Thetownend.com

So what are the best apps to download and anyone know of any tweaks to the setup

Apparrently there is 1 called something like Task Manager killer that is supposed to be one of the first to download

Will be setting mine up tonight and having a play

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=594
everythign you ever needed to know about the desire.

i will warn you though if you decide to post on it, read the sticky posts as they can get quite cuntish about people asking repetative questions, but i'd suggest taking a few hours to read through it

also this
http://www.xda-developers.com/?tag=HTC-Desire,All-Android,Android-2.1,WVGA,&device=HTC%20Desire

Don't use a  task manager, apparently Android is very good at managing running tasks and it just causes problems. I tried using one and a few things stopped working, uninstalled and won't be using again.

The first app you should get is called AppBrain. Download that, then head over to www.appbrain.com. There you will be able to browse the market online, select what you want to download etc. Then go to AppBrain app on your phone, select manage my apps and then sync. It'll then go through each install/uninstall one by one, including updates.

Other apps I use a lot:

Astro File Explorer - a good tool to view files/folders on your phone.
Battery time lite - easy to see how much battery you have left. If you set it up you can have a % in your task bar.
Where's my droid - allows you to set up a code phrase to text your phone when you misplace it. It'll ring the phone even if it is on silent.
UK TV droid - TV guide, can setup reminders for programmes (freeview only I think).
Handcent - alternative sms client. I like it because it gives me a quick reply pop up to every message received and can also change the LED notification colour and frequency (I set it to flash until I read the message).
Google goggles - can take pictures of foreign language and will auto-translate, or landmarks to find where you are. Also has a barcode scanner bult in for price comparison shizzle.
Pkt Auctions Ebay - Ebay app.
Google voice search - might be installed already.
Paypal - manage your account.

All those are free, I don't like paying for things. If you do pay for an app and it's shit though, if you uninstall within 24 hours you get a refund.

There are plenty of other tweaks you can do, depends what you're after really. Phandroid is probably a good place to head to, xda can be a bit involved (custom software roms etc).

Oh and an update to Android is expected this quarter for the HTC Desire :)

Just be wary of what you install, certain apps can halt the shut down process mid-way through, leaving your phone fucking useless unless you pull the battery out. I jusit had to do a factory reset on mine, shuts down ok now.

Name and shame - which app caused the problem?

As for recommendations:

Barcode Scanner (not sure if this comes preinstalled actually) - great little app which will scan barcodes on any product and look them up on Google Shopper so you can see if that "cheap" DVD/Book etc is available cheaper online/down the road

AirHorn - fantastic "annoy your missus by being a noisy kid" fun

Android System Info - more system data than you can shake a stick at, right down to the log files.

3G Watchdog - monitor your mobile data usage, handy if you've got an "Unlimited Internet" contract which is actually 500Mb pm and you're worried about your usage.

Android LightSabre - does what it says on the tin

Remember to turn GPS off when you're not using it, eats battery like a battery-eating thing

Yes, the power control widget comes in handy for turning off GPS etc.

Make sure you download Layar... t'is awesome - augmented reality app.

erm i had a battery widget, (cant remember which) which could turn off wifi and gps too, got rid of that, the facebook app, and a couple of games (blowup lite and an airplane one!)

Yeah, I'm on about the one which is in built into the phone :)

My Facebook contacts have synced with all my other contacts, I have switched the option off now after finding it, is there a way of 'refreshing' so all the facebook contacts dissapear and just keep my contacs that I put in to the phone ?

Thought I'd ask here save searching for the answer

Do you mean you don't want you contacts linked to their facebook accounts?

Or, do you mean that other facebook friends are showing up in contacts but you don't want them to appear (i.e. only contacts you've entered into your phone book)?

Not sure if it's got an answer to your cross-fertilisation problem, but this page is pretty handy and worth looking through:

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/59664-htc-desire-tips-tricks-read-me.html

If you want to hide facebook contacts just go to People>Menu>View>untick Facebook

I don't want to view my facebook contacts only in if I'm in facebook when I send a text for e.g.  - at the moment if I go to new message or if I go to make a call I can see all facebook contacts as well as mine - and I don't want to

I have unticked the option within view but it still shows all facebook contacts so I have to scroll through everyone and it's a pain

Did you get this sorted? Could try ticking the 'only contacts with phone numbers' box in view.

Yep, got it sorted not sure how as I was playing around - now I've got the problem that the internet is really tiny not sure what I've done - been playing around and changing different things, I'm sure I'll work it out somehow

Godop phone though, certainly does what it says on the box and nice and quick, touch screen takes a bit of getting used to though and learning where everything is located

Probably just need to change the default zoom in settings back to medium.

   Is anyone else having a problem switching the phone off? Seems to be if I install any apps the phone just sits on the 'shutting down phone' screen, and I have to take the battery out. I've already done two factory resets, it turns off fine then, until I install anything. It's doing my head in. Went to the t-mobile shop yesterday, to be told "if that's your only problem with a brand new smart phone, you're lucky"

Have you got a task killer installed? Rooted or standard phone?

I did have a thing once where it took 5 mins to shut down but was fine after that.

That's not an answer, you should go back and ask to see the manager and demand a fix (as in "That's caused by xyz, here's what you can do to stop it happening") or a new phone. Most likely won't resolve the problem, but fobbing you off like that is fucking shit customer service. It's a smartphone, one of the major selling points is to be able to install apps on it, if you can't it's not fit for purpose.

On the general point, personally I've installed quite a few apps on mine  (and uninstalled some) and not had this issue, but seen enough reports of badly behaving apps to guess that this is what's causing your problem - like most OS's Android has lifecycle hooks for apps so that when the overall OS shuts down, any running apps get notified as part of the shutdown sequence so they can perform any cleanup/shutdown tasks they need to do to close out cleanly. It sounds like you've got one or more apps that aren't doing this bit properly and so causing the whole shutdown sequence to hang.

