yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] CmdKewin:
Well...

I've yet to make a choice: the single most important thing to me is price.

The Iphone 3G, EVEN with a 24 month contract, from what I've heard, it going to be around 700 CHF (around 430 Euros) for the 8 gb model and a hundred more for the 16 gb model. And that's with Orange Switzerland. Do not even think of Swisscom, the other contractor... the are usually about 15% more expensive on normal phones, so I can't really expect them to behave differently with the Iphone.

Mr Jobs, if you are reading this (I know you aren't...), PLEASE, PLEASE tell the truth when you speak out in front of an audience... In your own words "it's going to cost the SAME all over the first 22 countries we are releasing it to".... At todays rate, 199$ is 127.547 Euros... NOT 430... more than 4 times what you said. Thank you for your time.

That said,

The Diamond can be found in Switzerland, through importers, starting from 709.00, shipping included... No activation, no hassles, no forced contract, an I get it delivered in three days.

The only thing that's keeping me from buying it is the fact that my contract expires in two months. And I'm waiting for the Touch Pro. With a contract renewal, it "should" come a nice little price, same as I spent form my Hermes, about 2 years ago.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] p3eps:
Asking people to compare a phone thats not on the market yet with anything is stupid - because no one REALLY knows what features the iPhone 3G with its 2.0 firmware will actually have.

Personally, I currently own an 8gb iPhone and a new Touch Diamond. I did have a 16gb iPhone too, but sold it just before they announced the 3G one.

The iPhone is a great device - but is pretty poor as a phone. Its missing usual features like MMS and the abitily to delete single texts. There is no video calling - although this may be fixed with the 3G version. As an iPod its brilliant - the screen is perfect for movies, the Safari browser is fantastic for usability (except missing Flash support) and is very responsive. The 2mp camera is poor with virtually no functionality (although there are 3rd party apps which are better). There are plenty of 3rd party apps and games out there to meet most of your needs - but no where near the amount of WM stuff. The new AppStore may bring a heap more programs, and is rumoured to have TomTom for the iPhone 3G on release?

Its a bit bulky - but then you'd expect this with the size of screen. The battery lasts pretty well with normal use and can easily last 2-3 days (3G will prob be much less?). The battery is non swappable though - which may cause problems after 9 months of charging?

The Touch Diamond is a very sexy looking neat phone! The screen is a good size and even using the qwerty keyboard is great aslong as you have a fingernail! The TouchFlo 3d is a little laggy sometimes, but not enough to be annoying. It takes a bit of setting up and customising to get it to your liking, but once its all set its great. The built in GPS works great, and there are HEAPS of programs / games available for free download. The 4gb built in memory is good for most users - but after coming from a 16gb device I'm finding it a bit limited. The battery is a bit poor with it down to the last bar after a days use... although it does seem to be improving the more I use it. Hopefully an extended battery will come out soon - I dont mind it growing a few mm if I can get an extra days use!

iPhone Pros:

Great multimedia device

Decent lasting battery

Fast, easy user interface

Choice of Memory sizes (soon be 32gb)

iPhone Cons:

Limited Apps

Bulky device

Limited phone functions

Touch Diamond Pros:

Neat size

Good overall functionality

Huge selection of 3rd party apps

Touch Diamond Cons:

Poor battery life

Limited 4gb memory

A little laggy

Personally I'm going to stick with the new Touch Diamond as I prefer the real phone functionality. I dont think that any of these things are going to be fixed with the new firmware (after watching Steve Jobs' keynotes speech). I will however keep my 8gb iPhone as a multimedia device - as its perfect for watching movies on an aeroplane!!!
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] someone1234:
They mean they won't allow background services to run. That doesnt mean you can't run multiple tasks. The software is sandboxed, so you can run as many instances as you like.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] someone1234:
All the specs are advertised, and the OS is very similar to the exisiting 2g handsets. In fact you can download a beta for 2.0 thats only a few weeks old if you look in the right place. Its fairly public knowledge what the new 3g iphone will be like.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] Syphon Filter:
Here we go:

http://gizmodo.com/365327/iphone-sd...-running-concurrently-no-background-processes
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] someone1234:
Wow thats a big departure to what SDK subsribers were told before. Multiple instances were suposed to be allowed (all sandboxed of course) with a upper process limit on them.

I imagine they'll work towards that in future releases. But as it stands that severly limits the usefull apps list :(
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] Syphon Filter:
Well quite! I agree.

From reading the comments on that gizmodo link I can see one side of the story and it's pretty true to the Apple M.O.

They like to keep their platforms pretty locked down to ensure that the user experience is fluid, stable and uniform. It makes sense from that perspective. So it's fair to say "I understand" their decision.

