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Eris Tips and Tricks

When using wifi instead of the 3G service is it true that 3G automatically turns off when you turn wifi on, or is it still running in the background? Do you have to physically have to turn 3G off when using wifi? Sorry, newbie here. Also, can you still make calls, texts, etc. with just using wifi?
 
droidfanatic said:
When using wifi instead of the 3G service is it true that 3G automatically turns off when you turn wifi on, or is it still running in the background?
Click to expand...
You can have them both on (but that would probably be overkill) or you can select which one you want to use


droidfanatic said:
Do you have to physically have to turn 3G off when using wifi? Sorry, newbie here. Also, can you still make calls, texts, etc. with just using wifi?
Click to expand...
You can "text" using yahoo or google on wifi, but not sms. Calls would be using google talk or skype.
 
On the otherhand maybe you were referring to the "Text" on yahoo or google. Technically those are called "chat" on Google and "Chat & Mobile Text" on Yahoo. Those I am 100% sure on.
 
well i read on here you can call/txt with the mobile network off. so if you have the mobile network off and wifi on, i figured you could still txt.
 
mcbtrain929 said:
well i read on here you can call/txt with the mobile network off. so if you have the mobile network off and wifi on, i figured you could still txt.
Click to expand...

and this is why I asked the question....some people say you can and some people say you can't, and not just on this site, i've read conflicting posts on other forums as well. I don't have my eris yet so I guess i'll just have to wait and see to test it myself when i get it, hopefully tomorrow :)
 
With wi-fi turned on (not mobile network) I was able to put the call on speaker phone and check a back log of my text messages.
 
On ppcgeeks someone asked about the ring delay. Often times my phone was barely ringing at all, part of one ring, before the caller hung up or voicemail kicked in. Being an HTC Windows phone user I had seen this fixed before and thought it was fairly common knowledge but apparently it may not be for others so here we go.

The delay in ring time is determined by the slot cycle index of your phone. The Slot Cycle Index is how often the phone checks the towers for incoming calls. The default value is 2 which equates to checking every 5.12 seconds for a call. If the phone check right before a call comes in it will be another 5 seconds before the phone sees the call. Changing the slot cycle to 1 changes the time to 2.56 second and a 0 value time of 1.28 second.

There is however one drawback. Polling the towers more often means using more battery. I use a slot cycle of 1 and haven't noticed much difference in battery life. My phone now ring between the first and second ring as opposed to the third and forth at the default setting.

Finally here is the solution if you choose to give it a try.
##PST Send
Edit Mode
Enter 000000 Press OK
Modem Settings
Slot Cycle Index
Change Value (Lower values ring faster)
OK
Menu
Commit Modifications
Press OK to reset the device. OK

After that your device should reboot and you should be good!
 
You can disable the Sense UI without uninstalling it or rooting the device (which to my knowledge is not yet possible as there are no roms).

To switch to the stock android home manually do:

1. Click Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications.
2. Scroll down until you find an application named "HTC Sense" and click on it.
3. Scroll down to where you can see "Launch by default" and click on "Clear defaults".
3. Then push the Home button (on your phone) and a dialog will pop up showing "Home" and "HTC Sense", check "Use by default for this action" and then click "Home". Now you got "Home" as default.

Just repeat the same process for "Home" to go back to the "HTC Sense" UI.

Alternatively you can use a program on the market place called "Home Switcher" to do this for you.
 
droidfanatic said:
When using wifi instead of the 3G service is it true that 3G automatically turns off when you turn wifi on, or is it still running in the background? Do you have to physically have to turn 3G off when using wifi? Sorry, newbie here. Also, can you still make calls, texts, etc. with just using wifi?
Click to expand...

When you choose to disable the mobile network, you're not turning the ability to use your phone as a phone off. You're actually changing it from 3G down to 2G which disables your access to internet using the Verizon network. It's basically making your data package obsolete, not taking away your ability to make calls, texts, etc.. You're only disabling internet through Verizon, not everything else. Hope that answers your question.
 
r.williams said:
When you choose to disable the mobile network, you're not turning the ability to use your phone as a phone off. You're actually changing it from 3G down to 2G which disables your access to internet using the Verizon network. It's basically making your data package obsolete, not taking away your ability to make calls, texts, etc.. You're only disabling internet through Verizon, not everything else. Hope that answers your question.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response, that makes a lot of sense, it's just that i kept reading conflicting posts regarding this issue. Thanks again.
 
