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Finally got a Desire, any tips?
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JasonWatkins
24-05-2010
Probably because i'm caning it a bit, but i've noticed the phone does get very hot ...
mogwai
24-05-2010
Originally Posted by JasonWatkins:
“Probably because i'm caning it a bit, but i've noticed the phone does get very hot ...”

Nope - it does just get hot in use. Most of that heat is from the battery - it general runs at around 25 to 30 degrees in normal use.
ginock
24-05-2010
I have had my Desire since Thursday as a replacement for my BB Curve and I do not regret it for one second. Part of me was tempted to go for an iPhone and whilst there is nothing wrong with the iPhone I am glad I got the Desire. Now we just have to wait to 2.2 and Flash 10.1 to gain access to iPlayer etc, will hopefully be some software to play avi files as well. Enjoy your phone
JasonWatkins
24-05-2010
The only downside for me is that I get a god-awful 3G signal where I live, so ideally i'd like to turn off the 3G roaming and just go regular 2G ..

Will keep an eye on my data usage tomorrow when it updates - has anyone else got the data connection set to 'always on' ??

Got a speccy emulator up and running as well .. although i tried 'marvin' first, but i'm trying the other one now.

i just want to be able to play "Chaos" on the phone y'see ..
mogwai
24-05-2010
Originally Posted by JasonWatkins:
“Will keep an eye on my data usage tomorrow when it updates - has anyone else got the data connection set to 'always on' ??”

I have an excellent 3G connection where I live, but tend to use wifi when at home, therefore I switch off the always on data connection.

However you need to weigh off the need for having an instance connection against the constant drain on your battery. With wifi, data connection and automatic syncing switched off, I can easily get two days use out of a single charge.
JasonWatkins
24-05-2010
Originally Posted by mogwai:
“However you need to weigh off the need for having an instance connection against the constant drain on your battery. With wifi, data connection and automatic syncing switched off, I can easily get two days use out of a single charge.”

Good point.

I've got Wifi and auto sync turned off at the moment, but i've also got background data switched on.

I may well end up turning off the data connection to be honest as I probably really don't need it always on - just a case of "as and when".

But then I guess I can always try it both ways and see what happens.
pi r squared
24-05-2010
It's whatever works for you, I guess. For me, the convenience of having always synced calendars, weather, news and mail* outweighs by a country mile the inconvenience of having to plug the phone in each evening.

* (push Gmail is fantastic - I still can't quite get my head around how that actually works but I love the fact that all emails are instantly pushed to my phone)
JasonWatkins
26-05-2010
i'm finding i'm absolutely slamming the battery at the moment - today will likely be the third time i've charged it in 3 days, although i'm purposely draining it flat out each time - running the music player and a few apps as well just so it runs out.

I did use the in-built music player on the bus today with some decent headphones and I was mightly impressed - it would certainly be a good alternative to my ipod if need be.

I've got news feeds to the BBC and Gizmodo set up at the moment, just to see how that goes.

I think i'm going to nose around online for a 'tricks 'n tips' sort of guide just to see if i can do anything else with it.
mogwai
26-05-2010
Check out some of the battery saving apps such as JuiceDefender or Locale. Locale can switch off data connections and the like based on your location and/or time. JuiceDefender is a bit more involved, in that it doesn't switch things off completely, but only allows them to be active for a set amount of time. A bit hard to describe properly - have a read on the JD website for more details.
davidos65
26-05-2010
Sorry folks,a bit off topic,but do any of you get a crap FM reception.My local radio isn't too bad but Radio 1 is almost inaudible and autoscanning doesn't seem to pick up anything(had to manually slide the dial to save stations.Not bothered too much,just wondered if it's common amongst HTC's. Great phone by the way and takes a bit of getting used to after having 4 Nokia symbian phones but enjoying playing around with it.
carguy143
26-05-2010
Originally Posted by davidos65:
“Sorry folks,a bit off topic,but do any of you get a crap FM reception.My local radio isn't too bad but Radio 1 is almost inaudible and autoscanning doesn't seem to pick up anything(had to manually slide the dial to save stations.Not bothered too much,just wondered if it's common amongst HTC's. Great phone by the way and takes a bit of getting used to after having 4 Nokia symbian phones but enjoying playing around with it.”

