HTC Desire Ruined by Orange Branding

[Hands0n]

** See Update below **


Well no surprise there I suppose. It really baffles me why Orange insist on buggering up a perfect good handset with their inane branding.

This time the victim is the brand new HTC Desire. Honestly, the folk at HTC must be looking on with complete incredulity.

At first glance the Orange-supplied HTC Desire looks pretty much the same as a standard Desire. The Sense UI is there and seems to function perfectly well. But it is only when you start digging in a bit deeper that you start to find that something is not quite right.

GTalk - the Google Talk app is missing. Yes, on an Android handset, there is no Google Talk app, although if you use something like Taskiller you will see that there is a GTalk task running. You cannot install GTalk from Android Market either.

At this time there appears to be no easy way of getting the GTalk app back. Certainly not without loading up a standard HTC Desire ROM, if you can find one. It won't be a trivial job though. The Desire is not yet rootable (I read so far) and needs to have a Gold Card prepared before trying to load up a new ROM.

Orange have crippled gtalk on their branded version of the HTC Desire. They have replaced it with their own branded MSN messenger. The main problem is that gtalk is a key part of the o/s - so when you click to IM someone on maps, email, contacts etc it just doesn't work on the Orange branded version. They have not done this on previous android devices, so I'm not sure why they have started now, it seems ill thought through. Gtalk and MSN messenger use different accounts so you cannot use your google credentials on MSN messenger. MSN messenger is not integrated to the OS (as gtalk is) so a lot of functionality breaks on the phone.

URL: http://www.adambowie.com/weblog/archive/002925.html

Orange Apps - the handset is littered with lots of Orange trial apps, no doubt wanting you to spend more of your hard earned on their suggested rubbish. And no, you cannot uninstall these using the standard Android means. So your Programs panel is absolutely littered with this junk obscuring any apps that you have installed for your own use.

This is all really quite tiresome.

If you are an Orange happy bunny then you will not be too bothered about any of this. But if you are expecting a standard HTC Desire to match either a SIM free or unbranded handset from the likes of Vodafone, O2 and 3 then you will be very disappointed. T-Mobile also heavily brand theirs.

So the advice to anyone really keen for a Desire just be aware of what you may be letting yourself in for.


**Update**
This has turned into a bit of a de-branding thread
The primary resources for de-branding the HTC Desire (on any UK network) can be located here --> http://android.modaco.com/content/ht...-t-mo-handset/
The above link will give you the basic steps and links to de-brand an HTC Desire back to the factory condition.
There are, however, some pitfalls - see the posting further down this thread relating to ensuring that HTC Sync is installed on your Windows PC before attempting to run the RUU installer. Chances are that the process will fail to work otherwise.

[Ben]

So much progress and yet nothing has changed. The epic struggle against becoming the inevitable dumb pipe continues.

At least Apple have the balls to stand up to the operators. Hardware manufacturers, for the love of god, just say NO!

[Hands0n]

I have been researching de-branding the HTC Desire on Orange (and T-Mobile incidentally, the process is the same). There are several threads out there, XDA forum is for the more familiar, but Modaco also has a good few threads on the topic.

The clue, people, is Gold Card and an RUU file with the Bravo ROM 1.15.405.4 code on it. The Bravo ROM is cited to work fine on the Desire.

The only problem that some may face is that there is currently no way back to the Orange ROM should you need to for warranty or repair purposes. De-branding your Orange HTC Desire will leave you high and dry. Orange will not help you under any circumstances if they either find out or suspect that you have de-branded.

[DBMandrake]

This is all really quite tiresome.

Another good reason to buy an unsubsidised, unbranded (and unlocked) handset to use on a SIM only plan, no ?

Say no to crappy branding of phones and long 24 month contract lock-ins by simply buying the phone upfront SIM free.

Costs more upfront sure, but costs less over the lifetime of the phone, and no contract lock-in. (For example if you move house and can't get a signal from that network any longer, switch networks easily while keeping your phone, or if you lose your job you don't have the commitment of an expensive contract to pay for 2 years that will ruin your credit rating if you can't pay it)

The choice is there in most cases for those who are not lured by the false economy of the low upfront cost of a contract...

[Hands0n]

The lad had enough, he finally cracked and brought his Orange-branded Desire round tonight to let the old Pa do the deed

Creating the Gold Card was easy enough. Just for safety I re-created one using his HTC Desire - the last thing we want is to brick the handset and give me another 24 hours work to get it back!

Running the RUU file we encountered a problem when the handset booted to the bootloader - it came up on the handset but the PC reported a USB connection fault! We tried several different things but none worked. More research required ....

Long story short, we needed to install HTC Sync software that loads up a ton of USB drivers and stuff into the PC. Having done that, we started up HTC Sync and then ran the RUU which went through its motions and completed successfully. Within about ten minutes the update to Bravo ROM 1.15.405.4 was completed.
Software%20Info.png Home%20Screen.png

[kdub87]

i hope you can help me, iv been having the same usb connection error all night, at the end of my tether hope you can help, what steps did u take exactly?