I'm switching from an iPhone over to an Android phone at some point this week. Any advice from those of you who use Android devices? I'm pretty excited about the switch and I'm trying to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.
Incidentally, I'm switching from AT&T to Verizon as well.
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
That will be your best switch of allOriginally Posted by BarristerCat
embrace google's apps and cloud system and the transition is quite easy.
I'm beyond ready for the carrier switch. AT&T's network is just terrible in my part of the world.That will be your best switch of all
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
Yes, first off get Swype and try it out. It has a learning curve but within a few weeks you will wonder how you ever got around with out it.
This video shows you how swype works, it really is VERY VERY fast. I now can type almost as fast on the phone as I can on a regular desktop keyboard.
Next topic is the home screen: unlike Apple, in android your app list is in a separate area called the app drawer. This means your home screen can contain whatever you want it to. This may include shortcuts to apps, folders, widgets, etc. I tend to highly customize mine, others choose not to. Also, something of note is the software that runs your homescreen is called the launcher. You are not limited to the stock android launcher. There are a variety of launchers available via the Play Store. Some are more geared towards speed and stability, others are geared towards added features or effects. At this time I am using ADW Launcher EX. See my image below for how my homescreen looks. The time/weather is a widget from the Beautiful Widgets package with some custom themes applied. EVERY part of that screen can be customized if you want. The icons are the ones I picked to be there (even the ones below the bar, heck even that bar can be customized).
Having touched on the App Store called Play Store in Android. You are NOT limited to only the Google Play Store. You can install other App Stores as well (the most common alternate is the Amazon App Store). You may often find by running mroe than one that an app you want is cheaper (or offered as the daily free app on amazon). So keep your mind an options open.
Don't be afraid to unlock/root your phone. Unlike apple which is obsessive in trying to stop people from running aftermarket software (ROMs), most android makers either support it or at least accept that it does happen. This is actually very nice because phones that are 4-5 years old are still being updated by select developers. There are several very very old phones (one that didn't even come with android to begin with that have had working versions of EVERY version of android out at this point).
You likely are now familiar with the notification bar which apple stole from android (which android stole from WebOS IIRC). So I don't think I need to go much into that. Otherwise, give it some time. You WILL get some massive headaches in the beginning because switching an OS is kinda like learning a new language. There are ways that each OS will choose to do things and they are both logical just different. If you have been used to doing something oen way for a while it will feel VERY unnatural to do it another. At this stage in the game, both OSes are REALLY damn nice and feature packed.
Last edited by PedroDaGr8; 12-10-2012 at 08:28 PM.
Find your phone here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php
Have fun!
Thinking seriously about switching, but will have to drag half a dozen people with me.
I swype constantly on my phone if I do not use the physical keyboard. It is the only reason I will eventually abandon a physical keyboard.
Sent using Forum Runner. All typos excused.
Thanks a lot, Pedro and Brock. Some great info there. I'm picking up most of the lingo from Android, but I'm still not really sure what a launcher does, exactly. It's one of those things that a week from now I'll wonder why I didn't understand it.
CBBN, I've been wanting to switch for years and like you I have a lot of people to drag with me. I am shocked at how painless the whole process has been so far, though. The Verizon guy has everything ready to go. We just have to go in, make it official, have our numbers ported and pick up the phones tomorrow. This new share plan Verizon is offering is a serious enticement for accounts with 4+ users. We'll be adding an extra device and still saving more than $30 per month over our plan at AT&T.
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
Haha don't feel bad about being confused about how to describe a launcher. It has an equivalanet in linux (for those that know lnux think KDE, Gnome etc.) but not really in any other OS so its a very foreign concept. Basically, its the graphical user interface. Maybe its better explained in pictures:
Sense Launcher on left, standard android launcher on the right
Touchwiz Launcher
Go Launcher (this is using a custom launcher theme):
etc.
You will see small subtle differences in the way they react and behave. Truthfully, its a subtle concept.
I think I'm getting it a little more now that I've seen those pictures. So, the launcher is something of a command center. Is that it?
