New Phone Setup

[surveyor]

Bought my Desire HD yesterday.I need some advice as to what I should install. So far I have (rightly or wrongly) downloaded:
HTC Sync 3.xxx.
Froyo Advanced AppKiller
Synced my Google calendar with the Calendar app on the phone.

What else is sensible? What about HTC Sense UI?

 

[sitlet]

I believe Sense is already on there...

As far as other apps go, we cant tell you what apps you would use. You need to figure that out yourself. Browser through the forums here, there are tons of threads, including "best apps" threads.

 

[surveyor]

I believe Sense is already on there...

As far as other apps go, we cant tell you what apps you would use. You need to figure that out yourself. Browser through the forums here, there are tons of threads, including "best apps" threads.

What I meant to say was - what apps are essential in forum members' opinion for running the phone - i.e. battery widgets, power saving etc.

 

[sitlet]

What I meant to say was - what apps are essential in forum members' opinion for running the phone - i.e. battery widgets, power saving etc.

And again, we cant tell you what apps you need. Just do what everyone else does when they get their first Android phone: take a few hours, browse around here, other android sites like androidcentral, browse appbrain.com, etc.

 

[takeshi]

What I meant to say was - what apps are essential in forum members' opinion for running the phone - i.e. battery widgets, power saving etc.

It's not a one-size-fits-all world. What are you looking for? It does no good for people to recommend apps that aren't relevant to you. If you want to browse lists of popular apps there are plenty of existing threads here for you to refer to.

 

[surveyor]

It's not a one-size-fits-all world. What are you looking for? It does no good for people to recommend apps that aren't relevant to you. If you want to browse lists of popular apps there are plenty of existing threads here for you to refer to.

Sorry to be a pain. I only wanted a suggestion or two for apps or tweaks that help maintain the phone itself - i.e. battery saver, apps killer etc.

 

[sitlet]

Sorry to be a pain. I only wanted a suggestion or two for apps or tweaks that help maintain the phone itself - i.e. battery saver, apps killer etc.

Then do a search on here for battery saver apps.

FYI, I, along with most people on here, will tell you NOT to use a task killer. Its not needed with Android.

 

[lunatic59]

Sorry to be a pain. I only wanted a suggestion or two for apps or tweaks that help maintain the phone itself - i.e. battery saver, apps killer etc.

Don't use a battery saver ... don't use an app killer. They are not necessary, IMNSVHAPO (in my not so humble and very perfect opinion).

The apps I use most and make this thing work way I want it to ...

SwitchPro Widget - Android app on AppBrain

WidgetLocker Lockscreen - Android app on AppBrain

ADW.Launcher - Android app on AppBrain

Vignette - Android app on AppBrain

And don't forget

Angry Birds - Android app on AppBrain

 

[surveyor]

Don't use a battery saver ... don't use an app killer. They are not necessary, IMNSVHAPO (in my not so humble and very perfect opinion).

The apps I use most and make this thing work way I want it to ...

SwitchPro Widget - Android app on AppBrain

WidgetLocker Lockscreen - Android app on AppBrain

ADW.Launcher - Android app on AppBrain

Vignette - Android app on AppBrain

And don't forget

Angry Birds - Android app on AppBrain

Thanks for your posting. Is it the general consensus then that the app killer and the battery saver app are not necessary? I had understood that the app killer managed to shut down any apps running in the background and thus conserved battery life.

 

[Ozymandias88]

Thanks for your posting. Is it the general consensus then that the app killer and the battery saver app are not necessary? I had understood that the app killer managed to shut down any apps running in the background and thus conserved battery life.

A common misconception, if an app has been coded correctly then when it is 'running in the background' it is just sat in memory and not using any cpu hence no battery drain. This isn't true for every app e.g. music players as some apps are supposed to run in the background. Also badly coded apps may still run in the background draining your cpu.

Some people however still feel that a task killer saves them some battery life so try one yourself and see what your batteries like with and without (personally I don't use one).

Also it doesn't make an awful lot of sense but battery life seems to constantly improve over the first few weeks for some people which may be due to battery conditioning. Personally I put this down to decreased usage as the novelty wears off as LIon batteries shouldn't need conditioning.

Finally I would love to recommend Juice Defender (search the market) for a battery saving app but unfortunatly it bogs my Nexus One down after a few hours and makes unlocking increadibly sluggish, i don't think this is a common complaint though so you might want to give it a try if you find your battery life isn't as long as you want. It basically doubles my battery life but the sluggish unlocking annoys me so much I took it off in the end. Basically again try it yourself and see how it performs for you.

I also heartily recommend Angry Birds, though I imagine if you've had a mooch through the market you'll probably have already tried it as it's at the top spot for free games.

 

[lunatic59]

Thanks for your posting. Is it the general consensus then that the app killer and the battery saver app are not necessary? I had understood that the app killer managed to shut down any apps running in the background and thus conserved battery life.

What Ozy said ...

The trouble with task killers is that when an app is sitting active in memory, it is not necessarily running and consuming CPU cycles. If you kill it and then launch it again later, it will need to completely reload the app, using more of the battery in the long run. And if you kill an app or service that is used by another app or service that *is* running, it will immediately respawn the process sucking up juice in the process. Auto task killing is the worst in this case as you could get into a power draining loop and your battery life will go down the tubes. If you think you have a misbehaving app, it's better to monitor it with something like

Watchdog Task Manager Lite - Android app on AppBrain

and either get rid of it and find an alternative, or, if it's an app you're stuck on, you can see where the drain lies and try to manage it or contact the developer.

 

[surveyor]

What Ozy said ...

The trouble with task killers is that when an app is sitting active in memory, it is not necessarily running and consuming CPU cycles. If you kill it and then launch it again later, it will need to completely reload the app, using more of the battery in the long run. And if you kill an app or service that is used by another app or service that *is* running, it will immediately respawn the process sucking up juice in the process. Auto task killing is the worst in this case as you could get into a power draining loop and your battery life will go down the tubes. If you think you have a misbehaving app, it's better to monitor it with something like

Watchdog Task Manager Lite - Android app on AppBrain

and either get rid of it and find an alternative, or, if it's an app you're stuck on, you can see where the drain lies and try to manage it or contact the developer.

Thanks for this advice. I think that I shall uninstall the Advanced Task Killer.