TechTricks

How do I increase my cell phone battery life? This is one of the most common questions all of us ask today. We ask for faster processors, bigger and brighter screens, and a smarter, more intelligent operating system while at the same time not wanting to carry around a brick. There is only so much battery you can fit inside a smart phone, so you need to come up with ways to help your phone last throughout the day without having to continually keep it connected to the charger. So what are ways to increase your cell phone battery life? Try out the tips below to help increase your phones battery life.

 1. Understand what is consuming you battery. Android devises provide the ability to understand what is consuming your battery. You will see what percentage of battery life is being consumed in descending order. As you understand what applications are consuming your battery life, you can make decisions on turning off specific features or uninstalling applications that you do not use. You can see this under Settings -> Battery

2. Lower your phones brightness and turn off auto brightness. Your phone screen usually consumes between 25- 40% of your battery life. You will be surprised by the amount of battery life you save by turning down the brightness of your phone screen and turning off your phones auto brightness function. You can changes this is under Settings -> Display -> Brightness

3. Use power saving mode. Almost all Android devices today come with a Power saving mode built into the phone. By enabling power saving mode your phone can control different features of your phone to save power. This is a simple step that can really help improve your cell phones battery life.

4. Turning off radios you don’t use. Keeping the GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth on when you are not using them will have a major effect on your phones battery life. When these features are turned on your phone continues to search for connections. Most of us do not need these features on all day. Only turn on these features when you need to use them. You can turn these off by dragging down the notification bar and selecting which features you would like turned off.

5. Kill apps that you are not using. Many of us do not turn off applications that we have recently used, which causes these applications continue to run throughout the day. As the day goes on, more and more applications are open and running in the background. By killing these applications you are not allowing them to be run when you are not using it. You can do this by opening your application manager (done on most android devices by holding down the home button) and selecting the trash button or swiping the application from left to right.

You’re laying in bed listening to music, you would love to fall asleep to your favorite tunes, but you know you don’t want to have dreams about Lady Gaga. (Scary I know.) Many people meet this conundrum and go find an app to solve the problem; and there are many. However, the iPhone actually has this feature built into the OS. Follow the instructions below to turn on a sleep timer for any music/video app.

1. Click on the Clock App Icon

2. Tap the Timer tab at the bottom right hand corner

3. Tap When Timer Ends

4. Scroll down to the very bottom and select Stop Paying

5. Tap Set at the top right hand corner of the screen

6. Use the wheels to choose the amount of time you want your music to play

7. Tap Start

8. Turn your music on using your favorite music app (Pandora, Spotify, etc…)

You’re done. Now your music will turn off when the timer is over. We hope this is helpful. If you have any questions or have any other tricks to share, use the comments section below to do so. 

Courtesy of AppAdvice.com

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2015 is said to be the year of mobile payments. If you’re an iPhone user, but still don’t want to upgrade to the iPhone 6 or 6S, you do have an alternative. It is not, however, a free alternative. This alternative involves the purchase of an Apple Watch. (This is cheaper than buying an unlocked non-contract iPhone for that matter.)

Older generation iPhones do not support Apple Pay because it requires the use of the NFC chip that was introduced with the latest iPhone model. Older generation models simply do not have this hardware. Therefore, Apple Pay will never be supported on older devices in its native form. However, the Apple Watch has its own NFC chip enabling you to use Apple Pay, even if you have an older generation of iPhone. 

To do so, you will need to add your credit card details to the Apple Watch. Simply perform the following:

1. Navigate to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
2. Select Passbook & Apple Pay
3. Select Add Credit or Debit Card
4. Add your desired credit cards

Success! Your cards are now added to the Apple Watch. From there you just double-click the side button and select your card, wave it by the NFC scanner, and you’re paying using your Apple Watch/Old Phone combo!

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Let us know if you have any issues with this in the comments below.

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Many people are look for ways to read the news fast, and Samsung has made that simple by creating a Briefing screen on their Samsung Galaxy S6. For those who owned a Samsung Galaxy S5, the Briefing screen is similar to My Magazine.

However, if you are anything like myself, you like to have minimal home screen pages. In that case, the Briefing screen can be a bit of an annoyance. But don’t worry, like My Magazine on the S5, Samsung has provided the ability to disable the Briefing screen.

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It’s easier than ever to disable the Briefing screen.

1. Long-press on a blank area of your home screen.

2. Scroll over to the Briefing screen

3. Deselect the check mark.

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And there you go! You have now officially disabled the Briefing screen on your Samsung Galaxy S6. For those of you who own a Samsung Galaxy S5, these steps will work for you as well. Now, if you ever want to re-enable the Briefing screen, simply follow the above steps, but this time just select the box above the Briefing screen.

As always, if you encounter any issues, or need to know how to do something else with your Samsung smart phone, let us know in the comment section below.

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Have you ever missed out on capturing a great moment because you could not get your camera out and ready in time? I have, and borne much scolding from my wife for it. Luckily, Samsung is here to help you out with their camera quick-launch feature. Usually, the feature is enabled on most Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones, but if it isn’t already, we are here to show you how to enable it. 

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For those who are unfamiliar with the camera quick-launch feature, it allows you to quickly and easily pull up your camera without having to search through your apps. By clicking the home button twice, the camera app opens and you can capture those great moments in life quickly and easily. 

Follow these easy steps and you will be ready to capture the moment in no time at all. 

