Dan Gookin - Android For Dummies

Android® For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020942384

ISBN: 978-1-119-71135-3; 978-1-119-71136-0 (ebk); 978-1-119-71137-7 (ebk)

1 Cover

2 Introduction Introduction You know it’s intimidating when they call it a “smartphone.” Worse, the supersize smartphone, the tablet, supposedly does everything your computer does but without a keyboard — or very many knobs or switches. Still, if you own one of these devices, don’t you want to get all the features you paid for? This book makes the complex subject of Android phones and tablets understandable. It’s done with avuncular care and gentle handholding. The information is friendly and informative, without frightening you. And yes, ample humor is sprinkled throughout the text to keep the mood light. New technology can be frustrating enough without a touch of levity. About This Book About This Book Please don’t read this book from cover to cover. This book is a reference. It’s designed to be used as you need it. Look up a topic in the table of contents or the index. Find something about your Android mobile gizmo that vexes you or you’re curious about. Look up the answer, and get on with your life. Every chapter is written as its own, self-contained unit, covering a specific Android topic. The chapters are further divided into sections representing tasks you perform with the device or explaining how to get something done. Sample sections in this book include Typing without lifting your finger Making a conference call Blocking calls Sending email to a contact Surfing the web on a mobile device Helping others find your location Recording video Creating a mobile hotspot Flying with an Android Extending battery life You have nothing to memorize, no sacred utterances or animal sacrifices, and definitely no PowerPoint presentations. Instead, every section explains a topic as though it’s the first thing you’ve read in this book. Nothing is assumed, and everything is cross-referenced. Technical terms and topics, when they come up, are neatly shoved to the side, where they’re easily avoided. The idea here isn’t to learn anything. This book’s philosophy is to help you look it up, figure it out, and move on. How to Use This Book How to Use This Book This book follows a few conventions for using your Android phone or tablet, so pay attention! First of all, no matter what name your phone or tablet has, whether it's a manufacturer’s name or a pet name you’ve devised on your own, this book refers to it as an Android. Sometimes the term phone or tablet is used, and sometimes device or, rarely, gizmo . Because Samsung modifies the Android operating system, and because the company’s gizmos sell more than other phones and tablets, its devices are often called out in the text — specifically, when a Samsung galactic gizmo does something different from a typical Android gizmo. The main way to interact with an Android mobile device is to use its touchscreen, which is the glassy part of the device as it’s facing you. The physical buttons on the device are called keys. These items are discussed and explained in Part 1 of this book. The various ways to touch the screen are explained and named in Chapter 3 . Chapter 4 covers text input, which involves using an onscreen keyboard. When you tire of typing, you can dictate your text. It’s all explained in Chapter 4 . This book directs you to do things by following numbered steps. Each step involves a specific activity, such as touching something on the screen; for example: 1 Tap the Apps icon. This step directs you to tap or touch the graphical Apps icon on the screen. When a button is shown as text, the command reads: 1 Tap the Download button. You might also be directed to choose an item, which means to tap it on the screen. Various settings can be turned off or on, as indicated by a master control, which looks like the on–off toggle, as shown in the margin. Tap the master control to enable or disable the feature, or slide its button to the right or left. When the feature is enabled, the Master Control icon appears in color. Foolish Assumptions Icons Used in This Book Contacting the Author Beyond the Book