Same here, actually! It's odd because the autoscan stores a load of static in presets and misses the stations. lol
ogryn
26-05-2010
Originally Posted by JasonWatkins:
“i'm finding i'm absolutely slamming the battery at the moment - today will likely be the third time i've charged it in 3 days, although i'm purposely draining it flat out each time - running the music player and a few apps as well just so it runs out.

I did use the in-built music player on the bus today with some decent headphones and I was mightly impressed - it would certainly be a good alternative to my ipod if need be.

I've got news feeds to the BBC and Gizmodo set up at the moment, just to see how that goes.

I think i'm going to nose around online for a 'tricks 'n tips' sort of guide just to see if i can do anything else with it.”

I think someone posted on here that if you have Flickr setup as one of your accounts, delete it as it causes Calendar to WakeLock and chomp the CPU constantly. In Settings -> About -> Battery, the awake time should be significantly less than the uptime. When I had Flickr linked up it was always the same.
JasonWatkins
27-05-2010
that's a good tip - thanks for that. I don't have a flickr account, but I'll see if i can delete it just to be on the safe side.

*edit*

hhmm, don't have a flickr account set up, but there's a 'stocks' and 'weather' one on the accounts bit, but no obvious way on how to delete them.
davidos65
27-05-2010
This isn't so much a hint/tip but might appeal to some.I've never been one for covering a new phone(always been fairly carefull not to mark them) but the Desire is a piece of kit worth looking after.I found a pouch type thing for an MP3 player which fits the Desire perfectly.It's made of cloth type material(like velour but thicker,sorry hard to explain) with a drawstring and can be used to wipe the smudge marks that appear easily on the screen.It's made by SIGNALEX and can be found in Poundland shops for,funnily enough,£1
carguy143
27-05-2010
Originally Posted by davidos65:
“This isn't so much a hint/tip but might appeal to some.I've never been one for covering a new phone(always been fairly carefull not to mark them) but the Desire is a piece of kit worth looking after.I found a pouch type thing for an MP3 player which fits the Desire perfectly.It's made of cloth type material(like velour but thicker,sorry hard to explain) with a drawstring and can be used to wipe the smudge marks that appear easily on the screen.It's made by SIGNALEX and can be found in Poundland shops for,funnily enough,£1”

Very useful tip.

Well i have to say i love the phone. For me some useful apps have been.

Your Orange - tells you how many mins, texts etc you have remaining for the month and also your current balance if you have one.

Orange Wednesdays - full of film trailers, cinema listings etc and even has the built in ability to get an Orange wednesdays ticket.

Photoucket - great for uploading and editing your photobucket account.

Barcode scanner - can be used to scan barcodes and search for them online and in the android market. So if you see an app on your pc which you like with a barcode next to it you can simply scan it with your phone and it will instantly find and download for you

3g watchdog - great for watching internet use of 3g, especially for those with limited data allowances. It can be set to either stop you going over a customisable limit, or warn you as you approach the limit. It will even work out what % of your allowance you have used at any time.

I'm sure there's loads more to choose from but they're the ones i have used upto now.
Herts Iron
27-05-2010
Finally took the plunge and will be getting mine tomorrow!

Got a pretty damn good upgrade deal with o2 aswell, so all is good.

Will be scanning this and other threads for tips and advise. I've got a feeling its going to take ALOT of getting used to !!!
Minxykitten
28-05-2010
I got my desire yesterday after upgrading from iPhone. The one thing i'm missing at the moment is the app store, music store and iTunes.

Was just wondering what other people use to purchase music on the phone and what music organiser most people use instead of iTunes?
TheBigM
28-05-2010
Originally Posted by pi r squared:
“It's whatever works for you, I guess. For me, the convenience of having always synced calendars, weather, news and mail* outweighs by a country mile the inconvenience of having to plug the phone in each evening.

* (push Gmail is fantastic - I still can't quite get my head around how that actually works but I love the fact that all emails are instantly pushed to my phone)”

GMail is not push. Your phone just syncs with the GMail service at regular intervals. If it was push, disabling GMail sync would not stop you from receiving the mails.
platelet
28-05-2010
Originally Posted by Minxykitten:
“I got my desire yesterday after upgrading from iPhone. The one thing i'm missing at the moment is the app store, music store and iTunes.

