SurgiclPrcision

Great find, but after testing it out on some of my contacts, I've found that it doesn't work if you have a birthday associated with the contact. I'm guessing it's because while Google Contacts has a birthday slot, android doesn't! So Barcode Scanner tells me it could not great a barcode. =(

CaptainRon

The same techniques works with the shift button to make it a caps lock. BTW, you only need to single click to return to regular mode.

Also, pressing "ALT" and "DEL" will clear a field.

Last edited by CaptainRon; November 14th, 2009 at 11:34 AM.

Zerophi

#1 you don't need to shut down programs in the background this is not a windows operating system where everything in the background is sucking up resourses. This is like a linux system and your actually hurting performance because you just have to wait until the programs starts all over, the programs in the background are not using any resourse, i've tested it and it works, i ran everything and the battery life and speed never slowed down.

#2 Task Killer will interfere with email accts when the go to automaticly refresh, i wasn't recieving any of my Yahoo or Hotmail until i uninstalled Task Killer and rebooted the Droid(i found this out through another Droid site)


Hope this helps

DroidRX

So just like in the storm, whenever you're typing, if you hit spacebar twice, this will insert a period.

Last edited by DroidRX; November 13th, 2009 at 11:42 PM.

sukTHEfac

Download "Advanced Task Killer" for free of the app market. When you open up the program, there will be a list of all programs with a check box next to each. Check the programs you want to 'Kill' and press Kill Apps button. Note that every checked program will stay checked, so u dont have to do that every time.

Now that you like this, the program will stay up in the task bar. Drag down the task bar and select "Switch to task bar"

i like this because it allows you to open that program in teh middle of what you are doing

enduser

You must have the barcode reader app installed.

Go into your contacts and select the contact that you would like to share with another android user. With the contact info on the screen press your menu key, then choose share, then choose barcode scanner.

This will generate a barcode on your screen that another android user could go into the barcode reader app and scan (straight from your screen) and it will allow them to add it as a contact.

As others have mentioned above it seems to choke if the contact has a birthday, or linked to facebook for that matter so still seems to be a bit touchy but an easy way to share info none the less.

kg.

drumtrucker

if you are using act1 video player, there is a ZOOM setting that choice ASPECT will fill the screen (width or height) and the picture still looks great.

Just checked the built in player and apparently does not have that option.

drumtrucker

you only need to single click to return.

Last edited by drumtrucker; November 14th, 2009 at 11:31 AM. Reason: had wrong text quoted

Cruzatte

Both of your points are correct.

However, when you're buying an Android device, you expect complete control & customizability. Whether having the Corporate Calendar process running hurts my phone's performance or not, I certainly want to be able to control whether it runs. Hence the task-killing programs.

mriekena

There is a very handy mountUSB app in the market that makes mounting/unmouting a snap

aguillon5

I installed the dock runner app and low and behold locks the phone in landscape mode. Everything is functional even home screen and virtual keyboard. I do not use keyboard and makes my android experience that much better. The only drawback I have found is that there is the factory and the app symbols in the notification bar. If I find or anybody else finds a way to disable one or both of these notifications it would be appreciated.

TexDroid

I have been following this thread and haven't seen this, but forgive me if I'm duplicating. I used a cable to connect my droid 3.5 mm headphone jack into the aux jack on my car stereo. The music on the droid played through speakers and sounded great, so I decided to see what happened if I made a call. The caller's voice came through my stereo speakers and, even though I had the phone in the cupholder, they said they could hear me just fine! This rocks way better than my bluetooth!

metalmenance

Know what you mean, hooked up same way and used navigate and played music, was listening to tunes and when a turn came up the droid pauses the music and speaks through the car speakers, very cool.

myko14

After trying doubleTwist on my computer (running Vista) and having no luck transferring my iTunes playlists I downloaded MML. It works great.

efdisaster

to be accurate, it mutes the music while it gives navigation... it doesn't pause it... but I found that pretty cool, as well

Not that I can tell. I had it in the dock with a tape adapter plugged into the 3.5 jack, and I could hear the caller fine (through the car speakers) and they could hear me fine... on another occasion, I didn't have the tape adapter plugged in, made a call, and I remember having to hit the speaker button, because I couldn't hear them.

shotinthenads

OK, if someone already posted this I apologize. I searched and could not find that anyone else posted it. A neat trick to help with blinding flash (I happen to finally have a camera that focuses great (green bracket and in focus-other than a little grain). If you take a tiny piece of scotch tape and place it over the flash (only the flash) you can diffuse the light and it is not so washed out for close shots. If you take a picture of a person (kinda close) in a low light situation, it kind of washes out the persons face. This is a cheap diffuser.

