Tips & Tricks for the HTC Desire

Long-pressing the Stand-by key brings up options to:
- Power off (obviously)
- Toggle Silent mode
- Toggle Vibration mode
- Toggle Airplane mode
- Toggle Mobile network
The last 4 items are particularly handy since that means you don't need dedicated widgets on your homescreen for them.

Pressing the Volume Down key after the ring volume is 0% will toggle on Silent mode and then Vibration mode. Similarly, pressing Volume Up key will toggle it back the other way.

Android does multi-tasking extremely well. Long-press the Home key to toggle between the most recent 6 applications you've been using.
Edit: After the official Froyo update, the most recent 8 applications are now available.
Edit2: If you have an Desire HD/Z ROM port, then the recent application list is also accessible in the notification shade.

To quickly move widgets across screens.
1. Tap and hold a widget.
2. With another finger, swipe across the optical pad to the screen you want to land on.
3. Release the widget.
The Home key also functions when you're holding a widget. So if you want to move a widget from the far left to the center screen, you just have to tap and hold, press Home, and then release the widget.

Speed up your browser
I've been doing this since Opera Mobile on my Touch Diamond and I'm pleasantly surprised I can still do this on Android's browser. The browser on the Desire is actually already quite fast. But try disabling Javascript. Many sites work just fine with this disabled and you'll definitely feel the difference in loading speeds.

In the browser, if you want to get to your History list, long-press on the Back key.

In the browser history, you can easily and quickly add/remove bookmarks by toggling the stars on the right.

Select and delete multiple messages at once in Mail application
This may already be well-known but it took me a while to figure it out so I'll include it here.
1. Press the Menu key.
2. Tap Delete.
3. Select the messages by tapping on the "X" on the right of each message.
4. Tap Delete.
Edit: If you run a Desire HD/Z ROM port, then your Mail application will have checkmarks always visible on the left.

Moving messages into folders in Mail application
1. Press the Menu key
2. Tap "More"
3. Tap "Move to"
4. Select messages by toggling the checkmark on the right of each message.
5. Tap "Move to (x)"
6. Select accordingly

In Mail or Messages application, tapping on the contact picture brings up several icons for you to do one of the following:
- Call the contact
- View the person's contact card
- Send SMS
- Send email
- Send IM via Google Talk

Synchronize with Google Exchange server as an alternative to the Google Mail application which is quite limited. Set up with the instructions here.
Edit: Ever since Google started releasing updates to their Google applications, the Google Mail application has actually become quite robust.

In the dialer, tapping the contact card icon on the right of each item will take you to the respective contact card. Tapping the plus icon allows you to add that number to your contact list.

In the dialer, if you don't input any numbers and you don't select anybody on the list and you just tap "Call", it will call the person on the top of the dialer list.

In the dialer, scrolling (either swiping the list or using the optical trackpad) will hide the number pad.

In the dialer, swiping laterally on the optical pad will toggle between different phone numbers of the selected contact.

Calculator can be rotated into landscape via accelerometer to transform into a scientific calculator.

As an alternative to the downward swiping gesture to unlock, press Menu key. Edit: This is no longer applicable after the official Froyo update.

To unlock the device, you don't actually have to swipe downwards on the bar near the bottom of the screen. You can begin your downward swipe anywhere and then let go once you make contact with the bar.

To see the current date, just tap on the notification bar and it will be displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen.

In camera application, tap and hold on a spot to focus there and take the picture.

The word suggestion bar (that appears during text editing) can be moved by tapping, holding and dragging it.

Press the Back key to hide the on-screen keyboard.

To select custom sound files for notifications, put them in the following folders in the root of the microSD
Ringtones
Alarms
Notifications

To jump to a particular letter in the Contacts list, you need to use the scroll bar. The scroll bar appears on the right when you scroll but will auto-hide after 2 seconds. To easily grab it, touch and the contacts list, scroll it (don't flick-scroll), stop, and let go. The scroll bar should now be stationary for you to just get it.
Alternatively, try scrolling vertically with two fingers on the screen.

Use the Search key. It's not just for searching Google.
-If you type a contact's name, you can easily access the contact card.
-If you type an application's name, you can easily launch it.
-If you press the Search key while you're in your browser bookmarks, you can search within there.
-many more uses!

