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Help New Optimus V

M

Maspa

Lurker
I just got my brand new Optimus V and I'm already getting insanely frustrated. The keyboard is tight and awkward, Swype won't stop interrupting me and making suggestions when I'm not typing at less than one letter per 5 seconds, I can't send or receive picture texts, and it's generally annoying me in just about every possible way a phone could. Could somebody please tell me how to receive/send picture messages and for the love of GOD, PLEASE tell me how to turn off that ridiculous Swype keyboard function.

Edit: Also, the phone came with an SD card that doesn't fit. Virgin Mobile hates me.
 
Maspa said:
I just got my brand new Optimus V and I'm already getting insanely frustrated. The keyboard is tight and awkward, Swype won't stop interrupting me and making suggestions when I'm not typing at less than one letter per 5 seconds, I can't send or receive picture texts, and it's generally annoying me in just about every possible way a phone could. Could somebody please tell me how to receive/send picture messages and for the love of GOD, PLEASE tell me how to turn off that ridiculous Swype keyboard function.

Edit: Also, the phone came with an SD card that doesn't fit. Virgin Mobile hates me.
Click to expand...

I use the standard keyboard: settings, language and keyboard, select input method, switch from swype to android keyboard.
Next time, before you get into a tizzy, write on the board and do something else for a while :) People are really helpful here.
Sending picture messages...take picture, select share, choose method of choice.
 
Well about the keyboard, when you're about to send a text, click on the text box and keep it pressed until a little menu pops up. That little menu should have an 'Imput Method' option. Click on that then it should give you the option to use the Swype keyboard or the Android keyboard. You can also change this by going to Settings>Language & Keyboard>Imput Method. The Android keyboard is less annoying, but still cramped up. If you don't like it, you can download the Gingerbread keyboard off the market for free, it's more spaced out. If you're used to the iPod/iPhone keyboard you can download it but it's not free. The keyboard takes time to get used to (took 2 days for me). But if you still don't like it, there's tons of other keyboards on the market.

Now, if your phone came with the wrong SD card you should go back to the place you got the phone from and adress the issue. They should give you a free one since it comes free with the phone.

To send a picture you can also do this: compose a message to the person you wanna send a picture to. Now instead of typing something click the physical menu button on the phone (last one on your left) then click Attach then it'll give you options of things you can send. In your case tap on Pictures then simply choose the picture you wanna send.
 
Maspa said:
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Edit: Also, the phone came with an SD card that doesn't fit. Virgin Mobile hates me.
Click to expand...

Well, just on the off-chance you didn't know-- it's a micro-sd card. Did you take it out of the adapter?


And don't take it all personally. I'm pretty sure VM doesn't hate us, although they could, of course, do many things that would improve the relationship.:)
 
If you can't figure out on your own how to turn swype off, then you shouldn't be using a smartphone!!!! Period.

I doubt you got the wrong SD card, my SD card was already installed in the phone and yours must be too, since you cant take pictures without a card installed. Your probably looking at the adapter that comes with it that allows you to put the card in your computer.
 
It's not an SD card, it's an SD adapter for the uSD card that should already be installed in your phone(2GB). I guess that they gave us that since many built-in readers and some others don't have a uSD(or mini SD either) slot so you'd need an adapter to directly read it on the PC.

All that said I'm up to about 5 or 6 USB reader sticks for uSD...
 
I'm not a big fan of the keyboard myself, and I'm often wishing I had a slider with real buttons. other than that I love the Optimus.

to send a photo, I usually start with a text message. then push the bottom left button and touch "attach file". you'll find the navigation to your stored photos pretty easy.

NOTE, you must have a working data connection to send MMS messages. If it's still not working, go into settings, turn off the data connection and turn it back on. good luck.
 
I hated Swype when I got this phone, coming from a Droid Incredible.

I love it now. It took about a week.

I feel you on VM frustration. I bought my daughter a new phone at virginmobile.com, one with a QWERTY physical keyboard, not a Droid. It arrived today and she was so excited. She got it out, starting playing with it....some of the keys don't work. "M" and "Enter", for two. So I had to call VM. Dealing with a return of a defective phone took a good 25 minutes. They're sending a replacement but now I have a 13 year old girl who has to wait another 5 days for her phone. I ordered from VM and not ebay just to avoid this kind of situation. Oh well.
 
