Right, just got an HTC Wildfire S. Can anyone help me to get the best form it?

[mintymellons]

I'm a bit clueless. Have got it up and running in a basic way, connected to our home wi-fi.

I have 500mb data per month and unlimited internet browsing. What I need to know is how do I know when I'm using up my data allowance? Is it when I download something. If I just googled something, that wouldn't count would it? I have no idea! Also, when I use an app, does that eat into my 500mb?

The other thing is I'm unsure how to set up email. I have a hotmail account which I use for everything.

I'd be really grateful for any help. TIA!

[mintymellons]

Also, are things running all the time the phone's switched on? Would this use up my allowance?

[MediumOrchid]

Download '3g Watchdog' from the Android market. You tell it what your data limit is, and it tells you how far you are through it each month. I find it really useful. Though I'm not sure how having the data limit and unlimited internet browsing works - my 1gb limit is for everything. Might be worth checking with your provider and getting them to clarify.

Some apps will update and use your data allowance, but you should be able to tell them not to. Also, you can add widgets to one of your homescreens that lets you turn mobile data, wifi, bluetooth and gps on and off, so you could turn mobile data off while you're out and know for sure that no data was being used. I also find leaving gps on really drains the battery.

And sorry if this is really obvious to you, but you can download as much as you like on your wi-fi and this won't affect your data limit, it's just for mobile data.

[MediumOrchid]

The 3g watchdog app is free by the way.

I'm not sure about how to set up a hotmail email address. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will come along who knows if it's possible!

[mintymellons]

Thanks mediumorchid and believe me, nothing is too obvious!

I'll get that app you mentioned.

I'm a bit unclear about how the whole thing works in terms of the difference between mobile data and wifi - I think it's using wifi right now, at home. Would it automatically switch to mobile data when I'm out of range of my wifi router?

God, I think it's going to take me forever to get to grips with it!

[MediumOrchid]

Did you tell it your password to your wireless network (assuming you have one)? If so, yes, if there's a known wireless network around, it will use that, and only use mobile data when there isn't. You can sometime find an unsecured wifi or a public wifi hotspot to use as well, but these apparantly can have security risks attached so don't do anything like internet banking on them!

If you are using wifi it will have a symbol on the bar at the top of the screen of a dot and some radiating semicircles, showing signal strength, and if you are using mobile data, it will have a letter like H and some up/down arrows.

Happy to answer more Android questions if I can - I have the HTC Wildfire, but not the 'S', and I'm a bit of a fan!

[mintymellons]

Hi again
You're so helpful, thanks!

when you say wifi password, do you mean the WEP thing? I had to put that in but nothing else.

You might be able to answer a question about the battery. I'm not sure if my phone's charging or not - I put it on for a couple of hoursbefore switching it on, then had a play on it while it was still charging. There doesn't seem to be anything to show me it's charging though (no light or symbol) and I noticed the battery bar wasn't increasing, in fact it went down a notch whilst the charger was plugged in. My charger is a three part job with a three pin bit which ges into the electricl socket, a middle adaptor type section and a third part which is the wire that connects to the phone at one end and has a USB adaptor on the other to plug into the mid section.

Any ideas? is yours similar?
thanks again!

[LawrieMarlow]

I have a Wildfire which is currently charging :)

There should be a red light in a circle and the battery part should have a line through it. When I first got mine I didn't put the charger together properly and so it wasn't actually charging . I needed to push it together a bit more firmly.

To see how much data you've used, you need to go to Planet 3 when you are using mobile data. Go to my account and check allowance (I think) and it will tell you how many minutes, texts and data you have for the rest of the month.

To tell it what you want to do in terms of connecting you go into settings and wireless and networks. If you want it to automatically connect to mobile network when out of range of wireless then click that one and wireless. It will do wireless if it can.

I have gmail but I think the mail procedure would be the same for hotmail - when I first accessed mail I think it asked if I had an account I wanted to use and then it went through my user name and password and whenever I access mail my account is there. It used to sync all the time but I managed to get it to only do it when I made it happen. Not sure how I did that though

[MediumOrchid]

Yeah, it sounds like your phone isn't changing - there will be a red light when it's charging and a green light when it's fully charged. And yes, I meant the WEP key :)

[mintymellons]

Great, thanks.

It is now fully charged. I hadn't twisted the middle section of the adaptor into the socket bit - very odd!

I've got 3G watchdog now, so feel better about that.

Think I'll just have to play around a bit to get used to it - yippee!