new to android - assistance needed :)

[bonezy]

Hello Phandroids!

As I wrote in my introduction, I am taking the plunge into the Android ecosystem by changing my main phone, which is an iPhone 5 (still using it), to an HTC One. I have also bought myself the new nexus 7.
I am loving my new tablet and I have no trouble whatsoever acclimating to the new OS, since my use is pretty limited to watching YouTube videos, using Plex, and keeping a basic check on my emails.
The phone is however a whole different ball game, as it is my main tool for work and I am finding it hard to customize it to the level I had customized my jailbroken iPhone. I haven't made the switch yet and I am still using my iPhone on a daily basis as I tweak my HTC on the spare time I have at home. To cut a long story short, I still haven't made the decision to put the sim card in the HTC and take it to work..

Although my phone was jailbroken, all my software was purchased through iTunes and that on its own is making me think twice about committing to the switch. I only jailbroke my phone for the following 5 features from cydia.

Themes (I like to changes themes often)
Fonts (Bytafont)
Ask to call (avoid pocket calls)
F.lux (changes screen temperature during the course of the day)
and last but not least biteSMS (the ability to quick reply and the delay to send that has saved me a multitude of times)

I know that a lot of people think iTunes is a pain in the ass, but you have to love the sense of security it gives you to know that if you plug your phone into your laptop once a day and back it up you are golden. If you phone is stolen or is damaged, you can replace it instantly and have the exact identical copy of it within the day. Plus everything is in one place, hassle free.
With Android I have spent the little spare time I have available these first days just trying to figure out how many programs I need to get job done and again I am not fully covered.
I use android file transfer for photos and music atm, I did the icloud export - gmail import method for contacts but I hit a brick wall for messages. I used iSMS2droid method but messages were corrupted during the copy to the HTC, they are all there but all I get is gibberish...

Apologies for the long post, I have read most of the transition guides available on the web, I would love it if you could give me a small hand with this transition.

Some more quick questions that come to mind.
I am really missing my unified inbox in mail. Although both my email accounts (business & personal) are on gmail servers, I did not use the gmail app on my iPhone. I used Apple's mail app and enjoyed the ease of having a unified inbox. Haven't found the equivalent yet.
Also iOS has a way of marrying my contacts on the phone with their relevant accounts on Facebook and adds their profile pic to all interactions. It is a visual thing that I have grown accustomed too and saves me a lot of time. Still haven't found how my 3 accounts can combine on my phone (2 gmail+FB)

Don't get me wrong, I love most of Android's features, I am just so use to iOS's workflow after all these years and would like to create a similar one on my new phone.

P.S Forgot to mention that I have already rooted the phone and installed the Google Play Edition on it...I didn't like the Sense UI.

 

[funkylogik]

Havent got time for a full reply justnow but welcome to android and our community and congratulations on the purchase of two excellent devices :beer:
The fact that youre rooted is great. Do you have a custom recovery? Then you can make a regular complete backup image of the phone and save it to the cloud or a pc

 

[Hadron]

Welcome to AF

I believe that biteSMS is written by the authors of the android app Chomp SMS, so if you liked bite maybe it's worth investigating Chomp?

There are font changing apps for rooted users, and some custom ROMs will give you font support. Personally I don't really mess with these, so can't particularly advise, but there are options.

"Themes" means different things to different people. Wallpapers etc are easy. Icon packs also, particularly if you use some popular launcher apps (Nova and Apex are well supported by essentially all icon packs). Those things don't require root. If you want to go deeper and change colours etc in the system UI, status bar icons etc, there are a number of options for a rooted user: some ROMs support the "theme chooser" app (CyanogenMod for example), others have theming options of their own (such as the ViperOne I'm running, though that one is Sense-based), or if you like to DIY there's the UOT kitchen. If you want to be really personal, you can edit the images inside the framework-res and SystemUI applications yourself, though that's a bit time-consuming if you like to change stuff often.

As Funky has said, for backups the most complete option is to do it from recovery. That way you get a complete image backup of your ROM, apps and data (not media). I'd also always make one of these (commonly called a nandroid backup) before making any changes to system software.

There are a number of android mail clients which offer unified inboxes though I don't know iOS mail well enough to comment on how well they compare (and I don't let my work email onto my phone, so don't use this feature myself). As an example, it's a feature of the popular K9 mail (I use the paid version, Kaiten), but there are others too.

Can't help with FB stuff as I'm a social networking refusenik

 

[funkylogik]

I think facebook for android allows integration with your contacts but im not a huge fb fan tbh and try to keep it and the rest of my phone very separate. In settings, accounts and sync, you can add a fb account :thumbup:

 

[chanchan05]

1. Themes is the easy part, although that depends on the level of customization you want. Mostly though from an Apple aspect that's just wallpaper and icons. That's easy. Get a custom launcher and let yourself loose. Check this thread out for inspiration:
http://androidforums.com/android-themes/4425-post-your-android-desktop-new-post.html

2. Not sure for HTC. Samsung phones have it easy as they can download fonts straight to their device from the fonts menu, or use Fontomizer for Galaxy. I am not sure if such services are available for HTC.

3. Not really sure about this since I have never experienced pocket calls.

4. Screen temp? As in the temperature of the screen hardware itself?

5. Handcent can do that and much more.

 

[fdbryant3]

Apparently F.lux is in development for Android but this might be a good alternative: Twilight

 

[funkylogik]

^ thanks man im gona give Twilight a try :beer:
Love it