FIVE weeks with the HTC ONE, NEW things i HATE. help?

[hallda01]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

I just jumped off the Bold 9930 to the S4 Active. For the keyboard, I'd stick with SwiftKey and just trust the auto correct. Don't swype, just type exactly as you would if you had a BlackBerry in your hands. That's what I do. I used to be able to type without looking on my Bold, and can do it for the most part now with swiftkey; I just have to proof read afterwards. I will tell you that the Apple keyboard probably won't help you out. If you came from a BlackBerry, you're probably a two thumb typer, and the iPhone keyboard was designed for single handed typing.

 

[kostnkost]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

This is false. The LED on the One cannot be customized unless perhaps you are rooted.

Yep only green for me with this app. Gotta be rooted.

 

[Bazza1]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

3. Now I'm running a Nexus 7 (so 'stock' Jelly Bean 4.2.2 here) and I'm unfamiliar with what HTC has done to their own sync program, but as a straightforward transfer data program, I use the basic Android File Transfer - Android.com

As for sync'ing, my personal setup is probably 'way more convoluted than it needs to be.
I use SmoothSync for Cloud Calendar (Marten Gajda) to sync my iCloud Calendar & Reminders (these sync'ing with my Mac's apps) and his Tasks app for those. For business reasons, most of my Contacts reside on a Yahoo account, so rather than using his SmoothSync for Cloud Contacts, I've got the default Contacts list in Jelly Bean set up to sync with my Yahoo account. My Mac also syncs with my Yahoo Contacts.

Other sync'ing I really haven't explored, aside from manually doing the Dropbox thing - I'm afraid the Google Drive thing may not work for me.

 

[cleveland216]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

this thread is awesome, thanks to the OP for starting it!

I too just jumped ship from the 9930, not because of lack of apps though (even though sideloading is quite irritating, I have a Playbook) but I woulda been happy with the Q10 if SPRINT WOULD HAVE RELEASED IT BY NOW!!

My story is this... I got word Sprint plans were changing last Wednesday and I didn't want to get stuck with the new plans if I decided to upgrade my phone in September. So I upgraded early and added my father to the plan. We now have 3 smartphones @ $180 on my contract. As I understand it, Sprint prices would have gone up for 3 smartphones under their new plans. So I racked my brain until I decided it was time to upgrade. HTC One was my choice... BECAUSE OF THE LED. Just imagine the store clerks' reactions when I mentioned this to them!

I'm a simple guy, I don't need all the customizations. I'd gladly trade the customizations for battery life! Wow this battery life really sucks compared to my 9930.

My hand was forced, I woulda got the Q10 but it wasn't available. I wanted to keep my current plan so I could not wait. I wanted an LED and 4G LTE so HTC One was best option. I'm not mad, just a little disappointed in Sprint more than anything. Q10 should have been available by now.

On the other hand, WOW movies look awesome on this screen, streaming from ES Explorer from my server watching the NBA Finals Game 6 last night and.. it looks perfect! No hiccups. I do still prefer using my ipad mini for streaming with Air Video however. BTW, my ipad mini does everything (jailbroken and all) which is why I didn;'t care much to get an Android which has all the same apps as Android. I would have preferred my phone to be just a phone.. with LTE and Bluetooth DUN, and with good battery life, and unlimited data. <-- not much to ask for when it already exists in the Q10.

Sincerely,
Sadly Wishing I Had A Q10 But Doing Alright With My New HTC One

 

[jfs101]

One thing that really helps with SwiftKey is making the keyboard larger. Go to advanced settings and set the portrait key height to large. The dark theme might also help you when throwing your thumbs around as the keys are reminiscent of a bold style keyboard (to me at least).

I also came from a BlackBerry when I got my first Android back in 2011. I started to type faster with the touchscreen in less than two weeks, and to be honest I feel very awkward using a physical keyboard.

Remember that no device is perfect, the HTC One is a great phone. I see a lot of negative threads around here, but most are out of ignorance. This thread is about the only one I've read with precise questions asking for solutions instead of bashing the phone.

***Edit***
For battery life, just keep the power saver on at all times, I get more than 14 hours every day with heavy use and some light charging if driving.

