The Best way to contact me is via Twitter here (le3ky@Twitter). Get in touch if you want to provide feedback, improvements or correct any errors I may have made! Will do my best to help out
Ok, so thought I’d help out new Hero owners with a little quickstart, including all things you should do as soon as you get your hero.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE
Make sure you are running the latest ROM build, if not, update to the latest your carrier/HTC provides before you do anything else. As updating the ROM wipes the data off your phone, doing this first means you will not lose anything! Check out the HTC Support website for your Country and Carrier to see if there is an update available!
To see if you have the latest update compared to that on the HTC website, check here on your Hero:
Settings > About Phone > Build Number
General Notes
To get the MOST out of Android and your Hero, you must embrace the Google Cloud. Get yourself a GMail email account, use the Google calendar, sync your contacts to Google, use Google Picasa, use Google Calenday, use Google Tasks, use Google Docs.
General Tips
You may try out any paid application in the market for 24 hours. If you uninstall the application inside these 24 hours you will get a full refund. However, you may only do this once. If you reinstall a refunded application you may not return it for a refund again.
---------------------
Turn off WiFi and GPS if you are not using them. They can cause the battery to drain much quicker than if you turned them off. Toggling between these settings is easy via the default HTC widgets.
---------------------
To add a new photo album, just mount the phone via USB to a PC, create a new folder and give it a name. Add your pictures to this folder. Now browse to the “Albums” in your phone and it will automatically create an album with the folder name you specified containing the pictures you added.
---------------------
Calibrate your keyboard!!! You will find using the keyboard waaay better. To this via:
Settings > Local & text > Touch Input > Text Input > Calibration Tool
---------------------
There are 3 types of keyboard available for the Hero built in “full QWERTY”, “Phone keypad” and Compact QWERTY”. Give them a try, one may suit you better. To change do the following:
Settings > Local & text > Touch Input > Keyboard Types
---------------------
A Class 6 micro sd card may speed up your Hero.
---------------------
If you have both WiFi and data connections turned on, your phone will default to using the WiFi connection as long as you are connected to a WiFi network. So no need to turn mobile data off using home WiFi.
Phone Status Icons
Explanations of the icons that appear in your notification bar:
Adding New Ringtones/SMS Notifications/Alarms
To add new ringtones or SMS alerts, connect your Hero to USB and mount the device on your PC. Browser to the following folders:
Copy your mp3 files into either of the folders above. Then go to:
Ringtone:Settings > sound and display > phone ringtone
SMS: Settings > sound and display > notification sound
Alarms: Set the sound when adding a new alarm.
Then select the ringtone you put in the above folder(s).
Keyboard Lag
The HTC Hero keyboard tends to lag quite a bit after maybe a week of using it. There is one very easy way to ease and normally totally get rid of the lag, and that is to turn of the feedback option.
Settings > Local & text > Touch Input > Text Input > Untick “Sound feedback” and “Vibrate when typing”
Quote:
To use the images of barcodes that will follow, please download the "barcode scanner" application from the android market. Once installed open the application and scan the barcode to automatically download the said application.
Default Application Replacements
Your Hero will come with default applications, but sometimes there are better alternatives on the market:
SMS
Handcent SMS is a perfect replacement SMS application. It contains a lot more personalisation than the default application offers, and many users report it being faster too. In order to stop receiving two SMS notifications from now on, open the default SMS application and navigate to:
Menu > settings> untick Notifications
Download Handcent by scanning the following barcode:
Camera
The default camera application is not bad, and actually after using Camera Zoom FX for a while I now prefer the default as it is quite a lot faster to open up. There are two options here, change the default camera settings, or download and use the Camera Zoom FX application instead.
Change to these settings in the default application:
Quality: High
Widescreen: Tick
Auto focus: Tick
Flicker Adjustment: Auto
ISO: 800
The Camera Zoom FX application however manages to produce quite good pictures, and is definitely worth the very small cost (£1.29).
Download Camera Zoom FX by scanning the following barcode:
Browser
The default browser is very limited, there are two possible great alternatives for you to choose, and which one you prefer is generally a personal preference thing. As a note, I prefer Steel as it is not as bulky as Dolphin, but it does not include pinch zoom if that is important to you, where as Dolphin does.
