Got HTC HD2, now what?

[xs11e]

I've had multiple phones, BlackBerries, Android devices, etc. but this is my first WinMo phone and I can't get it to do anything!

How do you get webpages to open sized to the screen? Why is this so easy with BB or Android and so completely impossible on WinMo?

Any good tutorian anywhere? I've had no luck getting any of my questions answered so... help?

Does anyone else get more than 4-5 hours out of a battery?

How does one customize the home screen?

I can't even read Facebook on it, it just give me text with no pics sometimes.

I tried Opera which I've learned to hate with my PC and BlackBerry, MSIE is unusable on the phone..... surely others must be able to make this stuff work?

 

[xs11e]

No help anywhere?

 

[Jerryk#IM]

I just saw your post. What are you having issues with? I've had the phone for 7 months and love it. With the hd2 you either love it or hate it. I'd be happy to help.

 

[xs11e]

Thanks for the response.

I guess the WinMO phone was overwhelming because it's SOOO different from Android and BB OSs and many times less intuitive but I spent all day today working with it and have solved a whole bunch of issues and I'm confident I can fix some of the remaining but....

The biggest one right now is battery life, the phone is fairly new (got it from Craig's List) and I'm getting around 5 hours or less on a battery! I can't turn off WiFi because my house is in a T-Mo weak signal area.

Right now, I've got it connected to a usb port and it's just barely charging, the phone is using battery almost as fast as it's charging! This can't be normal but.... I notice the battery seems very small for the phone....

 

[Jerryk#IM]

Battery life on the hd2 is definitely not the greatest. Some suggestions to save battery life is to turn off weather animations, adjust brightness, set email retrieval, stock updates, etc..... I do none of those. I keep a charger handy. WinMo is not as intuitive as what you are use to, but there are many cooked roms that attempt to address this. I have a couple of friends who run android 2.2 on their hd2s and it rocks. I'm contemplating it myself. But, back to the battery issue you inquired about. The most life I have personally gotten from the hd2 is about a day. That was a light day of use. I text, call, surf and take pictures constantly. A day of regular use..... Six hours tops. I use a bluetooth for all my phone calls, text as i talk, and check email a lot. Also, you can turn your hd2 into a wifi hotspot. Grab the wifirouter in wnmo marketplace.

Apps I run:

Pageonce

Glympse

Bing

Wmwifirouter

CleanRam

Panoramic moTweets

Agenda one

Lookout mobile security

Microsoft my phone

Facebook(doesn't refresh)

Also make sure you have task manager as one of your shortcuts on your home screen. Periodically use it to end all tasks. This will help save some battery life by closing open programs running in the background.

 

[xs11e]

Thanks, of your list I have the weather animation on because it's sort of neat, I like the looks of the home screen with it. I'll probably turn it off once I'm more used to the phone. I do keep the charger handy at home or in the car!

Your last suggestion is a very good one and I've made Task Manager easier to get to!

As for Android, not a bad suggestion but I'm not sure I'd want to run it from the card, what I'd like is a means to remove WinMo completely, install Android 2.2 and run it all the time *B*U*T* be able to wipe and reinstall WinMo if I want to do so. I'm WAY too new at this to attempt it, so far I haven't even found a way to backup the phone! I don't mean backup like Windows Sync, I mean backup as in wipe the phone down to NO OS and restore it exactly as it was, settings and all like formatting my C: drive and restoring an Acronis Image.

I can erase and add OSs with BB and often do, other phones aren't so accomodating...
Where's the good old RSD Lite, etc. that allowed my to flash my Moto V3 or V9 to whatever UI I wanted? <G>

 

[xs11e]

Today I got up fairly early and installed a dual boot Android 2.2 (FROYO) system on the HD2 which runs from the memory card.

I got the bugs worked out, got the dual boot tested, finished my final setup on WinMo and completed the setup on Android (easier because I've done it before and Android is MUCH more intuitive than WinMo.

NOTE: Anyone who's interested can follow this 'how to':
http://everythinghd2.blogspot.com/

At 4:30 pm the phone died (in Android at the time) with a message to connect the charger, I'd killed the battery.

FIX: Logged onto T-Mo's site, changed phone to BB 9700, changed plan to BIS and fired up the BB 9700.

The HD2 is on my "unusable" list, it ran only about 10 hours and many of them were plugged into the USB port so it's next stop will probably be Craig's List or Ebay.

Anyone want to make an offer around $260? I have everything it came with, box, charger, etc. etc.

 

[charliebrown408]

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