8 Tips To Maintain Your Android Device

8 Tips To Maintain Your Android Device

Though many appreciate the open source nature of Android, that also makes your

device susceptible to malware, freezes and slowdowns. Listed below are some tips and tricks to help you keep your Android devices running like new always:

Manage applications running on your Android device

Majority of Android devices come with an integrated task manager that demonstrates all running apps running in the background and allows you to delete them from memory. Though it would be easier for you to pull them up quicker when you need them, but too many apps may also make your device slow down. 

Protect against malware and bad apps

If you keep downloading lots of apps from unidentified sources (other than Google's play store), the chances of your phone being infected with malware increase manifolds. In case, you need to download apps from unidentified sources, it is better you invest in an anti-virus app as well. Some of the best anti virus apps, which are available free include Avast, AVG, Lookout, Norton, Zoner, but avoid installing more than one of these apps at a time. 

Manage your RAM 

One of the key reasons for poor performance of your device could be limited available RAM. This is normally the case with devices having 512MB and also to a great extent with 1GB of total RAM. The amount of free RAM on your device governs the performance of your Android device. This problem can be resolved by getting a free app called Clean Master by KS Mobile. This app has a task killer (to provide RAM) as well as delete history (web browser data & history), clean the cache, properly uninstall apps and get rid off left over files (remains of formerly deleted apps) to get some free space on the device memory.

Get your settings straight

Look at your device's settings properly. Does it show you signed in to any accounts that are not used by you? Delete all such accounts. Meanwhile, you can also check for sync intervals (i.e. how frequently these accounts check for updates).

Also check whether other additional functions such as Bluetooth, NFC and wi-fi are on even when you don't need them? It might happen that such devices keep looking for a connection and reduce the speed and performance of other services. In case, you are using a third-party launcher, you can set it as the default.

Restore to original factory settings

Even after performing the steps listed above, if your phone or tablet still keeps freezing or takes ages to load a particular application, it may be time to go for a factory reset to restore original settings of your device— like the way it was when you first got it. Fortunately, every Android device comes with an in-built factory reset option. It is pretty easy to initialise the factory reset. It is in fact a one-step process. You just need to go to settings and 'privacy' or 'backup & reset'. However, doing a factory reset removes everything on the device including all installed apps, contacts, calendar entries, photos, texts, videos. So it is a wise option to use an app called inDefend and take a backup of all your contacts and other data before you reset your phone.

Regularly clean messages and gallery

It is important to clean your phone for thousands of texts, photos, videos stored on it. Take a backup of all needed data and remove the unwanted stuff. As these apps would not have to cache as much data, they'll load much faster after the clean up process. 

Move data to external memory card

Even if your device has 16GB storage space, some of this space is taken up by the operating system and other necessary apps. It is important to keep at least 2GB of storage space free. So, move all non-essential information and apps to the external memory card by using the file manager and a free app called App2SD.

Nova Launcher

Almost every phone manufacturer tends to use heavy interfaces with animations and features that you may never use. You can download Nova Launcher from the app store and give your device an instant speed boost. 

Switch off animated wallpapers

Avoid using a live wallpaper on your device as it makes use of a lot of processing power, which otherwise can be used for making apps load up faster and making the interface smoother. Switch off your animated wallpaper and you can have a better battery life. Blog credit 

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HOW TO MAXIMIZE ANDROID BATTERY LIFE

How to Maximize Android Battery Life

Use Android’s Built-in Battery Usage Screen

There’s a screen built into Android that most casual users probably don’t even know about, and it can tell you exactly what is killing your battery. Head into Settings –> About Phone –> Battery use to see what has been killing your battery life.

From this screen, you can usually see what apps are the worst offenders, and you will probably notice that the biggest problem—at least, the biggest one that we can fix—is actually the backlight on the phone. Personally I’d prefer to talk less to other humans, but that isn’t always an option!

Note: on my phone, I’ve already configured the backlight to not be very bright—normally that number would be a lot higher.

Adjust the Backlight to be Less Bright

Since we’ve already determined that the backlight is usually the biggest problem, you should probably adjust the settings. Head into Settings –> Display –> Brightness, where you can choose to automatically adjust, which usually works fairly well, or you can just turn the brightness down to the lowest acceptable level.

