Home Screens on Android Devices

Hey guys, this is David from the unlocker.net. These home screens work very similar to the way your desktop computer would work. You have shortcuts that you can place to either applications like the browser folders that you can put other applications into contacts and even bookmarks to your favorite internet pages. One other thing it also has widgets, which are useful little tools that you can put on your home screen that bring information directly to you there without having to go in too much further.

For example, I have a calendar widget here at the top. It's telling me that I need to do videos today, without having to actually click on the application and opening it. All of these shortcuts and stuff can be moved around by holding down on them. You can also add more by clicking the menu button and then selecting what you want to add next.

The main part of Android is the application drawer. This can usually be pulled up from the bottom, and these are all of the applications you have installed on your device. You can scroll through them and you can also select your application that you want to use from there. The other basic part of Android is the notification bar at the top. You can tell you have little symbols here that tell you certain notifications. Also, you have your data indicator, your signal bars, and your battery. Then also the time.

What you can do is pull this down sort of like a window shade and see what notifications you have listed right here. And then you can also click on them to be taken directly to that notification or that application that's notifying you. The next thing we'll go over are the hardware buttons that most Android devices have. There's usually four, um that are important.

So, the first one being the menu button. Now depending on what screen you're on, this will bring up a different menu if you're in the messaging application it'll bring up the messaging menu if you're in the email application, the email menu and so forth. Here on the home screen, it brings up our home screen menu where we can access settings for the entire phone add stuff to our home screen, check out our notifications if we didn't feel like dragging them down etc.

The next important button is home. When you click on any application, you'll notice like a desk or unlike a desktop there is no x button to close it out. So what you want to do if you ever want to get back to your home, push the home button very similar to how an iPhone works. The difference being though with the Android, you can also hold down home to give yourself your running applications. Android will run six applications at once. If you open the seventh application it will close the first application. So now we can use this to go back to the market, hold it down again go back to the browser Pango Etc.

The next important button is back. For instance if we go into the settings wireless controls mobile networks Network operators, if we ever want to go back just one we can hit back. Back again brings us to our homepage. The next important button is the search key. On this phone it happens to be on the keyboard on a lot of other Android phones. It's actually partnered with all these buttons um pushing the search though on the home screen brings you the quick search box. This will allow you to search your phone for any applications search your contacts, it'll basically search everything including the internet.

When you type into there from there now if you go into another application like contact for instance if you use the search button there it will just search contacts. Same thing goes for any other application for instance messaging search will now search your messages. Some of the basic apps that Android has include the browser and the browser can also open up different windows and you can close windows like that select which ones you want your bookmarks most visited history Gmail and your email browsing.

Gmail and your email browsing um, Gmail is a great example of an app that's available on every Android device. It has all sorts of features like sending emails, chat with friends etc. And it also integrates well with the rest of the Android apps, so you can easily send emails from any other app on your phone.

The browser is another one of the basic apps on Android, and it's a great web browser too. You can browse websites, check your email, all sorts of things in the browser. And like I said before, you can also open up different windows in the browser and close them when you're done with them. Select which ones you want to bookmark and save for later.

The market is another one of the basic apps on Android. It's a great way to download new apps for your phone or tablet. The market is broken down into categories, so you can browse through and find what you're looking for quickly. You can also search for specific apps, which makes it easy to find what you need.

The benefit of the Android market as opposed to the App Store is that it works on every Android device some apps don't work on all Android devices but the majority of them do um so regard regardless of what Android phone you have you have the same Market. You can download the same apps they're broken down into categories, you can do top paid top free ones that just came in and you can also search okay.

