Android 4.1.1

Access the scientific calculator

To access the scientific calculator, rotate the phone to landscape mode.

The calculator will change to a scientific one.

End a phone call by pressing the Power button

Rather than having to locate the hang up icon on the screen after each call, you can quickly end a call by pressing the Power button. It will not turn off the screen though.

To enable this, go to Settings - Accessibility - Power button ends call.

Note: Depending on which firmware you are running, you may need to update your firmware to see this feature.

Make phone run faster

By turning off the animations, your phone will run faster and smoother. Press Menu -> Settings -> Sounds & Display -> Animation. Turn this to Off. The Off option works best for quickest performance

Install ringtones on your phone

To install ringtones on your phone you will need to copy some MP3s on to your phone.

To do this, connect your Phone to a computer with the USB cable. It should mount automatically and appear as a drive letter on your computer. If it doesn't, then drag the notification bar (the bar at the top) down and press USB Connected and select Mount.

Once that is done, go to the Phone's drive letter on your computer. Create a folder called ringtones. Then copy your MP3's from into this folder.

Once that is done, go to the Phone's home screen, press Menu - Settings - Sound - Phone ringtone. Scroll down until you find the ringtone you want

Remove large applications

If you are running low on phone memory, you can look for your largest applications to uninstall. Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications and press Menu. This will then filter your apps by memory use

Add a custom wallpaper

There are two ways to do this:
1) Press and hold on a blank spot on your home screen. Select Add to Home screen. Then choose the Wallpapers option. Then choose from one of the options, depending on where the wallpapers are

2) Open the Applications launcher. Select Settings - Personalize - Home wallpaper. Then continue choose from the options provided

Accents and special characters

If you want to type non-English letters (eg those with an accent), long-press on the relevant letter. A list of options will appear for you to select

Add comments / notes to pictures

The Note has a feature built into where you can write comments on top of a photo, then share the photo using various services.

First, choose the photo you want to comment on. Then press and hold on the photo. Then with your Stylus, write your message on top of the photo. Then press Share via and select Facebook, Twitter, Gmail or other service.

Save images in browser, email or text

To save an image in an email or in the browser, long press on the image and a menu will appear allowing you to save it.

For images inside text messages, you might have to press and hold on the message itself, rather than the image.

Once saved, images should be located in the /phone/Download folder.

Reformat a column while browsing

If you are browsing and have zoomed in to a column on a web page but you want it reformatted, you can pinch to zoom in. Then double tap on the column. The column will then be reformatted to fit the screen width.

Zoom when using the camera

While in the Camera App, there are two ways to zoom in or out.

First, you can use Volume Up and Down keys.

Secondly, you can pinch your fingers on the screen to zoom in and out.

Create Homescreen shortcuts to your Gmail folders / labels

To create homescreen shortcuts to your Gmail folders, long press on a blank part of your homescreen.

Then select Shortcuts - Gmail Label - Then choose the label you want. This will create a shortcut straight to that Gmail folder/label.

Android Easter egg

There is an Easter egg hidden in the Android operating system. To see it, go to your Homescreen, then press Menu - Settings - About phone.

Then tap on the Android version option 5 times and you will get a surprise.

Sometimes it doesn't work, so try a couple of times. By the way don't expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

Enable / disable WiFi or Bluetooth

The quickest way is to pull down your Notifications bar at the top. Bluetooth and WiFi should be available there.

Alternatively, from your homescreen, press Menu - Settings - Wireless & networks. Then press WiFi settings or Bluetooth settings to enable or disable these

Auto focus the camera

To auto focus the camera when taking photos or videos, tap the screen where you want to focus on.

The phone will automatically adjust the settings to improve the image or video.

Install a third party video codec

If you come across media that does not play with the built in codec, then simply go to the Play store and download a third party one such as MX Player.

This should allow you to play almost all videos on your device.

Quickly switch between Month and Year view in the Calendar App

In the Calendar App there is no Year view along the top of the App. You can however use pinch to zoom gestures to zoom in and out of Month and Year view however.

This is useful if you want to quickly jump backwards or forwards through a few months at a time.

Change Google Navigation voice

To change the Google Navigation voice, start at the homescreen and press Menu - Settings - Voice input and output - Text-to-speech settings.

Then under the Default settings section, press Default engine.

To change the language, go through the same process, but instead of Default engine, select Language.

If you prefer a different voice when listening to the Google Maps voice navigation, you can also select another language or accent.

Look at individual call log entries

When looking at the call log multiple calls to or from the same number are grouped together. If you press on one of these numbers it will list all the calls made or received

Add email or phone number from text

To add an email or phone number to your contacts from a text message, you can long-press on the email / phone number. Then select Add to contacts.

Stop Youtube videos from being blurry

If you are browsing Youtube videos on your phone and they appear blurry, then this is usually because of your connection speed.

If you are using 3G / 4G and you're in an area of low signal strength, then Youtube will sometimes automatically reduce the quality of the video. Unfortunately this can make the video very pixelated and of poor quality.

If you are using the standard Android browser, then when the video is in full screen, press the back button. Then press HQ and start playing it again.

If you are using another browser, then press the Settings icon on the bottom right of the Youtube video. Then change the quality.

This may improve the quality, but it may also lead to buffering issues.

Another solution is to use a WiFi connection, if one is available.

View all camera settings

While in the Camera app you can view all current settings by pressing and holding the little Gear icon in the top right corner of the app.

Improve the keyboard accuracy

There is no need to be stuck with the standard Android keyboard.

Go to the Android Market and search for 'Keyboard' to see some great alternatives, many of which are more accurate and make typing much easier.
A good one is GoKeyboard.

If you see a warning saying the keyboard will collect all information (including credit cards) just ignore this. This is just a security feature that Android shows for every third-party keyboard that you install.

Clear browser cache and cookies

To clear your browser cache and cookies, open your browser and press Menu - More - Settings.

Then select Clear Cache / Clear all cookie data / Clear history / Clear form data.

Quick add entries in S Planner

If you want to quickly add an appointment like 'Meeting with Roger tomorrow at 4pm', then simply go to your S Planner and press the + symbol in the top left corner. Then press Quick add.

Then you can simply type in 'Meeting with Roger tomorrow at 4pm' and the S Planner App will automatically create a time and date for the meeting in your Calendar.

Alternatively, you can open the S Memo App and write the meeting (as above) in your own handwriting. Then press the Menu key, then More, then Link to S Planner and select New event. And finally, press Save. This will automatically create the calendar entry via S Memo.

Open the notification bar

Simple press and hold on the bar at the top and drag it downward

S Pen Gestures

Here are some simple gestures for the Note:

Press the Pen’s Button + Double Tap - brings up the S memo feature
Press the Pen’s Button + Stroke up - brings up the menu button
Press the Pen’s Button + Swiping left - cancel your last task

Take a screenshot

To take a screenshot of the current screen you are viewing, get your S Pen and press the button whole holding down the pen on the screen.

This will capture the screen and puts the phone in Edit mode allowing you to do many things with the image.

Remove applications

Aside from using a third party app, there are two standard ways to remove applications.

1) Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications, then choose the application you want to close and select Uninstall.

2) Go to Market - Downloads. Choose the application you want to remove and select uninstall

Film at night time

If you want to capture the things that go bump in the night, then you can turn on the Flashlight app. Then leave the film on film record. If you're lucky you might spot a hedgehog

Install a new keyboard on your phone

If you want a different keyboard from the default one, go to the Android Marketplace and install one you would like to use.

Then open the Applications Launcher. Press Settings - Language and keyboard - Input method. Then select the keyboard you would like to use

Check phone status and battery usage

To find out information about Signal Strength, Network Information, Remaining Battery Time and Battery Usage (by Application), go to your Homescreen - Menu - Settings - About Phone.

Write a hand written note in PowerPoint

When using Polaris you can enter hand written notes in PowerPoint.

First open a PowerPoint presentation. Then press the + button at the top of the screen and choose Free Draw.

You can then draw all over the presentation before saving it and sending on to someone.

How to import Contacts from your old phone

If you have just purchased an Android device, then you may want to copy your contacts from your old phone. The easiest way to do this is to Export your old contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and save this to your PC. You may need to install the correct software for your phone first in order to do the export.

Then, if you don't have a Gmail account, sign up for one.

Once that's done, open Gmail. Go to Contacts, then press More - Import. Then import the CSV to your Gmail contacts.

Then on your phone, open the Contacts App. Press Menu and then Sync Contacts. This will pull the contacts from Gmail to your phone.

Crop Images with your S Pen

You can copy images from an App. Simply hold down the S Pen button to activate the crop tool.

Then circle or draw along the outline of the image and close the lasso to confirm the shape.

Your finished image will appear on the screen ready with various options to send, save or share.

Prevent ring tones from showing up in your music list

To prevent ringtones from showing up in your list of music, then create a folder called ringtones so it is in this location: /sdcard/media/ringtones.

Your music player won't index music files in this folder

Silence the phone when ringing

There are two methods to silence the phone when ringing:

Either press the Volume Down (or Up) button or if the phone is on a surface facing up, simply flip it over so it is facing down.

Fix blurry images in phone browser / carrier compression

When browsing on your phone you may notice images are quite blurry. This is because your telecom provider is compressing the images before they are downloaded on to your phone.

There is no way to prevent this, but if you have a WiFi connection nearby, then you can turn that on. This will mean that all browser downloads come through the WiFi connection, rather than the carrier, and your images will appear normally.

Open web pages in a new tab

To open a web page in a new tab, find a link on a web page. Then press on it and then choose to open the site in a new tab.

Customise your home screen

To add items to your home screen, simply find a black space, press down and hold. Then select a Scene, Wallpaper, Widget etc

View photos in Spiral, Grid or Timeline views

While viewing your photo album, press the button in the top-right corner.

This will allow you to view the album in a number of different views. These are: Spiral, Grid and Timeline.

