Andriod n00b with some questions

[blackangst1]

So Im getting an Evo today. This is my first Andriod phone. Ive spent all my time with windows mobile, and have flashed for years. I've used probably 20 different ROMS, flashed different radios, etc so Im confortable doing that.

But Andriod...

First thing Im doing is rooting. Ive already decided that. Im going to stay on the stock Sprint ROM (2.2) for now to learn about Andriod. But my questions are, what are some of the basic "necessity" programs for Andriod? I know a task killer (is that right?) is needed for memory management. Whats the consensus on best media player? Im unclear whether or not FLAC is playable on Andriod or not. I'll read some more on that.

Anything else you guys consider necessary to get started? Thanks in advance!

 

[trmiv]

Don't bother with Task Killer, it's not needed. Android manages things fine on its own.

If you're going to root I'd suggest getting Titanium Backup. It's saved me a few times. A good file manager is useful as well. I like Root Explorer because it has a lot of uses beyond just browsing files. Astro is good also.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Oh boy, get ready for a 58 page debate on task killers again.

IM(very)HO, a task killer is a nice thing to keep around in case your phone starts getting really slow or if there's an app that won't quit. I use mine once every few days. You don't need to use it constantly, though.

OI File Manager, Astro, and Root Explorer are all good file managers. OI is the simplest, Astro has a lot more features, and Root Explorer makes it easy to mount directories as RW so you can go in and wipe out some of the built-in Sprint apps if you want (but you have to be rooted and you must USE CAUTION!). Root Explorer also costs money, but it's worth it for me. You can mess with the filesystem using a command line interface, either in the phone itself or through the Android Debug Bridge (adb), but Root Explorer is much simpler.

I like Launcher Pro as an alternative home screen. You miss out on the official Sense widgets, but Launcher Pro Plus gives you a lot of Sense-like widgets back. And I find LP to be faster and more customizable than the standard home screen.

Can't help you with media players since I don't use my phone for music except occasionally for streaming. For that you have Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker Radio, etc.

 

[DivideBYZero]

WiFi Hotspot. Great if you're out and about with a netbook or even if you want to share it out to a few of you in an area, using your Android phone as a ninja hotspot is cool and it has great access control.

If you ever see an SSID of NinjaNet, that's mine...

 

[blackangst1]

Thanks so far guys...Ive read alot about task killers, and 2.2 so dont wanna go there in this thread Good suggestions so far...

 

[slightlyhuman]

Anycut is a great app. Barcode scanner. I love the stock music app on my captivate 2.1
Dropbox is good, titanium backup is a must and perhaps setcpu.for.setting.up profiles tobsave battery.

 

[AFurryReptile]

As others have said, a task killer is completely unnecessary. Froyo has much better memory management than 2.1 ever did, not to mention that the Evo is a powerful phone that can actually HANDLE a ton of open applications.

I would agree with Titanium Backup and SetCPU (for battery management profiles). Make sure that the first thing you do after rooting is a backup with Rom Manager.

Besides those, I love Root Explorer and LauncherPro. My all-time favorite app is Subsonic - I can literally stream my entire music library to my phone at 320kbps. Tasker is another really great tool that will allow you to automate just about anything you can think of on your phone.

 

[trmiv]

If you're looking for an app that has the ability to act as a task killer, but has many more features that make it useful when not being used that way get SystemPanel. You can use it to kill tasks that have gone nuts, but it also has great system monitoring features, battery usage graphs, etc. It's nice to have the ability to kill tasks when needed, but I don't think auto task killing is necessary.

 

[QueBert]

Cubed and Music Mod for music, both have good and bad points. Cubed had a pretty unique UI, which you might love or might hate. Music Mod is straight forward and the most solid stock music app replacement at the moment IMHO.

 

[vshah]

systempanel is awesome.

switchpro widget is a great configurable togglewidget.

angry birds, mini squadron, fruit ninja, robo defense, flight director, and blow up are my favorite games.

google listen for podcasts

shopsavvy for price comparisons

chrome to phone and the firefox extension for sending links and text to your phone awesomeness

 

[blackangst1]

OK got the phone...got the OTA installed and rooted...now a couple more questions.