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
The Android launcher is basically the program that runs your interface. There are a variety of launchers, all of which are customizable with scrolling effects, icons, unique widgets (GO Launcher EX has its own widgets), icon spacing, etc. I use Nova Launcher Prime (got it on sale months ago), which is fairly close to the stock launcher in basic look/feel but offers more customization options (scrolling launcher bar at the bottom, add/delete home screens, change desktop grid size, custom icons, etc). Typically the more powerful the launcher, the more expensive it gets (which is why the newest GO's "Next Launcher" is so expensive). They offer more granular customization options and, in the case of GO, very nice looking appearance options.
Here are a couple of screen shots, one of my main home screen, another of a screen with a Twitter widget (from Android Pro Widgets).
I also have a screen with a messaging widget, but it looks a lot like the Twitter widget, so I didn't include it. The weather/clock widget on the main screen is from Beautiful Widgets. The icons are from the Tersus icon pack, which is compatible with every launcher.
Android's customization possibilities are why I love it so much. iPhone and iOS are great for people who like for things to "just work," but if you're competent and like to tinker, you can get so much more functionality from Android. The possibilities are practically endless, especially if you can unlock the bootloader and root the phone. For the record, I use a rooted Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Verizon, which I got back in March. Prior to this phone, I had an HTC Evo 4G with Sprint, which I had also rooted and customized heavily.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or email me at thebrock25@gmail.com.
-----------------------------------------
Google Play Store app links:
GO Launcher EX
Nova Launcher Prime
GO's "Next Launcher"
Android Pro Widgets
Beautiful Widgets
Tersus
Last edited by BigBlueBrock; 12-11-2012 at 05:35 PM.
Widgets are the bomb. Just wait.
Sent using Forum Runner. All typos excused.
Much appreciated Brock. I'm now officially a part of the Android world. I have spent most of the evening doing very basic setup tasks. Mostly I've been trying to migrate my contacts over from my old iPhone. I've tried the solutions suggested by Google to no avail. I think I've decided that there is a bug in both my iPhone (the contacts will not sync OTA like they are supposed to) and iTunes (there is no option to sync my contacts to my gmail account). Other than that I have downloaded some apps and changed some settings.
First on the agenda for tomorrow: learn the difference between widgets and apps. I think I get it, but I've seen the terms used differently at times.
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
My mother has a nice Samsung Galaxy she doesn't like (she wants her 15 year old flip phone that finally died). My iphone wont' connect to wifi for some reason now and I'm tired of dealing with it. Think I'll take hers and get her something uber-simple. stay with AT&T for now but change phones.
Anyone got a suggestion for a fairly simple phone I can get my mom? She's far more technically savvy than this question implies. She's good on computers, she just doesn't like all the bells and whistles that most of us now see as phone essentials. I've tried but I'm tired of the complaints.
Question - Anyone using android to sync with exchange server? Doing that well is a must.
Citizen-
We had the Wi-Fi issue with my daughter's iPhone 4...restored it, got a new sim card from AT & T and were finally told that it was an Apple hardware problem that would cost $150 to fix. Upgrade to iPhone 5 was $199 so that was easier than sending the phone for repair. My mother-in-law is about ready to get a 4 with the Wi-Fi turned off. We'll see if my 17 year-old daughter can teach her to text with the big screen turned sideways.
This is what I use.
8000grey3.jpg
Yeah, I've got my UK email on my phone. The included Email app can sync with an Exchange server.
Brock, do you know if it syncs tasks? iPhone syncs my email, calendar, contacts but not tasks. Hoping it will do that out of the box. Not essential but nice.
Darrell, I'm ready to club her with that phone if she doesn't stop complaining about this one. She's usually not this way but she just won't try to learn how to use it effectively. Doesn't help that this area is having reception issues which she blames on the phone.
Jazy -- this is a 3G and it's worked just fine for years, now won't work at all. Won't find any networks. I have an extra 3G I could try but I think I may just get her android and try it for a while.
It does not sync tasks, just email, contacts, and calendar.
