Newbie questions...sorry

[mjp9775]

Sorry if this has been covered somewhere before. I seem to be in need of hundreds of stickies, videos, tutorials, etc. I am completely lost when it comes to this phone.

The battery life is definitely making me wonder about buying the extended battery...I just hate the bulk and lack of cases. Is there anything I can do to prevent so much battery drain? I don't live in a 4g area (don't know if that matters)

Is there a way to create folders for shortcuts so I can group them together? I came from a blackberry so I'm used to being extremely organized lol. I kept all of my games in a game folder, etc.

Is there a way to not have any shortcuts on the home page at all?

I was grandfathered into the unlimited data plan but my son wasn't. He has 2 gigs a month available to him. How can he make sure that he isn't in danger of going over? I need extreme "how-to" guides on keeping his data usage down.

I know everyone is different but are there any must have apps that we should be getting? I do miss the notepad and voice note option from my blackberry. I was forever keeping Christmas lists, and other "notes to self" in there.

There seems to be a lot of bloatware running all of the time. Is that eating into our data usage too?
I would love to root and remove the bloatware from the phones but I honestly have no clue what I am doing and I can't seem to find an easy step by step guide.

I need some recommendations for a good keyboard. I'm finally used to typing on the stock one but i don't really care for it. I also wish I could access a smiley screen like I used to with the blackberry.

Is there a faster way to get the video camera on? I'm around small children and I like to be able to quickly pull up the video camera to catch their cute moments.

I downloaded a clock widget from the market and never could figure out how to get it to work. I followed the directions (I think) and did a long press until the widgets option popped up, but the clock wasn't in there. I tried 3 or 4 times to no avail.

I'm sure I have hundreds more questions but I'll stop with these for now. Thanks in advance for dealing with a newbie

 

[Sax1031]

First off, if not in 4g area, then go to Settings -> Wireless and Networks -> Mobile Networks (where it says options for networks, roaming and not where it has the box to check). Change the setting to CDMA only. This will turn off the 4g LTE radio which is a battery hog. It will only keep the 3g radio on.

And to extend battery life the most you can do the little things. Turn display brightness down to the lowest setting you can use(the display is probably the largest single battery drain), keep wifi off(unless you are in an area with wifi, then turn mobile network off), change settings for syncing data. Don't allow apps to push. And don't set them to check that often. It is the little things that can help.

And what do you mean by homepage? You can long press on an app/shortcut and then drag them down to remove when the option comes up. The ones on the very bottom like app, phone, personalize you can't remove unless you load a different launcher.

Yes you can create folders. Although I am new to Android and not have messed with folders at all. I will let someone who knows more answer that question.

For your son and data I would say the best thing is just be give it a few days and keep track of data with the Verizon widget on the phone or on the website to get a base line of what data usage is like. Try to do as much stuff as possible over wifi if at all possible. I would definitely tell him to not watch stuff like Netflix over the mobile network. I also know you can have alerts setup through Verizon that will let you know when you have used a certain percentage of your allotted data. But I have not set them up personally.

On keyboards I am not sure. Maybe some more experienced users can help you out in that regard.

Where did you download the clock widget? Did you just get a widget from the market place and download it or did you download something like Beautiful Widgets?


And to let you know I am a newb to Android also. Just thought I would try and help as much as possible.



I would suggest something like Evernote for notes themselves.

 

[GaGator]

Well, the Nexus is my first smart phone but this may help...

You can create a folder simply by dragging one app icon over another app and releasing it.
You will then be able to label the folder (eg, BBC & NYTimes might be named "News").

Per SAX's suggestion, Evernote is excellent and is one of the most popular apps on the Android Market. It is free and can be sync'ed to your PC, notebook or tablet.

I've managed to increase my battery life 40% with two easy steps:
Go to Settings/Device/Display/Brightness and reduce it two levels, and,
Settings/Wireless&Networks to "Airplane Mode" (unless I'm expecting an
important call). Just check for msgs every hour or so.

"Remove apps from homepage"... you have 5 home pages. Just swipe laterally to
see them. Move app icons by holding and dragging to another page.

I encourage you to visit Verizon's site and establish a MyVerizon page to keep on top of
your data usage, account balances, etc. They also have excellent tutorials for both your
phone and for ICS, as does Android Central. Enjoy.

