How To Make An Android Smart Phone Work Faster

How To Make An Android Smart Phone Work Faster

When you think of Android smartphones, ‘productivity’ probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind. But you don’t have to use a BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 device or another boring ‘enterprise-friendly’ handheld to get a lot done in a little time – whether it be for work or play.

The following seven Android tips will help streamline your general Android navigation processes so you can move around your device and access your favorite apps, media and services, faster and more efficiently.

Android Motion

Also read my Android Battery Tips and Android Security Basics posts for more Android tips and tricks. And checkout my latest list of free Android apps for suggestions on new software.

(Note: The Android tips and tricks described below all work on my Motorola Atrix 4G running Android v2.2.1, but some of them may not be available for all devices or operating system versions.)

1.Coustomising Your Android Home Screen:

Customising the individual home-screen ‘panes’ on your Android smartphone is one of the easiest ways to make it your own, as well as reduce the time it takes to access your most frequently usedapplications. And you can move anyapplication to any home-screen pane.

To move an app from either your ‘app page’, where all your Android software is stored, or from one pane to another, simply press and hold the application for a second or two until a coloured shadow appears beneath it. If you’re moving an app from your app page to a home screen page, you’ll immediately be returned to the last home screen page you were on before jumping to the app page.

Moving apps around an individual pane or between panes is as simple as dragging your finger to the left or right, up or down, after holding the icon for a second to select it. And you can ditch unwanted apps from your home screen panes by holding their respective icons until they’re selected, then dropping them into the trash can, or another similar icon, that appears on-screen. 

2. Create Home Screen Widgets For Favourite Apps:

One of the coolest things about the Android OS is the ability to use a variety of widgets, or icons that sit on your home screen and display information so you don’t ever have to open the actual applications or services that they’re associated with. Widgets can save time and show information you might have otherwise missed.

To assign an Android widget to one of your home screens, just press and hold a blank space on one of those home screens, i.e., a place with no other widgets orapplications. Then choose the Android Widgets option for access to third-party app-widgets. On the following screen, scroll through all your third-party widgets and pick the ones you want to display on your home screen panes.

You should see another widget-option after holding your finger on a blank home-screen page, as well, for core system widgets. But its name will differ based on model, manufacturer and OS version. For in example, my Motorola Atrix 4G has another widget-option called Motorola Widgets that offers another set of widgets, including ones that let me toggle my various wireless-radios on and off as well as quickly start and stop music.

Not all Android apps offer widget-functionality, but many do, so be sure to check to see if your favorite app has a widget.

(Note: Android widgets that update themselves can drain a lot of battery power, depending on individual settings, so it’s not a wise idea to pack your home-screens with widgets that you won’t actually use.)

3. Create Android Home Screen Shortcuts For Favourite Websites:

Just as you can create home screen widgets for certain applications, you can also make home-screen shortcuts for your favourite web pages, so you never have to launch your browser and navigate to those pages.

To assign a custom Android shortcut to your home screen, navigate to the web page for which you want to create a shortcut, tap your Menu key to bring up additional options and then choose More. On the following screen, select the Add Shortcut to Home option. A new shortcut for the web page of your choice will appear on the home-screen pane you were on last, unless there’s no more room for another shortcut, in which case you’ll be informed that you can’t fit a new shortcut on that pane.

You can also create a shortcut to certain Android system options, such as your Android Settings menu or your Contacts, by pressing and holding a blank space on a home-screen pane for a second or two. But instead of choosing one of the widget-options, as described above, pick Shortcuts. Then choose the specific shortcut you wish to add from the options on the following screen.

4. Quickly View And Jump Between Your Last Used Android App:

One of the best ways to quickly jump back and forth between frequently-used Androidapplications is by holding your finger on the Android Home Button for a second or two, until a set of eight application-icons labeled Recent appear on screen. You can launch any of these eight apps by simply tapping their icons on the Recent page. The apps included will change based on which ones you’ve most recently used.

5. See All Android Home Screen Panes On One Screen:

The Android OS lets you quickly view miniature versions of all of your home-screen panes on one page. But the process for accessing this all-pane-view is different depending on your device and OS version. To access this view on my Motorola Atrix, I simply hold down the circular, on-screen Home button until all of my home-screen pages appear. From there, I can easily click on any pane to quickly access it, instead of scrolling through multiple panes first.

To access this multi-pane-view on the HTC Droid Incredible running Android 2.2, you must double-tap your Home button -not the on-screen ‘key’ but the actual button.

