I have been following this post, and Don't think it was mentioned yet.
But if you spin the unlock dial on the screen w you finger on the sound circle to the left it spins around ans then turns to "Sound Off"
Pretty Cool & Quick way to silence the phone w/o even unlocking it
And BTW ....whats up w that stupid Tutorial?? I thought mine was incomplete or something...it only has like 1 page dealing w the keyboard??
Why bother???
short cuts with the key pad. hold down the search button. and press a key. and u can customize them in the settings->application settings->quick launch.
Device(s): HTC Droid DNA, Google Nexus 7, Google Nexus 10, (wife's) Droid 4
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Multiple Browser Windows
Saw a question about this in another thread, figured I'd add it on.
The OP of this thread should compile all of these tips into the first post or something. Anyway...
When you're in the browser, you can use the Menu key, and select "New Window." Then, whenever you want to swap back to a previous page you had open, you can select Menu >> Windows, and it shows you a listing of all the browser windows open.
There is a way to change the voice in Google Navigation, and everything else. Menu > settings > text to speech > Always use my settings should be checked > then change the language. Hope this helps. Still digitized but cool for other languages or a British accent.
I made a separate thread for this, but I thought I would post it here as well.
To get the camera to autofocus quickly set the scene mode to "action" and you will get a fast green focus (this is probably a fast shutter speed mode). Works for Shopsavvy and barcode scanner as well.
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Shopsavvy works perfectly since their Sunday update for Droid (IIRC it was sunday). If you downloaded friday/saturday, find it in the app store and it should say update avail.
If anyone has already mentioned this, I apologize, but I think its pretty cool...
A couple months ago I bought a set of $30 dollar iPhone headphones with built in mic for my iPod classic. The mic allows for voice recording on the iPod, as well as pause/play and track skipping. I really enjoyed the convenience of these earbuds on my iPod, and thought I'd try them out on the Droid. Here are the results:
For phone calls, they do what you'd expect. Answer/End calls. Although they don't prompt voice commands like they did on my LG Dare, which I thought was also a great feature. Callers heard me pretty well on the other end, although I did have to hold the mic closer to my mouth outdoors, as I've seen most people with the iPhone do.
For the music player (MP3s on the phone) and Pandora:
Clicking the mic pauses and restarts audio playback, although with some minor inconsistency. Sometimes it took 1 click, sometimes two, or up to three. The phone seems to go "dormant" at some point and the extra click or two is necessary to "awaken" it, if you will. However, once initiated, each successive click will instantly pause/play without delay.
Another neat feature discovered: after closing or killing all the apps with taskiller or advanced task killer, clicking the mic will automatically start the last music app and the last song that was playing, (although in the media player's case, from the beginning. But I don't think that has anything to do with the headset).
So if you have an iPhone headset, try it out. Enjoy!
I would suggest going to best buy to get "Ghost Armor," I for one never buy anything at best buy becuase the ridiculous prices, but when they told me they would wrap my phone for $19 I had to do it. They have a professional installer that will put on the protective layer for you. It was actually cheaper at the store with the install then just to buy the armor online! It was installed flawlessly and and comes with a lifetime warranty, so if it ever peels or scratches they will put on a new one for you. This stuff is great!
(however, you cant use your phone for 24 hours! , I don't know how i will last till tomorrow night... )
You can save yourself some time and button pushes by storing your voicemail password along with the voicemail number. Then when you press the voicemail shortcut in the Phone Dialer, it will go straight through.
Go under Menu > Settings > Call Settings > Voicemail Settings, and set the number to: *86,,XXXX#
where each "," represents a pause
XXXX = your pin code
I sorta winged it since on my last phone I used "P" for pause, but Android won't allow me to enter letters no matter what I try. So I could be wrong about using "," but I tried it and it works!
I can confirm this does work on my Droid as well. Every little bit helps! Also if anyone doesn't know how to display the ",," press the symbol button in the lower left corner of the dial pad and that will bring it up.
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The manual is pretty clear on all basic functions, and I'm picking up a few ideas just walking through it. Sorta surprised they don't have a link of some sort to it on the home screen. DROID by Motorola Support - Motorola USA
Last edited by MBanshee; November 10th, 2009 at 07:46 PM.
I dont know if anyone noticed but there is an awsome widget that came with the phone to turn on and off wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sync and change brightens. No need for the third party ones, just long press on a home screen, add Widget Power Control. This phone is awesome!
You can voice dial a contact by clicking the microphone on the google search bar and then saying your contact's name. To confirm the correct contact, you don't have to CLICK the dial button, you can just SAY "DIAL" and it will automatically start dialing.
