Tap the Market icon, and you get sent to the Android Market, which has tens of thousands of apps you can download, with more added every month. The apps are either free or very low cost—typically under $4, although some business-related apps can cost up to $30.
Major library divisions are located across the top—Apps, Games, and Verizon. The Apps area has all apps except for games; Games has, as the name implies, only Games; and Verizon has a number of Verizon-specific (and a number of non–Verizon specific) apps, like ones for using the Verizon V CAST service and managing your Verizon Wireless account.
A changing category list is just beneath the library divisions, with topics like Arcade & Action, News & Weather, and so on. The category changes every few seconds. Tap it to see a list of apps in that category.
A featured list is at the bottom. It lists the names of apps, the developer of the apps, and what you’ll have to pay for them, if anything. Tap any to get more information about it.
At the very top of the screen, at the upper right, is a search button. Tap it to search for an app.
Tap one of the major library divisions across the top of the Market—Apps, Games, or Verizon—and you come to a list of categories in that major division. So, for example, in Apps you’ll find many categories, including Comics, Communications, Finance, Health, Sports, and more.
Tap any category, and you come to a list of all the apps in that category. Each listing shows the name of the app, its maker, its price, and an average user rating.
Near the top of the screen you see “Top paid”, “Top free”, and “Just in” buttons. Tap any to see the list reordered according to what you tapped.
Browsing is well and good when you’ve got the time and want to scroll leisurely through lists looking for an app. But often you’re on a mission: You know the type of app you want, and you want to find it fast.
In that case, you want to search. You can search by the type of app, the name of the program, or the name of the software company that created it. Tap the Search button, and a keyboard and a search box appear. As you type letters, you see apps that match those letters, regardless of where the letters are found in the app name—for example, type “Wi” and the search term “Task Switcher” appears on the list, as does the term “Wine.” As you type more letters, the results list shortens, since it shows you only letters or terms that match your search.
Complete typing your search or select a term from the list, and you see a list of programs that match what you’re looking for.
No matter what type of list you look through—whether as a result of a search or by browsing—you’ll eventually want to get more details about an app and possibly download it. In that case, tap the name of the app, and you come to a page with a great deal of information about it, including the number of downloads, the total number of ratings on which the star rating is based, the price, a description of the app, screenshots, and individual user reviews.
Tip
Be careful when using the star ratings as a guide to download and pay for an app. In some instances that star rating may be based on just a rating or two. Any star rating based on a few ratings may not be particularly accurate, especially because the ratings may come from the developer and the developer’s friends. If there are a dozen or more user ratings, they’re more trustworthy. So read the actual reviews, and see how many ratings each app has gotten.
Scroll down toward the bottom of the page, and you come to a particularly useful section that’s often overlooked—information about the developer. It lists other apps the developer has written, links to the developer’s home page, and lets you send email to the developer.
Let’s say you’ve read all about an app, and you’ve decided to take the plunge. You’re ready to download. What’s next? Depending on whether the app is free or paid, you do things slightly differently.
If the app is free, you see an Install button at the bottom of the screen. Tap it. A screen appears, telling you what kind of information and features the application has access to, such as your location, your Droid 2’s storage, and so on. Typically, the application needs this kind of access—a GPS app can’t do its job without access to your phone’s GPS features, after all. Still, it’s a good idea to take a look, and if you’re concerned about anything, don’t download.
Next, click OK. The app immediately starts downloading in the background. A small green arrow appears in the Notification bar, showing you that the application is downloading. While the download goes on, you can use your phone in any way you want; the download won’t interfere. Soon a checkbox appears, indicating that the download is complete.
Pull down the Notification bar, and you see a notification that the app has downloaded. Tap the notification to run the app. You can also run the app by heading to the Application Tray and tapping the icon there.
If the app is a for-pay one, you need a Google Checkout account, so set one up ahead of time on the Web at https://checkout.google.com. It’s simple and free.
With that done, you can buy the app. At the bottom of the app screen, instead of an Install button, a Buy button appears. Tap it. As when you’re downloading a free app, a screen tells you what kind of features and information the app will use. Tap OK. Now it’s time to pay. On the next screen, you see the payment details, including how much the app costs, and which credit card in Google Checkout you’re using to pay. (If you want to use a different credit card than the one showing up on the screen, tap the down arrow next to the credit card. You’ll be able to pay with a different card in your Google Checkout account, or pay with a new one.)
Tap the “Buy now” button at the bottom of the screen, and the download proceeds in the exact same way as for free ones.
Note
When you install an app, it goes to your Droid 2’s main memory. However, if you’re running out of room there, or for some other reason want the app to run from your SD card, there’s a way to move the app from the Droid 2’s main memory to the SD card. For details, see Using the Droid 2 Files Application.