Is there something I can use to transfer my contacts from Outlook to the Evo? Also, I realize installing programs is quite a bit different than windows mobile. If I have the .apk file for a program, how do I install it? Ive tried putting it on root of my SD card, but not sure what next? The stock ROM doesnt appear to have any kind of file explorer to navigate and install. How can I do this?

Thanks all

 

[YoungGun21]

Like we said, Root Explorer, Astro, etc are your file explorers. Might as well buy them now, because you will need them later when you start switching ROMs and themes.

Also, make sure your SD card is FAT32 formatted.

 

[s44]

Depends if it's a system apk or not. If it is, use Root Explorer or adb (part of the Android SDK) or a terminal app to drop it into /system/app and then reboot to get it up (hope it works!). Otherwise, use one of the file explorer programs or ApkInstaller to just install the package for you.

 

[WelshBloke]

Another noob android question.

How vital is having a gmail address. I use MS live mail and dont really want to change, if I got an android phone would I still be able to use all its functions without a gmail account?

 

[vshah]

OK got the phone...got the OTA installed and rooted...now a couple more questions.

Is there something I can use to transfer my contacts from Outlook to the Evo? Also, I realize installing programs is quite a bit different than windows mobile. If I have the .apk file for a program, how do I install it? Ive tried putting it on root of my SD card, but not sure what next? The stock ROM doesnt appear to have any kind of file explorer to navigate and install. How can I do this?

Thanks all

gogle has a sync utility to sync your contacts from outlook to your google account. once they are there, they'll automatically appear on your evo

 

[vshah]

Another noob android question.

How vital is having a gmail address. I use MS live mail and dont really want to change, if I got an android phone would I still be able to use all its functions without a gmail account?

you need a gmail account for the market, and you'll also miss out on push email, contacts, and calendar syncing.


edit: sorry for the dp

 

[YoungGun21]

Another noob android question.

How vital is having a gmail address. I use MS live mail and dont really want to change, if I got an android phone would I still be able to use all its functions without a gmail account?

You have to have a Gmail account to use the phone.

What you could do if you wanted is to forward all of your Live mail to your Gmail account and then it would work just fine.

 

[WelshBloke]

you need a gmail account for the market, and you'll also miss out on push email, contacts, and calendar syncing.

Ah thats not good, I dont want an email address of <randomword><randomnumber>@gmail.com

 

[vshah]

Ah thats not good, I dont want an email address of <randomword><randomnumber>@gmail.com

you can still definitely use your live email account for email, it just won't be push. if you're that tied to live mail, might make sense to wait for a win 7 phone

 

[WelshBloke]

you can still definitely use your live email account for email, it just won't be push. if you're that tied to live mail, might make sense to wait for a win 7 phone

Yeah I might have to, although I do think Android is going to become the dominant player in the mobile phone OS area (and this is from a WMobile fan) so I'll have to change eventually.

Does live mail on android sync across multiple clients? I use the desktop livemail on my desktop and laptop and the mobile version on my phone. Its nice to have my mail downloaded on all these but still have them mirror each other.

Hopefully Google will release some gmail.co.uk addresses and I can snag one of those.

 

[s44]

You can set up your outbound gmail to be sent with your old address as well. But that would involve migrating to gmail on the desktop as well, I suppose.

 

[zerocool84]

I have Launcher Pro Plus but regular Launcher Pro is muuuch better than stock. So damn customizable. People like replacing the stock messaging app but I didn't like any of them but lots of people like them. I have Battery Widget because it gives you battery percentage plus easy access to Wifi, GPS, Screen Brightness, and Bluetooth.

 

[s44]

I don't think I need any of its features, but I'm tempted to upgrade to Launcher Pro plus just to stop the irritating "you can't resize" popup every time I swipe a widget the wrong way. I guess this make it annoyware?

 

[vshah]

try adw launcher, its free and has most of the same features

 

[trmiv]

I don't think I need any of its features, but I'm tempted to upgrade to Launcher Pro plus just to stop the irritating "you can't resize" popup every time I swipe a widget the wrong way. I guess this make it annoyware?

That just makes it more annoying because then you CAN resize your widgets. So instead of the message you end up accidentally screwing up your widgets. I wish there was an option to just disable that feature.