So if I'm using google maps/nav, and then back it out... is it still running?
I notice the little satellite dish still active in the bar at top, is that my gps still running and draining battery?
I rebooted when I thought everything was closed and the dish went away.
The only time GPS is used is when the app is active. If you use Maps, as soon as you exit, it should stop trying to locate you. Even if Maps continues to run in the background, it will not use GPS. If GPS is staying active, there is something else going on. TaskKiller is not needed to constantly kill off apps.
Don't know if this has been posted yet, but in the browser if there is a phone number, you can tap and hold it and take you to the dialer with that number ready to call. Very nice!
Does everyone have the 54 page user guide PDF file for the Droid? Judging from some of the posts, many haven't found this yet. There was a story posted here for it.
Yes we do. WE SHOULD walk you thru a brief tutorial. but i cannot guarntee everyone does it. Always nice to know before the cust leaves that there comfortable with their device. EVERYONE is diff tho. you know who the "geeks" are and arent.
Im a "geek" for sure.
Hi everyone,
I believe this thread is going to be of great value to all new Droid users - like myself. The information, tricks and undocumented features listed here are invaluable.
When I walked into the VZ store to buy the Droid, the rep could tell I knew exactly what I wanted and figured he didn't need to do a whole lot of setup and training (only needed to transfer my numbers from my old phone).
I guess I must be a 'geek' as well!
Thanks to everyone for the Droid info. I have bookmarked this thread!
As others have pointed out, but it seems to be getting overlooked. Under Sound and Display, that is the default universal notification tone. To change notifications for different events, you must go into the app that creates the notification and change it there.
Many thanks for this tip. I've now changed it so all of the notifications have different sounds (now it's just a matter of remembering all five of them! )
i seen that. The facebook app automatically added all my facebook friends to my contacts, but for some reason wont let me update that contact listing with their cell numbers. kinda annoying.
I'm not sure if someone already addressed this but it's 2AM and I have to work in 6 hours so i'm just goin to answer instead of reading all the posts to double check.
Let's say you have a facebook friend named John Doe and he does not have his phone number listed on facebook.
Once you update your contacts with facebook you will have a contact named John Doe with no phone number.
Go to your dialer screen and enter John Doe's phone number.
Click save as new contact and name the new contact "John Doe" (obviously without the quotations).
The phone will now merge the two contacts, and you will have one contact "John Doe" with both his facebook information and the number you just added.
I'm not sure if someone already addressed this but it's 2AM and I have to work in 6 hours so i'm just goin to answer instead of reading all the posts to double check.
Let's say you have a facebook friend named John Doe and he does not have his phone number listed on facebook.
Once you update your contacts with facebook you will have a contact named John Doe with no phone number.
Go to your dialer screen and enter John Doe's phone number.
Click save as new contact and name the new contact "John Doe" (obviously without the quotations).
The phone will now merge the two contacts, and you will have one contact "John Doe" with both his facebook information and the number you just added.
Hope this helps!
At the VZ store during my phone setup I added all my FB contacts to my contact list that was copied off my last phone. Is there a way to merge duplicate entries within the list now? EX. I had a contact 'Lynn' and on FB I had 'Lynn Lastname' and now they are two separate contacts.
I would try an app called Power Manager. I think it's 99 cents, but worth it. You can set up profiles based on your phone being on AC power or battery or just set up profiles and switch b/w them manually. Once you create the profiles, you can make shortcuts for them to place on the homescreen. Everything from ringer to screen brightness can be set or each profile.
Did you try the trial version? I ran that for about 12 hours over the weekend. You can't modify the profiles in the trial version, and I found that in battery mode, my screen was staying on, which of course sucked the life out of the battery. Just wondering if you saw the same issues in the trial.
I have Locale installed, but the major shortcoming of that is that it uses GPS to determine your location. Getting reception in your house is unreliable depending on where the satellites are and your phone having a clear shot to them.
Did you try the trial version? I ran that for about 12 hours over the weekend. You can't modify the profiles in the trial version, and I found that in battery mode, my screen was staying on, which of course sucked the life out of the battery. Just wondering if you saw the same issues in the trial.
