HTC Desire S Owners Guide V1.03, H T C, HTC DESIRE S
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
HTC Desire S Owners Guide
Since buying my first Android
phone (the excellent HTC Desire)
back in April 2010 I have been on
a mission to turn as many of my
friends towards these fantastic
phones as possible. Although I
am not a developer and couldn’t
write a line of code to save my
life, I am still considered the
“Geek” of the group and people
have listened. In that time I have
been dishing out help and advice
to all my friends when they followed my advice and went Android. It got to the
stage where I was just forwarding previously sent e-mails and referring people
to XDA thread links after searching my ‘Sent Items’ folder for the relevant
advice. So I decided to save time sifting through my sent items each time
someone bought a phone on my say-so, and I created this. I have compiled all
the e-mails into this noob-friendly guide specifically for people
new
to HTC
and Android. Please bear in mind this is not a guide aimed at long-time
Android users, developers, or custom ROM flashers, as you will have figured
all of this out by now anyway. It has evolved and grown over many months so
may repeat itself in certain areas, and I have now tweaked it for the Desire S.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
1.
BASIC ADVICE
........................................................................................................................................... 2
2.
APPLICATION GUIDE
............................................................................................................................... 4
3.
BATTERY OPTIMISATION
....................................................................................................................... 9
4.
ULTIMATE CHARGING METHOD
........................................................................................................ 11
5.
POWER DRAIN MANAGEMENT
........................................................................................................... 13
6.
TASKER TUTORIAL
................................................................................................................................ 16
7.
MISCELLANEOUS
................................................................................................................................... 19
1
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
1. Basic Advice
DO NOT INSTALL OR USE TASK KILLERS!!!!!!
Android does
not
work like Microsoft’s Windows or Nokia’s Symbian. Apps that are
not running in the foreground are
not
using any processing power, and should
Android need the RAM, it will automatically close any background apps not being
used to free up the memory it needs to work. This will all happen automatically and
you’ll not even notice it. Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) comes with its own way of
force-closing any rouge apps should you need to. 3rd party Task Killers stick their
nose into all this, have to run in the foreground all the time, and as a result slow the
phone up, drain the battery, and
always
cause more problems than they solve. Don’t
worry if your free RAM is reported as being low. Free RAM is wasted RAM. One
exception to this is when you have what’s called a Memory Leak. It simply means
that RAM is not being freed up properly when an app is closed. It happens over time
when your phone has been on for a couple of weeks without a restart. I recommend
restarting the phone if it starts to get sluggish. A vast majority of the time this solves
any lag issues.
Make sure an app has plenty of prior downloads and read the reviews before
installing it, and
always
do so via the Google marketplace (unless I send it you). That
way you are protected by Google from dodgy apps. Google even have the ability to
hit a “panic button” and remotely uninstall suspect apps from everyone’s phones
should a dodgy one make it past the checks and onto the marketplace. Apps from
unofficial sources
could
have been tampered with to gain control of your phone in
some way or access your data. Before an app is installed via the Marketplace, it
has
to list what areas of the phone (permissions) this app accesses. Use common sense.
For example be wary of a “wallpaper” app that requires access to your phonebook!
Appreciate though that most apps are free to you because they are subsidised by
adverts. These will need internet access and your location info, so they can see
which country you are in and download the appropriate advert. Expect free apps to
ask for these permissions. They are not spying on you! There are plenty out there
that although they don’t attack your phone directly, they’ll steal the contacts in your
phonebook and sell the info to marketing companies. Oh and I know it should go
without saying, but apps with “sexy” or “girls” or both in a title, pretty much
guarantees them to be nefarious even if they do deliver on their promise of hot ass.
Same goes for all the 3rd party web browsers that claim to be good for porn surfing!
