Since there appears to be such conflicting reports about lag or lack there of; I think it would benefit us all if we start to list who is having lag and who isn't whilst including where you bought the phone etc....
so to those that are having lag, give us these details:
1.) where and when did you get the phone, including the color
2.) branded or unbranded
3.) look under the battery or where ever for serial numbers or manufacturing dates
4.) report what firmware (if possible) and what the "about android" says in the OS
5.) what you are perceiving to be slow and when it occurs
If you would like some other examples of "slowness" check out the comments here: http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2009/08/htc-hero-review-part-two/
Note that after some discussion, all parties involved are equally confused and can't understand the opposing experiences of the other. I would also like to see reports from those that haven't experienced any lag or nothing like what some of the laggers are experiencing. I think we are experiencing some manufacturing differences here that have yet to be documented or made certain. I suspect this is all due to sense UI but who knows for certain. Is it possible to have the G1 Hero rom installed on a stock hero? Perhaps the Hero rom that is mentioned the in the hero dev forum would help? In any event, we should really start compiling specifics in a single thread as nobody likes buyers remorse
Not geographical. Its about the way you use your phone.
Sawkes said:
Not geographical. Its about the way you use your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fine. But it shouldn't be. If the phone is "just suppose to work" then there apparently still needs to be some optimization to account for the apparent excesses of others. I'm SURE it's JUST about what these people are doing...come on man, there has to be something else going on even if it is simply due to sense UI needing some optimization tweaks. You can't just toss away the experiences of many different folks (reviewers included) with the implication that the phone is not at all at fault for the negative reports.
I agree, I think there are variables we aren't considering. I think it comes down to the use of widgets and the amount of screens you have running, though I'm not totally sure.
I personally have not experienced any lag. I have a white sim free Hero, I use 3 screens, one with wifi, bluetooth, mobile data and gps widgets, a weather widget and a few icons. Another page has all icons, and the third has the bookmarks widget. I used to have the contacts widget on the second page and noticed no lag when using that either.
Once I tried to start up as many apps as I could to see if I experienced the lagginess people were talking about.... with no result. Still very slick.
What I don't have is a clock widget. I personally think it's useless when you have the time in the taskbar. I don't use a twitter widget either, but Peep seems to start itself sometimes.
That leads me to something else, I have apps which start themselves up spontaneously. Peep, Glympse, calendar for example.... they all show up in the task list (Taskiller) when I haven't used them. I've switched off any auto updates/ stay logged out etc. So that's a bit weird. That's part of the reason I'll use Taskiller maybe 4 or 5 times a day to kill everything running.
All in all I'm very happy and impressed with the useability of this device.
Switchbitch said:
I agree, I think there are variables we aren't considering. I think it comes down to the use of widgets and the amount of screens you have running, though I'm not totally sure.
I personally have not experienced any lag. I have a white sim free Hero, I use 3 screens, one with wifi, bluetooth, mobile data and gps widgets, a weather widget and a few icons. Another page has all icons, and the third has the bookmarks widget. I used to have the contacts widget on the second page and noticed no lag when using that either.
Once I tried to start up as many apps as I could to see if I experienced the lagginess people were talking about.... with no result. Still very slick.
What I don't have is a clock widget. I personally think it's useless when you have the time in the taskbar. I don't use a twitter widget either, but Peep seems to start itself sometimes.
That leads me to something else, I have apps which start themselves up spontaneously. Peep, Glympse, calendar for example.... they all show up in the task list (Taskiller) when I haven't used them. I've switched off any auto updates/ stay logged out etc. So that's a bit weird. That's part of the reason I'll use Taskiller maybe 4 or 5 times a day to kill everything running.
All in all I'm very happy and impressed with the useability of this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes no damn sense to me and it's posts like this that make me think it isn't the software afterall....geez. I guess I'll just have to order one some time soon and cross my fingers that it really isn't hardware related.
