Moto G Plus, 4th Gen (Black, 32 GB)

How to change default launcher in Android 4.4 KitKat

One minor change that Google has introduced in Android 4.4 KitKat is the ability to change the default launcher much more easily.

Up until Android 4.3, users would need to install a third party launcher on their device and then press the home button to select a default launcher. If they wanted to switch back to the old launcher, they would either have to uninstall the current launcher or go to Settings-> Apps, find the new launcher and tap the ‘Clear defaults’ option.

With Android 4.4, users can change the default launcher by going to Settings -> Home and then selecting the default launcher.  The Home sub-menu also provides users with the option to uninstall unneeded third party launchers. Considering third party launchers are among the most popular apps in the Play Store, this new change is a right direction in improving usability.

The new ‘Home’ option makes sense when you consider the fact that OEMs might need to ship the stock Google launcher in all Android 4.4+ devices, since it is now a part of Google Search/Apps.

Credit:androidbeat.com

How to add, remove and arrange home screens in Android 4.4 KitKat

One of the biggest changes that Google introduced in Android 4.4 KitKat is the new Google Experience Launcher. The new launcher allows almost instant access to Google Now by just swiping from the left to right on the home screen. Another major change, compared to previous version of Android launcher, is the ability to have unlimited number of home screens. However, by default, KitKat only comes with two home screens. The process to add a new home screen is also be slightly confusing for new users, since there is no guide or visual indication on how one can add a new screen. The process, thankfully, is much easier than one would expect.

Simply tap and hold on an icon and then drag it to the rightmost part of the screen. The Google Experience launcher will then automatically add a new home screen where you can drop that icon. If you want to add more home screens, you can continue to drag the icon to the right most part of the screen and new home screens would be added automatically.

The method to remove a home screen is similar as well. The new launcher automatically deletes any empty home screen. This means that users will need to remove all the icons and widgets from a home screen to delete it. There is no way to setup a default home screen though. Every time you press the Home button, the launcher will automatically bring you back to the first home screen.

Credit:androidbeat.com

Tips to improve Samsung Galaxy Note 3 battery life

Back in 2012, the Galaxy Note 2 set the benchmark in the battery life department for all Android phones to follow. The Note 3 this year is no different, with a beefy 3200mAH removable battery. While the jump in battery capacity compared to the Note 2 is only 100mAh, the Note 3 has a much more power efficient display and chipset which helps in offering it class leading battery life.

However, you can always tweak a few settings to improve the battery life of a device and the Galaxy Note 3 is no different, especially with all that TouchWiz bloat.

Below, we offer a few quick tips that should help in improving the battery life of the Note 3.

Turn Off Auto Brightness – Auto brightness on Android phones is generally broken and the Galaxy Note 3 is no different. The display brightness will either be too low or too high depending on the lighting conditions, but never be perfect.

So, it is always better to set the brightness level manually, or use an application like Lux from the Play Store. Lux provides a plethora of option to tweak your display’s brightness, and also allows you to link a certain brightness level with the light outside.

Use Snapdragon Battery Guru – If you are using the N9005 variant of the Note 3, use Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon Battery Guru app to boost the battery life of your phablet. The app automatically manages your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth radios, CPU governor and clock speed etc. to improve battery life.

Disable all the S-Apps – With every new Galaxy device, Samsung adds a plethora of new apps and services that are bordering on being called bloatware. The Galaxy Note 3 is no exception to this rule, and comes with a plethora of bloatware on the context of being dubbed as features.

Apps and features like S-Planner, S-Memo, Action widget, S-Cloud etc. all run in the background that not only take precious resources, but also reduce battery life.

If you are not using most of the pre-loaded Samsung bloatware, head over to Settings -> Apps Manager and disable them to free up unneeded resources.

Turn off unneeded gestures – The Note 3 comes with a plethora of gesture based features that keeps the sensors on the device unnecessarily active, thereby draining battery.

If you are not using most of these gestures, head over to Settings -> Control to disable them.

Turn off Voice wake up – Like the Moto X, the Galaxy Note 3 also has an always-on listening feature for voice commands. The problem is this useful feature is integrated with Samsung’s S-Voice and not Google Now, totally killing its usability.

Anyways, if you are not a fan of S-Voice, make sure to disable the ‘Wake up command’ and ‘Voice wake-up’ feature from the app settings to save some battery life.