There are very few known viruses for Android as its Linux based and you do not
have Root access so there’s not much they could do. HTC also have extra security
on their system partition (S-On) to prevent it from being changed in any way. It’s a
pain-in-the-ass for people wanting S-Off and custom ROMS, but normal users can
be assured their phone is not easily hacked or tampered with. However it can’t be
long until the growing popularity of Android (350,000 devices a day activated)
encourages the arseholes who write viruses to leave Windows alone and focus on a
new challenge. You are also at risk if you don’t
check permissions
before installing
something (easily done, you can get complacent after a while) and give a dodgy app
permission
to access certain areas. At present you can’t deny certain permissions
2
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
and allow others. If an App is to be installed, you have to either chose yes to all
permissions, or no to all and hence cancel the installation.
Best to play it safe. I can recommend installing something ‘Lookout Mobile Security’.
It’s a free and trust-worthy anti-virus and anti-malware app for Android phones. It
doesn’t hog memory or battery power, it automatically updates virus definitions, and
automatically scans
anything
you install. It even has a party trick of being able to
track the location of your phone via their website should it be lost or stolen. You can
(also via the website) get it to make your phone ring at full volume if you have
misplaced the phone in the house somewhere!
3
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
2. Application Guide
App Guide – Some of the best Apps that I use (Some paid for, most are free)
1.
EStrongs File Explorer
– Vital for exploring your SD card, backing up apps, and
even browsing networks. Also allows browsing of other networks via FTP or LAN so
you can easily copy things to and from your phone to your PC without a cable. (Free)
2.
Google Voice Search
– For some reason an old version was on my phone.
Update via marketplace if necessary. It gets better all the time. American accent no
longer required! Watch the included tutorial video to fully understand it’s potential.
(Free)
3.
Chrome-to-phone
– Send web pages, apps, maps etc straight to your phone
from your PC browser. (Requires the plugin for your PC chrome browser.) (Free)
4.
Gmote
– Turns your phone into a remote control keyboard and mouse for your
PC, and lets you either play music on your PC, or streams the music from your PC to
listen to on your phone. Gmote server required to be installed on your PC. (Free)
5.
Movies
– Very good app for seeing what’s on at the cinema, finding you the
nearest cinema, see show times, book tickets etc...(Free)
6.
Opera Mini
– Good as an alterative browser (the stock one is very good though)
for when you have a weak signal and hence poor bandwidth. Opera
compresses/filters web pages by 90% so your phone is downloading much less data
and pages will load faster. Don’t wait until you are in a weak area to download and
install it! (Free)
7.
PicSay Pro
– Fantastic photo editor. The camera on the Desire S is ok, but can
get colours wrong and sometimes fluffs exposure levels. Fix with this app. Also, very
good for making funny pics and mocking your friends. ($2)
8.
Tasker
– A must have app. Fully automate your phone with this. Can’t believe
Google haven’t bought the rights to this yet. Makes any android device so much
more powerful. Any input to any output. Save masses of battery power. Complicated
to use at first, but worth persevering with. (Only £4 British pounds sterling. Worth
ten
times
that!)
9.
TuneIn
Radio
– The best Internet Radio Streaming app. Any station from the UK,
and most from the rest of the world. Even works well on 3G, and you can set your
bit-rate to allow for bandwidth or data allowance issues. (Free)
10.
Lookout Mobile Security
– Good security app for your smart-phone. Scans for
malware, viruses and root kits when you install stuff. Doesn’t drain the battery.
Remotely lock, track the phone using their website, backup pictures and contacts
and wipe your phone should it be lost or stolen. (Free)
4
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
11.
Syncness
– This is a clever one. When properly set up, this app will
automatically copy specified folder contents from your phone’s SD card over your wi-
fi network, to any specified location on your PC. Obviously needs your PC to be on.
It can be done by manually hitting a ‘Sync’ button, by setting up a scheduled sync, or
even by automatically starting the sync when it sees your home WiFi network. A bit
tricky to set up, but the developer is one of the most helpful I’ve come across, and
will respond to e-mails very quickly. Very handy for keeping your photos backed up,
and especially handy if you use Amazon MP3. (see number 38.)