Steel
Download Steel by scanning the following barcode:
Dolphin
Download Dolphin by scanning the following barcode:
Keyboard
I think that the default keyboard is great, there are 3 different keyboards built into the phone, those of you with big fat fingers may prefer a more contact keyboard as the buttons are easier. To change the type of keyboard do the following:
settings > locale and text > touch input > keyboard types
If you want to try something different, and I HIGHLY SUGGEST giving this a go btw, then you can download a replacement keyboard app called ShapeWriter. This is a new way of typing on a touch keyboard. You just drag your finger over each letter of the word, without pressing.
Get ShapeWriter:
Calendar
The default calendar app is ok, and the widgets are quite good. But if like me you prefer to see a list of upcoming appointments then the default widgets may not be up to scratch. Personally I use 2 desktop widgets, one of my main homescreen (smaller showing next 3 appointments), and a larger one taking up a whole screen showing many upcoming appointments:
Smooth Calendar Widget
Very similar to the small default calendar widget, but this one can show up to the next 3 appointments.
Agenda Widget
Has multiple widget sizes. Shows an agenda of your upcoming appointments, and beautiful too!
Device(s): Asus EeePad Transformer - Samsung Galaxy Mini - SE Xperia Arc - SE Xperia Play - Samsung Galaxy SII
Carrier: Not Provided
Thanks: 59
Thanked 1,294 Times in 490 Posts
Applications You Can't Live Without
These are applications that in all reality should come on the device by default, they are that useful.
3G WatchDog
You can use this application to keep a monitor on your mobile internet usage. Use this to make sure you never go over your allowance!
Download 3G Watchdog by scanning the following barcode:
WaveSecure This is a fantastic application. It allows you to keep track of your phone if it ever gets stolen. You can remotely lock, backup, wipe and restore data to your phone using the WaveSecure web interface. Must have!
Applications You Can Live Without, But Shouldn't Have To!
Fantastic applications you may want to give a go, even if you don't like them, they will give you some idea of what apps are out there.
General
Note Me
Brilliant notebook application, very easy to use, but highly sophisticated too (Try 3Banana if you want online sync)
gTasks
Offline task/todo list application that syncs with google tasks.
Whats On
TV Listings for Sky channels, including all UK regional channels. Use this constantly.
Local
Places Directory
Allows you to browse nearby places in categories like Restaurants, Movie Theaters and Hotels.
Yelp
Use us to search for places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play then read reviews from an active community of locals in the know. I prefer this than Places Directory.
Layar Displays real time digital information on top of reality in the camera screen of the mobile phone. Really really cool app. You pick a location, scan the camera around and it will show you exactly where you want to go with a distance notification changing as you get closer.
Flixster Movies Movie Ratings and Reviews, Trailers and Clips plus a lot more. I use this every Wednesday to pick a film for Orange Wednesdays
Aloqa
Simply glance at your phone and find which friends, favorite businesses, events and music concerts are close by. Use to find your nearest starbucks, atm and what bands are playing nearby.
UK National Rail Train Departures Live Train Departure Boards. If you use trains, then you need this.
National Rail Not Free unlike the app above, but for sure worth the £3. Looks better and a few more options.
Media
beebPlayer Plays BBC iPlayer TV programmes, live TV channels and live radio
TuneWiki Apart from the default Hero media player, this one takes the next spot for me. Includes patented technology to add lyrics to playing songs, which actually follow the song in time, great.
Last.FM Brilliant, streams last fm radio to your phone.
Shazam Identify music. When you hear a song playing, start up this app, and within 30 seconds it will tell you the name of the song, artist and offer a download link.
Spotify Must stress, to use this app you have to be a paying subscriber to spotify, which is £10 a month. To be honest its well worth it, you get to stream music from a catalogue of millions and millions of songs. You can also store music on your SD card for offline listening. (By the way, get this app for your desktop PC too, its free to stream on your desktop).
Ringdroid Allows you to create ringtones and sms notifications from any mp3s on your phone, quality app.
Mabilo Ringtones Choose from 200,000 popular mp3 ringtones and sounds for free. Set as ringtone, notification sound, assign to contacts. Use this if you don't want to make your own ringtones using Ringdroid!
