Optimize the battery life of your Android phone

Almost all android users feel that it would have been great had they been to get a bit more out of their battery, me being one of them. Here are some steps to extract a bit more from your battery

1. WI-Fi: Turn OFF  the Wi-Fi when it is not needed. When turned ON,  consumes more battery to detect Wi-Fi devices which are available in a specified range of distance.
2. Mobile Network: Order of network preference should be 2G -> 3G - 4G. 3G may be preferable when browsing or downloading, for other times prefer 3G. 
3. Screen Brightness Level : Reduce the display brightness that will enhance your Android device battery life. If you don't feel like manually adjusting, set it to automatic brightness level
4. Disable GPS: Disable GPS service when it is not in use otherwise it consumes more battery life compared to 3G or 4G network.
5. Remove Unnecessary Home screen Widget: Home screen widgets consume more battery power, so make sure to use only those widgets that are important daily.
6. Restrict Notifications: Disable notifications for apps from which you don't need notifications. Go to Settings -> Application Manager, and uncheck the notifications.
7. Disable Auto Sync: This feature is used to sync with applications such as Google account, Gmail, etc. Incase this feature is not needed then disable auto sync option and saves your battery.
8. Restrict Push - Use manual fetch for mail accounts instead of Push. You can manually set the sync schedule in mail client 
9. Remove background apps: By killing apps that you are not using, you can decrease battery life consumption at a greater level.
10. Reduce Screen Timeout: Display consumes a great deal of battery life. Reduce the screen timeout to 15 sec or 30 sec, and conserve its battery up to some reasonable level.
11. Haptic Feedback: Disabling haptic feed back conserves battery life
12. Enable Airplane Mode: Turn on Airplane mode if you are traveling by train, or where your network will be lost repeatedly. This also reduces battery consumption.
13. Use power saving apps: If the above steps seem too cumbersome, you may use apps like Juice defender, DU Battery Saver, Easy battery are some apps which help you to perform all the steps mentioned above. 

That being said, its always a good idea for smartphone users to carry a charger or power-bank/ battery-bank with them to fall back upon.

Viber@Android: existing Viber contacts not shown in the contact list

Recently some of my friends reported this problem - after they changed their phones, and installed a fresh copy of Viber on android, existing Viber users in their contact list did not feature in the Viber Contacts if the app.

Upon looking up the net I found that this is a known problem with Viber :

Here are the steps to solve the problem:

1.     Try tapping on the 'More' tab at the bottom of the Viber app, then select "Settings" and the add a check mark [√]  to "Show all Contacts"

2.     If you do not see someone in your contact list whom you know to have Viber, it might be that the list is not updated (this may be due to an unstable connection during setup, or just a slight delay). To update your contact list, re-sync it by re-initiating Viber or by manually updating your contacts list.

3.     If this does not work, send the user an invite and if the number is a registered Viber user, it will automatically update the Viber contact list.

Enter into your Viber contact list, then select the device's menu button, and tap on "update contacts". Then just click your device 'home' button. Viber will run in the background. In about 30 min. to an hour, check again by clicking on the Viber icon.

4.     Dial a existing Viber user's number manually, using the Viber keypad

      The phone number format should include the plus sign, country code, cell code and phone number. The standard format is: +(country code)-(cell code)-(phone number).For example: +1-555-555-5555

5.     Last but not least, do ensure that you have an active Internet connection

 Hope this helps.

Further reference
Android: Contact list is not showing your friends as Viber users?
Why Viber fails to recognize my contacts as Viber users?

Viber: Show/Hide location status on messages

In the Viber app there is an option to send your location info with every message. 

To change this option to send your current location along with every message message, simply click on the arrow symbol as shown in the image below. This will allow you to turn your location On or Off.

The first blog

Its been quite some time now that I have been thinking of putting up a blog. I tried on several occasions but could not hit upon a suitable name for the blog URL. Anything that I could think of was taken. Just goes on to show how stereotype we have become, or may be that its really hard to come up with something unique.

I am generally into new technology, apps, phones, gizmos etc, and its often that my friends ask my opinion before making a mobile purchase, or looking for  a new app. I will try to put in my findings over here so that it may come handy for others, and in the process, we might have a healthy exchange on whats new in the gizmo world.