1. Open your Settings Menu

2. Select Applications

3. Select Camera

4. Select the Quick Launch switch button to turn on or off Quick Launch

There you have it! You have now successfully turned on or off the camera quick launch feature. As always, if you encounter any issues, please let us know in the comment section below. Also, if you have any questions regarding your Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge we are here to help. You can post any question you have in the comment section as well. 

Bloat McGoats

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No one likes turning on their shiny new smartphone for the first time, only to find a mass amount of apps already installed that they will likely never use. What’s even more annoying is the fact you are unable to uninstall these applications, because the phone blocks you from doing so. Unless you give in to the dark side and decide to Root your phone, you are out of luck. Unless you own Samsung’s unprecedented smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S6. 

While the Samsung Galaxy S6 might not allow you to uninstall all the bloatware on your phone, you can do the next best thing and disable the app. By disabling the app you will disable all features, delete all app data, and the app will no longer appear under your list of apps. 

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So how do you disable the bloatware on your phone? Follow these simple steps and you will be freed from pain in no time!

1. Select the Apps icon to bring up the list of apps installed on your smartphone.

2. Select the Edit button on the top right of your S6.

3. Select the small red dash within a circle on the upper right of the uninstalled app you want to disable. 

4. If you agree to the terms for disabling the app, select OK. 

Say hello to your almost bloatware-free phone! Keep in mind that disabling apps will remove them from your app list, even f they are not truly uninstalled. If you want to enable the app to view it on your app list, follow the steps as outlined in the “Disable and reset” dialogue box.

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As always, if you run into any issues trying to disable the bloatware on your phone, be sure to let us know in the comment section below.

Check out Ryan’s incredibly economic discovery!

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Can you remember that time you needed to make an important phone call, or were on the verge of beating your high score, when all the sudden your screen goes black? You knew it was coming, because five minutes earlier you got the dreaded notice that your battery was on the verge of death. But you kept going because you thought you only needed one…more…minute! 

Well, I have good news for you. With the recent release of Android 5.0, you now have the ability to extend the battery of your device by up to 90 minutes. For those of you who had the honor of installing Android 5.0, we will show you how simple it is to enable this great feature. Follow the steps below and you will be extending your battery life in no time.

1. Select Settings on your device

2. Select Battery

 3. Select Battery Saver (displayed on the top right corner)

4. Choose your activation options (automatic or manual)

Note: Automatic setting- Automatically turns on battery saving mode when battery reaches a specific critical level. Manual- Keeps battery saver feature active at all times

You will notice that your notification panels (top and bottom of screen) are now orange. This lets you know that the battery saving mode is on. 

This will be a great feature when you you need to squeeze those extra minutes out of your battery life. Like squeezing candy from a baby. Wait, that doesn’t make sense…

Once you have had the chance to use this feature, let us know what you think in the comment sections below. 

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4G LTE takes speeds to the next level when it comes to mobile computing. Being a Sprint customer myself, I suffered for years with a bogged down 3G network, and am finally seeing 4G LTE pop up around the United States.

While I take 4G LTE for granted, there are some who have yet to experience the greatness of 4G LTE. Just the other day my brother-in-law reached out to me asking why he is not getting 4G LTE. After taking a trip to the Sprint store he was still unable to connect his phone to the 4G LTE network. After about 2 minutes of messing with his phone I was able to find the problem. 

If you are having the same issue it may be due to your phone not having 4G LTE enabled. This is an easy fix! Actually, its so easy I was amazed that the Sprint representative was unable to fix the problem.

While I will be using a Samsung%20Galaxy S4, Black Mist 16GB (Verizon Wireless)Samsung Galaxy S4 to show you this Tech Trick, most Samsung%20Galaxy Note 4, Charcoal Black 32GB (Verizon Wireless)Android devices should follow a similar process.

• On your Android Device Select Settings

• Under Connections Select More Networks

• Select Mobile Networks

• Select Network Mode

• Select LTE/CDMA

There you go, you will now be connected to 4G LTE when available. If you are not on unlimited data plan, don’t spend all your data in one place! Its easier to do than you think with 4G LTE.

As mentioned previously this process is relatively simple. However if you do have any issues, or need assistance with any other issues let us know in the comment section below.

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One benefit Android has over Apple is the ability to increase the storage of your device by utilizing a micro SD card. While many Android phones allow you insert a micro SD card to expand the storage, keep in mind this is not true for all Android devices

The SD card can be used for a number of functions like storing pictures, music, videos, and even apps you download.  You can set your phone to automatically move pictures, videos, and music to your SD card; unfortunately, you have to move apps manually. Here we will walk you through the process step by step.

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1. Go to Settings

2. Scroll to Applications section and select Application Manager

3. Swipe from right to left to go to the SD Card section (The green check box indicates the app is already been moved to the SD Card)

4. Select the app you would like to move to the SD Card

5. Select Move to SD Card

You’ll know the move was successful when you see the little message stating the app has moved. And, the ‘move to SD card’ button will change to ‘move to device storage’. Keep in mind, some of the larger apps take a while. You will have to stay on the same screen until that message pops up.

There you have it; if you followed these simple steps you will have successfully moved an app to from your phone storage to your SD Card. Although this article provides specific instructions and screen shots for the Samsung Galaxy S5, most Android phones will follow a similar process.  As always if you have any problems, please let us know in the comment section below.