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Hi Guys,
I now own a HTC TP/Raphael for two weeks and am extraordinarely happy with it! I waited about 1.5 years to finally find a machine that mets all my needs and wishes.
I want to thanks all you guys, because I read this forum months before I finally bought the thing and was very pleased with all the info, pro and con, you all posted!
I bought mine in Holland with Tomtom v7 bundled.
Common problems I faced and how I solved them:
1) Problem: Slow GPS Fix (10 min). Solution: Found Quick GPS pre installed on my device, ran it and have a fix now within a cool minute.
2) Problem: HTC picks up or cancels incoming call in trousers pocket. Solution: Installed AnswerDisabler 0.5.1 Thanks to the programmer! It works a treat!
So now I can clear my jacket pockets of the weight of a huge HP iPAQ 4700HX and my compact camera Canon IXUS 850. (The latter I still take with me on occasion, but for the odd picture opportunity, the HTC suffices.)
I'm wowing my friends on a regular basis with this device, showing of the nice TF3D interface and G sensor app's.
Okay, I might still have a small inconvenience left, but I will post that in a separate thread.
Thanks again and keep up all the good work!
Emiel Ratelband?
I too am a happy customer with my Touch Pro.
I faced a few slightly different inconveniences:
1. The Web Browser tab in the TouchFlo does not display the graphics. This is the screen where the YouTube icon. I've update the graphics with GIF files of a few of my more common websites and reduced the size of the images. Works after a power down but not after a reset.
2. Battery performance is still not as good as I was hoping but definitely better then my Dopod C730. I've already done the performance tweaks and this has indeed improved the battery performance. I use the device with push mail for my office email. I also enable 3G and disable Bluetooth.
3. Screen brightness under direct sunlight is bad. Can't do much about that one.
4. The TouchFlo sometimes "hang" with a black screen or frozen home screen. Haven't figured out why yet.
Other than that, I love my new toy.
I am another happy customer and the issue of the battery I dont have actually... I am in Hong Kong and bot the TP at the sole authorized retailer and not a parallel import so therefore my TP is branded which is a pain in the butt. I don’t want to flash the ROM as I’m a newbi at WM stuff so if I screw anything up, I’m dead. Also I don’t know how to get into the registry even if I install Total Commander and stuff… but back to your question….
My beef:
1) I don’t use the TP 3D and I use the standard WM screen. However, ONLY the browser Opera has the auto rotate function unless I slide out the key pad…. How annoying is that? I have found a forced rotate application which is SPB Phone Suite but I don’t want to use this as out of this entire program I only want is the force rotation function… so I’m still searching if there is a app to just force rotate the screen.
3. You can actually, if it is on auto adjust brightness. Turn it off because it toggles between 30-70% which means that you have 30% more brightness if you adjust it yourself with the slider.
@sgsdebruin: No, no Emil Ratelband. (Dutch happy-guru a few years back). Just thought it would be polite to let all the people, who spent time to do this stuff for the community, know that it's appreciated. I know it works for me if others are being appreciative so...
@kelvgoh:
1) No problem for me.
2) Battery performance could be better, yes, but I'll have it on the usb a lot anyway for synchronizing with Outlook at work, so it's not so big of a deal. I'm also thinking that battery life of a device is inversely proportional to the screen resolution.
3) Screen readibility in sunlight. Yeah, that's not so good. The screen of the device is not anti-reflective at all, what makes it really sparkle if you haven't reflections in it, but if you do, then it's bad. (See also some of the Youtube video's of the HTC. In many occasions you can clearly see the camera it's filmed with.)
4) I lucked out there too. No problem.
Fact remains that some HTC TP do have weird problems (1 and 4) and others don't. You can read more of those freak problems on the forum. It looks like the production process is not making consistent devices every time.
Mr.Sir said:
3. You can actually, if it is on auto adjust brightness. Turn it off because it toggles between 30-70% which means that you have 30% more brightness if you adjust it yourself with the slider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, that also increases the battery usage. Sigh, can't have everything.
hvwtp said:
@sgsdebruin: No, no Emil Ratelband. (Dutch happy-guru a few years back). Just thought it would be polite to let all the people, who spent time to do this stuff for the community, know that it's appreciated. I know it works for me if others are being appreciative so...
@kelvgoh:
1) No problem for me.
