— as well as the stylus key — are on the bottom of the display. Tilt the Flyer into landscape mode, and they suddenly reappear below the screen. Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner? Lastly, the Flyer packs support for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi networks — the 4G version is known as the EVO View 4G on Sprint — and I didn’t have any issues using it on my home network for extended periods of time. Software The HTC Flyer runs Android 2.3 with a flavor of HTC’s Sense user interface that was specifically designed for use on tablets. There are a few unique touches here and there, some of which we’ll see carried over in the next generation of Sense for smartphones, too. There are eight different home screen panels to customize, and I love that HTC has included newer, larger widgets for the weather, viewing photos, seeing your eBook library, viewing your contacts, and more. It’s easier to rotate around home screen panels now, too — the carousel now completes a full loop, which means you can jump from your far right home screen panel to the left one with just a quick flick. The 1.5GHz processor under the hood handles all of Sense’s eye candy with nary a struggle, save for the unlock mechanism, which, oddly, lagged at times. My biggest issue with Sense on a tablet is the home screen in landscape mode. HTC wasted a ton of space here. I understand that it may have been necessary in order to display icons or widgets appropriately, but it feels like over half of the screen is taken up just showing the panels to the left and right of the current home screen. That’s space that could have been used for more widgets. You know Android users just love widgets. The Flyer is free of bloatware since it’s a sans-carrier device. In fact, most owners will find all of the pre-installed software useful for one reason or another. There’s a Kid Mode option that’s powered by Zoodles for playing games that take advantage of the touchscreen, drawing and painting, reading kids books, sending email to family, and more. A Press Reader application can be used to subscribe to a number of global newspapers. I checked out an issue of The Washington Post and, while it’s far too hard to read zoomed out, I appreciated getting to see the current day’s articles after clicking them from a view of the full newspaper. Press Reader includes 7 free issues, too, so you can get a feel for whether or not a subscription is worth it. We’re all used to the photos that Mac users take of themselves in Photo Booth on OS X, and the Flyer has a similar option. Using the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera, you can take photos of yourself with silly effects such as bulge, mirror, pucker, and others. It’s a fun, but mostly useless feature. The Reader application, powered by Kobo, is decent. After reading a few pages of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I was convinced reading an eBook on the Flyer is as good as the Galaxy Tab and other Android tablets I’ve used. I prefer reading with Kindle, however, as it’s easier to adjust the brightness on the fly. Stylus The Flyer supports a a stylus input system, which HTC has dubbed “HTC Scribe.” The stylus itself is an insanely expensive $80 accessory, and that’s a lot to swallow for access to new features that are natively supported on an already-not-inexpensive $500 tablet. These days I’m more apt to taking notes on my phone than writing them down on a a piece of paper. Admittedly, I was no different in college when I opted for writing on my hand. So why should I write on a tablet? Sure, the stylus works well, and I like that there are options to draw anywhere on the screen — yes even the home screen — and that the tablet will automatically take a screen shot and sync with Evernote. Ultimately, my handwriting is still as messy as it ever was (the reason why I don’t write with a pen in the first place), and it’s not worth the extra $80.Worse yet, there’s nowhere to actually attach the stylus to the Flyer. I’ve probably misplaced it handful of times in the couple days I have spent with the Flyer. Camera The Flyer’s 5 megapixel camera took decent photos, though I prefer the shots taken with Samsung’s most of the time. It’s also capable of recording 720p video, although it doesn’t come with HDMI-out cables in the box, which is mildly shocking given that even many high-end phones offer that accessory. Recorded video looked decent when I played it back on my computer screen, however it lacked continuous auto-focus. I’m also unsure why HTC chose to eliminate a flash option — there’s plenty of room — so low light shots didn’t come out very well. There’s a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front of the Flyer for video