New EVO Owner..Need some advise

[ilhan80]

Sup guys, i just recently joined the android family and i feel a bit lost on this phone. I came over from the Palm Pre which had a great OS, but the lack of updates and Apps was too much to bear...

So basically, what are the must have apps for the Evo? Whats the best way to set up the phone as far as battery consumption goes? Also, can the Evo have more then one program open and running at the same time?

Last thing, can i customize the messaging app so that when i text people, there is a different color text for out going and in coming texts...

Any additional info would be greatly appreciated....Thank You all in advance

 

[verwon]

It multitasks, but differently, you won't see them all open in a card view, but a long press on the home button brings up your recently used apps, so if you left one to do something else, you can go back to what you were doing.

I also came from a Pre.

I recommend Handcent SMS, then you can easily customize a ton of stuff, including different colored chat balloons for in and outgoing.

Beamed down to the earthlings from my eVo

 

[verwon]

Oh welcome to Android and feel free to ask questions about anything.

I'll always be happy to help. It's a weird switch, at first.

Beamed down to the earthlings from my eVo

 

[tyrelian]

Welcome, some great apps I enjoy are where's my car, fring video calling, fmls,I also use handcent messaging, it's completely customisable as far as the battery goes i suggest buying a 3500 mah from seidio. Again welcome to a great community of android fans.

 

[ovdevil]

Try Juicedefender to setup your phone for battery savings

 

[dan330]

root and use custom rom with custom kernel to get great battery performance.

 

[giograves]

root and use custom rom with custom kernel to get great battery performance.

I seen this posted alot to improve battery life, but how does installing a custom rom/kernel automatically improve batt life?

Or is a specific rom/kernel to look for?

 

[DSPKweb]

Welcome and you will definitely find that the Evo really is far more polished than the Pre was. It will take you a few days but you will definitely enjoy it as your new phone.

Would check out SwiftKey if you are looking for a good keyboard which does a great job of predicting words, there is a 30 day trial to test out. Handcent is a definite must, a lot easier to see the texts and customizable. For virus scan, download Lookout. Soundhound is a great app for capturing songs that you hear on the radio or out.

As for the battery, before you go and purchase an extended battery I would check out the different battery threads and pull the tips from them like wifi, turning off GPS, auto-updates, etc. that could be draining your battery and then when you get used to your usage and how close you are to a charger most days, then decide of you need an extended battery.

As for a case if you are using a standard battery, probably best one is the Otterbox Commuter Case, can get it for around $25.

 

[mhuggins]

I seen this posted alot to improve battery life, but how does installing a custom rom/kernel automatically improve batt life?

Or is a specific rom/kernel to look for?

basically its all in the scripts of the rom. i dont know the tech details but i have seen people post about "the developer has underclocking scripts built in to help with battery life" i am rooted and running Ava Z3 with a custom kernel by Calkulin and it has some thing done to this kernel and i get great battery life.. BUT i have learned from people in this forum that NOT ALL EVOS ARE THE SAME so what works for me might not for you. Look around some of these forums and ask some question and they will be answered . I hope this helped you.... But i know coming from a PRE myself i wanted to root and unlock all of the little tweaks so enjoy and when your ready to come to the darkside and root look for a guide by thefredelement it has a step by step with pics and it helped me ...... WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ANDROID

 

[bennyandthesets#AC]

As for getting the card view when multitasking I use itching thumbs. For messaging like everyone says handsent is great.

 

[steelewise]

I really like droidtv, hulu(has to be a modded version to work) and slacker radio.
There is an app coming out very soon to open full hdmi mirroring id say thats about as must have as it gets, possibilities there r just endless.

 

[cabrone]

As for getting the card view when multitasking I use itching thumbs. For messaging like everyone says handsent is great.

i too suggest handcent, however, when I set handcent as the default, and then uninstalled it later for unrelated issues, when I went back to the default message app the Maximum message size (which normally is set @ 2M was only able to go to 1M) was acting up. Nothing I did would get it back to normal. Just food for thought.