Database Users

My first thoughts on the Hero

Okay, my first thoughts on the Hero.
Good
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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
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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

Reading mails pb

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.

facebook does not update photo for myself

Hi guys,
Sorry if this question was asked before, I did try using search but nothing came up.
Anywayz, I have my facebook account linked to my HD2. Everytime when i update fb information, all my friends photos are updated except for myself. Which means my photo is still the default htc one. Anyone help on how to change my own photo is greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Are you looking at a contact you have named as yourself or the contact card ME that appears at the top of all people?
If you are looking at ME. Open the contact and click on the photo in the top right. You will see a list of options that tells Manila where to get the picture from.
HTH

Neville.Holland said:
Are you looking at a contact you have named as yourself or the contact card ME that appears at the top of all people?
If you are looking at ME. Open the contact and click on the photo in the top right. You will see a list of options that tells Manila where to get the picture from.
HTH
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
omg spot on!
thank you very much, cant believe i never saw that

Does this work on all contacts, or just the ME one as I am having issues with some of my contacts getting any photo from facebook, let alone changing to the latest?

J7ody said:
Does this work on all contacts, or just the ME one as I am having issues with some of my contacts getting any photo from facebook, let alone changing to the latest?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does!

In that case.... I have a problem.... repeated tapping of the contact image on any other person (well tried 5 so far, some with images some with none) and nadda

Mine does not update photo's or status' unless I click Update manually, even though it's set to auto update every two hours, I think the FB app is crap TBH

Facebook contact as display pictures ??

Hi,
I finally got some of my friends phone contact to sync with facebook. I can see a little small picture of them in contact, but I don't seem to get the picture to display when I make a phone call. Am I missing something or can you make their facebook picture as dialing display picture by clicking on something ?
Thanks.

Mine does it, I log into facebook through my contacts and it puts all my facebook contact friends pic as the contact pic in my phone.
1) Hit people tab
2) all people
3) 3rd icon should be facebook (updates and events)
4) know tap on Me/ My Updates
Thats how I do it and it works flawlessly. GL.

It should do that automatically. Have you tried with more than one person? I'm having a similar problem, but only with one contact. Works fine for the most part.
When you go to edit contact info, press their picture in the top right and you should have the option to set as facebook picture.

maybe its a manila 2.5 issue. I will try the same thing with a 2.1 manila rom and see if it will sync properly with the display picture when dialing.

Mine is also doing the same thing. It displays the picture under favorite people and in the contact list, but when making or receiving a call it does not display the picture. Im running ark666's rom

I have the same problem with Leo rom running sense 2.5/maxmanilla

I thought I was doing something wrong. I am running art666 Rhodium AF as well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=552821
I will report this on his thread and attach this link to the post as well. Thanks everyone.

it works fine for me, but i have a problem, that whenever a contact changes his picture the picture isn't changed on my phone....i can't find anything to update the pictures.....i tried also to remove the pic and then to add the facebook link again, but i always get the old picture...
i forgot to write that i use the original HTC WM6.5 rom

for the most part the pairing to facebook pics work fine for me, however i've found that some of my facebook friends aren't available when i search for them to link to their contact info. there are about 30 friends on my facebook that for some reason aren't available to link. i'm using the tilt 2, stock ROM. any ideas?

I also have this problem
I found out that the dialer instead of using the picture from facebook, it uses the picture that is on the winmo default contacts...
Does anyone knows a fix to display only the facebook picture instead the one that's on the winmo contacts??

well i had this trouble but i updated my rom and backed-up my contact using pimpackup. it backups the contact and sets the current (facebook) picture as outlook picture. then you reinstall the backup file which will delele all your pim and install your contact with their default pictures as outlook thus end any dialer problems you're having. you should call and see their the picture you had

Hmm, I always use PIMBackup to backup and restore the contacts, and always have the default pictures from the outlook. But what I want is that facebook pictures become the default ones...

Which program are you guys using to sync your contacts with FB?

seanvree said:
Which program are you guys using to sync your contacts with FB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is built in to HTC sense. If you go to all people and then slide over to updates and events then log into your FB account

Ohh, I have the TP2. . . can I download a program that will do this?

seanvree said:
Ohh, I have the TP2. . . can I download a program that will do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is built into the TP2, if you are using the touch flo ui. Slide over to the people tab and select all people and then slide over to udates and events and log in

zelendel said:
it is built into the TP2, if you are using the touch flo ui. Slide over to the people tab and select all people and then slide over to udates and events and log in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but I'm not using Touch Flo, so I"m looking for an App.

seanvree said:
Yeah, but I'm not using Touch Flo, so I"m looking for an App.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try this, remember to read the whole thing first

I don't have an issue with the pictures, but stuff like birth dates. For some reason, when I sync contacts with FB, I get their birthdates and with a FB logo next to it. All well and good, except the birthdates won't pop up on my calendar, making it practically useless.
Now, if I type in their birth date manually it automatically updates the calendar.
Anyone know how to fix this?

mhurg said:
I don't have an issue with the pictures, but stuff like birth dates. For some reason, when I sync contacts with FB, I get their birthdates and with a FB logo next to it. All well and good, except the birthdates won't pop up on my calendar, making it practically useless.
Now, if I type in their birth date manually it automatically updates the calendar.
Anyone know how to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look here. It is what I use

Screen turns on randomly

Does it ever happen to you guys? I didn't get a text, email or anything, the screen just turned on on its own.

yeah lots for me and the new roms I change daily. Always put it down to polling weather servers etc.

Kezzainc said:
yeah lots for me and the new roms I change daily. Always put it down to polling weather servers etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyway we can fix it? The big screen is a battery killer.

My screen for some reason is showing one new e-mail but I have deleted all of them (from phone and website as well) ... eh whatever ...

eenbox said:
My screen for some reason is showing one new e-mail but I have deleted all of them (from phone and website as well) ... eh whatever ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have that problem too

simeezee said:
Does it ever happen to you guys? I didn't get a text, email or anything, the screen just turned on on its own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try un-check the Voice Command in Settings/Other.
By default it is checked, so I thing that's messing up the screen in noisy environments.

simeezee said:
I have that problem too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to go to Inbox and actually read every new e-mail, to get rid of those hanging notifications.
There's also a cab fix that adds a menu item: "Mark a Read" but that's essentially the same thing as going to Inbox and opening each mesage.

simeezee said:
I have that problem too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
eenbox said:
My screen for some reason is showing one new e-mail but I have deleted all of them (from phone and website as well) ... eh whatever ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The real fix lies in Active Sync...
You need to recreate the Exchange Mail account, then access the original or "dummy" account created when the PC synchronizes with your device to access system settings. Within that inbox, you will find the "Welcome" e-mail that you did NOT receive a notification for, nor read. OPEN IT. DELETE IT. And there you are... no more lingering notification on S2U2, or the home screen tab.

Reignzone said:
The real fix lies in Active Sync...
You need to recreate the Exchange Mail account, then access the original or "dummy" account created when the PC synchronizes with your device to access system settings. Within that inbox, you will find the "Welcome" e-mail that you did NOT receive a notification for, nor read. OPEN IT. DELETE IT. And there you are... no more lingering notification on S2U2, or the home screen tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you set up a push account then this is what will happen.While in your email tab inbox swipe to the side till you get to outlook and clear the inbox in outlook.