Okay, so now you have a multimedia dock for your Droid 2. (Check out last week's post for the dock review.) Now what? Today, I will go through what happens when your phone is in dock mode.
The first thing you will notice when you put your phone into the dock is that you will see the main dockscreen instead of the usual homescreen.
The main dockscreen is divided into four different areas:
Main Dockscreen
In the center of your dockscreen is the current time and date along with the battery charge, and three dots which indicate which of the three dock widget screens you are in. Your wallpaper for the dockscreen is the same as the homescreen.
Dock Status Bar
At the top is the status bar. The status bar is the same whether your phone is in or out of the dock and shows email notifications, battery charge, signal strength, etc. And just like on the homescreen, you can pull down the status bar to get more info.
Dock Settings
On the left side of the screen are dock settings icons. Touching the top setting icon switches the phone from the dockscreen to the homescreen. To return to the dockscreen, either touch the "home" button, or pull down the status bar at the top and touch the notification that says "connected to multimedia station" . The middle icon is for the alarm clock and timer settings. This is where can set an alarm or timer. The bottom icon is the brightness setting. You can switch between a bright and a dim mode. Bright mode lets you easily see the display during the day or in a well lit room. Dim mode creates just enough light in the dark so you can see the display but not so much that it will keep you awake if you have your dock by your bed.
Dock Widgets And Application Shortcuts
On the bottom part of the dockscreen is the area for the dock widgets and application shortcuts. The default widgets that appear are the weather, play all (for music), and picture slideshow widgets. You can scroll through additional dock widget screens to both the left and right by swiping your finger along the widgets. For some reason, all of the widgets that are available on your homescreen aren't available in the dockscreen. Dock widgets include:
The first thing you will notice when you put your phone into the dock is that you will see the main dockscreen instead of the usual homescreen.
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| Homescreen |
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| Dockscreen |
The main dockscreen is divided into four different areas:
- Main Dockscreen
- Dock Status Bar
- Dock Settings
- Dock Widgets And Application Shortcuts
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| Four Areas of Dockscreen |
Main Dockscreen
In the center of your dockscreen is the current time and date along with the battery charge, and three dots which indicate which of the three dock widget screens you are in. Your wallpaper for the dockscreen is the same as the homescreen.
Dock Status Bar
At the top is the status bar. The status bar is the same whether your phone is in or out of the dock and shows email notifications, battery charge, signal strength, etc. And just like on the homescreen, you can pull down the status bar to get more info.
Dock Settings
On the left side of the screen are dock settings icons. Touching the top setting icon switches the phone from the dockscreen to the homescreen. To return to the dockscreen, either touch the "home" button, or pull down the status bar at the top and touch the notification that says "connected to multimedia station" . The middle icon is for the alarm clock and timer settings. This is where can set an alarm or timer. The bottom icon is the brightness setting. You can switch between a bright and a dim mode. Bright mode lets you easily see the display during the day or in a well lit room. Dim mode creates just enough light in the dark so you can see the display but not so much that it will keep you awake if you have your dock by your bed.
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| Notification For Returning To Dockscreen |
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| Alarm Clock Settings |
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| Dim Mode |
Dock Widgets And Application Shortcuts
On the bottom part of the dockscreen is the area for the dock widgets and application shortcuts. The default widgets that appear are the weather, play all (for music), and picture slideshow widgets. You can scroll through additional dock widget screens to both the left and right by swiping your finger along the widgets. For some reason, all of the widgets that are available on your homescreen aren't available in the dockscreen. Dock widgets include:
- Airplane Mode Toggle
- Bluetooth Toggle
- Calendar
- Contacts
- DLNA
- Gallery
- GPS toggle
- Music
- Picture Slideshow
- Play All (music)
- Weather
- Wifi Toggle
- Youtube
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| Dock Widgets and Application Shortcuts Screen |
Miscellaneous
The built-in "menu", "home", "back", and "search" keys perform the same functions whether your phone is in the dock or not.
Next Time: I'll cover some apps that are helpful when your phone is in the dock.
The built-in "menu", "home", "back", and "search" keys perform the same functions whether your phone is in the dock or not.
Next Time: I'll cover some apps that are helpful when your phone is in the dock.
