As we’ve heard, there were a lot of new Android activity over the holidays.
Total activations for Android & iOS doing 6.8 million, which is up 353%
Many of those are probably upgrades, I’d imagine, but that still leaves a lot of people getting a shiny new ‘droid’ and wondering what to do with it.
Well, if you’re in Canada follow us obviously! I’ll give you a run down of some of the things I’d do with a new phone, and it should help many of the new folk understand what your phone can do.
If you have any suggestions – by all means – contribute! Also, AndroidCentral ran a bit of a ‘primer‘ for the newbies as well, which is worth looking over.
I’ll be hopefully putting together some ‘how to’ videos in the new year, which I’ll update on the blog as we go along.
STEPS:
- Sign In
This is essential, especially if you’re already an Android user, signing in links your Android Market apps and all your contacts. Don’t have a Google Account yet? Get with the program! It’ll sync everything for you — contacts, calendar, etc… Just ensure when you add new contacts that you do so with your Google account (videos to follow).
It’s funny to hear that there are people who have Androids and haven’t figured that out yet. I had a friend just ask me “what’s the best way to backup all my contact data?” I almost smacked him. There’s a guilty part of me that enjoys hearing all the iSheep and Crackberry users cry out “I’ve lost my phone, please re-send me your numbers”. Hilarious.
- Clear off all the screens
Often the screens are pre-littered with stuff that the manufacturer/carrier think you’d want. Just go ahead and long-press on any icon on the screen, then drag it away to the trash bin to clear off space.
Give yourself a blank canvas to work with. It’s a good time to see how many screens you have to work with as well. Start planning out how you’d like your Android laid out. Look at my posts from a while back (Phone / Tablet – note, they’re much different now, but it’s good to have a plan)
- Load a new launcher
Okay, this is optional, but worth a look. Remember, we covered 3 different launchers some time ago. I’m preferential to Go Launcher these days, but warming up to ADW.
- Change the background
It’s YOUR phone, make it look like YOU own it. Best way is to put something uniquely you in the background. There are several ways to do this (videos will come). The quickest way would be to LONG-PRESS on the home screen and then choose the option for Wallpaper. There you’ll have the option to choose some of the built in wallpapers, some live wallpapers or use one from your own gallery (if you have some photos already brought in).
Another way would be to find something on the web. In the browser you can look for some nice photos (maybe from Google+) and then LONG-PRESS the picture and you’ll be presented with an option to “Set as Wallpaper”. Remember, just like your computer, the better the resolution of the image, the better it’ll look on your phone (i.e. don’t set a 65×65 pixel image as your background — yuck).
My favourite way right now to find great wallpapers is to browse through Minus (I’ve long suggested you sign up for a Minus account for cloud storage – and if you want to, use this link — it’ll give you and me an extra 1GB). It was primarily set up for public gallery sharing, and there’s some wicked work out there. Just give it a browse through, you’re bound to find something.
- Check the Market – download your apps
If you’ve already had an Android, chances are some apps will start downloading automagically. If not, go into the Market app and click “Menu / My Apps”. A list of apps installed will show, and if you scroll down there will be a list of “Not Installed” apps. I.e. apps you had installed on other machines that you can access now.
It’s also a good idea to see what apps need updating.
Also, start downloading apps that you like! For apps that you can’t get due to geographic restrictions (i.e. Schemer, Currents, Music, etc…) I’ll host a repository of those APK files and show you how to ‘side-load’ those apps (videos coming).
- Set up your cloud sync’ing
What’s a smartphone good for if it can’t access the files you need it to be smart about? Again, we’ve covered cloud apps before, so I wont’ re-hash that. Here’s a quick run-down of your options.
- Start loading desktop icons/folders
Now that you have some apps. Start populating your screens with them and the widgets. Stick to your plan you decided on what should go where.
To add an app, simplest method is to open up the app drawer, and long press on icon – it should just take you to the desktop screen and then plop ‘er down where you want.
To add a folder of apps, long press on the home screen to bring up the option for a ‘folder’. Choose a “New Folder”. Then a plain white folder icon is now on screen. Long-press on icons and drag them over to the folder to drop them in. (In Android 4.0+ you’ll be able to just drag icons onto icons to do the same).
I’ve also covered a neat app called “Circle Launcher” some time back which allows you to have a nifty looking Folder. Different launchers may handle this differently as well.
To add widgets, do a long-press on the screen to bring up that option and you’ll have a list now showing which of your apps have widgets.
Don’t worry — videos are coming.
- Set notification/ringtones
I remember way waaaay back when I used to sell phones and you had like only 5 or 6 different ‘tones’ for ringers. Then Nokia brought out those ringtones, then I got my Sony that had ‘polyphonic’ ringtones. Seemed so way out there. But being able to set a different tone than someone else was another way to differentiate your phone from theirs. With the ability to use MP3s these days, set your phone apart from the rest by setting up a different ring tone.
Go into your Settings (from Home click Menu / Settings). From there click “Sound”. You’ll see an option for “Phone Ringtone” which will provide you a preset list, or “Notification Ringtone” which will have a different preset list. You can choose from any of those (I’ll run down later how you can add your own stuff here).
To use something uniquely yours, best to find the MP3 file in either a file browser or in your music player and then look for an option (menu key, or long-press) to choose to ‘set as’ and you can then choose ring tone.
There are some great apps out there that will let you trim and clip existing MP3 files for your own liking, like RingDroid. This is great for those songs that have real long intros, so you just want one little bit of it. I’ll post a video later.
Some of my favourite ring tones lately are ‘words’. I’ll get Google Translate to say a word, I’ll record it on the phone and set it as my notification tone. Like “TEXT MESSAGE”, “GMAIL”, etc…
What I’ll be doing shortly is setting up a repository where I’ll upload my faves, and then you guys can too!
So that’s some of the basic steps I’d have to setting up a new phone. I’ll be looking over doing a lot of ‘how to’ guides for those of you who have just used the phone, and not really delved into it.
What’re your suggestions for breaking in a new phone?
What’ve you done to help differentiate yours from the one just off the shelf?
