7 replies to this topic

[teddybarrington]

Hi All,

anyone got a Desire S on Orange? Have ordered one without a chance to check out if it's full of bloatware  

It arrives Monday but if it stinks of Orange branding it's going back and I'm off to Talk Mobile.

I will post an update here for any interested parties, but I'm anxious to know if the Orange (cr)apps are removable.

Orange Shop Man had none left in stock but said he'd had nobody in moaning yet (which he did about the Desire) which is a good sign....

[Reynholm Industries]

I've actually gone out of my way to install the Orange rom on to my unbranded DS from phones4u as it gives you the UMA app.

The rest of it is not such a pain as it used to be apart from the contacts backup that kept moaning about a lost connection, but if you search for the app in the market it offers an update that fixes this.

Mostly unobtrusive, orange boot screen and the usual links to orange services, plus a few games extra to the unbranded version I had before.

All worth it to get UMA for me.

MG

[teddybarrington]

Reynholm Industries, on May 9 2011, 16:03, said:

I've actually gone out of my way to install the Orange rom on to my unbranded DS from phones4u as it gives you the UMA app.

The rest of it is not such a pain as it used to be apart from the contacts backup that kept moaning about a lost connection, but if you search for the app in the market it offers an update that fixes this.

Mostly unobtrusive, orange boot screen and the usual links to orange services, plus a few games extra to the unbranded version I had before.

All worth it to get UMA for me.

MG

Thanks! Really useful post. Mine has arrived now and I'm keeping it, despite the presence of the bloatware, because it's not as obtrusive as I thought it would be.

there is a link bunged in on the music player which links to Orange music which bugs me because its easy to accidentally hit, but (I'm new to android) I presume I can install a different player??

Traffic TV, Uno, Tetris, Orange Wednesdays, Orange Maps, Orange App Shop, Backup (now fixed, update fro app store as above), Orange Games, Orange Mail app (don't understand this yet), Orange Plus, Orange Photo and the Sims 3 are all on there but don't seem to take up too much space. I'd get rid of them all apart from Orange Wednesdays which was surprisingly nice to use and actually useful.

Also, the branded version seems to come with a HF kit which the wifes unbranded didn't?

Oh, and some of the clocks are an orange colour and you can't change it. Honestly /slaps head

but anyway, Its a keeper. Hope the battery improves, but then it dd get hammered yesterday :-)

[Reynholm Industries]

I've been using the winamp app for music, lets you sync over wifi if you use it on your pc.

I just ignore the bundled apps and use Opera and the stock Gmail.

MG

[germcevoy]

Just got an upgrade deal from Orange that I couldn't refuse and now have a Desire S in the post. A shame about the bloatware. Hopefully there will be a stock Desire S ROM available to flash.

[Kurdt Kobain]

Can anyone confirm if the contract Desire S is locked to Orange or not?

[Reynholm Industries]

If you are getting your phone from Orange it probably is locked, from phones4u mine is sim free so anything works, but check this out - HTC Bootloader comment looks like HTC are doing the right thing!

[germcevoy]

Orange really don't have a clue. Sure they may be entitled to brand handsets but they do it so badly. A big Orange square on the back of a slick looking all black device is just plain unsightly. All of their bundled apps are just duplicates of built in features of the phone, not to mention the fact that most of their icons are dull grey. The Browser icon is horrendous. And there's also that massively annoying thin strip on the the Music player that is so easy to tap that then launches you into the browser to look at shot Orange music.