12.
Your Orange
– For anyone with an Orange contract, use this to keep track of
your bill, minutes and data usage. (Free)
13.
Zedge
– Best app for downloading good wallpapers and ringtones. Beware of
others that put malware on your phone. This one is trust-worthy. (Free)
14.
Appbrain
– Compares what you have installed to searches the marketplace and
makes recommendations for you. It helped me make most of this list! (Free)
15.
IMDB
– You know what this is! Internet Movie Database. Must have for film buffs.
(Free)
16.
Battery Indicator
– The standard battery meter on the Desire S (in fact most
androids) is vague at best. This small and basic app adds a simple battery
percentage to your notification bar. Beware of the many alternatives that look very
fancy, but ironically cause more battery drain as a result. (Free)
17. Last.FM – You know what this is. (Free) Not free any more. Avoid.
18. Mixzing – A good alternative to the basic stock music player. Has more options,
looks nicer, has a decent ‘random’ and supports scrobbling to Last.FM. (Free basic
version, pay for full features. The free one is just fine.) See number 29 instead. Much
Better.
19.
Google Sky Map
– Good for when you are pissed and want to know what stars
you are staring at from your resting place in the gutter/hedge. Clever app. Hold your
phone up to the stars and it shows you what constellation you are looking at. (Free)
20.
Spark 360
– The best Xbox live app should you want one. Can notify you when
your friends turn their xbox on, send and receive messages, check your
achievements.... ($2)
21.
Wi-Fi Analyzer
– Good for seeing what wifi is around you, and checking your wifi
is on the best channel. You’d be surprised how many of your neighbours are using
the same channel as you. (Free)
22.
Swype
– You’ll have to get this by applying for the beta from their website. Best
way to type. Like predictive text only you wipe your finger about the keyboard without
lifting it and it knows what you are trying to type. Usually. Still faster and more
accurate than pressing individual keys. (Free)
5
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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HTC Desire S Owners Guide
Since buying my first Android
phone (the excellent HTC Desire)
back in April 2010 I have been on
a mission to turn as many of my
friends towards these fantastic
phones as possible. Although I
am not a developer and couldn’t
write a line of code to save my
life, I am still considered the
“Geek” of the group and people
have listened. In that time I have
been dishing out help and advice
to all my friends when they followed my advice and went Android. It got to the
stage where I was just forwarding previously sent e-mails and referring people
to XDA thread links after searching my ‘Sent Items’ folder for the relevant
advice. So I decided to save time sifting through my sent items each time
someone bought a phone on my say-so, and I created this. I have compiled all
the e-mails into this noob-friendly guide specifically for people
new
to HTC
and Android. Please bear in mind this is not a guide aimed at long-time
Android users, developers, or custom ROM flashers, as you will have figured
all of this out by now anyway. It has evolved and grown over many months so
may repeat itself in certain areas, and I have now tweaked it for the Desire S.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
1.
BASIC ADVICE
........................................................................................................................................... 2
2.
APPLICATION GUIDE
............................................................................................................................... 4
3.
BATTERY OPTIMISATION
....................................................................................................................... 9
4.
ULTIMATE CHARGING METHOD
........................................................................................................ 11
5.
POWER DRAIN MANAGEMENT
........................................................................................................... 13
6.
TASKER TUTORIAL
................................................................................................................................ 16
7.
MISCELLANEOUS
................................................................................................................................... 19
1
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
1. Basic Advice
DO NOT INSTALL OR USE TASK KILLERS!!!!!!
