So here we are with our new phones in hand. Please post any tips, tricks or AH-HA's you discover you think others will appreciate.
To get started, here is mine:
Pressing the search button on the face of the phone opens a search dialog box but did you also know that pressing and holding the search button opens the voice search dialog box? And saying "navigate to" followed by an address, business or landmark opens the navigator and gets you on your way.
Sweet stuff.
More sweetness ported up from the posts below (for as long as I can keep up with everyone)
From NKT
Working version of Swype:
Swype beta closed? Official beta APK in here!!! - Page 10 - xda-developers
Whitenoiz
switch keyboards
you have to touch+hold the input text field and choose swype.
NYC Coyote
If anyone needs tutorials on it there is a youtube channel here: YouTube - MySwype's Channel
Buckwild / Ender11 / NKT
But holding down the Home button, a pop-up will show you all of your current applications that are open. Click on the app to jump to it.
Holding down the Home button shows you the last 6 programs you used, not which programs are open.
jwm2
Menu>Settings>Sound & Display>Animation
Set it to Animations Off. There are 3 settings: Show All Animations, Show Some Animations, and Turn Off Animations, the off options is the best for overall performance.
Heres another tip to bypass the lockscreen swipe. Just hit the menu button and you don't need to swipe your finger to unlock the phone.
darkfiber
Disable Mobile Web Pages
Open Internet Browser
Hit Menu
More
Settings
Untick "Mobile View"
lukem
For Google Picasa
Try this app:
Gallery3D Apk - xda-developers
You'll need to check off 'unknown sources' in your settings to run the installation:
Menu > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources
MoPhoMan
Pressing and holding the menu key on a screen hides or reopens the keyboard
I am learning long press is a big player. It usually brings up a separate menu and when you long press on an email or a contact one of the menu options is delete which i prefer to opening the list and needing to select the X to delete.
Answerman
This is a nice touch... I've got 4 email accounts set up using IMAP. When I bring up the mail app, the Incredible automatically checks for new mail. If I switch to a different account, it then checks that account. I've got all the accounts set to check at either 30 or 60 minute intervals, but it's nice that it checks it just by bringing up the mail app. It's not push mail, but coming from the WinMo world where I had to manually hit "Send/Receive" if I wanted to see if anything came in since the last auto-check, it's refreshing.
dibs ODDJOB
I believe the wallpaper resolution of 960x800 is still correct.
When you pick a photo from your phone, the green crop box will show over 80% of your photo. Put your finger on the edge of the green square and arrows should appear. Pull the arrows to the edge of the photo. This should allow you to use the WHOLE picture, provided it is the correct aspect ratio of 1.2:1 (960:800). You can resize or move the box around any part of the picture as well.
NKT
How to list contacts by last name:
http://androidforums.com/641877-post7.html
sqlgeek
Changing the preferred method for contacting people
So up under each favorite's picture (or icon) is a small box that has their name in it. If you have already established a default contact type (small phone, envelope, message or contact card should appear in the bottom right hand corner of the icon) and want to change it, click on that small name button and it brings up the list of all possible contact methods. You can pick another contact mehod just for that one instance, but the contact type you set up originally will remain. Once in that same list screen you can click Menu>More>Set Widget Action and choose the new contact type. It even has an option to view the contact which is what I like so that I can pick from the list every time without accidentally calling them if I don't hit the little button just right.
unclemetz
A set of special characters (including > and <) can be found by clicking the "12#" key to the right of the space, then the "1/2" to the left of the space.
skunis1
Where to find POP and POP3 infor for setting up non GMAIL accounts
Call your provider up and ask them. Also go to their website under FAQs and they may have an answer for you.
Additionally, your provider may block their outgoing mail server (Port 25). If that is the case you can try either port 587 or 465.
Rabernet
When using the pre-installed alarm clock, for some reason, the default is to vibrate. Be sure to scroll down and un-check Vibrate so that it will actually ring for you. I learned the hard way - all three available alarms were defaulted to vibrate.
To get to alarm clock, tap your clock, then use the scroll bar at the bottom to get to the alarm clock.
