for the G1/Dream/Magic anytime soon?
My answer to that question is maybe, because the UI is made by HTC, and not Google. But google might change it up a bit(how it looks/works) for a release of their own.
3. Will the mail client also receive e-mails from Gmail?
This for sure is yes. Gmail also uses POP3 and IMAP. So it is possible.
4. Will HTC release their widgets onto the market?
No. Have you even seen HTC release any type of app/widget into the market?
5. Why does HTC add those “chins” to the G1/magic/hero?
I read that the HTC android phones have the chin because it protects the screen and most of all the trackball.
6. Will it be multi-touch?
Beats the hell out of me. I have no idea if it does.
(remember, these are my answers and I did not get them from any other places/people.)
-Ted
@ 2:54 minutes into the movie about the HTC Sense on the HTC Hero site you can see a call being made with in the top left corner the text “3G Mobile” does this mean Sense supports VOIP calls? Without using external programs?
Does the Exchange facility sync with Contacts, Calendar & Mail?
Also does it show different category events in the Calendar (e.g Work, Personal, Holiday etc) as different colours, unlike on the iPhone where it shows it as one colour?
so…. did you get to ask any of these questions Rob?
Hi Rob,
Any updates on your Q&A, eager to noe the outcome.
cam.shaft
No Sense UI for the G1 :0(
http://www.slashgear.com/htc-confirm-no-sense-upgrade-for-t-mobile-g1-or-vodafone-magic-2647990/
I just purchased two of the Hero’s and on mind I have accidently removed two items off of their page and can not find them anymore anywhere I look? I would like to get them back without have to erase everything and resetting it to the default, Is this possible and if it is can you email me the answer? And thank you for your time!
ill save all the typing, you dont have to answer on the yahoo answers page, it can be answered here in the forum, but this is my question.. please help guys
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=As9n_uu1UiS5yx9pPptZgIPty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100817185159AAP0GMX