Читать книгу Android For Dummies - Dan Gookin - Страница 52

Typical Android Home screens are illustrated in Figure 3-3. Several fun and interesting doodads appear there. Find these items on your own device’s Home screen, and recognize and use their common names:

 Status bar: The top of the Home screen shows the status bar. It contains notification icons, status icons, and the current time. If the status bar disappears, a quick swipe from the top of the screen downward redisplays it.

 Notifications: These icons come and go, depending on what happens in your digital life. For example, a new notification icon appears whenever you receive a new email message or a pending appointment notice. See the later section “Reviewing notifications.”

 Device Status: Icons on the right end of the status bar represent the Android’s current condition, such as the type of network connection, signal strength, Wi-Fi status, and battery charge, as well as other items.

 Launchers: Tap a launcher to run, or “launch,” the associated app.

 Widgets: Widgets display information or let you control the phone or tablet, manipulate a feature, access an app, or do something purely amusing.

 Folders: Multiple launchers can be stored in a folder. Tap the folder to open it and view the launchers inside.FIGURE 3-3: The Home screen (phone left, tablet right)

 Wallpaper: The Home screen background image is the wallpaper, which can be changed.

 Favorites Tray: The bottom of the screen is reserved for popular launchers. The favorites tray shows the same launchers at the bottom of every Home screen page. One of these launchers is the Phone app, which plays a kind of vital role for an Android phone.

 Apps icon: Tap this icon to view the apps drawer, a collection of all apps available on your Android. For devices without the Apps icon, swipe up the screen to access the apps drawer. See the later section “Finding an app in the apps drawer.”

Ensure that you recognize the names of the various parts of the Home screen. These terms are used throughout this book and in whatever other scant Android documentation exists.

 An Android tablet uses a larger version of the Home screen, though it sports the same features described in this section.

 The Home screen is entirely customizable. You can place launchers, create folders, add widgets, and change the wallpaper. See Chapter 21 for information.

 Touching a part of the Home screen that doesn’t feature an icon or a control does nothing. That is, unless you’re using the live wallpaper feature. In this case, touching the screen changes the wallpaper in some way, depending on the wallpaper that’s selected. You can read more about live wallpaper in Chapter 21.

  You may see numbers affixed to certain Home screen launchers. These numbers are notifications for pending actions, such as unread email messages, as shown in the margin.