You should make sure that the screen timeout value is set to turn off quickly as well.

Disable Your Wi-Fi When You Don’t Need It

Wi-Fi can really speed up accessing data on your phone, but it can also be a big drain on the battery if you don’t need it enabled, especially when you are out and about… The phone will try and scan for a wireless network even though you may not want it to.

To enable Airplane mode, you can head into Settings –> Wireless & networks–> Airplane mode.

You can easily toggle the Wi-Fi on or off with a widget or shortcut—there’s a built-in widget included in Android phones, or you can use the AnyCut or BetterCut utilities to create your own shortcuts to directly turn them on or off without requiring a widget.

Disable Bluetooth if You Don’t Use It

If you aren’t using a wireless headset, there’s no reason to have Bluetooth running all the time, and you should probably cut it off to save the battery life. If you never use it at all, head into Settings –> Wireless & networks–> Bluetooth.

You can also enable or disable the Bluetooth when you do need it, using the power widget.

Use the Power Widget to Easily Toggle GPS, Bluetooth, Wireless, and Screen Brightness

Android includes a built-in Power Widget that can easily toggle these settings on or off—just long press on the background of one of your screens, choose Widget –> Power Control to add it to the screen. You’ll notice in this example screenshot that I’ve got my GPS enabled but I’m not using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth at the moment—the icon all the way on the right lets you easily toggle the screen brightness settings.

This is probably the simplest and easiest thing that you can do to save your battery without having to dig into the settings all the time.

Disable Apps that Sync Constantly

The built-in Email application (not the Gmail one, which uses Push technology) can suck the battery badly, because it syncs on a too-regular basis, especially when you have lots of accounts—each one of them is set to sync every 15 minutes. You’d be better off setting it up to sync manually, but if you want it to sync automatically, you should set it to sync less frequently.

Open up the Email application, head to your account, and choose Account settings –> Email check frequency from the menu. Change this to something more like an hour… or never. You can always hit refresh manually when you want to read your email.

The same thing holds true for other accounts, like Twitter clients, which are even less important to update all the time. For Seesmic, you can head into Settings –> Background Updates from the main screen. For the official Twitter app, the settings are similar.

The Facebook application polls automatically in the background, and you can customize the refresh interval for that as well—if you don’t need Facebook updating all the time, you should set this value as high as possible.

From the main Facebook screen—the one with the icons—head into Settings –> Refresh interval from the menu.

Disable the GPS Location Features

One of the biggest battery sucking features on my droid is the GPS… When I have navigation going, the battery dies far too fast, so I end up having to keep it plugged in the whole time I am driving. This makes sense… but what you might not know is that a lot of other applications use the GPS as well.

You can also change the GPS to use wireless networks, and uncheck the option for Use GPS satellites—this will make the GPS a little less accurate, but it will save your battery. Note that you probably want the real GPS enabled if you’re using Google Maps Navigation.

Additionally, you should turn off the geolocation features in your Twitter client, weather application, or whatever other apps that you really don’t need them in. If you want to keep it enabled, that’s great, just realize that it does drain the battery, so uncheck this option to help.

Use a Task Manager to See What is Always Running

It is a wise decision to have a copy of Advanced Task Cleaner or a similar application installed on your phone to help you kill applications that don’t need to be running, but more so that you can see what exactly is launching itself repeatedly in the background. You can setup an auto-kill list for applications you don’t use that often—make them cut off when you shut off the screen, or after an interval.

Note: If you’ve configured your application settings to not pull down lots of data or do checking in the background, it’s not quite as important to keep tasks killed all the time—that’s really what kills your battery, not having them sitting idle.

You can also configure advanced task manager to show you CPU usage for each app, which is a more useful meter than memory usage when it comes to battery life.

Disable or Remove Applications That You Aren’t Using

Once you have identified the application that you don’t want running all the time, check in the settings to see if it can be removed from running in the background. Some applications will give you an option for notifications that can be turned off if you don’t need them, making the application not check in the background so often.

It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway—you should remove the apps that you don’t need anymore, especially the ones that are draining your battery as determined from the android battery panel or task manager. Head into Settings –> Applications –> Manage Applications and then you can click the Uninstall button for an app.

