HTC Desire Tips, Tricks and Tweaks
This Week On Twitter #3
02 years 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
This Week On Twitter #2
22 years ago
by MrBrightside
in Twitter
It’s been a while since I did the first “This Week On Twitter”, but last week was quite an exciting week for Desire owners so here’s a round up of a weeks worth of Tweets!
Angry Birds Beta is now in the Market
One of the top selling iPhone games is now available for Android. It’s still in Beta, so there might be bugs but I’ve been playing it for the past few days and had no problems with it whatsoever. You can download the free Lite version using the QR code, the full paid version is not yet available.
Froyo Available to South-East Asia and Hong Kong HTC Desire Owners
Readers who’re based in the above locations can now enjoy their Froyo-flavoured Android update. If you’ve not received the update already, just go on Settings > About Phone > System Software Updates > Check Now and the update should appear ready for you to download.
Friendstream and Peep Back Online
Last week Google changed the way in which 3rd party applications can access the Twitter service. Previously there were 2 methods, Basic Authentication and OAuth, with OAuth being more secure of the two. Late last year Google announced that they’d be getting rid of Basic Authentication and only allowing OAuth. App developers were told to update their apps to use OAuth, with another public reminder in June. Most developers did this, but HTC either due to neglect, or an agreement with Google that they’d still be able to use Basic Authentication decided not to update their Peep and Friendstream apps. So when Google disabled Basic Authentication last week, Peep and Friendstream went down for a couple of days.
This issue was then resolved without the need for any OTA update, so I’d assume Google have permitted HTC to carry on using the Basic Authentication method.
How To Force Apps to Install on SD Card Without Rooting (on Froyo)
This is an article from another website which shows you how you can move any app to the SD card on Froyo without having to root your phone. You will need adb setup on your computer to follow this tutorial. Click here to visit the guide
What’s App Instant Messenger Now In Beta
The popular iPhone (also available on S60 and Blackberry) instant messenger application is now in beta for Android. Although the interface is very simplistic, it seems to work quite well. You can download it by visiting this link on your Android phone browser, or download the apk file from here
Thanks to MyKeymoo for the heads up
PSGroove being ported to Android (PSFreedom)
There’s been a lot of development on this, and due to not owning a PS3 my understanding might be a bit flaky – do correct my if I get anything wrong: a few weeks ago a jailbreak for the PS3 was announced which lets you run homebrew on your PlayStation 3 console using a rather expensive USB dongle. This was known as PS Jailbreak. More recently it was announced that another team of developers had managed to release some open-source code known as PSGroove which does the same thing as the PS Jailbreak, except that PS Groove is free but you need certain USB hardware to run the code. Another developer then ported PSGroove to the Nokia N900 which has the necessary USB controller, and called this project PSFreedom. Now, the developers at XDA are working on hard on getting PSFreedom to run on Android phones (Desire included).
Basically: if the developers succeed then it’s going to be possible to jailbreak your PS3 for free using PSFreedom from your Android phone. You can track the development of this project here
MyHTCDesire Breaks Another Bandwidth Barrier
For what start off as a very small blog, it’s now exceeding 100GB traffic a month which is a huge milestone for me. Just want to say thank your to all the readers who’ve been reading and promoting this site!
This Week On Twitter #1
12 years ago
by MrBrightside
in Twitter
This article will summarise some of the more important Tweets posted on the MiHTCDesire Twitter account (in case you’re not a Twitter type of person).
Angry Birds is Coming to Android this Summer
The number 1 iPhone game is being ported to the Android platform by it’s developers. They’re saying a summer release which could mean anytime soon. If you want to know when exactly it’ll be out you can sign up to their mailing list
Source: Android Central.
OpenDesire ROM brings Vanilla Froyo to the Desire
This one’s only of interest to people who have rooted their Desires. OpenDesire is one of the first Froyo ROMs available for the Desire that is built using AOSP. It seems quite stable and it’s developer is working very hard to fix any bugs and issues. If you want it, go ahead and grab it from here
IMDB Application Now Available In the Android Market
A fully featured IMDB application was released this week which looks and works great. You now have the power of the Internet Movie DataBase in the palm of your hands. No longer will you look stupid when asked how many times Hank Azaria appeared in Friends! Download the app using the following QR code (click to enlarge) or if you’re viewing on your phone use this link
Desire Still Available for £285 from O2
This was just a reminder about a great bargain to be had. If you have an existing O2 contract you can buy yourself (or a special someone) a HTC Desire for only £285 which is over £60 cheaper than the next cheapest I’ve seen it (£349.99 + £10 top-up from Three). For all the details on how to get it check out the original post
Mario Live Wallpaper Available
A new Mario Live Wallpaper is available (free) from the Android Market. You can watch Mario play across the various levels as your homescreen background. It comes with plenty of configuration options such as the ability to change difficulty and disable level background. If you want it, you can get it from the authors original post
