New Droid Razr Maxx option suggestions?

[sava700]

I've got my new Maxx coming this Wed.... looking for all suggestions on what I could do to enhance my experience with it.

First time going to a large smart phone like this as I've been holding back since I haven't had a need but the apps and things I could do have pulled me in. I'm on the 4Gig data package so I don't think I should be going over it any time soon so bandwidth isn't an issue however a list of apps to get and locations to get them would be great if someone wants to list a few. Options in the phone that I need to change from default to make it operate better, settings and so on or should I hack the phone like I've done in the past with all my LG's that I've had. I want to get the most out of it for as much as I had to pay for the sucker...verizon is doing away with the free upgrade or discount and now going to charge people in another week so figured now or never.

Again just post settings suggestions, apps or whatever. My first list of Apps I'll go for so far is something from espn to watch scores of NCAA FB, local news app for weather and such, Foxfi so I can tether it and a few others I can't think of at the moment.

 

[jeff70]

ESPN Score Center or Scoremobile are good for sports scores, Weather channel and WeatherBug are good for weather but it has been awhile since I used those apps because I use Beautiful Widgets to take care of my weather/clock needs (Fancy Widgets is also a very good clock/weather all in one app), for local news you may find an app for one of your local stations in the area where you live so do a search of the call letters of a local station and you might get lucky

Explore the smart actions app on your phone, I have found that smart actions has greatly enhanced my experiences on the Maxx

since you are on the 4gig data plan I would suggest putting the My Verizon Data Widget on one of your home screens so you can keep up with your data usage

 

[sava700]

ESPN Score Center or Scoremobile are good for sports scores, Weather channel and WeatherBug are good for weather but it has been awhile since I used those apps because I use Beautiful Widgets to take care of my weather/clock needs (Fancy Widgets is also a very good clock/weather all in one app), for local news you may find an app for one of your local stations in the area where you live so do a search of the call letters of a local station and you might get lucky

Explore the smart actions app on your phone, I have found that smart actions has greatly enhanced my experiences on the Maxx

since you are on the 4gig data plan I would suggest putting the My Verizon Data Widget on one of your home screens so you can keep up with your data usage

Ok thanks for the info.. as for the 4Gig plan... I wish I would have gotten in earlier on the unlimited before they took it off but I've talked to a bunch of friends whom say they don't even get near the 4Gigs a month yet use it a ton so I guess I'll have to wait and see what I end up using.

Also I know my local news station has a app for weather so I'll be grabbing it.

 

[jeff70]

Ok thanks for the info.. as for the 4Gig plan... I wish I would have gotten in earlier on the unlimited before they took it off but I've talked to a bunch of friends whom say they don't even get near the 4Gigs a month yet use it a ton so I guess I'll have to wait and see what I end up using.

Also I know my local news station has a app for weather so I'll be grabbing it.

np good luck with your new phone, Since I had unlimited data with my last 2 year contract Verizon let me grandfather in unlimited data for my new 2 year plan for my Maxx

It will be interesting to see how long Verizon allows me to continue to grandfather in unlimited data into a new 2 year contract, my guess is my next 2 year contract Verizon will not grandfather in unlimited data but maybe they will surprise me

 

[MysticalDreams]

i am a lil cautious when I don't have unlimited. I go back to when text msgs were by the 100s not unlimited and my step son ran my bill up to $600.00 in txt msgs!!! That being said, even if you don't think you will use the data, some of the applications that you are running will always have a data pull. The more you can be on WiFi (home, office, school, etc) I would do it.

Now lets move on to what you want on the phone... are you looking for games, social apps, business apps, fun apps, performance apps?

Some suggestions...Battery Indicator, Beautiful Widgets, GoLauncher (if you are looking for a new launcher) Handcent, Flashlight (a lot to choose from)and a Barcode scanner (don't remember if one comes stock or not)

I found it was a lot easier for me to look at the market(grrrrrrrrrrr the 'play store') on the computer and read the descriptions and look at the pictures than when I am on the phone.. just easier to compare some of them.

Once you let us know what types of apps you are looking for we can help direct you.

Good Luck with the phone and welcome to the forum lots of great information here and no question is a dumb question

 

[sava700]

i am a lil cautious when I don't have unlimited. I go back to when text msgs were by the 100s not unlimited and my step son ran my bill up to $600.00 in txt msgs!!! That being said, even if you don't think you will use the data, some of the applications that you are running will always have a data pull. The more you can be on WiFi (home, office, school, etc) I would do it.

Now lets move on to what you want on the phone... are you looking for games, social apps, business apps, fun apps, performance apps?

