Beginner's guide:
So you're new to Android (or thinking of getting a device) what should you do first?
If you're unfamiliar with Android phones in general here's a crash course on what you need to know about navigation. All Android Phones come with 3-4 Android specific buttons.
- Home
- Menu (shows hidden contextual menu options)
- Back
- Search (not found on all handsets)
- Multitasking (only on tablets shows recently used apps)
Another thing worth noting is to become familiar with gestures, since all Android phones use touchscreens of some sort, tapping/presses, swiping, long presses (shows more specific menu options related to where you long pressed), pinching (on multitouch capable devices), etc.
First off you're going to need a Google Account, this will unlock all the great Google Services like GMail, Android Market, Goggles, YouTube, etc.
Now that you've set that up you'll want to arrange the appearance of your homescreen. long press any icons or widgets to move them around of get rid of them by throwing them away to the trash bin. Shortcuts can be added by going in you launcher tray and long pressing an app and droping a shortcut on the homescreen. Adding widgets can be done by long pressing the homescreen and choosing a widget (this is also the menu where you can change your wallpaper.
One thing you'll probably want to do off the start is get some apps. Once you sign in to your google account open your apps drawer and hit market once you accept the terms and conditions you're ready to download apps games and widgets.
Here's another great feature of Android if you browse the apps through the http://market.android.com/ website and signed in to your google account you can install them remotely from the website without needing to tether your phone to a computer via USB.
Sometimes websites will also show reviews of an app and include what's called a QR code.
These QR codes can be used to scan a URL using apps like barcode scanner and Google Goggles (highly recommended, it can identify art, landmarks and even solve your sudokus!).
As far as games are concerned you have the obvious casual gamer big hits, Angry Birds (all free!), Slice it (free!), Plants vs. Zombies, Doodle jump, etc.
For those a bit more hardcore here are some videos to give you an idea of games you can find in the market (this video is pretty old so there are probably newer version of the same games out on the market now)
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Tablet Information:
(shamelessly stolen from XDA Eee Pad Transformer Forums but can be applied to most Android Tablets)
Sony Xperia T (new James Bond phone) is coming out in the next month or so also.
•Sony’s best mobile screen - 4.6” HD Reality Display with BRAVIA engine.
•Sony’s best mobile camera - 13MP HD camera with Exmore R, fast capture and 3D Sweep Panorama.
•Sony Entertainment Network - 15 million songs to stream and thousands of movies and TV shows for rent or purchase.
•PlayStation certified - Mobile gaming as intended.
Sony Xperia T (new James Bond phone) is coming out in the next month or so also.
•Sony’s best mobile screen - 4.6” HD Reality Display with BRAVIA engine.
•Sony’s best mobile camera - 13MP HD camera with Exmore R, fast capture and 3D Sweep Panorama.
•Sony Entertainment Network - 15 million songs to stream and thousands of movies and TV shows for rent or purchase.
•PlayStation certified - Mobile gaming as intended.
Sony Xperia T (new James Bond phone) is coming out in the next month or so also.
•Sony’s best mobile screen - 4.6” HD Reality Display with BRAVIA engine.
•Sony’s best mobile camera - 13MP HD camera with Exmore R, fast capture and 3D Sweep Panorama.
•Sony Entertainment Network - 15 million songs to stream and thousands of movies and TV shows for rent or purchase.
•PlayStation certified - Mobile gaming as intended.
Definetly on Bell unsure on Telus or Rogers yet.
That actually looks like a pretty nice phone. We'll see, though. Sony doesn't have the greatest history in cell phones.
Hopefully with the information that they're putting in so much streaming, media and gaming into the device they can put out a phone with a great battery. More phones need to go the Motorola Razr Maxx HD route and get an amazing battery in there.
That actually looks like a pretty nice phone. We'll see, though. Sony doesn't have the greatest history in cell phones.
Hopefully with the information that they're putting in so much streaming, media and gaming into the device they can put out a phone with a great battery. More phones need to go the Motorola Razr Maxx HD route and get an amazing battery in there.
i'm interested to see how the life is on a Note 2... the reports seem to indicate that massive sucker gets pretty decent life.
That actually looks like a pretty nice phone. We'll see, though. Sony doesn't have the greatest history in cell phones.
Hopefully with the information that they're putting in so much streaming, media and gaming into the device they can put out a phone with a great battery. More phones need to go the Motorola Razr Maxx HD route and get an amazing battery in there.
I have no faith in Sony phones whatsoever. It's likely their "best" display won't match that of the One X, their media services won't really add anything that you can't get in the Play store, likewise for their gaming, and the thing will likely either ship with ICS or never receive an update. In other words, I don't expect it to compete with the flagship devices from Samsung or HTC - even Motorola and LG have likely surpassed them now. I do like that it has a dedicated camera button though - more Android phones should have that IMO.
$249 for 32 GB...hmm bet the iPad mini starts at $249, but only 8 GB maybe 16 GB.
I'm not regretting my 16 GB Nexus 7. I'm not much of a gamer and I use many of Google's cloud services; still have over 12 GB of storage left.
__________________ Colorado Avalanche Prospects-- News and updates on the future of the Colorado Avalanche! Colorado's Future -- Team * Manning * Landeskog * Tulowitzki
Good God. I can't wait for Oct 29th now. I've been on the fence about getting a Nexus 7 (I don't have much use for it as I have a Gnex, an e-reader and a laptop) but if these rumours come true, the Nexus 7 should drop in price and I'll have a new shiny gadget.
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! I know what I want for Christmas 
* Landeskog * Tulowitzki
