I intend this thread as a general introduction for somebody like me coming from an iOS background, with no previous experience with Android. Yesterday I got my first Android phone, the AT&T One X. I love the new hardware, but am having some difficulties getting accustomed to the software. I will be posting questions here in the hope that answers by other forum members or from my own experience will help others make this transition.
1) What are some important Android apps people would recommend for this phone?
2) What's the best way to sync photos and movies to the HTC/Android?
3) The best way to sync Music to the HTC/Android?
4) Are there better keyboards than the stock one? I find it harder to type on without errors than the iPhone one, despite the keyboard being bigger due to the bigger display.
I'll keep adding questions as they arise. Please others feel free to add questions as well! Thanks!
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1) Titanium Backup, MyBackup Pro, apart from those which are perfect for backing up everything then unless you're rooted any other apps are just down to personal use.
2) Plug your phone into your computer and drag and drop them to your phone, what could be simpler?
3) iSyncr I suppose, I don't sync photos/videos etc, I just connect my phone to my computer, much easier.
4) There's loads of keyboards on the Play Store, some may allow you to customise the size of the keys, have better autocorrect etc, personally I just use the Stock keyboard, just try getting used to it. You don't have to be rooted either to use another keyboard and it's easy to setup, just try the free versions and see what you like.
Same here, just upgraded from my 3Gs to the One X this weekend, and loving it so far.
Like you I am discovering the apps, I would suggest reading the sticky thread and the apps section of this forum, you might get some good suggestions already.
Regarding music, I uploaded all my library to Google Music player. Pros: songs are all available without taking any storage on the phone (I uploaded 3,200 songs, about 17Gb… wouldn’t fit on the phone). Cons: you need coverage to listen to them, and it’s eating your data plan (just today, about 30mns of music for 65Mb… maybe some setting to change to lower that a bit??).
I might consider putting some music on the phone, making a few playlists to avoid tapping too much in the data plan.
Keyboard requires some time to adjust, but I like it more than the iphone one personally, so I’ll probably keep the stock, at least for now.
One question I’ll have:
Is there a way to get quickly at the top of a page?
On the iphone, a tap on the top bar and the page scrolls to the top. Doesn’t seem to have this on Android, have to scroll manually, which is a bit annoying I think.
That’s my personal experience so far, still playing around to customize the phone, with widgets and stuff… really like this.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danyfra
One question I’ll have:
Is there a way to get quickly at the top of a page?
On the iphone, a tap on the top bar and the page scrolls to the top. Doesn’t seem to have this on Android, have to scroll manually, which is a bit annoying I think.
That’s my personal experience so far, still playing around to customize the phone, with widgets and stuff… really like this.
I assume you mean in the browser? Doesn't look to have that option, you could just double tap to zoom out and then scroll to the top?
I use Opera anyway which has a button when you start to scroll which takes you straight to the top of the page.
If you're just scrolling to the top to use the address bar then you can just swipe down and it appears, you probably already know that though but just in case
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I assume you mean in the browser? Doesn't look to have that option, you could just double tap to zoom out and then scroll to the top?
I use Opera anyway which has a button when you start to scroll which takes you straight to the top of the page.
If you're just scrolling to the top to use the address bar then you can just swipe down and it appears, you probably already know that though but just in case
No didn't know the swipe trick for the address bar, thanks
And it's not only in the browser, but mostly in Twitter, as the app open where you left off, and I like to read tweets from most recent to older.
So on the iphone, just a tap at the top and you're done. On my One X, need to scroll all tweets manually. I checked there's no setting in the app to fix that either.
One thing that you may miss coming from an iPhone is quick access to your music controls from within any app.
You can get that and a lot more with a multitasking enhancer like SwipePad. I use a similar app for Gingerbread but my ICS rocking friends recommend SwipePad.
If you use OS X, it's like getting the Dashboard.
Single swipe from within any app and you get your customized panel of favorite widgets, shortcuts or an app quick switcher.
I've used this sort of thing for two years and consider it Android's missing link.
As for keyboards, HTC has done a good job but you can do better. I recommend SwiftKey or Flex T9, the latter includes swiping, the former includes predictions - and it's scary good at that. Not word completion, but predictions for what your next word(s) will be.
Both are better at speech recognition. SwiftKey will give you 3 choices of what it thinks it heard, while Flex T9 includes the Dragon engine, best there is. If you live in the UK, especially Scotland (assume that you've seen the elevator youtube if so) then you may want to check out Evi or Vlingo.
Cool folks thanks for everything so far (I finally managed to get my Dropbox upgrade).
How about contacts? How can I get them from OS X to the phone?
Quote:
Originally Posted by El Presidente
What format are they in on OSX? You can import them to your gmail account if they're in .csv/.vcf format.
Yep.
Address Book, File, Export... to vCard, creates a VCF file. Then log on to Gmail on the web, Contacts, there's a tool there to import. If you have groups in Address Book, they'll come through on Google and then to your phone.
Depending on your OS X version, Address Book, Preferences may give you the option to sync to your Google account. But import the whole book via the VCF file before turning that on.
Hope this helps!
