Got my free atrix today!

[archer75]

Just got my free atrix at best buy. Free activation too. It's my first smart phone. First thing I did was put pandora on it and stream it through my car stereo. Works great.

Next i'm going to put google voice on it and then look for a good RSS app to work with google reader and a good ebook reader. And then find a new launcher.

I discovered that Motorla Media Link for mac will sync my podcasts and even data back and forth. Except for books, so i'm still at a loss on how to do that.

Is there a camera app that can share with twitter? Seems the default app doesn't do twitter.

I accidently hid some of my contacts. It said I couldn't delete them but could hide them. These particular ones are from twitter. Any idea how to get them back?

Any tips or tricks you can recommend? Any thing you wish you had known earlier?

 

[MadCat1118]

Download the Gingerbread update before you get too used to how it is with Froyo. It updates Moto Blur as well, which noticeably changes the interface (for the better IMO). You're going to want to do it on Wi-Fi, as it is a large update. I love mine, though I haven't had it too long.

 

[archer75]

When I received it, it already had gingerbread on it.

I found motorola media manager for my mac which let me copy podcasts to the atrix. It's a copy and not a sync so it doesn't save my place on the podcast. However the include music app doesn't even see the podcasts on the atrix. I went through 5 different media player until I found one that sees the podcasts. However the episodes from the different shows are just jumbled together. That isn't going to work.

I also need to figure out how to get my ebooks on it.

The biggest issue i'm seeing with android thus far is the lack of a centralized desktop application for syncing data to and from, similar to itunes.

 

[MadCat1118]

I know there are a few syncing apps out there for Android, which that is something I need to look into (the Moto app wants to sync 60 GB of music without realizing that it can't!) I remember hearing from someone at work about one, I think it was double twist. As far as e-books, it probably depends on where you bought them. The only e-book app I've used is the Kindle app, which will sync when you open it with a data connection.

 

[_sC]

The biggest issue i'm seeing with android thus far is the lack of a centralized desktop application for syncing data to and from, similar to itunes.

thats actually one of the biggest things i hate about apple, itunes... also the lack of freedom of course (dont worry im not starting a war, just saying.)

 

[archer75]

I know there are a few syncing apps out there for Android, which that is something I need to look into (the Moto app wants to sync 60 GB of music without realizing that it can't!) I remember hearing from someone at work about one, I think it was double twist. As far as e-books, it probably depends on where you bought them. The only e-book app I've used is the Kindle app, which will sync when you open it with a data connection.

These are ebooks i've collected over many years of owning various devices. They aren't from amazon. None have DRM.
Doubletwist doesn't work with podcasts in terms of syncing.

I did blow through 50% of the battery today. I streamed pandora for 15 minutes over 4g. Then about 30 minutes surfing on wifi. That's not much use at all.

 

[itsallgood]

These are ebooks i've collected over many years of owning various devices. They aren't from amazon. None have DRM.
Doubletwist doesn't work with podcasts in terms of syncing.

I did blow through 50% of the battery today. I streamed pandora for 15 minutes over 4g. Then about 30 minutes surfing on wifi. That's not much use at all.

You have to condition the battery. It might take up to a month before you actually get the max battery usage out of it. Fully charge and discharge the battery until it powers off. (Do this at least 3 to 4 times.) Make sure it is powered off, when charging during this process. Also, make sure to check all your settings in: battery manager, screen brightness should be at 0% indoors, screen sleep mode no more then 2 min. max., use the stock task manager to place certain apps on the auto end list, when the screen times out. Make sure GPS, bluetooth and wifi are off when not using them. Have all updates for email and social networking to update at least every 4 hrs or more.

 

[archer75]

You have to condition the battery. It might take up to a month before you actually get the max battery usage out of it. Fully charge and discharge the battery until it powers off. (Do this at least 3 to 4 times.) Make sure it is powered off, when charging during this process. Also, make sure to check all your settings in: battery manager, screen brightness should be at 0% indoors, screen sleep mode no more then 2 min. max., use the stock task manager to place certain apps on the auto end list, when the screen times out. Make sure GPS, bluetooth and wifi are off when not using them. Have all updates for email and social networking to update at least every 4 hrs or more.

Thanks for the info. I did have many apps in the auto end list. It goes to sleep pretty fast. Whatever the default is it feels like under a minute. Bluetooth has been off since I got the phone. I primarily use wifi for connection. Social Networking only updates when I tell it to but email checks rather often as I get a lot of email.

Though if I can't get podcasts to sync the way I want them to and get my ebooks on the phone i'm going to take it back and go with something else.

 

[itsallgood]

Check out this link for Podcast transfer. For the ebooks, can you save them to your computer or SD card, then transfer them to the Atrix? They do have book apps in the market for "Amazon kindle" and "Google Books"

MOTOROLA MEDIA LINK for WINDOWS - Overview - Motorola Mobility, Inc. USA

 

[archer75]

Check out this link for Podcast transfer. For the ebooks, can you save them to your computer or SD card, then transfer them to the Atrix? They do have book apps in the market for "Amazon kindle" and "Google Books"

MOTOROLA MEDIA LINK for WINDOWS - Overview - Motorola Mobility, Inc. USA

The kindle and google apps only read books gotten via those services so those won't work. The books I have are on my computer. I just can't get them to the atrix.

I have motorola media link but it's not transferring podcasts correctly. All the episodes for all the shows are just jumbled together and not separated by show. And so far only a single media app for the phone can actually see that they are on the phone. I don't know why it's so challenging.

I have several solutions i'm looking at now for podcasts. The best option that I can see isn't free. The others are quite a bit more manual. I'll test these all out over the next couple of days and report back with what is the best option.

 

[MadCat1118]

My best suggestion at this point is to make a post in the app forum and see if there are any suggestions. For e-books, if you don't care about syncing where you last left off with other items, it looks like you can put them on an SD card, then put the card in your phone, and download an e-book reader like Aldiko (supports PDF and ePub). Also, when the phone is plugged into your computer, you might be able to open the storage on it like a flash drive and manually move the books there. Neither is an elegant solution, but it can at least get you started until you can find something better.

 

[TgeekB]

You have to condition the battery. It might take up to a month before you actually get the max battery usage out of it. Fully charge and discharge the battery until it powers off. (Do this at least 3 to 4 times.) Make sure it is powered off, when charging during this process. Also, make sure to check all your settings in: battery manager, screen brightness should be at 0% indoors, screen sleep mode no more then 2 min. max., use the stock task manager to place certain apps on the auto end list, when the screen times out. Make sure GPS, bluetooth and wifi are off when not using them. Have all updates for email and social networking to update at least every 4 hrs or more.

Thanks for the tip on "auto end list". Didn't know that existed.

 

[archer75]

The best way I found to sync(well not true syncing, copy and paste) podcasts is to first make a playlist in itunes for each of the shows and add the episodes from that show to the playlist. Then go into another app such as double twist and sync the playlists.

Even though there are apps that will sync podcasts from itunes, none of them organize the episodes under a show. Instead they throw all the episodes from all the shows in the same directory making it a nightmare to navigate.

As far as ebooks go, I can email them myself or put them in my dropbox and then open them on the phone. The system is smart enough to associate my .epub files with the ereader I downloaded. The ereader opens them and even gives me an option to import the book from dropbox to be stored on the phone.