Day 5 with the HTC Desire HD: Applications and Content

Over decade ago I was a Power Downloader, I would spend hours on the net searching for the latest software. A friend of mine joked that the PC was a self-propagating hobby. He said "We download new software to improve our internet experience, and one we have optimized our PC, we use it our faster optimized PC to further improve our internet experience." Back than, on a  56kbps connection it was no joke. Today, I download Googles Chrome browser, add OpenOffice as my office suite, and grab a decent photo editor and an instant messenger from the net, and am good to go.

On my past smartphone phones, I do not recall downloading any software from my Microsoft powered HTC Tanager. On my Nokia 6600, Sony Ericsson P990, Nokia E61i and Samsung B7320, the only software I really added was that I actually used frequently was the Opera Mini Browser.

Astrid Tasks

The HTC Desire HD comes with an impressive set of software or applications out of the box. Aside from the mandatory contacts, calendar, browser and gallery a host of other useful applications are pre-installed. You have Adobe Reader, Quick Office, Google Maps, Locations, Navigation, an eBook reader, news readers, weather apps, and software to access Facebook, Flickr, Plurk and Facebook among others. In some cases, you have two pieces of software to choose from for the same function.

Still some key pieces of software are missing from the HTC Desire HD. There was no pre-installed to do list application, something which comes standard with Symbian and Windows Mobile 6.5. So I turned to the Android Market, which provides you with dozens of choices. More options than I want really. But based on recommendations on the web, I tried Astrik Tasks and gTasks, and opted to keep Astrid Tasks. There was no simple note taking application built-in so I downloaded ColorNote. The HTC Desire HD does not also come with an instant messenger installed, so I downloaded Yahoo Messenger. I am actually still trying to figure out which of the dozens of available unit converters to download.

ColorNote

While I really do not know for what use I also downloaded Google Goggles and Talking Tom. I also installed Click the City, which is a local (Philippine) app similar to locations, but providing you event, TV and movie schedules as well. I figure, sooner or later I will give in and download Angry Birds.

I was pretty surprised by the amount of free content. The HTC Desire HD comes with eight: Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cties, Bram Stocker Dracula, Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jack Londons White Fang, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.