HTC One Max - A Review

I have been using the HTC One Max for some time now, and it seems that it might be time to provide a review.

I have been using it for about 11 months now and I have learned it's quirks.

First, HTC Sense is worthless.  Generic Android is much better and Sense only gets in the way of doing things.  So, first I turned it off and later I installed the Google Now Launcher which I actually like, though it is far from perfect.

I have my phone from Verizon, and between HTC and Verizon there is far too much bloatware on this phone for my taste.  There are a group of Verizon apps that cannot be uninstalled, which is really annoying, since I use only one Verizon app, the one that lets me check my data usage.

The screen is enormous, which I love and I have never once been sorry that I chose one of the largest phones on the market (5.9").  Unfortunately, HTC made some unfortunate choices which are rather annoying.  The HTC One Max has only two buttons, a home button and a back button.  They are backlit, but the lighting is so feeble that they can only be seen when the phone is off.  So, they can be seen when they cannot be used, and cannot see when they can.  Great work, HTC.  Couldn't you find anything stupider to do?  Oh wait, you did.

Because there are only two buttons, there is no dedicated button to view the list of running programs, so that you can switch between them.  No, you have to double tap the Home button to bring up a screen of the running apps, not a list, but a grid.  Actually, I suppose that makes two stupid choices.  More excellent work HTC.  Double tapping is not easy.  Single tap, home screen, double tab running apps grid.  Only about 40% of the time, my attempts to double tap bring up the Home screen.  The grid is not as good as a list, because when you have 4 or more apps open and want to close an app, you have to slide up through the app above the one you want to close.  About 5% of the time, that switches to the app on the lower line, or the one above it.  It isn't that often, just enough to be annoying.

So, each HTC change makes the phone worse. 

Also, the power button is in a perfect place, so that when you pick up your phone, it will either turn on or shut off, depending on what it was before you picked it up.  HTC, didn't anyone actually test the phone by picking it up?  It seems like a simple and obvious test, but obvious they did not perform that test.  Fortunately, a gel case fixed that.

One last thing, and probably the smallest of all.  The phone is white.  No one in their right mind wants a white phone, and yes, I am looking at all of you white iPhone users...you are NOT in your right mind.  Of course, you chose Apple, so you were mostly there already before proving it my buying a white phone.

So, what is my overall opinion of the HTC One Max?

I love it.

My problem is that I have owned three HTC phones, one of the first batch of Windows Phone 7 Phones (yea, that was a brilliant decision Microsoft), an HD7, and then an HTC Trophy 7.  I loved both of those phones, much more than the HTC One Max.

Hmmm, I wonder why?

Oh, it might be because Microsoft was smart enough to decide not to let OEMs modify the OS, and the hardware was set in stone, 3 buttons on the front, one camera/shutter button on the side.  No alterations.  No deciding that you know better and messing around with it.

The HTC One Max is a very good phone, but if they had left Android alone, and stuck with the standard button arrangement it would be a nearly perfect phone.

I wanted a big screen, and I got it, and that is why I love the HTC One Max.  If it were smaller, this would be an annoying phone.  I look at the HTC One remix on Verizon and notice that the extra hardware buttons are gone and it uses the onscreen buttons and it appears to have all three, so while a 4.5" screen is too small, at least they corrected one problem.

The Post-PC Era

Once again, an article on Tech Republic got me thinking.

What's behind the slump in PC sales? Can the industry turn around?

Specifically, it was the following lines at the end of the article.

‘Between now and the next "crucial holiday buying season," it's imperative that PC makers who want to avoid that fate put together product lineups that aren't so, you know, PC-like.’

This got me to thinking about the whole concept of the PC, and what a post-PC era might be.

First, I didn’t buy the post-PC era BS when Steve Jobs said it, and I still don’t…well, maybe not.  PCs are not going anywhere.  We are going to be using PCs for the next several decades.  There is still a need for powerful desktop PCs. 

The problem is that most of us are learning that we don’t really need a PC for most of what we have done on a PC for the last couple of decades.  We really do not need PCs to surf the web, to check our email, check Facebook, watch a video or two.  Netflix and Hulu Plus are both available on tablets and smartphones (Hulu too, if you work at it).  Some tablets even have HDMI ports, so you can push it to your TV.  You can even do Word Processing on a tablet, if you add a keyboard. 

It is beyond these simple tasks where I start to see the weakness of my tablet, but I do not do them very often.  Picture editing is possible, but I find nothing to match Paint.net, which I have on my PC (it’s free).  But, as I said, I do not need Paint.net very often. 

I can easily imagine a future where there is one PC in my house.  Right now there are 4.  As a family, we have not made the switch to tablets.  My son likes PC games too much, and I am the only one with a tablet.  But, I can imagine each of us with our own tablet, and one PC for the things that require a PC.  I cannot yet imagine not having a PC at home.

The PC has dominated for the last two decades because of its versatility.  It could be anything.  It could be a lightweight portable for hauling across the country.  It could be a multimedia machine for listening to music, watching videos, even recording and producing them both.  It could be a graphics workstation, handling the largest pictures with ease.  It became our window to the internet, to email and webpages, to social networking and Wikipedia and all those other things.  For many, that window to the internet is really all a PC was…at home.  That job is being taken over by smartphones and tablets.