Use the Menu key. Try it everywhere. You may find some helpful settings/options/features.

Press the following into your dialer to access some interesting stats:
*#*#4636#*#*

Go easy on widgets. HTC Sense has some really nice widgets but some of them adversely affects your battery life because of their need to be updated throughout the day. I'm not suggesting you don't use any of these. But try to take a conservative approach for better battery life.
-Twitter. Don't use the full screen Twitter widget. It only allows you to view tweets and post tweets. You can't interact with the tweets in other ways and you can't hit links. If you tap a tweet, you're just taken to the full Twitter application. Solution: Just have a shortcut to Peep on your homescreen. If you must tweet from your homescreen, use the 2x4 Twitter widget.
-Friendstream. See above regarding Twitter. Same thing.
-Latitude. Why anyone would use this is beyond me. This just keeps updating your current location. It'll wreak havok on your battery, especially if you have GPS enabled.
-News. Just have a shortcut to News application. The Widget almost doesn't make sense if you have more than several RSS feeds.
-Stocks. Again, you can just have a shortcut to the Stocks application.
-Weather. Remember, none of the weather widgets are necessary if you already use the HTC clock+weather widget. You can just tap the weather icon in that widget to launch the Weather application.

Use the optical track-pad. Lots of review sites mention that it's useless and that they'd prefer HTC to just not include it so that they can either have a larger screen size or smaller device. I find it to be very useful.
-Use it for precise cursor placement in text editing. Great for going back to correct a block of text.
-Use it for selecting text in text editing. Place the cursor where you want to start your selection. Long-press on the optical track-pad to bring up the context menu. Tap "Select text". Then use the optical track-pad to fine tune your selection. Afterwards, you can long-press on the optical track-pad to bring up the context menu to cut or copy the selection.
-Use it in the browser to jump between links. This is useful if the links are very small. You can also long-press on the optical track-pad to bring up the context menu so that you may open in new window, etc.

If you don't want the default Photo or Music application to pick up media files in a particular folder, just add a blank text file name ".nomedia" in that folder.

Install Voice Search and Voice-to-Text. For whatever reason, HTC decided to leave these 2 amazing features out.
1. You'll need a file explorer application from the Android Market. Astro works for me.
2. Download and install Voice Search.
3. Download and install the HTC_IME mod.
4. Go to Settings > Language and keyboard
5. Toggle on "HTC_IME mod"
6. Long-tap on a text entry box.
7. Select "Input method" from the popup
8. Select "HTC_IME mod"
Edit: This is no longer applicable. The official Froyo update includes Voice-to-Text and Google has since made Voice Search available on the Android Market.

Music controls on the lock screen autohide after a few seconds. Swipe up to bring them back.

To get your Google Reader feeds on to the HTC News application:
1. Export your Google Reader subscriptions as OPML file.
2. Save this file onto your device. (If necessary, rename the file extension from xml to opml.)

3. Import this file into your News application.

If you are locked up in a loop where HTC Sense acts up and starts to force close, use the search key and type the first few letters for "Applications". You should be able to access the Applications settings menu. Go into "Manage applications". Go into "HTC Sense" and tap "Clear data". This will erase all your Scenes but it's better than doing a hard reset.

Fastest way to soft reset is to press Power/Standby key + Volume Down key + trackpad. Not recommended if your device is still responsive.

When composing an email using the Mail application and you have multiple email accounts configured, you can select which account to send from. This applies even if you are replying to an email. For example, if someone sends an email to your Gmail account, you can reply to it with your Hotmail account.

In the email composing screen, scroll all the way to the top. Above the "To" field, there's a button that indicates which account the email will be sent from. Tap that button to pop-up a menu that lets you select an alternate account.

If you are listening to music via the default music player, pulling out the headphones will stop the music playback. So you don't have to stop the music before pulling out the headphones.

Chrome-to-Phone. Anyone who has used it will agree this is a killer feature of Android. See here for installation. It connects your desktop Chrome browser with your Android. Allows you to send several different items to your Android.

Text: Select any text in the browser and click the Chrome-to-Phone button to copy the text onto your Android's clipboard. I use this all the time if I want to type out a long SMS on my desktop. I just go to Google.com and type it in the search box. Then I select the text and hit the Chrome-to-Phone button. Then all I do on my Android is to paste the text onto the Messaging application.