So I guess what you need to do is try and narrrow down which apps are causing the problem. Do a factory reset so it's back to a clean state, install the apps one at a time, shutting the phone down between each install. That should enable you to tell which one is the culprit. Then report back so the rest of us know to avoid it.

But still go back and play hell with the shop, that's a fucking crap answer

I was Fucking aghast when he said it. The guy was a prick. I've gotta go into town tomorrow anyway, so will go in again and have another try.

Take a bat with you, just in case

Also I forgot to say...I ditched Astro File Manager in favour of Estrongs. You can share files over your wireless connection. Cracking for transferring music and the such.

Erm, went into town this morning, and amongst other business I had to attend to, I forgot to go to t-mobile. Whoops. Anyway, since my last factory reset I have only installed Battery Lite (recommended in this thread) and updated Google maps and Facebook via the Android market. It's not switching off again. I'm getting more and more pissed off with this.

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/116150-phone-takes-ages-switch-off.html

Have a butchers at that Jimmy

[hijack]
Anything like this for the iphone?
[/hijack]

Someone asked me that the other week, couldn't find anything on tinterweb

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/find-my-iphone/id376101648?mt=8

Nah 99.9% of the time it's in my house but on silent so not sure that would help.

That app would do the trick - it doesn't matter if it is on silent as it will still make a noise. But you need a MobileMe subscription to use it (but not another iPhone as you can access the same thing by signing on to the MobileMe website).

Legend. Sorted! Just need a decent backup app now. Any suggestions?

How do you forward a text can't seem to work it out ??

Assuing its the same for all android users:

Select message and long hold on it. i.e. keep your finger presseed on it. et voila, the forward option should appear.

What Batch said. Holding an item for a few seconds (ie as opposed to just clicking it) is kind of the touchscreen right click so it's always worth trying that on things where you're thinking "I want to forward/delete this but can't see how" (e.g. this is how you delete MP3s from the Music Player)

Wonder if this one is coming here, looks pretty neat

http://www.htc-evo.net/

Nope it's not coming to the UK.

There will probably be a phone similar in specs by the latter stages of the year though, albeit on 3G.

Cheers Si, bit of a shame that could have tempted me to switch to a contract

There's a rumour of an HTC Desire HD or similar coming out.

But there's no 4G in the UK, hence why they aren't going to sell it.

Technically, there is no 4G anywhere in the world. LTE and WiMax are actually pre-4G and don't fully meet the IMT-Advanced specification which is being pushed as the 4G standard. 4G isn't much more than a marketing tool at present. Pretty certain that none of the UK networks have even decided which technology they will use (though it will most likely be LTE).

How come the Yanks get all the good stuff, it's just not fair

On another note the US government say Jailbreaking an iPhone is legal

http://tinyurl.com/2efsb39

The market is going towards LTE, and the LTE standard is evolving. It'll be the 4G solution. Just not very soon.

You've lost me already Batch

Android 2.2 (Froyo) now out for HTC Desire via over the air update. Branded handsets will have to wait until the network fiddle around and release their own versions.

...Froyo? Seriously?

Anyway, I've just got a Wildfire. Any important apps, preferably free ones?

I've got an HTC Hero - which I can't get to pick up the wireless in my flat. Anybody had similar problems or have any ideas?

Try changing the wireless channel in the router 1,6 or 11 are your best bet

Each Android version is named after a foodstuff. Previous was Eclair, next will be Gingerbread. Nom nom nom.

Apps - look at the start of the thread. Personally I'd get Estrongs file explorer over Astro now, because you can transfer files over wi-fi which is so much easier than fishing around for the usb lead. I'd also get the official ebay app over pktauctions ebay if you use ebay.

Most apps are free or have free versions. If you do pay for an app then you get a refund if you uninstall it within 24 hours.


Can you get it to work on other wi-fi networks?

HTC-specific stuff includes:
according to techradar: http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-desire-android-2-2-update-coming-this-weekend-706700

So I assume the 720p bit means it includes firmware update as well to enable HD-ish video?

Bah, I'm on voda so it'll probably be October before I get to find out for myself

I've debranded and just updated to v2.2. It does include 720p recording

Woot!

So is there not a way of plugging it in to the pc via usb or wifi to get the update - will the network block the update, I didn't think that my Desire was branded although I'm on Voda also so maybe it is ??

It's not the transport mechanism that's the issue - whether you're on Vodafone, O2 or completely unbranded/unlocked, you'd still want to get it over Wi-Fi. My phone also isn't "branded" per se, ie there's no Voda logo on startup etc, but I've still got the Vodafone-specific firmware. That's what dictates whether you can get the "unbranded" (ie available now) update or whether you have to wait for your network provider. The Voda-specific FW is listed as 2.1-update1 FW version and the software is listed as 1.19.161.x (Menu->Settings->About Phone->Software information)

Go to menu>settings>about phone>system software updates>check now

There may be more than one update (or non at all depending on which network you're on), so once the first is done check again. It can be done over wi-fi.

If you really want to you can debrand the phone to receive the update earlier. On Voda it shouldn't network lock the phone, but the updates should be out on all networks soonish.

Just seen, it's not out on Vodafone. The latest update adds load of unwanted crap, music store etc.

