Tips and tricks from Fonehouse.co.uk

Mobile phones are a ubiquitous sight for people to see. We encounter them frequently, and they're used for a wide selection of different tasks. However, how many people actually know how to get the most from their phone?

It's relatively common for people not to understand how to utilise a phone in the best possible way. We presume that they're automatically set up to make our lives as easy as possible, but this isn't always the case. In a lot of cases, you have to really know a trick or two to make sure that your phone is optimised correctly. Sites like Fonehouse have heard many different ideas for how best to try and make the phone the best possible thing it can be, and we're going to be looking at some of them here and now.

Back Up What You Can't Afford To Lose

Music, photos, important business documents. They're all things that we can access without a moment's hesitation, but they're not permanent. If you drop your phone, damage it or expose it to water, you can lose everything. This obviously isn't something that you want to happen, so you need to make sure that you backup anything that you can't afford to lose. It protects all the things that you want to keep in the event of them perhaps not being available to you. Technology is far from perfect after all, and in a world of bugs and faults, there's never been more of a need to stay secure.

Consider A New Browser

A lot of the core apps provided to you by your phone will be pretty useful. However, perhaps it's time to consider something other than Safari for your iPhone. Every browser will offer you a different and possibly better experience. For example, Google Chrome allows users to view tabs that they have open on another device. It's worth taking the time to look around and see what is available to you regarding browsers, and even consider alternatives for other things as well. Perhaps a more specialist reminder application, or a music provider that works for your lifestyle.

Folders Are Your Friend

Trawling through pages of apps can be an absolute chore to try and do. When you're just looking for one application in three or four pages worth, you soon find yourself wishing for an alternative. This is where folders come into play. They're designed to help you sort applications based on their usage and characteristics. They can be and often are your best friends, so it's worth taking the time to stop and look at how you can arrange things.

Use Shortcuts

Shortcuts are designed to help us get to various parts of our phones without having to navigate through hundreds of different menus. A lot of home screens on phones, especially those made by Apple, are designed to make it so that people can get around their phones with ease. Plus, a lot of them can be customised and changed to suit the needs of the people who are using them, so it's perfect for so many different people to use. If you don't use your home screen all that much, you should definitely look into how you can customise it to suit your specific needs and requirements.

Keep It Simple

All things considered, sometimes it's best to keep your phone as simple as possible. The more applications that you have on the phone and the more you try and do at once, the higher the risk of something going wrong. Sometimes the best way to do things is to keep it simple and straightforward. This is achieved by limiting the number of apps you have open, and not pushing the phone too far.

All in all, these are just a few of the different things which you can do to make sure that you are getting the most from your phone. Because we all use our mobiles so often, it is so important that we take the time to make the most of the phones that we have. Despite what we would like to think, our phones aren't actually always set up to make our lives the most convenient that they can be. This requires us to tailor all of the various functions and features of the device to suit our own unique needs and requirements. Only by doing this can we expect to have a phone which is convenient, highly intuitive and attuned to our lives.

Mobile phones have become ubiquitous today. Almost everyone in the developed and developing countries, whether they are a school-goer, a salaried professional, or even elderly, has one type of smartphone or the other. However, do you know there are many ways to enhance your mobile experience?

The following are top 5 things that you can do to make the most of your smartphone:

1. Setting up Smart Lock

 

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It's good that most phones offer a slew of security features to protect your privacy. However, when you are at home i.e. in a safe space, then it can be annoying to unlock your device whenever it's in the standby mode. This problem can be easily solved with Google Smart Lock.

Google Smart Lock offers you a number of options that make phone unlocking easy and convenient:

Trusted Places

You can set up Trusted Places of the smart lock so that when you are in select locations (home, office, etc.) then the phone remains unlocked for a certain period. It can track your location with the GPS sensor and unlock the device automatically when it detects the locations set by you.

On Body Detection

This feature keeps the phone unlocked as long as it's in your hands or pockets. However, as soon as you put the phone down, it gets locked instantly.

Trusted Devices

You can also link a Bluetooth device such as a Bluetooth speaker, smartwatch, etc. to your smartphone so that when it detects the device it understands that you are in a "safe zone" and unlocks the device as long as you are in the vicinity of the device.

There are many other ways to set up Smart Lock. To learn how to turn it on/off the in your Android device, go here.

2. Installing Performance Booster App 

It's not uncommon for people to fill their mobiles with all kinds of games and apps. However, this constant addition of new applications over time can greatly affect your phone's performance. To solve this problem, you can use a utility app like Power Clean that can optimize your device.

Power Clean offers a number of features that help to make your phone run faster and create space for new apps and files in a matter of seconds. With its "one tap" feature, you can remove obsolete APK files, cache data, unwanted apps, junk photos and more. If can also be used for increasing the free available RAM or removing viruses.

