Official User Guide
CONTROL Thanks for Choosing Velocity! Thank you for purchasing a Velocity Micro CRUZ Tablet! We appreciate your business and know you’ll love your brand new multimedia device. This guide is intended to help you with initial setup of your device and to familiarize you with the Android operating system. Stay Up To Date! For the latest updates, news, giveaways, downloads, and support tips, be sure to follow CRUZ on facebook and twitter! Go to www.cruzreader.
Table of Contents I. Getting Started 4-7 II. Hand Gestures 8-9 III. Your Home Screen IV. Adding Widgets To Your Home Screen V. Connecting to Wi-Fi 10-11 12 13-14 VI. Email Setup 15 VII. Saving Battery Life 16 VIII. SD Cards 17 IX. Device Storage and ASTRO 18-19 X. Transferring Files 20-22 XI. File Formats 23 XII. Preloaded Apps 24-25 XIII. Buying eBooks 26-27 XIV. Reading 3rd Party eBooks XV. Playing Media XVI. Flash and Youtube XVII. Installing Apps 28 29-30 31 32-33 XVIII.
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I. Getting Started (cont’d) A. Status Bar A white strip along the top of the screen displaying alerts, Wi-Fi strength, battery life, and the current time. B. Widget Area Your Home-screen has a designated area for widgets, which are basically “applications” that have functionality and accessibility directly from your home-screen. There are several preinstalled widgets on your CRUZ Tablet, such as a calendar and an analog clock, but you can download several others.
I. Getting Started (cont’d) G. Power Button The power button is located on end opposite the Quicklaunch Buttons. Tapping this button while the device is running will send the CRUZ to sleep mode. H. DC-In This is the port through which your CRUZ AC Adapter charges the device I. Mini USB Port Tethering the device through USB port to a computer charges the device and allows you to transfer files to and from the SD card/internal storage J.
I. Getting Started (cont’d) Starting the Device To start your Cruz, press the on/off button located at the left side of the device. When you first turn on the Cruz, you will be greeted with a CRUZ logo, then an ANDROID logo, and then your Home screen. The display has a screen timeout by default set to 10 min. If the unit is left inactive for that period of time, the screen will go dark as if turned off. However, it is simply in standby mode.
II. Hand Gestures Tapping Touch your finger to the screen and remove immediately to select an item on the screen. This is the equivalent of a mouse “click” on a computer. Long-Pressing Press and hold your finger on the screen for 2-3 seconds. Oftentimes this will open menu options or perform an app-specific function. Dragging Press and hold your finger on the screen, then slide in the desired direction.
II. Hand Gestures (cont’d) Scrolling Sliding your finger up and down in a vertical, flicking moton scrolls through menus, websites, and lists. The faster you slide, the faster the scrolling motion will be. Swiping Sliding your finger left and right scrolls horizontally. Some eReader apps are designed to turn the page in the direction you “swipe.” Pinching Positioning your thumb and index finger roughly 1-inch apart while “pinching” or “spreading” them typically zooms in or out, respectively.
III. Your Home Screen Think of your home screen as your desktop. What goes on the home screen is up to you. You can fill the space with any combination of shortcuts, widgets, and folders you like. Some preinstalled shortcut icons will appear at the bottom, and a Google Search Widget appears at the top. You have five customizable home screens in total. When you power up your Cruz for the first time, you’ll see the main home-screen panel.
III. Your Home Screen (cont’d) The time, Wi-Fi signal, and battery icons are on the right hand side of the Status Bar. The battery icon will change as the energy is used up. It will turn orange to warn you that you should consider charging the unit. When the icon is red, it is nearly dead and requires immediate charge. While charging, the icon will change to an animating green bar with a thunderbolt on it. The Wi-Fi icon will only appear when there is a Wi-Fi signal connected.
IV. Adding Widgets to the Home Screen Widgets allow you to place a function of an app onto your Home Screen. For instance, you may add an Analog clock, calendar, picture frame, and other useful widgets. To add a widget, long-press, or tap/hold your finger on any open space on your home screen, and select Widgets from the context menu that opens. From there, select any of the available widgets. You may long-tap and drag any widget to move it to the desired location on your Home Screen.
V. Connecting to Wi-Fi Introduction For the sake of this guide, the assumption is that you are connecting to your Cruz to your own home Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) or a free unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot. From the Home Screen, select the shortcut icon that reads Wi-Fi Settings and ensure that both Wi-Fi and Network Notification are enabled with green check marks. After a moment, your Wi-Fi networks list should populate. If you need to rescan for available networks, tap Menu> then tap Scan.
