Got Droid X today! First smartphone! Bit overwhelmed

[Freezetron]

Sup all, at LONG LAST after Fedex taking their damn sweet time, I got my first smartphone, the Droid X in my hands today and finally got to activate and play with is this evening. Even being a computer tech and gamer that I am, I finding it a bit overwhelming trying to comes to grips with what this thing can do. So I'll narrow it down to simple requests.


1. Whats the easiest way to see exactly how much apps and crap is running on my Droid and the best way to see and shut them down without going into rooting the phone? I wanna have this Droid X running as lean as possible for speed and battery life.

2. Is there anyway to keep the browser from remembering my last webpage? How can I setup up the browser or shortcut to take me to a default google.com search engine website?

3. I've had LG clamshell phones all these years, so how or can I change theme or colors on these Droids?

4. What are the major DO and DO NOT's with these things in regards to software usage?

5. How do I go about making sure my android OS is up to date as well as phone software/firmware?

Thanks all for any input and advice.

 

[pierced_droid]

Sup all, at LONG LAST after Fedex taking their damn sweet time, I got my first smartphone, the Droid X in my hands today and finally got to activate and play with is this evening. Even being a computer tech and gamer that I am, I finding it a bit overwhelming trying to comes to grips with what this thing can do. So I'll narrow it down to simple requests.


1. Whats the easiest way to see exactly how much apps and crap is running on my Droid and the best way to see and shut them down without going into rooting the phone? I wanna have this Droid X running as lean as possible for speed and battery life.

2. Is there anyway to keep the browser from remembering my last webpage? How can I setup up the browser or shortcut to take me to a default google.com search engine website?

3. I've had LG clamshell phones all these years, so how or can I change theme or colors on these Droids?

4. What are the major DO and DO NOT's with these things in regards to software usage?

5. How do I go about making sure my android OS is up to date as well as phone software/firmware?

Thanks all for any input and advice.

Congrats on the first smart phone.. now very logical questions you have asked. But being a fellow computer tech and gamer you want to customize your phone making it as fast a possible lol so look in the custom Roms section and do some reading


Sent from my etcha-sketch

 

[spaz33g]

Sup all, at LONG LAST after Fedex taking their damn sweet time, I got my first smartphone, the Droid X in my hands today and finally got to activate and play with is this evening. Even being a computer tech and gamer that I am, I finding it a bit overwhelming trying to comes to grips with what this thing can do. So I'll narrow it down to simple requests.


1. Whats the easiest way to see exactly how much apps and crap is running on my Droid and the best way to see and shut them down without going into rooting the phone? I wanna have this Droid X running as lean as possible for speed and battery life.

You can go to settings > applications > running services to see what's running at a glance and one click to stop
Remember task killers are a no no

2. Is there anyway to keep the browser from remembering my last webpage? How can I setup up the browser or shortcut to take me to a default google.com search engine website?

I use dolphin browser hd available free in the marketplace. You can set it to clear history and cache on exit. Also you can use it to change the default home page. Plus its customizeable and supports add ons

3. I've had LG clamshell phones all these years, so how or can I change theme or colors on these Droids?

That would require root to theme the phone. You can always try a home replacement app like ADW.Launcher which is themeable, but it will only change the look of the homescreen not the apps or status bar

4. What are the major DO and DO NOT's with these things in regards to software usage?



5. How do I go about making sure my android OS is up to date as well as phone software/firmware?

Go to settings > about phone > system updates to check for available updates. Also updates should be automaticly pushed to your phone as they become available.

Thanks all for any input and advice.

Glad you got your x. I answered some of your Qs in the quote

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[Freezetron]

Also, how do go about adding custom ringtones to each contact and pictures like I could with my LG phones in the past?

 

[Freezetron]

Oh, so this advanced task killer I found and running off the market isn't any good? It was one of the top rated apps.

 

[spaz33g]

Oh, so this advanced task killer I found and running off the market isn't any good? It was one of the top rated apps.

Ya that's a huge misconception in the android community. The thing is android has its own proccesses for killing apps that task killers interfere with.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/65483-task-killers-answer-google-developers.html

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[spaz33g]

Also, how do go about adding custom ringtones to each contact and pictures like I could with my LG phones in the past?

As for that one you can go to your gallery and find a pic you want to use as a contacts id and then hit the menu button and then hit more and then set as and then contact id and follow the instructions from there.

To set a specific ringtone, go to the contact you want to assign and hit menu then edit and then scroll to the bottom and hit more (I think that's what it says) and you can assign a ringtone.

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[billyidle]

To set a browser home page, Menu key in browser, settings, Select Homepage

 

[Freezetron]

Gmail isn't working, it keeps saying " Your email will appear shortly" I removed the task killer but nothing is happening. The phone also is slower since I removed the task killer

 

[dtdlurch]

Congrats man. You've come to the right place! Best android community on the net!

