HTC U11 Tips and Tricks

While using the standard Android Video App, you can lock the your screen while watching videos by pressing the power button.

This will disable the touchscreen buttons while the video is playing, but it won’t turn the screen off like the lock key normally does.

Note, this will only work on video files that you are playing that are stored on your phone and using the native Video App. It won’t work for videos played within websites, such as YouTube videos or other Apps such as MX Player, which have their own lock screen settings.

If you find you’re forgotten your backup password, try the following using Google’s Android Device Manager:

On a computer or in a mobile browser, go to www.google.com/android/devicemanager.

Sign in to the Google Account that you previously added to your device.

If you have more than one device, select the arrow next to the name of the device you’re locked out of. Android Device Manager will show you the approximate location of your device on a map.

Select Lock.

Enter a temporary password for your device, then click Lock again.

On your device, enter the temporary password on the lock screen.

Drag down your notifications bar and select Settings – Lock screen and security.

Enter your temporary password again, then follow the prompts to reset your device.

There are a couple of ways to add new home screens to your device.

The simplest is to go to one of your existing home screens and simply pinch the screen. This will show all of your home screens in thumbnail view. Then just press the Plus symbol to add another. You can also press and hold, then drag a home screen to a different position. Or press the little Home icon to make one of them your default home screen.

Another option is to download a Launcher App. These are third-party user interfaces that allow you to customize your phone in many ways. Most of them allow multiple home screens. A very popular launcher which supports multiple home screens is GoLauncher EX.

Simply go the Play Store and search for GoLauncher EX or another launcher.

If you want to setup new email accounts, like Yahoo or Hotmail, go to the Play Store and download your favourite email service.

Almost all of them have an App now, so the setup is much easier than in the past.

Install the App and follow the instructions to set it up correctly.

Then if you want to modify or view your accounts, go to Settings – Cloud and accounts.

Here’s how to pair your device with another Bluetooth device.

First you will need to turn Bluetooth on. To do this, drag your finger from the top of the screen down, to show your notifications menu. Then press Bluetooth so the icon is green.

Then press the Scan button and your device will start to scan for pairable devices.

Choose the desired device and press Accept. You may be asked to enter a PIN or Password.

To delete or remove home screen widgets, simply press and hold. Then drag the widget to the top-right corner of the screen and into the Trash icon.

Android manages your applications so if the phone is running low on memory, it will close the oldest running App.

If you do need to manually close an application go to Settings – Apps.

Then select the application you want to stop and select Force Stop.

At the bottom of each home screen is your favourites tray, which consists of 5 icons. You can customise it by adding icons to the tray. If it’s full however, you will first need to remove some.

To remove an icon, simply press and hold an icon. Then drag it to your desktop.

Then to add a new one, simply drag an icon from your home screen to the favourites tray.

The Play store contains thousands of great Apps, but sometimes you’ll want to restrict access, particularly if you have kids and are concerned about what they can access.

First, open the Android Play Store App. Then press the Hamburger / Settings icon and then scroll down to Settings.

Then select Parental controls and turn these on.

Create a PIN code and then confirm the PIN and press OK.

Then you’ll see a number of categories including Apps & games, Films, TV, Mags and Music.

You can select each of these individually and then choose an age rating that is appropriate for users of your devices.

If you want to find your phone’s WiFi MAC address (for improved WiFi security), then go to Settings – About device or About phone – Status.

Then scroll down until you see WiFi MAC Address. The address should be a series of Hex numbers and letters.