Don't think it is. There's an update available, but it's not Froyo, it's a shitload of VF branding stuff/bloatware apps which turns unbranded phones into branded ones. Update number is 1.24.161.3, all it does is splurge Voda crap all over the phone

Oooh, you cheated and changed it :)

They're going mad on the Vodafone forums, makes us over here getting suicidal over Greer look positively rational

Will I have to download this crap when Froyo is available or can you choose which updates, my settings are the same as yours Paul

NAFC. Think you can choose, but whether the branding update will be a requirement for "official" Voda Froyo isn't clear. If it is, I'll be looking into whether I can put on a stock ROM without voiding my warranty. Fucking Vodafone, this is exactly why I didn't get a bloody iPhone

I don't see how it'll void the warranty, as long as it is official untampered software because as far as HTC will be concerned, you have the correct software . Apparently a lot of retailers sell them on contracts without branding anyway. This is why I de-branded my software.

You can do it via USB on your computer, you just have to get the correct official update file. I'll post a link up to the one I did it from if you like. I doubt it will be tonight though.

Yes, but my first port of call if I get a problem with the phone will be Vodafone rather than HTC as it's them I have the contract with. And I'd like to see something in writing from them saying I won't get some Customer service dickhead trying to claim it's my fault because I've moved to an official HTC FW image rather than be forced into accepting VF bloatware

They'll more than likely just send it back to HTC without looking at it. That's what's happened to other phones (not HTC on vodafone I admit) that I have flashed before. I'm not saying that's a definitive answer of course.

I would wait until Vodafone release 2.2. Someone will get the RUU (the exe file/usb method) for the Vodafone version so and you can just flash back if your phone goes wrong. Of course, if it doesn't turn on you can't though.

I have the fail safe that I have phone insurance and my excess is only £10.


Also this from Vodafone's website - so if you got it direct from them you could be unlucky

Yeah, I'm going to wait until the situation's a bit clearer when they do release the 2.2 update and I'll let others install it first and do all the jumping up and down. In the meantime, I'll amuse myself by watching the seething rage breaking out all over the Vodafone forums - top entertainment :)

Oh and don't expect bluetooth voice dialing like on standard Froyo. Apparently it's for N America only!

That's OK, I don't have a bluetooth voice anyway. I can do a squeaky one at a push

Funnily enough my cheap and tacky Android phone fell apart the other day. It has a custom rom on, unlocked and on 3! Since it was the USB port that went I had no way of backing out to the official ROM. We'll see what T-Mobile make of it as technically I've invalidated the warranty, but I can't beleive they'll claim that the ROM led to the USB port detaching itself :)

How are you all getting on with the Desire?

Trying to track one down on Orange or Vodaphone but they aren't all that readily available at present.

Desire itself is great. I'd steer clear of getting one on Vodafone though as it rather looks like they're determined to load all this bloatware crap into the 2.2 update when it comes. If they do, I'll probably debrand mine, which is annoying as one of the main points of getting an Android phone rather than an iPhone was that I wouldn't have to jailbreak/hack the damn thing.

i had an htc touch on orange and an unofficial ROM installed, the phone died and they still fixed it...

Yeah, T-Mobile have fixed mine. They just didn't bother to tell me. Thankfully they have a good online repair tracking service.

On the downside the job sheet says they replaced the main board and updated the firmware. Which means a new EMEI. Which means more £££ for an unlock code and half hour farting around to get it working on 3 again. Oh well!

Paul - I know what you mean, it's the principle of it. But debranding is dead easy, simply usb and run the HTC update exe file on your pc and it does the rest. So at least it isn't an arduous process.

Batch, dunno what phone you have but I unlocked my desire for £8 from an ebay retailer. Put another network sim in my phone and then it prompted for a code. Used the code they provided (got it within an hour of purchase) and then it unlocked the phone. Dead simple. I can find a link for the place if you like.

Cheers Si Pie. By £££ I mean only about £10, just annoyed I have to pay it again!

See there are conflicting stories that 2.2 eats your battery life but by the looks of it that is the only real complaints, Vodafone say they plan to release it within the next week or so and remove their add on's that they put in

It's the 360 crapware Voda released a week or so ago that kills battery life; FroYo if anything marginally improves power consumption. But yes good news they seem to have backed down on installing the crapware by default with the FroYo update, albeit only in the face of a pretty intense customer revolt. Glad I won't have to root it after all, was getting ready to do so, but really didn't want to. The 360 stuff will be released after FroYo as a separate update so you'll still need to be careful not to accept updates automatically. So, all in all, good news all round. Vodafone really haven't done themselves any favours with this whole debacle though

Nah, battery life is slightly better if anything. What you do notice is that everything is suddenly a bit faster and smoother.  Really nice.

A good tip I read yesterday for anyone suffering poor battery life is this:

In phone type:

*#*#4636#*#*

It'll bring up a menu. Go to battery history and then select 'partial wake usage' from the top drop down box and 'since last unplugged' on the bottom. If there are any apps in there which are using battery when the phone is asleep you'll find out.

I think facebook had been using battery for nearly 13 hours of the 19 my phone had been running. So I killed the process, force closed the app and rebooted. It's only used 13 seconds out of 7.5 hours now.

im gonna port android onto my Win Mo HTC HD2 later.

That sounds like a brave move. In the Yes Minister sense of "brave"

its been in development for a while and over the last few weeks some very sound builds have been released. I've done my research so it shuold be ok, its not 100% stable but thats expected.

Best of luck then. Probably safer than installing the "official" and "tested" Vodafone updates by the sounds of it :)

I'm currently running a custom Rom. If they aren't very good you can flash back to stock.

ive been flashing custom roms on my hd2 for months, so i know how not to brick my phone, i'll let you know how it goes

Am I the only person who doesnt have a fucking clue what you're all on about here?

yes, yes you are.

You mean you've never rooted a phone and flashed a custom ROM before? Pah, get with the times!

Fucking Luddites

I don't think so.  If I have  I apologise to all involved, I have no other excuse than that I was very, very drunk.  Possibly.

:D If I'd been JFW that would have made me wee. Fortunately I'm not, but I did spill a bit of coffee. Nice one gk

How can I remove widgets from my home screen - can't work out how to do it

Don't you just long press on them and the trash can appears. Not got my phone on me so can't double check.

