Showing posts with label Android tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Android tips. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Care for your battery - These charging habits will make your phone battery last long

Care for your battery - These charging habits will make your phone battery last long


The battery is one important specification of every electronic device, its build and storage capacity of electrical energy determines the service duration.

Today, we consider the kind of battery belonging to a smartphone and other specifications such as camera, Operating System, and others before thinking of getting that phone. But if the battery's capacity is low compared to the functionality of that smartphone, it becomes a barrier.

Now here is the problem - “battery durability decreases with time”.
If you have ever used a smartphone for like one, two or more years or probably the one you're currently holding is up to that age, then you should agree with me that the battery doesn't last long as it were the time it was brand new.

We see this as a normal life cycle of the battery, but its durability depends on how we manage our device. This leads us to what I title "Charging habit".




How often do you charge your smartphone?
Charging habit is one essential character we should check as devices' owners. The pattern we use in charging our phone or other devices determines how long the battery's health will remain strong, and this also depends on the type of battery the device uses.

The Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells are the most used type of battery embedded in devices of today especially our mobile phones. Others are Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH), Lithium Ion Polymer (Li‑ion polymer)

Maintaining a battery lifespan is achievable when operating at a low voltage, it increases the number of available charging cycles before noticing a drop in capacity. According to Battery University, the life cycle of a battery doubles for every 0.1V decrease in cell voltage.
However, topping up your phone from 30 to 80% will help maintain a low voltage and prolong the battery capacity.


You may also find this useful: Top best Android music player with sound equalizer

The point is, for the phone using Li-ion battery, small regular top-ups are preferably better than charging to full.

Temperature is one major enemy to battery lifespan
Just like high voltage, high temperature troubles the battery's health, it may cause a rapid reduction of the battery capacity than when in a controlled environment holding lower temperatures.

When a battery is charging up, there's a gradual temperature rise. Also, one thing to avoid is exposing your phone to a high temperature especially when the battery is in the state of full-charge or is under charge. It is preventive not to place your phone under your pillow when charging at night or plugged in on the dashboard of your car on a hot day.

Fast charging technologies of this present day also contribute to temperature rise when charging an electronic device. This is because they drive higher current and voltages to the battery and can definitely cause the device to become hot.

Avoid Overnight Charging



Charging overnight has always being a threat to battery health, and this is what most of us do even when we know the amount of time required to charge our smartphone to full per cent. Charging overnight leads to overcharging of the battery when it's full to 100% which can lead to plating of the metallic lithium, causing a reduction instability in the long term which can in turn, lead to malfunctions and reboots.

Overcharging is a barrier to the battery as it will increase the stress voltage ⚡ when at 100%. This has been explained in the next charging habit 👇. 

Partial Charging is the perfect practice
The modern smartphone does not need the old battery myth that says you need to fully discharge and recharge to erase battery memory, especially for Lithium-ion cells.



Understanding and appreciating the process a battery charge will give you a distinctive reason why partial charging is best for your smartphone's battery health.
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries collect a constant current and operate at low voltage when closer to full discharge. As the battery charges, the voltage slowly increases, at around a 70% charge is when the voltage levels off before the current begin to drop until the capacity is full.
Practising partial charging is beneficial.

“Fast charging was never meant for full cycle charging, rather to quickly top-up your phone to a moderate healthy per cent. Practising overnight charging with fast charging technologies isn't friendly.”

According to Researchgate,  The healthy temperature to maximize battery life cycle is between 20 and 45C.

Keeping a battery between the temperature range of 20—30 °C should help hold about 80 percent of its capacity after the first year even when full cycle charging is practised. Meanwhile, if the temperature is raised to about 50—60 °C, the battery may experience a vast reduction in its capacity in less than six months.

Do not Game or watch video with your phone during charge
This is one bad practice most of us do. Using your phone while it's being charged will distort the charging cycle and may cause part of the battery to rapidly become inferior to the rest.

