I have a new Google Android HTC Magic mobile phone working on the Telstra network.
Telstra is not expected to offer the phone until later this year, and even then it will probably be an expensive purchase on a plan.
I acquired mine from Hong Kong via eBay for $650 including postage. It was “unlocked” which means you can insert a SIM card from any service provider and it should work.
The phone itself is a beautiful unit: slim, sleek, light and packed with features. Full details are here on the HTC website.
Compared to my former JasJam (which also cost $650 in November 2007), it’s much lighter, faster, installs applications more easily and has a longer battery life.
The evolution of mobile phones into mini computers has been one of the biggest technological advances of recent years.
The HTC Magic connects easily to the internet via wireless or a carrier data plan and gives fast, simple access to Gmail.
That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting it to work on Telstra.
The Magic is currently available in Australia with Vodafone and Three. Neither network has strong coverage in rural areas, and because my call costs are work funded, I didn’t want a new provider account.
The only negative I encountered with the eBay purchase was that Google integration wasn’t included with the phone.
I read a little about this on Google and in some countries the phone is only shipped with basic software that does not include Gmail synchronisation or the all-important Android Market.
The market is where you go to download and install new applications for your phone.
Some that I have already installed include features to enhance GPS location, games, a compass, camera utilities, voice recording, file manager, dictionary, stopwatch and instant messenger.
Although functional without Google integration, not having those capabilities was deflating and contrary to the phone’s purpose.
The Google search engine was my friend in seeking a solution, and as mentioned, it’s complicated and scary for novice users.
Firstly, I had to download and install the Android SDK toolkit to my computer.
Instructions on what to do with that, and much more, are available here. My other main reference was this blog post.
The SDK toolkit is needed to establish a USB cable connection and give access to a Fastboot program. I don’t know how to explain this easily, so please use the references above if you’re attempting this.
You also need to select a suitable ROM for the phone. There are lots to choose from and the first one I tried didn’t work.
The Daldroid ROM did work on my HTC Magic with Telstra.
You download that, rename it update.zip and copy it to the phone’s flash memory card.
Follow the step-by-step instructions on the Arbitrary User website, numbers 11 to 20.
At this point, while waiting for the phone to reboot, you will panic, wondering if you have “bricked” the expensive new phone.
I certainly encountered that feeling when, at the first attempt, I saw nothing but a black screen of death.
Having read enough beforehand to both confuse myself and to learn there were solutions to everything, I realised the ROM mustn’t have been compatible with my phone.
Second time round, everything went according to the script.
Please don’t consider this post to be a “how to” guide. Visit the XDA Developer forums for that type of information and research extensively online.
The purpose of this post is to explain that Google Android can work on Telstra with a new unlocked HTC Magic imported from overseas in the hands of a user with average technical competence.
More general discussion about the phone’s use in Australia can be read in the Whirlpool forums.
These articles might be of interest:
A buddy of mine has a phone running Android. One of the apps is a calorie counter. The cool part about that, to me, anyway, is that if a food — JIF Peanut Butter, for example — isn’t in the program’s database you can use the phone’s camera to scan the bar code, and it adds the food item to the database.
Is it working on telstras NextG (850 UMTS) network ?
It’s running on EDGE, which I believe is slower than NextG, but I haven’t noticed any problems with email, browsing, etc. Depends what you want internet access for, I guess.