Last edited by shotinthenads; November 15th, 2009 at 08:32 AM.

jhughes23

All i had to do to transfer all of my music from itunes was drag my itunes file using "finder" and drag it to my Droids desktop "disk drive" icon, it instantly started transferring all the music files over, with playlists!

I use a Macbook btw.

optogeek

I'm not convinced. When I kill all the running processes, it shows that my available memory increases. In addition, I notice that the animation on the task bar coming down is SIGNIFICANTLY improved after I kill all these "background" processes that were eating that memory. This issue needs to be addressed.

alphabuild

*NIX systems handle memory differently. Just because an app has memory reserved does not mean it is actively using it. it could be available to other processes. this is an excerpt from OS X Activity Monitor

Here is an explanation of some of the information displayed at the bottom of the memory pane:

Last edited by alphabuild; November 15th, 2009 at 03:28 PM.

optogeek

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but a new update on Locale came out today that fixes the issue of the GPS not working on Android 2.0. Works like a charm!

autobahn

Dump Sirius/XM:

Here is one for you. I have been testing all week. Use Pandora, Slacker or Last.FM to play free and unlimited music commercial free. With a real network behind the 3G, I have had no problems dropping a signal. I am loving Pandora. Why pay for Sirius/XM?

asilver

I'm not sure if this feature works on the regular keyboard but it does work on the "better keyboard" app......when typing words the phone will suggest what it thinks is the correct word, the problem is that sometimes the suggestion is NOT what you want, such as trying to type the word "apps" and what I just found out is if you longpress the word you want it to use, it will remember it and it will stop using the wrong words.

my blackberry did NOT do this, I'm pretty excited that the droid does.

shugknight

Really? I'm glad to hear that. Did they add anything else to the update? Also, where can I find the list of things they fixed? If there is such a list...

Impact9

You can add the GV widget to the desktop and it will toggle the different modes (never dial GV, Always, and Ask). The widget is installed when you installed the GV app from the market. You just have to add it to the desktop.

lemodular

This maybe be obvious but while typing using the "virtual" keyboard, suggested words will scroll at the bottom of the text box you can just double click the space bar to insert the highlighted word.

drumtrucker

actually any punctuation or single tap on space bar will choose highlighted word

lemodular

You are right, I do it all the time but somehow thought of double tap as I typed it. Thanks for the clarification.

Last edited by lemodular; November 15th, 2009 at 10:27 PM.

jims

This is the name of an incredibly good GPS app. Tap on it and it brings up the settings menu for you to turn on the GPS. Then it quickly changes to the status screen which shows it acquiring satellites and getting a fix on your location, which it then displays. On the same screen is a beautiful compass. Once the GPS is fully operational you can go to maps or whatever, but anytime you tap on GPS Status it will bring back that screen with the compass and satellites. There are lots of settings for the app - just tap on the menu button. I think it is a must have. Highly recommended.

lemodular

OK, did anyone noticed the 3rd and blind (unmapped layer) on the physical keyboard? For example, the "p" is caps when you hit shift - "p", and it is a "0" when you hit alt -"p" but if you hit shift - alt (or vice a versa) you get a "]".

I am not sure if this is documented anywhere or if the layout is mapped. I have not tried all the characters.

may2700

anyone know if the itunes sync software cancels the DRM on the music in itunes so it will sync with the droid? or is it just for the non DRm msic?

writhum

Android market has a crappy search function, let's admit it. However, to make it better, you can use google search filters within the market. For example, if I wanted to search for 'betterkeyboard', but didn't want the ridiculous amount of skins to come up in the search, I would type 'betterkeyboard -skin'. This helps filter out a lot of unwanted apps that come up.
Also the quotation modifiers work for specific text.

bdal1

I have about 12gb of mp3s on my ipod and i stopped keeping the files on my pc to save space.

Since the droid understands id3 tags: All i did was put my ipod in removable disk mode->unhide all hidden files and move the mp3 folder to the droid sd card. Even though the title of the track isnt shown in the file name, (itunes renames it to some ridiculous name like grfe.mp3) the droid knows what the song is and displays the name in the media player.

Saved me a bunch of time.

RgnKjnVA

I can confirm point #2 with an AOL account too.

Thanks to this thread I was able to purge two apps and replace them with Power Manager widget, figure out I don't need TasKiller AND that it was the reason I didn't get email updates today, learned about GPS Status which is a great tool when exploring unfamiliar cities on foot (or hiking I suppose), learned about Screen Mode widget to rid myself of two challenges to wake up from sleep mode. Very valuable thread! I didn't see this mentioned yet so hopefully I can add a little bit of value in return. Not as cool as some of those things listed above but I wanted to have instant access to my favorite NFL message board and figured it out.