Delete all contacts

To delete all contacts, there a number of methods you might need to try. Note that the first two of these may be disabled on some networks/carriers, or Android versions.

1) Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications. Then chose All at the top. Then scroll down to Contacts Storage - B21Clear Data.

2) Go to Contacts. Then press Menu - Delete. Then press Select all (at the top) and then Delete again.

3) Go to Settings - Accounts and sync. Then untick Background data and Auto-sync. Then go to Gmail (or an account that your phone syncs with) and delete all of your Contacts from there. Then re-sync your phone.

4) Download an App called 'Delete All Contacts' and use that as a last resort.

These methods above will delete contacts from the Phone only, not the SIM card.

Remove an icon from the home screen

To remove an icon from the home screen, simply press on it, hold and drag to the Trash at the bottom of the screen

Allow swear words in voice recognition

To allow swear words in voice recognition, go to Settings - Voice input & output - Voice recognition settings. Then untick Block offensive words.

By default, the phone will actually recognise swear words, but will insert x's instead of the word.

Turn off predictive text

To turn off predictive text, go to Settings - Language and Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input - Prediction.

Then select On or Off

Bookmark a contact on your homescreen

To bookmark a contact on your homescreen, long press on the home screen background and select Shortcuts. Then select Direct dial.

If you call someone regularly this can be useful as you will have a shortcut to them handily placed on your homescreen.

Manage your power and battery life better

A useful features is the ability to manage your power settings.

Simply to Settings menu and press Power Saving.

Set MP3 as ringtone

To set an MP3 as a ringtone, try one of the following. It may depend which version of Android you are using however:

Using the default Music player App, find a song you would like to set as the ringtone. Then while the song is playing, press and hold on the track and select Use as phone ringtone.

Or, find a specific Contact. press Menu - Edit. Scroll down to Additional Info. Press the triangle. Then scroll to Call Handling and set a ringtone from there.

Swipe to clear individual notifications

If you have Android 4.0, then one neat feature is the ability to clear single notifications.

Simply pull down your notifications bar by swiping your finger from the top of your phone downwards. Then when you see each individual notification, swipe your finger left or right to clear each one.

Bookmark a web page on your homescreen

To bookmark a website on your homescreen, go into your browser and find the bookmark of the page you want to create a shortcut for.

Then long press on the bookmark and select Add Shortcut to Home.

If you regularly visit certain websites, this can be handy as you will have a shortcut to the site on your homescreen.

Display Battery Percentage

Go to Settings - Display. Then tick the Display battery percentage checkbox. If your phone doesn't have this option, then go to the Google Play store and download a useful App called Battery Percentage.

There are two different Apps under that name, but they are both good.

Best Shot, Best Faces and Slow Motion/Fast Video Recording

Best Shot - This feature lets you take a number of rapid-fire images and choose the best one. To use this, open your Camera App, select the Shooting Mode button and select Best Shot. Now when you shoot the phone will let you select the best photo.

Best Face - This is similar to the above except you can choose the best facial expressions in a series of people shots and combine them into one photo. As above, open your Camera App, select the Shooting Mode button and select Best Face.

Slow Motion / Fast Motion Recording - To activate these, open your Camera App and switch to video mode by sliding the camera button into the video position. Then press the Recording Mode menu at the top of the display and select Slow Motion or Fast Motion.

Custom ringtones, alarms, sms notifications

To use custom ringtones for your phone ringtone, your alarm or your text message notification, simply copy an MP3 file to one of the following folders:
/sdcard/media/audio/ringtones
/sdcard/media/audio/alarms
/sdcard/media/audio/notifications

If they don't already exist, then create a new folder.

The file will then show up when you want to change your ringtones.

For Ringtones go to Settings - Sound - Phone ringtone
For Text Messages go to - Settings - Sound - Notification ringtone
For Alarm, set the sound when you add a new alarm

Display currently running applications

To display the most recently used apps, long press the Home key

Avoid task killers

It is best to avoid task killers such as Advanced Task Killer. Android is designed to automatically pre-load certain applications, even if you don't load them yourself. If it starts to run low on memory, it will smartly unload the oldest running apps automatically.

Manually killing tasks will only mean they get loaded in memory again. Task killers can make the phone slow, laggy, or drain battery life more quickly.

Change the backlight screen timeout

To change the backlight screen timeout, go to Menu - Settings - Display - Screen Time Out.



Then chose the screen time out duration.

Turn off App update notifications

If you would prefer not to be told every time an Application has been updated, open the Android Market - Menu - My Apps. Then Menu again. Then Settings. Under General settings, untick the Notifications option.

Change contact list order

To change the contact list order, go to your Contacts and press Menu .

Then press More - Display options - Display contacts by.

Then select either First name first or Surname first.

Change keyboards

If you have additional keyboards installed, you can switch between them by long pressing the 123 button while in keyboard mode

Double tap for a full stop (period)

While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the phone will insert a full stop / period

Use your phone as a torch

If you want to use your phone as a torch, then there are a couple of great Apps that use either your phone's camera flash or the phone's screen to illuminate your life.

The first is called Tiny Flashlight and it's a brilliant App. The App comes with many different Torch types and can use both the screen or your camera flash. It is also super simply to use.

The second is called Brightest Flashlight. This App turns on every available piece of phone hardware that can be illuminate and puts them on maximum illumination.

Both of these Apps are available from the Android Market.

Change your default font

To change your default font, you need to download a third-party app because Android does not have a built-in way of changing fonts

There are two good Apps that allow you to change fonts:

Font Changer - There is a free version and a paid version. The paid version allows you to change the screen density and allows you to preview the font. You can also change a few other options.

Type Fresh - With this App you can load any TrueType font and also backup your default fonts to your SDCard. Be aware that you might need to reboot your phone after installing Type Fresh.

Also, if you use GoLauncher, then try downloading GoLauncher Fonts.

Note: most, if not all, font changing Apps require you to Root your device.

Increase your font size

There are two options to increase the font size on your phone:

The first is to simply install a new font that is larger than the default font. Font Changer and Type Fresh are two Apps that allow you to change Fonts on your phone (they do require Root access though).

The second option is to use dedicate Apps to change the font size, although they will normally only work for SMS and some Google Apps.

To enlarge the SMS font, go to the Android Market and download an App called ChompSMS. Among other things, the App allows you to increase the font size of your SMS messages.

For enlarge SMS and the standard Google Apps fonts, then download an App called SMS/Talk Text Enlarger.

Use Airview to preview

Airview is a neat feature that lets you preview emails, multimedia files any other items.

Simply hover the S Pen over an image, video or email about 1 cm above the screen. You can also hover over your photo albums to see what's inside them.

Divert certain contacts to voicemail

Open your Contact list. Find the contact you want to divert. Press to open the contact. Towards the bottom of the page, you will see 'Send to voicemail'. Press this and choose OK to enable the feature.

View CPU and battery information

To view information about your battery and CPU go to your phone dialler and type in the following code: *#*#4636#*#*

Clear your cache to free up memory

If you ever find you are running low on memory, then you can flush the cache and any temporary files.

Go to Settings - Applications Manager. You can then see how much memory each App is using. Once you have identified an App that is consuming too much memory, then press the Delete Cache / Memory button

Activate Smart Stay to smartly dim your screen

The Smart Stay feature uses the front-facing camera to determine where your eyes are looking. If they're looking at the screen, it will remain bright. As you look away, your screen will dim to save battery live.

This can be found by going into the Settings menu and selecting Smart Stay

Change the screen brightness

To change the screen brightness, start from the Homescreen and press Menu - Settings - Display - Brightness.

Then choose the desired brightness setting. You can also select Automatic brightness to let the phone decide for you

If you have auto-brightness enabled, you can also press and hold the notification bar at the top. Then move your finger left and right to adjust the screen brightness..

Tether your laptop or computer to your phone

You can tether your computer or laptop to your phone so that the PC uses the phone's 3G or 4G connection.

To do this, connect the phone to your PC via USB cable. If a screen appears saying Choose a connection type, then select USB tethering and you should be able to start surfing straight away. If it doesn't then press the Home key to go into normal mode. Then go to Menu - Settings - Wireless and network - Tethering and portable hotspots. Then tick USB tethering. Your computer should then install the relevant drivers. To test, simply open your browser and start surfing.

Another alternative if the above doesn't work is to use an App called PdaNet. Before you install this App, you will need to go to Menu - Settings - Applications - Development. Then tick the option which says USB Debugging. Then download both the App and the software for your computer. Once they are both installed run PdaNet on your laptop and then on your phone. Follow any other instructions to complete the process.

Warning: Some carriers will tell you that tethering is not allowed in their contract. You should still be able to use the above techniques, but be aware that your carrier may not be happy. Also, if you are not on an unlimited data plan, be sure you do not use too much data through your laptop or computer as you may incur extra charges.

Enable / disable vibrate / haptic feedback when you type

To disable / enable vibrate, start from the Homescreen and press Menu - Settings - Sound.

Then under Feedback you can adjust certain features like Audible touch tones, Haptic feedback and so on.

Use Swype for quick text entry

Most Android devices come with an alternative way of entering text called Swype. Many prefer this method and believe it is quicker.
When any text entry box appears, press and hold the box. Then select Input method: SWYPE. Once enabled, you simply drag your finger around the keyboard moving over the letters in the correct order to spell a word.

How to rotate the homescreen to landscape

On most Android phones, when you rotate the phone when on Homescreen mode, the Homescreen stays in Portrait mode. One way around this is to install a third-party Launcher Application which allows you to customise your phone in many ways.

One popular launcher is called GoLauncher. Or alternatively, open the Android Market and search for the word Launcher.

Save a word to the dictionary

Type a word that is not in the dictionary. The word will show up in the suggestion box to the left. Long press on the word and it will save to the dictionary.

