AndroidLost Client - Send SMS Commands to your stolen/misplaced phone using this app

It is not possible to always remember all the SMS commands for 'AndroidLost' app but 'AndroidLost Client' app helps us to send SMS easily and take control of the stolen phone. AndroidLost Client allows you to control (via SMS) the devices in which AndroidLost app is installed

Install this app in any android phone and you will be able to send the SMS commands to your stolen phone by entering your phone number and the PIN. This PIN is the security key which can be set in the AndroidLost.com website. The app allows us to choose the SMS commands from a dropdown box where all the commands are displayed. 

If the thief has changed the SIM then you will be notified by an SMS which will be sent to the trusted phone numbers you set in the website. So you need not worry even if the thief has changed the SIM, you can still send SMS commands and take over the control of your phone.

Get 'AndroidLost Client' Here

Wanna know more about AndroidLost app? Check it out Here 

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Best Anti-Theft app to protect your Android phones - AndroidLost

There are tons of apps out there to protect your phone when it is lost or stolen. Some are free but provides limited service and some are paid apps and provides all the important features.

This app is the simplest and best among all anti-theft apps and the size of the app is just around 250KB!. It can do wonders if you want to lock or protect data when you have misplaced your phone or even when the phone is lost/stolen. The app is none other than AndroidLost. Get this app from HERE


Key features:

-> The phone can be controlled by just sending SMS. 
-> The phone can also be controlled by using its website www.androidlost.com
-> Uses your Google account as credentials(The same Google account of your play store)

      The below are the some important actions that can be performed by just using SMS

-> Lock phone
-> Unlock phone
-> Start/Stop Mobile Data
-> Start/Stop GPS
-> Start/Stop WiFi
-> Alarm
-> Pop up a message on the phone
-> Erase SD card
-> Wipe the phone
-> Locate the phone ans return an SMS

-> Make a call
-> Hang up the active call

All the available SMS commands can be found here www.androidlost.com/#sms

The other interesting features of this app are as follows:

-> Takes a picture in Front cam/Rear cam and sends back to your email or you can view the pics from website's Logs 
-> Sound recording
-> Notifies of SIM card change and sends you back the new number. You can use the new number to send SMS commands and take control of the phone
-> App Launcher (Premium)
-> Capture Screenshot(Premium)
-> Reboot Phone(Premium)
-> Shutdown Phone(Premium)

-> Rooted phones gets additional security which makes the AndroidLost app as a System App that can prevent un-installation of the app.

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How to set data usage limit in android phones and tablets

There are a lot of apps which runs in background and consumes data without our knowledge so setting up the data limit could save you money!

To do this Go to Settings --> Data usage

In order to set the data limit, the 'Mobile data' should be turned ON

Data usage screen

After turning ON the mobile data, the option 'Set mobile data limit' appears with a checkbox for selection. Choose your data cycle dates in the 'Data usage cycle' option.

There are two bars available in the Graph displayed below. 

1) Limit bar  --> The maximum data limit after which the data will not be connected(Can connect to data by turning off the Set mobile data limit option)
2) Warning bar --> Gives you a warning when the warning limit is crossed

Data cycles can be set using 'Data usage cycle' option

The data usage option also displays the amount of data the apps have consumed as shown in the below image.

Amount of data consumed by the apps

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Backing up contacts in Android phones using Google account

Missing contacts from our phones is very irritating and getting back those lost contacts is even more tiring.

The easiest way to back up your contacts is by using your Google play store's account. i.e., by your gmail account itself.

Go to Settings --> under ACCOUNTS select Google --> Select the Google account 

Touch 'Contacts' to Sync the contacts. If Sync is enabled by default then you don't need to sync manually.

Touching 'Contacts' syncs your contacts

The next time when you change to a new phone or have done a hard reset, just sign-in with the same Google account and it restores all your contacts.

It also gives you the option to backup and restore Apps, Browser data, Google Keep data, etc.

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How to disable Cell Broadcast messages in Custom ROMs

Cell broadcast messages are the messages that your mobile service provider sends you based on your current geographic location as determined by the cell towers of the service provider. The mobile service provider sends you messages related to weather, location, local news, emergency alerts, advertisements, offers and so on. In the beginning the cell broadcast service was mostly useful, but these days the service providers are using it to advertise various things to the customers. If you have been receiving such messages on your Android smartphone, then you can disable the cell broadcast messages and get rid of these annoyances in just few clicks.There are few ways to disable the Cell Broadcast Messages. Let's see them now. 

1. Method 1 (Need Root access)
The easiest way to disable Cell Broadcast messages in Custom ROMs like ParanoidAndroid, SlimKAT, etc. is to delete an apk file related to Cell Broadcast.

To do this we need root access. Be cautious while deleting this file and you may brick your phone if you deleted some other system file so carry out this task on your own risk but deleting the correct file would help to stop Cell Broadcast messages in future.