Turn off Push notifications from Samsung apps – Every Galaxy device comes with Samsung’s own app store adding to the total number of bloatware shipped with the device and features that a user is never going to use.

Either ways, the Samsung Apps store constantly runs in the background and receives push notifications from Samsung’s server for certain new apps. Chances are you have never even used Samsung Apps, so turn off the push notification to save battery life.

You can disable push notifications from the Settings menu of Samsung Apps.

The above tips will help you in boosting the battery life of your Galaxy Note 3 by 15-20%. If you were expecting anything more, its time to buy yourself one of those aftermarket extended batteries that provide a huge jump in battery capacity.

Also, if your Note 3 is giving abnormally poor battery life, do a hard reset. Sometimes, applications can go haywire in the background and constantly drain your phone’s battery.

Do you have any other tip that helps you in boosting the battery life of your Note 3? If yes, do drop in a comment and let us know!

Credit:androidbeat.com

Tips to improve the HTC One battery life

HTC released its flagship handset – the HTC One – earlier this year. Six months later, the One is still a fine handset by all means, except for its battery life. The One comes with a 2300mAh battery that should be enough to last you a day. However, compared to the likes of the LG G2, iPhone 5s and Note 3, the One can feel a bit lacking in the battery life department.

HTC has kept on improving the battery life of the One via software updates, but there are always some tweaks and optimizations you can make to extract some more juice from your One’s battery life.

The few tips below should greatly help in squeezing an additional 10-15% of battery life from your HTC One. If you are expecting anything more, I’d recommend you to sell your HTC One and buy an LG G2, or buy a portable battery pack for your device.

Switch Off Blinkfeed

HTC has been pushing Blinkfeed as one of the highlighted features of the One. While not for everyone, Blinkfeed definitely is a nice way to catch up with your friends and news in that spare few minutes that you manage to get while in a lift or while walking out of a mall. HTC has been consistently improving the Blinkfeed experience as well, adding additional news sources, offline reading support and Pocket integration.

However, Blinkfeed can be a bit taxing on your One’s battery as well. In my usage, I noticed an increase of at least 7-9% in battery life by simply switching off Blinkfeed on my HTC One.

You can turn off Blinkfeed by pinching on the screen, and then tapping the Blinkfeed Off option at the top-left. This option, however, is only available for One owners who are running the Sense 5.5 update on their device.

Turn Off Always On Wi-Fi scanning

With the Android 4.3 update, HTC added the always-on Wi-Fi scanning feature on the One. While this helps apps in determining your accurate location, the hit on the battery life is pretty significant as well.

You can turn off always on Wi-Fi scanning by going to Settings -> Wi-Fi, tapping the overflow menu button and selecting Advance settings.

Turn On Power Saver mode

HTC has included a Power Saver mode on the HTC One that automatically kicks in when the phone’s battery goes below 15%. In Power saving mode, the One’s display brightness is reduced, the frequency of the processor is lowered and haptic feedback is disabled etc.

The difference in battery life due to Power Saver mode on the One’s battery life is pretty significant. If your One has been struggling to make it through a day, the Power saver mode might just be what you need. I have managed to extract nearly 1.5 days of usage from my One when I use the power saver mode.

The three tips above should help you in boosting the battery life of your One by at least 15% at the very minimum. Also, make sure that you are running the latest software version available for your device, since the One’s battery life has greatly improved via software updates from HTC since it was released.

Credit:androidbeat.com

How to change Boot Animation of your Android device

Not many people think much about the boot animation of their device. After all, it is just a 10-30 second long animation that you see only when you restart or switch off your Android device. However, if you are a customization freak, you’d want to change the stock boot animation of your Android device with something that is more in line with your taste. 

Thankfully, changing boot animations on Android devices is no rocket science and can be done pretty easily, provided your Android device has root access (Check out our step-by-step guides on how to root an Android device if you need help).

Boot Box is an app available in the Play that allows users to easily change the boot animation on their Android device. It has a community maintained boot animation repository.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how you can do it. Before you proceed any further, you should know that most of the boot animation changing apps including Boot Box does not work on most of the Android devices from Samsung and HTC. There is currently no workaround to this issue, so you will need to manually replacing the boot animation files from these devices or use a custom ROM.

Step 1: Download Boot Box for free from the Play Store. The application needs root access to work properly.

Step 2: When you first start the app, Boot Box will determine the resolution of your Android device and then prompt you to select one from a list. Select the exact resolution of your Android device from the list. If you end up selecting the wrong resolution, the boot animation will not work properly on your Android device.