Conclusion
Gathering the above-mentioned points, we can conclude that Partial charging and keeping our smartphone under low temperature as well as avoiding parasitic load during charge is a way of having durable battery capacity.
However, below is the best summary of all points discussed so far.

•Avoid overnight charging, do not place your phone under your pillow or on the dashboard of your car on hot days during charge.
•Partial charging is best to practice. Avoid full-cycle charge (0—100%). Ending a charge at 80% is preferable and safer than 100%.
•Keep your phone away from hot places. Always disclose it to an open environment with normal temperature.
• If you can turn off your phone while charging, do it. Rather, avoid watching a video or playing game with it during charge.

Thanks for reading this to the end. I hope you've found this post helpful 👍




Monday, December 18, 2017

How To Convert PDF Files To Word Document Using PDF To Word Converter-Cometdocs.com Inc.

How To Convert PDF Files To Word Document Using PDF To Word Converter-Cometdocs.com Inc.

Cometdocs PDF to Word Converter- Easy way to convert and edit your PDF files.

Oshetech brings you a new useful app for converting any of your PDF files to Word. It's the PDF to Word Converter by Cometdocs.com Inc.

I write this post base on my experience with the app. Some few days ago, Oshetech received an email from Linda Simmons, who introduced this app to us, thankfully the app has it's Android version available on Google Play. I downloaded and installed Cometdocs PDF to Word Converter on my Android device for a review, so good to know there's nothing bad about the app, it's useful. I've been reviewing this app for over a week and I've decided to share my experience with the viewers of Oshetech.



Cometdocs PDF to Word Converter is a very reliable and user-friendly app designed for an effective PDF to Word conversion. The conversion supports Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, Box, iCloud, Gmail and others, into editable Microsoft Word documents.

Below are some awesome features of Cometdoc PDF to Word Converter

● Ability to convert scanned and complex PDFs
● An unlimited number of converted files. File size is not a factor
● Industry-leading OCR technology
● You can convert files from Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Gmail, iCloud, and others
● High-quality PDF to Word conversion

How To Use PDF To Word Converter- Cometdocs.com Inc.

At first, you'll need to download and install ‘PDF To Word Converter- Cometdocs.com Inc.’ from Google Play. Searching for the keyword will bring you lots of similar apps created by the same developer (Cometdocs.com Inc.), just look for the app with the logo as seen in the below screenshot.



Upload The File You Want To Convert
After installation, launch the app and select the file you want to convert. You'll have two options;

● Select file from the device
● Select file from Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Gmail, iCloud


Note that choosing any of the second options will require sign-in, for example, Google Drive. This option is best for users not having their files saved on the phone but rather in cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive because they often switch between devices.




See Also: Save your mobile data with the new Datally app by Google

Wait For The Conversion To Complete
Having selected the file, it is imported automatically and once it's done, you can quit the app and wait while the conversion is ongoing.


Note: The conversion is not done on your phone, instead it's executed by their conversion servers where they are automatically converted and at once deleted from the server after a complete process.

Open And Edit Your Converted File
Your new converted file is ready. Once you get the converted file, it is now editable and can be modified using a Word mobile app. Make some changes in the file that was previously uneditable and save it the way you want it.

This is the end of the process. It's pretty easy.

Cometdocs PDF To Word Converter is easy to use, having a great user interface, more mobile and user-friendly.

For Android users, get it on Google Play
For users with devices running on iOS, you can also get PDF To Word Converter by Cometdocs.com Inc. from the Apple Store


Saturday, December 9, 2017

Microsoft finally released Edge browser for Android and iOS devices- Download now!

Microsoft finally released Edge browser for Android and iOS devices- Download now!

Microsoft just completed its mission-- The Edge browser has come to stay on Smartphones of today!!!



Having the Microsoft Edge browser on smartphone devices running on Android and iOS platforms is worth a stress release- with easy access and continuation to all your stuff previously paused the last time they were accessed via Mac/PC version of Edge browser.