6. Employ Custom Android   folder To Organize Apps:

In addition to customising your home-screen panes and adding both widgets and shortcuts, you can add folders to your Android home screens to further customise and organise content on your smartphone. Create a new folder the same way you would a new shortcut by pressing and holding a blank space on your home screen until an options menu appears. Choose the Folders option and a new folder will be assigned to your home screen. You can then fill up your folders by dragging applications over thefolder-icons and dropping them in.

7. Double Tap Your Android Home Button For Custom 

Functions:

Some Android devices, including the Motorola Atrix 4G, let you customise your home button, so it performs different functions when double-tapped. For instance, you can set the Double Tap Home feature to open up your camera or your phone’s dial-pad, etc, whenever you double-tap your Home button.

To do so, open up your Android Settings, scroll down and click the applications option, then, on the following page, choose Double tap home launch. Next, pick the function you wish to launch after double-tapping your home button and you’re good to go.

How To Stop Your Boss, Spying You At Work

How To Stop Your Boss, Spying You At Work 

Privacy may be dead, but that doesn’t mean you have to enjoy having your every electronic move tracked by your nosy manager. If you use a company-supplied PC on a corporate network, and you carry around a company smartphone, you’re almost certainly being watched. But with a bit of forethought and some of your own gear, you can enjoy a little digital liberty in the workplace.

Privacy

At this point, there’s little debate about whether companies have a right to monitor employees’ activities on corporate PCs and networks. If they supply it, they have a responsibility to monitor it. So unless your company is either deeply clueless or naively altruistic, your web surfing, your instant messages, your running applications and even your keyboard keystrokes are probably being recorded. And if your boss was generous enough to issue you a smartphone, chances are good that your SMS messages, and possibly even your daily travels, are being tracked as well.

PC monitoring:

In corporate security speak, the software that monitors what’s happening on your PC falls under the general heading ofendpoint security. The term refers to everything that goes on between you and your machine, from how you use your computer to the way the software on it works to the physical location of the system. Your IT department needs to know what’s up with your PC (and you) to make sure the computer doesn’t fall prey to malware, putting company data at risk and potentially harming the business.

Any company with a reasonable IT budget will almost certainly have installed a comprehensive security package from a company such as McAfee, Symantec or Trend Micro. These suites handle everything from antivirus protection and system update management to corporate policy enforcement, and that last task generally includes keeping logs on which apps you launch, which websites you visit and so on. 

To make matters worse for a privacy-minded employee, a typical endpoint security suite is tightly integrated not only into the PC’s operating system (with permissions restricted to keep you from meddling with it) but also into the data centre, where a server (or possibly a remote host) checks on the PC frequently to make sure everything is okay.

Unless your IT department is using some rinky dink freeware to monitor you and chronically neglects to check it, disabling the monitoring features on your endpoint security installation isn’t really an option. Even if you were to succeed, the server-side administration tools would throw a red flag once your system stopped reporting in.

The best way to get around PC monitoring software is to sidestep it entirely by using a PC that only you control. In other words, bring your own laptop. If your boss asks why you’re not using the one Big Brother issued you, say that the keyboard makes your wrists hurt. The mere suggestion of a potential OSHA case may be enough to sendyour boss ambling down the hall in search of someone else to dump their passive-aggression on. (Just try to steer the conversation away from any suggestion that you hand the machine over to the IT department for any reason.)Once the boss is out of your hair, install a few sneaky utilities to help you goof off on your PC without getting caught

.

If bringing a whole separate PC to work seems over the top to you, take the simpler route: Internet-connected tablets like the iPad or the Motorola Xoom are ideal for stealthy surfing, and they’re unlikely to raise the boss’s eyebrows. In fact, they might even create the impression that you’re ultra-productive, showing the whole office that you take your work seriously enough to bring your own hardware. 

(Note: Playing Angry Birds on your tablet in front of coworkers all day will likely undermine that impression.)Or just use your smartphone, provided it isn’t a company-issued handset, that is.

Network monitoring:

Your work PC is only the first link in a chain of surveillance that extends from your keyboard to basically every other piece of equipment on the corporate network. In some offices, even the copy machine keeps tabs on you. At the very least, all of your network use is likely being logged somewhere. To avoid having your browsing tracked, you need to get off that network.

Thanks to the proliferation of 3G and 4G data services, it has never been easier to enjoy a little semiprivate (nothing is totally private) web surfing from the office. This development will likely prove to be terrible news for employers, but it’s great for lazy workers who like to goof around on the job.

You have several good choices for bringing a mobile broadband connection to your PC. You can buy a computer with mobile broadband built in. You can use a USB dongle. You can use a wireless tethering device such as the Novatel Wireless MiFi or the Sierra Wireless Overdrive. Or you can just tether to your personal smartphone. Depending on which option you choose and how much data you plan to eat up, these services will charge a variable monthly fee.

