Coffee Dharma

It’s been a few weeks since I bought my LG Dare and I have discovered quite a few fun tricks with the phone.  There is a fan site LG-Dare.com that has been a great resource for lesser known tweaks and I highly recommend it to Dare users.  I wanted to share some of tricks I’ve learned.  Some may be applied to other phones as well but most are for Dare users.

1. Custom Web Browsing – Most PDA/Smartphone/Feature Phones come with an HTML browser that makes surfing the web fun and quick.  One of the biggest downfalls to these mobile browsers, besides lack of flash support, is the simple bookmarking systems they utilize.  Verizon has a start page for the Dare’s browser that is great of you like a lot of Verizon services and choices, but if you want something custom you are limited to the text based favorites system they have.  After looking at some other browsers I decided to build my own start page for my Dare.  Using simple HTML I was able to build a web page that displays my daily favorites in an organized and visual manner.  After setting it as my default start page I have found my browsing to me more fun, faster and easier.  I also created a second choice using smaller icons.  I found the first version looked great but having to scroll every time became annoying.  The second version uses smaller icons so it displays on the Dare’s browser on one screen.  If your interested in having me build one of these start pages for you please email me or find me on AIM and I’ll try and get it for you as soon as possible.
2. Custom Start Screen – The Dare has both a main menu (located at the bottom of the screen) and a shortcut menu (located to the right of the screen).  The shortcut menu has some neat tricks.  You have the choice to either show a small tab to it or hide it altogether.  If hidden all you have to do is tap the main screen to bring up the shortcut menu.  You can also drag icons from your shortcut menu to the Dare’s main screen where they can be dragged around and placed anywhere.  This gives you a desktop experience unlike any other phone I have used.
3. Easy Wallpapers & Ringtones – While you can use BitPim to manage your pictures and ringtones you can also email them to your phone as well.  All you have to do is send your formatted wallpaper (240×400) or ringtone (MP3-30sec. or less) to YOUR-TEN-DIGIT-NUMBER@vzwpix.com and they will show up as a text message and give the option to save to your phone.  Images and tones can not be too large for this method to work but I have successfully emailed myself quite a few.
4. Voice Text Messages – If you click the small face icon while reading a text message a female voice will read it to you.  The cadence and enunciation is actually very nice and is a useful tool while on the road.
5. Browser Zoom – As with many mobile browsers, the Dare allows you to zoom web pages.  A little known feature is that the volume rocker will zoom in and out while browsing and the camera button will give you a full page zoom.

There are so many other great options to this phone that I could spend all day typing up lists.  If you have a neat trick you would like to share leave a comment!