Like the HTC Desire HD, but that's not to say everythings Rosy...

Its an Android phone and given the powerful hardware and large screen I was always going to like it and in general I do, but listed below are the things I don't like...

The Phone Itself

1. The battery/SIM-SDCARD plastic bits are cheap as sh1t and don't feel solid like the rest of the phone.
2. Really love the big screen. My old 3.7" LCD Milestone looks tiny now :-)
3. CardioTrainer gives me more accurate results so I think it has a better GPS than the Milestone.
4. The contacts (and call log etc) doesn't support Google's "custom" phone number (or other) types! This is EXTREMELY disappointing and means I always have to remember to update the contact online.
5. The "notes" field while editing is one line high so almost impossible to edit. I'm really starting to wonder about HTC...
6. The phone can't edit calendar events! Or at least it can't modify the start/stop dates on repeating events! Not a biggy for me as I try to do most changes from my laptop anyway.
7. The speakers are horribly quiet. A work around for me was to use Audacity to amplify the sound (a lot) for the ringtones. Can't do that with internal ones, I have my own set in any case which I name based on function in any case ("zzCall-WORK.mp3").
8. Average quality alarm/ring tones installed. Milestone had a way better assortment. Be nice if Google ever standardizes this.
9. Swype never works after a reboot (button presses Ok, just won't swype)! You have to alter the input method, then alter it back!
10. Another Swype issue is that HTC's sideways menu bar (for copy/paste etc) frequently ends up overlaying the Swype word choice menu!
11. I gave "HTC Sense" a go but decided its mainly designed to look good while sacrificing functionality and was nowhere near as good as the "LauncherPro" I put on within the first week.
12. The "HTC Friends" is so buggy its unusable assuming I wanted to, I don't, and it can't be disabled without turning off sense which I assume would also prevent the wanted "htcsense.com" stuff working, of course they wouldn't want to document any of this would they? It keeps popping up notifications!
13. Been getting "SD card unexpectedly removed" notifications (Unmount card before removing to avoid data lo | ss ...). This happens intermittently and I managed to capture it in a log (partial extract below). It sometimes occurs immediately after a reboot. It requires a reboot to correct. I think this is software and suspect APPS2SD functionality (Google or HTC's fault?).
14. I am so missing the "pure" google functionality of the Motorola Milestone. I would have stayed with Motorola except they don't supply timely updates (still on 2.1) and have locked the bootloader preventing me from updating it myself (they have forgotten who owns the phone).
15. HTC have devolved the Android functionality, if they wish to change it then they should improve on it. Anyway Gingerbread will force them to rewrite sense (Sense 3.0) and this time do it right.
16. The phone just died (within first month) with green/orange flashing LEDs while charging. This apparently means overheading. As the phone is cold, its a sensor issue of some type (not sure if sensor in battery or phone). For now I'm back on my "tiny" Milestone... Lets see how good MobiCare warrantees are...
17. Battery doesn't last anywhere near long enough (when it was charging, was calibrated to HTC recommendation). You need a charger at work after charging to 100% overnight.
18. I don't think the "turn on USB debugging" workaround improves anything for me.

I just got my wife a Samsung Galaxy Tab (nice), however out of the 3 Android phones I've used that is 3 different Google Buttons orderings with 3 different sets of symbols Drives me crazy, I keep pressing the wrong buttons, Google really need to standardize this.

The htcsense.com website

1. If constantly forgets which country I'm in...
2. Only once has updated my location
3. Making it ring mostly works immediately (or once not at all)
4. Locking the phone doesn't actually do that, it just sets a lock code but it won't immediately lock! If also takes a very long time to apply and once not until a week later!!!!

LOG of SD CARD UNMOUNT

This is a partial log with obviously unrelated messages removed (blog stuffs up formatting...):