I was hoping there was a way to run the multimedia dock without purchasing the dock because I read some posts about it automatically popping up when sliding the droid into a case with a magnet on it.
I kept reading some threads and someone posted about the Dock Runner App. I downloaded it, and it works great.
Coming from the iPhone I thought it was cool that you can speak an MMS message. I think you have to have Handcent MMS. Just click in the area where you would normally type a message and hit the MENU then SPEAK. Just say what you want like - BE HOME LATE and voila - the text appears in the MMS area and just hit send. I did not see that option under the built in Messaging app.
I just found this while looking through applications.
Menu/Settings/Applications/Development/Stay Awake(Screen will never sleep while charging)
This is useful for me because I plug the phone in at night and use it as an alarm clock I can now check the time without pushing the lock button, and bonus is it auto dims.
Last edited by chachi; November 11th, 2009 at 01:51 PM.
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tip for GV:
Make sure your contacts and pad dialing is in the format 1(555)555-1212 or just the numbers.
If you omit the "1", or the area code, even for local calls, GV won't work! This is not android, it's how GV works!
I saw that tip posted on a couple of sites. That hasn't been my experience, as none of my contacts are in that format. Additionally, if you call your own GV number and then hit 2, you can dial out.
I wish GV has something similar to GV mobile on the iPhone where you can dial out directly from the Google Voice app. The Droid app seems to either ask you to have GV always dial out, or to have to select either GV or Verizon each time you want to dial out.
Email:
People have said that you cannot delete multiple emails at once. Yes you can. You check the left box on each email then delete. It will delete all checked. Whether there is a select all or not I don't know.
Internet:
If you long press the back button it brings up your browsing history so you can back track without having to hit the back button 10 times.
*Basically try long pressing everything and anything and you'll find extra options. =)
Vibrate on SMS:
In the sound & display options theres an option to vibrate and ring. I also want my phone to vibrate & notify. There was no option for that. But if you go to your messaging app and hit the menu button> settings > at the very bottom theres a check box to vibrate & notify.
*Please Android make ringer profiles!!! The only mobileOS in existence that can't! (Without an app.)
note: Beautifu Silence Widget is a free widget in the Market that allows you to switch your phone to vibrate mode. HTC Sense looking widget. 1 for silence, 1 for vibrate. Silence you can toggle from the lock screen. (Any way to switch it to toggle vibrate instead?)
Camera:
The DROIDdoes take good pictures. Just with the crappy software right now you have do little things to help it along.
1. Light Light Light! The sensor is so small and the megapixels so high that it creates a lot of heat, giving you noise. Darkness is bad for this.
2. From what I've experienced Auto WB does a better job that the presets. Still not very good all the time.
3. Macro focusing: You have to be about 2-4 inches away from your subject for it to properly focus. Macro means up close! I found it varies from subject and time to time so just keep trying to refocus till it locks green.
4. Auto focusing: There is a dead range between the macro and regular focusing. If you are 2-4 inches away from your subject it will macro focus. between that 4-10 inch range the camera will not focus. Pull away past that and you can lock green focus.
5. Focusing: Sometimes it will not lock. Just try and refocus. This is most likely software issues and hopefully will be fixed in the Dec. 11th OTA.
But you can take some decent pictures with the camera you just have to set up right. Kind of bad for just no-brain point and shooting. But again, hopefully the OTA will fix these issues.
Here's a couple of samples:
And if you have Photoshop, well you can edit in camera raw. (just file>open as... pick camera raw from the drop down and select the jpg you want and open it) You can improve the quality even more.
Last edited by doomedromance; November 11th, 2009 at 05:18 PM.
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You can save yourself some time and button pushes by storing your voicemail password along with the voicemail number. Then when you press the voicemail shortcut in the Phone Dialer, it will go straight through.
Go under Menu > Settings > Call Settings > Voicemail Settings, and set the number to: *86,,XXXX#
where each "," represents a pause
XXXX = your pin code
I sorta winged it since on my last phone I used "P" for pause, but Android won't allow me to enter letters no matter what I try. So I could be wrong about using "," but I tried it and it works!
I tried this and it didnt work for me. I used your example and tried diffrent variations and no luck . How man pauses need to be in it?
I ditched Verizon voicemail and am using GV for it. 2 pauses is all I need. Thanks for the tip OP. I was trying to figure out how to add 2 second pauses. Too bad you have to have the keyboard open to do this though.
