Another fed up user...

[hmadsen]

I think you could update the radio by booting a modified recovery image via adb commands and flashing it that way i.e. gaining temporary root. I've never tried it though, and it depends on your device ROM using the original bootloader with the 'flaw' that allows this.

The specific radio ROM for your handset depends initially on your device ROM. The two work hand-in-hand, and a radio that gives improved performance with one network won't necessarily show the same improvement on another due to differences in the carrier-specific device ROMs. It's definitely a good idea to do some research beforehand and make sure that other users on your particular network are seeing positive results.

Understandably. If you're having reception problems I'd recommend trying to resolve them with your provider first, rather than installing an unofficial update that will give them a golden opportunity to void your warranty.

I dont have reception problems per say but in areas where my old nokia has fair signal strength the hero often only displays 1 or 2 of 4 bars and even though i am able to make and receive calls without any trouble i find it a bit troublesome that it has so poor reception ... If it is not just the signal strength indicator that is off..

Who makes the radio updates ? I mean, it cannot be google / htc because then they would have included these updates in their rom updates would they not ?

Hmadsen

 

[Slug]

I dont have reception problems per say but in areas where my old nokia has fair signal strength the hero often only displays 1 or 2 of 4 bars and even though i am able to make and receive calls without any trouble i find it a bit troublesome that it has so poor reception ... If it is not just the signal strength indicator that is off.

I wouldn't be concerned. My Hero often shows a "weaker" signal than my N95 did in the same areas (based on the signal meter) but the latter would drop occasionally calls with 2 bars showing whereas the Hero holds on to them with only 1 displayed. The only time it's dropped a call was when I walked through an underpass and lost signal completely.

Who makes the radio updates?

They are never released as updates - they ship with handsets and depend on the device ROM and carrier. What we see are radio ROMs extracted from various devices and made available by users.

I mean, it cannot be google / htc because then they would have included these updates in their rom updates would they not ?

Hmadsen[/quote]

 

[robbiec]

Dan check out camera Zoom FX, it improves pictures massively, also check this out http://androidforums.com/htc-hero/20511-htc-hero-new-user-guide-apps.html

This link contains loads of "scan this barcode" references - this sounds like a really cool utility but I can't find a barcode scanner app on my hero by default.. can anyone point me in the right direction?

Doh, I just learned to read... "To use the images of barcodes that will follow, please download the "barcode scanner" application from the android market. Once installed open the application and scan the barcode to automatically download the said application."

Please ignore my stupidity.

 

[alinver]

robbiec there is an app called "barcode scanner" in the market.

Barcode Scanner v3.01 Application for Android | Shopping

Cheers Al

 

[docal]

So superior in fact that I just sold my HTC Hero and bought a new 3GS. I thought the only people who could find the Android superior to the iPhone were those who never had an iPhone. I find it really hard to understand how anyone who has really used both for at least 2 months could belive the Android to be better. But hey, whatever...

 

[lekky]

So superior in fact that I just sold my HTC Hero and bought a new 3GS. I thought the only people who could find the Android superior to the iPhone were those who never had an iPhone. I find it really hard to understand how anyone who has really used both for at least 2 months could belive the Android to be better. But hey, whatever...

My sentiments exactly, only the exact opposite. Someone can only believe hte iPhone to be a more rewarding phone if they either have never used an android device, or do not understand it.

Most of my friends did not understand why my Hero was superior to their iPhones because they were trying to use it as if it was an iPhone. I had to step in and say things like , "no, you don't have to stop doing this to check that", "you don't even need to check that, it will inform you when it has something new to tell you".

Once I taught them to open their mind up and use the device differently, they ALL realised how superior Android is.

 

[david83]

Once I taught them to open their mind up and use the device differently, they ALL realised how superior Android is.

This is what it all comes down to at the end of the day - useability. My mum could use an iphone. People need educating in the ways of Android. So is that what makes the iphone better?

 

[lekky]

This is what it all comes down to at the end of the day - useability. My mum could use an iphone. People need educating in the ways of Android. So is that what makes the iphone better?

That's not quite what I meant though. The Hero is more usable than the iPhone, a lot more.

What I was trying to say was that because people who have an iPhone/non-smartphone are used to their limitations, they automatically start to use the Hero with those limitations in mind. They don't know you can do 2 things at once, so don't even bother to try, thats the only education they need..!!

 

[david83]

Android V iphone

usefulness V userfriendliness

If something is more user friendly does that make it more useful?

woah this is deep...