If the screen resolution of your Android device is not listed, select a resolution that closely matches it. For example, Nexus 7 (2013) owners can select the ‘1080×1920’ resolution despite the device having a resolution of 1920*1200.

Step 3: Boot Box will now attempt to identify the boot animation location on your device. Generally, the app will detect the correct location of where the boot animation is located on your Android device just fine. If it does not though, you can always manually point the app to the correct folder.

Step 4: You will now be asked to create a backup of your current boot animation. I’d highly recommend you to create one since you never know when you might need to restore the original boot animation.

Step 5: Now, you are all set to change the boot animation of your Android device. Simply swipe from the left to open the navigation drawer and then select the ‘View all animations’ option. By default, Boot Box only shows you those boot animations that are compatible with your Android device.

Select any boot animation that you like and then click on the ‘Download’ button at the top right followed by the ‘Install Animation’ option. You can also check out the ZIP Preview or a YouTube video of the boot animation before you install it. Now press the ‘Install’ button from the pop-up window and wait for the boot animation to be downloaded and installed.

After the boot animation has been installed, reboot your Android device to enjoy your new boot animation.

Let me know how it goes, and please feel free to drop me a line in the comments if you’ve any questions.

Credit:androidbeat.com

Tip: Write with and without autocorrect on the same Android keyboard

One of the challenges of switching to full touchscreen devices for me was the learning curve of the virtual keyboard. Sure, when you use one language and you don’t “txt spk,” the on-screen keyboards found on many modern Android smartphones can be quite a joy.

There is less friction while typing on a screen compared to pressing physical buttons, and they take care of most typos thanks to autocorrect — or predictive input. Problems arise, however, once you start combining multiple languages, frequent abbreviations, technical jargon and the necessity to use a transliterated language than involves lots of numbers and letters mixed together. That’s when you lose your sanity and decide to turn off autocorrect because it is simply trying too hard to correct everything. Thankfully, there’s a way to write on the same keyboard, with and without autocorrect, without the need to switch the setting every time. Here’s how.

Transliterated Arabic and autocorrect don’t mix!

This tip relies on using a mix of swiping — also known as gesture typing or tracing — and regular typing, so you have to make sure that you are familiar with both input methods for writing on your phone. You also have to be using a keyboard that allows swiping, likeGoogle Keyboard or Swiftkey. The idea here is to:

• disable autocorrect and use regular touch typing whenever you want to write words that aren’t usually found in dictionaries — like abbreviations, technical terms, or transliterated languages
• use swiping when you write more traditional text that has to be autocorrected for spelling mistakes.

Because the concept of swiping for text entry relies on guessing what you approximately traced with your finger, the keyboard will predict the words with their accurate spelling, whether you traced them right or not and, most importantly, despite autocorrect being disabled. For example, swiping “convenence” will yield “convenience”, and you don’t have to worry about “adress” versus “address” when you swipe.

In order to switch the correct options on and off, here’s what you need to do if you’re using the Google Keyboard:

• Go to your phone’s Settings
• Look for “Language and Input”
• Click on the gear icon next to Google Keyboard
• Scroll down to Auto-correction, click it and set it to Off.
• Make sure “Show correction suggestions” is set to Always show
• Tick the box to Enable gesture typing.

Google Keyboard settings

If you’re using Swiftkey, here are the steps:

• Go to your phone’s Settings
• Look for “Language and Input”
• Click on the gear icon next to Swiftkey
• In Input Methods, enable Flow
• In Advanced, click on “Spacebar completion mode” and set it to always insert a space.

Swiftkey settings

Once you have made these settings changes, you can go back to your keyboard and enjoy a simultaneous way of writing with autocorrect (swiping) and without it (touch typing) without having to ever alter any settings again. Also, keep in mind that even though this trick was only tested on Google Keyboard and Swiftkey, the same principle should logically apply to other keyboards that support swiping like Swype, TouchPal orSlideIt.

It’s a simple workaround but it makes all the difference in the world. Autocorrect used to annoy me because it always intruded when I didn’t need it, fixing “thg” into “the” or attempting to find english words that resembled my transliterated arabic ones. Now, I don’t worry about any of that. I just type all my weird words without an issue, but I can swipe at any moment for a fast and errorless way of writing English.

Do you have any keyboard tricks that have improved your typing experience on touchscreen keyboards? Share them with us in the comments below.