So, there are a lot of threads here asking questions, a lot of which have been repeated. I've also seen some FAQs here and there, but none of them were really comprehensive. I'm going to try to compile as many questions and answers as possible in this thread as well as some useful info and tips and tricks. Hopefully a mod can sticky this as well. If anyone has anything else to suggest or add please let me know.
- - - Physical - - -
Will the Droid fit into either dock with a protective case?
No, only the flat adhesive plastic-type protectors (InvisibleShield) are slim enough to allow the phone to fit.
How easy is it to scratch the Droid?
The glass on top of the screen is very durable and keys will have a very hard time scratching it (I've tried). There are a couple videos of people trying to scratch it as well and failing. The bits of shiny plastic on the back can get scratched, though. Look here
- - - Hardware features - - -
What's the resolution of the Droid?
854x480
What do the two dots/holes at the top of the Droid do?
The one on the left is an IR emitter and sensor to blank the phone during a call when it's against your face. The one on the right is a light sensor to activate automatic brightness.
Can I change the color of the notification LED?
Yes, but only with third party apps like Missed Call and SMS Popup.
How do I get into the two dock modes without the docks?
For multimedia mode, download an app called DockRunner. For car mode, Android actually includes an application called Car Home. You can also hack it by putting a linearly polarized magnet, like a small cube magnet, on the back near the camera.
Can I tether?
Yes. Set it up through Verizon or look here.
- - - Performance issues - - -
What's wrong with my camera?
As of yet, the camera software is sort of broken and takes a long time to focus and save. It will supposedly be fixed in an update on December 11.
Why won't my home screen switch to landscape mode when rotated?
Nobody knows yet, but so far everybody has this problem. This fix might be included with the next update.
Why does switching homescreens or opening trays lag?
Homescreen lag/jerk is present on all Droids at the moment, but I've found that the Locale service really drains your CPU and makes animations lag even more. Also try using a task manager to free up some memory.
- - - Android OS and apps - - -
Why won't my phone rotate?
Check to make sure you have automatic rotation enabled in the sound and display settings.
Why does my screen dim randomly?
It's the automatic brightness feature. Turn it off in the sound and display settings under brightness.
How can I see what's been using my battery?
Go to settings, about phone, then battery use.
How do I check for phone updates?
Go to settings, about phone, then system updates.
Why won't my apps close completely/how do I kill programs?
Get a task manager from the app store such as TasKiller; the services manager in the Applications page in the settings isn't very useful.
How do I uninstall apps?
Press the menu button, go to settings, applications, manage applications, then select the program from the list and uninstall.
How do I check for updates for my apps?
Go to the Market, then press the menu button, then Downloads. If you have any programs that need updates they'll be at the top of the list.
How do I rename folders?
Click the folder to open it, then long press the gray bar at the top of it.
How do I open voice search? Long press on the search button on the phone.
How do I remove widgets and icons?
Long press it, then move to the app tray button which will then have a trash can icon on it.
What size should my backgrounds be if I don't want to crop it on the phone?
960x854
Can I make my wallpaper crop square bigger?
Press on a corner of the crop box and then drag it to size.
What size should my contact photos be to prevent pixelation? I'd say around 250x250 or higher.
How many apps can I download and store on the Droid?
As many as will fit in the onboard 256MB as of now, but you can put any other type of file on the SD card.
- - - Music and video - - -
Why is the Droid's video recording quality so bad?
Open the video camera application, open the menu, and set the video quality to high.
Why doesn't the Droid have a video player/play my video files?
The video player is in the gallery. You have to open the gallery and the folder with your video. Only videos encoded in MPEG-4/H.264 (.mp4) will play, and it shouldn't be larger than 854x480-ish or your phone might stutter or crash.
How can I transcode video to play on the Droid?
Some people have had luck with a program called Handbrake, but I use SUPER even though it's a bit complicated to use.
How do I get songs, video, etc. onto the Droid?
How do I get my computer to see the Droid's SD card?
Plug in the USB cable, then bring down the notification tray. Click on the one about USB, then click mount.
Why do Youtube videos look so bad?
When the video starts playing, click menu, more, and "watch in high quality".
- - - Verizon - - - How much does it cost for unlimited data?
For unlimited phone data, it's $30 a month on top of voice and other features.
- - - Tips, tricks, and cool stuff - - -
Where can I get high-res backgrounds for the Droid?
Look here or at DPReview for some nice pictures. Just make sure they're close to 960x854 or bigger.