Choose the alarm you plan to set. Underneath "Repeat", is where it's defaulted to vibrate.
rsjet
THIS IS INCORRECT! That small checkmark is for whether to vibrate in ADDITION to ringing. I just tried it right now. The checkmark next to vibrate was checked and it still rang.
Hit the menu key when you are on the Alarm clock slide and you will see an option to change ringer volume and whether to play alarm if in silent mode. You probably had one of these off and thats why it did not work for you.
NevermoreFU
You can also select "Alarm Sound" when you are setting an alarm and use the volume bar to adjust it in there.
DroidPower
Lay your phone down on a table or desk, when it rings (incoming call) and you don't want to answer it, or talk to an individual, TURN THE PHONE OVER AND IT STOPS RINGING.
jo28
You can manually refresh updates on the (larger) Friendstream widget by pressing on the bar at the bottom of the widget that shows the refresh icon and time.
GatorGirl
From any webpage, if you tap and hold the back button (long press), it will take you to your browser history, Most Visited sites, and your bookmarks!
UT_Longhorn
Assigning mp3 as a ringtone/alert
I connected the phone to my computer as a disk drive. Two volumes showed up; one for the phone internal memory and one for the SD card. On the internal memory drive is a folder called MP3. Under this folder I created a Ringtones folder and put my mp3 ringtones in there. Once I disconnected the phone from the computer, the rintones were automatically listed in the ringtone list. Works great with not problems to far!
As far as assigning individual ringtones, each app typically has a setup to assign ringtones. For example, under the stock messages app, set to view all messages, tap menu and go to setup and you'll find setting for both incoming and outgoing sounds.
dibs ODDJOB
How to remove a contact from the Favorites widget
Accidentally added a person to your Favorites widget?
Go to People> Groups. Long press on Favorites>Edit group. Press the 'X' to remove the person from favorites.
This can work with other groups as well.
MoPhoMan
Ok, been fighting with notifications all day...
To add custom ringtones you need to load them in a folder named "ringtones" on the device (or SD card) to add custom notifications ...this is where i was getting lost ... the files should be loaded on the device in a folder named "notifications" now i can rest =)
Jigoku San
When you plug-in the phone to a PC and set it to disk drive, you can rename the 2 drives and it will stay when you reconnect it again. (The microsd card will have to be renamed for each card)
I named mine DI INTERNAL and DI SD just to tell the difference without remembering the drive letter.
Amin Sabet
I just figured out that if you tap for focus with the camera and hold the tap for a couple seconds, it takes the picture without having to press the optical mouse button. Much better stability this way. It's even less prone to camera shake than the double tap method on the iPhone.
Lefort1
If anyone's having issues with their phone not accurately or slowly switch back and forth between LANDSCAPE and PORTRAIT mode you may want to try this:
Go to: Menu -> Settings -> Sound & Display -> G-sensor Calibration (all the way at the bottom)
Calibrating the sensor on a flat surface should help
dgourd
If you are in the music tabs and you scroll down, a scroll bar appears on the right. Holding down on the scroll bar and moving it lets you skip down by letter. Its a quicker way to get to the bottom of the list.
dibbs ODDJOB
While using Voice-to-text, if you want to add a period, say the word period at the end.
To text:
"This is a sentence."
Say:
"This is a sentence period"
This works for other punctuation, like ! ? : ,
You can also say "point' for a decimal.
"One point two five" will be 1.25
Phydeaux
Deleting saved scenes:
The way scenes currently works is that it asks you to create a new scene every time you edit a current scene. Before long you end up with tons of unwanted "Custom" scenes.
To delete these unwanted scenes, go to Settings > Personalize > Scenes
long-press the scene to get options to edit or delete.
Finalride
Folders on home screen:
Click Add or + to add a Folder.
Once it shows up on the home screen select it to open up then long press the folder to rename it what you will.
I currently have a Social Sites Folder and a Mail folder to organize things better....
MoPhoMan
To add files to a folder on the homescreen add the files to the homescreen then drag and drop them into the folder
MisterX
Want to know exactly what program or component is using your precious battery? From the home screen, press the Menu button and select "Settings". Click on "About Phone", then click "Battery" and "Battery use". A graphical display of what is using how much power is displayed.