I adjust the power saver (tap the words next to the box to bring up the settings menu) and have the vibration on, it helps me to type better.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[walterkurtz]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

If LED notifications are the number one reason you bought the One, I question why you would talk about switching to an iPhone which has no LED notifications. While I agree, 5 minute notifications are not enough, better five minutes of flashing then none at all! Along those same lines, I don't understand the keyboard complaints, when again, there is no physical keyboard option on an iPhone and worse, you can't even change the virtual keyboard to one you like better.

that's sort of precisely my point. when i finally decided to leave blackberry, i had to make a choice: iphone or android. at the time (2.5 weeks ago), the HTC ONE was arguably the best phone available. i should be like everyone else and get an iphone. all of my friends and colleagues use iphones. all of my computers have always been mac. i know i will understand the interface and that the iphone will easily sync with my computer (and life). but, all that aside, i still wanted to hold on to some of the features of my beloved blackberrys. one was a blinking LED light to notify me of anything missed. (i loathe to keep my phone in my hand or on my person at all times, especially at home) the second important feature to me was having swift key to help with adapting from qwerty to virtual. i think the point of my rant is that without an effective LED notification light, and since i still am having a devil of a time typing on the virtual keyboard(s google, swift key), the iphone is looking more and more appealing. i still have six months with this device. and some days are better than others. i may end up a fan of android after all. but these growing pains are painful. and if anyone could help me get SMS unread counts back or find a way to make the LED last until i view the text/missed/call/email/whatever, that would help tremendously.

PS i looked at the light manager app on play and didn't see any thing about duration in the screen images. i may give it a shot anyway, but as i said before this is another of my gripes with android...i keep having to add apps to make the phone do things it should do anyway. but maybe that's the way they are designed...maybe i am accustomed to the apple approach to the computer making your life easier out of the box. sure you will always have to add software, but a lot of things are built in. still learning.

thanks for all of the helpful advice guys and gals

 

[Aiman Abdullah]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

Is their any skype version that supports video calling in Htc One V witout front camera?

 

[rschauby]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

You should probably just return it and get an iPhone.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[SCjRqrQCnBQ19QoYCtdl]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

You should probably just return it and get an iPhone.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

agreed

 

[Gamer_Radar]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

please if you have any suggestions or solutions, i would love to hear them....

1. no unread message count for SMS text messages. i am using nova launcher and nova unread. this worked for a minute, i think, but hasn't worked for several days with stock messages app and textra. (i have uninstalled, re-installed, restarted and cleared defaults to no avail)

2. LED notifications stop after 5 minutes. this is literally the number one reason i bought this phone. coming from blackberry, i wanted a phone that worked for me not vice versa. and that persistent flashing red light on a BB let me see, without picking up the phone, when it needs my attention. 5 minutes makes this feature more or less useless to me.

3. no meaningful or effective way to sync to my apple computers. htc sync blows, i tossed it out after two days of watching the colored pinwheel. yes there are several apps for syncing to my computer, but i have mostly resorted to syncing with google. i don't love syncing to a cloud as i prefer to have my information stored locally.

4. no google street view. what's up with that? i believe there is a plug in or add on in the google store but last time i checked the reviews from htc one users were unfavorable.

5. keyboard. still can't type to save my life on this touchscreen. i am using swift key and i mostly use swipe. it definitely helps, but this is a far cry from my beloved qwerty keyboard. i know, i know, get used to it.

6. battery life seems mediocre at best. sunday was my first real day of putting the phone through it's paces. i was driving to an unfamiliar place, trying to use google maps. meanwhile i am getting texts from a model and make up artist asking me for addresses (i'm a photographer). i try to send them the address (vcard) via text and keep getting error messages. then without street view, i can't figure out if i am in the right place. and finally a couple of hours later, when we get to shooting my battery is completely dead. i believe it was somewhere in the 30 per cent range before all the **** went down. drained rapidly when actually in use. kind of a bummer. i never ever worried about my blackberry. of course, the screen on this thing is much larger and the phone is much more capable.

7. google voice actions. it won't call my mom. when i say 'call mom' i get 'mum', 'mama' or 'mon'. my mom is not jamaican, and i have an excellent speaking voice.

8. google play store. i am new to this world of android and apps, but it seems they re-designed the app store recently. as a result, the ability to filter by device has gone missing. that was a huge determining factor for me when choosing what to add or not add to my phone.

i hate to do so much google bashing, but this is mostly what is pushing me over to apple...

i have 30 days to return the phone here in california. i was going to return it monday when t-mo announced the new 'jump!' plan over the weekend. i signed up and now have the opportunity to keep my HTC until the iphone 5S comes out. i intend to switch after my requisite first six months are up. by then, the iphone should've been out for a while. i am hoping not to have to, moving phones is a *****. but with no LED notifications, poor battery performance (compared to apple) and the myriad other issues i am having, it seems likely at this point. i have come up with this analogy to best describe my perception of android vs iphone after these two weeks of use and research. with iphone you get a good cake, fresh from the oven. it may not be exactly to your taste, but it's made by a competent chef. with android, you get all of the ingredients to make a great cake. you may succeed, or you may fail. but the phone out of the box is half-baked.

