HTC Desire Tips, Tricks and Tweaks
Tutorials
HOW TO: Create Backups of Your Phone
51 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Tutorials
I think this is pretty crucial, especially if you’re considering rooting your phone and installing custom ROMs. Here’s the method I use make a backup of my phone before installing any custom ROM:
SMS, Calllogs, Contacts, Applications, Settings and Bookmarks
- MyBackup – this is an app you’ll find in the Market. There’s a full 30 day trial, and then you need to buy MyBackupPro for $4.99
It will let you backup most of your stuff: SMS, Call-logs, Contacts, Applications, Settings and Bookmarks - SMS Backup & Restore (by Ritesh Sahu) – lets you backup all your text messages and restore them
- People – the default People application on the Desire. Just press the Menu button -> select Import/Export and export all your contacts to the SD card
Applications and Application Data
If you backup your applications using MyBackup then when restoring you’ll get your apps back but no data for them such as progress or preferences – it will be as if you’ve installed the app for the first time
Once you’ve rooted your phone you have a couple of ways to backup and restore your application data too:
- Titanium Backup – will create a full backup of all your apps and their data. Very easy to backup and restore. You can also schedule to backup regularly.
- MyBackup can take advantages of the root permissions and will let you backup the application data too.
Restoring
When restoring data make sure you don’t restore “Android Home” in MyBackup – I’ve had problems where I can’t add widgets to my homescreen if I choose that
MyBackup sometimes doesn’t let me restore Apps – that’s why I prefer to use Titanium Backup for apps and games
MyBackup sometimes doesn’t let me restore Contacts – hence the advice to use the People app.
HOW TO: Create, Manage and Rename Folders
91 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Tutorials
Folders are a kind of widget that provide a great way to create groups of shortcuts on your homescreen. If you like having lots of shortcuts to your favourites game and applications, then folders will help you organise them making it easier to find apps and games you want to use.
NOTE: Click any of the images to view in full-size.
Adding Folders
- Press the ‘+’ button in the bottom right of your homescreen
- Select “Folder” from the options that appear
- Select New Folder (or one of the other options if you want one of those)
- You’ll see a new widget appear on your homescreen called “Folder”
Adding Items To Folders
- Press the ^ button on the bottom left of your screen to bring up the Apps menu
- Hold your finger down on the app you want to add to the folder. You’ll be taken back to the homescreen (with your app still selected) and you can drop it into your folder
- If successful your app will appear inside the folder if you click on it
Renaming Folders
- Click on a folder to open it
- Press down the title bar (the grey bar at the top which says “folder”), you’ll notice it turn green for a split-second
- A box will appear prompting you to enter a new name.
- Enter a name and press OK
HOW TO: Play Games With ScummVM On Your HTC Desire
91 year ago
What We’re Going to Achieve
Sorry about blurriness, will have a try during the day to see if I can get it clearer. Actual graphics are much better – see screenshot at the end of this article!
What Is ScummVM?
ScummVM is an application that let’s you play certain PC games on alternate hardware (such as an Android phone). Examples of ScummVM compatible games include:
- Monkey Island Series
- Sam and Max Hit the Road
- Full Throttle
- Broken Sword 1 & 2
- and plenty more which you can see here
For this tutorial I’m using Broken Sword because I have the full trilogy to hand.
Prerequisites
- Firstly, make sure the game you want to play is supported by ScummVM by checking this page
- A copy of the game you want to play on your Desire (as mentioned, I’m using Broken Sword).
- A MicroSD card with at least 1GB free space. This depends on the game you want to use – Broken Sword takes 1.13GB and that’s 2 CDs
- At least 30MB free space on your phone
Downloads
- The latest ScummVM .apk file. I used this version but there are alternatives on the ScummVM for Android progress page
Instructions (click any of the images to enlarge)
- Install the ScummVM.apk file to your Desire. If you don’t know how to just use these simple instructions
- Connect your Desire to your computer in Disk Drive mode
- Insert the game CD into your computer’s DVD-drive
- On your SD card create a folder somewhere to store the game files. I just made a folder in the root called Broken Sword
- Go on the ScummVM datafiles page and find the section relating to the game you’re installing. It’ll show you the files to copy. For Broken Sword it has the following:
- *.clu
- swordres.rif
- MUSIC folder (Except 2M29.WAV in CD2)
- SMACKSHI folder
- SPEECH folder
- Rename speech.clu on CD1 to speech1.clu
- Rename speech.clu on CD2 to speech2.clu
- Copy the files it mentions from your game CD to the SD card. The CD contents are shown below:
- The contents of the Broken Sword folder on my SD card now look like this:
I copied the video folder over too, just to check if it would work – and it did!
