Hello everyone, new customer here.

[Dudenell]

So after getting mad at my free phone for over 2 years now (very disappointed with the z6c world edition from my my lg8300 upgrade that I had) I decided to go with something that sounded like I would like... (can you guess what I got?) Anyways phone comes in tomorrow so I had a few questions...

1. Heard that there was a way to make your phone into a hotspot without paying for verizon's hotspot 20$ a month charge by rooting your phone... does this work on the droid x?

2. From screenshots I've seen I'm guessing anything and everything is pretty much customizable? Is it hard getting everything working after customizing it? (not much to customize in the ipod touch)

3. app store - How would you compare it to apples? How do you "pay" for apps? does it list the prices next to the apps in the store? is there a way to search "top apps" without including asian apps (no offense, I can't read it)

4. backups - has to be a separate app?

5. app launchers? whats up with that?

6. Do I need to worry about "virus" or "security" programs?

Sorry for all the hate with these questions but I rather get out the bad now and find out later

btw I read to stay away from task managers

 

[liferefugee]

Welcome. I hope you enjoy your new toy. To answer your questions...

1) You can do tethering via USB cable, bluetooth, or ad hoc wifi without using the Verizon app. If you want to pay for an app that can do this, root is not needed. However, with root, you can do this for free.

2) There is much that is customizable on the Droid phones, but so far the X is not as open as the others.

3) I have not used Apple's app store as I refuse to get any device that uses it (got the DX because my wife was looking at the ipod touch). You can see top applications, but you can not filter out where they come from. That said, if you can not read the description of the app, dont download it. I have yet to encounter an app that I could read the description and not read the text in the app itself. Prices are listed right on the screen with the apps, so you can clearly see their cost. However, currency can be different, so some of them you may not know the true price until you check out. Check out is done with google, which will estimate the currrency conversion for you, though as they say, they submit the charge as the actual cost not their conversion. A nice thing about the check out for bought apps is that some are refundable. If you dont like an app you bought, you can uninstall it through the marketplace and be refunded within the first 24 hours. If you reinstall or go past that 24 hours the app is yours for good.

4) all backups are done with an application. The phone comes with the app to backup your contacts. The rest is up to you. If you root I recommend Titanium Backup.

5) Not sure what you mean by this. There are some different UIs you can use on the phone instead of the blur that is on there by default. I personally use ADW, but Launch Pro is good too.

6) in general you dont need to worry about these kinds of programs, most just use system resources which decreases your time between charges.

Some extra info to pass along. Follow the tips about battery life and you will be fine. Rooting your phone voids your warrenty, so before you do it make sure you understand how to recover your phone if something goes wrong. Don't be one of those people who root using a 1 touch method and then if something gets screwed up you dont know how to fix your phone. Read the threads and if you can follow the steps for recovery, then root away.

Again, enjoy your new toy and welcome to the party. dancedroid

 

[hookbill]

Welcome. I hope you enjoy your new toy. To answer your questions…


4) all backups are done with an application. The phone comes with the app to backup your contacts. The rest is up to you. If you root I recommend Titanium Backup.

Slightly incorrect. While it does have Verizon's back up, it is a google phone so all contacts are backed up automatically to gmail. You don't have to use Verizon's back up. Your calendar is backed up by Google Calendar. Paid Apps are all available in the Market if you need a back up of that. There is also MyBackupPro which does not need to be rooted to use to back up tour apps.

6) in general you dont need to worry about these kinds of programs, most just use system resources which decreases your time between charges.

Some extra info to pass along. Follow the tips about battery life and you will be fine. Rooting your phone voids your warrenty, so before you do it make sure you understand how to recover your phone if something goes wrong. Don't be one of those people who root using a 1 touch method and then if something gets screwed up you dont know how to fix your phone. Read the threads and if you can follow the steps for recovery, then root away.

Again, enjoy your new toy and welcome to the party. dancedroid

Your battery life will be short no matter what you do. Best thing to do is to get an extra battery and a wall charger at the very least. A cradle to put your phone in to charge when not at use on your desk is a good idea.

