Posts Tagged ‘power control’
|Droid for Dummies
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
One thing I noticed while purchasing a Droid at my local BestBuy -was the lack of basic knowledge fro
m potential buyers.
Fortunately most will learn fast and adopt geeky habits but some will return their new phones very disappointed Droid did not meet their expectations.
So here is a little tutorial on how to make the best out of your new phone.
First steps to properly use the Droid:
- Remove gently protection sticker on the battery cover BEFORE inserting the battery. Failure to do so will make the battery door irremovable. Been there, done that.
- You need a Gmail or Google Mail App account to operate an Android phone. If you don’t have one you need to create one. Technically you can use an Android phone without a Gmail address but you’ll be missing 80% of core features. I suggest you sign up for a Gmail and add your other email accounts. Gmail account will just be used to sync your contacts, Latitude, Market, etc.
- To configure your phone, you will need to access “settings”. Unlike the iPhone, “settings” icon is not showing on home page. To access the “settings” press the central lower tray to pop up all applications. They are sorted from A to Z. Get to “settings” and start configuring.
- If – like me- you like to keep your phone protected you will need to set it up. By default Droid does not offer protection i.e. PIN code. Android 2.0 introduces a new form of screen lock called “pattern”. Press on central tray, scroll to “settings”, go to “location and security settings”, check mark “Require pattern”. The rest is very intuitive.
- Once your phone is protected from curious, very likely they will try to input pattern. After 5 attempts, phone is locked 30 seconds. Every wrong attempt after 30 seconds will re-lock your phone for 30 seconds. If you forgot your pattern, you can still log on to your phone using your Gmail username and password.
- Market is the application store for Android powered phones. To access Market you need to have a valid credit card on file via Google Check Out [Google Merchant account a la Paypal].
- Downloaded applications are assigned to your Gmail account. Whenever you change phone you simply need to logon using your Gmail credentials and all your apps will be available for download again at no cost.
- For now – Droid offers only 3 home screens. You can add shortcuts, widgets or folders by keeping your finger pressed on an empty spot. A menu will pop up offering several options.
- Background image format covers all 3 panels. Screen definition is a bit odd 960X854 pixels. Check Droid Forum Gallery for cool wallpapers.
- I strongly suggest you install “power control” widget on your central panel. You will be able to toggle Wifi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, GPS on/off, and brightness with a single touch. Very useful.
- To use the camera you need to press on the gold button located on the lower right side of the phone. You cannot use the camera without unlocking your screen first. Keep finger pressed a couple of seconds to launch camera. For now, camera is slow and auto-focus needs an urgent firmware update.
- On most applications you can use the search function. Easy access to search needs a single pressure on the magnifier icon located on the right inside of lower toolbar. Very handy to search applications in Market, contacts, emails, etc.
- To optimize battery I suggest, you set “screen time out” (located under Settings/Sounds and Display) to 15 seconds. By default it’s 1 minute. Also under Sounds and Display, adjust brightness to low. Also in Sounds and Display, set Animations Off. Do not keep Wifi on all the time, mostly on Verizon where network is faster than most Wifi connection. Remember to turn Bluetooth off if you don’t use it. No need to keep GPS on in the house J
- You cannot remove pre-installed applications. To uninstall applications you downloaded and no longer want to have go to “settings/applications/manage applications. A short way to remove an application is to keep your finger pressed on the application icon and use the pop up menu to uninstall it. Very smart.
Here I will stop as I believe further steps are not for beginners.
Let me know if you have additional tips or tricks and I will add it to the post.
Happy Droiding.
Tags: android, bestbuy, droid, dummies, eclair, power control, settings, tutorial, verizon, vzw
Posted in Geek, Technology, Telecom, android, google, iPhone | 23 Comments »
