Regardless of which tablet computer was purchased: Samsung, Digma, DNS or Prestigio, the desire of any owner of a portable device will be its productivity when used.
And to do this, you need to slightly upgrade the tablet, or, more simply put, install the necessary applications to improve its performance, since basic settings are sometimes not enough for the most comfortable use of your Internet tablet.
Well, naturally, every user strives to customize his personal electronic device for himself, be it a tablet, smartphone, laptop or e-reader.
If your tablet runs on the Android operating system, then you can upgrade it using free applications that are easy to install and do not take up much space.
Fast browser
Let's start with speed on the Internet (downloading files, watching videos online, communicating on social networks, etc.), and for this you need to install a good web browser. Of the most popular browsers for Android, we can recommend: Opera And .
Internet safety
The second equally important step when upgrading your tablet is to install free security applications. After all, when surfing the Internet, you can “catch all sorts of nasty things” that negatively affect the operation of the electronic device as a whole, including the battery charge.
Among the most popular security applications for Android devices are 360 Security Antivirus + cleaning
and a personal data security application (it is recommended to install both of these applications).
After installing the free Android applications listed above, you will see for yourself how much more productive and faster your tablet will work. This means that he has already been slightly pumped up and this is just the beginning of pumping up! The applications themselves are specially created for maximum convenience when using gadgets.
By the way, these applications can be installed on your smartphone, provided that it also works with Android OS.
The new smartphone has been pleasing its owner for some time with the capabilities and functions that are available out of the box. But sooner or later, every user wonders how to improve their Android gadget? In this article we will tell you how to make your mobile device more comfortable, functional and productive.
But you shouldn’t limit yourself to interface changes. You can replace many standard operating system programs: choose a new keyboard, download cameras with effects, install a photo editor, set a more informative screen locker, and even turn Android into an iPhone.
Don't forget to regularly update Android: a fresh update will not only fix OS bugs and improve the performance of the smartphone, but will also make changes to the interface and add new customization options.
Making your smartphone faster
Android is ahead of iOS in terms of customization, but loses in optimization. Therefore, freezes and stutters are a common problem for this operating system, especially among budget devices. There are several ways to speed up your smartphone.
There are a number of applications designed to improve the performance of the gadget - Android accelerators. With their help, you can optimize the operation of your smartphone, unload unused applications from memory, and clean the system of accumulated garbage.
The problem of quickly draining your phone battery can be solved by calibrating the battery, removing unnecessary programs, and disabling synchronization of services. Don’t forget about disabling unnecessary “decorations”: widgets, “live” wallpapers, animated transitions between windows. Of course, every user wants to simultaneously get a visually attractive interface and good operating system performance, but if your smartphone does not belong to the “flagship” category, then you will have to make compromises.
Conclusion
An extensive selection of Android OS features and applications allows each user to customize their smartphone according to individual preferences. We hope that the articles on our site will help make the gadget even more convenient to use.
An ignorant user of a Chinese or simply inexpensive phone, anticipating the pleasure of communicating with the desired gadget, almost always receives crooked stock software, unfinished applications, sometimes inadequate battery consumption, and in addition it is quite likely to acquire a bouquet of viruses. Luckily, in Android you can change a lot and remove a lot. This is what we will do.
1. Preparing the soil
First, unlock the bootloader and install custom recovery (TWRP). This is different for each smartphone. So it's better to use Google. Next, download the SuperSU root rights manager and flash it using custom recovery (turn on the smartphone with the volume up key pressed, then the Install button and select the SuperSU ZIP file on the memory card).
If there is no custom recovery, you can try to get root rights using special programs: Root Dashi, KingRoot. However, these tools can break the system so that you have to rewrite the system partition (firmware). Still, it’s better to wait, while simultaneously studying forums in Russian, English, German, Chinese and other languages - everything where there is a topic for discussing your device.