Use one handed mode to deal with your huge screen

Some (most) will find their fingers won't stretch the whole way across the massive screen so Samsung have included a handy (no pun intended!) one-hand mode.

Go to the Settings menu and you'll find it there. You can then manage things such as the keypad, virtual keypad and unlock pattern more easily.

Adding pauses when dialling

When dialling a number, or storing a number in your contacts, inserting a comma ( , ) will pause the dialling for about 2 seconds

Rejecting a call with a message

If you receive a call you cannot take (eg if you're in a meeting) you can send a text reply rather than just reject the call. When you receive the call, scroll up from the bottom and select a reject message

Make your phone run faster

Here are the top 5 tips to make your phone run faster:

1) Use only essential widgets on your homescreen - each widget consumes memory and processing power which can slow your down your phone.

2) Uninstall apps that you don't use - after awhile your phone can get cluttered as some Apps are designed to always run in the background. If you rarely use an App, then uninstall it to free up memory and CPU resource

3) Install Apps to your phone memory - if you have an SDCard, always install Apps to the phone memory, which can be accessed faster. If you have Apps on the SDCard, then move them back to the phone memory with an App called Move2SD available from the Android Market.

4) Use Static rather than Live wallpapers - Live wallpapers consume processing power and memory. Unless you really must have them, uninstall them

5) Kill tasks occasionally - Some Apps will run in the background indefinitely unless you kill them. Most of them won't cause a problem, but it pays to check your running tasks from time to time. Hold down your Home key and check the Task Manager.

One last thing: Don't use Task Killers. Android manages tasks very well and Task Killers just make your phone unstable and can slow it down further.

Tone down your AMOLED colours

While the AMOLED screen is lovely and bright, sometimes you want to tone these down a bit.

To do this, go to Settings - Display Settings. Then select the colour vividness. Standard or Movie are good options.

Create shortcut to websites on your home screen

To create a shortcut to websites on your homescreen, you need to open your browser and open your list of bookmarks.

Then long press on a bookmark and select Add shortcut to Home.

Swipe right to dial contact

From the Contact list or the Messaging list, swipe from Left to Right to call a Contact.

Tag your photos with text / notes

A great feature is the ability to write text on the back of photos like you would with regular photos.

Simply, go to a photo and click the Menu button. Select Draw on Image. The image will then flip around showing you a blank surface. With your S Pen, draw or write whatever you want and press Done when finished.

Images with notes on them will have a Note icon on the top right corner.

Stop Photos or Music files being indexed

To stop the Photo app or the Music player from indexing your files, place a blank text file called .nomedia in the folder

How to add more Homescreens

Most Android phones only come with a fixed amount of homescreens. There is a way around this however.

Go to Android Market and search for 'launcher'. These are third-party user interfaces that allow you to customize your phone in many ways. Most of them allow multiple homescreens.

A very popular launcher which supports multiple homescreens is GoLauncher EX.

Update firmware / phone software

It is important to regularly check for firmware updates to your operating system software. This will mean your phone is protected against bugs and security flaws, and may mean you will see extra features.

To manually check for the latest firmware update for your phone, go to Menu - Settings - About phone - Software update.

From here you can press Update to check for updates. Or you can turn on Auto update whereby the phone will tell you when a firmware update is available to download.

Disable the screen lock

To disable the screen lock, go into Settings - Location and security.

Then under Screen unlock settings press Change screen lock. Then chose None.

Display notifications / URL bar while browsing

When browsing the notifications bar will be hidden. Press Menu and the Browser menu and Notifications menu will appear

Swipe left to text contact

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

Hard (factory) reset

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone. There are two ways to do this:
1) On the Main Home screen, press Menu - Settings - Privacy - Factory data reset - Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then press Erase everything

2) If you phone has completely frozen and you want to hard reset it, turn the Power off or pull the battery out and put it back in. Then hold down the Volume Down key. Then press and hold the Power key. The phone will turn itself on. When you are presented with a menu, choose Clear Storage by pressing the Volume Down key. Press and release the Power button. To confirm, press Volume Up for Yes or Volume Down for No

Enable auto App updates

Android has a feature allowing you to update Applications automatically. This is turned off by default, but you can turn it on.

Open the Android market, then Menu - My Apps.

Then you need to open up each installed App and tick Allow Automatic Updating at the bottom. Unfortunately you do need to do this for each App.

How to find your MAC address

If you want to find your phone's WiFi MAC address (for improved WiFi security), then from the Home screen, go to Menu - Settings - About Phone. Then scroll down until you see WiFi MAC Address. The address should be a series of Hex numbers and letters.

Remove numbers from the call log

To remove numbers from the call log that you don't want anyone seeing, then open your Call Log.

This will normally be found on your Apps list or you can also go to your Dialer and find Logs or Call Logs.

Then press and hold on the contact you want to remove. When the Menu appears, press Delete.

Remove a whole text message conversation

If you want to remove an entire text message thread, go into Messages and look for the thread. Then long press on it and select Delete thread

Personalised Email Signature

To sign your emails with a personalised signature, then compose an email as you normally would.

Then press the S Pen button on the stylus and then sign your name within the body of the message.

Speed up your browser

You can speed up the page load speed on your browser by disabling JavaScript.

To do this, open your Browser, then Menu - More - Settings. Scroll down and untick JavaScript

Please note that this may affect the functionality of some sites.

Make volume / music louder

WARNING: Making your volume or music louder can damage your hearing.

Most phones have their volumes limited by local laws to protect our hearing. There is a way to boost your volume however. Go to the Android Market and download an App called Volume+ (Sound Boost). There is also a free version called Volume+ Free.

You will need to root your phone for this App to work.

Create home screen shortcut to a file or folder

Normally you don't have the ability to create shortcuts to files or folders on your home screen.

There is a workaround however. Go to the Play Store and download an App called Linda File Manager.

Once installed, browse to a file or folder. Then press and hold on the file and select Create shortcut.

The shortcut will be created on your homescreen where you can hold and drag it elsewhere if you want.

Show browser history

To show the Browser History, press the Star in the top right corner of the browser. Then press History.

This will only work in the standard Android browser.

Increase security with a custom unlock pattern

Instead of the simple swipe gesture to unlock your phone, you can set a custom unlock pattern which can be extremely difficult for a thief to guess.

From your homescreen, go to Menu - Settings - Location and security - Change screen lock. Then chose Pattern to set one up.

It is also a good idea to untick Use visible pattern. Then if someone is watching over your shoulder while you entering your pattern, it will be harder for them to remember the pattern.

If you have forgotten your unlock pattern, then after 5 unsuccessful tries a button will appear saying 'Forgot pattern'. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password. The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don't have a Gmail account, then you will have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.

Quickly see date

Simply press the top-left corner of the screen

Search music on Youtube from Music Player

While in the standard Music Player, press on the song title of the music and a menu will appear.

From here you search Youtube by the Title (song), Biography (artist) or Discography (album).

Soft reset

To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for a 2-3 seconds and the phone will restart. Wait about 10 seconds and then press and hold the Power/Lock button again to restart.

If that doesn't work, then remove the battery. Wait 30 seconds and put the battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.

Kill current task

Either
Go to Menu - Settings - Running Services, or
Menu - Settings - Manage Applications

Silent / vibrate mode with the volume buttons

You can use the volume buttons to put the phone in silent mode.

Keep pressing the Down volume until it reaches 0%.

If you have 'Vibration in Silent mode' turned on, it will also put the phone into Vibrate mode. To change this, go to your homescreen. Press Menu - Settings - Sound - Vibration.

View HTML source code of web pages

If you are browsing a website and want to see the HTML source code behind the page, then Android doesn't offer you the ability to do this by default.

There is however a handy App called View Web Source which can be installed. Whenever you want to view the HTML of a web page, you just press the Menu - Share - View Web Source.

You can then browse the code or copy the content into the clipboard.

Copying iTunes songs to Android

If you have decided to ditch your iPhone in favour of Android, then there is a simple way to take your iTunes music, playlists and album art with you.

Simply go the Android Marketplace and download a Free App called Easy Phone Tunes. You will also need the computer version of the software, so go to http://easyphonetunes.com and download it from there.

Then, when that is done, turn your phone into a USB storage device (this will vary from device to device, but instructions are on the website).

Once your phone is connected to your computer, open the computer version of the software and select your device from the Easy Phone Tunes list. Then follow the instructions to Sync your media.

Disable 'mobile view' for websites

To disable mobile view for websites, open your Browser and go to Menu - More - Settings - Untick 'Mobile View'.

This option may be disabled on some phones or carriers.

If so, then download the Dolphin browser from the Android Marketplace.

Then open Dolphin - Menu - More - Settings - User Agent. Then select Desktop.

A similar option should be available with the Firefox, Opera or other third-party browsers.

Help, I have forgotten my unlock pattern

If you have forgotten your custom unlock pattern, then don't panic.

After 5 unsuccessful tries a button should appear saying 'Forgot pattern'. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password.

The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don't have a Gmail account, then you might have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.

Use S Beam to share photos, videos, documents

You can instantly and easily share photos, documents and videos with other Galaxy users by using the S Beam feature.

First go to Settings and select Wireless and Network from the menu. Then select More settings and enable NFC (Near Field Communication).

Once that is enabled, then find a file that you want to share. Then you simply go up to another Galaxy device that has NFC enable and is S Beam compatible. Press the devices together and click on the screen to confirm.

Change the backlight screen timeout

To change the backlight screen timeout, go to Settings - Display - Sleep. Then choose the screen time out duration.

You can also tell the phone screen to always stay lit when it is plugged in via USB. Go to Settings - Developer Options. Then check Stay Awake.

Separate your notifications from your ringtone

If you want to receive calls during the night, but don't want to be woken up by notifications like text messages, then you can turn notifications to silent.

Go to Settings - Sounds. Then change notifications to silent.

Use the EQ in Google Music

Open your music and play a song. Then press Menu - Sound Effects. You will then be presented with an equalizer including presets.