I quoted the end of the article above, but I am now going to quote the beginning.

“PCs are for work, tablets are for fun.”

And he quickly followed with…

“No one climbed on Santa's lap and asked for a new laptop. They wanted a Kindle or an iPad, or maybe even a cheap Android tablet, all of which cost less than a PC and are easier to wrap.”

Tablets were the hot gift of the season.  Now, it could be that tablets are just this season’s Tickle Me Elmo, but I don’t think so.  The momentum has shifted away from PCs towards tablets, but the real momentum is for the hearts and minds of users.  Lots of people still use PCs, but people don’t want PCs.  They may still need them, but that need is like how some people actually need Minivans.  They may need it, but it is not what they want, what they desire, what they dream about.

So, maybe we have entered the post-PC era.  The era when the PC slips from being an object of desire, like a sports car, and becomes the tool that we use because we need it, like the Minivan.

The Apple Falacy

I am not a big fan of Apple.  I want that up front, right off the bat.  I admire the company's success, but I dislike the fanatical support of some of their users.  I tend to dislike fanatics on any level.  I certainly have a rather strong dislike of religious fanatics, and Apple fanatics often take things into realms that border on religion.  Until the death of Steve Jobs, they had their prophet, and they tend to take things on faith.  Faith is the only explanation for the huge sales of the original iPad in the first few days after launch.  Only a handful of people had gotten their hands on one before launch and yet millions bought it in the first few days.  Why?  Because their prophet said it was magical, so like sheep, they lined up and bought one. 

I'll try not to use the sheep word too much, because the only people who really qualify are people who bought an iPad without really knowing what they were getting.  Buying the new iPad, or the new iPhone isn't the same, because these are new versions of a well-known product.  You mostly know what you are getting. 

But, that isn't the Apple fallacy, and all the people who buy them aren't sheep.  They may be victims of the Apple fallacy, but they did know what they were getting.  So, let me tell you two more things. 

I'm 6'4" and I weigh over 300lbs.  Now, I bring those up for one reason, and that is that I find it hard to find clothes that fit.  And one of my greatest annoyances is the phrase, "One size fits all."  Anything that is given that description will not fit me, and in fact I alter it to, "One size fits none."  It would actually be more appropriate to say, "One size fits few." 

Now, you might be wondering how this ties into something that could possibly be called the Apple Fallacy.  The problem is that in the smartphone and tablet markets, Apple are the "One size fits all."  They produce only one model of each, as if one model can truly be the best thing for everyone. 

The amazing thing is that people actually believe this.  Some of them are actually somewhat smart people who hold jobs.  One of them works for Gizmodo.  Or maybe I should say writes for Gizmodo, though he is listed as an Editor. 

He thinks that 5 million Samsung Note buyers are...confused.

He thinks that it is his job to stop people from buying big phones by showing how silly they look on a diminutive woman with pants that are tight enough to cut off her circulation. Link

I suppose that the author is one of those normal sized people for whom most things are designed, including Apple products, but that doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with those of who cannot wear generic gimme caps, and can barely pull on a single X large shirt, and can't, or don't want to be forced to read on the tiny 3.5" screen of the present iPhone. 

The Apple fallacy is the very concept that you can make one product and please everyone.  No matter how much time, brain power and money you spend on figuring out the perfect device, there will always be someone who is better off with something else.  And, there will always be those who choose to buy something different from everyone else. 

Now, someone will point to Apple's sales figures and say that proves that one size fits all is the way to go.  Well, it probably is if you want to make money, at least if you can sell one item, or one in a few different categories, as well as Apple does, but that doesn't mean that products and manufacturers that don't espouse the one-size-fits-all philosophy are stupid....and it certainly doesn't mean that anyone is stupid for not choosing the on-size-fits-all product. 

Also, it is my opinion that the victory of Android over the iPhone is BECAUSE of the choices, and especially, because of the bigger phones.  Why else would their be so many rumors about a larger iPhone? 

Apple's one-size-fits-all policy has been a huge success as judged by millions of users and $100 billion in the bank, but some of the followers of the Church of Apple, which includes a majority of the Gizmodo writers, have fallen for the Fallacy that what is best for Apple the company, and best for Apple's users (which is debatable), is best for everyone.  And here, they truly push Apple over into that religious analogy.  They preach the one true faith. 

They see the one true path, but there are many of us who find that path too restrictive, and we walk a path of our own, and since this really isn't religion, we are right, and all those who tell us our phones are too big are wrong.  You don't wear clothes the same size as everyone else, you buy the size that fits you and while the size of your phone isn't always proportional to the size of your body, you should buy the phone that fits your needs and desires, even if others try to tell you that you're confused.  It is they that are confused.  Yes, the iPhone and iPad are great products, and you don't know how much it hurts for me to say that, but they are not the right fit for everyone. 

And tech writers, especially those at Gizmodo, need to see that, and not try to sell the rest of us on the Apple Fallacy.