Apps = applications. They take up the full screen. Widgets = small applications that run on your home screen and take up a small section of it. If you look at Brock's images. The twitter, clock and weather are widgets. You can move them around, organize them how you want etc. They don't take up the whole screen but instead share home screen space. Widgets are mainly used for quick access to simple functions or quick sources for information.
It does it extremely well, unlike Apple which drug their feet on Exchange integration, Android has been fully supporting exchange/activesync for a long time now.
As for tasks, it does not do it natively but from what I gather this seems to be a limitation of ActiveSync/Exchange. There are secondary apps that you can but which will allow syncing of tasks but they require that the exchange server have certain things available. See the following links for a few pay apps that accomplish task syncing.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ps.tasks&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...id.tasks&hl=en
As for what phone to get. Truthfully, there are two ways you can go with this. The first is to get one using the Sense interface from HTC. The sense interface tends to be a bit bloated at times so its not always highly thought of but what it does provide is a nice quick easy to use interface. The other option is to get any phone root it and install a stripped down rom like CyanogenMod or MIUI (emulates the iPhone interface some). These stripped down roms, as well as being faster, have VERY consistant feels to them which often makes the rom much easier to manage. Additionally, which is what I was discussing before with long term support, as long as there are developers for your phone then there are people pushing out ROMs for it. Plus, unlike iOS which runs like dog **** on older versions most recent versions make older hardware run BETTER! Like I said there is one phone in particular (the old HTC Touch) that came with Windows Mobile CE 6.1 initially, has run EVERY single version of Android released with ALL features fully enabled. This was a phone that came out the same year as the original iPhone. Imagine trying to run iOS6 on an iPhone, yet you can do it with Android.
Last edited by PedroDaGr8; 12-12-2012 at 06:45 PM.
Thanks, Pedro. That's what I thought widgets were, but I had seen a couple of apparently imprecise uses of the term that made it seem confusing.
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
Widgets also are "always on," too. For example, if your widget is a weather channel one, you just glance at your phone and you know the temperature, weather forecast, etc., because it is active.
Sent using Forum Runner. All typos excused.
You are reading my first post using Swype. I feel reborn...like a Phoenix rising from Arizona.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
Pedro or anyone else, I just bought two new iphone 5's, as my children were eligible for upgrades.
Do you think it is beneficial to the brand new battery to charge it completely before the first time it is used, or does it make any difference at all?
I've never done that. Some say do it, others say it doesn't affect the battery one way or the other.
I'm going to do whatever you guys recommend.
Thanks.
Next thing I'm interested in is that Tapatalk...want to compare it to Forum Runner. Like Forum Runner.
Truthfully, I have heard about the same as you and I don"t have any real world data to back it up.
I can tell you what I do know; the rule originated with NiCad batteries which suffer from a memory effect. Meaning if you don't fully charge the battery it will overtime dramatically reduce the max capacity of the battery. Also I do know Li-ion batteries, which include LiH, Li-Polymer, Li-Po (Lithium Iron Phosphate), etc., do not suffer from this so-called memory effect. This logically says that you don't need to fully charge the battery but considering it only takes a few hours. Better safe than sorry.
Congrats man! Hopefully you keep enjoying your phone. Have fun playing with it and customizing it to your hearts content.
For my part, I don't think it matters whether you charge fully or not. If you're only worried about the first charge, that definitely won't affect anything. I've been through two iPhones at this point, and while most of the time I did charge them to 100%, I never made it a point to do so. It was a fairly regular thing for me to grab a little charge here and there when I didn't have time for a full charge. I never noticed any change in the battery life for either phone and I had the first one for well over two years.
IMO, it does help, however, to fully discharge the battery every 1-2 months and then fully recharge it to 100%. It seems to reset the calibration of the phone's battery meter (though it doesn't really change the battery life either way).
I still haven't tried Forum Runner primarily because I like Tapatalk. I'll probably give it a shot soon, though.
Thanks! I've figured out widgets. My first selection was a toggle that kills all sound on the phone. Handy for playing a game or two after the wife has already nodded off to sleep. I love the circles widget Motorola has on its stock UI, so I will probably leave that as is. This is going to be a lot of fun over the holidays.
I wouldn't pull for UofL if they were playing the Taliban.
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