Okay, my first thoughts on the Hero.
Good
------
Hardware is lovely. The unit feels just right in the hand, and graphite colour is great.
Screen is very sharp and has excellent colour.
Sense UI is a huge improvement over stock Android is virtually every way.
HTC E-Mail client is great compared to standard cupcake version.
Browser is very fast, and text wrapping is very effective.
Phone is now unlocked and running on Vodafone (thanks to the folks at unlock-now.com). It detects this, and offers to update all my settings accordingly. Nice.
Bad
----
HTC Smart Dialer doesn't correctly display contacts that only have a company name in them. The numbers show up but with 'unknown' next to them. They display properly in the 'People' application, so it's definitely a HTC bug (I seem to remember the same problem with early versions of this dialer on WM).
GMail client won't let me set a 'reply-to' field. I use GMail for all my e-mail, but use a forwarding service (pobox.com) so want to set my reply to field accordingly. I can get the functionality by using the HTC e-mail client, but then I lose HTML mail capability.
GMail and HTC Mail don't integrate in the mail widget. You can only see accounts configured using HTC Mail.
Flash in browser is very hit and miss. Some simply stuff works, but not much.
Standard calendar application is rubbish. The iPhone is way better here. I guess I'll be looking for a third party alternative.
I'll post more as I discover it.
Bagpuss.
Cool, thanks for the quick update.
When you say the standard calendar is rubbish, can you elaberate more on this? I use the calendar quite a bit and was hoping there would be a widget to show tasks/appointments on my home screen.
Any chance of a video going round the calendar or a good detailed explanation of it?
Sorry to ask again, but the reviews say that the phone WILL sync directly with Outlook (not just exchange) and I have ordered one on that understanding. Could you confirm this for me, please? Ta...
bigbamboo5 said:
Sorry to ask again, but the reviews say that the phone WILL sync directly with Outlook (not just exchange) and I have ordered one on that understanding. Could you confirm this for me, please? Ta...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, don't know about this as I don't use Windows or Outlook.
From what I understand, you can sync with Outlook, but you need to use the HTC Sync software. The only problem is that HTC haven't yet made the Hero version available for download. If you go to their support site, they don't have a section for the Hero yet. I'm guessing this will change once the phone is officially released SIM free.
Bagpuss.
nicelad_uk said:
Cool, thanks for the quick update.
When you say the standard calendar is rubbish, can you elaberate more on this? I use the calendar quite a bit and was hoping there would be a widget to show tasks/appointments on my home screen.
Any chance of a video going round the calendar or a good detailed explanation of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The main problem is that you can't get a month view, and be able to move across days to see what they actually contain. On my E71, you see the month calendar on the left, and a small pane on the right which changes to show the events for each day. On the iPhone, you get something similar, but see the details at the bottom of the screen. On the Hero, you get a full screen month display, but have to click on individual days to see the detail. Not a big thing for some, but it's a change to what I like.
You can go to what they call 'Agenda' view which gives you a long list of all upcoming appointments, but you can't get a week view. There is a day view, however.
There is a calendar widget, and it does show today and tomorrow details, but it's very small.
Hope that helps,
Bagpuss.
"Phone is now unlocked and running on Vodafone (thanks to the folks at unlock-now.com). It detects this, and offers to update all my settings accordingly. Nice."
Hi I´m newby spanish user.
I just bougth an HTC Hero with orange and I will like to use the phone with movistart => I need to free the phone. Is it the same as unlock the phone? Is a good method unlock using emai? Did you do it at "http://hero.unlock-now.com/sim-unlock-HTC-Hero/"?
A lot of thanks, sorry for my bad english.
Best regards,
zeed82
Any Speed Issues noticed? Can You give us a brief Comparison to fE iphone 3G, 3GS or maybe TouchHD/Blackstone?
Thanks for the quick little review!
Just a quick couple of questions:
- Im not believing the battery life some have stated as the phone seems to be fully working round the clock
- Can the handset be rotated the other landscape way? So that the trackball is on the left side?
zeed82 said:
"Phone is now unlocked and running on Vodafone (thanks to the folks at unlock-now.com). It detects this, and offers to update all my settings accordingly. Nice."
Hi I´m newby spanish user.
I just bougth an HTC Hero with orange and I will like to use the phone with movistart => I need to free the phone. Is it the same as unlock the phone? Is a good method unlock using emai? Did you do it at "http://hero.unlock-now.com/sim-unlock-HTC-Hero/"?
A lot of thanks, sorry for my bad english.
Best regards,
zeed82
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly were I got it unlocked. They were incredibly fast. I had my unlock code within about 10 minutes of ordering.
Simply insert your foreign SIM, it will prompt you for the unlock code. Enter the code from unlock-now.com, and it all works.
Bagpuss.
sphinxy said:
Thanks for the quick little review!
Just a quick couple of questions:
- Im not believing the battery life some have stated as the phone seems to be fully working round the clock
- Can the handset be rotated the other landscape way? So that the trackball is on the left side?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure on the battery life at the moment, as I've not had it long enough to tell.
