Page 10 • Android hardware • Non-Gaming • Mobile Phones • Eurogamer.net

terminalterror 22 Apr 2010 11:01:28 18,932 posts
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PearOfAnguish wrote:

mikew1985 wrote:
I'm loathe to use the likes of WMP but I suppose I can take the hit. Looks like there are some decent apps to ape the iPod music player interface as well which is encouraging.

Try MediaMonkey. Not certain if it syncs to the Desire, but it probably will, and it's a really powerful application. Far better than iTunes.

Anything should sync to the desire, it just shows up as an external storage device, and a media manager that can't sync to one of those is a piece of shit.

Deleted user 22 April 2010 11:02:30

Sussed it. It seems to be the volume button on the side. It's default when you're on the main menus is to be "ringer volume". Turn it all the way down and it goes to silent mode, then go one more and it goes to vibrate.

That's quite backwards tbh, might have to fiddle around to see if that can be changed.

PearOfAnguish 22 Apr 2010 11:06:10 7,573 posts
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terminalterror wrote:

PearOfAnguish wrote:

mikew1985 wrote:
I'm loathe to use the likes of WMP but I suppose I can take the hit. Looks like there are some decent apps to ape the iPod music player interface as well which is encouraging.

Try MediaMonkey. Not certain if it syncs to the Desire, but it probably will, and it's a really powerful application. Far better than iTunes.

Anything should sync to the desire, it just shows up as an external storage device, and a media manager that can't sync to one of those is a piece of shit.

It'll definitely work then.

terminalterror 22 Apr 2010 11:06:54 18,932 posts
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Silent mode On/Off widget is very handy. I have it on my middle homescreen. You tap it to cycle through Ring, Vibrate and Silent, and the little icon and bar at the side give you a visual cue to what is currently set. Much simpler than holding the power button to bring up the "phone options" menu thingy.

President_Weasel 22 Apr 2010 11:07:24 12,355 posts
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I got a couple of really cool bojangles, including a battery one that shows the battery power as a percentage and lets you turn your wifi and gps and bluetooth on and off with one touch.
I think the google maps bojangle is still the coolest though.

Deleted user 22 April 2010 11:12:27

terminalterror wrote:
Silent mode On/Off widget is very handy. I have it on my middle homescreen. You tap it to cycle through Ring, Vibrate and Silent, and the little icon and bar at the side give you a visual cue to what is currently set. Much simpler than holding the power button to bring up the "phone options" menu thingy.

Does it disable the side volume control doing this as well, as otherwise it's a bit pointless.

jellyhead 22 Apr 2010 11:23:42 24,356 posts
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Oooooh, it's available on Orange now. Tempting, tempting as i'm due an upgrade from my 3 yr-old Moto Razr which i'm still using as my last upgrade was a great device but a god-awful phone. Stupid Nokia 6500 slide thingy.

Really tempted to go for the Desire but then there's the Dell Lightning due out later this year which looks lovely for a WinMo7 phone.

askew 22 Apr 2010 11:25:42 24,121 posts
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Anyone know if there's an emulator for these phones? There's one included in the SDK, but don't want that...

terminalterror 22 Apr 2010 11:27:43 18,932 posts
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kalel wrote:

terminalterror wrote:
Silent mode On/Off widget is very handy. I have it on my middle homescreen. You tap it to cycle through Ring, Vibrate and Silent, and the little icon and bar at the side give you a visual cue to what is currently set. Much simpler than holding the power button to bring up the "phone options" menu thingy.

Does it disable the side volume control doing this as well, as otherwise it's a bit pointless.

As far as I can tell, disabling the hardware volume control isn't possible, but this bojange offers a work around, which seemingly intercepts accidental keypresses in your pocket and undoes them to keep the volume where you want it.

I'm assuming that is your problem, or are you annoyed about the volume control going down to silent and then vibrate? In which case I can't help you.

