[Touch HD General] tboy2000:
[REF] *Blackstone Hints & Tips* - Things you may not have known. UPDATED 30th July.

MOD Edit HDuser

This thread has now gone Wiki and can be found under

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Blackstone_tboy2000

I would like to thank Screec for his help on formatting the Wiki page and tboy2000 for this great collection of information.

End MOD Edit

1. Using the Back Key

You can use the actual back key at the bottom of your phone to go back a web page or two in Opera, instead of bringing up the Opera menu and selecting the back arrow.

2. Exiting Volume Screen

For quick exit of the volume screen, tap anywhere in the dark grey background surrounding the vertical slider button.

3. Reduce Errors in Typing

In Input options, disable the number of words to show in T9 for less mistakes when typing and thus faster entry.

4. Improve Photo Thumbnail Resolution in Photo Tab

Modify or tweak a photo (such as adjusting brightness) using a image editor directly on your HD (eg: Resco Photo Viewer) and save and overwrite the original. This makes the photo thumbnails on your Photo Touchflo 3D tab hi-res instead of low-res.

5. Change the Order of Photos in Fav Album

Modify or tweak a photo (such as adjusting brightness) using a image editor directly on your HD (eg: Resco Photo Viewer) in the order you want your photos to appear on your Photo Touchflo 3D tab, as they are displayed in order of last modified/created date. The first photo you modify will be the last to show in your Photo Touchflo 3D tab and vice-versa.

6. Panning Around Zoomed Photos

Touch and hold a zoomed in photo until you see a white outlined box appear in the corner. You can now remove your finger from the screen and drag and pan the photo to see more of it.

7. Hi Res Contact Photos

Assign contact photos on your SD card directly to specific contacts for hi-res thumbnails. If you assign contact photos in Outlook and then sync, the contact photos on your phone will be low-res.

8. Better Contact Scroll Search

When scrolling Contacts, tap the letter AFTER the name you are looking for to make your results list from the top of the screen instead of the bottom of the screen. Eg: If you want to get to the 'P' names such as Paul tap 'Q' instead.

9. Hidden Weather Animation Easter Egg

In the Weather Touchflo 3D tab, tap on the black background to the left of the title 'Weather' and then immediately to the right of the title, again in the black background to see a hidden Easter Egg where the weather animations are cycled through. You have to be quick with your 2 taps.

10. Have Category Folders in Start Menu

Using a file explorer, add 5 new folders to your 'Start Menu' folder. Name them like: Web, Travel, Utilities, System and Media. Copy relevant shortcuts from you 'Programs' folder in your 'Start Menu' folder to each of these new folders. You will need to use a 3rd party file explorer to unhide system files and rom files to see the pre-installed icons to copy them to your folders. These icons are '.ink' shortcuts. Also copy the entire 'Games' folder and 'Office' folder from your 'Programs' folder direct to your 'Start Menu' folder. Finally uncheck all checked boxes in Menus in Settings page. This will allow all 9 folders to show in your Start menu on your home page, where you can access specific apps much quicker. Remember each time you install or remove a program/game, you have to either copy the new 'ink' icon to your category folder or delete it.

11. Use 3rd Party Tweaking Apps

Use 3rd party apps like 'Advanced Config', 'HD Tweak' and 'SKTools' to tweak and optimise your HD further.

12. Disable Beam

Disable 'Beam' in Settings to conserve power.

13. Haptic/Vibration Feedback on HD

Use 3rd party app 'Touch Response' 0.02.2 to add haptic feedback on your phone to feel small vibration everytime you touch the screen in any app. Ideally useful for Keyboard entry.

14. Protect Screen from Breaking

If you carry your phone in your jacket pocket, make sure it is with the screen facing your body to protect the glass from accidental external jolts/pressure.

15. Cover Up Blemishes on Casing

You can use a black permanent fine tip marker pen to cover up scrapes on paintwork of housing. Rub firmly back and forth with your fingertip after a few seconds wait after applying pen.

16. Power Off Reset Action

Turn the phone off and on if you want to reset without taking the cover off or the latest version of HD Tweak installs a Reset icon which you can tap.