Sadly, you can't rotate it so the trackball is on the left. It's only a software thing, though, so HTC might implement it in future.
Bagpuss.
Hi Bagpuss,
I have a question. I have two different gmail addresses that I normally use. Is it possible to have the two accounts setup in the phone? Basically I want to know how it handles two e-mail accounts and two google calendar accounts.
Thanks mate.
bigbamboo5 said:
Sorry to ask again, but the reviews say that the phone WILL sync directly with Outlook (not just exchange) and I have ordered one on that understanding. Could you confirm this for me, please? Ta...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes the sync software for the orange phone is on the micro sd card provided you plug it in go to mass storage mode and then run the .exe I have syncned all my contacts and calendar , unfortunatly you cannot sync any other outlook items this way currently
Bagpuss said:
GMail client won't let me set a 'reply-to' field.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you set up the reply to address on the Gmail website.
It's in Settings > accounts, and it sends as whatever you have the default email address set to in the 'send mail as' section.
stilghar said:
Is it possible to have the two accounts setup in the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you can not be signed in to two Gmail accounts at once. you can set up a second Gmail account in the mail application to access your mail from the second account, but i don't know any way to access calendars from a second account unless you can share calendars between accounts. maybe that will work?
How is the screen outdoors?
rhedgehog said:
No, you can not be signed in to two Gmail accounts at once. you can set up a second Gmail account in the mail application to access your mail from the second account, but i don't know any way to access calendars from a second account unless you can share calendars between accounts. maybe that will work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I think that will do. I can sign in with one of the Gmail accounts and set the other one in the mail application. Regarding the calendars I just noticed that all my google calendars are only in one of the accounts. So I will sign in on the phone with that one and use the other only in the mail application.
The only problem will be moving all my contacts from one account to the other...
Boesman1 said:
Any Speed Issues noticed? Can You give us a brief Comparison to fE iphone 3G, 3GS or maybe TouchHD/Blackstone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just got mine as well,
I noticed that there was considerable amount of lag for the first hour of using it, but now all the lag is gone and its working amazingly well.
HTC have taken a lot of the ideas from this site and implemented it in the sense ui, Customising the phone is fun and really easy, the only thing I'm unhappy with is being unable to get my Hotmail, and I don't really want it forwarded to my gmail.
xdaman85 said:
the only thing I'm unhappy with is being unable to get my Hotmail, and I don't really want it forwarded to my gmail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct me if wrong, but you can always create a new dummy gmail account, forward your mail to that, and set in the gmail website that your 'identity mail address' (from address AND reply-to) is your hotmail address.
that way other people will not notice you use gmail to retrieve it (unless they look in the headers). Thing is you can't manage your hotmail account that way (delete / move / mark as read your mail)
dipje said:
Correct me if wrong, but you can always create a new dummy gmail account, forward your mail to that, and set in the gmail website that your 'identity mail address' (from address AND reply-to) is your hotmail address.
that way other people will not notice you use gmail to retrieve it (unless they look in the headers). Thing is you can't manage your hotmail account that way (delete / move / mark as read your mail)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funnily I got hotmail working through the standard email app, it doesn't push the email but you can set the frequency at which it syncs, so it's good enough.
Also while using the hero i'v noticed that some times the phone doesn't respond after unlocking and it takes a couple of seconds to respond to your touch.
got mine this morning
only just got home to play with it.....
must say it really "feels"like a nice phone....time to play now
hi all to the lucky owners
reading mobile-review and engadget review they say about slowness and sluggyness and lag and devilsh ****ness
is it becouse they have some prototipe sample or do you confirm all this lag and slowness ?
thanks guys
Hello,
First post here - what a great resource this is and what a great device the HD2 is. One small frustration is that when I read email in the HTC software then it isn't marked as read until I open it in the standard windows email viewer. Is there a way to make this happen?
Thanks,
James
Yeah this is annoying me too!
Alternatively - is there a way of configuring the HD2 so when the email icon is pressed then it launches the underlying Outlook tool rather than the HTC one. I another route to this end would be to create a shortcut to Outlook on the home page.
Thanks,
James
I dont use outlook to sync my Hd2. So it would be nice with something which resolved this...
Yeah, this bugs me too.
What's the point in HTC going to all those lengths to make a really nice email tab where you can read incoming messages without opening the outlook browser, and then not have a way of marking the messages as read.
It should either be an automatic thing, where viewing an email on the tab marks it as read, or there should be a "mark as read" option in the menu. (God forbid anyone wants a "delete" menu option too!)
A solution to this would be very welcome.
johncmolyneux said:
It should either be an automatic thing, where viewing an email on the tab marks it as read, or there should be a "mark as read" option in the menu.