Correct.

There's a Froyo port available for the iPhone now, but there's no power management so the battery only lasts an hour of so apparently.

That's just stupid. If you want an Android phone, buy an Android phone; if you want an iPhone, buy an iPhone

i suspect it was an academic exercise so the beardy wierdy community can prove themselves to their socks with sandals brotherhood. And stick two fingers  up at the apple walled garden approach too.

Freaks. They should be hunted down and killed with trained buffalo

I've just ordered one of these, so Si Pie please be available from Tuesday onwards as I may have a few questions...

I will be in the evenings but I can't really get on in the day anymore. Had to move desks at work and most people can see my screen now :(

That's a bit pants. I was only joking anyway.

Did you do this in the end?  I have a build from about a month ago.  Not a lot worked, so decided to wait a while.

I think I may have dropped a bit of a bollock here that would make pauld's weekend.

Does anyone know if the Desire will sync etc. with a Mac - 0SX 10.5.8? Johnny?

Si Pie you have PM  :-[

Just sending you a PM back

For anyone wanting to know - HTC Sync (the syncing program) won't work with Macs. But very few use it anyway because there isn't any need. Contacts & calendars in your Mac (or pc for that matter) can be synced to gmail in the address book options and the phone synced to gmail over the air.

Benefits are you always have up to date info on your phone and you don't have to plug it into your computer at all.

Panic over. Top work Mr Pieman.

didnt get a chance in the end, been in croyde for the weekend, might do it later of tomorrow.

*BUMP* Voda finally released the plain vanilla FroYo update this morning. Early reports on the voda forum seem encouraging (ie it works and Voda haven't screwed it up this time) but I'd wait a couple of days for any issues to emerge (NB may well not follow this advice myself as I'm an impatient bugger).

A few points before you take the plunge:
1) You need 90MB free on the SD card and 25MB free on the phone so you may need to uninstall a few apps
2) Make sure you select WiFi only when you select the update (you don't want to be doing this over mobile data network)
3) It can take 20-30 mins and will go quiet a few times (plus reboot) a couple of times so don't panic and assume it's frozen/locked up.
4) Make sure you've selected auto data back up (Home->Menu->Settings->Privacy). If you didn't have it set, set it and leave the phone for 30 mins or so to make sure it has backed everything up to the SD card
5) Back up your SD card before you start
6) Don't blame me if it fucks up your phone, go on the voda forums and slaughter them, that's what everyone else does :)

Point 5 - How do I backup my SD Card I may give this a go tonight - I must connect it wirelessly to my router first - don't think I've done that

FFS don't you read ANY of the manuals? :)

Connect it to the PC via USB, then when the handset prompts, select "Use as disk drive" (or something like that), then it just shows up like a USB stick etc. Just copy the contents to your hard drive.

As predicted, couldn't wait, updated mine earlier, took around 45 mins to download the update (guess the servers are a bit busy!) and around 30 mins to apply it. Seems much more responsive already but not had chance to play much yet. Of course, this shouldn't be taken as an indication that the update has gone smoothly. I may yet experience some kind of catastropic failure later in the week! I'd still advise anyone with more patience and sense than me to wait a few days, see how others get on

I wonder when O2 will release the bloody thing...

Manual, what's that then don't do manuals   :)

Didn't like feeling left out, got a bit carried away this afternoon and I've taken the plunge. £30pm on it's first charge now

Yeah there is...mate tried it, its crap. On another note I turned my PC into a mac today without using a virtual image...hackintosh or something its called

Upgraded mine last night, took about 20 mins does seem a slightly faster response - does not help my signal issue at home though as that is a crap signal !!

Upgraded mine yesterday only took about 15 mins, i have also installed "Chrome to Phone" nice little app which allows you to send URL, Text, videos and maps from google chrome to your phone.

I'm thinking that too now

My desire is showing an H up the top where there is normally a G(I think), with permanent arrows showing data being transfered both ways. Any ideas?

H = HSDPA which is another name for 3G+ (some phones show 3G+ depending on firmware).

As for your other issue, I'd downloas 3G Watchdog to properly monitor 3G usage. It could be those arrows are coming on when the phone is communicating with the network rather than actually grabbing or transmitting a lot of data.

Cheers Si, and the battery life is really shit, even using a task manager

How shit (in hours)?

Download an app called Spare Parts and open it. Go to battery history and select Partial Wake Usage and Since last unplugged. This will sort the things which have been keeping your phone partially awake and thus eating the battery. You can click on each app/component and get some stats. Main probable culprit will be facebook, I've had problems but managed to sort it easily. The blue bars are also a good indication, nothing should have a large blue bar (you'll see what I mean when you get there).

The task killer will probably eat up more battery too.

For example, if your phone has been unplugged for say 8 hours and an app has 25mins of partial wake lock, there's a problem.

Most apps use naff all, others a few mins in a lot of hours.

Task manager, Settings both 20
Messages 16
Opera mini 14
HTC sense 108 what?

The stats should be minutes and seconds. Have you gone to the right bit? I think you're looking at the number of times launched.

That's very possible Si

Here are some screenshots:

I open spare parts and see this menu
[url width=480 height=800]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/d4476155.png[/url]

Then I select battery history and get this menu
[url width=480 height=800]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/807393dd.png[/url]

I change the drop down menus to these settings
[url width=480 height=800]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/a4b22b7e.png[/url]

Then if I click on an item it will give me the stats
[url width=480 height=800]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/dc4d43ff.png[/url]

Thanks Si will have a look tomorrow, it's back on charge at the mo soapy tit wank

http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer

Also have a read of that.

first attempt at porting android onto my winmo device = bricked HTC HD2.

soapy tit wank. Hard reset/re-flash and round 2 will be attempted, but not today

Chubbs when you say porting what do you mean?  I have haret that runs on top of win mo, do you mean that, or has it evovled to something else?

