beginners guide to android

[Lainie]

putting this in here. can anyone do a stick for us newbies to android. ive not long had my htc deisre s with android but i dont really know what android is all about and what these apps can do etc.

beginners guide would be fab if anyone can help.

[happy_highlander]

putting this in here. can anyone do a stick for us newbies to android. ive not long had my htc deisre s with android but i dont really know what android is all about and what these apps can do etc.

beginners guide would be fab if anyone can help.

I'll have a stab at answering this for you. My answers will be very basic as I am very new to this myself and android itself is still in it's infancy.
I'm sure there will be plenty I will miss.

An app is a program.

Android is a linux based operating system that is open source meaning unlike apple the source codes for development are available for anyone to use resulting in more people developing free apps. Android systems also allow all apps to access the operating system at the same time (multitasking) which in short means if you add a widget to your home screen e.g twitter or facebook you can automatically receive any notifications in the background without having to open the app or being disturbed during a phone call with the result that instead of having a load of shorcuts to apps all over the place you just have functional widgets that when you get used to it can lead to all your most common apps being used without you even having to open the app drawer and go looking for them. So the difference between an app and a widget is a widget can stream live content direct to your home page i.e weather or facebook and an app is just a program that may or may not use the internet, so a widget is always running but an app needs to be clicked to be opened or closed. Just to confuse matters a widget is always an app but an app is not a widget.
Syncing accounts in the background (multitasking) is also relevant to sending and retreiving e-mails.
Now as android is developed in conjunction with google the ability's for cloud based apps is progressing as fast as the cloud system itself allowing access to a lot of your own files that you use on your pc or cloud based printers to connect for printing direct from your phone anywhere. eg you are working on a report for work at home and get stuck in major traffic but have saved the document to your phone as it can read and edit microsoft office documents connect your phone to the cloud and print the document on the cloud based printer on your bosses desk.(Not quite sure if this is available yet but it is the plan)
A few safety pointers for installing cracked apps..Although android is relatively safe, being linux based it does not automatically give apps access to the operating system (unlike windows) so even though there are a few viruses out there you must allow them access, they cannot do it themselves (yet) so when installing ANY app not just cracked apps you will be asked to accept permissions if these don't match what the app is used for or if you are unsure don't install it, the critical permission being services that may cost you money i.e allowing phone calls and texts. So for example if you download a cracked version of a very popular music player (for testing purposes) it will ask for permissions to access the internet for downloading album art but if it asks for permission to make calls or texts be very wary as there is no need for a music player to require these permissions but remember accessing calls and texts to read the phones state is different from making texts and calls and will not cost you money.
I have mentioned cracked apps as unlike the i-phone an android will run them without any modification. i.e it does not have to be rooted (jailbroken if you are used to i-phone) but the developers should always be considered and cracked apps should be for evaluation only as the free versions may not be full function apps.
Rooting is another term you may have heard, and is basically gaining root access to the file system (administrator in windows) allowing you to completely mess up your phone if you don't take it seriously. However the pros far outway the cons when rooted and used properly as there are more custom operating systems (roms) out there than there are stock (official) and have all been tweaked to get the optimum performance from your phone.

Please feel free to add to this information as I am sure there is a lot I have not yet touched upon and if you have any other specific questions just ask and I am sure someone will have the answer after all there is almost quarter of a million brains on this forum and we must have some usefull information between us.

[andy1weir]

what exactly do you want to know, just put anything here your unsure of or want to know and ill do my best to answer i mess about with android all the time and know a little about it

[Dreamer]

I just bought a new htc wildfire from phones 4 u. I wanted an unlocked phone and they said theres are not locked
This means I'm not tied to any network provider and can float to whoever can give me the best sim only deal.
I must admit I didn't really do any research on it before I bought it apart from word of mouth from others telling me it was an easy to use phone. It's my first smartphone and so far it has impressed me. I was a bit disappointed when I found out the processor was not powerful enough to handle full flash and comes with flash lite. so although it can play videos it can't play a lot of flash games or games which run on a high res screen. I was surprised to read here that it uses a linux op system but pleased at the same time as it means lots of free apps

I'm curious to know if rooting would void the warranty? ...... UPDATE... I just found the answer to that question here http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...9/#post1178960