Jim's Guide to Android Lollipop - Computer - TV - Phones - Electrical

What can I say, absolutely brilliant. Keep up the good work Jim.
You deserve a medal

You should sell your book Jim - brilliant! I don't own that phone, but still there is a lot of info that helps with all types of smart phones.

Jim, have you given Margaret her lessons on 'her' 'phone as yet?

havent got a clue what your all talking about!!!!!!!

As I've got exactly the same phone, I'm absolutely DELIGHTED with some help in understanding how the thing works, cos it's complicated, to say the least!

Thanks ain't a strong enough word Jim, but thanks anyway.

Geoff.

Brillant,BRILLant BRILLANT!

Jim that is 339 pages long was expecting a simplified guide. Man on a mission. Perhaps should offer you a job rewriting the satellite receiver user manuals - as usually a better job could be done of these!

Possibly the most comprehensive guide on that phone ever compiled.

I've recently updated my Xperia Z3, to Lollipop - not read any instructions, noticed a few minor changes to the notifications toolbar and the screen icons seem a little bigger / slightly different - I think other than a 'lick of paint' most of the changes are under the hood and more for the newer 64 bit architecture on the newer / coming models.

Think you deserve a gold star for all your forum contributions Jim. Look at the top of the site Thank you. xxx

Jim,

A BIG thank you from me and congratulations on a very comprehensive guide.

Aaitch

I'm just pleased you all like it, and hope you can find bits in it that might be helpful. It's especially nice to get favourable comments from the tech experts like Graham and Aaitch.

I've always liked sharing what I know. My first experience of that was in grammar school when I gave a talk on the Special Theory of Relativity - there were as many of the teachers in the class as there were pupils. Those were the days of chalk and blackboard - PowerPoint was a long way off.

Graham - take out all the stuff about individual apps, and the size would shrink considerably. Mind, if I'd had time to include lots of pretty pictures, it would have been even bigger. It did start out as a simplified guide, but like Topsy it just kept growing, so I binned the first attempt and did one that covered every feature. Unlike yourself, being a newbie, I found the transition from KitKat to Lollipop to be confusing, because I was reading how to do something in KitKat and finding there were differences in Lollipop.

Jan, thanks, but what am I supposed to be looking at?

I'm still getting confused. I'm currently playing with Sygic offline mapping and navigation, and in spite of having sussed out (with help from my friends!) some of the folder structure in Android, I'm still not finding some of what I expect to see. For example, when I got Sygic working, I used it to download over 700 MB of maps (UK and Spain), and they're there when I use Sygic, but I can't find them in either Windows Explorer or ES File Explorer, and the folder sizes shown by Windows Explorer don't seem to have changed. I know it's not important as regards to using the app, but I still get annoyed at myself for not understanding the nuts and bolts. Today, hopefully, I'll be playing with voice-guided navigation, and trying to find out if it's possible to change the voice. Then I'll be playing with HERE and deciding which of the two I prefer. And after that I will be doing the official hand-over of the phone to Margaret.

Carole - yes, the lessons have started with Margaret, albeit just covering the basics so far. Today's lesson will be about how to use her fingers!

Jim, if you don't soon give Margaret her phone back, she'll be using her fingers to let you know how she feels!!

Superb set of instructions, thanks again. I'm working through them, page by page and learning all the time.

First question for you! You say "To remove a widget, long-press until you feel a vibration and drag it to the X Remove at the top of the screen until it turns red. Then release it."

When I long-press a widget, there is no X Remove to drag it to.

What am I doing wrong, please?

Geoff.

You've got me there, Geoff. Just tested it again with both shortcuts and widgets, and I definitely get the X Remove option at the top of the home screen.

You are talking about the home screen, aren't you?

When you touch and hold, do you feel the good vibrations?

Once you've done that, can you drag it around the screen to re-position it?

If so, just drag/flick it off the top of the screen - that should remove it.

If not, what's the widget in question?

Edited by jimtaylor, 01 May 2015 - 07:54 AM.

Don't worry too much right now, Jim, cos I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go through! I'm enjoying having a play with it.

But in answer to your post, this is what I am doing:
Home screen, yes, touch and hold an empty area.
Touch Widgets icon.
Six boxes appear - "Bookmark 1 x 1", "Calendar 2 x 3", "Direct dial 1 x 1", "Bookmarks 3 x 2", "Contact 1 x 1", "Direct message 1 x 1"
When I touch and hold one of the boxes, no, there is no vibration, but I can drag it up to the top of the screen, where "App Info" appears in blue.
I can drag the item off the top of the screen, but it shoots back to where it came from.

What am I doing wrong please Jim?

I've also been trying to move Apps to the SD card, but for nearly all of them, the "Move to SD Card" box is greyed-out. I've got a nearly full Internal Memory and a nearly empty SD Card!