Yea, thats pretty much what i mean, i was playing around with the duel boots also and it went wrong, i just reflashed, lucky i had a back up of all my PIM data.

Not sure why it affected the Win Mo, as it just loads up the Android system in Win Mo system.  What version you using?

I have no idea either, the android kernal was loading and then brought an error saying "XXXXX is not on root of your storage card" so i rebooted the device to move the file over and all of a sudden sence would not load. I just hung on "Loading sense". I was using the froyo 2.2 version

So a task killer is totally unnecessary then and killing all the apps won't make a dramatic saving in battery life. Must confess that when I've used it I also kill task killer

Here's the facebook problem. This ate up 13% of my battery overnight and the phone was in airplane mode which usually prevents my phone from losing anything more than 1% battery.

[url width=96 height=160]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/th_a296dc52.png (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/?action=view&current=a296dc52.png)[/URL] [url width=96 height=160]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/th_af7c41ab.png (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/?action=view&current=af7c41ab.png)[/URL]

I don't really use facebook for it very much. The app I use the most is probably Opera mini, I can then keep an eye on Swindons score on the BBC site while I'm at the game of my choice
So switching to airplane mode conserves the battery a fair bit?

Looking at my battery history indicates that Wi-Fi is particularly greedy, so have switched that off

Well it doesn't matter if you use facebook or not. I wasn't using it when I was asleep, it was just preventing my phone from sleeping, hence why it's called partial wake lock. It's a problem with the app not the phone :(

Airplane mode doesn't really save much battery. Typically if I leave the phone on fully overnight it will use 1 or 2% of battery most of the time, but I just don't like people phoning me at silly o clock in the morning or getting stupid text messages.

Turning off live wallpaper helps the battery loads.
Turn of wi-fi when not using, bluetooth when not using. I never use GPS so I have this turned off.
Web surfing eats the battery out of the things the user does the most unfortunately.
Also if the signal of the phone is constantly switching from 3g to 2g (when in shitty signal) that will cause the most battery drain. If in low signal area you could put it into gsm only to prevent the constant switching (this is the same with every phone I have owned)!

As an aside, the app 'Soccer Livescores' is ace for up to date scores and it does free notifications for teams you 'watch' too, but I haven't used this element. I just use it at half time for league one scores and the such.

Brilliant, ta Si

Oh and despite the problem I had above, my phone is still going after 25 and a half hours and 21% battery to spare.

I've been web browsing on wi-fi, on facebook a fair bit, bid for an item on ebay, a few mins of calls, received emails, uploaded photos to photobucket, background data has been syncing etc etc.

Oh another battery saving tip is to turn off the vibrate when typing option. I found that annoying anyway.

Oh dear

Just read your FB status


You're fucked son x

Can't you just reflash it?

all though coincidence its unrelated to the issues i have just had, yesterday i reflashed and was working fine all day, untill all of a sudden the touch screen stopped working. I did everything soft and hard reboot, reflash, etc etc etc but the software was fine, its a hardware issue with the touch screen. Luckily i have a magic fist and a hard punch sorted it(for the time being)

Ok Si as your the guru, is there anyway to play the bbc web content ie MK v Town

It's my understanding that Flash Player is only available for 2.2 unless I want to ponce around a bit like this

http://tinyurl.com/29vycmt

Nah bollox to it, it's simple enough I'll have a crack

I've heard contrasting reports as to whether that works or not. Give it a bash and see what happens I guess.

I'd use EStrongs File explorer or Astro File Explorer to navigate to the file and execute it, but that's just personal preference.

The beeb football highlights look better on my phone than on my pc :)

Nah don't work, I get, Cannot Play Media You do not have the correct version of the Flash Player
Download the correct version-Which of course don't work either, bummer
Got to wait for O2's version of 2.2 I guess

Where do I do this Simone?

It's in settings>language and keyboard>touch input>text input>vibrate when typing.

So it is. Ta.

I'm surprised you've managed to find the switch to turn it on quite honestly......

Si or anyone else. I like using Opera as my browser, but having the supplied links in the speed dial really bugs me as I'd like my own in there. Is there any way to get rid of them? If I click and hold one down I get a clear and edit menu, but as soon as I try to use it the friggin thing disappears

Clear works for me. All I do is long press until "clear Edit" appears, remove my finger from the screen, then select "clear" by tapping it.

The options only dissapear if you don't remove the finger from the screen while trying to select them.

Should be as Batch says, because that's usually how the touch input works. I haven't tried using Opera, though tried dolphin HD and it was too busy on the page.

The stock browser is very good in my opinion. Do you get text re-flow with Opera mini?

A what Si

Agree about Dolphin tho

Thanks guys

When you zoom in and out on (pinch to zoom) on the stock browser it justifies all the text to fit the screen. Great for reading news articles and forums.

I don't think it does that, you can have fullscreen on or off. But check it out anyhow, see what you think
Surprised that Google has not released Chrome for Android

Just had a look. I prefer xscope over Opera.

Stock is still my favourite though.

The only stock browser I had on mine was full of o2 shit which put me off straight away

Had a look for XScope, oooh errr it appears not to be free

There's a free version

Oh and you can remove the o2 shit, assuming it's just bookmarks and the such. Generic HTC OS has HTC shit on it and Orange had the same.

I'll have a look in a mo

Anyone recommend me a gps golf app for me HTC legend that they've actually used please?preferably free!cheers

I don't play golf but have a look at these. The top rated one is only $1.99. The market has a 24 hour refund policy, so if you install it a few hours before you play if it's shit you can uninstall for an automatic refund. Though there are a couple of decent looking freebies.

http://www.appbrain.com/search?q=golf+gps

Wonder if anyone here can enlighten me...

