Got my Hero - Some Opinions

[CrazyDelta]

I got my Hero last week, and have been totally captivated by it since.

Unlike everyone else who had to suffer thru the lag and stuff before the firmware upgrade, in Hong Kong we received our phones already updated.

Interesting note - the build number we received is 2.73.721.9 (i have not noticed this one anywhere else, maybe it is a special local version)

Some of the things I read in reviews were spot on in terms of annoyances such as the placement of the Back button.

But in most other things, I love my Hero.

I do have a few suggestions that's I'd give to HTC to look into for future updates such as..

In People app..email needs to be able to retrieve email records from gmail account. This is what will make People app perfect for me.

Video playback really needs to improve. And if possible, allow for more codecs.

Camera / video recording could use some minor improvements.

I may consider to make a list of things that HTC could improve in future updates, however I would also love to hear what other users here have to say in terms of changes that would really improve the overall HERO and Sense experience.

If I get enough response, I'll try and make a petition to send to HTC to capture the ideas and get their attention.

Cheers.

 

[daffyduck]

In People app..email needs to be able to retrieve email records from gmail account. This is what will make People app perfect for me.

Hi, good to see that you are loving the phone - I have had mine in the UK for 2 months now & can't remember what life was like without it. Used to have a Nokia N95 & the the Hero is just capable of sooo much more than the Nokia - I use the phone so much more, it is crazy.

Not quite sure what you are trying to say with your comment above......

The people app already retrieves emails from GMail. If anybody emails me to my GMail account & the contact is on my phone/GMail, the mail gets flagged as new on my People app.

Only thing you may want to check is whether you have your download options set correctly for your GMail. I use the HTC Mail widget. In the Gmail app, go MENU / SETTINGS / SEND & RECEIVE. At this location, you are able to modify how GMail gets sucked down into your phone.

My settings are as follows:
Mail size limit - 1mb
Download frequency - hourly
Download options - 14 days.

The last one is the most important one, as this drives how much of your email get sucked down to the phone (i.e. the last 14 days). This is the setting you may want to check IMHO.

 

[CrazyDelta]

Hi Peter,

What I meant is that...in my People app...all my contacts are set as Phone contacts. I imported these from my SIM card. I didn't want to make them into Google contacts. I wanted my Phone contacts to remain separate, as I find too many unknown emails and stuff in my Google contacts.

Now, for my contacts (Phone contacts), I can tap and had their email. Once I add their email...I was hoping the app could automatically look into my Gmail account and put in my past record of emails with these contacts.

 

[danijelsh]

Hi, good to see that you are loving the phone - I have had mine in the UK for 2 months now & can't remember what life was like without it. Used to have a Nokia N95 & the the Hero is just capable of sooo much more than the Nokia - I use the phone so much more, it is crazy.

Not quite sure what you are trying to say with your comment above......

The people app already retrieves emails from GMail. If anybody emails me to my GMail account & the contact is on my phone/GMail, the mail gets flagged as new on my People app.

Only thing you may want to check is whether you have your download options set correctly for your GMail. I use the HTC Mail widget. In the Gmail app, go MENU / SETTINGS / SEND & RECEIVE. At this location, you are able to modify how GMail gets sucked down into your phone.

My settings are as follows:
Mail size limit - 1mb
Download frequency - hourly
Download options - 14 days.

The last one is the most important one, as this drives how much of your email get sucked down to the phone (i.e. the last 14 days). This is the setting you may want to check IMHO.

hey, i know this is an old thread, but i didn't quite get this download options. what does it mean "by days" - is that how many mails will be retrieved in the last predefined number of days? and by number of emails, that refers to (obviously numbers) mails independent of arrival time?

what settings would you recommend for constant 3G connection? your settings sound fine to me, for example.

so, mails that contain only text, and their size is under 1MB will be retrieved, but the ones over 1MB won't? what about mails under 1MB, but containing attachments that are, for example 3MB? that mail (header and text) will be retrieved but not the attachment,until you click on the attachment, right? and this is of course in IMAP setting...

shed some light, please, as i would like to have a similar experience as with nokia mail client, meaning i can see all of my incoming mail, but i can also choose what to fully retrieve (in order to use data plan more efficiently).

thank you!

 

[Jaffa]

If you add you gmail account to the Hero's mail widget, not the gmail widget, your contacts (gmail) get imported into the mail section in people..

 

[tuahogary]

hey, i know this is an old thread, but i didn't quite get this download options. what does it mean "by days" - is that how many mails will be retrieved in the last predefined number of days? and by number of emails, that refers to (obviously numbers) mails independent of arrival time?

what settings would you recommend for constant 3G connection? your settings sound fine to me, for example.

Yes I think you got it about right. If you set by days, for example 14 days, the phone will retrieve all mail received/sent in the past 14 days from the server. By number meaning it will display the latest (e.g. 20) mails; yes independent of how far/close they are.

Im not sure how often you use your mail app but I manually check my mail so it saves battery. I wont recommend setting it to update very frequently, perhaps 30 mins or 1 hour is sufficient. If you use the GMail app instead, new mail gets pushed from the server to the app so data connection is only used when you receive new mail. That may save you more data & battery depending on how often you receive emails of course.

 

[danijelsh]

But isn't gmail app retreiving the attachments by default? I thought this was gonna be a problem for the data plan....

 

[tuahogary]

hmm I'm not so sure how Gmail app handles attachments but as I was saying instead of refreshing the entire inbox every few minutes like the HTC mail, it only downloads a new email everytime the Gmail server receives one & notifies it. Meaning it doesnt unneccesarily use the network to check for mail even though there isnt a new one.