Need to give your Android device a
boost? We take an in-depth look at the best ways.
Power up the lockscreen
One of the best new features of Android 4.2
Jelly Bean was the introduction of lockscreen widgets. Having a widget on your
lockscreen will ensure you can be given updates of your apps or services
without having to bother unlocking the phone and finding the information
yourself. For those who do not have 4.2, you can try one of a small number of
apps that do the same thing. Active lockscreen, for example, will let you see
how emails have come through, check Facebook and produce shortcuts that will
take you straight to certain apps. You can also see your all-important battery
life at a glance too.
Lockscreen
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
Password protect apps
It is all well and good being able to lock
down your entire device but there are times when you would be better served
keeping individual apps away from prying eyes. That way you can get on with some
simple tasks like web browsing or making phone calls without having to
constantly swipe or enter a passcode. You can use an app such as APP Lock to
only secure the data that you feel needs securing. You can tell it to lock down
Twitter and Facebook or your messages and emails. It’s easy to use too. You
enter an unlock password, answer some security questions and then select the
apps you want to lock.
App
Lock
Improve the camera
Some Android users say they get a better
picture from their device when they remove the lens protector and replace it
with a tiny piece of screen protector instead. Often this is because some lens
protectors are made of cheap plastic that can scratch but this is quite
dramatic, especially if your phone is still relatively new. An easier way is to
try one of the many apps that claim to help you take better pictures. Camera
FV-5 gives you DSLR-like manual control and lets you capture RAW photos that
can be processed later. You can save images as PNG files and use settings that
go way beyond the built-in Camera app options. If you want to use the camera as
it is, then increase the resolution of the camera in the image settings, don’t
use digital zoom at night and use Flash in the day to compensate for any
underexposed areas.
“Use an app such as Tasker to create a
series of contexts… You then produce a smart action”
Camera
FV-5
Better audio quality
In order to get better audio on your
Android device, you need a way to be able to change the frequencies from bass
to treble to suit the sounds you are listening to. Using an app like Equalizer
enables you to alter the sound levels across the whole device.
With just one tap you can use one of
several presets for different music types ranging from classical to dance to
jazz. But you can also customize to suit your ears. Listening to a sample track
or a song you have stored on your device, you can boost the bass and play
around with reverb and the virtualizer. Invest in a good pair of earphones or
headphone too. In a lot of cases this will greatly enhance your audio quality.
The sets you get bundled in with your device tend to be of a very low quality.
Automation
You can automate your settings in Android
which ensures that you do not have to fiddle with your phone in order to make
it work to an optimum level in different locations. For example, you may not
want Wi-Fi to work when you leave home and you may want your phone to fall
silent at work. You can use an inexpensive app such as Tasker to create a
series of contexts. This can be an application, day, event, location, state or
time. You then produce a smart action, essentially an ‘if this then that’ rule
that will be dependent on various factors.
Use USB flash drives
StickMount
It is possible to extend the storage
capabilities of your Android device via a USB Flash Drive. You could hook one
up to your Google Nexus 7, for example, but this entails grabbing an app called
StickMount (which lets you mount and unmount the drive) and using an USB OTG
cable that has a micro USB for the device and USB for the flash drive. After
that, you just need a file browser. Try Solid Explorer Beta. Word of warning,
though, you will need to root the device to get this to work. There are other
options for other devices and manufacturers are slowly building USB host
functions into their phones.
