How to Add a Longer-Lasting Battery to Your Smartphone

Well, it’s noon and your phone’s battery is already at 37 percent. There are ways to avert this disaster, adding more battery capacity to your favorite smartphone.

Phones are becoming thinner every year — if only they stayed the same thickness and had a larger battery instead! Be sure to follow the battery-saving tips for your Android phone oriPhone, too.

Option 1: The Battery Case

Technically, this is just getting a separate battery and carrying it around with you. In practice, a battery case gives your phone more battery power at the cost of increased thickness. The case just becomes part of your phone — you don’t need to carry a separate battery pack in your pocket and attach your phone to it via a cable when it’s time to recharge. Just flip a switch and the battery pack will charge your phone with the power from its own battery. The battery pack can even be charged at the same time you charge your phone, so it’s not even a second device to charge.The first option you can choose is a battery case. This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a case you put your phone in — like a typical case designed just to protect your phone — but the case is thicker than normal and includes a built-in battery. The case itelf plugs into your phone’s charging port, and you generally plug the charging cable directly into the case’s charging port when it’s time to charge both your phone and the battery case itself.

This is probably the ideal option for most phones if you consistently need more battery power to make it through a day. Mophie’s line of iPhone battery cases are probably the most well-known, but Mophie has also made cases for other smartphones. They’re not the only company that’s made battery cases, either. Just be sure to get a battery case designed for your specific model of phone so it will fit! Search on Amazon or a similar website and you’ll find many battery cases to choose from.

Option 2: The Aftermarket Battery Replacement

Most phones don’t have user-replaceable batteries anymore, but some do. Samsung’s line of Galaxy phones stand out here, with even the high-end Galaxy S5 and other S-series phones offering user-replaceable batteries. Because these batteries and the entire plastic back panel of the phone can be removed and replaced, it’s possible to get aftermarket batteries that are larger, complete with new back panels to accomodate them.

If you have a phone with a user-replaceable battery, you can probably buy a larger replacement battery for it. The battery and its accompanying back replace your phone’s existing battery, so it’s a more effective solution than a battery case with a battery separate from your phone’s battery. Perform a search for “extended battery” and the name of your phone to find one. For example, you can pick up third-party extended batteries that promise three times the battery life for your Samsung Galaxy S5 for $40 or so on Amazon.

As with a battery case, this will make your phone thicker and larger. Whether that’s worth the trade-off is up to you — if you struggle to make it through a day with your phone’s current battery, it probably will be worth it. But, whatever you do, don’t buy super-cheap battery replacements.

Option 3: Just Carry Around a Separate Battery Pack

Editor’s Note: for our recent trip to CES 2015, we bought this RAVPower external battery packand it worked amazingly well. We were able to recharge an iPhone 6 repeatedly throughout the trip without having to recharge the battery pack at all.There’s also the external battery pack option. Rather than replacing your phone’s battery or adding a battery case, you can just carry a separate battery pack around with you and connect it to your phone with a cable whenever you need to charge your phone away from an outlet. This has the benefit of ensuring your phone stays thin, and you can use the battery pack to charge other devices that might need more power — a tablet, for example.

But there are downsides here. The battery pack is yet another thing you have to carry, so it’ll be difficult to pocket and will be more at home in a bag. You’ll have to connect it to your phone via a cable, so you can’t just tuck your phone into your pocket normally and have it charging as you could with a battery case. You’ll also need to charge your battery pack separately, so it’s yet another thing you have to charge at the end of the day.

Still, a battery pack isn’t a bad option. If you only need the extra power for your phone occasionally, it’s a good option you can take with you if you know you’ll be using your phone a lot on a particular day. On days when you won’t be using your phone much, you can take your still-thin phone with you and leave the battery pack at home. However, if you struggle to make it through every single day with your phone’s battery, a battery case or extended battery is a more convenient option you can always take with you and always have in your pocket.

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Charging your phone throughout the day can also help. Whenever you’re using your computer, you can plug your smartphone into it via its charging cable — the one with a USB connection — and your phone will charge from the computer. There’s no memory effect with modern batteries, so regularly topping your phone off throughout the day won’t actually damage the battery.

Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It

Several times a year, Google releases a new version of Android with new features and performance improvements. Unfortunately, most Android devices in the wild will never get the update.