First of all . . . slow down! If your experience is vastly different than most peoples, it's probably user error. You purchased a low-end phone for an inexpensive service. Most people here knew that going in.

However, myself, I've been surprised by the phone. I had low expectations, my son likes it more than my sister's Droid. The small memory is it's biggest fault (and maybe no flash or Flash).

I know a lot of people get used to Swype and like it. I got Swift Key off of Amazon and have been very pleased, much better than stock.
 
Do you know how to use the phone? You should take some time and play with it first. Learn the basics on how to use it. The phone comes with a sd card built in. You were probably was trying to use the sd adapter. Maybe you should have done your research before you bought the phone.
 
n00dz said:
Well about the keyboard, when you're about to send a text, click on the text box and keep it pressed until a little menu pops up. That little menu should have an 'Imput Method' option. Click on that then it should give you the option to use the Swype keyboard or the Android keyboard. You can also change this by going to Settings>Language & Keyboard>Imput Method. The Android keyboard is less annoying, but still cramped up. If you don't like it, you can download the Gingerbread keyboard off the market for free, it's more spaced out. If you're used to the iPod/iPhone keyboard you can download it but it's not free. The keyboard takes time to get used to (took 2 days for me). But if you still don't like it, there's tons of other keyboards on the market.

Now, if your phone came with the wrong SD card you should go back to the place you got the phone from and adress the issue. They should give you a free one since it comes free with the phone.

To send a picture you can also do this: compose a message to the person you wanna send a picture to. Now instead of typing something click the physical menu button on the phone (last one on your left) then click Attach then it'll give you options of things you can send. In your case tap on Pictures then simply choose the picture you wanna send.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for being helpful! I like the Android keyboard much better than the incredibly awkward and tight Swype one. It's a lot less annoying; now I can actually type without constantly getting my words deleted by Swype and corrections popping up instead of the word I wanted. I'm a newb to Androids, and I kind of expected people to crowd around and just bully me for not knowing all about it instead of helping :o I'm glad not everyone was like that. However, I did use the attach file thing to attach my picture to the text I wanted to send, but it just said "file outdated or unfound" or something similar to that, and it said the same when I tried to download a recieved picture; I just tried it, though, and it's working. I don't know what the problem was, but it's fixed now :) hopefully I won't have that issue again. Thanks again for the help with the keyboard!
 
The file expired type of error is just the 3g dropping and it won't send without 3g to fix this turn airplane mode on then off by holding the power key a small pop up menu will show saying what to push.
 
I hated the cramped stock keyboard too. I finally downloaded the free Gingerbread keyboard from the Market and it's way better for me. More like an IPhone type keyboard. The free one is enough for me, but the paid version offers the additional ability to adjust the space between the keys and their height I believe. (It may have more features besides those two, but I can't remember). There's no Swype with the Gingerbread keyboard, but after a while, I found the Swype kind of annoying, so I don't miss it at all. Anyway, that's my two cents.
 
Hi All...Glad to be an Optimus V user! My phone was activate just an hour or so ago...Phone works fine....Text msgs work fine, but no network connection...Email, Web,...any suggestions? BTW, In a Chicago high rise, but if the phone & text functions are working, I'm thinking it must be a settings problem. Thanks! ERKChicago, Optimus newbie!
 
ERK, it takes a few hours for the data to kick in. Just be patient and it should be fine in a few hours.
 
JerryScript said:
Swype just released a new Beta 3.0 that deals with some of the issues mentioned here.
Click to expand...
How do you install it on a non-rooted V?

Unless there is an unpublished method for updating Swype/installing Swype Beta on a V, this message is useless in this forum.
 
i am confused as well. ive just spent 30 minutes trying to "uninstall" the original swype and get the new one to work... unsuccessfully...
 
Yet another reason to root your phone ;)

Rooting doesn't risk bricking, only installing custom recoveries and ROMs cause bricking.

You can do a temp shell root with SuperOneClick.exe, uninstall the preloaded Swype, install the Swype Beta, then reboot and you are unrooted and ready to go.
 
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