PS - if you get duplicates, manage those on the Google web. They have a tool to search for them.
Last edited by EarlyMon; May 9th, 2012 at 07:21 AM.
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It's funny, the only thing I don't like so far about the phone is how I have to find and press the small button on the top of the phone to activate it every time I want to use it. The big obviously visible iPhone front button is much easier to find and access. I wish there was a faster way with the HTC. Especially with a case like the Case Mate on, that button is not straightforward to locate and compress.
Which leads me to question
6) Is there a better way?
Last edited by berkeley; May 9th, 2012 at 03:36 PM.
It's funny, the only thing I don't like so far about the phone is how I have to find and press the small button on the top of the phone to activate it every time I want to use it. The big obviously visible iPhone front button is much easier to find and access. I wish there was a faster way with the HTC. Especially with a case like the Case Mate on, that button is not straightforward to locate and compress.
Question about the Google address book suggestion: will this only work if I use the dedicated Gmail app, or also if I use the Mail app that comes with the phone?
Question about the Google address book suggestion: will this only work if I use the dedicated Gmail app, or also if I use the Mail app that comes with the phone?
Btw, which of these two apps is better?
That process will end up basically syncing your Address Book on OS X to People on your phone (iow, your contacts). Anyone in your contacts list ought be recognized by mail and sms apps.
I prefer HTC mail, but I'm still on Gingerbread - really, it's a matter of preference whether to use that or Gmail, so far as I know.
PS - If you look at Gmail permissions, you'll see that it's allowed to access contacts, and all of the HTC stuff talks to each other.
It's funny, the only thing I don't like so far about the phone is how I have to find and press the small button on the top of the phone to activate it every time I want to use it. The big obviously visible iPhone front button is much easier to find and access. I wish there was a faster way with the HTC. Especially with a case like the Case Mate on, that button is not straightforward to locate and compress.
No idea if this applies to you or if they work with ICS, but I used to use these extensively when I was constantly phoning.
It's funny, the only thing I don't like so far about the phone is how I have to find and press the small button on the top of the phone to activate it every time I want to use it. The big obviously visible iPhone front button is much easier to find and access. I wish there was a faster way with the HTC. Especially with a case like the Case Mate on, that button is not straightforward to locate and compress.
+1 how many times did I try to press the home button on my One X and nothing happened
I guess it's just a new habit to get, probably the home button on the One X would be too sensitive anyway, unless this could be tweak in a way...
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For Twitter I use TweetCaster, much better than the official Twitter app, has many more features (longer than 140 tweets), which includes tapping a button to go straight to the top of your tweets.
With regards to having to press the power button, if you root there are mods out there that allow you to use the Volume Up, Volume Down buttons to unlock the phone, the new Bricked kernel allows you to swipe across the back, home and recent apps buttons to unlock the phone too.
Rooting and flashing a custom ROM really unlocks the power of the phone!
I have two more questions having to do with things I miss since the transition:
7) What text messaging apps do people recommend? I was using iMessage before. Many of my friends don't want to pay for text messages anymore so it has to be something like iMessage that is free for the person on the other end as well.
8) The synced reading list in Safari is incredibly useful: I see something I'm interested in while at work, simply add it to the reading list, and can look at it on the phone while on my commute home. Any Android alternatives that I can use in conjunction with my Mac?
Last edited by berkeley; May 9th, 2012 at 03:34 PM.
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1. Look at something like whatsapp or Viber. The othe person needs either app installed for the messages to be free though.
2. Google Chrome will sync bookmarks etc up nicely. There's also chrome to phone which will send pages you've read on your PC as a bookmark to your phone and open in the chrome to phone app.
For Twitter I use TweetCaster, much better than the official Twitter app, has many more features (longer than 140 tweets), which includes tapping a button to go straight to the top of your tweets.
With regards to having to press the power button, if you root there are mods out there that allow you to use the Volume Up, Volume Down buttons to unlock the phone, the new Bricked kernel allows you to swipe across the back, home and recent apps buttons to unlock the phone too.
Rooting and flashing a custom ROM really unlocks the power of the phone!
It's a daunting thing to do though as long as there isn't one standard way of doing it. Is there?
+1 how many times did I try to press the home button on my One X and nothing happened
I guess it's just a new habit to get, probably the home button on the One X would be too sensitive anyway, unless this could be tweak in a way...
Please see post above yours about No Lock.
Quote:
Originally Posted by berkeley
It's a daunting thing to do though as long as there isn't one standard way of doing it. Is there?
Yes. Rooting can be daunting. Anyone that finds it so ought not try to rush in. Rooting with patience and taking time to read like crazy is the answer, every time. Trust me, that's the Prime Directive of rooting.
As for standard way -> yes, the way is standardized for each model variant of the One X (or any Android phone) but it varies by make, model, and variant because of how the underlying pieces (what we call the bootloader) on the phone are set up. Ok to think of the bootloader like the BIOS on a Windows PC - not exactly the same, but it's like that.
So, when you root, only follow the exact standard instructions for your model.
