amd3000

Decided to take the plunge and dump my N95 and try Android. Must say its all very different and a little confusing :-)

I like the big screen and design of it. The apps market is great ! but jumbled. WIFI and GPS are excellent and the screen is very responsive and the battery life is acceptable with the help of Advanced Task Killer).

Anyway.... here are some things i would like help/advice about:

1. Is there a way or an app that can turn off message preview in the task bar.
2. Is there a way to replace drawing a picture with numeric password protection.
3. Is there an app to password protect my sms inbox like Symbian Advanced Device Locks. (Saw an app called SMS Deceptor on net but its not in apps market) (The ability to create a folder for saved SMS would also be nice).
4. Is there a way to increase the font size in messaging for people like myself who strugle with small fonts. Symbian has Font Magnifyer.
5. I also need a decent Sat Nav App that is responsive and not sluggish. (I have seen some promising free ones but they lack postcode search which is a must) (Is anyone using one they would recommend). Garmin was excellent on the N95 but is not available for Android which is a shame.

A lot to ask i know but any and all help/advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

PS. Am i right in thinking that apps cannot be installed on the SD Card so the only memory you have to play with is the 60 megs available on the system ?

lesage

I am thinking of moving from a T-M MDA Comapct II (aka HTC Charmer), WM5 equipped, to Pulse. Re GPS, I recently installed CoPilot Live 8 on the MDA, having previously had the CoPilot Live 6. This latest edition is very, very good indeed and the price is attractive (<£60 for all of Eu and UK I think) and has full postcode search in UK and in France will take you to even down to the 'Lieu Dit' level. I would strongly recommend it.

HOWEVER, coming to the PS in your question, if Pulse cannot load the app on to the SD card, forget it (you need 2Gb for eu+UK) . It's a question I myself asked of CoPilot and am still awaiting a reply. While CP do definitely have Android installers (as well as WM and iPhone), they do NOT list Pulse amongst approved phones (although they did say the app would work on Pulse, based on their reply to a blog question on Twitter) .

It would probably be a killer for me if apps cannot be loaded on to the SD card in a straightforward way. Mind you, having said that, I wonder if, after you have downloaded the app from an internet-connected PC, and then transferred it to the SD card via a card reader, can you put the loaded SD into the pulse and install/launch it from there...? This is effectively what I did on the MDA...

amd3000

Thanks for the info.

Some additional thoughts....

Yes... Co-Pilot leaves a massive footprint on your SD Card. Been reading a bit more on this subject and i believe you can load the .apk file from the SD Card but it installs the app/prog to the phone memory which only has 60 meg available. The maps stay on the SD Card.

It also raises the question of updating the version of Android on this phone in the future with only 60 meg of space available. Probably would not fit on it.

Going to look at 'Rooting'. All new to me but i think it allows you to install apps to the SD Card. It all seems complicated so will keep looking until i see a post i understand.

Think i will hold back from putting my N95 on Ebay for a while

I also understand that you cannot buy a spare battery for this phone. Not even from T-Mobile and, if yours developes a fault...... Maybe its because its a new phone.

lesage

Rooting sounds like you need horticultural expertise .
Batteries: My MDA battery was sufficiently expensive as to make me look round for a new phone. (There a cheap and nasty Chinese ones; cheap and very nasty). CP say they are working on Symbian installers for CP live 8. I wouldve thought the N95 has more to it than may meet the eye...

Muuurgh

Hi amd3000

1. I use chompSMS for messaging, and there is an explicit option to turn off the message preview in that app. Never used the default app for SMS but it doesn't appear to have that option.

5. Satnav's. The best thing I would do is try out all the various options on the market. You have 24 hours to return any app, so you can try them all out and see how they go. The Pulse isn't particularly snappy, but I imagine it would do the trick.

The reason Garmin don't have an app is they have decided, in their wisdom, to bring out their own Android phone/satnav sometime this year. Techradar.com has some useful reviews on the various satnav apps available for smartphones.

I think the best place to find other people rooting the pulse are the modaco forums. I'm sticking with stock standard, there just isn't enough time to fiddle with my phone, and I kind of need it to be working.

For the rest of the questions, if you can't find the answer by searching I'd post them in the main forum, as they aren't Pulse specific. Hopefully someone out there has more info on your other questions.

lutin

I've got the stock cupcake ROM on my Pulse and it's snappy as hell. I would really recommend giving it a go (you can always revert back if you don't like it). Navigation is faster, scrolling is faster, typing is faster. I haven't as yet found any negatives.

The terminology involved in the process of changing your pulse (all the geek-speak!) is more daunting than the actual process itself.

As for satnav, I use CoPilot and it's excellent.

Last edited by lutin; January 6th, 2010 at 05:22 AM.

Muuurgh

Hi Lutin

Can you point me at the page where you got instructions for installing the cupcake ROM? I'm curious to try this myself if it is as easy as you say it is.

lutin

Basically, it's the first page here:
21/12 1.2 - MoDaCo Custom ROM - U8230 Vanilla Cupcake Style - Android @ MoDaCo

Ignore all the mumbo-jumbo that you don't understand, the important bit is near the end of the post:

A slightly more detailed (yet simpler) explanation can be found at post #363 on this page:

21/12 1.2 - MoDaCo Custom ROM - U8230 Vanilla Cupcake Style - Android @ MoDaCo

All the best, hope you're successful!

Remember you can back up your data (sms, contacts etc) using a application called mybackup (which has a free 30 day trial)

Last edited by lutin; January 6th, 2010 at 09:05 AM.