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*Official* Android OS Phone Chat, Questions, & Help Thread -

14,178 1,195 October 22, 2009 at 06:05 PM in Chat
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Our very own thread to discuss and chat about the OS, ROM's, apps from Android Market, our Android phones, tips & tricks, questions, and help issues. With the different phones out now and to be released from various carriers, I figure we all have a lot in common with the Android OS. We can discuss what we like, need help with, what apps are cool or don't work well, as well as questions and help issues. Given that CSR's from the various carriers may know less than we do, this thread is for all of us so we can help one another.
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Community Wiki

Last Edited by RyanInFlorida March 23, 2010 at 07:14 AM
Post what apps you like here. Smilie

8Footprints http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-qitF.aspx
AppManager http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...r-qEn.aspx
AppsInstaller http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-jpAw.aspx
Astrid http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...d-pjE.aspx
Barcode Scanner http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...d-xzA.aspx
CM Updater (if you've rooted your phone) http://code.google.com/p/cyanogen...k&can=2&q=
GDE http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-zwAp.aspx
Goggles http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-xAxB.aspx
Handcent SMS [androlib.com]- Better SMS system then the default app. Allows for different styles and functions
Key Ring http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-jmAt.aspx
Layar Reality Browser [androlib.com]- Look through the camera of your Android device and see digital information displayed on top of it.
My Coupons [androlib.com]- App that finds coupons/deals, great for us SD'ers
Pandora [androlib.com] - enter song or artist name and it will play similar songs
Metal detector --- find it in the android marker. It has a picture of a robot droid buzzing. Really Cool!
SayMyName http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-qjFD.aspx
Shazam http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...d-wFn.aspx
Sherpa http://www.androlib.com/android.a...-jDAE.aspx
ShopSavvy http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...y-xqE.aspx
SportsTap http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...p-pBi.aspx
TasKiller http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-jizF.aspx
Valpak http://www.androlib.com/android.a...-xEpw.aspx - Get exclusive coupons for restaurants, auto care, entertainment, beauty, home & garden, health & medical, professional services and retail shops near you
Weatherbug Elite http://uk.androlib.com/android.ap...-qwwp.aspx
What the Doodle!? [androlib.com]- fun pictionary type game, online vs actual people.
Where [androlib.com]- great travel companion, local search utility

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Joined Dec 2006
nope.
> bubble2 18,401 Posts
14,761 Reputation
Sr. QA
wuzzy | Staff
11-01-2009 at 11:29 AM.
11-01-2009 at 11:29 AM.
I just read Android 2.0 came out. Do Android capable phones automatically upgrade to the newest version? OTA?
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Joined Apr 2006
Bend over for Obama!
> bubble2 14,178 Posts
1,195 Reputation
Original Poster
Sonofabeech
11-01-2009 at 11:35 AM.
11-01-2009 at 11:35 AM.
Quote from Kelmar :
Basically the problem is that the default Messaging app has a glitch where it won't allow the phone to go into "sleep mode" even though the phone is locked and the screen is off. You can verify this by checking the awake time of your phone (Menu>Settings>About Phone>Status>Awake Time). It's NOT supposed to say 100%.

Go into the Android Market and install either HandCent or ChompSMS. ***If you are more of just a text sender then chompsms is sufficient. If you are heavy on MMS then go with Handcent***

Menu>All Programs>Messages
Menu> Settings - Turn off Notifications and turn off auto-retrieve.

Open the program you just installed and set your preferences!

When you are done, power cycle your phone. To check to make sure it's working Menu>Settings>About Phone>Status>Awake Time. Typically this should be around 10-35% depending on how much you have your phone running stuff in the background. It's best to check it after you get everything set up and after you lock the screen and given it a few minutes of sitting time so you can SEE the difference.

There have been reports that on SOME phones that this only works for 72 hours and there have been people who have had to do FULL factory resets on their phone to get it to work. I did not have either problem.

Let me know if you have any problems!
Since I run Taskiller app on my Hero, do I need to include Handcent SMS on the app "ignore" list so it is always available, or will this defeat the purpose and still drain my battery? I was thinking that as long as my phone can go into sleep mode then it should still help with battery drain, but I don't know.

Quote from wuzzy :
I just read Android 2.0 came out. Do Android capable phones automatically upgrade to the newest version? OTA?
It is supposed to be automatic, but I have been told that with the Hero the updates need to come from HTC because of the Sense UI or whatever. So the update may be delayed or right on time for Hero users. We'll have to wait and see.
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Joined May 2009
L3: Novice
> bubble2 199 Posts
33 Reputation
Kelmar
11-01-2009 at 07:43 PM.
11-01-2009 at 07:43 PM.
I use chomp and killing it is fine. As long as the phone goes into sleep mode the battery fix is effective. It goes without saying that the less that is running, the better.

