Sorting it all out

[Blackforge]

You should dismount the card in Settings > Sd card and phone storage to remove it. Do you have the phone prompt you to connect for when you insert the USB cable or are just defaulting to mass storage? What operating system are you running? Have youe tried on another computer?

For some battery life improvements, disable Bluetooth when you're not using it. Also if you're able to use WiFi make sure the phone DOESN'T sleep the WiFi when the screen sleeps (under wifi > menu button > advanced). This way if you're using Pandora or something else that uses background data, it won't use the 3G radio. Over the past few days I had seen my battery drop almost 10% while streaming Pandora in the mornings getting ready for work (usually about an hour). Today? Still at 100% when I left.

 

[lordmaxx]

Hi, Im new here and new to the Android phone (captivate).

I am coming from the iPhone camp and got the Captivate to replace my old iPhone 3g. So i am used to, and spoiled by the mindless simplicity of using it.

I have spent all most all day, every day since monday, when I got this thing trying to get it to work how I want it to work.

The phone came with a HORRIBLE "user guide" that was 5 pages long and show you really only how to put the battery in, and make a simple call. The 140pg PDF one i found on line was still of little help, and samsung support is just rediculous.

As for user guides I guess I'm too much a techy type to need to use them. But what exactly were you hoping to glean from this other than getting 'stuff' onto your phone? If thats all your worried about I'll continue.

It seems pretty crappy to me to expect the user to have to do so much second hand research to use their product.

1. Kies is garbage, I havent been able to get it to work. When it finally did detect the phone, it said it need a new driver and it has been at "installing driver 0%" for 3 days,

I agree kies is garbage, considering it is used for the i9000 and not this phone. Once again if its just about transferring stuff to your phone then there are two approaches, one is to set the phone to transfer like an attached drive and just copy stuff over using explorer. The other is to use the device like a MTP device and you can then use any myriad of transfer programs to copy music and media such as windows media player or media monkey etc. If you have not gotten the USB drivers stickied at the top of this forum, you need to do so now.

I tried double twist, which is really quirky, but finally got music on my phone, but had to create playlists via the phone as it ignored the ones I made in doubletwist... During the syncing, the phone would randomly connect/disconnect over and over and over, finally it went thru.. Is there any better way to get music on the phone.

Once again make sure you have the USB drivers from above and then ANY MTP transfer program such as windows media player can sync music to the phone. Perhaps even Itunes unless that program only allows you to sync to ipods. Ive never used it for fear of losing my soul.

The GPS is worthless. I tried the reconfiguring thing I found on this forum, and still doesnt work.

Sorry I cant work with you here. I've had no issues whatsoever with the gps, got lock on pretty quick when I first started google nav. And it even locks inside my house which my old Fuze couldnt do.

Even using app killer to keep apps closed the phone is running SLOW, slower than my old 3g, this thing is supposed to be screaming fast... I must be doing something wrong.

All the apps that you're 'killing' are actually in a suspended state you know...so you're not exactly freeing up ram there. What exactly are you showing lag in? If it's the homescreen I would replace it with launcherpro its almost exactly the same, but much snappier. The memory management has come a long way and when we get our 2.2 update and are able to fully utilize the 512megs of ram on this beast and have the new core OS I think you'll be surprised at just how powerful this phone is. As for now blame lagginess feeling to the touchwiz launcher which is easily replaced.

The reception is poor, but no dropped calls yet.

I've noticed my bars dropping, but no staticy calls or dropped calls yet, so perhaps the reception is not poor? just 'seems' so?

Is there a way to make this thing voice dial? that is a huge let down.

I'm getting the Blueant Q1 bluetooth...has a great android app for complete control of your phone, but if you dont want to go that route there is always:
Vlingo for Android gives users full voice control over their Android phone [GIVEAWAY]

 

[radi0chik]

Perhaps even Itunes unless that program only allows you to sync to ipods. Ive never used it for fear of losing my soul.

Sorry, couldn't help laughing at this. Point well said

 

[Infinite-t]

Thanks Lordmaxx,

You did answer a bunch of questions in a way. I did finanlly figure out what was wrong with conncecting my phone to my PC, the drivers were bad, and I downloaded new ones and reinstalled so that is working now.. which was my biggest problem. I couldnt do most of the things anyone was sayign cause I couldnt connect my phone to my PC. Now that is done, I have music on my phone and it can connect reliablly with my PC.

The GPS, i fiddled around with the setting and think I finally got that dialed in.