3. Using VPN

 

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A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a connection method that sets up a virtual tunnel between your mobile and the services you access on the Internet. So, any information that's exchanged between you and the websites you visit are hidden from your ISP and potential hackers that may try to tap into the communication channel.

There are many benefits of using VPN:

• You can enjoy a high level of security and privacy whether you are using your phone with your home wifi or a public hotspot.
• You can unlock geo-restricted content such as Hulu, BBC Radio etc. as the service allows you to access these websites through remote servers.
• If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has throttled your bandwidth, then a VPN service can increase your Internet speed too.

There are a variety of VPN services that you can use for your mobile such as TunnelBear, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc. However, you may want to learn how VPN works exactly so that you know how to pick the right VPN for your needs.

4. Enabling Developer Options

Although the developer options in smartphones are meant for software professionals, general users can also use them to enhance their experience. However, you need to enable these options first as they aren't accessible by default.

If you are using an android phone, then enabling developer options is quite simple. Just go to Settings > About phone or Settings > System > About phone, look for build number, and tap it several times (usually 7) until it notifies you that you have become a developer. Doing the same on an iPhone is slightly more complicated but you can still learn it here.

Some of the best developer options that are available in an Android phone are:

• Background process limit: This option lets you limit the number of apps that can run in the background at the same time. The default number is usually 4-5. However, you can set it to zero so that every time you close an app, it's terminated rather than moved to the background where it continues to run. This can greatly improve the performance of your device.
• Aggressive data handover: Activating this option makes your wi-fi more "aggressive" in handing over the data connection to mobile. So, whenever the wi-fi signal gets low, it hands over the connection to your mobile data instantly. This way, you can surf the Internet without any lags.
• Force 4X MSAA: If you want to take your mobile gaming experience to the next level, then you can enable the Force 4X MSAA option. It lets you enjoy better quality graphics in a variety of games and OpenGL ES 2.0 applications. However, bear in mind that it increases the battery consumption too.

5. Double up Your Device as a POS Terminal

 

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If you are a business owner who has to accept credit/debit card payments from customers frequently, then you don't need to invest in a POS terminal for that. Square Register is a unique payment service that allows you to convert your standard smartphone into a POS device by using a special dongle called Square Reader. It's an innovative card-swipe dongle that plugs into your phone's audio jack. It's easy to use, and available for both iOS and Android devices.

So, these were some of the less-known tips and tricks that can help you enjoy your mobile even more. Which one are you going to try first?

Your life is a fast-paced and action-packed whirlwind these days, but no matter where you go or what you do there is always one constant - your smartphone. For many people out there, the smartphone is the closest relationship they have. Indeed, there is so much you can do with your smartphone these days, and it can go a long way toward making your life better and less stressful.

 

So, you need to think about utilizing the phone in the best way you possibly can. There are so many wonderful ways you can make the most of your smartphone and really get it working for you. If you can take some of the advice below you will have no trouble using your smartphone to help you improve and enhance your life as much as possible.

 

1. Screen Your Calls

 

Screening your calls is such a useful and important function of your smartphone, and it's something that you need to do as it will make your life much less stressful. When it comes to improving your life and removing stress, it is really important to deal with this effectively. There are a lot of things you can do to achieve this, but a reverse phone lookup can go a long way towards helping with this.

 

2. Get Fitter

 

You might not have thought it but your smartphone can actually help you to get fitter. There are a plethora of health and fitness apps you can download that will really go a long way toward helping you get more in shape. This is so important because it is a great way of helping you get fitter and stay in shape, which in turn is going to benefit your life in many ways. Keeping fit and healthy is essential, and your phone can help you with this in so many different ways.

 

3. Travel Apps

 

Going abroad on vacation is also something you need to make sure you do properly. But, you have to make sure you are focused on having the best possible travel experience, and this often means using travel apps on your phone. Whether it's to check in online, research things to do, or look at local transport links, travel apps are invaluable.

 

4. Online Shopping

 

Online shopping has become hugely popular in the last decade as more and more people love the convenience of it. There are a lot of things you have to keep in mind when it comes to improving the online shopping experience. You have to make sure you use your smartphone for instant online shopping and getting the full experience for the business going forward.

 

It's pretty clear to see that there are a lot of great things you can do with your smartphone. It is one of the most important and useful tools you will have in your life, and you need to make the most of it. This is why it is so important that you work out what you can do to make the most of your phone and help your life improve in the process. 

The thing we like most about our smartphones is the very factor that causes some to claim they are the devil's work. We can, and do, use them to do practically anything and everything. Whether you want to check your bank balance, listen to your favorite music, meet the love of your life or book a table at a restaurant to take said love on that first date, you will immediately turn to your trusty smartphone to do it.

We've all seen the headlines in the media, and the dire warnings that we are becoming addicted to our phones, but that doesn't alter the fact that there are more apps allowing us to do more things appearing in the app stores every day, and our reliance on mobile tech is only increasing.