If you decide to go the smartphone-tethering route, be sure to keep your phone charging on your desk the whole time. An hour of data tethering will easily blow through your phone’s battery.

Should the expense of your own mobile data service seem unreasonable for the privilege of escaping your boss’s watchful eye, at least take one simple precaution when using your own machine on the company Wi-Fi network: Give your computer an anonymous name.

If you accept the default account settings when you set up your PC, your computer will likely announce you by name whenever you connect to the network, presenting itself as, say, “Dan Thompson’s PC” or similar. This name is usually visible not only to your company’s IT department but also to everyone else on the network, your coworkers, your boss, the woman in accounting, everyone.

Change the name of your PC to something innocuous and nondescript. Heck, change it to a random string like 9873r54C. Then nobody will know what it is, and it’ll just blend in with the long list of devices on the network. And more important, if anyone ever does try looking into what it is, what it has been doing on the network, or where it came from, it won’t point so obviously to you.

Even if you’re out of the office, or if you work remotely, your web activity can still be tracked whenever you connect to the company’s virtual private network. The solution here is simple: Disconnect from the VPN whenever you’re not using it, and stick to work tasks while you are connected. This is good practice anyway, since you have no solid reason to stay connected to the VPN when you don’t need it.

Smartphone:

If your company issued you a smartphone, don’t assume that anything you do with it is private. Tracking everything from calls and text messages to apps installed is a trivial task for your IT department, and with mobile security gathering increasing attention of late, chances are good that your device’s network activity is at least showing up in a log somewhere.

Even if you’re not a total slacker, it can be a good practice to carry your own smartphone for personal use. Besides, doing so will give you the advantage of having an untracked device and network connection as mentioned earlier.

In the grand scheme, of course, there’s no such thing as online privacy. And although I know it’s none of my business what you do with your time at work, it actually is, both literally and legally speaking, your boss’s business. So don’t blame the company for wanting to track your computer use. With that said, however, I don’t blame you for wanting to loosen the leash a little from time to time. Just use your best judgment, and don’t get yourself into trouble.

How To Remove A Program Without Uninstaller

How To Remove A Program Without Uninstaller

Before you try to manually remove a program, make sure there’s no uninstaller. Check the Start menu. If the Start menu contains a submenu for the unwanted program, there’s likely a link to the uninstaller there.

You should also check Windows’ own list of uninstallers. Select Start (Start>Run in XP), type appwiz.cpl, and press ENTER. You’ll find all the uninstallers that Windows knows about in alphabetical order.

You should also try Googling the name of the unwanted program and the word uninstall.

If none of these pan out, you’re going to have to remove the program manually. Here’s how:
1) Create a system restore point. See How to create a Restore Point if you need instructions.

2) Boot into Safe Mode. Reboot your PC. Just before Windows loads, press F8 (you may need to try this several times to get the timing right). At the resulting, ugly, text-based menu screen, use your keyboard’s arrow keys and Enter key to select Safe Mode. Then wait until it loads.

3) Find the path to the program folder. If there’s a shortcut to the program on your Start menu or the desktop, right-click that shortcut and select Properties. The path is everything in the Target field except the file name. For instance, if the Target field says C:\Program Files\Bricked Software\ErodeCode.exe, the path is C:\Program Files\Bricked Software.

 The path is also likely the entire contents of the “Start in” field.
If you don’t find a shortcut, go to C:\Program Files and look for the appropriate folder. Check C:\Program Files (x86), as well, if your PC has that folder.

4) Delete the program folder. In Windows Explorer, go to the path you’ve just identified, then go up one level. For instance, if the path is C:\Program Files\Bricked Software, you want C:\Program Files. Select the unwanted program’s folder, press the Delete key, and confirm the change.

5) Clean the Registry. You’ll want to remove all references to the program from theRegistry. The free CCleaner will likley do the job. If you don’t already have it installed, you may want to use CCleaner Portable, which doesn’t require installation.

 Whichever version you use, click the Registry icon in the left panel, then click Scan for Issues. When the scan is complete, click Fix selected issues. And yes, you do want to back up changes to the Registry.

6) Delete the shortcuts. Do this wherever they may be–the Start menu, the desktop, and so on.

7) Reboot. You’ve removed the program. 

Amazon Is Going To Launch An Adroid App-Store This Summer

Amazon Is Going To Launch An Adroid App-Store This Summer

Amazon is gonig to launch a android app store in this summer, this app-store will be open in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the developer can now submit their app for distribution in these countries through Amazon app-store

Amazon App-Store

The Amazon app-store in open to compete the Google’s  play store, which waslaunched in US last year. The launch in the five European countries is the beginning of an expansion that will go global in the near future, according to Amazon.

