HTC Apps?

[lilb1190]

I dont own this phone just yet (waiting for my contract to expire), but I was planning to get it over the Lumia 900 because of the camera. One thing that I have noticed from the Lumia is that there appear to be a good bit of useful and unique apps that Nokia provides. I am also hearing about other exclusive ones.

Having never owned an HTC phone, I am not sure what to expect as far as apps. Does HTC release exclusive apps for phones that are actually useful? Im sure there are some bloatware apps, but those aside, is there anything I can look forward to that I may not be able to get on the Lumia 900?

Thanks!

 

[Daakkon]

HTC has exclusive apps, some or good, others are kind of useless. I've owned my hd7 for nearly a year now and they have yet to add any new apps of their own.

 

[naplesbill]

They provide several apps that I find useful. Here is a list of the ones I have used:

HTC Hub-news, weather, stocks, etc
Connected Media- dlna type app
Watch- for buying and renting movies and shows
Locations- Nav offline and online
Dock Mode- as name implies
Photo Enhancer-as name implies
Lists- " "
Notes- " "
Flashlight- led flashlight app
Compass
Calculator

There are a couple others that I have not used.

Sent from my PI86100 using Board Express

 

[lilb1190]

They provide several apps that I find useful. Here is a list of the ones I have used:

HTC Hub-news, weather, stocks, etc
Connected Media- dlna type app
Watch- for buying and renting movies and shows
Locations- Nav offline and online
Dock Mode- as name implies
Photo Enhancer-as name implies
Lists- " "
Notes- " "
Flashlight- led flashlight app
Compass
Calculator

There are a couple others that I have not used.

Sent from my PI86100 using Board Express

It sounds like there are some good apps, but they dont actively add exclusives very often? It seems like there are some good ones on that list.

 

[naplesbill]

I honestly find the HTC apps far more useful than what the 900 had. For my use anyway.

Sent from my PI86100 using Board Express

 

[Pocket PC]

Some feedback on HTC apps that I've used:

HTC Locations. They must have bought some cut-rate app for a "me too" service. Nowhere near as intuitive as Nokia Drive, but once you've figured out how to enter a desitnation the Guidance is ok. You do get lane selection, but it does not announce street names so you have to keep an eye on your phone for street names. Sometimes it says, "Turn left now", which turns out to be premature some times when streets are close together. It once took me exit off of a north-bound freeway onto a surface road for 1/2 mile, then had me make a u-turn, then got back onto the SAME freeway Northbound. Thanks for the useless detour!!!. Then on another drive, it wanted me to turn left from one major freeway onto another major freeway. Only thing was, it simply said "left turn like we were at a stop-light: while completely missing the off-ramp and on-ramp that it let me pass 1/2 mile before and the other freeway was now 150 feet above my head!!! LAME

THe search functions for local Points of interest on Locations is useless - old and clunky from a static list on the phone, not INternet-based search or location information. Reminded me of some crappy in-car Nav from about 10 years ago.

The HTC weather app only lets you put in MAJOR cities. So while I can put in San Jose or San Francisco, It's not aware of Santa Cruz or Monterey. Again, LAME! The stocks part looks pretty good, but there's no link back to relevant news for that ticker so it's missing a big part of what one would expect.

I think HTC is more concerned with checking boxes that providing useful apps. (We have navigation, weather, and stocks - True they suck, but we have 'em and that's all that counts.)

I will say that the HTC flashlight app is the best, cleanest apps ever - seriously.

 

[lilb1190]

Thats actually pretty concerning if those are your impressions. The first thing that drew me to the Titan II was the camera. The other thing is that I havent heard about as many issues as I have with the Lumia 900. I guess I just dont know what is so great about the Lumia 900. Essentially it sounds like a an LTE phone running Windows Phone 7. There isnt that much else to it, unless you like the form factor (I do, but not enough for it to be a selling point).

What I do like is that Nokia is working hard to support it. I dont want to get the Titan II, and then be abandoned by Nokia until I get my next phone.

 

[naplesbill]

I could care less about the navigation. It works well enough to be considered useful. There are better options in the marketplace for nav than either Nokia or HTC.

The hub works great for me. I have not had any issue with the current location not being found for weather updates.

I find their apps useful for me.

Sent from my PI86100 using Board Express

 

[malikinam]

i have lose my i phone and now i want to buy i pad, some body wanna sail his/her i phone???

 

[HeyCori]

i have lose my i phone and now i want to buy i pad, some body wanna sail his/her i phone???

This is not the forum for purchasing phones from other manufactures. Please do not spam this forum or the rest of WPCentral with sale offers. There is only one forum here where that is allowed. Please keep all discussion about buying phones in there.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/barter/

 

[inteller]

i love HTC Dock mode because I have the dock...BUT The fact that it only supports your Zune album collection is a little lame. I guess if I had a Zune Pass it would be ok. I really need it to support radio stations like Ministry of Sound and last.fm.

Locations was good until they started charging. Now it is dead to me.

