Droid 2: The Missing Manual

Chapter 11. Downloading and Using Apps

Why do you have the Droid 2 rather than a plain-Jane cellphone? If you’re like most people, it’s for the apps, which let you handle email, Google Maps, Contacts, and your calendar, as well as countless unexpected and remarkable things like using your phone as a bar code reader or a guitar tuner.

The Droid 2 features plenty of useful built-in apps, which are covered throughout this book. One of its great features, though, is its ability is to let you download and use new apps as well—apps that do just about everything under the sun (and sometimes a few things that seem beyond the range of the solar system).

In this chapter, you’ll find out how to get and use those apps, as well as how to uninstall and troubleshoot them. It’ll also show you how to use a few of the more amazing Android apps available online.

The Droid 2’s Free and Easy Approach to Apps

The Droid 2, like all Android phones, takes a different approach to the use of apps than some other phones: There’s absolutely no limitation on what you can download. Android’s developer, Google, doesn’t step in to say what you can and can’t download, and neither does the Droid 2’s manufacturer, Motorola, or its carrier, Verizon.

Note

The Droid 2 uses the Android operating system, and so can run any apps written for Android.

That means you’re free to choose from tens of thousands of apps, with thousands more being written every month. There are apps for tracking expenses, chatting with people, playing ...