Credit:androidbeat.com

Better Android battery management – last longer!

You just can’t get away from power management and the vagaries of helping your smartphone’s battery last just that little bit longer. Whether it’s making it through the day or making sure that it’s still performing well a couple of years down the line when you hand the phone down to a family member. After some feedback on both my ‘Note II wireless charging’ feature and Phones Show 218, I thought a summary of what you should and shouldn’t do was in order.

The central theme of the latter (video) feature was that smartphone batteries like being charged. This may sound self-evident, but it’s not just that they like being on charge (which is obvious), but that they like being in a good state of charge as well. Backed up by real world experience over the last decade , I can state that modern Li-Ion (and Li-Polymer) smartphone batteries last longest (i.e. over time) when they’re kept as charged as possible as often as possible. Which, of course, is what got me thinking about adding Qi charging to the Note in the first place, so that it was always topped up every time I’m at my desk or bedside.

Cycle a modern battery down to about 50% and then back up to full and there’s only around a quarter the ‘wear’ on the chemical components in the battery as if the battery had been taken right down to ’empty’ (a nominal 0%) and then charged up again from there. Of course, your particular smartphone may be so heavy on its battery that you have no option, but this physics-borne evidence does at least prompt any buying decision towards a device which doesn’t just ‘get through the day’, but has battery capacity to spare.

On charge and liking it….!

In other words, take a device like theGoogle Nexus 5, most users find that it struggles to get right through a busy day and that at best it’s begging to be recharged by bed time. An average Li-Ion battery in a smartphone is rated at around 500 ‘cycles’ over its lifetime, where a cycle is a full discharge all the way from 100% to 0% and back. Used in this way, then, the Nexus 5’s (sealed) battery would be finished (at half capacity or less) after about 15 months – less than the term of the typical phone contract. And with reduced capacity, you’d be charging and draining it more often, exacerbating the situation further.

In contrast, take the Note II, with a big (>3000mAh) battery in the first place and with, in my case, the Qi charging coil addition. In real world use, I find that, even used heavily, the battery charge rarely drops much below 50%, and I estimate that it’ll take a good three or four years minimum before the battery’s damaged enough to be unusable.

So, the message from my Phones Show 218 video was ‘charge when you can!’ – but in the world of batteries nothing’s quite as simple as this, of course. For starters, there’s another thing that Li-Ion batteries don’t like and that’s right at the other end of the scale – they don’t like being fully charged for long periods. This is something that hits laptops hard, since many people leave them plugged into the mains for weeks on end – but it’s not going to be much of an issue for phone owners, of course. Just be aware of the principle, for all your rechargeable kit dotted around your house.

More serious are environmental factors – Li-Ion batteries are also damaged by heat. You’re unlikely to damage your phone battery by general living in, say, Africa, but leaving the phone in the full sun anywhere in the world is very stressful for the battery. Even using wireless charging, as I did here with the Note II, means heating up the battery more than when using a wired connection, and pessimists will argue that I’m doing more damage through heat than I’m ‘saving’ the battery by keeping it in a better state of charge. Trust me, I’m a physicist and we argue about these sorts of thing all the time.

What are the takeaways then, given the relative uncertainty and debate that can be generated on this topic? A few general principles can be outlined – they seem obvious with hindsight, but it’s still worth burning them into your brain:

• When buying, buy a device with as much spare battery capacity as possible. Enough to rarely need to get down near ‘zero’. [And if it’s removable then even better, since much of this feature is redundant – you can simply buy a new cell!]
• Charge when you can, accept top-ups and trickle charges gratefully through the day, even if your phone still has plenty of charge left.
• Avoid getting your phone too hot. In a car window on a sunny day, on a radiator, that sort of thing. And if you have to store the phone or its battery long term, then find a cool place.
• Use all the conventional wisdom on battery life extension, turning unneeded things off, running your display on ‘auto’, disabling 4G in a weak signal area, that sort of thing. The more you can keep your phone’s battery charged, the healthier it will be in the long run.

Mind you, paraphrasing what a wise man said to me only this morning, don’t stress yourself too much over all this. At the end of the day, it’s not worth spending all your time worrying about a mere phone battery. There’s always some way to replace a tired battery, even if it means a trip to a service centre. But, heck, why not do what you can in the meantime, especially because most of the above is – and hopefully you agree – also good common sense?

