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Help [Support] new Evo user with questions

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phandroid23

Lurker
I finally dumped iPhone and got myself an Evo for Christmas. Goodbye Steve Jobs and 1984!

I'm pretty excited about it so far, but there is much to learn. There are few things that are simply making me crazy and I need to learn how to customize it to get around them. Overall, I feel like I have to click everything so many times to get basic functionality out of it. Can someone chime in to give me tips for correcting these issues. Oh yeah - I've already bookmarked many tips-and-tricks pages to learn more droid stuff, but these simple things I can't get around. I'm using HTC Sense right now.

1. The notification light won't quit blinking. I went into setup and unchecked everything under "Notification Flash", but it still keeps blinking. I've cleared my text messages, read my email, and checked my phone calls, but it won't quit blinking. Shouldn't the fact that I unchecked everything in the Settings page turn it off for good? It certainly isn't helpful when it never turns off.

2. The open screen tells me that I missed a call, but not what time they called. I swipe down, then click "Phone". It shows me a list of phone calls, including the ones I missed, but still no time. I then click the phone button in the bottom right corner and it tells me the time. So many clicks to find out when someone called! Can I get it to show the time someone called on the phone's main list?

3. I want to make a call to a friend, but I have 500+ contacts in my address book. It takes five buttons to get to my friends list. What the hell? (Press Phone, press bottom right corner, press group button, press friend list, scroll down list to find the friend, press the friend's name, then press the number to call. What a nightmare!

4. On the iPHone contact list, I didn't have to scroll all the way down the list to get to a name. It has all the letters on the right hand side and I can jump to a letter. Is there an app for that so I don't have to scroll through 500 names?

5. Is there a guide for what all those icons mean at the top of the screen. Sometimes they make sense and sometimes not. Right now I have a large green G, and I thought it meant that I have new Gmail. I went to my gmail account and read some emails, but it's still there. Seeing a list of all the possible icons and their meaning would be great (as well as how to get rid of them).

6. I set the alarm clock and the next morning it went off and in a daze I swiped it so I could snooze ten more minutes. I woke up an hour later to find out that there isn't a snooze feature. Is there a way to enable snooze?

Sorry for so many questions, but it just feels like I have to work really hard to do some basic tasks. I'll never buy an iPhone again, but when EVO takes me all these clicks just to see when someone called or to to call someone on my Friends list, it gets frustrating . Thanks!


Brian
 
One more thing... I noticed this today. The text message counter doesn't always go back to zero. I get a text message and the home screen has "1" on it. I click the icon and the text message comes up and I read it. I click the Home button and the "1" is still there. I click it again, read it again, and go home. Still there! Repeat... FINALLY, I click the actually letters in the text message and click home then it goes away. Just now I get another message, I click it the icon, respond to the message and click Home. "1" is still there! I click the letters in the text message and the number is still there. That seemed to work the first time, but it's not working this time. Seriously, WTF is wrong with this phone??? Normal things just don't work on it.
 
Welcome to the forums and to Android dude! You're gonna love it here, as people are super helpful and there is a ton of stuff to read/learn.

As far as the notification light, I'd try to reboot and see if it goes away. Hopefully it's just a one time issue.

When I want to call somebody in particular, that isn't on my favorites widget, I tap phone and then start to spell their name with the numbers. It's kind of like T9 on a dumbphone. Type in the first two or three letters using the number pad and it'll come right up. If you have some people that you call quite often then be sure to edit their contact info and put them into favorites, then they'll show up in the favorites widget.

I use my Evo for an alarm clock and if you look under the swipe when the alarm is going off there is a button at the bottom of the screen for snooze. I live off of the snooze button so I'm sure it's there :)

The icons at the top of my screen are (from the right) the time, the battery, the bars of signal that I have, the 3G (with the little up and down arrows that say when you're uploading and downloading) and the GPS.

As far as the text message counter goes, it's done that for me before. I just try to go into the sms app using the icon on the screen rather than the pull down notification screen. That seems to take care of it for me.

BTW I came from iPhone too and it takes a tiny bit of learning to get the hang of everything, but once you do you'll never look back!
 
1) Not sure why it is still blinking, but mine (and every other EVO I've seen) turns off after I view the corresponding notification.

2) Press "phone" and then "long press/click" on the on the call you are interested. It will tell you the time of the call. If it was a call that actually took place, it will tell you other info such as duration as well.

3) There are several methods. I press phone and then the first few letters of the person i want to call on the key pad and that persons name will come right up. (or see #4.)

