Screen brightness
The screen eats up the lion's share of the battery charge. First, enable adaptive brightness control if your smartphone has such a feature. If this feature is missing, manually set the brightness to the minimum level acceptable to you.
Wallpaper
Want your battery to last longer? Then firmly and forever say “no” to animated wallpapers.
If your smartphone has an OLED display, then installing black wallpaper will help extend the operating time. Read about why and how it works.
Time before display turns off
You can leave your smartphone on the table, and its screen will work in vain for a few more minutes, using up precious battery power. Reduce the time until the display turns off when not in use. Usually 15–30 seconds is enough. Experiment and find the optimal time for yourself.
Order in applications
When you pick up another smartphone, you can feel a strong sense of surprise at the amount of garbage in it. Remember the correct sequence of actions with applications:
- Option one: installed → didn’t like it → deleted.
- Option two: installed → not using → deleted.
The problem for users is that they often ignore the last point. As a result, the device turns into a real landfill. What's bad about it? Many applications like to take on a life of their own. They hang out in the background, launch their processes and eat up precious memory, which increases power consumption and reduces system performance.
Additionally, unused applications are updated and exchanged data, resulting in increased costs. mobile traffic and an even greater reduction in battery life.
Consider a monthly Smartphone Day. Spend a little time analyzing your current collection of applications, removing irrelevant ones, and looking on Lifehacker for more advanced analogues of existing ones.
Automation
Every day, a smartphone user faces a routine. Small but necessary actions, if there are many of them, take a lot of time and are annoying. Send something somewhere, copy it, send it, put it aside, and so on and so forth.
The problem is solved using the IFTTT (If This Then That) automation service. What can he do? All. On this moment created in IFTTT and posted publicly free access more than a million applets (recipes) - ready-made tools for automating a particular action or task.
Physical protection
As smartphones become more and more sophisticated, they lose their durability. If an old Nokia 3310 can play football and hammer nails, then brand new iPhone or Google Pixel much more tender. You need to take care of the safety of your expensive electronic assistant in advance and purchase a protective case. This is especially true during active recreation and travel.
Plan in case of loss
Losing a smartphone is a real tragedy. This situation is also accompanied by the loss of important and private information. In this case, Lifehacker advises using cloud storage. They are now perfectly optimized for mobile devices and implement all the necessary functions in automatic mode.
We hope these tips will help you use your smartphone more efficiently.
See also No. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17/09
Smartphones. When in 2007 the company Apple began producing its own smart cell phone ( iPhone) is an iPhone, its touch display created a real sensation.
This device only worked in wireless local network American company AT&T, and providers of other networks began to conjure the manufacturers of their cell phones It's faster to introduce something like this. The race began, as a result of which in 2008 many options for touch screens appeared, with an average price of $200. Every phone with such a screen could well be called a smartphone, because ensured the performance of a whole set of operations in addition to just telephone communication and text transfer, and also had an operating system, as a rule, of the third generation. Smartphones have increasingly functioned in so-called 3G-local networks (3rd generation networks), providing faster browsing, receiving and sending electronic messages. However, the main trump card still remains touch screen. Now every provider has a “promotional” version of the smartphone, but they all have difficulty competing with the iPhone. A lot is squeezed into a small smartphone body: here and digital camera, and a video camera, and music player. Soon it will turn into a tiny computer the size of a wallet - the so-called netbook ( netbook). Smartphones can provide a range of connectivity functions, including sending emails, web browsing, GPS-navigation, and, of course, telephone communication. And how many more new ones will appear with the transition to fourth generation networks!
Smartphones, such as Apple iPhone (top) and Blackberry Storm(below) are an assembly of individual boards.
In displays smartphones from companies and Apple, And Storm capacitive ones are used ( projected, mutual-capacity) touch screens. The control electrodes formed on the film substrate carry current from the battery. These electrodes are located across the signal electrodes formed on the adjacent substrate. When an electrically conductive object, such as a fingertip, touches the display surface, the interelectrode capacitance * and accordingly the read signal changes. Most touch screens work by touching only one point, but the ones under discussion work on two points.
Do you know that?..