I will experiment with launch pro and see what that does for the homesceen lag.

I got this instead of the iPhone because I wanted more freedom, i wanted to be able to screw around and tinker with stuff. I had that corrupted driver problem which was really screwing me up. so now that is solved and hopefully the GPS is too.

Now I can finally explore what this thing can do.. i hope!

 

[Chew]

I will experiment with launch pro and see what that does for the homesceen lag.

I switched to LaunchPro (and then paid for Plus) today. Be sure to use the settings as given by Baldilocks:

Menu Key>Preferences>Advanced Settings

Homescreens>Minimum Scrolling Speed
Set above 70

App Drawer>Opening Speed
Set to 10 (Instant)

Screen Previews>Opening Speed
Set to 10 (Instant)

Makes things pretty much instant...

This all lead to a pretty huge improvement for me over the stock home screen.

 

[Jack45]

FWIW, I found the learning curve "interesting" after coming from a Symbian world, but wouldn't give up. Now I've customized it to my liking (for today, as minor tweaks are ongoing) and am content and looking forward to Froyo and other enhancements.

Possibly a bit off topic, but I wouldn't even consider an iPhone, and not for the antenna issue, etc. It's because I can't stand how Mr. Jobs views - and treats - the world through his reality distortion field.

 

[lordmaxx]

Excellent Infinite-t You know its kind of funny how I feel like that 1984's apple ad now applies to their own product...

YouTube - 1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

I think You'll like launcherpro 2 and definitely apply those application settings they made what was already snappy snappier.

 

[KappaG9]

Glad you got your stuff working Infinite-t. Mobile banking is slow as crap i deleted that app along with the rest of the att apps. I only have a bank of america account so i use their app altough it is still not as fast as i'd like it to be.

Set the launcher pro settings the way you like them. I set the screen preview around 6 or 7 because i like the animation and don't like it going directly to the screen although i do set the app drawer speed to 10. Its all to your taste. And under memory usage i have it set to HIGH so its pretty fast

 

[Jack45]

Excellent Infinite-t You know its kind of funny how I feel like that 1984's apple ad now applies to their own product...

How funny. I've been telling people this for a while. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed the irony. Well, actually, probably lots of folks have. Sorta like the days of the hippies. They were against conformity, yet they were conformists as a result of their non-conformity.

 

[sahaj]

Yea dude, its not an issue with the cable being loose, both ends are fully and firmly connected.

like the other person said, make sure you aren't connecting thru a USB hub. i had the same issue as you, but as soon as i plugged the phone using the USB connector on the desktop rather than the monitor, things started to work. it was pissing me off too.

the only thing that's left to do now is remove the AT&T logo at the top of the phone and removing the bootup AT&T logo.

i'm also seeing the short battery life, but am hoping that it just needs to get used to the charge cycles like others have said. i think the problem may just be a bad battery and in that case i'm going to call samsung and see if they'll send me a new battery. i don't want to replace the phone after i've put so much love into it. i am coming from iPhone2G.

 

[sahaj]

I switched to LaunchPro (and then paid for Plus) today. Be sure to use the settings as given by Baldilocks:



This all lead to a pretty huge improvement for me over the stock home screen.

are you seeing any battery life improvements?

 

[CoMaToast]

im in the same boat OP.. 3GS to this , and Im a little lost and not to impressed.. It is really a different program.

SO far I have not said , Oh I wish my iphone had this, but seem to be saying to myself ( about the samsung ) I wish it had this etcetc

my question, is IF I return this to ATT, will I be able to still get the contract pricing for a new Iphone 4 , since I just renewed my contract to get the samsung ?

 

[lordmaxx]

im in the same boat OP.. 3GS to this , and Im a little lost and not to impressed.. It is really a different program.

SO far I have not said , Oh I wish my iphone had this, but seem to be saying to myself ( about the samsung ) I wish it had this etcetc

my question, is IF I return this to ATT, will I be able to still get the contract pricing for a new Iphone 4 , since I just renewed my contract to get the samsung ?

I would assume so, but what, may I ask are you wishing this had that Iphone has?

 

[CoMaToast]

I would assume so, but what, may I ask are you wishing this had that Iphone has?

Its not so much the features, just the phone as a whole.. the entire OS, format and interface TO ME , are much better on the Iphone, AS are the Apps ( being that the android apps seem to be a watered down version with less features ) , the Visual VM, the Voice calling, the Customer support..


