[clug] Acer beTouch E130 (Android 1.6) smartphone

[Daniel Pittman]

On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 18:15, Keith Goggin <keith.goggin at bigpond.com> wrote:

> I have just been given one of these phones and after a couple of days playing
> with it I have come up with a few questions which I haven't been able to
> resolve with google.
>
> 1. The phone came with a quick start guide but no real user manual and I
> couldn't find one online not even from the Android site itself. The only books
> I could find were about more advanced topics than how to use all the features
> of the phone and the Android System.

I have never had one with any of the devices, other than the "here is
the power button" and all.  Mostly, though, I found it pretty
'discoverable' as things go.  Because there are only a very few ways
to interact with the system, and most apps just use the stock toolkit,
things mostly work as you would expect after the first few minutes...

> 2. Should I upgrade to the latest stable release of Android (if that is newer
> than 1.6) or wait for an auto update if that is likely to happen any time
> soon?

Vendor updates are rare, but for most phones are the only option.  You
have to turn off the vendor security, typically by running some sort
of exploit to obtain root access.  (A handful of Google devices do
that and void the warranty if you ask nicely with software, most
don't.)

If you want something newer than Android 1.6 (hint: you almost
certainly do) then you probably need to find a custom distribution
that supports the phone, root it, and then install that firmware
image.  I like CyanogenMOD, but I don't believe they support your
hardware.

[...]

> 4. I still can't satisfactorily find my way around the keyboard for example
> which is the shift key, what are the Fn and SYM keys?

I would have hoped that would be in whatever manual you got, but at a
guess: Fn turns a number key into a "function key" like F1 - or
perhaps turns random keys into whatever function they are labelled for
(eg: Fn-H might be 'Home')

SYM will be the "AltGr" equivalent: on my phone it is labelled 'Alt',
but produces in effect a second shift keyset to allow a wide range of
symbols to be entered.

> 5. I have managed to upload images from and download ogg files to the phone
> thanks to its obvious compatibility with my linux mint but it took me a while
> to work out that I could mount the device from the phone. Can I issue the
> mount from the desktop?

Not so far as I know, although there is probably some mechanism using
the adb debugging software bridge to achieve it.  The phone actually
has to unmount the SD card (and/or internal memory partition), then
export it as a USB mass-storage device.

There are a few applications on the market that export the content via
WebDAV, plain HTTP, or something like that so you can access it
without the USB cable and mounting, if you want.  (I mostly send to or
from the phone with BlueTooth, but if you have a desktop that is less
likely to be available.)

> 6. how do I change the volume of the music player?

Typically, either go into the 'Sound' section in the settings, or use
the volume toggle keys while media is playing.

Regards,
    Daniel
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✉ Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net>
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