Tag Archives: Android

How to Save Battery Power on an Android Device

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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

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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

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

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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.

How to root a Samsung Galaxy S phone.

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This video will show you how to root a Samsung Galaxy S phone.

Step 1.Download and install the XXJVU firmware, the check what type of firmware you already have on your phone go to Settings and About Phone. If you want to know how to do this you can see the 123 my IT tutorial here.

Step 2.Download the CF-Root-XX_OXA_JVU_2.3.6-v4.3-CWM3RFS.zip from our downloads section here.

Step 3.Extract the CF-Root-XX_OXA_JVU_2.3.6-v4.3-CWM3RFS.zip and you will have the CF-Root-XX_OXA_JVU_2.3.6-v4.3-CWM3RFS.tar file.

Step 4.Download and run Odin software you can download it from our download page here.

Step 5. Turn off your mobile phone and wait 5 seconds for it to vibrate to make sure it is completely off.

Step 6.Put the Galaxy S in download mode by holding down the Volume Down plus Home Plus Power buttons all at the same time.

Step 7.In the Odin software select the PDA tab and then select the extracted CF-Root-XX_OXA_JVU_2.3.6-v4.3-CWM3RFS.tar file.

Odin Android Software

Step 8. Make sure you do not select the “Re-Partition” checkbox as this will brick your phone. Make sure that the “Auto Reboot” and “F. Reset Time” checkboxes are ticked.

Step 9.Click the start button in Odin to start the flash of the CF Root File.

Step 10.The phone should restart automatically when the CF Root file is installed. When Odin displays the Pass in green you can unplug the phone from the USB cable.

Step 11.Your phone should now be rooted ad you should see the CWM app and clockworkmod based recovery is installed.

Once this is done your Samsung Galaxy S should be rooted ! 🙂

Good Luck

Top 10 Free Apps for Android phone 2013

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Hi All, So this is the first post about Android on my website. Currently I am only running a very old Samsung Galaxy S.
This is a short video on the top 10 free Android apps are for the Samsung Galaxy S. Would suit someone who is looking to have a bit of fun with their phone but doesn’t know where to start.
The Apps can all be downloaded for free from the Google play store on your phone.
The apps featured are:

Facebook: The app of the ever popular Facebook one of the largest social networking sites.
Candy Crush Saga: A games simular to Bejewelled where by candy drops from the top of the screen and you have to match them up in 3 way fashion to get to the next level. There is 100 levels so you will need to be very skilled to make your way through.
Skype: A voice chat program which allows you to make voice and video calls.
Snapchat: Apparently this app is the fastest way to share a moment with your friends. You can send pictures to all your friends and control how long they can view them for.
eBay: A classifieds app that allows you to buy and sell on eBay. Good point about this one is you wont have to miss bidding on an item if you not in front of the PC, as long at you have a phone and this app you should be sorted!
Viber: This app allows you to chat, send photos and videos messages no matter where in the world you are. As long as you have 3G or wifi access and the other person as Viber.
Facebook Messenger: Allows you to use the Facebook chat without all the other features.
Instagram: 100 million users cant be wrong! Facebook recently brought this app which allows you to make and share beautiful photos.
Gumtree: Gumtree is a free local classifieds website which allows people to buy and sell pretty much everything 🙂 simular to eBay.
Hardest game ever 2: Hardest game ever 2 is a game where you need to react to a series of buttons on your phone which when pressed in the right order with speed will allow you to go to the next level.