Newbie Here...iPhone transplant

[gtek81]

Whats up everyone! I have had the iPhone since it came out and I decided to try the Skyrocket. Im really glad I did bc I really like this phone and I dont really miss my iPhone. Is there anything I should know about the android OS? Im a noob and Im still learning about the phone. I have a few questions like how to I put music on my phone? How do I back it up? Can I put my apps on the home pages? Are there any apps that I need for the phone? Thanks!

 

[pinebob]

Welcome fellow newbie! I got my Skyrocket in January. It's my first smartphone. So far, I find the simple tasks such as composing a text or placing a phone call to be the more frustrating b/c they were so easy to do on my previous Samsung "dumb" phone. Hopefully, it's just a matter of learning a new phone.

But I also have a couple of questions for the more experienced users out there.

#1: How do you forward a text message? If a message "fails" to send, I'd like to be able to just resend it rather than retype the whole thing, but I can't see where I have that option. Is there a way to do that?

#2: My Skyrocket tends to get uncomfortably hot on my ear when I'm using it as a phone. It also gets really hot when I have it in my pocket. I was thinking of reporting this to AT&T, but I haven't had the phone that long so wanted to see if this was typical.

 

[Cory Streater]

Welcome!

My favorite app for music syncing is iSyncr.

For file transfer in general I LOVE Wi-Fi Explorer.

You can't backup the ENTIRE phone unless you have rooted your phone.

In the meantime:

Gmail will automatically backup your contacts, calendar, email, and anything else you've checked in the accounts and settings screen for your Gmail account.

Any apps you've purchased will always be available to you in the Market. The key is that you always sign in to the same account.

As for app settings, these are not natively backed up unless the individual app has a settings backup feature built in. Most settings intensive apps do have such a feature.

There are free apps in the Market that backup call logs, SMS, and MMS messages.

If you're rooted then you can use programs like MyBackup Pro to backup all the stuff I said above plus settings. Some people swear by these programs. I personally have spent more time debugging issues I've had after restoring a backup than if I'd just started with a clean slate.

In laymen terms rooting is a process that results in you having access to areas of the file system that are normally locked from user access. It just so happens that this area includes all apps (including those that you install to internal memory) and their corresponding app data/settings. Backup programs need this level of access before they can access this data.

Check out the General Help & How-To section as well. Milominderbinder, one of the AC Advisers, has spent the last year writing up Guides that would be a dream to anyone new to Android.

P.S. don't use task killers! A puppy dies every time you do.

 

[randall2580]

I use Google Music as a great way to get music to and from the phone through the Cloud. It is a great way to back your music up as well as they give you space for 20,000 songs on their servers. You get the option to load song/songs to your phone or stream them from the cloud. Download the Google Music app to your phone and go to music.google.com on your computer. One caveat coming from Iphone, they won't let you load songs with DRM associated with them.

The great thing about Android is - if you liked an app on iOS there is probably an Android counterpart as well.

 

[Tronyx]

P.S. don't use task killers! A puppy dies every time you do.

Recent iPhone 4 to SkyRocket convert and I have a quick question; Why are they bad? I like being able to kill an app that remains open after exiting. Granted, I'm pushing the Home button when I'm done with it, but does that not actually close the app? Should I be pressing Menu and then exiting the app? Not every app has an exit option though so they are continuing to run in the background, consuming resources. Also, what about all the apps that start up that are obviously not needed because a task killer can close them when 'freeing up RAM'? I have used Titanium Backup to free a decent amount of unnecessary apps, but I still see that the build-in task manager can close upwards of 16+ when I use the clean up memory feature. I am using the built-in task manager to do all of this by the way.

Chris

 

[dahkillah]

Recent iPhone 4 to SkyRocket convert and I have a quick question; Why are they bad? I like being able to kill an app that remains open after exiting. Granted, I'm pushing the Home button when I'm done with it, but does that not actually close the app? Should I be pressing Menu and then exiting the app? Not every app has an exit option though so they are continuing to run in the background, consuming resources. Also, what about all the apps that start up that are obviously not needed because a task killer can close them when 'freeing up RAM'? I have used Titanium Backup to free a decent amount of unnecessary apps, but I still see that the build-in task manager can close upwards of 16+ when I use the clean up memory feature. I am using the built-in task manager to do all of this by the way.

Chris

Use the 'back' button instead of home. This will exit the app. There will still be apps running in the background. These are somewhat connected to your widgets running, etc. Android have excellent task managing. I don't force close an app; if it continues to run 24/7 then it is an app issue just like the latest update of words with friends X(

 

[ToxicLizard]

To answer your questions...

1. if you long press on the message, it will come up with a menu of options, including re-send and forward.
2. I have a skyrocket with Rogers (canadian carrier) and it does get pretty warm on my ear if I talk for longer than 10mins. It seems, at least with mine, to be related to calling only, since when I use anything else on my phone it doesn't get nearly this hot. Hasn't had any adverse affects, so I basically just ignore it.