This sounds more or less. Like "2 weeks of using android and this is what I hate"

Sent from my HTC One X using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Jennifer Stough]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

Instead of critiquing the person's posts, why don't we all try to suggest things that could further help in the transition to android, or suggest things that will help with their issues?

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AC Forums mobile app

 

[kostnkost]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

Instead of critiquing the person's posts, why don't we all try to suggest things that could further help in the transition to android, or suggest things that will help with their issues?


Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AC Forums mobile app

Unfortunately that is how society is now a days. It's much easier to critique than to give advice. I kind of relate it to the news these days. Try to find a feel good story on the news right now?

Getting back to the matter at hand. I am also a BB 9930 convert as well as being a BB user since day one. Every phone has it's good points and bad points. It is just a matter of getting used to the phone you are using. Do I miss the colored notifications from my 9930? Yeah but I can live without it. For every good thing my ole BB9930 did, I can name 10 other things it didn't do that this phone does. I think the biggest issue to get used to was going from a physical keyboard to a touch screen keyboard. Actually now it is almost impossible to text with this phone and drive(for me at least) than it was with my BB. This is definitely a good point though as you shouldnt be doing this anyways lol. I am kind of getting used to Swift Key though as it makes texting a breeze! As far as battery life goes, I would give the phone some time to settle in. BB was the same way, and usually after a month I was getting decent battery life. I am not even 2 weeks into using this new phone and already battery life has been getting better each day from what I noticed.

Either way good luck with your decision.

 

[walterkurtz]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

This sounds more or less. Like "2 weeks of using android and this is what I hate"

Sent from my HTC One X using AC Forums mobile app

you may be right. i don't know where HTC or android (or myself) is to blame.

as others have suggested, i may be better off simply returning the HTC and getting an iphone. but with t-mobile jump! it makes more sense to keep the phone for six months and then switch rather than return to blackberry until the 5S comes out. so since we are stuck together, anyway, i am airing out my frustrations here. i am hoping that some of my problems have easy solutions like the google street view i could not find before. this has been an excellent informative community and without all of your help i surely would've returned the device by now. i mostly love the phone. as i said before, it is light years ahead of blackberry. and also as i said before i know much of my frustration comes simply from the pain of growing into an entirely new system. iphone could be better or worse for me. i may never know. but i do know the grass is always greener...

thanks again for listening

new annoyance: i haven't found a way to turn off the feature that causes the phone to vibrate when the person you called picks up. now i simply hold the phone away from my ear until i feel the vibration. but while on a call today, the phone vibrated on my ear. i pulled it away to see that a text had arrived. i do not want my phone to do that and have checked under phone and textra settings. i did not see any where to disable this feature. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks!!

 

[LegalAmerican]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

"3. no meaningful or effective way to sync to my apple computers."

That's a common complaint, but one that I do not feel is very fair to Android, Google, or HTC. Apple doesn't want you to easily sync cross platform. They are the ones making it as difficult as possible. That alone should be a HUGE reason to dislike Apple. I have zero issues syncing my Android devices with my Windows PC's.

 

[walterkurtz]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

that's true. and one of the fundamental reasons i want to stay with android. as much as i love what apple does, they don't leave much room for doing things your own way.

 

[ne0ne]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

Setup productivity lock screen and it will display your texts and missed calls.

Try a different keyboard. There are several.

Open Google Earth. There is a little yellow guy on the top right. Click and drag him to where you want to see street views and you'll be good to go.



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[jrvtecaccord]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

that's sort of precisely my point. when i finally decided to leave blackberry, i had to make a choice: iphone or android. at the time (2.5 weeks ago), the HTC ONE was arguably the best phone available. i should be like everyone else and get an iphone. all of my friends and colleagues use iphones. all of my computers have always been mac. i know i will understand the interface and that the iphone will easily sync with my computer (and life). but, all that aside, i still wanted to hold on to some of the features of my beloved blackberrys. one was a blinking LED light to notify me of anything missed. (i loathe to keep my phone in my hand or on my person at all times, especially at home) the second important feature to me was having swift key to help with adapting from qwerty to virtual. i think the point of my rant is that without an effective LED notification light, and since i still am having a devil of a time typing on the virtual keyboard(s google, swift key), the iphone is looking more and more appealing. i still have six months with this device. and some days are better than others. i may end up a fan of android after all. but these growing pains are painful. and if anyone could help me get SMS unread counts back or find a way to make the LED last until i view the text/missed/call/email/whatever, that would help tremendously.

