Best phone I've ever used and abused (read: modded) for over a year!

The year? 2007.  My wife was notoriously standing over my shoulder tapping her foot as I plugged away on my desktop reading and responding to emails.  Checking RSS feeds, and responding to blogs and forum messages.  She had a laptop that I had bought her for our anniversary and I was using it from time to time, but that still didn't make her happy.  I was enslaved to my PC.  And that was not good.

Enter the Cingular / ATT 8525 (aka HTC Hermes).  My good friend had purchased one a few months before I did and was showing me what he had been able to do with it.  He's an average computer user and was able to get some impressive results with a PHONE!  I decided that when my ATT upgrade came around, I'd be getting one for myself.

The Hardware is very simple by today's standards, but at the time, it was THE phone to have.  WiFi, 3G / HSDPA, Touch Screen w/stylus, MicroSD slot (not MicroSDHC compatible at first - is now through 3rd party upgrade), slideout "qwerty" keyboard, 2 megapixel camera with flash, Push to Talk, and a standard USB charger.  The only thing missing from the Hermes (8525) was the onboard GPS (which was found later via xda-developers.com to be actually in the phone, but physically disabled via cut soldering connections - but that's not important) and an accelerometer like you'd find on the iPhone and new HTC Touch Pro or Diamond phones.

When I first got the phone, it had windows mobile 5 on it.  WM5 is a capable, but limited-in-features operating system that allows you to have instant access to email, Internet explorer, and of course all the applications that are readily available on the Internet.  The phone came preloaded with all of ATT's 'bloat-ware' which included MobiTV, XM Radio Streaming, ATT shortcuts to the on line store and a few other programs that really didn't garner much attention.  All in all, a very useful phone that had much potential, but was limited by low RAM amounts (after all the bloat ware, there was maybe 7-12 MB free on the phone!) and a limited ROM size.  (Also, in stock WM5 or WM6 form, the phone does NOT accept MicroSDHC cards.)

Shortly after I got the phone,  ATT released the official WM6 upgrade.  This improved MANY features (mostly email and Internet), and.. included more bloat-ware.  All in all though, it was a very useful phone that was only made better everyday.  I was able to stream my Internet radio stations, access my computer contents on the road, read and reply to email - now via imap through gmail - and read and reply to RSS feeds from blogs and Forum threads.  I was in portable device ZEN.

THEN I discovered XDA-Developers.com.  They are dedicated to tearing apart and modifying HTC devices like the 8525.  I have since tried multiple custom ROMs on the Hermes.  Pay's Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM was probably the one that started my obsession with upgrading the phone.  It nearly doubled the RAM, increased the ROM, reduced the 'bloat-ware', added functionality such as unlimited tethering via Bluetooth or USB, improved the radio functionality, enabled HSDPA, and included some very useful HTC programs such as HTC home, HTC Audio manager and more.  I've tried multiple ROMs since.  Schap's ROM is currently loaded on my 8525 and is very fast and stable, and I've experimented with a few that were less than impressive in performance, but packed features of some newer phones.

Since I purchased this phone, I've changed my computing habits.  I no longer need to be in front of a computer to manage my email load (at least 50 a day), I've signed up for 'SkyFire' which is a beta application which renders web pages in whole and streams them to your phone from a remote server, and I've redefined how I listen to music in my vehicle.  I have a dash mount that I set the phone into, and plug in my 3-way adapter (available from amazon.com) which allows for the use of the HTC stereo headset, a charger, and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack.  I have that plugged directly into my head unit in the car and use HTC audio manager which is extremely finger friendly to manage the music.  Last.FM, which tracks you music listening habits, has a program that is compatible with either Windows Media Player or HTC Audio Manager called "Pocket Scrobbler", and that updates your mobile listening habits on the move.  Combine that with an 8GB MicroSDHC chip and you're in business.

Via Bluetooth, I'm able to pair to my laptop, and stream high quality music, phone conversations, files, and even the phone's internet connection.  I have a $30 Bluetooth GPS that's the size of a matchbox which I use in conjunction with TomTom Navigator 6, Google Maps, and Microsoft Live Search.  A few other applications such as a WiFi location 'journal' (wardriving) application called WiFiFoFum will note the exact location of wifi locations are GPS compatible, and make use of the Bluetooth device.  Via a program called WMWifiRouter, I'm able to create a virtual WiFi ROUTER which operates through my phone's wifi connection and can manage multiple connections at a time.  I've been successful at connecting a laptop, another phone, and even a Playstation 3 via WMWiFiRouter!

Basically, it's the single most useful device I've ever owned.  It is capable of so much, and I haven't even scratched the surface yet.  It's even capable of full VPN connections, Microsoft Terminal Services (MSTSC allows the remote control of windows XP or Vista machines) control with a screen of the remote machine on the handset, and has the ability to interface with compatible office presentation projectors - with out any physical connections or computers required.

The battery life in this phone varies on your usage habits and how often you're plugged in.  I highly reccomend a car charger, USB cable at your office desk, and a wall charger wherever you usually leave your phone at home.  This thing will eat up the battery very quickly when you get a lot of emails, or if you use Bluetooth and WiFi a lot.  Talk time is decent, but is not as long as most non-smart phones.  I'd estimate a full day's battery life if you're not in any dead zones and if you use the phone for strictly phone calls and email.  Internet data and music playing will drain the battery quickly.

The phone quality is excellent but the device is very heavy and can be cumbersome to hold for long conversations or to do other tasks at the same time so use of the included headset or a Bluetooth headset is almost a must.  Also, if you're in a low reception area and are receiving data transmissions from email or other applications and make a phone call, the conversation may be plagued with a buzz on the other end of the line.

Software is really a driving factor for the usefulness of this device, and there is no lack of available software.  I recommend Microsoft Live search software (uses speech recognition and is GPS compatible), Google Maps, SkyFire, Youmail.com voice mail integration, Last.fm pocket scrobbler, HTC Audio Manager, HTC Home, PocketSand, Opera Mobile, and Flashlight and VJLumos utilities (Lumos increases the brightness of the LCD for daytime viewing).