Amazon’s Appstore expansion outside of the US has been a long time coming, said Tim Shepherd, senior mobile analyst at Canalys.

“The Appstore has been prettysuccessful in terms of its first rollout in the US,” he said.For users with Android-based smartphones it provides an alternativesource for applications from a trusted brand to Google’s Play store, according to Shepherd.

“What marks the Amazon Appstore out from others is the discoverability of apps it provides,” said Shepherd.

For example, Amazon uses its broader retail environment to cross-sell products and applications. So a user who is looking at books about gardening can get a tip about a gardening app, because Amazon knows the shopper has an Android device.

“Today, that is something Google Play doesn’t do very effectively. Amazon also curates apps more carefully, which has benefits when it comes to security,” said Shepherd.

For developers, Amazon Appstore has resulted in greater revenue, on average, compared to Google Play, according to Shepherd.

Ahead of the international launch, developers are encouraged to visit the distribution portal to learn more about localising apps using resource files for different regions. Developers can select the countries where they would like to sell their apps, and set their list prices by marketplace, Amazon said.

Amazon also announced two changes to its distribution agreement. Starting on July 1, developers will earn 70% of list price on each paid app sale, compared to the prior terms under which developers earned either 70% of the app’s sales price or 20% of list price.

In addition, the terms of the agreement have been changed to provide more flexibility around the timing of application submissions. Developers can now better control which apps they make available to users and when, Amazon said without providing more details.

Samsung Released A New Ultra Book Series 9

Samsung Released A New Ultra Book Series9

Samsung is developing a new good taste in creating ultrabooks lately and latestultrabook series 9 is no execption, Promising a gorgeous slim screen with the decent specifications. It is the one of the Thinnest profile  of Samsung until now.

Samsung ultra Book Series 9

It is a well and good profile, but it will cost you up to £1,200, which is quite costly for any ultrabook. It’s what you’ll pay for HP’s fetchingly glass-topped Envy Spectre and a hundred more than you’ll splash for a similarly specced Apple MacBook Air, for example.

Design: 

The original Series 9′s brushed black metal livery has been upgraded to a bluish grey and very efficient and stylish it looks too, even with the less-than-subtle embossed “Samsung” logo on top. It’s designed to be fingerprint resistant and this it certainly is — though that doesn’t mean it can shrug off excessively oily mitt maulings.

It feels exceptionally sturdy, despite the light weight, and Samsung puts this down to the casing being made largely from duralumin, a hi-tech material used in fighter planes, apparently.

It’s a little slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, and indeed the MacBook Air, measuring just 13mm at its narrowest. It’s a difference that’s not easy to see, or to feel, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

On the sides are two USB ports (3.0 and 2.0), plus a combined mic-headphone jack, SD card reader and mini HDMI port. There are also mini Ethernet and VGA ports, which come with a dongle adaptor to keep the slim profile.

Inside, the good-sized backlit keys are nicely spaced and sit just proud of the casing. They’re sensitive and offer enough travel for comfortable typing without slowing you down.

The mousep

ad supports multi-digit commands but could be a bit temperamental when identifying presses on the left and right buttons, which aren’t marked, resulting in more than a few missed presses.

Performance:

The 13.3-inch screen looks lovely indeed with its resolution of 1600×900 pixels and excels in terms of brightness and sharpness. Detail looks beautifully crisp and colours deliciously vibrant — even better, it has a wide viewing angle so sharing isn’t a problem.

It’s carrying a 128GB solid state drive, which is what you’d normally accept in this price range (though the Asus Zenbook manages to include 256GB for about the same price).

Under the hood it’s powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core Core i5-2467M processor backed by 4GB of RAM and Intel’s HD 3000 graphics chip — not a bad set-up really. It delivered a PCMark performance benchmark rating of 2,263, which puts it behind the Asus Zenbook but comfortably in front of its Series 5 little brother. 

It took a relatively tardy nine minutes and ten seconds to encode our test 11-minute movie for iTunes, but for gaming (on Portal, using default settings) it delivered some impressive frame rates hovering around the 130-140fps mark.

The battery however disappointed, perhaps due to the demands of that impressive screen, calling it a day after a little under three hours.

Conclusion:

The new Samsung Series 9 is certainly a stylish beast and manages the trick of being extremely thin and light. Performance-wise it’s not exceptional, but its screen is gorgeous and keyboard is a joy to use — plus it feels sturdy enough to stand up to some decent travel abuse. It’s no bargain, but if that blue-grey duralumin livery is calling to you, you won’t be disappointed.

