What to do first?

[jimbojones06]

I just got my captivate in the mail, and before I rip open the box and go to town, I wanted to get some suggestions on what I should do first.

I realize that there are lots of little things (settings, contacts, etc) that I need to get worked out, but are there any super-awesome apps that I should get or tricks that I should know about?

I don't plan on rooting it (at least not until after 2.2 anyway).

I've been lurking for a while and haven't seen a similar thread come up, don't be too harsh if I'm being a total noob here!

Thanks!

 

[Divinedark]

I usually run down the free apps list and get the usual stuff.

Facebook
Weather Channel
Giant Bomb Beta (amazing video game site)
ESPN
Flixter (movie times, reviews etc)
Pandora (the last radio you'll ever need)
Google Earth
Google Voice (how I get my visual voicemail)
Launcher Pro (replaces Touchwiz and soooo nice and fast)
Ringdroid (make ringtones from your music. Fast and easy)

Then there are games. I haven't dug too deep into these.
Abduction (and awesome doodle jump clone)
Robo Defense (Nice replacement for Fieldrunners, the iphone's marquis tower defense game)

I'm pretty new to the Android thing, so I'm still exploring the market.

 

[3gAndroid]

I just got my captivate in the mail, and before I rip open the box and go to town, I wanted to get some suggestions on what I should do first.

I realize that there are lots of little things (settings, contacts, etc) that I need to get worked out, but are there any super-awesome apps that I should get or tricks that I should know about?

I don't plan on rooting it (at least not until after 2.2 anyway)

Great question, and your smart to ask. First, I find the Captivate is a great phone, I'm truly enjoying mine. Just as it comes out of the box it works very well.

What I would suggest is to resist the urge to start changing things or removing apps like the AT&T stuff, just yet. I'm not an AT&T advocate, but the fact is that you can leave them there until you know more about Android, your model of Captivate in particular and then start making the modifications that _you_ want to make based on what you've learned.

This forum is a great resource to use in learning about Android.

So what you can "do" is to get your phone up and running, leave it stock just as it came, then start spending some time here reading. Learn from other users mistakes and the problems they are talking about. Take some of the complaints with a grain of salt, as we live in a negative world where people love to complain.

Remember this phone was designed by skilled engineers and has great build quality. Perfect? No, but no smartphone is... believe me. I'm such a smartphone enthusiast / addict, I've had over 50...

So unpack your phone, download the user guide from the net and start learning Android.

Cheers...

 

[getDange]

To the list of good apps I would add

If you read e-books:
Nook e-book reader (requires registration at bn.com)
Amazon Kindle reader (Amazon registration)
Aldiko reader (to read most public domain books)
FBReader (to read public domain books in FB format)

To read news (do not judge my choice):
Fox News
USA Today
E! Online

Cool apps to have:
Disp Battery Level (or Battery Info) - it is a simple lightest there is batt stat thing
Barcode Scanner
Google Shopper
Google Goggles
Bubble
Moron Test Lite (game/test)
Quickoffice
RealCalc (if you need an advanced scientific calculator)
Talking Tom
Samsung Car Home (if you have a holder/stand in your car that you place the phone in)
Samsung Desk Home (for desktop use)

Cool apps #2 (work their best when GPS is fully functional):
Google Earth
Google Sky Map
Layer
GPS Test (to test your GPS, uninstall once it works)

 

[TAWM]

Great question, and your smart to ask. First, I find the Captivate is a great phone, I'm truly enjoying mine. Just as it comes out of the box it works very well.

What I would suggest is to resist the urge to start changing things or removing apps like the AT&T stuff, just yet. I'm not an AT&T advocate, but the fact is that you can leave them there until you know more about Android, your model of Captivate in particular and then start making the modifications that _you_ want to make based on what you've learned.

This forum is a great resource to use in learning about Android.

So what you can "do" is to get your phone up and running, leave it stock just as it came, then start spending some time here reading. Learn from other users mistakes and the problems they are talking about. Take some of the complaints with a grain of salt, as we live in a negative world where people love to complain.

Remember this phone was designed by skilled engineers and has great build quality. Perfect? No, but no smartphone is... believe me. I'm such a smartphone enthusiast / addict, I've had over 50...

So unpack your phone, download the user guide from the net and start learning Android.

Cheers...

I hate that the new phones don't come with a manual or user guide because I like to read the user guides all the way through. How do I go about finding the actual user guide for the Captivate. Do I search Captivate or Android?

