Manage Your Contacts!

I hear time and time again countless stories about how people lose their contacts, or had them on their SIM card but now they're gone. When I first rooted my phone and put different ROMS on, I would try and backup the contacts on my SD Card. However, Facebook sync would make hundreds of duplicate contacts that really irritated me. I knew my contacts were syncing to Google, but I didn't know how to manage them. Once I found out, I never had problems with my contacts again. I highly suggest you click this link https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#contacts and sign in to delete/add contacts. An alternate route to get there is to go into your gmail, then click "Gmail" in the top left to open a drop down menu. From there select "Contacts" and there you go. I suggest you not only add contacts via this method, but email addresses as well. You can also set your phone to sync new contacts to this list if you like. Many of you will discover that when you log into your gmail and look at your contacts, there will be duplicates or people you deleted/forgot about, or worst case, none there at all. Hopefully this helps some of you as backing up your contacts can save you a lot of trouble later! Don't forget to vote for which phone you think will be king in 2012, and leave a comment below about some future topics of interest you may want to hear about. Other than that, have a great day and thanks for reading!

Maximizing Battery Life!

As Android owners, one of our biggest struggles is with battery life. Having widgets, live wallpapers, and large beautiful screens comes at a price. However, there are tips and trips to reduce this cost as much as possible  (Everyone's experience will vary though). With that being said, let's jump straight to it!

1. Turn off wireless services when you're not using them (i.e. Bluetooth, GPS, 4G Wifi*)
This should go without saying but these services do not come free (in terms of battery life). Leaving these on when not using them is a waste of battery...as is using them when you don't have too. It's your phone of course, but if it's dying in 2 hours, you may not have to update your foursquare at EVERY location.

*Wifi is an exception which I'll cover at the end


2. Turn off auto brightness
Auto brightness is a great feature, but sometimes it gives you more brightness than you actually need. By manually controlling your brightness, you can make sure your phone display isn't beaming when you're indoors (though it looks great). This is probably one of the most effective tips.

3. Turn off auto sync or background data, or data altogether
This is another biggie! When you have auto sync off, the apps listed under your accounts won't sync 24/7. When you turn background data off, all your apps will not sync unless you want them too. This means you wont get twitter, facebook etc... notifications but you save a lot of battery. You can also turn off data (3G/2G) altogether if you're not going to be using it. This helps as well. If you are in a low signal area, turn off background data or data in general! It drains battery to try and pull from data that isn't there.

4. Reduce the number of widgets you use
Widgets are awesome but each widget requires a little bit of the Android OS to run. Reducing these decreases the load and improves battery life

5. Consider not using live wallpapers
This kind of goes without saying. I personally use one but I know my battery life would improve if I didn't. These also fall under your Android OS category and reduce battery life. If you can get through a day with it on then don't worry about it but if not, consider removing it.

6. Use a dark/black wallpaper (AMOLED phones only)
OLED is a screen technology that turns off pixels when displaying a dark image. LCD screens dim the pixel severely but they are still on. So if you have a phone with a OLED type display (For example Super Amoled +) Dark backgrounds help battery life.

7. DON'T Use Task Killers
Task Killers not only kill troublesome apps, but they kill apps that often just restart on your phone regardless. All of these apps restarting consumes battery, so in a sense you're shooting your self in the foot while trying to kill an ant on your shoe. Instead you can use apps to monitor which programs are taking up your CPU. I personally use GSAM Battery Monitor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5nc2FtbGFicy5iYm0iXQ.. and watchdog lite ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zomut.watchdoglite&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS56b211dC53YXRjaGRvZ2xpdGUiXQ.. ) *Warning, the notifications can get annoying*) If you find troublesome apps in this program, kill those .

8. Power Save and Power Save Apps
Power save and power save apps usually do numbers 1, 2, and 3 for you, but it doesn't hurt to use these functions

9. Use Airplane Mode
When in an area with no signal or no wifi, you might as well put your phone on airplane mode instead of letting it search for a signal that will never come, or try and pull data that isn't there.