 

[lekky]

Its not more user friendly!! Its more simple? Simple doesn't make more useful

woah... dizzy

 

[david83]

I agree that the hero is more useful. It does more stuff. However the iphone does what it does better than the hero does what it does. i know that you know you know what i mean.

 

[HER0]

Um OK, I didn't mean to start WWIII here I was just in a shitty mood and my phone was playing up...

I think what I didn't make clear enough was most of them are just little niggles for me and as I was in a bad mood, they seemed a whole lot worse. It's just random things like sometimes if I click "Reply" from the SMSPopup App, the screen goes off then on, then lags a bit then finally opens, like wtf

And sometimes my screen dims itself even though I am 100% that setting is OFF as it never used to do it and I have checked and not changed anything.

My main annoyance is the signal, I know I have reception as when I move my hand away from the bottom where the aerial is, a couple of seconds later the signal comes back, albeit only 1 or 2 bars.

I am not an iPhone lover but I did see recently that there is an App now for jail-breakers that allows multi-tasking...I can dig the video up if anyone wants?

 

[lekky]

You can multi task on a jail broken phone for a while i think. sms popup is a terrible app btw, handcent is so much better, and its popup > sms popup.

 

[HER0]

Thanks, I will check handcent out. I was always under the impression it was very laggy from what I have heard?

By the way, I didn't want to start a new thread just to ask - what is meant by 'radio' in terms of reception on the Hero. I searched but couldn't find out what it actually means.

 

[JayCee]

what is meant by 'radio' in terms of reception on the Hero. I searched but couldn't find out what it actually means.

A mobile phone or cellphone is basically a "Radio Telephone"...that's what people mean by "Radio"
BTW forget about signal strength indicators...1 bar, 2 bars etc...they are wildly inaccurate.

 

[lekky]

Its what the phone uses to pick up a signal to your carriers network.

 

[hmadsen]

Thanks, I will check handcent out. I was always under the impression it was very laggy from what I have heard?

By the way, I didn't want to start a new thread just to ask - what is meant by 'radio' in terms of reception on the Hero. I searched but couldn't find out what it actually means.

Handcent IS laggy and buggy.

I was told it was much better than the built in sms app but everything takes forever, it will not flash the joystick thingy when there is an sms AND it crashed something called touch.flo----something all the time on mine.

Handcent is NOT better in my opinion...Not if speed and userfriendlyness and the ability NOT to crash my phone is of any interest.

Hmadsen

 

[docal]

are you on the google payroll? man youre enthusiastic

 

[lekky]

Handcent IS laggy and buggy.

I was told it was much better than the built in sms app but everything takes forever, it will not flash the joystick thingy when there is an sms AND it crashed something called touch.flo----something all the time on mine.

Handcent is NOT better in my opinion...Not if speed and userfriendlyness and the ability NOT to crash my phone is of any interest.

Hmadsen

I'll definately disagree, handcent is better than the default app, and the best out there right now. If it is crashing your handset then there is a problem somewhere, it could be to do with the app, it might not be. I'd suggest contact the developer about it to see if he can work out your issues, if you can't be bothered thats ok too

 

[punkzanyj]

Hi all, I don't often post much but I certainly browse most of the threads in the Hero section, and I have noticed a few people starting to dislike their Hero's - unfortunately I am one of them.

I am not denying the Hero is a good phone, but I really am fed up of the lag and glitches I encounter in everyday use. Yes, before I am jumped on, I have taskkiller and yes I do make sure everything is closed that I am not using, but there's no denying the phone does lag a bit even when not multi-tasking. It's by no means bad lag, just irritating and I have put up with it for months and I am getting tired of it.

Also, the camera is practically rendered useless seeing as I don't carry a tripod round with me because it seems that's what this phone needs to take a decent, shake free shot. And no it's not my lacking camera skills, I have an A-level in photography.

Another thing is the appalling signal strength due to the aerial being in the chin section of the phone, this angers me so damn much - who the HELL makes a phone you can't hold normally because you cannot get any signal when you do so, I literally have to hold the phone on the edges or the top just for the signal to come back, wtf!? This also makes phone calls damn difficult because I often accidentally put my hand over the precious aerial whilst talking.

Lastly to round it off is the app market. Yeah there are a load of decent apps, but the marketplace itself looks like a 3rd party application, the organisation is rubbish! Whilst I like the whole open source scene, I believe there should be moderation to stop all the cr*p that force closes automatically getting onto the market.

