Help New Droid owner in need of HELP PLEASE!!!!

[detti]

Just purchased a Moto Droid, I have many questions. I was wondering if someone or body can help me

 

[iPhone2Droid]

Ask away.

 

[CRPercodani]

Ask away indeed, but please search the forum before posting a new thread. If you find your answer great, if not post it inside this thread instead of making a bunch of new ones. Thanks, and let us know what you need help with.

 

[ceruti82]

What do you need help with? Ask away.....

(you can search these forums for many immediate answers as well)

 

[detti]

where should i start! lol. is there a way to have the weather, date and time on the home screen similar to the eris?

 

[CRPercodani]

If you want the exact same look as the eris you need to get Weather Widget Donate from the market, Beautiful Widgets has a similar clock with weather but they recently changed the look of it so check them both out and see which look you prefer.

 

[detti]

maybe you could share some interesting this i can do to customize my droid

 

[iPhone2Droid]

Yeppie. First, search the Market, with your Droid, for items mentioned above or just > weather widget<. Once it downloads, go to your home screen. You'll need some blank space. Touch the screen with your finger, and hold. A popup menu appears; one of the options is Widgets. Make your selection.

If you don't like a chosen widget, touch and hold it (the weather) on your screen, then drag it down to the middle end of the screen. A trashcan will appear, and it's removed from your screen. NOT uninstalled, just no longer on the screen.

To the person looking for help customizing... there's a long thread here about posting your home screen. It's good b/c there are so many screenshots. THAT will be more educational than all the words in the world.
http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/26470-post-your-droid-screens.html

 

[detti]

nice! keep em coming if u dont mind

 

[Hegemony]

where should i start! lol. is there a way to have the weather, date and time on the home screen similar to the eris?

Yes. There's Weather Widget - Donate in the market. It looks just like the Sense UI stuff.

There's also Beautiful Widgets... but it's not in the market right now. It used to look like Sense UI, but HTC complained. The dev took it off and changed it so it looks completely different. After he put it back up, HTC complained again saying they wanted to inspect it first. So it's down again.

You can also get an variety of widgets that accomplish the same task, but won't look like the Sense UI on the Eris.

 

[detti]

i had the iphone 3g prior, so what are some other "unique" things i should know or do to get the best out of this device

 

[CRPercodani]

If you want to get some serious customizations going then check out Home++, DxTop, GDE, OpenHome, aHome. They will let you totally change the homescreens and you can download theme packs for them, most of the good theme packs are free but the actual programs cost a few bucks. Check out the thread Post your Droid screen or something like that, it will give you a idea of what can be done.

 

[ceruti82]

i recently wrote this for a friend who is also new to her droid, hope it helps:


k, well since i dont know much about ur likes/dislikes or phone use in general, ill give you a few basic starters that i LOVE and ALL of these are free apps !!! none paid!

handcent sms ~ for texting ~customizing everything for messaging! different LED light colors, text sound, icon, font.. like i have one for hubby, generic for everyone else, etc.. also an option for you to have the text pop up on the screen rather than going into app to read it. (you will need to go into preloaded messaging app and disable notifications by clicking the box so that you dont receive double notifications for each text.)
they also have font packs for different fonts for the texts


Quick Profiles~ customize ringtone levels, notifications, wifi settings, etc for home, outside, bedtime, etc.. so that you arent getting woken up at 3 am with an email or whatever... you make the profiles for whatever you want, and set however you want!

my coupons~ has a WIDGET~ if u havent used widgets yet, its basically something that u put on ur home screen. tells you daily new coupons ! i use it mostly for REDBOX free movie codes

Meebo ~ if you like instant messaging, for facebook, aim, msn, all of them pretty much. but warning , if you stay logged in all day, it EATS ur battery.. so i just sign in a few times a day to see whose on FB chat, then sign out...

wheres my droid ~ u really dont ever USE this app, just nice, if u ever cant find ur phone and the ringer is on silent or vibrate, you text "wheres my droid" to your phone form someone elses, and it will make ur volue go on LOUDEST and ring for like a minute or whatver u set it for, up to 5 min i think. and also has a GPS setting incase u really cant find ur phone!

ASTRID ~ the best to do list ive found of the 4 or more that ive tried out. it also has a widget, so that u can slways see whats on ur to do list without having to open up the app.

bloo~ the Facebook app is pretty lame that comes with the phone. it doenst give u comment notifications, bloo does. cant send private messages, i use it in conjunction with the stock FB app.


sticky memo widget. ~ if u are a HUGE scatterbrain, like me ! you need to remember something real quick, open up the widget, write a note, and its a little sticky not right on ur home screen!! i LOVE this! i just set it to a 1x1 size, and it only takes up one spot, its awesome for forgetful people. lol!

