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Tips for New Android Phone Owners
Rohan Naravane, Aug 13, 2010 1215 hrs ISTWe help you overcome some of the basic problems you might encounter
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After seeing the huge popularity Android is enjoying these days, we told you things you should know about Google's OS for mobile devices. We earlier talked about helpful Android apps here and here. After reading all this, I'm sure you must be intrigued about Android phones, if you haven't purchased one already. Let's look at some of the basic problems that you could face when you buy your first Android.
Migrating contacts on your Android
The first basic need after purchase is to get all those contacts from your old phone to your Android. There are many methods to achieve this, but we chose this one for its successful functioning and other benefits, which I'll mention later. The Android OS is heavily tied to Google's internet product offerings like Gmail, Google Chat etc. The first step is to get contacts stored in your non-Android phone to the PC in the CSV (Comma Separated Value) format.
This is a standard format used to store phone books in most modern phones of the day. You can extract them using the manufacturer's PC suite software that's provided. Most PC Suites might not directly export to CSV, so we take the help of Microsoft Outlook since many of them do have the option to sync to Outlook at least. We'll take the example of Nokia's Ovi suite. In Tools go to Options > Contacts, check the "Sync with contacts application" as Microsoft Outlook.
Next, connect your phone and hit sync. Now all your contacts are available in Microsoft Outlook. Now in Outlook, click File > Import and Export > Select "Export to a file" > Comma Separated Values. Select Contacts in the list and hit next, then give a name and path to this CSV file on your computer. All your contacts will be stored in a CSV file. The hard part is now over; just head over to google.com/contacts. Sign into your Google account, and click the 'Import' link to your left. Select the CSV file from your computer and you're done. In your Android phone, go to Settings -> Accounts & sync settings and tap your Google account e-mail ID. Lastly, tap 'Sync contacts'. It will pull all your contacts to your phone.
This procedure is long but the advantage is that you'll always have a copy of your phone numbers in your Google Contacts. So in the unfortunate incident of you losing your Android phone, there will be a way to get them back. For people who are apprehensive about storing all their contacts online, can use this tool called vcardio from the Android Market. It can Import/Export CSV files from an SD card. Just copy that CSV file onto your phone's SD card and use the app to import them into your phone.
Get a better keyboard
Different Android phones sport different types of on-screen QWERTY keyboards. Some we liked - the HTC one for instance, while some we despised, like the one on the Sony Ericsson X10. Android's default iteration is also quite average when compared to the iPhone's. But fear not, this is Android. Just look up Swiftkey on the Android Market. This keyboard is designed a little better than the default Android key design. But the best part of Swiftkey is its word prediction accuracy. Three word suggestions are presented in large rectangular boxes above the keyboard that are easy to click. It is smart enough to guess your next word, so after getting used to its working, you'll probably end up typing less and tapping more (on the given options, that is).
Two neat gestures I like is a bottom-to-top one that enables Caps lock and (my favorite) is the right-to-left sweeping gesture across the keyboard which deletes the entire word before the cursor. Other than the happy smiley button at the corner, pressing and holding it brings up commonly used emotions as well. The software apparently learns the way you type and gets better as you use it.
A client for the Pro-SMS crowd
Not to say that Android's default SMS application is bad, but an app called chompSMS gives you much more functionality that you'd like. You can have a look at their long feature list here. The main highlight of this app is a widget that shows you the latest messages instantly without going to your inbox. Threaded conversations are available, but they look more like the 'Chat-bubbles' on an iPhone. You can also add unwanted senders (read: SMS marketers) to a blacklist, thus relieving yourself of annoyance every now and then.
Lastly, you can put that Search button to some good use by pressing and holding it to instantly compose an SMS.
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