Ask NerdGirl: Personalize Your Home, No Stable 2.2 For Eris…Yet, Road Runner Email Fails, No FLAC, and K9 Only!

by n3rdg1rl Jun 17, 2010 9:53 AM – 2 Comments

It seems like a new phone is being announced everyday now! Sony Ericsson’s X8, HTC’s Aria, Motorola’s DROID X…It looks like I’m gonna be busy learning a bunch of new hardware! YAY!!! ^_^

Hi! I’m new to this smartphone thing. Is there a way to change the apps on the front screen?
Stacey x

There are several ways to accomplish this. The easiest, however, is to hold your finger down on the app you want to remove (long press) until you see the “trash can” icon at the bottom. Then drag the app onto that icon. It doesn’t remove the app itself, just the icon for it. Then to put what you would like there long press on the empty space. This will bring up a menu of widgets and shortcuts you can put on the screen. From there just play around and find things that work best for you. This works for any screen on your phone, not just the main one you see when you turn the phone on.

I read one of your answers to the new guy that just bought an Eris, and you said that yours is running 2.2. If you don’t mind me asking where did you get that update because I have been looking ever since they released 2.2 and I can’t find one that will work. Please let me know! :0)

Robert Hendricks

There must be a misunderstanding. I am still running 2.1 on my Eris. This is because my findings are like yours; there really isn’t a stable version of 2.2 out for the Eris. I’m sure once the Incredible gets its update the rooters will start work on using that as a base for the Eris. Right now, I’m fine with 2.1. My poor processor is doing all it can as it is!

Hello Nerdgirl,

I have a Verizon Motorola Droid (2.1) and am having a problem with my email. My email provider (Time Warner Road Runner) says the problem is Verizon’s responsibility, and Verizon says it is Road Runner’s problem. I just want the problem fixed! My email loads onto my Droid, but will many times just disappear as I am watching it load on the screen before I can read it. The email doesn’t go into the deleted folder. It just disappears. Even when I read the email but don’t delete it because I want to save it to read again later, it will just disappear. There is no way for me to archive it as I can with Gmail. Do you have any ideas of why it is disappearing and what I could do to stop it? I would like to keep the email in the “in” folder until I am ready to delete it like I do in Outlook on my home computer. Also, sometimes the same email is loaded onto my Droid repeatedly – as many as five times. Help!

Mary Jo

Don’t you love companies that do this? All hardware companies swear it’s the software companies fault and all software is positive that it’s hardware. I’ve been dealing with that circle for years.

Road Runner mail, in my experience, is poop. A lot of people I know have a problem with it on everything they try to use it on. One of the main issues is that Road Runner only wants you to send and receive email while on a Road Runner IP address. This means if you are not on your wireless network at home, Road Runner mail gets angry. The one configuration setup that you can try and see if it works is:

SMTP Server: smtp-server.austin.rr.com (Other’s who aren’t in Austin, just use your local in place of it.)
Port: 587
Security Type: None
Username: <your full email address>
Password: …..duh….

Hi,

I have transferred some FLAC music files to my memory card and have downloaded the Meridian Music Player onto my Motorola Milestone. Unfortunately the Player does not register the files in the Genre, Albums or Artists section under the Music option. Only when I use the Browser option can I see the music and play it. Any suggestions for setting up the music library in the Music section?

Thanks,
Jitain

FLAC files don’t play natively on Android. However, you can download andLess for free and use that as your music player. It not only supports FLAC, but also other lossless files types as well as the ones already supported by Android. It is a little buggy, but it’s free and a way to hear your music so it’s worth a shot at least.

I love k9mail so how do I make it my only email on my Android? How do I stop using the default Gmail on my android?

Without rooting your phone, you can’t remove the apps that came with the phone. However, you can change the default app by going to Menu >> Settings >> Applications >> Manage Applications and then scroll down to Mail. Click on Mail and then scroll down a little bit and you’ll see “Clear defaults.” Tap that and the next time you want to use something related to email it will ask you what you want to use.

Gonna go find out what I can about these new phones. Keep sending those questions to nerdgirl@androidtapp.com!

~n3rdg1rl

Tags: Android 2.2 For Eris, Android Advice, Android Questions, Ask NerdGirl, Custom Android Home Screen, FLAC, Help with Android, K9, K9 Mail, Long Press, Longpress, Road Runner Email Fails

Categorised in: Android Advice, Ask NerdGirl

2 Comments

By jorenko on June 17, 2010 at 10:47 am:

NerdGirl, I find your answer to the RR email questions somewhat lacking. First, you gave her a configuration for her SMTP server… but that’s only for SENDING mail, not receiving it!

Second, the problem is likely that she has left Outlook open on her computer, and it is downloading the messages from the server and deleting them. There are a few ways to solve this:

A. Only use one mail client at a time! The simplest thing to do would be to only use your phone, and forget about Outlook.
B. Forward your RR mail to Gmail. Go to Settings in the Gmail web page on your PC. Under “Accounts and Import”, enter your RR account info and POP server under “Check mail using POP3.” Now all your RR email will appear in Gmail instead of in Outlook or the generic Email app on your android.
C. If IMAP mail is available from RR. You’ll have to contact technical support at RR to find out if they offer this. If they do, you can configure both your android phone and Outlook to use IMAP, meaning they will leave ALL your messages on the server at all times, and which messages you’ve read, etc will be synchronized between them.

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By PAM on March 28, 2011 at 8:43 pm:

The phone store said the app for my Android phone is worthless so now they loaded K-9. The display leaves a lot to be desired but my biggest issue is that it does not synch to my server so it keeps all the deleted messages on the phone and my home computer. Too much of a hassle to do double work. How do I fix it?

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