Because it didn’t say “clusters folder” but did mention the *.clu files, I put the contents of the clusters folder in the main directory instead of a subfolder. Same with swordres.rif
I didn’t have a SMACKSHI folder so I ignored that - Once copied Safely Eject your SD card from computer, Unmount it by changing it to Charge Only mode
- Open ScummVM from your apps menu, and you’ll see the following:
- Press Add Game and scroll down, double-click sdcard (using trackpad or touchscreen), then find the folder where your game is stored
- Press Choose and a box showing details of your game will appear
- The main things to check here are:
- the name of your game is correct
- Under paths change the Save path to somewhere on your sdcard. I just saved in in my game folder.
- Press OK
- Press Start and if all’s gone well your game should load up!
Extra Info
The release I’ve used is 1.1.1-vorbis. This isn’t the final version and has a few bugs. Before attempting this tutorial check the downloads page if a newer version is available.
One of the main bugs in this version is that each time you start the app you have to add the game again (steps 10-13). As long as you save your game you can still carry on where you left off.
FAQs
- The ScummVM menu screen keeps flickering in the background
A. Press the Home button to go to your homescreen. Hold down the Home button and switch back to ScummVM. The flickering should have stopped - How Do I Change the Volume?
A. The volume keys don’t seem to respond within ScummVM. Just press Home to go to homescreen. Use the volume rocker (it should change the Media Volume) then switch back to ScummVM. Additionally, there’s also some volume settings within ScummVM if you press the Menu button during the game and go on Options. - I’ve noticed that there are some ScummVM game plugins in the Market for various games. Do I need them?
A. As far as I’m aware, no. I’ve tried running Broken Sword without the plugin and it still appears to work. If your game doesn’t seem to be working properly then try download the plugin and see if it helps.
MINI GUIDE: How To Quickly Restart Your Desire
81 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Mini-Guides
I just came accross this little shortcut and thought it’s worth sharing 
To restart your Desire in case it stops responding just do the following:
Press down the Power Button + Volume Down Key + Press the Trackpad. Within a couple of seconds your Desire will restart.
Saves you having to take out the battery, put it back in and turn the phone on.
That’s it. Short and sweet.
UPDATE: Bear in mind that you shouldn’t use this to restart your phone on a regular basis. This method doesn’t shut your phone down properly so you could lose unsaved data. It’s like hitting the reset button on your computer when it crashes. You should only use it if your phone crashes or becomes unresponsive or any other situation where you’d normally pull out your battery.
I did mention this briefly in the article intro, but saw that some people were still confused in the comments – hope this clarifies it.
Additionally, this will not perform a factory reset or wipe your entire phone, it just performs a power cycle: off then back on.
MINI-GUIDE: Use Part Of A Song As A Ringtone
51 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Mini-Guides
This simple guide shows you how you can use your favourite part of any MP3 song on your Desire as a ringtone. This means you can skip out any long intros and just the bit that you want.
What You Need
- The song on your Desire (in MP3 format) – must appear in the Music player. I normally use DoubleTwist to sync music with my phone
Instructions (click any image to enlarge)
- Open the Music app and find the song you want to use
- Press Menu and choose the Set as Ringtone option
- Choose the Trim the ringtone option. This will bring up the Trim Ringtone screen
- Use the Sliders at the bottom to select the portion of the song you want to use
Left slider – Clicking the left slider will play the song from that point so you can preview where your ringtone will start from
Right slider – Clicking the right slider will play the song from a few seconds before that point so you can preview how your ringtone will end
Play/Pause – Use this to preview your ringtone. Bear in mind the sliders mentioned above determine where playback starts
Left button – use this to move the selected slider backwards one step (for a precise selection)
Right button – use this to move the selected slider forward one step (for a precise selection)
- When you’re happy with the preview press the Set as button
- Choose whether you want this is as your default ringtone (Phone ringtone) or assigned to a single contact (Contact ringtone)
- Wait for it to press, after which it will be set as the ringtone type you selected
- Press Exit
- To use the same ringtone again, you don’t need to repeat the process. The ringtone is saved to your SD card and will appear in the default ringtone menu where you can select it.
