First day with DROID: What should I know?

[LedZep]

I'm getting my DROID tomorrow, and I've done the research, read the reviews, and read a number of posts on this forum... but thought I'd ask this:

What do I need to know on day one? What tips will save me time, frustration, and prevent errors?

I plan to configure email right away (Gmail and Comcast), and would like to be able to do web browsing, etc. I have an iPod Touch, so I am generally familiar with the interface and concepts, but obviously Android will be different.

Any chance my phone shipped with 2.1 already loaded? I'm guessing not, since it's probably been in a warehouse for awhile. Should I try a manual update or just wait for it to be pushed?

Upgrading from a 3 year old Razr, so it will be quite a step up for me.

EDIT: Oh, forgot to ask: Anyone pair the Driod with a BMW E90 3 Series? If so, any issues or is it standard operating procedure?

 

[crspang]

Tip....long press and hold.
You'll see what I mean....

 

[jsh1120]

Order the Droid Pocket Guide by Jason O'Grady from Amazon. It's a much better introduction to the Droid than the user manual. And at 200+ pages, it will keep you busy for awhile.

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

"First day with DROID: What should I know?"

You should know to read everything on this board!! It's all good! :icon_ banana:

 

[benji_kidd]

First of all you should know you havent bought a phone, you've bought an addiction.
Next look into rooting your phone...to add to the addiction.
And lastly, trust the community, droid forums does.

 

[Jim 777]

Tip....long press and hold.
You'll see what I mean....

First of all you should know you havent bought a phone, you've bought an addiction.
Next look into rooting your phone...to add to the addiction.
And lastly, trust the community, droid forums does.

+1 to both (would that be "+2"?)

Also along with the long press, the dedicated menu button... always something in there that helps!

 

[Mule65]

I got mine from Verizon last Monday with 2.1 installed. WiFi and GPS are cool, but they really eat battery. Too many widgets and apps also eat battery. Apps are computer programs -- some are good, some are not, and some cause problems. Apps like to start by themselves in the background and eat battery. Most Apps don't have a close button. I'm spending a lot of unexpected time figuring out how to prolong my battery. I wouldn't "root" anything until you know you're keeping it. I do like it but don't want to spend my life staring at a little screen in my hand. If you mainly phone and text then there are better options. I'm still on the fence. Sorry for being a downer -- just part of my contemplation, I guess.

 

[LedZep]

Thanks for the great replies. I've had the Droid for almost 8 hours now, and have set up my Wi-fi, paired my bluetooth headset, paired it to bluetooth in my car, configured Gmail and Comcast mail, and messed around with Contacts and most other stuff.

When I powered it on and activated it, it instantly downloaded the update for 2.1 Update 1, so that was good.

Still getting used to the feel and function of it, getting the right touch, etc. I've held off on a smartphone for a long time, but I can see the advantages. I'll be curious how much I use it once the novelty wears off.

Did notice one thing that had me very puzzled - my comcast email would just disappear from the inbox... then I did some research and found that the common school of thought on this is that once your "hard" mail client (i.e. Outlook) downloads your email and removes it from the server, it goes away on Droid. I guess Droid is just linking to the server and taking copies of the emails that reside there. Interesting... not necessarily bad, but interesting.