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little annoyances

i havent been able to get the flip for speaker feature to work. ive turned the phone every which way and it doesnt switch to speaker. this is annoying cause when you need to put the phone down, ie while driving, your thumb really cant feel the button on a touch screen.

when im in the middle of a call and the phone is away from my face (its loud enough that i dont need speaker phone for some people) i hit the power button to turn the screen off and it immediately comes back on.

the charger is placed in a bad spot if you want to use the kick stand while you have to charge it, and the headphone jack is in an awkward spot when holding the phone horizontally since a lot of apps will only rotate the display 90 degrees in one direction.

the other thing i never understood is the function to visual connection of the volume button on a lot of smart phones. when the phone is vertical it makes sense, upper button gets louder, lower button gets quietter. but when youre horizontal, pushing left button increases the volume while the volume bar moves to the right and vice versa. everywhere else in life left is negative, right is positive...

also, why cant we change the ringer volume unless we hit the power button, swipe down, enter our pin (which cant always be done quickly since it is sometimes laggy in response) and get to the home screen?

and why do we have to "root" the phone to get rid of the dumb useless apps that come with the phone? such as peep, rhapsody, lets golf, city id, blockbuster, bit bop, slacker... they dont take up a whole lot of memory, but they just clutter the all apps menu. and why cant i reduce the number of home pages from 7 to just 2 or 3?

i also had an odd issue the other day. i restarted the phone because despite disabling the notifications in hanging with friends, i am still getting them, (including the ever so important "waiting on so-and-so to make their move" thanks for reminding me that i'm waiting...) so i thought a restart might help. when the phone came back on it said it didnt recognize the sim card and that i could only make emergency calls. i was still able to make calls, but the annoying sim card image kept coming up every time. so i had to shut it down completely, wait a few minutes then boot up again.

we all know about the battery life...

this is my first smartphone and overall, the experience has been meh... mostly ranting, partly looking for explanations, partly looking for solutions.

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Wildman

MattP123614 wrote:
i havent been able to get the flip for speaker feature to work. ive turned the phone every which way and it doesnt switch to speaker. this is annoying cause when you need to put the phone down, ie while driving, your thumb really cant feel the button on a touch screen.

when im in the middle of a call and the phone is away from my face (its loud enough that i dont need speaker phone for some people) i hit the power button to turn the screen off and it immediately comes back on.

I really havent had any of the phones with this option work correctly with this feature.. I gave up on it a while back..

the charger is placed in a bad spot if you want to use the kick stand while you have to charge it, and the headphone jack is in an awkward spot when holding the phone horizontally since a lot of apps will only rotate the display 90 degrees in one direction.

I usually flip the phone over the other diraction to have the power cord on top, this would have the phone rest on the stiff part of the kickstand instead of the top like usual, this only works well if you are lucky to have a stiff kickstand when pulled out.

the other thing i never understood is the function to visual connection of the volume button on a lot of smart phones. when the phone is vertical it makes sense, upper button gets louder, lower button gets quietter. but when youre horizontal, pushing left button increases the volume while the volume bar moves to the right and vice versa. everywhere else in life left is negative, right is positive...

My Droid X was the same way, it all depends on the manufactures design, in order to change the direction that volume works depending on orientation sounds simple but in the programming world this could cause more issue than simplify things..

also, why cant we change the ringer volume unless we hit the power button, swipe down, enter our pin (which cant always be done quickly since it is sometimes laggy in response) and get to the home screen?

Some lock screen apps added the option to keep the volume buttons live but I believe the stock volume controls only works in the middle of a incoming ring to remove the change of turning volume down in your pocket without your knowledge.. What you thinks makes no since is actually a sound design for some..

and why do we have to "root" the phone to get rid of the dumb useless apps that come with the phone? such as peep, rhapsody, lets golf, city id, blockbuster, bit bop, slacker... they dont take up a whole lot of memory, but they just clutter the all apps menu. and why cant i reduce the number of home pages from 7 to just 2 or 3?

You have a choice to pay more for the device or allow the Service Provider cut cost to customer by using marketing apps to adjust the difference, I think i can live with the apps if they are not effecting device performance, I just feel that there should be a option to disable them running at start up.