Credit:androidbeat.com

How to access the US Google Play from any country, no proxies or VPN necessary

So you live outside of the United States and Google Play is limited to just the Play Store for apps and games to you? Would you like to access Play Movies, Music, Books, and so on? There’s a trick for that, and you don’t need to use Proxies or VPN or any of those highly technical and highly annoying solutions. Here’s how to do it.

Disclaimer: Hear me out before I begin. You will be tricking Google into thinking you live in the United States, so the small door we’re going to sneak into might be closed soon if the company gets wind of this. Also, I have only confirmed this method works with a few other users so I can’t 100% guarantee the result. Try to be quick and hope for the best.

The idea behind this trick — and all the credit goes to @elz0oz for sharing it with me — is to convince Google you live in the USA. This involves having a US address and a US credit card on your Google Wallet account. Here are the things you need to do, step by step.

1. Get a US address and phone number

You could use the address of any restaurant or store in the United States, or if you want to be more precise and play it safe, you can sign up for your own US shipping forwarding address on Borderlinx or Shop and Shipfor example. I did the latter because that is technically “my” address with “my” phone number.

2. Get a US debit card

In order to do this, you can ask a friend to get you a prepaid card issued in the US and send you its details. Or you could sign up for a virtual card on Entropay and fill it with some money.

3. Change your Google Wallet details

Go to your Google Wallet Payment Methods. There, you will find your current address and card details. Click to add a new credit or debit card and enter the US card information you got in Step 2. Make sure you associate this card with the billing address and phone number you got in Step 1. When you’re done, set this new payment method as the default one — don’t worry, you can switch back to your regular debit card later without losing the access to the US store.

4. Wait and cross your fingers

The changes won’t appear immediately, but after a couple of days — 2 or 3 usually — when you open the Play Store from your computer, you’ll see it has switched to the US version that has the wonderful side menu with Movies & TV, Music, Books, Newsstand and Devices, and access to all the USA-only apps and games. The same switch will happen on your Android phones and tablets as well. You won’t need to use proxies to access this side of Google Play, because your account is now considered a true US account, even if you login from another country’s IP address. As far as Google is concerned, you may be a US citizen who is travelling abroad.

I made the switch several months ago, then flipped back my default payment method to my regular debit card without any issue. I bought a movie, downloaded and uploaded books, signed up for Google Play All Access, and even ordered a Nexus 7 to my Borderlinx address. I am enjoying this freedom quite a lot.

Have you used this trick before to switch your Google Play’s country? If so, did it work for you?

Credit:androidbeat.com

How to: use a Bluetooth keyboard to convert your phone to a mini-laptop

 Time for niche thinking. Or old-school, depending on how you look at it. But now that our smartphones have decent sized screens/resolutions, surely it can’t just be me who fancies the idea of hooking up a really good Bluetooth keyboard and, for text-centric uses, achieving a mini-laptop look and feel? It turns out that hooking up and using such a keyboard is easy. Really easy.

A few qualifications before I start. I don’t count the miniature keyboards beloved of gadget shops – the ones which try and cramp a QWERTY keyboard into something that’s smaller than your phone. They look cute but are a usability nightmare. Far better to go for a Bluetooth keyboard that uses near full size laptop keys and preferably with an integral stand for propping up your smartphone/display.

In addition, if the most you ever type on your smartphone is “LOL. Awesome” or similar on social networks then all this isn’t for you. But if you regularly find yourself typing multiple paragraphs in an email or article or social update and think “Grr…. this would all have been a lot faster if I’d brought my laptop” then why not give a Bluetooth keyboard a try?

Trying out various Bluetooth keyboards, with 100% success!

In fact, it turned out I already owned three Bluetooth keyboards of sufficient size, dating over the last decade(!); the ThinkOutside one (above, right) is the oldest, having been designed to work with Palm PDAs, then the Nokia SU-8W (above, left), dating from the days of Symbian and S60, circa 2008. Finally the generic Freedom keyboard (above, centre) is about three years old. Yet, to my big surprise, all worked absolutely perfectly and paired first time.

Speaking of pairing, it really is a one time thing. Once set-up, provided you keep Bluetooth turned on, on your Android smartphone, just turning the keyboard on is enough to re-establish a connection, usually within a couple of seconds. The Bluetooth icon in your top status bar will change hue to confirm (depending on your device/skin).