I would imagine that the 2.0 update will not automatically update itself (my take on the question). Sprint and HTC will do all the work getting it ready but it will ultimately be up to the user to choice to download and install the update.
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Joined Apr 2006
Bend over for Obama!
> bubble2 14,178 Posts
1,195 Reputation
Original Poster
Sonofabeech
11-01-2009 at 07:54 PM.
11-01-2009 at 07:54 PM.
Quote from Kelmar :
I use chomp and killing it is fine. As long as the phone goes into sleep mode the battery fix is effective. It goes without saying that the less that is running, the better.
Today I found that when I receive a text that the HTC message program alerts me and so does Handcent SMS. I followed your instructions and turned off notifications and auto-retrieve, but the HTC app still gets the messages too. Is there a way to keep the HTC messages app from still getting the messages and alerting me? Does the ChompSMS app get MMS too, in case I have a problem with Handcent SMS?
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Joined Oct 2006
L10: Grand Master
> bubble2 19,950 Posts
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Demosthenes9
11-01-2009 at 08:10 PM.
11-01-2009 at 08:10 PM.
Quote from Sonofabeech :
Today I found that when I receive a text that the HTC message program alerts me and so does Handcent SMS. I followed your instructions and turned off notifications and auto-retrieve, but the HTC app still gets the messages too. Is there a way to keep the HTC messages app from still getting the messages and alerting me? Does the ChompSMS app get MMS too, in case I have a problem with Handcent SMS?
Think all you can do is turn the alerts off. Almost appears that Handcent and Chomp run over top the native txt client but I could easily be wrong
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Joined Jan 2005
L8: Grand Teacher
> bubble2 3,101 Posts
1,064 Reputation
Q-Bert
11-01-2009 at 08:18 PM.
11-01-2009 at 08:18 PM.
Quote from Sonofabeech :
Anyone know why the cyrket.com (Android Market browser site) page is down?
SOB, seems it's been down a couple of days.

Try http://www.androlib.com/

Quote from wuzzy :
I just read Android 2.0 came out. Do Android capable phones automatically upgrade to the newest version? OTA?
Depends on the provider...
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Joined Apr 2006
Bend over for Obama!
> bubble2 14,178 Posts
1,195 Reputation
Original Poster
Sonofabeech
11-01-2009 at 08:18 PM.
11-01-2009 at 08:18 PM.
Quote from Demosthenes9 :
Think all you can do is turn the alerts off. Almost appears that Handcent and Chomp run over top the native txt client but I could easily be wrong
I turned the alerts off for the native text client, but it still shows it retrieved the text messages too. It has helped battery consumption a huge amount though!
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Joined Sep 2005
I aim to misbehave
> bubble2 6,267 Posts
208 Reputation
desrtrnnr
11-01-2009 at 09:20 PM.
11-01-2009 at 09:20 PM.
Quote from Sonofabeech :
Today I found that when I receive a text that the HTC message program alerts me and so does Handcent SMS. I followed your instructions and turned off notifications and auto-retrieve, but the HTC app still gets the messages too. Is there a way to keep the HTC messages app from still getting the messages and alerting me? Does the ChompSMS app get MMS too, in case I have a problem with Handcent SMS?

Quote from Demosthenes9 :
Think all you can do is turn the alerts off. Almost appears that Handcent and Chomp run over top the native txt client but I could easily be wrong
yes they do run over top of it..

the native app will always get the message.. turning off auto retrieve only stops it from retrieving MMS message.. if you have notifications turned off for the native app and turn on the notifications for handcent of chompsms then when you click on the message in the notification bar then you'll always go to handcent/chomp (chomp does not natively support MMS messages so it will need the native app to download the MMS and then it can show

Quote from wuzzy :
I just read Android 2.0 came out. Do Android capable phones automatically upgrade to the newest version? OTA?
each of the custom user interfaces will have to be rewritten to go over top of android 2.0 so when HTC gets it written and ready to be pushed then sprint will have to allow them to push it OTA.. the droid will ship with Android 2.0, the G1 and mytouch 3G will get it shortly afterwards since they run android straight.. the moto blur and hero will have to wait
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Joined Sep 2005
I aim to misbehave
> bubble2 6,267 Posts
208 Reputation
desrtrnnr
11-01-2009 at 09:22 PM.
11-01-2009 at 09:22 PM.
Quote from Sonofabeech :
I turned the alerts off for the native text client, but it still shows it retrieved the text messages too. It has helped battery consumption a huge amount though!
there is no way to turn it off.. chomp and handcent just access the native app.. there is a cool app called smsback up that will sync all your texts to your gmail account and in a separate SMS labeled folder
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Joined Apr 2006
Bend over for Obama!
> bubble2 14,178 Posts
1,195 Reputation
Original Poster
Sonofabeech
11-01-2009 at 09:40 PM.
11-01-2009 at 09:40 PM.
Quote from desrtrnnr :
there is no way to turn it off.. chomp and handcent just access the native app.. there is a cool app called smsback up that will sync all your texts to your gmail account and in a separate SMS labeled folder
OK, good to know the native client is doing what it is supposed to do, so I set it up correctly (Hancent SMS) correctly. Thanks.

