In this section

“Starting Android for the first time” on page 16 “Getting to know the Home screen” on page 19 “Using the touchscreen” on page 22 “Using the phone’s buttons” on page 23 “Using a trackball” on page 24 “Working with menus” on page 25 “Monitoring your phone’s status” on page 27 “Managing notifications” on page 29 “Using the onscreen keyboard” on page 31 “Entering text by speaking” on page 35 “Editing text” on page 37 “Opening and switching applications” on page 40 “Locking your screen” on page 42 “Customizing the Home screen” on page 43 “Connecting quickly with your contacts” on page 45 “Optimizing battery life” on page 46 “Managing how applications use memory” on page 48 “Managing downloads” on page 54

Starting Android for the first time

The first time you power on your phone (after setting it up, as described in your phone’s owner’s guide), you’re prompted to touch the Android logo to begin using your phone.

Touch the android to begin.

Then you’re prompted to create or to sign into your Google Account and to make some initial decisions about how you want to use Android and Google features.

If you don’t have a SIM card in your GSM phone

If your GSM phone doesn’t have a SIM card installed, you can’t connect to mobile networks for voice and data services, but you can connect to a Wi-Fi network to sign into your Google Account and to use all the features of your phone, except placing a cell phone call. (CDMA phones don’t rely on a SIM card to connect to mobile networks.)

If you start a GSM Android phone the first time without a SIM card, you’re asked if you want to touch Connect to Wi-Fi to connect to a Wi-Fi network (instead of to a mobile network) to set up your phone. To learn more, see “Connecting to Wi-Fi networks” on page 61.

Your Google Account

You must sign into a Google Account to use Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and other Google Apps; to download applications from Android Market; to back up your settings to Google servers; and to take advantage of other Google services on your phone.

Important If you want to restore your settings to this phone, from another phone that was running Android release 2.0 or later, you must sign into your Google Account now, during setup. If you wait until after setup is complete, your settings are not restored. (See “Google services” on page 18.)

If you don’t have a Google Account, you’re prompted to create one.

If you have an enterprise Gmail account through your company or other organization, your IT department may have special instructions on how to sign into that account.

When you sign in, your contacts, Gmail messages, Calendar events, and other information from these applications and services on the web are synchronized with your phone.

If you don’t sign into a Google Account during setup, you are prompted to sign in or to create a Google Account the first time you start an application that requires one, such as Gmail or Android Market.

When you sign in, you’re prompted to enter your username and password, using the onscreen keyboard. For information about navigating the touchscreen and entering text, see “Using the touchscreen” on page 22 and “Using the onscreen keyboard” on page 31.

Touch to open the onscreen keyboard, to enter your Google Account username.

Touch to enter your password.

When you’re finished, touch Done on the keyboard (or press the phone’s Back button) to close the onscreen keyboard, so you can touch the Sign in button at the bottom of the screen.

Resetting your Google Account password

If you have a Google Account but have forgotten your password, you must reset it before you can sign in. Go to http://www.google.com, click Sign In, click “Can’t access your account?” in the sign-in box, and then follow the instructions for resetting your password.

Additional accounts

After setup, you can add Google, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, conventional email, and other kinds of accounts to your phone, and sync some or all of their data, as described in “Accounts” on page 127. However, only the first Google Account you sign into is backed up to Google servers. Some applications that only work with a single account display data only from the first account that you sign into.

Google services

When you sign in, you’re asked whether you want to take advantage of the following Google services.

Location You can choose whether to take advantage of Google’s location service, which provides applications with your approximate location without using GPS, and whether to use your location for Google search results and other Google services. For information about changing these settings later, see “Location & security settings” on page 365 and “Privacy settings” on page 370.

Backup You can choose to back up some of your data, such as your bookmarks, your user dictionary, your Wi-Fi passwords, and many other settings, to your Google Account, on Google servers. Some third-party applications may also take advantage of this feature. That way, when you need to replace your phone (when you upgrade or replace a lost phone), or if you reinstall an application, you can restore your settings and other data. For information about changing this setting later, see “Privacy settings” on page 370.