URL: Go to any site and click the Chrome-to-Phone button to send the site url to your Android. Depending on your settings, the site will automatically start loading on your Android browser or you'll receive a notification which will open the site if you click it.

Phone number: If you select a phone number in the browser and click the Chrome-to-Phone button, the number will appear in your dialer.

Map: If you've navigated to a location on Google Maps, clicking the Chrome-to-Phone button will open up your Android Maps application and navigate to the same location.

Youtube: If you're on a Youtube video page, clicking the Chrome-to-Phone button will open your Android's Youtube application and load the same video.

In the browser, enable "Open in background". This allows you to stay on the current page as you open links in new windows. You'll be able to browse much faster this way. For example, let's say you want to open 4 links from the site you're visiting. Just open up the first 3 links in a new window and the 4th link in the current window. While it's loading, switch to the next window to view the 1st link which should have loaded by now. Then you can continue on to the next windows without waiting since they would have loaded by the time you finished with the first window!

Thoughts on Android - from a former Windows Mobile supporter

It has been about 3 weeks since I made the switch from Windows Mobile to Android. I've previously used the HTC Touch Dual, Touch Diamond, and Touch Pro2. I've now finally made the leap to Android on the HTC Desire.

I was previously reluctant to make the jump to Android because of fear that the OS is just not mature enough. I loved the capabilities and freedom of Windows Mobile, but I was getting increasingly frustrated with always having to worry about RAM usage and random lags and lockups.

Once I realized that I was spending more time tweaking my device in order to use it properly rather than actually using it, I knew it was time to let go of Windows Mobile.

After a single day of using the Desire, I came to one conclusion. I should have given up on Windows Mobile long ago. Android is actually very similar to Windows Mobile in terms of usage and capabilities. But it's so much smoother and more beautiful to look at.

Things I'm no longer bothered with since using the Desire:
1. RAM usage, closing applications, and task managers. The Android OS does a wonderful job managing multitasking and memory, so I don't have to.
2. Disabling browser features. I used to disable images and javascript to load web pages faster. I no longer feel this is necessary. (Although, this does speed things up even more!)
3. In the browser, I no longer have to zoom and then pan. Multitouch zooming allows me to zoom in exactly where I want to. Much better than using the scrollring on the Diamond and the zoombar on the Touch Pro2.
4. Registry edits and ROM flashing to boost the performance. I may install custom ROMs when they're available but I'm not in a rush to do so. The device is quite fast enough.
5. Soft-resets and RAM cleaners. The device doesn't slow down even if it's powered on for weeks.
6. GPS lock. The device gets a good lock within 10 secs from a cold boot. My Touch Pro2 used to take about 2 minutes from a cold boot. I can actually use the HTC Footprints application now. Previously, just waiting for the GPS to lock took the fun out of everything.

HTC Legend Review

Worthy successor to last year's most talked about smartphone

The HTC Hero was one of the better smartphones released last year and arguably the best Android device. The HTC Legend improves upon the Hero in many ways.

Specs here.

The retail box contains the following:

• The device itself
• 2GB Class 2 microSD memory card
• USB to microUSB cable
• Wall charger (USB output to the above mentioned cable)
• Stereo handsfree set (Uses the 3.5mm audio jack, contains mic, and buttons to answer calls and control your music playback)
• Manuals, Warranty info, and other literature.

Just looking at specs, there's really not much difference. There's a 72 Mhz improvement in CPU clock speed and 96 MB improvement in RAM. The trackball has been replaced by an optical trackpad. The camera is still 5MP but is now accompanied by an LED flash.

Despite the minor hardware improvements, the Legend feels significantly faster than the Hero. No lags in animations and screen transitions. Pinch-to-zoom (in either browser or photos) feels much smoother than on the Hero.

The main difference from the Hero (and other devices available now) is the design of the Legend. It's has an aluminum unibody design. This makes the device thinner and feels very sturdy in hand. The brushed finish makes it less slippery to hold. It's compact size makes it very pocketable. The chin from the Hero is still here but it's more subtle.

Consider swapping out the 2GB microSD card for something at least 8GB. It would have been ideal if HTC had included a couple of GB of internal storage. But it's a minor issue since 8GB cards are pretty inexpensive these days.