Go to System/data and find for CellBroadcastReceiver.apk file and delete it. To be on safer side cut this file and paste in your external SD card. You can permanently delete this file if you were not encountering any other issues with Messages.

2. Method 2 (No Root required)

Go to Messages --> Settings
Select the settings for 'Text Messages'
Go to Cell Broadcast and turn it off

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All In One File Explorer - FX File Explorer

FX File Explorer

Looking for a file manager which manages everything? 

FX File Explorer is a very versatile and easy to use app to manage your files with optional media, networking, cloud and root capabilities. 

FX Explorer

The 'FX Plus' add-on adds media management, cloud(Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Box, SugarSync) and network(FTP, SFTP, SMB, WebDAV) capabilities . This 'Plus' add-on is a paid app but you can try it for 7 days as a free trial.

With FX Plus Add-On

The "FX Root" add-on needs to be installed to get access as a root user. 

With FX Root Add-On

There are a ton of options available in this app to manage your files effectively. There is even an option available to Archive your files without the need of a separate Archiver. 

The Multi-Window is an excellent option which allows us to do multiple operations at a time. The Split View option enables us to view two screens at the same time and so on...

Options

Multi Window

Split View

Give it a try. You won't uninstall it later ;)
Get 'FX File Explorer' app from here

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TURN OFF screen by just a touch

Turn Off / Lock your screen by just a touch using Lock Screen Widget. 

This is a widget which can be added to your home screen and the screen turns off by just tapping on it. This app is useful for the folks who don't wish to use the hard keys of the phone to turn off/lock their phones' screen.

The widget has to be activated in the Device Administrators to use it. The same has to be deactivated before uninstalling the app.

Select Admin Lock Screen Widget

There are two colors to choose from. Black and White.

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How to solve "Insufficient Storage Available" issue while installing android apps

"Insufficient Storage Available" Error

This is sometimes a common problem in android phones while updating an existing app.
There is an easy way to resolve this problem and it works on most android phones. 
Please note that this works only on ROOTED android phones. This method won't work in phones without root access.

Below is an example with which the procedure is demonstrated.

The app which gives problem in this example is Clean Master. Whenever I update this app, it downloads the update but while installing it gives the error message "Insufficient storage available" or shows an error code as shown below.

Step 1: Download and install a File Browser which can access root files.
Step 2:  Go to /data/app-lib/ directory. There could be a lot of folders.
Step 3: Select the folder(s) related to the app which gives you problem. In this case, I have to search for the folder(s) containing the name Clean Master.
Step 4: There could be more than one folder displayed with the app name. In this case, there are two folders com.cleanmaster.mguard-1 and com.cleanmaster.mguard-2 as shown in the below picture. Delete these folders. (Take a backup of these folders for safer side. Later you can delete if not required).
Step 5: After deleting successfully, restart the phone. Now you can update your app.

Note: Be careful while accessing files in root. You may damage your phone if you don't know what you are doing.

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Auto Screen On - Turns On screen without touching the buttons

Is your phone's power button not working? Is it becoming a big problem to turn on your screen using your sticky power button? If Yes then this app will do the trick.

Power button is the most used button to turn on the phone's screen. Sometime we may also use Home button to turn on the screens. But if you don't wanna use these buttons to increase the buttons' life,  you can go for Auto Screen On app which uses g-sensor or proximity sensor to turn on your phone's screen. 

A very simple app which works on the phones which has either of the above said two sensors.

For g-sensor: When the screen is off, pick up the device horizontally, then the screen would auto wake up.
For proximity sensor: When the screen is off, approach the sensor, then the screen would auto wake up.

Sounds simple?. Yes, its very simple.

Types of sensors

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Transfer any type of file with no limits using 'Send Anywhere'

You might have noticed in Android phones that you will not be able to transfer files such as word documents, spreadsheet documents, .apk files, system files, .exe files, etc. to a person through internet using the apps we use for chatting. Chatting apps allows us to share only photos, videos and audios.

The only way to send these type of files is through emails which would be really frustrating when we try using web browsers and email apps in android phones. Moreover this is a pain taking process in low end phones.

So to over come this issue, here comes an app called Send Anywhere. 
This is a excellent app to share any type of file or even folder to anyone with or without Send Anywhere installed in their phones. It uses SSL encryption and is secured to share files. The most happiest news is that there is no limitation on file size, but storage expiration time for uploaded files is limited to 24hrs (up to 48hrs from a change in app settings). i.e., the file will be stored in their servers for a maximum of upto 48 hours.

Wanna send a file from an android phone to a friend who doesn't have a phone?. Send Anywhere is a cross-platform app which allows file transfer from Android to Android / iPhone / iPad / PC and from Android / iPhone / iPad / PC to Android.