Ender11
Two step process for downloading and installing apps
This might be a tip aimed more at newbies like myself, but I was really inefficient with downloading then accessing an app. I was downloading the app, then exiting to home screen, then accessing app drawer, find the newly downloaded app and then launching it.
I realized that it is much quicker to download the app, wait for the notice at the top of the screen to tell you that the download is complete, then just pull down the notification tray and tap the notification for the newly downloaded app. It only works the first time of course, but it takes the process of accessing a newly downloaded app from a 4 step process to a 2 step process.
Arjo_reich
browser text
While browsing, a long tap will bring up a window to copy / share /etc. whatever it is you clicked. To include more text to be quoted, simply drag and reposition the highlighted frame around your selection.
Tek12x
ALARM CLOCK (pre-installed)
If you like to sleep in a little longer you can change the Snooze duration on the pre-installed alarm clock. Click on the clock then go to the alarm. At these point where it shows the different alarms that you have, press the menu pointing then settings. Right there you'll find the snooze durations. Time are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes snooze times. You can also change the way the alarm works when the phone is locked. You can set the slider to either stop the alarm and make it snooze.
*IMPORTANT* If you have Advance Task Killer make sure you have it ignore closing the clock because this will cause the alarm clock NOT to go off. (I was late to work because i did this.
CONTACT LINKS to FACEBOOK
If you mistaking link someone to the wrong facebook account you can just go to the contact then click the little link icon at the top next to the person's name. Where it has "Linked Contracts" you can just click the link icon again and it will break the link and remove the link between your contact and facebook.
Also when when you link an account the phone automatically pull the facebook picture as your contact image. If you click on the picture you can change it from Facebook, phone, camera, gmail, or photo. This is good if you don't like the picture the person has on their facebook.
From the People (contacts) if you click on hold on the person's picture you get a option to call them, send a text, or lookup their address on google maps.
Ender11
Instead of deleting a widget, app or file from one screen and then adding it to another, long tap the item you want to move to a different screen, then place that item over the top of another widget, app, etc. so that it can't drop into place. Instead the item is held suspended until you place it properly. At this point just swipe to the appropriate screen and your "suspended" item will stay suspended in the forefront. Then just drag the item to an open space on the new screen and presto you have quickly and easily rearranged your home screen.
Berner
Quicker and Easier: drag the widget to the left or right edge of the screen. The view will automatically switch to the next screen.
jcat
Quickest and easiest way of all (at least imo): While you are pressing (continuously long-tapping) the widget, just use the trackball to swipe from page to page; then release the widget when you get to the page you want!
kayst
To change the name of a folder: Open the folder and click on the name.
boomstk
Search Voice commands: Try this thread:
Voice Command List
MoPhoMan
INCREASE BATTERY LIFE
I followed the tips on this thread and have tripled my battery life the last three days (6-8 hours a charge to over 20 hours a charge with the same use habits). There is apparently a bug on the syncing of some HTC apps (facebook, flickr) that causes the phone to never sleep. Check it out and follow the tip to turn off the syncing. http://androidforums.com/support-tr...i-found-fixed-htc-incredible-battery-bug.html
Sonny200 and Lars
Speed up access to your voicemail
Speed-Dial #1 is reserved for VM & for Verizon, it's *86.
You can modify this via --> Settings/Call/VM Settings/VM Number.
If you add a "p" after "*86", it'll pause for 3 seconds. Add your VM password followed by "#" allows you to long-press 1 from the dialer & it'll dial your VM, pause for 3 seconds, dial your VM password & start playing your VM without you having to input the pswd & "#".
Eg: *86p1234#
If you set it to *86p1234#1 it will start playing your new voicemail automatically.
MoPhoMan
Not sure if this contact shortcut is new in froYo or I just missed it before, but if you press on a contact image in the header of an email or text message (even works in the widgets) it brings up a slider to call the person, send a message or look up their contact info.
kdarling
Calibrate your keyboard and it can make a large improvement in typing accuracy.
Settings - Language & Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input - Calibration Tool
It has you type the old "quick brown fox" test phrase and learns your finger impact points.