Quickly remove installed Apps

Removing Apps is very simple. From the homescreen press the Apps icon in the top-right of the screen. Then press and hold the App you want to remove and drag it to the Remove / Trash icon in the top-right of the screen.

You can also drag it to the i icon which will show you information about the App. You can press Uninstall from here.

Hide folders or files

If you want to hide folders or files from being index or displayed, simple put a . (full top / period) before the file or folder name.

Take screenshots on your phone

To take a screen shot, hold down the Volume Down and Power Buttons together and wait for the shutter sound. This will save the current screen to your phone's memory card.

An alternative method is to go Menu - Settings - Motion. Then under Hand Motion, tick the Palm swipe to Capture box. Then you can simply swipe your palm across you phone's screen to take a screenshot.

To locate the saved screenshot, go to Files on your Apps list. Then look for a folder called /Picutres/Screenshots or ScreenCapture. Your screenshot should be in there.

Remove homescreen widgets

To delete or remove homescreen widgets, simply press and hold. Then drag the widget to the top-right corner of the screen and into the Trash icon.

Setting up and Access Point Name (APN) for browsing with 3G

Normally you can simply insert a SIM card and you will be able to browse the internet using 3G. Sometimes, this must be setup manually however. Before you start, you will need to ask your carrier or telco for your APN settings.

Once you have those, from your homescreen press Menu - Settings - Wireless and networks - Mobile networks. Then tick Use packet data. Then select Access Point Name (APN).

Then press the menu icon in the top-right corner and select New APN. Then fill in the details your carrier gave you. Then press the menu icon again and press Save.

How to change keyboards

While the stock standard keyboard is fine, there are much better keyboards available. First, you need to go to the Android Market and download one. Try searching for the word 'keyboard' and you will see a number of options.

Download your chosen keyboard and go through any install steps that you are presented with.

Then, go to the App you want to type in. You should now see a little Keyboard icon on the row at the bottom of your screen, towards the bottom-right corner. Press that icon and you can switch between all of the keyboards you have installed.

Change display to show white instead of off-yellow

If you have Power Saving mode enabled, then your phone will display white colours as an off-yellow shade instead.

To turn this off, go to the homescreen - Menu - Settings - Display settings. Then uncheck Power saving mode.

Soft reset

To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for a 2-3 seconds and the phone will restart. Wait about 10 seconds and then press and hold the Power/Lock button again to restart.

If that doesn't work, then remove the battery (if it has one). Wait 30 seconds and put the battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.

Put your phone into night mode

To put your phone into night mode, go to your Clock application and press the screen once which will dim the screen.

Then press and hold on the screen and the clock will turn blue. This is Night mode.

Search music on Youtube from Music Player

While in the Music Player, long press on the song title of the music and you can search Youtube for more music

Turn off App update notifications

If you would prefer not to be told every time an Application has been updated, open the Play Market - Menu - My Apps. Then Menu again. Then Settings. Under General settings, untick the Notifications option.

Copying iTunes songs to Android

If you have decided to ditch your iPhone in favour of Android, then there is a simple way to take your iTunes music, playlists and album art with you.

Simply go the Android Marketplace and download a Free App called Easy Phone Tunes. You will also need the computer version of the software, so go to http://easyphonetunes.com and download it from there.

Then, when that is done, turn your phone into a USB storage device (this will vary from device to device, but instructions are on the website).

Once your tablet is connected to your computer, open the computer version of the software and select your device from the Easy Phone Tunes list. Then follow the instructions to Sync your media.

Change your default font

To change your default font, you need to download a third-party app because Android does not have a built-in way of changing fonts

There are two good Apps that allow you to change fonts:

Font Changer - There is a free version and a paid version. The paid version allows you to change the screen density and allows you to preview the font. You can also change a few other options.

Type Fresh - With this App you can load any TrueType font and also backup your default fonts to your SDCard. Be aware that you might need to reboot your phone after installing Type Fresh.

Also, if you use GoLauncher, then try downloading GoLauncher Fonts.

Note: most, if not all, font changing Apps require you to Root your device

Clear browsing history

If you have been browsing websites that you would prefer other people to not know about, then it's relatively simply to clear your browsing history.

Open the default browser and press the Menu icon on the top-right corner. Then Settings - Privacy and security. Then select Clear history. You can also clear the Cache, but that will mean previously visited websites will have to load again, making your browsing slightly slower.

Hard reset / factory reset

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card).

To perform a hard reset, or factory reset, then there are a number of methods to try:

1) From the home screen, press Menu - Backup and reset - Factory data reset - Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything

If the phone is totally unresponsive, even after a reboot, then try the following methods.

2) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together. Then, while holding these, press and release the Power button (keep holding the volume buttons). The phone should turn on and a menu will appear. Press the Volume down button to navigate to the Recovery option. Press the Volume Up to select (if that doesn't work, use the Power button to select). A yellow triangle and an Android logo will appear. Press the Volume Down and Volume Up button together and a recovery menu should appear. Use the Volume buttons to move to the Wipe data/Factory reset option and then press Power to select. Again, use the Volume Down key to choose Yes and press the Power button again to select.

3) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Down button. Then, while holding, press and release the Power button. A menu should appear. Use the Volume down key to go to Clear Storage. Use the Power button to select the option. Then when asked to confirm, press Volume Up for Yes.

4) While the phone is off, press and hold down Volume Up + Home + Power buttons at the same time. Then release the buttons when you see the Logo. Use the Volume Down button to go down and the Home or Power key to select. Choose the Wipe data/Factory reset option. Then Select Yes to delete all user data. Then choose to reboot the phone.

5) A final method is to enter the code into your phone's dialer: *2767*3855# This method will not give you an option to reverse the process, so be careful! This method will only work if you can boot into your phone.

Create folders in your Quick Launch bar

If you have used up all of your Quick Launch spaces, then there is a trick.

Once it is full, press and drag an App from the homescreen and move it over the top of an App in the Quick Launch area. Then release your finger. This will create a folder containing the original App plus the new one. This is a great way to have access to regularly used Apps.

Increase security with a custom unlock pattern

Instead of the simple swipe gesture to unlock your phone, you can set a custom one which can be extremely difficult for a thief to guess.

From your homescreen, go to Menu - Settings - Security. Then select Screen lock. Then chose Pattern to set one up.

It is also a good idea to untick Use visible pattern. Then if someone is watching over your shoulder while you entering your pattern, it will be harder for them to remember the pattern.

If you have forgotten your unlock pattern, then after 5 unsuccessful tries a button will appear saying 'Forgot pattern'. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password. The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don't have a Gmail account, then you will have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.

Quickly close Apps

To quickly close Apps, press the multi-task button (on the bottom right). This will display your currently running Apps. From here you can simply swipe the Apps off the screen by dragging your finger left or right. This is a very quick way to free up some memory.

Hide on-screen keyboard

To quickly hide the on-screen keyboard, press the Back button

Add email or phone number from text

To add an email or phone number to your contacts from a text message, you can long-press on the email / phone number. Then select Add to contacts

Save images in browser, email or text

To save an image in an email or in the browser, long press on the image and a menu will appear allowing you to save it.

For images inside text messages, you might have to press and hold on the message itself, rather than the image.

Silence the phone when ringing

To silence the phone when ringing there are two methods:

Either press the Volume Down (or Up) button or if the phone is on a surface facing up, simply flip it over so it is facing down.

Enter Accents and special characters

If you want to type non-English letters (eg those with an accent), long-press on the relevant letter. A list of options will appear for you to select. For example, to insert an acute á, then press and hold the a key, then drag your finger to the accented character.

Pinch to expand notifications

When you pull down your notifications bar, they will appear expanding or contracted, depending on how many you have.

If you want to toggle between states, you can pinch out to expand a notification and pinch in to contact it.

Quickly hide keyboard

After entering text a quick way to hide the keyboard is to press the Back key at the bottom of your screen. This saves having to hunt for the hide keyboard icon.

Blink for face unlock

Jelly Bean has improved the facial unlcock feature by creating a setting whereby you must blink when unlocking your phone. This prevents fraudsters using a photo of yourself and holding it up to the phone.

To activate this feature go to Settings - Security - Screen Security and tick Liveness check

Turn notifications off by application

While your notification bar can be handy to inform you of updates, downloads and other useful information, sometimes it can get cluttered.

There is now a way to turn this off for each application.

Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications. Then find Info and un-tick the box labelled Show Notifications.

Improve Face Unlock speed and accuracy

Face Unlock allows you to unlock your phone by holding it up to your face. It is highly recommended to use the Improve Face Unlock feature to make the recognition faster and more accurate.

First, ensure you have Face Unlock enabled. Go to Settings - Security - Screen lock. Then choose Face Unlock.

Once that is done go to Settings - Security - Improve face matching. You might have to do this a few times to improve the speed of recognition. It is also a good idea to position the phone at different angles to your head to improve the accuracy.

Note: this may not work on all phones. Check for a software update if it doesn't work on yours.

How to hard / factory reset

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone, but not the MicroSD card.

From the homescreen, press Menu - Settings - Privacy Factory data reset. Then press Reset phone and Erase everything.

Your phone will now be restored to its original factory settings.

Bring up more predicted words

If you have word prediction enabled while you are typing, you can long press the middle word that is suggested. This will bring up a menu allowing you to select various other suggested words.

Quickly open settings

Instead of finding your Settings App icon, a quicker way is to drag down your notification bar (from the top) and press the Settings icon. It should be next to the date.

Disable the screen lock

Go into Settings - Location and security. Then under Screen unlock settings press Change screen lock. Then chose None.

Change contact list order

In Contacts press Menu - More - Display options - Display contacts by.

Then select either First name first or Surname first.

Access the scientific calculator

To access the scientific calculator, rotate the phone to landscape mode.

The calculator will change to a scientific one.

