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Welcome to the HTC Incredible! I came from a non-Android phone so everything was new to me. I scoured AndroidForums.com and Google Buzz to learn the ropes. I’ll briefly summarize some of the valuable tips I learned from Android veterans.
1. Charge your battery before you turn the phone on. The indicator should be a solid green before you turn it on for activation. This may take a couple of (painful) hours.
2. Learn the HTC Sense keyboard but consider a replacement. It’s not hard to use but you might be faster with a keyboard replacement. One popular one is Swype (you drag your finger key to key and only lift between words). It was in a limited beta but you can still download and install it. Instructions and download link can be found here. If you go with Swype, you MUST do the tutorial or you will be lost. Tip: You might also want to disable the haptic feedback (the short vibrations) when you keypress. The feedback gets annoying.
3. Extending battery life is important for enjoying this phone. Consider turning off mobile web (3G) when you don’t need it. Because I’m usually in a Wifi hotspot, I often don’t have a need to keep the 3G data connection going. You can add a widget to your home screen for switching mobile web on and off. Long press in an empty cell and select widget. Scroll down to Settings and then select Mobile Web. Voila, you have a toggle on your home screen. Also check out the Power Control widget bar that allows you to toggle on and off GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi and some other stuff.
4. Make good use of your seven home screens. Throw down helpful widgets but be careful not to put down too many that update frequently or you will drain the battery. Try to group icons with similar widgets to keep your screens organized.
5. Download doubleTwist on your computer to transfer music to your phone. It’s basically iTunes for everything non-Apple and you can also use it to purchase MP3s from Amazon.
6. The first app you should install is AppBrain. After you install it, go to the computer and login to appbrain.com. You can now browse the Android Market and mark items for download with your computer. When you’re ready to load a batch of apps on the Incredible, launch the AppBrain app and sync each one. Note: use the back button after each install and the next one will come up automatically. This is a real time saver.
7. Here’s a list of 39 really cool Android apps that Matt Cutts blogged about.
8. Choose between the HTC mail app and the stock Android Gmail app. You can actually do both but you will get double notifications unless you tweak one not to notify you of new mail. I threw the stock Android Gmail app icon on my primary home screen. Later I replaced it with a widget that shows me an unread count and launches Gmail. I also have the HTC mail app running as a widget on an entire home screen because it provides a good preview of new emails.
9. Visit AndroidForums.com and register for a free account. Post any questions you have in the HTC Incredible sub-forum.
10. Experiment! You’re not going to mess up your phone too bad. :) Really, install a bunch of apps.. you have the space.. keep the winners and delete the losers.
I offer my sincere gratitude to a bunch of random people who have helped me learn the ropes in a few hours of time. I specifically want to thank the some people who follow me on Google Buzz who offered tips and encouragement:
If you’re on Buzz, you want to follow these three.
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