17 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47a8bb40 com.android.vending/com.android.vending.UninstallActivity paused=false}: mSurface=null mExiting=false isAnimating=false app-animation=null inPendingTransaction=false mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:49:39.407 D/WifiService( 1292): releaseWifiLockLocked: WifiLock{NetworkLocationProvider type=2 binder=android.os.Binder@47d053a0}
01-01 08:49:39.407 D/WifiService( 1292): enable and start wifi due to updateWifiState
01-01 08:49:48.287 V/NotificationService( 1292): Battery Full, Charging
01-01 08:49:53.707 D/TelephonyRegistry( 1292): notifyDataConnection() state=0isDataConnectivityPossible()true, reason=null
01-01 08:49:53.707 D/TelephonyRegistry( 1292): broadcastDataConnectionStateChanged()  state=DISCONNECTEDtypes=null, interfaceName=null
01-01 08:49:55.430 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Start proc com.htc.android.worldclock for broadcast com.htc.android.worldclock/.AlarmInitReceiver: pid=17645 uid=1000 gids={3003, 1015, 3002, 3001, 2001}
01-01 08:49:57.140 W/BackupManagerService( 1292): dataChanged but no participant pkg='com.android.providers.settings' uid=10180
01-01 08:49:58.230 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Start proc com.jonasl.gmailnotifier2 for broadcast com.jonasl.gmailnotifier2/.GmailReceiver: pid=17658 uid=10169 gids={1015}
01-01 08:49:58.490 W/InputManagerService( 1292): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@480b76d8
01-01 08:50:00.340 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Process com.jonasl.gmailnotifier2 (pid 17658) has died.
01-01 08:50:11.541 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW cmp=com.android.vending/.AssetInfoActivity (has extras) }
01-01 08:50:35.620 D/WifiService( 1292): acquireWifiLockLocked: WifiLock{NetworkLocationProvider type=2 binder=android.os.Binder@47d053a0}
01-01 08:50:35.640 D/WifiService( 1292): enable and start wifi due to updateWifiState
01-01 08:50:40.660 D/WifiService( 1292): releaseWifiLockLocked: WifiLock{NetworkLocationProvider type=2 binder=android.os.Binder@47d053a0}
01-01 08:50:40.680 D/WifiService( 1292): enable and start wifi due to updateWifiState
01-01 08:50:49.570 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47936c10 Uninstall application paused=false}: mSurface=Surface(name=Uninstall application, identity=469) mExiting=false isAnimating=false app-animation=null inPendingTransaction=false mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:50:49.580 E/WindowManager( 1292): return in removeWindowLocked
01-01 08:50:49.580 W/InputManagerService( 1292): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@47c88088
01-01 08:50:55.550 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47a30ab0 Rate it! paused=false}: mSurface=Surface(name=Rate it!, identity=470) mExiting=false isAnimating=false app-animation=null inPendingTransaction=false mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:50:55.550 E/WindowManager( 1292): return in removeWindowLocked
01-01 08:50:55.560 W/InputManagerService( 1292): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@47a7fdd0
01-01 08:50:57.640 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW cmp=com.android.vending/.UninstallActivity (has extras) }
01-01 08:50:57.740 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47a7e6f8 Uninstall application paused=false}: mSurface=Surface(name=Uninstall application, identity=471) mExiting=false isAnimating=true app-animation=com.android.server.WindowManagerService$DummyAnimation@479f9550 inPendingTransaction=true mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:50:57.740 E/WindowManager( 1292): return in removeWindowLocked
01-01 08:50:57.920 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Force stopping package com.als.usagetimelines uid=10211
01-01 08:50:58.320 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Force stopping package com.als.usagetimelines uid=10211

01-01 08:50:59.210 D/DirectVolume( 1212): Volume sdcard /mnt/sdcard partition 179:33 removed
01-01 08:50:59.210 I/Vold    ( 1212): Unmounting ASEC com.vp.whiteNoizzz-1 (dependant on /mnt/sdcard)
01-01 08:50:59.230 I/Vold    ( 1212): Unmounting ASEC com.rovio.angrybirds-1 (dependant on /mnt/sdcard)
01-01 08:50:59.241 D/Vold    ( 1212): Volume sdcard state changing 4 (Mounted) -> 5 (Unmounting)
01-01 08:50:59.310 W/MountService( 1292): getSecureContainerList() called when storage not mounted

Issues with "Event Flair" and Google Calendars

If like me you set up the labs "Event Flair" option and wondered why it never works (just sits there displaying "Select an event to add flair") then these are the reasons I know of:

1. It doesn't work in Agenda view, it will display them but not let you set them.
2. The above point obviously means you can't search for the item to then allow you to change it.
3. It doesn't work when editing the calender event.
4. It doesn't work for all day events, turn that off, add the icon and then set it up again!
5. It doesn't work for events that span midnight

Hope that helps as a Google search shows that many people are having problems but not much detail is known.

I suppose I may as well go on and mention other issues I've noticed:

1. Not many icons available
2. Can't add your own icons
3. Flair not visible on my Android phone (2.1).

Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?

Not sure whose fault it is but after using the "fetch icon" in the Android "ChromeMarks" application (which I like a lot) and it syncing the bookmark's change with Google I was getting the "Whoa!" message every time I tried to start Chrome.

Using IE I found a webpage mentioning the data at "C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default" on Windows 7 and

"C:\Documents and Settings\[YourUserName]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default" on WINXP. I have since also found this at Google Chrome's help page on this error.

Sure enough I could successfully start Chrome after renaming the "Default" directory, it was pretty much back to basics, no extensions etc.

The rename proved that I could recover and something in there was corrupt so I copied the backup back and started playing, my solution was to clean out the files in "..\Default\Sync Data". This stuffs up syncing of computers and turning sync back on will cause the issue to return so for now its a partial solution only...

