The Official HTC Desire Thread

[Stringent]

There is an OTA update for you unbranded Desire owners. You need 25mb free on your phone. NO its not the Gingerbread update.

Update takes your phone to 2.29.405.2

[Ceefer]

Phew, I've just finished working my way through all 80 pages of this thread! Can't say I read it all, but I'm so keen to get as much info as possible that's relevant to my lovely new HTC Desire (from Three) that I just couldn't miss any of it.

My first few hours with the Desire were full of both delight and frustration. Delight at its web browsing speed and gorgeous screen among other features, frustration at my total ignorance of how to do anything beyond the most basic things. Unlike most of you folk I'm an old geezer and I actually read the manual! So, discarding the useless 'Quick Start' guide that came with the phone I downloaded and started working my way through the Uk Users Manual (http://www.htc.com/uk/userguide.aspx?p_id=312).
While I was doing this my 11-year old daughter grabbed the phone and, in spite of dire warnings from me, started messing about with it. So, while I was ploughing my way through pages of frankly boring text she was going 'Wow!....Cool!....Dad, you should see this!.....Do you want me to put Doodle Jump on it?........I've connected it to my LG Cookie!....I've put Lady Gaga's latest album on it!....." and so on. She found it very intuitive to use....unlike me.

After I managed to pry it from her grubby little hands I got down to using it seriously, but she really did highlight the fact that my frustrations were mostly my fault.

So, I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. Apart from the battery life problem which I know I'm just going to have to get used to there is one really big problem that I have with this phone and that is the very poor mobile reception that I get. Where we live the signal from Three is not great, but with the Desire's predecessor, a Nokia 6500, if I went upstairs I got useable mobile reception. With the Desire I get nothing, not a sausage. I've tried turning off WiFi, which others have said has improved mobile reception, but for me it makes no difference. Is there an app that can improve this by any chance?

Also, can anyone recommend a SatNav app?

[Bunjiweb]

Great to see you are getting used to it! As far as Satnav goes i've always used the Google Navigation and found it very acurate and easy, it's only downfall being that it requires a mobile data connection to work when you are out and about. Alternatively you can pre-cache on wifi before you leave.

The other option is CoPilot which downloads its maps to your SD card so you always have navigation available. The app is about £20 I seem to remember.

As for signal mine isnt great at home but out and about i've never had a problem.

Ben

[dangel]

Google Maps navigation is going to change soon - first it'll be vector based (rather than tile based) and thus faster and second it's going to have an offline mode for when your connection drops..

Other options? CoPilot is good but overpriced in the UK (it's cheap as hell in the US) and there's Navigon which seems okay but I haven't used it much.

[Singh400]

There's always Brut Maps mod or Maps (-) app. Both have offline modes.

[franklincan]

It looks nice phone and the Vodafone's price is acceptable

[Bunjiweb]

The newly updated Google maps is awesome, and the updated Android market has added some much needed sections and for me seems faster and brings up better results...

Ben

[Ceefer]

SatNav
I used Google Maps Navigation yesterday, to get me from one side of Cumbria to the other and I was fairly impressed. Not as good as my Tom Tom but for a smartphone app it was not bad at all.

Pre-Installed Apps
I've spent a whole afternoon searching on the web to find out how to un-install the pre-loaded apps on my Desire. So far I've had no success following the instructions that I've found.

I have absolutely no use for Facebook, Bebo, Flikr, Twitter (and probably a few more) which were installed on the phone when I got it. Also there is some stuff from my mobile network (Three) that I don't want.

First I tried uninstalling via Settings>Applications>Manage Applications, but the uninstall button is greyed out for every single app on the phone except for one which I downloaded from the Market.

So then I went through the process of rooting the phone via unrevoked. That all went well so now I have the Superuser Permission icon in my list of apps. But still I can't uninstall the apps.

Then, as recommended on another Forum, I installed Titanium Backup (the free version) and tried to uninstall Facebook. The program popped up a little window to say it was uninstalling the app, then the phone rebooted but Facebook is still there! I tried this several times on Facebook and other apps without success.

How do I get rid of these apps?

[mycarsavw]

How do I get rid of these apps?

I believe rooting is the only way.

[abs_rio]

I believe rooting is the only way.

I believe the OP has already rooted.

You should be able to do this with the latest version of Titanium Backup. Try and follow this guide step by step. It is for the Desire HD but should work the same for the Desire.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=829662

[SiM]

I think Titanium requires S-OFF (which you should do if you haven't already)... Another way to do it is through ADB.

I'm loving Gingerbread right now. It's very stable given its age!

[Ceefer]

I believe rooting is the only way.

My phone is rooted.

What is S-OFF?

[Ceefer]

I believe the OP has already rooted.

You should be able to do this with the latest version of Titanium Backup. Try and follow this guide step by step. It is for the Desire HD but should work the same for the Desire.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=829662

I tried this on Facebook, but after rebooting the app is still there. I think I'm going to have to flash a custom ROM. Is there one which keeps the Sense UI?

[Rob_B]

Ceefer, try over at xda forums, plenty of roms over there and some with sense.

I'm currently using the latest radio with the cootstech kernel which undervolts to 875mv (or thereabouts) as I'm fed up of the batterylife at the moment, fingers crossed!

[SiM]

My phone is rooted.

What is S-OFF?

Basically it is full root access, including to the system partition. The normal unrevoked root does not give access to the system partition.

http://alpharev.nl/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=794314

[yaqub]

Hi Guys

is it possible to get the htc desire hd rom on the normal desire?
if yes any problems,

also

leedroid vs cyanogen 6.1.1? which is preffered and/or more stable?

thanks