I have Locale installed, but the major shortcoming of that is that it uses GPS to determine your location. Getting reception in your house is unreliable depending on where the satellites are and your phone having a clear shot to them.
I have used Power Manager for awhile (had a G1 previously) and always used paid version. With that you can adjust when screen times out for each profile. You also have more control when it happens. For example there is a setting to leave screen on when keyboard is open. Its a nice feature if writing an email or something and don't want screen to timeout during a pause.
Looks like during the first sync it "Join"s your contacts with your Facebook friends. If it misses any or you add someone new you can Join them manually from the Facebook contact. Menu > edit > Menu > Join [edit - you can also find separate the same way - if any contacts get inappropriately joined]
Also from the main contacts Menu you can toggle friends with no phone numbers on and off.
K, back to it - enjoy
Just discovered this tip....and it works for most of my contacts. But about a third come up with no options to merge with and no option to look at the full list of contacts. Any other ideas?
don't think anyone mentioned this yet, but you can add a folder of just your facebook contacts, it will keep all them together and puts in any number for them, i like this so i have access to those numbers but they are not in my contact list. Just long press on home and add folder, facebook is one of the options.
I like! how do I Undue all the people added to my contact list that is from facebook?
Not specific only to Droid but a great trick if you use Google Calendar. Open Google Calendar on your computer and go into settings and then mobile setup. Put in the phone number for your Droid and complete the setup. This will send a sms to your Droid from short code 48368. Now whenever you want to set a new calendar item you can simply send a sms to that Google short code and it will appear in your calendar. For example, text to 48368 “Wednesday Dr. Appointment @ 12:30pm @ UCLA” or “November 29 Meeting @ 4:00pm @ Office”. These will appear in your calendar on your computer and Droid in Google Calendar.
I use this all of the time.
That is incredibly clever! For overall calendar mgt I have indeed switched to Google, though I need BusySync, a Mac system pref pane, to do it. I've got my iMac, MacBook Pro, and Droid all sunc (sic) very nicely. New entries from any appear on all.
Has anyone found a decent way (or any way) to get a SMS preview on the lock screen? Its nice that it will do a audio notification with vibration...but i'd like to see the message without unlocking the screen.
Has anyone found a decent way (or any way) to get a SMS preview on the lock screen? Its nice that it will do a audio notification with vibration...but i'd like to see the message without unlocking the screen.
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.
So that's why. Thanks I've been wondering why when I pull it out i'm in car nav mode even though I locked it.
I had this same problem yesterday and it really freaked me out. I tried uninstalling about 6 audio apps that I thought were maybe conflicting with the audio, but it wasn't until I restarted the phone that it was fixed. I've had to do it once more since then. I really hope that it doesn't become an ongoing problem. *crosses fingers*
Same problem tonight. Music player, ringtone, alert notifications, everything was coming through the phone speaker instead of the speaker on the back. Restarting the phone fixed it though. Something to keep an eye on.....
At the VZ store during my phone setup I added all my FB contacts to my contact list that was copied off my last phone. Is there a way to merge duplicate entries within the list now? EX. I had a contact 'Lynn' and on FB I had 'Lynn Lastname' and now they are two separate contacts.
I found that editing them so the names where the same they auto merged.
Hey guys. Got the droid on release day and have never been so happy with a phone purchase! I've owned numerous smartphones and blackberrys so i feel really stupid asking such a basic question but....
Using the basic droid calendar (not corporate calendar) how do you advance month to month or get a yearly view? There has to be something really simple that I'm just missing but can't get any screen except the current month.
Hey guys. Got the droid on release day and have never been so happy with a phone purchase! I've owned numerous smartphones and blackberrys so i feel really stupid asking such a basic question but....
Using the basic droid calendar (not corporate calendar) how do you advance month to month or get a yearly view? There has to be something really simple that I'm just missing but can't get any screen except the current month.
