Droid tips, tricks, and easter eggs

DroidRX · 11-06-2009, 11:17 AM

So now that the Droid is finally out, please share any neat and useful tips and tricks (shortcuts, etc.) that you find on the phone. I'll be sure to once I play with the phone enough and hopefully find some.

Goodbuy Storm, hello Droid

shivers316 · 11-06-2009, 12:02 PM

Good thread idea. I'm gonna sticky it for ya.

Added by Jacqueline:
THIS THREAD IS FOR POSTING INFORMATION YOU KNOW, NOT FOR ASKING QUESTIONS.

If you have a question and do not want to start your own thread or cannot decide which thread it should go in, use the thread below. This is also where you will find the questions that have been removed from this thread.
Various Q&A

Edit to Add: I am continuing to remove questions from this thread. DO NOT POST QUESTIONS IN THIS THREAD!

dep · 11-06-2009, 12:05 PM

If someone sends you a phone # or email address in an SMS, you can click and hold on the email or phone # to get options like "add to contacts," "email", "sms" etc etc.

Nice little feature.

dep · 11-06-2009, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dep

If someone sends you a phone # or email address in an SMS, you can click and hold on the email or phone # to get options like "add to contacts," "email", "sms" etc etc.

Nice little feature.

Also holding down on the home button for a second shows a "quick launch" menu of some sort. Not sure how to customize that.

DroidRX · 11-06-2009, 12:21 PM

Thanks shivers, yeah this phone will definitely take some time getting used to so hopefully this will speed things up.

dep, thanks for that find. That is actually very useful.

CombatChuck103 · 11-06-2009, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dep

Also holding down on the home button for a second shows a "quick launch" menu of some sort. Not sure how to customize that.

That is the multitasking menu. List of your 6 most recent apps.

justinlindh · 11-06-2009, 12:46 PM

Being new to Android, it took me a while to figure out how to mount the USB drive in Windows/other OS's: You need to pull down the notification menu, select the USB Storage option, and select "Mount". Hope that saves someone some time.

mattparmely · 11-06-2009, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinlindh

Being new to Android, it took me a while to figure out how to mount the USB drive in Windows/other OS's: You need to pull down the notification menu, select the USB Storage option, and select "Mount". Hope that saves someone some time.

what does this do?

justinlindh · 11-06-2009, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattparmely

what does this do?

Lets you upload music/pics/anything from your PC to the phone's SD card. Mounts the SD card as a disk drive in Windows. Before you select the Mount option in the Android OS, the drive will show up in "My Computer" but it won't let you see anything inside of it.

joscon · 11-06-2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dep

Also holding down on the home button for a second shows a "quick launch" menu of some sort. Not sure how to customize that.

That actually shows running apps

justinlindh · 11-06-2009, 01:13 PM

Alright, I figured out where it will find music media... drop them in <disk_drive_of_mounted_droid>\Music

If the folder doesn't exist, create it first. It'll recursively scan directories and read the id3 tags of MP3's/etc. Works perfectly for me!

MrShneeblie · 11-06-2009, 01:20 PM

Try this for transferring music to your Droid (from iTunes):

Motorola Media Link - Motorola USA

Let us know if it works.

atlbuc · 11-06-2009, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinlindh

Not sure, especially about iTunes (I don't use iTunes for anything aside my iPod Touch). You might run into some problems with the DRM on some of the iTunes tracks, and I'm unsure whether Droid can play the un-DRM'd ones. Someone else should know better than I.

I'm trying to figure out where the Droid will search for media files on the SD card.

Goto Sync, Play & Send to BlackBerry, PSP, iPod, iPhone with doubleTwist and download the app. This will allow you to sync your music from iTunes. You can syn your entire playlist or make a Droid playlist and sync it.

