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Help Question Thread for Smartphone and Droid Incredible Newbies

Needz_Android said:
Ok, someone open up their Google Maps app...

Does it pinpoint your exact location or even put you in the blue circle that it generates?

I am not where my device says I am (it does say I am in the correct city but not the correct location)

is this happening to anyone else?
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-Go to a screen of choice and long press on screen >widget > power control

-This will allow you to toggle on/off Sync, GPS, Bluetooth, Wireless, and Auto Brightness.
-Half circle with lines at angle is GPS (looks like satellite)
 
Alright, I feel like a moron, but first Android so oh well. Is there any way to increase the volume of the text message notification sound? I use handcent but have the notification sound to the default HTC one.

Edit: Nevermind, had to uncheck something so that it wasn't the same volume control as the ringer.
 
kind of adding onto my previous question regarding wifi and 3g: just out of curiosity - my current phone, an LG Voyager does NOT have either of those? all it says in the upper left corner is EV and 1X. What's the differences between whatever that means and 3g/wifi? :)
 
alison03 said:
kind of adding onto my previous question regarding wifi and 3g: just out of curiosity - my current phone, an LG Voyager does NOT have either of those? all it says in the upper left corner is EV and 1X. What's the differences between whatever that means and 3g/wifi? :)
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EV/1X is the non-3G data network (older, slower). Your current phone doesn't have 3G support, so you never see a 3G indicator.

If you ever wander into an area where you do not get 3G coverage on your Incredible, you'll see than 3G turn to a 1X, which means your data will be coming way slower.

And Wifi is not using Verizon's mobile network at all. Wifi is using a local computer network just like your desktop/laptop PCs do.

edit: I should clarify that technically speaking, I don't know exactly. It's possible I'm using incorrect terminology here or that 1x/3G are the same thing but at different speeds or something like that. But the basic gist of it I believe is correct...if you see 1x you're going to be going slower than if it says 3G.
 
jfunk said:
EV/1X is the non-3G data network (older, slower). Your current phone doesn't have 3G support, so you never see a 3G indicator.

If you ever wander into an area where you do not get 3G coverage on your Incredible, you'll see than 3G turn to a 1X, which means your data will be coming way slower.

And Wifi is not using Verizon's mobile network at all. Wifi is using a local computer network just like your desktop/laptop PCs do.

edit: I should clarify that technically speaking, I don't know exactly. It's possible I'm using incorrect terminology here or that 1x/3G are the same thing but at different speeds or something like that. But the basic gist of it I believe is correct...if you see 1x you're going to be going slower than if it says 3G.
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Thanks a ton. I seriously am as new as you can get to all of this stuff. That really helps me understand things a lot. Excited to finally get a smartphone, anxious about everything I need to learn!! :D
 
In addition to this phone being my first Android phone, it's also my first smartphone. My battery life seems to be pretty good so far with my first full day with the phone (12 hrs in at 50%), but I want to make sure I get the most out of it.

My question is, am I better off using WiFi and shutting off 3G when I'm in a WiFi network (i.e. when I'm at home or on campus) or would I be better off just using 3G?

Speed doesn't seem to really be an issue, the 3G is just as snappy as the WiFi access points I'm around.

Thank you Android veterans! :)
 
sontaikle said:
In addition to this phone being my first Android phone, it's also my first smartphone. My battery life seems to be pretty good so far with my first full day with the phone (12 hrs in at 50%), but I want to make sure I get the most out of it.

My question is, am I better off using WiFi and shutting off 3G when I'm in a WiFi network (i.e. when I'm at home or on campus) or would I be better off just using 3G?

Speed doesn't seem to really be an issue, the 3G is just as snappy as the WiFi access points I'm around.

Thank you Android veterans! :)
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Wifi will use less battery than 3G. The "Mobile Network" is one of the biggest battery hogs, so yes you can improve your battery life by turning mobile network off when you don't need it.

That being said, there do appear to be some apps that don't auto-update properly over Wifi. Certain things seem to need a "manual refresh" for content to get updated which normally update automatically over 3G, so keep that in mind. I'm not certain which things off the top of my head, and I haven't noticed it myself, but it has been mentioned in a few threads here that people noticed certain things not auto-updating when they had mobile network turned off.

You can create a widget on your screen to turn mobile network on and off quickly by clicking:

+ ---> Widget ---> Settings ---> Mobile Network

I also recommend you use the Power Control App which has quick icons for turning on/off Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Auto-Sync, and a Brightness control in one toolbar:

+ ---> Widget ---> Power Control
 
I just thought of another question:

so I get my Incredible tomorrow (finally, yay!) and it's my first smartphone of any kind. I'm excited to download/buy/play with all these crazy apps I've been reading about for the last year.

My question: much like on a computer when you d/l programs then uninstall then update etc, does this affect the speed of the phone? Like on a computer you have to defragment sometimes when it runs slow because files are everywhere.

Is this something I have to watch out for? Would my downloading/deleting of apps affect my phone's performance? If so how do I make sure I keep it in top form?
 
alison03 said:
I just thought of another question:

so I get my Incredible tomorrow (finally, yay!) and it's my first smartphone of any kind. I'm excited to download/buy/play with all these crazy apps I've been reading about for the last year.

My question: much like on a computer when you d/l programs then uninstall then update etc, does this affect the speed of the phone? Like on a computer you have to defragment sometimes when it runs slow because files are everywhere.

Is this something I have to watch out for? Would my downloading/deleting of apps affect my phone's performance? If so how do I make sure I keep it in top form?
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You shouldn't need to worry about any kind of maintenance like that.

The only thing to keep watch for is what the quality and functions of the apps you install are.

If you install 20 apps that all want to constantly update data on the internet, you're going to have your battery dying pretty quickly. Also, some apps are just poorly made and may misbehave causing problems.