Wanted to know if its possible to listen to the STFC player commentary on a Desire? Assumed it was flash so should be supported with the Froyo update but didn't have any joy when i tried on saturday. Wouldn't mind being able to listen to it if I'm not at the game but can't get to a PC.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1731632/o2-botches-htc-desire-android-22-update

I finally got my hands on an Android phone as a friend bought one and wanted me to set it up for her.

Couldn't believe how crap it was. Seeing as they were trying to come up with an iPhone killer, you'd have thought they'd have come up with something that was as easy to use and equal or better than the iPhone experience. They didn't.

What Android phone was it? You do realise that there are shit loads on the market these days. Even bloody Sony make Android phones now.

Can't remember it's name but it was one of the cheaper / crapper ones. But it was the Android OS that I didn't like or get. Not having a single app store which is installed by default seemed strange. A few key features not available built in.

But the biggest problem is it not being intuitive. I found myself having to check the manual or Google to figure out how to do certain things. Never had to do that once with my iPhone. This is what Apple do so well and everyone else fails on.

Most phone manufacturers add their own UI over the top. HTC, Samsung and Sony Android phones all have different UIs.

I had mine figured out in a couple of days, which is probably the same as any phone I've ever had (and this is my first smartphone). But it's like any new UI or software, it'll take you time to get used to it. My mate just got an iPhone4, he loves it but for the first few days he was really having to learn how to do stuff on it and all of the features.

Never had to do that with my Android phone. Maybe the problem is that you're a bit thick?

:D

Or just an Apple fan-boy ;)

Oi don't knock it til you've tried it  ;)

I love my X10

Can anyone tell me what the camera quality and LED flash is like on this phone? I like a half decent camera on my phone.

Can the flash light up a dark room?

Cheers.

So do I, hence I'd always had Sony Ericsson's before this one and it was one of the things I was worried about (ie that the camera would be shit). It's fine - a cameraphone is never going to be as good as a dedicated compact but I've taken some pretty decent snaps with mine. Certainly as good as on the Sony, who've always had a good rep for their cameraphones
How big's the room?

Slightly more helpfully, just tried the flash in my kitchen. Took a pic about 10-12 foot to the window. Lit up the photo nicely, but I'd be doubtful it would illuminate a much bigger area. Like the camera itself, it's OK, really, pretty good for a phone, won't compare to a proper dedicated camera.

New Flash Player out on the market, replaces the beta player on Froyo.

Also, Kindle for Android is out if you want to read books on a tiny tiny screen.

I finally caved in and debranded my Orange Desire in order to get the Froyo update this evening. Debranding went fine and it updated to version 1.21(?), it then downloaded and installed the Froyo update. When the phone restarted it was network locked.

Is there anyway around this before I splash out on an unlock code?

I read about a way. I'll try and find it.

Failing that I got my unlock code from ebay and it was £8.

Try this. You'll have to roll it back to an older version first though:

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/140486-how-i-beat-network-sim-lock-my-phone-free.html

Otherwise if you want to pay the codes are now £6.75

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250675517227&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Si - tell me about the Wildfire. Paul and Sophie both want one as their contracts are almost up.

(Apologies if this has been examined before but I am really not interested in discussing phones :-p )

They're aimed at the budget end of the market but have similar spec to the legend. About half the power of the desire though, but I don't know how it performs. I think Nemo said he had one so probably the best person to ask.

The desire hd is out soon, which may mean the desire becomes cheaper.

Cheers Si. I had a bit of a play around with it but ended up buying the code.

It was well worth the effort to be rid of the Orange branded crap...no more Monopoly Demo!  :)

Why do you have to pay to unlock them?

O2 let you unlock the iPhone (and I guess other smart phones) from day one of your contract (you still have to pay it though). Is it just Orange being wankers?

O2 are a bunch of rip off merchant wankers so I find that surprising.

*I'm not bitter*

I just checked and it is any phone except if it's an O2 exclusive. It's really simple to do as well, just fill out a form on their website and it gets done automatically within a few days. I find it surprising as well, not sure why they do it but then there isn't any reason for them not to - you're still tied to the contract.

I always found Orange to be a bunch of wankers.

I'm getting frustrated that when the phone rings I take it out of my pocket and becuase I have touched something on the phone when taking it out it usually automatically answers so I don't have an option of rejecting or answering

Assuming it's locked, you have to swipe to answer/reject the call. Either set it to autolock before putting it in your pocket, or don't stroke it when you take it out

Does anyone still have shit battery life? Mine's been awful the last couple of days (just about getting 10 hours use). I'd topped up the charge in drips and drabs when the phone was fully on eventually getting to full (or close to it). Before this I was getting about 28 hours, even with wi-fi on most of the time and a lot of usage. I couldn't find any rogue applications causing this, so it looked like a strange battery issue to me.

So I let the phone run down to 5% charge, turned it off, took out battery for a couple of minutes, put it back in and charged the phone whilst turned off for a few hours (I think 4).

Result being nearly 21 hours of use and still over 40% battery left and this is using it more than the other days I was getting shit battery.

do you frquent the XDA forum? you'll be best off getting help that that.

I'm on there on occassion. I think the problem is fixed now though

FWIW, I've found battery life seems to have dramatically improved since getting the FroYo update. But I've read plenty of people who've had success with Si's "fix". Not had to do that myself, although I may try it anyway just to see if I can go from 2 days - 3days without charging

I'm going to try that now, I'm barely getting 10 hours standby at the moment waiting for a new battery as I have nearly everything switched off and it just dies

Just got the FroYo update, quite liking it so far, the working embedded YouTube vids are cool, as is the half-screen keyboard when the phone is sideways. Hopefully that'll stop that annoying 'double text' bug.

