HTC Desire Tips, Tricks and Tweaks
News
Actually….Gingerbread IS Coming to the HTC Desire!
127 months ago
by MrBrightside
in News
Yesterday I posted up an article on HTC’s statement saying that the HTC Desire will not be receiving an upgrade to Gingerbread. However, earlier today they changed their minds and have created a new post which says:
Contrary to what we said earlier, we are going to bring Gingerbread to HTC Desire
This is great news for everyone, all though of course they’ve not published any estimated release dates yet!
Thanks to reader WeeJockey for noticing this!
No Gingerbread For The HTC Desire :(
37 months ago
by MrBrightside
in News
Bad news for all folks that have been eagerly waiting for news of the Gingerbread (2.3) update for the HTC Desire. Unfortunately HTC announced earlier today on their UK Facebook page that the HTC Desire will in fact not be receiving the long-awaited update to the latest version of the Android OS.
Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect from our phones. However, we’re sorry to announce that we’ve been forced to accept there isn’t enough memory to allow us both to bring Gingerbread and keep the HTC Sense experience on the HTC Desire. We’re sincerely sorry for the disappointment that this news may bring to some of you.
The reasoning might not appear to be most convincing to some users, especially considering that a number of 2.3 Sense ports for the Desire are already available on XDA, however it’s a shame for users who aren’t familiar or confident in rooting their phone and are forced to stick with the current installed version of Android on their HTC Desire.
I guess the biggest let down is the fact that at the start of this year HTC actually stated that the Desire WOULD be getting the Gingerbread update and got many of us impatiently waiting for June to arrive and bring us our ginger flavoured treat.
It’s a shame that the only real update HTC were able to provide Desire owners was Froyo, and that was only 2 months after the phone release date. Sad day for Desire owners, but I know plenty (including myself) are happy to use their phone as it is and will continue to use it for the foreseeable future.
Update to Google Goggles Solves Sudoku Puzzles!
21 year ago
Google Goggles was one of the novelty applications that I downloaded when I got my phone, but quickly forgot about. A new update to this application today added a series of tweaks and improvements (making it faster and results more reliable) as well as a few new features:
- QR codes recognised by scanning. Instead of having to take a picture, you just need to bring your camera over a QR code for it to be recognised and show you the information it contains
- Scanning of newspaper and magazine adverts. This feature is for US users where adverts in magazines and newspapers since August 2010 should be recognised by the application, however this feature currently doesn’t seem to be working for quite a lot of ads.
- Solving Sudoku puzzles. I’ve tried this and really does work, and amazingly fast too! Just take a picture of a puzzle, select the Solve option and you’ll see your phone showing you the solution in a matter of seconds.
If you don’t have Goggles already you can download using the QR code below (click it if you’re browsing on your phone):
Once downloaded you can try out the Sudoku feature on the puzzle below:
GAME: Worms (Kind Of) Available For Android
51 year ago
by MrBrightside
in News
The video below shows one of my favourite childhood games, Worms, running on a HTC Desire.
The game is already out, but unfortunately not available on the Market. To download you need to visit EA’s mobile game store on your phone and purchase from there. Payments are processed by Bango.
If you don’t trust Bango, or can’t see the game on the EA site yet then we can only hope EA see the sense in releasing it to the Android Market. Personally I’m holding off buying if and until its on the Market, but it’s still exciting news to finally have this game on the HTC Desire and other Android phones.
MIUI ROM Beta #5 – Preview
111 year ago
If you’ve rooted your phone, then you’ve most likely heard of the MIUI ROM. If you haven’t, then it’s about time you found out about it!
MIUI is a custom ROM built by a team of developers in China. Unlike most other ROMs, MIUI not only gives a complete UI overhaul to Android (iOS like in some cases) but it also introduces a massive range of new features.
The newest version of MIUI is due for release on 31st December, and the video below shows a preview of what’s to come:
Feature List From the Video
- iPhone style homescreen, with widget support
- Custom themes to change the full design of the ROM
- Quick toggle for most settings in the notification screen
- Fancy animations
- New music player application with lyrics support
- Lockscreen music controls
- Unlimited homescreens
- Rearrange the application drawer
- Uninstall applications via the application drawer
- FAST
- iPhone style contacts app
- T9 Dialing
- Call Recording (needs loudspeaker to be turned on)
- Reject/Mute Calls
- Send text message when rejecting a call
If you’re interested in this ROM then the place to lookout for is: http://miui-dev.com
FAQs
- The ROM in the video is in Chinese, will the ROM be Chinese too?
