New User Introduction (New to Smartphones)

[DreamKillerXIII]

Hello everyone! I just purchased my Motorola Droid today, it is the first smartphone I have ever used (only the second i have ever held) and I must say, I think I have truly fallen in love already! It was either a laptop or droid for tax returns, I think I made the right choice, and it was way cheaper too. Anyways, I hope to be a regular member of this forum, and I know I will have issues (I consider myself slow lol), so I beg you all to be patient with me please. If anybody has any quick tips for a new droid user, I will definitely be willing to listen. You all can either call me XIII (13) or Mike, whatever is easiest. Looking forward to being a part of this community, nice to meet you all!

 

[Stretch2m]

Hey XIII, welcome. The cool thing about the Droid is that you can *almost* do everything you can do on a laptop -- *plus* it's a phone. It is definitely the coolest gadget I've ever owned, and you will be amazed at how useful it can truly be in real-world situations. Maybe after you've had a chance to get to know your Droid, you might consider "rooting" it (obtaining administrator rights). This opens up a whole other world of cool usefulness. Have fun!

 

[Corinacakes]

:welcome: mike glad to have you join us !

 

[DreamKillerXIII]

well i went on a short road trip with my grandparents today to go gambling, i got about a half hour away from the VZW store and it already went dead (not a good charge and i was frantically trying to figure everything out lol). since then, i have had it charging, got an NES emulator, and have been doing nothing but reading these forums. I was a HUGE fan of customizing my PSP... and droid seems like it could swallow a psp whole i will keep note of that though and look into it, thank you for the tip.

 

[Stretch2m]

Yep, you have to watch battery usage with the Droid, and never stray too far from a charger (or carry a backup battery). Here are some things that I have found help with battery life:

The biggest drain on the battery is almost always the display, so do what you can to minimize it. Here's two things: set the timeout low, to 30 seconds; set the brightness to the lowest setting unless you're going to be outside (or unless you want to show off the Droid's beautiful display to someone).

Leaving WiFi enabled when you're not connected is another big drain. Turn off WiFi unless you're actively using it.

GPS can drain your battery, especially if you have running services that use GPS data. Unless I need exact coordinates for something (e.g., Google Navigation), I leave GPS off.

Lastly, running apps can sometimes drain the battery even if you're not using them.

If you're not rooted:

• Use a "task killer" app like Advanced Task Killer to forcibly terminate apps that you're not actively using. Some of these also have an auto-kill setting that will kill background apps automatically on a timed basis. My personal experience is that this gets really annoying because you have to enter "exceptions" for all the apps that you DON'T want it to kill.

If you're rooted:

• Use a "memory manager" app that adjusts the device's memory management thresholds. I honestly don't know enough about what exactly these things do to manage memory, but I do know that since I started using AutoKiller, my Droid just seems to work a lot better -- and with these you don't have to mess around with "exceptions" because it doesn't kill processes, it just seems to limit the resources that background processes can use, and thus it seems to conserve battery.
• Install SetCPU, which is an app that allows you to overclock and *underclock* the CPU. In my experience, underclocking is the single-most effective way to conserve your battery when the phone is *not* in use. SetCPU allows you to make the CPU run a lot slower when the phone is asleep, and this helps battery life *tremendously*.

Can you tell I think rooting is a good thing? I hesitate to *recommend* it because it doesn't come without its risks, and there are warranty issues to consider. But for me, the benefits outweigh the risks. Look around this forum for discussions about the benefits of root to see if it's something you might want to do.

 

[DreamKillerXIII]

awesome, thank you for all the tips. the only one i see being a problem for me would be the gps, im always getting lost when i go out of town. it may be a stupid question, but how exactly do i turn off the gps feature when i am staying around town? as far as the display... you must know me or something, for the first week or so im going to keep max backlight time and brightness just to show it off lol. so far i have only found 3 apps; a battery monitor (figured it was needed) and an NES and SNES emulator, which might really be all i need for a few weeks or so. though i have been browsing the market for the last few hours, taking notes on what sounds good. i almost hate my droid a little already though, has me up at 530 am feeling like a junkie that just cant quite get enough lol. thank you again, i think i should get at least a little sleep. i will check back in tomorrow at some point when i reclaim my soul from the phone :icon_eek:

 

[Stretch2m]

The easiest way to turn GPS on/off is to use the "Power Control" widget that is built into the phone. This widget allows for one-tap activation/deactivation of GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and Sync, and allows you to cycle through different brightness settings. If you're lost you could tap to enable GPS, and then once you find your way you could tap it again to disable GPS -- no need to keep it running all the time!

 

[lovelyhistorymom]

and droid seems like it could swallow a psp whole

And still be hungry.

Welcome to the forums. I'm pretty new myself and already these people have done wonders for me. How a group of people can know that much about any one piece of technology they didn't invent is beyond me. But I love them for it.

Glad to have you and ask anything, you will get an answer.
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