MrShneeblie · 11-06-2009, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atlbuc

Goto Sync, Play & Send to BlackBerry, PSP, iPod, iPhone with doubleTwist and download the app. This will allow you to sync your music from iTunes. You can syn your entire playlist or make a Droid playlist and sync it.

Has anyone tried this on a PC - this post says it's only MAC right now:

Motorola Droid - New device requests and support - doubleTwist Community

Thx,

Mr.Shneeblie

atlbuc · 11-06-2009, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrShneeblie

Has anyone tried this on a PC - this post says it's only MAC right now:

Motorola Droid - New device requests and support - doubleTwist Community

Thx,

Mr.Shneeblie

It works on a PC, they are talking about the Amazon integration is only on MAC right now. It works very well

mattparmely · 11-06-2009, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atlbuc

It works on a PC, they are talking about the Amazon integration is only on MAC right now. It works very well

yep. just downloaded it. I just cant get my droid to show up on the program! it says i need to make it have mass storage or whatever i cant figure it out.

atlbuc · 11-06-2009, 01:33 PM

When u connect the Droid, pull down the notification shade and mount the usb. Give Doubletwist a min and it will find it.

androidnewby · 11-06-2009, 03:36 PM

Another thing to note...I was having issues with the touchscreen after I place the screen protector on it...It took a couple hours for the protector to "set" And now I don't have issues. But...here is a question. Does anyone know how to set the touch sensitivity on this thing?? I can't find it in settings ANYWHERE...

ZPrime · 11-06-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stangs55

Please!

Need to change that camera button to a voice search!

Just push and HOLD the spyglass face button. If you have haptic enabled it will vibrate once on first push, and then a second time after you hold for a bit.

This launches voice search directly, no need for another key.

bluenik25 · 11-06-2009, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinlindh

Being new to Android, it took me a while to figure out how to mount the USB drive in Windows/other OS's: You need to pull down the notification menu, select the USB Storage option, and select "Mount". Hope that saves someone some time.

You are the man!!!! Just spent a couple minutes searching for this.

kev83202 · 11-06-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moosc

what are the settings for handbrake? need to update my movies for my moto droid

The screen is 16:9 so most movies will work perfect, just pick the iphone setting on the side and let er rip. I've already got 6 movies on the card they look great.

SurgiclPrcision · 11-06-2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrShneeblie

Try this for transferring music to your Droid (from iTunes):

Motorola Media Link - Motorola USA

Let us know if it works.

Actually i tried using MML but all it did was pull media from my phone to my PC. i couldnt find a way to actually sync my PC library to the phone, which was the main purpose of the program for me.

I can do drag and drop just fine though. Not a big deal for me.

By the way i am on Windows 7 x64. Some people mentioned it doesn't install on Win7, but all one has to do is run as administrator. After a reboot and some really slow driver installation, i was up and running.

syntrix · 11-06-2009, 08:24 PM

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!

EyeOfYourMind84 · 11-06-2009, 09:38 PM

I just learned that there already is a task killer built in to 2.0! Go to Home Screen>Settings>Applications>Running services.

From there you can stop any app/task.

Bince82 · 11-06-2009, 11:05 PM

I found it annoying that you had to go through the settings in order to change your ringer from loud/vibrate/silent. I downloaded this great free widget called Ringer Toggle Widget which can sit on your home page and switches between loud/vibrate/silent with a hit of a button.

Jim_1234 · 11-06-2009, 11:58 PM

Or when you turn the phone on instead of swiping to the right to unlock swipe to the left and it will goto vibrate.

bwsmith · 11-07-2009, 12:00 AM

Just a quick one: When using the onscreen keyboards, you can hide them by flicking them down from the top (much like a Storm). And just tap the field again to bring them back.

moosc · 11-07-2009, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kev83202

The screen is 16:9 so most movies will work perfect, just pick the iphone setting on the side and let er rip. I've already got 6 movies on the card they look great.

