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Until the HTC Droid Eris came along, I had very little reason to consider owning a smartphone. I had absolutely no desire to own an iPhone (especially since that would've required switching carriers, and I'm not about to let a single device tear me away from a company that's been very good to me), and no other mobile platform that I was familiar with offered much in the way of a robust online experience. As such, my transition from feature phone to smartphone should be very similar to that of other consumers. Why? Well, I wanted to do more with my phone, but I was always somewhat put off by the complexity of most smartphones prior to my hands-on time with the HTC Droid Eris.

Don't get me wrong: I've always used my phone a lot, albeit for text messaging and data services. Furthermore, I have a lot of interest in cell phones (and computers, for that matter), and it's not as though I'm intimidated or overwhelmed by smartphones from a usability standpoint. I'd say that I adapt pretty well to user interfaces that're new to me. Thing is, if I'm going to use something heavily, then I want it to be somewhat of a pleasant experience.

The HTC Droid Eris runs on Android 1.5. While you'll find that new devices generally run on any of several different versions of Android (primarily 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0), you'll find that the overall usability is similar for all of them. Navigating menus and making selections is primarily a touch-driven affair, although some of the devices have other input methods. With the HTC Droid Eris, you have a touch screen, four touch-sensitive "buttons" of sorts (which I believe are common to most Android devices, although they may appear in different arrangements), a trackball and dedicated Send/End keys.

General Tips

Using a touch screen involves more than just pressing on-screen "buttons" with your finger, however, especially when you're using an Android device. I won't go into all of the different ways of using a touch screen, because it's very likely that you'll know the basics with just a bit of hands-on time. Thing is, too many people overlook a very, very important input method called long-pressing. Long-pressing involves simply holding your finger down on the screen without moving it. It sounds simple, but you'd be very surprised as to how much functionality long-pressing opens up to the user.

Examples:

- Long-press on a home screen icon or widget to move it or delete it.
- Long-press on an icon within the application menu to create a shortcut on the home screen.
- Long-press on the title bar of an open folder to rename the folder.

As you'll come to learn, long-pressing is VERY important if you'd like to get the most out of your phone. Long-pressing helps to keep the user interface uncluttered while also introducing an element of consistency to it. If you're trying to figure out how to change something, but you're not finding what you need just by using Menu, then try long-pressing on different things.

Right below the touch screen, you'll find four touch-sensitive "buttons" (as the manual calls them): Home, Menu, Back and Search. In addition to these buttons being touch-sensitive, they're also context-sensitive in that their functions adapt to what part of the user interface you're dealing with at any given moment. For instance, pressing Home whenever you're on any of the HTC Droid Eris' seven home screens will return you to the center home screen (while holding Home will display a window that allows you to choose from the six most recent apps that you've used). Pressing Home whenever you're inside of an application will return you to the last home screen that you were on, however. Menu usually opens a menu at the bottom of the screen (regardless of whether you're on the home screen or in an application). Back sends you to the previous screen in most applications (or returns you to the home screen if you can't go back in the app any further). Search usually brings up a search bar, allowing you to search the Web with Google or to search for certain text within some applications.

Advanced Task Killer

While Android tends to do a pretty good job of managing resources on its own, you may find that your phone (whether it's an HTC Droid Eris or not) may run a tad slow. That's where task killers come into play. Now, a lot of people have different stances on task killers. Some people feel that they harm your device, while other people feel that they only benefit your device. I'm with the latter group on this, assuming that you're using a reliable task killer. That's where Advanced Task Killer (ATK) comes in.

ATK is available in both free and paid ($4.99) versions. The free version is ad-supported and requires that you manually end tasks, although it's still a very quick process that can usually be done with a single tap. The paid version, on the other hand, features Auto-Kill, which allows you to configure ATK to automatically end tasks based on certain conditions. I use the paid version, personally, although I don't use Auto-Kill. I have nothing against Auto-Kill, personally, but a lot of people seem to feel that this is what could potentially damage the device.

I disagree that features such as Auto-Kill can harm your device, especially with a well-designed task killer like ATK. Why? Well, these applications are generally tested very thoroughly, and they're designed to not end tasks that're vital to the device's operation. Thing is, people who don't understand which tasks should or shouldn't be running based on their needs could find themselves running into problems, although they're certainly not serious problems (and they're easy to correct). For instance, if you absolutely require quick notifications as you receive e-mails, then you should ensure that Gmail and Mail are listed as exceptions in ATK. Otherwise, you won't get notifications of incoming e-mails.

That isn't why I don't use Auto-Kill, however. I just find that my usage habits change depending on where I am and what day of the week it is. For instance, I generally only keep ATK, Gmail, Mail and Messages running, but I sometimes find myself wanting to read an article online. As such, I don't want ATK to kill the browser automatically, nor do I feel like changing the exceptions depending on when and where I'm using my device. Really, manually killing processes in ATK is quick and simple.

So, why do I use the paid version? Well, simply put, I sometimes find myself hitting the ad at the bottom whenever I'm trying to check or uncheck an application prior to hitting the kill button. Besides, I feel that ATK is a well-designed application, so I felt like supporting the developer with my money. To be perfectly honest, though, I do feel that 99.9% of Android users will be fine with the free version.

More to come...