Just 1st day on my Samsung Galaxy POP CDMA (Froyo 2.2) and I am quite happy with the performance as compared to my earlier HTC touch pro, which was windows based.

I am very new to Android and I have following queries:-

1) What is rooting? Is it necessary for a new user like me?
2) Is it possible to upgrade to new OS? (is it gingerbread or something?, I have just a faint idea.)
3) On froyo, the default file manager just displayes SD card contents. How should I access other files and internal memory on the phone? I used to love resco file explorer on windows mobile. I am not even able to view the photos I have clicked with the phone camera!
4) What is a good application for taking notes? Something like MS WORD.
5) The number of characters left are not displayed while we type a sms.
6) Is there any app for 'system restore' if something goes wrong? I'd like to take a backup of Day 1!

Your inputs will be very helpful.

Thank You.

1) Rooting basically means getting root access to your system. It's not necessary, but it allows to do certain things like blocking ads, installing custom ROMs and kernels, system-wide themes, and a lot more stuff. EDIT: You can still access system files without rooting. Rooting allows to write stuff to the system and lets you do anything you want with it.

2) Yes, you can either wait for Samsung or use something from the Android community, but I don't know how big community development is for your phone. The biggest and most popular Gingerbread ROM is Cyanogen Mod 7.

3) If your phone has an internal and an external sd card the stock file manager can access both. The internal sd should be the first thing displayed when you open the file manager and the external one is a folder called 'external sd'.

Photos are sent to a folder called 'DCIM'. Alternatively you can use the gallery and look for their file path.

4) There are many apps that can make MS Office documents including Word. I personally prefer ThinkFree Office. Although, if you need to make some simple notes I recommend Colornote.

5) Maybe an alternative messaging app like Handcent has that feature. I rarely use SMS, so I'm not sure.

6) Look for backup apps in the market, if you're not rooted you can backup your non-system apps. I'm not sure what else, though. If you're rooted you can backup all apps with their data, calendar, contacts, settings, and go as far as backing up your entire system (the whole system can only be backed up via the phone's recovery). Stuff in your sd will obviously need to be backed up independently.

I hope this helps.

Thank Xan_Kriegor. That will be of big help.