[Kal_El]

Recently I was rather surprised to find my old HTC Desire (Bravo) in a box and still working. I decided to fire it up and factory reset, then see what gives.

Sadly, while it still works as a phone, and some Android stuff is supported, quite a lot of stuff isn't. For example, neither YouTube nor the original Angry Birds will work, even though they did back in the day. Even Chrome and Firefox aren't, though luckily the ever reliable Opera is.

Is there anything that can still be done with this device, such as installing a more up to date OS, of any kind? I've never rooted a phone before, but I was looking into Cyanogenmod. What put me off was that I couldn't find anything very recent and the instructions were a bit confusing. Jellybean would be ideal, or even Firefox OS. Anything!

Thanks in advance of your ideas.

[johnathome]

It'd be fun to play around with.

I had a desire back in the day and followed the rather easy instructions on xda.

The devs are still working on it surprisingly, they're even doing custom roms for kitkat

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=809328

[Kal_El]

Thanks for that. Crikey, what a load of confusing info on that site, and I'm a Linux user! Doesn't seem easy to do at all, but I'll give it a go.

[d123]

The biggest problem with the original Desire was the minuscule internal memory, as I recall, it only had around 150MB available for apps, makes it a little less than useful for normal use.

[johnathome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d123

The biggest problem with the original Desire was the minuscule internal memory, as I recall, it only had around 150MB available for apps, makes it a little less than useful for normal use.

Yeah, you had to partition the SD card and install link2sd on it, i had over 100 apps on it when i finally sold mine.

[johnathome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kal_El

Thanks for that. Crikey, what a load of confusing info on that site, and I'm a Linux user! Doesn't seem easy to do at all, but I'll give it a go.

This is the thread you want

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=696189

after you've downloaded the root software, checked whether your s-on or s-off and copied the rom onto the sd card it's quite easy.

I know it doesn't seem like it but i hadn't a clue how to root when i did mine.
Luckily the Desire is extremely difficult to brick the phone completely.

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d123

The biggest problem with the original Desire was the minuscule internal memory, as I recall, it only had around 150MB available for apps, makes it a little less than useful for normal use.

That's the only reason I ditched mine for an iPhone 4; loved the Desire but the inability to use SD cards for apps (at the time I didn't know there were workarounds!) etc annoyed me.

[biggyt]

I have a dock http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003QYRGK...qStb0GPKRPZand use my old desire as a posh bedside clock

[kmusgrave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iGeek2014

That's the only reason I ditched mine for an iPhone 4; loved the Desire but the inability to use SD cards for apps (at the time I didn't know there were workarounds!) etc annoyed me.

Yeah, coz it's so much easier to put iphone 4 apps on an SD card isn't it?

[alan.w]

I am still using a Desire HD it must be nearly 4 years old without a problem

[d123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmusgrave

Yeah, coz it's so much easier to put iphone 4 apps on an SD card isn't it?

150MB versus 12GB for apps makes that comparison a little odd

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmusgrave

Yeah, coz it's so much easier to put iphone 4 apps on an SD card isn't it?

Trust me that's one thing I definitely would add to iDevices

[Kal_El]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnathome

This is the thread you want

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=696189

after you've downloaded the root software, checked whether your s-on or s-off and copied the rom onto the sd card it's quite easy.

I know it doesn't seem like it but i hadn't a clue how to root when i did mine.
Luckily the Desire is extremely difficult to brick the phone completely.

That's fantastic and just what I needed. Thanks for the info.

[johnathome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kal_El

That's fantastic and just what I needed. Thanks for the info.

Have fun!

This is the one i wanted to install but never got around to it, check out the 2nd video

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1315961

[Troy Tempest]

I've got an old HTC Desire I turned into a GPS car tracker.

I've had LookOut installed (but sinced changed to Real Time GPS Tracker both free) and a PAYG sim card.

Tucked it away in the center console of my Merc with a usb charger, with it set to silent and automatic answer. That way if someone nicks the car I can phone it and listen in to the thieves dastardly plans