New San Francisco Android User

sevlow

cheers - I'll go check that out.

Ed_Zep

I unlocked mine for free. There is an online calculator that will do it for you. Google the "modaco forum".

Then I got a GiffGaff sim and installed it. Very easy. I just put £10 of credit on there and £10 "goody bag" which allows unlimited internet for a month, with no contract.

There's a GiffGaff APN (settings for connecting to GiffGaff) that you can download.

I really like this phone. I'm not too concerned about getting rid of the Orange stuff, as it doesn't bother me too much.

There's apparently a problem with drop-outs when it's on wifi. I installed a fix from Market and it automatically reconnects.

It wasn't until I saw how fast it is on wifi that I really appreciated how good the phone is.

I use for internet access and applications. I have a £5 Samsung E1120 for texting and phoning.

I hope that helps.

Ed_Zep

Get Android Booster. This quickly shuts down apps that are not being used and helps to save battery life.

I also like Instant Heart Rate, which uses the camera to detect your pulse. Ingenious.

Party_Animal

grumbler wrote: »

It may be just me, but I don't understand anything. Do you have two active O2 sims - one in OSF and the other in another phone?

Or messages from the network don't show? If so, why are you sure that there were any messages?

Sorry Grumbler if its not clear;
I only have one active 02 sim. I've just transferred it from my old phone to the OSF and upgraded it to a PAYG tariff that includes internet. The guy in the 02 shop did the upgrade on the phone, I paid £10 for a top up, and he said changes would take effect immediately. The balance shows the top up but there is no internet connection either on 3g or at home on wifi, yet the phone tells me the battery is using 20% on wifi and it is draining quickly. I've been back but they just say try again tomorrow.
Thanks

Party_Animal

Just back from the 02 shop. The guy spent ages trying to configure my phone to 02, it is unlocked, he couldn't do it. He reckons this phone won't connect to their network. Text and calls work but not internet. Now I'm stuck with £17 02 time and still no net.

grumbler

Instead of going to shops spend some time on reading internet forums. I am sure it can work on any network, let alone on WiFi.

bubieyehyeh

I have a OSF working on giffgaff, which uses O2 network, so probably just need to find the correct data settings for o2.

Party_Animal

Thanks, the 02 guy put all the settings in which he got from their website but it didn't work.

tanchoo1

sevlow wrote: »

I have purchased an OSF on PAYG because my wife wanted to join the smartphone set and I thought this phone would be a sound handset to try stuff out and find out what's what.

I'd like some advice from the more savy amongst you on what if anything I should do to improve what we got out of the box. I intend to unlock the phone at some point and then see what other PAYG deals are about.

What I dont know is if the "Orange" branding and apps are a bad thing and if so should I think about removing them. If so which ones or should I install a fresh version of android.

In my position what would be the first thing you would do? - Guess I'm asking for trouble!

Hi there,

I also got my OSF one week ago, and I've been having great fun with it ever since.

One of the first things you need to do is to launch the Market application, sign in with Google if you need to, and download the application "Ask Mr. Pigfish". It will tell you if your phone is Gen1 or Gen2. It should be Gen1, but better to be safe than sorry.

Then, hop over to:

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-roms-rom-customisation/337798/gen1-to-gen2-tpt-upgrade/

Over there, you have instructions on how to upgrade your phone from Gen1 to Gen2, as well as install the latest Android 2.3.3 ROM, which is CM7. It has everything you need in one package.

The original ROM is Orange's version of Android 2.1. I tried Swedish Spring RL5 which is Android 2.2, then CM7 which is Android 2.3.3. I must say that CM7 rocks, and if you don't need the nightly builds, just stick to the stable release which is probably released once every few weeks or so.

After you're done, download the many free applications and games from Android Market. Angry Birds is a popular free game.

The only thing to be sure of is to use Mr. Pigfish to ensure that your phone is really Gen1; if your phone is actually Gen2 and you tried to apply the upgrade, you could very well brick your phone.

Good luck!

tanchoo1

rwalton159 wrote: »

CM7 lasted 2 days on my Blade before I had to restore JJ

I'm having the same experience as Dreamnine. CM7 1.0.2 stable running Android 2.3.3 on an upgrade Gen2 phone is working great for me so far.