Sony Xperia S Tips and Tricks

Android 2.3
Phone: Sony Xperia S
Factory OS: Android 2.3

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Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card).

To perform a hard reset, or factory reset, then there are a number of methods to try:

1) From the home screen, press Menu – Settings – Privacy – Factory data reset – Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything

If the phone is totally unresponsive, even after a reboot, then try the following methods.

2) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together. Then, while holding these, press and release the Power button (keep holding the volume buttons). The phone should turn on and a menu will appear. Press the Volume down button to navigate to the Recovery option. Press the Volume Up to select (if that doesn’t work, use the Power button to select). A yellow triangle and an Android logo will appear. Press the Volume Down and Volume Up button together and a recovery menu should appear. Use the Volume buttons to move to the Wipe data/Factory reset option and then press Power to select. Again, use the Volume Down key to choose Yes and press the Power button again to select.

3) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Down button. Then, while holding, press and release the Power button. A menu should appear. Use the Volume down key to go to Clear Storage. Use the Power button to select the option. Then when asked to confirm, press Volume Up for Yes.

4) While the phone is off, press and hold down Volume Up + Home + Power buttons at the same time. Then release the buttons when you see the Logo. Use the Volume Down button to go down and the Home or Power key to select. Choose the Wipe data/Factory reset option. Then Select Yes to delete all user data. Then choose to reboot the phone.

5) A final method is to enter the code into your phone’s dialer: *2767*3855# This method will not give you an option to reverse the process, so be careful! This method will only work if you can boot into your phone.

While the stock standard keyboard is fine, there are much better keyboards available. First, you need to go to the Play Store and download one. Try searching for the word ‘keyboard’ and you will see a number of options.

One of the best keyboards is a keyboard called Swiftkey, which is a top-rate App.

Download your chosen keyboard and go through any install steps that you are presented with.

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 create a shortcut to websites on your homescreen, you need to open your browser and open your list of bookmarks.

Then long press on a bookmark and select Add shortcut to Home.

Most Android phones only come with a fixed amount of homescreens. There is a way around this however.

Go to Android Market and search for ‘launcher’. These are third-party user interfaces that allow you to customize your phone in many ways. Most of them allow multiple homescreens.

A very popular launcher which supports multiple homescreens is GoLauncher EX.

To remove numbers from the call log that you don’t want anyone seeing, then open your Call Log.

This will normally be found on your Apps list or you can also go to your Dialer and find Logs or Call Logs.

Then press and hold on the contact you want to remove. When the Menu appears, press Delete.

To delete all contacts, there a number of methods you might need to try. Note that the first two of these may be disabled on some networks/carriers, or Android versions.

1) Go to Settings – Applications – Manage Applications. Then chose All at the top. Then scroll down to Contacts Storage – B21Clear Data.

2) Go to Contacts. Then press Menu – Delete. Then press Select all (at the top) and then Delete again.

3) Go to Settings – Accounts and sync. Then untick Background data and Auto-sync. Then go to Gmail (or an account that your phone syncs with) and delete all of your Contacts from there. Then re-sync your phone.

4) Download an App called ‘Delete All Contacts’ and use that as a last resort.

These methods above will delete contacts from the Phone only, not the SIM card.

You can speed up the page load speed on your browser by disabling JavaScript.

To do this, open your Browser, then Menu – More – Settings. Scroll down and untick JavaScript

Please note that this may affect the functionality of some sites.

If you have forgotten your custom unlock pattern, then don’t panic.

After 5 unsuccessful tries a button should appear saying ‘Forgot pattern’. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password.

The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don’t have a Gmail account, then you might have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.

To change the Google Navigation voice, start at the homescreen and press Menu – Settings – Voice input and output – Text-to-speech settings.

Then under the Default settings section, press Default engine.

To change the language, go through the same process, but instead of Default engine, select Language.

If you prefer a different voice when listening to the Google Maps voice navigation, you can also select another language or accent.

To set an MP3 as a ringtone, try one of the following. It may depend which version of Android you are using however:

Using the default Music player App, find a song you would like to set as the ringtone. Then while the song is playing, press and hold on the track and select Use as phone ringtone.

Or, find a specific Contact. press Menu – Edit. Scroll down to Additional Info. Press the triangle. Then scroll to Call Handling and set a ringtone from there.