When the recovery is installed on the device, be sure to make a backup of the entire system. It will help you out a lot if, as a result of subsequent manipulations with the device, you get a brick.
It’s easy to make a backup in TWRP recovery (there are no others now). Boot into recovery by turning on the device with the volume up key pressed, then press Backup and swipe the slider to the right. When the operation is completed, simply reboot the device: Reboot → System.
In the event of an emergency situation (the smartphone does not boot, the coconut does not grow), boot into recovery, click Restore, select a backup from those offered and again swipe the slider to restore - the system will return exactly to the state it was in at the time of the backup.
Installing BusyBox
Quote from Wikipedia: “BusyBox is a set of UNIX command line utilities used as the main interface in embedded operating systems.” In other words, it is a set of Linux console utilities that significantly extends the standard Android command line.
As a regular smartphone user, you are unlikely to use them, but many tools (for example, for kernel tuning) require its presence in the system. So, install BusyBox from the market, launch it, close the pop-up window and click Install. That's it, all that remains is to close the program. No reboot required.
Install Xposed
Xposed, as you probably already know, is a tool for customizing the interface and behavior of Android. The version for Lollipop and Marshmallow can be downloaded from the official topic on XDA. I recommend installing XposedInstaller_3.1.1.apk or a newer version. It will automatically detect the Android version, processor type and bit depth and, based on this data, suggest the correct version of the installation file to download. All you have to do is install it and reboot your smartphone.
2. Remove unnecessary and dangerous junk
There are legends about how much manufacturers love to stuff the firmware with unnecessary applications. And the Chinese can slip in a Trojan. But this is usually done not by the manufacturer, but by the seller. So, immediately after purchasing an incomprehensible (Chinese) device, we reset the settings to factory settings and completely flash the stock firmware from the manufacturer (using standard or custom recovery). After this, we check the smartphone with several antiviruses.
Next, you should disable all the incomprehensible junk built into the firmware. Go to “Settings → Applications”. Open the “All” tab (for Android 5.1) or go to the “All applications” mode, and then click the three dots at the top right and select “Show system processes” (for Android 6+). Open an incomprehensible or unnecessary application: click “Disable”. If the button is gray, then there are two options: the manufacturer wants to ensure that its useless application cannot be disabled, or disabling this program can lead to serious malfunctions in the system.
Those that cannot be disabled by standard means can be frozen using Titanium Backup. But be careful. There is a possibility of not only getting system errors, but also cyclic reboots or endless loading. So backups are our everything. I recommend uninstalling programs as a last resort if there is not enough space in the /system partition.
3. Change display settings
First, change the display DPI using the Easy DPI Changer application. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch and means the number of dots per inch of the screen. The higher the value, the larger the elements will be in relation to the screen size.
For some unknown reason, many manufacturers set inadequate DPI values, ignoring the laws of logic. For example, the standard DPI of a five-inch Gigaset Me smartphone with a screen resolution of 1920x1080 is 480, which corresponds to a screen size of approximately 4.7 and leads to excessively large app controls. Setting the DPI to 443 can fix this.
However, it is not at all necessary to set the correct DPI. If the information on the screen seems too small to you, feel free to raise the DPI; if it’s too large, lower it.
We also need to protect our eyes in the dark. To do this, install the CF.lumen application. This is the so-called night mode, or more precisely, a blue filter that turns on when it’s dark outside and turns off during daylight hours. In the evening, the screen will turn yellow, which has a beneficial effect on vision and makes it easier to fall asleep.
4. Stretch the skin
No matter how strange it may sound, you can change the theme not only in custom firmware and firmware from some manufacturers (hello, Sony), but also in completely standard stock Android. There are at least two applications for this: Substratum and HK Theme Manager. The first uses the RRO resource reassignment mechanism introduced in Android 6.0 and, accordingly, should work normally at least on stock. The second is an Xposed module that allows you to use themes for CyanogenMod on devices with stock firmware.
I note that, in addition, Substratum also allows you to replace loading animations, fonts, sounds and wallpapers.
