HTC Hero Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs

[IIJBII]

The more use the Hero the more I find features that I never knew about but seem very handy. Wanted to start a thread for us all to share what weve found here. Hope It helps increase our user experience with the Hero.

like other users who have posted on the forums I'm coming to the Hero from a Pre. With that I miss the way the Pre handled multiple apps. We've all been on the web and got a text and had to decide to switch apps or wait. I just found this so sorry if I'm late to the party but thought it was a great feature and worth sharing. When using an app to quickly switch apps press and hold the home key. This will bring up a windows with 6 recent apps to switch to. Once you are done you can easily switch back to the original app using the same process.

Tip: Quickly switch apps by pressing the home screen for 3 seconds. To switch back press the home screen again for 3 seconds. Nice easy app switching.

 

[esanger02]

When holding the phone in portrait and typing or responding to a text message, turn the phone to landscape and THEN press "Tap to compose". If you tap "tap to compose" then turn the phone it will take much longer for the keyboard to display. Just a small thing i found helpful

 

[lawilson2]

When holding the phone in portrait and typing or responding to a text message, turn the phone to landscape and THEN press "Tap to compose". If you tap "tap to compose" then turn the phone it will take much longer for the keyboard to display. Just a small thing i found helpful

I found that useful too. I'm hoping 1.6 address that lag. I'm not sure how long it takes "the other" phone to change to landscape mode.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

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.

 

[uminchu]

The more use the Hero the more I find features that I never knew about but seem very handy. Wanted to start a thread for us all to share what weve found here. Hope It helps increase our user experience with the Hero.

like other users who have posted on the forums I'm coming to the Hero from a Pre. With that I miss the way the Pre handled multiple apps. We've all been on the web and got a text and had to decide to switch apps or wait. I just found this so sorry if I'm late to the party but thought it was a great feature and worth sharing. When using an app to quickly switch apps press and hold the home key. This will bring up a windows with 6 recent apps to switch to. Once you are done you can easily switch back to the original app using the same process.

Tip: Quickly switch apps by pressing the home screen for 3 seconds. To switch back press the home screen again for 3 seconds. Nice easy app switching.

Another quick and easy way to jump to your new text from another app is to drag down the notifications at the top left corner. That pulls down a list of all unacknowledged events; tap an event from the list to select.

 

[anon(697)]

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

 

[IIJBII]

These are all good to know tips / tricks. Let's keep them going.

 

[zeravla531]

If you have paper on your desk, and the window is open, place the Hero on the paper to defend against a breeze.

 

[MikeinDC#AC]

I'd love to find a trick to turn off the double menu tap wake-up. I don't really understand the point of the screen swipe if the inside of your pocket can bypass it by pushing a button repeatedly. This is going to lead to a lot of unintended calls.

I don't really understand the need for the back-up, since it's not like the phone is going to do much if the screen doesn't respond to touch.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I'd love to find a trick to turn off the double menu tap wake-up. I don't really understand the point of the screen swipe if the inside of your pocket can bypass it by pushing a button repeatedly. This is going to lead to a lot of unintended calls.

I don't really understand the need for the back-up, since it's not like the phone is going to do much if the screen doesn't respond to touch.

Set up an unlock pattern. Doesn't stop the phone from waking on menu double tap, but keeps it from doing anything.

 

[jeffklemin]

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

Awesome tip! The click/then swipe was annoying. Thx.

 

[badchad#WP]

Awesome tip! The click/then swipe was annoying. Thx.

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

Definitely one of the best tips. I hate swiping.

 

[Luisgb]

any way at all to get rid of the slide screen if you have a pattern lock? pointless in my opinion

 

[NYVetteGuy]

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

VERY nice tip!!

 

[ERDude]

Want to save a picture from the web tap and hold the picture until the menu comes up.

 

[prot0type]

Hold down the Home button and you can switch between your six most recent apps.

 

[rockcrawler]

So i'm on my phone accessing the site and I have a question. Is there a way to open your downloads folder other than via usb?

Search the market for an app called andExplorer. Lets you search the entire card, and the phone as well.

Here is the barcode for the app if you have barcode scanner installed.

 

[pacha248]

So i'm on my phone accessing the site and I have a question. Is there a way to open your downloads folder other than via usb?

Astro is a good file explorer app too

 

[Semantics]

I love the fact that I can silence my phone just but flipping it over.

 

[spatel9114]

I love the fact that I can silence my phone just but flipping it over.

Yeah, I was on the Yahoo! mainpage and there was an ad for the HTC Hero to the right and I saw on there that you can do this feature, lol I have no idea that this could be done before the ad. But that's awesome though, should come in handy.