Backgrounds Over 10,000 wallpapers for your phone, easily searchable via categories. Also includes an auto wallpaper changer feature for images that you set to favourite!
DailyStrip Daily comic strip viewer, 98 strips at time of writing, constantly update .
News
NewsRoom The Most gorgeous RSS feed reader I've ever seen. You MUST check this out. The only disadvantage is it doesnt sync with google reader yet. Doesn't matter to me as I love the interface.
Pay Version
Free Trial (Unlimited for now) Version
BBC News Offers app front end to the BBC site in category format. Includes widget.
NubiNews Reader Quick access to various news sites.
20+ sites: BBC, CNN, Fox, NY Times, NY Daily News, LA Times, Register, Reuters, Car & Driver, Economist, Business Week, Engadget, Gizdomo, Yahoo Sports, Weather Channel ... more!
News Rob RSS reader that syncs with google reader. The web based google reader actually woks quite well on the hero, but you might fancy a bit of this instead.
Shopping
Pkt Auctions Ebay Fast and elegant eBay app. Does pretty much everything.
ShopSavvy Scan in a barcode, and this app uses your current location to search nearby shops for the cheapest price. Also checks the web in case there is a cheaper option there too.
SnapTell Snap a picture of the cover of any book, DVD, CD, or video game and within seconds get links to Amazon, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, IMDb, eBay and more. For those times a barcode isn't available.
Last edited by lekky; January 16th, 2010 at 10:07 AM.
The Following 15 Users Say Thank You to lekky For This Useful Post:
Device(s): Asus EeePad Transformer - Samsung Galaxy Mini - SE Xperia Arc - SE Xperia Play - Samsung Galaxy SII
Carrier: Not Provided
Thanks: 59
Thanked 1,294 Times in 490 Posts
Social
Twidroid In my opinion the best twitter app on android. Feel free to ty the alternatives though, of which "TwitterRide", "Seesmic" and "Swift" are leading the rest of the pack.
Pro Version
Free (Limited) version
Facebook for Android Official facebook app, currently the most stable. Checkout Bloo if you fancy a change.
Listen Googles own podcast app, very good app itself, but those who take their podcasting a bit more seriously should opt for doggcatcher below. Use this instead of doggcatcher if you don't use it enough to warrant paying for a podcast app.
DoggCatcher Strange icon but a fantastic podcast app, with a hard working developer adding lots of updates. I personally use this for my podcasts. Well worth the money over the free google listen.
Meebo IM
Possibly the best IM app on the android atm. Uses data not SMS. AIM MSN Yahoo Facebook MySpace Google Talk Jabber and ICQ available.
AndChat Must have if you want to connect to IRC on the go. Best IRC app on the market, and very supportive developer.
System Tools
Force Close Button Adds a button to the pull-down notifications list that, when selected, forces the current app to close. Use this app A LOT.
AppManager Many options to manage apps including backup and uninstall.
aTrackDog Tracks updates to your apps
Startup Auditor Some apps add themselves to the startup of your phone when you don't want them to, use this to disable those apps.
TasKiller Use to check what apps are currently running, and kill/auto-kill any tasks. Works like your task manager on a PC would. Please don't over use this as most of the time YOU DON'T NEED TO CLOSE RUNNING APPS!
Full Version
Free (Ad-Supported) Version
Astro Top notch file manager, probably the best on the android right now.
HideNSeek Hide media files on your phone, disguised as a flashlight app
Locale Dynamically manages your phone settings based on conditions, such as Location and Time.
Bar Control
Lets you to put links to apps in the notification bar.
Volume Control
Control your audio settings very easily.
Web
TorrentFu Scan a barcode, and this will automatically find the torrent for that item, and add it to your torrent client on your home computer! Alternative is Transdroid.
FTPServer Turns your phone into an FTP server so you can transfer files to and from your phone wirelessly from your PC. NOTE: Use SDReScan once you have transferred files to make your phone rescan your sdcard and notice the new files you added.
AndFTP The opposite of FTPServer. This is an FTP client that allows you to connect to FTP servers.
Remember there are new apps coming out everyday, so just drop me an email or tweet if you think others would find a different app beneficial.
