Yet, Android's openness also provides serious benefits. It allows for
more customisation; its apps are usually cheaper and various handset
manufacturers are able to offer significantly different form factors,
such as the smartphone-tablet hybrid, the Samsung
Galaxy Note.
With a little tweaking, you can speed up and optimise Android in ways
that will make iPhone users' heads spin. Here are 10 ways to make
Android faster, more productive and more secure than iPhone:
Make your Android faster
1. Get a better browser
One of the major benefits of using the popular browser
Opera Mini
is that its cloud engine compresses data by as much as 90%. It features
tabbed browsing, support for widgets and the ability to set advanced
privacy features, such as the ability to automatically clear passwords,
cookies and browsing history.
The advantage for Android users: the ability to use
Opera Mobile
instead of Opera Mini. Opera Mobile supports Flash and 3D graphics, has
an HTML 5 engine and has a device-side web rendering engine for higher
fidelity browsing. You can set up the rendering engine to work locally
when on a Wi-Fi network and default to the cloud-based rendering engine
when on a 3G or 4G network to minimize expensive data usage (if you're
not on an all-you-can-eat data plan). It also allows you to access your
camera from your browser. Expect cool new widgets to start using this
feature soon.
2. Install an Android optimiser
Apps like
Android Booster and
Android Assistant
give you the power to automatically kill apps that run in the
background, gobbling up battery life and draining CPU. You can set a
monthly data limit and monitor exactly how much data you've downloaded
over 3G and 4G networks, and you can purge your cache, history, etc.
3. Conserve your battery
Nothing slows you down more than a dead battery. One advantage
Android phones have over iPhones is that you can swap out your battery.
But proper power management can save you from that trouble. Apps like
JuiceDefender and
Battery Stretch help you regulate your power use.
With more than 7 million downloads,
JuiceDefender is the most popular of these apps. It offers three different profiles: "Balanced," "Aggressive" or "Extreme."
The Balanced setting is the default and requires no configuration on
your part. If you bump it up to "Aggressive," the app will automatically
disable data connections when the battery is low. If you're really
worried about a dead battery, the "Extreme" setting disables data
connections by default. You can turn them back on manually, and you are
able to whitelist apps that you want to have connectivity.
Make your Android more productive
4. Dig deeper into which apps hog data
If you constantly go over your data limits, an app like Android
Assistant may not be enough. Sure, you will be alerted when you are
nearing your limit, but what exactly is causing the problem?
Is it Facebook, podcasting software, the MLB Gameday app? Who knows?
Well, with
Onavo
you can find out. The main menu displays statistics on your data use
over the prior month, and it fingers the apps hogging the most
bandwidth. Many of these are obvious, such as any video or streaming
app, but I was surprised to see how much data Google Calendar used with
its constant synching, and after consulting with Onavo, I decided to
synch less frequently
You'll also discover the apps that go online even when they haven't
been launched. Don't be surprised to see that many games do this, so if
you haven't played them in a while, you might want to get rid of them.
Otherwise, those free Android games may end up costing you money if they
push you over your data limit.
For international travelers, Onavo can help you avoid (or limit) costly data roaming charges.
And Onavo is actually an app that has more octane on iPhone, for
which it will also compress data. (On Android, this feature is currently
limited to Ice Cream Sandwich users.)
5. Tether your phone
So you've signed up for an expensive all-you-can-eat data plan, yet
when you try to tether your laptop to your phone to use that 4G
connection you paid a premium for, you are stymied. Carriers will try to
charge you $20 or $30 a month for tethering privileges, meaning they're
trying to charge you twice for network access that you've really
already purchased.
For most people, this is more of a nuisance than anything. Wi-Fi is
available everywhere, but if you are using your laptop for business,
wouldn't it be smarter to stay on a 4G network rather than connecting to
an open Wi-Fi one?
On iPhone, tethering is a no-go. On Android, tethering may
technically violate your user license, but you can do it, and you no
longer need to root your phone. Apps like Clockworkmod's
Tether will have you up and running in a few minutes.
Tether isn't a free app, but at $4.99 (approximately £3.10), one stay
in a hotel that still charges for Wi-Fi will make this app a
no-brainer.
6. Pick your own keyboard
Siri has been getting all kinds of press lately, and, sure, it can be
amusing to try to get Siri to say off-color things. Yet, when I'm using
data on my phone, I prefer text-based input.
