LED notifications

[Devilstar]

Wondering if there is a way to turn the led on for notifications for things other than missed calls/voicemails. For example, new texts or emails... That has to be the biggest thing I miss about my BB so far..

 

[Baka]

I think the manual says that there should be indicators for texts and emails, but I have never seen it happen in a month.

My Nokia was awesome at this. In all honesty, though, I have gotten to like the fact that my phone can't intrude into my visual space with work related information. But it would be nice to have that as an OPTION and not because the phone doesn't work as it should.

Not having led notifications is a pretty big oversight in my opinion.

 

[Devilstar]

Agreed. I hate having to constantly fiddle for the lock key to see if I have any messages.. An led would make it so much better

 

[Baka]

I don't know much about the technical stuff, but I think MS has locked down a bunch of APIs on WP7 to this point. Maybe after they open some more up this is a fixable problem for an app?

Better yet would be an HTC fix. Though to be honest, when I had a Samsung Epic 4g, that thing stunk at LED notifications too. BB and Nokia seem to be the only manufacturers who execute this particular feature well.

 

[Devilstar]

I'm hoping its just a bug and will get fixed... Much like the 160 limit text bug.

Maybe with the security update?? One can hope

 

[foosball]

HTC routinely does not enable led notifications for texts/emails on their devices. Its bad policy and the only solution appears to be an end around via homebrew. Although homebrew support is anemic on this platform so we may very well be stuck.

 

[Rhody#WP]

I wish there was an LED on the back. The glass reflects light and I mistakenly think I see the LED blink all the time. I turn the phone face down on my desk so I don't get distracted.

 

[Baka]

Didn't realize it was an HTC thing.

As I said earlier, it doesn't bug me too much, but it is a big oversight for something so simple.

And yeah, the 160 character text limit needs a fix much more urgently.

 

[Rhody#WP]

I don't think they should change the 160 character limit. That's the standard. It's called SHORT message service (SMS). Just like Twitter limits you to 150 characters (because it's based off of SMS). Just learn to be more succinct. Texting is an art. It's part of today's culture.

Don't text me a novel. If you have that much to say, write an email or call me.

 

[Baka]

Ah, no.

I have an unlimited texting plan, so what's the point of a hard cut off on my texts? Simply auto-populate a SECOND text message to carry the extra characters. I'm not arguing for infinite character texts, I'm arguing for the phone being smart enough to put the extra characters into another SMS.

My Nokia E63 did this seamlessly. The fact that the Arrive doesn't do it is an oversight and a bug, not some preservation of cultural norms and art.

 

[canesfan625]

I don't think they should change the 160 character limit. That's the standard. It's called SHORT message service (SMS). Just like Twitter limits you to 150 characters (because it's based off of SMS). Just learn to be more succinct. Texting is an art. It's part of today's culture.

Don't text me a novel. If you have that much to say, write an email or call me.

What? 160 isn't 160 because all of the carriers had a meeting. Its the max amount of data that can be sent through the locator channel. So obviously what he is talking about is about is the known bug with the phone not splitting text messages at 160 like pretty much every other phone does.

 

[foosball]

The fact that the Arrive doesn't do it is an oversight and a bug, not some preservation of cultural norms and art.

Well put. "Cultural norms" still has me rolling.

 

[kwool]

On each Sprint phone I've had, including Nokias and Samsungs, I have never been able to send a text message of more than 160 characters.

 

[Rhody#WP]

Calling it a bug is hilarioius.

 

[Devilstar]

Yeah, but if they put it in the manual and its not on the phone, well them someone dropped the ball and it easier to Blame it on a bug than on a person/company.

and hacking the English language to make it fit in a text isn't an art, and it damn well shouldn't be any sort of norm. And then we wonder why it seems kids are getting dumber.

 

[starblade876]

Okay, so a lot of people seem to be talking and misunderstand everyone else (or, at least, I'm not, which is entirely possible ).

On the text message limit. The missing feature is not one that sends more than 160 characters, it's one that splits messages more than 160 into two separate SMS messages. In other words, if I send a 162 character message to someone, it's actually a 160 character message and a separate 2 character message that follows the first message. It IS a known bug according to a Sprint employee (160 Character limit for txt messages on HTC Arrive? - Microsoft Answers) who actually also posted on the forums here, too.

On the LED light, it more than likely isn't a bug and I actually don't really get the need and, definitely, don't miss it. MS didn't have a notification light as one of the minimum requirements because they didn't have a setting for it. Honestly, with the notifications on the lock screen, I don't see why you'd need one really. The little icons are much more informative than a blinking light to let you know about new things.

