Thursday, October 29, 2009

T-Mobile G1 and Android: A Beginner Tutorial

So you've just bought a new T-mobile G1 phone — awesome! For those who don't know, the G1 comes pre-installed with an operating system made by Google, called Android. Android is an open source operating system for mobile phones, meaning that anyone can write new and helpful programs (which you can download for free! — more of this later). In this tutorial, we will go over some of the basics, such as how to change your 'desktop' appearance, how to connect to wirless networks, how to automatically import your contacts from your old sim card, how to copy and paste, how to connect your G1 to your computer, how to load pictures and movies, and a few other tips and tricks to help you navigate your new phone.

First of all, let's go over the buttons.

FUNCTIONS OF THE BUTTONS OF THE T-MOBILE G1

Let's start with the green 'call' button on the left hand side. Pressing this button will always take you to the 'dialer', so you can make a call, or check your contacts out. Once you are in the 'dialer' program, and you have selected a number, pressing this will make the call.

The 'home' button, signified by a little house, is the button you press whenever you want to return to your desktop. For instance, say you are in the dialer, or checking out your e-mail, pressing the 'home' button will put these in the background and show you the desktop.

The 'Menu' button is used whenever you want 'more options'. For instance, say you are looking at your call log; you may not immediately know how to clear your call log, but knowing that the menu button provides more options, you can assume that by first going to call log and then pressing menu will show you options to clear your call log. In fact, it does just this. Another example is if you are on your desktop, pressing the menu button will show a list of options that you can do on your desktop, such as changing settings, changing wallpaper, etc.

The 'back arrow' button does just that; say you are in the browser, pressing the 'back' button will take you to the last browser window. Similarly, it will also take you to the last program you used.

Red Call Button

The 'red' call button is used to end a call; however, it is also used to put the phone in temporary 'sleep' mode. This saves energy to extend the battery life of the phone; to wake the phone up, simply press this red button again and the phone will wake up. Holding this button will show the menu to Turn off the power to the phone. When the phone is turned off, to turn it back on simply hold this red button again, and the phone will turn on if it is sufficiently charged.

Wheel Ball

Lastly, the wheel ball in the middle of the phone is used for a few different purposes, and it may be weird, but you can press the mouse ball in and use it as a button. First, it is used for scrolling in the browser. Second, if you ever want to copy and paste this is the button you use. What you do is first see the text that you want to select. Then, either use your finger to select the text, or click the mouse ball and go to 'select all'. Once the text is selected, press the mouse ball in again and go to 'copy'. This will copy the text to the clipboard, and when you find somewhere you want to paste it to (yep, you guessed it!) just press the mouse ball in again and go to 'paste'. Anything can be copy and pasted, such as URL's or text from a website.

Now, lets go over a few things that I promised I'd show you how to do in this introductory Android User Tutorial.

CHANGE YOUR DESKTOP APPEARANCE – WALLPAPER ON T-MOBILE G1 with Android

To change the wallpaper, make sure you are on your desktop. If you are not, remember android allows you to simply press your 'home' button, which will bring you back to the desktop. Now, once you see the desktop, press the 'Menu' button. This should pop up a menu at the bottom of the screen. You should see a square that says 'wallpaper', which you should click with your finger. This brings up another menu; if you already have the pictures on your phone, either go to 'pictures' or 'wallpaper gallery' and select which picture you want to use. When you click the picture you want to use, you have the ability to move and resize what you want to actually appear on your background. Press in the middle of the orange selection square to move it around, while to resize it, click on the perimeter of the square. Once you have the selection you want, go to 'save' at the bottom. Hoorah! You've just set up your wallpaper!

IMPORTING PICTURES, VIDEOS, and MEDIA ON YOUR G1 FROM YOUR COMPUTER

However, if you don't have the picture you want, you can connect your G1 to your computer and load your pictures on it. To do this, use the mini-usb to usb cable that came with your T-Mobile G1 phone, and connect one end to the phone and the other end into the usb slot on your computer. Make sure your phone is turned on. Assuming you are using Windows Vista, after a second a popup should appear on your computer's desktop saying some sort of installation — don't worry if this doesn't happen. Now, look back to your phone. Look at the white bar that goes across the top of the screen. In the top right there should be a small icon, which means that your phone is ready to be 'connected' to your computer; what you do is press on this icon with your finger, and without letting up drag your finger down the screen a little bit. This will show the whole menu. Then click on the 'Mount' icon, and press ok to mount. What you have just done is connected your phone as a new drive on your computer. So, go to 'Computer' and then go to this new drive, it will probably be G: or something like that. Now, when you open it folders such as Pictures should be there. To load pictures onto your phone, simply copy any pictures from your computer into this G:\Pictures folder. For movies, do the same, except you will have to convert them to the right format (mpeg 4), which is outside the scope of this article. Wallah! Now you can put pictures on your G1 Android phone!

CONNECTING TO A WIRELESS NETWORK USING T-MOBILE G1 with Android

Now, let's show you how to connect to a wireless network. Go back to your desktop, and then press the Menu Key, and go to the 'Settings' box. Now click on 'Wireless Controls'. Next, click on Wi-Fi Settings. To add a new network, first click on Wi-Fi; once it is enabled (a green check mark appears), click on Add a Wi-Fi Network. Then, put in the correct information such as the password for the wireless network and such. This should automatically then connect to the network, and you are now using wireless (instead of G3 or E signal, which is slower). Hooray! A few notes is that your g1 doesn't automatically turn wi-fi on and off, you have to set it.; however, there is an option that you can setup under 'settings' which we won't go into.

IMPORTING CONTACTS FROM YOUR SIM CARD ON T-MOBILE G1 with ANDROID

Finally, if you want to import your contacts from an old sim card, there is a special option that does this for you. First, go to 'contacts'; if you can't find this, go to the dialer first (by pressing the green 'call' button) and then click on the third tab which is contacts. Now, press 'Menu', and then go to the 'settings' box that pops up. Then, click the option 'SIM contacts Importer'. This will show the contacts on your sim card. To import all of them, simply press 'menu' again, and go to import all. Wa-la! All your contacts can now be found under 'contacts'.

I hope you all enjoyed this basic tutorial for the T-Mobile G1 with Android installed. Good luck and happy calling!

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