An accelerometer was included in the smartphone so that it senses a change in position from “portrait” to “landscape”. But other options also emerged. For example, by shaking your gadget, you can “refresh” the list of nearby restaurants while driving around the city. On the contrary, by properly fixing your smartphone, you can take a photo in low light.
Mobile mini-computers ( Mobile Internet devices – MIDs) will generate more interest if their touch screens can be enlarged. Now they are optimized for one function, for example, video footage that can be uploaded to the network, or video games, and two people can play, being at any distance from each other within roaming. This concept was proposed by the company Intel, she also promotes it. A processor called Atom, which ensures that the netbook works with the network.
If the user changes the position of the smartphone from vertical to horizontal, the accelerometer sends a signal to the processor, and the image on the display also becomes horizontal. In the company's smartphones STMicroelectronics a micromechanical device, including a mass freely suspended on springs, changes position. The movable plate of the capacitor associated with it moves relative to the fixed plate, tracking the direction and speed of movement in the planes X And Y. Similarly, with the help of a second freely suspended mass, movement in the plane is monitored Z.
When you press the company display key Storm The microcontact closes. When the finger is released, the contact opens.
To be continued
Scientific American, 2009, February, p. 80–81.
Per. from English N.D. Kozlova
* See, for example, “Physics” No. 21, 23/2008. – Ed.
Upgrading Android
9-05-2014, 08:53
Mobile phone
The main reason why buyers prefer Android mobile devices is the ability to change a large number of standard and system platform options. Next, we will get acquainted with the main capabilities of the “green robot” as an independent and individual solution.
In addition, we will consider hacks with which you can fully interact with the device.
"Live wallpaper
Adding widgets
The widget is a window small sizes, which is located on the working screen electronic device. So you can easily view up-to-date information about this or that development. As a result, available fast access to your music player, calendar events, Twitter feed and more.
With the help of widgets, working with an Android device becomes easier and opens up many possibilities.
Using a new keyboard
Finding a lost device
Protecting passwords
So, we have figured out the most interesting methods of “upgrading” and personalizing your own Android device. In this way, you can get unique capabilities of the platform.
We can only hope that after this you will look at your own gadget differently.
Upgrading Android
9-05-2014, 08:53
Mobile phone
The main reason why buyers prefer Android mobile devices is the ability to change a large number of standard and system platform options. Next, we will get acquainted with the main capabilities of the “green robot” as an independent and individual solution. In addition, we will consider hacks with which you can fully interact with the device.
Some Android device owners are convinced that editing mobile device options is a complex and risky task that only an advanced group of users can handle. It must be said that this is absolutely not true. A large number of third-party software developers have made this process very simple and secure. A lot of interesting options come by default in Android. Next, we'll take a look at the attractive features of Google's operating system. This will allow you to get a device with individual qualities.
Create your own ringtone
Recently, the ability to set your own ringtone was considered the only feature of a mobile device that could be edited by users. It is not surprising that modern smartphones there is a possibility. Owners of Android devices can edit the melody without any problems. In this case, you can use hundreds of applications, but we recommend paying attention to the Ringdroid utility. It's about the simple solution assigned task.
"Live wallpaper
A distinctive feature of Android that a large number of users love is live wallpapers. “Green Robot” allows you to install on the “Desktop” of your own device not an ordinary static picture, but an animated image. At this point in time, you can easily find a large number of such decorations for your “Desktop” on the World Wide Web.
Personalization of the "Desktop"
Worker Android screen allows you to quickly gain access to the main functions of your mobile device. It is also possible to customize it using icons, or you can completely edit it appearance basic Android panels. Popular utilities for manipulating the Android desktop are launchers. A lot of such software is located in the directory Google Play. Using launchers, you can customize the “Desktop” to suit your personal preferences: edit notifications, use new shortcuts, and a large number of other options are available.
Adding widgets
A widget is a small window that is located on the working screen of an electronic device. Thus, you can easily view up-to-date information about a particular development.
The result is quick access to your music player, calendar events, Twitter feed, and more. With the help of widgets, working with an Android device becomes easier and opens up many possibilities.