My first recommendation is you stick to apps that have been downloaded a lot (50K+) and have very good ratings (4 stars). This way you won't be an early adopter of some broken app that causes reboots and stuff all the time. Let other people find this stuff out for you to save you the trouble.

Second, go slow. Don't queue up 20 new apps and let 'er rip. Just install a few at a time and play with them for a while before adding more. That way if something suddenly starts acting weird, you won't have to troubleshoot 20 apps to find out which is causing your problem.
 
jfunk said:
You shouldn't need to worry about any kind of maintenance like that.

The only thing to keep watch for is what the quality and functions of the apps you install are.

If you install 20 apps that all want to constantly update data on the internet, you're going to have your battery dying pretty quickly. Also, some apps are just poorly made and may misbehave causing problems.

My first recommendation is you stick to apps that have been downloaded a lot (50K+) and have very good ratings (4 stars). This way you won't be an early adopter of some broken app that causes reboots and stuff all the time. Let other people find this stuff out for you to save you the trouble.

Second, go slow. Don't queue up 20 new apps and let 'er rip. Just install a few at a time and play with them for a while before adding more. That way if something suddenly starts acting weird, you won't have to troubleshoot 20 apps to find out which is causing your problem.
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Thank you! That is fantastic advice and information. MUCH appreciated!!
 
alison03 said:
I just thought of another question:

so I get my Incredible tomorrow (finally, yay!) and it's my first smartphone of any kind. I'm excited to download/buy/play with all these crazy apps I've been reading about for the last year.

My question: much like on a computer when you d/l programs then uninstall then update etc, does this affect the speed of the phone? Like on a computer you have to defragment sometimes when it runs slow because files are everywhere.

Is this something I have to watch out for? Would my downloading/deleting of apps affect my phone's performance? If so how do I make sure I keep it in top form?
Click to expand...

I haven't noticed it to be as much of a problem with this phone, because it is seriously fast, but it's not a bad idea to have a task manager on your phone that will let you turn off all processes that might be slowing down your phone. I use Advanced Task Killer which comes in a free and paid versions. I use the free and it has worked like a charm. It even comes with a tiny widget.
 
darkmart84 said:
I haven't noticed it to be as much of a problem with this phone, because it is seriously fast, but it's not a bad idea to have a task manager on your phone that will let you turn off all processes that might be slowing down your phone. I use Advanced Task Killer which comes in a free and paid versions. I use the free and it has worked like a charm. It even comes with a tiny widget.
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I cannot recommend enough that you NOT use ATK. Advanced Task Killer automatically kills processes running in the background and unless you know precisely what you are doing it WILL cause problems on your phone.

For example, unless you configure it not to, it will kill your clock task and cause alarms you have set to not go off.

If you ever have any problems with anything at all, ATK will be the very first likely culprit you will have to eliminate before you can possibly troubleshoot any further, because you'll have no way of knowing whether it is killing an important background application and causing the problem.

At the very least, please read this before making your decision:
FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android Geek For Me – Android CDMA Sprint Hero

If you do run it, known that many people on here, including me, won't bother trying to troubleshoot any issues you have until you remove it and reboot your phone.
 
jfunk said:
I cannot recommend enough that you NOT use ATK. Advanced Task Killer automatically kills processes running in the background and unless you know precisely what you are doing it WILL cause problems on your phone.

For example, unless you configure it not to, it will kill your clock task and cause alarms you have set to not go off.

If you ever have any problems with anything at all, ATK will be the very first likely culprit you will have to eliminate before you can possibly troubleshoot any further, because you'll have no way of knowing whether it is killing an important background application and causing the problem.

At the very least, please read this before making your decision:
FAQ: Why You Shouldn
Click to expand...
 
darkmart84 said:
Hmm..., you learn something new every day. Thanks for the info JFunk, I uninstalled. Besides, it wasn't like I have run in to many problems with this phone bogging down.
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If you want to be able to look into the "guts" of what's running for curiosity's sake, use something like OS Monitor. It will show you all the nuts & bolts system tasks running, show you how much CPU they are using, etc. and you can even force kill stuff manually from there if you insist on it. But, at least it won't be shutting stuff off automatically on you.

Just remember to actually exit it when you're done (from the menu), it uses quite a bit of CPU itself while it runs in the background monitoring stuff.

OS Monitor - Android app on AppBrain
 
just a general incredible question:

We will get ours this afternoon in the mail. Does the Incredible come partially charged? Enough for me to be in the car heading home and get it activated without ever having plugged it in? Or does it need to be charged before a first use? And does all the info I need about transferring my contacts come in the box or do I need to bring it to a Verizon store to do this? (I know I can transfer my pictures/videos with the microsd card but not sure about contacts).

Thanks!
 
are you currently a verizon customer, or coming from elsewhere?

they usually recommend charging it up 100% before you use it, but that is still open for debate..
 
you should be able to transfer your contacts, if you backed them up to Verizons back up service before hand..if not, upload them to google, then when you get your phone, and sync with gmail for the first time, it will grab your contacts there as well
 
It never lets me back it up using their service...always says something like go to "Get It Now" then "Extras" then "Get New Applications" where it should be but it always says no items were found and exits me from the page.

How do you upload to Google? I have a gmail account but with a Voyager, I have no idea how to make it work.
 
do you have a computer that you synced your phone with?
if you do, then you can upload your contacts from your computer to google contacts, then send them to your phone
 
shucks, I don't. No biggie, I'll just write them down and the manually input them tonight haha that's how old school technology I am. It doesn't even bug me :)
 
or, if you still have your old phone, take them both to Verizon, and I bet they have a way to get them off your old LG and onto the htc..
 
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