HTC Hero Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs

Andrew Ruffolo

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Here's one I discovered 2 months into ownership. I always pressed home to get to the home screen. Open enough apps and the phone gets laggy. However, if you hit back when you're in an app, it actually closes the app properly saving battery life, eliminating the slightest need for an app killer. In Dolphin browser, if you long press the back button, it has an option to exit, just in case you opened like 20 pages and it would take a while to close the app. Haven't tried the default browser as I'm still testing the Dolphin browser.
 

koricua74

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Here's one I discovered 2 months into ownership. I always pressed home to get to the home screen. Open enough apps and the phone gets laggy. However, if you hit back when you're in an app, it actually closes the app properly saving battery life, eliminating the slightest need for an app killer. In Dolphin browser, if you long press the back button, it has an option to exit, just in case you opened like 20 pages and it would take a while to close the app. Haven't tried the default browser as I'm still testing the Dolphin browser.

On the default browser if you long press the back button it brings up "recently-visited pages"
 

kehanra99

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Here's one I discovered 2 months into ownership. I always pressed home to get to the home screen. Open enough apps and the phone gets laggy. However, if you hit back when you're in an app, it actually closes the app properly saving battery life, eliminating the slightest need for an app killer. In Dolphin browser, if you long press the back button, it has an option to exit, just in case you opened like 20 pages and it would take a while to close the app. Haven't tried the default browser as I'm still testing the Dolphin browser.

That does not work in all apps. For instance, Handcent will just go over the last several screens you've been in. Of course, it will work if you start using it right after a restart.
 

cajunrph

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I don't know of this is a trick or just a tid bit of information. I thought my phone was getting quite laggy when I couldn't get it to rotate a picture from portrait to landscape nor could I get the browser to do it. That was until I discovered that the screen will only rotate from portrait to landscape only if you rotate the phone counter clockwise from 12 o'clock to 9 o'clock. I discovered that I mostly flip my phone from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock leading to the screen not rotating. I was about to trade it in and wait on the Nexus or some other android phone. Now I'm much happier knowing how to make it rotate the screen.
 

jaded

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It took me a while to realize that you can have multiple windows open in the default web browser. When you're looking at a web page, if you long-press a hyperlink, you'll get a popup menu which allows you to open that link in a new window; then hitting menu / windows will allow you to switch between them. It's also much easier to navigate web pages by moving the trackball around than by hitting little text links with your thumb or finger - as you move the trackball different links are highlighted, and then you can press / long-press the trackball itself to open them.

Oh, one other thing: the trackball functions as arrow keys when you're typing, so you can use it to go back and correct mistakes.

Awesome!!! Thanks for all the great tips!

I fumble finger a lot so I was very happy to read on the forum that I could reset my dictionary to default
Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Touch Input

I suspect that there are lots of good app tricks in this menu. Hope that helps others as much as it's helped me.
 

GolpherZX

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As this is the closest thing to a newbie guide to the Hero (which I am), I thought I'd post a couple of other things here that I have found helpful already. One I had a friend of a friend show, and the other was from someone else's post in another thread. I'm going to keep a running document and keep updating it to try to get a newbie guide. That was one nice thing that someone had made over at the overactive PreCentral.

1) Turn off default SMS Client (Saves some battery life)
a. First, download and install a new client, current recommendations of either Handcent SMS or Chomp.
b. Send your first SMS message to change the default messaging application
i. Open People
ii. Open a contact (anyone that you have)
iii. Click ?Send Message?
1. This should open up a prompt that will ask you to select which SMS client you?d like to use
iv. Select your new third party application
v. There should be a box that says ?Use this as default application?, click it.
1. Note: Can someone get me the exact verbiage so this can be updated
vi. Send test text message
c. Disable Messages from being used
i. Open up messages
ii. Menu->Settings
iii. Unselect ?Auto-retrieve?
iv. Unselect ?Notifications?
d. This should now have the messages application removed from being used on the hero.

2) Change Gmail Contact Sync to Particular Groups, not all groups (Thanks doogald)
a. Reason: Gmail by default adds every person you email to your larger contact list
b. Start People Application
c. Go to the 3rd icon on the bottom (Groups)
d. Press Menu
e. Press Sync Groups
f. Turn off ?Sync All Contacts?
g. Note: When in gmail on a web browser (PC/MAC) I created a new group called ?All_Contacts?, then selected all of my contacts that I had and added to the group. This seemed to not select the ?default? added contacts that I had, even though I had selected all of the contacts. This seemed to add only the ones that I had added manually.
 

jgodin03

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One I stumbled upon - if you're in an app that uses location and you've moved enough that your location had to reset (looks to be about 8-10 km before it looks for new data, at least in the HTC weather widget), often times it will get stuck and not refresh. Rather than reset the phone, open Gmaps and update your location.

You can just disable/reable the gps in the setting, it work for me...
 

marcch

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On the iPhone, when scrolling through contacts, to get faster to a contact, there is some Alphabet Bar on the right which lets you scroll through letters quickly...

Usually, when I show my HTC Hero to my friends, they ask me how I scroll without this bar... so I show them the search and the Smart Dial function....

However, it turns out that the HTC Hero also has this Alphabet Scrolling function.

When you start scrolling in the People application, a black scroll bar appears on the right, press on it and hold, and a horizontal bar with a letter shows up, allowing you to scroll though letters, just like in the iPhone.... :D :D


Another tip, is that usually when I use the Smart Dial function, to bring up a contact and his number, I get the default number for the contact... If you want to dial another number, which is not the default one, and don't want to go to his Contact page, use the trackball to get to the contact you want, then go left or right using the trackball...you'll see the number change... all you have to do now is press the call button... :D
 
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smacky32

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Mar 29, 2010
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yes, I was playing around with my HTC hero and did not do a recovery, wipe it clean and now im having trouble resetting back to 1.5 can or does anyone have any ideas , need help, I installed 2.1 that leaked out but has bugs.
 

E.2da.D

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I dont know if this will help, but when hero sceen is locked. If you hold in trackball and rotate upward (while holding in trackball) until a click sound is heard,, your screen will be unlocked


Just did this byy accident, if its a glitch please inform me!!
 

highwayman1224

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I dont know if this will help, but when hero sceen is locked. If you hold in trackball and rotate upward (while holding in trackball) until a click sound is heard,, your screen will be unlocked


Just did this byy accident, if its a glitch please inform me!!

I just tried this & it didn't work on my phone.
 

Big D

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Im having problems downloading messages sent to me. When I tap download it says unsuccessful . I never had this problem before can anyone help me?
 

blueskyeer

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Mar 19, 2010
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Im having problems downloading messages sent to me. When I tap download it says unsuccessful . I never had this problem before can anyone help me?

this happens to me sometimes when i'm not connected to the network. for some reason my phone periodically stops connecting (annoying). I'm not connected even though my mobile widget says I am... at this point the mobile widget is also frozen and won't let me disconnect.

To fix: I re-set/ reconnect by holding power button until the drop down menu appears then I disconnect the network, then reconnect and 99% of the time that fixes it and I'm able to download my messages, go to the market or whatever...

this might not be your issue, but it was for me...