did that but it is to small habe a little box in middle of screen

bwsmith · 11-07-2009, 12:08 AM

If you use a pouch holster that has magnetics, it may activate Car Mode which means that the screen stays on and burns up your battery in the holster. This is definitely true for BlackBerry holsters where the magnet is used to put the BB in Sleep. Figured this out after half my battery got drained using my old Storm holster.

beargold23 · 11-07-2009, 12:26 AM

Okay i listen to pandora in my car, and have it hooked up through a mp3 jack that allows me to place the music through my car speakers, which i was able to do with my Storm 1, but now im able to have a conversation also, so when someone calls me i can hear them through my speakers. Couldn't do that with my storm

ladybadger2007 · 11-07-2009, 01:13 AM

I use funformobile.com for all my ringtones and pics it's a great free site. I was trying to download and save ringtones and wasn't able to save them. The picks work fine but not the ring tones . Any ideas thanks

ProfessorHM · 11-07-2009, 04:34 AM

Coming from a blackberry curve where I had the option to have custom ringtones for every contact in my address book I was a bit disappointed when I didn't see any similar option. Android really rewards those who kind of poke around all the options and really get to know the OS.

Anyways, to set mp3's as your ringtones simply upload them and then while a song is playing hit the menu button and select "Set as Ringtone".

And now every song that you have done that for will appear on your list of ringtones whenever you go into change the ringtones on your contacts.

To make custom ringtones for your contacts simply go into your contacts, hit the menu button and select "Options", then "Ringtone" and from that list all the songs that you set as your ringtones will be listed.

Hope this helps!

btmac · 11-07-2009, 02:40 PM

i stumbled across the way to copy one word. double-tap it to select, then press-hold brings up edit menu. press-hold at the other spot to paste.

eraser · 11-07-2009, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kg6epf

Yes, but depends on the App. Gmail lets you copy, but haven't figured out how to paste yet.

To copy, open keyboard and hold down shift key. Drag your finger across the text you want to copy.

You can paste it into the browser, but I can't find a way to paste into a new mail yet. Probably needs an update for that to happen.

To paste into an email, tap and hold for a couple of seconds in the text entry area, a menu comes up, the first option is "Paste".

caitlion · 11-07-2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rphman

how do you assign different sounds to notifications...i have a couple of ringtones that i like to use for text messages and emails..

i see it mp3 in my list of ringtones but can not use it as a notification for email or txt...

thanks
Wade

on your sd card, make a folder called "notifications" and put the file you want in there.

s-one · 11-07-2009, 04:33 PM

Here's a tip that should help Google Voice users and the 5 minute wait on receiving SMS txts.

I realized that since sms is not pushed, it will only update at whichever interval you have set in GV.

Not a full solution but a workaround to get instant txt is to enable the option in GV to receive the txt via email and since email is pushed, you'll get the txt instantly. Once you received the GV Email of the txt you then can reply to that email with your response and GV will send it back as a txt. Or hence you can go into your GV app on the Droid, manually refresh and correspond txting normally.

northendtrooper · 11-07-2009, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfessorHM

Coming from a blackberry curve where I had the option to have custom ringtones for every contact in my address book I was a bit disappointed when I didn't see any similar option. Android really rewards those who kind of poke around all the options and really get to know the OS.

Anyways, to set mp3's as your ringtones simply upload them and then while a song is playing hit the menu button and select "Set as Ringtone".

And now every song that you have done that for will appear on your list of ringtones whenever you go into change the ringtones on your contacts.

To make custom ringtones for your contacts simply go into your contacts, hit the menu button and select "Options", then "Ringtone" and from that list all the songs that you set as your ringtones will be listed.

Hope this helps!

