MULTIMEDIA

25 Quick Upgrades (Part 1)

9/26/2013 5:43:51 PM

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

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

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

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

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.

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