14 DAY TRIAL // HTC Magic, the second mobile phone in the world to come to the market featuring Google's Android Operating system, has been recently spotted into the wild featuring something rather unexpected, namely support for Microsoft Exchange, though it seems that the model was the Asian version of Magic, while Google said it hadn't added the feature to its platform.
Although the Microsoft Exchange support was there, no exact details on how it was added have been unveiled until now, when we learn that the company stated that the Asian version of HTC Magic would include the functionality as a standard feature. Moreover, HTC’s Eric Lin said, all the HTC Magic units that did not sport the “with Google” branding on them would have this feature.
In addition, it seems that these units will also include some other capabilities that the “with Google” phones will not. And to explain what these handsets actually are, we should quote Eric Lin: “The Vodafone version of Magic has ‘with Google’ on the back, like the G1. This simple phrase indicates that the phone has a pure Google experience – no customizations have been made to the software.”
As many of you might already know, there are some differences that have been spotted between the HTC-backed ROM for the Dream (G1) and the Google-baked one, and it seems that the same will actually happen with the Magic as well.
“The Magic being sold in most of Asia is not a Google experience phone, so we have started to put some of the HTC special sauce into Android. That Magic has Exchange support, a much more responsive and full featured camera application, a custom dialer application with smart dial and additional widgets as well,” is what Eric Lin added.
To put this in much simpler words, there will be some HTC Magic owners that will be happier than the others, as the mobile phone maker took it upon itself to enhance the device so as to offer a leveraged experience to its users. And it seems that HTC mentions all the features of the device on its website, where it also states that the handset features a predictive text functionality for the on-screen keyboard.