I really like the HTC Sense clock/weather widget, and was wondering if someone could give me a file that I can download directly with my phone. I use a Droid (rooted) and I do not want one of the widgets from the market, I don't have any money.
Could someone also give me a Sense live wallpaper that I could also download with my phone?
Thanks!
-L
HTC Sense widgets don't function outside of the HTC Sense framework, meaning they don't work on phones without Sense UI. It's been this way since the original Hero came out and they've never been successfully ported.
Fortunately, this has largely been solved as the Weather Widget Donate, Fancy Widget and Beautiful Widget all supply working alternatives, but as you're without money, I'd say you're **** out of luck.
Edit: As far as the live wallpaper goes, HTC's devices use a slightly smaller vertical resolution than Motorola's phones. The live wallpaper doesn't work for this reason (and possibly others).
search the net for Fancy Widget - it looks EXACTLY like the HTC Sense clock
From a comment i made on the thread mentioned below, but seemed appropriate to start a new one considering lots of people have been looking to do this.
for any of those using launcher pro, and hate the default icons, ive attached the stock froyo ones for browser and phone. if you are an htc sense user and want a stock froyo experience without root/ custom roms then downloading launcher pro and using these icons is the easiest way to do it. if u want the stock android phone/contacts app, download dailer one and link it to the froyo phone icon (by long pressing) in launcher pro. bearing in mind the launcher2 phone icon is hardlinked to the stock android phone app, which is impossible to install on htc phones. this is the closest you can get, and it does a pretty good job!
i have also tweaked the nexus icon from another thread to fit.
it was coming up very small as the app drawer icon in launcher pro. screenshot and files for all icons attached.
ive also attached the froyo stock app drawer icon, the launcher pro one is close but a bit big and doesnt quite match the style
i know no-one has directly asked for all this info but ive been reading the forums and a lot of people want to do this so thought i had to share the knowledge somewhere! i can take credit for very little, all i have done is edit an icon and congregated stuff ive found into one place. from my own experience wanting to do this i found it very frustrating that those with sense but wanting stock had to resort to 'almost but not quite' solutions. ive also found that a lot of supposedly stable roms are far from it. this ensures a bug/ fc free experience. you get complete stock functionality but with the visual appeal and the added dock buttons from froyo.
please link this info on to any forum you might think could need it, also, if some kind soul could upload mirrors to the images for those who arent members (this thread is aimed primarily at them) and embedded photos of the screen grabs would also be appreciated, i dont have the permissions. thanks a lot, hope this stuff is useful!
Peter
Hi Chaps,
I'm getting pretty fed up with crashes, performance and low space on my Orange Hero w/2.1, as well as still being miffed by Orange screwing up everything with their tinkering of 2.1, sooooo, I'm going to flash.
But, I need some help, 'cause I think I'm just getting too old for all this tinkering lark and I'm reading up on a lot of ROMS and just can't choose - I'm reading, but nothing is sinking in!
So, I like Sense, or at least I think I do. What I actually like is contacts / Facebook integration, 7 pages of home screen and the HTC weather clock and the weather animations when I unlock the phone. I like the threaded SMS.
I DON'T LIKE: Orange screwing up the speed dial widget, running out of space, the fact that the default camera apps photos have gone 'stripey' since 2.1, (other cam apps are fine). A lot of complete hangs and force closes, including lately, something.htc.bgp force closing several times a day.
I use GPS a lot (CoPilot, Cardio Trainer, Latitude, Maps) and listen to music. The std music player is average and slow, but has some good features (headphone out pause, album art, lock screen control).
So, a lot of requests there, but I think it boils down to me needing: performance, apps2SD and reliability, and compatibility with a wide range of apps. Root not essential, since I run all the apps I need to, but I guess it comes part and parcel with flashing a new ROM. I have already installed and rooted with universal Androot.
Any help for me?
Thanks,
Rich.
Hi there
If sense is a must, look at rcmix. 2.1 with sense.
