Motorola Droid tip

Good day to all!

I have been fairly surprised at the number of blogs I have seen that people are 'annoyed' or 'frustrated' by having to go to settings in the menu on their Droid to turn the ringer off or to vibrate. 

And to take advantage of this, many great programmers have developed some cool apps that are available at http://www.android.com/market/  that can solve this perceived problem.

Why do I say this is a "perceived" problem?  There are some common sense applications that are already available on your new Droid, right out of the box.

Option 1:  At the home screen, when you first hit the power button on the top of the unit, you will see 2 buttons:  one is a green, unlocked padlock, on the left, and on the right side, a gray speaker button.  Before you touch the green 'unlock' button, simply press and drag the gray speaker button to the left.  This automatically puts the phone in "quiet" or "silent" mode, which you can verify by seeing the once gray speaker button as now being yellow, with a speaker "X" on your display.  This is a very convenient and quick way to avoid embarrassing situations in meetings, church or with Mom and Dad at the dinner table.  After meeting or dinner, simply bump the power button on the top of the phone once again, press and drag the yellow speaker "X" button to the left, and your phone display will return to the last sound setting you had it on.

Option 2:  If the home menu is showing (the phone is already on; you've been using it) simply use the rocker volume switch on the outside right edge of the phone, pushing the button down, you will first come to a vibrate function (you will feel the phone vibrate, as well as see a vibrating phone icon on your Droid's display).  Next, if you press the down button once more, you will turn the ringer off completely, as you can see by the speaker "X" icon on your display.  To turn the ringer back on, and/or the volume up, simply press the top part of the rocker switch to return to the sound level you desire.

Of course, I love downloading and playing with new apps as much as the next person, and have messed around with a few, including the sound "toggle switch" but have found myself constantly preferring either of the simple factory options listed above, as they seem much quicker and definite in their settings, instead of leaving you wondering if you did in fact silence your phone.

Until next time. . . .