Installing a file manager
Many people don't know that modern mobile gadgets they lose little desktop computers. If you frequently need to manage your own files stored on a memory card or in internal memory mobile device, you can do this by installing special program. A common file manager for the “green robot” is the Astro program. In this case, functions like Finder for Mac OS X and Explorer for Windows are available. If we talk in simple words, you can delete, move, archive, and send files from your own mobile device using email.
In addition, the Android device can be used as an FTP protocol, transfer/receive files using Wi-Fi connections. You just need to download a special program.
Information about Internet traffic and available software
The battery of an Android device is the main source of energy. Because of this, it is important to consider its condition. The main reason for battery drain is active applications. It is known that individual programs operate in background. This means that completing their work is not easy. In this case, you need to use a special tool - an application manager. This utility Allows you to uninstall various unused applications. Also, due to third-party software, it is impossible to determine the exact details of downloading files from the Internet. As a result, it will be easier to determine the costs of Internet traffic of your own mobile operator.
Using a new keyboard
Due to the fact that almost all modern mobile devices use a touch screen, some users find it difficult to enter text using their own gadget. You can solve this problem using a third-party keyboard. The corresponding program can be downloaded from the Google Play store. For example, the most popular keyboard for the “green robot” is called Swype. This application is installed as standard in various modern Android devices. With Swype, you can enter text in a simple way: you just need to swipe over the letters that the word has. After this, Swype will automatically show suitable options.
Finding a lost device
Having lost a mobile device, the user experiences many negative emotions. The question is not only that the device was lost, for which they paid a lot of money. In this case, the person lost personal information that was located in the device’s memory. Shop Google applications Play offers various tools. With their help you will be able to find your lost smartphone. For example, Prey can be considered the most common program. It is known that this is completely free utility. It can be installed on Android gadgets. When a mobile device is stolen, the former owner will have the opportunity to track it using personal computer location of the smartphone and return it back.
Protecting passwords
Due to the fact that at the moment there are a large number of Internet scammers in the world, they are trying to gain access to personal data. We can advise you to use better passwords yourself and not save them in simple places. When you work with a lot of web services, it won't be easy to remember the passwords you use. In this case, you need to use one of the various password managers. 1Password and Lastpass are the most popular developments for saving user passwords.
Manipulating built-in system options
Standard Android has many different options, but used third party programs for working with advanced system settings. You need to download the Spare Parts utility from the Google Play catalog. This way, you can edit the font, increase the animation speed, and so on.
Getting superuser rights on a mobile device
Given the fact that Android is open operating system, not surprisingly, the developers have made this platform as safe as possible. Definitely a plus, but the advanced user audience can get root access to Android. Thus, a large number of advantages will be available, of which we note advanced options, the ability to increase the speed of the device, and so on.
Install the modified version of Android
You can always install modified firmware created by third-party developers on your Android smartphone. Such modified editions of Android are mainly distinguished by improved design, advanced options and a large number of settings that are missing in regular versions"green robot" The most popular edition of Android can be considered the Cyangen Mod firmware. Today, almost two million mobile device owners use this firmware.
So, we have figured out the most interesting methods of “upgrading” and personalizing your own Android device. In this way, you can get unique capabilities of the platform. We can only hope that after this you will look at your own gadget differently.
Today we will make a completely working, albeit quite simple in terms of functionality, mobile phone.
Here is a list of the functions that our phone will support:
- — Receive and make calls
- — Receive and send SMS
- - Keep notebook
- — Show time
- - Wake up at a given time
The phone will work in GSM networks and use a regular SIM card. It will be designed on the basis of hardware and software included in the kit Arduino GSM Shield (available on Amazon, ~$90 for new, $70 for used). However, Arduino GSM Shield is just a set of bare boards, there is little fun in them, we need a real phone, with an interface, buttons, microphone, display, etc. A detailed description of hardware and software can be found at open source project hosted on GitHub (Hardware and Software)
Why am I doing this project? Partly because it's fun, and partly because, although phones have become ubiquitous over the last 10-15 years, a very small percentage of people realize and understand how they work and how they are designed. In appearance they seem complicated, but in fact they are assembled just like an electric kettle or microwave. And since phones are ubiquitous and popular, the world is full of companies that produce the components we need.