Disable Home Screen Widgets You Don’t Need

If you’ve got loads of widgets that are pulling data from the web, that means they are likely pulling down data in the background all the time. You should try not to go overboard with these, or remove the ones you don’t actually need.

Disable Animated Wallpaper

Yeah, that sweet animated wallpaper doesn’t help your battery any. Get rid of it for a small extra battery savings.

Use APNDroid to Kill Your Entire Data Connection When You

Don’t Need It

If you’re using a phone that’s on the AT&T or T-Mobile networks, you can use the APNDroid utility to kill your data connection entirely with a simple widget. It doesn’t work on Verizon phones in my testing. It’ll disable the data but still allow regular calls and SMS.

Keep the Battery from Getting Too Hot 

One of the quickest ways to kill a battery is to leave it out in the sun—try and keep your phone somewhere that isn’t too hot whenever possible. You’ll end up needing to replace the battery a lot quicker if you don’t.

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HOW TO FIND THE ROOT CAUSE OF YOUR ANDROID BATTERY PROBLEMS

Android has a built-in battery stats tool that shows you what is using your battery. Unfortunately, this tool doesn’t provide all the information you need to identify the root causes of poor battery life.

Android Battery Problems

BetterBatteryStats is an app that shows you much more detailed information about what’s actually using your phone’s battery. With BetterBatteryStats, you can identify exactly which apps and settings are draining your battery.

Getting Started

BetterBatteryStats is available for $2.99 on Google Play, and it’s well worth it. If you would like to try before you buy, you can download the app for free from its thread on the XDA Developers forum. Be sure to support the developer and buy the app if you find it useful.

The app will start monitoring after your first charge. Once you have installed the app, you w ill need to charge your phone and then give BetterBatteryStats time to collect data. You can use your phone normally for a few hours, use it for a typical day, or even leave it sitting overnight to see only what your phone is doing when you aren’t using it. BetterBatteryStats uses Android’s standard events, so it shouldn’t use any additional battery power to gather this data.

Wakelocks Explained

Your Android phone has three states: Awake with screen on (when you’re using it), Awake with screen off (when it’s performing actions in the background), and Sleeping.

When you’re not using your phone or tablet, you want it to remain in sleep mode as much as possible. Sleep mode consumes very little battery.

However, your phone can’t stay in the sleep state all of the time. Apps that need to perform actions in the background use partial wakelocks to keep the phone awake while performing the action. Any app that needs to do anything in the background – Gmail receiving new mail, a music player playing music with the phone’s screen off, or the Contacts app synchronizing your contacts – all use partial wakelocks to keep the phone awake.

You can see the effect of wakelocks in action by viewing the phone’s state information after BetterBatteryStats has had some time to gather data. For example, in the screenshot below, we can see that the phone has been on for over 21 hours. The phone’s screen has only been on for 12 minutes in this time, but the phone itself has been awake for nearly two hours.

Why has the phone spent over an hour and a half awake when we weren’t using it? Partial wakelocks kept it awake. We can reduce the amount of time the phone spends awake thereby increase battery life by eliminating wakelocks. (Note that wakelocks just measure time the phone was awake when the screen was off. If you use your phone to listen to music with the screen off, a large amount of awake time with the screen off will be expected and unavoidable.)

Viewing Partial Wakelocks

To view partial wakelocks, tap the Other menu at the top of the app and select Partial Wakelocks. Youwill see a list of actions that caused wakelocks. The app that caused the most wakelocks will appear at the top of the list, so you’ll know which problems you need to focus on.

For example, in the screenshot below, we can see several causes of wakelocks: Google Maps automatically updating our location (presumably so Google Now will know where we are), Pocket syncing our unread articles, Twitter syncing new tweets, and the Google+ app syncing new content.

Elimanating Partial Wakelocks

With this information, we know what we can do to squeeze more battery life out of our phone. We could

disable background location reporting in Google Maps (Google Maps app –> Settings –> Location settings –> Location reporting –> Do not update your location), set Pocket to synchronize articles less frequently (or even use manual syncing), set Twitter to check for new tweets less frequently, and disable the Google+ app’s sync feature.

