Break open the box

Depending on what Android phone you purchased, you'll have different accessories inside the shiny-coated box. When you've got time and a clear space to open it, get a good whiff of that New Gadget smell, then extract your phone and its wall charging cord or USB cord. You should connect the small plug to your phone and plug the other end into your wall or computer for a good long charge before turning it on. But, knowing you, you'll want to get started, right? Just make sure it's plugged in while you run through the initial setup, so the uncharged battery doesn't give out during your first setup, and that it gets at least one overnight charge before you plan to take it out and about.

You'll also want to make sure you're somewhere with decent cellular signal, and probably a Wi-Fi signal you can connect to, as backup. The Google login/setup process, for phones running Android versions earlier than 2.0, requires a cellular data connection. On phones running Android 2.0 and later, you can choose to connect with a Wi-Fi signal. Until someone at Google decides to be kind to the folks in North Dakota, you generally can't set up your phone without some kind of data connection.

To readers in Bismarck—I'm sorry. That was a cheap, lazy association. I owe you all a beer the next time my plane breaks down over or near your state.

Once you're plugged in, and pretty sure you'd have a good connection, press and hold your phone's power button for a second. It's in a different place on many phones, but looking for a red button on your phone's main set of buttons, or on the top left edge, is usually a safe bet. Your phone will run through its boot screens, showing off your cellular carrier and the Android logo. When it's done booting up, you'll be greeted by a little green Android friend, whom you'll touch to start the login process.

Logging into a Google Account

The first thing you'll see is a long license agreement, which basically states that you won't hold Google liable if something goes wrong with your phone, or it wants to start a nice game of Global Thermonuclear War (what's Matthew Broderick up to these days, anyways?). After you've hit "Next," you'll be asked to either create a "Google Account" or sign into an existing account.

Setting up your Google Accounts and Exchange/Other Email Accounts

If you've ever signed into Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, or any other of Google's services, you have a Google Account you can sign into. If you have a Gmail account, that's your username and password, and you don't even need to type the "@gmail.com" portion. If you have a Google account, but don't use Gmail, the username is likely your primary email address.

Can't remember your Google Account details? Fire up your desktop or laptop computer, head to google.com/accounts, and click the "Can't access your account?" link under the sign-in boxes. You'll be asked a few security and verification questions, then you'll be allowed to reset your password from an emailed link.

Don't have any kind of Google account? You could create one from your phone, but it's easier to create a new Gmail account on your main computer and use that to set up your phone, even if you plan to keep using your existing email address. Why? Once you have a Gmail account, it's the only username and password you'll need to log into all your Google services. As for the email you're not giving up, it can be piped into Gmail and used with your Android phone's very awesome Gmail app. You still get your mail, your contacts and old mail can usually be transferred, and you still send out mail from your existing address. It's win-win for you and your phone.

On some phones, you'll also be offered a chance to set up your other email accounts, or Microsoft Exchange access, so that it's up and running right from the get-go. These steps are optional, though, and you'll still be required to create or sign into a Google account to get up and running.

Setting up Gmail with your own emailIf you've got a tried-and-true MSN, Yahoo!, or other email address that you don't want to give up, you can keep it and still use Android's very powerful Gmail app to access it, rather than using the quite-less-awesome "Email" app. Bonus feature: Gmail's web interface is probably a lot better than your own email's webmail page, so you get a great way to access your email when you're away from your home or work computer. The step-by-step has already been run down by Gina Trapani (who is, incidentally, the author of The Complete Guide to Google Wave). Check out Gina's feature on consolidating multiple email addresses with Gmail at Lifehacker, a blog at which your editor is a contributing editor.

All set? Go ahead and sign in. If you have the password right, you'll see a screen showing that your phone's "Signing In" and that it's "Communicating with Google's Servers." If it takes longer than five minutes, go ahead and hit the "Cancel" button, then get somewhere with better cellular coverage. If you're setting up a newer (Android 2.1 and above) phone, you can connect to your home Wi-Fi network instead and connect through it. If it does go well, you'll see that "Your Google account is now linked to this phone," and get some text providing a really basic introduction to features like the "Status bar," by which Google actually means the Notification bar.

If you're using a newer Android phone, you may also be asked to allow Google to back up your phone settings. That means your wallpaper preference, certain application settings, and other data. You'll probably be getting another phone in a year or two, and if it's an Android phone, it makes sense to keep this checked.

You'll also be asked during this setup process to decide on a few options related to Google's location services. By default, the boxes are checked and your phone will send its location—gathered from your Wi-Fi network, GPS device, and/or cellular tower triangulation—to Google in the background. Google uses that data for determining how fast traffic is flowing on major streets, among other uses. Another check box decides whether Google can collect your location data when you specifically want it to, for localized search results, driving directions, and other map-y things. If you're cool with what Google wants to peek into, leave the boxes checked; if not, you won't suffer all that much for your privacy, but consider keeping at least the second box checked.

Finally, some carriers add a few other options for account integration just before the setup process is done:

Linking Social Media Accounts

Again, you can easily skip this step and set up these accounts later in your phone's settings, but it's fairly easy to do from this screen, too, while you're in a "Here's my password" mood.

Hit the "Finish Setup" button, and you'll arrive at your phone's "lock" screen—it's what you'd see if you woke up/turned on your phone after a few minutes in your pocket. On a new stock Android phone (pictured below at left) and some Motorola models, you'll see the time, date, and battery amount charged on the screen. In the upper-right corner, you'll see the cellular carrier your phone's detecting, but don't freak out if it's not what you expect—that can change depending on your geographic location. In the lower third of the screen, you'll see lock and speaker icons. Swipe the lock toward the right to head to your phone's home screen. You could also swipe the speaker icon toward the left if you wanted to mute your phone's sounds at the movies or other quiet moments, then swipe it again to turn sound back on.

On phones with an older version of Android, you'll see a menu similar to the one below at right, showing the same kind of basics. Hit the Menu key—which either says "Menu" on it, or looks like a short stack of horizontal bars, to head to the Home screen.

Android Home Screen

On an HTC phone, the lock screen is slightly different, and the action to "unlock" your phone is to pull the gray bar down:

HTC Lock Screen

After you've got your phone set up and unlocked, it's time for the fun to begin. Not that reading about email setup and account privacy wasn't fun, am I right?

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