Orange crap...

[nx1977]

If its too much of a problem I have the number for the highest level of Orange customer service (the correspondence department )

You mean Executive office? They're the highest level you can get in Orange

 

[skorpio73]

I just gave up the will to live and bought out my Orange contract. I just couldn't use Android anymore as there's literally no room for the basic Apps I want my Desire, thanks to Orange's crap. I spoke to people on the phone and went into shops, they just won't remove it, despite the fact I have no use for it and it's actually getting in my way! They really just don't seem to care. F*** 'em. The smartphone market's bigger (and more intelligent, clearly) than they are. I say we just need to all leave Orange. Other providers have better networks anyway (as well as less of a frankly insulting attitude to their smartphone customers)

 

[jsbombjack]

I followed a guide on this forum,
How to debrand an HTC Desire and update to Froyo - Broadband Genie

Like some of the people of this thread, I was hesitant to do it fearing I would brick my phone. In reality it took about 10 minutes to do (most of that was downloading the generic rom (link to that on the above link).

Not only did this get rid of the orange rubbish (though I would recommend not having your sim card in the phone, backup the entire contents of your SD card and having a backup of your contacts - I use WaveSecure from the app store), it also gave me access to Android 2.2 through the OTA updates from HTC direct (previously I was running 1.15 thanks to Orange, so the 2.2 update was not happening).

The removal of the orange crap gave me a fully working phone, access to the updates for it straight away, and left me a happy person.

I have been a customer of orange for the last 10 years or so, and have always had a problem with them putting their own stamp on phone firmware - now that I know Android phones can be made generic, then I will do this with all future phones.

I appreciate why orange do their own branding (to make us spend money on their app store, spend money using their navigation etc) but there seems to be a simple way round it. It is annoying, and I agree that I should not have to go through the hassle of debranding a phone from orange, but what the hell - it seems to be a simple process, I lost no data, and my contract from Orange is the best I could get compared to other networks (I refuse to have an 18 month minimum term).

Sorry if this rambles a bit, not had my coffee this morning

 

[EddyOS]

I followed a guide on this forum,
How to debrand an HTC Desire and update to Froyo - Broadband Genie

Like some of the people of this thread, I was hesitant to do it fearing I would brick my phone. In reality it took about 10 minutes to do (most of that was downloading the generic rom (link to that on the above link).

Not only did this get rid of the orange rubbish (though I would recommend not having your sim card in the phone, backup the entire contents of your SD card and having a backup of your contacts - I use WaveSecure from the app store), it also gave me access to Android 2.2 through the OTA updates from HTC direct (previously I was running 1.15 thanks to Orange, so the 2.2 update was not happening).

The removal of the orange crap gave me a fully working phone, access to the updates for it straight away, and left me a happy person.

I have been a customer of orange for the last 10 years or so, and have always had a problem with them putting their own stamp on phone firmware - now that I know Android phones can be made generic, then I will do this with all future phones.

I appreciate why orange do their own branding (to make us spend money on their app store, spend money using their navigation etc) but there seems to be a simple way round it. It is annoying, and I agree that I should not have to go through the hassle of debranding a phone from orange, but what the hell - it seems to be a simple process, I lost no data, and my contract from Orange is the best I could get compared to other networks (I refuse to have an 18 month minimum term).

Sorry if this rambles a bit, not had my coffee this morning

Would be easier to just get a generic phone in the first place from a 3rd party retailer (like CPW). Saves faffing about with debranding and you get to keep your warranty!!

 

[jsbombjack]

Not if I have to sign up to an 18 month (or longer) contract for the privilage. I get bored easily, and want to be able to change my phone within an acceptable timeframe (usually there is about 1 year between tech cycles (iphone to android to windows phone 7 for example). This is more important than getting a generic phone from CPW to be honest, though I do agree it is easier if that is what you want.

Of course the best solution is for Orange to realise that people do not want branded stuff on their phones (or at least a decent enough percentage of customers don't I am sure), and for them to not put their branding on in the first place

 

[mgbgt]

Just out of interest, does CFW supply all their phones unbranded (i.e. contract as well as PAYG)? I've noticed in a few threads that people say they sell unbranded phones, then they only mention PAYG.
Cheers

 

[EddyOS]

Got my Desire on upgrade (Vodafone contract) from CPW and it's unbranded

 

[mgbgt]

Got my Desire on upgrade (Vodafone contract) from CPW and it's unbranded

Cheers for that!

 

[EddyOS]

If you can, turn the phone on and check the version running on it - anything with x.xx.405.x is unbranded

 

[smange]

There's no need to go this far unless you're really angry about it.

With the HTC Desire there really is a good reason. That Orange software takes up nearly 20Mb — almost all of the available phone storage space (at least 16Mb needs to stay empty so it works). I have about 4M spare to play with for other apps that can't be saved to SD card. So, it's a constant battle to get new apps on. I have to remove apps to free up space, install the new app, see if it can be moved to the SD card. If it can't, I get to decide if I like it more than the other apps I was using previously.

I'm equally annoyed with Orange's un-removable stupid apps (including 2.5Mb demos of games like Monopoly which you can't even play once all the way through) as I am with the 10Mb Adobe Flash app and all other apps that can't be moved to SD card. I have 4G on my SD card and bugger all space on my phone. Froyo was supposed to fix this, but not enough app developers care enough to move stuff to SD yet.

Anyway, half of the links in this thread to remove all this stuff seem to be broken. Will hopefully find something that works soon.

Ange.

 

[KillKurtsKids]

What Ange said. Anyone have a working link to wiping Orange from your phone? I'm ready! Got my new replacement after the original went bonkers (presumably because I was using the phone as designed, not how Orange have disabled it). I have one month left of warrently with Orange so not much to lose.

Thanks

 

[SUroot]

With the HTC Desire there really is a good reason. That Orange software takes up nearly 20Mb