V. Connecting to Wi-Fi (cont’d) Accessibility If a password is required, tap the password text field for the popup keyboard, and enter the security key Many public Wi-Fi hotspots are freely accessible, though not all are. Some are secured, others are open. And still others appear to have no security, but require either access codes or some other form of access agreement acknowledgment via a browser. It is possible to connect to such a signal, appear to be connected, and still require validation.
VI. Email Setup Introduction The pre-installed Email app is a simple but effective email client for both POP3 and IMAP email services. Configuration is automatic for some email services. For those that are auto-configured, you only need to enter the email address and password, then click next. If this does not work, you’ll need to manually configure your account. Details are below. Prior to beginning, you will need detailed email configuration information which is available from your service provider.
VII. Saving Battery Life Very Low Battery Full Battery Charging Battery Tips on Extending Battery Life 16 1 Streaming audio or video apps will use a lot of battery life 2 Disable Wireless Network Positioning. You can turn it off from Settings > Location & Security > Use wireless networks. 3 Switch off Wi-Fi if you’re not close to a strong Wi-Fi signal for extended periods of time. This puts strain on the device. 4 Use a Quick Screen Timeout.
VIII. SD Cards There are two areas for storage on your CRUZ Tablet. The first is a full-sized SD card slot located on the top of your device. You may purchase SD and SDHC cards in a wide range of capacities, varying from 1 GB – 32 GB. FRONT BACK To properly load the SD card, place your CRUZ flat on a surface with the screen facing up. Then, with the BACK of the SD card showing, slowly and carefully push the card into the SD/SDHC slot located at the top of the device.
IX. Device Storage and ASTRO There are TWO areas for storage on this device: Name SD Storage Built-in Storage Capacity Supports up to 32 GB 2-4 GB Appears in ASTRO as /sdcard The Android apps you install will write file folders and app content to this removable storage. You may copy content to this location, but be careful of what you delete as it may impact the function of your apps.
IX. Device Storage and ASTRO (cont’d) ASTRO is your file manager app. Use it to browse your storage location and manage files on the SD card as well as the internal storage. It also features an Application Manager to help install or uninstall your apps, and an SD card usage monitor as well. Learn more about how to use ASTRO at http://www.metago.net/ You can even use ASTRO to kill all tasks. When multiple apps are running at once, more energy is used up and your device runs slower.
X. Transferring Files NOTE: While still tethered, you cannot use your Cruz to gain access to the SD card! Tether Via USB to Computer 20 Step 1 Turn on your Cruz and connect a mini USB cable to the Cruz device and to your PC. Step 2 Slide the notification panel down and tap the alert that reads, “USB Connected Select to copy files to/from your computer,” then tap “Turn on USB Storage.” Step 3 This should only be required once. After doing this, the alert should change to “Turn off USB storage ...
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X. Transferring Files (cont’d) How to Copy to “FLASH” storage 22 Step 1 Turn on your Cruz and connect a mini USB cable to the Cruz device and to your PC. Step 2 While you connect the device to your PC , you will see this image on your “status bar” at the top of your Cruz. This confirms that your Cruz is connected to your PC Step 3 Long-tap the status bar and drag to reveal more options.
XI. File Formats The file formats that this device can support are numerous, but not infinite. The preinstalled apps should allow you to view many Microsoft Office file formats, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as many eReader file types, and music and video file types. Most files should work, but not all files are encoded the same. For example, some MPEG4 files will work but others may not, depending on how they were encoded and compressed. It should be treated with a case-by-case approach.
XII. Preloaded Apps What Apps Are Installed Out-of-the-box? Icon Name Requires Wi-Fi Clock No Allows you to set alarms for easy reminders. ASTRO No This is your file management application. Use it to browse your storage locations, transfer files and even install/uninstall apps. Amazon ® Kindle Yes Your primary eBook library portal. Wi-Fi is only required for downloading new content. Browser Yes Default Internet browser.
XII. Preloaded Apps (cont’d) Icon Name Requires Wi-Fi Purpose Email Yes Set up most web based email accounts quickly and easily with this default mail application. Stay in touch through any Wi-Fi hotspot. FaceBook Mobile Yes Log into your FaceBook account and stay connected on the go! Gallery No Access photo or video files for play or display right on the Cruz’s full color screen.
