Note: I will include detailed step-by-step guidance in the second section called “Transfer your contacts to Google Account”, so that you can familiarize with some jargon and basic navigation in Android OS. After that, I’ll provide some basic guidance. So, if you are completely new to the OS, I recommend reading that even though you are looking for some other specific information.

Disclaimer: I use a Huawei IDEOS X3 U8510 with Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, so all the guideline are based on that phone and OS. I am no expert regarding Android. The purpose of this blogpost is just to share my experience with the OS so that someone will find this helpful in some manner. I have personally done all the mentioned activities upon my phone without doing any harm to it. However, as I have no control over Android, any of the apps mentioned and user’s activities, I bear no responsibility over any harm done to a phone or any super-natural power gained by user by following guidance in this blogpost.

Just to be sure, if some guy in a uniform asks, I do not exist.

1. Connect your Google account with your phone.

Android is a Google product, well, not completely (Open Handset Alliance is the patron of Android), but Google is the one controlling most of it. So, for the most part, you can call it a Google product. To enjoy all the features your Android got, you must link your Google account with your phone.

If you don’t have a Google account, you shouldn’t be bothering to have a smart-phone with Android as the OS of it.

2. Transfer your contacts to Google Account.

All the contacts in your Google Contacts will be available from your phone once you successfully link your Google Account and your phone’s OS.

To transfer contacts from your old phone, you can either go to Google Contacts web interface and type in all the contacts you need with the convenience of using your PC. Or you can transfer your contacts from the old phone to a SIM, then insert that SIM to your new Android phone and finally copy contacts in the SIM to your Google Contacts.

This is how to copy contacts:

1. Make sure you have copied your contacts to the SIM from old phone, and then insert the SIM to new phone. Press/tap (“Tap” =  Touch a certain spot of your phone’s screen once.) your “Home Button” (Phone’s manual will tell you what that is, if you are having trouble identifying this.) and make sure you are in the “Homescreen” (Android counterpart of “desktop” of a PC OS.). Then tap the launcher button.

Following image shows my phone’s homescreen. Launcher button is highlighted.

2. Then search for the icon labeled “Contacts” in the launcher screen.

Following image shows one page from my phone’s launcher. Contacts icon is highlighted.

3. By tapping that icon, you will open the Contacts app. It’ll look like this:

4. Once you are there, press/tap your “Menu Button”. It’ll cause a menu like this appear on your screen:

5. Tap the option called “Display options”, and you’ll be presented with a screen like this:

6. Scroll (Tap and drag) the screen towards top, so you see the bottom. Make sure you see all the options under the section labeled “Choose contacts to display”.

7. Uncheck all the options except “SIM”.

8. Tap “Done” button and you’ll be presented with the previous screen, but this time only with the contacts stored in the SIM.

9. Long tap on one of the contacts and it’ll show a menu like following.

10. Select “Copy contact” and it’ll give you another menu like this:

11. In that menu you got three options.

First: “Phone” – If you select this option, the contact will be saved in your phone’s internal memory. This won’t be available in Google Contacts web interface. This will remain in the phone even if you unlink your Google Account and your phone.

Second: Your GMail address with black “g” icon – If you select this, the contact will be saved in your Google Contacts. This will be available from Google Contacts web interface. This will be lost if you unlink your Google Account and your phone.

Third: Your GMail address with phone book icon – If you select this, the contact will be saved in Google Contacts. This won’t be available in Google Contacts web interface. This will be lost if you unlink your Google Account and your phone.

I use and recommend the second method. You’ll be able to use your contact details anywhere Internet is available that way.

12. Once you have copied the contacts from SIM to another location, you can delete the contacts from the SIM. That will allow you to add more contact details to the same SIM from old phone and transfer those as well to the new phone while making sure you are not making duplicates. This is useful as SIMs only allow 200+ contacts to be saved on it.

To delete contacts from SIM, tap the highlighted button in the following screenshot:

13. Once you tap that, you’ll be presented with a screen like below:

14. Tap “Select all” and then tap “Delete”. It’ll pop up a message box like following:

15. Tap “Delete” and every contact in SIM will be deleted. You can repeat above steps if you have more contacts in the old phone that you need to get to your new Android phone.

3. Select a basic one for Home Screen animation.

If you are not an owner of an Android device with cutting edge technology and performance, you should be worrying about the actual use of your phone, not eye-candy. Setting a basic animation for home screen transitions will save battery and processing power for things that actually matter.

Go to Home Screen, press Menu, tap “Home settings”, tap “Animation” under “Home settings” section, and select a basic animation like “Slide”.

4. Set number of Home Screens to a minimum.

Android allows you to have number of home screens. You can fill these with fancy widgets and shortcuts. However, this also consume battery and processing power. I am only using one home screen and there are very little number of shortcuts. I didn’t find any widget useful to me, so I have a clean homescreen.