With icons everything is much simpler. All you need to do is install the required icon pack from the Play Store and a launcher that supports their use. A very good option: Pixel icon Pack - round application icons in the Google Pixel style.
5. Setting up a cellular network
Usually, after purchasing a smartphone abroad, we are interested in what networks it can work on and what frequencies it supports. This is where Network Signal Guru can help. This monster not only shows a lot of useful (and incomprehensible to 99% of users) information, but also allows you to very finely configure the networks connected to your smartphone.
In order to find out about the supported types of networks, just click on the three dots at the top and select Bandlocking. In this mode, after selecting the appropriate mode, you can see the supported network types in the pop-up menu. To disable them, simply uncheck the boxes. For example, if you remove the checkbox from B1 in WCDMA, then 3G networks will stop working and the smart phone will only switch between 2G and 4G. To turn the mode back on, just check the box again or reboot the device.
The point of disabling 3G is to force the smartphone to use 4G even in conditions of poor reception and to stop it from jumping between 3G and 4G, which can lead to connection dropouts and, for example, dumping of cached videos on YouTube. At the same time, you cannot turn on the “4G only” mode either, otherwise those who try to call will receive a “Busy” signal (provided that the smartphone or operator does not support VoLTE, as is most often the case).
6. Upgrade Android
To tune the system, we can’t do without Xposed, the same system that brought the concept of tweaks from iOS to Android. You should have installed Xposed in the first step, but here is a small list of modules recommended for installation. They are available in the application directory itself.
- Android N-ify - the mod completely replaces the status bar with that of Android 7 with all the switches and animations. Plus opens up the ability to edit switches. In the settings, useful inscriptions appear under the names of the options. You can conveniently switch between the two most recently launched applications by double-clicking the Home button.
- StatusBarSleep - allows you to turn off the display by double tapping on the status bar, like in CyanogenMod.
- HideBatteryLowAlert. Removes the low battery pop-up notification. You're always looking at the upper right corner anyway, aren't you?
- VolumeSteps+ - allows you to adjust the number of volume steps for more precise adjustment.
- Network Speed Indicator - shows the speed of incoming and outgoing traffic in the status bar.
- Advanced Power Menu+ - an advanced menu for rebooting the device with items for rebooting into recovery, bootloader, and so on.
- Statusbar Download Progress - shows the progress of downloading data from the network in the form of a thin strip above the status bar.
And of course, don’t forget about the GravityBox module - a powerful tool for customizing the firmware to suit your needs. It is a collection of functionality of the most popular modules + interesting features taken from different firmware. However, keep in mind that some features may conflict with other Xposed modules.
7. Make changes to system settings
Now let's adjust the system settings a little. They are stored in the file /system/build.prop, and, as you can guess from its name, this is a description of the configuration of a specific Android build for a specific smartphone. This text file describes what DPI the system should set, what are the settings for the memory cleaning system, how much memory to allocate to applications, what mobile and Wi-Fi network settings to set when you first turn it on, and much more (Android version, shell version, device name , firmware build date, etc.).
A very convenient build.prop editor is built into Kernel Adiutor, but no one forbids using a regular editor (the main thing is that it allows you to open files in root mode). But do not forget that the system reads build.prop only when you turn on the device, therefore, to apply any changes, you need to reboot.
Let's look at the lines that are most interesting to us:
- ro.product.model And ro.product.manufacturer contain the smartphone model and its manufacturer (company name), respectively. By replacing these lines, you can make the Play Store think that you have a different smartphone and open access to more software. Examples of the model and manufacturer can be found on the Internet. After the substitution, do not forget to clear the Play Store data (done in the same way as in the case of disabling the software, but by clicking the “Erase data” button instead of “Disable”) and reboot.
