Android Gripes-what to do about it?

[Ali Fazel]

I had a Hero that I got on the Best Buy RZ early release, didn't like it and swapped for a Pre 3 days later. Now I miss the Hero (gadget wanderlust), and Best Buy is going to let me exchange it (yay!).

Here is what turned me off from Android, and I would appreciate it if someone would tell me what I'm missing and how to do this the right way:

-Email apps: There is both a gmail app and a regular email app. Gmail is my lesser-used email account at the moment. What bothers me is that I get a notification for a new email from both the gmail app and the regular email app. What do I do to get an alert from just the email app?

-Text messaging: I didn't like the HTC messaging app, and I definitely didn't like the HTC messaging widget. I hear there are better options than the stock app, what are suggestions?

-Memory management. It seemed to get sluggish after I have used a few applications, and there is no easy way to close an app. I understand that Android is supposed to close apps as more memory is needed, but it just did not seem to be working that way for me. *Note: I don't consider downloading a 3rd party task manager an "easy way" to close an app.

-Battery life: It was really bad, although no worse than my Pre. I understand there was an issue with the default text messaging app that caused this. Is this fixed?

-Web browsing: I went to a website that I was able to watch videos on from my iPhone, but it didn't work from the Pre. It could be that I was having a lapse in judgement and just forgot to visit the mobile site. Should the Hero be able to run any video the iPhone can?

I think that's about it. There may have been more, but this is all I can think of right now.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

Email - When you open your email app, does the gmail account you have tied to the phone show as an account? If so, that is the problem.

Text messaging - There are several out there, but the two seemingly most desired are "Handsent SMS" and "Chomp SMS" (I use Handsent). If you choose either be sure to go to the developers webpage to see how to set up the phone after installing or you will be met with duplicate texts.

Memory Management - Download a task manager. I chose "Advanced Task Manager" despite the minimal cost. There are other good ones, both paid and free. my best advice is to get one that has a widget to end or kill everything running with the touch of a button. Also get one with the ability to exclude apps from the kill process as killing all the processes without excluding things like email will produce undesirable results.

Battery Life - As with any phone, make sure the screen is not at 100% and wifi is not turned on when you don't need it. There are many apps and widgets that facilitate this both manually and automatically. Most paid apps have trial versions to try before you buy.

Web browsing - Flash player is not integrated into the browser......yet. That being said, anything relating to youtube runs great if you are in a 3g area or are connected to wifi.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Couple of things Dale...er Rusty missed
Yes the stock messaging app was fixed.

Root it, and get rid of stocks updater and HTC Footprints, and their widgets. Those are both huge memory hogs that always run. And not to offend if you use them, but they are absolutely worthless lol. Use a startup auditor (I use autostarts) to keep navigation from loading everythime you get a text. This really speeds up the Hero. You can go a step further and load up a streamlined rom as well.

One last thing - I love HTC sense, but still always tell everyone not to forget the Moment. With some tweaking, that thing has the potential to be incredible. Out of the box...not so much.

 

[Ali Fazel]

I should remove the widgets even if I've taken them off the home screens, or do you just mean take them off the home screens?

 

[Ali Fazel]

Hey I thought this was supposed to have the 1.6 update by now!

Running the MoDaCo rom, btw. We'll see how it works out.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I should remove the widgets even if I've taken them off the home screens, or do you just mean take them off the home screens?

Delete them. Footprints and parts of Stocks run constantly, they were designed to give semi-real time information so they are always updating. If you're not using them or ever going to use them, rip em out.

 

[Ali Fazel]

I pulled them out. My voicemail app went funky on my after I flashed to the new ROM. When I click it it wants to update, but then never does. I use Google Voice for my voicemail, anyway, but I thought I'd mention it.

I decided to use Handcent. Nice. Advanced Task Killer still shows the Messaging app in the background.

Also, is there an app similar to autostarts that is free? I'm tight on cash these days.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

You can fix voicemail on Modaco's rom with a patch. Not sure of the link, but you should find it at modaco's site in the CDAM Hero thread. I use gvoice as well, so I never bothered when i tried out Pauls rom.

Messaging needs to run so you can send/recieve MMS. It never really does anything if you're not using it and it's safe to just ignore its presence.

I don't think there's a free alternative to autostarts, other than hand editing some scripts in /etc . Maybe search the utilities at AndroLib, Find all applications and games available in the Android Market for your Android Phone, HTC Dream, HTC Magic etc...