Definitely don't use a task killer. If your phone is running slower, well....either it's got some processes running that need to be but your task killer was knocking them out. Which is why you prolly couldn't get your gmail. Reboot your phone. Delete the task killer and any other apps you don't need or want then reboot. It should initialize itself properly.

My best advice is to not be intimidated by rooting. It's nothing to take lightly, but you have a wealth or resources, a great community to help, and the best damn developers out there doing the root methods. You will get much more optimization out of your phone. You can over clock it, completely change your themes, get features not offered by the verizon approved OS, etc. Plus, there's also a ton of tools to keep your phone running best, but can only be used if you have root.

Read up on root. Don't be careless about it. But I highly suggest that route if you are patient and responsible wi it.

 

[Bilgediver]

Sup all, at LONG LAST after Fedex taking their damn sweet time, I got my first smartphone, the Droid X in my hands today and finally got to activate and play with is this evening. Even being a computer tech and gamer that I am, I finding it a bit overwhelming trying to comes to grips with what this thing can do. So I'll narrow it down to simple requests.


1. Whats the easiest way to see exactly how much apps and crap is running on my Droid and the best way to see and shut them down without going into rooting the phone? I wanna have this Droid X running as lean as possible for speed and battery life.

You CAN use a Task killer to manually kill tasks if you want (the point they make is not to have it AUTO-KILL tasks), but it doesn't fix what you want, because Android will just restart them anyway. People never give you the right answer. Apps like "Startup Auditor" will actually help prevent apps you don't WANT restarting and filling space in the RAM in the first place. You can also choose apps like "Autokiller" or "Minfree" (yea I know Autokiller isn't really a task killer though). Both require ROOT access (do a search for Droid X Root), and both can tweak Android's Memory settings to give you more FREE RAM, which is what you want.

2. Is there anyway to keep the browser from remembering my last webpage? How can I setup up the browser or shortcut to take me to a default google.com search engine website?

The point about Dolphin HD Browser is good, its a good browser and I've used it before. Its not my current browser of choice but to each their own!

3. I've had LG clamshell phones all these years, so how or can I change theme or colors on these Droids?

The easiest way is to download home replacements like ADW.Launcher on the market (check the link in my sig for how ADW works and how you can customize it), because it is themeable. The more intensive way is to get ROOT access and install custom themed ROMS, but I'm not sure how that works on the Droid X, with its locked bootloader and all - check the Droid X section of the Forums for that information.

4. What are the major DO and DO NOT's with these things in regards to software usage?

This is a toughie, because the biggest major DO NOT is don't brick your phone! Heh, I kid kinda, but really the biggest major don't is to don't install a task killer that kills apps automatically. I still have Advanced Task Killer from the Market, but I don't even have it running, I use it when I feel my phone is feeling especially sluggish and there is an app running in the background taking up too much RAM. As for DO, well DO customize and make your new Droid X YOURS!

5. How do I go about making sure my android OS is up to date as well as phone software/firmware?

As said before, check your Settings Menu > About Phone to see what version you have (if you're curious). To check for Updates, go to Settings > About Phone > System Updates to check if there are any new updates for your Droid X

Thanks all for any input and advice.

Half the problem is they tell you not to use a task killer, and why. But they DON'T tell you what you should use INSTEAD. C'mon people these people still feel their phones are running a tad sluggish at times, don't just use a blanket "DON'T USE A TASK KILLER", when task killers in and of themselves are not evil. Its the automated part that sucks. Inform them of apps like Startup Auditor or MinFree or Autokiller that might help his phone run better.

Autokiller is NOT a task killer. The developer was stupid and named his app COMPLETELY wrong, because it gives people the wrong idea. Autokiller is an Android Memory Management tweaker, It changes memory management settings numbers in the OS itself (it DOES require ROOT), so the OS can keep more free RAM, so the phone doesn't feel as sluggish. I use it and I love it.

 

[joeshell20]

May want to point out the perils of installing custom roms on the droidx. Droidx has a efuse chip, so if something goes wrong when trying to install an un-official rom, you could brick your phone. Then the only way to recover it would be attemp to flash sbf or take it to them. Although some have had success, you wont see me trying it. Just a word of caution.

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App

 

[Freezetron]

Sheesh, you guys praise rooting like its the second coming yet fan hate flames towards are simple task killer program? Irony is thick here...

 

[spaz33g]

Probably because rooting opens up a lot of possibilities for your phone, and since task killers inherently conflict with the phone's processes, we have good reason to try and shy people away from it.

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[Quicksilver7714]

I had a Task killer on my droid for the longest time thinking that it helped. I never had problems with it but my Droid seems to be running even smoother without one. This was due to the assumption that the android system acted a lot like windows keeping running tasks and processes running that i did not need. When in fact the Android system is very good with controlling what is running and what is not, and switching between tasks and killing others.