It really has helped my battery life. Does SMSback up just monitor, collect, and forward my SMS & MMS to gmail? I mean, that is all it does, it is not another client like Handcent SMS, right?
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Joined Sep 2005
I aim to misbehave
> bubble2 6,267 Posts
208 Reputation
desrtrnnr
11-01-2009 at 10:31 PM.
11-01-2009 at 10:31 PM.
Quote from Sonofabeech :
OK, good to know the native client is doing what it is supposed to do, so I set it up correctly (Hancent SMS) correctly. Thanks.

It really has helped my battery life. Does SMSback up just monitor, collect, and forward my SMS & MMS to gmail? I mean, that is all it does, it is not another client like Handcent SMS, right?
it runs completely in the background.. you can set how often you want it to upload to gmail so it doesnt eat battery.. once you set it up you never have to touch it unless there is an update.. its great if you need backups of texts for any reason.. and its a feature that the iphone cant do..
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Joined Apr 2006
Bend over for Obama!
> bubble2 14,178 Posts
1,195 Reputation
Original Poster
Sonofabeech
11-01-2009 at 10:56 PM.
11-01-2009 at 10:56 PM.
Quote from Q-Bert :
SOB, seems it's been down a couple of days.

Try http://www.androlib.com/
.
Kewl, thanks!

Quote from desrtrnnr :
it runs completely in the background.. you can set how often you want it to upload to gmail so it doesnt eat battery.. once you set it up you never have to touch it unless there is an update.. its great if you need backups of texts for any reason.. and its a feature that the iphone cant do..
Great, thanks! That may be good to have.
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Joined May 2009
L3: Novice
> bubble2 199 Posts
33 Reputation
Kelmar
11-02-2009 at 05:08 AM.
11-02-2009 at 05:08 AM.
Quote from Sonofabeech :
Today I found that when I receive a text that the HTC message program alerts me and so does Handcent SMS. I followed your instructions and turned off notifications and auto-retrieve, but the HTC app still gets the messages too. Is there a way to keep the HTC messages app from still getting the messages and alerting me? Does the ChompSMS app get MMS too, in case I have a problem with Handcent SMS?
You should not be getting notified by the default program. Double check the settings for the default app. The fault program will still receive the SMS.

Did you power cycle the phone when you turned it all off? There should be no check marks in the settings.
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Last edited by Kelmar November 2, 2009 at 05:10 AM.
Joined Apr 2006
Bend over for Obama!
> bubble2 14,178 Posts
1,195 Reputation
Original Poster
Sonofabeech
11-02-2009 at 06:40 AM.
11-02-2009 at 06:40 AM.
Quote from Kelmar :
You should not be getting notified by the default program. Double check the settings for the default app. The fault program will still receive the SMS.

Did you power cycle the phone when you turned it all off? There should be no check marks in the settings.
OK, re-checked everything and cycled the phone again. (did yesterday too) The native client didn't retrieve the message this time, but the weird thing is Handcent SMS didn't retrieve the message until I unlocked the screen again. I thought this happened yesterday but I had a series of texts come through in a short span of time, so I wasn't sure. So I tested this just now, and after the screen goes dark and locks (sleeps?) the message does not wake up the phone. I double-checked the settings for Handcent SMS (again) and notifications are on, so I don't know what is wrong. Settings seem to be correct. But I waited 10 minutes for the phone to wake up from the text msg alert and it didn't. Nothing until I pressed "Menu" and flicked the screen downward like supposed to to unlock the phone. Only then did the alert tell me I had a new text msg.
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Joined May 2009
L3: Novice
> bubble2 199 Posts
33 Reputation
Kelmar
11-02-2009 at 07:17 AM.
11-02-2009 at 07:17 AM.
Did you do a test notification from handcent settings?

While it's all preference, my testing found chomp to be more stable and user friendly. That being said, I rarely MMS so I didn't need that feature.

I'd recommend doing the test notification, doublechecking all of your settings and reinstalling if needed.
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