Go to Home Screen, press Menu, tap “Home Settings”, tap “Advanced settings” under “Home settings”. That will take you to another screen. From there, tap on “Screen number” and select a minimum amount.

If you have more than one home screens, you can set one of them as the default screen by tapping “Default home screen”.

5. Set shortcut buttons to commonly used options.

Although they are like mini PCs, Android smart-phones are… well… phones. You use it to make and receive calls and text messages.

So, we should set those two as our shortcut buttons.

Here, I am talking about the buttons in the below screenshot:

You can see I have already set them for calling and messaging. However, if your phone has something else, go to Home Screen, press “Menu”, tap “Home settings”, tap “Left shortcut” and select the option you need.

Do the same for “Right Short”.

6. Use only 2G networks.

Unless you are heavily using data over your mobile connection, you can easily switch to 2G only mode. You can use voice and text services without any difference while saving battery.

Go to Home Screen, press Menu, tap “Settings”, tap “Wireless & networks”, tap “Mobile networks” (You’ll have to scroll to bottom to see that option.), check “Use only 2G networks”.

7. Customize sound settings to the best.

Make sure you pay attention to your phone when it’s required.

Home Screen → Menu → Settings → Sound.

1. Set “Vibrate” to “Always”, so you won’t miss an important call when you are in a loud bus.
2. Tap “Volume” and you’ll see this screen:

Set “Ringtone” and “Alarm” to the max. Set “Media” as you wish. It is good to check “Use incoming call volume for notifications”, so you hear the notification sound in the maximum volume too. Plus notification sound will always mirror the ringtone volume.

You can always use the Volume Rocker while the phone is in standby mode to adjust the ringtone volume. The rocker will affect the media volume if used while a media file is playing.

3. At the bottom of the “Sound settings” screen, you’ll see options like “Audible touch tones”, “Audible selection”, “Screen lock sounds”, “Haptic feedback”. They are just useless and eat battery.

8. Fine tune display settings.

Screen has the ability to drain the battery very fast, we have the ability to tame it.

Home Screen → Settings → Display.

1. Set “Brightness” to the lowest. Uncheck “Automatic brightness”. You will get used to the low brightness level no problem, and when you are in bright sunlight, you can just go to a shade and see your screen.

2. Set “Animation” to “No animation”.
3. Set “Screen timeout” to “15 seconds”. It’s the lowest available.
4. Check “Notification settings”. It’ll display bunch of useful shortcuts in the notification area, like this:

9. Set SD card as the preferred install location.

You can install most of the apps in SD card, instead of the phone memory. Use phone memory for important apps that you would need all the time, eg., security apps, utilities etc.

Home Screen → Menu → Settings → Applications.

Tap “Preferred install location” and select “Removable SD card”.

10. Install these utility apps.

These apps will help you better manage your Android device.

1. Watchdog Task Manager Lite.

This app monitors other apps’ CPU usage and notifies you about excessive CPU usage of any app. This will help you maintain your phone’s performance.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zomut.watchdoglite

2. JuiceDefender – battery saver

This app limits battery consuming of processes while they aren’t being used. This has couple of paid editions, but I have only used the free edition yet. Looks to me it is working.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.latedroid.juicedefender

3. Apps 2 SD (Move app 2 sd)

This app will provide you with features to move apps from phone to SD. This app automatically tells you whether a newly installed app can be moved to SD card. It is a good idea to have all the non essential apps in the SD.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.IQBS.android.app2sd

4. Lookout Security & Antivirus

This is a security app you must have. This can scan other apps for malware. Have features to help you find your phone in case you lost it somewhere.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lookout

5. Titanium Backup ★ root.

This help you to back up your system. Pro version has the ability to freeze apps. Freezed apps are completely like unistalled apps, nothing of them work, but they aren’t uninstalled. You can defrost them any time. Good to keep away factory installed apps that you are not sure whether you should uninstall or not.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup

What have I missed?

I am sure I have missed a lot of stuff and this is an incomplete list. How do you prepare your Android for your personal use?

Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/PereraAndSons/status/193543002101252096

(පින්තූරය “තරුණ ගුරුවරයකුගේ සටහන්(A young teacher’s thoughts).” වෙතිනි.)

