Any must-have tips for new Ally users?

[kilbywill]

I have a LG Ally and I'm new to smartphones. The most high-tech phone I've ever had is a env3. Does anyone have any good tips or things i really need to know about my phone or about making it as fast as possible, saving battery life, etc, etc? I run apps on it like facebook and some games, call frequently, and text nonstop (after school during the week). I've had this phone for about a month and I've noticed the battery needs charging every night and sometimes it can be very slow, especially the stock sms app.

Thanks in advance

 

[jinwons]

Hi, I also had my Ally for about month. It's pretty nice basic smart-phone for Android newbies for its price. Some people just unrealistically expect it to perform like high end phones.

I learned that it takes some setting tweaks to get better battery life. The basic tweaks are lowering screen brightness, keeping GPS, WiFi off when not in use, avoid putting widgets on screen that updates often such as weather, news, etc. You can also reduce the auto-sync frequency on emails, facebook or turn it off completely. With this, my Ally can run through 14 hours with 30~50% left under low to medium usage.

Some people go even further like rooting the phone to control CPU voltage, frequency, etc or try battery saving apps like Juice Defender. But it might take more time, effort to mess with it and get it working right for you.

 

[therealciviczc]

This may seem like an obvious one, but if you're a noob... use google for everything. You can manage your contacts very well through your gmail account. If some dumbass verizon rep backed up your old contacts through their shitty backup manager, save them to the SD card, put it in your pc, import them in to google, and remove syncing with verizon backup manager because its garbage. You'll now have a nice back up of your contacts in your gmail account on your computer. You can easily edit them there, add addresses, add pics, etc, and the updates show up in your phone contacts. Think of your gmail account information and your phone contacts as one thing... if you update the one, it'll update the other. The verizon backup thing is simply a huge block to this working smoothly.

Also, the picasa syncing is nice if you like photos. Basically if you have a picasa account set up through your google email address that you're using on the phone, those photos show up in your gallery. The problem is that if you didn't have a picasa account when the phone was first set up, the phone won't find it now. You'd need to set up the picasa account through your google email address on your computer, then do a factory reset/wipe on the phone and start fresh. Very nice feature though if you have family photos and things that you want access to on your phone.

I'd also really suggest launcher pro. The LG and verizon launchers kinda blow in comparison. Launcher Pro is free and you can upgrade to plus for a small fee... totally worth it. The launcher is, for all intents and purposes, the basic user interface you see on the phone... the home screens basically. Launcher pro is just smoother, nicer, has better features, etc. It makes the phone much nicer to use.

 

[jinwons]

That's good point on picasa. Fortunately I had my picasa account before getting Ally.
Regarding Launcher Pro, it seem to be loved by many folks here, not just Ally owners. I didn't try it yet. My concern is the low free memory in my Ally. According to ATK, my Ally is in 21~28Mb range most of time. I'm not using any memory optimizing, battery saving kind of app. Doesn't Launcher Pro have any negative effect on battery or speed?

 

[jreed2560]

First Rule with Android: If anybody tries to tell you that you need a task killer, punch them in the face.

Second Rule: Get comfy with this website and don't be afraid to ask what you think to be a "dumb" question. Any question you have, I garuntee has been asked before and will be asked again. Someone on here has an answer for you!

Third Rule: LONG PRESS. If there is a file, picture, text message, icon,widget that you are trying to move, save, whatever and you can't figure out what to do, long press. Its the eqivilant of "right click" in windows.

I agree totally with launcher pro. Its miles faster and smoother than the stock browsers.

ps.
I know rooting can seem intimidating to a new person, but with One click rooting, and rom manager, its really easy and menu based. Even overclocking can be done thru menu options. and it can all be downloaded and run from your phone with no computer required

 

[jinwons]

I don't use ATK to kill all the apps in the background. I use it only to monitor free memory on my Ally and occasionally kill only certain unwanted apps. This can be done in the setting menu, but it takes several steps into the menu.

 

[jreed2560]

I don't use ATK to kill all the apps in the background. I use it only to monitor free memory on my Ally and occasionally kill only certain unwanted apps. This can be done in the setting menu, but it takes several steps into the menu.

fast reboot does a great job at this. It kills everything, but starts it back up so as not to cause any conflicts like just killing tasks does

 

[gutted]

To the OP... honestly? I'm not sure I'd get this phone again. If you are within your 30 days, I'd go back and test drive some other phones. It's not a bad phone - but it's far from great. That is my honest advice to someone who is thinking about the Ally.

First Rule with Android: If anybody tries to tell you that you need a task killer, punch them in the face.

Easy there, killer.

I think if anyone claims you need to kill apps every time you touch your phone then they are wrong.

I like having the task killer for some apps that were written poorly, etc. I also use it when I first start up the phone after rebooting. That's about it.

I certainly won't tell anyone you need one - but it's not because I'm worried about you punching me through the computer screen. haha

 

[jreed2560]

you wanna piece of me? Seriously tho, just to show you how unnecessary task killers are, with android 2.2, google disabled the api for task killers so they don't even work. Kinda says all that needs to be said on that eh?

 

[jinwons]

To the OP... honestly? I'm not sure I'd get this phone again. If you are within your 30 days, I'd go back and test drive some other phones. It's not a bad phone - but it's far from great. That is my honest advice to someone who is thinking about the Ally.

I think Ally is good mid-range android phone for smart-phone newbies. Ally is good one for what it is and you can't expect it perform like high end phones. Not every phone has to be high end multimedia powerhouse like Droid X, Fascinate, etc.

 

[jreed2560]

I think Ally is good mid-range android phone for smart-phone newbies. Ally is good one for what it is and you can't expect it perform like high end phones. Not every phone has to be high end multimedia powerhouse like Droid X, Fascinate, etc.

I couldn't agree more about the ally being a good option on the low end of the scale. They are selling clnr D1s online. If you want power and a budget there ya go.

 

[gutted]

I think Ally is good mid-range android phone for smart-phone newbies. Ally is good one for what it is and you can't expect it perform like high end phones. Not every phone has to be high end multimedia powerhouse like Droid X, Fascinate, etc.

I agree and disagree. I think it's great if you are completely new to the concept of smart phones and mobile computing.

I thought it was great the first couple weeks. Two months in it's not enough for me. I guess it depends on the user. I don't know if it's the Ally or Android, but judging from friends with Android, I think it's the Ally.

When it works it's great, but there are times I just want to throw the damn thing against a wall.

 

[darkxsun]

I'm a computer science PhD student who loves technological toys, and I'm pleased with the Ally. I won't complain when it's time to upgrade, but it's capable hardware. You can overstress and overload it just like anything, and maybe its threshold is lower than that of a Galaxy S or something, but it's not a worthless phone by any means.