Because the phone was sold to be used on their network isnt it, if you unlock it and put a sim from another network in it they wont make any money out of you

Just bought one on of these on clearance on three, though http://www.buymobilephones.net/...

£50 up front, and £20 per month for a refurbished phone, 500 minutes per month, 5000 texts and 1gb data. Love it for the money! Really good data signal (far better than my friend's o2 signal) and surprisingly excellent customer service to boot! 

Had it a few days, and absolutely love it! :beers:

Got a message on mine last night (o2) saying there is a 2.2 update available, guessing it's that Froyo thing.

Any idea how long it takes? It's 87mb - 11 hours and still going.

its a virus, I have infected your precious phone whaaaa ha ha ha ha

11 hours over wi-fi?

Yes.

That's not good. Mine took about 10 mins (then another 30-40 mins of installing/rebooting/general faffing to complete). I know wireless speeds can vary, but there's limits

Oh. Maybe it'll pickup the wifi at work and get a shift on.

Never had this trouble with the iPhone  :)

No, you just have to hack the fucking thing to get it to do anything :). I'd shut it down and restart the process. Actually I'd have done that about 9 hours ago, you obviously have more patience than me.

Are you sure Birdy's poltergoost hasn't fucked it up? I'm pretty sure malevolent spirits aren't covered by the warranty

Doing update now

0.0mb/unknown

This may take some time.

Finished!

Still waiting 2 weeks later, went into Voda store today only to be told they don't know when the battery will arrive as they just order it and wait for it to come into stock - I'm going to phone Voda this ebvening and rare up I can;t use the phone correctly as if I do I use more battery life and I then cna;t use it as a phone as it will die

Can anyone recommend a sky score centre style app for android, as it appears the sky one isnt on android yet

Worth checking this out PP (assuming it is free!).

http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-mobilefootie-fotmobx-zzqp.aspx

Not used it myself, no idea if it covers league 1 & 2. Let us know :)

http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-pants-sc-wxqq.aspx went for this one, seems like a rip off sky sports, in a good way

cool, let us know if it works!

I use soccer livescores when I'm out and about

Well my Desire went off for repair the weekend - I can just imagine it coming back saying there is nothing wrong which there is but speaking to Vodafone they had nobody that knew anything about the HTC phones so I had to speak to HTC direct, they set me up with a spare phone but couldn't get my contacts of the memory card onto the spare phone - I won;t be impressed if they have lost them all from the memory card though after their messing about

If you saved your contacts as Google type they will be synced over the air. I've wiped my phone about half a dozen times flashing different roms and always get them back this way. Cloud sync is great

Si, I need your expertise. Is there anyway to increase the length of my ring tone? I'm always missing calls mostly because I'm too far away from it to get there in time, and as I'm a bit of a tightwad at the mo, I don't want to be calling people back

Have you thought about keeping the phone closer to you? :)

More helpfully, assuming you're on FroYo, it's

Home -> Menu -> Settings -> Call -> Call forwarding -> Forward when unanswered -> Delay

(Not sure if it's the same in 2.1)

fuck the ring tone, how about the length of my Johnson ?

I find that lesbian tranny interracial goat porn temporarily increases the size of mine.

form is temporary

class is permanent

Nice one paul, thanks a lot


@Fred, how long is it, then we can judge wether it needs lengthening or not?

Dunno why the newer posts didn't originally show...

Anyway, to expand on that point (yeah bad joke) I saw a in the window of the salon at west swindon their inch loss programme is half price. Doubt many blokes will be taking up that offer

 :( How would I know that

Because you're supposed to be a techie?

Or by reading the docs?

Yea, maysbe but I don't know everything about phones - now I understand that if they had been saved within google they would be fine...which they wasn't

Oh and PaulD - I rarely do manuals, it's easier to ask others that know the answers save trawling through  :)

Yeah, that's fair enough. So long as you don't mind being RTFMed a bit! There's also shitloads of HTC FAQs/Howtos etc easily found on that there t'Interweb

If you do a backup onto the SD card it saves as a standard vcf contacts file. You can then just copy and paste this to a new sd card and then select the import option in 'people' on the phone.

Yeah done that previously on the HTC, what I was saying was that Vodafone gave me a loan which was not a HTC told me I could get my contacts from the mem card and then found that after about 30 mins of trying they realised they couldn't - so I now hope they have not fucked up the mem card for when I get my HTC back so I can just import my contacts back.

I've got to use the Mrs old phone at the moment which is a girly phone...not good !

Phone returned...minus the battery - conveniently they cannot find anything wrong but have updfated the software - which was uptodate anyway !!

We'll see if it still works then !!

Thanks for letting us know !!

:D

Not a problem, just keeping all TEF's uptodate on my problems  :)

 !!

Si, you're the expert around here... since upgrading to 2.2, my Market app has disappeared. How do i get around this without doing a factory reset (as suggested in various places)?

First I would check if there are any more updates, I know on certain phones there was another one out and it may well fix the problem.

If not I'll try and extract the market installer from my ROM which will do it I think.

Last resort, I tell you the best and easiest ways to backup stuff so factory reset is as painless as possible.

Ok I've managed to locate the necessary file. Just got to test it'll install ok.

Brilliant, cheers dude

Ah could be a little trickier than I thought, you'll need a file explorer/manager installed. Do you have something like Astro File Manager or ES File Explorer applications on your phone?

No worries if not, just will be an extra step to the process,

I went for a shit about 45 mins ago and can't remember where i left my phone.

Any ideas Si?

You sure you didn't flush it?

If not, you can download them from Market :)

OK LS try this. You'll need to get on here using your phone's internet browser. Then click the link below:

http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/download/temp/1284764910_EStrongs_File_Explorer_1.4.5.apk

Once it is downloaded you can click on it in your notification bar and it should install ES File Explorer.