2) Battery performance could be better, yes, but I'll have it on the usb a lot anyway for synchronizing with Outlook at work, so it's not so big of a deal. I'm also thinking that battery life of a device is inversely proportional to the screen resolution.
3) Screen readibility in sunlight. Yeah, that's not so good. The screen of the device is not anti-reflective at all, what makes it really sparkle if you haven't reflections in it, but if you do, then it's bad. (See also some of the Youtube video's of the HTC. In many occasions you can clearly see the camera it's filmed with.)
4) I lucked out there too. No problem.
Fact remains that some HTC TP do have weird problems (1 and 4) and others don't. You can read more of those freak problems on the forum. It looks like the production process is not making consistent devices every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Must try and tweak the device more. Thanks for sharing.
I'm an iPhone 2g user looking to upgrade. I had a Tilt that I had to return because of some soft-reset bug it had. I called HTC and they said it was hardware related, so I sent it back for the iPhone.
I love my iPhone. It does everything I need it to do very well. I love safari (although flash would be nice), I love the Music player, and I love the quickness of the interface. That being said, however, I'm a pharmacy student, and I need certain software for class and internships. The iPhone does have epocrates, but it's limited in what it can do...
I played with the Fuze today, but it couldn't connect to the network (The employee told me the manager messed something up???) I didn't get to try out some of the key features I wanted to.
Some questions I have:
1: Touchflow. when is started using the phone, touchflow was SLOOOW. I was able to pan my way over the the Photos tab, but once there, there was no more scrolling. I could tap icons to move to the next menu, but it was very very sluggish??? I found there were a couple of programs running in the background, and once I closed them out, it was responsive again. But, how many programs can be running before it is unusable???
2: Touch screen: The touch screen had some selective response at times. I noticed that when using the stylus, it sometimes didn't pick up my input. This was especially evident in the upper right portion of the screen (when I wanted to X out of programs). Is this a common issue, or is it something wrong with the device? Or is it just me not knowing how to use a stylus?!
3: Hardware question: I wasn't able to make, or even pretend to make a call because it couldn't connect to the network, and because it had the security wires on it. But, how usable is the volume rocker switch mid-call? are there issues using it because of the sliding keyboard? Also, is there a proximity sensor on the phone, to dim the screen in a call???
4: SMS/MMS: The 2nd main reason I'm considering the fuze over the iphone 3g is the MMS. Anybody have any pictures or description of how the Text messages are handled by the fuze? I'm not familiar with how windows mobile manages them!
5: Email: I'm no power email user, but I do read them on the road. How does WM6 handle emails???? I have a gmail account...
6: Opera: I've heard good things about the browser, but again, no network = no opera use. how is opera? Does it support flash?
7: Malware??? Are windows phones prone to malware???
8: One handed operation? I love how the iPhone is mostly 1 handed. I take the trolly to school daily, and sometimes i only have 1 hand free. does touchflow allow me to operate the phone completely 1 handed??? Can I type up a text message using the screen and no stylus???
9: Media player: Will I need to buy a new iPod to listen to my media? Or does the Fuze's onboard stuff allow me to play my music well enough???
10: FM radio? The Sony Xperia has an onboard FM radio program. Is this something the HTC can do as well???
I have more questions as well, but I'll start with this. Thanks for all your help!
gizzygone said:
1: Touchflow. when is started using the phone, touchflow was SLOOOW. I was able to pan my way over the the Photos tab, but once there, there was no more scrolling. I could tap icons to move to the next menu, but it was very very sluggish??? I found there were a couple of programs running in the background, and once I closed them out, it was responsive again. But, how many programs can be running before it is unusable???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Need to flash a cooked ROM. All the ROMs I've tried so far has better response time for Touchflow and actually makes it usable. I would say this is just the stock ROM with all the bloated "stuff" making it unusable.
2: Touch screen: The touch screen had some selective response at times. I noticed that when using the stylus, it sometimes didn't pick up my input. This was especially evident in the upper right portion of the screen (when I wanted to X out of programs). Is this a common issue, or is it something wrong with the device? Or is it just me not knowing how to use a stylus?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same as above. Mine is very responsive.
3: Hardware question: I wasn't able to make, or even pretend to make a call because it couldn't connect to the network, and because it had the security wires on it. But, how usable is the volume rocker switch mid-call? are there issues using it because of the sliding keyboard? Also, is there a proximity sensor on the phone, to dim the screen in a call???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen can be dimmed while in a call or you can disable it. The volume keys at the side works well... don't use them much.