After spending a couple of evenings at the computer, I came across places where you could buy all the elements at fairly low prices in small quantities, and to assemble them you didn’t need additional equipment, only your, I hope, skillful hands. I may have simplified things, and of course you will have to put a little effort into assembling the phone, but trust me, assembling it is much easier than getting a degree in physics.
Over the past year, I collected several versions of this phone and used them as my main device. Plus, I taught classes with other electronics enthusiasts, where we also assembled different variations of this phone. You don’t need to have any special knowledge in electronics, but the ability to configure software, solder small components, have skills in laser cutting - all this will come in handy. Although if you haven't done this before, try it anyway, but be prepared for it to be a little more difficult. Although, I would still advise starting the project only if you already have skills in soldering and working with Arduino things, or you can find someone with experience.
Step 2: Soldering Electronics
Although the phone has many small components that are mounted to the board, nevertheless, with a little skill, it is quite possible to solder it all by hand.
Although the process of soldering most components is not difficult, there are some points to pay attention to:
Capacitors: Be careful with the polarity of large capacitors (1000 uf), they can explode if soldered backwards. For guidance, pay attention to the orange stripe.
Polarity: other components with polarity: including super capacitor, diodes, ATmega1284P microcontroller, M10 GSM module, socket SIM cards, microphone. Components without polarity: microphone, buttons, small capacitors, resistors.
Step 4: Solving communication problems
The phone has many components that are responsible for working with the network; incorrect configuration of them can lead to problems with connecting to the network. If the Connect light remains on the display, you can be sure that something has gone wrong.
Below I will give some of the most common reasons for this behavior. If you don’t see anything on the display at all, then you need to check the joints of the components and make sure that the software installed as it should and without errors.
Things to check:
Did you forget to insert the SIM card?
Is the SIM card socket soldered correctly? What about the 22 ohm resistor (the one that connects the SIM card socket and the GSM module)? Is everything okay with the GSM module?
Is the antenna soldered correctly?
Is the 0 ohm resistor soldered correctly? (the one on the connection M10 GSM module and antenna)
Try to leave the room to a place with a definitely good signal.
Debugging
You can continue debugging your phone by communicating with the GSM module from your computer, using the microcontroller as a proxy. To do this, download SerialProxy to your phone via cable, open it on your computer and specify the data transfer speed as 9600, and “carriage return” as the end of the line. After a couple of seconds you should see: “READY
AT
OK." This indicates that the GSM module is ready to receive AT commands. A detailed description of the commands can be found in the documentation for the GSM module.
Basic commands:
AT- test command, should return OK.
AT CREG?— checking the registration status on the network. Response of the form: "CREG 0,N", where N can be 0 (device not registered), 1 (registration passed), 2 (network search), 3 (registration request rejected), 5 (registration passed, roaming)
ATCPBS="SM"- choice phone book SIM cards.
Step 5: Using your phone
Now the joyful moment has come when you can start calling your girlfriends and friends :)
At least I hope everything worked out for you! However, there are still just a couple of points left.
Unlocking your phone.
On the first successful launch, the phone will be locked and its screen will be blank. To activate, press any button, the date and time will appear on the screen, now press the top left button - hurray, the phone is unlocked.
Phone lock.
To lock your phone, press the top left button. In this state, it will still receive SMS and calls.
Calls.
To make calls, simply dial the desired number and press Call (everything is the same as on regular phone), to delete entered numbers, use the * button.
Step 6: Making the Body
I made the body from veneer using laser CNC. You need to be very careful with the dimensions so that the board fits into the case and, of course, that the holes on the back and front parts match. The case diagram can be found on GitHub (link).
Well, it seems the device for dialing to the Moon is ready :)
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Almost every person who has bought a mobile phone at least once in their life has been told by a salon consultant that the mobile phone must be completely discharged immediately after purchase, and only then put on charge. You can find out why this is necessary and how to do it by reading this article.
What is “bleeding” a battery?
This procedure is mandatory.
The process of "pumping" mobile phone They call it bringing it to a complete discharge, and then fully charging it.