Send all kind of files and even folders

Receive files by a Key or using QR code

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Turning Off unwanted apps in Android phones

With the introduction of the Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), Google provided a wonderful feature of Turning Off/Disabling apps. 

The reason you may want to turn off an app could be because the app is a bloatware or it is never being used at all. Most of the phones comes with pre-installed apps called bloatware, they cannot be uninstalled by a simple 'uninstall'. Bloatwares could be really annoying when it slows down your phone or when it gives some unwanted notifications while running continuously in the background consuming your RAM.

Let's take a look at how to turn off an app. The navigation shown below is from Samsung Galaxy S3 running on Android 4.3. Navigation for other phones could vary a little.

Go to Settings --> Application manager --> Select an app which you need to Turn Off/Disable --> Click Turn Off/Disable

The app which is demonstrated here is S Voice. NOTE that by simply turning off a system app may cause serious problems to your phone. Do not turn off an app unless you are sure what you are doing.

In Android 4.3, it allows us to see the list of Turned Off apps as shown in one of the below snaps.

List of TURNED OFF apps

Turned Off apps can be Turned On by clicking the 'Turn on' button as shown below

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G Cloud Backup

Wanna backup your contacts, messages, photos, videos and many more? If yes then this is the right app for you.

G Cloud Backup is a cloud based storage system which backs up your important data. Never worry about upgrading to a new phone, if you wanna do hard reset, if you loose your phone, etc. Your precious data can be restored with ease. For a free user the memory given is 1GB and can earn up to 10GB for Free!. Unlimited storage can be gained by spending few pennies.

Root access is not required for anything, so this one is for everyone. The cloud part is Amazon's S3 cloud storage. There is no shortage of options that are provided by G Cloud. 
The app itself is so incredibly simple to use, with a very simple user interface. G Cloud Backup has a pretty extensive feature list.

G Cloud Backup provides facility to back up and restore of the followings,

> Contacts
> Call log
> Messages
> Photos
> Videos
> Music
> Documents
> Calendars
> System Settings
> Browser Data

An important feature of this app is that it stores all the backups made with respect to time(Backs up every version of all files). For example, the app does not overwrite the Contacts back up made today with the one which was made yesterday.

The first tab you are shown upon signing in is the dashboard or home. Next is the scheduled backup, how much of your storage you've used, anything pending and how much has been backed up already. At the bottom are the options for getting extra free storage or upgrading to more storage by paying some money.


The other tab is basically just a list with check boxes. Simple, clean, effective. It's all about backing up to your own choices, you just select what you want from the list. In addition to regular backup things like photos and videos, there are options to back up such information as system settings, browser data.

Contacts backup is useful to have, but it duplicates the contacts that are already restored by your google account. Google account just backs up the contacts that are stored under your Google account but G Cloud backs up the contacts that are stored in phone, sim, multiple google accounts. Pretty nice thing to backup contacts.

The new feature of G Cloud is that it can protect your apps settings, game levels, app customization and more but strictly works only for Rooted devices.  
There is a web version of G Cloud available at http://gcloud.zoolz.com/

Backs up every version of all files

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Hiding Apps in Samsung phones

'Hide applications' feature is an excellent feature which helps us to hide apps. This feature may not be available in some versions of android.

To do this Go to the App Drawer(Main apps page) page --> Click the settings button --> Select 'Hide applications' from the pop up --> Select the apps to be hidden --> Click Done

To Unhide apps Go to the App Drawer(Main apps page) page --> Click the settings button --> Select 'Show hidden applications' from the pop up --> Select the apps to be shown --> Click Done

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How to check for software updates in android phones

Software updates check for android phones can be done manually or set to automatic.

To check for software updates manually.
Go to Settings --> About phone --> Software update --> Update

To make the checking of software updates automatic.
Go to Settings --> About phone --> Software update --> Check the 'Auto update' check box

By checking the 'Auto update ' check box, it checks for updates automatically and even downloads the updates.

Check the 'Wi-Fi Only' option to allow the download to happen only when connected to Wi-Fi.

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Activating multiple languages in the Samsung Keyboard

Samsung Keyboard is the default keyboard of all android phones in which some versions of android OS allows us to use multiple languages by flipping through a language by just a swipe. Let's take a look on how to do this.


The device used here is Samsung Galaxy S3 running on stock Android 4.3. The navigation of the screens may differ slightly in other devices. Activate multiple languages as follows.

Settings --> Language and input --> Settings of Samsung keyboard(A tiny screw button next to the 'Samsung keyboard') --> Select input languages.

The various languages which are already downloaded are displayed. It allows us to choose a maximum of four languages. Other languages can also be downloaded from 'Available languages'. Close the settings by pressing back button once you are done with selecting the languages

Now while using the keyboard the language can be changed by simply swiping the space bar to left or right.

                

        

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