4: SMS/MMS: The 2nd main reason I'm considering the fuze over the iphone 3g is the MMS. Anybody have any pictures or description of how the Text messages are handled by the fuze? I'm not familiar with how windows mobile manages them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about this. I just use SMS, no MMS, although I have tested it and it works fine.
5: Email: I'm no power email user, but I do read them on the road. How does WM6 handle emails???? I have a gmail account...
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Click to collapse
It has several ways of configuring emails. I am checking my emails via IMAP, including GMAIL and it works fine. I have 3 email accounts I check via IMAP and I have no issues with it.
6: Opera: I've heard good things about the browser, but again, no network = no opera use. how is opera? Does it support flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works fine and does support flash.
7: Malware??? Are windows phones prone to malware???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never ran into this or thought of looking.
8: One handed operation? I love how the iPhone is mostly 1 handed. I take the trolly to school daily, and sometimes i only have 1 hand free. does touchflow allow me to operate the phone completely 1 handed??? Can I type up a text message using the screen and no stylus???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use it 1 handed but not sure coming from the iPhone how it would compare.
The best thing I can recommend to you is to order the Fuze and test it out. You have 30 days to return it. If you don't like it and it doesn't meet your requirements then no need to keep it. I don't have any experience with the iPhone so I can't offer you any comparison. I had the Tilt before and liked it a lot. I had it to a point where it did everything I needed and VERY quickly. I also have the Fuze setup the same way and I'm happy with it.
Good luck.
9) Yes, handles media well. You can get 16GB memory card for about $30 to have as much storage as your old iPhone (and no need to mess with ITunes). The only gripe about media I have is that the unit doesn't have a 3.5 audio jack (though it comes with an adapter)
10) The stock FUZE rom doesn't have the radio app, but it's an easy .cab to find. The headphones have to be connected for radio to work, as it uses the headphones as an antenna
stevieraveon...you've found a 16gb microsd for $30? If this is true, and you're not confusing it with regular SD, i'm sure myself and several others on the forum would love to know where!
Fuze Complaints?
I was curious as to what to expect before ordering my Fuze.
What kinds of issues / complaints are Fuze/Raphael users having???
(For example, on my Tilt, there was a soft-reset issue. On my iPhone 2g, there's a sub-par earpiece speaker, recessed headphone jack, no copy/paste/MMS, etc).
Questions for fuze owners
2 Questions:
1: Music: Is there a way to skip songs while the phone is in "standby mode" (or whatever the blacked out screen shows)? On my iPhone 2g, I can either use the headphone's mic as a button, or I can double click the main button, and guestimate where the Skip forward button would appear on the touchscreen. (Both tricky things to do when walking)...
2: Syncing: How many computers can you sync a windows mobile device with? My main computing machine is a Mac, which I love. However, I'm aware I may need to use a PC for syncing some things (like software). Can I have the phone sync to two machines? (The iPhone only likes one...)
I really have no complaints about the Fuze other than the stock at&t ROM. If you really wanna enjoy your phone, your gonna have to flash a cooked ROM; the AT&T one is just way to slow to use. Besides that the phone is great. You MAY have problems with the GPS, but if you do flash the .28 radio you should be fine.
Hope that helps
being able to control music while in standbye depends on whether you use third party software or not. i use conduits pocket player and it allows control via headset and avrcp while in standby.
you can sync the device with two comps at the same time so you should be fine
gizzygone said:
2 Questions:
1: Music: Is there a way to skip songs while the phone is in "standby mode" (or whatever the blacked out screen shows)? On my iPhone 2g, I can either use the headphone's mic as a button, or I can double click the main button, and guestimate where the Skip forward button would appear on the touchscreen. (Both tricky things to do when walking)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if i remember correctly u can still use the D-PAD when the phone is in standby to skip, FF, rewind and pause ur music
like right for skip, hold it for FF, left for backo and if u press it in it will pause
gizzygone said:
2: Syncing: How many computers can you sync a windows mobile device with? My main computing machine is a Mac, which I love. However, I'm aware I may need to use a PC for syncing some things (like software). Can I have the phone sync to two machines? (The iPhone only likes one...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i used to have an old desktop that i used as a media center with all my mp3s on there
so i used to sync everything on my laptop, contacts, calender... but on my desktop when i setup my device with active sync, i olny chose to sync music.