I don't want to get attacked now as I do like my Hero, it's just these niggles have slowly worn me down, and I am pretty fed up of it now - it takes the pleasure of using the phone away. I still believe Android has a long way to go yet, it's just lucky it will be used on so many phones in the near-future. I can see it going in a Windows direction though, so much hardware and one OS = so much that can go wrong with compatibilities, hardware etc.

Not really sure whether to keep the phone now or not

Sorry for the long post, had to vent my disappointments somewhere

One thing that has sped up my G1 and made needing to use the task killer RARE - -

I keep 25-30mb of memory free on the phone. For some reason if you dip below 25mb of free space, it starts to have lag issues.

Here's a few things that help keep that going

-backup and delete of text messages - more threads = more memory = more lag. I use SMSbackup to have all my texts fowarded to my gmail, marked as read, and automatically archived.

-Clear Browser cache and history every week

-Peroidically going to menu>settings>applications>manage applications and doing the following.

-Sort by size
-Start at the top tapping on apps
-If available tap the "clear cache" button
-For SOME apps (BE CAREFUL) using the "Clear Data" button can be helpful. But be very very careful, clearing data may remove login information, settings, playlists, or other important things that you don't want to have to re-enter again.

Things like facebook, the browser, maps, weatherbug, BuddyMob, tend to cache content and this can eat up memory. The Marketplace app is THE biggest culprit, especially if you spend a lot of time window shopping through the market. Some apps cache to your SD card, but some do not. I know there is an app or two that will do all of this kind of stuff with a single click, but the last one I tried ended up clearing my playlists out of the music player and making all my SD card audio content (ringtones, alarms, music, notification tones) invisible. I thought it had deleted them, but after a reboot, the content all showed up again, but because it had all been invisible, I had to go back through and assign ringtones, alarms, notifications all over again.

 

[lexshero]

Sure there is.
We've been over this; it's subjective. Different things work for different people.

I say that all the time. Iv used touxh pro 2, mytouch, touch diamond, palm pre, palm pro, palm centro, and now have the sprint hero...every phone iv uswd does somethimg better than the other one, i can say iphone does hold the standard of smooth operating system, but all are dominant at something. I wish my browser was a little smoother, but other than rhat its my first or second pick of all phones...

 

[david83]

i haven't used taskiller since friday and my phone seems happier as a result. smoother, more stable. i say - let the phone do it's thing.

 

[punkmonkey1984]

Guys/girls

I just come from a i900 samsung running windows mobile 6.5.3 builds from over at modaco, and belive me the android is much better and more smooth then windows mobile, as much as i loved my time with the phone i could not stand waiting 4-5 sec's for the home screen to load up before i could do anything simple like read a text or view the time,

so the little things i do come across on the hero i dont mind so much im kinda used to it lol, but like the other members have put, there's most likely a fix for the problem some where just have to do a little work to iron the creases out

 

[hiway]

I too was getting frustrated by a various combination of factors with the Hero and Sprint. I really wanted it to work. I felt that Sprint needed some help and given their pricing structure and underdog status I wanted to do what I could by being their customer. Their coverage is just too "all-over-the-place" for me (especially data).

The phone... /sigh/ has many issues for me also (even though I loved the look).

1. Battery life (as an airline person I need this to work a full 14 hour day).
2. Way hotter than most smart phones (yes all nice screen phones get hot people, but this one got way hot!)
3. Track ball. Remember those mouse issues before lazer mice? Well I see this being a big issue for 2 year contracts. Blackberry anyone?
4. No physical keyboard (even though predictive text is wow amazing) But a HUGE problem when adding contacts, or inputing passwords etc.
5. Camera (overall for 5mp terrible and no flash). Yeah I know cellphones suffer in optics but come on!
6. Screen in comparison to my new Droid is just duller and laggy (slower processor)

So in summary you have to do the math on your coverage where you live (each person is different), and what the extra money will actually net you on someone other than Sprint. For me 7 bucks extra a month so far is worth it. I am not a power user by any means and realize the any mobile anytime feature Sprint offers is very very nice, and realize Verizon does nickle and dime you a lot.

Good luck to those sticking it out with Hero and I know future firmware/software will fix a lot of the glaring issues. It's a fun phone and a great start to some exciting Android possibilities at Sprint.

 

[AlexJReid]

Also I want the Ask The Hoff App that is on the iphone, anyone know if it's on Android yet?

I'm pleased to say that yes, Ask the Hoff is now available for Android. Search for it in the market.

Give it a good rating, too, if you don't mind.