To get started, here is mine:
Pressing the search button on the face of the phone opens a search dialog box but did you also know that pressing and holding the search button opens the voice search dialog box? And saying "navigate to" followed by an address, business or landmark opens the navigator and gets you on your way.
Sweet stuff.
More sweetness ported up from the posts below (for as long as I can keep up with everyone)
From NKT
Working version of Swype:
Swype beta closed? Official beta APK in here!!! - Page 10 - xda-developers
Whitenoiz
switch keyboards
you have to touch+hold the input text field and choose swype.
NYC Coyote
If anyone needs tutorials on it there is a youtube channel here: YouTube - MySwype's Channel
Buckwild / Ender11 / NKT
But holding down the Home button, a pop-up will show you all of your current applications that are open. Click on the app to jump to it.
Holding down the Home button shows you the last 6 programs you used, not which programs are open.
jwm2
Menu>Settings>Sound & Display>Animation
Set it to Animations Off. There are 3 settings: Show All Animations, Show Some Animations, and Turn Off Animations, the off options is the best for overall performance.
Heres another tip to bypass the lockscreen swipe. Just hit the menu button and you don't need to swipe your finger to unlock the phone.
darkfiber
Disable Mobile Web Pages
Open Internet Browser
Hit Menu
More
Settings
Untick "Mobile View"
lukem
For Google Picasa
Try this app:
Gallery3D Apk - xda-developers
You'll need to check off 'unknown sources' in your settings to run the installation:
Menu > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources
MoPhoMan
Pressing and holding the menu key on a screen hides or reopens the keyboard
I am learning long press is a big player. It usually brings up a separate menu and when you long press on an email or a contact one of the menu options is delete which i prefer to opening the list and needing to select the X to delete.
Answerman
This is a nice touch... I've got 4 email accounts set up using IMAP. When I bring up the mail app, the Incredible automatically checks for new mail. If I switch to a different account, it then checks that account. I've got all the accounts set to check at either 30 or 60 minute intervals, but it's nice that it checks it just by bringing up the mail app. It's not push mail, but coming from the WinMo world where I had to manually hit "Send/Receive" if I wanted to see if anything came in since the last auto-check, it's refreshing.
dibs ODDJOB
I believe the wallpaper resolution of 960x800 is still correct.
When you pick a photo from your phone, the green crop box will show over 80% of your photo. Put your finger on the edge of the green square and arrows should appear. Pull the arrows to the edge of the photo. This should allow you to use the WHOLE picture, provided it is the correct aspect ratio of 1.2:1 (960:800). You can resize or move the box around any part of the picture as well.
NKT
How to list contacts by last name:
http://androidforums.com/641877-post7.html
sqlgeek
Changing the preferred method for contacting people
So up under each favorite's picture (or icon) is a small box that has their name in it. If you have already established a default contact type (small phone, envelope, message or contact card should appear in the bottom right hand corner of the icon) and want to change it, click on that small name button and it brings up the list of all possible contact methods. You can pick another contact mehod just for that one instance, but the contact type you set up originally will remain. Once in that same list screen you can click Menu>More>Set Widget Action and choose the new contact type. It even has an option to view the contact which is what I like so that I can pick from the list every time without accidentally calling them if I don't hit the little button just right.
unclemetz
A set of special characters (including > and <) can be found by clicking the "12#" key to the right of the space, then the "1/2" to the left of the space.
skunis1
Where to find POP and POP3 infor for setting up non GMAIL accounts
Call your provider up and ask them. Also go to their website under FAQs and they may have an answer for you.
Additionally, your provider may block their outgoing mail server (Port 25). If that is the case you can try either port 587 or 465.
Rabernet
When using the pre-installed alarm clock, for some reason, the default is to vibrate. Be sure to scroll down and un-check Vibrate so that it will actually ring for you. I learned the hard way - all three available alarms were defaulted to vibrate.
To get to alarm clock, tap your clock, then use the scroll bar at the bottom to get to the alarm clock.
