# Android 2.2 and HTC Desire, just bought one.



## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

Can anyone recommend me any good websites that tell you how to use this phone and what apps are essential. I'm a little overwhelmed by it all.

Thanks in advanced, Appreciate it.


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## editor (Jan 11, 2011)

HTC's own site isn't bad. 

http://www.htc.com/www/product/desire/overview.html


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## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

Thanks, I was just wondering if there was any kind of well known sites, reviewing apps, telling you what apps are essential. Anyway I'll take a look at that site.


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## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

I'll Google anyhow.


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## ohmyliver (Jan 11, 2011)

http://androidforums.com/desire-tips-tricks/ is quite good for, um, desire tips and tricks.


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## ovaltina (Jan 11, 2011)

the 'killer apps' thread on here has lots of good stuff.

Best thing is just to play with it until you get the hang of it. You'll get the hang of it in no time, and a lot of the apps on the market are free or have free versions, so you can expect to lose a week or so playing with them.


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## Blagsta (Jan 11, 2011)

Call confirm so you don't call people accidentally, 3g watchdog to keep an eye on your data usage and file manager to...manage your files.


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## sumimasen (Jan 11, 2011)

There's a massive thread about the Desire in this forum!


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## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

Yeah, thanks. Just this second seen it.


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## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

I'm really liking this device. However, but there is always a but. THE BATTERY LIFE SUCKS BIG TIME. Shame really.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 11, 2011)

I've had my HD about a week now and it does seem to get better after a few days when the battery has had a chance to calibrate. I'm still charging ever night, but then I'm playing with lots.


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## grit (Jan 11, 2011)

ChrisC said:


> I'm really liking this device. However, but there is always a but. THE BATTERY LIFE SUCKS BIG TIME. Shame really.


 
Fully depleting the battery and recharging with it not turned on may help with that.


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## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

How does that work then? What's the science behind that?


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## ChrisC (Jan 11, 2011)

Also I noticed it gets rather hot when charging is this normal? Also warms up with heavy use. I take it that's normal for smartphones.


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## ChrisC (Jan 12, 2011)

I found this useful website. http://htcdesireportal.com/ Just thought I'd mention it.


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## cliche guevara (Jan 12, 2011)

All smart phones I've had get warm with heavy use and while charging. Warm is fine, hot is not. If it's hot, send it back.

The battery life is normally pretty sporadic for the first week or so, it's recommended to let it drain completely, then turn it off, charge fully, unplug and immediately put back on charge until it's fully charged, unplug and repeat a third time. Then you should get better battery life. I'd also recommend Juice Defender (free on market) to improve battery life.


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## Chz (Jan 12, 2011)

ChrisC said:


> How does that work then? What's the science behind that?


 
It's not actually "science" in that the battery sorts its self out after the first full charge and discharge - normally done at the factory.

What you need to do it a few times for is for either the phone itself, or the circuitry on the battery, to figure out what a full battery and an empty battery look like. Until it's got a few data points to go on, it only allows access to a fairly conservative amount of juice from the cells to prevent damage. This is way better than in the past where you'd end up permanently losing battery life due to overcharging or complete discharges (it should always leave a little - a complete discharge is bad). The downside is the week or so it takes to sort itself out.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jan 12, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> Call confirm so you don't call people accidentally


 
How's that work then?  The screen is capacitive, it should only respond to your finger, not to any bumps in your pocket...


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jan 12, 2011)

My "essential" apps:

National Rail
Barcode Scanner
Cab4Me
Vignette
Spotify
BeebPlayer


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 12, 2011)

Also Chris if you're still struggling after a few more days, then this is on quite a few websites and is supposed to help.



> I understand your concern regarding battery life on your Nexus One device. The following steps should significantly extend the battery life on your phone. Please connect the phone to the charger with the phone powered on, and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green, indicating the device is fully charged. Disconnect the phone from the charger, and power it off. Reconnect the phone to the charger with the phone powered off, and allow the phone to charge until the notification LED is green. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it on. Once the phone is powered completely on, power it off again and reconnect it to the charger until the notification LED is green. Disconnect the phone, power it on, and use it. You need to use this sequence only once. If the issue of battery life on our phone persists, I recommend you contact our HTC accessory department directly.


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## Blagsta (Jan 12, 2011)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> How's that work then?  The screen is capacitiive, it should only respond to your finger, not to any bumps in your pocket...


 It's easy (i found anyway) to press the wrong thing.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jan 12, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> It's easy (i found anyway) to press the wrong thing.


 
You must have big fat sausage fingers


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## ChrisC (Jan 12, 2011)

G_S said:


> Also Chris if you're still struggling after a few more days, then this is on quite a few websites and is supposed to help.