10. Bump Charge Your Phone
When you're charging your phone and it hits the 100% mark, in order to keep from overheating your phone, it'll stop charging for a bit, and then recharge a little bit to get back to 100%. This is why sometimes when you take your phone off the charger, it jumps straight to 99 or 98%. Other times it may charge to the bare minimum of 100%. When you bump charge, you let your phone get to 100%, unplug it, and plug it back in and let it charge some more. After bump charging 2-3 times, you'll be starting from, or as close as you could get, to a true 100% charge.

11. Check what processes are using your battery
Go to settings > About Phone > Battery Usage and see what apps and functions are consuming the most power. Screen should be the biggest battery drain unless you haven't used your phone much, then Android OS would be around the top.

12. Disable/Enable Wifi
This was the exception I was talking about earlier as there has been a debate over this. Wifi does require battery to use, but there are times where using 3G would drain more than wifi would, and vice versa. So here are some separate rules for wifi based on my findings
Conditions:
        1. If you are in a low signal area and have access to wifi, use wifi.
        2. If there is no wifi around, turn off wifi. Do not let it search for wifi all day.
        3. If your 3G speeds are good enough to work with, turn off wifi.
        4. If condition 1 is met and background data is on go to Settings >Wifi > Hit the
            menu button > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep - Always
        5. If background data is off and wifi is available go to Settings >Wifi > Hit the menu button
            > Advanced >  Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep - Never

13. Turn off auto-update for apps in the play store. Your phone will constantly search for updates for apps while active.

*Rooted Phones Only*

(What's Root? We'll cover that in the future)

1. Calibrate your battery

Download the app Battery Calibration from the market. Bump charge your phone to 100% and then calibrate. You'll notice a drastic improvement.

2. Underclock your processor

This tones down the processing speed of your processor and improves battery life. Apps like SetCPU (not free) and CPU Tuner (free) and Rom Toolbox (free) allow you to underclock your processor and the first 2 allow you to create custom profiles (i.e. underclock when screen is off, overclock when on charger). 

3. Undervolt your battery

Same effect as 14. except it reduces how much power your battery uses instead of how fast your processor moves. 

4. Install a different Modem

Modems affect how well the radios in our phones work. Some modems are better than others. Efficient modems pick up solid signals so there is less searching (battery consumption) involved

5. Choose your ROMS and Kernels carefully

Some ROM/Kernel combinations are horrible for battery life and some ROMS alone just aren't that good on battery life. Do your research on it before flashing even though results vary from phone to phone.

That's it for battery life tips! Hope you found something useful! I've managed to pull 50 hours off one charge before. I also know someone with an Lg Optimus M who managed to pull a Day with 30% battery to spare. Use your battery wisely and you will see life that not only rivals, but surpasses the life of some of those..other...phones. Don't forget to vote up top, and leave a comment below. Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

ANNOUNCEMENT! HTC Evo 4G LTE (HTC One X) Release date: May 18th!

That's right! The HTC Evo 4G LTE, better known as the HTC One X, will be released on May 18th for Sprint customers. You can currently pre-order right now. The price for the Evo is $550 off contract but "should" be $199 with 2 year contract agreement + instant savings. Quick spec rundown:

4.7 inch Super LCD 2 Display (One of the best)
1.5 Snapdragon 4 Dual-Core Processor (Keeps up with quad core processing speeds as well as increases battery life)
1 Gb of Ram (allows for more multitasking between apps)
720p Definition (HD)
312 ppi (Pixel Per Inch, almost matches the iPhone; means there will be virtually no pixelization due to pixel depth)
8 MP Camera (One of the best out there)
1.3 MP Front Facing Camera
16 GB of Internal Storage plus Micro SD slot (up to 32 extra gb)
Beats Audio (Sounds great! Headphones sold separately)
2000 mAh non-removable battery (big battery but still keeps the phone slim)
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (latest version of Android)
Sense 4 (HTC's latest UI)

HTC Evo 4G LTE

Android App of the Day: Play Music!

This is BY FAR my favorite app. I can listen to my music collection at any time without having 1000+ songs saved on my phone and sd card. I can stream it like pandora, or download certain songs/playlists that I want to listen too offline. It's easy to setup and is my most highly recommended app. Download it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.music&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5nb29nbGUuYW5kcm9pZC5tdXNpYyJd

and if you're an audiophile like me and don't have a great equalizer on your phone, download this one (Android 2.3+) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandroidapps.equalizer&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zbWFydGFuZHJvaWRhcHBzLmVxdWFsaXplciJd and enjoy your music anywhere, on any computer, or any phone!