If You would like to experiment a bit You can try some of the 2.2roms, ie floyo, villain 1.6 to name a few. But it is hard to find a good dialer, and Facebook integration is on much lower level than sense roms. They should be quicker, so depends on You hope this helps
Sent from my HTC Hero using XDA App
I'm not sure if Sense is a must actually... what does it give me? The 'skinned' buttons across the bottom of the screen i suppose (phone, apps and add), but there ae other apps that do this aren't there? (Launchers?). What else does sense actually do that I might miss if I don't have it?
Is Rcmix running android 2.1 as it's version number suggests? Is there nothing with 2.2 yet? I see Rcmix does appstoSD, and I think after the phone just running right, space is my next biggest issue, so I suppose it could keep me happy.
I extremely agree with you. You have just, like, took this out of my head and put it on the forums!
Except, for me, the most important thing is the facebook integration. Doesn't the actual Facebook app provide that outside of sense?
something.htc.bgp is the location service, I think. After that crashing, foursquare stops working properly. I can't live like this.
With the Facebook intergration, I just like the way my contacts show pics from Facebook, and I get the status updates from the contacts too.
I think I'm gonna try Cyanogen. It's the most popular, I don't think much can go wrong. Still, I'm massively scared, haha!
I agree RCMix along wit kimera2.1 are great choices wit flykernal 11c or bfs. Had both and rarely had issues. Biggest losses from not having sense is the weather clock and a decent dialer if u plan to try a 2.2 rom
This might seem biased, but if you try following the instructions from this thread you will end up with a very nice, speedy hero setup. It even has info in there of a very fast, usable dialler app, as well as an app to sync your facebook contact pics.
LauncherPro Plus has a Facebook stream widget built-in, and you can either use BeautifulWidgets or FancyWidget for the clock.
Should all be in the post! (Don't worry, it's not as complicated as it looks, and its a lot to read, but might be worth it for you).
Zeb
Well, I got Cyanogen Mod, and so far I'm very happy with it. Definitely will try out the widgets from above
Me too... went for Zebwen's suggestion above (Thanks!) and pretty happy with it. Took a bit of customisation to get it nice, but now I know how easy it is to flash, I'll probably try a few.
Am I right in thinking I can do as many Nandroid backups as I want, and later on, restore to any previous, full setup, including Apps and data?
Verified my own question on Nand backups.
I had a problem yesterday with the camera force closing... is this a known issue? Reboot seems to have cured it so far, but despite the rest of the ROM being fine, the camera does seem a bit 'iffy'. Exposure wouldn't adjust when using it with barcode scanner the other day.
I guess i lost interest about mid-december. I dunno why, but for some reason I've had it a year now and i don't bother with new apps or anything, the home screen sort of bores me, and I think i need re-integrating with the android world to find out what apps are good nowadays, what homescreens and i was wondering what ROMs people would recommend i use for revitalising my android experience?
Currently i'm using Floyo 1.1.9.
On my computer i generally use tumblr and twitter a lot, dunno if there's any new (or newly improved) apps out there for either of those, as an addition?
Get launcher pro and check out their transition effects http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIK9yBlWYt4
also beautiful widgets are nice as well
and there are lots of themes and icons in the market to beautify your phone check the themes and apps section in this forums
lot of people have posted they screenshots of their phone home screenshots
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=587964
Suggestion
Hi
I too had lost interest in my Hero, and still have to a certain extent.
I found that the Market had lots of apps, but many of them were too big/resource intensive for my lil' old Hero. Also that the memory size is so small on the Hero that I kept getting warnings saying that there was insufficient space for any new apps.
Here are my suggestions:
1. Flash the Elelinux gingerbread ROM v 1.1.1 (or whatever the latest version is). It is very nice, pretty stable and makes a nice change.
2. Play with overclocking apps, you might get a bit more performance out of the Hero
3. Go to the new Market web site. It is very cool. It allows the installation of apps from the web page straight to the phone. Much easier to navigate and mess about with.
That's pretty much it.
Hope this helps
Hamish