Starting up on Android

So you’ve made the jump to an Android smartphone. If you purchased your device from your carrier or a big box retailer like Best Buy, hopefully your sales rep went over some of these things. This will be a good primer for new users as they get settled into a new device.

Start Me Up

As your phone starts up for the first time, it will require you to set up a Gmail account through Google. If Gmail isn’t your main account, don’t fret, you’ll be able to add other email addresses later. Setting up a Gmail account serves several purposes. Gmail will synchronize your contacts and calendar and will serve as your login for a variety of Google’s applications including the Android Market, YouTube, and Google+. The Market is where you can download games and applications, purchase movies and books, and rent movies.



Many devices will also give you the option to add additional accounts to your device (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). Adding these accounts will import your contacts into your address book. On the upside, it synchronizes information you might not have had into your address book (Uncle Larry’s email, birthday, and profile picture for Caller ID). Its counterpart is whether or not you want every one of your Facebook and Twitter contacts in your address book. You can adjust your address book settings by entering your contact list, hitting the menu key, and selecting “Display Options.” This is beneficial if you want to use your Facebook contact profile pictures for caller ID pictures but don’t want everyone in your address book.

With great power, comes shorter battery life.

Moving from one of these to one of these is a big upgrade in functionality. The best advice I can give is use what you need. On your home screen you will want to add a power widget. To do this, find a clear row on your desktop, then press and hold this area on the desktop. A menu should appear, select “Widgets,” and search for power control. These steps can vary by device and software version, but will get you close enough. This will allow you to easily control whether Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi are on. Lastly if you have a 4G device, you should be able to download a 4G widget through the Market. Turning off 4G can also help out battery life when you don’t need the dramatic speed boost.

Ok, so I’m set up. Now what?

My goal is to put together articles featuring apps that focus on specific areas. The great people at Gizmodo maintain a monthly article and an all-time best apps list. Their most recent update can be found here.

Lastly, do yourself a favor and download the Amazon App Store. App developers will partner with Amazon to give away their app for free or a reduced price. Each day, Amazon will give a different paid application away for free.



1) Go to Settings and click “Applications”
2) Click “Unknown Applications” and select “Yes” when a pop-up menu appears
3) Click this link and enter your email address
4) You will receive an email from Amazon, open it and click the first link in the email
5) The Amazon App Store will download. You will be notified when it is complete.
6) Go to the notification and install the program
7) You will need an Amazon account set up with 1-Click purchasing to download apps

That’ll be it for this week. Stop back in next week when I talk about the native web browser for Android devices and what you can do to get a better experience while on the web.