Help Hello! New and Intimidated!

[bigexplosion]

Hello! I am a returning college student and just got screwed by att, got fed up with them and switched to verizon. I left behind a 3 yr old first gen iphone in the switch. I loved that little thing. Now I have a Droid X that is very shiny and intimidating. I am impressed with 3g speed, much better than i would have guessed, but that happens if youve been using edge for 3 years. New to the dark side I have no clue what to do with this android, it feels very capable, but also kind of locked down. My initial questions, I thought this thing had gps, why does it think i am in a river almost 2 miles away? I thought i had it on silent but it keeps making lots of noises anyway, advice? Is there a way to get turn by turn dirctions without paying verizon 10 dollars a month? the news widget is nice but shows all sorts of crap i do not need (celebrity gossip mostly) how do i turn that off? How do i make it not show facebook in my contacts list (scared the shit out of me to see exgirlfriends on my phone). Is there a way to put a notification button on the home screen? kinda annoying to push two buttons for things that may be important.

 

[Steven58]

Welcome to the Android Forums community! Glad you signed up! Feel free to jump into the conversations!

I'll move this for ya! Happy X'ing. Root why dontcha?

 

[Deleted User]

Hi!

Some answers for you.

My initial questions, I thought this thing had gps, why does it think i am in a river almost 2 miles away?

Under Settings > Location & Security, check all three boxes under "My Location."

Also, I have found this interesting on my switch from the iPhone: my location when I don't need it (i.e. I am in my office and am just screwing around with the phone) is often very inaccurate, much less accurate than my iPhone. Everywhere realistic, though - driving, walking, whatever - it is highly accurate, more so than my iPhone.

In my office, it says I'm about a half mile from where I really am. As soon as I step outside, boom, immediate lock.

I chalk this up to it being a much better GPS receiver than my iPhone, but worse at resolving rough network locations via the cell towers, since in my office you can't get a GPS fix but it gets a cell signal.

I thought i had it on silent but it keeps making lots of noises anyway, advice?

In Android, the "Media" volume is different from the ringer volume, and "Media" is what all of the apps use when playing sounds. I hate that. There are lots of ways around this - I usually never want to have the external speaker on, so I used an app called "Mute" that was free and will mute the whole phone. I now use an app called Switch Pro that has an option to mute the media volume when you set the phone to vibrate.

s there a way to get turn by turn dirctions without paying verizon 10 dollars a month?

Yes, just use the Google Navigation app. It should be on the phone, but if it's not, it's free from the market.

the news widget is nice but shows all sorts of crap i do not need (celebrity gossip mostly) how do i turn that off? How do i make it not show facebook in my contacts list (scared the shit out of me to see exgirlfriends on my phone).

Sorry, I don't use either of those features. I know the Facebook thing is a known problem.

Is there a way to put a notification button on the home screen?

What do you mean by that? You have a notification "shade" - swipe from the top of the screen down and your notification shade will appear, containing all of your important notifications.

 

[bigexplosion]

Thanks so much, that was very helpful!