Category Archives: How To

How To Factory Reset Samsung Galaxy S3 Device?

What Will Happen To Galaxy SIII When You Factory Reset it?

The most important thing to remember is the factory restore will erase all the data on your phone (which includes your own customization, contacts that were saved in phone memory, your personal data files, downloaded applications and application data), post factory reset the phone will work in the same way that it worked for the first time when you turn on your device and you need to start configuring it.

Note: Point to remember here, while restoring if you happen to choose erase data on your external storage (Memory Card) as well, all your data resting on your SD card will also be deleted and there won’t be any trace of applications/personal data on it.

TIP: How To Block Ads on Rooted & Unrooted Android Devices?

Why Do You Want To Reset Your Device?

Before actually hard resetting (restoring the device to factory settings) please question yourself if you really need to do that as you the chances of loosing your data without proper back up will result in a heavy data loss which is practically not possible to restore.

Go ahead with your choice of hard reset only if one of the following cases matches your situation

Wiping out your personal data before selling your device/returning it to manufacturer (very much recommended)
When you notice that your phone is malfunctioned (not working properly), as resetting to factory defaults will help us in fixing many unknown errors that are raised while using your smart phone.
And if you just don’t need any data on your phone and would like to wipe out everything and let it breathe fresh.

Things To Do Before You Factory Reset?

Sync your contacts with Gmail to lower the loss of contact information.
Backup every file, just to make sure that you are not letting out something.
Make a list of apps that you wish to reinstall on your device, to make sure that you are not missing out some useful application which comes handy when you are in need.

Step By Step Instructions For Factory Reset of Samsung Galaxy S3?

Click on Menu –> Settings Button
Scroll down to find “Backup and Reset” option, click on that.

Find for “Factory Data Reset”, notice the warning. Now click on “Reset Device” and then select “Delete All” option to finish your option of resetting the device to original factory settings.

Voila! You are with your selections and with in few minutes the phone will be up running fresh followed by reboot.

Check: How To Factory Data Reset Your Android Device?

In case if you meet with any issues in resetting your device, please let us know about the same through the shout box below we would be very glad to help you out and try to discuss your issues. Don’t you agree that sharing & helping is caring?

How To Factory Data Reset Your Android Device?

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Now or later everyone will feel that your mobile phone is loaded with loads of unwanted data and may choose to clear that off by removing the apps/data manually and few (lazy) smart people (like me!) would always love to choose the easiest way to wipe the data and it will be nothing other than choosing the “Factory Data Reset” for restoring your device to the factory build settings by wiping off all the data from the internal storage (yup, your data on external storage will be safe unless you format your SD card) along with all the manual settings you have done like date & time, configuring your Google account, system and application data and all other custom settings would be erased as well.

Manual Way: How To Auto Delete Old Text Messages From Android?

The device will be restarted after you select ‘Factory data reset’, your phone/tablet now behave like a brand new one (except for possible wear and tear’s), you just need to follow the onscreen instructions for configuring your device (exactly) like the way you have done for the first time.

Why You Would Like To Do A Factor Reset?

The possible reasons which tend you to choose reset the data to factory settings include:

You may choose to sell your device, and clear off your personal data left over on the phone (just to make sure that the device carries none of your personal information)
Unfortunately your device is stuck with problem and you wish to surrender/give/claim the device to manufacturer for your own reasons.
Strange Behavior of the device, yeah lot of software related issues will get fixed if we reset the phone/tablet.
As I said earlier, your are lazy enough (proud to be) to clear data individually.

TIP: How To Improve Battery Life Of Your Android Mobile?

Precaution: Things To Do Before You Do a Factory Reset

Follow these instructions carefully as they may come handy just in case if you end up with few issues.

Backup..! Backup..! Backup..! Just backup every (important) file from your phone to external PC/Storage.
Move all the paid apps (if any) to your external storage so that you won’t need to buy them again.
Sync all your contacts with your Gmail account or install software PC suite and backup all your contact details.
Make a list of the apps which you would like to install after you complete the “Factory Data Reset”.

Be Smart: How To Take Screenshot With Samsung Galaxy Series Devices?

How To Factory Data Reset Your Android Smart Phone?

For resetting the device to factory build settings and clear off the internal storage completely just follow these step by step instructions and know ‘How To Factory Reset your Android Phone/Tablet?’

First to start with click on Menu –> Settings.

Scroll down and tap on ‘Privacy Settings’ or few phones may also need to check in ‘SD & Phone Storage’.