New Android users are often disappointed to discover that their shiny new smartphone won’t get any updates – or worse, that it was running old software from the moment they bought it.

The Android Ecosystem

Unlike Apple’s ecosystem, where Apple releases a single iPhone each generation, Android is a much more open (and messy) environment. Any manufacturer can make a smartphone or tablet, throw Android on it, and release it. While there have been six iPhones released since 2007, over 800 different models of Android phones have been released in the same period of time.

Android phones use a wide variety of different hardware. Some phones are made to be super-cheap, available free on contract or for inexpensive purchase by people in developing countries. Some are “flagship” phones with more advanced hardware than the iPhone.

Android even powers other types of devices – everything from refrigerators and televisions to video screens embedded in print magazines.

Why You Probably Can’t Update Your Phone

To make Android work on their hardware, device manufacturers must write Android device drives for their hardware. These are often closed-source, so device manufacturers have to update them on their own. Google can’t just release a new version of Android that works on all devices – manufacturers have to update the drivers to work with newer versions of Android.

Android smartphone manufacturers are also beholden to cell phone carriers, who can delay updates by months on their networks. While Apple has the muscle to overrule carriers and roll out new versions of their operating system, Android phone manufacturers do not.

Some new versions of Android come with increased hardware requirements. This prevents them from working on holder devices – the same is true in the iPhone and Windows Phone worlds, where new operating systems occasionally drop support for older devices.

More controversially, Android OEMs also add their own tweaks and skins on top of the Android operating system. These include Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC’s Sense, Motorola’s Motoblur, and others. In addition to adding custom launchers, OEMs tweak included apps to add and remove features. They’re convinced that this helps differentiate their products in the market, although diehard stock Android enthusiasts disagree.

When a new version of Android is released, OEMS have to port their custom software and tweaks to the latest version. In some cases, the custom software is incompatible. For example, Samsung never updated the original Galaxy S to Android 4.0 – Samsung said that the phone did not have enough RAM to run TouchWiz and Android 4.0 at the same time. While many cried out for Samsung to drop TouchWiz on the Galaxy S, Samsung refused – Galaxy S owners are either using Android 2.3 or a community-developed ROM like CyanogenMod.

Android OEMs and carriers often aren’t very interested in updating devices after they’re released. With the large amount of models being released, there’s no incentive to put a lot of work into updating an older model that’s been replaced by a newer one. OEMs and carriers also want to encourage you to buy newer devices, anyway.

iPhone & Windows Phone Updates

While we bemoan the Android update situation, it’s only appropriate to take a look at how Apple and Microsoft are doing with updates.

Apple fans generally point out that Apple updates older iPhones with the latest version of iOS. This is true, but the situation isn’t as rosy as it seems. While new versions of iOS come to older iPhones and iPads, many features are omitted. The iPhone 3GS runs iOS 6, the latest version of iOS, but it lacks turn-by-turn navigation, Siri, location-based reminders, FaceTime, AirPlay mirroring, Wi-Fi personal hotspot, and other important features. iPhone owners have also complained that new versions of iOS are heavier and can slow down an older iPhone. Apple eventually drops support for older iPhone models, too.

While Apple’s definitely doing a better job of updating iPhones, older iPhones aren’t running the latest-and-greatest software, either – just like older Android phones.

The Windows Phone situation has been even worse. With the jump from Windows Mobile 6 to Windows Phone 7, no devices were upgraded. While Microsoft initially made waves with a “Where’s My Phone Update?” site that allowed users to track when the latest version of Windows Phone would be available for their device and see which carriers were delaying the roll-out, this site has since been shut down. With the update from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8, no Windows Phone 7 phones were updated to Windows Phone 8, either. With each generation, users had to buy a new phone to get the latest and greatest software. While Microsoft promises a minimum of 18 months of updates for Windows Phone 8 devices, that’s little comfort to people stuck with fairly new Windows Phone 7 phones that will never be updated to Windows Phone 8.

Community-Developed Android Updates

Android is open-source, so it’s possible for Android users to take its source code and roll their own operating systems – known as a custom ROM – for their smartphones. If you have a reasonably popular device, there are likely other Android users out there developing and tweaking custom ROMs for it. Custom ROMs aren’t officially supported and require more tweaking to install than the average Android user would want to do, but many Android geeks use and love custom ROMs.

