How to Change Your Default Browser on an Android Device

This video will show you how to change the default browser on your Android Device.
If you don’t like the stock standard default Android browser, you can change if for Free in the Google Apps Store.
Once you download the free browser, make sure you set it to the default browser so that you can use it every time you use the internet.

Step 1. Open up the Google Play Store and do a search for Browsers.

Android Browser Search on Google Play

Step 2. Select the browser you want to install and press Install.

Install Android Browser

Step 3. Go back to your Home screen and tap into the Google search bar.

Android Browser Google Search

Step 4. Search for anything in the search bar and then press the Search Button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Android Google Search Bar Results

Step 5. Put a tick in the checkbox that says “Use by default for this action.” And then press the Browser that you want to be the Default Browser.

Android Browser Set Default Button

And that’s all you need to do. Changing the default web browser will give you greater functionality like being able to create new tabs more easily.

Related 123 my IT Videos
How to Save Battery Power on an Android Device
How to change the Screen Timeout on Android
How to unbrick Samsung Galaxy Nexus, GT-I9250, GT-I9100G, GT-I9300 and S3 GT-I9300
How to get a Samsung Galaxy S phone out of black screen of death

How to Save Battery Power on an Android Device

If you have been using your Android device for a while you might have noticed that it started out with really good battery life but over time, the battery life doesn’t seem to be as good as it was. It could be that the battery is slowly dying and all of them do that, however it could be that you have loads of apps running in the back ground and all of your services on.

This guide will give you some helpful tips on how to save your battery life. A few small tips will have your Android device lasting for day!! Well maybe not that long. 😉

Step 1. Have your phone tell you what is using up the most power.
Go into Settings, About Phone, Battery Use. On my phone the app Whatsapp was using 66% of the battery. So turning off Whatsapp would help me get more battery life out of the phone.

Android Battery Use

Step 2. Tell your Android device to use 2G only or use GSM over WCDMA.
Only do this if you don’t need access to 3G or 4G high speed data.
Go into Settings, Wireless and Network, Mobile networks and select your network mode.

Android Network Mode

Step 3. Reduce your display brightness.
Settings, Display, Brightness.
Slide brightness slider all the way to the left and it will help you save power when you are reading the phone. Most of the time people can still read the phone without needing the brightness up high.

Android Screen Brightness

Step 4. Always try to use a black background or wallpaper. Settings, Display, Wallpaper.
Here is a sample below but you can find loads of black backgrounds on Google images.

Android Black Background Wallpaper

You can also set bGoog.com as your default home page. bGoog.com is a black background search engine webpage by Google and its built especially for mobile devices it allows you to search the web without using so much power on your phone. Awesome idea.

Google Black

Step 5. Adjust your screen timeout to the shortest time Possible. Settings, Display and then Screen Timeout.

Android Screen Timeout

Step 6. Turn off your WIFI when you are not using it. Settings, Wireless and network, WIFI settings.

Android WIFI Settings

Step 7. Turn off your Bluetooth when you are not using it. Settings,Wireless and network, Bluetooth settings.

Android Bluetooth Settings

Step 8. Turn off your GPS. If your GPS is turns on it is constantly looking for satellites which takes up battery power. Settings, Location and Security, Use GPS Satellites.

Android GPS Settings

Step 9. Use Power apps and widgets. There are loads of free and paid apps that control all sorts of stuff.
The two that you should take a look at are:
* Power control Widget
* Power management
* Null BLack Wallpaper

Android Power Apps

Step 10. Turn off phone vibration. Settings, Sound, Vibrate. And set vibrate to never. You have the following options Always, Never, Only in Silent mode and Only when not in Silent mode.

Android Vibrate

Step 11. Turn off all your applications when you don’t need them. Settings, Applications, Manage Applications. Press Running and then press and Stop any applications that you don’t need.

Android Applications

Step 12. Put your phone in standby mode when you are no longer using it.
Press the Power button on your device when you are finished using it as it will use less power if you get into this habit.