Now the last step, just tap on ‘Factory Data Reset’ and in the next screen click on ‘Reset Phone’ to complete the process (optionally you may also check ‘Format SD card’ for clearing off the data from external storage card).

Please note that it may take up to 5 to 10 minutes of time to complete the process of factory restore, post the restore you are now all set to configure your (new) device again.

We have taken care of each and every detail that you need to do for resetting the phone to factory data settings, but just in case if you face any difficulty in configuring these options please feel free to use the comments box below, we will glad to help you with the process.

How To Auto Delete Old Text Messages From Android?

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With the advent of email & SMS marketing and the increased pace in number of messages exchanged between friends and family, the number of messages in your inbox will keep on growing day by day and heavy load or increase in number of messages in your inbox will result to load the Text Messaging app very slowly and storing excessive number of messages texts in your message box will result in more processing time for opening the Messaging app which in turn will use more power from battery resulting in a quicker drain of power. So it is always recommended to carry less number of messages either by deleting them manually or by doing it in the automated way, yeah your Android device is capable of deleting the old messages from your smart phone automatically..!

Before you wonder and ask me “is it possible to delete messages from inbox automatically from my Android phone?” let me confirm you again, yeah it is possible and all you need to do and follow is to configure your device as mentioned in following steps.

CHECK: How To Know What Version Of Android You Are Running?

How To Automatically Delete Old Texts on Android Device?

Deleting the texts in automatic way is pretty simple, and for configuring that first you need to launch your text messaging app.
Now, click on ‘Menu’ button and then click on ‘Settings’ button.

Under setting, just check the option ‘Delete old messages’ (when you turn-on the setting, just notice the green check-mark to confirm that the option was enabled) and then you are free to set the limit for your text conversations. Although the default value is 200, it is recommended to set a lower number for better performance.

DO YOU KNOW? How To Improve Battery Life Of Your Android Mobile?

That’s it, configuring it is pretty simple and straight forward and you need to do is to enable a setting. In case if you have any issues please let us know your concerns through the comments box.

Happy Android’ing…!

How To Install Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) SDK on Windows?

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ICS is the latest version of Android, and for those who don;t have an ICS powered Android device or for people who would like to check out Android in their local system (Windows Machine), setting an emulator in Android SDK is the best way to run the Ice Cream Sandwich as it helps you in exploring the features of the Android 4.0.

DO YOU KNOW? Key Features of Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 Platform

How To Install & Run Android 4.0 (ICS) on Local PC?

In order to run the Android OS, first you need to install Android SDK in your machine just follow these tutorials for installation & setup of Android SDK.

How To Install Android SDK with GUI Setup? | Android SDK Manual Setup on Windows

After installing the SDK, open the SDK application which will search for the updates as applicable and fetches all the SDK packages that are available for Android.

You will notice “Android 4.0 (API14)” in the fetched packages, just select it and select “Android SDK Platfrom-tool” under ‘Tools’ (refer the screenshot below) and click on ‘Install Packages’.

After you click on Install Packages, a pop-up will then be prompted which asks you confirm the selections and to accept the license terms, just go through them (recommended) and click on ‘Install’ to go ahead.

Wait for few moments for downloading the stuff from Internet and to complete the setup, once everything was set, just click on Tools in the menu bar and click on ‘AVD Manager’ (Android Virtual Device Manager) in the drop down, and in AVD Manager click on ‘New’ in order to create a new virtual device for running Android 4.0 (ICS).

Enter “Android ICS” (optional) in name field and select “Android 4.0 – API Level 14″ from drop down for Target and for the rest follow the setup as selected in the screenshot below and click on ‘Create AVD’.

A pop-up will then be prompted, just click on “OK”, which will create the virtual device that runs Android ICS.

Post the setup, just select the virtual device which you have created now and click on “Start” and click on “Launch” in the followed window.

The pre-booting will start for running Android ICS which will take around 5 minutes of time (for the first time) and once everything gets loaded, Android 4.0 will be loaded and running in the Emulator resulting the welcome Screen.

Now you can start using the Android ICS in the emulator, in case if you stuck with some issues while setting up the Emulator do let us know about the same, we will be glad to discuss your issues and help you in going ahead with the installation.

How To Know What Version Of Android You Are Running?

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Android is the most powerful and #1 mobile operating system and the best part of it is, it is getting better and beautiful day by day with the addition of new and most awesome featured. Besides the features, it is always best to upgrade to the latest version of the software as the latest version will come up the bug fixes that came up in the earlier versions and it is highly recommended to upgrade to the latest version (at the time of this writing it is Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4) provided your manufacturer supports and provides the official update for the version (for when if your hardware meets the latest software requirements and the manufacturer didn’t release an official update, you can still upgrade using the available custom ROMs released by third-party/freelance developers by rooting your Android device at your own risk).

