[HTC Desire S] :
Thank you for all your positive feedback. It is appreciated. I am working on v1.03 (when my boss isn’t looking) and your suggestions are welcome.

@worldcupwilly

Ah yes the contacts issue. It was a thorn in my side as well. Unfortunately I do not sync with Outlook as my work company IT policy will not allow me, and I only use gmail for personal use at home. I’m not sure how to go about it.

I only have all my contacts as ‘Google’ type, so they are saved in the cloud and automatically push to my phone after each wipe/factory reset. When I first got my Desire, I exported all my contacts to my SD card, copied that .vcf file to my computer, and imported them all into Google contacts via Gmail on my PC chrome browser. Took two minutes. Now all my contacts are Google.

I also do not use Facebook or Twitter (at least Ryan Giggs can’t sue me!) so not sure how to stop those from popping up. What I can say is that if you open up your phonebook (aka ‘People’) and hit Menu> View, you can select what type of contacts are shown whether it be ‘Google’ or ‘Sim card’ or ‘Phone’. When you do this, does it also have ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ options to untick?

My thoughts on HTC Locations V Google Navigation is simple (and I’ll add this to the next 1.03 update): Avoid HTC Locations like the plague!

I got stung. I paid £22 for a full perpetual licence from the people who provide the turn-by-turn voice guided navigation side (Route 66) and it just wouldn’t work. Each time I tried to verify the licence it just force-closed. Route 66 offered, “Turn it off and on” and then “Try a factory reset”. When neither of those worked they shrugged and refused to refund me. I found their customer support to be uncaring, unhelpful and arrogant (they blamed HTC, Google, Me....) Since I paid for a licence for all-time I’ll now avoid them for all-time!

Google Navigation is free, it works, and since December it updated to allow caching of your route data and surrounding areas. This means if you loose data signal part way through your journey you are not dropped out of Navigation and you are still guided to your destination. The only advantage HTC Locations would give you is if you either have no data plan (who buys a Desire S and not have a data plan?!) or if you start your journey where there is no signal to download journey info. But......check THIS out....

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/google-maps-navigation-to-go-offline-this-summer-garmin-and-tom/

If rumours are true, soon Google are going to spoil Nokia’s and Microsoft’s party by allowing full off-line support for Google Maps! Woop!

They have to compete with Nokia (who have now ditched Symbian and are going with Windows Mobile) who have that Ovi Maps off-line navigation advantage. I used to have a Nokia 5800 and it IS good navigation.

It would be a shrewd move on Google’s part to take that advantage away by allowing full off-line support for Google Navigation just before Nokia release their first Windows Mobile devices.

I reckon HTC Locations will soon be obsolete. Save your money. For the rare occasions when you find yourself lost, and in a mobile black-spot and need to start navigation, perhaps have the relevant (and free) country map downloaded to your SD card from HTC Locations, and use it to get your bearings back to civilisation. Or do what I’ve done and spend £5 on a good old-fashioned road atlas and chuck it in your boot! :)