Custom ROMs allow Android geeks to buy hardware they like – such as the Galaxy S3 or HTC One X – and install a more stock Android operating system on it, removing the manufacturer’s software customizations and updating the operating system to the latest version. Popular Android phones are more likely to be supported.

CyanogenMod is the most popular community-developed ROM for Android. You can find more information about custom ROMS for your Android device by looking at the XDA Developers forum and checking the subforum for your specific device. If your manufacturer won’t update your device, you may find that the Android community has already updated it.

Devices That Receive Official Updates

If you don’t want to do any tweaking and wish your smartphone would receive automatic updates, it’s important to buy the right phone.

• Google’s Nexus smartphones (and tablets) are the platform Google uses to provide a “pure Android” experience. When you buy a Nexus phone, you’re generally assured that it will receive updates straight from Google without any carrier or manufacturer-created delays. When Google rolled out Android 4.2 recently, Galaxy Nexus owners received an update notification on their device almost immediately.

• “Flagship,” high-end phones will also generally receive updates, although they’ll be more delayed. If you purchased an HTC One X or Samsung Galaxy S3, you can be assured that it will probably receive a few updates – although they’ll likely be available months after they’re released for Nexus devices and perhaps even after the Android community has released a community-developed ROM for your device.
• Low-end Android smartphones – the kind you get for $0 without a contract – will likely never receive updates. The hardware on these low-end devices is already dated, and manufacturers won’t continue to support these.

Google, in their latest attempt to speed up Android updates, is giving select Android device manufacturers access to newer versions of Android before they’re released to the public. Android OEMs will have the opportunity to start working on udpates ahead of time. Whether this will help remains to be seen.

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If your phone is running an old version of Android, there are some things you can do to make an old Android feel like new.

5+ Cool Uses for Android’s Daydream Mode

Android’s Daydream feature is an “interactive screensaver mode” that can activate automatically when your device is docked or charging, keeping your screen on and displaying information. Daydream mode can give your device an always-on information display.

Developers can create their own Daydream apps and Android includes a variety of built-in options. We’ll cover what you need to know about Daydream mode and how you can use it to make your Android device display useful information.

What is Daydream Mode?

When you dock your Android phone or tablet or charge it, its screen normally stays off. When you enable Daydream mode, the device’s screen will stay on and display the Daydream app you choose. You can use this to display the time, weather, quotes, photos, news, tweets, or anything else that developers write a Daydream app for.

This feature isn’t enabled by default. To enable it, open Android’s Settings screen, tap Display, and tap Daydream. Tap the When to Daydream option and select when you want to use Daydream mode.This feature was added in Android 4.2. If you have an old Android device you’re not using lying around, you could try to install a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod on it. You can then enable Daydream mode and use it to display information.

You can then select the Daydream app you want to use. Many Daydream apps have settings you can configure — just tap the settings button to their right.

Clock

Daydream mode debuted along with Android 4.2 and the Nexus 4. To demo it, Google showed the Nexus 4 sitting on its wireless charging orb and displaying information. If you have a Nexus 4 and a wireless charger, you can enable Daydream mode, place it on the charger, and it will function as a clock. The clock uses a “night  mode” setting by default to appear very dim — perfect for glancing at the time in the middle of the night if you want to replace your old clock radio with your phone.

The time slowly fades out and moves around the screen when you use this Clock app, preventing screen burn-in on some devices.

Dashclock – Display Almost Anything

Dashclock also has Daydream support, so you can install it and select it as your Daydream app to see much more information than you would with a standard clock widget. It’s useful here for the same reason it’s useful on your lock screen. You can normally only select one Daydream widget, but if you select the Dashclock widget you can see many pieces of information with this single widget.We previously covered using Dashclock to extend the Clock widget on Android’s lock screen with much more information, from the weather to the number of emails, messages, and missed calls you have. Dashclock is infinitely extensible with a variety of different extensions.

Photos

Google provides Photo Frame and Photo Table Daydream apps that function as photo slideshows. You can select albums from your Gallery and your device will flip through the photos in those albums, essentially turning your phone or tablet into a digital photo frame. The Photo Frame app functions as a standard photo slideshow, displaying one photo at a time, while Photo Table displays multiple photos at once in a smaller, thumbnailed view.