To Know more about Rooting, we recommend you to go through this write-up: What is Rooting on Android? Advantages & Disadvantages of Rooting

As we said there are multiple versions of Android OS’s available (Cupcake (v1.5), Donut (v1.6), Eclair (v2.1), Froyo (v2.2), Gingerbread (2.3.2), Honeycomb(3.0), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4)) it is very important to know the version of the operating system which your device is running & now getting into the business, follow the mentioned instruction to know about the Android version that your device is running on.

How To Check What Version of Android You Are Running on Your Device?

In order to know the version, click on “Menu” on the home screen and then click on “Settings” button.

Scroll down, and click on “About Phone”.

In the next screen, scroll down to find the “Android Version” on which your device is running.

That’s it, now its time to check for the latest updates as applicable for your device, Good Luck…!

How To Block Ads on Rooted & Unrooted Android Devices?

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How many of you feel annoying when you see ads while playing with Apps? many of you right, and the fact is ads do spoil the experience of using the apps, thank god that few of the developers do offer premium version of the apps where there won’t any sort of ads but there were few particular apps which do annoy the users completely by distracting the primary use of the app and this tutorial will help you with the best possible ways for removing the ads.

Installation of Ad blockers works completely different in rooted and unrooted devices (valid for both mobile phones & tablets) and therefore please make sure to select the valid way to install the ad blockers.

How To Install Ad Blockers in Rooted Android Devices?

Rooting Android devices do have specific advantages and here is the list of benefits we get by rooting an Android mobile (although it has few risks, we can overcome them by after going through the mentioned instructions carefully).

So, going to the context “AdAway” is one of the most popular app which helps you in removing the ads completely (both from Apps & even from browser), AdAway app works on an updated block list which will be revised from time to time and thus helps you in blocking the ads before they reach your mobile.

How To Install AdAway App For Blocking Ads?

Open Play Store, and search for AdAway and install the app by following the regular method.
Once you complete the installation, open the app and tap on “Download files and apply ad blocking” button which will download the latest block list filters and updates on your Droid system.

Reboot your Android device and post that you will be free to browse the apps/Internet ad-free.

How To Disable Ad-Blocking Filter?

It’s pretty simple, you just need to open app and unselect the option “Disable Ad Blocking” and reboot the device or simply remove the app and restart the device for applying the changes.

We also have alternative apps To AdAway which helps us in living an ad-Free world, one such app is “AdFree” (remember that even this app works only on Rooted Android Phones).

How To Block Ads On Android with AdFree App?

Open Play Store, and search for AdFree and install the app by following the regular app installation procedure.
Start the app, and click on “Download & Install Hosts” and change the selection list as per the below screenshot and post that reboot your phone/tablet.

Voila! you are done with the changes and are free to live in Ad-Free world.

How To Install Ad Blockers in UnRooted Android Devices?

For unrooted devices, frankly there are no much options left to go ahead with ad blocking, but you can still block the ads for browsing Internet and for the same you need to install “Firefox” browser app first and post that follow the mentioned instructions to set up ad blocking in the browser.

How To Block Ads on Firefox App in Android version?

First you need to launch the Firefox app and click on Menu button and then click on Settings –> Add-ons.
Now search for AdBlock Plus extension and install the add-on, after installing you need to restart the app to push the changes into effect (This method is pretty much similar to the one of desktop version).

That’s it, from now you will be able to start browsing your favorite websites ad free.

Editor’s Note: We don’t admit that every ad is annoying and we are not even against the idea of inserting ads in apps as we know that running ads is the only stream of monetization for app developers but there are few developers whose primary motto in making apps is to just make money and therefore tries to spoil the experience by distracting the users with huge ads, anyways sharing this tutorial is completely informational and we recommend our readers do apply the above mentioned methods if you are completely uncomfortable with the ads-concept.

So guys, what are you waiting for, start living your ad free world, for any kind of difficulties please get back to us through comments section and we will be glad to discuss all of your issues that you end up while setting up these apps.

Step By Step Instructions For Installing Android SDK

Setup Guide For Android SDK Installation

Step 1: First download the latest Android SDK from the following link (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html)

Step 2: After the download, unzip its contents and save it to the root of C:\ (You will get a new folder within C:\ called “android-sdk-windows”)

Step 3: After installation open the android- sdk- windows folder double-click the SDK manager file to launch it.

