Android Use Handout

[jfritzs2]

Hello fellow Android users! I need your help, I'll explain. I work at Best Buy with the Mobile department. We sell phones from all the carriers and in an effort to help out our customers better understand their phones I was thinking about making an Android phone handout for them to take home with them after their purchase.

Since Best Buy sells all the carriers, there are going to be differences between carriers and also manufacturers with the alterations they implement in the Android operating system.

So what I was hoping to get from the community were ideas about the basics of Android that spanned across carrier and manufacturer.

So for example, I've thought of explaining the notification bar. I can put some screen shots and quick details about its uses. Also I wanted to maybe give some help internet links, I thought of market.android.com for the market online.

What else can you guys give me to put on this handout. I'll probably try to keep it to about a page worth of material - probably front and back.

I just need the basics, please help me to brainstorm!

 

[Roze]

Hey Fritz, that's a nice idea And maybe other Mobile employees can use this too.

The first thing I'll give a new Android user is this: http://androidforums.com/android-applications/36936-how-safe-find-trusted-apps-avoid-viruses-guide-those-new-android.html

That's my bible for Android ALP (the author) has a PDF form for easy reading in his thread. His post is full of rich information on the working of Android, explained in layman terms.

 

[Stuntman]

I think the basics of where to find and organise things should include the following:

Home screens
Short cuts
Widgets
App tray (for those rarely used apps)
Market

You also need a section on how to do common things such as:

Email
Social Networking
Messaging
Phone calls
Notifications

I believe most phones come with some instructions on initial set up like charging and setting up your Gmail account. Is this supposed to complement those instructions?

 

[alostpacket]

We (guides) have some stuff sorta like this that I'll try and post here.

It's interesting though because sometimes even the simplest little thing (like notifications) varies across manufacturer skinning and Android version.

Just getting to the settings page is very different from Gingerbread to Honeycomb.

I'll see what I can dig up this weekend. I'm going to set aside a few hours to update my guides and I will post a few things from the guides here to see if they may help you.

 

[jfritzs2]

We (guides) have some stuff sorta like this that I'll try and post here.

It's interesting though because sometimes even the simplest little thing (like notifications) varies across manufacturer skinning and Android version.

Just getting to the settings page is very different from Gingerbread to Honeycomb.

I'll see what I can dig up this weekend. I'm going to set aside a few hours to update my guides and I will post a few things from the guides here to see if they may help you.

That would be perfect! Thanks! I know that there will be many differences so with some work I'll try to make it as general and helpful as possible. Oh and luckily for us in Best Buy Mobile we'll only be dealing with phones and gingerbread and below. So this handout won't apply to tablets. And I'll try to get it posted back up here when I'm all done.

 

[alostpacket]

Sorry for the delay getting to this -- I have been swamped lately

Here is some more info you could possibly use:


How to turn on USB Storage (stock Android):

Spoiler

How to clear cache/data for an app

Spoiler

Important: 97% of the time you should not need to ever clear cache. Cache is a good thing that speeds up your phone. This is a step to take only AFTER an app is not performing correctly and restarting the app does not fix it.


(From home screen)
press [Menu]
> Settings
> Applications
> Manage Applications
> (all apps tab)
> Select the app
> [clear cache] and/or [clear data]

[How to]: Create a .nomedia file in Windows

Spoiler

Link: http://androidforums.com/android-me...-images-video-audio-out-gallery-music-db.html
-------------------
1) Open notepad and save a blank text file named .nomedia

Important: be sure to change the "Save as type" option to All files (*.*)
-------------------

-------------------
2) Make sure to remove the .txt from the name if Windows added it -- it should just be named .nomedia not .nomedia.txt -- Windows will most often add .txt by default.

If the file icon looks like a text file icon, then you probably need to rename it and remove ".txt" from the name. It should show the "unknown file type" generic looking icon.
-------------------

-------------------
2a) Sometimes Windows will hide the file extension too.

To show a file extention in Windows, open a folder and go to the "Tools" menu, then "Folder options", click the "view" tab, and make sure "hide extensions of known file types" is unchecked (usually checked by default). Then click [Apply to folders] at the top. This will apply the change to all folders so you can see extensions on all files.

This is also a helpful way to see what types of files are on your PC.
-------------------

-------------------
3) Connect your phone to your PC and select "mount sdcard" or "open as folder" or "open as storage" or "usb connected" or something similar from the drop-down notifications on your phone.
-------------------

-------------------
4) Drag and drop the .nomedia file to your phone and put it in the folder you want the gallery/music db to ignore. This should make the gallery/music db ignore all subfolders as well.
-------------------

How to check which apps are using the battery

Spoiler

To check how much an app is using the battery:

(from your phone's home screen) Menu > Settings > About Phone > Battery use

Usually the apps at the top should be something like:

- Display/Screen
- Cell Standby
- WiFi
- Phone idle

Common things that drain battery
[Hide]
Any weak signal will cause battery loss. When a phone/tablet detects a weak signal, it will send more power to the radio to boost its ability to connect to that signal (I think).