Add web page shortcut to Home
1. Use browser to navigate to desired web site
2. Click Bookmark icon
3. Add bookmark
4. Long-press it
5. Scroll down in the resulting menu and select 'Add Shortcut to Home'
Result: Booyah, one-press access to your favorite site(s) right on your Home!

Last edited by RgnKjnVA; November 16th, 2009 at 12:12 AM.

AngieB1210

I had a similar problem with a ringtone that was sent in a text message from Verizon. If your ringtone was sent in a text go a couple menus in and hold down the body of the message and eventually you should get to a menu that will allow you to set it as a ringtone. Hope that helps!

ladybadger2007

Thanks the MMS ringtones I can save no prob, sadly the ones on funformobile.com I am still unable to save even if I send them as a MMS from the site it just sends a link back to the sight. So I just have my husband downlaod them on his BB Tour and send them as a MMS.

AZDroid

Why can't you save them, will it not let you click the download link? I was just able to click download and it went straight to my download folder...then I used Astro File Manager to move it to my ringtones folder.

Redflea

Hey! That's one of my favorite apps! Why would I want to complete a task with two actions (swipe and tap) when I can do it with one (for free).

Crush_Buds

Hold down the spyglass and say "Navigate to" to start a turn-by-turn navigation route. Such as "Navigate to Sushi Wave." And the phone will do the work. If it is something common like "Navigate to Wendy's" it will pull up a list of the nearby locations to choose form starting with the closest.

Try other things like "Navigate to a movie theater with alcohol," or an example I saw on a google nav video "Navigate to the museum with the egyptian exhibit," something like that I believe.

Kinda fun to mess around with and explore with this feature.

dgerst

I turned off the flash, covered the lens with my thumb, and took a picture. I set the black photo as my wallpaper. Looks nice and saves a bit of battery.

dep

Nice tip on "Navigate To".

I didn't know this, but all paid apps have a 24-hour trial period. If you remove it within 24 hours of purchase, you will not be charged.

Take THAT, Apple.

Manigma77

I'm sorry but I can't keep my mouth shut anymore. All this talk about not receiving emails with a task killer is wrong. I use an app called "Advanced Task Manager". All you have to do to receive your mail is go to the Applications tab and long click on the app that you do not want to close (for example: Gmail, email, etc) and select EXCLUDE.
You can also auto close applications at a specific interval, 30 min, 60 min, etc. To do this go to menu/preferences/ and check Auto-end running apps. Also make sure you go to auto-end excluded list and ADD the programs you do not want to end such as email programs, maps, open home(or equivalent), etc.
If you take the time to set this app up properly it works great, and IS a battery saver. If you don't believe me then try it.

For other battery savers, go into each individual mail app, weather app, etc and set the updates to a longer period, rather than updating every hour or 30 minutes.

Also set backlight to a low setting, or use auto adjust, and select a shorter backlight timeout value, like 30 seconds.

I have done all of these and my battery life is awesome. I love the Droid, my fav phone yet.

Sorry to be rude but using a task killer or any other app is left to the discretion of the user. No one should be told what to use or what not to use. Try them out and see for yourself if it is for you or not.

gwlaw99

In the Dolphin Browser, when you click on a youtube video, it gives you the option to download it.

El Blacksheep

Does it save as .flv? Or does it actually get converted to a playable format?

gwlaw99

It is converted to .mp4 which is playable.

joneee

With Google Voice, under settings you can select to make all your phone calls, choose between phone/google voice, or don't use google voice at all. Kind of neat since I decided to use google voice with all my calls.
Also free transcribing of voice messages sent to either your regular phone number or google voice number!

I've an advocate for google voice

PridgNYC

This is a pretty common misconception, setting a black background on an LCD screen doesn't save any battery. The backlight is still on, but the pixels are set to black to prevent transmission of the light. Therefore, no battery savings.

shaggymatt

Just to reiterate this.... I performed a lot of cleanup on the thread this morning. PLEASE post only tips/tricks in this thread. We do not need "great tip" "Works great" "thanks" posted all over the place.

thaJack

After you eject it from your host machine, you can pull that back down to dismount it, too, without having to unplug the USB cable, in case you want to keep charging it.

thaJack

Actually, it just shows your six most recent apps. Your list of running apps is likely much longer. Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications. From there you can filter to show running applications. You'll be surprised how long the list really is.

thaJack

My contacts are all listed in the format: (XXX) YYY-ZZZZ and I've had no problem with Google Voice. I do see how leaving off the area code could be a definite issue, though.

However, when I see a list of recent calls, they show up as XXX-YYY-ZZZZ in that list.