The longer root is around for any one model, the more time people have to smooth out the edges. Eventually (usually, pretty quickly) the methods often get reduced to "download this - and click that - done, rooted."
Even on a Mac, it gets nearly that simple quite often. Example, my Mac rooting guides consist of -
Code:
Do this on your Mac from the Finder
Code:
Now copy/paste this into where I say on the Mac
Code:
Now, copy/paste this too
Code:
Congrats, you're all rooted
No need to rush - wait for someone to make you one of those for your model of the One X.
PS - I really like Skype - messaging on most all phones, Macs, PCs - pretty universal, pretty free.
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I have two more questions having to do with things I miss since the transition:
7) What text messaging apps do people recommend? I was using iMessage before. Many of my friends don't want to pay for text messages anymore so it has to be something like iMessage that is free for the person on the other end as well.
8) The synced reading list in Safari is incredibly useful: I see something I'm interested in while at work, simply add it to the reading list, and can look at it on the phone while on my commute home. Any Android alternatives that I can use in conjunction with my Mac?
For 8, Look into instapaper. Basically you send any link to instapaper and then go to the website from any computer and they're all there.
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I also like to recommend Evernote - it doesn't care about Android, Mac or PC - it's just a great way to share all sorts of stuff - and they have really powerful addons.
I also like to recommend Evernote - it doesn't care about Android, Mac or PC - it's just a great way to share all sorts of stuff - and they have really powerful addons.
This is a slightly off-topic question since it is of relevance to anyone with an HTC One X, but I'd like to know if the USB cable that comes with it is special or if there are cheap versions on Amazon I can look for? Is it a simple USB->Micro-USB cable?
I'm asking because I need several in car/at work/at home, etc. Thanks.
Thanks Guys. New question, sort of related to one of the above ones: I'm still trying to get pictures and movies to the phone. Somebody above suggested something to the extent that all I need to do is connect the phone to my Mac and drag and drop the file into the phone. But the only thing that appears in my Finder when I connect the phone is an "HTC Sync manager". I'm unable to drop anything into that. What should I do?
Thanks Guys. New question, sort of related to one of the above ones: I'm still trying to get pictures and movies to the phone. Somebody above suggested something to the extent that all I need to do is connect the phone to my Mac and drag and drop the file into the phone. But the only thing that appears in my Finder when I connect the phone is an "HTC Sync manager". I'm unable to drop anything into that. What should I do?
I only use pc.. NO mac..
I just plug in..
A pop-up comes up on my phone.. Charge or drive.
Select drive.. It act like a flash drive
Open the drive.. Drag and drop.. Everything just like a drive
Thanks Guys. New question, sort of related to one of the above ones: I'm still trying to get pictures and movies to the phone. Somebody above suggested something to the extent that all I need to do is connect the phone to my Mac and drag and drop the file into the phone. But the only thing that appears in my Finder when I connect the phone is an "HTC Sync manager". I'm unable to drop anything into that. What should I do?
I have a mac too and I have to connect it as a disk drive. When you plug it in it should show a screen asking how you want to connect. If I choose HTC Sync Manager I get an error, and I can't download HTC Sync Manager from the website yet as it says "Coming soon."
So yeah.. plug it in, select connect as disk drive, and then in your finder you just select the phone and copy your files into their corresponding folders. It's not ideal but it does the job for now.
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One question I’ll have:
Is there a way to get quickly at the top of a page?
On the iphone, a tap on the top bar and the page scrolls to the top. Doesn’t seem to have this on Android, have to scroll manually, which is a bit annoying I think.
Using Dolphin browser, when you reach the bottom of a page, and start to scroll back up, a little arrow appears which you can press to go back to the top of the Page.
Last edited by craftycarper; May 11th, 2012 at 09:39 AM.
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If you don't see a popup notification on your phone then select the notification bar, there'll be a notification saying "charge", select that and change it to disk drive, then it should show up as drive on your computer, mac or Linux.
Address Book, File, Export... to vCard, creates a VCF file. Then log on to Gmail on the web, Contacts, there's a tool there to import. If you have groups in Address Book, they'll come through on Google and then to your phone.
Depending on your OS X version, Address Book, Preferences may give you the option to sync to your Google account. But import the whole book via the VCF file before turning that on.
Hope this helps!
PS - if you get duplicates, manage those on the Google web. They have a tool to search for them.
I'm unable to export to vCard (the option is gray). Only option is is to export to an Address Book Archive, but that seems to not be compatible with Gmail. Suggestions?
I'm unable to export to vCard (the option is gray). Only option is is to export to an Address Book Archive, but that seems to not be compatible with Gmail. Suggestions?
Try selecting All Contacts first.
I've done this on Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. What rev are you on?
Last edited by EarlyMon; May 13th, 2012 at 02:13 PM.
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Chrome beta is the only browser choice. It syncs your desktop settings including tabs with the mobile version so any tabs that are open on your desktop you can open on your phone.
A nice alternative to Evernote is Springpad it's more visual than evernote a bit like pininterest but has pretty much the same functionality. It even adds some features like reminders.
Last edited by aportable; May 14th, 2012 at 12:25 PM.
iPhone -> HTC One X
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