Android 4.2 (Jellybean) Tips and Tricks

Google Books is a great App allowing you to read many titles on your phone, however you do require an internet connection. Fortunately there is a way to read these books offline.

Open the Google Books app and find the Book that you would like to read offline. Then simply press and hold on the book’s cover. Then choose ‘Make available offline’. You can then choose other books to make available offline by press the thumbtacks beneath each book. Then press Done in the bottom-right corner.

The standard Android keyboard is good, but not great. There are many third party keyboards available which will improve your typing speed and accuracy.

Go to the Android Market and search for ‘Keyboard’ to see some great alternatives, many of which are more accurate and make typing much easier.
A good one is GoKeyboard.

If you see a warning saying the keyboard will collect all information (including credit cards) just ignore this. This is just a security feature that Android shows for every third-party keyboard that you install.

To take a screen shot, hold down the Volume Down and Power Buttons together and wait for the shutter sound. This will save the current screen to your phone’s memory card.

An alternative method is to go Menu – Settings – Motion. Then under Hand Motion, tick the Palm swipe to Capture box. Then you can simply swipe your palm across you phone’s screen to take a screenshot.

To locate the saved screenshot, go to Files on your Apps list. Then look for a folder called /Picutres/Screenshots or ScreenCapture. Your screenshot should be in there.

To store a phone number that you have received in an email, hold down on the number and you will be given the option to call, send an SMS or add the number to your contacts

To open a web page in a new tab, find a link on a web page. Then press on it and then choose to open the site in a new tab.

To copy files between your phone and PC, go to the Android Play Market and download an app called AirDroid.

This is an extremely useful App that connects your phone to your PC wirelessly, allowing you to move files and many, many other things.

If you want to install Apps outside of the Android Market (called sideloading), then go to Settings – Security – Unknown sources.

Note: use at your own risk.

Android manages Apps very well and some Apps do not have the option to close them specifically. Normally the App will stay running in the background and only close when many other Apps have been opened.

If you do want to close or terminate an App, then press and hold the Home key on your phone. Then you can swipe the Apps off the screen to close them.

If you have just purchased an Android device, then you may want to copy your contacts from your old phone. The easiest way to do this is to Export your old contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and save this to your PC. You may need to install the correct software for your phone first in order to do the export.

Then, if you don’t have a Gmail account, sign up for one.

Once that’s done, open Gmail. Go to Contacts, then press More – Import. Then import the CSV to your Gmail contacts.

Then on your phone, open the Contacts App. Press Menu and then Sync Contacts. This will pull the contacts from Gmail to your phone.

If you are running low on phone memory, you can look for your largest applications to uninstall. Go to Settings – Applications – Manage Applications and press Menu. This will then filter your apps by memory use