- hw.qemu.mainkeys. Takes only two values: 0 - show on-screen navigation keys (these are three buttons at the bottom of the screen that make some iPhone fans laugh), 1 - do not show buttons. Unfortunately, the operation of the sub-display buttons does not depend on this parameter. They have worked and will continue to work at any value. You can read in more detail about the struggle with buttons in the article “The Tale of Three Buttons”.
- debug.sf.nobootanimation. A value of 1 disables the loading animation, which slightly increases its speed. Setting it to 0 or deleting the line returns the animation to its original location.
- ro.telephony.default_network tells the system what mode the mobile network should be switched to when booting. The value is a number that can be found out like this: dial *#*#4636#*#* in the dialer and click on the “Phone Information” item. In the “Preferred network type” menu, count down to the desired mode. The count starts from 0. That is, for a 3G smartphone the values will be as follows: WCDMA preferred (preferably 3G) is 0, GSM Only (2G only) is 1, WCDMA only (3G only) is 2 and so on. I counted to the required number and wrote the number into the value. Now, immediately after a reboot, the network will be activated in exactly the mode that is written in build.prop.
With a simple manipulation, you can force your smartphone to work in GSM or 4G only mode. To do this, you need to enable TD-SCDMA, GSM and LTE mode. We don’t have TD-SCDMA in our country, so only GSM or 4G will be received.
8. Change the default software
Launcher
One of the most important programs influencing user experience. The stock launcher of many inexpensive smartphones is terribly inconvenient: it is either a standard Android launcher (which is not so bad) or the work of crazy programmers. Well, let's correct the situation.
- - a launcher from Asus, pre-installed on all smartphones with ZenUI. It works very quickly, has many effects, is perfectly customizable, is perfectly Russified, works stably and quickly, eats up little memory, and the most important advantage is the complete absence of advertising and the entire arsenal of functions in the free version (there is simply no paid version).
- Action Launcher 3 is a launcher packed with a huge number of interesting features. Here, for example, there is a side menu for quickly launching applications; a second side menu where you can place icons and widgets that will be accessible from any application (a sort of quick home screen); function of adjusting launcher colors to wallpaper colors; function to align icon sizes; the Shutter concept, when an application widget appears on the screen by swiping from an icon; the Cover concept, when a folder is an icon of the application being launched, and the folder itself is opened by swiping; and even support for quick menus that appeared in Android 7. Externally, the launcher is similar to Pixel, but it may be very different from it. The only negative is that most of the features are only available in the paid version.
- Arrow Launcher is a fast and original launcher with integration with Microsoft services. The interface is divided into several screens: recent calls and messages, reminders, recent documents (including photos taken) + the ability to add different screens with widgets. Switching between these screens is the same as switching between desktops. In general, the shell is original and comfortable.
- ASAP Launcher is a launcher built around a simple idea: to bring all the most necessary and frequently used functions to the desktop. There is no desktop as such, but there are five screens: the main one with the current weather and a slide-out panel for launching the most used applications, a screen with recent / most frequent contacts, a screen with a weather report, a screen with a TODO sheet, and a screen with calendar events. Plus, swiping on the right side of the screen opens a panel with quick settings (quick settings are just like from Android 5+, but arranged in a vertical line), and on the left - a list of all applications sorted alphabetically.
- Yahoo Aviate Launcher is a launcher that adapts to you. Automatically categorizes all applications, rearranges the desktop throughout the day, making information and applications dynamic (for example, shows a music control widget directly on the desktop). Can suggest interesting places to visit nearby. Fast and undemanding of resources.
Gallery
- QuickPic is a very simple and lightweight gallery. Almost without advertising, convenient photo management, smooth and fast animations, the presence of all the functions necessary for the average user. Works great even on very weak devices. Can talk about new images that have appeared on the device. As a bonus: integration with the cloud and a simple image editor.