Android Power Button

Step 13. Take your USB charger with your where ever you go as there are Free USB ports everywhere! Allot of Airlines these days have free USB ports so that you can charge your Android device while flying.
Free USB Ports

Step 14. A spare battery can be a lifesaver if you just so happen to run out of Power. Spare ones can be picked up from websites like ebay.

Hope that helps guys.
Good Luck 🙂

Related 123 my IT Videos.
How to change the Screen Timeout on Android
WIFI speed test comparison between iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S
3G Speed Comparison iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S
How to unbrick Samsung Galaxy Nexus, GT-I9250, GT-I9100G, GT-I9300 and S3 GT-I9300
How to get a Samsung Galaxy S phone out of black screen of death

How to change the Screen Timeout on Android

This video will show you how to set the Screen Time out on Android.

Hi All
One of the biggest killers of battery life is the screen timeout, so I have make a quick video on how to change the screen timeout on your Android device to save battery!!! 🙂

step 1. Go into your phone menu and tap settings.

Android Settings Menu

Step 2. Tap on display.

Android Display Menu

Step 3. Scroll down and press the screen timeout button.

Android Screen Timeout Menu

Step 4. Select how long you want the time out to be. Remember the shorter the timeout set the more battery life you will have on your Android device. You should have the following Timeout choices.
* 15 seconds
* 30 seconds
* 1 minute
* 2 minutes
* 10 minutes
* Never turn off

Android Select Screen Timeout Menu

Hope that helps you increase your battery life ! 🙂
Good luck

WIFI speed test comparison between iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S

This video will show you a WIFI speed test comparison between iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S.

Hi All
So I have created this video which shows the wireless speeds of iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S. I was asked what is the performance of the iPhone 3G when running the Whited00r 6 firmware.
I am using an the speedtest.net app which can be downloaded from iTunes store.
Speed Test App

However the app wont work for the old iPhone 3G so I was able to download and use it from the Time Machine store which is one of the features in the Whited00r 6 firmware.

Time Machine

Anyway let get moving on the results.

iPhone 3G Ping 49 ms, Download 5.75 Mbps, Upload 0.82 Mbps.
iPhone 4S Ping 17 ms, Download 10.12 Mbps, Upload 0.98 Mbps.
Samsung Galaxy SPing 17 ms, Download 9.60 Mbps, Upload 0.96 Mbps.

The Wifi speed on the iPhone 3G is half as slow as the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S. Both the 4S and the Samsung were able to max out my Adsl line at 10 Mbps.

So the Wifi for the iPhone 3G is still good enough to use.

3G Speed Comparison iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S

Hi All
This video will show you a 3G Speed Comparison iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S.
One of the 123 my IT readers asked me what the performance is like for the iPhone 3G running the Whited00r 6 firmware. So I did a quick test on 3 phones iPhone3G, iPhone4S and Samsung Galaxy S.
I used the Speedtest.net app from ookla.

SpeedTest App

The Speedtest app doesn’t work for the out dated iPhone 3G phone, however I was able to get it working by installing the Whited00r firmware. You can see the video on how to install Whited00r here.
The Speedtest app was available in Time Machine.
Time Machine App Market

Results
iPhone 3G Ping 369ms, Download 0.63 Mbps, Upload 0.01 Mbps. So performance on the old iPhone 3G was sluggish to say the least. The performance might because the phone is quite old or that the latency of the phone slows the 3G performance down. While the signal might not be strong in the place where I am testing the phones the iPhone 4S fairs much better.

Samsung Galaxy S Ping 70ms, Download 1.651 Mbps, Upload 1.12 Mbps. As you can see there is a marked improvement on the speed of both the download and uploads on between the old iPhone 3G and the Samsung Galaxy.

iPhone 4S Ping 54ms, Download 2.16 Mbps, Upload 1.03 Mbps. The iPhone 4S has a faster Ping as well as a bit quicker on the downloads compared to the Samsung Galaxy S.

The performance seems pretty normal given the age between the phones. I guess you can tell from this guide that the iPhone 3G would be next to useless when trying to browse the internet via 3G.