You can then open the app (ES File Explorer). There should be a home symbol in the top left corner, but if there is a backslash symbol, click on it. You should now be viewing the files and folders in your phone.

Go to /system/app by clicking through the folders.
You want to find a file called Vending.apk. This is the file which will install the market.

If it's there then click on on it to install it. If you don't have it then I can upload it for you.

It may force close the first time you run it but it should work if you try again. I also found this advice about the market playing up after re-installing it:

If you still encounter Force Close or download issues. Do the following ( you might want to do it anyway as it is sometimes better to start with a clean slate)

1. Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications
2. Chose All
3. Find Market
4. Push on it and select Clear data

Hope that helps you out. It sounds a bit fiddly, but should only take a couple of minutes in total.

Cheers Si tried that it was in the Kitchen.

Hmmm... i carry out this step, and the install fails. I thought i was on to a winner!

Have you followed the other steps after that?

https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B7ycUXSHWu8aNzAzNzM2NzEtNDU1NC00NGQ2LTk3NzMtOWNhY2FlYTU5MGFk&export=download&authkey=CICE8Y0C&hl=en_GB

Download my version of vending.apk there. Then go into es file explorer, browse to sdcard/download and click on vending.apk

Market doesnt exist under 'All'...

I'll download your thing now

got round to getting android onto my winmo device its not very stable at the moment, just getting to grips with it. im thinking i will def get an andorid device next

Well don't get a Desire, i fucking hate mine. Still suffering the same issue as above, and now it powers itself off at regular intervals, i lose all signal until i reboot at times, and Google images doesn't work.

Also, an O2 parental block has just turned itself on (only removable via credit card verification or a trip to an O2 shop), so i can't get to Sikipedia, porn, or gambling websites.

Needless to say, i hate my phone right now.

I'm having the opposite experience with my desire on "3" (shocking I know!!). Works like a charm running froyo 2.2 and to clarify I haven't rooted my phone etc, it's just working as delivered to me by the network.

The o2 block happens on every phone.

I'm having odd random reboots at the moment. I hear this happens to many of the earlier builds and a motherboard replacement fixes the issue. But not great really, every phone I've owned since the k800i has had a problem with it.

Guess it's just cheap consumer electronics these days. PS3s and Xbox360s have all had notorioius issues, even the ipod is extremely unreliable after a period of time :(

Okay, I may as well ask on here as there's more chance one of you knowing than Vodafone employees.

I have a HTC Wildfire, had no problems with it at all until the latest firmware update (Froyo I believe) which is now causing a right fucking mess.

Basically, on the messages inbox, loading the homescreen to show new messages, clicking on messages and loading them now takes about 5-6 seconds a time and about half the time it loads an entirely different conversation to the one originally clicked. Whilst this is a little annoying, I can live with it, but if I try and deleted any message thread, even a small one, you can ask in to delete and I get the little wheel that denotes it's trying, but it never gets past that, just freezes there and even if I close and reload messages it's stuck there, only turning the phone off gets you back to square one and even that doesn't delete the messages.

Any ideas?

As I'm all Desire'd up now, what's a good ROM to use?

I bought one already rooted and running a ROM called LeeDroid. That any good?

Yeah it's one of the best and the one I'm using right now.

The only thing to be careful with is that there is an option to check over the air (OTA) updates. Don't ever do this with a custom rom as you will probably get an HTC update release of android installing on top and it'll mess the phone up.

Can a geek help me please. I can boot into ClockworkMod Recovery via ROM Manager, but if I try booting into recovery by power on with volume down button, I just get a red triangle with an exclamation mark.

I've tried re-flashing ClockworkMod Recovery via ROM Manager, it says successfully downloaded but then doesn't seem to do anything else. I've tried re-installing ROM Manager but that hasn't done anything either.

I'll remove clockworkmod recovery and do it through ROM Manager tomorrow and try to see what might be doing it.

Weird, the Desire I bought for my missus which appeared to be brand new (still had stickers on screen, cables still shrink wrapped etc.) has super user permissions installed and a quick blast on Terminal confirms the phone is rooted.

Hmm.

Refurb?

That's what I'm thinking.

Checked the SD card over with Recuva and it's definitely never been used before. Battery Stats confirm the phone's only been used since we got it too (unless the battery stats were wiped).

Oh well mate, refurbs aren't usually a bad thing unless you pay top money for them. It's a good price still.

I'm not down about it. Still think it was a bargain at the price we paid. But was just surprised to find it rooted.

I'm considering de-branding it now.

Anyone seen the new market accessible through your computer web browser. Finally it is half decent and you can install apps without even touching the phone. Lovely stuff.

https://market.android.com/

Cheers Si, will have a peek when I get back on the pc

Really handy Si good spot ta. Actually paid for an app for the first time today, my Swiftkey trial had expired and I thought it was pretty good so bought the full version

I'm pretty sure that that will be the only app I pay for

Oooh, cheers Si. I'll have a play with that later. Once I can get off Angry Birds (yes, I know I'm about 3 years behind but I'm happy enough in my plodding way)

It's very good Paul, much easier than scrolling through em on your phone

Any one use whatsapp?  For free texting and sening pics etc to anyone even abroad.  Free for the first year then $1.99 so pretty good.

I've got it but only use it when someone messages me as I have unlimited texts so seems a bit pointless.

Yeah unless people are abroad or family live abroad then it could be useful to people.  Got a good version of Desire HD on my hd2 now, runs stable and is pretty damn quick.  Just looking for decent apps.

Any ideas how I can view the SD card on my PC?

Plug it into your PC and select Disk Drive on your phone when it comes up with Charge only, HTC Sync etc.

thanks