Enable / disable notification light

To enable / disable your notification light, go to Settings - Display.

Then check/uncheck Pulse notification.

Change the backlight screen timeout

Go to Menu - Settings - Display - Screen Time Out.

Then chose the screen time out duration.

Change the screen brightness

From the Homescreen press Menu - Settings - Display - Brightness. Then choose the desired brightness setting. You can also select Automatic brightness to let the phone decide for you.

How to find your IMEI address

There a couple of ways to find your IMEI address depending on your device. The first is to look in the phone's settings by going to Settings - About Phone - Status.

Then scroll down until you see IMEI Address.

The other method is to open your battery cover and remove the battery. Find your phone's serial number plate and your IMEI number should be shown there.

Remove text message conversations

If you want to remove an entire text message conversation (or thread), go into Messages and look for the thread. Then long press on it and select the Trash icon.

You can also select multiple threads. Before you press the Trash, you can highlight the threads you want deleted. Then press Trash.

Remove numbers from the call log

To remove numbers from the call log that you don't want anyone seeing, then open your Call Log.

This will normally be found on your Apps list or you can also go to your Dialer and find Logs or Call Logs.

Then press and hold on the contact you want to remove. When the Menu appears, press Delete.

Stop Photos or Music files being indexed

To stop the Photo App or the Music player from indexing your files, place a blank text file called .nomedia in the folder containing your photos or music

Use Talkback accessibility feature

Jelly Bean has an interesting new feature called Talkback which is designed for blind and low vision users.

The feature is an interesting way to navigate your phone however.

Simply go to Settings - Accessibility - Talkback to activate it. Then your phone will give you an ongoing narration of its various functions.

Bookmark a contact on your homescreen

To bookmark a contact on your homescreen, long press on the home screen background and select Shortcuts. Then select Direct dial.

If you call someone regularly this can be useful as you will have a shortcut to them handily placed on your homescreen.

Display Owner Info on Lock Screen

Android now has a way to display your name, phone or email on your lock screen. Perfect if you have lost or misplaced your device.

First you need to enable the Screen Lock from Settings - Security. Then go to Owner Info and set your info there.

Speed up your phone

To speed up your phone, you can turn off screen animations. Go to Settings - Developer options.

Then scroll down to Window animation scale and select that. From here you can choose to turn Animations Off. This will make screen transitions faster.

Encyrpt your phone

If you're worried about your sensitive data falling into the wrong hands then Jelly Bean has a great new encryption feature that scrambles every pieces of content on your device.

Go to Settings - Security settings - Encryption to enable it.

Make your phone run faster

Here are the top 5 tips to make your phone run faster:

1) Use only essential widgets on your homescreen - each widget consumes memory and processing power which can slow your down your phone.

2) Uninstall apps that you don't use - after awhile your phone can get cluttered as some Apps are designed to always run in the background. If you rarely use an App, then uninstall it to free up memory and CPU resource.

3) Install Apps to your phone memory - if you have an SDCard, always install Apps to the phone memory, which can be accessed faster. If you have Apps on the SDCard, then move them back to the phone memory with an App called Move2SD available from the Play Market.

4) Use Static rather than Live wallpapers - Live wallpapers consume processing power and memory. Unless you really must have them, uninstall them.

5) Kill tasks occasionally - Some Apps will run in the background indefinitely unless you kill them. Most of them won't cause a problem, but it pays to check your running tasks from time to time. Hold down your Home key and check the Task Manager.

One last thing: Don't use Task Killers. Android manages tasks very well and Task Killers just make your phone unstable and can slow it down further.

Auto focus the camera

When taking photos or videos, tap the screen where you want to focus on. The phone will automatically adjust the settings to improve the image or video

Display Apps in full screen mode

Go to the Android Market and search for an App called Spare Parts. Download and then open the App. Go to the Compatibility Mode and Uncheck it. Then re-check it (so the tick appears again). Then turn your phone off by pressing Home and then turn it on again.

Once that's done, go back to the Spare Parts App and Uncheck the compatibility box again. This time DON'T re-check it though. Then turn your phone off and on again once more.

Once re-booted, go to Spare Parts again. If it opens in full-screen mode, then the process has worked and any other Apps that run in non-full screen mode should work.

How to turn off predictive text

if you would prefer to correct your own mistakes, then go to Settings - Language and input. Then select the keyboard you are using and press the Settings icon again.

You should be able to find a predictive text option on this screen.

List of Google Now commands

General
Search for
Who invented
Show me the stocks for
Author of
How old is
How tall is

Time & Date
What time is it in
When is the in
When is the sunset in
What is the time zone of
Time at home

Weather
Show me the weather
Is it going to rain tomorrow?
Do I need an umbrella?
Do I need a jacket
What is the weather in
How is the weather on going to be?

Maps / Location
Map of
Show me the nearby on map
Where is situated?
in
Navigate to on car
I am hungry (shows all nearby food points on map)
How far is from

Calculations / Conversions
How much is times
What is percent of
Square root of
... equals
What is the numerical value of Pi
Convert into
Temperature of the sun

Sports
points table
Who won the last match between and
scorecard
Schedule of games


Websites
Go to
Open
Show me
Browse to

Entertainment
Listen to
Play
YouTube When was the first episode of

Stop Play Market from adding App shortcuts

When you download a new App, the Play Market will add a shortcut to the App on your homescreen. Sometimes this can get annoying.

To disable this, go to Market - Settings. Then uncheck Auto-add Shortcuts.

Quickly access notifications from lock screen

To see notifications on your homescreen, the best option is to download an App called NoLed from the Play Store. This will show notifications such as text messages, emails and missed calls as bright icons on your homescreen.

You can choose between very small squares or small icons and these can assigned by coloured.

How to add more Homescreens

Most Android phones only come with a fixed amount of homescreens. There is a way to add more however.

Go to Android Play Market and search for 'launcher'. These are third-party user interfaces that allow you to customize your phone in many ways. Most of them allow multiple homescreens.

A very popular launcher which supports multiple homescreens is GoLauncher EX.

Setup a new email account

If you want to setup new email accounts, like Yahoo or Hotmail, go to All Apps and press the Email icon. A setup wizard will then be launched.

Enter you email address and password into the fields. You can also change the settings after this step.

Once you're happy with the settings, give your account a Name and you're done.

Stop Apps automatically appearing on homescreen

Normally when Apps are installed, an icon is automatically placed on your homescreens.

This can be annoying for users who want to keep their homescreens clutter-free.

To stop then, go to Google Play - Settings. Then untick Auto-add Shortcuts.

Lock your screen while watching / recording videos

If you are watching a movie or video, it is a good idea to lock the screen orientation and buttons. Simply press the Power/Lock button.

This can also be used while recording videos, which is handy if you're prone to accidentally pressing buttons while recording.

Add Apps into Folders

If you like your Apps neatly sorted into folders, then there is a simple way to accomplish this.

First find the first App you would like in a folder. Then choose a second App. Press and hold on the second App and drag it over the top of the first App. They will both combine into a folder.

You can repeat this process to add more.

Use PIN instead of Face Unlock

If you use the Face Unlock feature but you're in a dark room or wearing a hat and scarf, you can bypass the unlock just once.

Simply press the Lock icon on your screen and you can then enter your PIN instead.

Pair with Bluetooth speakers or headset

From the homescreen, press Menu - Settings - Wireless & networks - Bluetooth Settings. Check that Bluetooth is enabled and press Scan devices. Choose the desired device and press Accept. You may be asked to enter a PIN or Password.

Close all Apps

Your phone comes with a handy widget which lets you kill all running tasks. This is great if you want to quickly free up some memory.

To use the widget, press and hold for 2 seconds on a blank part of any homescreen. Then find the Program monitor widget and drag it on to your homescreen. Once that is done, press the widget and it will show you all currently running Apps. Press End all to close all running Apps.

Have more control over your notification light

If you are not happy with your notification light, then you can change and tweak it. Go to the Android Market and download an App called Lightflow.

You might need to enable the notification light before the App works. Go to Settings - Display. Then check Pulse notification.

Move widgets between homescreens

If you want to move a widget from one homescreen to another, simply press and hold on the widget. Then drag it to the edge of the screen. The next homescreen will appear. Then, just drag the item to where you would like.

Browse websites in full-screen mode

If you want to browse in full screen mode, without the URL bar at the top of the browser, then you can enable this..

Open the standard browser and press Menu - Settings - Labs. Then put a check mark under Full Screen .

To get access to the browser options (that are now invisible), there is now a neat hidden menu. Slide your finger in from the left or right of the screen. A circular menu will appear with various options.

Lock screen while watching videos

To lock your screen while you are watching videos, simply press the power button.

This will disable the touchscreen buttons while the video is playing, but it won't turn the screen off like the lock key normally des.

Note, this will only work on video files that you are playing that are stored on your phone. It won't work for videos played within websites, such as Youtube videos.

Browse websites in privacy / incognito mode

If you want to browse websites, but not leave sign of cookies, search history or cached items, then you can use Incognito mode. Open the Browser and press the + (Action Bar) icon in the top-right. Then press New Incognito Tab.

Change quick response texts

The phone has the ability to send quick response text messages if your phone is ringing but you can't answer it.

To change these, go to your Dialer App - Settings - Quick responses. You can only have 4 of them and you may need to edit existing ones.

Swipe left to text contact

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

This might not work on all models.

Connect phone to computer in USB mode

Unlike older versions of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich does not go into USB mode automatically when you connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.

To enable USB / Mass Storage mode, first go to Settings. Then under Wireless and network, press the More... button.

Then connect your phone to your PC using a USB cable and press USB utilities.

Then click the button that says Turn on USB Storage.

Your phone will now appear as another drive letter on your PC.

Allow swear words in voice recognition

By default, the phone will recognise swear words, but insert x's instead of the word. To change this, go to Settings - Voice input & output - Voice recognition settings. Then untick Block offensive words.