Not a problem, glad I could help. :)
Just to confirm what I said, you can turn off your mobile network but don't turn on wifi. Then try calling someone or sending a text message, it'll still work.
 
droidfanatic said:
When using wifi instead of the 3G service is it true that 3G automatically turns off when you turn wifi on, or is it still running in the background? Do you have to physically have to turn 3G off when using wifi? Sorry, newbie here. Also, can you still make calls, texts, etc. with just using wifi?
Click to expand...


Is the phone smart enough when wifi is on to use it to surf the net instead of 3G?

thanks
 
I believe the phone is smart enough. When the wifi is on the 3G connection looks to go to sleep. I've never shut the mobile network down on my phone and lately I'm going about 2 days before needing to charge the phone with moderate usage. I have my wifi connection set to never sleep and I only toggle that off when I'm not going to be near wifi for a few hours. I also leave the GPS on. I really don't bother toggling any thing off anymore.
 
L0stS0ul said:
I believe the phone is smart enough. When the wifi is on the 3G connection looks to go to sleep. I've never shut the mobile network down on my phone and lately I'm going about 2 days before needing to charge the phone with moderate usage. I have my wifi connection set to never sleep and I only toggle that off when I'm not going to be near wifi for a few hours. I also leave the GPS on. I really don't bother toggling any thing off anymore.
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LostSoul, are you using any of the many apps reported to increase battery life (app killer, home, spare parts - etc) or are you just letting the phone do whatever it wants to do?

When you charge the phone, do you turn it off or just put it to sleep?

Thanks
 
I have spare parts on my phone but it's more of a settings tweaking app and a monitoring app then something that would really fix battery issues. It's worthwhile to check battery usage statistics and to speed up the window animations.

I've got the home switcher app on my phone but really the HTC Sense ui is the best home replacement out there that I've played with so I'm staying with it.

I have used Taskiller, Advanced Task Killer, and Automatic Task Killer in the past. For me Advanced Task Killer worked the best but I always made sure to kill it as well after killing everything else. I'm currently using one called TaskPanel which is quite nice. I don't really use them for battery life so much as to clean up memory on the phone and get the ui back to being speedy again. The more apps you use the more laggy it gets so cleaning up the memory helps. The phone does an ok job of cleaning it up without one of the task apps but I've found that it helps quite a bit.

What kills the battery is when an application does not allow the phone to go to sleep. If you download a lot of apps from the app store then I would recommend one of the task killing apps. There are a lot of apps that I have found that can keep the phone from sleeping and be the real problem. Some of the widgets are real killers.

When I charge the phone I just plug it in and charge it. I don't shut the phone down. Seems every few days I have to reboot my phone anyway cause the GPS gets out of wack or the compass refuses to calibrate.
 
If you want to zoom easily, move the track ball up/down. You will notice the zoom appear on the left of the screen. This is much easier to zoom if you use the ball to snap the picture since you already have your finger on it.
 
L0stS0ul said:
You can disable the Sense UI without uninstalling it or rooting the device (which to my knowledge is not yet possible as there are no roms).

To switch to the stock android home manually do:

1. Click Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications.
2. Scroll down until you find an application named "HTC Sense" and click on it.
3. Scroll down to where you can see "Launch by default" and click on "Clear defaults".
3. Then push the Home button (on your phone) and a dialog will pop up showing "Home" and "HTC Sense", check "Use by default for this action" and then click "Home". Now you got "Home" as default.

Just repeat the same process for "Home" to go back to the "HTC Sense" UI.

Alternatively you can use a program on the market place called "Home Switcher" to do this for you.
Click to expand...
I'll be a son of a b*tch! This actually works! I hate sense UI so bad and I can't believe it's that simple to disable it! This has to be the most useful info I've gotten on my Eris since I got it!
Thank you so much! Any way to revert the notification panel to its rightful white color, or is that permanent?
 
no idea on the notification color, maybe a app for that :P

i will add this sense ui disable to the list of tricks though
 
Just wanted to share my results. I am currently in the last charge of the 3 day battery calibration. I did the SMS reset last night and was at 100% awake time before that. I know am at 75% awake time, and that is me using medium to high usage. I also have Automatic Task Killer Installed.
 
After I got my new Eris, I didn't bother installing any task killer programs. I got 18 hours of heavy use out of my phone the other day, after I conditioned the battery a few times. Talked on the phone for about an hour, listened to MP3s for a while, texted all day, little bit of browsing..etc.
 
Does SenseUI really kill battery? Would not using it and using a plain old HomeUI work better?

My favorite thing about Sense is the HTC widgets and the Scenes...
 
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