HTC adds Exchange support, camera enhancements and more to non-Google branded HTC Magic
HTC Magic
We just got confirmation from HTC’s Eric Lin stating that the Microsoft Exchange support found in CNET Asia’s Singapore market HTC Magic is indeed meant to be standard on that version of the phone.
According to Eric, the phones that lack the “with Google” branding are going to be offered with additional HTC developed functionality, such as the Exchange client seen by CNET Asia.
To quote Eric Lin:
The Vodafone version of Magic has “with Google” on the back, like the G1. This simple phrase indicates that the phone has a pure Google experience – no customizations have been made to the software. The Magic being sold in most of Asia is not a Google experience phone so we have started to put some of the HTC special sauce into Android. That Magic has Exchange support, a much more responsive and full featured camera application, a custom dialer application with smart dial and additional widgets as well.
Some of our readers have confirmed that a few of the baked ROMs for the G1 and Magic out there are based on HTC’s Singapore market ROM and do indeed offer Exchange support.
Eric also pointed out that Exchange is specicially mentioned on this HTC Magic page on the HTC website. That page also notes that the on-screen keyboard has predictive text functionality.
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Cool… so how do some of us ‘with google’ get some of this special sauce? I don’t really see how a more responsive and full featured camera destroys the google experience. :)
[...] Source : Android Authority [...]
I wish I could get that firmware for my G1, I do not like the Google integration. I think these company should really give you a choice.
It doesn’t hurt the “Google experience”, it’s just that HTC’s “with Google” handsets run the stock Android OS as Google presents it. Since there are already baked ROMs out there with the HTC Exchange client, my guess is that you could find what you need on the XDA-Developers website. You might need a rooted G1/Magic, though.
Hmn… I’m tempted to say: Give us the good stuff! But this could quickly turn into something similar to windows distribution, where your phone comes with tons of crap that takes forever to remove.
Since the Android Market allows filtering of what we see, HTC could offer some of these features to anyone with an HTC phone, right? That would be a nice way of making these features accessible to anyone looking for more than just the google experience.
If the HTC Exchange app is anything like what was in 5.0.2Hr3, it would make for a really bad user experience — I found that it kept screwing up the appointments on my Exchange server, stripping out the invitees from the meeting request. The mail application is pretty okay, though it does waste quite a bit of screen real estate and is seriously prone to socket timeouts.
[...] | £tbc | HTC (via Android Authority) Related storiesHTC Magic – the new name for G2HTC Magic: Unboxing photo fest!HTC Magic UK launch [...]
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[...] Canadian carrier Rogers has just trotted out its own version of the HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1. This version of the Dream comes without the “with Google” on the back, and as such HTC was free to load its own build of Android 1.5 (Cupcake) on the phone that includes such goodies as a Microsoft Exchange client. [...]
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[...] Today T-Mobile USA unwrapped its new HTC Magic-based myTouch 3G. Specification-wise. the phone is a near clone of the Vodafone model that is been available for some time with the exception of the built-in Microsoft Exchange email support. While we haven’t seen the device itself yet, we are expecting that it lacks the “with Google” branding found on the G1 and will be shipping with the same HTC augmented version of Android as seen in some Asian markets. [...]