Home++ (yes write it like that) its a home replacement! give you up to 7 home screens rather than only 3, and continuous loop so you can just keep going right and get back to main home rather than to the left, then back to the right... also has a power bar at the bottom~ with a phone, contacts, voice call, favorites, notifications... play aroud with it, i LOVE it

Dolphin Browser ~ more like th iphone browser, u can pinch to zoom in and out, so much bettter tha stock browser!


i used to use TASKILLER till i recently read a lot about it... its not exactly necessary.. the phone will close what it needs to close when it needs to.. i used to be pretty OCD about killing everything, now i just dont worry about it..



well, those are some core apps that for me are a must have! i go to the website androidforums.com then go to droid page, and read thru there, i have learned a lot!

and most importantly, the droid is all about being YOU! so set it up with a pretty background, put up a pretty clock... decorate it

i have a case for mine, i need a case, im a phone dropper i got from the verizon store, its silicon, kinda rubbery, makes the phone bounce right back, lol . it can get in the way of the keyborad a tiny bit more than case-less, but i dont find it a problem..

the battery is not fantastic. you can leave data sync off, but i havent found that all that helpful.. so just plan on charging it nightly, or keeping a spare charger in ur purse..


well, that about sums it up... for now... seriously tho ive had it for over a month, and still play around with new apps, and getting it how i want it DAILY! its fun to do

 

[CRPercodani]

i had the iphone 3g prior, so what are some other "unique" things i should know or do to get the best out of this device

Did you jailbreak it? If so then rooting might be up your alley for the DROID, it will let you flash custom ROM's and a new update to 2.1, you can also use different icons and change the colors of the notification bar.

 

[detti]

no jailbreak for me... at least not yet. ive had the phone for almost a week id like to get familiar before i jump into that

 

[CRPercodani]

Ok, good idea! Just search around here and you should find a lot of neat things. You will definitely find more that way then asking single questions, one suggestion is to search for apps installer in the market and install it, then search here for nemo player, put the .apk file on your sd card and install it. You will get a much much better music/video player then the stock one and it also has a good looking widget.

 

[detti]

thanks alot. that was very helpful! we could do this alll day probly

 

[detti]

what is the most detailed way to use facebook on the droid? not too fond of the one that comes with it

 

[gentlefury]

the facebook that comes built in isnt the most recent. Go to the market and install facebook for android. It is more advanced....tho for some reason notifications arent working.

 

[iPhone2Droid]

detti, several folks have mentioned assorted home replacement apps. Suggestion: you may want to wait a bit for that one. Reason: even the best have been known to cause problems, depending on what else you have stashed on your Droid. If you wait until you have a better feel for the device, it'll be a heck of a lot easier to troubleshoot later, since you'll have that real hands-on base peaceful-mode for comparison purposes.

 

[bosslady88]

hello droiders!!..i too am a new droid owner & i am stuck on a few things, mainly the gallery annoys me. i dont like the default settings where the gallery shows multiple folders of pix, some with the same photos. another thing is, can you erase pre-installed apps (regular messaging?)

 

[dmodert66]

hello droiders!!..i too am a new droid owner & i am stuck on a few things, mainly the gallery annoys me. i dont like the default settings where the gallery shows multiple folders of pix, some with the same photos. another thing is, can you erase pre-installed apps (regular messaging?)

Not sure on your first question, but to answer your second question, yes, you can uninstall pre-installed apps BUT...

You have to be willing to ROOT your phone. You also need to do alot of reading and be careful of what you do delete, so you don't mess the phone up. Quite a bit of trouble for just uninstalling a few small apps unless you enjoy the rooting thing...

 

[BlueWolf15]

alright yall are talking about handcent so ill ask here. and its about handcent if anyone can help.

im using it right now but for some reason, it wont show the names of people who have texted me already, even though they are my contacts. it shows about 3 people by there names, all the other people it shows by their phone numbers. but when i use the regular messaging app that the phone came with it shows the peoples names just fine.

maybe im just stupid and am over looking something really obvious.
ive done searches to try and figure it out but ive come up with nothing.

 

[reggie16]

I just got mine today and love it! have the seidio case coming soon! i have a question?

Is there any way i can find a wallpaper on the browser and directly save the picture to my gallery? THanks

 

[dmodert66]

I just got mine today and love it! have the seidio case coming soon! i have a question?

Is there any way i can find a wallpaper on the browser and directly save the picture to my gallery? THanks

I'm using Dolphin, so it's slightly different, but I believe you just long press on the image and you should see an option to save. It will then go into your picture gallery and can be set as wallpaper...