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Watch on YouTube10 tips for true happiness with HTC Touch Pro / Fuze / Diamond!
This post was published 9 months 26 days ago.It\'s is possible that the information within this article is now out of date or updated.
For a couple of weeks I’ve been using HTC Touch Pro.
HTC Touch Pro is considered to be one of the best WinMo devices today. It has a strong processor, GPS, WiFi and 3G, beautiful VGA screen, it’s loaded with HTC’s additions, one of them, of course, is the TouchFlo 3D shell, and it has a built-in QWERTY keyboard.
Oh, and it runs Windows Mobile, which means you can not just play with it, but also work with it.
Sounds perfect, isn’t it? hmm… well… not 100% accurate.
Similar to HTC’s Touch Diamond, the Pro has some… say… issues.
I know many winMo power users love this device (or the Fuze), but I found some areas which really bothered me. Areas of funcitonality where it doesn’t feel perfectly tuned or 100% implemented.
But, don’t be sad boys and girls, because we are talking Windows Mobile here, and like any WinMo stuff – it has hacks, and tweaks! And most of them are completely free! And working as well!
So, I would like to summarize the main things I found in this short guide. We’ll call it:
10 tips for true happiness with HTC Touch Pro!
BTW: Many of the tips relate to HTC’s Touch Pro, Diamond, Fuze and HD, few of them will work on any WinMo device as well.
#1. Device updates:
Whether you own a Diamond, Pro or HD (you lucky you!) the first thing you need to do is check HTC’s web site. There’s a good chance you will find an update that needs to be installed on your device. It’s better to do it before anything else.
#2. Speed and screen sensitivity:
The first thing I noticed was that the Pro works s l o w . . .
So slow I actually considered removing TouchFlo and install SPB Mobile Shell instead.
The second thing I felt was that the screen is no sensitive enough, as if it’s too tough, beyond other WinMo devices.
Diamond TF3D Config is a free configuration tool that lets you modify a lot of registry keys which control the device.
Some of the configurable parameters are: TouchFlo Tabs order, performance, themes, screen sensitivity and more.
Note that some of the parameters can also be modified using Advanced Configuration Tool.
#3. Auto rotation for all applications with GSen
The HTC devices come with a G Sensor, but for some reason there’s no automatic rotation in most of the applications, which is a shame.
If you want to have automatic rotation (using the G Sensor) for all the applications and not just the image viewer, this one is for you.
I personally don’t use this one, I prefer rotating the screen when I slide out the keyboard, but I know many people liked it.
#4. Turn your Pro into an iPod!
Another limitation I cannot understand; since HTC invested in the smart wheel and placed it in the device, why not use it in all applications?
The smart wheel of the Pro/Diamond is pretty useless as it only works only for zooming images and web, right?
EMMMM! Wrong!
There’s a way to make the scroll wheel (located in the device D-Pad) act like similar to the iPod and scroll through long lists and many applications!
The way is to use a tool called Diamond Tweak.
To download – jump over to montecristoff and check out their great tools.
#5. FingerMenu
HTC certainly tried to turn their ‘Touch’ devices into a completely finger friendly phones. The lists can be scrolled using finger gestures and the TouchFlo shell is designed for finger use.
The menus font size was also modified, but in case it’s not enough for your finger size – FingerMenu is a cool freeware that turns all the WinMo menus into a fancy finger friendly menus. I like it.
#6. Missing OK hardware button? Let’s fix it:
This is a funny one, after searching half of the web, looking for a way to re-map the Pro’s hardware buttons, I was certain nothing works (all the usual tools failed to do it). But then I accidentally found that the ‘Back’ button actually acts as an ‘OK’ button whenever the dialog has one.
And to think I wasted so much time wondering around different forums full of people complaining about it…
Read more in here…
#7. Cannot easily navigate right with the D-Pad? Here’s why:
I didn’t find a way to fix it, but obviously there’s a problem with the D-Pad of the Diamond/Pro/Fuze. I think it’s the entire front surface is bad.
There’s an area which will not work properly, but as you can see below, it’s all a matter of pressing in the right area…
Read more about it in here…
#8. Sufer from a GPS lag? It can be fixed:
There are many explanations about aGPS and how it can ruin the GPS experience instead of helping.
I found that using QuickGPS solved my issues, but there’s another tip which explains how to turn off aGPS. This is better for some areas I assume…
The complete guide can be found in here.
#9. FuzeBerry Theme from MobileMatt
I tried couple of different themes for the TouchFlo user interface, MobileMatt’s FuzeBerry is my favorite one!
Not only It’s beautiful, it also adds 2-3 tabs to the shell which is a great addition!
Link: MobileMatt
#10. Recovering the standard Today Screen
Call me old fashion, but even though I got used to the TouchFlo, I still miss my good old Today screen, and my favorite plugins which cannot be placed inside the TouchFlo UI.
For that, I found a way to work with both TouchFlo and Today screen using a freeware called ‘SecondToday’. I got some comments about the availability of additional freeware with the same capability, but the concept is to actually have 2 Today screens, one with the TouchFlo and the second with the usual plugins.
Bonus tips!
Some more cool tweaks for HTC Touch Diamond/Pro/ Fuze:
Colored Top Bar
This one is a nice one (but not that important). Once you install it your top bar becomes colorful.
Wanna show off with your HTC device? Here’s a silly way:
Cool useless trick to run the entire weather animation with a click.
To activate:
1. Switch to the Weather tab.
2. Tap to the left of where it says “Weather” at the top.
3. Now tap to the right of where it says “Weather.”
Show me one iPhone that does that! (OK… bad joke…)
Before ending this post, here are some more links to useful resources:
* Complete List Of All Known Tips & Tricks For The AT&T Fuze & HTC Touch Pro (FuzeMobility Forum)
* Over 50 games and applications using the G Sensor (WMPowerUser)
* WinMo hacks and tweaks (MobileSpoon [my own blog!])
* TouchFlo 3D tour (FuzeMobility)
That’s it for this guide, hope you found some of the stuff useful.
If you have additional tips comment are more than welcome!
Gil Bouhnick (59 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook
Gil Bouhnick is a guest writer at MobilitySite and the owner of The Mobile Spoon. He is a Director of Mobile Solutions at ClickSoftware, running ClickSoftware's MobileFever, and constantly trying to examine new mobile trends and technologies.
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