Last month, Microsoft announced there will be an Edge browser mobile app version available for Android and iOS devices and further introduced the beta version which many of us have been using.
And today, we now have the Edge browser available on mobile markets- Google Play and iTunes.

The continue on PC we've been hearing to be one of the mobile browser’s features is real. Microsoft has integrated the “continue on PC” feature to work on the Edge mobile browser for Android and Apple iOS. This will enable you to ping a site over to your PC if the site's appearance on mobile view doesn't suit your taste. Good to know that with the new Edge mobile browser, you can resume a lot of your tasks from your phone to a PC, precisely Windows 10.


Read also: Datally by Google could help you control which app consumes your data

There are other amazing features added to the Edge for mobile. These include- ebooks, history, reading list, access to favourites. Unfortunately, Microsoft is yet to include the tab syncing to its mobile version of Edge browser, which means history or tabs can't be shared between PC and Phone.
Though the company is planning to introduce the tab syncing feature later in the future, probably we might have that next year.

However, like I mentioned earlier, the Edge mobile app is now available for everyone around the globe. For Android users, simply download and install Edge browser from Google Play. Apple users should get the app from Apple's store.

Thanks for reading to this very end, why not look for other interesting tech topics on this same blog?


Monday, December 4, 2017

Google: Datally App Could Help You Restrain Which App(s) Eat Your Data The Most

Google: Datally App Could Help You Restrain Which App(s) Eat Your Data The Most

Datally by Google could seamlessly limit your data usage and stop every other apps except those actively in use.


Android devices are becoming more addictive and user-friendly with Google's Intelligence.
Google wants you to enjoy more features on Android and has introduced an app called Datally designed to help you control which third-party apps installed on your Android device can make use of your internet data.



Google is launching another elegant and useful app that does what every Android users want- helping them manage their data usage.

This app called Datally will help you analyze your data usage bringing up statistics for how much data you have spent over a specified interval, even on a specified app. It will make you understand where your data is going. Datally will reveal to you which apps consumes your data most frequently and will also indicate what time your data is being consumed.

Datally will also suggest means to limit data usage according to your activities and explores nearby Wi-Fi networks so you can connect to and save your data.



Launching the app is a big button at the top that lets you stop all background data usage except the active app onscreen that will only be permitted to use mobile data. To know how much data is being consumed by your currently running app, a pop up chat-head style bubble will tell. You may not want to block every single app using the background, Datally provides you with the permission to control data usage on an app by app basis.

Also Read: Google explains how it makes personalized battery life prediction for your Android


Datally is Google's next app to have over billions of users across the world, the aim of this, is to promote all Google products in all regions of the earth. Datally will be very useful for countries with limited mobile connections and lower-end hardware on the spread. The product manager guiding Datally, Josh Woodward, stated the reason the app was designed, saying the thought came from the bountiful numbers of people going the way of preserving data especially in some countries like India, Nigeria, Delhi where data plans are similarly expensive. He further stated that these users often turn on their airplane mode when they're less busy with their smartphone in order to preserve their data plan. To let apps’ notifications rush in, they turn off the Airplane mode and later turn it back on while they look through the notifications.



Datally is mainly a storage management - specifically limiting Android user's data usage, as it's the reason it takes a little 6MB space for installation.

Datally may not be useful for everyone. If you're that user always with Android, Datally may not sound good. By default, almost every function of the app is built into Android directly, though are not visible in the settings menu and are not as quite elegantly seen as it appears inside Datally. This will make it much easier for people to find and remember to use.

Limiting your background data usage will cause your phone to low experience, as apps may not refresh its content on the background, and apps’ notifications may not be able to rush into your phone.
But if you're that who consistently shut against your data to preserve your data plan, Datally is meant for you as it will enable you to locate the source of the problem.