But that's not to say I think it's a good decision. It's the best way forward from an Apple perspective, it keeps user perception of their device in high regard. The device will be fast and responsive at all times. Not like our WinMo devices which sometimes get a bit sluggish, until you realise you ahve many apps running and close a few to free up some RAM.

Apple products (in recent times) have all been about the user interface and the user experience, from the iPod to OSX. Keeping control lets Apple ensure the user experience is excatly how they want it to be.

Either way, I'll not be getting an iPhone so its neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned!!
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] KukurikU:
comparing the diamond with an iPhone is like comparing a race car with a race bicycle....they are both the best but in their category

i'll never use a hermetically closed box (no matter how big the screen is) that has a very limited number of applications that i can use/try and everything in it i'll have to buy from one provider at one (his) price.

who wants to be controlled?? let me see yr hand up!

phfuuuuu...one bill gates is enough!
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] seraph1024:
my 2 cents

I've used all sorts of pda phones (going back to things like samsung i300 palm os stuff to x500, touch, touch dual, and now the diamond). I've also unlocked over 125 iphones (it was good money) in Chicago and i've owned over 10 iPhones that I've used and sold and made money on. There are pros and cons for both phones.

Let's start with the the iPhone. I can only speculate on the 3G version but for the edge iPhone, the screen size as well as the touch screen interface is a big plus. I can type a hell of a lot faster and the interface is a hack of a lot smoother. I hate to unlock the phone every time apple would upgrade the firmware but with the pawnage tool it's now a piece of cake. But it's a pretty big piece of hardware. Compare to diamond, it's like a tank and a sports car.

I like the diamond over iphone/3G or otherwise because the iPhone does not have that wow factor anymore. Not that I like to be wowed every time but it's a nice thing to have. I personally think that diamond is a much better piece of hard ware compare to the iphone now. I do not like the fact that it gets hot over use and such but the size is a great thing. Remember, I can use the diamond as a modem. I can't do that with iPhone. I know iPhone has visual voicemail. So does mine. I run my own VoIP server for my business so I can do just that. I am not trying to bash apple. I own a ton of apple stuff as well. I am typing this one a macbook pro and I run one of my server on OSX server. I am just being a realistic. Apple is trying to control too much of what people can and can not do with their iPhone.

What would make diamond one over completely is that if we can do video calls over tcpip and input is as good as iphone. Otherwise software options and actual hardware wise, diamond has it beat.

P.S. If we can only run android on diamond.... :D
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] seraph1024:
I've installed beta 2.0 on iPhones before. Not much difference between 114 and 20
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] p3eps:
I had one of the 2.0 beta on my 16gb iPhone for a while... but you still can't compare things like battery life with a 3G iPhone as no one knows what it will REALLY be like.

If the final version is going to be almost the same as the 2.0 betas that are floating about just now then the only real differences will be 3G, GPS and Exchange compatibility.

I can't believe Apple are so narrow minded that they havent included MMS and other 'phone like' features!!

Another thing that annoys me about my iPhone is the fact that Bluetooth can only be used as a headset profile... it can't be used to send pics etc.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] happyguy82:
The 2.0 firmware should support A2DP Bluetooth profile... no?
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] mr_Ray:
Is anyone surprised by that?

In many ways Diamond vs. iPhone is like the old days of Palm vs. Pocket PC. Power, openness, and flexibility on one side, a user-friendly but technically limited platform on the other. By the time PalmOS allowed true multitasking, the platform was effectively abandoned, and Palm spun off it's hardware side to make Palm-branded Windows devices.

Of course this time round, the iPhone has the benefit of the Steve Jobs reality distortion field.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] xxxxchrisxxxx:
Thanks guys.. some great advice there. I think I want both.... but that's not going to happen.

Does anyone know if the iPhone can sync with outlook for calendar and contacts?
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] Syphon Filter:
ROFLCOPTER
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] happyguy82:
I think the 2.0 firmware integrates well with Office/Exchange. It's a very big piece of missing functionality in the previous firmware as w/o that, it won't be very friendly to the corporate users.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] jamijam:
Some very objective and unbiased posts in this thread. I am proud of you fellow WMers!

IMHO for almost an entire year the iPhone was objectively the best all-around smartphone. Now Apple has added 3G/GPS/enterprise-features/app-store and HTC has released the Touch Diamond. I think this effectively makes it a level playing field. Apple has added some basic features that power users need and HTC has almost caught up in the sexiness/size/interface department.

Who will take the lead a year from now? Tough to say. HTC is crippled by the WM OS/interface. Will they switch to android, continue to improve the interface themselves or will WM7 prove to be awesome? Will Apple continue adding power features to their device? MMS, better camera, video recording? Will developers create hundreds of free compelling apps for the iPhone?