- - - Recommended apps - - -
TasKiller - my personal favorite - lets you close unused apps and processes as well as ignore ones you always want running; comes with a couple widgets to quickly close applications
Communication Google Voice - saves voicemail to your GMail account and transcribes them to text Meebo IM - all-in-one IM suite Twidroid - Twitter Missed Call - custom ring and vibrate settings as well as LED color and settings SMS Popup - replacement for Android SMS notifier (turn stock off to prevent doubles) Save MMS - allows you to save MMS attachments WiFi Buddy - detailed WiFi information and settings
Music and sound Album Art Grabber - gets missing album art for your music Frequency-Generator - sine, square, saw, and triangle wave generator gStrings - customizable instrument tuner; also works for voice and other sounds Instant Lyrics - open while playing a song and will open its lyrics Scrobble Droid - enables Last.fm scrobbling in the Android music player Pandora - online radio Shazam - analyzes a part of a song that's playing through speakers and tells you the name and artist
Images PaintNote - MS Paint-like app Photoshop Mobile - basic editor and online album PicSay - multitouch image viewer/editor
Location Car Finder - press once when you park and saves your location on its map, and will show your location as well so you can find your parking spot Find My Droid - lets you turn up the volume and activate ring and GPS to locate your phone; uses an SMS code phrase Google Places Directory - lists categories of places in your location; searchable GPS Status - 360 degree compass, horizontal and vertical level, g-force sensor, magnetic field sensor, GPS location in long/lat, shows speed and elevation
Reference aCar - stores your car information Barcode Scanner - scans various types of bar codes and Google searches them ColorNote - text, drawing, and voice note program ColorDict - comprehensive dictionary with multiple add-ons available PDFGView - PDF viewer ShopSavvy - barcode scanner with built-in product lookup Speed Test - Ookla's speedtest.net application Unit Converter
Money Bank of America - online banking and account management FX Currency - comprehensive currency converter Google Finance - stocks PayPal
Security and other DockRunner - enables multimedia dock mode without needing the dock Find My Droid - see above G-backup (trial and pay) - backs up almost anything you want to Google's servers MyIP - shows your phone's IP Text-To-Speech Toy - converts input text to speech
Games Labyrinth
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In regards to the "There is no room for this on the home screen", don't forget you start off with 3 home screens. You can switch between them just by dragging to one side or the other. This lets you have room for big widgets like Pandora (why so big?) or the built in power manager. So check and see if you've space on either side of the main page. There is an app out there as well that increases the home pages to 7 but I can't remember the name.
You can set the browser font size and amount of double tap zoom by clicking on the menu key while the broser is open, clicking "more", and clicking settings. I find using the "Huge" setting for font size and the "far" setting for zoom makes landscape reading easy with just the right amount of zoom to see all the text.
I made a separate thread for this, but I thought I would post it here as well.
To get the camera to autofocus quickly set the scene mode to "action" and you will get a fast green focus (this is probably a fast shutter speed mode). Works for Shopsavvy and barcode scanner as well.
it Does stay set to action setting after closing camera and then opening camera again.
Last edited by DroidPower; November 12th, 2009 at 10:55 AM.
Reason: wording
Double click the "Alt" key on the QWERTY and it stays in Alt mode. This helps when you have a lot of numbers to type in. Double click again and you are back to regular mode.
Home screen rotation not working is not a bug. In stock Android form, it isn't supposed to rotate. When I rooted my G1, it was possible, but until the Droid is rooted..probably not gonna change.
Actually, the home screen DOES rotate. You just have to slide the keyboard out.
I know that is not what people want, but you can at least see what it should look like when you hold the phone horizontal
I found App Organizer, it is free. You can make your own categories, tag each and every app into one or multiple categories and use the app to launch, unistall, etc.
I have installed around 60 apps so far and was getting sick of trying to find them by name anymore, especially games (for my daughter of course)
I took some shortcuts off my home screens and replaced with the shortcut to the app organizer, and it is beautiful.
All you have to do is copy the MP3 to your SD card, go to the music player, play the mp3 and hit menu...hit "select as ringtone" or something close to that. The mp3 will now appear as a ringtone choice.
You don't even need to go that far.
If you create a folder called "ringtones" (without the quotes) on your card and copy/dump sound files into that folder - they'll show up.
Not sure if this has been reported before, but if you need a special character when you type like and e with an accent or a u with an uumlot (sp), just press and hold the e or the u or any vowel key and some other keys and options will pop up to select any type of 'e' or 'u' or whatever. I've done in virtual keyboards haven't tried in physical yet.