Last edited by lekky; January 16th, 2010 at 10:08 AM.
The Following 15 Users Say Thank You to lekky For This Useful Post:
One thing i would recommend that you put in this sticky is
Pre-Preparation (before you get the phone or any googlephone)
Basically what I mean is that people should sync their contacts, messages etc.. into google, or for those who dont have a google account to actually
open one!
It just makes life easier!
Last edited by owen1978; December 10th, 2009 at 04:22 AM.
I found this amazingly helpful. The Market search has to be the worst thing about Android and having someone point you in the right direction is a relief. Even if you don't use all these they give you insight to the possibilities.
I was never sure about Handcent, but now I have had my Hero for just over three weeks, I'm starting to experiment a lot more to see what I like and don't like.
This is one of the best intros I've EVER read. Agree with the poster above, this should be a mandatory link right on the <insert phone name here> home page.
I've written a lot of documentation in my day, but you, sir, takes the freakin cake!!
I must say... The honesty and simplicity of your posts lekky are phenomenal! Thank you for taking the time to do this! I just bought the HTC Hero yesterday and have been tweaking it since I got it, and stumbled across this forum in my searching. I will most definitly be downloading some of those Aps, and appreciate the write-up that you put along with it. There needs to be more people like you out there on public forums like these! =D
I also agree, that a link to these types of sites should be a must with the new phones.
Take care of yourself and Merry Christmas! =D
One thing i would recommend that you put in this sticky is
Pre-Preparation (before you get the phone or any googlephone)
Basically what I mean is that people should sync their contacts, messages etc.. into google, or for those who dont have a google account to actually
open one!
It just makes life easier!
You can automatically import contacts from some other web based email:
settings> accounts and import
You can import and export contact lists in gmail (click on contacts then on upper right of contacts window). This can be used to import outlook contacts too. I personally export my contacts as a .csv file monthly then save to google docs just in case, as a backup. When using google sync on my blackberry curve suddenly I have 3 and 4 of the same contact. I was not the only one to have that happen. What a mess to clean up and I had no backup. Even google can have a screw up now and then!
Guys given the title of this thread there are quite a few posts in it which bear no relation to it.
If you have a question why not post it in a separate thread as normal.
Would still like to have an easy way of editing my contacts though. Brought them over from my old sim and the names are messed up and numbers missing etc. I thought there might have been a way to do it on my PC, but not looked for anything yet.
If you have a Gmail account and you have Gmail set up on your phone, there is an easy way to do this. First, open Contacts in Gmail from your computer and you should see your phone contacts. After you Edit and Save the updated contact information, it will automatically update your phone's contacts (People App). It works the other way too. Any new contact you enter in the phone will automatically update to your Gmail Contact list. This probably works with Outlook as well, if that's the way you have it set up, but I have not tried it.
The update may not appear until Auto-sync is run. You can force Auto-sync to run if you uncheck then recheck Auto-sync. To get there, choose menu/Settings/Data Synchronization/Google. If you have the USB cable hooked up between your phone and computer, I believe it will automatically update your contacts. You don't even have to Mount the USB.
Sorry for jumping here in this thread , I think that you can help me. I just get my htc hero, and put the charger on. On the top of the phone there is notification led (red light, probably because of charging the battery), but there is just one notification led, which is turned on. My question is, is just one led or two? Because I see another led, seems to me like a led, at the corner of the earpiece.
Please let me know, if this is fault device, so I can return it.
Kppsk...there's only one. It'll turn green & blink when you have a notification.
Um...I have a question about apps. Is there ANY app out there as an alternative to the default Hero "albums" ? I thought I saw one that had a filmstrip view option (with a roughly 3/4 size photo showing also), but can't find it anywhere. I really dislike the album app...it's slow even when it's loaded and I have a lot of photos. I have grouped them into albums, but that seemed to slow it down even more. Any suggestions?
It would be nice if there were two led notificators , maybe in htc hero 2 ...