Quotes

Daydream Quotes displays random quotes when your device is in Daydream mode. The white-on-black text is simple and not too distracting — it may give you something to think about if you happen to glance at your phone while it’s in Daydream mode.

Flipboard

Google provides a Google Currents app, but there’s a good chance you use Flipboard instead of Google Currents. Luckily, Flipboard includes Daydream support so you can have your device cycle through the latest content from Flipboard, just in case you want another device constantly broadcasting new and interesting content at you.

More Options

These aren’t the only options. You may also be interested in:

• Zoum Twitter Daydream, a Twitter client for Daydream that displays new tweets.
• Website Daydream, which displays any website on screen while in Daydream mode. It’s unclear who this would be useful to, but it’s certainly flexible.
• Weather Daydream Screensaver, which displays the weather. It’s a paid app that costs $3, so you may want to try configuring Dashclock to show the weather instead. Beautiful Widgets also includes a Daydream app that displays both the time and the weather.

There’s also a hidden Daydream app built into Android jelly bean, which displays jelly beans floating around on your device’s screen. To unlock it, access the hidden jelly bean Easter egg. The hidden “BeanFlinger” option will appear in your list of Daydream apps.

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Daydream mode is a fairly recent feature, so there aren’t as many third-party options as there are for things like Android’s home screen widgets. It’s also tough to design good Daydreams that display useful information in an unobtrusive fashion without overwhelming the user — what else is there to display in Daydream mode?

What You Can Do With Your iPhone’s Health App

Apple’s Health app arrived in iOS 8, and it’s now on every up-to-date iPhone. This app appears simple at first glance, but it hides a lot of data and advanced functionality.

The Health app is in actually the user-visible face of Health Kit, Apple’s attempt at putting all your health data in one place.

The Dashboard (and Step Tracking)

If you have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, you can use the Health app as a quick way to see how much you’re walking and running — no separate pedometer or step-tracking device necessary. Without any additional apps or gadgets, this is all most people will see on their iPhone’s Health app — assuming they have a modern iPhone with these sensors.Open up the Health app and you’ll see the Dashboard. If you have an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, the phone’s built-in, low-power step tracking sensor will automatically populate this data with information about your physical activity. The sensor tracks the steps you take, the distance you walk or run, and the flights of stairs you climb. You can then see how active you were over the last day, week, month, or year.

Although the Dashboard automatically includes this step data if you have an iPhone 6, you can actually display any type of data on the Dashboard you like. We’ll cover that later.

Medical ID

The Medical ID tab allows you to create a “Medical ID.” This is information that can be displayed on your lock screen without unlocking your phone. The idea is that you can add information about you that may be useful in an emergency — medical conditions, allergies, blood type, organ donor status, emergency contacts, and more. These important details can then be accessed from your phone’s lock screen if people need to know it in an emergency.

This is sort of a digital version of the medical ID wristband, but it does depend on someone checking your iPhone in an emergency. It’s also a bit tough to find, as someone has to tap the Emergency button on the lock screen to open the emergency dial-er and then tap Medical ID. If more people use Medical ID, perhaps Medical ID will be commonly checked in the future. At this point, I would stick with a dedicated medical ID wristband if you’re really worried about communicating essential details in an emergency.

Health Data

The Health Data tab is a massive list of different types of health data. This is actually a list of all the different types of data Apple’s “Health Kit” service can track. Apple’s Health Kit service will allow third-party health-tracking gadgets and apps to share their data with Apple’s Health app and access the data you have stored there, if you give them permission. The Health app is supposed to be a single vault where all your Health data is stored.

If you have apps or devices that integrate with Health Kit, they can automatically add data to the different types of Health Data, just as your iPhone is constantly updating the step-tracking data with data from its own sensors. Apple’s own Apple Watch will include fitness-tracking features that integrate with Health Kit, for example. 

But you can actually add a lot of data by hand, if you want. For example, let’s say you weigh yourself daily. You can go into Health Data > Body Measurements > Weight and tap Add Data Point. Every day when you weigh yourself, you can add the latest measurement here and track a history of your weight. You can even toggle the “Show on Dashboard” option to On so you can see your weight on the Dashboard screen.