Date and time If you aren’t connected to a mobile network, you’re prompted to set the date and time on your phone. See “Date & time settings” on page 378.

Getting to know the Home screen

When you sign in, the Home screen opens.

The Home screen is your starting point to access all the features on your phone. It displays application icons, widgets, shortcuts, and other features. You can customize the Home screen with different wallpaper and display the items you want. See “Customizing the Home screen” on page 43.

The Status bar shows the time, signal strength, battery status, and other information. It also displays notification icons.

Widgets are applications that you can use directly on the Home screen.

Touch items on the Home screen to open them. Touch & hold an empty spot to add a shortcut to an application, a widget, and so on.

Touch the Launcher icon to open the Launcher and view all your applications.

At the top of the screen, the Status bar displays the time, information about the status of your phone, and icons for notifications that you’ve received. To learn more, see “Monitoring your phone’s status” on page 27 and “Managing notifications” on page 29.

Touch the Launcher icon at the bottom of the screen to view all installed applications. See “Opening and switching applications” on page 40.

Wake up the phone

If you don’t use the phone for a while, the screen dims and then darkens, to conserve the battery.

1

Press the Power button.

If you’ve locked your screen, you must draw an unlock pattern or enter a PIN or

password to unlock it. See “Locking your screen” on page 42.

2 Drag the lock icon to the right. The last screen you were viewing opens.

Return to the Home screen S Press the Home

button at any time, in any application.

View other parts of the Home screen

S Slide your finger left or right across the Home screen.

Extensions to the Home screen provide more space for widgets, shortcuts, and other items. For more on sliding, see “Using the touchscreen” on page 22. Small dots at the lower left and right indicate which screen you’re viewing.

S Touch & hold the small dots on the lower left or right of the screen to view thumbnails of the Home screen and its extensions, which you can touch to open.

Using the touchscreen

The main way to control Android features is by using your finger to manipulate icons, buttons, menu items, the onscreen keyboard, and other items on the touchscreen. You can also change the screen’s orientation.

Touch To act on items on the screen, such as application and settings icons, to type letters and symbols using the onscreen keyboard, or to press onscreen buttons, you simply touch them with your finger.

Touch & hold Touch & hold an item on the screen by touching it and not lifting your finger until an action occurs. For example, to open a menu for customizing the Home screen, you touch an empty area on the Home screen until the menu opens.

Drag Touch & hold an item for a moment and then, without lifting your finger, move your finger on the screen until you reach the target position. You drag items on the Home screen to reposition them, as described in “Customizing the Home screen” on page 43, and you drag to open the Notifications panel, as described in “Managing notifications” on page 29.

Swipe or slide To swipe or slide, you quickly move your finger across the surface of the screen, without pausing when you first touch it (so you don’t drag an item instead). For example, you slide the screen up or down to scroll a list, and in some Calendar views you swipe quickly across the screen to change the range of time visible.

Double-tap Tap quickly twice on a webpage, map, or other screen to zoom. For example, you double-tap a section of a webpage in Browser to zoom that section to fit the width of the screen. Double-tapping after pinching to zoom in some applications, such as Browser, reflows a column of text to fit the width of the screen.

Pinch In some applications (such as Maps, Browser, and Gallery), you can zoom in and out by placing two fingers on the screen at once and pinching them together (to zoom out) or spreading them apart (to zoom in).

Rotate the screen On most screens, the orientation of the screen rotates with the phone as you turn it from upright to its side and back again. You can turn this feature on and off, as described in “Display settings” on page 364.

Using the phone’s buttons

Your phone’s physical buttons and soft buttons offer a variety of functions and shortcuts. Refer to your phone’s owner’s guide for details about the location of the buttons on your phone.

Using a trackball

If your phone includes a trackball (or similar navigating device you can use to select items on screen), you may find some actions are easier using it than using your finger, such as:

Use the Trackball S Roll the Trackball to select items on the screen. The selected item is highlighted in orange.