About the apps, I just get back from market , u can find a lot of application there. They are filtered by type, so you have multimedia, games, entertainment... pretty much cool for android community. I am not aware of other source of apps, but if somethings comes up,I'll let all know
Cheers
Last edited by KppsK; December 30th, 2009 at 10:23 PM.
great, great site... thanks a bunch... however, lot of barcodes are not recognizible by my program... startup auditor is one I am looking for, I can't even find it on search in the market...so please help me, how can I get it? or some alternative program... thanks in advance...
Device(s): Asus EeePad Transformer - Samsung Galaxy Mini - SE Xperia Arc - SE Xperia Play - Samsung Galaxy SII
Carrier: Not Provided
Thanks: 59
Thanked 1,294 Times in 490 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by zeze999
great, great site... thanks a bunch... however, lot of barcodes are not recognizible by my program... startup auditor is one I am looking for, I can't even find it on search in the market...so please help me, how can I get it? or some alternative program... thanks in advance...
Where are you based, you might not be able to access paid apps.
The Camera Zoom FX application however manages to produce much better pictures, and is definitely worth the very small cost (£1.29).
Download Camera Zoom FX by scanning the following barcode:
Thanks again for this great sticky lekky!
When I scan the above or search manually for it comes back saying no matches
Has the name/barcode changed since posted? I am in UK so should be able to access paid apps I would think...
Last edited by Heroine; January 4th, 2010 at 04:04 AM.
Ive had my HERO for 6 months now and im still impressed
I use these apps and would recommend to anyone
Audio manager (cool widget for managing the different audio parts of HERO)
Advanced Task Manager (the best app i have used for stopping/killing application)
Age of conquest (Really Good and adictive Game)
Astro (The best file manager app around)
BBC news (Good widget for keeping upto date with the news or sports in my case)
Beeb player (For catching up with missed TV)
Bettercut (Makes everythign look cool and great for making shirtcuts)
Bloo (i Use this for the notification checker)
Calorie counter ( A must have application for keeping fit, specially after christmas)
Documents to go (Great for opening and working on word documents and excel sheets)
Dolphin Browser ( Much better than the Stock browser, tabs facility are really usful)
FX camera (good if you like taking photos)
Google unread (widget that shows how many unread e-mails you have)
Handcent SMS (the SMS app on the market, doesn't load the full conversation list which saves time, the default app was laoding all 3000 meassages on thread!)
Hidenseek (Great app for hiding naugty photos from certain people)
Imusic (free music??? YES please?
lock 2.0 (Pin access to the phone instead of deafult shape security which is murder when drunk)
Meridian (good music player witha a cool looking widget)
Flixster movies (cool for looking up what movies to watch on Orange wednesday)
Phone my PC (remotely access your computer from your phone)
Ringdroid ( customise the free music you get from i music)
Robo Defence ( a must have game, adictive)
Shazam ( whats that song? it'll tell ya)
Spare parts ( see whats using what on phone)
Start Up auditor ( stop programs from starting up when the phone is powered on)
Voice serch ( great for the pub quiz and impressing people)
start up auditor, it is not free? I dont know if it is fair question to ask, but could it be installed free somehow? I would buy it but here we cannot...
per recommendation from Lekky as a new owner, i came to this thread right away. wow, i have to say there are lots of cool things for this phone. I have browsed the market but not really sure what's good and what's better. This thread really helped. thanks for the startup info.
Astrid - Fantastic to-do list manager. I use it all the time for things I might forget when going to the store or as a reminder to complete certain tasks.
Thanks for providing this. I just got my Hero, and while I am no stranger to smart phones this is my first Android! I am loving it though. One thing I would like to find is info on a business card reader. I will search the forums though.
Just wanted to say a big thank you from Norway and a fresh HTC Hero user for this splendid thread!
Having had my Hero a couple of days most problems have now been ironed out, battling with contact sync being the major challenge, and I'm now ready to really start exploring this great device. Really looking forward to getting stuck in, and I'm sure this forum will be a great help
Great thread. And yes owning a Hero does seem to be a full time occupation (my wife thinks I'm addicted)
I have keypad pattern turned on. This means that when I turn on my phone I have to slide down to unlock screen and then enter my pattern. Is there any way of disabling the unlock screen stage as it seems fairly superfluous.
This guide is brilliant.
