How do you put music on an Android phone?

If you have a decent-sized MicroSD card in your phone, your Android can double as an iPod/Mp3 player. No, it can't sync with iTunes (the Android app called DoubleTwist does some finagling to get Apple-owned iTunes to cooperate with Google-owned Android), but it's still very easy to move your music over to your phone.

What you need:
- A phone with enough free space for your music (this can be internal storage or a MicroSD card)
- A computer with music on it
- A USB/Micro USB cable (probably what you use to charge it)

Step 1: Plug your phone into your computer. If your phone is the kind that asks which connection, select Media Transfer, USB Storage, Mass Storagae... something to that effect, meaning create a link to move files.

Step 2: Click "Open folder to view files" on the computer, when your phone's information pops up. If it doesn't pop up, find your phone in your "Computer" page, from the computer start menu. Find a folder called "Music" in your phone's information on the computer.

Step 3: If you do not use iTunes, skip to step 4 here. Open iTunes and select all the songs you want moved (Ctrl + A to select all and then Ctrl + Click to deselect ones you don't want might be fastest). Then copy and paste into your phone's music folder. If this worked, skip to step 6. If not, never fear... there is a second, more consistently successful method, continued in step 4.

Step 4: Open the location where your music is stored on the computer. This may be just by clicking "Music" in your start menu, or, if you use iTunes, try the file path Music>iTunes>iTunes Media>Music. That should take you to a list of artists in the folder.

Step 5: Select all the artists from your computer's music folder that you would like to move (or select the entire music folder, if your storage capacity is large enough), copy the selection, and then paste it into the phone's music folder. This will take anywhere from a  few minutes to a few hours, depending on how much music you move.

Step 6: Right click the USB icon in your taskbar and eject your phone. Unplug the phone and look for an app you already have on your phone, simply called "Music." Ta-da! Your music should be there, neatly organize by album or artist.

If you experience difficulty anywhere along the way, let me know in a comment what went wrong, and I'll see if I can help you resolve the problem.

How do you choose an Android phone? (Buying Guide Conclusion)

We've covered storage, camera, and size -- there is no shortage of other issues that could be discussed, but those three are, in my opinion, the core issues to understand when making your Android purchase decision. Now based on your decisions in those last three posts, let's find you a phone.

If you want small (let's call it "adequate") storage size, camera quality, and physical size, you're looking at the lowest price range. My specific recommendation is the HTC Wildfire S, which can be purchased as a Virgin Mobile phone or as a GSM unlocked phone (meaning use with a carrier that requires SIM cards). It has 512 mb of internal storage, a 5 mp camera with flash,  and a 3.2" display. The camera is more mid than low-level, but overall this beautiful little phone is functional and economical.

If you want medium storage size, camera quality, and physical size (with an accompanying average price) I like the HTC Rhyme. The phone comes in a unique purple, but never consider a phone's color, because you should always invest in a protective case for your Android. This phone, which is available for Verizon or (if you search hard) GSM unlocked, has 4 gb of internal storage, a 5 mp camera, and a 3.7" display.

If you want large storage size, camera quality, and physical size, you've selected my favorite phone on the market right now: the Samsung Galaxy S3. This phone is available for all the major carriers, and features 16 gb of internal storage, an 8 mp camera, and a 4.8" display. This phone is the latest and greatest, which we all understand to mean expensive. For the price-conscious among us, this is a great phone to find on eBay. Is there a risk to buying third party? There is, but my soon-to-be-unveiled guide to buying Android phones on eBay comes close to eliminating the risk, and the savings can be immense.

Those three are my recommendations for the three basic divisions of preference, but for those of you looking for more options with focus on any particular spec, please feel free to ask questions in the comments. I would be happy to answer with a recommendation tailored to your exact needs.

How do you choose what size phone to buy?

Let's get one thing straight: the hip pocket of average guys' jeans is deep enough to fit any size Android easily... in addition to a wallet,  a pack of gum, a pocket-knife, and an iPod; the hip pocket of average girls' jeans will grudgingly allow one end of an Android to be wedged in 2 1/4 inches, and will hold the phone in place only if the wearer stands still. In other words, don't base your decision about size on whether or not the phone will slip into your front pocket.

A reason to buy a big phone is that the more you can see at once on your screen, the more useful and simple the phone will be. A reason to buy a smaller phone is because it's more subtle and convenient. Personal preference determines where the balance  is between those two primary points.
Regarding thickness of the phone, there's really just one thing to say: thinner is better. Manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, particularly, are slimming down their phones beautifully. A feature that will add significantly to the thickness of your phone would be the inclusion of a slider QWERTY keyboard. This is just not necessary, in my opinion. Android touchscreen keyboards, Swype, and an abundance of additional options make a physical keyboard nothing but bulk.

A progression in phones recently has included the amount of phone surface that is actually screen, rather than frame. That means you can get a pretty good idea of the phone size by talking about the screen size. The information that smartphone screens range from about 3 to 5 inches, measured diagonally, tells you little. You need a frame of reference in order to determine how big a phone actually looks. A lot of manufacturer websites will show you the phone in comparison to familiar items, such as an army man or a credit card, but I've found that's not enough to get a good idea of its size. The easiest way to check out a phone's size without actually holding the device is by finding pictures of the phone in someone's hand. Look for reviews of the specific phone, for the most likely place in which to find these pictures.

UPCOMING POST: Final Installment of "Buying Guide" series -- Specific Recommendations

How do you know how good a camera you need?