Should be interesting. I have a HTC TyTNII at the moment and I'm planning to buy the 3G iphone and an HTC Touch Pro later this summer. Not sure which one Ill keep my but I sure am gonna enjoy playing with both! I love competition and I think Apple has done us a huge favour by joining the game...

J
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] sjaak1234:
Well one thing the iphone will be better at with no doubt is playing music because the build in touch flow mp3 player is a total piece of garbage made by somebody with the brains the size of a grain of sand. Meaning it totally doesnt work at all. A 20 dollar mp3 player will work about a million times better (meaning that will actually play ur music, unlike the TD).

For the rest, I think the main advantage of the iPhone is its screen. Because its also heat based it just recognizes touch far better. Personally I think the speed of the TD is fine most of the time, really dont have those massive slowdowns some people say they have, even after it being on a whole day with a bunch of different programs. And the TD is alot smaller, which I think is nice because most of the time you dont actually use your phone and I rather have a smaller phone than a big screen which I will hardly really use anyway (besides that watching video works fine with the TD screen too, watching anime in public transport without a problem).

But the main difference will be price. Even if the iPhone is better at everything it still doesnt add up as you will be paying 2.5 times at much for it than for a TD over a 2 year contract. So that is really the question that you have to ask yourself. Do I want a small device, that might be a bit slowish from time to time and might need some tweaking/updating or do I pay alot more for something that works great most of the time?
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] bdangol:
The iPhone is not better at everything.... what gave you that idea? The whole topic is subjective!

For me I bought a Orbit (I know its not a diamond) and a iPod touch (I know its not an iPhone). at the end of the day I know that if all my stuff was in one device when the battery died I would have no MP3 Player and no Phone at the same time. Sure things have change some what over the past year or so but convergence is a way of making devices that do everything but nothing very well!

I think it comes down to a few points

Do you want more control of your device or do you want stability and consistancy? Now I don't mean that the Diamond offers not stability or consistancy but even if something is consistant and stable 95% of the time that is not all the time is it?

By getting a device that works as intended all the time you have closed the avenue for true control of what is on and what runs on your device. I am a tinkerer so I know which device I will be getting.

Also I have yet to have found a forum as good as XDA-DEVELOPERS for the iPhone....... and as someone posted before it is just a big ping pong match with the hackers and apple reminisent of the Sony's PSP Firmware war.

On the plus side the iPhone has a great Music player and Web browser I would say it's better then the Diamonds but hey I thought we were talking about phones..... where is the MMS or Video recording?

Sorry to leave it open ended but it's really swings and roundabouts when you use both devices you will know in your heart which is right for you......
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] Syphon Filter:
I think you need to re-read what he wrote:

"But the main difference will be price. Even if the iPhone is better at everything..."

There's a key phrase in there "Even IF"
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] Mr. Nice Guy:
Thank You All !

I wanted to get the Diamond these days. I buy it in the US and a friend will bring it to Israel for me (that's were I live).

Then, I started to read about all these flaws with the Diamond and became worried. Reading all your comments on this thread really reassured my decision to purchase it after all. It seems you all agree it is the best smartphone out there for now.

I understand it is problematic out-of-the-box and that fixing the reg + changing ROM is a must. I am totally new to modifying ROM etc and never had a WM on a phone.

But I am sure I will learn on this site what I need to do to tweak it to perfection. Can any of you provide me with a couple of links to up-to-date threads that will help me learn, d/l and implement this stuff, keeping in mind I'm a beginner?

Thanks in advance guys,

MNG
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] mital:
Here are the reasons why I bought a diamond instead of iphone 3g:

1. Windows mobile works with hotmail direct push. Currently there is no iphone support for hotmail direct push (cracked or otherwise). Support for Exchange direct push is not the same as hotmail, for those of you who might be confused.

2. Diamond is small like a normal phone. iphone 3g is still the same size as current model.

3. iphone forces me to use itunes. I hate itunes on Windows because of the way it messes up my filenames and then stores all the song info in its own proprietary database.

4. I already have a few apps (SPB mostly, and tomtom) that I have paid for.

5. No GPS on iphone (for now). The GSM cell triangulation is pretty clever, but not accurate enough for driving etc.

6. It sucks that HTC Home is not customisable. I should be able to choose what tabs are displayed. Also HTC Home displays the full contact name next to the picture rather than the 'Display As' name, which is stupid because the whole reason 'Display As' is there is to let you give a short name for someone.

Reasons why I sometimes wish I waited for iphone:

1. Even though the cpu is supposed to be fast in the Diamond, it still slows down/locks up from time to time. This could be Windows, but it seems like my Diamond locks up more often than my old XDA Orbit did (was running Artemis Touch 4.0 ROM on that).

2. The battery life on the diamond sucks. It sucks more than a Dyson vacuum cleaner on steroids.

3. I find it much harder to type on my diamond because the keys are small. Also it annoys me that I can't find a way to program the 'home' and 'back' buttons to do what I want (have tried some software but can't find the button mapping).