A solution to this would be very welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this was bugging me too - happily there is a simple solution which the clever folks here created
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=510621&highlight=mark+all+as+read
just installed it - i now have "mark all as read" as an option in the inbox menu... one of my HD2 niggles just vanished....
edit - just noticed this also adds a "delete all" function too.... with power comes great responsibility.... happily it does ask you to confirm before deleting your entire inbox...
this is a better link to the .cab which fixes it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=379265
Thank you!
Hey, this is my first thread but thank you for all the great programmes/tweaks you are providing.
I just wanted to know if anyone else if having an issue with email to phone conversations.
The 'Closer Look' promo video demonstrates the ability to press a green call icon whilst viewing an email to jump straight into a conversation.
However I've got several people set up with phone numbers and email addresses but the icon does not appear.
Does anyone else have this problem?
(i'm not using outlook btw).
onlineatron said:
Hey, this is my first thread but thank you for all the great programmes/tweaks you are providing.
I just wanted to know if anyone else if having an issue with email to phone conversations.
The 'Closer Look' promo video demonstrates the ability to press a green call icon whilst viewing an email to jump straight into a conversation.
However I've got several people set up with phone numbers and email addresses but the icon does not appear.
Does anyone else have this problem?
(i'm not using outlook btw).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi onlineatron, and welcome
When I have an email open, if I click on the sender at the top of the page, it opens their contact page, and I can call them, text them etc. from that page. This is via a hotmail email, as I don't use outlook myself either.
Hope this helps.
Hey, thanks.
That partially helps.... I didn't know I could do that.
But take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSrjUxbDcqw
At the 3:17 mark it shows a green icon in the corner of the email...
I don't actually see that icon at all.
Same as you I use hotmail... I'm also from the UK using a UK HD2.
onlineatron said:
take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSrjUxbDcqw
At the 3:17 mark it shows a green icon in the corner of the email...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that seems to be one of the "features" that disappeared before release, such as the pinch-to-zoom in videos.
Ahhh =(
That's a shame.
Oh well, perhaps they'll patch it in later.
johncmolyneux said:
Yeah, that seems to be one of the "features" that disappeared before release, such as the pinch-to-zoom in videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's not true. I have at least one email where the call button is present.
valleyman83 said:
Well, that's not true. I have at least one email where the call button is present.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh right, any particular conditions to have it?
Did you set up the contact with outlook?
Yes I've entered the email addresses in outlook on my desktop computer. Then I've synced my contacts using exchange. But I don't think that has anything to do with it. The email addresses just look normal in my contactcard (don't know if that's the right English translation) of the person on the phone. The call button appears both in my outlook inbox and gmail inbox.
Perhaps that's just it.
Because I/we have to sync our hotmail emails through the Windows Live app... we don't get the icon.
Has anyone any idea how we restore this choice-icon in email tab?
It existed (???) regularly but for some reason I do not see this now.
In the HD2 Manual is appeared normally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks.
Hi all,
I can't read my emails in Sense mail tab... they are appearing quite good in mail tab, but when I click on an email, it's makes nothing...
any idea ?
I'm obliged to click on "Plus" and to read my mails with outlook..
Solved : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=588654&highlight=mail+problem
lancelot54 said:
Hi all,
I can't read my emails in Sense mail tab... they are appearing quite good in mail tab, but when I click on an email, it's makes nothing...
any idea ?
I'm obliged to click on "Plus" and to read my mails with outlook..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an issue where the lockscreen and emails stop working. Go to the start menu and lock your phone from the softkey (bottom left). Then, unlock it and try to open an email by clicking it. If that works, you just need to do that every now and then. It's a pain, but hopefully HTC are working on it.
If that doesn't do it, I'm sure someone on here will be more help
Edit:
You posted while I was posting
Glad you got it sorted.
Hi,
I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me with this.
I've just flashed to Cookie Energy Style, and had downloaded and installed the CAB for HTC Messaging, which now seems to be okay.
However, I'm wondering if there is a similar one for HTC Email. I have done a search on this thread, but can only find posts related to the text messaging side of things.
When I actually open an email and click reply, it seems to use the HTC email, which is what I wanted. However, if I'm viewing the email as the preview, or select 'New' from the menu, it opens the email/reply in Windows Email.
Is there anyway to configure this so it always uses the HTC email client instead?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
s32bauer said:
Hi,
I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me with this.
I've just flashed to Cookie Energy Style, and had downloaded and installed the CAB for HTC Messaging, which now seems to be okay.
However, I'm wondering if there is a similar one for HTC Email. I have done a search on this thread, but can only find posts related to the text messaging side of things.
When I actually open an email and click reply, it seems to use the HTC email, which is what I wanted. However, if I'm viewing the email as the preview, or select 'New' from the menu, it opens the email/reply in Windows Email.
Is there anyway to configure this so it always uses the HTC email client instead?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isnt a HTC email client, HTC adds some features to the winmo client, if you can see a search button in the upper right corner when you open a rcvd email msg (+ a big "To" btn upper left in outlook exchange account) then thats your lot.