Gadgetory

Android Authority what is going on my name is Kevin the tech ninja and today we are starting a brand new series called Android one-on-one and on this first episode we're going to cover the very basics of Android right when you turn your phone on setting up your Android device and I'm showing you a few things on the interface so you can better understand the phone so if you're brand new to Android I want to welcome you to Android authority and welcome to the world of Android if you had Android before and you want a refresher well then good for you to our kids put on your learning caps because we're going back to school all right so as I said in the intro this is the basics of Android we are starting back at square one so first let's understand what Android is Android is an operating system based on the Linux kernel Android is not a phone nor is it an application and the most simplistic way I can say this in regards to a phone an operating system is where all your phone functions live your calls your Texas your applications anything that you input onto your device is going into the operating system the operating system is processing that information and putting it into a readable format Android operating system versions have code names as well so you may hear someone refer to Android as jellybean or as Kit Kat that's just the name of the current version of Android you're on it still has a number associated with it whether it's 4.2 or 4.3 the major manufacturers of Android usually has a skin on top of the operating system which some will argue enhances the current version of Android these skins all have different names but still under the skin is running a version of Android don't the names like TouchWiz since motoblur confuse you it's all Android all right now that you know what Android is let me show you how it works before you begin these steps I'm showing you are on an Android device that does not have a skin if your phone has the skin it may look a bit different but the options and the settings will be similar and you should be able to still follow along the first step we will do is select our language select the arrow or the play button to continue at this point we are able to select the Wi-Fi network if you are near a Wi-Fi area I do recommend that you actually connect to because during this wizard is going to pull down all of your Google information and that can take up a lot of data and time select your Wi-Fi network and type in your password the next step ask if you have a Google account if you use Gmail the answer is yes if you don't have a Google account I recommend making one at this point the way the Android works is centralized around Google so all of your emails come through calendar pictures and also applications if you ever did get a new Android phone or you wiped your current phone it's going to pull that information back down for you if you don't have an account there's nothing to backup to and pretty much you can lose all of your information if you get a new phone you can set this up on your computer or even your phone directly since I have an account I will select yes and then I'll enter my email address and password now a quick thing for the keyboards to access the numbers press the question mark one two three button on the bottom left and to return back to the normal keyboard press the ABC button in the exact same location once the password is type proceed to the next step now we are at the Google services screen this screen lets you set a few options the first option of backing up your information like downloads contact information and restore is if you had an Android device that's backed up already then this will restore it now depending on who you are and how you feel about security step two and three is a decision you make on your own now if you have location turned off a lot of applications that use the surrounding area around you may have issues like if you're on the Yellow Pages application it has a feature where searches around you also Maps and Google when you do a Google search for a store it will show you the closest ones to your area now we can name our phone and you can personalize it if you're logged in with your gmail account it should have the first and last name you have on your Google account this part of the wizard explains one of the most useful features that has came to Android in recent years Google now in the next two slides it explains what it is in somewhat vague detail it tells you information as you need it based on activities it tells you your weather location for work home or current and also where you plan on traveling it brings in sports scores for teams you care about and also news and information on things you've recently searched it gives you traffic information on your commute to and work is pretty much a hub of information that is all in your phone ready when you need it now we are at our home screen this is called the launcher at the top we have our notification bar this shows us any of our notifications and also it shows us our status icons like Wi-Fi signal and battery and time we can use our finger and drag the bar down to see what these icons actually mean a lot of these notifications can be swiped away or you can press it to access the application that a corresponds to in this notification bar you can access some quick toggles these toggles depends on the version of Android and skin you are using some toggles may be visible by the phones may require you to press a more button you can simply press icons to launch different settings as always this depends on the version of Android you're using so I understand when people say the fragmentation and Android make things difficult for some people yes their settings are in different places depending on your phone at the bottom of our device we have our dock icons these are icons that will follow you on your home screen these should be applications that you access the most and no matter what homescreen you're on they're going to be visible to move between your home screens just swipe your finger to the left and to the right when you reach the end of the screen it would no longer go to the next screen also there are corresponding dots to show you which screen you are currently located on press the home button to return back to the main screen the home button on Android looks like a little square but some devices have a physical button and that could be a circle it could be a square could be a rectangle it just depends on the phone but it should be located on the middle bottom part of your device to launch an application simply press on the application with your finger this will open the application up and you are now in this program to get out of it go ahead and press on the home button or to go back to the previous screen press on the back button okay this concludes the initial part 1 of Android getting started we just went through setting up for the very first time and also general navigation to the home screen as I said before depending on what version of Android you are running and also which device it is it may look a little bit different but pretty much they all have Android underneath the skin and it should operate the same way once again guys my name is Kevin the tech ninja I want to wish your family a happy holidays no matter what holiday it is and also a Happy New Year if you're watching this video when it was first posted and then is it guys this is Android authority your source for all things Android you can find me on youtube and on google+ take care guys