now on the fuze has an extra option, i believe you can connect the fuze to any pc or mac and have it show up as a mass storage device!!! like a flash drive, so u dont need any software (activesyc, iTunes) or any drivers to transfer files!!! (very office friendly)
the phone has some issues, but i think all of them have been addressed, including new 3d drivers!
look around here, this is why we have this website ( to solve problems)
mkalbouneh said:
the phone has some issues, but i think all of them have been addressed, including new 3d drivers!
look around here, this is why we have this website ( to solve problems)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I realize it's to fix problems, and I'm aware all phones (or electronics for that matter) are prone to issues. I was kind of hoping, though, that people would chime in and make a list of the biggest known issues with the Fuze.
For example, I heard rumors that fresh out of the package, there's an issue with the speaker being too quiet.
mkalbouneh said:
if i remember correctly u can still use the D-PAD when the phone is in standby to skip, FF, rewind and pause ur music
like right for skip, hold it for FF, left for backo and if u press it in it will pause
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can anybody confirm this???!!! In my eyes this would make the media app on the fuze more powerful than my iPhone.
I frequently skip through songs, but having the lack of buttons on the iPhone means I need to reach for my neck, to use the headphone button...take the phone out of my pocket (not good in the rain...).... or double click the home button in my pocket, and tap around on the screen until i discover the SKIP button...
Also, while you're confirming the D-pad, can you tell me if the volume toggle works to manage the music volume as well??? (For directly connected headphones (Wired) or bluetooth headphones (Wireless))
gizzygone said:
Can anybody confirm this???!!! In my eyes this would make the media app on the fuze more powerful than my iPhone.
I frequently skip through songs, but having the lack of buttons on the iPhone means I need to reach for my neck, to use the headphone button...take the phone out of my pocket (not good in the rain...).... or double click the home button in my pocket, and tap around on the screen until i discover the SKIP button...
Also, while you're confirming the D-pad, can you tell me if the volume toggle works to manage the music volume as well??? (For directly connected headphones (Wired) or bluetooth headphones (Wireless))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. For just using the phone, in Windows Media, in it's settings>buttons there is a toggle screen (I set it to hold left since I don't use previous) and I can use all the buttons after I toggle screen (Turns screen off).
2. For wired and wireless headsets, do the same as #1 or buy a headset that has music buttons and is an A2DP headset, those can change songs and volume and everything even when the pphone is in standby.
Syncing with multiple computers is no problem, but you can only sync mail/outlook with one computer. Had a WM device synched with with 3 machines before. Active sync will have different profiles/names to each computer you sync it with. Not sure what the limit is.
Syncing with exchange server is pretty awesome though. Too bad my companies security cert expired though... active sync doesn't like that. Need to have net admin get that updated cert
as for music I have an a2dp stereo bluetooth headset with controls and it works great, with the screen on or off. It does cause the youtube app to lag though, not sure why...
Well autocorrect/autocomplete seems to be broken but this is prolly rom related. Still looking for a way to nix out that xt9 junk... voice command also seems to be partially broken, but again rom/software related.
I miss having a tab button on the keyboard seems to be the only key/button that I really miss having, it was nice having a mail button but mail is easy enough to get to with TF3d. Left and right on the dpad seem to have a sweet spot.
Of course it is a fingerprint disaster, really wish that the back wasn't glossy it looks great when its clean.
All in all no major complaints.
gizzygone said:
I was curious as to what to expect before ordering my Fuze.
What kinds of issues / complaints are Fuze/Raphael users having???
(For example, on my Tilt, there was a soft-reset issue. On my iPhone 2g, there's a sub-par earpiece speaker, recessed headphone jack, no copy/paste/MMS, etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the D-Pad or whatever you refer to the directional controls at the bottom of the Fuze only reliably work for up and down. Left seems to work better for me than right (probably because I'm right handed). But overall, using the D-Pad is irritating.
Trying to use the D-Pad around the middle button for playing games sucks.
Also, with some older apps, I'm running into a situation where if I switch from the old app (for example, PocketAtari) to the main screen TF3D or accidently hit the key that brings up the main screen, I can't switch back to pocketatari, and I can't really use the main screen either, it's like they switch back and forth and I can't really get either application to become the focus or active window.