- Google Photos - integration with Google Drive, the ability to auto-upload photos to the cloud, unlimited storage for compressed photos, a good tool for creating collages, fast work. However, the main highlight of this application is the neural network-based search. The application uses a Google server to recognize what is shown in the photo. Therefore, you can enter, for example, “beach” in the search, and the program will show you all the photos of beaches, even if you haven’t marked them in any way before. And this applies not only to beaches, but also to any other things: objects, buildings, cities and even dog breeds.
Dialer
Dialer is the second most used program. Unfortunately, on Chinese (and not only) smartphones the quality of its execution leaves much to be desired.
- 2GIS Dialer - can search for nearby organizations. With its help, you can find out, for example, the telephone number of the passport office or local post office without any Google or Yandex. However, the database of numbers mainly applies to cities of federal significance: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol.
- Truedialer is the most popular dialer from Google Play. Two cool features: it can (in some cases) identify the caller, even if he is not in your address book, includes a huge database of “unwanted” numbers (advertising agencies, debt collectors), which allows you to immediately identify and block them.
Last updated by at February 20, 2017.
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 your 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's 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 that you didn’t even know existed. 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!
Technologies
Just like computers, smartphones Over time they begin to slow down.
But there are several simple ways to increase the speed of your iOS or Android device.
Here are these simple tips:
How to speed up your smartphone
1. Update your operating system.
If your smartphone is running slower than before, then the operating system it runs may not be the latest version. Newer versions of iOS or Android will allow your smartphone to improve its performance in terms of speed.
But before updating, you should connect your phone to WiFi and save all the data. In addition, make sure that your smartphone supports the new version of the operating system, since very old devices, as well as ultra-budget smartphones, cannot be optimized.
For iPhone
“Settings” – “General” – “System Update” (Software Update).
For Android devices
"Settings" - "About Phone" - "System Updates" or "Software Updates" to check for updates.
2. Disable or limit animations on your phone.
Animating windows on a phone (when you move from one screen to another or from one application to another), of course, looks beautiful and impressive, but these details can slow down the smartphone, as they require additional system resources.
For Android devices:
Option 1: “Settings” – “Display” – “Animation”, then select “No animation”.
Option 2: “Settings” – “For Developers”, find the items that are responsible for animation and select “Disable animation” or “No animation”.
For iOS devices:
"Settings" - "General" - "Universal Access" - "Reduce Motion". After that, try turning on or closing any application and then go to the multitasking panel. The animation did not turn off, but became different.
3. Try to install only the most necessary applications.
There are tons of programs and tools available in app stores, and it seems like you need a lot of them. But it's worth considering whether you should install this or that application, and whether you will really use it often.
Any application uses the resources of your smartphone, and the fewer of them, the faster your device works.
How to speed up your phone
4. Get rid of unused apps.
Remove apps you don't need or rarely use. This can be done by opening the application list. Any application can be restored if you decide to return it. Programs and games occupy the device's memory, so the fewer of them, the faster the device works.
5. Get rid of widgets on your smartphone screen.
The programs you install on your home screen may be useful, but they can seriously slow down your phone. Many widgets run regularly in the background, looking for new information or updates. If this or that widget on your phone’s home screen is not very important to you, just delete it.
6. Don't use "Live Wallpaper".
This is a nice feature, but just like widgets on a smartphone screen, it eats up not only the device's RAM, but also its battery. Over time, “live wallpapers” will begin to seriously slow down your smartphone. You should also refrain from using bright, multi-colored pictures on the screen - ideally the screen should be black.
How to speed up your Android smartphone
7. Disable autorun of unnecessary programs.
For Android: "Settings" - "Applications" - "Running services" or "Settings" - "Manage applications" - "Running". See which programs you don't want to start automatically - stop them and restart your phone. To stop different services on your phone, you can use one of the process managers in the app store.
By disabling autorun of unnecessary programs, the overall performance of your smartphone will increase.
8. Automatically clear your messengers after 30 days.
Most smartphone users don't even think about cleaning up junk in their various messaging apps. If you have accumulated more than 1 gigabyte of text messages that are slowing down your phone, then you should think about clearing the messenger.