Although all official ROMs are released in Chinese, you can download language packs (including English) from http://miui-dev.com to translate the full ROM into your native language. If you know what you’re doing, you could actually translate it yourself! - What phones can I get MIUI on?
MIUI is built for the HTC Desire, Google Nexus One and Motorola Milestone, however it has been ported to other devices such as the HTC Evo - Which version of Android is this ROM based on?
MIUI ROMs use the latest Froyo release, but I would expect it to be upgraded to Gingerbread at some point
This Week On Twitter #3
01 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Twitter
Gingerbread Hits AOSP
Gingerbread is the latest version of Android (version 2.3). It’s currently unknown whether or not the HTC Desire will be getting it. However, the good news is that the source code for it has just been released on AOSP (Android Original Source Project), which means that it’s available for developers to download, tweak and compile for use on devices. We can expect custom ROMs to start being released over this weekend for the Desire from talented developers such as AdamG and RichardTrip who you can find in the Desire Development section of XDA-Developers.
Kindle For Android Version 2 Released
This morning users with the Kindle application will have received a new update in the Android Market for this application. The new update brings a series of new features, 2 of my favourites being scrolling through pages using the volume keys, and having the store accessible within the app instead of opening a new browser window. The full list of changes is as follows:
- Newspapers and Magazine
- Zoom into images
- Integrated store
- Share progress via Social Networks
- Application now installable to SD Card
- Bug fixes
- I’ve noticed a Grid view, which I’m pretty certain wasn’t in the previous version
Need for Speed Shift Now in the Market
EA games has just released their Need for Speed Shift game into the Market. The official description being:
THINK FAST! DRIVE FASTER! OPTIMIZED FOR ANDROID™! Drive 20 awesome cars including the BMW M3 GT2, Lamborghini Gallardo, and Pagani Zonda. Features 18 tracks in 3 stunning locations, Quick Race and Career Modes, 3 difficulty settings, and physics-based accelerated 3D graphics.
I guess they’re a little late as the latest console version is Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (also available on iPhone), but any 3D game being added to the Android Market is welcome by me.
If you want it, here’s the QR code for you to download it from the Market:
PlayStation Application for Android Coming Soon
Unfortunately, it won’t let you play PlayStation games on it, but it’s still useful in the sense that you can access your PlayStation Network (PSN) account to see your friends statuses, learn about new games and share news via social networks. Whilst that doesn’t sound like a lot, we’re promised lots of new features to come. You read more about it on the Official PlayStation Blog
Changes to the Android Market
The past few weeks have introduced several new changes to the Android Market, most of which you’ve already noticed but here’s a summary in case you haven’t:
- Application descriptions can now be up to 4,000 characters long
- There’s a field for recent changes
- The refund time for applications is 15 minute instead of the previous 24 hours
- There’s a new tab for Similar applications
- The biggest update is a new UI for the Market, which I haven’t received myself but I’m told should be available shortly. Here’s a preview of it on YouTube:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWdex2J43Jo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWdex2J43Jo</a>
Facebook Application Receives A New Update
As you can tell, this week’s mostly been about application updates. People on Facebook can enjoy a new update to the Facebook application which allows:
- Chat
- Push notifications. This is a lot better for battery life because it means the app works in the same way as Talk or Gmail. Instead of having to connect to the server every so often to check if there’s any new updates, Facebooks servers themselves send out an update to your phone as soon as the update becomes available.
- Some bug fixes
Google App Inventor Beta Now Open to the Public
If you missed the previous announcement, App Inventor is a way for anyone to develop Android applications using a simple web browser based interface.
You learn more about it, and signup to start using it here
A Quick Apology To Readers
01 year ago
by MrBrightside
in News
This is a first post for a while and rather an important one (to me anyway).
I know that MyHTCDesire has been followed and read by thousands of visitors per day, and watching the stats grow over the months, hearing all the positive feedback and even reading some of the emails that people had taken time out just to say thanks was beyond rewarding for something I set off to do as just a hobby.