4. The speakerphone call quality is absolutely useless. So bad in fact, that I cannot use it. This is by far the biggest problem for me.

5. Still no real headphone jack, making it useless as a music player for me (I dare not turn on bluetooth or the battery life will be even less).

6. Touch screen is inconsistent. Extra sensitive in some apps and not sensitive enough on others. Also it would have been better if they incorporated multi touch technology.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] bdangol:
I stand corrected but still feel my post rings true. :p
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] 3GDozer:
Diamond versus Goliath

Only the iPhone is a true Mac extension, and besides:

"Nur ein iPhone 3G ist ein iPhone 3G.":confused:
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] riverer:
I was going to get an iphone, but a few things put me off.

1) Becoming an 'iphone fashion casualty'. Its really 'in' and 'cool' to have an iphone, and that bugs me. I don't want a phone that has a cult-like-status and is super trendy, I'm a plain Tshirt kinda guy, not the gold plated chains sort.

2) Iphone fever is bad for mobile computing, all of a sudden after ignoring palm/WM devices for ages every site has an Iphone specific address for a made to measure Iphone site, or worse one that pops up from their main URL. If chunks of the web only started working on microsoft products everyone would get all rowdy about it, but since its apple its all cool. That sucks, no one should be excited that parts of the web are turning manufacturer-specific, but fan-boyism seems to blind people.

3) iphone costs 100 pounds + contract, where as I got a diamond+ 50quid USB mobile modem+ pay as you go simcard, with more minutes and unlimited texts and data for cheaper per month and a free handset.

4) Input on an Iphone is a thumb board, so I went into a store and tried it. It took me ages to get 'www.mmo-champion.com' typed in. On a diamond you can have a thumb board, or use it with a stylus, or use handwriting, or letter-recognizing software etc. I found it far easier to input information quickly.

I advise anyone who's weighing the two up to go into a shop, spend 5 minutes with an Iphone, then go to another shop and get them to whip out a diamond for you to play with. Everyones different after all ;)

Its taken me a little while to get the diamond to do what I want, but with doppler+windows media player syncing and a few bits of software and tweaks from here its now rocking.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] happyguy82:
by the way, I realised the iPhone 3G doesn't have GPS? It only has AGPS right? Will AGPS work with other Telcos apart from O2/AT&T? Will AGPS work in the middle of a jungle, ocean, dessert where navigation is needed but there isn't telco coverage?

Thanks.
[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] ramkt8:
Iphone is a "SMART PHONE FOR DUMMIES" version of a SMART PHONE

IPhone VS Diamond

OPERATING SYSTEM

the Apple OS on IPhone is a closed OS. U cant expand it more than whatever they give you. This way Apple keeps a EYE on what u r doing with ur IPHONE

WINDOWS MOBILE 6+ on DIAMOND or any other PHONE is very flexible in terms of modifications and Changes. WINDOWS Mobile is very flexible and is controlled by the USER instead of the Manufacturer.

I HEAR PEOPLE SAYing.. its hard to use Windows Mobile. If u have been using s WINDOWS PC. u can understand the workings of the WINDOWS MOBILE in a very short time.

SIZE

I DONT KNOW How many people actually like the HUGE SIZE of the Iphone.

ITS TOO BIG FOR ME.

Diamond is very compact and small.

INTERFACE:

APPLE Interface is nice. But its a PORTAL INTERFACE. everything is seperated. Nothing is inter linked.

TOUCH FLO 3D inteface is a much better. It gives u what u actually need in a everyday use in the main screens.. and rest of them are seperated into Programs or Settings.

MISSING PIECES

APPLE IPHONE :

NO FULL BLUETOOTH ACCESSABILITY

NO MMS( HUH!! really MMS became out of fashion all of a sudden??)

OFFICE SUITE (cant support OFFICE APPS)

THE ENTERPRISE PART Pretty much SUCKS.

CANT HAVE ALARMS ON REMINDERS IN CALENDER

CANT CHANGE BATTERY without going into APPLE STORE

CANT INSTALL 3rd PARTY APPS that are not certified by APPLE( BULLCRAP:eek: )

HTC TOUCH DIAMOND

SMALL BATTERY!!

NO EXPANDABLE MEMORY SLOT:mad:

SMALL BUILT IN MEMORY(4 gig) vs IPHONE HAS 16 gig:mad:

STILL NO GOOD STANDARD INTERFACE FOR AUDIO PLAYER

LOUD SPEAKER is BELOW AVERAGE:cool:

FINAL STATEMENT is that IPhone is for people who like to make a phone call or lisen to music.

TOUCH DIAMOND BASICALLY COVERS EVERYTHING!!