Some Tid-Bits For Apps & Features

Updated: 01/18/2013

Here are some things I’ve learned as a newbie with my new phone. I love this thing! I’ll probably be adding quite often here. So check back for new things I’ve discovered. You might also want to check out Things To Know About Galaxy Nexus

Remember you can always access the online manual and search for help: Galaxy Nexus Help

– How to access apps and widgets:

• From the home screen, click the app icon button. It’s the (:::) button at the bottom, in the center.
  
• Apps that are already installed on your phone will be listed in alphabetical order and you can scroll through pages of apps by swiping your finger across the screen.
  
• At the top of the apps page, you’ll see the word “Widgets” in the menu. Click that to see the widgets currently installed on your phone.
  

– Set up Security:

If you don’t want all your information from your phone uploaded to Google, you’ll need to turn of the sync settings. Now there’s a risk to doing this. If something happens to your phone, you could potentially lose a lot of data if you don’t manually back it up.

I’d rather back up my own data, than sending my pictures and contacts to Google. To me, it’s an invasion of privacy. They already know too much about me.

There’s a good website that can help you turn of the sync settings from uploading your pictures to Google / Pisca @ Almost A Technocrat.

– How to add an App to your home “page”:

First you should know you have 4 ‘pages’. The Home page, and 3 blank user defined pages to place your favorite apps or links. You can organize your pages to your liking. My home screen is for things I access on a daily basis. Slide your finger across the screen from right to left and you’ll bring up the next page. There I have business apps. Slide the screen again and I have games.

Click on the ‘house’ looking button at the very bottom of the screen and you’ll go back to your home page. Slide your finger from right to left and you bring up another app page, but this one has a set of icons at the bottom. I’m still trying to figure out what they all are. 

• First thing to do is Select the home screen you want to add the new app too.
  
• From that screen , click the app icon (:::) button
  
• The installed apps screen will be displayed. You can toggle through the apps by sliding/swiping your finger across the screen.
  
• When you find the app you want to add, press and hold it for a moment. You’ll feel a slight vibration from the phone as it picks up the icon. When it does, your phone will drop it to the screen you had chosen to land it on. If you want to move it to a different location on that page, press and hold it until you feel the vibration, then drag it. You can also drag it to another “page” by moving it to the edge of the screen left or right to go forward or back to another home screen.
  

– How to remove an app icon from your home “page”:

• Press the icon for the app and hold it for a moment.
• When you feel the vibration, drag the icon to the top of the screen. A small bar will appear that says “Remove”

– How to remove an app from your phone:

• From the home screen, click the app icon (:::) button
  
• Find the app you want to remove. Press and hold the icon.
  
• When your phone takes you to a home screen, in the upper left corner you’ll see a menu item that says “Uninstall”. Move the icon over top of that and let it go.
  
• You’ll have a chance to confirm the uninstall.
  

– How to add a Contact short-cut to your home “page”:

• From the home screen, click the app icon (:::) button
• Press the word Widgets on the top of the screen
• Press and hold the Contact (1 x 1) item
• Drop it on the home screen
• The widget will pop-up your Contacts, search for the one you want to add a short cut for. When they come up, tap the screen and they’ll be added as a short-cut

– How to take a screen print

Whither you want to take a screen print of a webpage, or something on your phone itself (such as an error message), you can grab a shot and mail it to yourself.

• When you have the screen image you want to capture, hold the on/off button and the volume down button at the SAME TIME.
  
• Your Nexus will capture the image and store it in a special folder that you can access through your Gallery app.
  
• Go to that app and select the Screenshots folder.
  
• Select the image you want to email. When it is displayed, lightly “tap” on the home button and a menu will appear at the top of the screen. You should see the eMail app icon.
  
• When you select eMail, it will place the image into an email, address it and send it off.
  

– How to delete a “Saved Page”

When you access a webpage that you want to read later, you can save the page for “offline reading”.

• When you want to remove that saved page, go to your browser and click on the folders icon:
  
• Next, select the Favorites icon (the one with the star in the middle of the plus and 3dots)
  
  
• You will access your bookmarks by default. Select “Saved Pages”.
  
• To delete the saved page, press on its icon and hold it for a moment. A pop-up menu will appear where you can “Delete saved page”
  
  .

– How To Manage Your files – File Managers:
My phone came with a USB cord so I can connect it to my PC and use it as a storage device to transfer files back and forth. I do this mostly for pictures, but there are a few other things it’s come in handy for as well. Like transferring sound files to use as ringtones.

There are limits to what your PCs file manager can do on your phone however. For instance, if you want to add a directory to your Pictures directory on your phone to organize images, you can’t do that with file manager. However…there’s an app for that. I did a lot of reading and searching to see what others use and what’s recommended. I didn’t try them all out, because everyone seems to recommend the same app.

ES File Explorer File Manager by EStrongs Inc: ☆☆☆☆☆
You can create directories, move files easily, select multiple files simultaneously, copy or delete and several other helpful things that you need a file manager to do.
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– How To Keep Your Apps Up To Date:

From time to time you should check your apps to see if they need to be updated. Most apps will allow you to set automatic update. But you should still check on them from time to time and make sure some apps aren’t being left behind.

Or if you’re like us and you don’t like that automatic magic black box thing going on behind the scene, you can turn that “automatic feature” off. If you do, you’ll have to manually choose which apps you want updated. Which is pretty easy to do.

• From the home screen, click the app icon (:::) button
• Click the Shopping Bag in the top right corner. 
• Google Play will load its home page.
  
• Click the Options Icon in the top right corner. (The 3 vertical dots)
  
  
• Select My Apps from the drop down menu
  
  
• You’ll see a list of apps that are installed on your phone and their status will appear on the right. It will say installed or update.
  • You can select the individual apps you want to update by tapping “Update”. You’ll be asked uninstall or update the app. Tap update and you’ll be asked to accept the download.
  • You can also choose to update all the apps by tapping the “download” icon on the top right of the app screen. Be sure you want to update everything listed, because it will not ask you to confirm the updates if you select the “all” download option.
    

  

• You’ll receive a notification in your status bar about each update that has occurred.
  That’s all there is to it.
  

More to come…

Have fun with your new phone!

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