Android 2.3 Tips and Tricks

To change the backlight screen timeout, go to Menu – Settings – Display – Screen Time Out.

Then chose the screen time out duration.

To change the screen brightness, start from the Homescreen and press Menu – Settings – Display – Brightness.

Then choose the desired brightness setting. You can also select Automatic brightness to let the phone decide for you

If you have auto-brightness enabled, you can also press and hold the notification bar at the top. Then move your finger left and right to adjust the screen brightness..

To find out information about Signal Strength, Network Information, Remaining Battery Time and Battery Usage (by Application), go to your Homescreen – Menu – Settings – About Phone.

To disable / enable vibrate, start from the Homescreen and press Menu – Settings – Sound.

Then under Feedback you can adjust certain features like Audible touch tones, Haptic feedback and so on.

Android has a feature allowing you to update Applications automatically. This is turned off by default, but you can turn it on.

Open the Android market, then Menu – My Apps.

Then you need to open up each installed App and tick Allow Automatic Updating at the bottom. Unfortunately you do need to do this for each App.

There is an easter egg hidden in the Android operating system. To see it, go to your Homescreen, then press Menu – Settings – About phone.

Then tap on the Android version option 5 times and you will get a surprise.

Sometimes it doesn’t work, so try a couple of times. By the way don’t expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

From the Contact list or the Messaging list, swipe from Left to Right to call a Contact.

If you would prefer not to be told every time an Application has been updated, open the Android Market – Menu – My Apps. Then Menu again. Then Settings. Under General settings, untick the Notifications option.

On most Android phones, when you rotate the phone when on Homescreen mode, the Homescreen stays in Portrait mode. One way around this is to install a third-party Launcher Application which allows you to customise your phone in many ways.

One popular launcher is called GoLauncher. Or alternatively, open the Android Market and search for the word Launcher.