Step 4: If you are launching the SDK manager for the first time you will be asked for the packages to be installed. Please select the following files which are necessary for SDK installation.

Android SDK Tools, revision 15
Google USB Driver package, revision 4
Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 9

You can reject all the other options if you are not interested in them.

Step 5: Wait for the tools to get installed and close the manager after installation is complete.

Step 6: Now in the Control Panel select System Properties (for Windows XP) or System (for Windows Vista/7).

Step 7: Now select the Advanced settings; Click on the Advanced tab (for Windows XP) Click on Advanced system settings on the left. (for Windows Vista/7)

Step 8: In the next window click on Environment Variables.

Step 9: Now under the “System variable” option double-click the “Path” option.

Step 10: Now within “Variable values” option, input the following path %SystemRoot%;C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools;C:\android-sdk-windows\tools.

Step 11: If your Google USB Driver package doesn’t support your device, you can download the following drivers (github.com/gu1dry/android_winusb/zipball/master) and install it. This driver package supports all the android devices. After downloading the file unzip it and copy the android_winusb.inf file to the following path: C:\android-sdk-windows\extras\google\usb_driver\ to replace the existing android-winusb.inf file.

Step 12: In the smart phone make sure to enable USB Debugging by using the following path Settings>Applications>Development.

Step 13: Now connect the smart phone with the PC using the USB data cable.

Step 14: Now in the command prompt type “adb devices”. If the command list device then the installation was successful. If no devices are displayed go back to step 10 to reinstall the drivers.

Step 15: Now right-click on My Computer (for Windows XP) or Computer (for Windows Vista/7) and click on the manage option.

Step 16: In the next window click on the device manager icon on the left side of the window. If the drivers were properly installed you will see “Unknown Device” with a yellow exclamation mark (ADB).

Step 17: Now right-click on the ADB and click on the “Update Driver Software” option.

Step 18: Now click on the “Browse my computer for driver software” and in the next window select the “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” option.

Step 19: In the next window click on the option “Have Disk” and then select the “Browse” option.

Step 20: Now navigate to the following path ‘C:\android-sdk-windows\google-usb_driver’ and select “android_winusb.inf”.

Step 21: Please click on the ‘Android ADB Interface’. This will show a popup warning you about the hazards of doing it, simply click on the “Yes” option.

Step 22: After you complete the installation, open the computer’s command prompt and please type “adb devices”.

Step 23: If the command lists any devices, the installation was successful.

That’s it you have finished installation of Android SDK. You can now develop applications for your device and sell them on the Google Play store.

Do let us know if you any help in setting up the Android SDK, we will be glad to help you with the issues that you meet with during the process of Android SDK installation on Windows platform.

How To Improve Battery Life Of Your Android Mobile?

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Android is the no doubt the best and #1 platform available in the market but do have certain limitations especially for particular mobiles which comes with low-end processors and those which do come along with poor graphic levels (to quote few Samsung Galaxy Y S5360, HTC Wildfire, LG Optimus One will make into this list) and to overcome these issues and increase the performance of the battery you need to spare some time for making few changes to the Android system on your mobile phones.

Note: The following tips are not just limited to the phones which we have specified in the above list, it does valid universally for every Android smart device. Enabling these changes could definitely help you in increasing the battery life.

How To Increase The Performance Of Battery of Your Android Device?

The main things that do consume a lot of battery space include:

Enabling various connectivity options.
Kill unnecessary services that are running in the background.
Brightness Management (using the right level of brightness in settings).
Disabling the background data syncing (Auto Sync Feature).

Disable Connectivity Options That You Don’t Use

This is the first tip which you will meet in the articles that are in relation to battery saving tips and almost all the expert’s will recommend you to turn of the connectivity options which you are not using (at least for those moments). Say for instance you are a person who browses Internet through Wi-Fi at your home, so it would definitely be an energy-saving step if you turn off the Wi-Fi when you are not using or moved out of your home and the same is valid for GPS, Bluetooth as these are things which you need for those moments i.e, Bluetooth at the time of transferring files or getting connected to other devices and GPS while navigating Google Maps.

How To Turn Off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi?

For navigate these options press ‘Menu’ and then select ‘Settings’ –> Wireless and Network Settings.
Then select “Wi-Fi settings” and tap on ‘Wi-Fi’ for enabling or disabling it and similarly select “Bluetooth settings” and tap on ‘Bluetooth’ for enabling or disabling it.

