Newbie to Android - Step by Step Guide

[Guest orangephone]

I've never had a android phone before and so I have no idea about rooting and all these other technical terms. Actually I came across it previously on a SOny Ericsson forum where I found cool ways to modify old phones but I never tried it since I didn't use them anymore.

My San Francisco(s) coming today so I would like to know what I can do with this phone to get maximum benefit from it without having fear of crashing it.

I'm not an expert when it comes to this since I've never done it before but I am good at following instructions if explained well so could someone kindly tell me of what I can do with this phone and how?

Look forward to learning more as I think if I can learn other things, this should become easier I hope.

[Guest Modmedia]

Great step-by-step here!

Plus a video too!

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...deo-now-online/

[Guest Kuteguy]

I've never had a android phone before and so I have no idea about rooting and all these other technical terms. Actually I came across it previously on a SOny Ericsson forum where I found cool ways to modify old phones but I never tried it since I didn't use them anymore.

My San Francisco(s) coming today so I would like to know what I can do with this phone to get maximum benefit from it without having fear of crashing it.

I'm not an expert when it comes to this since I've never done it before but I am good at following instructions if explained well so could someone kindly tell me of what I can do with this phone and how?

Look forward to learning more as I think if I can learn other things, this should become easier I hope.

I am quite new to android too but here are the things i have done:

- got unlock codes to unlock my phone to allow any SIM to used so I am not stuck to Orange (see sticky topic in this forum)

- rooted my phone - this basically gives super user privileges; there is a special 1-click tool available on XDA forums - details on this forum (most likely in the sticky); I am not sure how beneficial it is to have this but good to do anyway

- you can then d/load Paul's custom ROM so that all the Orange bloatware is removed + other speed improvements + much need tools/apps; details in the sticky and most likely in the video link given above

- then setup the phone to work for your service provider (internet, mms, etc) -> get the APN settings from your provider

- setup googlemail, etc if you want to; I am coming from windows mobile 6.5 so it took me a while to figure out how to transfer my almost 1000 contacts + tasks + appointments, etc but finally managed to do it nicely

- go crazy with installing apps - either from market place or from other dubious sources; e.g. of apps: Motonav for turn by turn navigation, fitness software, multimedia playing s/w, qype, barcode reading s/w, PDF reader, etc etc

- when you connect your mobile to your Windows PC, you will get a message if you want to 'Mount' or 'Dont Mount' the phone (assuming you have a microSD card in there) - if you choose 'Mount' then you will be able to use the mobile as an external HDD - transfer all your music, etc onto it and/or downloaded applications ( *.apk files). While the mobile is mounted onto the computer, you will not be able to access the microSd card on the mobile (there are apps that you can d/load that can get past this restrictions).

Enjoy ..

[Guest orangephone]

Thank you. I am going to have to go through all of that slowly, just waiting for mys econd handset to come now.