The device does not come with screen protectors or a pouch. So you may want to invest in one or the other or both. The screen is glass so it won't scratch easily. But having a screen protector won't hurt. Plus, it'll greatly improve the resale value if you decide to sell it in a year or two.

The screen is HVGA resolution which you would think pales in comparison to WVGA devices. In reality, it doesn't. There's a difference obviously but it's not like everything is fuzzy in HVGA.

Please see my Desire review for my comments regarding the browser, keyboard, and negatives about the device. The same applies here.

(Unlike the HTC Desire, the Legend allows you to attach a lanyard.)

A couple more differences between the Legend and Desire:

• Less options available in email retrieval scheduling compared to the HTC Desire.
• You can have seperate wallpapers for the lockscreen and homescreen on the Legend while you can't on the Desire.
• The Desire supports live-wallpaper (animated) while the Legend doesn't.

Conclusion:
The Legend is perfect for someone who wants something compact and sturdy. The unibody design makes it look super sleek. It's got both style and substance. If you choose it over the HTC Desire, you're not missing out on anything other than screen size.

HTC Desire Review

Truly deserving of the name "Superphone"

The HTC Desire is the ultimate do-everything device. It has everything that can ever want from a smartphone, except a hardware qwerty keyboard. But then once you try HTC's on-screen keyboard, you'll realize you don't need physical keys. More on that later.

Check out the specs here.

The retail box contains the following:

• The device itself
• 4GB Class 2 microSD memory card
• USB to microUSB cable
• Wall charger (USB output to the above mentioned cable)
• Stereo handsfree set (Uses the 3.5mm audio jack, contains mic, and buttons to answer calls and control your music playback)
• Manuals, Warranty info, and other literature.

A couple of things to consider after getting the Desire.
You should swap out that 4GB microSD for something at least 8GB. It would have been ideal if HTC had included a couple of GB of internal storage. But it's a minor issue since 8GB cards are pretty inexpensive these days.

The device does not come with screen protectors or a pouch. So you may want to invest in one or the other or both. The screen is glass so it won't scratch easily. But having a screen protector won't hurt. Plus, it'll greatly improve the resale value if you decide to sell it in a year or two.

(Not sure if anyone finds this significant, but the Desire does not have a place for you to attach a lanyard.)

I'll start with aesthetics.

The back and the chin (Yes it has a chin but it's so subtle that you'll barely notice it) of the device is covered in a black rubbery finish. This coating is soft to the touch and has good grip, making the device feel very good in hand. The round edges, light weight, and thin form-factor means it doesn't feel bulky at all.

The screen is just excellent. Colors really pop and blacks are really black because of the AMOLED technology. Photos and videos look amazing. Many people are saying that there's a flaw in the display because some shades of gray appear in a pink tint. I can verify that this issue exists but it doesn't deserve the amount of attention it's getting. The pink tint is extremely subtle, only visible in certain rare instances, and really doesn't interfere with anything. That is, you really have to look for the pink just to barely see it.

The software of Android and HTC Sense has been covered extensively by other reviewers so I'll try not to repeat what everyone knows already.

Performance is spectacular. Screen animations are smooth. GPS locks in 10 seconds from cold start.

The browser deserves praise. It is the fastest I've used on a portable device. It probably rivals some desktops. It renders swiftly and accurately. Flash content appears in their full glory. (Personal tip: try disabling JavaScript via the browser settings. Most sites will work with it disabled. You browser will feel even faster than it already is!). You can of course use pinch-to-zoom. The text will re-flow so that you don't have to scroll horizontally. Try flick scrolling rapidly on another device and you'll notice the checkerboard pattern as the screen refreshes to display the content. This doesn't happen on the Desire.

It's been mentioned by other reviewers that HTC's on-screen keyboard is excellent. I think it's so great that it deserves mentioning again. It is indeed excellent. The portrait keyboard is fine for short phrases. But turn it sideways to switch to landscape and you'll be able to type full speed with 2 thumbs. The word recognition software works great. You don't have to be even remotely accurate and it'll be able to guess correctly. Try keeping your eyes on the keyboard as you bang away at the keys and you'll be amazed at how accurate your message turns out.

