Smartphone!!!

[lydy]

So, I am getting smartphone tomorrow, while I sleep, if Fed Ex delivers when they say they will. I expect to hate it with a passion, since I truly dislike touch screens. On the other hand, I really, really want the internet in my pocket.

It's an HTC Evo 4G. An Android phone. (Used, a refurb.) Any advice as to apps I desperately need, and other tips as to how to make friends with the savage beast, the touch screen?

If I do this right, I don't lose my phone number. If I screw that up, I'll let you know.

Comments

Screw the applications

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

The first thing to get is an extended battery. The battery on the HTC Evo 4G has about a 47 second charge. (Yes, I am exaggerating slightly -- it sometimes lasts for 1.2 minutes.) Extended batteries come with a new back for the phone. They make it thicker, but it really, really, really needs it.

I think it comes with a Dolphin browser. It used to be a bit flaky on some sites. I'd try and load your favorite browser. There's a LJ application you can load, and if you have a favorite place to stash pics, install something to do that. Kindle is nice if you do ebooks, and great for when you're waiting. If you have a favoritest bank/credit union, see if they have an application.

I always stuck with its native email program. There are lists of "must haves" for Android phones out there, but there's a lotta junk in all of them. Install stuff you think you'll use, and if you don't, uninstall it.

It does not have the biggest memory in the whirled, so you can end up with not enough memory to load additional programs, but that should take you a while. You can set many applications to use the storage card rather than the phone (makes 'em slower, but saves phone memory), which is the first thing you do the first time you run outta space.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

what lsanderson said. Also, I loaded a Gutenberg project app 'cause I read old stuff. And I loaded apps for various airlines because I am the airline drop off and pick up person for several people in my world.

[guppiecat]

I suggested to DDB that he assist you in installing CyanogenMod on it. That will basically lighten up the OS so you can do more within its limitations.

Once that's done, replace the keyboard with Swiftkey, which should work better for you. Other than that, as Larry said, get an extended battery and a screen protector. Download Chrome to replace Dolphin (the "standard" browser. Other than that, it'll depend on what you need to use it for.

[judith-dascoyne.livejournal.com]

How Exciting!!
Mitch and I got smart phones almost a year a go and we are loving it. I have no advice about apps but we have found that Zedge has been an easy source of ring tones and alerts. Our house has 4 of the same model phone (on admittedly 2 different carriers) and no two are set up anything like each other. (even though we are always checking out and "stealing" the others settings)
Much fun.
My best advice you are already doing.
GET HELP!!

hugs

[pameladean]

I've had less trouble with the touch screen than I expected. What gets me is the little buttons all over the edges of the phone, just where one would naturally grasp it. I still don't know what most of them do; they are in a general Do Not Want area I haven't yet explored.

My favorite app of all time is Google Sky Map, but that is just me.

Swype is useful but the learning curve is very frustrating unless you can be amused when you try to enter "talkable" and it comes out "tamales."

P.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I did eventually add an extended battery to mine, but with in-car charger I never really had bad battery trouble before that (I used it for GPS a lot, which draw battery heavily in the car).

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Am posting this from my new phone. Touch screens are somewhat improved by the vibratory feedback. But man do I prefer a proper keyboard.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I won't insult you by telling you that a touch screen keyboard is as easy to use as real buttons. Clearly, it is not. But unfortunately, a real keyboard is always the same keyboard, sitting there and taking up valuable real estate whether you need it or not. With a smartphone you're trading off the tactile feel of real keys for the magical ability to reconfigure the "keyboard" into absolutely anything - a drawing pad, a page full of surprisingly readable text, an animated weather radar map, and all sorts of things that you haven't thought about yet. It's a hell of a trade-off, ultimately.

I have an iPhone, so can only give generic advice. To start with, you'll probably want the following basic tools. Most of these probably came with your phone, but even if they did there are often better versions available for free.

Basics: calculator, address book, calendar, notepad, to-do list, weather app, music player, alarm clock, web browser, maps app, compass, flashlight.

Other handy free tools: shopping list, diet log, conversion utilities (pounds to kilograms, etc. Not religious conversions). Dropbox (a simple mechanism for transferring files from computer to cloud to iPhone). Google has a whole stable of handy apps: maps, news, translate, etc.

Specialized interests: here's some of the apps I have on my phone, just for example. Walgreen's app - I just used it to order a prescription refill. An app for keeping track of blood pressure (IBP). Reference copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, because you just never know when you might need them. An app for calculating IP subnets. A very nice free drawing tool (Art Studio). Flixster (for looking up movie showtimes) and Flicksman (for managing my Netflix queue). Multiple e-readers, because I just can't decide which one I like best. Multiple travel utilities and news readers. An electronic tuner, in case I ever decide to tune my zithers again. And a Zippo lighter for those awkward moments at a concert when you realize that you don't carry a lighter because you don't smoke.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

You might want to consider OsmAnd+ Maps & Navigation, which is intended to use locally downloaded map data; you've got a map with no data charges. (One does the map downloading when wifi is avialable.) The full version of the app if five bucks and the map data's free. The directions aren't a good as Google's (no vast cluster to calculate them, just your phone) but I find the maps better and if all you want to do is answer "where the heck am I?" this is very useful.

Keyboards, well, the Jorno folding keyboards aren't available yet -- March 2014 -- but if you're going to do, or would do if you could, any significant typing on the thing, you might want to consider one of those, too.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

There are "themes" and "launchers" to change the appearance,if you're into that sort of thing.
I use my weather app a lot (happens to be AccuWeather).
The Alarm and Timer app came with.
Do you use Google apps? The Calendar on my Android, for instance, is my Google calendar. That can be nice.
I have Dropbox' app.
IMDB, "JewCal", Moon Phase, are not necessarily your cups of tea. You'll want to mess around in Google's Can't-Call-It-AppStore.

Probably the main thing is, get one of those teensy memory cards if your phone slots one. Memory and CPU cycles are likely to be your most constrained resources.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

p.s. "Google Sky Map" ROCKS

[lydy.livejournal.com]

So, I used the Navigator to get home from work, today. It's not like I didn't know how to get home, but I thought it would be a nice, stress-free way to try it out. It took me a very slightly variant route, and it all worked perfectly. So, hooray for not getting lost!