Now as for the number of panels, not all UI are designed with the same features for a reason, the level of modification of the code to add a feature such as this could easily break other thing in the UI and would take a number of man hours to trouble shoot and redesign. Which in the end cost money. Developer have to identify what is and isnt a required feature to produce a stable product.

i also had an odd issue the other day. i restarted the phone because despite disabling the notifications in hanging with friends, i am still getting them, (including the ever so important "waiting on so-and-so to make their move" thanks for reminding me that i'm waiting...) so i thought a restart might help. when the phone came back on it said it didnt recognize the sim card and that i could only make emergency calls. i was still able to make calls, but the annoying sim card image kept coming up every time. so i had to shut it down completely, wait a few minutes then boot up again.

Hanging with Friends is a 3rd party developers app and HTC or Verizon involved in the apps development, there is a such thing as a bug in a app especially when its coming from another source, this is a situation that happens in programming and there is no guarantees on the app working flawlessly.... You may want to contact the developer at http://www.zyngawithfriends.com/hangingwithfriends/support/Hanging_With_Friends_Support.html

As for the sim not reading on a device, the sim is just like a SD card and users experience read errors from time to time and this should be expected because the method of establishing a connection is through some small metal tips (Bad design but works)

we all know about the battery life...

I have Extended battery so I dont know what your speak of

this is my first smartphone and overall, the experience has been meh... mostly ranting, partly looking for explanations, partly looking for solutions.

Understandable but a number of your concerns is preferences than design issues.. I understand that users want to be able to pick up a device and use it easily but since you reported that you are new to the smartphone world you haven't adapted from the designs of the previous devices, devices are design to be unique to have them stand out over others and this will work with some and others may dislike the design.... Its all preference.

I hope I was able to answer your questions to clarify a few things about your device, by the way Welcome to the forum...

Ann154

Wildman wrote:
MattP123614 wrote:
i havent been able to get the flip for speaker feature to work. ive turned the phone every which way and it doesnt switch to speaker. this is annoying cause when you need to put the phone down, ie while driving, your thumb really cant feel the button on a touch screen.

when im in the middle of a call and the phone is away from my face (its loud enough that i dont need speaker phone for some people) i hit the power button to turn the screen off and it immediately comes back on.

I really havent had any of the phones with this option work correctly with this feature.. I gave up on it a while back..

I can get the speakerphone to turn with a flip on a flat surface. You have to flip it so that the Top Edge is the pivot edge and lift the bottom edge up and overto face the screen down and reverse it to turn the speakerphone off. Normally I just use the button though.
I hope I was able to answer your questions to clarify a few things about your device, by the way Welcome to the forum...

[edited for brevity at author's request]

Wildman

Ann154 wrote:
Wildman wrote:
I really havent had any of the phones with this option work correctly with this feature.. I gave up on it a while back..

I can get the speakerphone to turn with a flip on a flat surface. You have to flip it so that the Top Edge is the pivot edge and lift the bottom edge up and overto face the screen down and reverse it to turn the speakerphone off. Normally I just use the button though.
Just tried that Ann and you are correct, doing that worked perfectly everytime. thanks for educating me on the correct way to get that to work...Cant believe I overlooked that method so many times... Still seems that the speaker button is a easier way to access it...
Thanks

MattP123614

is your extended battery the same size as the standard one or does it require that big bulky back plate? being a guy i dont have the luxury of a purse, and the phone is already a snug fit in my pants pocket, and i dont think the fanny pack is going to make a comeback anytime soon.

my kickstand isnt firm enough to work in the opposite direction, and even if it was, the apps only rotate the image in one direction so it would be upside down.

Wildman

MattP123614 wrote:
is your extended battery the same size as the standard one or does it require that big bulky back plate? being a guy i dont have the luxury of a purse, and the phone is already a snug fit in my pants pocket, and i dont think the fanny pack is going to make a comeback anytime soon.

Ths battery is a larger battery that does stick out but everyone that using or sees my device says it not bad and actually with it on the device feels even more solid in the hand but its a preference thing, check out this video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNOcKScQHO8

my kickstand isnt firm enough to work in the opposite direction, and even if it was, the apps only rotate the image in one direction so it would be upside down.

That's strange because all my device will rotate the other direction without issues..

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