HTC, Android, and Gmail; my what an adventure
2011-Aug-04, Thursday 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeEvery phone I've ever had has broken (or gotten itself lost due to its lack of heft), except the Nokia 3210. It was the first phone in our house, everyone used it at some point, and it only left two years ago, when my brother sold it; completely functional, with original battery, still holding over a days charge. To this day I still look back on that device as mobile phones perfected. The shape and weight distribution in relation to my hand has never been equalled. *sniff*
But the other phones (with the notable exception of the Sony that fell out of my pocket while running for a bus), all broke. Usually button after button fell off or stopped responding, until it became completely unusuable. But I've also found that one day some of them simply wouldn't turn on. I came to realise that the old adage ("you get what you pay for") does not apply in this case. All phones, regardless of cost, break. The best you can hope for is to extend its lifetime until you get bored and upgrade. And that has more to do with buying protective cases and keeping them away from keys and festivals than the price tag. What the cost gets you is features, not quality.
This rambling was prompted by the slow decay of my Sony Ericsson W705. From day one the memory card was dodgy, often, spontaneously, refusing to admit its existence, let alone its contents. Eventually the wireless radio broke, constantly turning itself on, and searching, but never finding any networks. (I tried not to interpret it as a metaphor.) Then it stopped alerting me of incoming calls, and wiping the missed call notifications when a new notification popped up. It would also freeze from time to time, and when connecting calls refuse to allow either side to hear anything. But it wasn't until the clock reset to Jan 1st, 2000, and simply would not accept any updates, that I realised I was tired of living in the past.
While I was making do, the world went on changed around me. Instead of smartphones being the expensive exception, now they were the majority. Despite my history of breaking them, I love buttons. Love them. Refuse to do without them. Touchscreen devices are not my friends. But I'm also a programmer, and a bit of an Open-Source head, so it had to be Android. That really reduced my options. To one. The HTC Desire Z. At least it won't fly out of my pocket.
A new toy should be a happy event, but I feel like I was dragged kicking and screaming into this new world order, so I'm finding it more traumatic than happy. On my more optimistic days I view it as a really tiny laptop with phone functionality, and that makes me happier. But really people, what is so wrong with a phone just being a phone?!
Anyway. What all this has taught me is how much of a control-freak I am when it comes to technology. All these 'helpful' programs and processes, auto-start features, auto-sync, not only drains the phones battery, but mine as well. Simply put; do not want. I turned everything off. GPS services, both kinds, wlan, bluetooth, data, everything off. I will turn it on as needed, then swiftly shut it down again. (Maybe I've been spending too much time dealing with firewalls and ports...)
The Quest to download apps from the Android Market
I had skipped the majority of the Setup procedure, so had yet to link a Google account with my phone. I clicked the little icon, and it requested a "Google account". I said, okay, whisked myself away to a laptop and created a Google account with one of my other email accounts. Went back, entered it, and it said no. Then clarified that it needed a "Gmail account". Vexed, I deleted the account I'd just created, then caved and put in my Gmail that I've been using for about ten years. Not the smartest move. But, it's not actually that difficult to clean up the mess. (The aforementioned mess being now having former lecturers and ex-friends sitting in my phone book, just waiting for me to accidentally press them. It pulled in every address/number ever contacted over the last ten years. Including a lot of info and support addys.) But first, I downloaded the apps I'd gone there to get in the first place.
Apps
Advanced Task Killer; more like a task manager, shutting down apps. More fine-grained control under "Settings" > "Applications" > "Manage applications".
3G Watchdog; I spend my days travelling between places with wireless networks, but a smartphone still needs a data-plan, so I got one with a ridiculously small limit, to see how I get on. This app let's me know how much data I've sent/used.
Catch; note taking, in lots of different formats. I'm just using the free/accountless version.
Barcode Scanner; Catch prompted me to get this, it's nifty. Barcodes and QR codes.
ConnectBot; ssh utility, this made me squee. But such tiny tiny text.
I asked on twitter for suggestions, and got over thirty different apps. I looked up most of them, but don't really have a use for them. Yet. I will keep them in mind as my needs evolve.
Back to fixing what in the old days we called a 'phonebook'
Find your way to "People", hit "menu", then "Delete", and mark every contact accidentally imported. It may ask you about some matches it made, I discarded them.
Next, into "Settings", and "Accounts and sync". Select the "Google" entry with your account, and on the new page there's a "Remove account" button. It looks nice, so I pressed it. Am I really sure? Yes, "Remove". "This account is required by some applications. You can only remove it by resetting the phone to factory defaults...". Too good to be true. Okay, then, I'm not beaten yet.