Update: Removing the last bookmark I changed from ChromeMarks and syncing solved my problem so it would appear that my desktop's user data was perfectly OK and it was the sync that was killing Chrome. Still not sure whether to blame ChromeMarks or Google, but I'm leaning towards blaming Google and as further evidence the issue happens whether the bookmark exists in the "cloud" or on a computer. It has been reproduced and would appear to be a Google issue with the "tinyurl.com" favicon, this is an Chrome export of of the problem bookmark:

<A HREF="http://tinyurl.com/tdbetadroid" ADD_DATE="1283984697" 

ICON="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQAQMAAAFSOl20AAAABlBMVEX///8AAJncEfieAAAAP0lEQVQImWM4wNDAAMIfGB4AcQAQf2DYwPCf4S8Q/2c4z3AWSLqD4X+GrqsMt2Yz/P8PQruuM+wqZzh2EcgGAJnBHbEe9Z+7AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC">Touchdown USB sync beta</A>

In any case Google do not provide any mechanism to override normal syncing for example a "this browser overrides the Google copy for next sync" option (or way of clearing the data online) and for this they should be shot...

Hope that helps someone :-)

Cloud Sync Google Chrome Bookmarks with Android Phone

Hi,

As per my previous post, after losing my phone's bookmarks during a factory reset I decided to either back up my bookmarks or sync them so I installed "GoMarks for Google Bookmarks" to sync with "Google Bookmarks", this was fine except that I really wanted my links in a tree structure and Google Bookmarks only allows a single level of folders. IE 8 has also been having problems with some sites (compatibility mode on or off) so I really wanted to start using Chrome.

I have since moved to "ChromeMarks" on my phone and now use Google's "Chrome Browser" to maintain my links. I have added the Chrome extension "Bookmark Tree - Version: 0.2.3" to display the links in a "proper" tree view (and with the right options return to the same view every time).

It was easy to export the Google Bookmarks and import these into Chrome. I have set up Chrome's sync options so that I will have the same bookmarks across all computers I have running Chrome and now "ChromeMarks" allows one way sync of these (currently manually invoked) to the phone.

"ChromeMarks" doesn't display the tree structure but does allow you to view a single folder and navigate up and down the tree. It is very much early days for the application but it was good enough for me to buy.

I posted these comments on the author's blog and he was quick to respond:

1. Font too small, configurable would be nice
2. It would be nice to at least be able to set where it opens to avoid the "Bookmark Bar", but better to remember where it was opened last and return there
3. ".." should sort first
4. Some color wouldn't hurt, it would help folders stand out more for starters.
5. Its too easy to close it when pressing back button exits, could it actually do same as ".."?

Backup and Sync Android Bookmarks

Since the 2.1 update for my Motorola Milestone, I have been having intermittent reboots and one of these removed my google account and it could not be added again due to another apparently well known Android bug... Anyway a factory reset later and I can see the need for backing up my bookmarks as well as the advantage of the cloud (automatic recovery).

There are a number of backup programs for book marks but most of these require you to manually invoke it (and of course remember to do it). I looked for a sync solution as as I already use "Google Bookmarks" (not really flash but at least portable) I decided to try "GoMarks for Google Bookmarks".

This doesn't integrate with the browser but does mean I don't haveto remember or worry about backing up. As most of my existing links are meant for desktops I created a "label" called "(Android Specific Pages)" and because of the brackets this will sort on top of the list of sections in the Android application.

Now I'd like to do the same thing with a "tree" like structure so I'll probably keep looking but this is a good solution for now.

Online Android Application Browser

Well it looks like you can use this online site to see what is in Google's Android Market without the need for an Android phone.

Google Contacts can't import Pictures! No Android phone for me?

Hi,

I would really like an Android based phone (probably the HTC Hero) but am unsure because its hard to tell "how connected" you need to be (as I just want GSM and no data plan) and what features are available disconnected. You have to be in the secret society to tell what most of the available applications are and what these will cost (you need to commit yourself by buying have a google phone and go to the market place to find out).

Anyway the above issue aside I had a look at the Google Contacts Application online and it looks like it would suit my needs and contacts can be members of multiple groups (unfortunately you can't nest groups). I decided to give the import feature a go.

The import reads the vCard file and seems to create contacts OK but all without the contact's picture. I have confirmed that the vcards do have the picture (it contains "PHOTO;JPEG;BASE64") so the issue would appear to be google's.

Unless someone tells me I'm wrong then I have to assume that Google contacts is what the google phone will sync to and if it doesn't want to accept photos then you have to wonder what they were thinking when they created the import (and from some searching the export) feature. Surely I can't be the only one who doesn't want to spend untold hours to upload and attach about 100 photos...

My other main alternatives are the iPhone and Palm Pre, which I'll now be spending more time looking at.