honestly im not liking this phone much

[MInkyboi]

things a normal cell phone does i have to search for an app to do it. just not what i expected.

well thats the beauty of the droid. you find apps to make the phone suit YOUR needs.
not every droid will be exactly the same and neither are their users. thats why you have to customize it yourself

people expect smartphones to be some kind of super computer that will do everything and anything out of the box. hell maybe it can even bake a cookie.

and the droid commercials advertising is spot on. it CAN do a lot of things, you just gotta provide it with the tools necessary. this phone is clearly geared towards more tech savvy people or those who like to do a little research on what their phone can accomplish.

Anyways, heres some links to help since you're complaining theres no manual:

User Guide-
http://phandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/droidguide.pdf

Droid Wiki-
motorola droid faq wiki: Main

 

[Martin030908]

reminds me of something else when i send a pic it says converting to mms charges apply. or something along those lines..

shouldn't matter.... you've got a data plan for the phone... i wouldn't worry

 

[oakasrtheshiz]

how do i make these apps show up on the main screen as opposed to having to hit that arrow thing in the middle

also now with handcent it shows up in messaging and handcent and the notification does not clear when i open it

 

[Martin030908]

how do i make these apps show up on the main screen as opposed to having to hit that arrow thing in the middle

also now with handcent it shows up in messaging and handcent and the notification does not clear when i open it

Got you on both here...

first... for the shortcut on the homescreen.... open the app drawer (the arrow thing ) > scroll to the app you want to make a shortcut for and long hold (press and hold) until you feel the capacitive touch (vibrate) and it'll 'drop' onto your home screen.
----> to remove shortcuts, long hold on the icon, when it vibrates drag the icon to the app drawer (arrow thing) and wait til it turns into a trash can then 'drop'

second...
you need to disable to stock messaging app notifications
go to the stock Messaging (green icon) press Menu > Settings > Notifications (uncheck)... this should solve any double notification issues.

Now Handcent is your stock messaging.... you may see when you go to send a text or reply that your phone will ask you to use Handcent or Messaging... click on 'use as default' and then click Handcent so you won't have this message every time.

 

[skourg3]

Edit: Martin beat me to it, basically said the same things... I took a couple minutes to verify my steps/options on my phone before I posted.

First part: open up the application menu (arrow thingy), then do a long press (press and hold) on the icon for the app you want. This will create a shortcut on your home screen that can be dragged around. If you want to move it later, long press on it on the home screen and then drag. To delete a shortcut, long press and drag it to the bottom (there will be a trash can there).

Second part: With Handcent, I turned off notifications from Messenger. To do that, go into Messaging, press the menu button (the one with the 4 lines on the phone), press settings, scroll down to the bottom, and uncheck Notifications. Handcent will still display text notifications (and clear them from the notification bar when read), but messaging won't alert you any more. You can, of course, change this back if you decide not to use handcent or uninstall it. If you go into the settings menu of handcent (same way: open the app, menu button, settings) then there are a ton of options for you to configure, including popups, notifcations, etc. If you turn messaging's notifications off, you should definitely leave handcents on so you know when you get a text.

 

[IIIunityIII]

Hold ur finger down on the icon for which app u want to move to main screen for a few seconds. This moves it to main screen. Repeat on main screen and drag to ur gray box to remove from main screen.

 

[oakasrtheshiz]

thanks guys, so even with handcent im having the issue of it only sending the forst part of a msg over 160 characters. everytime i get a msg from 900080004221 that says free_vzw_msg: messages sent to non vzw customers with graphics/tones/ formatting/and/or 160+characters are sent as plain txt with only the first 160 characters . seriously that is really lame

 

[oakasrtheshiz]

thanks guys. so even with handcent im having the issue with msg's over 160 characters only the first part goes. every time i send one i get a msg from 900080004221 FREE_VZW_MSG: messages sent to non VZW customers with graphics/tones/formatting and/ or 160+ characters are sent as plain text with only the first 160 characters. seriously verizon that is the lamest thing that i have ever heard

HMM sorry for the double post i thought it didnt post so i re typed it

 

[atlharry]

When using handcent go into settings (the wrench in the upper right hand corner).

Look for the "Split 160" setting and check that. That should solve your problem! It actually says "Useful for Verizon Customers"!

 

[skourg3]

In Handcent go into options (Handcent -> Menu Key -> Settings) and scroll down. Half to two-thirds of the way down there is an option called Split 160 (under the Send sms setting section). Make sure that is checked. While there, look around at the other options available, because it might answer more of your questions on what it can/cannot do.

 

[oakasrtheshiz]

outstanding that worked. sweet thanks guys

 

[SSHGuru]

First of all when sending an SMS message on ANY carrier on ANY phone you are limited to 160 characters.

If you want to send something longer than that why not use EMAIL.

I don't understand why someone hasn't posted a simple solution like this. I don't text much because it's irritating to be limited to 160. It's also irritating in it's limitations.

Most people use email when sending to multiple people when they need to type a real message.

Maybe the solution here is to use email rather than text messaging. Or if you want to text multiple people at a time use a twitter client. It's cheaper and everyone you want will see the message.

 

[skourg3]

SSHGuru -

Yes an SMS is always limited to 160, but other carriers handle the splitting differently than Verizon I believe.

As to why not use e-mail: simply that not everyone has a smart phone. Many of my friends (I'm a college student) have dumbphones/featurephones where they simply won't get an e-mail until they're at their computer (and I have a friend who randomly will stop checking her e-mail for 2 weeks). My only other option would be to call, which I sometimes do if I have a lot to say.

Twitter: same phone limitation applies to Twitter, and on top of that, many people (at least that I know) don't use Twitter. People I know are so obsessed with Facebook and always try comparing Twitter to that and frequently don't see the relevance of Twitter.

I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to want to type a 200-300 char text message instead of e-mail, especially for personal use.

 

[skourg3]

Hey oakasrtheshiz, you were complaining about comments being useless before; that last comment of yours was uncalled for. He wasn't being condescending about it, he was posing alternative solutions that are quite legitimate for some people in some situations.

As to the 160 char thing, it has to do with the size of the packets that are sent. 160 characters is the size of an SMS (160 bytes, with each byte representing an 8-bit character) it is just that other carriers handle splitting messages differently. On your AT&T phone the splitting/combining is seamless, which is why you don't notice the issue. Verizon to Verizon texts that are >160 characters are also done seamlessly (they were on my old phone, at any rate). Anyway, I have no intention on arguing it, as the information is available on the internet if you want to learn more about it.

Anyway, regardless of the text size issue, try to keep it civil, especially when you already were complaining about useless posts earlier in the thread.

 

[SSHGuru]

I think it's important to remember that as a phone the Droid is excellent. The clarity is amazing on my side - like a land line. People never know I'm on a cell.

Other than that the Droid really is a computer. Treat is that way and you'll be fine. Just like on any other computer you download applications and buy them.

I learn from people on this forum all the time. The Droid is awesome.