Download Ringdroid, it is free. It allows you to snip and convert your mp3 to ringtones and allows you to select what contact to what ringtone.

endo · 11-07-2009, 07:00 PM

Reset = shift+alt+del, discovered by being stupidly curious, of course. (I'd guess this is standard for Android, but I've only owned this thing for < 24hrs now).

radikal · 11-07-2009, 08:15 PM

this forum has helped so much, this thread is genius! thanks!

eraser · 11-07-2009, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mobileT83

separate sound profiles would be great.. such as night, work, loud, etc. I may have looked over them, but I always like this feature on my BBs

There's a free app called Locale that can do this.

Based on your GPS position, time of day, etc, it makes the phone behave differently (silent, loud, vibrate, etc.)

I downloaded it but I can't get it to get a lock on the GPS, never finds my location. Which is weird because Google maps/nav has no problems.

radikal · 11-07-2009, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eraser

There's a free app called Locale that can do this.

Based on your GPS position, time of day, etc, it makes the phone behave differently (silent, loud, vibrate, etc.)

I downloaded it but I can't get it to get a lock on the GPS, never finds my location. Which is weird because Google maps/nav has no problems.

it works too, i set it not to do anything while at home, going to test it at church and work, work monday that is!

cslaten · 11-07-2009, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SurgiclPrcision

Actually i tried using MML but all it did was pull media from my phone to my PC. i couldnt find a way to actually sync my PC library to the phone, which was the main purpose of the program for me.

I can do drag and drop just fine though. Not a big deal for me.

By the way i am on Windows 7 x64. Some people mentioned it doesn't install on Win7, but all one has to do is run as administrator. After a reboot and some really slow driver installation, i was up and running.

Try Salling Software - Salling Media Sync for Windows. It worked for me, but I am running Vista....

Wakey · 11-07-2009, 09:35 PM

I posted this as a thread but I asked that it be deleted an I'll leave it here where it belongs

While streaming YouTube press menu/more/watch in high quality. (Prepare to be blown away) Just open the YouTube icon and search for HD in the search pane. WOW!

When uploading video to YouTube you have to turn off the Screen Timeout. My video failed to upload a few times until I figured this out. Go to Menu/settings/sound & display/ & scroll down to screen timeout & select. Scroll down & select never timeout.

Also to upload video you apparently have to use WiFi.

AND, be sure to turn back on the timeout to 1 or 2 minutes because it dogs the battery rather quickly.

Headphones.. Get these, the transport buttons work awesome except the phone answer one and it might have a workaround. Amazon.com: Motorola S305 MOTOROKR Stereo Bluetooth Headphones [Retail Packaging]: Cell Phones & Service

I might think of other things to add to this and if I'm wrong about something post away.

radikal · 11-07-2009, 09:40 PM

this is awesome. thanks.

lobe50 · 11-07-2009, 09:45 PM

Great Educational Post...subscribing
Thanks

NSXLA · 11-07-2009, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nastybynature

How do I get the Gmail messages that are fowarded to me to show pictures?

i've tired sending myself embedded images (thru aol) , they don't seem to show up - need to send as attachment.

brettlewis · 11-07-2009, 11:30 PM

Is it me, or is there no question mark on the keyboard? I keep trying to type question style messages and they look silly with a period instead of a question mark

EDIT. found it. i was looking for a gold shift button. didnt know it had its own. ha

xAwesome.Austinx · 11-07-2009, 11:34 PM

took me a minute to find it as well. lol

brettlewis · 11-07-2009, 11:57 PM

MAJOR TIP:

go to: DROID by Motorola Support - Motorola USA
or: http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Support/US-EN/Mobile%20Phones/DROID-by-Motorola/US-EN/Documents/Static-Files/DROID_UG_Verizon_68000202474a.pdf (this is the entire user guide online. this version has more information then the guide that came in the box)

they have information on almost every feature in there and it is really easy to use.

JafCo · 11-08-2009, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinlindh

Being new to Android, it took me a while to figure out how to mount the USB drive in Windows/other OS's: You need to pull down the notification menu, select the USB Storage option, and select "Mount". Hope that saves someone some time.

Definitely saved me a lot of time. Thanks!