That’s it. Using a section of any song on your Desire as a ringtone is quick, easy and intuitive!
HOW TO: Install The Android SDK
21 year ago
This guide was initially part of the How to Take Screenshots tutorial but has been separated out because it’s going to be referenced in a few upcoming tutorials.
Instructions – Mac users can skip to step 5
- Go to the Java Runtime Environment (or the JDK if you intend to develop your own apps) page
- Select your Operating System, agree to terms and click Continue
- Download the file shown below (the version number may differ, this is the latest at time of writing this article)
- When the download completes run the file to install it
- Get the Android SDK – free download available from here. Downloads are at the top of the page, just choose your relevant operating system – no need to follow the instructions on that page!
- When the download has completed extract the file:
- Windows – Right Click -> Extract All -> Follow the onscreen prompt.
- Mac – Double click the file
- Open the extract android-sdk-rXX-<os> folder, the android-sdk-<os> subfolder within it (if it’s there). You should see something like this:
- Windows: install the latest Android phone drivers using the instructions here
- That’s it. You’ve now got the Android SDK setup on your computer.
HOW TO: Install the ADB Driver On Windows
371 year ago
Here’s a clearer guide on how exactly to setup the ADB drivers on Windows, with screenshots for each step.
- Follow the installation section of this post. Ignore step 8 (“Windows: install the latest Android phone drivers using the instructions”)
- Browse to the android-sdk-windows folder:
- Run SDK Setup:
- Close the Refresh Sources box (pictured above) if it opens.
- Close the Choose Packages to Install box if that’s open too.
- Click the Settings option on the right
- Under Misc, check the box which says: “Force https://… sources to be fetched using http://…”
- Go on Available Packages and click the + (plus) sign next to the long URL (http://dl-ssl.google.com/android…) to expand it
- Select Usb Driver package and press Install Selected
- Select Accept under the terms and then press Install
- When the installation is completed, close the Installing Archives window
- IMPORTANT: In your SDK folder you’ll now have a new folder called usb_driver. This is the location to search in the rest of the tutorial when you’re required to locate the driver
- Make sure you have Device Debugging enabled on your phone by going to Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging and ticking the checkbox.
- Connect your phone via the USB cable. You’ll notice the Debugging icon in the notification bar, and opening the notification bar will show “USB debugging connected”
- If you’re on Windows XP, follow the steps described in the Perform A Fresh Installation section here
If you’re on Windows Vista or Windows 7, follow the steps described in the Perform A Fresh Installation section here
REMEMBER: Where it says “Click “Browse…” and locate the folder where you copied the installation package.” it’s the directory in Step 12 above - The drivers should now be fully installed.
Installing the drivers lets you connect your phone in debug mode. This allows you to take advantage of the SDK tools, such as ddms which lets you take screenshots. It also lets you easily install applications from your computer, browse files on your phone and if you start developing Android applications you can quickly test them out on your phone.
UPDATE: If the drivers don’t work for you then try using these drivers instead
HOW TO: Take Screenshots On Your HTC Desire
431 year ago
There’s no easy way to take screenshots with an Android phone. This is due to security issues that could arise if applications were capable of taking screenshots. For example, imagine an app that would run in the background, take a screenshot every 2 minutes and upload the image to a remote server. For now, two methods exist but neither are as straightforward as we’d like them to be:
1) Use a rooted phone. Rooting your phone gives you full access to your phone system and therefore it’s possible to access the screenshot functionality. If you’ve rooted your phone just download ShootMe from the Market and all you need to do is shake the phone to capture a screenshot.
2) Using the Android SDK and a USB cable.
This method involves a few steps but once you’ve completed the setup, taking future screenshots is very easy.
Installation
- Install the Android SDK using the instructions provided here
- On your HTC Desire go on Settings > Applications > Development. Check the USB debugging option
Taking Screenshots
- Browse to your SDK locations and open the tools folder
- Make sure your phone is connected via USB, and run the ddms tool. You should see something like this:
- Make sure you select your device from the box on the right, then go on Device > Screen Capture
- The new window will grab your current phone screenshot and display it:
- You can use the Refresh, Rotate, Save and Copy options to take the respective action with your screenshot.