 

[foosball]

On the LED light, it more than likely isn't a bug and I actually don't really get the need and, definitely, don't miss it. MS didn't have a notification light as one of the minimum requirements because they didn't have a setting for it. Honestly, with the notifications on the lock screen, I don't see why you'd need one really. The little icons are much more informative than a blinking light to let you know about new things.

The lock screen and led notifications are hardly mutually exclusive. In fact they are complementary and would work very well side-by-side. I'd rather have the option to have led notifications than not have any option at all. Why even have a blinking light for missed calls then? It just leaves the impression that they didn't think it through.

When it comes to user experience choice/flexibility is usually better.

 

[disposed]

Okay, so a lot of people seem to be talking and misunderstand everyone else (or, at least, I'm not, which is entirely possible ).

On the text message limit. The missing feature is not one that sends more than 160 characters, it's one that splits messages more than 160 into two separate SMS messages. In other words, if I send a 162 character message to someone, it's actually a 160 character message and a separate 2 character message that follows the first message. It IS a known bug according to a Sprint employee (160 Character limit for txt messages on HTC Arrive? - Microsoft Answers) who actually also posted on the forums here, too.

You are the one misunderstanding whats going on.

Sending a 162 character text is impossible with the arrive. The bug is that it DONT split the text into multiple messages (like just about every other phone on the planet) it just stops letting you input text at 160 entirely.

Certain people being condescending and claiming its not a bug is whats hilarious. This is not how it was intended to work and they have promised a fix.

Its a bug, plain and simple.

 

[starblade876]

The lock screen and led notifications are hardly mutually exclusive. In fact they are complementary and would work very well side-by-side. I'd rather have the option to have led notifications than not have any option at all. Why even have a blinking light for missed calls then? It just leaves the impression that they didn't think it through.

When it comes to user experience choice/flexibility is usually better.

I actually never noticed that it blinked when you missed a call, but I'd still guess the light was an HTC feature since I think I remember hearing that the other WinPhones don't have LED notification lights for even missed calls (though, now, I'm wondering if they at least have one for charging and low battery). Anyway, it's not that I think they're exclusive, it's that I think the lock screen notifications make the LED notification for calls and messages not necessary, almost a novelty.

That said, I'd agree that they should have an option on it since I think the LED for charging and low-battery is pretty necessary, so I figure, if it's necessary for those, it might as well be used to please other people's desires, too.

You are the one misunderstanding whats going on.

Sending a 162 character text is impossible with the arrive. The bug is that it DONT split the text into multiple messages (like just about every other phone on the planet) it just stops letting you input text at 160 entirely.

Certain people being condescending and claiming its not a bug is whats hilarious. This is not how it was intended to work and they have promised a fix.

Its a bug, plain and simple.

Um, I know it's not possible and I was confirming it was a bug. I said this in the post you replied to and it's easily backed up with the link I provided... The only thing I said wrong was in the parentheses. I meant to say "or, at least, I might be [misunderstanding everyone else]..."

I can further explain why it would be considered a bug using reasoning if people don't trust the "supposed" Sprint rep. I don't think many older phones had the splitting feature (even if they were smartphones), so that might explain kwool's experience. However, I'm pretty sure the HTC Evo did split messages, so we can be pretty sure that Sprint doesn't have a rule against it. From the thread about the issue in this forum, we've been told that the HTC Surround is also able to split messages, so we know that neither WP7 nor HTC has a rule against it either. If none of the businesses involved have a problem with it and it was a previous feature, clearly, something went wrong somewhere to remove the feature from the OS. In other words, it's a bug.

 

[Rhody#WP]

You are the one misunderstanding whats going on.

Sending a 162 character text is impossible with the arrive. The bug is that it DONT split the text into multiple messages (like just about every other phone on the planet) it just stops letting you input text at 160 entirely.

Certain people being condescending and claiming its not a bug is whats hilarious. This is not how it was intended to work and they have promised a fix.

Its a bug, plain and simple.

A bug is an unintended defect in software code. Stopping text input at 160 characters is how most of the phones in the world, most of which are dumbphones, operate.

Perhaps most smartphones, hardly every phone on the planet, have an additional feature of automatically splitting a long input string into two or more texts. Not including this additional feature is not a bug. If it was programmed to split the text but fails to do so, then I guess calling it a bug is accurate because it's behaving in a way that is unintended.