This isn’t the most convenient option, of course. In the long run, Apple would like for you to get some sort of Bluetooth-enabled scale that will automatically enter your weight into HealthKit when you weigh yourself. But, if you’d like to track something manually — whether it’s weight, blood pressure, time spent sleeping, or caffeine intake — you can add it manually. You are limited to types of data Apple includes, however. There are some noticeable omissions right now.

For each type of data, you can also tap “Share Data” to see which apps are automatically providing this data to the Health app, and which apps have been given permission to view the data.

Sources

For example, let’s say you have an activity-tracking band that tracks the time you spend asleep or a bathroom scale that can report your weight to your phone via Bluetooth. The accompanying apps on your phone can request permission to integrate with Health Kit. They can then put their data into the Health app so you can access everything in one place. This data can then be shared with other apps, which could use it to provide insights after they look at months or years of different data points.The Sources tab looks a bit lonely by default. Apps you install from the App Store may request access to update your health data, and they’ll appear here after requesting permission to do so. This tab will only be useful if you’ve already given access to such apps, so you can see which apps have access.

It isn’t all about physical sensors, of course. An app that you manually enter data into could also integrate with Health Kit, automatically copying the data you entered into Health Kit so it’s all available in one central location.

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This app is actually not very Apple-like in many ways. The Dashboard is nice, and Medical ID is okay, but you can easily find yourself in the weeds if you tap Health Data and start looking around.

While it’s possible to obsessively enter all the data points you have manually, the real intention is for you to use devices and apps that automatically enter the data for you. To find these apps, you’ll have to look elsewhere — the Health app on iOS doesn't yet help you find Health Kit-enabled apps and devices. That seems like an obvious helpful feature Apple should add in the future.

How to teach contact names and relationships to Siri and Google Now

Picking up your phone and saying "Call my dad" or "Call Ted" (meaning Ted your boss, not that random Ted fellow you met five years ago) should work like magic.

All too often, though, both Siri (on iOS) and Google Now (on Android phones) will do a double-take, asking "Who's Dad?" or "Which Ted did you mean?"

Even worse, it might mistake "my dad" for another name in your contact book and start dialing—and at that point, you'll probably be wondering why you didn't skip the fancy voice commands and simply tap your way to your phone favorites.

With a little work on your part, you can teach Siri and Google Now the nicknames and relationships of the most important people in your life, from your loving spouse or parents to your closest (or most demanding) colleagues.

Once your iPhone or Android phone knows who your dad is—or that "Ted" means your boss, not Ted whatshisname—using voice commands for phone calls will feel a lot more magical.

For Android

Of the few different ways to add nicknames and relationships to contacts, the easiest is to simply tell Google Now via voice command.

• Open Google Now (slowly swipe up from the bottom of the screen, or tap the home-screen Google search box), tap the microphone icon (or just say "OK Google" if you've enabled this setting, and say "[name of your spouse] is my [husband or wife]," or "[name} is my [boss]."
• Assuming it heard you loud and clear, Google Now will go ahead and assign those labels to the person you named.

Want to add relationships with a bit more precision, or want to give one of your contacts a nickname? Try this:

• Launch the People app on your Android device, open a contact card, tap the three-dot menu button in the top corner of the screen, then tap Edit.
• Tap Add another field, tap Nickname, then fill in the blank, either with an actual nickname or the contact's relationship to you, such as "boss" or "sister." (Yes, both the People app and Gmail have an actual "Relationship" field, but filling it in won't do any good as far as voice commands are concerned.)
• Is Google Now—or are you, for that matter—having trouble with a tongue-twister of a name? Tap Add another field, then select "Phonetic name" to make life (and voice recognition) a little easier.

Adding nicknames and relationships from your PC or Mac is easy, too.

• Fire up your favorite web browser, open the Gmail account associated with your Android device, then select "Contacts" from the pull-down menu in the top-left corner of the page.
• Search for and then open the contact you want to edit, tap the Add button at the bottom of the contact card, select "Relationship, "Nickname," or "Phonetic name," and fill in the blanks.

For iOS

The easiest of several ways is this one: 

• Click and hold the Home button on your iPhone or iPad to launch Siri, then say "[name of contact] is my [husband, wife, boss]."
• After thinking about it a moment, Siri will ask to confirm the relationship. Done and done.