For years, one of the main reasons I've considered iPhone inferior is its hostility to apps like
Swype. On Android, you have the ability to choose your own keyboard. (Well, iPhone users can
jailbreak their phones to get Swype, but that fact reinforces my point.)
Many Android phones come with Swype pre-loaded, but it's not usually
the default keyboard. Just press any text entry area for a few seconds
and a menu will pop up. Select "Input method" and then choose "Swype."
That's it.
I used to avoid texting like the plague because I hated entering data
on my phone. That all changed with Swype, which lets you drag your
finger across the screen from letter to letter. Its predictive engine
figures out what word you are going for (it gets better the more you use
it), and you just keep chugging along.
I can't Swype as fast as I type, but I'm a fast typist. Scroll around
the Inter-webs a bit, and you'll find plenty of people claiming to
achieve 40 or 50 words per minute with Swype. And now that Swype has
been acquired by Nuance, you should have even more input options coming
your way soon.
Make your phone more secure
7. Turn on screen lock, but don't use a pattern
The easiest screen unlocking method is to trace a pattern on your
screen. It's easier and more convenient than entering a PIN or password.
However, if you lose your phone or it is stolen, you better hope you
just cleaned your screen.
The oil on your finger will leave a distinct pattern on your screen.
Unless you wipe it down religiously after each unlocking, the pattern
lock will only deter the stupidest criminals.
8. Install anti-virus software
Why have you not done this already? Malware writers are flocking to
Android. We're seeing much of what happened in the desktop world being
repeated with
smartphones. Android is more open, has a larger market share and is a juicer target.
IPhone is a closed ecosystem and may eventually, like Mac, benefit
from security through obscurity (though I doubt iPhone will ever shrink
to Mac-like numbers). For iPhone users, this is good-news, bad-news
scenario. Yes,
Apple
does more to lock down apps and prevent third-party software from
exploiting key system resources, but you are trusting one company for
your security. If Apple screws up, all iPhone users are in trouble.
Exhibit A: the
Path privacy fiasco.
Android, on the other hand, may be less secure due to its openness,
but it's welcoming to third-party security tools. There's no excuse not
to have anti-virus software on your phone. There are plenty of free
options, such as
Lookout,
and with a simple download, you can significantly reduce your risks.
Most of these antivirus apps also allow you to remotely lock and wipe
your phone if it is lost or stolen, and some even allow you to set off
an obnoxious alarm, which will either help you find the device if its
tucked behind a couch cushion or convince a thief to toss it.
Of course, we'd like to see handset OEMs and the carriers bake
antivirus into their various Android versions. It's a simple step that
would benefit them, carriers especially, saving bandwidth, protecting
against fraudulent charges and so on. We would also like to see carriers
adopt network-based mobile malware scanning, such as the solution from
Kindsight Security Labs.
9. Stay away from App Stores you do not know
Google has taken steps to tame the Wild West that was its Market. It
now has a "Bouncer" that scans the Market for malware, and despite what
Apple apologists may claim, Android was designed from the get-go to make
malware less disruptive on phones than it is on PCs by sandboxing apps
and forcing apps to ask for permissions (yes, the same permissions that
everyone just ignores, but at least they tried).
The trouble is that Android users can download apps anywhere. Don't
be lured into doing this. If you aren't using Android Market, make sure
you are in a store you know and trust, such as Amazon. Most Android
models come with the default setting that doesn't allow you to download
apps from "unknown sources." If you've fallen for social-engineering
attacks in the past, it's best to leave that box checked.
When you download an app, try to get into the practice of checking
permissions. If a game wants to send out text messages, for instance,
that should be a red flag.
10. Stay away from mobile payments
Mobile payments are starting to take off, especially in Europe and
Asia, and consumers should be wary. The problem with mobile payments is
that they are often simply added to your mobile phone bill, and if you
find a suspicious charge, your liability will vary from carrier to
carrier.
In contrast, if a hacker gets your credit card number and goes on a
spending spree, your maximum liability for credit card fraud is £50. In
other words, credit card fraud is not your problem, it's the bank's.
Until you have that level of protection for mobile payments, it's
probably smarter and safer to stick with the credit card.
Source : http://howto.techworld.com
Link : http://howto.techworld.com/operating-systems/3357784/how-to-make-your-android-more-productive-more-secure-and-faster-than-iphone/?intcmp=ros-md-hwt