 
Thanks I'll give it ago. Although when the phone is on standby. I have set it so wi fi switches off, till I use it again. This has greatly extended battery life.


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## Chz (Jan 12, 2011)

Yeah, I've found that manually managing the wifi setting makes all the difference. It's a huge battery suck when you're not using it, and likewise it saves tons of power vs. 3G when you can use it.


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## Blagsta (Jan 13, 2011)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> You must have big fat sausage fingers


 
You must have dainty little girly fingers


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## Blagsta (Jan 13, 2011)

ChrisC said:


> Thanks I'll give it ago. Although when the phone is on standby. I have set it so wi fi switches off, till I use it again. This has greatly extended battery life.


 
how have you done that?


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## ChrisC (Jan 13, 2011)

Yes I have. I'm going out and about with it today. We'll see how long it lasts. I shall take the charger just in case.


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## ohmyliver (Jan 13, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> how have you done that?


 
there's an app called juice defender which has a free version which allows you to automate switching off of things like wifi when the phone goes into standby


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## Blagsta (Jan 13, 2011)

Thanks


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 13, 2011)

I'm tempted by one of these for emergencies. 







AA Powered Emergency Travel USB Phone Charger


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## mauvais (Jan 13, 2011)

All that battery voodoo is exactly that - voodoo. Takes about two weeks for it to calibrate, bed in or whatever it is. And the fact that the novelty wears off a tiny bit so you use it a little bit less.


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## TheHoodedClaw (Jan 13, 2011)

G_S said:


> I'm tempted by one of these for emergencies.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



So carry AA batteries and a AA battery charging device? Why not just buy a spare battery for your phone?


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## cliche guevara (Jan 13, 2011)

mauvais said:


> All that battery voodoo is exactly that - voodoo. Takes about two weeks for it to calibrate, bed in or whatever it is. And the fact that the novelty wears off a tiny bit so you use it a little bit less.


 
The recalibration thing that I posted definitely works. I did it on my old HTC Magic when it was about a year old, and I did it again on my San Francisco after installing a new ROM. It seems to work particularly well if the battery stats have been wiped as the result of a clockwork mod recovery or similiar.


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## mauvais (Jan 13, 2011)

Well, they are calibrated, and it switches off at a certain level - so yes. However the whole business of plugging it in, unplugging it, doing a little twirl, praying for rain - nonsense. Most of the battery info reported by the phone is inaccurate anyway.


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## cliche guevara (Jan 13, 2011)

Well isn't that the point? The phone doesn't know what the true battery level is so it reports it as being full when it's not, bump charging ensures that the battery is full, and once you've done it once it should report far more accurately. Shouldn't do it often though as it can damage the battery.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 14, 2011)

TheHoodedClaw said:


> So carry AA batteries and a AA battery charging device? Why not just buy a spare battery for your phone?


 
Have you tried getting the battery cover of the Desire HD? I'm also worried about the calibration thing as well as seemed to take a good few days to get the phone sorted that way. Can't see why you'd carry an aa charger with you as well, unless you were going for a very very long time.


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## adwardpaul25 (Jan 14, 2011)

*Android 2.2 and HTC Desire, just bought one*

good point 


thanks


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 14, 2011)

The beta is now open for swype again.


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## ChrisC (Jan 14, 2011)

Getting two days of life out of the HTC Desire that's with average usage of the Internet, and aggressive usage of the mp3 player. Quite impressed. I have a few apps on it that is supposed to prolong battery life. Task Manager Killer app and Juice Defender and Battery Booster.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 14, 2011)

Mp3 is quite juice friendly. It's running the screen lots which makes it take a hit, although well worth checking your gps is switched of when you are not using it. I'm still only getting a day, but it is being played with a whole lot.


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## ChrisC (Jan 14, 2011)

GPS is turned off. Wi Fi only comes on when I use it. Otherwise it automatically switches off in lock mode, same goes for 3G. This does mean I have to manual sync, but it's worth it for the extra battery life.

How I have come far in understanding this Android, since I posted this.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 14, 2011)

ChrisC said:


> How I have come far in understanding this Android, since I posted this.



I know. It's so intuitive and I really love the fact I can set the phone up exactly how I want.


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## ChrisC (Feb 14, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> how have you done that?


 
An app called JuiceDefender.


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 14, 2011)

TheHoodedClaw said:


> So carry AA batteries and a AA battery charging device? Why not just buy a spare battery for your phone?


 
As I found last time I went out in sub-zero weather, having a spare lithium-based battery isn't necessarily any cop in v. cold weather. The cold kills the battery, so having one of those AA alkaline-based chargers (alkaline batteries being nowhere near as susceptible to the cold) can mean the difference between being able to make a call or not.

That's why I keep one in my bag, anyway.


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