First Smartphone - Droid Bionic - Any tips appreciated

[Smokinram]

Hello all,
After reading and reading and reading, my decision to go with the Droid Bionic over the Iphone was made today. I am the proud owner of a new Droid Bionic, my first smart phone.

What can all or any of you tell me to do with it to make it the best phone it can be?

Thanks in advance,
Andy

 

[Sebastian]

First of all, congrats, on the new phone. You made the right choice.

There are sooooooo many ways to configure this phone, you need to figure out what you want out of it and you can go from there.

 

[JerseyFirefighter]

Read read and read. All the tips, tricks, and apps that will catch your eye will be in forums, droid life, android central etc. Youll find out what type of user you are and flourish from there. Theres so many avenues to take with such a great piece of hardware. Congrats on the purchase you made the right choice.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[mdroid2g]

Congrats on the bionic.
I would say first off explore the phone, change settings, add widgets, download everything, fill it full of all the garbage you want to play with and dont worry about slowing it down or making it more confusing. Then when you have learned how and when to change settings and what apps you like, do a factory reset and format the sd so you can start over and set it ip the way you like. ENJOY!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Smokinram]

So far I love this phone. Just so new to me I KNOW I am missing a ton of features that it has. Just not sure how to set it up or navigate with it properly just yet. If anyone has any good apps or settings that you think I should do, please let me know.
Trying to learn how to use Swype but coming from a Casio Rock "Dumb" phone, its going to be a long learning road.

Thanks again and like I said, any input is greatly appreciated.

Oh also, today is my first full day of use with this phone. I am curious to see how the battery lasts. I let it die completely last night and it charged overnight. A guy at the verizon store had an extended battery on one but the Otterbox case won't fit then. What are your thoughts on the battery life of this phone and whats best to do to extend it?

Thanks again,
Andy

 

[Speeding Wheels]

best way to extend the battery life - kill Skype when not using it.
best app you've probably never heard of and will only use once - Not Call Log Classic
best tip - Longpress is your friend


read read read the forums! thats how you'll learn what it can do. Ask ask ask questions! tell us what your needs are and we'll point you in the right direction

 

[Smokinram]

I really appreciate that advice.

How do I shut off Skype and what exactly does that app do?

Thanks again,
Andy

 

[Speeding Wheels]

Skype is a chat/VOIP program.
Open TASK MANAGER from your app drawer and kill it

 

[Smokinram]

Skype is a chat/VOIP program.
Open TASK MANAGER from your app drawer and kill it

I am still very new to this phone. Can you step me through how to kill Skype?
Thanks

 

[Seawolf]

A few things I did that worked for me.

1- Rooted the phone. This allowed me to remove all the bloatware and install certain apps that can only be run on a rooted phone.
2- Turn off 4G when not streaming video or downloading and use 3G. This really extends battery life.
3- keep your browser cache clean and do routine cleanups on your SD card and internal memory. This helps keep things quick.

 

[JerseyFirefighter]

I am still very new to this phone. Can you step me through how to kill Skype?
Thanks

Open up skype, place bionic on table, and proceed to bash it with a blunt instrument.


Orrrr, you can hit menu button/settings/applications/manage apps or running services, find skype and click force stop
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[GBH2]

All good suggestions. I suggest looking through the thread with "screen shots" of the phone. You get to see how others have set up there phones and start to learn some of the possibilities. I am a very experienced user and I still look through those threads and see things that make me think "Cool, How the hell did they do that?" lol.

The other great thing about Android is that as you get used to it, you may start to think that something is less than perfect(or totally stinks) that's ok - if you don't like the way the text app works, or the Gallery, or the Music App you can just replace them with a dozen(or 100) other ones that probably do close to what you would like.

Mostly, just start playing, get the hang of it and then you can Read, or Search or ask specific questions. Android has an amazing community of people and there is always someone who can steer you in the right direction!

Congratulations of you decision to go with Android!

Good Luck!

 

[Arkbird]

You don't have to go to the task manager to stop Skype from running people! All you do is click the menu button and then click exit (while in Skype). Voila! no more Skype running in the background.

 

[jleeusa]

Are you reading this from your shiny new smart phone or your computer? If you haven't yet get the Droid Forums app. Then you can follow all these tips from anywhere.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Smokinram]

Open up skype, place bionic on table, and proceed to bash it with a blunt instrument.


Orrrr, you can hit menu button/settings/applications/manage apps or running services, find skype and click force stop
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Went there and there is no Skype to be found. Could it be that my Bionic does not have Skype on it from the factory?