Can someone please embarrass me with a solution
Ya in calendar push menu and then push 31. Then to advance a month flick the screen up instead of to the side and it will flip a month.
on the calander page swipe up it goes month to month it doesn't show the whole year but you can choos the month u want from there. u can also touch and hold the calender for more options
Device(s): Motorola Droid; but in market for new phone right now
Thanks: 22
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dav7e -- re: the calendar (which is essentially a mobile version of the Google Calendar), I've not found a yearly view, but in month view you can can move from month to month by dragging or flicking your finger from top to bottom (or from bottom to top).
When I say from top to bottom, I mean from the wherever the first week of that month appears to where the last month appears, to get to earlier months (and vice versa if you're moving to future months). I only found this from trial and error, since intuitively at first I thought it'd be a side-to-side scrolling but it's not, it scrolls up-and-down rather than side-to-side.
Also, at least on mine, the scrolling doesn't work if you start TOO high or low ... position your finger right smack in the middle of the space where the first week or last week of that month shows.
I do find it tricky getting used to the touchscreen finger-dragging and finger-flicking ... if you let your finger linger a moment too long, the Droid Does whatever it thinks it should do RATHER than scroll, sometimes opening stuff up you didn't intend to open.
Of course, the slow finger drag gets you slow scroll, fast finger flick gets you fast scroll.
Likewise you can do with the D-pad "arrow" buttons on the physical keyboard
(but again, use the top and bottom buttons, not the left and right buttons).
That does it! I also tried flicking side to side as well as up and down but did so from the center and not top to bottom.
At least I don't feel so stupid now
They really should have included a manual detailing these types of things or maybe they just want us to play with it and unlock secrets like a video game!
Device(s): Motorola Droid; but in market for new phone right now
Thanks: 22
Thanked 14 Times in 7 Posts
The old days of "RTFM" (as in "read the friggin' manual") seem to have passed into ancient history -- so "20th century" -- now the trend is fool around and figure it out, or find answer on-line.
However, you CAN download a pretty informative 50-page user manual from the Motorola Droid website (I found it on the MOTOROLA site, NOT the Verizon Wireless site). It actually is 100+pages but the second 50 or so pages is the same manual in Spanish.
There's plenty of stuff NOT in the manual. But I have printed out a copy and am starting to read it from start to finish.
When learning something, it really can help to systematically study a how-to manual, I find. But then, I'm old school on that sort of thing (I still get home delivery of a daily newspaper, and I still love to read books!)
I think they should still include a printed manual in the box with devices like the Droid. But I guess they figure three-quarters of the people never read it, so why not save some trees and save the company the printing costs.
when I play music it is not playing out of the speaker phone speaker. How do I get the music to play out of the speaker phone speaker?
When you pull out the earphone plug it pauses the music. Just hit play and music comes out the speakerphone speakers. This is my experience with Pandora.
Device(s): Motorola Droid; but in market for new phone right now
Thanks: 22
Thanked 14 Times in 7 Posts
HOW TO REMOVE SHORTCUTS & WIDGETS from my home panel??
I see in the user manual how to ADD shortcuts and widgets to my home panel, but in doing this I ended up accidentally sticking a couple of shortcuts/widgets on my home panel that I didn't want. Now I can't figure out how to banish those unwanted shortcuts/widgets from my home panel -- which I need to do to free up home panel "real estate" for shortcuts/widgets that I do want!!
steve, long press the widget and drag it down to the bottom little grey thing that you click on to bring all your stuff up. it will turn red, let go and it's gone.
Device(s): Motorola Droid; but in market for new phone right now
Thanks: 22
Thanked 14 Times in 7 Posts
Travva -- thank you! I had tried to do that, but the problem was I wasn't lifting my finger up (letting go) quick enough, so by the time I lifted my finger up a split second too late, after it had already moved a tiny bit away from the little grey "drawer" -- which the Droid interpreted as me changing my mind and wanting to keep the widget/shortcut on the home panel!!
The Motorola Droid - the first ever Verizon Android Phone - exploded onto the mobile market with an incredibly successful ad campaign that brough Android to the masses. With a huge and vibrant touchscreen, solid metal body, full QWERTY keyboard, 5M... Read More
