BasicDog

As my HTC mobile phone has become more of an integral and also somewhat forgotten part of my everyday life I haven't been able to control my urges to accumilate extra hardware that makes using my HTC Touch Dual easier.

This will be a guide of the different accessories available for the Touch Dual with an emphasis on which ones that I rely on daily. I have split the accessories up into several catagories based on what you are trying to do with the phone.

Listening to music
There are many different USB to 3.5mm jack adaptors availible from sites (mainly eBay) which allow you to use any ear phones you want with the phone. Very handy if you are like me and cant stand the tinny sound of the boxed earphones. I have tested three different set-ups, one with a short lead, on a long lead and another which was simply a block with a 3.5mm jack port. All of these worked flawlessly and one even had a microphone built in to ensure that you can still use it as hands free. This is a definate must if you use your HTC Touch Dual for music on the go.

You can of course also buy USB speakers which will work wth the Touch Dual, though if you have bought one of the above mentioned adaptors you can use any speakers you chose.

Increasing Storage for Media etc.
Memmory cards are another must if you plan on using the phone for any kind of media, it also helps to reduce the need to use up the phones RAM with applications you install, instead you can install them straight to the memory card. The Touch Dual supports SDHC which is a new standard for the micro SD card allowing very fast transfer speeds, and with the speed of mobile phones every little helps.

Extended Use
As a sroke of luck (or not in this case) the times when you need your battery to last an extended period is usually the time when you will be using it most, for example while travelling. There are a few options availible these days for gadgets and mobile phones, the first and most obvious is buying more or larger batteries and less obvious is to get alternative storage or charging.

Cheap batteries can be bought from Ebay and online stores and if you have opted for a larger battery, will usually require a new back for the phone as they not only hold more charge, but are larger physically. Personally I went for several new batteries with a charge equal to the one that came with the HTC Touch Dual. The extra batteries however are not official (To be honest I wasn't expecting them to be) though I found out that they would not charge while in the phone or show how much life was left in them, instead they displayed 0% on the battery meter and need a seperate charger which is was supplied with the batteries. If you live in the Uk, you will also need a US to UK power convertor for the included charger, and I should add at this point that although they can be quite a hassle, they have done a very good job keeping me and the phone going, especially on long journeys.

Power storers such as the PowerMonkey are relitively cheap and can be used to charge your gadgets/phones and solar chargers such as the Freeloader can charge most things wth thier hundreds of supplied adaptors. However with the HTC Touch Dual these won't seem to work, the phone will tell you it is charging and you will wait and wait... slowly watching your battery drain at a normal pace. Though I have tested them on a friends older HTC phone and this worked fine, leaving me to conclude that there is a mechanism in the Touch Dual that prevents charging in this way.

So there you have it
If you have had the phone for a while and have not branched out with any of the accessories I have mentioned, or you are looking to buy the phone and were wondering about it's options I hope that this was informative.