Items that you select with the Trackball are highlighted in orange.

S Pressing the Trackball is equivalent to touching the selected item with your finger.

S Pressing & holding the Trackball is equivalent to touching & holding the selected item with your finger, for opening context menus, starting apps, and so on.

Working with menus

There are two kinds of Android menus: options menus and context menus.

Options menus

Options menus contain tools that apply to the activities of the current screen or application, not to any specific item on the screen. You open options menus by pressing the Menu button

. Not all screens have options menus; if you press

Menu

on a screen that has no options menu, nothing happens.

Some screens have more options menu items than can fit in the main menu; you touch More to open a menu of additional items.

Options menus contain items that apply to the current screen or to the application as a whole.

Touch to open more menu items.

Context menus

Context menus contain tools that apply to a specific item on the screen. You open a context menu by touching & holding an item on the screen. Not all items have context menus. If you touch & hold an item that has no context menu, nothing happens.

When you touch & hold some items on a screen...

...a context menu opens.

Monitoring your phone’s status

The Status bar appears at the top of every screen. It displays icons indicating that you’ve received notifications (on the left) and icons indicating the phone’s status (on the right), along with the current time.

If you have more notifications than can fit in the status bar, a plus icon

prompts you to open the Notifications panel to view them all. See “Managing notifications” on page 29.

Status icons

The following icons indicate the status of your phone. To learn more about the different kinds of mobile networks, see “Connecting to networks and devices” on page 57.

Network status icons turn green if you have a Google Account added to your phone and the phone is connected to Google services, for syncing your Gmail, Calendar events, contacts, for backing up your settings, and so on. If you don’t have a Google Account or if, for example, you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network that is not connected to the Internet, the network icons are white.

	Connected to GPRS mobile network		Roaming
	GPRS in use		No signal
	Connected to EDGE mobile network		No SIM card installed
	EDGE in use		Vibrate mode
	Connected to 3G mobile network		Ringer is silenced
	3G in use		Phone microphone is mute
	Mobile network signal strength		Battery is very low
	Connected to a Wi-Fi network		Battery is low
	Bluetooth is on		Battery is partially drained
	Connected to a Bluetooth device		Battery is full

	Airplane mode		Battery is charging
	Alarm is set		GPS is on
	Speakerphone is on		Receiving location data from GPS

Notification icons

The following icons indicate that you’ve received a notification. See “Managing notifications” on page 29 for information about responding to these notifications. In addition these icons, applications you install on your phone may use their own notification icons.

	New Gmail message		More notifications
	New text or multimedia message		Call in progress
	Problem with text or multimedia message delivery		Call in progress using a Bluetooth headset
	New Google Talk message		Missed call
	New voicemail		Call on hold
	Upcoming event		Call forwarding is on
	Data is syncing		Song is playing
	Problem with sign-in or sync		Uploading data
	SD card or USB storage is full		Downloading data
	An open Wi-Fi network is available		Download finished
	Phone is connected via USB cable		Connected to or disconnected from virtual private network (VPN)
	Phone is sharing its data connection via USB (USB tethering)		Carrier data use threshold approaching or exceeded
	Phone is sharing its data connection as a Wi-Fi hotspot (Wi-Fi tethering)		Application update available
	Phone is tethered in multiple ways		System update available

Managing notifications

Notification icons report the arrival of new messages, calendar events, and alarms, as well as ongoing events, such as when call forwarding is on or the current call status.

When you receive a notification, its icon appears in the Status bar, along with a summary that appears only briefly. For a table of notification icons, see “Notification icons” on page 28.

If your phone uses a trackball light for notifications, the light pulses once or repeatedly when you receive a new notification. Depending on your settings and the model of your phone, you may also hear a notification sound, the phone may vibrate, and LEDs may blink. These settings and adjusting sound volume and other general notification settings is described in “Sound settings” on page 362.

You can open the Notifications panel to view a list of all your notifications.