 

[james27007]

I hate that the new phones don't come with a manual or user guide because I like to read the user guides all the way through. How do I go about finding the actual user guide for the Captivate. Do I search Captivate or Android?

The Samsung userguide and AT&T userguide just suck, badly. They basically tell you how to turn the phone one and how to touch the screen. That is really it. Since the hardware is Samsung, you get how to turn it on. Since the network is AT&T you get how to make calls. But since the OS is Android, that is Google and they don't offer a how to; well nothing usefull really. The only way to really know what you can do is the forums and search for Android stuff and Galaxy S stuff (you get more with galaxy s than captivate).

By the way, the user manual is now linked in the main captivate sticky.

 

[3gAndroid]

Here is the download link for the user guide from Samsung's Site

Support for Samsung Captivate? (SGH-i897) SAMSUNG

 

[mike_terror]

First things to do:
- Sync contacts from old phone to Gmail. Then sync those contacts back to your fresh new captivate
- Play with the phone, mess around, get to know it, have a feel of how the stock phone works
- Check out the free apps
- Move on from there and enjoy


A lot of people root their phones right when they get it when they're not even sure why they're doing it in the first place. They root first, then ask questions later. I wouldn't root unless I had a purpose of doing so.

For myself, I'm new to the Android OS and have had my Captivate for a bit over 1 week. So far I've learned a lot from reading through the forums, asking questions, and searching through the web. Been dling a lot of free apps from trusted / popular developers and customizing my phone each day to my liking.

It's an awesome phone. I personally feel that it is necessary to root the phone, until you learn more and reach a road block on something you would like to do and requires rooting. The stock AT&T bloatware currently doesn't bother me either. This phone is FAST even as stock and has a lot of space, bloatware doesn't really get in my way.

There's so much things I can do and so much to learn, it will definitely keep me busy for a very long time. Maybe after the Froyo 2.2 update and I get very comfortable, I'll root my phone.

Check out widget's, "post your homescreen" thread, apps, launchers, and that should give you plenty of stuff to do.

Besides the GPS issue, the Captivate is an AWESOME & very snappy fast phone, but a lot of people tend to complain more than appreciate.


EDIT: Also, when I first got my Captivate & being new to the Android OS, I felt VERY VERY overwhelmed with the abundance of information available, terms that I was unfamiliar with, many customization possibilities, etc etc. that I didn't even know where to start. But just hang in there, you will become a pro and pick everything up in no time.

 

[3gAndroid]

A note about rooting, some users are unaware that once you've rooted the phone you will _not_ be able to easily upgrade to Froyo 2.2 once released by AT&T.

Or Samsung for that matter, as they release it to be installed on the phone as it came out of the box. To upgrade on a rooted phone, you will need a special version of 2.2

 

[BigCiX]

Get u a good looking case and some screen protectors

 

[nybmx]

A note about rooting, some users are unaware that once you've rooted the phone you will _not_ be able to easily upgrade to Froyo 2.2 once released by AT&T.

Or Samsung for that matter, as they release it to be installed on the phone as it came out of the box. To upgrade on a rooted phone, you will need a special version of 2.2

Is that the case? I was under the impression that you had 2 main options.
1. Unroot and upgrade OTA.
2. Backup apps, flash back to stock, upgrade OTA, then restore apps/data.

The second obviously being a bit more tedious but I have never heard any one talking about a "special" version of 2.2.

 

[3gAndroid]

Is that the case? I was under the impression that you had 2 main options.
1. Unroot and upgrade OTA.
2. Backup apps, flash back to stock, upgrade OTA, then restore apps/data.

The second obviously being a bit more tedious but I have never heard any one talking about a "special" version of 2.2.

Yes, you are correct about the options you listed. With the third option being a special version designed for an unrooted phone. Thanks for correcting my omission.

 

[BigCat8]

One setting you're definitely going to want to change right away if you're in range of WiFi most of the time...

Settings > Wireless and Network > Wi-Fi Settings > (Tap the menu button) Advanced > Wi-Fi sleep policy: set to "Never".

This did wonders for my battery life and should save you a little bit in the data usage department.

 

[3gAndroid]

One setting you're definitely going to want to change right away if you're in range of WiFi most of the time...

Settings > Wireless and Network > Wi-Fi Settings > (Tap the menu button) Advanced > Wi-Fi sleep policy: set to "Never".

This did wonders for my battery life and should save you a little bit in the data usage department.

I agree, it's a setting I made on mine early on, and it's been worthwhile.