list of questions from new user

[pitseleh12]

just got the thunderbolt and would really appreciate answers to the following long list of questions:

1) where can i get a manual that says what every option is? there are so many icons i dont know what they are unless i press them, and thats frustrating.

2) i switched from a windows mobile 6 phone and the most important program for me was pocket breeze. the agenda view on the thunderbolt is similar but
2a) it does not integrate tasks.
2b) and if someone can recommend a way to integrate tasks, id like it to be such that if i dont complete a task, it shows up on the top of the next day's agenda as an overdue task.
2b) when i try to schedule something, it only gives me that date flip pad, so i have to know what date to use. instead, id like to see a month layout, so i can more easily schedule something for 3 weeks from today without having to do the math in my head.
any alternatives?

3) speaking of tasks, can someone please tell me how to transfer my windows mobile/outlook tasks to the thunderbolt. i was able to get the contacts and appts via google calendar, but i cant figure out how to do it with all my tasks.

4) when i set an alarm, i want the music to repeat until i shut it off. the stock alarm doesnt allow that?

5) is there a quick way to write a note?! on my old windows mobile phone i could hit New, Note, and draw or write anything quickly. i used to have a whole list of notes, like all my passwords, or recipes.

6) i cant find the original text twist game in "market" - am i searching wrong? or if it is not available there, is there somewhere else i can get it from?

7) how do i transfer a ripped dvd from my pc to the thunderbolt's microsd card (without taking it out)? and do i have to download a special player?

8) what is the best way to backup everything? i got my calendar from google calendar, but how do i assure my phone is regularly backing up new appointments and contacts to google online?

9) why does my today screen's clock and weather station change the "location"? sometimes it says bronx, sometimes New York, and sometimes North Hempstead, and sometimes it says the right town i live in in North Hempstead.

THANKS, I KNOW THIS IS A LOT!

 

[Larry_ThaGr81]

The transition isn't easy, but hopefully this helps

Unfortunately you will have a lot of learning to do, but the android community is huge and the vast majority of us are willing to assist you, all you have to do is ask.

1. a manual doesn't exist for android specific icons, all I can suggest is that you continue experimenting or PM (send a private message) me or other people by clicking on their name and selecting the second option, which is the quickest way.

2. You can use Jorte from the android market for all of #2 issues.

3. Not too sure on that one, but my wife uses this application for the pc, see attachement. Note it only works with outlook 2003 and 2007.

4. You can use Gentle Alarm from the android market

5. Too many apps to name, I use Note Everything.

6. May not be available, check the developers website to see if a android version exist.

7. Don't watch movies on my android, so I can't comment on this one.

8. Keep your synchronization turned on under accounts and sync located under (menu-->setting-->accounts and sync) and that will periodically
backup all that stuff.

9. That I don't know, but maybe it just depends on where it is receiving broadcast from. Sometimes my says Victorville, the city next to me when I'm at home in Hesperia.

 

[Blackhawk55]

Unless I am over simplifying your question 7: Just connect your phone to your PC via USB, mount it as a disk drive and copy.

 

[xeene]

1) where can i get a manual that says what every option is? there are so many icons i dont know what they are unless i press them, and thats frustrating.

7) how do i transfer a ripped dvd from my pc to the thunderbolt's microsd card (without taking it out)? and do i have to download a special player?

1. http://member.america.htc.com/downl...Thunderbolt_Verizon/VZW_Thunderboltnew_UM.pdf

7. with usb cable and stock video player works for most file types, for others you can use rock player.

 

[pitseleh12]

Wow. That's a lot of help. Gonna try everything & report bk. Thanks all.

3 more?
1. Is there a quicker way to do things like question mark besides hold down the letter till it pops up? Seems slower than a shift key
2. My wife said when I txtd her instead of my name she now sees a long bunch of random letters in the "from:" field.
3. How do I click on a link to this thread from an email and get to this Droid forum application instead of it opening up in internet?
Thanks again. Super helpful & friendly
Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums App

 

[sir2545]

3. When you get an email notification, open up the Droidforums app and go to favorites, then the topics tab. Any threads you have posted in or subscribed to will be in there. That's what I do.

 

[pitseleh12]

to answer #2 from my second list, i called verizon about that long string of numbers showing up when i txt ppl instead of my name or phone number. i was told by a verizon rep that it is my SIM card number showing up, and this is a glitch they have yet to fix yet and they dont know when it will be fixed. thats a big no-no. her only suggestion was to tell my contacts to add that number to my contact info. i have a hard time believing this is what all of u are doing...

 

[sir2545]

to answer #2 from my second list, i called verizon about that long string of numbers showing up when i txt ppl instead of my name or phone number. i was told by a verizon rep that it is my SIM card number showing up, and this is a glitch they have yet to fix yet and they dont know when it will be fixed. thats a big no-no. her only suggestion was to tell my contacts to add that number to my contact info. i have a hard time believing this is what all of u are doing...