Choose the alarm you plan to set. Underneath "Repeat", is where it's defaulted to vibrate.
rsjet
THIS IS INCORRECT! That small checkmark is for whether to vibrate in ADDITION to ringing. I just tried it right now. The checkmark next to vibrate was checked and it still rang.
Hit the menu key when you are on the Alarm clock slide and you will see an option to change ringer volume and whether to play alarm if in silent mode. You probably had one of these off and thats why it did not work for you.
NevermoreFU
You can also select "Alarm Sound" when you are setting an alarm and use the volume bar to adjust it in there.
DroidPower
Lay your phone down on a table or desk, when it rings (incoming call) and you don't want to answer it, or talk to an individual, TURN THE PHONE OVER AND IT STOPS RINGING.
jo28
You can manually refresh updates on the (larger) Friendstream widget by pressing on the bar at the bottom of the widget that shows the refresh icon and time.
GatorGirl
From any webpage, if you tap and hold the back button (long press), it will take you to your browser history, Most Visited sites, and your bookmarks!
UT_Longhorn
Assigning mp3 as a ringtone/alert
I connected the phone to my computer as a disk drive. Two volumes showed up; one for the phone internal memory and one for the SD card. On the internal memory drive is a folder called MP3. Under this folder I created a Ringtones folder and put my mp3 ringtones in there. Once I disconnected the phone from the computer, the rintones were automatically listed in the ringtone list. Works great with not problems to far!
As far as assigning individual ringtones, each app typically has a setup to assign ringtones. For example, under the stock messages app, set to view all messages, tap menu and go to setup and you'll find setting for both incoming and outgoing sounds.
dibs ODDJOB
How to remove a contact from the Favorites widget
Accidentally added a person to your Favorites widget?
Go to People> Groups. Long press on Favorites>Edit group. Press the 'X' to remove the person from favorites.
This can work with other groups as well.
MoPhoMan
Ok, been fighting with notifications all day...
To add custom ringtones you need to load them in a folder named "ringtones" on the device (or SD card) to add custom notifications ...this is where i was getting lost ... the files should be loaded on the device in a folder named "notifications" now i can rest =)
Jigoku San
When you plug-in the phone to a PC and set it to disk drive, you can rename the 2 drives and it will stay when you reconnect it again. (The microsd card will have to be renamed for each card)
I named mine DI INTERNAL and DI SD just to tell the difference without remembering the drive letter.
Amin Sabet
I just figured out that if you tap for focus with the camera and hold the tap for a couple seconds, it takes the picture without having to press the optical mouse button. Much better stability this way. It's even less prone to camera shake than the double tap method on the iPhone.
Lefort1
If anyone's having issues with their phone not accurately or slowly switch back and forth between LANDSCAPE and PORTRAIT mode you may want to try this:
Go to: Menu -> Settings -> Sound & Display -> G-sensor Calibration (all the way at the bottom)
Calibrating the sensor on a flat surface should help
dgourd
If you are in the music tabs and you scroll down, a scroll bar appears on the right. Holding down on the scroll bar and moving it lets you skip down by letter. Its a quicker way to get to the bottom of the list.
dibbs ODDJOB
While using Voice-to-text, if you want to add a period, say the word period at the end.
To text:
"This is a sentence."
Say:
"This is a sentence period"
This works for other punctuation, like ! ? : ,
You can also say "point' for a decimal.
"One point two five" will be 1.25
Phydeaux
Deleting saved scenes:
The way scenes currently works is that it asks you to create a new scene every time you edit a current scene. Before long you end up with tons of unwanted "Custom" scenes.
To delete these unwanted scenes, go to Settings > Personalize > Scenes
long-press the scene to get options to edit or delete.
Finalride
Folders on home screen:
Click Add or + to add a Folder.
Once it shows up on the home screen select it to open up then long press the folder to rename it what you will.
I currently have a Social Sites Folder and a Mail folder to organize things better....
MoPhoMan
To add files to a folder on the homescreen add the files to the homescreen then drag and drop them into the folder
MisterX
Want to know exactly what program or component is using your precious battery? From the home screen, press the Menu button and select "Settings". Click on "About Phone", then click "Battery" and "Battery use". A graphical display of what is using how much power is displayed.