Back to "Settings" and "Applications" this time. "Manage applications", and the "All" tab. Select "Gmail", "Force stop" if you need to, then, "Clear data", are you sure, "Ok". Done.
Now, to stop this from happening again. First, turn off Data, and Wireless. Then back to "Settings", "Accounts & Sync". Temporarily enable "Background data" and "Auto-sync", then select "Google" again, and in the new page de-select what you don't want to sync, i.e. "Sync contacts". Go back and disable the previous "Auto-sync" and "Background data" options as you see fit. (In fact you can do this will all apps listed there. Whether they respect it or not is something still to be seen.)
[I left Gmail inbox with permission to sync, but opening the app after this left me with "Waiting for sync" and "Your email will appear shortly." until I went to "Accounts & Sync" and manually sync'd it. Guess this is where the auto-sync feature would come in handy. And, yes, Contacts didn't sync!]
And just to be damn well certain it wouldn't happen again, I logged into Gmail through the neglected-feeling laptop, and in Contacts, deleted everyone. Mayhap that horrifies you, but for me it's a beautifully simple solution.
But, say you want to sync up some of your contacts, not just everyone you've ever contacted during the life of your gmail account. Well, I came across this Lifehacker article, and it gave me some ideas. I'm going to create a custom group in Contacts, and manually populate it with people I might actually wish to contact and have sync'd. Then I'll try the selective Contact group import. If that works I'll actually be quite happy.
Later: Hmm. The 'Contacts app' mentioned in that article I don't have, and can't find in the market. I manually sync'd the Contacts, and after a minute they appeared in 'People'. Seems all were sync'd, don't know how to selectively pick certain groups. They also didn't auto-link. I had to click on each of the Gmail contacts (in 'People'), and 'link' them to the numbers myself (chain-link button up top-right). If I'd sorted my Contacts before linking the account life would have been easier. Still, done now, all nice and clean.
*EDIT* Once my phone updated from from 2.2 to 2.3 the menus appeared and it all worked. See: here
Bluetooth connection to Parrot car-kit
This one confused me for a long time. I was doing everything right; going into the pairing menu on the Parrot, using the correct pairing code, using the on-screen numerical keyboard instead of the alphanumeric physical one, everything. Then I figured I might as well delete my previous phone pairings. Then I tried again, and this time it worked! Seems the Parrot has a max paired list of six. Job done.
That's as far as I've gotten, and what I would consider functioning adequately. Once I've become a bit more familiar with the device I'll install the SDK and have some real fun!
But the other phones (with the notable exception of the Sony that fell out of my pocket while running for a bus), all broke. Usually button after button fell off or stopped responding, until it became completely unusuable. But I've also found that one day some of them simply wouldn't turn on. I came to realise that the old adage ("you get what you pay for") does not apply in this case. All phones, regardless of cost, break. The best you can hope for is to extend its lifetime until you get bored and upgrade. And that has more to do with buying protective cases and keeping them away from keys and festivals than the price tag. What the cost gets you is features, not quality.
This rambling was prompted by the slow decay of my Sony Ericsson W705. From day one the memory card was dodgy, often, spontaneously, refusing to admit its existence, let alone its contents. Eventually the wireless radio broke, constantly turning itself on, and searching, but never finding any networks. (I tried not to interpret it as a metaphor.) Then it stopped alerting me of incoming calls, and wiping the missed call notifications when a new notification popped up. It would also freeze from time to time, and when connecting calls refuse to allow either side to hear anything. But it wasn't until the clock reset to Jan 1st, 2000, and simply would not accept any updates, that I realised I was tired of living in the past.
While I was making do, the world went on changed around me. Instead of smartphones being the expensive exception, now they were the majority. Despite my history of breaking them, I love buttons. Love them. Refuse to do without them. Touchscreen devices are not my friends. But I'm also a programmer, and a bit of an Open-Source head, so it had to be Android. That really reduced my options. To one. The HTC Desire Z. At least it won't fly out of my pocket.
A new toy should be a happy event, but I feel like I was dragged kicking and screaming into this new world order, so I'm finding it more traumatic than happy. On my more optimistic days I view it as a really tiny laptop with phone functionality, and that makes me happier. But really people, what is so wrong with a phone just being a phone?!
Anyway. What all this has taught me is how much of a control-freak I am when it comes to technology. All these 'helpful' programs and processes, auto-start features, auto-sync, not only drains the phones battery, but mine as well. Simply put; do not want. I turned everything off. GPS services, both kinds, wlan, bluetooth, data, everything off. I will turn it on as needed, then swiftly shut it down again. (Maybe I've been spending too much time dealing with firewalls and ports...)
