HTC and Android are now fighting over my phone, and I’m a pissed off consumer who’s stuck in the middle.

Originally, my phone shipped with Android 2.3, with (the very slick) HTC Sense running on top of it. Recently, HTC released an upgrade to Android 4.0, the much-touted Ice Cream Sandwich. (Never mind that 4.1 AKA Jellybean is about to be released.) It also released a built in update to its HTC Sense.

What’s the purpose of the new version of Sense? Is it to take advantage of the new user interface that Ice Cream Sandwich provides? Is it to add a shiny finish on top of the OS that’s brilliantly designed to take advantage of the hardware present in both smartphones and tablets? Ha!

No, you silly dreamer. It’s to make 4.0’s interface look JUST LIKE 2.3’s interface. It’s purpose is to undo nearly all of the awesome that comes along with 4.0 so that HTC’s end users don’t get confused by the changes to their phones.

HTC upgraded the operating system my phone, and then added extra software to un-upgrade it. On top of that, it doesn’t work. At least three times a day, when exiting an app, Sense reloads itself. I’m not sure if it’s crashing, if it’s becoming unresponsive and timing out, but the result is the same. Irritated end user.

Wouldn’t it make more Sense (see what I did there?) to actually design that shiny polish for Ice Cream Sandwich? Of course it would! It makes so much sense that they’ve already done it. Can I install this piece of awesome software on my phone, since I’d rather have the changes that come with the new OS?

No, you silly dreamer. That’s only available for new phones that ship with Android 4.0 pre-installed.

*sputter*

This is yet another reason why people root their phones. Listen to me, phone companies and service providers. Your shininess is appreciated, but if it doesn’t work, it’s not welcome. That phrase you use? “Value-added feature?” It’s not adding any value for me. It’s right up there with the provider’s mandatory pre-installed junk apps that do nothing but slow my phone down as they inevitably crash and burn, or pop up helpful notices that cannot be dismissed or acknowledged or what-the-hell ever. I shake my cane at them and tell them to keep that crap to themselves.

So now I’m faced with the rooter’s conundrum. Do I root my phone, void its warrantee, and have the device function like it should? Or do I leave it alone, preserve the warrantee, and deal with the dumb? I suppose there is the third option of contacting HTC and finding out what they can do for me. Maybe I’ll give that one a go.

Despite my best efforts, sometimes hardware just needs to be given up on.

If you’ll remember, my last phone geekery post focused on my search for a good Android tweak for my phone, the Motorola Cliq XT. Unfortunately, my search brought me right up to the limitations of the hardware. I found nothing out there that would fix the auto-mute when switching from the current call to an incoming call, so I was left chalking it up to being a hardware-related problem. At work, during an emergency, I am likely to get several calls at once to my mobile phone, so this was an inconvenience.

That left two problems: slow interface response and a random delay when answering calls before I could hear the person on the other end. I found that if one version fixed one problem, it did not fix the other. I picked slow response, as Nikki found my repeated “Hello, hello?” to be pretty irritating over time.

With two of the three problems unresolvable, and our tax return in our bank account, we decided to get me a new phone. I have to admit that I’d been doing quite a bit of looking, so I knew exactly what I wanted.

As an aside, cell phone forums are as negative and soul sucking as YouTube comments. Sheesh.

I purchased an HTC Sensation, and have been gleeful with its performance since. It fits my needs now, and will likely continue to do so for the next couple of years. If and when it comes time to abandon the stock software on the phone, I’ll be more armed to find a good mod thanks to my wrestling with the Cliq XT. And whatever performance it ends up giving me, I’ll post both the positive and the negative when I review the phone on T-Mobile and HTC’s forums.

I desperately want to mod my phone into a reliable and useful state. I’m 75% of the way there. Its original software made it more than useless – it was a menace.  More specifically, it was a menace to my wife’s sanity.  It’s hardware is sufficient for my needs, unless it’s the hardware that has caused all of the problems.

Nah.

If that were the case, moving from MotoBlur to CyanogenMod wouldn’t have fixed anything.  HAS to be the software.

I’m going to try SuperOSR for a bit, and see if that one fixes the last few bugs, or if it creates any more.

Your smart phone? It’s a computer. That’s all. If it hangs up on people, reboots on its own, calls people while its screen is locked in your pocket, it’s either the hardware or the software. Why would you toss perfectly good hardware without trying to find software that works?

My wife is not a fan of Valentine’s Day, saint or no saint.  She is, however, a HUGE proponent of showing people that she loves them.  I woke up to the bright pink sock monkey over there, as well as the card.  The kids got sock monkeys, too.  Even though my wife thinks they’re creepy, she practically bathed in the smiles that the stuffed buggars brought to our faces.

And yes, I’m proud of still having enough of a kid in me to be overjoyed by the gift of a stuffed animal.  I mean, seriously.  SOCK MONKEY!  How can you NOT be thrilled?

WARNING: Here there be geek!

She also got me this, which I am enjoying immensely.  While I do dig mice, trackballs need no extra space in which to move around.  It is very comfortable, and my wrist has been thanking me.  I don’t even have to bring up how cool the lack of ridiculous dongle is.

I’ve been talking a lot about Windows Home Server.  It doesn’t dig actual server hardware, which I find odd.  It does run just find on a broken-down old laptop with no battery, connected to a 1TB USB HD.  It takes its time during the initial backup, but does what it’s supposed to do.  It also, after some driver trickery, reliably serves print jobs to an aged color inkjet printer.

Compared with getting a Linux server up and doing the same thing reliably, this has been painless.  Now, if my Windows vs. Linux maxim holds true, I will see problems later on.  In my experience, either operating system presents battles.  With Linux, all of the swearing and hair-pulling comes at the beginning, when you’re trying to get it to do what you want it to do.  With Windows, it comes later, as errors and problems creep into the software.  In any case, Home Server’s mechanism for adding the USB hard drive to its data store took two or three whole clicks.  Just awesome.

It feels good to know that all three PCs in the house are backed up in case of hard drive failure.  Because, you know, that NEVER happens.

END GEEKERY

I feel that there is more to say, but I don’t seem to have the words.