A quick run through on setting things up. Each keyboard you’ll buy has a slightly different key sequence for putting it on and in ‘pairing’ mode, so check the manual or quick start guide. As an example, here’s the set-up for my Samsung Galaxy Note II with the Nokia SU-8W keyboard. I turned on Bluetooth in Settings on the Note and then tapped ‘Search for devices’:

Pairing up a Bluetooth keyboard with my Samsung Galaxy for the first time…

The keyboard will first show up with its ‘raw’ Bluetooth ID, but after a few seconds this should change to its ‘plain English’ version (e.g. ‘Nokia SU-8W’). Tap it to get paired up:

Bluetooth PINs are so last year, I know – but your Android phone makes one up anyway…

Typing the PIN code on your keyboard has to be done with some care, in that a lot of the smaller keyboards don’t have a dedicated ‘number row’ and so you’ll have to type the number using the ‘Fn’-ed number presses, as appropriate. Finally, press ‘Enter’ (carriage return) and you’re done. The Android Settings screen should now show ‘Connected’ (see above, right).

In theory then, whenever an application now needs textual input of any kind, you can simply type on the Bluetooth keyboard and, indeed, this works as advertised. The only complication is that on-screen behaviour is different according to the application being used:

• some applications give immediate full screen access to the text area
• some applications pop-up the virtual keyboard anyway, but a tap on the phone’s ‘back’ key gets rid of it
• some applications pop-up the virtual keyboard and there’s no way to get rid of it without losing the text editing ‘field’

After some testing with a number of apps, the three scenarios seem roughly as common as each other. So whether you have a totally seamless mini-laptop experience or a slightly awkward one depends rather on exactly what you want to do with this new QWERTY flexibility.

A typical use case might be editing a document in Quickoffice or Google Drive. Opening up the document at first is full-screen, but positioning the cursor using the touchscreen brings up the virtual keyboard:

Argh, that pesky pop-up QWERTY keyboard!

But, again, a tap on the ‘back’ key and you’re back to full-screen editing, and this time with a visible text cursor that you can position using the keyboard’s own arrow/direction keys:

That’s better – the virtual keyboard has gone and we now have a proper, controllable cursor (spot it in the word “of”!)

A less awkward example is my favourite Twitter client, Plume, where starting to post a new tweet brings up a full-screen editable field immediately – just start typing!

Typing away immediately in Plume….

Is this type of solution the best of all worlds? A large screened smartphone that’s great for all the Android goodness (social, media, games) you love, and with an accessory that lets you be really productive when you need to be?

The three Bluetooth keyboards shown above aren’t recommendations necessarily – they’re just what I happened to have lying around after 20 years of writing about the mobile industry. I’ve had other keyboards as well, but they’ve all now been given away, sold or returned. I did note that the Freedom brand continues to this day, and that companies like Proporta still have stock of both foldable and one-piece designs. Plus your other usual generic accessory sources may have something suitable – from my own testing I doubt you’ll have any software compatibility issues, since all use the HID (Human Interface Device) Bluetooth profile, which is standard and mature on modern Android.

Credit:androidbeat.com

Everything you need to know about Android rooting and custom ROMs

The world of custom ROMs is very much like marketing — filled with flashy words and false promises. You need to ignore the buzz, read the fine print and then decide which custom ROM is correct for you. Below, we list down a few tips that should help you in finding custom ROMs and deciding which one you should install on your device.

Ignore the buzzwords

Any custom ROM thread or website that you come across will be filled with a lot of buzz words like “zip-aligned”, “GPU rendering”, “best battery life” and more. This is the developer way of attracting the reader’s attention and increasing his user base. However, you should keep in mind that most, if not all, of these buzzwords hardly make a huge difference in usability or performance. It is better to just ignore them and focus on the feedback from other users and the ROM’s feature set.

Focus on what you want

Every custom ROM’s feature page is going to be endlessly big. The developers will list down all the features, including the minor ones, so as to impress potential users. Don’t get blown away by the list and instead just look for the options you want. If it is not present in that ROM, you should move on to the next one that is available for your device.

Read the comments

Always, always read the comments made by other users in a ROM thread. This will give you valuable feedback as to how good it is, whether it has some serious bugs or not and how it performs. If possible, make sure to give your feedback as well as it would help other users.

Stability vs. Features

In our first post of the custom ROM 101 series, we explained to our readers about thedifferent types of custom ROMs available — Stock firmware based and AOSP based. The former ones are light on features but are more stable while the latter are loaded with features but can be unstable. The type of custom ROM you want is perhaps the first thing that you should decide on before you start looking for them.