Applications whose activities produce notifications, such as Gmail and Google Talk, have their own settings, which you can use to configure whether and how they send notifications, whether they sound a ringtone, vibrate, and so on. See the documentation for those applications for details.

Open the Notifications panel

S Drag the Status bar down from the top of the screen. On the Home screen, you can also press Menu

and touch Notifications.

The Notifications panel displays your wireless provider and a list of your current notifications. Notifications about ongoing activities are listed first, followed by Notifications about events, such as new mail notifications or Calendar reminders.

Touch a notification to open it in its application.

Respond to a notification

1

Open the Notifications panel. Your current notifications are listed in the panel, each with a brief description.

2 Touch a notification to respond to it. The Notifications panel closes. What happens next depends on the notification. For example, new voicemail notifications dial your voicemail box, and network disconnect notifications open the list of configured networks so you can reconnect.

Clear all notifications

1 Open the Notifications panel. 2 Touch Clear at the top right of the panel. All event-based notifications are cleared; ongoing notifications remain in the list.

Close the Notifications panel

S Drag the tab at the bottom of the Notifications panel to the top of the screen. Or just press the Back

button. The panel also closes when you touch a notification to respond to it.

Using the onscreen keyboard

You enter text using the onscreen keyboard. Some applications open the keyboard automatically. In others, you touch a text field where you want to enter text to open the keyboard.

The onscreen keyboard has a number of settings, as described in “Language & keyboard settings” on page 372. You can open the Android keyboard settings by touching & holding the Microphone key

and in the small window that opens, dragging to the Settings icon.

You can enter text by speaking instead of by typing. See “Entering text by speaking” on page 35.

Enter text by typing

1 Touch a text field. The onscreen keyboard opens.

Touch a suggestion to enter it in place of the underlined word in the text box.

Press space or a punctuation mark to enter the bold suggestion.

Touch once to capitalize the next letter you type. Touch & hold for all caps.

If you touch in a text field where there is already text entered, the insertion point is set where you touch and the insertion point tab appears. You can drag the insertion point by its tab to move the insertion point, to pick exactly where you want to add more text. You can also select a word or more at a time and copy, cut, and paste text. See “Editing text” on page 37.

2 Touch the keys on the keyboard to enter text. What you type appears in the text field and in the strip above the keyboard, in black text on a white background. When the keyboard has a suggestion for what you might be typing, the word you’re typing is underlined in the text field and the suggestions appear in orange in the strip above the keyboard. The boldfaced suggestion at the left of the strip is the keyboard’s best suggestion. You can drag the strip to the left to bring any additional suggestions into view.

3 Press space or a punctuation mark to enter the boldfaced suggested word. If you touch the space key, the suggestion strip offers a series of punctuation marks you can touch, to replace the space with.

Or touch another suggested word to enter it.

If you touch a word that is not in the system or user dictionary, it’s entered and

you’re prompted to touch the word again if you want to add it to the user dictionary. You can view, edit, or delete the words that you add to the dictionary. See

“Language & keyboard settings” on page 372.

4 Use the Delete key

to erase characters to the left of the cursor. 5 When you’re finished typing, press Back

to close the keyboard.

Some applications add special keys to the keyboard that make it easier to navigate from one text field to another.

Enter numbers, symbols, and other characters

S Touch & hold one of the top-row keys and then without moving your finger, lift your finger, to enter the number indicated in black on that key. Keys with alternate characters display an ellipsis ( ... ) below the character.

S Touch & hold a vowel or the C, N, or S key to open a small window where you can drag onto the accented vowel or other alternate letter or number you want to enter.

S Press the Symbols key

to switch to the numbers and symbols keyboard.

Press the Alt key on the symbols keyboard to view additional symbols; press it again to switch back.

S Touch & hold the Period key ( . ) to open a small window with a set of common symbols.

S Touch & hold a number or symbol key to open a window of additional symbols.

When you touch a key, a larger version displays briefly over the keyboard. Keys with alternate characters display an ellipsis ( ... ) below the character.