The camera enhancements are top notch....no one else has that. Sound enhancements are meh....they cause a lot of games to studder.

Photo Enhancer is a good instagram replacement.
Lists is ok

Notes is not good, looks like a port from an android app.

Compass is excellent, one of the better compass apps I've used.

Calculator is ok

Love is WTF?

Connected Media is a bit of a kluge....it works....but at a bare minimum...again, it seems to be an android port.

HTC Watch is useless to me, I refuse to buy or rent media in a closed ecosystem. If it was a portal that supported Cinemanow or even Vudu I might be interested.

HTC hub is fine, just wish it updated the tile more often.

 

[lilb1190]

How much is Zune Pass and what is the benefit to having it? If its worth getting a dock for then I may do that.

Not sure what Love is. It sounds like my phone will talk sexy to me. I am currently appalled, yet intruiged.

I guess the unique apps arent great but arent terrible. It sucks that I will probably never see an update for them, but hopefully the non-exclusive library is pretty robust.

Anything useful in the app store/market/whatever they call it? Dont need an entire list, but maybe a few nods to the ones you like?

 

[McintyreM]

As soon as you buy an HTC device you have an access to Google Play, it's basically the same as Apple store and over they you can buy or download for free all the apps you want, just like on iPhone. I personally use What'sApp, Google Maps, Soundcloud and Facebook on Android.

 

[inteller]

i forgot to mention the Convertor app is good, one of the better convertor apps I've tried.

 

[socialcarpet]

As soon as you buy an HTC device you have an access to Google Play, it's basically the same as Apple store and over they you can buy or download for free all the apps you want, just like on iPhone. I personally use What'sApp, Google Maps, Soundcloud and Facebook on Android.

Your HTC Windows Phone has access to Google Play and runs Android apps huh?

 

[socialcarpet]

Thats actually pretty concerning if those are your impressions. The first thing that drew me to the Titan II was the camera. The other thing is that I havent heard about as many issues as I have with the Lumia 900. I guess I just dont know what is so great about the Lumia 900. Essentially it sounds like a an LTE phone running Windows Phone 7. There isnt that much else to it, unless you like the form factor (I do, but not enough for it to be a selling point).

What I do like is that Nokia is working hard to support it. I dont want to get the Titan II, and then be abandoned by Nokia until I get my next phone.

I don't understand. How would you be "abandoned by Nokia"? :straight:

Also regarding the apps which are exclusive to Nokia, here's a list of the ones I know about so far:

-Nokia Drive (arguably the best nav on any phone and it's 100% free)

-Nokia Maps

-Nokia City Lens (augmented reality app, similar to Google Goggles)

-Nokia Music: (a music player that manages your playlists, also lets you create your own streaming audio stations, like Pandora or grooveshark, only free and free of commercials, and allows you to save up to 3 hours of your custom stream to your phone to listen to off-line and it also finds local concerts by musicians you like )

-Nokia Reading: (Book, magazine/periodical reading app)

-Nokia Transport (city rail maps and bus routes/schedules for all over the world)

-Nokia Play To (beta) plays video, music and photos to DNLA capable TV's etc.

-The Caddie+ (exclusive features for Lumia only include: augmented reality app for real world golf courses, a GPS rangefinder, detailed score and stat tracking, 3D and aerial maps of the course you're playing, live scoring.

-Angry Birds Space

-CNN app

-Groupon app

-Tripdots app

-AOL Entertainment Hub (55,000 streaming SHOUTcast radio stations, movie previews etc)

-ESPN app

-ACC Sports

-ESPN Fantasy Football App

-PGA tour app

-Creative Studio (photo enhancing/editing app)

-Contacts Transfer (transfer contacts with other phones via Bluetooth)

-Upcoming EA sports game exclusives, likely to include FIFA and/or Madden NFL and Tiger Woods golf.

Other stuff on the way, thanks to Nokia's efforts, though it's not clear if these will be Nokia exclusives at first or not:

-Time app

-Newsweek app

-PayPal app

-Box app

Many of the things without "Nokia" in the name will become available to everyone else after 6 months - 2 years of course.

That Titan II camera is reallllly nice though. Might even be worth giving up all that stuff AND paying an extra $100. Who knows though.

 

[lilb1190]

Looks like its only another $50, now!

All of those 3rd party apps are currently exclusive to Nokia? Thats crazy. Nokia must have spent tons of money on those exclusives! I actually thought that most of their unique stuff was built by Nokia, but now that I see all of those 3rd party apps I am a little concerned about segmentation. I mean, they basically took a bunch of the top apps across any platform.

How well does augmented reality work in general? Is it something you would regularly use or is it more of something that is cool for awhile, but then you just use maps?

 

[rdubmu]

I don't understand. How would you be "abandoned by Nokia"? :straight:


-Groupon app

-

I have this app on my Titan II, is there a special version or something?

 

[Squatting Hen]

The HTC watch app is actully pretty cool when they run the weekend $0.05 rentals. I will pay .05 to rent but not $3-4.

 

[inteller]

i've never seen that before, that's crazy cheap