Texting & WiFi questions for Noob

[floradora]

Hi guys/gals, noob here. I've got a couple questions that hopefully one of you much smarter people can answer.

1) On the Droid X, when I'm typing a text on the touchscreen, I see nowhere that gives me that character count...until I first touch "DONE" on the typing screen and go to the next screen that has the actual "SEND" button. That second screen is the only place I see a character count. Kind of annoying because I have no idea how many characters I have left on that first screen. Is there a way to add that somewhere on the keyboard screen?

2) I have a router at home and I have my X set up to pick up the signal while I'm at home. I've read some confusing things about using WiFi and battery drain. Should I use WiFi at home through my router signal and then just toggle it off when I leave home & go back to 3G?

Sorry for my noobie questions!

 

[dezymond]

1. try a 3rd party app such as handcent or chompsms. those come with text counters.

2. how often do you use your phone at home with wifi? Since you're turning on another receiver it would take its toll on the battery, but if you don't use it often enough, you should just turn the automatic setting off. When i'm at home i use wifi, but since i'm usually by my computer there's no need to have my phone on my network.

 

[mwhartman]

Welcome to DF!

I have a Droid so my experience will be slightly different from your X. I'm not sure about the typing but for wifi I believe when you are connected the battery drain is negligible. However, if you leave your home and the phone is searching for a wifi connect you battery can drain. If may not be dramatic but.

I'm moving your post to the X general discussion section so that other X members can comment.

Mike

 

[floradora]

Thanks so much for the replies. Sorry I posted this in the wrong thread! Can't find my way around the phone or the forum. heh

I was unclear on when to use WiFi, vs 3G. I'm assuming that anytime it searches for a WiFi connection, if I'm not home, it will drain the battery as it searches....but I'm still not clear on the best time to use it vs. not to use it. If I'm always connected to the 3G anyway, what's the benefit of using the WiFi? I think I've read it's a faster download, but aside from that, I'm a bit confused. Sorry for such stupid questions!

 

[LT*]

I use wifi at home almost exclusively. My 3G signal kind of sucks, so I use more power trying to keep a 3G signal than a constant wifi signal. Downloading anything over wifi is about 10x faster than 3G too, so that's a bonus.