Android Versions and You!

*While there are many of you who know what version of Android you are on and what they are, there are others who have no clue so this post is for them.*

Like any operating system, there are old and new iterations. Let's take Windows for example. Many of us have seen the progression from Windows 95 all the way until Windows 7. Android has grown as well, though not as long, just as fast. Android versions are in alphabetical order and follow dessert names (though the first 2 iterations were named "Astro" and "Bender" respectively) and also follow a number pattern starting from 1 (though this switched up later)

Below are a list of the Android versions and their respective numbering.

1.5 Cupcake

1.6 Donut

2.0-2.1 Ecclair

2.2 Froyo

2.3 Gingerbread

3.0 Honeycomb (Tablets Only)

4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich 

Why does the numbering increase by .1 sometimes and 1.0 others? I'm not sure. Many speculate that the size of the upgrade (amount of features enhanced) dictates how big the number jump is. Almost 70% of Android phones are on the Gingerbread version and may or may not be upgraded to ICS. Often times people are quick to blame Google for their phones not being upgraded to ICS, but really the responsibility falls on the manufacturers to update the UI (User Interface) on phones, and then for carriers to accept and release the updates. So before you get upset at Google, because your phone is still on Froyo, remember there is only so much they can do. This is why many people get Nexus phones (Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus). Nexus phones are Google to the core and because they don't have to deal with the UI's manufacturers throw on phones, they can receive the updates quickly. Take this into consideration if you would like the latest updates on your new phones without having to upgrade yearly.

To check which version of Android you are on:
1. Open your menu
2. Go to settings
3. Scroll until you see "About Phone"
4. Look under Android Version and you'll see your number. 

Often times there will be 3 digits. For example I'm currently on version 4.0.3. The third digit usually depends on the phone and can be anything from a maintenance update to a bug fix. So sometimes you may see someone with Android Version 2.3.7 while you may have 2.3.5. This does not mean their system is more upgraded than yours, you're both still on Gingerbread. Hopefully you find this helpful and be on the lookout for Android Versions! You wouldn't want to knowingly purchase a Windows Vista laptop when there are Windows 8 laptops out there while upgrading would you? Same concepts apply. Make sure to vote on which phone you think will take the crown in 2012! Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Android App of the Day: Relax and Sleep!

This app lets you choose from a variety of sounds and white noise which helps you sleep easier. Try it out if you're having trouble sleeping!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mizusoft.relaxandsleep&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5taXp1c29mdC5yZWxheGFuZHNsZWVwIl0.

Droid vs Android Explained!

"Hey check out my new Droid!" We've all seen or heard this at some point in time, but most likely the person speaking does not have a "Droid" in their hands. Verizon Wireless came up with the brilliant idea of naming a series of their phones "Droids," because Droid is short for Android. Little did they know, they were creating a maelstrom of confusion for the masses. Because of this confusion, many Android phone owners will often correct others who call their phones "Droids", though technically the person isn't incorrect. So, to avoid  confusion, owners and onlookers need to grasp this concept: Although "Droid" is short for "Android," because Verizon has a line of phones called "Droids," all Droids (Android phones) are not "Droids" (a specific line of Android phones exclusive to Verizon). If you can, it's best to avoid using the term altogether unless you are 100% sure that the phone in question is a "Droid." Is it that serious? No, but it annoys many people so refrain if possible!

Welcome!

Taking into consideration the very high number of requests from people to stop spamming their Facebook walls and Twitter timelines with Android propaganda, I've decided to move all mobile related information to this blog. The purpose of Android Enlightenment is to do just that...provide information about some of the best apps, insight on some of the newest and upcoming technology, tips and tricks to make the most out of your phone, and even in depth guides and information about rooting. I by no means am an expert on Android or mobile technology, I just have a genuine interest in it and would like to gladly share what I've learned and discover. Hopefully you find something useful here! I thank you for stopping by and welcome you to stay tuned!