Specifications:

• CPU

 : Intel Core i5 Processor 2467M (1.6GHz, 3MB L3 cache)

• Operating system

 : Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

• Memory

 : 4GB DDR3 System Memory at 1333MHz (4GB x 1, DDP Type)

• Display

 : 13.3in SuperBright 400nit HD+ LED Display (1600×900),Anti-Reflective

• Hard Drive

 : 128GB Solid state Drive

• Graphics

 : Intel HD Graphics 3000

• Audio/visual

 : HD Audio, SoundAlive, 3W Stereo Speaker (1.5W x 2),1.3 megapixel HD Webcam

• Wireless

 : Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230, 2 x 2 802.11 abg/n (upto 300Mbps), Widi Support, Bluetooth V3.0 High Speed

• Ports

 : 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 and 1x HDMI; headphone/microphonecombo jack; power connector, card reader 4-in-1 (SD, SDHC, SDXC,MMC), Ethernet (with adaptor), VGA (with adaptor)

• Size

 : 329x227x13-16mm

• Weight

 : 1.19kg

• PCMark

 : 2263

 

Breaking Down Apple's Retina Display Unveils Surprises And Ingenuity

Breaking Down Apple's Retina Display Unveils Surprises And Ingenuity

Apple's Retina Display Breakdown

The Retina display is arguably the pièce de résistance of Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It’s an engineering marvel, bearing a 2880×1800 resolution, which is good for 5,184,000 pixels.

Last week, iFixit tore apart the MacBook Pro with Retina Display and found it was virtually impossible to repair or upgrade after the time of purchase. But the Retina display itself was left un-dissected – until now.

The entire display assembly is slightly thinner than the display of its predecessor, yet manages to pack in four times as many pixels. It’s only a fraction thicker than 7mm at its thickest point, and just over 3mm at its edges. 

The Retina display is also so delicate and tightly constructed that the experts over at iFixit couldn’t separate its front panel without cracking the glass in two places — and eventually obliterating it completely.

“If you want a world-class laptop screen that doesn’t take up much real estate, don’t expect to be able to pop it out and back in at will,” iFixit writes in the teardown.

Apple told us in its WWDC keynote that it used a new manufacturing method to build the display into the notebook’s unibody aluminum housing, eliminating the extra layer of cover glass normally requisite of displays. Indeed, Apple turned the entire display assembly into the LCD panel, using the aluminium casing as the frame. Normally an LCD panel is sandwiched between a front piece of glass and a back case.

Along the top of the case is the HD FaceTime camera, and the cord runs along the upper and outer edge of the casing.Inside the bottom edge of the case, iFixit made two interesting findings: a laser-engraved internal use code, and a bunch of round indentations that could be Braille, but didn’t appear to make sense in Braille.

But back to the LCD. Underneath the top layer is a series of films and polarisers that basically ensure light is spread evenly on the back panel. A sheet of white paper then acts as a uniform background for the LCD’s backlight, an arrangement of 48 LEDs at the bottom of the display.

With such tight construction, it’s not surprising to find out that if any part of the display breaks, you’ll need to replace the entire display assembly. But that’s cheaper than replacing the entire $2,200-plus (£1,400) notebook itself, at least.

BBC iPlayer Adds "RESTART BUTTON" In Their Live Streaming App

BBC iPlayer Adds "RESTART BUTTON" In Their Live Streaming App

iPlayer Restart Button

As we know about BBC’s live streaming iPlayer, recently BBC added a Restart button to their live video player. Now you can jump into a show halfway through, and you will be given an option to restart the show.

The live restart feature, which will be present on iPlayer and on connected TVs’, this will allow audiences to rewind the live show.

“So, if you’re stuck in a traffic jam, or delayed on the tube and miss the critical start of your favourite BBC programme when you get in, with one click you can skip back to the beginning of that live programme,” explains Henry Webster, an executive product manager in media services at the BBC.

Live Restart is enabled by the BBC’s leap to HTTP chunked streaming, where video files are split up into small pieces and delivered as HTTP packets. This cheaper method of video encoding has allowed the BBC to scale up its video operation, use adaptive bitrate playback (where video quality is dynamically scaled according to your bandwidth) and this new rewinding of live telly.

The Live Restart feature is available on the PC iPlayer right now, and will be launched on mobile devices and connected TVs in the near future.The iPlayer team has also released its latest performance pack. The broadcastinggiant has seen around 190 million requests per month in 2012, which is split 140m for TV programmes and 46m for radio programmes.