Just got my hero...looking for answers

[JAshworth03]

Get this out of the way. Using HTC Hero White (European Version) on Cincinnati Bell in the US.

Don't get me wrong the Hero is one of the greatest phones Ive ever used and I've used a lot. While it is a great device I have quite a few gripes that maybe you all have answers for.

Favorites Widget
I have the favorites widget and I have most of my favorites default contact as text message. When I tap the icon to send a new text message it pulls my messaging application and goes to my last message sent rather than to composing a new text to the favorite I tapped. How do I fix this?

Phone Face Light Sensor
When I'm on a phone call the phone times out after 1 minute and locks the screen ( Iknow I can change this). I wish there was a way to set it like the iphone where it would use the light sensor to time the screen in and out when its up to my face and when I pull it away. Example: I can be on a phone call and need to look up a text or a contact ph # and when I pull the phone away from my face I have to unlock and draw my pattern again. Very annoying. Anyway to mod this?

Text Message Widget
I have the text messaging widget set up on my home screen. It shows all my current conversations but when I go to flick through the convo's to revive an old conversation most of the time it will only let me flick to my second conversation and not further. I have only been able to flick past the 2nd convo on rare occassions. I have 30 or so convo's open and it would be very convenient to be able to flick through open and go. Anyway of fixing this bug?

E-Mail Not Updating
I have my e-mail set up to automatically retrieve new emails every 15 minutes but its not doing it. I'm lucky if it ever updates. I am constantly having to refresh for new email. While I'm sure this is a great battery saving technique I want to know every 15 minutes or so If I have new email. Could this be a setting that I accidentally changed?

Apps Not Available
I am not able to access some applications that a lot of other people apparently are. Specifically photovault, photosafe, and or hidenseek. They simply do not show up in the market for me. I have tried doing a manual search and have also tried to scan the barcode but it keeps saying that it is not in the market. I though android was supposed to be open source and apps galore? Is this because of the version of android that im running?

PS - Can anyone direct me a way to hide images on my hero? Like I said photovault and similar programs won't show in the market so I'm open to any suggestions to be able to hide files.

App Questions
I have found some great apps (alarming!, astro, ringdroid, barcode scanner, advanced task killer, and video player) but i still would like an espn app or a good sports app. I love college bball and want to stay up to date with scores. That being said and i hate to be redundant but what are some other can't miss apps that I should look into?


Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me!

 

[brykins]

I too found my email wasn't updating. I ended up moving to K9 Mail (free on the Marketplace) for my email solution. It looks nicer than the standard email app and does seem to check email at regular intervals.

Apps not being available could be an OS version problem. My G2 Touch (Hero) is still on 1.5 and could be that the apps you are looking for are 1.6+.

Images can be hidden from the Albums app by including an empty .nomedia file. Open Notepad in Windows, save a blank text file as ".nomedia" and copy that to the folder that you don't want indexed. Seems to work.

Essential apps I have found: BeebPlayer, K9 Email, Twidroid (Twitter), eBuddy (IM), Astro (file manager), AnyCut (rename shortcut icons), Volume Control.

 

[JAshworth03]

Couple of questions about K9. When I pull it in the market it says that it available for 2.0. Will it work on 1.5 as well. Do I need to delete my accounts out of the standard htc mail setup so that way im not getting my email twice? Last questions if I scroll to a contact in my people and select send email will it pull k9 as a sending option?

 

[Bhav]

Why don't you just try it...?

(I believe the Market hides apps that aren't compatible with your version of Android. So yes it should work)

 

[JAshworth03]

I figured out a fix for the HTC mail to update properly. I changed my update interval to 10 minutes instead of 15 and now it appears to be magically working.

I tried the ".nomedia" file idea but everytime I tried to save a file name and place it in the same folder it says that I can't name a file with a "." starting it off. Note - I was trying to do this on a Macbook. I'm gonna try tonight with my PC

 

[jimeller]

the light sensor issue can be resolved by downloading proximity sensor from the market. it works a treat, albeit slightly slow to show the screen when its removed from your "calling stance"

 

[JAshworth03]

just downloaded proximity sensor and that works wonders! If I could figure out whats going on with favorites and text messages thing I would be a happy camper. Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

 

[dannyg777]

Hello, about sports, check out the app called sportstap. I'm sure you'll like it.