More recently I’ve gotten more and more sidetracked by other tasks until this morning I noticed that it had been a full month since the last article I published. I want to apologise for the lack of new posts but the past month has been one of the busiest in a long time – I work full-time, been working overtime and on top of that I’ve been doing a lot of work freelance so I hardly get the opportunity to even play around with my phone, let alone taking the time out to write up my experiences.
Work’s finally calming down so I’m hoping that I’ll soon be able to go back to spending some time, every few days, if not every day to providing you with the same standard of news and articles as I previously did.
Angry Birds Is Finally Out, For Free!
61 year ago
This morning Rovio announced the news that the full version their long awaited Android game is finally available; and on top of that they also announced that the game is completely free of charge (but contains adverts).
Anyone running a rooted phone with adblock enabled obviously won’t even get the ads, but if you want to support Rovio then you will be able to buy an ad-free version in the near future.
Rumour has it that the ad-free version will be released on the Android Market after they’ve pushed 10,000 free copies (I’d be surprised if that number isn’t already reached) but only time will tell.
Download
They’ve currently submitted the free version to the Android Market, so it will be available on there within 24 hours. In the meantime, they’ve also published a copy of it on GetJar but unfortunately their servers are currently down due to the overwhelming demand of this game!
Just to make things easier for readers, I’ve uploaded the game and you can download it from here
UPDATE: It’s now in the Android Market, here’s the QR code (click it if you’re browsing on your phone):
Bye Bye to Unlimited Data from O2
61 year ago
by MrBrightside
in News
Yesterday I received the letter below from O2, it comes only a week after receiving a text message saying:
You’ve gone over your data allowance on your mobile. You need to cut down or get a bigger Bolt On to keep using the internet.
To be totally honest, I can’t remember even using so much data in the past couple of months. The most data usage on my phone is emails which definitely don’t require a huge data allowance. I can’t even remember last time I used YouTube on it, none of the apps I’ve installed have been that big, and I tend to use WiFi for browsing because 3G is sluggishly slow at work anyway.
As they wrote in the letter, they could just completely disable my mobile Internet if I happen to go over my data allowance again (supposed to be “unlimited*”), which I guess is better than getting a huge bill, but is still quite ridiculous when I can’t even seem to recall using that much data in the first place.
On top of that, from what I’m told by readers on Twitter, the O2 data allowance limit should only apply to new customers whereas I’m 10 months into my contract.
Either way, I think that O2 have really taken the Boris with this. When Vodafone introduced their 500MB limit there was an outcry, but O2s policy seems to be even worse.
With Vodafone you can receive up to 3 warnings, and then have to pay £5 for an extra 500MB, with O2 they can decide whenever they want to cut your data connection and that’s it. The only alternative is to pay £15 extra for 3GB – not gonna happen!
I’ve spoke to O2 this evening, and they definitely haven’t been able to increase my data allowance so I’ve requested my PAC. I’m switching to GiffGaff, who are a subsidiary network owned by O2, but they promise unlimited data – they just don’t want people using it for tethering so don’t use it as a WiFi Hotspot! One of the advantages of GiffGaff is that you’re not tied into a contract. You could try their service, and if they aren’t up to scratch, or if they unfairly change their terms like O2 or Vodafone then it should be pretty easy to move on to another network provider.
Unlimited – At giffgaff ‘unlimited’ means ‘unlimited’, so play fair and play nice, so it stays that way.
Here’s the letter from O2:
DOWNLOAD: Orange Pre-Froyo Update
31 year ago
by MrBrightside
in News
Froyo has been available for many Orange customers for over a week, but people who were on software version 1.15.61.10 were made to wait until yesterday (1 October) before being offered this update. Reason being that Orange had to first release an update which allowed customers to upgrade from 1.15.61.10 to 1.22.61.1
You should now be able to get the 1.22.61.1 update by going on:
Settings > About phone > System software updates -> Check now
After installing that update, you should be able to check again and receive the Froyo update too
Manual Download and Install
In case you don’t get the 1.15.61.10 to 1.22.61.1 update then you can download it directly from the HTC servers – link and then install using the tutorial here