A couple of minor gripes about the device:

Can't edit Microsoft Office documents. Coming from Windows Mobile, I've gotten used to being able to view, create, and edit Office documents. Natively, you can only view Office documents with the Desire. But there are paid applications in the Android Market that will enable this functionality and it is well worth the price.

HTC Mail widget doesn't pull info from Gmail application. The Mail widget only feeds from the Mail application. So, if you want to use the Mail widget to display your Gmail account, you'll need to set up your Gmail account via IMAP4, POP3, or Exchange.

Can't select and copy text from Gmail application. Again, you'll need to use IMAP4, POP3, or Exchange. (Edit: This has since been fixed since Google started releasing updates to their Google applications through the Market)

The OS should be re-skinned to use more blacks to fully utilize the AMOLED screen. This might help with battery life which isn't very impressive. It'll last at least a day but it really depends on what widgets and applications you use and how often they are refreshed/updated.

Voice-to-text is not included. You'll need to install it separately. (Edit: Voice-to-text has since been included in the official Froyo update.)

Conclusion:
I wonder how Google feels about the HTC Desire. Google asked HTC to build the Nexus One, which they did admirably. Then HTC goes and builds their own version with better hardware and design plus their own superior software.
When I went from the HTC Touch Diamond to the Touch Pro2, the experience and performance benefits were like night and day. Now, from Touch Pro2 to the Desire, again, it's like night and day.

Is the HTC Desire the best smartphone available today? I think I can claim it to be better than the following devices:
Apple iPhone 3GS
HTC HD2
Google Nexus One
Motorola Droid/Milestone
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

This is now the phone to beat. Look out...

iPhone OS 4.0 - What's new?

This isn't the 4th-gen iPhone. I'm sure Apple has got some more things that they've not shown us yet. But here's my recap of what's new from the latest Apple event. This is from the perspective of someone who thinks the iPhone OS platform is a bit inadequate compared to Android and Windows Mobile.

Multitasking
Great! Everyone saw this one coming since it long overdue. It's not multitasking in the traditional sense (as with Windows Mobile 6.x or desktop OS's). I may be wrong but it seems to be that applications can now instruct the OS to run specific services that are allowed to run in the background without the application itself being active. These services are the following:

Background audio
Nothing new here. This just means you can play music in the background which you can do since the 1st-gen of the OS.

VOIP
This is useful. You can make and receive calls in the background with applications like Skype.

Location services
I'm guessing this means you can keep your navigation application in the background while still keeping your connection to GPS. But if so, I can foresee a lot of people forgetting to exit the application and the GPS will quickly drain the battery. I'll need more information on this...

Notifications (push and local)
Push notifications are nothing new. I'm guessing local notifications are just notifications that originate from your applications. For example, a popup for a calendar reminder. I'm sure there's more to this so we'll see how applications can utilize this service.

Task Completion
Applications can now complete what they're doing even when you leave them prematurely. I guess this is similiar to what happens after you tap "install" in the App Store. The application continues to be downloaded and installed even when you do other things.

Fast app switching
It actually sounds very much like the technique used by Windows Phone 7 or Android. Applications don't actually close when you go away from them. They just stay in a suspended state that doesn't use up system resources. When you navigate back to the suspended application, the OS reallocates the system resources back to it and you resume where you left off.

Spell check
Self explanatory. It's a feature that's good to have but it's not going to raise any eyebrows.

Bluetooth keyboard support
Ported from iPad.

Tap to focus when recording video
I'm surprised it wasn't there in the first place.

Folders
You can now organize your application icons into folders. Perhaps you can have one for games, one for productivity, etc. You won't have to swipe through pages and pages of icons just to find the one you need. Nothing revolutionary here. Android has this functionality. Windows Mobile has had it since the beginning.

Wallpaper
Up to now, you can only change the iPhone OS's lockscreen wallpaper. Now you can customize the background of your application launcher screen. Again, nothing extraordinary since this feature is one of those should-have-been-there-in-the-first-place things.

Unified inbox
Apple deserves credit for this. All your emails from multiple inboxes are consolidated into one. No doubt usefule for those who manage multiple accounts.

iBooks
Ported from iPad.

Enterprise
Features remote device management and wireless application distribution. Should be good for businesses. Probably a nonfactor for regular consumers.