Anyway, as usual, the stock ROM with the FUZE is meh. Best bet is to replace it with either the NATF ROM or romeos. I'm using romeos 1.40.1 right now, looking to flash to 1.50 when that stabilizes.
overall, I miss my tilt in a lot of ways. Even the gimmicky tilt feature is better to have than not to have. The bottom buttons on the front of the kaiser/tilt are way better in my opinion that those on the Fuze.
I don't understand what HTC was thinking. Change to a VGA screen and add a G-Sensor to the kaiser, and you've got a sweet device. Oh and use the newer MSM7200 series chip running at 528MHz and keep that FM radio feature turned on too... pretty sweet kaiser/tilt that would be. Keep it simple, stick to what worked...
To sum up:
D-Pad: crap. only good for up and down. not good for games.
MicroSD slot requires taking the back plate off to access. Not a huge deal, but I liked the kaiser's little cover at the bottom.
Fingerprints- yeah. get a screenprotector for sure. even with a protector, fingerprints all over the device (not just screen).
It slides the other way (for those of you with 8525s I guess it slides the "right" way?) Personally I like the kaiser slide direction and am used to it.
the cool:
it's faster than the kaiser. seems noticably faster than the kaiser when compared side by side. (both using custom roms)
video with you-tube pretty cool, smooth.
G-sensor is sorta neat, not always that responsive, but the Teeter game is great in my opinion. lotta people find it really addicting for awhile.
hTorch is awesome. the LED light on the FUZE/Touch Pro is really actually very useful with that hTorch app.
battery life is meh. Kaiser seemed better and seemed like it has a bigger battery, the battery on the fuze is freaking tiny.
True VGA screen is probably the main reason I went with the fuze... it's better than QVGA.
Hope that helps.
At least you know what you are getting into. It's the next step in the evoluton of HTC/Windows Mobile devices.
When I turn the screen off on my Pro it shuts the music off for some reason!? Any clues how to change this?
As an aside question: If you reflash to somebody else's rom, Is it possible to go back to the factory rom easily???
I'm just a little wary about modifying something to that extent! I don't have the $$$ to replace it if I brick it!
Off the bat, plan on running HardSPL and getting a new ROM. I'd suggest going with the one in my sig. If you start from scratch, you will like the phone a lot more. It is stable and awesome without TouchBlo. It SUCKS with TouchBlo.
Other than that, it's a fingerprint magnet. You can revert to factory SPL and ROM easily.
The Fuze's D-Pad sucks. If you liked to play emulators on your Tilt, you might as well get the Fuse on a second line and keep it around as a Game Boy, or get used to watching movies on your phone instead.
This thread has some good, honest feeback: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=446520
Fundamental flaw - TF3D couldn't mask WM's 'touch unfriendliness' heh... WM just depends on the stylus too much to get the job done, in it's current iteration.
I was really looking forward to the audio player that's built in with cover art etc, man I can't navigate that thing to save my life! Its so weird I cant get any play lists going that aren't basically like just 1 whole album, I feel like a moron when trying to use it, is it just me? I also have all those stupid ATT installed albums that I cant get rid of, for me the audio player was a huge disappointment.
Get rid of the stock ATT ROM, its horrible.
You will have a completely new phone if you flash any of the nonbloated cooked ROMs.
The biggest performance tweak I've seen is setting the touch screen sensitivity way higher so it acts almost like an iPhone's capacitive touch screen that barely needs any pressure to register. A responsive touch screen really changes the experience dealing with this phone compared to stock. Try setting the sensitivity with Advanced Config, follow this link from the author: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2546088&postcount=112
Right, I've got a black One S with android 4.0.3 and sense 4, all like new (as it is). I don't fancy rooting it and don't really want to change from the HTC Rom, but the backlight in the camera annoys me. On the touch pro2 with the HTC stuff, I'm certain there was an option in settings to keep the screen backlight down when in the camera. On the Trophy that followed, I couldn't control it, because, let's face it, you can't control much in WP7. however, switching to the one S and android, I expected being able to keep the backlight down.
Why is this frustrating me? I don't like.being blinded by the viewfinder, and I don't want to kill the battery any more than I have to. So, is there a way to keep the phone's backlight down while in the HTC camera app?