Cell phone cameras have been making strides over the last year or two, and the point and shoot digital camera market is feeling the heat. For those of us who are not photographers, and only want to snap some quick pictures so we can look back and laugh at that sign that said "Driver's eat free" (The eat belonging to the driver.... is free? NO WAY! Let's go THERE.), and show pictures of the cutest German Shepherd puppy to every person we can flag down (We does not accost; we has witnessed the owner of Perelandra Kennels blissfully accosting), smartphone cameras eliminate the need for a separate digital camera. Cell phone cameras aren't adequate for photographers, but for the casual commemorator of life in photo form, they can impress.

Camera quality is measured in megapixels (mp). You can look at the number of megapixels and the presence or lack of a flash, to gauge the camera's quality. A secondary front-facing camera and video recording in HD are also features to consider, but those are just buying decisions (for example, if you want to video chat from your smartphone, you need a front-facing camera), and we will focus on the flash and the camera quality.

If you will ever be taking pictures in lower light settings, even as innocent as a poorly lit room, you will want a flash. I recommend avoiding smartphones without a flash.

Few and far between are the smartphone cameras under 3 mp. Still, they must be discussed. This low quality camera will be adequate if you only want pictures to keep on your phone and maybe send between phones. On a computer, the pictures will be very small and often grainy.

A camera with 3-6 mp is pretty typical right now, for smartphones. Most will be happy with this quality. They aren't minuscule on a computer and are high enough resolution to look decent on Facebook.

Any camera 7 mp and up is a high quality camera for a smartphone. These pictures are of a quality that can be edited, even cropped a bit, and still look sharp. This is a nice luxury, but not necessary for the average user. The primary reason I find my 8 mp smartphone camera quasi-necessary is because I work with SmokyMountainViews.com, often providing pictures of the gorgeous fall foliage, or of the town's progress in the intense Christmas decoration process. At 8 mp, the details in these pictures are sharp, even posted full page on the SmokyMountainViews.com Facebook page.

In order to identify Android smartphones that boast the camera you want, you will again be looking for a Specs page. This section will be called "Camera" and will be divided into headings something like "Primary," "Features," "Video," and "Secondary." The section called "Primary" is where you will find the information about number of megapixels and the flash. If you are starting at square one, without any idea what phone you want, continue watching How Do You Android? for updates, culminating in a variety of specific Android smartphone recommendations. 

UPCOMING POST -- Part 3 of "Buying Guide" series -- Phone Size

How do you know how much phone storage is enough? (Buying Guide Part 1)

The amount of storage you need (which is generally measured in gigabytes [gb]... 1 gb = 1,000 megabytes [mb]) is determined by what you plan on storing. Almost all phones' storage capacity can be expanded with a microSD memory card, which is usually purchased separately, such as here, where you can find 8gb, 16gb, and 32gb MicroSD Card choices. That option to expand the phone's storage seems like it should eliminate the problem of low internal (the phone itself, not a memory card) storage, but a week or two of use will show why that is not true. The main issue is that a lot of apps can't transfer over to the card, so you'll quickly encounter  that irritating message, when trying to download an app, that you need to open up the low storage wizard and create more storage (by deleting items taking up room). 

So how much space do you need? Assuming you add a memory card (you should), let's talk about the options. 

If you want this phone to be a means of making telephone calls and maybe a text or two a week, without any intention of raiding the Google Play Store for apps, you will be happy with the lowest storage capacity options, from 512 mb to one or two gb. Since you're storing very little, a lack of storage will pose no problems for you.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you download all the latest games, store a lot of e-books in Kindle or Google Books, keep up with newsfeeds and Nasdaq, and Facebook/Google+ your heart out, don't try anything much under 4 gb. That should be plenty to cover everything you can't move over to your memory card.

The average user, in between those two options, uses Facebook and Angry Birds, probably moved a little music from the computer (mostly to set as ringtones), and takes and saves pictures pretty frequently. If this is you, then you'll be happy with around 2-4 gb. 

Now you know what to look for, but how do you look? If you are starting at square one, without any idea what phone you want, watch for the upcoming post with specific recommendations. If you know some phones you're considering, search on the word "specs" and the phone's name (Samsung Galaxy S3 [my current favorite], for example). You'll find a variety of pages giving all this information we're talking about, including an entry called "Memory." The "Memory" choices are divided into something like "Card Slot" and "Internal." "Card Slot" simply indicates how large a capacity memory card is supported. "Internal" is the part you're looking for. It will say 512 mb, 2 gb, 16gb... whatever it is -- the point is now you know what you want. 

UPCOMING POST: Part 2 of "Buying Guide" series -- Camera

How do you know which Android phone to choose?

Before we can talk about our Androids, we need to own one... a shiny new Android smartphone. As with buying a new laptop (which I recently did... an Acer Aspire AS5750Z-4835 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) ... but purple, of course), narrowing down smartphone choices is a headache. 

As long as your phone runs on the Android operating system, you'll probably be happy with it for a while. But after the honeymoon period, you'll realize some features aren't quite good enough, and other features haven't been touched. Instead of dealing with that frustration, let's figure out which phone suits you from the get-go.

My upcoming "buying guide" series is a review of a handful of issues (including "if you this.... then look for that" suggestions), culminating in phone purchase suggestions. We'll talk about:

• Storage
• Camera
• Size

UPCOMING POST: Part 1 of "Buying Guide" series -- Storage