Some suggestions...Battery Indicator, Beautiful Widgets, GoLauncher (if you are looking for a new launcher) Handcent, Flashlight (a lot to choose from)and a Barcode scanner (don't remember if one comes stock or not)

I found it was a lot easier for me to look at the market(grrrrrrrrrrr the 'play store') on the computer and read the descriptions and look at the pictures than when I am on the phone.. just easier to compare some of them.

Once you let us know what types of apps you are looking for we can help direct you.

Good Luck with the phone and welcome to the forum lots of great information here and no question is a dumb question

Well I know I'll be wanting to keep up with NCAA FB - I don't care about other sports. I know I can get a local tv news station's app for weather so that should be enough there. I don't intend to play many games on it (at least at start)... nothing in the way of business needs at the moment either with it. I don't have a facebook so I won't need that crap either and if its already on there I would like to be able to delete it (can't stand facebook). The flashlight app looks pretty neat so I'll prob like that as I saw a friend use it one night going back to truck from a football game. Barcode scanner would be good to use since that appears to be something many are leaning towards for info. I'll be putting Steam App on for sure as I'm on it a bunch and there is another app to allow me to control sourcemod servers that I believe I've got a link to here some where. I really wish I could throw up other idea's to get suggestions but over all I'm looking to get the most performance out of the phone so if I need to change settings, hack it or whatever that is the most important thing now.

As for the data needs - yeah it would most likely be set to gather wifi setups be it at my home or other locations to avoid using my 4Gigs allowed per month which I have a ton of places to connect to.

 

[Trash Can]

Personally, I prefer text message alerts from ESPN for football scores over the ScoreCenter app. It's free - just register for an account and search for "my alerts". Very simple to set up.

Every NFL and NCAA Div I game is available, plus some smaller college level games as well. All other major sports too. You can select an individual game or all season for a particular team. You can choose to set your alerts for every scoring play, quarter and final, or final score only. The scores arrive almost instantaneously, usually within seconds of watching it on TV.

I also subscribe to their news alerts. It can be a little overwhelming at times, but there's no such thing as too much football IMO.

Obviously, it would be a good idea to have an unlimited text plan before going this route. And a bonus for those who don't have unlimited data, this option won't use any. Might be easier on the battery too.

 

[sava700]

Ok got new phone... now I'm working on setup. I see a list of services - which one of these do I need or don't need? I see a few from google, a Music, Verizon location agent etc...

Also I'm trying to move some media from a diff card into the phone's memory but having trouble finding how to do that so I can replace that card with the larger 16MB card.

Aside from this... suggestions on setup?

Edit: Also whats a good free GPS app?

So far I've installed the ESPN score, local news and weather station app, a flash light app, steam app... any free stuff cool to play with?

 

[sava700]

Another question.... on my old phone I could just resend the same text over and over, to the point some I would lock to avoid clearing it and annoy a friend but how do I do this on this phone as in lock the message and/or resend?

 

[didymus]

Free GPS is included on all Android phones. Maps and Navigation are the two stock GPS apps. But stay away from VZ Navigator because there is a charge for using that app.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

 

[sava700]

Free GPS is included on all Android phones. Maps and Navigation are the two stock GPS apps. But stay away from VZ Navigator because there is a charge for using that app.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

Ok - As for services, I have the ESPN Score Center loaded but I see a service for it running. Can I stop this and make it so this app doesn't run something unless I use it as I don't really see a need for this and other services to be running.

 

[jeff70]

Ok - As for services, I have the ESPN Score Center loaded but I see a service for it running. Can I stop this and make it so this app doesn't run something unless I use it as I don't really see a need for this and other services to be running.

You can use the Task Manager app found on the phone to close programs 2mins after the display times out if you want to.

I am careful about what apps I install so I haven't found the need myself to turn off any services when the phone performance is great and I am getting 30+ hours per charge so I don't worry about what services need to be shut down or what is running in the background like I did with my last phone.

If my phone performance and battery life was suffering I would start looking at what services are running that impact my phone and I feel confident just letting the android OS take care of background processes and just spend time enjoying using my phone instead of worrying about what background services to kill.

 

[MysticalDreams]

As for the text msgs, there are 2 apps that are widely suggested here that offer more than the standard app, they both offer your personal customization and can do what you are asking as far as locking and such.. one is Hancent and the other is Go SMS but you might need the Go launcher for GO SMS

 

[mbell75]

You don't need Go Launcher to use Go SMS. If you want the best user experience, root it and install the latest leak of ICS, its awesome

 

[sava700]

You don't need Go Launcher to use Go SMS. If you want the best user experience, root it and install the latest leak of ICS, its awesome

I'm not sure of the process of "rooting" the phone as it is brand new and I'm unaware of the details and purpose so if you care to explain it to me that would be great, don't worry about terms I understand everything but as I said this is new. As of now I did install that hancent which looks nice but what are the pro's and con's to rooting the phone so to speak?