Alright! Where can I actually find custom ROMs for my device?

There really is one source in this big world of Internet for custom ROMs for nearly all the available Android device — XDA Developer Forums. Simply head over to your device sub-forum on XDA to find a plethora of custom ROMs compatible with it. While you may come across a few websites that list all the available custom ROMs for a particular device, chances are the list is outdated by quite a few months, which is a lot of time in the custom ROM scene.

For some big AOSP ROMs like AOKP, CyanogenMod and Paranoid Android, you can find the download links over at their official websites as well. However, then you will be devoid of all the precious feedback from other users, that might just save you a headache.

How do you decide on a custom ROM? Drop in a comment and let us know!

Over the last few weeks, we have written several guides about rooting and custom ROMs — what are they, their advantages/disadvantages and some tips that you should keep in mind during the whole procedure. Below is a quick roundup of the whole series, just in case you missed the individual articles.

Rooting

What is it? Wondering what rooting is and how will it benefit you? Read this post to know.

Things to before rooting: Before you jump to rooting your device, make sure to follow these tips. They will help in making the whole process of rooting relatively easier for you.

Glossary: Here is a glossary of all the terms that you might come across while trying to root your device.

Finding the source: There are a variety of sources where you can find a rooting guide for your device but keep in mind that sometimes, the whole process of rooting is simply not worth it.

The best root apps: Rooted your device? Here are the top apps that you can now run on it.

Custom ROMs

What are they and how are they useful? In a nutshell, custom ROMs are a modified firmware for your device. They are a great way of improving the performance and stability, while also adding new features. This article explains it in more details.

Things to do before and after: Just like rooting, there are a lot of things that you need to do before as well as after installing a custom ROM.

Difference compared to rooting and flashing mods: Wondering how exactly is installing a custom ROM different from rooting and how are they interconnected? This article should help clear all your doubts.

Deciding on a custom ROM: Learn how to avoid all the marketing buzzwords and decide on a custom ROM for your device. 

The best ROMs available: There are quite a few custom ROMs available out there but only a few of them standout from the crowd with their right mix of features and tweaks.

How did you find the series? Did we miss anything? Drop in a comment and do let us know!

Credit:androidbeat.com

How to pick the best custom ROM for you

The world of custom ROMs is very much like marketing — filled with flashy words and false promises. You need to ignore the buzz, read the fine print and then decide which custom ROM is correct for you. Below, we list down a few tips that should help you in finding custom ROMs and deciding which one you should install on your device.

Ignore the buzzwords

Any custom ROM thread or website that you come across will be filled with a lot of buzz words like “zip-aligned”, “GPU rendering”, “best battery life” and more. This is the developer way of attracting the reader’s attention and increasing his user base. However, you should keep in mind that most, if not all, of these buzzwords hardly make a huge difference in usability or performance. It is better to just ignore them and focus on the feedback from other users and the ROM’s feature set.

Focus on what you want

Every custom ROM’s feature page is going to be endlessly big. The developers will list down all the features, including the minor ones, so as to impress potential users. Don’t get blown away by the list and instead just look for the options you want. If it is not present in that ROM, you should move on to the next one that is available for your device.

Read the comments

Always, always read the comments made by other users in a ROM thread. This will give you valuable feedback as to how good it is, whether it has some serious bugs or not and how it performs. If possible, make sure to give your feedback as well as it would help other users.

Stability vs. Features

In our first post of the custom ROM 101 series, we explained to our readers about thedifferent types of custom ROMs available — Stock firmware based and AOSP based. The former ones are light on features but are more stable while the latter are loaded with features but can be unstable. The type of custom ROM you want is perhaps the first thing that you should decide on before you start looking for them.

Alright! Where can I actually find custom ROMs for my device?

There really is one source in this big world of Internet for custom ROMs for nearly all the available Android device — XDA Developer Forums. Simply head over to your device sub-forum on XDA to find a plethora of custom ROMs compatible with it. While you may come across a few websites that list all the available custom ROMs for a particular device, chances are the list is outdated by quite a few months, which is a lot of time in the custom ROM scene.

For some big AOSP ROMs like AOKP, CyanogenMod and Paranoid Android, you can find the download links over at their official websites as well. However, then you will be devoid of all the precious feedback from other users, that might just save you a headache.

How do you decide on a custom ROM? Drop in a comment and let us know!

Credit:androidbeat.com