new phone

[seryn]

OK.
I've had a lot to talk about. It's beyond what I can say though.

So let me talk about something less confrontational.

I bought a Galaxy S III (blue) yesterday. I'm cautiously optimistic. There are HUGE detriments. Like stuff doesn't work just like it used to on my 3 year old phone. I got my Palm Pre a month before the first Android phone came out, so I have zero clues. There's a giant weirdness in how email accounts are set up in that you get one primary gmail email and everything else runs under this crippled mail manager. I think that might be fixable, but it's kind of boggling.

Does anyone know where the Google Chat client lives? I can't find that or the task list manager. I know I saw it somewhere---- but I can't seem to find it again. I looked into apps for that, but how do you tell whether the apps you're downloading are from nefarious people? I know Android phones can get malware. Seems like Google would want to make their own apps for their own stuff.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I recommend K-9 in place of the bundled IMAP e-mail app.

Look for Talk. The app list can be summoned via "Apps" in the lower right corner of the home screen.... From Home, task manager is menu > Settings > Application manager, if I understand correctly which thing you mean. And if you look up one of the made-by-Google-Inc. apps, you can use the "More by" section of the app detail page in Google Play to get additional actual-Google things.

Other recommended things: Barcode Scanner by ZXing Team, ConnectBot for SSH, handyConverter by mmin, Linda File Manager, Moon+ Reader (smaller and faster than Aldiko), OI Safe, Ringdroid.

[seryn]

Bless you. Talk helped.

I didn't mean that task manager... I mean the thing where you put in a list of things that need doing and get to TICKY! them when you do them.

Although I've been using the task manager to close apps because I haven't read any of the directions and know only what the woman at the Sprint store explained. (So I can answer calls, my gmail stuff was all pre-loaded, and I can use the buttons on the phone, and close things using the task manager.) I keep feeling like I don't know what I'm doing, mostly because I don't.

I didn't find the More by section, thanks for pointing that out.

I appreciate muchly all the specific recs as well. I'm kind of stuck at, "Holy Fuck! Nothing is the same anymore from my 3 year old phone with a different OS!" It was so much trouble to adapt to the stupid on-screen keyboard that I considered returning it. But I can hear people when they call me and they can hear me. So the phone part works better already.

[thistleingrey]

Ah. Perhaps look at Astrid or Wunderlist.

I really prefer SwiftKey to Swype (slightly modified Swype is what you have now unless you've installed something), but lots of people do like Swype. shrug.

[thistleingrey]

Oh, and no need to close apps. They loiter in memory till the system decides you're not returning for awhile, and then it shuts them down for you. Long press on the home (physical) button shows which apps are active, like holding down alt in Win7 and tapping tab. Apps are selectable there, in the same way.

[pj]

Useless but fun apps that have nothing to do with your needs: Ghost Radar Classic and Serial Killer Quote of the Day (SKQOTD).

Useful for everyone: Droid Light to use your camera flash as a flashlight. ETA - app name is Droid LED Flashlight.