4) Grab the scroll bar on the side of the list and you can scroll alphabetically (i.e. go right to the names that start with that particular letter)

5) Try swiping down the notification bar on the top of the screen, it should give you a list of any icons currently displayed on the top of the screen. You can click on them to go right to it. Not sure exactly what the big green "G" you see is, but most likely related to one of your running apps. (its not Gmail... theres is a gray and white "GM".)

6) Swipe down to shut the alarm off. to snooze, click the snooze button right under the swype bar. (the one that says "snooze")
 
phandroid23 said:
One more thing... I noticed this today. The text message counter doesn't always go back to zero. I get a text message and the home screen has "1" on it. I click the icon and the text message comes up and I read it. I click the Home button and the "1" is still there. I click it again, read it again, and go home. Still there! Repeat... FINALLY, I click the actually letters in the text message and click home then it goes away. Just now I get another message, I click it the icon, respond to the message and click Home. "1" is still there! I click the letters in the text message and the number is still there. That seemed to work the first time, but it's not working this time. Seriously, WTF is wrong with this phone??? Normal things just don't work on it.
Click to expand...

Not sure about that one. "Normal things" are working fine on my EVO though (and the other EVO's I've used).
 
"4. On the iPHone contact list, I didn't have to scroll all the way down the list to get to a name. It has all the letters on the right hand side and I can jump to a letter. Is there an app for that so I don't have to scroll through 500 names?"

Is there a way to do this on EVO?
 
I'm using the stock email icon/widget that came with the EVO...and I wonder if there is a better way to delete mesasages than the following. Currently I to click:

Menu>Delete>Check the mesaages you want to delete>Click Delete

That's 4 steps. On the iPhone, it was shorter...and to delete individual messages, they had that swipe feature....beautifully functional.
 
Sorry to here about your issues...some of what you say is not normal.
And the others have been answered.

I might make one suggestion...replace the sms app with handcent ..maybe that widget will fix your text count issue.
 
1. Maybe you have a firmware or software update that needs to be installed? Go to settings-->Update phone and check for all four of the update options.
 
trader914 said:
I'm using the stock email icon/widget that came with the EVO...and I wonder if there is a better way to delete mesasages than the following. Currently I to click:

Menu>Delete>Check the mesaages you want to delete>Click Delete

That's 4 steps. On the iPhone, it was shorter...and to delete individual messages, they had that swipe feature....beautifully functional.
Click to expand...

Try long pressing (press and hold) on the message/thread. A menu will pop up with the option to delete.
 
trader914 said:
"4. On the iPHone contact list, I didn't have to scroll all the way down the list to get to a name. It has all the letters on the right hand side and I can jump to a letter. Is there an app for that so I don't have to scroll through 500 names?"

Is there a way to do this on EVO?
Click to expand...

This is not obvious but try scrolling on the rightmost edge of the contacts panel. A scroll bar and a letter from the alphabet will appear, and you will be able to rapidly scroll through your contacts.
 
There are 3 methods I use to call someone on my contact's list.

1. Using the numpad, just spell the name of your desired contact, the first 2-5 letters should bring up your desired contact on the list.

2. Using the Call History app. should bring up the latest contacts I've called/received. From there I just hit the contact on the list and it should start dialing.

3. This is more tedius, but It's worth the invested time for the ease of one tap calling of your most frequently called contacts.

* Hit the "+" sign just to the right of the "Phone" word.
* Select Shortcut >>> Direct Dial >>> And select a contact from the list.
* Place the icon on a spare area in one of your 7 home screens.

This would make a direct dial icon of your desired contact to your home screen. So the next time you have to call him/her, you just have to tap on that icon, and it should call him/her immediately.

I would suggest putting the icon not on your main (middle) home screen, but on the home screens on either side. As you might accidentally hit the button while on your pocket, or just fiddling with your phone. I actually have two folders, one for Direct Call (dial) and another for Direct Text. :)

Another option is to use the HTC "People's" widget. Just put your desired contacts into a group. Then add the widget (2 to choose from) and select the group name you used in grouping your contacts together. I don't particularly use this, but it's another option.
 
Not really understanding the whole "no call time issue". I own an iphone and an Evo, on my Evo I open the Phone app and immediately press the call log icon(furthermost right) and every call and the time made/received is right there. On my iphone I open the phone app and press the call log icon and get the same results with the same amount of key taps. Is your setup different somehow?
 
Another recommendation is a very valuable little app called Google Gesture Search. You can place a small icon on your home screen. Press that and then write the first few letters of any name, contact, app, song etc. on your phone and you will have one click access to it in seconds. One of my favorite apps for quick search of your phone.

Welcome to Android and the forum.
 
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