Here's how to do the same thing using the iOS keypad:

• Open the Contacts app, tap your own contact card, then tap the Edit button.
• Scroll down to the "Add related name" field, tap it, select a relationship (like "spouse" or "manager"), then type a name, or tap the little "i" to choose a contact from the iOS address book.
• Does Siri need help recognizing the names of your friends, colleagues and loved ones? Find one of their contact cards in the Contacts app, scroll down to the "add field" button, then tap it to add a phonetic name or a nickname.

If you use iCloud to store your contacts, you can edit your relationships, nicknames and phonetic name from a web browser.

• Log into iCloud.com, click the Contacts icon. Search for a contact card, then click the Edit button.
• Click the Add Field button to add a phonetic first or last name, a nickname, or a "related" person.

Finally, Mac users can use the Mac's Contact app to add nicknames and relationships in pretty much the same way—assuming you're using iCloud to sync your contacts on your Mac, of course.

• Launch the Contacts app on your Mac, open a contact and click the Edit button.
• Click the little + button in the bottom corner of the contact card, select More Fields, then pick Phonetic First/Last Name, Related Name, or Nickname.

Speed Up Any PC, Smartphone, or Tablet By Disabling Animations

Animations on a desktop PC, smartphone, or tablet are nice — the first few times. Eventually, you just wish they would hurry up and stop wasting your time.

Disabling (or just reducing) animations can speed up almost any interface. Sure, the animations are pretty fast already, but waiting for them over and over each day can start to feel silly.

Windows

The Windows desktop has long offered convenient options for disabling animations. These settings work across every version of Windows, from Windows XP to Windows 7 all the way up to Windows 8 and the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

To access the animation options, open the Control Panel, click System & Security, and click System. Click the “Advanced system settings” option in the sidebar. Click Settings under Performance and use the check boxes here to control which animations Windows displays. Choosing “Adjust for best performance” is a quick way to disable all of them.

On a modern Windows system, these animations won’t really hurt your performance much — but they will make the system seem faster as menus snap into view and windows minimize and restore instantly. These options allow you to eliminate Windows 8’s Start screen animations, too.

Android

First, you’ll need to enable the Developer Options menu. Open the Settings app, scroll down to the bottom, and tap About phone or About tablet. Locate the “Build number” field and tap it seven times. You’ll see a notification saying you’re now a developer.Android’s hidden Developer Options menu allows you to dramatically accelerate the animations or disable them completely. We’ve covered this before, and the process is basically the same on both Android 4.x and Android 5.0.

Tap the back button and tap the Developer options item that’s now appeared near the bottom of the Settings menu. Activate the Developer options slider, scroll down, and modify the “Window animation scale,” “Transition animation scale,” and “Animator duration scale” options. You can select “Animation off” to disable them or “Animation scale .5x” to make them twice as fast as normal.

iPhone & iPad

Apple fielded a lot of user complaints for the speed of animations in iOS 7. They’ve sped them up since then, but there’s still a way to reduce the interface’s animations.

To do so, open the Settings app, tap General, and tap Accessibility. Tap the Reduce Motion option and activate the switch. This won’t eliminate the animations entirely, but it replaces the motion animations with a fade that feels cleaner — and maybe faster.

Mac OS X

The slowest animations on a Mac are the window minimize and restore animations. They can be controlled from the Dock’s preferences pane. To access it, click the Apple menu, select System Preferences, and click Dock.

There’s no option to disable this animation entirely, but you can choose the “Scale” animation instead of the default “Genie” animation. Scale feels a bit faster and less distracting than Genie, so you’ll have a faster experience the next time you minimize and restore an application.

Unfortunately, there aren’t yet many other options for disabling animations as of OS X Yosemite. There is an option for disabling the bounce animation when applications launch in the Dock pane, though. Hopefully Apple will add more options for controlling the various animations.

Linux

On Ubuntu’s default Unity desktop, these options are a bit hard to get to. You’ll have to install the CompizConfig Settings Manager and use it to tweak the hidden graphical settings you’re normally not supposed to modify. From here, you can speed up or eliminate these animations by disabling them or changing their duration. Be careful when using this tool, as it’s rather complicated and isn’t intended for typical desktop users!Your Linux desktop environment probably has its own options for controlling its various desktop animations, too. You’ll usually find options for controlling animations that appear when windows open, close, minimize, or are restored.