Every time you want to take a new screenshot, just follow the 3 steps in the Taking Screenshots section.
Twitter: What It Is and Why To Use It
41 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Tutorials
For those that don’t know what Twitter is, it’s a really good way of keeping up-to-date with people, companies and basically anyone with a Twitter account.
Basic Jargon
Tweet – a short message posted by a Twitter user. Limited to 140 characters. It’s public and viewable by everyone (unless you choose to make your Tweets private)
Retweet – A Tweet repeated by another Twitter user.
Hashtag – a keyword within a Tweet. It’s created by prefixing a word with a # symbol e.g #android. Searching for a hashtag will bring up all the Tweets which contain that word
Mention – if someone mentions your Twitter account in their Tweet. To mention you prefix the username with an @ symbol e.g. @mihtcdesire.
How does it work?
- You sign-up on Twitter for a free account
- You find the people you’re interested in
- You press the follow button on their profile
- Plus you can post your own Tweets too, so your followers will find out any updates you have to share.
That’s it. You just view your Twitter page and whenever someone you’re following posts a Tweet it’ll appear on that page.
For HTC Desire Owners
Of course as a HTC Desire owner, your phone plays very nicely with Twitter. It comes with the “Peep” application. You can use this to sign into your Twitter account, and whenever someone you follow posts a message you’ll be notified pretty quickly. You can reply to messages, or retweet something you want to share with your own followers. If you’re not fond of Peep, there’s alternatives in the Market including Google’s official Twitter app (called Twitter), Seesmic, Touiteur and so on.
Why Use Twitter?
- Fresh information – as soon as something major happens that you’re interested in, you’ll find out very quickly
For example, if you’re following the MiHTCDesire Twitter account, then you’ll know within minutes whenever there’s a new blog article - It’s simple - as explained above, it’s really simple and easy to use. To be honest, I’d never used Twitter until starting this website, but when I did use it I found it so easy to share news, ask readers questions or even forward on questions I couldn’t answer personally to get replies from other Desire owners.
- It’s relevant – you choose the people you follow. Before following them you can check their profile page to see the kind of tweets they post.
For example, MiHTCDesire is dedicated to the HTC Desire so I’ll post Tweets that are solely related to that. I know the last week saw a few big tech headlines such as the new Xbox 360 Slim, and the release of iOS4 but of course that’s not the focus of that Twitter account so it wasn’t posted. - Plenty of people to follow – a lot of people, and even massive companies have a Twitter account which they keep up to do with the latest news and info. Some even offer special promotions via Twitter.
For example, HTC, Vodafone, O2 and even Google have their own Twitter account - It’s concise (and generally precise) – for each update Twitter restrict you to 140 characters to write your message. That means no ramblings or long-winded essays which could easily be condensed into a much shorter for example “Use Twitter, it’s awesome”.
- More information – A lot of people, (myself included) will post more stuff on Twitter than on a dedicated website just for convenience.
For example: when I hear about a new application it’s quick and easy to write a few words about it on Twitter and share with everyone. For that kind of thing it’s not exactly worth writing a whole new article. Plus I hate writing long pieces on my phone and only blog from my computer, whereas a Twitter update is much similar to just writing a simple text message.
Drawbacks
The main drawback of Twitter I’ve found is some of the mundane things that people post. On my personal account, I follow a web designer who sometimes tweets links to excellent web-related articles and news that he comes across, which I find really useful for my work. Unfortunately a lot of the time he only posts really petty updates about his life “Picked a snot today, stretched at least 35mm”.
Conclusion (in 140 characters)
Twitter is a great way of getting the latest info. It’s like a custom newspaper, but the headlines only. Plus it plays nice with the Desire.
HOW TO: Add A Website Shortcut to your Homescreen
11 year ago
by MrBrightside
in Tutorials
This is a response to an email received earlier today. Even though the method’s quite simple, it’s something that can easily be missed because of the number of widget options and menus available.
Here goes:
- Open the Internet app
- Go to the page to you want to add
- Press Menu > Add Bookmark
- Give it a name and make sure the location is right
- Press Done
- Press the Home button to return to the homescreen
- Press “+” or long-press an empty space where you want to add the shortcut
- Select Shortcut from the Add to Home menu
- Select Bookmark
- Select the Bookmark you want to add
- Done! The shortcut should now be on your homescreen