Each rechargeable battery has a memory, let’s say it is discharged by 40 percent, and after you put it on charge, it charges your battery to the remaining 40 percent, and when discharged during use, the battery will again discharge to this level and require it to be charged again. Accordingly, if you discharge and charge the battery completely, it will take longer to discharge.
The rhythm of our lives obliges a person to be constantly in touch due to various kinds of circumstances. That is why it is very important to always have a working phone with a good battery at hand. Full information about phones and their technical specifications you can find it on the website m.ua/kata/50/. There you can order the phone or accessory you are interested in or get advice from a specialist.
Stages of rocking a battery
- Immediately after purchase, you must completely discharge the battery. You can play games or listen to music, it is important that the phone is completely discharged;
- After the phone has completely lost all battery energy, it must be charged for 12 hours, no less. Do not disconnect the power from the network, even if the phone notifies you that it is fully charged;
- Some experts recommend performing this procedure 3 times. When working with a phone at the stage of “pumping” it, never put it on recharge. Also, when charging for 12 hours, do not unplug it from the mains under any circumstances.
Of course, during this procedure, yours will be tied to its charging location for some time. You may not be able to use it fully at this time, but after you complete all the necessary instructions, you will receive a battery that will work at full capacity. A “pumped” battery will hold its charge for the longest possible time, and the service life of this battery will be much longer.
If, after purchasing, you find in the phone package some batteries, then perform the pumping process one by one for each of them.
Often these measures are not followed by everyone, which is an indication that the phone lasts much less. I think everyone will agree that there is nothing worse when, at the most inopportune moment, the phone runs out of charge and turns off. That is why this procedure does not require much effort, so do it when purchasing.
The main reason why buyers prefer Android mobile devices is the ability to change a large number of standard and system platform options. Next, we will get acquainted with the main capabilities of the “green robot” as an independent and individual solution. In addition, we will consider hacks with which you can fully interact with the device.
Some Android device owners are convinced that editing mobile device options is a complex and risky task that only an advanced group of users can handle. It must be said that this is absolutely not true. A large number of third-party software developers have made this process very simple and secure. A lot of interesting options come by default in Android. Next, we will take a look at the attractive features from Google. This will allow you to get a device with individual qualities.
Create your own ringtone
Recently, the ability to set your own ringtone was considered the only feature of a mobile device that could be edited by users. It’s not surprising that modern smartphones have this capability. Owners of Android devices can edit the melody without any problems. In this case, you can use hundreds of applications, but we recommend paying attention to the Ringdroid utility. We are talking about the simplest solution to the problem."Live wallpaper
A distinctive feature of Android that a large number of users love is . “Green Robot” allows you to install on the “Desktop” of your own device not an ordinary static picture, but an animated image. At this point in time, you can easily find a large number of such decorations for your “Desktop” on the World Wide Web.
Personalization of the "Desktop"
The Android home screen allows you to quickly access the main functions of your mobile device. It is also possible to customize it using icons, or you can completely edit the appearance of the main Android panel. Popular utilities for manipulating the Android desktop are launchers. A lot of such software is located in the Google Play directory. Using launchers, you can customize the “Desktop” to suit your personal preferences: edit notifications, use new shortcuts, and a large number of other options are available.
Adding widgets
A widget is a small window that is located on the working screen of an electronic device. Thus, you can easily view up-to-date information about a particular development. The result is quick access to your music player, calendar events, Twitter feed, and more. With the help of widgets, working with an Android device becomes easier and opens up many possibilities.
Installing a file manager
Many people do not know that modern mobile gadgets are not much inferior to desktop computers. If you often need to manage your own files stored on a memory card or in the internal memory of a mobile device, you can do this by installing a special program. A common file manager for the “green robot” is the Astro program. In this case, functions like Finder for Mac OS X and Explorer for Windows are available. In simple terms, you can delete, move, archive, and send files from your own mobile device using email.In addition, the Android device can be used as an FTP protocol and transfer/receive files using a Wi-Fi connection. You just need to download a special program.
