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After my disappointing experience being [URL="http://dpnow.com/forum2/blog.php?b=138"]ripped off[/URL] with outrageous roaming data charges by Orange, my mobile phone network of over ten years, I decided to switch networks (to T-Mobile who are, ironically in the middle of merging with Orange) and replace my old phone at the same time.

I'm now the proud owner of a shiny new HTC Desire, currently widely rated as the best smart phone available (even better than an Apple iPhone 3Gs). It runs the latest version of Google's Android mobile phone operating system.

I thought you might be interested to see some of its photo-related capabilities. Here are some screen grabs (click on each to see a new window with the full resolution graphic - the Desire's screen is very generous 800x480 pixels (my old phone made do with 320x240 pixels),and it's an AMOLED screen, too, so its viewing angles and 'punch' are excellent:

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This is the default home screen - very pretty too, but fully customisable.

There are tens of thousands of apps, compact software applications, that you can download and install very easily, and most of them are free. There are quite a few for photographers. Here are a couple of examples:

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This is a depth of field calculator. Choose your camera, enter the aperture and subject distance and away you go!

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It gives you the hyperfocal distance as well (the nearest distance that you can focus to that ensures everything beyond is in focus until infinity).

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This app is a simple but very elegant exposure reckoner. Change the aperture and the shutter speed shifts accordingly. You can alter the ISO as well. And you can compare two sets of exposure settings.

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Of course the HTC Desire has a camera built in (though not a self-facing video call camera - they are apparently going out of fashion). It's a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash (you can also get an app that lets you use the LED as a make-shift torch). The camera is surprisingly configurable, complete with ISO speeds and manual white balance settings, as well as effects like mono and tone hues, plus posterisation and solarisation options.

The Desire, like most smart phones these days, has a GPS receiver built in and it can geo-tag photos. There is also digital compass, but I haven't yet worked out if that can be linked to the camera for a directional record of your photos. Video is also supported, but it's not HD resolution (though an update is rumoured to be in the pipeline) and only 15 frames per second.

One cool feature is the FaceBook app that lets you take picture and upload it immediately to your FaceBook page.

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As we have come to expect from phones like the iPhone, the photo viewer is very slick and lets you upload photos to various photo sharing and social networking sites instantly.

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Having an 800x480 pixel screen is hugely beneficial if you want to vie photos and also web pages. The screen has a 3.7 inch diagonal, so the pixels are very small, but thanks to multi-touch zooming you can read fine details very conveniently.

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There is so much more to say about this phone; its multi-tasking Android operating system, HTC Sense user interface, the fact that it's a very close cousin to Google's own-brand Nexus One Android phone, the inclusion of free turn by turn Google Maps (car) Navigation, its optical finger 'mouse', voice recognition, and so on...

The phone that I'm retiring is a three year old design from the same manufacturer. But comparing the new HTC Desire to the old HTC Tytn II (which is a Windows phone) is like comparing a 1950s Mini with the current cool and trendy Mini.