(this is an old post that apparently was stuck in draft mode, releasing it now.  A good bit has changed since then, but I will not edit it now.)

What has happened and what I have learned over the last 10 days.

Well, I have had several issues, fixed a couple of others, and ordered an extended battery.

Right, so for starters, DISABLING the “Enable Always on Mobile” setting in: ‘home –> menu –> settings –> Wireless & Networks –> Mobile Networks –> Enable Always on Mobile’ is the cause of all the “rebooting issues”, which I have determined were not actual reboots, due to the fact that the uptime counter does not get reset when it happens, it is simply a major system function restart, that requires reloading nearly everything.  2 points to androidforums.com for discovering this.

Next, I resolved my randomly starting apps issue by running Startup Auditor, which has 2 settings for each app, (both called disable, but for two different things)

1. “Startup Disabled” really means Disable automatic startup during boot.

2. “Keep Disabled” really means prevent app from ever running, even if you launch it.

Startup Auditor polls something in the system (chron tab?) for all apps that auto load on startup and then allows you to modify these two settings for each one.  The help information does not tell you what the options really do, it is what I figured out from both what it says, and the effects of what it does.  I had many apps acting weird, or crashing during use, without providing a Force Close “OK button”.  ALL of those issues were caused by option #2 in this app.  I have learned that disabling the following is a bad idea:

1. anything that says HTC in it is bad if you run Sense UI

2. “Google Partner Setup”

3. “IQRD”

4. “Android System”

5. anything bluetooth if you intend on using any bluetooth devices, causes pairing issues, connectivity issues, prevent some features from working (like A2DP!!)

6. “calendar” x2 – one is google, one is HTC and both interact with your clock, alarms, all social apps, email, messaging…

7. “clock” x2 – one is google, one is HTC unless you don’t want the clock to update properly, calender to work well, emails to sort properly, messages to sort properly, mostly small issues, but annoying if yo ucannot figure out why it is happening…

8. ‘DM’ anything

9. ‘DRM’ anything (affects media mostly, but also web and emails

10. anything that says ‘Download’ – affects all apps that try to download data.

11. anything that says ‘Upload’ – affects all apps that try to upload data.

12. “Messages” – this is not just email!!

13. “Media Storage” – unless not using an SD card! may also affect the internal storage

14. “Open Sense Plugin Manager” – another HTC system service

15. “Rosie Utility” – this is an HTC function and SENSE UI does not like not being able to use it! *edit – Rosie is part of some widgets, not necessarily HTC.

16. “Updater” – does not refer to sending files to another computer!! But is a service called by anything that needs to periodically make minute changes to it’s display (like the clock, or battery widgets)

Most of these are things I have tested and found out the hard way, others I am assuming, as they have related names (all the HTC services and apps are for Sense…)

Onwards!!

My Nuvelli Stereo Bluetooth headset does not seem to have full 33′ range even though it has the ERD designation, oh it will stay connected at 33′, but you will hear lots of static and the other person (if you are on a call) will not hear you so well either.  the forward and backward controls do not work with the default music player (DL’s 2 more, haven’t tested them yet, Meridian and Zimly)

My Jabra Cruiser may also suffer from range, but since I am using it while I am driving, I have not tested that either.  but it plays sound fairly well, a touch hard to understand from the built in speaker, I would not want to take a 2hr conference call on it without a radio to broadcast the output to.  That said, the output via FM is pretty good, although the FM transmitter is strong, but has an excessively short range, moving it from one side of the car to the other makes a difference in the amount of static received (front end antenna).

On Monday this week, I performed a Hard Reset of my Evo (shut down, then turn it on while holding in the “volume down button” then follow the on screen instructions (in size 3 or 4 font!!) and navigate through the menus to find the reset option.

Immediately afterwards the phone was 100x more responsive and everything just “worked” I immediately installed 184 apps and it stopped being quite so responsive!!  I know, but I’m working on it, I’ve installed 2 apps, but removed 6 since.  Still widdling down the list, and I have purchased 7 or 8 apps at this point (staying under $6 per week), all ones I have been using on my wife’s Samsung Moment since February, or that I have tested the free version of on my Evo.

I have also, as mentioned above, ordered the Seidio 3500mAh battery for the HTC Evo from MobileCity Online, you can read about my experiences with this purchase by going to my post about it, on androidforums.com

I have stopped using Advanced Task Killer and Advanced Task Manager, in replace I have SystemPanel, which in combination with Startup Audit and Startup Cleaner 2.0 handle everything I could with ATK nad ATM, but also gives me more options.  I am testing to see if I truely need SA AND SC2.0, but I think they compliment each other more than fight against each other.

I have also stopped charging my phone at night, it has been discovered that the Evo does trickle charge until full, but then instead of maintaining the trickle while plugged in, it stops charging completely unti lothe battery charge level drops down to approx 90% (the Android OS does not determine battery charge by percentage, it just reports it to us in that manner), then it starts to trickle charge back up to full and repeats.  This appears to be an 8 minute cycle. (please read section 5 and section 7 for information on these batteries) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery#Advantages_and_disadvantages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery#Charging_procedure

This “float charge” can dramatically reduce the batteries maximum life span.  Using the BatteryTime Lite app and setting it to give notification allows me to pull down the notification bar and see the current voltage and temp of the battery, so I can pay more attention to it so as to maintain performance and prevent accelerated deterioration.  Even though I am getting an extended battery (not sure if the BatteryTime lite app will compensate for it), I still want to keep my stock Li-Ion in good shape, and have good battery habits for my new monster!

I have also been having a new issue (started before the Hard Reset, but continued on after it) where my home button only refreshes whatever screen I am looking at, and does not return me to my home screens, causing me to have to hit the back button 8-40 times to return to the home screen, which in turn ruins any chance of leaving an app running in the background at a particular position.  Happens about 90%-95% of the time.  This has not changed since it started.  I would also like to kill the touch based hardware search button, I have never used it intentionally, but hit it accidentally at least 10 times per day now.  Very extremely annoying, almost enough for me to want to get a different phone!!

The biggest issue facing me now is keeping up with all the app updates!