I just havent got past the trial stages yet. Maybe after I set everything up and have it for a few more weeks things will change.. But Like said above, Ive been spoiled by the ease and interface of the IP

 

[MrTony]

my question, is IF I return this to ATT, will I be able to still get the contract pricing for a new Iphone 4 , since I just renewed my contract to get the samsung ?

Yes, you have 30 days to return the device without effect to your contract.

 

[Infinite-t]

I switched to LaunchPro (and then paid for Plus) today. Be sure to use the settings as given by Baldilocks:



This all lead to a pretty huge improvement for me over the stock home screen.

I Cant find where you access those menu options, is that within the app itself or somewhere else?

Also, how a people changing that bottom bar that has the phone, browser,mail, etc on it?

 

[KappaG9]

Thats what drove me away from the iphone. It got so plain and boring and there was only so much you could do when it was jailbroken. No widgets, not as fast, and multitasking was not really multitasking like it is on the android. Sure you could get widgets after jail breaking but they were no where near as good as the ones on android and if you put enough stuff on it it would lag like crazy.

 

[KappaG9]

I Cant find where you access those menu options, is that within the app itself or somewhere else?

Also, how a people changing that bottom bar that has the phone, browser,mail, etc on it?

On he homescreen press the options soft key and go to prefrences and you can change everything in there from dock to memory. To change the apps in the dock press and hold and a window will pop up allowing you to change the app and icon.

 

[Mugzee18]

Kappa, one of the reasons I wanted to switch to android was because of the widgets. I saw my friend's incredible and was amazed at how they just integrated into the home screens. I thought, if only Apple did that, they would please so many people! But after moving to the captivate, ive found it to be more of a gimmick, as I have seen them to not be as responsive as I had hoped. Its a hard trade off, if you dont set them to update fast enough, you feel like you arent getting your info on time, but if you set the timer too frequent, the battery drains like crazy! Facebook and Twitter widgets dont really offer much functionality either, and theres no refresh button on them either. The most impressive widget I have found is the Pandora one, where I can play any station right from the widget. By all means, if you have any suggestions on great, high quality widgets, please let me know. As of right now, I'm not too impressed. =(

 

[KappaG9]

Kappa, one of the reasons I wanted to switch to android was because of the widgets. I saw my friend's incredible and was amazed at how they just integrated into the home screens. I thought, if only Apple did that, they would please so many people! But after moving to the captivate, ive found it to be more of a gimmick, as I have seen them to not be as responsive as I had hoped. Its a hard trade off, if you dont set them to update fast enough, you feel like you arent getting your info on time, but if you set the timer too frequent, the battery drains like crazy! Facebook and Twitter widgets dont really offer much functionality either, and theres no refresh button on them either. The most impressive widget I have found is the Pandora one, where I can play any station right from the widget. By all means, if you have any suggestions on great, high quality widgets, please let me know. As of right now, I'm not too impressed. =(

I agree with you but I don't need them to automatically refresh. I don't follow facebook that closely to have it refresh frequently. My facebook, twitter, and news apps are on manual refresh. So when ever i feel like seeing whats up on facebook i just manually refresh it and when I want to read some news i manually refresh the news so its not always connecte. But like you said if they are syncing often it drains the crap out of battery, just depends on what kind of user you are lol

EDIT: some widgets don't come with manual refresh but you can get some thrid party ones that do have manual refresh

 

[Infinite-t]

On he homescreen press the options soft key and go to prefrences and you can change everything in there from dock to memory. To change the apps in the dock press and hold and a window will pop up allowing you to change the app and icon.

Ok, so by options soft key you are refering to the lighted button on the far left bottom of the phone? When I do, i get a menu that lets me add, wallpaper,search,notification,edit, or settings. I cant seem to find where the guy was telling me:
Menu Key>Preferences>Advanced Settings

Homescreens>Minimum Scrolling Speed
Set above 70

App Drawer>Opening Speed
Set to 10 (Instant)

Screen Previews>Opening Speed
Set to 10 (Instant)

I also tap and hold the "dock" and it does nothing..

I must be doing something wrong.

 

[KappaG9]

press the home key and you should be able to swtch between launcherpro and twUI. once you switch to launcherpro the menu soft key (the lighted button on the left) will have another button that says "prefrences"

 

[Infinite-t]

Long hold on the home key opens up a menue that allows me to access daily briefing, seetings, voice search, email, brower and camera, no launchpro, and yea, its installed and I have the paid version

 

[KappaG9]

try a normal home key press

 

[Infinite-t]

Nothing but the little "jiggle"