Blog Category: Tips n Tricks

Kit Kat is the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system known as Android. It was designed to be what Android have not been like so many updates ago – light and smooth. While Jelly Bean focused on getting  the buttery smooth interface into smartphones, Kit Kat takes it further to becoming extremely light, meaning it can run on a device that would normally only run on Gingerbread (or even lower). This means that low end phones don’t have to run a very old version of Android anymore. They can use the latest one instead.

Now apart from the internal smooth and light optimizations of Kit Kat, Google introduced a few new features as well, which were pre-loaded to their new Nexus 5 smartphone. Let’s have a look at what they have here.
Google Experience Launcher

Something that will probably never get ported...

When you finally realized that you need to move away from iOS and finally enjoy the many benefits of Android, root, and heavy levels of customization. There are a few things you imagine you’d have to give up. One of them is the SMS that you have kept in record in your iOS device for a very long time.

You are correct in assuming that one cannot simply transfer iOS contacts to Android devices. While there might be some difficulty in the process, it is not impossible at all to do. You just have to dodge a few bullets and go through some hoops, but in the end of it all, you would keep all the lovey-dovey messages you have saved on your previous device.
Backing up iOS Messages
Your first order of business is to backup your SMS messages from your iOS...

One thing Android lacked for a long time is native mobile theft security. While we have been able to somehow mitigate this lack of theft security with 3rd party apps, there is nothing quite like a native, ROM based anti-theft solution. It seems that Google finally recognized that gaping hole in Android. They unveiled the Android Device Manager feature later this year, which is now one of the best perks of having a Google account synchronized with your Android device.

So what exactly is an Android Device Manager? It is a service that confirms one thing we knew all along – Google can easily track each and every smartphone by using the location data it sends to its servers. Rather than keeping all that data for themselves, Google finally decided to give back by letting us use this remote locating feature...

It is no secret that Android is rising above iOS in many ways. While there are always some exchanges in the user-base, we find that people switching over from iOS to Android is growing rapidly. Unfortunately, that migration is marred by some simple problems in moving their data from iOS to Android.

Some people end up not switching to Android simply because of these roadblocks in transferring data. As great as Android is, it wasn’t built to play along with iOS. They are completely different platforms. One of the things people want to transfer is their contacts. It can be quite a pain if you don’t know what you are doing. Some even resort to simply manually recreating their contact list in Android. That isn’t intuitive at all. So, here are some great ways to transfer your iOS contacts to Android.
Things...

It’s a sad day when you realize that a smartphone is nearing the end of its life. It could happen suddenly, or it could happen so quickly that you fail to realize that you probably could have saved it if you only knew what to do. Well, today’s your lucky day. I will share some things you could probably do to save a dying smartphone during some emergencies or some end of life scenarios.

A Deep Sea Swim
One of the most devastating days in a smartphone’s life is the big dip into a body of water. Unfortunately, it can happen to anybody. Sure, a smartphone could probably survive a splash or two, but a dip is a sure kill… or is it? It happened to me once, and I sure wish I knew of these things you could do to save...

We live at such a time when we are forced out of our comfortable unlimited data plans and into tiered and shared data plans. Carriers say that they simply can’t keep providing unlimited data access to all of their customers like they could before simply because there are so much more to cater to right now. There is what they call network congestion, because nearly every citizen in the country now holds a form of smartphone or tablet that makes use of mobile network data.

While many of us believe that this is simply some network propaganda to ensure that they earn more money as demand for data increases, it is a fact that we can’t escape these limited data plans unless you are willing to shell out a lot of money or move to a smaller network that can still...

There is a long and seemingly never ending debate about the practicality and the actual purpose of Android Task killer apps. These apps have been out since Android came to be. It has become a staple in some people’s lives, with people often talking about their phones having much better battery life and performance with every use. At the same time, there are others who swear to have stopped using a Task Killer and actually have better performance and battery life than when they avidly did. Then there are those who say they had crappy performance and battery life before they met their perfect task killer.

With all these information swirling around the net, it is no surprise how we can be conflicted as to exactly which one is right, which one is dead wrong, and which one actually has a...

It’s a very sad day when a phone gets stolen. I often come across people in phone enthusiast groups who may have lost their phones due to sheer recklessness or sheer stroke of bad luck. You can’t help but curse the thieves and wallow in grief, agony, and anger. Still, in times like this, you need to really think fast and deal with the situation calm and collected.

Change Passwords
In case your phone gets stolen, the first thing you should think about is protecting your data. A stolen phone not only holds valuable information about you, it also holds valuable access to cloud data as well. You could hold Facebook passwords, as well as entries to other accounts.
There was a guy once who had two Android devices synced up to the same Google Account. The older one got stolen and in...

While we may be at an era where chatting and instant messaging is the most common form of text based communication, SMS communication remains to be a valuable and irreplaceable communication tool. Unlike Instant Messaging, SMS does not need internet connection and it is even possible to send and receive SMS during emergencies where internet connections may not be available.

Of course, unlike Instant Messaging, SMS communication can be a bit boring. It usually just involves text, and a set of smiles that the manufacturer provided as default and we couldn’t change it… until now. I’m about to teach you how to add a little spice to your SMS smileys with a new of set of smiles.
Here is a very short list of things you may need:

A Computer – most of the stuff we will do here is going to be...

Technology moves very fast. In fact, some device cycles can get as short as a few months to just one year. There is a huge second hand market for smartphones and tablets as well, so you always have a way of at least getting back some of the money you used to purchase your device and use that towards your next purchase.

When you sell an Android Smartphone or Tablet, you are selling a very personal device. For many of us, we have learned to tinker and play with the software of this device. It houses our customizations, our preferences, our designs. In short, it reflects the personality of the buyer. Now, are you really sure you want to sell a part of who you are?
As you can see, selling an Android Tablet or Smartphone is not as straightforward as selling...