Help Newbie to apps :( help please.

[bengi88]

Hey guys,
I apologise if theres a similar thread.
I am a complete beginner to the whole smart phone and apps things and theres a few things im a bit worried about.
Ive just bought myself a SE Xperia X10 on contract, with a 750mb internet usage monthly and im really paranoid.
I know these questions will probably seem really stupid, and quite laughable to some, but im paranoid about going over my usage allowance and so i was wondering about apps using the internet, such as facebook and how much they will clock it up, and im never sure if there still running. Its hard to put this in to words, i hope someone understands what im trying to say, cheers in advance.
Also how do you get rid of that annoying apps window on the desktop as ive decided to not use timescape.

Bengi

 

[rosered]

Hello there and welcome to the forum!

You can download an app like 3g Watchdog from the market which keeps an eye on your usage. The only thing you need to find out from your carrier is what your data refresh day is in the month as this can be different from your texts/calls refresh date. You then set the app up with the date it refreshes and it keeps an eye on your usage. Whilst on the phone to your carrier ask them how much you have used to date and you can put that in too so it keeps you accurate til it refreshes.

Anything on your homescreen that you want gone, just long press on it til it vibrates slightly then drag it to the bottom where a little dustbin will appear and 'drop' it in to the bin.

To reload any apps that you get rid of and want back you just long press on them in the app drawer and the drawer will close automatically and then you just drag it into position.

To reload a widget (like Timescape) long press on the home screen and you will get a pop up menu and widgets is one of the options.

If you are very new to android, lots of things can be accessed by pressing menu but if you can't find it there try a long press and see if that gives you more options.

If you come across other things that you are unsure of as you go along, just shout.

 

[Neutronic]

Well heres a Data calculator from rogers that can help you see what different events take up certain amounts of data. Hope it helps!

http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.po...lsDataCalc&deviceType=SP&dataSharedFlag=false

 

[rosered]

Just another word about the apps like Facebook / twitter / getting emails. You can set all of them to poll (fetch data) at different times, from 10 minutes to hourly to never/manual so the less often you poll the less data you will use. So you can choose only to manually update and go in to the app, press menu and select refresh when you have a moment to sit down and look at them rather than it gathering data maybe while you are at work or asleep.

I was surprised how little I use my data, so don't be too frightened of it. And also make use of wifi when you can cos that won't use any of your data plan.

 

[bengi88]

Cheers guys, that really helps
I downloaded an app called Advanced Task Killer, so whenever i have finished using an app, i go to that on my homescreen and chose the option to kill all tasks just to make sure there not running, is this the right thing to do?
Also, is there symbol on the homescreen which tells you if the internet is being used, cheers for all the help and sorry for being a pain in the a**e.

 

[Neutronic]

I have that app as well and it is useful in preventing things that use the internet from running in the background when you think they are closed. Its basically a task manager for a phone. It can also help speed up your phones performance by closing apps that aren't being used.

 

[cwepruk]

The simple suggestion is to use it as much as you want and see if you go over - then modify your plan.

I'm not a huge user, but I surf, download music/apps and I've probably never even been over 300MB. I use wifi wherever possible, but I was always been worried about using data - but never come close to the 500MB I'e had. I think it would take a lot of streaming music/video's to use that much.

 

[highaltitude]

Definitly get 3G Watchdog, thats what I have. I started with a 200MB plan from AT&T, however after about 3 weeks I was able to convince the customer service guy at AT&T to give me the no longer available unlimited plan so I'm good. It is a great app to see how much you've downloaded and it has a warning you can set.