S On some phones, you can touch & hold the Shift or Symbols key with one finger, touch one or more capital letters or symbols to enter them, and then left both fingers to return to the lowercase alphabet keyboard.

Change the keyboard orientation

S Turn the phone sideways or upright. The keyboard is redrawn to take best advantage of the new phone orientation. Many people find the larger, horizontal onscreen keyboard easier to use.

You can control whether the screen changes orientation automatically when you turn the phone. See “Display settings” on page 364.

Change the keyboard language

If you’ve used the Android Keyboard settings to make more than one language available when using the onscreen keyboard (see “Android Keyboard settings screen” on page 372), the current keyboard language is displayed on the Space key and you can switch languages.

1

Touch & hold the Space key.

2 Without lifting your finger, move it to the left or right until the language you want appears in the center of the small window above the Space key.

3 Lift your finger. If you have many languages available, you may have to repeat these steps to find the language you want.

Entering text by speaking

You can use voice input to enter text by speaking. Voice input is an experimental feature that uses Google’s speech-recognition service, so you must have a data connection on a mobile or Wi-Fi network to use it.

Turn on voice input

If the onscreen keyboard does not display a Microphone key

, voice input is not turned on or you have it configured to display on the symbols keyboard.

1 Press Home

, press Menu

, then touch Settings > Language & keyboard > Android keyboard.

2 Touch Voice input.

3 Touch the option for where you want the Microphone key (on the main keyboard or the Symbols keyboard). Or touch Off to turn off voice input.

Enter text by speaking

You can enter text by speaking, in most places that you can enter text with the onscreen keyboard. 1 Touch a text field, or a location in text you’ve already entered in a text field. 2 Touch the Microphone key

on the keyboard (if you set the Microphone key to appear on the symbols keyboard, touch the Symbol key first).

3 When prompted to “Speak now,” speak what you want to enter.

Say “comma,” “period,” “question mark,” “exclamation mark,” or “exclamation point” to enter punctuation.

Text that you enter by speaking is underlined. You can delete it, or you can continue entering text to keep it.

Touch to enter text by speaking.

When you pause, what you spoke is transcribed by the speech-recognition service and entered in the text field, underlined. You can press the Delete key to erase the underlined text. If you start typing or entering more text by speaking, the underline disappears.

You can edit the text that you enter by typing or speaking. See “Editing text” on page 37.

Editing text

You can edit the text you enter in text fields and use menu commands to cut, copy, and paste text, within or across applications. Some applications don’t support editing some or all of the text they display; others may offer their own way to select text you want to work with.

Edit text

1 Touch the text you want to edit.

The cursor is inserted where you touched. The cursor is a blinking vertical bar that indicates where text you type or paste will be inserted. When it first appears, it has an orange tab you can use to drag it, to move it if you want.

2 Drag the cursor by its orange tab to the location where you want to edit text. The orange tab disappears after a few moments, to get out of your way. To make it

reappear, just touch the text again. 3 Type, cut, paste, or delete text. 4 Press the Back

button when you’re finished typing, to close the keyboard.

Select text

You select text that you want to cut, copy, delete, or replace.

1 Touch & hold the text or word you want to select.

2 Touch Select word or Select all in the menu that opens.

The selected text is highlighted in orange, with a tab at each end of the selection.

Drag a selection tab to expand or reduce the range of selected text.

3 Drag either selection tab to expand or reduce the range of selected text. If you change your mind, you can unselect the text by touching unselected text in the same or in another text field, or press the Back

button.

4 Touch the selected text to open a menu you can use to cut or copy your selection

or, if you have previously cut or copied text, replace the selected text by pasting. You can also simply enter text by typing or speaking, to replace the selection with what you type, or press the Delete key to deleted the selected text.

Cut or copy text

1 Select the text to cut or copy. See “Select text” on page 37. 2 Touch the selected text. The selection tabs must be showing to cut or copy selected text. If the selection tabs aren’t showing, they reappear when you touch the text, so you can touch the text again to open the Edit Text menu. 3 Touch Cut or Copy in the Edit Text menu. If you touch Cut, the selected text is removed from the text field. In either case, the text is stored in a temporary area on the phone, so that you can paste it into another text field.