Swipe right to dial contact

From the Contact list or the Messaging list, swipe from Left to Right to call a Contact.

This might not work on all models.

Clear browser cache and cookies

In your browser go to Menu - More - Settings. Then select Clear Cache / Clear all cookie data / Clear history / Clear form data

Create shortcut to websites on your home screen

Go to your browser bookmarks. Long press on a site and select Add shortcut to Home

Resize homescreen widgets

If you want to resize your homescreen widgets, then press and hold on a widget for 2 seconds. If the widget is resizable, then an orange outline will appear around the widget. Simply drag the sides to resize the widget.

If the orange outline doesn't appear, then the widget is a fixed sized widget.

Make volume / music louder

WARNING: Making your volume or music louder can damage your hearing.

Most phones have their volumes limited by local laws to protect our hearing. There is a way to boost your volume however. Go to the Android Market and download an App called Volume+ (Sound Boost). There is also a free version called Volume+ Free.

You will need to root your phone for this App to work.

Change vibration intensity

If you find the vibration of your phone a little too much, this can easily be reduced.

From the homescreen press Menu - Settings - Sounds. Then under Feedback, press Vibration intensity. Then slide the bar left or right to change the intensity.

You can also turn off Haptic feedback if you really don't want any feedback.

How to close Apps

Android manages Apps very well and some Apps do not have the option to close them specifically. Normally the App will stay running in the background and only close when many other Apps have been opened.

If you do want to close or terminate an App, then press and hold the Home key on your phone. Then you can swipe the Apps off the screen to close them.

Enable sideload of Apps

If you want to install Apps outside of the Android Market (called sideloading), then go to Settings - Security - Unknown sources.

Note: use at your own risk.

Remove Google Search bar

If you want to remove the Google Search bar, then go to Settings - Apps - All - Google search bar - Disable.

Android easter egg

There is a hidden easter egg on the phone. If you go to your Homescreen, then press Menu - Settings - About phone, then tap on the Android version option 5 times you will be surprised.

Sometimes it doesn't work, so try a couple of times. By the way don't expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

Quickly show browser history

While in your Browser App, press and hold the Back button.

This will show your browser History and Bookmarks.

Send text message to caller

When your phone is ringing you have three options: Press the Answer, Hang up or Send a text message.

To send a text message, press and hold inside the round circle you see on the screen. Then drag your finger to the message icon at the top. You will then be presented with a few default responses that you can send via text message.

Share / upload videos to media services like Facebook or Youtube

To share or upload a video to services like Facebook or Youtube, start from your Gallery App and long press on a video.

From here you will be given options to share the video with various services.

Change keyboards

To change keyboards (if you have additional keyboards installed), you can switch between them by pressing the small keyboard symbol in the top left of your screen. You will need to be in keyboard input mode (i.e. typing something) for this to work.

Note: you need to have more than one keyboard installed for this to work.

Reformat a column while browsing

If you are browsing and have zoomed in or out and the column you're reading doesn't fit the screen properly, you can pinch to zoom in. Then double tap on the column. The column will then be reformatted to fit the screen width.

Copy photos to your PC

To copy photos to your computer, plug the device in via a USB cable. (you might have to install your device's software or drivers first).

Then locate the new drive on your PC. Go to the /DCIM/Camera/ folder Your photos will be stored there.

This may vary slightly between devices, however once you have opened the device's drive, you can do a quick search for .jpg files which will show you where your photos are located.

Manually close an application

Android manages your applications so if the phone is running low on memory, it will close the oldest running App.

If you do need to manually close an application go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications - Running. Choose the application you want to stop and select Force Stop.

Quickly search for a contact

While in the contacts screen, start typing the name of the contact you want to dial. This will quickly filter the correct contact

Read Google Books offline

Google Books is a great App allowing you to read many titles on your phone, however you do require an internet connection. Fortunately there is a way to read these books offline.

Open the Google Books app and find the Book that you would like to read offline. Then simply press and hold on the book's cover. Then choose 'Make available offline'. You can then choose other books to make available offline by press the thumbtacks beneath each book. Then press Done in the bottom-right corner.

Expand Notification Shade

To view your notifications, simply slide your finger down from the top of your device.

Then, from here, you can use two fingers to expand certain items. For example, this might show you the headers of your emails.

Moving your two fingers inwards contracts that item.

Take photos while recording video

With Android Jelly Bean you can now take photos while recording video by simply pressing the screen.

This will save that particular frame to the gallery while continuing to record video.

Disable 'mobile view' for websites

If you would prefer the Desktop view of websites, rather than the Mobile view, then there is a way to change it. This may not work in all regions or on all carriers however.

Open the standard browser and type about:debug into the browser's address bar. Then go to Menu - Settings. You should have a new option called Debug. Press Debug, then on the right side press UAstring and change the option to Desktop.

Websites should now be displayed as they would on a computer desktop browser.

Another alternative is to install a third-party browser like Dolphin, Firefox or Opera which have options to surf in Desktop mode.

Enable Face Unlock

To enable Face Unlock, go into Settings - Security.

Then select Screen lock.

Delete all contacts

There are a number of ways, as below. The first two of these may be disabled on some networks/carriers or Android versions however.

1) Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications. Then chose All at the top. Then scroll down to Contacts Storage - Clear Data.

2) Go to Contacts. Then press Menu - Delete. Then press Select all (at the top) and then Delete again.

3) Go to Settings - Accounts and sync. Then untick Background data and Auto-sync. Then go to Gmail (or an account that your phone syncs with) and delete all of your Contacts from there. Then re-sync your phone.

4) Download an App called 'Delete All Contacts' and use that as a last resort.

These methods above will delete contacts from the phone only, not the SIM card.

End a phone call by pressing the Power button

Rather than having to locate the hang up icon on the screen after each call, you can quickly end a call by pressing the Power button.

To enable this, go to Settings - Accessibility - Power button ends call.

Pinch and zoom in emails

While in your email App, a handy trick is to pinch and zoom out to see a 'day view' of your emails. This is handy if you have a lot of emails and want to quickly sort them by recency.

Zoom when using the camera

While in the Camera App, there are two ways to zoom in or out.

First, you can use Volume Up and Down keys.

Secondly, you can pinch your fingers on the screen to zoom in and out.

Use equaliser in your Music App

Jelly Bean now comes with an Equaliser so you can adjust your bass and treble.

Simply open a music file using the Music Player App. Then go to Settings - Equaliser.

Then simply drag the sliders up and down to adjust the bass and treble.

How to find your MAC address

If you want to find your phone's WiFi MAC address (for improved WiFi security), then from the Home screen, go to Menu - Settings - About Phone - Status.

Then scroll down until you see WiFi MAC Address. The address should be a series of Hex numbers and letters.

Check available RAM

If you want to check how much RAM you have available, go to Settings - Apps - Running.

Add widget to the homescreen

To add a widget, go to the homescreen and press the Apps icon (the circle with 6 dots). Then you will see a list of your Apps with the word Apps and Widgets at the top. Press Widgets, then you will be presented with a list of available widgets.

To add a widget, press and hold on it and then position it where you want.

Store number from email

To store a phone number that you have received in an email, hold down on the number and you will be given the option to call, send an SMS or add the number to your contacts

Use phone as a WiFi hotspot / USB / Bluetooth tethering

To use your phone as a WiFi hotspot, tether it via USB or via Bluetooth, then go to Settings - Tethering And Portable Hotspot.

You can then choose from three options:

1) USB - connect your phone via a USB cable. The phone should automatically configure the correct settings.

2) WiFi Hotspot - To turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot, press Configure WiFi hotspot. You will then be asked to enter a Network SSID (this is your own name for the WiFi hotspot). Then choose Security and lastly, choose a password (this is password for your WiFi hotspot which you will enter on your computer).

3) Bluetooth - With this option, you will need to pair a Bluetooth device with your phone. On the other device, ensure you search for Bluetooth devices and your phone should show up.

Set voicemail number / password

To set your voicemail number which allows your phone to automatically input your voicemail password, then open your Dialer App.

Then choose the Phone tab and go to Settings - Voicemail settings - Voicemail number and enter it there.

Depending on your carrier you may have to enter the series of steps required to go through the voicemail menu, for example: *86,,yourpassword# (a comma inserts a pause).

Set / change wallpaper

To change the homescreen or lock screen wallpaper, press on a blank part of the homescreen. Then press the plus icon in the top-right corner and choose Wallpapers. Then choose Live (animated / moving wallpapers) or standard wallpapers (images) and choose whether you want the wallpaper on the homescreen or the lock screen. Then crop the wallpaper and press Ok in the top-right corner.

You can also use images Gallery images taken with the phone's camera for your wallpaper.

Use Offline Speech to Text Dictation

The Speech to Text feature is a great tool for dictating speech on to your phone, but has normally only been possible when your phone is connected to the internet.

Now this is possible in Offline mode too. Simply go to Settings - Language & input and choose Download offline speech recognition.

You can now use this feature without needing an internet connection.

Change Google Navigation voice

If you prefer a different voice when listening to the Google Maps voice navigation, you can select another language or accent.

From the Homescreen press Menu - Settings - Voice input and output - Text-to-speech settings. Then under the Default settings section, press Default engine.

To change the language, go through the same process, but instead of Default engine, select Language.

Check the firmware version

From your Homescreen press Menu - Settings - About phone.

This should list your Android version, Build number and Model Number

Bookmark a web page on your homescreen

If you regularly visit a website you can add a shortcut to your homescreen. To do this, go into your browser and find the bookmark of the page you want to create a shortcut for. Long press on the bookmark and select Add Shortcut to Home

Enable Power Saving mode

If you tend to run out of battery power quickly, then you can turn on power saving mode. Go to Menu - Settings - Power. Then check Enable power saver. You can then adjust when the power saving mode turns on.