Luckily for iPhone owners, you can enable the iMessage app to clear messages every 30 days (Settings – Messages – Keep Messages). But if you want to save all messages, then it is better to store them in archived form in the cloud (iCloud).
On Android devices, you will have to delete messages manually. However, there is a feature in your phone settings that allows you to get rid of old messages when your phone is running low on space.
9. Turn off automatic app updates.
For devices onAndroid
Google Play has a mechanism that automatically checks the versions of installed applications. If it finds a newer version, it automatically (in the background) updates the application to the new version. Such an update service requires some RAM resources.
You can turn off auto-update and update all or specific applications manually. To do this you need to: go to Google Play – “Settings” and uncheck “Notifications” and “Update automatically”.
For devices oniOS
"Settings" - "General" - "Content Update".
After this, you will see all the applications that are updating in the background. Go through the list of applications and disable those that you don't need. This step will not only speed up your phone, but will save some battery power.
How to speed up your smartphone
10. Disable GPS and geolocation.
For devices on iOS
There are applications that can only work if they continuously track the location of the phone owner, even when he is not using them. They can greatly slow down your smartphone, and to disable them, go to “Settings” – “Privacy” – “Location Services”. This will open a list of all applications that are related to location sensors. In the desired applications, activate the "When used" or "Never" option.
For Android devices
If you do not want to use your phone as a navigator, it is better to turn off GPS. To do this, go to “Settings” – “Coordinates” (or “Location”) and uncheck all the boxes.
To increase the speed of your iPhone, you can also do a hard reset of the device. This reboot rids the phone of temporary and cached files. To start such a reboot, press and hold the Home button for a while (until the Apple logo appears). On iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, this is done using the volume button.
How to speed up your phone on Android and iOS
12. Task manager.
Every smartphone has a built-in Task Manager, which allows you to close any running applications that you don’t need at that moment. Closing an application means that it is unloaded from RAM, which means the smartphone will work faster. But you can download a separate Task Manager created by a third-party developer.
13. Clear application and browser cache.
For Android devices
To clear the cache, go to “Settings” – “Applications” – “Manage applications”. Once you've clicked on the app, go to its properties and look for "Clear cache." In this way, you get rid of outdated data, which in turn speeds up your applications.
Google Play has a large number of task managers with which you can manage your applications, disable unused programs and clear the cache. You can download the Clean Master application - it is convenient, since it has Russian, it is understandable and it can perform many different functions, just like a Swiss army knife.
For iOS devices
The iPhone doesn't have a cache clearing feature for certain apps, which means it's best to download and install a third-party app. An excellent option is the Battery Doctor app (also available on Google Play), which, by the way, is free. After downloading and installing this application, open the icon on your smartphone screen and you can start cleaning.
Go to the tab that contains the cache and confirm the deletion. It's also worth noting that Battery Doctor allows you to enter the smartphone's memory and you can monitor how the free space is filling up. In addition, you can delete applications that you have not used for a long time.
You should not launch this application too often, since iOS itself is capable of handling most active processes.
How to speed up your phone
14. Do a hard reset to factory settings.
If you have tried all the methods and nothing has yielded significant results, you will have to return the device to factory settings. This will allow the phone to return to its original state (when it left the factory). But be aware that such a reboot will erase all data from the phone, so save all photos, music, contacts, applications and important files in advance. But this method will also rid the phone of excess garbage.
For iOS devices
“Settings” – “General” – “Reset”. Click Erase All Content and Settings and confirm your password. You can also reset the settings to factory defaults through iTunes: “Settings” – “General” – scroll to the “Reset” tab. Next, either “Reset settings” (deleting all data except files) or “Reset content and settings” (deleting all information).
For Android devices
“Menu” - “Settings” - “Backup and reset” - scroll to the very bottom to the “Reset settings” item (in some smartphones it is called “Reset phone settings” or “Master reset” or “Erase all data”).