The rise of the trading apps

Forex trading apps are a case in point. In a world where traditional investments are no longer enough to guarantee a comfortable financial future, currency trading is gaining attention among amateur investors. After all, there are plenty of successful Forex traders in the world, and the advent of trading apps that we can access day and night from literally anywhere means that trading is no longer something for the wall street specialists.

This is an age of choice, and opportunity, and the online world allows you to do what you want when you want, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. That freedom comes at a potential price, though, and if you are looking to join the growing ranks of online traders, follow some basic rules to prevent the dream from turning into a nightmare world of addiction and financial disaster.

Trade like a pro

Installing a trading app is easy, and costs nothing. Using it to make money is another matter. Amateur traders can get caught up in the hype of being a trader and can fully believe that they are "trading like a pro" as they open up the app while chatting to a friend over a beer to coolly complete a little trade.

Of course, in that circumstance, you are doing the absolute opposite to what a professional is likely to do. What serious Forex trader is going to be in the right frame of mind to do their work while socializing with a friend and drinking beer, with the Patriots game blaring away in the background?

Trading like a pro means getting into the right mindset, running through your trading strategy and then taking a long look at all the key indicators and signals to decide what trades are likely to be on your agenda today. Just like any form of remote work, you need some demarcation, and this is why mobile trading can be a dangerous thing.

Manage your schedule

Don't think from the above that mobile trading apps are a bad thing. Quite the opposite, they are an essential tool for both pro and occasional traders. It all comes down to using the tools in the right way. Even the top Wall Street traders are not going to be doing hundreds of trades every day and watching the market 23 hours out of 24. If you are doing so as an amateur, there's something going badly wrong.

The advantage of mobile trading apps is that they are convenient - they free you from the need to sit down at your desktop to do your trading activity. But that doesn't mean that you have to spend any more time using them than you would if you were operating from desktop only.

Watch for the signs of addiction

Ah, the a-word. It's one that the media loves to throw around. They would have us believe that we are addicted to unhealthy food, to coffee, to our cars, to TV and most of all to our smartphones. The trend towards demonizing any sort of luxury or convenience and shouting the word addiction at the first sign of over-indulgence is not just inaccurate. It is also counter-productive.

Any kind of addiction, from cigarettes to shopping to gambling to junk food presents a serious risk and can ruin lives. The misuse of the word in the popular media, where anyone who gets drunk or eats unhealthy food or spends lots of time on their smartphone must be an addict leads to a classic boy who cried wolf scenario. It only makes it less likely for us to see the signs when genuine addiction begins to manifest. 

If you are trading at silly hours, waking in the night and instantly reaching for the app or finding yourself trading almost on "auto pilot" without even thinking about what you are doing, the first thing to do is stop.

Take a step back and return to the drawing board. Every successful trader has an underlying strategy, and you can bet that none of them involve waking up to do panic trading at 3AM. If that doesn't work, the other great thing about the online age is that help, just like everything else, is always at hand, so use the resources that are available to you.

If you're a fan of soccer, there's probably no reason to tell you the World Cup is fast approaching. Equally, if you're a regular on this site it's likely your smartphone will be your go-to place for all the latest news and views.

This summer will of course be the most interactive ever, whether you be wanting World Cup tips, live feeds to games or even fantasy football. Which means there are plenty of apps to download!

With just a few months until kick off, here are our favourite apps to help you countdown to June 14...

The Official Panini Sticker Album

Yes, ripping and sticking is no longer required with the new Panini app. You can enjoy the tradition of collecting World Cup stickers direct from your mobile.

It's free to download and you are given two free packets per day. Of course, if you want to fill it quicker you can buy packets too.

But what about the swaps? Well you can head to the Swap Area and make your trades.

The Official FIFA World Cup App

 

You'll probably want to hear all the latest news directly from the horse's mouth. The official World Cup app has you covered.

With all the latest news, views and video you'll be kept fully up to date on everything you need to know about Russia 2018.

William Hill App

 

Naturally, a big part of the World Cup is having a flutter. Fancy another Iceland giant killing? Perhaps you'd prefer to play safe and go for Messi to top score.

Either way, William Hill has got you covered and from now until the tournament will be providing you all the latest odds and offers to enjoy. It's one of the best places to have a punt and will have a huge range of World Cup markets.

An On Demand TV App

No matter where you are in the world, soccer's biggest tournament will be live on TV.

If you're out and about, an on demand app will have your back and you'll be able to watch live games no matter where you are.

The likes of BBC iPlayer or ESPN will steam games daily, meaning you'll never miss out on any of the action.

Football Manager 2018

 

Think you can do better? Why not download Football Manager 2018 and put yourself to the test.

It's not free and comes at a fair price but it's comfortably the most expansive and in depth simulation game on the market. Can you lead England to their first since ‘66? Maybe the dark horses Belgium are destined for the title under your reign.

There's only one way to find out...