Android does
not
work like Microsoft’s Windows or Nokia’s Symbian. Apps that are
not running in the foreground are
not
using any processing power, and should
Android need the RAM, it will automatically close any background apps not being
used to free up the memory it needs to work. This will all happen automatically and
you’ll not even notice it. Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) comes with its own way of
force-closing any rouge apps should you need to. 3rd party Task Killers stick their
nose into all this, have to run in the foreground all the time, and as a result slow the
phone up, drain the battery, and
always
cause more problems than they solve. Don’t
worry if your free RAM is reported as being low. Free RAM is wasted RAM. One
exception to this is when you have what’s called a Memory Leak. It simply means
that RAM is not being freed up properly when an app is closed. It happens over time
when your phone has been on for a couple of weeks without a restart. I recommend
restarting the phone if it starts to get sluggish. A vast majority of the time this solves
any lag issues.
Make sure an app has plenty of prior downloads and read the reviews before
installing it, and
always
do so via the Google marketplace (unless I send it you). That
way you are protected by Google from dodgy apps. Google even have the ability to
hit a “panic button” and remotely uninstall suspect apps from everyone’s phones
should a dodgy one make it past the checks and onto the marketplace. Apps from
unofficial sources
could
have been tampered with to gain control of your phone in
some way or access your data. Before an app is installed via the Marketplace, it
has
to list what areas of the phone (permissions) this app accesses. Use common sense.
For example be wary of a “wallpaper” app that requires access to your phonebook!
Appreciate though that most apps are free to you because they are subsidised by
adverts. These will need internet access and your location info, so they can see
which country you are in and download the appropriate advert. Expect free apps to
ask for these permissions. They are not spying on you! There are plenty out there
that although they don’t attack your phone directly, they’ll steal the contacts in your
phonebook and sell the info to marketing companies. Oh and I know it should go
without saying, but apps with “sexy” or “girls” or both in a title, pretty much
guarantees them to be nefarious even if they do deliver on their promise of hot ass.
Same goes for all the 3rd party web browsers that claim to be good for porn surfing!
There are very few known viruses for Android as its Linux based and you do not
have Root access so there’s not much they could do. HTC also have extra security
on their system partition (S-On) to prevent it from being changed in any way. It’s a
pain-in-the-ass for people wanting S-Off and custom ROMS, but normal users can
be assured their phone is not easily hacked or tampered with. However it can’t be
long until the growing popularity of Android (350,000 devices a day activated)
encourages the arseholes who write viruses to leave Windows alone and focus on a
new challenge. You are also at risk if you don’t
check permissions
before installing
something (easily done, you can get complacent after a while) and give a dodgy app
permission
to access certain areas. At present you can’t deny certain permissions
2
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
and allow others. If an App is to be installed, you have to either chose yes to all
permissions, or no to all and hence cancel the installation.
Best to play it safe. I can recommend installing something ‘Lookout Mobile Security’.
It’s a free and trust-worthy anti-virus and anti-malware app for Android phones. It
doesn’t hog memory or battery power, it automatically updates virus definitions, and
automatically scans
anything
you install. It even has a party trick of being able to
track the location of your phone via their website should it be lost or stolen. You can
(also via the website) get it to make your phone ring at full volume if you have
misplaced the phone in the house somewhere!
3
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
2. Application Guide
App Guide – Some of the best Apps that I use (Some paid for, most are free)
1.
EStrongs File Explorer
– Vital for exploring your SD card, backing up apps, and
even browsing networks. Also allows browsing of other networks via FTP or LAN so
you can easily copy things to and from your phone to your PC without a cable. (Free)
2.
Google Voice Search
– For some reason an old version was on my phone.
Update via marketplace if necessary. It gets better all the time. American accent no
longer required! Watch the included tutorial video to fully understand it’s potential.
(Free)
3.
Chrome-to-phone
– Send web pages, apps, maps etc straight to your phone
from your PC browser. (Requires the plugin for your PC chrome browser.) (Free)
4.
Gmote
– Turns your phone into a remote control keyboard and mouse for your
PC, and lets you either play music on your PC, or streams the music from your PC to
listen to on your phone. Gmote server required to be installed on your PC. (Free)
5.