Disable Auto Sync Feature

Auto syncing feature is one of the cool features to have as you there will be benefits like getting notified instantaneously through updates and these are really helpful but the apps like Gmail, Google Talk, Facebook, Twitter needs to stay connected to the mobile data networks (2G/EDGE, 3G) or Wi-Fi every second and enabling these features will drain up the battery sooner and will cost to your pocket as they will be using bandwidths continuously (you can ignore the later if you have an unlimited data plan but when you relate that to battery life this one is big turn off).

How To Disable Auto Sync?

For disabling these features, just navigate to Menu –> Settings –> Accounts and Sync –> Uncheck selections beside ‘Background data‘ & ‘Auto-Sync‘.

Adjust Brightness Levels

One of the major thing which we ignore completely is adjusting brightness levels in our device, the default factory settings will come up with moderate display settings, it is always recommended to go with as low as possible brightness levels to save the battery life. In order to adjust brightness levels you need to navigate to Menu –> Settings –> Display and select “Brightness” and adjust the bar levels for choosing the best (remember the lesser it is, the better the battery performance).

Kill Apps That Are Running in Background

There will be a lot of applications that are running in the background although you will not use them, they use a large share of the available memory so it is always recommended to free up the resources by using third-party apps like “Super Task Killer” or “Advanced Task Killer” or “Task Killer” by ReChild or any other app which serves the purpose to kill the applications which are using huge amount of resources. It is also recommended to uninstall the apps which you don’t need.

CHECK: How To Uninstall Android Applications From Your Android Device?

After going through the above mentioned guidelines, we are pretty sure that you can the maximize the performance of your Android device’s battery. In addition do let us know with the tips or things you do on your Android device to increase the battery life efficiency, we will be more glad to add that into this list.

How To Take Screenshot on HTC One X?

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We are pretty sure that many of you are aware of the fact that taking screenshots for (most of) the Android mobile phones do need special access and we need to root the device for the same to get this ability or need an app to take the screenshot of the particular screen of the device.

MUST READ: What is Rooting? Pros & Cons of Rooting Android Devices

Luckily Samsung Galaxy series have the feature of capturing screenshot without rooting or installing the app (If you would like to read on How To Take Screenshots on Samsung Galaxy Series Mobiles, please read the following guide for Instructions To Take Screenshot With Samsung Galaxy Series Devices) and the same is valid for HTC One X, the latest Android smart phone by the maker and taking the screenshots of your mobile display doesn’t need you to install third party app, and to capture the screenshot just go through the rest of the article to know about the two alternative ways available to take screenshots on HTC One X.

Step By Step Instructions For Capturing Screenshot on HTC One X

As discussed we have two options left to capture the screenshot on HTC One X and here goes the first way.

Method 1

Just hold down the ‘POWER’ key and with a difference of a second just press the ‘HOME’ button and the hot keys configured in the system will take the screenshot of the screen which you would like to capture and a message which says “screenshot saved to Camera shots” would be appeared on the screen and the image would be saved in your DCIM (Camera) directory and you can find the same in your mobile phone’s Gallery.

Method 2

In this method you need to hold down the ‘POWER’ button and instead of “Home” key you need to press the VOLUME DOWN button after a second and the screenshot would be saved in your pictures directory under a sub folder “Screenshots”.

Please note that in this method you will need to hold the downside of the volume button for 1 to 2 seconds.

So guys, What are you waiting for..? Just grab your smart phone and try both of these methods and choose the one which works best for you. In case if you are facing any kind of difficulties in capturing the screen shots do let us know through the comments section, we will be more glad to discuss your issues and will try to help you with the best we can.

How To Take Screenshot With Samsung Galaxy Series Devices?

5 Replies

Capturing screenshots is always a problem with un-rooted Android devices as most of the devices need you to root the device to enable the ability of capturing screenshots, we are glad to say that Samsung Galaxy series mobile phones (which includes Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Y) have addressed this problem and have come up with a solution by adding this feature right into their pockets and by enabling the screenshot capture.

How To Capture Screenshot On Samsung Galaxy Series Mobile Phones?

In order to capture the screenshot of a particular screen just hold the BACK button (the center button of the mobile) and in a second hold the POWER button (please keep in mind that holding the BACK button for a longer will bring the task manager’s pop-up).

Voila, you are done with capturing the screenshot and it is very simple isn’t it..?

Alternative Method

If the above method didn’t worked for you for various reasons which includes the timing you have to keep up in pressing the buttons, just hold down the HOME key and then press the POWER button or simply hold the BACK button and press the HOME key twice as these actions are configured as the hot key combinations for capturing the screenshots either of these two alternative ways will work and help you in getting the screenshots.

Do let us know if you still face any issues with this actions, our team will help you in handling the job as desired by you.