Basic HTC Desire questions for help.

[Bertie]

I am in a dilemma about whether to get a Desire or the Galaxy S.

I have the following questions, if someone would be kind enough to assist me:

1. I believe that the screen on the Galaxy is superior. How much difference is there in sunlight?

2. I wanted to use the 'swype' on the Galaxy-is this available on the Desire by downloading or is it a hardware feature? Is there an alternative on the Desire. I have heard of something called Swiftype-is this the same sort of thing and is it available for the Desire?

3. I like the idea of being able to tether the phone to a laptop-I think that this means that I could use my laptop through the phone internet? Would I be able to tether with the Desire?

4. I have seen a contribution on one of the forums, about a case for the Desire, which began with a 'Z' I think, and it was predominently black leather, but had a choice of piping around the edge, orange red etc. There was also a youtube video of a man opening the box when his cover arrived. It was about

 

[SUroot]

2. Swype is an application. Unless its been released, its still in BETA testing. Once its fully released, you can download/buy it for any android phone. Search the forum, theres a few threads on it.

5. Although both phones use android and operation is generally the same, they both have completely different user interfaces. I suggest you try both in a shop. On android, you can download a custom launcher so you dont need to use the user interface made by either htc or samsung.

 

[adnanrana]

1. The screen on the Desire is very good. It does get difficult to see under sunlight, but adjusting the brightness and using an anti-glare screen protector has minimized the issue.

2. I have installed Swiftype on the Desire and find it very easy to use. My plan was to install Swype if I had problems with Swiftype, but it seems to be working well.

3. Tethering is really easy on the desire. I just connect the USB cable with my laptop and a menu comes up with a few options like Charge Only, USB Drive, Internet Sharing, etc. Selecting Internet Sharing option allows me use the internet on my laptop using my phone's data plan.

4. I haven't seen that case. I use the Gel case which is very good and cheap.

5. The Galaxy is a better gaming device, as I think it has dedicated graphics memory. But there are videos on Youtube showing that it is a fairly slow device for general app use. It shows the black screen for a few seconds extra when launching programs. If I had to chose between the two again then I would definately chose the Desire.

Adnan Rana

 

[anoniemouse]

I am in a dilemma about whether to get a Desire or the Galaxy S.

I have the following questions, if someone would be kind enough to assist me:

1. I believe that the screen on the Galaxy is superior. How much difference is there in sunlight?

2. I wanted to use the 'swype' on the Galaxy-is this available on the Desire by downloading or is it a hardware feature? Is there an alternative on the Desire. I have heard of something called Swiftype-is this the same sort of thing and is it available for the Desire?

3. I like the idea of being able to tether the phone to a laptop-I think that this means that I could use my laptop through the phone internet? Would I be able to tether with the Desire?

4. I have seen a contribution on one of the forums, about a case for the Desire, which began with a 'Z' I think, and it was predominently black leather, but had a choice of piping around the edge, orange red etc. There was also a youtube video of a man opening the box when his cover arrived. It was about

 

[Bertie]

Some further questions if I may:

1. What does 'application' and 'beta' testing mean? Adnan says that she was going to download 'swype' if she didn't like 'swiftype'. Does she mean that it is available?

2. I don't understand what 'rooting' means?

3.When I get a Desire, can I save all it's workings onto my computer in case I mess it up in some way?

4. Will I be able to download a voice to text ability?

5. Do you find the sat nav works ok? Galaxy seems to be having a lot of trouble with this.

6. A lot of contracts have a 500mb max for data. Is this geneally sufficient for average use and up-dating?

Thanks again,

Bertie

 

[SUroot]

1. An application is software that you download and install like on a computer. BETA testing is when a select amount of people in the public (or sometimes just privately) get to test an application before it is released. Swype isn't on the market after doing a quick search. I have it because I signed up to BETA test it as did quite a few of us.

Im sure it will be released soon.

2. Rooting is a technical process. Android is based on Linux (its a pc operating system like Windows). As with windows, you can be an "Administrator". In Linux it is called having root access.

In order to have root access on an android device, you need to root the phone. This involves a bit of technical work, installing new files and operating systems.

I would suggest that this process is not for you.

 

[Bertie]

Cheeky, but very helpful and correct-thanks!

 

[nacatomi]

4. Yes you can set up voice to text & text to voice. The HTC IME modded keyboard has this functionality built in and Hancent SMS also allows to to speak texts.

5. I find the satnav to be very good. I use copilot and it picks up a fix within 20 seconds, even in my 307 with a treated windscreen (my dedicated tomtom 920 can take 5 minutes) it updates fast as well, if there was a downside I would say the speaker, but I use a tape to CD adaptor so the sound goes through my car stereo so no probs there.

6. I think it would depend on what you want to use it for and how much wifi you have access to. For me i have wifi at home and work so dont use a great deal of data. But I would say for just emails\updates and a bit of light surfing you should be ok. If you start streaming music\vids you might struggle. 3G watchdog will help you keep an eye on how much you are using. If you haven't chosen an operator yet then 3 have some good tarrifs at the moment and have just upped the fair use to 1GB from 500MB.

 

[Bren_D]

Oh and if the 1gb data FUP on 3 doesn't appeal, have a look at T-Mobile for their 3gb for all Android phones. They don't seem to mind tethering, either.

To get the 3gb you need to go directly through T and not a reseller, but there have been some reports of people calling T after taking out a contract through a reseller and getting the extra data, but that is probably a bit hit and miss.

 

[Bertie]

I am preparing my contacts on Gmail, something I have not used before. I intend only to use it for the contacts and calendar, not email. I have used this because I believe that it is the one that will synch with Android.

In the contacts section, I have typed in name and then phone number in the appropriate boxes, but nothing else. Once I have my phone, will it transfer over by synching fairly easily, and do I store it on the phone or on the micro SD card, and will it give me a choice when I connect?

 

[nacatomi]

It should automatically download a local copy of your contacts to the phone after you put in your google account details during setup and any changes made will sync between the 2.

 

[Evil Genius]

the contacts are stored on googles server. that's the beauty of it. you can update anywhere at any time and it happens quite seamlessly.

 

[Evil Genius]

I am preparing my contacts on Gmail, something I have not used before. I intend only to use it for the contacts and calendar, not email. I have used this because I believe that it is the one that will synch with Android.

In the contacts section, I have typed in name and then phone number in the appropriate boxes, but nothing else. Once I have my phone, will it transfer over by synching fairly easily, and do I store it on the phone or on the micro SD card, and will it give me a choice when I connect?

you can transfer the contacts to your SD card, just make sure you only have one option ticked here:

people > menu > view > choose Google

or you might end up with double entries in your phonebook.

 

[SUroot]

the contacts are stored on googles server. that's the beauty of it. you can update anywhere at any time and it happens quite seamlessly.

Not to confuse the issue, they are initially stored on the gmail server, then they will create a local copy on the phone too - so even if there is no network connection, you can still access them.

 

[Griff_LI]

I am in a dilemma about whether to get a Desire or the Galaxy S.

If you want comparison reviews The Register just did the Galaxy S and they did the Desire a while back.

Desire - 90%

Galaxy S - 85%

HTH