Was just wondering what other people use to purchase music on the phone and what music organiser most people use instead of iTunes?”

Not sure if I'm missunderstanding you, but the app store is there. It's called Market (icon is a white briefcase with the green droid on it)
carguy143
28-05-2010
Originally Posted by Minxykitten:
“I got my desire yesterday after upgrading from iPhone. The one thing i'm missing at the moment is the app store, music store and iTunes.

Was just wondering what other people use to purchase music on the phone and what music organiser most people use instead of iTunes?”

You can use windows media player to sync to your Desire.

As said, there is the Android Market which i think is pretty good. I like the way it handles the download and install of the apps all in one package. I came from Nokia and didn't like their Ovi store, it was slow to search, clunky, slow to download from and also a lot of messing about to install things compared to the Android Market. I don't have any experience with Apple's App store though so can't really compare the two.

As for iTunes, well you can still always use Windows Media Player to sync with the Desire.
croyde
28-05-2010
I'm on day 7 and just a few short calls, a couple of e-mails, about 25 texts and an hour of surfing and the phone only lasts about 14 hours.


Not good, especially as I have to tell myself to leave it alone. My previous Nokia N82 would take a whole day of net use as well as calls and texts and if not charged at night, would still get me through most of the next day. That's on a 2 year old battery.

I just need my Desire to get from an early start till about 2 am, sometimes a typical working day for me, without me having to worry about usage.

Lord knows what it would be like if I used it's video and music capabilities. Best keep my iPod Touch then.
qualafoo
28-05-2010
Originally Posted by croyde:
“I'm on day 7 and just a few short calls, a couple of e-mails, about 25 texts and an hour of surfing and the phone only lasts about 14 hours.


Not good, especially as I have to tell myself to leave it alone. My previous Nokia N82 would take a whole day of net use as well as calls and texts and if not charged at night, would still get me through most of the next day. That's on a 2 year old battery.

I just need my Desire to get from an early start till about 2 am, sometimes a typical working day for me, without me having to worry about usage.

Lord knows what it would be like if I used it's video and music capabilities. Best keep my iPod Touch then.”

Im getting 3 days with similar use.
let the battery fully drain then full re-charge a few times.
Turn of always on mobile in the network settings
Nasalhair
28-05-2010
Originally Posted by qualafoo:
“Im getting 3 days with similar use.
let the battery fully drain then full re-charge a few times.
Turn of always on mobile in the network settings”

Absolutely.

I have all of the mobile internet, Bluetooth, GPS, wifi etc. turned off unless I need it, I don't use the radio or the music player, and I tend to leave the phone lying on my desk unless I want to make a call or send a text. It tends to be switched on from when I wake up (7AM) until I go to bed (midnight). This week I charged it on Monday, have made a couple of calls, sent & received lots of texts and been on the internet via wifi for about 15 minutes yesterday, and my battery is two blocks short of full.
croyde
28-05-2010
So if you turn off always on mobile, does it just switch back on if you are say updating calendar, downloading emails etc or do you have to switch it back on.

Just seems that you have this amazing device but in order to use it in the real world you have to turn it into a dumb phone with a fancy screen.

Don't see the point.

I presume the iPhone is just as bad but at least my deal is a hell of a lot cheaper than the equivalent iPhone tariff.

Ah! just tried it and nothing works unless I switch it back on but I do need it on for emails or the thing is useless.
croyde
28-05-2010
Originally Posted by Nasalhair:
“Absolutely.

I have all of the mobile internet, Bluetooth, GPS, wifi etc. turned off unless I need it, I don't use the radio or the music player, and I tend to leave the phone lying on my desk unless I want to make a call or send a text. It tends to be switched on from when I wake up (7AM) until I go to bed (midnight). This week I charged it on Monday, have made a couple of calls, sent & received lots of texts and been on the internet via wifi for about 15 minutes yesterday, and my battery is two blocks short of full.”

Blimey!!

Mine was fully charged just under 5 1/2 hours ago and have dimmed the screen and turned off auto sync. I have made two 4 mins calls, received 3 emails and have sent and received about 10 texts and already a bar has gone.

No way am I going to get 3 days.
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