That is a known issue......maybe this will help

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/htc-thunderbolt/133443-text-messages-delivered-odd-number.html

 

[BigMcGuire]

No, for the sim card showing up in your name/phone number - pull your battery, wait 30 seconds, and restart. Several people (including myself) had this problem the day we bought the phone. For me a simple restart worked, but for most people a battery pull was required and it worked for them.

 

[droidDOES.duh]

Wow. That's a lot of help. Gonna try everything & report bk. Thanks all.

3 more?
1. Is there a quicker way to do things like question mark besides hold down the letter till it pops up? Seems slower than a shift key
2. My wife said when I txtd her instead of my name she now sees a long bunch of random letters in the "from:" field.
3. How do I click on a link to this thread from an email and get to this Droid forum application instead of it opening up in internet?
Thanks again. Super helpful & friendly
Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums App

1. You should be able to hit shift or the "sym" button then whatever symbol youre looking for. the button might also be a "123!?" type thing.
2. Tell her to double check your name in her contacts. It could of gotten changed by accident.

Youre more them likely to get frustrated coming from a windows phone to an android. You'll get it all soon enough and love it.
Happy droid-ing. Lol

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[pitseleh12]

larry,
jorte didnt look like what i needed. i am hoping for a layout like the stock agenda view, with tasks integrated, and with overdue tasks showing up on the next day. is there another suggestion?

- i would also prefer the agenda view be my main page (the way there is a "friend stream" page that i could theoretically move to the center). possible?

- also, why are my contacts' birthdays and anniversaries not showing up on agenda view? is there an alternative that addresses all of the above?

googlecalendarsync did not bring over tasks to google. so im still looking for a solution to that issue.

gentlealarm did what i needed, but im afraid of restarting my phone and forgetting to load the program. i dont see how to auto-start a program after a restart.

noteeverything looks great. thanks.

blackhawk55, if i connect it as a disk drive, how do i know its going to the microsd card and not the phone's memory? bc when i look in file explorer at the new drive, it shows a lot of things that i imagine would only be on the phone. also, i was able to get a video on there using ur method (so i can assume if its big enuf, its going to sd, but when i copy a folder with the VIDEO_TS subfolder, which is basically a dvd file, which my pc's VLC media player can play, its not recognized in VIDEOS at all. is there a way to even navigate on the phone to that file and try to open it directly? Like a file explorer?

the "123" button requires u press it, then the symbol, then press it again. wouldve been more convenient to have it go back to ABC after clicking on symbol, with the option of holding down"123" for a long-hold and making it lock, like caps lock. whatever

also, when i restarted my phone, my facebook and email notifications werent coming thru right away like they were before until i went into settings and synced. do i need to sync first or open facebook first?

thanks for the support...

 

[Jumper2501]

blackhawk55, if i connect it as a disk drive, how do i know its going to the microsd card and not the phone's memory? bc when i look in file explorer at the new drive, it shows a lot of things that i imagine would only be on the phone. also, i was able to get a video on there using ur method (so i can assume if its big enuf, its going to sd, but when i copy a folder with the VIDEO_TS subfolder, which is basically a dvd file, which my pc's VLC media player can play, its not recognized in VIDEOS at all. is there a way to even navigate on the phone to that file and try to open it directly? Like a file explorer?

I use a Windows laptop. When I mount my phone's card as a drive, I get two popups (E:, which is the phone with Verizon logo and F:, which is the memory card). It takes a second or two for the SD card to show. Hope this helps.

EDIT: On my D1, I'd started using Executive Assistant's widget as a home screen, maybe like you want. I don't remember whether or not incomplete tasks rolled over. I wasn't sure I wanted to go with the pay version, and I haven't installed it on my TB.

 

[Larry_ThaGr81]

Maybe this will help

larry,
jorte didnt look like what i needed. i am hoping for a layout like the stock agenda view, with tasks integrated, and with overdue tasks showing up on the next day. is there another suggestion?

- i would also prefer the agenda view be my main page (the way there is a "friend stream" page that i could theoretically move to the center). possible?

- also, why are my contacts' birthdays and anniversaries not showing up on agenda view? is there an alternative that addresses all of the above?

googlecalendarsync did not bring over tasks to google. so im still looking for a solution to that issue.

gentlealarm did what i needed, but im afraid of restarting my phone and forgetting to load the program. i dont see how to auto-start a program after a restart.

noteeverything looks great. thanks.

blackhawk55, if i connect it as a disk drive, how do i know its going to the microsd card and not the phone's memory? bc when i look in file explorer at the new drive, it shows a lot of things that i imagine would only be on the phone. also, i was able to get a video on there using ur method (so i can assume if its big enuf, its going to sd, but when i copy a folder with the VIDEO_TS subfolder, which is basically a dvd file, which my pc's VLC media player can play, its not recognized in VIDEOS at all. is there a way to even navigate on the phone to that file and try to open it directly? Like a file explorer?

the "123" button requires u press it, then the symbol, then press it again. wouldve been more convenient to have it go back to ABC after clicking on symbol, with the option of holding down"123" for a long-hold and making it lock, like caps lock. whatever

also, when i restarted my phone, my facebook and email notifications werent coming thru right away like they were before until i went into settings and synced. do i need to sync first or open facebook first?

thanks for the support...

jorte didnt look like what i needed. i am hoping for a layout like the stock agenda view, with tasks integrated, and with overdue tasks showing up on the next day. is there another suggestion?
Hmmm....Well I'm assumming that you set chose the Google Calendar when you opened Jorte for the first time. I checked to see if I could accomplish what you wanted. I was able to set up a couple of tasks and have it show up in my calendar. I created a past due task, which appears at the top of my task list and a task due at the end of the month. See screenshots 2 and 3. The agenda view will only show future tasks and events.

