Various Q&A

[coondogg97]

Fantastic post, thanks for all the useful info everyone! I am a long time Windows Mobile user so this info has helped a lot.

 

[athflying]

sorry to ask....

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.

 

[jothen2002]

When I take a photo it goes to my camera storage ..can I get it to my SD storage?

 

[NBAJWill55]

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.

http://phandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/droidguide.pdf

This is a GREATfind. Should be sticked IMO.

I mean, what device that costs $599.00 (MSRP) doesn't come with an INSTRUCTION MANUAL!?!

 

[radikal]

The GPS on it is amazing, i like how much integrates in GPS! Locale, Foursquare, I am Here, Maps etc

 

[albyone]

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!

 

[Reniassance_Man]

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! )

 

[cc16177]

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.

Hope this helps!

 

[stevehoffman]

I've found that if I'm wearing one of those wolves-howling-at-the-moon T-shirts, the Droid works much better ( Amazon.com: The Mountain Men's Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee: Clothing )

 

[kfconme]

I've found that if I'm wearing one of those three-keyboard-cats-and-the-moon T-shirts, the Droid works much better ( Amazon.com: Three Keyboard Cat Moon Short Sleeve Tee: Clothing )

^ corrected.

 

[Kappy79]

Thanks! I actually figured that out as soon as i posted this ><

 

[MysteryloverAnne]

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.

 

[shaggymatt]

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.

 

[athflying]

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.

 

[MysteryloverAnne]

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?

 

[sharlan]

Scary good.

 

[mattparmely]

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?

 

[v-6 nolo]

I like! how do I Undue all the people added to my contact list that is from facebook?

not sure as i elected not to do this right off the bat, but if you unsync facebook i would imagine you can remove contact info.

 

[MBanshee]

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

Motorola Media Link - Motorola USA

Let us know if it works.

Darn. Got all excited about this... Mac user... still looking....

 

[crudemoney]

Just picked up the Droid. How do you set the notifications (email, sms, phone call) all to vibrate instead of just a flashing indicator light?

thanks

 

[MBanshee]

Much appreciated! Definitely a boost. Looks like there are options. I am going to try Sailing Media Sync.

 

[MBanshee]

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

 

[cormgtr]

Yes, that was very helpful. I wasn't able to see the Droid at all from my Vista machine, which also meant I wasn't able to upload my music to it.

 

[slaqr]

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.

 

[blazingwolf]

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.

Handcent will do this.

Handcent SMS v2.4.5 Application for Android | Tools