 

[mjp9775]

Thanks Yes I was referring to the icons I cant change unless I use a different launcher.

The clock widget was a random one I found in the market.

Thanks for helping, I will look into Evernote.

 

[kim..]

Check out swiftkey for the keyboard... I LOVE it and was also disappointed with the stock keyboard.
You can create folders by just holding down an icon and dragging it overtop of another icon. Then you can drag whatever you want to it.

I use Go Launcher EX and it hides all the bloatware if you want it to and makes the phone much simpler to navigate IMO. I couldnt figure out how to use Go Launcher but then I watched the tutorial video they have in the market. Search for it on google and the android market will pop up and you'll see the video.

 

[ghess517]

If you constantly need the video cam, set it on the lock a screen. Personalize, display, change lockscreen shortcuts...

 

[mjp9775]

Thanks! I couldn't find a direct shortcut to the video camera so I downloaded a widget from the market. New question though.... My old blackberry charger sort of fits into the Rezound's charger slot, but it doesn't charge it. I hate how short the Rezound's charging cable is. When I did a search for Rezound charging cables...it kept pulling up cables that look just like the blackberry charger. What kind of port is on the Rezound? How do I search for an extended cable?

 

[kim..]

If you want quick access to your camera, set it as one of the 4 icons on your lock screen. I have kids and need fast access and it opens the camera in just a second or two! My favorite feature of Sense for sure.

The charging cable is standard to many devices... the ones from our old Droids work etc, but I can't remember what kind of charger the blackberry used. Do you have another one you can try out?

 

[mjp9775]

I'll have to look around the house to see, but I think all we have are blackberry chargers.

 

[twolastnames]

I use my BB curves charger all the time. The Rezound will take any micro usb cord, I'm not sure why your BB charger won't work. All you need is a longer micro usb cable, and plug that into your HTC charger.

+1 for SwiftkeyX. If you Download the Amazon Market, there is one in there called Better Keyboard, I like that as well.

I'm a huge fan of Go launcher. It's very customizable.

Your Clock app. Did it actually say it was a clock widget, or just a clock app? There is a difference. Good clocks widgets- SimiClock. stock HTC clock, and Beautiful Widgets.

Unlocking and Rooting. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I feel like doing this should be a pain in the ass, and the first time should take you a long time to figure out. Just to get you pointed in a direction- XDA is your friend, and this site has plenty of info on rooting and unlocking. Keywords: Unlocking Bootloader, Rooting, ADB, Custom Recovery, Flashing... probably some more I'm forgetting, but this will aim you in the right direction. The more you learn before you start, the better off you will be in the long run. Also, if your not comfortable doing this kind of thing, don't worry about it and just enjoy your phone. There is plenty there without f-ing around with hard parts.

Saying that, some of the Roms help the battery more than anything you can do, minus getting the extended battery. Verizon has a 14 day return policy on this stuff, so try it if you want, I have one and like the thickness it adds.

You would be surprised how far 2 gigs can go, just don't let your son stream anything over data. If I just surf the internet, I barely crack 1 gig a month, and this is with an average of 1-2 hours a day of being on the internet. And yes, MyVerizon is your friend. (or be a ninja, there is a loophole to getting unlimited data, that still is working, there is thread here telling you what to do. *I'm to lazy to look for it, sorry)

 

[skatergirl]

Thanks for those who posted the folder tip.

I was a former frustrated Droid X user and I could not figure out how to group my apps. Like MJP9775, I am very organized and I missed being able to group my apps.

I am not going to do all my groups today because Verizon is sending me a new phone due to the inability to change call volume unless I am on bluetooth. Next week I will be creating all my app groups.

Also, thanks for everyone else for all the great pointers in this post. I am going to continue to follow it to see what other tricks I can learn!!

 

[mjp9775]

I got another BB charger and it showed that it was charging the Rezound but an hour and a half later, it hadn't actually charged the phone.

I have already reached a gig of data usage on my phone and it hasn't been a whole week yet. There is always something running or accessing the web. I don't have my wifi on because the signal in my room sucks. I have unlimited data though. I just want to know how to get some of the 21 constant running apps to turn off and STAY off.