Jorte is a calendar app designed to provide many different widget options for calendars, agenda, task views, etc. It may not seem like much especially with you coming from a Windows phone that works seemlessly with outlook, but in my opinion, it's more impressive than the stock calendar app because it can do everything the stock one can and it offers a lot of widget options. Personally opinions aside, there are many apps out there that can accomplish what you want, maybe the two I mention further down will be more to your satisfaction.

- i would also prefer the agenda view be my main page (the way there is a "friend stream" page that i could theoretically move to the center). possible?
I will upload three screenshots, the first will be a widget of the agenda view, the second screenshot will be a widget of my task list and monthly calendar and the third screenshot will be the application itself open showing the calendar on top with the task list below.

- also, why are my contacts' birthdays and anniversaries not showing up on agenda view? is there an alternative that addresses all of the above?
If you want to see birthdays, anniversaries, etc you must create events for them as you would have to do in the standard google calendar application.

googlecalendarsync did not bring over tasks to google. so im still looking for a solution to that issue.
I will have to get back to you on this one, I will check with my wife to see if she can create task on her outlook program that can be transferred to her phone with google calendar sync.

If Jorte isn't for you, then you can also checkout checkmark todo list and checkmark calendar because I know my wife uses checkmark todo list to integrate her tasks into her calendar. Checkmark todo list has a option under its setting to enable it to synchronize tasks with the google calendar.

gentlealarm did what i needed, but im afraid of restarting my phone and forgetting to load the program. i dont see how to auto-start a program after a restart.
You need not worry because gentle alarm will automatically run after restart. If you want to know that it's running, press the menu key and select settings-->advanced features-->other preferences-->notifications.

 

[pitseleh12]

few more questions, please:
1. when i copied a dvd folder (VIDEO_TS) to the phone, it wasnt even recognized in VIDEOS, but it plays fine on my pc with VLC media player. i cant even find it on the phone bc i dont even see a file explorer on the phone!
2. is there a way to make notification sounds repeat? like if i got a text message, and it makes that quick chime, the only way ill know about the text message if i miss that chime is if i look at the top of my phone. is there a way to repeat the notification chime every few minutes? or change the chime to a longer song?
3. what is the advantage of apps like facebook if u can go on facebook with the internet browser? the app doesnt even give notifications to the phone. u still have to rely on email notifcations or go to the app and click refresh.
4. what is the best way to access files on ur home pc for free? like stream music/movies/access word documents...
5. how do u save a page in Market to come back to it? i want to look at the reviews of one program and then check out another without having to remember the name

6. larry, really appreciate u taking all this time. i guess my biggest problem with jorte is that u cant scroll down the way im used to (in the app, u have to swipe sideways) and i went thru a lot of the widgets one by one and i cant scroll to see all my appts/tasks). even if all that were fixed, there is no DUE TIME next to the tasks even though it did seem to be integrated correcty. ill check out the other progs u mentioned.

ideally, my main page would look like this:

Today, Tuesday, March 29:
(Task icon) 3/25/11 Return shoes (this would be an overdue task at the top)
(Apt icon) 10:00AM-11:00AM: Meeting at work (Alarm icon for 9:30 reminder)
(Task icon) 3:00PM (Alarm reminder time) Print document (Alarm icon to quickly change due time or alarm reminder time).

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 30 [1]:
(Apt icon) All Day Event - No work / vacation day
(Apt icon) 9:00AM-11:00AM: Visit Mom
(Task icon) 11:30 (Alarm reminder time) Buy Milk

Friday, April 1 [3]:
(Birthday Icon) Joe's Birthday (34)

on my windows phone i could only scroll for 1 month, but at the bottom, i would be able to see Future Tasks with each task preceded with the date, like:
Future Tasks
6/3/11 Get oil change
7/25/11 Change water filter

i would like to be able to add new appts/tasks and reschedule/change reminders from the main page, too. if i can get this, it would be perfect. the reason i prefer tasks integrated this way is that if i dont buy the milk tomorrow, itll show up on thursday as an overdue task. it wouldnt show up on thursday if it had been an appointment.

the agenda view for checkmark calendar also failed to integrate tasks by reminder time: they are at the top it seems according to their screenshot. the option im looking for would say something like "Sort tasks with appts by reminder"

 

[Viper Daimao]

just got the thunderbolt and would really appreciate answers to the following long list of questions:

1) where can i get a manual that says what every option is? there are so many icons i dont know what they are unless i press them, and thats frustrating.

I've attached the thunderbolt manual with a listing of all the notification bar icons. Had to zip it because the pdf was 5.3megs (over the file size limit)