Information about Internet traffic and available software
The battery of an Android device is the main source of energy. Because of this, it is important to consider its condition. The main reason for battery drain is active applications. It is known that certain programs operate in the background. This means that completing their work is not easy. In this case, you need to use a special tool - the application manager. This utility allows you to remove various unused applications. Also, due to third-party software, it is impossible to determine the exact details of downloading files from the Internet. As a result, it will be easier to determine the costs of Internet traffic of your own mobile operator.
Using a new keyboard
Due to the fact that almost all modern mobile devices use a touch screen, some users find it difficult to enter text using their own gadget. You can solve this problem using a third-party keyboard. The corresponding program can be downloaded from the Google Play store. For example, the most popular keyboard for the “green robot” is called Swype. This application is installed as standard on various modern Android devices. With Swype, you can enter text in a simple way: you just need to swipe over the letters that the word has. After this, Swype will automatically show suitable options.
Finding a lost device
Having lost a mobile device, the user experiences many negative emotions. The question is not only that the device was lost, for which they paid a lot of money. In this case, the person lost personal information that was located in the device’s memory. The Google Play app store offers various tools. With their help you will be able to find your lost smartphone. For example, Prey can be considered the most common program. It is known that this is a completely free utility. It can be installed on Android gadgets. When a mobile device is stolen, the former owner will have the opportunity to track the location of the smartphone using a personal computer and return it back.Protecting passwords
Due to the fact that at the moment there are a large number of Internet scammers in the world, they are trying to gain access to personal data. We can advise you to use better passwords yourself and not save them in simple places. When you work with a lot of web services, it won't be easy to remember the passwords you use. In this case, you need to use one of the various password managers. 1Password and Lastpass are the most popular developments for saving user passwords.Manipulating built-in system options
Android has many different options out of the box, but third-party programs are used to work with advanced system settings. You need to download the Spare Parts utility from the Google Play catalog. This way, you can edit the font, increase the animation speed, and so on.Getting superuser rights on a mobile device
Considering the fact that Android is an open operating system, it is not surprising that the developers have made this platform as secure as possible. Definitely a plus, but the advanced user audience can get root access to Android. Thus, a large number of advantages will be available, of which we note advanced options, the ability to increase the speed of the device, and so on.Install the modified version of Android
You can always install modified firmware created by third-party developers on your Android smartphone. Such modified editions of Android are mainly distinguished by improved design, advanced options and a large number of settings that are missing in the regular versions of the “green robot”. The most popular edition of Android can be considered the Cyangen Mod firmware. Today, almost two million mobile device owners use this firmware.So, we have figured out the most interesting methods of “upgrading” and personalizing your own Android device. In this way, you can get unique capabilities of the platform. We can only hope that after this you will look at your own gadget differently.
One of the advantages of the Android OS is the ability to customize it to the user's needs and preferences. There are so many apps that let you get the most out of your Android device. We've rounded up the top 5 apps we think you need to try first.
1.Extend the life of your battery
Is your phone literally draining before your eyes? We know what it's like. Fortunately, this is easy to fix. First, make sure you turn off mobile data, which is enabled by default in settings. Turn it on only when necessary. Also, download an app that detects the most power-hungry apps and puts them into sleep mode while you're not using them.
2.Make some space
Every time you install an application, it is saved in the device memory by default, but some applications can be moved to an SD memory card or USB device. To do this, simply go to the app management section in settings. If you have a lot of music and photos on your device, then move them to the SD card as well. Another trick is to clear the application cache to get rid of temporary files. With you can clear the cache of several applications at once.
3. Clean your device
Besides battery life and storage capacity, there are many other things that can be optimized on your device that will positively affect its performance. Try it - an effective tool that will help speed up your device by removing unnecessary files, the existence of which you did not even know. This application will also protect you from various online threats thanks to its built-in antivirus.
4. Get content faster
Tired of waiting for a page to load due to a slow connection? A browser like this will help you speed up your loading speed by compressing web pages to 10% of their original size. This will allow you to get your favorite content even faster, while preserving your battery life as your phone will have to process less data.
5. Optimize your browsing experience
Obviously, you use some apps more than others, and it would be very convenient if they were all always in sight and did not have to be searched among other applications. Try , which puts all your apps and hotkey combinations into a special panel that appears after you tap a floating button on your device's screen.
What are your favorite apps? Tell us about them in the comments!
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