I try not to use the hardware volume control, as it doesn't always do what you expect. I.e. if you are in a media app, it controls media volume not ringer volume, but if you press it just after starting a video or song, you have no idea whether it'll have switched over yet. More annoyingly, if it hasn't, it usually does by the time you realise and want to go back the other way, so if you try and lower the media volume but it lowers the ringer volume instead, you then try to raise the ringer volume but now it raises the media volume instead.

Deleted user 22 April 2010 11:29:32

askew wrote:
Anyone know if there's an emulator for these phones? There's one included in the SDK, but don't want that...

What emulator? Not sure what you mean.

Deleted user 22 April 2010 11:30:18

Yeah, that would seem to help TT, ta.

Santino 22 Apr 2010 11:38:35 399 posts
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jellyhead wrote:
Oooooh, it's available on Orange now. Tempting, tempting as i'm due an upgrade from my 3 yr-old Moto Razr which i'm still using as my last upgrade was a great device but a god-awful phone. Stupid Nokia 6500 slide thingy.

Really tempted to go for the Desire but then there's the Dell Lightning due out later this year which looks lovely for a WinMo7 phone.

I can hardly imagine a bigger jump in quality than going from a razr to a desire, I had a razr for a while and even when it was brand new it felt sluggish as hell. The desire seems to cope with anything you throw at it and feels very fast and responsive doing everything.

Deleted user 22 April 2010 11:43:12

President Weasel wrote:
What apps should I get for it?
Is there a way to put some music on it, then tell it to use said music as a ringtone?

get yourself a copy of ringdroid. you will love it!

jellyhead 22 Apr 2010 13:47:51 24,356 posts
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Well, i took the plunge and mine is turning up tomorrow supposedly. I'll give it a day or two and then unlock & debrand the lil' devil.

Goodbye faithful Razr. You've served me admirably!

Tabasco 22 Apr 2010 17:46:03 5,869 posts
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Let us know how you get on with the debranding Jelly. I'm almost definitely getting the desire on Orange too in a week...

mikew1985 22 Apr 2010 19:59:10 15,598 posts
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Cheers for the recommendation PoA, got mediamonkey up and running now, and its really good, has all the features I want from my media player and is better than iTunes in a lot of areas.

Now I'm left with no reson not to get a desire. As soon as Vodafone Ie get their finger out and get it on the market that is.

How are people finding the battery for resonable daily use? 1 - 2 hours music and relatively light app usuage is what I'd be doing, I reckon.

silentbob 22 Apr 2010 20:27:22 29,527 posts
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Been fiddling with one of these (Desire), a Hero and an iPhone 3G sporadically over the last week. It really is a great phone. And it shows the Hero for what it always was, an underpowered stop-gap until the Nexus one generation came along. It kicks the 3G's arse for snappiness too. I still think Apple's UI has the edge by a margin, but that margin is looking ever thinner.

It's between this and the new iPhone in June/July for my next upgrade.

terminalterror 22 Apr 2010 22:59:07 18,932 posts
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T-Mobile lose more brownie points with me. Today I got a letter with the terms and conditions and invoice for an �8.99 a month insurance scheme. Had my direct debit details and everything.

Except not only would I have said no if I was offered insurance, it was never mentioned to me at all.

Rang up the insurance company (fonesafe) who were very apologetic and said that shouldn't have happened, somebody on the T-Mobile telesales team was obviously pushing their luck for some more commission or something. All cancelled now, but that wasn't on at all.

In other network fuckery news, I rang Orange last week to ask for a Port Authorisation Code so I could take my number to T-Mobile. The guy I spoke to said I'd have it in the post in 2 days. Nothing turned up, so I rang again today and (a different guy) said that the person I spoke to before never did anything, so the PAC was never sent out. The second (much more helpful) guy then texted me the PAC so I could give it straight to T-Mobile.