The Quest to download apps from the Android Market
I had skipped the majority of the Setup procedure, so had yet to link a Google account with my phone. I clicked the little icon, and it requested a "Google account". I said, okay, whisked myself away to a laptop and created a Google account with one of my other email accounts. Went back, entered it, and it said no. Then clarified that it needed a "Gmail account". Vexed, I deleted the account I'd just created, then caved and put in my Gmail that I've been using for about ten years. Not the smartest move. But, it's not actually that difficult to clean up the mess. (The aforementioned mess being now having former lecturers and ex-friends sitting in my phone book, just waiting for me to accidentally press them. It pulled in every address/number ever contacted over the last ten years. Including a lot of info and support addys.) But first, I downloaded the apps I'd gone there to get in the first place.
Apps
Advanced Task Killer; more like a task manager, shutting down apps. More fine-grained control under "Settings" > "Applications" > "Manage applications".
3G Watchdog; I spend my days travelling between places with wireless networks, but a smartphone still needs a data-plan, so I got one with a ridiculously small limit, to see how I get on. This app let's me know how much data I've sent/used.
Catch; note taking, in lots of different formats. I'm just using the free/accountless version.
Barcode Scanner; Catch prompted me to get this, it's nifty. Barcodes and QR codes.
ConnectBot; ssh utility, this made me squee. But such tiny tiny text.
I asked on twitter for suggestions, and got over thirty different apps. I looked up most of them, but don't really have a use for them. Yet. I will keep them in mind as my needs evolve.
Back to fixing what in the old days we called a 'phonebook'
Find your way to "People", hit "menu", then "Delete", and mark every contact accidentally imported. It may ask you about some matches it made, I discarded them.
Next, into "Settings", and "Accounts and sync". Select the "Google" entry with your account, and on the new page there's a "Remove account" button. It looks nice, so I pressed it. Am I really sure? Yes, "Remove". "This account is required by some applications. You can only remove it by resetting the phone to factory defaults...". Too good to be true. Okay, then, I'm not beaten yet.
Back to "Settings" and "Applications" this time. "Manage applications", and the "All" tab. Select "Gmail", "Force stop" if you need to, then, "Clear data", are you sure, "Ok". Done.
Now, to stop this from happening again. First, turn off Data, and Wireless. Then back to "Settings", "Accounts & Sync". Temporarily enable "Background data" and "Auto-sync", then select "Google" again, and in the new page de-select what you don't want to sync, i.e. "Sync contacts". Go back and disable the previous "Auto-sync" and "Background data" options as you see fit. (In fact you can do this will all apps listed there. Whether they respect it or not is something still to be seen.)
[I left Gmail inbox with permission to sync, but opening the app after this left me with "Waiting for sync" and "Your email will appear shortly." until I went to "Accounts & Sync" and manually sync'd it. Guess this is where the auto-sync feature would come in handy. And, yes, Contacts didn't sync!]
And just to be damn well certain it wouldn't happen again, I logged into Gmail through the neglected-feeling laptop, and in Contacts, deleted everyone. Mayhap that horrifies you, but for me it's a beautifully simple solution.
But, say you want to sync up some of your contacts, not just everyone you've ever contacted during the life of your gmail account. Well, I came across this Lifehacker article, and it gave me some ideas. I'm going to create a custom group in Contacts, and manually populate it with people I might actually wish to contact and have sync'd. Then I'll try the selective Contact group import. If that works I'll actually be quite happy.
Later: Hmm. The 'Contacts app' mentioned in that article I don't have, and can't find in the market. I manually sync'd the Contacts, and after a minute they appeared in 'People'. Seems all were sync'd, don't know how to selectively pick certain groups. They also didn't auto-link. I had to click on each of the Gmail contacts (in 'People'), and 'link' them to the numbers myself (chain-link button up top-right). If I'd sorted my Contacts before linking the account life would have been easier. Still, done now, all nice and clean.
*EDIT* Once my phone updated from from 2.2 to 2.3 the menus appeared and it all worked. See: here
Bluetooth connection to Parrot car-kit
This one confused me for a long time. I was doing everything right; going into the pairing menu on the Parrot, using the correct pairing code, using the on-screen numerical keyboard instead of the alphanumeric physical one, everything. Then I figured I might as well delete my previous phone pairings. Then I tried again, and this time it worked! Seems the Parrot has a max paired list of six. Job done.
That's as far as I've gotten, and what I would consider functioning adequately. Once I've become a bit more familiar with the device I'll install the SDK and have some real fun!
