HTC Evo Guide

HTC Evo Guide
Page content

Why the EVO is Special

The HTC EVO 4G has been a real contender for best smartphone in the market since its inception. This phone has everything you could want in a phone wrapped in a pretty little package. There are many HTC Evo tips and tricks that you should know about on your new phone. Possibly too many to discuss in this one article. However, I will go over the basics of what you need to know and how to navigate through this massive smartphone to get the most out of your new HTC EVO 4G. Since its release, new software, Android 2.2 Froyo, has become available for the EVO. The new software gives even more functionalities to users of the EVO and makes navigating even simpler.

Show Facebook Contacts

When you first activate the EVO and login to your Facebook application, you might notice the Facebook contacts are missing. You must manually synchronize the contacts to make them available on the EVO. To do this, click the “Settings” icon on the main menu screen. Click “Accounts & Sync” and choose “Facebook for HTC Sense”. Locate the “People” icon and select it. Press the “Menu” button and choose “View” located at the bottom of the screen. Place a check in the box next to “Facebook for HTC Sense.” Click “Done.”

HTC Evo Guide to Backup and Import

One of the most important features of the EVO is backing up the phone. You never know when something may happen to the phone causing everything to wipe. It is normally a good idea to not only synchronize the phone to a Google account, but also to back up the phone as another precaution. You can easily backup the EVO to your SD card as a secondary storage location. Click the up arrow key on the bottom-left corner of the device. Touch the screen and slide the screen up while touching it. Release your finger from the screen. Click “People” and press the “Menu” button at the bottom of the screen. Click “Import/Export.” Click “Export to SD Card” and choose an account. Click “OK” on the screen to confirm you do want to export. Press the “Home” button at the bottom of the screen.

Transfer Music from the Computer

You can download and transfer music to the EVO and play it while multi-tasking on the device. To get the music from a computer, you have to use the USB cord provided with the device. Connect the USB cord from the device to the computer and double-click the “My Computer” icon on the computer desktop. Look under “Removable Drives” and find the one that says “HTC EVO.” Locate the music file you saved on your computer. Drag and drop the file on top of the HTC EVO folder. Remove the USB cord from the device.

Remove Downloaded Applications

Sometimes an application on the HTC EVO may cause problems with the other applications. Having a rogue application on the EVO may also eat the battery life up immensely faster than a regular application. The best solution for this app that is wreaking havoc on the EVO is to delete it. Remove the application by pressing the up arrow key at the bottom of the screen. Touch the screen and swipe it towards the top of the device. Click the “Market” application and choose “Downloads.” Click the downloaded application and choose “Uninstall” located at the bottom of the screen. Press “OK” on the confirmation screen. Press the “Home” key to go back to the main screen of the device.

Setup Gmail

Getting instant emails as they come in without sitting in front of a computer all day is the main reason for setting up email on your new EVO. The Gmail account should be setup immediately on the device because it allows you to synchronize data automatically. Setting up email is simple to do. Click on the up arrow key on the bottom of the device and choose “Gmail.” Click “Next” and choose “Sign In.” Type the username and password for your Gmail account. Click “Sign In” and choose “Next” to finish adding the Gmail account. Press the “Home” button at the bottom to go back to the main screen.

Qik

Qik

The Qik application allows you to share live videos. You can do a live chat face to face if the other person has the Qik feature activated on their device. You can also send live feeds to another person via SMS text messaging or through email. To use the feature, you and the other person must first setup an account on the Qik website. Click the web browser and click inside the address bar. Type ‘https://qik.com’ and click “Sign Up.” Follow the instructions to finish setting up your account. To send live video through email after you have setup your Qik account, press the up arrow key and slide the screen up. Click the “Qik” application and sign into your Qik account. Choose “Share.” Select a person to share the video with and select “Email” as the method to share. Click “Title” and type a name for the video. Choose whether you want the video to remain private or you can choose to make it public. Press “Menu” and click “Settings” to update the settings for the video before you start sharing. When you are ready to share, click the “Green” button and the video camera will start streaming to your Qik account. Click the “Green Square” button to finish and send. Press “Menu” and click “Exit” to go back to the main screen.

Hotspot

The most popular feature, aside from the 4G capability of the EVO, is the Hotspot ability. The feature allows up to eight devices, such as laptops, to connect to the Internet using the data services available on the EVO. Even though the Hotspot costs $29.99 extra, the price is well worth the unlimited data usage. Press the up arrow key on the device and choose “Hotspot.” Click the “Hotspot” button and click inside the “Router Name” field. Type a name for your router connection. The default password for the router is “1234567890”, so change the password to something nobody can guess. Otherwise, random people can hop on your Hotspot and use it. Enable the hotspot on the laptop, desktop computer or other Wi-Fi device. Locate your newly named router, double-click on the hotspot and connect to it by entering the secure password you just created.