Ender11
Two step process for downloading and installing apps
This might be a tip aimed more at newbies like myself, but I was really inefficient with downloading then accessing an app. I was downloading the app, then exiting to home screen, then accessing app drawer, find the newly downloaded app and then launching it.
I realized that it is much quicker to download the app, wait for the notice at the top of the screen to tell you that the download is complete, then just pull down the notification tray and tap the notification for the newly downloaded app. It only works the first time of course, but it takes the process of accessing a newly downloaded app from a 4 step process to a 2 step process.
Arjo_reich
browser text
While browsing, a long tap will bring up a window to copy / share /etc. whatever it is you clicked. To include more text to be quoted, simply drag and reposition the highlighted frame around your selection.
Tek12x
ALARM CLOCK (pre-installed)
If you like to sleep in a little longer you can change the Snooze duration on the pre-installed alarm clock. Click on the clock then go to the alarm. At these point where it shows the different alarms that you have, press the menu pointing then settings. Right there you'll find the snooze durations. Time are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes snooze times. You can also change the way the alarm works when the phone is locked. You can set the slider to either stop the alarm and make it snooze.
*IMPORTANT* If you have Advance Task Killer make sure you have it ignore closing the clock because this will cause the alarm clock NOT to go off. (I was late to work because i did this.
CONTACT LINKS to FACEBOOK
If you mistaking link someone to the wrong facebook account you can just go to the contact then click the little link icon at the top next to the person's name. Where it has "Linked Contracts" you can just click the link icon again and it will break the link and remove the link between your contact and facebook.
Also when when you link an account the phone automatically pull the facebook picture as your contact image. If you click on the picture you can change it from Facebook, phone, camera, gmail, or photo. This is good if you don't like the picture the person has on their facebook.
From the People (contacts) if you click on hold on the person's picture you get a option to call them, send a text, or lookup their address on google maps.
Ender11
Instead of deleting a widget, app or file from one screen and then adding it to another, long tap the item you want to move to a different screen, then place that item over the top of another widget, app, etc. so that it can't drop into place. Instead the item is held suspended until you place it properly. At this point just swipe to the appropriate screen and your "suspended" item will stay suspended in the forefront. Then just drag the item to an open space on the new screen and presto you have quickly and easily rearranged your home screen.
Berner
Quicker and Easier: drag the widget to the left or right edge of the screen. The view will automatically switch to the next screen.
jcat
Quickest and easiest way of all (at least imo): While you are pressing (continuously long-tapping) the widget, just use the trackball to swipe from page to page; then release the widget when you get to the page you want!
kayst
To change the name of a folder: Open the folder and click on the name.
boomstk
Search Voice commands: Try this thread:
Voice Command List
MoPhoMan
INCREASE BATTERY LIFE
I followed the tips on this thread and have tripled my battery life the last three days (6-8 hours a charge to over 20 hours a charge with the same use habits). There is apparently a bug on the syncing of some HTC apps (facebook, flickr) that causes the phone to never sleep. Check it out and follow the tip to turn off the syncing. http://androidforums.com/support-tr...i-found-fixed-htc-incredible-battery-bug.html
Sonny200 and Lars
Speed up access to your voicemail
Speed-Dial #1 is reserved for VM & for Verizon, it's *86.
You can modify this via --> Settings/Call/VM Settings/VM Number.
If you add a "p" after "*86", it'll pause for 3 seconds. Add your VM password followed by "#" allows you to long-press 1 from the dialer & it'll dial your VM, pause for 3 seconds, dial your VM password & start playing your VM without you having to input the pswd & "#".
Eg: *86p1234#
If you set it to *86p1234#1 it will start playing your new voicemail automatically.
MoPhoMan
Not sure if this contact shortcut is new in froYo or I just missed it before, but if you press on a contact image in the header of an email or text message (even works in the widgets) it brings up a slider to call the person, send a message or look up their contact info.
kdarling
Calibrate your keyboard and it can make a large improvement in typing accuracy.
Settings - Language & Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input - Calibration Tool
It has you type the old "quick brown fox" test phrase and learns your finger impact points.