XIII. Buying eBooks How To Buy eBooks trom the Kindle Store Your Cruz offers the remarkable opportunity of carrying all your favorite books in the palm of your hand. Each Cruz comes pre-loaded with the Kindle for Android application. This application is a library portal allowing users to sign into their personal Kindle account, browse an immense selection of literature, and purchase/download books in an instant! There are even 100’s of free eBooks available for download.
XIII. Buying eBooks (cont’d) STEP 4 When you find a book you want to download/purchase, click on the book cover. STEP 5 It will bring you to a product page with the book cover, the price, a “Buy Now” button, as well as a synopsis of the book lower on the page STEP 6 Clicking “Buy Now” will confirm that you want to add the book to your library. To begin the download, tap the “Menu” button on the status bar, then select “Sync” from main Kindle screen.
XIV. Reading 3rd Party eBooks Many eReader files are in the ePUB file format. The Cruz does not natively support this file format, so an additional application available on the Cruz Market must first be downloaded. Keep in mind that many ePUB files are also DRM- protected (Digital Rights Management), preventing illegal distribution of publications. In order to read DRM-protected ePUBs, you will need to download a specialized application that manages the DRM requirements.
XV. Playing Media Not only does your Cruz hold tons of eBooks, browse the web, and keep you connected with social networks, it also functions as a great portable media player too. Just load up your SD card with your music collection, favorite pictures, or digital videos and take all of your favorites on the road with you. Before beginning, you should understand that certain file formats are not supported. These file formats may require additional applications to open.
XV. Playing Media (cont’d) Set images as your Home Screen background! Share via social network or email! Delete an image from your memory Video You can play videos stored on your Cruz’s SD card via the gallery function as well. To play, tap Gallery, then All Videos, then select the video you’d like to play. Your selection should begin automatically. Pause or advance your video via the toolbar along the bottom of the screen.
XVI. Flash and Youtube Flash Video Android 2.2 is considered a major upgrade on previous Android operating systems due a number of reasons. Among these are faster processing speeds, easier navigation, less operational bugs, and the ability to support Flash. The Cruz Tablet benefits from most of these upgrades, but it’s processor CANNOT natively support Flash when using the preinstalled browser. The good news is that there are downloadable third-party applications that get around this limitation.
XVII. Installing Apps Where Do I Get Apps From? Android Applications are available via the Cruz Market or other third-party sources like the developer’s website. Many Android apps are designed for use with phone devices rather than just eReader devices, but many, many more are great for use on eReaders! You can also install any number of eReader Android apps, allowing you to have multiple eReader file formats, all on one Cruz CruzMarket Visit the CruzMarket for access to 100’s of apps.
XVII. Installing Apps (cont’d) How Do I Install An App? The installation file for Android has a file extension of .APK. The steps below explain how to install these on your Cruz. Step 1 Download your app to your PC. Files are often distributed in archive format (ie: .ZIP, .RAR). If so, their contents first must be extracted so that the .APK file is all that remains. Note: If the file you download looks like “appname.apk” you can skip to Step 2. Step 2 Unmount the SD card prior to removal.
XVIII. System Requirements Platform 34 Windows Mac Operating System Microsoft® Windows® 2000. Me, XP, Vista, 7 or higher (32-bit or64-bit) MAC OS X v10.4, 10.5 or higher preferred Processor Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-2 300MHz or higher PowerPC G3 300MHz or higher Including Intel-based Macs RAM 128 MB 256 MB Video Super VGA (800 X 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor Super VGA (800 X 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor USB USB 2.0 USB 2.
XIX. Open Source License Where such specific license terms entitle you to the source code of such component, that source code is available upon request via vmsupport@velocitymicro at cost from Velocity Micro or visiting our website in http://cruzsupport.velocitymicro.com/ at least three years from the purchase date of this product.
XX. Cruz Support and Registration Cruz Support is available at http://cruzsupport.velocitymicro.com. There are a large number of informative knowledgebase articles to answer your questions. You can also download the latest manual for your product. Once registered at the site, you can register your product, submit tickets for support, and administer your tickets and personal profile. How Do I Get Support? Registering for support is easy and free. 1.
XXI. Contact Info Contact Us Address: 7510 Whitepine Road Richmond, VA 23237 Phone: 800-296-4312 Fax: 804-897-4777 Websites: www.cruzreader.com www.velocitymicro.