TheStylishHobo 22 Apr 2010 23:07:20 3,185 posts
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I was going to phone up to get my PAC code but then I got told they would charge and I had nightmares of them taking about 20 minutes to get it set up and then finding I've been charged a tenner for the whole thing. How did it go on that front for you?

terminalterror 22 Apr 2010 23:38:44 18,932 posts
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TheStylishHobo wrote:
I was going to phone up to get my PAC code but then I got told they would charge and I had nightmares of them taking about 20 minutes to get it set up and then finding I've been charged a tenner for the whole thing. How did it go on that front for you?

From Orange? If you call from your own mobile I think you just get charged a flat 25p (no matter how long the call) for being put through to an "any other option" customer service person. There didn't seem to be a specific PAC department option before that, and I don't know whether you can avoid the 25p by getting transferred from billing or upgrades or something.

On a pedantic note, it is a PAC, not a PAC code as that would make it a Port Authorisation Code Code.

SilentTristero 23 Apr 2010 15:59:39 460 posts
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With the Hero looking less and less likely to ever receive a 2.1 update, I'm really annoyed that I went with one back in November to be honest. I'm not the kind of person who could have waited until now for a Desire or even a Legend, though.

Considering trying to sell it and buy one of the aforementioned handsets, but I can see that being pretty expensive. It's not that the Hero isn't good, but the handsets coming out now are just really nice - being stuck on 1.5 is a kick in the balls as well.

Tabasco 23 Apr 2010 18:06:22 5,869 posts
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For those who have got the Desire on Orange can you confirm that a 4gb stick is included in the pack? Can't seem to find the info anywhere...

frugtkompot 23 Apr 2010 18:07:59 2,829 posts
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Isn't the Hero stuck on 1.6?

But yeah, I agree it's crappy support and one of the primary reasons why i'm still considering getting an iPhone instead of HTC:

sagat 23 Apr 2010 18:41:21 93 posts
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I got a 4gb card with my desire on orange.

The pre-loaded stuff is really annoying tho. Orange maps refuses to ever do anything as well.

jellyhead 23 Apr 2010 20:52:25 24,356 posts
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Tabasco wrote:
For those who have got the Desire on Orange can you confirm that a 4gb stick is included in the pack? Can't seem to find the info anywhere...

Yup, 4GB stick here too.

I'm going to wait a day or two and then debrand it

TheStylishHobo 23 Apr 2010 20:57:28 3,185 posts
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jellyhead wrote:

Tabasco wrote:
For those who have got the Desire on Orange can you confirm that a 4gb stick is included in the pack? Can't seem to find the info anywhere...
Yup, 4GB stick here too.

I'm going to wait a day or two and then debrand it

How does one go about doing that?

askew 23 Apr 2010 20:59:15 24,121 posts
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kalel wrote:

askew wrote:
Anyone know if there's an emulator for these phones? There's one included in the SDK, but don't want that...

What emulator? Not sure what you mean.

I presume there would be one to test how apps/websites run in one.

jellyhead 23 Apr 2010 21:15:24 24,356 posts
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Hobo, have a look for goldcard htc desire. Basically you get down the Android SDK, the HTC Vista usb drivers ( for vista/win 7), the goldcard app and a new vanilla HTC Rom. Put a bootloader on the microsd card, boot it and then flash the Rom to the vanilla Orangeless state.

You lose all the Orange apps and have to reset your preferences but all the orange stuff goes away and you can put a browser on there etc.

If i can find my links on my usb pen i'll post some or there may be a couple a page or two back. I forget.

TheStylishHobo 23 Apr 2010 21:18:36 3,185 posts
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Cool, that would be much appreciated. I'm fairly sure I'll now be getting a HTC Desire even though I was set on the leaked iPhone for a while, and since Orange seem to be the only bloody service doing it (had great experience with O2 and T-Mobile in the past), I guess I'll be stuck with them.

jellyhead 23 Apr 2010 21:20:09 24,356 posts
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If you can hold off a bit the new leaked Dell phones look very tasty. I'd have gone with one of those if my poor old MotoRazr wasn't on it's last legs.

Android hardware • Page 10