Android basics	39
Paste text
1 2 3	Cut or copy the text to paste. See “Cut or copy text” on page 38. Place the cursor in the text field where you want to paste the text, or select text you want to replace by pasting. You can paste text that you copied from one application into a text field in any application. Touch Paste in the menu that opens. The text is inserted at the cursor. The text that you pasted also remains in a temporary area on the phone, so you can paste that same text in another location.

Opening and switching applications

The Launcher has icons for all of the applications on your phone, including any applications that you downloaded and installed from Android Market or other sources.

When you open an application, the other applications you’ve been using don’t stop; they keep on running: playing music, opening webpages, and so on. You can quickly switch among your applications, to work with several at once. The Android operating system and applications work together to ensure that applications you aren’t using don’t consume resources unnecessarily, stopping and starting them as needed. For this reason, there’s no need to stop applications unless you’re certain that one you downloaded is misbehaving. For details about how applications use memory and how you can manage them, see “Managing how applications use memory” on page 48.

See “Market” on page 341 to learn how to discover and install additional applications (including productivity tools, utilities, games, references, and many other kinds of software) on your phone.

Open and close the Launcher

S On the Home screen, touch the Launcher icon

to open it.

If you have more applications than can fit on the Launcher in one view, you can

slide the Launcher up or down to view more.

Touch an application to open it

Slide the Launcher up or down to bring more apps into view.

Touch to close the Launcher.

You can add an application icon to the Home screen by touching & holding it on the Launcher until it vibrates and then dragging it to a location on the Home screen.

S Touch the Home icon on the Launcher or the Home button

to close the Launcher.

The Launcher closes automatically if you touch an icon to open its application or if you move an icon from the Launcher to the Home screen.

Open an application

S Touch an application's icon on the Launcher.

OR

S Touch an application’s icon on the Home screen.

Switch to a recently used application

1 Press & hold the Home button

A small window opens, with icons of applications that you’ve used recently.

2 Touch an icon to open its application.

Or press Back

to return to the current application.

Touch an icon to open an application you’ve used recently.

Locking your screen

You can lock your screen so that only you can unlock it to make calls, access your data, buy applications, and so on. You may also be required to lock your screen by a policy set by an email or other account you add to your phone.

See “Location & security settings” on page 365 for other ways to protect your phone and privacy.

Lock your screen

1 On the Home screen, press Menu

and touch Settings > Location & security.

2 Touch Set up screen lock. If you already have a screen lock configured, touch Change screen lock to change how you lock your screen or to turn off screen locking.

3 Touch Pattern, PIN, or Password. If you touch Pattern, you’re guided to create a pattern you must draw to unlock the screen. The first time you do this, a short tutorial about creating an unlock pattern appears. You can press Menu

and touch Help at any time for a

refresher. Then you’re prompted to draw and redraw your own pattern. If you touch PIN or Password, you’re prompted to set a numeric PIN or a password you must enter to unlock your screen.

The next time you turn on your phone or wake up the screen, you must draw your unlock pattern or to enter your PIN or password to unlock it.

Customizing the Home screen

You can add application icons, shortcuts, widgets, and other items to any part of any Home screen where there’s free space. You can also change the wallpaper.

For an introduction to the Home screen, see “Getting to know the Home screen” on page 19.

Add an item to the Home screen

1 Open the Home screen where you want to add the item. For an introduction to working with the Home screen, including how to switch Home screens, see “Getting to know the Home screen” on page 19.

2 Press Menu

and touch Add. Or just touch & hold an empty location on the Home screen. If there are no empty spots on the Home screen, Add is dimmed; you must delete

or move an item before you can add another item, or switch to another Home screen.

3 In the menu that opens, touch the type of item to add.

You can add the following types of items to the Home screen.