17. Temporary Stylus Attraction to Casing

Once you have taken your stylus out and you need a spare hand for a quick second, you can temporarily stick it magnetically underneath your HD along the right edge - instead of having to put it back in and then take it out again.

18. More Contacts per View

Show more contacts per page if you check "show contact names only" in 'Contact' options. You get 18 names per view as opposed to 12 and a half.

19. Fastest Way to Write New SMS

Quickest way to write a NEW text message is through the 'Contacts' list and NOT through the SMS Touchflo 3D tab. Best to assign a softkey to 'Contacts' so it is instantly accessible from your home page.

*Number of taps through Contacts is 3 or 4:

1st: Tap 'Contacts'.

2nd: Scroll to a name.

3rd: Tap the name

4th: Tap 'Send text message'

Automatically ready to start typing.

(Can be only 3 taps if your contact is within the first 18 contacts listed so no scrolling is required. This is based on using middle font size and "show contact names only" checked.)

*Number of taps through Messaging is 6 or 7:

1st: Tap Message tab

2nd: Tap new message icon

3rd Tap 'To:' text

4th: Scroll to a name

5th: Tap the name

6th: Tap the message area to shift the cursor from the 'To: field to the message field.

Now ready to start typing.

(Sometimes this can be 7 taps if you have more than one number for a contact and it asks you to choose which number to send the text message to. Amazing it does not automatically recognise a mobile number.)

20. Super Fast Text Entry

Use the standard built in (non HTC) Keyboard for super fast text entry with a stylus. Don't forget the gestures. Stroking upwards from a lowercase key inputs a capital letter. Stroking rightwards from any key to another inserts a space. Stroking leftwards from any key to another deletes a character. Stroking downwards from any key creates a new line. Using the Small keys means you don't have to switch to the numbers keyboard as all numbers appear above the QWERTY line. Even faster entry.

21. Keyboard Usage

When using the HTC keyboards, pressing and holding a key for a second or two will input the small grey character inside the key.

22. Contact Entry in SMS

If you start typing part of a name in the 'To:' field and hit enter, you will get a possible contact name to approve by hitting enter again. If there are more names to choose from, the arrows will turn white for you to scroll through the names by using the dpad buttons at the bottom of the keyboard.

23. Zoom Size and Zoom Location in Photo

When viewing a photo in the 'Album', you can not only choose where to zoom into but how much to zoom into. If you gesture a clockwise circle in the middle of the photo, then the photo zooms in with the middle of the photo filling the screen. If you gesture a circle near the top right corner, then that specific area zooms in to fill the screen. Also if you gesture a small circle you get maximum zoom. If you gesture a large circle then the photo only zooms in a little. An anti-clockwise circle gesture will zoom out the photo. Vary your circle widths to zoom in at various degrees.

24. HD Friendly Facebook Website

For a HD screen friendly Facebook website, rather than go to the full website, try the iphone version: iphone.facebook.com

You may need to double tap to zoom out.

25. Messaging Gestures to Ease Use

In 'Messaging' you can move from message to message or account to account just by swiping your thumb left or right across the screen. Imagine each message/screen is laid out before you horizontally in a row, left to right with the most recent message on your far left and your oldest message on your far right. By shifting all messages to the right gets you to the beginning of the row and to the newest message. Vice versa for older messages. Visualising this as you swipe lets you know if you are going up or down your email/sms list.

26. Activate Links Without Zooming-In in Opera

If you are tired of having to double tap a web page to zoom in just to activate a link, try this:

In the Opera url bar, type: 'opera:config' (without the ' ' ). Click on 'Adaptive Zoom'. Next change the default number in 'Minimum Overview Zoom' to 70 or higher. Scroll down a bit and hit 'Save' and restart Opera. You can now click on links with your stylus when you are fully zoomed out on a web page.

27. Using the Casing Buttons in Darkness

To see the four hard buttons in the complete dark, place one hand parallel with the bottom of the phone. The light from the screen reflects back onto the buttons making them clearly visible. Alternatively it is also quite easy to estimate where the buttons are by visually dividing the lower edge of the backlit screen into quarters and pressing below the relevant section.