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Practically every graphical interface offers some option to reduce animations. Some operating systems offer more complete options than others — the Windows desktop and Android are particularly configurable — but every operating system offers some. Across every graphical interface, eliminating, reducing, or just speeding up animations will make your interface feel faster. This is another tip that will probably serve you well on whatever interface you’re using ten years from now.

When Microsoft added new, extremely slow animations to the Windows 10 Technical Preview, some people asked Microsoft for an option to disable them. Others just went straight to the Performance settings dialog in Windows and disabled them on their own using standard options that have existed in Windows for a long time.

How To Block Ads In Android Apps, Games And Browsers

Ads are a necessary evil. Many websites and applications are providing you with free service, free content and free software because someone else is paying them to keep them up. Thus, the service provider has to serve ads to you in return for the income that is keeping them in business, and in development. As the user, you reap the benefit of using the product for free.

However, sometimes the ad placements can be really annoying, contributing to not-so-appealing user experience. In this post we will look at methods to block ads from showing up on Android. You can block ads from appearing in apps and games, or only on browsers.

The methods here may work for both rooted and non-rooted devices. It will be specified for each method. Before we begin, you need a File Manager, e.g. Astro File Manager. Any other file manager will work fine.

Disclaimer: Attempt ad-blocking at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible for any effects on your device resulting from these methods.

1. Adblock Plus (ABP)

This method uses ad-blockers (apps) to block all ads in your device, including the ads shown in various apps and games. There are many ad-blockers for Android, thanks to the ever-growing Android developers. The top two would be Adblock Plus (ABP) and AdAway; we wil discuss the former, but you can install AdAway if that’s your preference.

Using Adblock Plus

We’re going with Adblock Plus as it is an open source project and has the option to allow non-intrusive ads. This method works for both rooted and non-rooted devices. Installing an ad-blocker app requires your device to allow applications from unknown sources.

Sideloading is required as Google has removed ad-block apps from Google Play Store. You need to sideload any ad-blocker, i.e. install ad-blockers using its APK file and not from Google Play Store.

Follow the given steps to set this configuration:

1. Go to Settings > Applications (or Security on 4.0 and above) on your Android device.
2. Navigate to the Unknown sources option.
3. If unchecked, tap the checkbox, and then tap OK on the confirmation popup.

Your Android device is ready to install ad-blockers.

Installing And Configuring Adblock Plus

1. Open a browser in your device and download Adblock Plus for Android. Your device will receive the APK file: adblockplusandroid-version.apk.

2. Navigate to where your downloaded files are kept, then tap on the file and install. (If you open the APK file using a file manager, select Open App Manager and then click on Install.)

3.1 On rooted devices: after installing, open Adblock Plus. It will request for super user permissions. Allow super user permissions to Adblock Plus and you are good to go.

3.2 On non-rooted devices: you need a few more steps, to manually set up proxy in your Android. You will need to follow the instructions here as instructions are different for Android versions up to 3.1 and 4.0+.s

Now Adblock Plus will start blocking ads. You can set more options in Adblock Plus like ads filter lists, non-intrusive ads, etc in Settings.

Adblock Plus – Browser Extension

Adblock Plus is also available as a browser extension for Firefox. With this method, only theads shown on web pages inside the browser are blocked. Ads in apps or games are not affected. This method works for rooted as well as non-rooted devices.

Setting Up Adblock Plus (Extension)

1. If you are not using Firefox as a browser on your Android yet, get it here. Run the browser on your device and go to the Adblock Plus add-on here. Add it to Firefox and Install it.

2. Restart Firefox and browse ad-free. You can set more options in Adblock Plus by going to the Menu > Adblock Plus and going through the options you can configure.

2. Block Ads Using ‘Hosts’ File

This method uses ‘hosts’ file to block ads. This method blocks all ads in your device, including the ones shown in various apps and games. This method works only for rooted devices.

What Is A ‘Hosts’ File?

‘hosts’ file is a plain-text file in an operating system to map hostnames (like anything.com) to its IP address. Whenever you try to launch a website using its hostname, the operating system will usually search the ‘hosts’ file to find the corresponding IP address first.

