[This extract is taken from the October 2010 issue of PC Authority magazine.]
1 Android has multiple home screens - you can move apps up into a home screen by popping open the app list, holding your cursor or finger over it until it pops out, then dragging it up onto the screen you would like it to inhabit.
2 Android notifications are tucked in the top panel, and use little symbols to indicate what information has arrived. A little email icon with a number, a bounced phone to indicate a missed call, and so forth. It's unobtrusive, but you can see more information by dragging down the notification bar to see them listed.
3 The keyboard is contextual - for web and email, you'll see a .com button, for example.
4 Unlike Symbian, Android allows you to open third party applications as defaults. Don't like your current browser? Open all your html files with an alternative!
5 Unlike Symbian's Ovi Store, the Android Market can search by popularity and date added.
6 The iPhone ties you to your computer in several ways, but Android lets you be totally free from the need for a PC or Mac. That can make for some confusion at first.
7 Accessing most of the options you want is done via the menu button just below the top of the screen. Look there first, rather than at the bottom.
8 Music is drag and drop - there's no need for an app to manage things, a la iTunes. Or rather, you'll need an app, but only on the phone, because the inbuilt player is ... less than stellar.
9 Buying apps is done from the phone, not from the computer.
10 You'll need a few basic apps. Unlike the iPhone, there's no inbuilt PDF viewer, and no notepad, and you'll have to locate an app to handle both. It's an initial hurdle to get over, unless you get a decent skin, such as HTC's Sense, with your phone.
11 There's no home button - or rather, there is, but it won't behave in the way you expect. Clicking Home doesn't close the application, as it does in iPhone; instead, it takes you to the home screen. If you head back into the app, it will take up where it left off without problem. That also means that you can run several apps at once and switch between.
...Read the rest of this article in the October 2010 issue of PC Authority magazine.