Enable / disable vibrate / haptic feedback when you type

From the Homescreen press Menu - Settings - Sound.

Then under Feedback you can adjust certain features like Audible touch tones, Haptic feedback and so on.

Enable Flash when browsing

If your browser does not play Flash items while browsing websites then you may need to enable Flash in the settings.

To do this, open the standard browser. Go to Settings - Advanced - Enable plug-ins. Then select Always On.

Take a screenshot

To take a screen shot, hold down the Volume Down and Power Buttons together. This will save the current screen to your phone's memory card.

Customise your favourites tray

At the bottom of each homescreen is your favourites tray, which consists of 5 icons. You can customise it by adding icons to the tray. If it's full however, you will first need to remove some.

To remove an icon, simply press and hold an icon. Then drag it to your desktop.

Then to add a new one, simply drag an icon from your homescreen to the favourites tray.

Maximise your screen while browsing / hidden controls

If you don't want the Tab bar at the top of the browser, then you can remove this which will use the whole screen while browsing.

Open the standard browser and press Menu - Settings - Labs. Then put a check mark under Quick controls.

To get access to the controls that are now invisible, there is now a neat hidden menu. Position your finger on the right side of your phone, just off the screen. Then slide it onto the screen in a left-ward direction. A circular menu will appear with various options.

Install new keyboard to improve accuracy

The standard Android keyboard is good, but not great. There are many third party keyboards available which will improve your typing speed and accuracy.

Go to the Android Market and search for 'Keyboard' to see some great alternatives, many of which are more accurate and make typing much easier.
A good one is GoKeyboard.

If you see a warning saying the keyboard will collect all information (including credit cards) just ignore this. This is just a security feature that Android shows for every third-party keyboard that you install.

Quickly switch between homescreens

This tip is relatively obvious, but some users overlook it.

At the top of your homescreen you should see a row of 5 dots. This indicates which of the 5 homescreens you are on. Rather than flick between each screen, you can simply press one of the dots and you will jump to that homescreen.

Copy files between your phone and PC using WiFi

To copy files between your phone and PC, go to the Android Play Market and download an app called AirDroid.

This is an extremely useful App that connects your phone to your PC wirelessly, allowing you to move files and many, many other things.

Open the notifications menu

To gain access to features such as Airplane mode WiFi, Screen Lock Orientation, Brightness and so on, double tap on the Clock in the bottom right of the screen.

Quickly display browser bookmarks

There are two ways to bring up Bookmarks while browsing:

1) The quickest way is to simple long press the Back key to bring up your bookmarks

2) Alternatively you can enable the Quick Control panel. Go to Settings - Labs. Then check the option for Full screen. Then when you are browsing slide your finger in from the left or right of the screen. A semi-circular Quick Control panel will appear. Slide your finger to the top icon to see your bookmarks. This also means your browser runs in full screen mode so you maximise your website viewing area.

Turn off WiFi while the phone is sleeping

If you want to conserve battery life, you can turn off the WiFi while the phone is asleep.

Go to Settings - WiFi - Advanced - Keep WiFi on during sleep.

How to reboot into safe mode

Downloading loads of Apps is great, but sometimes they can cause havoc with your phone and a boot into safe mode is necessary.

To do this, long press your Power button. Then long press on the Power off option. You will then be asked to reboot into safe mode.

When your phone restarts it will not load any Apps allowing you to disable any troublesome ones.

Enable Owner Info if your phone is lost or stolen

If your phone is lost and you're lucky, the finder will want to return your phone to you. To make this easy for them, you can turn on Owner Info. This will display a scrolling custom message on the lock screen saying who the phone belongs to. You can also enter a phone number to call if your phone is found.

Go to Settings - Security - Owner info. Then enter the custom message there. It will then display the message on your lock screen.

Accents and special characters

If you want to type non-English letters (eg those with an accent), long-press on the relevant letter. A list of options will appear for you to select.

Disable the screen lock

To disable the screen lock, go into Settings - Security. Then select Screen lock.

You can then choose None to disable your screen lock.

This is handy because you won't have to swipe the lock screen away anymore.

Change the screen brightness

To change the screen brightness, start from the Homescreen and press Menu - Settings - Display - Brightness.

Then choose the desired brightness setting. You can also select Automatic brightness to let the phone decide for you.

If you have auto-brightness enabled, you can also press, hold and slide the top notification bar left and right. The brightness will increase and decrease accordingly.

Create shortcut to websites on your home screen

To create a shortcut to a website on your homescreen, go to your browser bookmarks.

Then long press on a site and select Add shortcut to Home.

Android Easter egg

There is an Easter egg hidden in the Android operating system. To see it, go to your Homescreen, then press Menu - Settings - About phone.

Then tap on the Android version option 5 times and you will get a surprise.

Sometimes it doesn't work, so try a couple of times. By the way don't expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

How to import Contacts from your old phone

If you have just purchased an Android device, then you may want to copy (or import) your contacts from your old phone. The easiest way to do this is to Export your old contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and save this to your PC. You may need to install the correct software for your phone first in order to do the export.

Then, if you don't have a Gmail account, sign up for one.

Once that's done, open Gmail. Go to Contacts, then press More - Import. Then import the CSV to your Gmail contacts.

Then on your phone, open the Contacts App. Press Menu and then Sync Contacts. This will pull the contacts from Gmail to your phone.

Enable / disable vibrate / haptic feedback when you type

To disable / enable vibrate (also called haptic feedback) when you type or press the screen, go to Settings - Language & input - Settings.

Then uncheck Vibrate on keypress.

Capture a still shot while recording video

To capture a still shot while recording a video, simply tap the screen while you are recording.

This will save a still image.

Bookmark a web page on your homescreen

To bookmark a website on your homescreen, go into your browser and find the bookmark of the page you want to create a shortcut for.

Then long press on the bookmark and select Add Shortcut to Home.

If you regularly visit certain websites, this can be handy as you will have a shortcut to the site on your homescreen.

Check the firmware version

To check your firmware version, start from the Homescreen and press Menu - Settings - About Phone.

This should list your Android version, Build number and Model Number.

Create folders to tidy your Apps

If you find yourself with too many Apps on the homescreen, then you can create folders to organise them.

To start, simply press and hold on an App and drag it over the top of another App. The App should change colour/shape. Then release your finger and the two Apps will be combined into a folder.

You can then drag more Apps into this folder using the same process.

To give your folder a label, simply long press on the folder and you will be able to enter a name.

Zoom when using the camera

While in the Camera App, there are two ways to zoom in or out.

First, you can use Volume Up and Down keys.

Secondly, you can pinch your fingers on the screen to zoom in and out.

Delete all contacts

There are a number of ways, as below. The first two of these may be disabled on some networks/carriers or Android versions however.

1) Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications. Then chose All at the top. Then scroll down to Contacts Storage - Clear Data.

2) Go to Contacts. Then press Menu - Delete. Then press Select all (at the top) and then Delete again.

3) Go to Settings - Accounts and sync. Then untick Background data and Auto-sync. Then go to Gmail (or an account that your tablet syncs with) and delete all of your Contacts from there. Then re-sync your tablet.

4) Download an App called 'Delete All Contacts' and use that as a last resort.

These methods above will delete contacts from the tablet only, not the SIM card.

Copying iTunes songs to Android

If you have decided to ditch your iTablet in favour of Android, then there is a simple way to take your iTunes music, playlists and album art with you.

Simply go the Android Marketplace and download a Free App called Easy Phone Tunes. You will also need the computer version of the software, so go to http://easyphonetunes.com and download it from there.

Then, when that is done, turn your phone into a USB storage device (this will vary from device to device, but instructions are on the website).

Once your tablet is connected to your computer, open the computer version of the software and select your device from the Easy Phone Tunes list. Then follow the instructions to Sync your media.

Set / change wallpaper

To change the homescreen or lock screen wallpaper, press on a blank part of the homescreen. Then press the plus icon in the top-right corner and choose Wallpapers. Then choose Live (animated / moving wallpapers) or standard wallpapers (images) and choose whether you want the wallpaper on the homescreen or the lock screen. Then crop the wallpaper and press Ok in the top-right corner.

You can also use images Gallery images taken with the tablet's camera for your wallpaper.

Open web pages in a new tab

If you are viewing a website and you see a URL, you can long press on it and then choose to open the site in a new tab

Change display to show white instead of off-yellow

If you have Power Saving mode enabled, then your tablet will display white colours as an off-yellow shade instead.

To turn this off, go to the homescreen - Menu - Settings - Display settings. Then uncheck Power saving mode.

Android easter egg

There is a hidden easter egg on the tablet. If you go to your Homescreen, then press Menu - Settings - About tablet, then tap on the Android version option 5 times you will be surprised.

Sometimes it doesn't work, so try a couple of times. By the way don't expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

 

Soft reset

To soft reset your tablet press and hold the Power/Lock button for a 2-3 seconds and the tablet will restart. Wait about 10 seconds and then press and hold the Power/Lock button again to restart.

If that doesn't work, then remove the battery. Wait 30 seconds and put the battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the tablet on.

Help, I have forgotten my unlock pattern

If you have forgotten your custom unlock pattern, then don't panic.

After 5 unsuccessful tries a button should appear saying 'Forgot pattern'. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password.

The tablet will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don't have a Gmail account, then you might have to either call your carrier or factory reset your tablet.

Maximise your screen while browsing / hidden controls

If you don't want the Tab bar at the top of the browser, then you can remove this which will use the whole screen while browsing.

Open the standard browser and press Menu - Settings - Labs. Then put a check mark under Quick controls.

To get access to the controls that are now invisible, there is now a neat hidden menu. Position your finger on the right side of your tablet, just off the screen. Then slide it onto the screen in a left-ward direction. A circular menu will appear with various options.

How to hard / factory reset

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the tablet, but not the MicroSD card.

