What to do first

[droidfool]

yay! My OptS is coming tomorrow.
Any tips re: how to get started/What to do first?
What are the essential apps?

Thanks..

 

[kalex]

Charge it

 

[kinster02]

And then turn it on.

Just go to appbrain.com on your computer and start looking at the app you might want.

 

[sgtlange]

First thing I'm going to do is root it

 

[kcmookie]

I have had mine for a little over a week. The first thing I did was see what apps people were talking about, so I bought Beautiful Apps since I wanted a cool customizable clock along with the weather, etc. I also got Angry Birds which has now replaced all reading material when taking care of business in the boys room--I know, TMI. Then play with finding apps you might want to try out. I replaced my SD Card since I was having issues with it, but beyond that just play with it!

 

[KSmithInNY]

For the first week I'd say spend equal amounts of time reading the forums as you do playing with the phone. I'll be the first to admit that there are some things about android that really aren't intuitive. It may take some time to re-train your brain from whatever OSs you may be used to using.

Some apps you may like:
-Angry birds (as mentioned already)
-Pandora or slacker ... or both lol
-tunein radio which will let you listen to local radio via streaming
-If you like tower defense style games check out robo defense which is a secret addiction of mine.
- The androidcentral.com app (in the market) to keep you up to date on android news.
- Pocket god just came out for android which was a smash hit on the iphone

What i wouldn't download:
-A task killer of any shape or form

mostly have fun with it. It may take a small adjustment but at a certain point you realize that you no longer have a phone in your pocket, you have an awesome computer that happens to also make calls lol! Welcome to the android family.

 

[apinkel]

What KSmithInNY said, plus...

Most of these are assuming you are new to android...
-Get familiar with the market. I use appbrain to manage my apps from my desktop PC but some folks prefer doing it all right on the phone. Play with both to see what works best for you.
-Play around with the google apps... navigation, places, search, gmail, and calendar. There's an amazing amount of stuff there, all for for free.
-Download a file manager, I use Astro (free).
-Setup your accounts... email, social sites, etc.
-See if institutions that handle your accounts have an android app that allows you to view/manage the account from your phone.
-There will be a few widgets/utilities that you'll eventually discover you need/want... something to manage audio volumes/profiles (I use audio buddy), widgets to turn on/off various functions quickly (I use switchpro).

More advanced stuff once you become familiar with things:
-Check out Launcher Pro (a home screen replacement that is very customizable, stable and feature rich)
-Check out the free wifi tether functionality
-If you are technically inclined check into rooting your phone, custom roms and advanced utilities like tasker.

This is my how I sorta progressed thru learning android... but most of all, just dig in. There's a lot of fun stuff out there.

 

[Aaron Little]

-tunein radio which will let you listen to local radio via streaming

Thank you! I am very new to Android and this is just what I was hoping to find.

 

[shortyjacobs]

What KSmithInNY said, plus...

[snip]
-Check out Launcher Pro (a home screen replacement that is very customizable, stable and feature rich)
[snip].

Do yourself a favor and check out LauncherPro sooner rather than later. I spent a good while getting the standard launcher exactly how I wanted it, only to discover that when you install a new launcher, you have to do that all over again!

 

[abarenbe]

Second the recomendation to check out launcherpro. Its calendar and facebook widgets are worth the cost of it alone, try it out before buying a buetiful calendar widget.

If your are going to get into custom Rom get Titanium backup and learn it before wiping data to flash a custom rom. As newbie this is one thing I really wished I knew two weeks ago. It can really speed up getting everything back after you flash.

 

[droidfool]

Is Beautiful Apps the name of it. I cant find it in the market.

 

[droidfool]

Why no task killer?

 

[AciDeX]

Why no task killer?

Because they're not recommended.

How to properly set up and use a task killer (Oh, yes, I went there!) | Android Central