How to unbrick Samsung Galaxy Nexus, GT-I9250, GT-I9100G, GT-I9300 and S3 GT-I9300

HI Guys
In my travels I came across a great website which allows you to unbrick or get out of the dreaded black screen of death on your Samsung Nexus or Galaxy S3 phone. This will work for the following models.

GT-i9250, GT-I9100G, GT-I9300 and the S3 GT-i9300. So I thought I would share it with my website users to help them out if they have a broken their Samsung phone.

I will quote the comments

For galaxy S3 GT-i9300, please carefully read this:
* Euro/Asian models are based on 4 core Samsung Exynos 4412 CPU
* JTAG access in all i9300 phones is DISABLED (password protected)and password is not available (yet).
* Repair procedure for bricked phones is performed via SD card

I have also added the direct download links below.

GT-I9250:
Just execute *.bat file from this package.
Installing drivers first would be pretty smart idea too.

Flash_Tuna.zip

i9100G phones which have ID 0xFFFFFFFE, download this archive, unpack and run *.bat file from root folder:

OMAPFlash-1229-2ndlastt.rar

For more details on what to do with the files check the link below.
gsmhosting

How to install WhatsApp Messenger on a PC

Hi All,
I have a friend who told me about “WhatsApp” Messenger and how she was using it when she was over seas. So I thought I would take a look at it and see what the ever popular App is all about.
Its a messenger App like the rest but it replaces phone SMS by using the phone’s 3G/EDGE or PC’s internet connection to send chat messages. This allows you not to pay for SMS in your phone carriers bill.
And you have a free Wifi, then essentially you can chat completely free. WhatsApp is currently the No. 1 paid social networking app on the iTunes App Store and currently number 13 on Google’s Play free App store. Whatsapp currently has over 200 Million monthly active users and is a cross platform app which is also available on Blackberry and Windows phones.

Features Include
* MULTIMEDIA: Send Video, Images and Voice notes to your friends and contacts.
* GROUP CHAT: Group conversations which supports up to 30 people!!!
* NO INTERNATIONAL CHARGES: No charges with international email and messages as long as your friends have the app installed you can avoid SMS costs.
* SAY NO TO USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS: Whatsapp uses the contacts already in your phone.
* OFFLINE MESSAGES: Messages sent while a contact is offline still goes through when they come back online.
They do have fine print which also states “When roaming, additional carrier data charges may apply, contact your carrier for more info. 🙂 sneaky

Whatsapp Messenger Chat

In the video above to install Whatsapp on a PC, you need to run BlueStacks software. The direct links can be found under the downloads section on this page click here.

Good luck and have fun with it 🙂
Matt

How to get a Samsung Galaxy S phone out of black screen of death.

NOTE: If you have bricked the following models you can find the article on how to fix them here.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus, GT-I9250, GT-I9100G, GT-I9300 and S3 GT-I9300

This video will show you how to get a Samsung Galaxy S phone out of black screen of death. The black screen of death can display in two forms. One a as a black screen with a little mobile phone ! and computer on it and the other as just a black screen with no light or anything on it.

Samsung black screen of death

At any rate the way to tell if you phone is totally broken is to first of all make sure you have enough battery.
To do this remove the back cover of your phone and reseat the battery so that you are sure the phone is getting power and that the battery has not just gone flat for because the contacts are not touching correctly. Then charge your phone and leaving it charging for a few hours.

If that doesn’t work, the next step is to try removing the sim card and storage cards remove the battery and leave them out for about 5 seconds. Replace only the battery and charge it again. If you still have no luck here but you are sure the battery is charging there is a way to test that its still alive.

If you are using Windows, Go to the start menu and right click Computer and open Device Manager, and plug your phone out of the USB port and plug it back in. If the device manager makes a noise or moves as if its installing a driver the chances are the device is still working.
Try putting your phone into Download mode by holding down Power, Home and the Volume down buttons. Hold these buttons down until you see the following screen.

Samsung S Download Mode

Once you have it in download mode there is a good change you can reload the firmware. To do this you can following my video here.
If you want to know how to root the Samsung see the video here.
How to put a Samsung Galaxy S into download mode here.