GameKit
Since the iPhone OS is a pretty significant gaming platform, this is a good idea. You can now have leaderboards and match-making. We'll need to see how this gets implemented.

iAd
Tapping on advertisements no longer will kick you out of the active application and open the browser.


Personally, out of all that, the only thing that impresses me is the multitasking and the unified inbox. Even so, Engadget has pointed out a major omission. There's no background service for managing a conversation like IM or Twitter. This is actually my main purpose for using multitasking on my smartphone! But then perhaps this is where the "local notifications" service comes into play.

We'll need to see what else Steve Jobs have up his sleeve come this summer at the 4th-gen iPhone launch and how everything gels together. It's going to get interesting...

More things that Android does better than the iPhone 3GS

This list is in addition to the list compiled by Pocketnow.

Text-reflow in the browser
With the low-resolution screen on the iPhone, I find I have to zoom in to the text more to be able to read it. But then I have to scroll horizontally as well as vertically. That's shameful.

Home screen customizations
You'll be able to get at-a-glance info if that's what you want. And your phone won't look like everyone else's.

Multi-tasking
Very well-documented flaw of the iPhone OS. No explanation required.

Removable battery
Self-explanatory. This isn't something that just Android has over Apple's product. It's what every mobile phone has!

Non-obstructive notifications
With the iPhone OS, notifications such as those for new messages or appointments pop up and force you to deal with them right away. What happens if you just so happened to be busy? If you tap "Dismiss", you'll likely just forget it a couple minutes later. Android organizes your notifications on the top bar and you deal with it when you choose.

Smart-dialing
Without smart-dialing, that means you have to drill into a list (be it your contacts, favorites, or call history) every time you want to make a call.

Standardized plug for charging and syncing
Self-explanatory.

Accessing the SIM card slot doesn't require a dedicated tool
Some phones have SIM Card slots that are poorly designed. But the iPhone takes the prize here. You actually need to poke at a hole with a stick to access the SIM slot. It's similar to getting your computer's optical drive to eject the tray without turning on your PC.

Looking forward to the announcement of the 4th-gen iPhone

I'm not an iPhone fan. I don't even have the device. I've been using Windows Mobile for several years and will soon be switching to Android (pre-ordered the HTC Desire). So why do I care about the upcoming 4th-gen iPhone? 2 reasons...

1. Innovation. The 1st-gen iPhone was the one that reshaped the whole smartphone landscape. Capacitive multi-touch, smooth OS animations, and fingerfriendly navigation. We've never seen anything like it before. Every other smartphone manufacturer were suddenly now playing catch-up. Because of this, everybody else started making much better devices. If it were not for the iPhone, we would not have superphones like the HTC HD2, Nexus One, Desire, Legend, X10, etc. It's been quite a long time since we've had something truly innovative in the iPhone world. (I would say the last time was when they introduced the App Store). If Apple is able to bring something truly new and awesome to the smartphone arena, their fanboys would rejoice. But better yet, every other manufacturer will once again try to one-up Apple and as a result, we'll all benefit with even better devices in the future.
2. To watch Apple crash & burn and see how their fans defend their device's mediocrity. Apple has some tough competition in the Motorola Droid and HTC Desire. They also have to be wary of the imminent launch of Windows Phone 7 Series devices. They have to come up with something better than (or at least on par with) the devices that are already out. It would be unacceptable to have a margin of improvement similar to the difference between the iPhone 3G and the 3GS. Imagine if the only new features were a 5MP cam with LED flash, more storage, and a longer-lasting battery that's still non-removable. Apple-haters would be having a parade over this.
   

As much fun as I would like to see Apple fail, I would much prefer if Apple got their act together and delivered something truely awesome for everyone come this summer.


For Apple not to fail, they need to improve the following at a minimum!

• Low resolution screen. The 480x320 screen that was introduced back in 2007 needs to be upgraded to WVGA (800x480) at least)
• Multi-tasking. The most well-documented glaring flaw of the iPhone OS. We all know it can be done because of jailbreakers. So why isn't it being implemented natively?
• Wouldn't hurt to allow some sort of customizations. Except for the wallpaper on the lockscreen, every iPhone looks exactly the same.
• It needs to be able to do something that has that wow factor. (I'd argue that HTC achieved this with their HTC Sense interface in the Legend and the Desire).