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Help Noob getting Inc today...where do I start

marblejay

Newbie
Jun 2, 2010
31
1
It's coming today...it's on the truck...I'm switching from blackberry tour...I know to charge immediately...but then what? Where do I start? Activate (obviously).
Already have my Google sync done and ready to dump into it...(I have been reading a lot).

Total info overload here...I've never had this type of phone but have been reading the forum obsessively.

Where do I start? What do I need to download? What is tethering and why do I need to worry about it?

Any tips? Threads I need to start with that I missed? I apologize I'm sure it's here but there is a LOT here!
Thanks for your patience.
 
Well aren't you just giddy. HAHA! I was too. Download AppBrain and start getting some apps on there. Slacker Radio, Mobile Defense, Armored Strike, Homerun Battle, Scanner Radio, Handcent, Sporty Pal....there is no end to all the helpful and fun apps.

I use PDANet for tethering. Tethering allows you to give your laptop access to the internet.

Whatever you do, DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY APP KILLERS!!!!!

Have fun with the phone.
 
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Well aren't you just giddy. HAHA! I was too. Download AppBrain and start getting some apps on there. Slacker Radio, Mobile Defense, Armored Strike, Homerun Battle, Scanner Radio, Handcent, Sporty Pal....there is no end to all the helpful and fun apps.

I use PDANet for tethering. Tethering allows you to give your laptop access to the internet.

Whatever you do, DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY APP KILLERS!!!!!

Have fun with the phone.

Agreed! Only one problem at the moment. Handcent is not available in the market. Not sure what the issue is. Keep checking for it, it should show up sooner or later.

Also, grab gmail unread count, tapatalk (forum viewer), & phandroid news.

Enjoy!!!
 
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Well aren't you just giddy. HAHA! I was too. Download AppBrain and start getting some apps on there. Slacker Radio, Mobile Defense, Armored Strike, Homerun Battle, Scanner Radio, Handcent, Sporty Pal....there is no end to all the helpful and fun apps.

I use PDANet for tethering. Tethering allows you to give your laptop access to the internet.

Whatever you do, DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY APP KILLERS!!!!!

Have fun with the phone.

Just curious why you recommend against downloading an App Killer? I was told by several people to do the opposite to help conserve battery power.
 
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Just curious why you recommend against downloading an App Killer? I was told by several people to do the opposite to help conserve battery power.

I'll echo this question. Lots of people recommending getting an app killer right away to make sure rogue apps don't continue to run in the background (though I think I've read that the killer itself can suck juice by always looking to kill apps).
 
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Just curious why you recommend against downloading an App Killer? I was told by several people to do the opposite to help conserve battery power.

I'll echo this question. Lots of people recommending getting an app killer right away to make sure rogue apps don't continue to run in the background (though I think I've read that the killer itself can suck juice by always looking to kill apps).


Read up on this.

The Android OS does a pretty good job of killing apps when it needs the resources.
 
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Just curious why you recommend against downloading an App Killer? I was told by several people to do the opposite to help conserve battery power.

App killers are completely unneccesary unless you are downloading and running a plethora of VERY poorly written apps.

The OS is smart enough to "sleep" any application not in the foreground and have it give up its CPU/Memory back into the "pool"

The only types of apps that keep running in the background are things like streaming radio(using data and speaker) mobile instant messaging(using data, screen speaker, notification light) For things like push gmail or friendstream or weather, which pull data, the app only uses resources on the schedule that YOU set. I have my weather sync set to an hour. Every hour it quickly goes out to the data connection and grabs an update, then "sleeps" again.

App Killers can HARM rather than help battery life if you kill crucial system processes which the phone will then immediately have to start back up, drawing more cpu/memory(and thus power) than if you were to let them sleep in the background.

I have never had an appkiller on my incredible and i get 2-3 days of battery life with 1-2 hrs of calls a day, 1-2 hrs of websurfing, 3+ hrs of listening to MP3s and about 50 emails a day. My weather sync is set to 1 hr and the only email i have on it is push Gmail. No social networking, no friendstream.
 
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This is good...keep going guys!

Also do I need to 'tether'...what is it exactly? I have the standard data/web plan with verizon (WHERE IS THAT UPS GUY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD???? IT'S 1030!!!!)

Tethering is the act of connecting your phone to a desktop/laptop/other device to feed the 3g data connection from your phone to the other device.

Warning: Tethering is something that Verizon wants you to pay for. There are ways to get tethering without paying, but should they catch you, you're going to be paying out the nose.

Dependant on the tethering app, you can use a direct usb, wifi or bluetooth connection to feed your phone's 3g data to the other device.

Android OS 2.2, aka Froyo, is including native wifi and usb tethering but at this time it is unknown if Verizon will disable this ability for the Droid and Droid Incredible.
 
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So is this the only way to get data from phone to laptop and vv? If I have other means of getting online with my computer is this something I need to worry about?

To get data from your computer to your phone and vice-versa, simply plug it in via USB and the internal storage and micro-sd card will be able to be opened in windows explorer. Simply drag and drop the pictures/music/files you want back and forth. This costs you nothing.

If your computer already has internet access, don't worry about tethering.

I tether because i'm an on-call IT person and if i get a critical situation, i simply take my laptop out of the trunk of my car, hook it to my Incredible and boom, i have internet anytime, anywhere.
 
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So is this the only way to get data from phone to laptop and vv? If I have other means of getting online with my computer is this something I need to worry about?

Tethering is used to provide internet access to your laptop when there is no other access (wireless or ethernet). If you already have access, then you don't need to tether. However, if you take you laptop to the park for example, you can get online with tethering. I use it a the airport instead of paying the high internet access fees.
 
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Read up on this.

The Android OS does a pretty good job of killing apps when it needs the resources.

Thanks for that.

So based upon this, I should not bother with killing the Gtalk and Obex services like Ive been doing every day?

I think I only was doing that since I remember reading that it was killing people's batteries?

If someone could confirm or deny that would be great!

Thanks.
 
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