From the homescreen, press Menu - Settings - Privacy Factory data reset. Then press Reset tablet and Erase everything.

Your tablet will now be restored to its original factory settings.

Increase security with a custom unlock pattern

Instead of the simple swipe gesture to unlock your tablet, you can set a custom one which can be extremely difficult for a thief to guess.

From your homescreen, go to Menu - Settings - Location and security - Change screen lock. Then chose Pattern to set one up.

It is also a good idea to untick Use visible pattern. Then if someone is watching over your shoulder while you entering your pattern, it will be harder for them to remember the pattern.

If you have forgotten your unlock pattern, then after 5 unsuccessful tries a button will appear saying 'Forgot pattern'. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password. The tablet will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don't have a Gmail account, then you will have to either call your carrier or factory reset your tablet.

Auto focus the camera

When taking photos or videos, tap the screen where you want to focus on. The tablet will automatically adjust the settings to improve the image or video

Avoid task killers

It is best to avoid task killers such as Advanced Task Killer. Android is designed to automatically pre-load certain applications, even if you don't load them yourself. If it starts to run low on memory, it will smartly unload the oldest running apps automatically.

Manually killing tasks will only mean they get loaded in memory again. Task killers can make the tablet slow, laggy, or drain battery life more quickly.

Change the screen brightness

From the Homescreen press Menu - Settings - Display - Brightness. Then choose the desired brightness setting. You can also select Automatic brightness to let the tablet decide for you.

Quickly access notifications from lock screen

To see notifications on your homescreen, the best option is to download an App called NoLed from the Play Store. This will show notifications such as text messages, emails and missed calls as bright icons on your homescreen.

You can choose between very small squares or small icons and these can assigned by coloured.

Check the firmware version

From your Homescreen press Menu - Settings - About Tablet.

This should list your Android version, Build number and Model Number

Manually close an application

Android manages your applications so if the tablet is running low on memory, it will close the oldest running App.

If you do need to manually close an application go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications - Running. Choose the application you want to stop and select Force Stop.

Remove large applications

If you are running low on tablet memory, you can look for your largest applications to uninstall. Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications and press Menu. This will then filter your apps by memory use

Display Apps in full screen mode

Go to the Android Market and search for an App called Spare Parts. Download and then open the App. Go to the Compatibility Mode and Uncheck it. Then re-check it (so the tick appears again). Then turn your tablet off by pressing Home and then turn it on again.

Once that's done, go back to the Spare Parts App and Uncheck the compatibility box again. This time DON'T re-check it though. Then turn your tablet off and on again once more.

Once re-booted, go to Spare Parts again. If it opens in full-screen mode, then the process has worked and any other Apps that run in non-full screen mode should work.

Allow swear words in voice recognition

By default, the tablet will recognise swear words, but insert x's instead of the word. To change this, go to Settings - Voice input & output - Voice recognition settings. Then untick Block offensive words.

Double tap for a full stop (period)

While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the tablet will insert a full stop / period

How to import Contacts from your old tablet

If you have just purchased an Android device, then you may want to copy your contacts from your old tablet. The easiest way to do this is to Export your old contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and save this to your PC. You may need to install the correct software for your tablet first in order to do the export.

Then, if you don't have a Gmail account, sign up for one.

Once that's done, open Gmail. Go to Contacts, then press More - Import. Then import the CSV to your Gmail contacts.

Then on your tablet, open the Contacts App. Press Menu and then Sync Contacts. This will pull the contacts from Gmail to your tablet.

Take screenshots on your tablet

The latest version of Android allows you to take screenshots without installing any third party App. Simply press the Screenshot icon on the bar at the bottom of your screen. It should be next to your Recent Apps icon. Press that and a message will say 'Screen captured. Saved as image file'.

To locate the saved image, go to My Files on your Apps list. Then scroll to the bottom of the folders list and look for a folder called ScreenCapture. Your screenshot will be in there.

Close all Apps

Your tablet comes with a handy widget which lets you kill all running tasks. This is great if you want to quickly free up some memory.

To use the widget, press and hold for 2 seconds on a blank part of any homescreen. Then find the Program monitor widget and drag it on to your homescreen. Once that is done, press the widget and it will show you all currently running Apps. Press End all to close all running Apps.

Read Google Books offline

Google Books is a great App allowing you to read many titles on your tablet, however you do require an internet connection. Fortunately there is a way to read these books offline.

Open the Google Books app and find the Book that you would like to read offline. Then simply press and hold on the book's cover. Then choose 'Make available offline'. You can then choose other books to make available offline by press the thumbtacks beneath each book. Then press Done in the bottom-right corner.

Change vibration intensity

If you find the vibration of your tablet a little too much, this can easily be reduced.

From the homescreen press Menu - Settings - Sounds. Then under Feedback, press Vibration intensity. Then slide the bar left or right to change the intensity.

You can also turn off Haptic feedback if you really don't want any feedback.

Automatically change profiles

If you find yourself regularly switching profiles when you get to work, get home, go to bed and so on, then there is a great way to have your phone do this automatically.

Simply go to the Google Play store and download an App called Profile Valet.

This will automatically switch profiles for you based on the time of day or your location.

Fix this player does not support this type of audio file error

There are a number of solutions to this error. Go through the following steps:

Go to Settings - Applications. Then swipe right to left to go to All (along the top). Then find the App called Media Storage. Click on that and select Force Close. Then select Clear Data. (warning: this will delete the cache for your media player so you may lose things such as recently played, most played etc. But you will not lose your music).

Next, go back to list of Apps and find Music Player. Again, press Force Close and then Clear Data.

Once that's done, go to the Play Store and download an App called Re Scan Media and run it. Wait 5 minutes for the device to re-scan your media.

If you still cannot play your music, then try turning your phone off and removing your SDCard / memory card (if you have one). Then turn the phone on without the card. Then turn it off again and reinsert the card. Finally turn it on again with the card back in.

If you still can't play music, then some users have said that there may be a conflict with the Twitter App. Try uninstalling this and see if the error persists.

Turn off camera shutter sound

If you don't want to hear the shutter sound when you take photos, then there are a few things you can try.

Firstly, some countries have laws to force the phone to play these sounds. Assuming you're not in one of these countries, then the first thing you can try is to go to the Camera App - Settings - Shutter Sound - Off.

If that doesn't work, then you can try turning the volume of the phone down or put it in silent mode when taking photos.

The last option is to Root your phone. If you don't know what that means, then it's best not to attempt it unless you have thoroughly read about the process. Once Rooted, go to this folder on your phone: /system/media/audio/ui and rename the camerashutter and/or cameraclick OGG files to something else.

Alternatively, on a rooted phone you can use a Root Browser, to edit /system/csc/feature.xml and set the option to TRUE. Then you should be able to go to Camera App - Settings - Shutter Sound - Off.

How to fix homescreen lag / slowness

Depending on how your phone is set up, sometimes you will see lag when swiping between homescreens. There are a number of things you can try to fix this, as follows:

First, try restarting your phone. This will fix many problems.

If that doesn't work, then remove any Widgets that pull data to the phone, such as Twitter, Weather widgets etc

If you have Live wallpapers turned on, then try turning them off by going to Settings - Wallpapers, then changing to a different Wallpaper.

Go to Settings - Developer Options - Window Animation Scale and Transition Animation Scale. Try changing these to 0.5x (or even 0).

Sometimes the problem can be with the phone or operators skin or launcher, so try going to the Play Store and downloading a third party launcher such as Nova launcher or Go LauncherEx. Note: you will need to re-create your homescreen shortcuts, but they are both great launchers.

Another tip is to always press the Back key instead of the Home key when leaving Apps. The Back key will often close the App properly, while the Home key will leave it running in the background.

Add photos to contacts

First open your Contacts App. Then press the phone's Menu button and select Edit.

Then you should see a silhouette of a person. Press this, or a little + sign next to it and you will be given the option to take a photo or add one from the Gallery.

How to stop screen going bright or dim when in browser

The brightness of the browser is set separately to the phone's main brightness. If you find the screen dims or brightens when you go into your browser, then you can change this by opening the browser, pressing the Menu key and scrolling down until you see Brightness and colour. You can adjust it from here.

To adjust the phone's main brightness, go to the Homescreen, press Menu - Settings - Display - Brightness.

An alternative is to use a third party browser like Dolphin, Firefox, Opera and so on. These all use the phone's main brightness setting.

Lastly, sometimes Power Saving Mode affects the screen brightness. Go to Settings - Power Saving Mode and change the Background Colour Only mode in there. Power Saving Mode can be found by in the Notifications bar by swiping down from the top of the screen too.

How to find your IMEI address / number

There are a number of ways to get your IMEI number.

First, the easiest option is to look at the label of the box that your phone came in.

Secondly, if your phone has a removable battery then open the cover and remove the battery. Your IMEI should be on a serial number plate and your IMEI number should be shown there.

Thirdly, from the Dialler, enter *#06# and it should be displayed on the screen. This won't work on all phones and all networks however.

Lastly, you can go to Settings - About Phone - Status.

Using Google Maps for offline viewing while abroad and data avoid roaming charges

If you are abroad and don't want to pay high data roaming charges, then you can save Google Maps for offline viewing later. Here are two ways to do this:

The first method will depend whether your phone supports it. First, open Google Maps and navigate to a section of the map that you want available offline. Then press on the search bar and scroll right to the bottom and select Make this map area available offline. You may need to repeat this with multiple areas.

Alternatively, open Google Maps and zoom down to street level. Then scroll around area you'll be travelling too. If you're visiting a city for example, do this at street level and cover as much area as you think you've be visiting. If you're travelling outside a city, then street level view might be too detailed, so zoom out and just cover the main roads, towns etc.

This will load all the segments into your phone's cache. Then when have arrived at your destination and you have data turned off, you will see the areas you've stored on the phone's memory.

Note: this won't give you your GPS location because that normally needs a data connection to pinpoint your position.