Noobie droid questions

[Sorttou]

This is copied from my "hello" thread in the general chat questions, I figured maybe asking them here will get some responses. I have had it since launch date, but as my first smart phone, I am pretty n00b in terms of how to manage the more technical things. Here are my qualms at this point:

1) Recently, my music player has started turning off whenever I turn the screen off/power save mode, whatever you call it. This has never happened until recently, why is my music going off when the screen goes black?

2) I have apps to read PDF's and do office documents, but I can't seem to click a link from a website like Blackboard or others and just straight up download them. Do I have to download them to my PC and transfer them to the card? And if so, which folder in the SD card should I go with?

3) I have a difficult time sifting through hundreds of apps to find a quality one (I have most of the "top free" apps and a few of the paid. Anyone have any recommendations for things like widgets? I use GDE home, which is nice, though crashes a bit. I have already figured out how to use the ring tone apps and all of that, though I wonder how well wall papers look if I download them or use pictures. Is that done through the PC as well?

4) My contacts page only displays something like 20 contacts, which are the ones I put in there directly. To find all of the contacts I synched from facebook, I actually have to try typing a text and type their name in for the phone to find the number. Why won't it show them to me in my contacts?

Thanks in advance guys! I do enjoy this phone a lot!

 

[takeshi]

3) I have a difficult time sifting through hundreds of apps to find a quality one (I have most of the "top free" apps and a few of the paid. Anyone have any recommendations for things like widgets? I use GDE home, which is nice, though crashes a bit. I have already figured out how to use the ring tone apps and all of that, though I wonder how well wall papers look if I download them or use pictures. Is that done through the PC as well?

Yup. As a result I don't browse the Market. I suggest using forums and sites such as Androlib instead.

 

[prometheus]

4) My contacts page only displays something like 20 contacts, which are the ones I put in there directly. To find all of the contacts I synched from facebook, I actually have to try typing a text and type their name in for the phone to find the number. Why won't it show them to me in my contacts?

open "contacts" icon / menu / display / and make sure the place where your contacts are is checked --

hint: you can multiple contact lists displayed at once. If your main contact list is in your yourname.gmail.com account, then ONLY select that to avoid a million contacts showing up (at on point I had like 1500 contacts, what a pain)

 

[prometheus]

1) Recently, my music player has started turning off whenever I turn the screen off/power save mode, whatever you call it. This has never happened until recently, why is my music going off when the screen goes black?

did you recently install a task killer? You might need to put "music" in your ignore list.

By the way, if you are using a task killer, you may want to do a forum search here to research the need for it or the possible harm it may do - just my $0.02

 

[CynicalDreams81]

I agree with Prometheus. I had a task killer on my phone since the first day I got it. There was a thread discussing how they do more harm than good. I deleted it and I see such an improvement on my phone now. It seems to run a little snappier/smoother. The only time I have to restart it is when the myspace app force closes not allowing me to log back in. I think Prometheus hit the nail on the head with your music problem resulting from a task killer if you have one installed.

 

[MBSMD]

I've got another newbie Droid question -

Vibrate on keyboard keypress... significant impact on battery life or not so much? I'm a heavy text/email user.

 

[prometheus]

I don't know what the impact on battery life is. But, I would imagine it's a very negligible amount.

Do an experiment. Run it all day with haptic feedback (the fancy word for vibration on keyboard) ON. Then check your battery usage: from home screen / menu / settings / about phone / battery use. Note what's using the mahjority of battery - the top 3 or 4 apps. Then turn it off the following day and check the usage. Assuming keyboard use is similar both days and you don't see much difference in real-world battery consumption, you can use haptic feedback guilt free.

Please post your findings here so we can all grow our knowledge base.

PS: By the way, you really like the haptic feedback? It annoys me. Oh well, that's why they make chocolate AND vanilla I suppose.