And that right there shows you pretty much the basics of Android 1.6 and of Android in general um you can use this uh to understand how Android phones are going to work regardless of what phone it is. Newer phones do have custom user interfaces put on top of them, you know better features like better camera Hardware their own widgets etc but for the most part this is the gist of how Android is going to work

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys this is David from the unlocker.net these home screens work very similar to the way your desktop computer would work um you have shortcuts that you can place to either applications like the browser folders that you can put other applications into contacts and even bookmarks to your favorite internet pages one other thing it also has widgets widgets are useful little tools that you can put on your home screen that bring information directly to you there without having to go in too much further um so for example I have a calendar widget here at the top it's telling me that I need to do videos today um without having to actually click on the application and opening it all of these shortcuts and stuff can be moved around by holding down on them you can also add more by clicking the menu button add then selecting what you want to add next main part of Android is the application drawer this can usually be pulled up from from the bottom and these are all of the applications you have installed on your device you can scroll through them and you can also select your application that you want to use from there the other basic part of Android is the notification bar at the top uh you can tell you have little symbols here that tell you certain notifications you also have your data indicator your um signal bars and your battery then also the time now what you can is you can pull this down sort of like a window shade and see what notifications you have listed right here and then you can also click on them to be taken directly to that notification or that application that's notifying you next thing we'll go over are the hardware buttons that most Android devices have there's usually four um that are important so the first one being the menu button now depending on what screen you're on this this will bring up a different menu if you're in the messaging application it'll bring up the messaging menu if you're in the email application the email menu and so forth um here on the home screen it brings up our home screen menu where we can access settings for the entire phone add stuff to our home screen check out our notifications if we didn't feel like dragging them down Etc the next important button is home so when you click on any application you'll notice like a desk or unlike a desktop there is no x button to close it out um so what you want to do if you ever want to get back to your home you push the home button very similar to how an iPhone Works um the difference being though with the Android you can also hold down home to give yourself your running applications Android will run six applications at once um if you open the seventh application it will close the first application so now we can use this to go back to to the market hold it down again go back to the browser Pango Etc the next important button is back so for instance if we go into the settings wireless controls mobile networks Network operators if we ever want to go back just one we can hit back back again back again and finally back again brings us to our homepage the next important button is the search key uh on this phone it happens to be on the keyboard on a lot of other Android phones it's actually partnered with all these buttons um pushing the search though on the home screen brings you the quick search box uh this will allow you to search your phone for any applications search your contacts it'll basically search everything including the internet um when you type into there from there now if you go into another application like contact for instance if you use the search button there it will just search contacts same thing goes for any other application for instance messaging search will now search your messages some of the basic apps that Android has include the browser and the browser can also open up different windows and you can close windows like that select which ones you want your bookmarks most visited history Gmail and your email browsing uh Gmail and email actually have two separate applications uh the Gmail one works a little bit better than the email one because it's a Google operating system um but basically they both function the same way lines of emails you can scroll through them you tap on an email to view it you can reply send save as draft discard you click back it asks you if you want to discard that's pretty much it for your email also has Google Maps with GPS support uh if your device has a GPS built in it'll use that for the Google Maps can scroll around zoom in zoom out you can also change the layers and switch to things like uh show traffic and you see green lines mean good traffic red lines mean bad you can turn that off show satellite view if you want to see images from the satellite instead of the map can also add your own Maps uh Wikipedia Transit lines favorite places Etc an IM application which supports these out of the box Gallery rev viewing your camera shots and your videos music app listen to your music you can s artists albums songs playlists and possibly most importantly the market uh similar to how an iPhone has an app store Android has a market uh the benefit of the Android market as opposed to the App Store is that it works on every Android device some apps don't work on all Android devices but the majority of them do um so regard regardless of what Android phone you have you have the same Market you can download the same apps they're broken down into categories you can do top paid top free ones that just came in and you can also search okay and that right there shows you pretty much the basics of Android 1.6 and of Android in general um you can use this uh to understand how Android phones are going to work regardless of what phone it is um newer phones do have custom user interfaces put on top of them you know better features like better camera Hardware their own widgets Etc but for the most part this is the gist of how Android is going to work\n"