If we saw Google Talk near the top of this list and never used it, we could sign out of Google Talk to reduce wakelocks. If the app causing wakelocks has a sync feature, set it to sync less often, sync manually, or disable sync entirely (if you never use it).

Of course, the decisions you make here are trade-offs. For example, if Gmail is a big source of wakelocks for you, you could set Gmail to never automatically sync new email. You would only get new emails when you sync manually with the refresh button in the Gmail app and you would never receive notifications for new emails if you did this.

If there’s an app that continues creating wakelocks and you don’t use it, you should uninstall it. If you can’t uninstall the app because it came with your phone, you can disable it instead. To disable an app, open the Settings screen, tap Apps, swipe over to the All list, and locate the app. Tap the name of the app and tap the Disable button. (You shouldn’t use this feature to disable useful apps, as this could cause problems.)

f you’re not sure what setting a wakelock is related to, try Googling it. Other users have likely encountered and solved the problem before.

Reference:

http://www.howtogeek.com

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LAVA INTRODUCING 3G CALLING ANDROID ICS TABLET

LAVA INTRODUCING 3G CALLING ANDROID ICS TABLET

Lava, the India-based tablet and smartphone maker is readying its latest Android tablet in the affordable price range. After the success of Etab Xtron tablet, which comes with 1.5 GHz processor and priced at Rs 6,499 in the country, Lava will be launching its 3G calling-support based Android tablet in the similar sub Rs 7,000 price point.

The company has informed that the tablet with calling facility will be launched in the Etab series of tablets. As far as the specs of the tablet are concerned, it will sport a 17.7-cm (7-inch) display of WVGA quality and run Android 4.0 aka Ice cream sandwich, which is rather surprising, when Etab Xtron is already available with Android 4.1 aka Jelly Bean at similar price point.

It will be powered by 1 GHz processor, coupled with 512 MB RAM. With an internal memory of 4 GB and microSD slot expansion, the tablet will come with 2 MP rear and VGA front- facing camera. Lava has loaded the tablet with a 3000 mAh battery.

Lava has also added the general ETAB bundled content like Hungama, Bigflix, Edukart, Meritnation, Diamond Comics and Readwhere on the tablet.

Specs:

17.7-cm (7-inch) WVGA display

Android 4.0 aka ice cream sandwich

1 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM

2 MP rear and VGA front-facing camera

3G, voice-calling, Wi-Fi

3,000 mAh battery

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KARBONN A11 ANDROID ICS SMARTPHONE REVIEW

Karbonn A11 is a dual-SIM phone powered by Android ICS. The handset has a 4 inch capacitive touch

screen with a 800x480p pixel resolution. For the speed lovers, it has got a superfast 1GHz processor. For Internet connectivity, the device has Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE, and HSDPA and for data transfer, there is Bluetooth v4.0 and USB connectivity. The 5MP HD camera of the device takes excellent pics and makes the beautiful moments come to life, it also houses a VGA front camera. To let users stay connected for long, the device has a 1500 mAh battery. Other features include, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, Kingsoft office, live motion wallpapers, and 32 GB expandable memory

FULL SPECIFICATIONS

General                                                           

Sim Type:         GSM+GSM

Dual Sim:          Yes

Design

Form Factor:    Classic (Candybar)

Display

Type:               Color TFT screen

Touch:             Yes, Capacitive with Multitouch

Size:                4 inches, 480 x 800 pixels

Memory

Internal:            4 GB inbuilt

Card Slot:         Yes, upto 32 GB

Connectivity

GPRS:              Yes

EDGE:              Yes

3G:                   Yes, 7.2 Mbps Download

Wifi:                 Yes, with wifi-hotspot

Bluetooth:         Yes, v4.0

USB:                Yes v2.0

Extra

GPS:                Yes, with A-GPS Support

3.5mm Headphone Jack:          Yes

Camera

Camera:            Yes, 5 MP with autofocus

Features:           Face detection

Video Recording:          Yes

Flash:               Yes

Front Camera:  Yes, VGA (0.3 MP)

Technical

OS:                 Android, v4.0.4

CPU:              1 GHz Processor

Java:                Yes

Browser:          Yes, supports WAP

Multimedia

Supports:          MMS, Instant Messanging, Voice Recording

Email:              Yes

Music:              MP3, MIDI, WAV, AMR, AAC, AAC+

Video:              MP4, 3GP, AVI, H.263, H.264

FM Radio:        Yes

Social Networking:       Facebook, Twitter

Battery

Size:                  1500 mAH, Li-ion Battery

Standby time:    200 hours

Talk time:         300 minutes

Verdict:

Strengths: Options are good, more features..