If you notice that your phone drops the WiFi connection, you may need to adjust the WiFi Sleep Mode setting. Go to Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> WiFi Settings press the Menu button and select Advanced. Go to Wi-Fi sleep policy. There are 3 choices:
- When screen turns off (default) A-ha! That's why my WiFi was disconnecting
- Never when plugged in
- Never
i seen that. The facebook app automatically added all my facebook friends to my contacts, but for some reason wont let me update that contact listing with their cell numbers. kinda annoying.
Yeah I was bothered by that initially as well. I would have 2 entries in my contacts list, my friend (say John) and the facebook contact (John Doe). If I changed the name from "John" to "John Doe" so that the two contacts matched, they would automatically merge. It made it nice as now my contact list has pictures from their facebook account.
Last edited by daikonv; November 13th, 2009 at 02:02 AM.
Nothing too fancy here, but I'm new to android and I'm sure other Droid users are too so I'll share what I found:
Don't want to clutter your 3 home screens with dozens of app shortcuts? Create folders instead and organize your apps categorically, and keep your home screen real estate for widgets, or for showing off your background. To create a folder, long press on an empty spot on the home screen and choose Folder. You can name the folder by opening it and long pressing the title bar.
I only keep my most accessed apps on my home screens such as phone and browser, everything else I use goes into folders.
Last edited by El Blacksheep; November 13th, 2009 at 06:10 AM.
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Device(s): HTC Droid DNA, Google Nexus 7, Google Nexus 10, (wife's) Droid 4
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NHARRISON1969
I found App Organizer, it is free. You can make your own categories, tag each and every app into one or multiple categories and use the app to launch, unistall, etc.
I have installed around 60 apps so far and was getting sick of trying to find them by name anymore, especially games (for my daughter of course)
I took some shortcuts off my home screens and replaced with the shortcut to the app organizer, and it is beautiful.
That's a good one, I'll have to take a look.
To keep my home screen organized, I create folders -- games, tools, multimedia, etc. This is done the same way you create shortcuts, just by selecting "New Folder" instead of "Applications." Once you've created the folders, you can drag the shortcuts from your desktop into the individual folders.
Edit: Sorry, Blacksheep. I didn't finish reading the thread before responding. :/
Last edited by jer.lawrence; November 13th, 2009 at 08:01 AM.
So I was messing around on the Facebook site on my Droid and thought Id see what the full site looked like so I clicked the link and all of a sudden a chat popped up and I was like Wtf so I opened the window to see who was online and started chatting. I could not believe this actually works right from the phone IDK if anyone else has seen that yet but I thought it was sweet!!!
So I was messing around on the Facebook site on my Droid and thought Id see what the full site looked like so I clicked the link and all of a sudden a chat popped up and I was like Wtf so I opened the window to see who was online and started chatting. I could not believe this actually works right from the phone IDK if anyone else has seen that yet but I thought it was sweet!!!
Apps Organizer is a fantastic (free) app to conserve home screen real estate.
I have a TOOLS shortcut non my LEFT Home
MULTIMEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS and INTERNETon my MAIN Home
GAMES on my right
This tool is great. The shortcomings of folders is handled nicely with this one. The icons are a bit too small though, maybe they could make them a little larger?
This tool is great. The shortcomings of folders is handled nicely with this one. The icons are a bit too small though, maybe they could make them a little larger?
That seems to be a common comment in the app's market listing, from the screenshots they're normal sized on other devices so I wouldn't be surprised if the developer is currently updating it for 2.0/Droid. I sure hope so anyway - I *LOVE* that app.
Found a cool way to share contacts with other android or mobile users.
Pull up the contact you would like to share. Menu key > Share > Barcode Scanner (i assume you need the app barcode scanner installed).
This will create a qrcode of the contacts info that can then be easily scanned to a second device using the barcode scanner app. You could create a contact of yourself for quick sharing of your own business info.
Coming from a blackberry I know they just added this feature to BBM 5.0 and it was a very cool feature. People would create the qrcodes and save them out and use them in forum postings and what not.
Found a cool way to share contacts with other android or mobile users.
Pull up the contact you would like to share. Menu key > Share > Barcode Scanner (i assume you need the app barcode scanner installed).
This will create a qrcode of the contacts info that can then be easily scanned to a second device using the barcode scanner app. You could create a contact of yourself for quick sharing of your own business info.
Coming from a blackberry I know they just added this feature to BBM 5.0 and it was a very cool feature. People would create the qrcodes and save them out and use them in forum postings and what not.
kg.
Its sounds good... but can you break down the steps a little more... thanks
, I don't know how i will last till tomorrow night... )
)