I've left this reply on the forum as opposed to sending you a pm, because I felt that other members will be interested in your replies.

Geoff.

Think I understand. You're trying to delete a widget from the widgets drawer, or whatever it's called. If you swipe left on that, you'll probably see even more widgets.

You can't delete them from there or anywhere else - they're part of the system/app files. Several of the apps I've added have put widgets on the phone, and even though I won't need them, I just have to put up with their existence. In Windows terms, they're protected operating system files.

Little exercise for you. Press and hold a widget. If there's no vibration, then you can enable that if you want to (I have, because I'm not yet being mean with the battery). Apps/Settings/Sound & Notification/Other sounds/Vibrate on touch.

The widgets drawer shrinks when you press and hold, showing some of the home screen.

Drag the widget onto the home screen and release.

Touch and hold, and you can either move it or drag it up to X Remove at the top of the screen.

I found the same as you re the SD card. Everything that comes pre-installed can't be moved. Everything you install can be moved. Even if you 'move' them, some if not all will keep some files back in internal memory.

If I go to Apps/Settings/Storage, it says internal storage is 5.51 GB, with 3.43 GB free. The storage capacity hogs are listed under that in descending order of space taken, albeit it's shown in categories rather than by app/folder. If you've nearly filled the internal storage already, what have you been doing? Taking long videos of Sue without setting the camera's storage to SD card?

Please everyone, and not just Geoff, post any queries on the forum and PM only if it's private - that way we can all learn from someone else's experience.

I'm glad my dad has an iphone ;-) even then every time I go back to the UK, I get - 'how do I' I've also donated an old ipad, as if you can use one, you can use the other - though same of course would go for the android hardware.

As a general rule of thumb - I have to deal with support on maybe 50 different things, so not simple....I ask google or youtube first - just type question (or speak, press microphone icon) as you would ask someone into the toolbar / search and more than often you will find the answer quite easily. I have found youtube video's helpful with a lot of tech equipment, as you can pause & rewind to review.

I think if you try to know everly last detail on an operating system / phone, chances are you will be working on it forever - as they continually update and change things. As long as you know what you need to, to use properly, then usually that should be sufficient.

Bit like me and using photoshop - an incredibly complex program where there are numerous courses available to learn. I probably know 10% -20% (self taught) - which is enough for the purposes I need (for now)....otherwise (even for someone technically minded) it can all be 'technical overload'. You could spend months on it.

I think most manufacturers / programmers need a wake up call and do need to make technology easier / simpler to use. Apple / Steve Jobs had that as a principal. Fact is most people do not use all the functions on their smart phones or most devices! I have numerous settings on my smartphone camera, what do I do when I want to take a photo? Point & shoot, generally do not have the time to mess around with ISO / HDR, different focus, light settings.......good in theory, in practise people want it simple and to do everything as quickly as possible.

Edited by graham1, 01 May 2015 - 10:45 AM.

Thanks Jim.

I was given an android tablet around 6 months ago,really struggling with it,but some of your info applies on that as well,so can make some use of it now,hopefully in the next 6 months will have got the hang of it.

Have to agree with Graham about making things simpler for us older ones,just plain English instead of a load of jargon that a lot of us don't understand.

Always thought that these companies should take an elder (non techno) person(s) on board when they are updating to advise on what can be understood.There must be a market out there to people who don't buy into this wonderful technology because they can't get the hang of it and give up,very few have the patience Jim has.Best to kick the thing or throw it against the wall,won't make it work but makes you feel a lot better.

Mucho Gracias again Jim

I completely agree with Graham's views, and wouldn't have done what I did if it hadn't been a completely new form of tech for me. Photoshop's a good example, and I only know what I need to know to get the job done. In the case of Photoshop, my write-up isn't about how to use it; it's how to configure it to suit me, in case I have to do it again.

Things these days are far too powerful for the average user, and as a result too complicated. When I first went on to a 64-bit machine, I searched high and low for a nice and easy bank account program that would do what my old (very old) 16-bit program did. All the programs I tested were far too fancy and, with most being of USA origin, wouldn't let me set up four weekly payments for DWP pensions. In the end I set up a 32-bit virtual machine in which to run the old program that I got with my very first PC.

What I'd really like is for manufacturers make programs/apps where you can customise what you see. Leave the features there, but be able to set up your own menu and toolbars etc. Microsoft Word goes part way towards that - I've got the fancy ribbon hidden, and all the commands I use frequently on a quick access toolbar, so I've only got a couple of dozen options to choose from instead of a couple of hundred.

thank god ive only got a basic phone

Ok Jim, after ages of trying I can't work out how the b.h. to do what you say in your post - "setting the camera's storage to SD card".

I give up, please put me out of my misery!!

Btw, now that I've cleared out the unnecessary apps, my internal memory is exactly the same as yours - 5.51 gb, so at least I've done ONE thing right!

Geoff.