Okay, now I know everyone has ignored this thread but I think I've discovered a way. So here's the setup:
HTC One S
System brightness set to lowest
A 4 digit screen-lock password
So I have the passcode set on the 15 minute max timeout, so, the phone locked itself, and I dragged the camera icon on the lockscreen into the ring. Naturally, despite being locked, it still allows use of the camera. Now, it may just be my eyes, but I'm certain I noticed a distance difference in brightness. That is, the screen seemed a lot dimmer when the camera app was being accessed from behind the lock rather than unlocked.
I think the brightness is ok lol
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.
k1llacanon said:
I think the brightness is ok lol
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess most people aren't that fussed about the brightness, but the battery did seem to last a lot longer when recording 1080p video with the lower brightness.
frdd said:
AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that require root access? From what I can see it does, and I guess that too would be helpful for the majority, but my phone isn't rooted. Mainly because I like the HTC Sense camera interface so much
Yeah you must flash it from custom recovery so at least unlocked boot loader required. Why not try a sense based ROM? They all keep the awesome HTC camera and its snappiness
Unfortunately with the One S update I finally received last night bringing it up from Android 4.0.3 to 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1, HTC have now removed the incredibly helpful 'bug' of the brightness staying down in the camera if it is launched from the lockscreen with a password set. Thanks a lot HTC, you excell yourselves with stupidity once again.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).
This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?
curiousGeorge said:
Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).
This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi,
Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.
However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.
The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:
Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))
When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.
I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )
biggles1000 said:
hi,
Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.
However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.
The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:
Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))
When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.
I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )
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Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.
el_smurfo said:
Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.
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Unfortunately, yes, it does. SVR is sort of a compromise for me at the moment as I can save battery life but I do miss out on all the Sense camera features. It would be great if HTC do actually listen to my request and implement it, given how simple a request it is, but they appear to be constantly so far ahead with all their development process that I doubt they'd include it in the the Android 4.1 release scheduled for this month
SVR is on one end of the scale of what I'd like to do with the camera (save the battery) and the Sense camera is on the other end (use the camera). Where I'd like HTC to place us is in the middle of those two, with the ability to use the Sense camera but in a power-efficient manner (such as being able to record a video but take stills at the same time, with the battery outlasting the meager storage space).
I'm kinda old fashioned but I still use an HTC Desire with the original ROM (and living and suffering with its issues) and couldn't move myself to flash it with a custom ROM, because they all seem not to fit my needs. It may sound weird, but here is my thinking about the Android UI development:
Back than, when I bought my Desire it was the best Device of its class out there. The Sense UI was way better than the native Android (which was really ugly) and very comfortable. Since then Android developed to Holo, Sense made several big and weird changes up to the latest one on the M8 and TouchWiz I never liked; and I still think the old Desire Sense UI is one of the best out there. The main reasons for that seem a bit ridiculous but are a major usability issue for me:
Unlock with a slide to the bottom
While receiving a call, slide to the bottom to accept, slide to the top to decline
Two separate lock screens, one as keyboard lock and one as security lock (with password or pattern) that only activates after a set amount of time (not like the Samsung devices where you have to enter your pattern EVERY time you turned off your display)
Why on new devices it is common that I have to slide to the side to unlock? Sliding to the bottom is the most comfortable movement you can do with your thumb without any danger to let your phone slip and hit the ground. So why it is so absolutely uncommon? And why on native Android you can't move the unlock option to the bottom, where is plenty of space and would also give you the opportunity for a fifth quick access app? In my point of view it would increase usability a lot.
While receiving a call on new phones you have to press a virtual button, but why? With old phones you could feel the right button to accept or decline a call, but with touchscreens you have to look at it first and then touch precisely. But there is no need for that. Even the pressing and sliding the green or red circles is based on hitting the screen on a special area, which is kinda unpleasant for me. With the old Sense you only have to roughly slide up or down from around the middle of the screen, so declining a call without taking the phone out of your pocket works like a charm.
At last the lock screen. I always had to decide between the normal keyboard lock and a pattern (password was never an option) but never get it to work with having the pros of both. I understand that some may find it stupid to have two lock screens, but for me they have different functions and so they work very well together in my workflow. On Cyanogenmod I found an option that seems to give me what I want, but it never worked like my Desire.
Yeah, even when I still use my Desire I have used other phones too (in parallel for work) and I really always missed the listed options of the old Sense UI and hated the strange design decisions made since then. But am I the only one who thinks about that in that particular way or is it me who is too picky? Is there no one else out there thinking the Desire Sense UI was outstanding at that time and still is today? Or is there an app for that I haven't found yet?
Just my two cents.