Similarly any drop from 4G->3G will cause the phone/tablet to look for a 4G connection, also causing battery drain for sure. The same is true for WiFi -- if the connection gets dropped, the phone/tablet will work a little harder to find it.

Best bet is to use something like Tasker and/or some widgets to really control when any battery draining activity is taking place.

Battery draining activities include:

-The screen being on
-3G/4G
-WiFi
-Bluetooth
-Background data sync
-Any large data transfer or frequent screen redrawing (eg the surfing the web with the browser)
-Zynga games <- kidding.....mostly
[/Hide]



How to get to the settings screen in Honeycomb
[Hide]
To get to settings: tap the time/clock on the lower right of the bottom bar, then tap the settings icon, then tap settings again at the bottom of the "short list" of settings. This should bring you to the complete settings page.
[/Hide]


How to get the Power Control widget
[Hide]Instead of telling someone about "task killers" or advanced battery saving apps like Tasker, a good first place to start off someone new to Android is to show them the Power Control widget

Long press on a 4 space wide, 1 space tall (4x1) area of one of your home screens

Then select widgets > (android widgets)* > Power Control


*(some phones will have you select "android widgets", others will not)


This will let you easily turn on an off some of the big battery killing features of the phone.

There are more advanced things to do also, but this is a great place to start off anyone new to Android.

It should look like this:

From left to right:

WiFi | Bluetooth | GPS | Background Data (sync) | Bightness (has multiple levels)
[/Hide]

 

[alostpacket]

From AF Guide scary alien:



How to Mount SD Card with your Computer (Moto/Blur version)

Spoiler

There is a pull-down "shade" that at the top of the screen that you can use to put the SD card in "USB Mass Storage" or "Mount as Disk Drive" mode.

Make sure you device is connected via the USB cable, then touch the top of the screen and drag down. You should see a few sections, one of which is labeled "Ongoing" with a "USB connection" section. Touch the "USB connection" section, then select "USB Mass Storage" (or similar option). Hopefully, when you do this, your computer will automatically recognize your phone's SD card so you can explore it.

If you are using a Windows machine, don't forget to do a "safe eject" before repeating the above steps but choosing "Charge only" and unplugging your USB cable so that your phone will be in control of your SD card again.

What to do for Water Damage / Exposure

Spoiler

1. Remove the battery from the device (water and electricity are a bad combination)

2. Get a Ziplock bag or an air-tight container and fill it with dry rice (be sure its dry, LOL)

3. Place the phone in the bag or container and seal it up for a "while" (I've heard timeframes from 8 hours to multiple days--the longer the better in order to wick-away the moisture). You could also replace the dry rice to ensure that you are wicking away more moisture.

4. After you have dried-out the phone as best you can, re-insert the battery and try to start it up.

What is root or being rooted mean?

Spoiler

Here's a few threads here at AF that already tackle this topic:

http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/12585-what-rooting.html

http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/130448-what-root-what-does-do.html

http://androidforums.com/moment-all-things-root/27046-what-does-rooted-mean.html

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-incredible/62343-what-root.html

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/349775-what-rooting.html

To me, rooting is gaining special access to things on your phone that the carriers and manufacturers didn't intend for you to have (and they often have very good reasons for this, by the way).

To actually gain root access usually (but not always) requires uncovering some exploit that allows you to insert the su program in the /system/bin or /system/xbin directory. Additionally, you also need the Superuser.apk (whitelist app) to be installed in the /system/app directory. The Superuser app helps you manage which apps are allowed to have root access (i.e., so that not just any app can gain special control of your device).

Additionally, rooting sometimes leads to the ability to overwrite or replace the special partitions (filesystems) on your phone such as the recovery partition so you can install a new, custom recovery that will allow you to install (flash) custom ROMs (i.e., new versions of Android).

 

[chanchan05]

I guess these will come in handy too:

http://www.google.com/googlephone/AndroidUsersGuide.pdf
http://www.google.com/googlephone/AndroidUsersGuide-2.3.pdf

 

[jerofld]

Just getting to the settings page is very different from Gingerbread to Honeycomb.

This is the truth. I didn't find the method you mentioned for a month after owning my tab. I found settings in the App drawer and made a shortcut on my primary home screen.

Edit: Another misconception about Android that's rather common. There is "location" and "GPS", but both are called "GPS", frustratingly enough. You see this more in HTC devices, it seems, because there's always that bullseye marker on the screen. But just because the bullseye is up, or GPS/location is enabled, does not mean the device is using the power-draining GPS receiver. The GPS receiver uses a completely different icon when it's active, and you can see it's activation as soon as you load Google Maps (for example, or any other GPS utilizing app).

If you want Google to find restaurants near you, you have to enable "GPS" for your location. But, Google search does not check for the actual satellite signal. It uses your cell service location (you can be triangulated off of the cell network). That doesn't use nearly as much power.

 

[Roze]

I feel guilty for posting these links but I think you'll find these How to very helpful, Fritz

How To | Android Central
Help, How-To, and Tips for Android | Android Central