Weaknesses: low battery backup

Overall:   low cost yet good mobile to use

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SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 REVIEW

Samsung Galaxy S4 is the new Smart phone from Samsung. Lets take a

Closer look at it.

Overview:

2G Network       GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network       HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

4G Network       LTE

Dimensions:

136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in)

Display:

Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen, 16M colors

1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches

Memory:

Memory Slot: microSD, up to 64 GB

In Built: 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM

Connectivity:

EDGE:               Yes, HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps

WLAN:               Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth:         Yes, v4.0 with A2DP

USB:                 Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA

Primary:            13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

Secondary:          Yes, 2 MP,1080p@30fps, video call

FEATURES

OS:                   Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)

CPU:               Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7

Chipset:        Exynos 5 Octa 5410

GPU:              PowerVR SGX 544MP3

For detailed   Specifications   click here

Design

The much awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 has an improvised camera, better connectivity and simply making work/personal life easier.Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a feel to think a light weight version of Galaxy S 2; outside is still plastic.

  

Display

The 441ppi pixel density doesn’t match the HTC One & other smartphones in the niche, but is more than good enough for the normal user.

User Interface

Touchwiz has got not many changes since Galaxy S 2

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is a step up from its predecessor, with a 13MP sensor on the back.

Verdict

Pros:   Feature rich,great camera,connectivity

Cons:   Cost,resource hungry(heavy data usage)

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SAMSUNG GALAXY POCKET NEO REVIEW

Galaxy pocket NEO phone is an Ultra Low Cost smart phone comes with smart features though with attractive price. Released in April 2013 when Samsung has announced the launch of Galaxy STAR which too is placed in the same category. So, let’s check out on what are the specs and features of this smart phone.

Specs and Features of Samsung GALAXY Pocket NEO:

Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo smart phone comes with the 3-inch (320 x 240 pixels) capacitive touch screen display along with the 850MHz of Processing power which runs on the Jellybean 4.1 Android OS. Surprising to see that this device comes with the Android OS and that too jellybean unlike the REX Series of phones which came with the FEATURE OS and Touch WiZ UI.

With Dual Sim card Support, this device comes with the Dual Always ON facility wherein the calls on second number will be diverted to the primary number just in case if you are busy on the Primary Call.

In terms of memory, this phone comes with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory along with the expandable memory card slot of 32GB. FM Radio, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, 3G, WI Fi 802.11 b/g/n are a part of standard features.

Specifications:

3-inch (320×240)

850MHz Processor,

4.1Jellybean Android OS,

Dual Sim Card Support,

Touch Wiz UI,

512MB RAM, 4GB internal Memory,

Upto 32GB External SD Card Slot,

FM Radio, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, 3G, WI Fi 802.11 b/g/n,

1200Mah Battery,

2G Network – GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 GT-S5310

3G Network – HSDPA 900 / 2100

Screen – TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors

OS – Android v4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)

CPU – 850 MHz

Size – 240 x 320 pixels, 3.0 inches (~133 ppi pixel density)

Memory – microSD, up to 32 GB, Internal – 4 GB, 512 MB RAM

Connectivity – GPRS, EDGE, 3G (HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps), Wifi, BT 4.0

This device also comes with the battery life of 1200mAH of Battery. We have also summed up the list of features below for your convenience.

Price and Availability:

For Rs.6990 this Galaxy Pocket Neo can be purchased with Blue, Grey and White color options.

Pros: Jelly bean Os, 3G

Cons: Sluggish, Lack of user friendly features, high price,no flash

Verdict: Not recommended until its price reaches below Samsung Galaxy Star price (Rs. 49990 as on June 2013)

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