After 3 months of use. I have already downloaded most these apps but just wish I had a guide like this when I first got my hero. Would of made it so much easier to get the best apps. Especially as the Android market is quite badly designed.
Well done 'lekky'
This guide is brilliant.
After 3 months of use. I have already downloaded most these apps but just wish I had a guide like this when I first got my hero. Would of made it so much easier to get the best apps. Especially as the Android market is quite badly designed.
Well done 'lekky'
ALTERNATIVE TO UNLOCKING KEYPAD - PRESS ANY BUTTON THEN PRESS MENU STRAIGHT AFTER
HOLDING MENU BUTTON WHILE PHONE IS ACTIVE BRINGS UP RECENT APPS
HOLDING POWER BUTTON BRINGS UP OPTIONS MENU
TO SEE IF YOU HAVE A MESSAGE JUST BY PRESSING ANY BUTTON WAKES THE PHONE UP, HOWEVER PRESSING THE POWER BUTTON AFTER TURNS THE BACKLIGHT OFF ALL WHILE THE PHONE IS STILL LOCKED
ALTHOUGH NOT REALLY ANYTHING NEW BUT PRESSING MENU WHEN PHONE IS ACTIVE BRINGS UP A LITTLE OPTIONS MENU WHICH HAS A SHORTCUT TO SETTINGS - VERY USEFUL!
TURN 3G OFF UNLESS YOU ARE USING THE INTERNET REGULARLY - SETTINGS - WIRELESS SETTINGS - NETWORK SETTINGS - USE ONLY 2G NET WORK. THIS WILL HELP SAVE YOUR BATTERY
USING AN APP MANAGER WILL HELP TO INCREASE YOUR STANDBY TIME IF YOU GET THE RIGHT ONE. I PERSONALLY USE "ADVANCE TASK MANAGER FREE" IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY END PROCESESS AFTER A CERTAIN TIME PERIOD ALSO HAS A SHAKE FUNCTION WHICH KILLS THE APP YOUR IN THOUGH VERY TEMPERAMENTAL AND CLOSES THE APP VERY EASILY BUT STILL VERY HANDY TO HAVE.
OTHER USUFUL APPS-
steel internet browser - not sure if its faster but has some very nice easy to use functions
free dictionary org- usuful if your out and about and not sure how to spell something also has definitions
hideNseek- great app does exactly what it says inn description. although not a free app it is worth the $0.99. basicly it hides any pictures or videoes you choose to keep hidden. SCREEN WILL APEAR BLANK WHEN LAUNCHED - PRESS MENU BUTTON 3 TIMES TO ENTER PASSWORD!
note pad - self explanitory
pkt autions ebay- great quick app for checking on your ebay listings - also has barcode scanner so you can check on ebay if its cheaper.
ringdroid- enables you to edit and cut any song in your library for use as a ringtone or message notification.
astro file browser- simple file browser that enables you to edit, move, copy, cut files.
wikipedia mobile- handy for them fact finding moments.
Shopsavvy- barcode scanner which then looks up in your local area and internet for the chapest price though doesnt work on all products.
Well thats most of the apps i have on my hero and it runs butterly smooth. hope this has helped.
id like to know how you can change the overall theme of the phone? (menu things like that?)
Last edited by simplysquare; January 11th, 2010 at 09:35 AM.
Great thread. And yes owning a Hero does seem to be a full time occupation (my wife thinks I'm addicted)
I have keypad pattern turned on. This means that when I turn on my phone I have to slide down to unlock screen and then enter my pattern. Is there any way of disabling the unlock screen stage as it seems fairly superfluous.
yeah you can turn it off or get an app that will alow you to enter a number instead. menu - settings - security - uncheck require unlock pattern - enter unlock pattern - done
yeah you can turn it off or get an app that will alow you to enter a number instead. menu - settings - security - uncheck require unlock pattern - enter unlock pattern - done
Turning of unlock pattern wasn't really the issue, it was the unlock screen which precedes this. Anyway it doesn't matter as the poster above you submitted the brilliant tip of double clicking the menu button. That's exactly what I needed so big thumbs up to you!
HTC Hero: Tips, Tricks & Useful Apps [v1.6]
NOTICE TO THE READER: 
Smooth sailing thanks to this thread!