PS i looked at the light manager app on play and didn't see any thing about duration in the screen images. i may give it a shot anyway, but as i said before this is another of my gripes with android...i keep having to add apps to make the phone do things it should do anyway. but maybe that's the way they are designed...maybe i am accustomed to the apple approach to the computer making your life easier out of the box. sure you will always have to add software, but a lot of things are built in. still learning.

thanks for all of the helpful advice guys and gals

If you are willing to try another Android device, the Samsung Galaxy S4's LED notification light will blink until the notification is cleared by default.

 

[Cool Jeff]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

All your problems with the One can be corrected via custom roms (ViperX,Insertcoin...)
The HUGE advantage in Android compared to iphone is customs roms (which can iron out all your problems and add customizations)

 

[Loiter]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

Instead of critiquing the person's posts, why don't we all try to suggest things that could further help in the transition to android, or suggest things that will help with their issues?

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AC Forums mobile app

True. Although the fact is that many of the OP's complaints are not because of the phone, but mainly because of Android.

Regarding the problems, unfortunately the LED thing is something I cannot understand. What's the point of 5' LED. This is something HTC should have made optional. It's one of my main problems along with the power button position.

The Apple sync problem is Apple's problem. Not One's, not Android's. iOS is extremely locked-up and you have to use atrocious things like iTunes in order to sync. I'm not an Apple user so I cannot help.

The keyboard. I come from a physical QWERTY too (Palm Pre2) but the auto correction thing does miracles. It was one of my biggest fears, but I havent even bothered looking at other keyboards apart from the stock one. I must type the wrong key about 30% of the time, however auto-correct easily does its work and I write pretty fast (bear in mind that my language is not english so it must be even easier with english). Just give it some time.

Battery life. I'm satisfied. I don't know your use, but the One's battery life is pretty good in any case. There are tons of topics regarding battery life, so you can read some tips. Again I don't believe the iPhone would have a huge difference. As for your example, bear in mind that you probably had GPS on or problems with your signal and that drained the battery even more.

Also I strongly disagree with your conclusion about cakes. In my opinion the iPhone is not the fresh cake from the competent chef, but the regular franchise shop that you have tasted so many times and you think is delicious just because you got used to it. Android indeed was something like "ok you can do miracle with your ingredients, too bad you cannot cook", but I believe that especially the HTC One with Sense is the best "out of the box" Android experience until now.

 

[penegue]

Re: two weeks with the HTC ONE, things i HATE

new annoyance: i haven't found a way to turn off the feature that causes the phone to vibrate when the person you called picks up. now i simply hold the phone away from my ear until i feel the vibration. but while on a call today, the phone vibrated on my ear. i pulled it away to see that a text had arrived. i do not want my phone to do that and have checked under phone and textra settings. i did not see any where to disable this feature. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks!!

Handcent SMS will help you customize text messaging to your heart's delight, including enabling or disabling the "vibrate on text during call" feature. I actually love that feature, as if I'm on a long call with someone and someone sends me a message I can immediately see it and react.

To add to someone else's comments... Sounds like you need to familiarize yourself with the Android operating system and the myriad apps that make an already awesome platform that much better. The HTC One is the best Android phone to date, and the things you mentioned have little to do with the phone itself, and most are easily fixable. I remember when I first got an Android phone (EVO 4G) it took me a good 6 months (I wasn't in a rush) of continuous usage and exploration and forum reading to make it perfect for me. Moving to the HTC One was a breeze and in only a few short days I was able to make it "mine" with the apps I was used to and settings I was comfortable with for years. I believe unless you are "a tweaker" who constantly changes things, once you find what works "for you" you will be very happy for a very long time.

my 2c.

PS. You will learn to use and love the on-screen keyboard. I almost threw the phone back in the face of the Sprint sales guy when he said that it didn't support Swype. Thank God he was wrong. Swype is amazing and on this phone it's so much more accurate and so much faster than on my last one. Plus, the voice recognition/narration is uncanny (again, compared to my old EVO 4g).