Shortcuts Add shortcuts to applications, a bookmarked webpage, a favorite contact, a destination in Maps, a Gmail label, a music playlist, and many other items. The shortcuts available depend on the applications you have installed.

Widgets Add any of a variety of miniature applications (widgets) to your Home screen, including a clock, a music player, a picture frame, the Google search bar, a power manager, a calendar that shows upcoming appointments, and a News & Weather widget. You can also download widgets from Android Market.

Folders Add a folder where you can organize Home screen items, or folders that contain all your contacts, contacts with phone numbers, or starred contacts. Your folders’ contents are kept up to date automatically.

Move an item on the Home screen

1

Touch & hold the item you want to move, until it vibrates. Don’t lift your finger.

2 Drag the item to a new location on the screen. Pause at the edge of the screen to drag the item onto another Home screen pane.

3 When the item is where you want it, lift your finger.

Remove an item from the Home screen

1

Touch & hold the item you want to remove, until it vibrates. Don’t lift your finger.

The Launcher icon changes to a Trash Can icon 2 Drag the item to the Trash Can icon. 3 When the icon turns red, lift your finger.

Change the Home screen wallpaper

1 Press Menu

and touch Wallpapers.

You can also touch & hold an empty area of the Home screen and in the menu that opens, touch Wallpapers.

2 Touch Gallery, Live wallpapers, or Wallpapers. Touch Gallery to use a picture that you have captured using the camera or

copied to your phone. You can crop the picture before setting it as a wallpaper. Working with pictures is described in “Gallery” on page 279. Touch Live wallpapers to open a scrolling list of animated wallpapers installed

on your phone. Some live wallpapers change according to the time of day, in response to touching the screen, tell the time, or offer other information. Some live wallpapers have a Settings button.

Touch Wallpapers to open a screen where you can sample the wallpaper images that come with the phone. Slide the miniature images left and right to view the samples. Touch a sample to view a larger version.

3 Touch Save or Set wallpaper.

Rename a folder

1 Touch the folder to open it. 2 Touch & hold the folder window’s title bar. 3 Enter a new name in the dialog that appears. 4 Touch OK.

Connecting quickly with your contacts

As you build up your list of contacts on your phone, you can use Quick Contact for Android in many applications to quickly start a chat, email, or text message, to place a call, or to locate your contacts. Quick Contact for Android is a special icon that you can touch to open a bubble with options for quickly initiating a connection to that contact.

S Identify a Quick Contact icon by its frame.

Contacts that you can access with Quick Contact are displayed differently in

different applications, but usually with a picture frame that looks like this:

S Touch a Quick Contact icon to open a bubble with icons for all the ways you can

communicate with the contact. If there are more icons than can fit in the bubble, drag them left and right to view them all.

Touch an icon to start communicating with the contact in that application.

S Touch an icon to open its application, where you can start communicating with your contact right away.

You can also touch an icon to edit the contact’s information in Contacts, to view the contact’s address in Google Maps, and so on, depending on which applications and accounts are configured on your phone.

You can add a shortcut for a contact to your Home screen, which you can then touch to open Quick Contact for Android for that contact. For more information about adding shortcuts to the Home screen, see “Customizing the Home screen” on page 43.

Optimizing battery life

You can extend your battery’s life between charges by turning off features that you don’t need. You can also monitor how applications and system resources consume battery power.

Extend the life of your battery

S Turn off radios that you aren’t using. If you aren’t using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GPS, use the Settings application to turn them off. See “Wireless & networks” on page 355 and “Location & security settings” on page 365. (The GPS receiver is only turned on when you’re using an application that makes use of it.) S Turn down screen brightness and set a shorter screen timeout. See “Display settings” on page 364.

S If you don’t need them, turn off automatic syncing for Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and other applications. See “Configuring account sync and display options” on page 131.

S Use the Power Control widget to check and control the status of radios, the display brightness, and syncing. Adding widgets is described in “Customizing the Home screen” on page 43. S If you know you won’t be near a mobile or Wi-Fi network for a while, switch to