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Your brother is an Apple fanboi, and you're right to distrust him. That's not to say that the iPhone is a bad device, but calling the HTC Magic a 'piece of shit' is far from accurate.
Preface: I do not own a smartphone at the moment, because I have better things to waste my money on. I don't need that level of connectivity in my day-to-day life. I am a geek however, and so I keep up with these things. I love smartphones from the ooshinygadget angle.
Comparing the HTC Magic with the iPhone 3GS on specs, the two are pretty similar. The key differences are:
- HTC Magic has removable storage in the form of MicroSD cards, whereas the 3GS has 16 GB of internal storage. One really equates to the other for most users, since there aren't a lot of people who need to cart around more than 16 GB of data on their phone anyway. All the same, it's a nice touch.
- The HTC Magic also has a removable battery. I'm not a fan of the idea that I have to pay labour to have a technician swap out a battery for me. It's not rocket science. On the other hand, upgrade cycles on smartphones seem sufficiently short that for a lot of users by the time they need to replace the battery they'll be looking for a new phone anyway.
- And the big one, Android vs. iPhone OS.
Basically, HTC smartphones are all using Google's open source Linux-based operating system these days, known as Android. The differences in performance are hard to quantify, since one can't exactly install them on the same hardware for side-by-side comparison. However, Android's marketplace is a lot more lenient in terms of software available, and as far as I know you don't have to do anything like jailbreaking in order to run third party software on an Android phone.
Personally, I'd go for the Magic over the iPhone. Really, though, depending on what you want to do you're likely to do well with either device. Given that you've expressed an anti-Apple sentiment, I'd say the answer is pretty clear.
It abruptly occurs to me that in the US choice of carrier might factor into your decision as well. The HTC Magic is exclusive to T-Mobile, while the iPhone is exclusive to Sprint. This isn't a factor for Canadians, since both phones are offered by the same carrier, but if you have a specific bias for/against one of those two companies, that may be something to consider as well.
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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said
- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
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