Movies
– Very good app for seeing what’s on at the cinema, finding you the
nearest cinema, see show times, book tickets etc...(Free)
6.
Opera Mini
– Good as an alterative browser (the stock one is very good though)
for when you have a weak signal and hence poor bandwidth. Opera
compresses/filters web pages by 90% so your phone is downloading much less data
and pages will load faster. Don’t wait until you are in a weak area to download and
install it! (Free)
7.
PicSay Pro
– Fantastic photo editor. The camera on the Desire S is ok, but can
get colours wrong and sometimes fluffs exposure levels. Fix with this app. Also, very
good for making funny pics and mocking your friends. ($2)
8.
Tasker
– A must have app. Fully automate your phone with this. Can’t believe
Google haven’t bought the rights to this yet. Makes any android device so much
more powerful. Any input to any output. Save masses of battery power. Complicated
to use at first, but worth persevering with. (Only £4 British pounds sterling. Worth
ten
times
that!)
9.
TuneIn
Radio
– The best Internet Radio Streaming app. Any station from the UK,
and most from the rest of the world. Even works well on 3G, and you can set your
bit-rate to allow for bandwidth or data allowance issues. (Free)
10.
Lookout Mobile Security
– Good security app for your smart-phone. Scans for
malware, viruses and root kits when you install stuff. Doesn’t drain the battery.
Remotely lock, track the phone using their website, backup pictures and contacts
and wipe your phone should it be lost or stolen. (Free)
4
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
11.
Syncness
– This is a clever one. When properly set up, this app will
automatically copy specified folder contents from your phone’s SD card over your wi-
fi network, to any specified location on your PC. Obviously needs your PC to be on.
It can be done by manually hitting a ‘Sync’ button, by setting up a scheduled sync, or
even by automatically starting the sync when it sees your home WiFi network. A bit
tricky to set up, but the developer is one of the most helpful I’ve come across, and
will respond to e-mails very quickly. Very handy for keeping your photos backed up,
and especially handy if you use Amazon MP3. (see number 38.)
12.
Your Orange
– For anyone with an Orange contract, use this to keep track of
your bill, minutes and data usage. (Free)
13.
Zedge
– Best app for downloading good wallpapers and ringtones. Beware of
others that put malware on your phone. This one is trust-worthy. (Free)
14.
Appbrain
– Compares what you have installed to searches the marketplace and
makes recommendations for you. It helped me make most of this list! (Free)
15.
IMDB
– You know what this is! Internet Movie Database. Must have for film buffs.
(Free)
16.
Battery Indicator
– The standard battery meter on the Desire S (in fact most
androids) is vague at best. This small and basic app adds a simple battery
percentage to your notification bar. Beware of the many alternatives that look very
fancy, but ironically cause more battery drain as a result. (Free)
17. Last.FM – You know what this is. (Free) Not free any more. Avoid.
18. Mixzing – A good alternative to the basic stock music player. Has more options,
looks nicer, has a decent ‘random’ and supports scrobbling to Last.FM. (Free basic
version, pay for full features. The free one is just fine.) See number 29 instead. Much
Better.
19.
Google Sky Map
– Good for when you are pissed and want to know what stars
you are staring at from your resting place in the gutter/hedge. Clever app. Hold your
phone up to the stars and it shows you what constellation you are looking at. (Free)
20.
Spark 360
– The best Xbox live app should you want one. Can notify you when
your friends turn their xbox on, send and receive messages, check your
achievements.... ($2)
21.
Wi-Fi Analyzer
– Good for seeing what wifi is around you, and checking your wifi
is on the best channel. You’d be surprised how many of your neighbours are using
the same channel as you. (Free)
22.
Swype
– You’ll have to get this by applying for the beta from their website. Best
way to type. Like predictive text only you wipe your finger about the keyboard without
lifting it and it knows what you are trying to type. Usually. Still faster and more
accurate than pressing individual keys. (Free)
5
HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.03 | wnp_79
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]