Redfly and the HTC Touch Diamond: One User's Experiences

[EdFrmBrighthand]

As part of my job, I have access to a large number of smartphones, and I've tried the Redfly out with a good number of them. I'm going to start writing up some of my experiences.

I've read about some problems using the HTC Touch Diamond with my Redfly, but I haven't had any significant ones. In order to use the two, I do have to make some changes on the smartphone, though. Specifically, the special enhancements that HTC has added to this device have to be turned off.

I'm talking about TouchFLO 3D. This has been specifically created to run on a VGA device in portrait mode, and performs poorly on the Redfly.

To turn it all off, go into Start > Settings > Today and switch the theme from "Htc black" to something else. I prefer "Windows Mobile 6.1". Next, without closing this control panel, hit the Items tab at the bottom of the screen. Uncheck TouchFLO 3D and put a check next to the items you'd instead like to be on your Today Screen, like Date, Messaging, and Calendar. Now hit OK.

You're almost finished. While still in Settings, hit the System tab at the bottom of the screen, then choose TouchFLO. Uncheck "Enable large Start menu" and "Show System Status screen when status icons are tapped". Now hit OK.

There, you're done. Basically, you've turned your Diamond into a generic Windows Mobile device, and the Redfly should work fine with it.

There's one caveat, though. Everything on the Redfly display is going to be very large. Sometimes it feels like I'm using My First Laptop. This is because text and icons on the Diamond have been set up to be easily viewable on a very small VGA display. When they are displayed on a large WVGA screen everything gets blown up. It's still usable, and it's even a nice effect if you're someone who needs reading glasses to read small type. You won't with the Redfly.

Please note, I'm using the European/GSM version of the Diamond, not the CDMA one from Sprint. This might make a difference, and I haven't been able to test out the Sprint version.

Also, I'm not using a beta driver. What I've written about here is with the plain-jane Redfly driver.
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[Midgeslayer]

Ed

Thanks for the Diamond post. I am thinking of upgrading my trusty HTC p3600. I want something that works better with the Redfly. How does the Touch Diamond compare with other phones you have tried with the Redfly, particularly in terms of speed and memory problems. My venerable p3600 struggles with its 64mb of RAM. When using Opera 8.65 on the phone with the redfly I cannot run anything else at the same time and then no overly complex websites, otherwise I am asked to close a window in the browser, even though I only have one window open! I often get the Redfly telling me that my device has run out of memory and may become unstable. Will all this be a thing of the past if I go for a Touch Diamond? Also you say the text is very big. Roughly what size of font is it.

p.s It will be interesting to see how the Touch HD and the Redfly get on.

 

[octobersed]

Very Large fonts

Hi Im using the HTC Diamond (In the form of O2 xda Ignito) My main issue is the size of the fonts. I have scoured the internet for a solution, but canot find one. Love the Redfly and the potential, but feel that it would be much better with smaller fonts.

Regards and thanks for any solutions

 

[stanip]

Hi Im using the HTC Diamond (In the form of O2 xda Ignito) My main issue is the size of the fonts. I have scoured the internet for a solution, but canot find one. Love the Redfly and the potential, but feel that it would be much better with smaller fonts.

Regards and thanks for any solutions

You might want to give RealVGA a try... dpi128 with some font tweaks seems to be the best compromise at this point.