If the search is successful, then its mapped IP address is used; otherwise a query is sent to DNS (Domain Name Service) to find the IP address of that hostname.

Setting Up ‘Hosts’ File

1. On the computer, open MVPS (or pgl.yoyo.org or hostfile.mine.nu) on your browser. A plain-text page will open. Save this page as the name hosts in the computer.

2. Using Bluetooth or a USB connection, copy this hosts file from your computer to your Android device. Note the file path.

3. On your Android, open the file manager in your device and copy the hosts file to /etc or/system/etc. Accessing this location may require you to ‘allow super user permissions’ to the file manager.

4. Rename the original hosts file (if present) to a .txt or .bak extension. Paste the savedhosts file here. Reboot your Android and your Android is now ad-free.

Google Play Store Error 498 – 5 Ways to Fix it

Recently While Downloading Asphalt game on my Smartphone I got an Error 498 in Google Play Store. To be Exact, the Error Reads “Error 498 has occurred while communicating with the server“.

                                        

I Tried again but the Same Error Again. After Few Tweaks i was finally able to download and Install  Asphalt on my Phone.

Because i Faced this error in Google Play store, i though there will be many other people facing the same error and so this Guide on how to Fix Error 498 in Gooogle Play store.

Here on this Page i will be sharing few Methods that will help you to get rid of it. Though any one listed Method will not work for Everyone to Get rid of Google Play Error 498 because there are different reasons that are responsible to cause this error.

Causes of Error 498 in Play store

There are Few things that causes this Error on your Smartphone while you try to download any app from Google Play store.

• The Most common issue is the Size of Device’s Cache Partition. You will get Error 498 in play store if you try to download apps that are larger in size then your Device’s Cache partition.

For Eg: Your Cache partition is of 30M and you try to download an app with Size 35M then you might get this error. Usually Play store have issues when downloading apps that are large in size.

• Another Reason is Google Servers from where you are trying to download the apps might be under maintenance. So if you are downloading an App and you get Play store erro 498 message then Server may be the issue. Just wait and try to download it again.

So these were just Couple of Possible Reasons for a User to get this Error in Google Play store, Now let us see Some Possible Ways to Fix it.

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5 Ways to Fix Google Play store Error 498

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Method 1: Clearing Cache

Most Common Reason you might be facing this Error  is because of Cache, so i will start the Methods list by Recommending you to Clearing the Cache.

To do So, Just navigate to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Select Google Play store > Clear Data & Clear Cache.

Now Try and download the App if Cache was the problem and clearing it solved the Issue for you.  One more reason of listing this method on top is this worked for me and i was able to download the game easily after clearing the Cache. Though the Solution for all might not be the same so try below methods too.

Method 2: Use Wifi to Download.

Many a times your Internet Service Provider(ISP) Creates this Problem of Error 498 and many other Errors. so Try and get access to Wifi somehow and try to download the app thats giving you the Error.

Method 3: Adding New Play Store account.

You will need to Add a new Play store account inorder to fix this Error. Go to Settings > Accounts > Add New Account > Click on Google > Next > Enter email > Done.

After setting up new Play store account try to download the same app and see if this have Solved your Problem.

Method 4: Connecting with Computer:

One of my Friend reported that he fixed Error 498 by installing apps from Computer to Smartphone. You just need to connect your Smartphone to Computer Using USB Cable. then goto Google Play Store using your Favourite Browser on your Computer. Then Search for the App which was getting error on your Smartphone.

Click on the Preferred Result that you get, next On the App page you will see Install button. Click it to Download that app On your Smartphone. No it will not Install on your Computer. it will Install on your Smartphone. Just make sure your Smartphone is Connected or else you will not See Install Button.

Method 5: Uninstall & reinstall Google Play store:

If your Phone is Rooted then You might just want to Uninstall and Then Reinstall Google Play store so that to make sure that you actually get rid of Error 498 in Google Play Store. If any of the above Listed methods don’t work for you then go for this one and you will fix it for sure.

So these were 5 Methods to Fix Error 498 In Play Store. I hope this helps you to get rid of this error and you can again download your favourite app from play store just like before.

If these Helps then please don’t forget to spend few seconds and Comment below which Method solved the Issue for you. Or If you have any other way to get rid of this error message in play store then feel free to share it in Comments below.