HTC Desire series

[kuraiza]

I'm terrible at finding apps. i'm looking for the following. Please help: 1. A way to move apps to AND run them from the SD card. 2. A much improved keyboard (i really like swype). 3. Any tips for conserving battery life. Also any other good performance-improving apps. Not games or gimmicks. I am quite good at finding those. Thanks.

[redpages · Accepted solution]

I read this about installing apps straight to an SD card the other month, though haven't tried it myself yet

Speaking of keyboards this blog about something called Swift Key was tweeted the other week, again not tried it myself yet but it's a decent blog with some practical app recommendations in there. There's also 8Pen if you like something a little different although it won't be everyone's cup of tea

As for the battery, there are some standard ones you can do. I've always found knocking down the brightness and dragging down the top menu bar and using the 'clear' apps which are still open in the background can have some success. There's mixed thoughts on how effective shutting down open apps is on preserving battery life so if you do have problems with battery drain it's always worth closing down one at a time as this can help narrow down the problem, again, some useful reading over on the Android forums.

[kuraiza]

Thanks. Very helpful. I also downloaded the demo of slideit and I'm finding it pretty good so I think it's worth $8 for the full version. I do wish swype was available.

[NeoBlade]

1. Go to the Market and download the free App 2 SD app. Using this app you can see which apps can be moved to the SDCard or not. If you have the Desire HD though you have loads of internal space so unless you install loads of massive games, you shouldn't run out of internal space. Don't forget that internal space will always be quicker than external memory for loading and using the app/games too. If you do decide to move apps to SD, then I would highly recommend using a Class6 microSD card for better performance.

2. You can join the Swype Beta online (www.swypeinc.com) and if you get through you can beta test it for free. It is almost ready to be pushed to the market as well. For a more traditional keyboard I would suggest Smart Keyboard Pro or Swiftkey as mentioned previously. Personally I use Smart Keyboard Pro as I find it much better at predicting and correcting your words.

3. Check all your social networking apps and limit the polling to every hour or 2. Chances are if you are a social networker you will be loading the apps at least once per hour anyway to keep an eye on things. No point in having it check every 5 mins as it will eat your battery.

Check your Battery status too.

Settings > About Phone > Battery > Battery Use

See what is eating up the most percentage and check that app for different settings. There are many methods on keeping an eye on your battery use and if you don't really use the internet much when the phone is idle then you can download Juice Defender and see if that helps.

[XDA_dave]

one program i use to help with cobntrolling my hero is phone weaver, its good for setting different things to happen at different times, i.e. work or home or night and day, i sent mine to switch all data connections off, lower the brightness to minimum and also automatically set it to vibrate at night (a time pre-set in the app)

juice defender is quite good but io could never figure out how it worked or how to actually set it up properly...

[paddingtonper]

ive found for battery life just switching off either wifi or mobile internet connections helps alot,but also the email/social network updates you might aswell slow right down coz you can just update them real quick when your in free wifi areas for example

[g00se]

There are a few widgets like this - but the one I like that helps power management is "Dazzle Configurable Switcher" by Moonblink. You end up with the choice of 1,2,3 or 4 button widget switches that you can configure for verious options. I use Wifi, Mobile data, Bluetooth and GPS.

You can switch each off and on individually very quicky. So when I leave the house i turn wifi off; I keep GPS off unless I'm using navigation; same with bluetooth - I only switch it on if transferring something - and at night I turn both wifi and mobile data off, which saves loads of power (the phone will survive all night on 5% power remaining as long as I don't use it).

The only thing to note with it - though it makes sense when you think about how the phone works - is that the mobile data switch doesn't work when wifi is enabled and connected. But once you switch wifi off, the mobile data switch re-enables itself.

Also, go to the sync options in settings and you'll sees a list of apps that sync over the air. It's worth turning off sync for those apps you may not use (stocks, news etc).

[g00se]

A similar app to Phoneweaver - but which is free - is AudioGuru by Jupiter apps. Although, it only works with audio settings and not sync/connections, it may help with power usage when you want the phone a little quieter at certain times of day.