Motorola Droid Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs

[wahuff]

- To watch youtube videos in High Quality, start the video, press settings, and click on "watch in high quality

I found that launching a youtube video while the droid is in portrait orientation, then rotating to landscape orientation while the video is loading will cause it to play in high quality mode without the need for accessing the settings.

 

[wahuff]

- To watch youtube videos in High Quality, start the video, press settings, and click on "watch in high quality

CORRECTION>>>I found that launching a youtube video using the youtube widget will cause it to play in high quality mode without the need for accessing the settings.

 

[j7469]

I did a quick search and didn't see this listed so just in case you wanted to know, if you double tap the alt key on the slider keyboard that will enable number lock where a single tap allows the next click only to be for the alternate choice. It also locks it so any secondary option on all the other keys (&,%, $ etc...) and all you have to do is press the alt key again to turn it off.

 

[Flyguide83]

Just found something sweet! When brousing the web in landscape, if you hit the vollume rocker up or down it acts as page up or down! Now I can slide the keyboard out wrap my pointer fingers around the back and scroll using the volume rocker! Woot!
Sorry if this is old news... didn't remember reading it anywhere...

edit... this is on dolphin browser...

 

[herki]

The power control widget has three settings for auto-brightness. Off, Auto-Brightness, and Full Power. To turn the full brightness on, tap the icon once more than you would to turn auto-brightness on.
Handy when you're in the dark and need a quick flashlight, and don't want to open an LED flashlight app. Makes the screen that much brighter.

Also, when using the physical keyboard, and typing words that work with and without apostrophes (were v. we're, well v. we'll, ill v. I'll), skip the final letter in the word and it will auto-complete with the apostrophe. Saves the whole alt-apostrophe process.

 

[wpwoodjr]

Go to Google Maps and search for your house or a well known site; or simply press and hold somewhere on the map. A bubble will appear containing the text of what you searched for or the location you touched. Touch the bubble and you will get a menu. Scroll down to Street View and click that - it will show you a street-level image of that place that you can scroll around in - pretty cool, right? Now, this is where it gets really cool - touch the menu button and select compass mode - enjoy!!!

If the image doesn't seem to follow your movement, wave the Droid around in a figure 8 which seems to recalibrate the compass.

 

[wpwoodjr]

I found a neat trick. Open the Voice Dial application and say "Open Battery Info". A screen will open up showing detailed info about the battery including charge level, voltage, etc. I haven't been able to get to this screen by any other method. I wonder if there are other "secret apps"?

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

I found a neat trick. Open the Voice Dial application and say "Open Battery Info". A screen will open up showing detailed info about the battery including charge level, voltage, etc. I haven't been able to get to this screen by any other method. I wonder if there are other "secret apps"?

HUH! That is REAL interesting. I'll have to try a few other commands to see if I can find something else...

 

[herki]

I found a neat trick. Open the Voice Dial application and say "Open Battery Info". A screen will open up showing detailed info about the battery including charge level, voltage, etc. I haven't been able to get to this screen by any other method. I wonder if there are other "secret apps"?

You can get that window with Spare Parts, but I think this could be the only way to access that panel without downloading a third party app. Nice!

 

[jlgraham]

For ringtones place your clip in "DriveofSDcard>media>audio>ringtones".

So far I've only done .mp3 ringtones, so don't know if it'll take other formats

It will also accent the AAC format, which I fins is superior to mp3. Although I suppose coming from a phone speaker it doesn't matter, regardless of the high quality one included on the DROID.

 

[pmas]

On the virtual keyboards if you long press any button with "..." next to the letter or number it will bring up another list of options.

for example a long press on the "1" key will bring up options for "1 , 1/2. 1/3, 1/4, 1/8" or a long press on the smiley face will bring up other face options, there are many of these "..." keys

I feel dumb as heck here, but what am I missing? I don't see any dots or a smiley on my keyboards. Anyone want to help a Droid noob?

 

[gsontag]

its on the default messaging app. on the bottom right. On handcent it is a enter button.

 

[j7469]

I feel dumb as heck here, but what am I missing? I don't see any dots or a smiley on my keyboards. Anyone want to help a Droid noob?

On the on screen virtual keyboard, certain letters have three dots (...) on the bottom left of the icon that pops up when you press a letter. This is similar to what happens on the iPhone/iPod. I guess the three dots helps you know which letters have the extra characters. Another way to tell is to press a letter and hold it for a couple seconds, if a new icon pops up you'll know there is more text you can add.

 

[herki]

The Droid has preprogrammed shortcuts that you can use.
Simultaneously pressing search + b opens the browser, c = contacts, e = email, g = gmail, l = calendar, p = music, s = messaging, and y = youtube.

You can also change the shortcuts. Go into settings>applications>Quick launch.

 

[pmas]

Ahh.. Thank you for the replies.

 

[bb4temo]

How to make direction shortcuts

Long Press on an empty spot on your home... and create a new folder..

Open "Folder" and Long Press on the top frame of that window. Rename it name it to whatever you wish.

Now go back to home and Long Press on an empty space. Select Shortcuts. Scroll down to Directions. Fill out the boxes with your destination address, choose mode of transit, give it a name, select an icon, and press Save.

A new icon will appear on your desktop.. named whatever you called it in the previous menu... Just move it to your new folder, viola.. one touch directions...

Home, Work, Liquor Store...

Enjoy

(I found those while digging around on Yahoo answers)

Nice! Never thought of that! I will mos def take advantage of this shortcut!

 

[ayejay0601]

Syncing with Outlook

The one feature I really miss from my Blackberry is the ability to synchronize with outlook completely. I want to be able to add a contact to my outlook and/or my phone and have them syncronize regularly. I have found a temporary workaround with varying degrees of success:

To Sync Calendar, download free, Google Calendar Sync. This sync outlook with your Google Calendar and this will also port into your phone. Setup your calendar to sync daily an hour before your phone is set to sync.

To Sync Contacts, the best method I have found is a free beta software called GO (google outlook) Sync. This works similarly to the above. It is a bit slow...I have about 3000 contacts and it takes over an hour. Also, I think there is a bug that prevents me from syncing too many contacts, but it works well for smaller sizes.

Also, is anyone else having odd problems with their contacts? For example, if Contact A has email 1, email 2, phone 1, sometimes phone 1 and email 2 disappear from the phone. When I check GMAIL, the contact only has email 2 (and phone 1 and email 1 disappear). Other contacts just sporadically disappear and I dont know why.

 

[lolthisismyname]

I have a Microsoft Exchange account with work and my Droid syncs everything. If you're on Exchange, contact your IT department and make sure everything is set up properly.

Also, I'm pretty sure you can export your contacts, etc. into a .csv file (or whatever format you prefer) and can then import it to Google to keep things synced from there if you aren't on MS Exchange.

P.S. I love this thread, I didn't know I could longpress search to activate voice search.

 

[Justspin]

touch the menu button and select compass mode - enjoy!!!

If the image doesn't seem to follow your movement, wave the Droid around in a figure 8 which seems to recalibrate the compass.

Super Cool! Didn't even think to try that until now.

 

[xliderider]

Wish you had a launcher to your favorite website?

Save your website to Favorites, then open Favorites in your browser. Longpress on the website icon and select Add Shortcut to Homescreen.