හමුව පිළිබඳ සාරාංශයක් චානුක මහතා Facebook Status Update එකක් ලෙස එක් කර තිබුනේ මෙසේයි:

“බ්ලොග්/වෙබ් අවකාශයේ ක්‍රියාකාරී තරුණ පිරිසකට අද ජනාධිපති ලේකම් හා විදිලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසමේ සභාපති ලලිත් වීරතුංග මහතා දිවා භෝජනයකට ඇරැයුම් කොට තිබුණා. මේ හමුව පැය තුනකට වැඩි කාලයක දීර්ඝ සංවාදයක් බවට පත්වුණු අතර තරුණ පරපුර, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය භාවිතය, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය තුළින් විරැකියාවට පිළියම් සෙවීම යනාදී කාරණා රාශියක් ගැන අප කථා කළා. මා සමඟ මේ හමුවට එක් වුනේ Supun Sudaraka, Supun Buddy Budhajeewa, Isuru Senevirathna, Sahen Sandesh, Aruna Chaminda හා Malinda Prasad. Udara Dharmasena අපට එකතු වීමට සිටියත් අවසාන මොහොතේ කාර්යාලීය කටයුත්තක් නිසා ඔහුට එක් විය හැකි වුණේ නැහැ. Supun Buddy Budhajeewa හා Malinda Prasad ජාතික වශයෙන් වැදගත්කමක් ඇති යෝජනා ගණනාවක් කළා. තොරතුරු හා සන්නිවේද තාක්ෂණ ආයතනයේ රෙෂාන් දේවපුරද මේ හමුවට එක්වුණා.

කලින් ලැයිස්තුවට සඳරු Chinthaka Sandaruwan Jayawickrama එකතු විය යුතුයි. වීරතුංග මහතාට විශේෂයෙන්ම හමුවීමට අවශ්‍යව තිබුණේ සඳරුව. ඒ ඔහුද සඳරුගේ “හිස් අහස” බ්ලොග් එකෙහි පාඨකයෙක් නිසා.“

මා විසින් මෙහිදී සඳහන් කරන්නට යෙදුනේ අන්තර්ජාලය හරහා විවිධ සේවා සපයන තනි පුද්ගලයන්ට මෙන්ම කුඩා පරිමාණයේ ආයතන වලටද විශාල ගැටළුවක් වී ඇති, PayPal හරහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙවීම් ගෙන්වා ගත නොහැකි වීමේ ගැටළුවයි. එය සම්බන්ධව සොයා බලා පියවරක් ගැන්නා බව වීරතුංග මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කළා. අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු හැකි ඉක්මනින් මේ පිළිබඳව විසඳුමක් අප හට ලැබෙයි කියා.

එමෙන්ම මා රාජකාරි කරන ස්ථානය වන Sanmark Solutionsහි කටයුතු සිදුවන ආකාරය, එනම් සේවාදායකයන් සොයාගන්නා ආකාරයත්, ව්‍යාපෘති කෙරෙන ආකාරයත් මා එහිදී විස්තර කළා. හමුවේදී මතුවූ විරැකියාව කෙරෙහි තොරතුරු තාක්‍ෂණය ආශ්‍රිත විසඳුම් යන මාතෘකාවට සම්බන්ධවයි එකී කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කළේ. එකී කරුණු දායක කරගෙන යම් පියවරක් ඔවුන් ගන්නේ නම් සතුටු විය හැකියි.

Even I watched a cricket match or a movie on TV I tend to leave the PC turned on thinking I must check my email account etc time to time. Even I could do that on my phone, I can’t make my mind to turn the PC off.

This habit is reducing my PC’s and router’s life time and consuming electricity. But, nothing to do, I have to leave the PC turned on, just in case I might suddenly need it.

Facebook Places is for checking-in to places where you hardly visit.

Say you visited your old school after a long time or visited some historical site. Check-in in Facebook.

For a place to be qualified to be checked-in in Facebook, it needs to be something unique. Something very important to your life that you’d tell your friends – I mean real ones – about that.

Don’t fill up your Facebook check-ins with some shops you visit often or not-often. It’s true companies are trying to get people to check-in to their business places in social media location services. But why you should be someone following their agendas?

However, their may come events that you should check-in in Facebook to places where you visit often. For an example, for an occasion that rarely happens in that place, say, the sports meet of your school. You might want to tell your friends that you are at your school watching the sports meet (You won’t be checking-in to some website, if you were participating. ). But you should never check-in to school in Facebook, if that is a regular academic day.

foursquare is for checking-in to places you visit regularly.

Your office, school or where every you visit regularly and every place you might check-in in Facebook, check-in to them in foursquare.

But never check-in to places you are passing by, unless you spend significant time in that place. Say, you are going to Galle from Hakmana. You can check-in to Hakmana Bus Stand and Matara Bus Stand because you spend sometime in those places waiting for a bus. But do not check-in to Weligama Bus Stand because you are just passing that place while you are in the Matara – Galle bus.

But let’s say, there is a huge traffic jam near Weligama Bus Stand and your bus is stuck there for about 15 minutes, you can then check-in to foursquare and share the news about current traffic jam with your “friends”, so they can avoid that route if they are too coming your way.

Google Latitude is for checking-in to places you pass by.

Yep, Google Latitude can be used in every situation you used Facebook Places and foursquarre plus marking your routes on your own Google Map. Simple.