 

[liferefugee]

Slightly incorrect. While it does have Verizon's back up, it is a google phone so all contacts are backed up automatically to gmail. You don't have to use Verizon's back up. Your calendar is backed up by Google Calendar. Paid Apps are all available in the Market if you need a back up of that. There is also MyBackupPro which does not need to be rooted to use to back up tour apps.
QUOTE]

Not true in 2 ways.
1) Gmail will store who you interact with via their services, but does not do a pure backup of your contacts in general. You can't just go into gmail and pull up all your contacts from your phone without doing anything else.

But even if this was not the case, my statement that all backups are done with an app is still correct.
2) Any backups done is not via the operating system by default. Even to interact with gmail you have to use an app.

As for battery life, it fully depends on your use of the phone. If you have your screen on all the time, access to a charger/spare battery is great. Heck I have my spare battery on its charger right now at home. If you use the tips that can be found on these forums you can easily get a day's use of the phone without needing the spare battery though. With moderate use during the day (check emails now and again, catch up on facebook posts, look something up on the web, stream pandora to my bluetooth headset) I can unplug at 5 am and go until I plug it back in around 9 pm for the night. The more time I have the screen on though the earlier I have to plug in at night. Now on the weekend when I am home more and I use my phone more, I swap out batteries around 4pm.

Long story short, you can get almost 5 hours of constant use on a standard battery, so your usage will dictate if a spare battery is worth the cost to you.

 

[Dalverny63]

Just to add a lil note any apps paid for in the market are saved there if you need to replace the X for any reason for easy restore to new Android OS device (ties into ur google account)

Sent from DX runnin Chuck.3

 

[hookbill]

Slightly incorrect. While it does have Verizon's back up, it is a google phone so all contacts are backed up automatically to gmail. You don't have to use Verizon's back up. Your calendar is backed up by Google Calendar. Paid Apps are all available in the Market if you need a back up of that. There is also MyBackupPro which does not need to be rooted to use to back up tour apps.
QUOTE]

Not true in 2 ways.
1) Gmail will store who you interact with via their services, but does not do a pure backup of your contacts in general. You can't just go into gmail and pull up all your contacts from your phone without doing anything else.

If you make a contact and your phone syncs to gmail, that contact appears in your gmail contacts on line. It works that way every time I've done it. Plain and simple.

There isn't a single contact on my phone that isn't available in gmail. I've had the original Droid also, which didn't use Verizons back up.

I'm not saying don't use it, I'm saying the true backup for your contacts is in gmail. If you want to use Verizons back up that's fine. But gmail does it too.

 

[liferefugee]

perhaps for any new contact that is the case. Most people though are not recreating their contacts when moving to a new phone now that VZ has the backup app for free available for all their phones. If you add your contacts to the DX using the VZ app, they do not auto sync to google. I checked before disputing your claim by going to my gmail account and seeing what contacts are there. The only ones listed under contacts are the ones I sent messages to using a google feature.

*Edit* Ok, so saying most people is not accurate since I dont know what most people do..

 

[lterry913]

In agreement with hookbill here...all contacts are in google contacts list which you can get to from your google email home page...contacts, calendar and paid apps have all been saved every time I have felt the need to factory reset or upgraded phones...I have never used the backup assistant from verizon so it may work...tried it once but seemed a bit confusing...and the only way to deactivate it is a factory reset I believe...I just did not need 2 services performing the same action functioning on my phone...Good luck with whatever you chose... and in case you don't understand the launcher thing...In plain non techie words it is a home replacement with different look and different options for customization...kinda like putting a mask on your original home screen or desktop...Its a work in progress this phone and you will have plenty to play and experiment with.

 

[Dudenell]

Thanks for all the input so far

A MAJOR thing that is bugging me is that every time I plug it into my computer it pops up with this crap: Entertainment and Apps from Verizon Wireless - V CAST Media Manager

how do I get rid of this or disable it?

 

[Technoman]

Thanks for all the input so far

A MAJOR thing that is bugging me is that every time I plug it into my computer it pops up with this crap: Entertainment and Apps from Verizon Wireless - V CAST Media Manager

how do I get rid of this or disable it?

Click on the connection dialog on your computer in the task tray, and select "do nothing".

 

[Dudenell]

Curious where I can find ad hoc or a teathering / hotspot app

 

[xeene]

Market

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[Dudenell]

Of course the market. Any recommendations?