Also Read: Facebook Artificial Intelligence to read & detect suicidal thoughts on posts

Recently, since this summer, Google has been testing Datally in the Philippines and has observed that it has been able to save people, with 30 percent of their data. The company says the app has hit over 500,000 users. And currently, it's being rolled out to other parts of the world with only users of Android running on 5.0 and above will be able to download and install the app from Google Play.

CONCLUSION
Datally is a very effective app and user-friendly for those who have always wanted to save and limit their data usage.

Tags: Datally, features of datally, Google datally, datally for android

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Google explains how it makes personalized battery life estimation for smartphones

Google explains how it makes personalized battery life estimation for smartphones

I love everything Google! The company has revealed to the public how it makes personalized battery life predictions for smartphones today.

Image credit: PhoneArena.com

The battery is a unique specification of every smartphone, it is among the most notable specs anyone must know before thinking of getting that phone. Having a durable battery in your smartphone will make it more meaningful and do lots of task with the phone.



It's no hidden that the kind of battery we see made to smartphones of nowadays are even more durable than before, though do not match with the advancement of other components like displays,  processors, sensors. Moreover, we still need to charge our smartphone overnight.

Google has recently introduced a simpler and useful smart battery stats that can estimate your remaining battery life according to your smartphone usage.

Before now, Google would estimate your battery life by simple postulations. They assume your battery life to last for some time based on your usage in certain percentage per time. For example, you can consume 20% of your battery life for the first 1 hour, it would then assume that you'll use 20% every hour. These estimations are sometimes not true and narrow.



Thanks to Google for making the process a little simpler. According to Android Authority, the feature was said to have rolled out last month when Google added a system app called ‘Device Health Services' to the Play Store.
On the Pixel Products forum, a Project manager with Google's New York office explained how the smart battery life prediction operates.

With the Google's improved technical know-how on the process, it establishes an idea based on your past usage which will then be used to estimate your future usage. It examines your usage model on frequent times to measure how much battery usage you'll use throughout the rest of the day. Know that it studies your habit and tasks you perform frequently with your phone-- for example, if you always listen to podcast or stream videos on YouTube, it now takes note of that and expect the tasks every day and can modify its predicted battery life to be in accordance.

There's a battery graph Google uses to show you the predicted battery life usage for the remaining hours of the day, in addition to providing you with an estimation of how much battery time is remaining.
With the graph, you can see when Google predicts your smartphone will be more useful as the line reduces.



Image credit: AndroidAuthority.com

This battery life prediction, for now, is only available to the Pixel 2 and Nexus 6P running the Android 8.1 Developer Preview.

Conclusion
This battery life prediction is more effective than the previous method of estimating usage. With this process, you can easily get rid of low battery at the most useful moment.

Friday, November 24, 2017

Google Play Music's most annoying Swipe-to-delete gesture bug fixed

Google Play Music's most annoying Swipe-to-delete gesture bug fixed

Google Play Music, the Android’s no.1 music player was recently updated on Google Play owning a new version model with fixed bugs and other usual features.


There has been one annoying bug, users of Google Play Music has frequently reported on Google Play, saying the swipe-to-delete gesture could make one lost an unfamiliar track to the air forever.


The Swipe-to-delete gesture is a very useful feature of Google Play Music, with it, users can be able to delete songs in a playlist or discard them from the queue with just a single swipe. While it might have been a very cool idea and stress-free rather than tapping the options button, one could often delete songs simply when trying to scroll through a playlist, that doesn't sound good.

According to one Reddit user, the swipe-to-delete gesture on Google Play Music used to be difficult to use, you can unintentionally delete unfamiliar songs and lost them forever simply because you were trying to scroll through a playlist. Though an “undo” button pop-up might help bring back the deleted song(s),  it's not always successful because you might miss-time the tap on the “undo” button.


Also Read: Google Home Mini Smart Speaker review- Does it truly worth $49?


Thankfully, the app was updated earlier this week with a new version. The latest version 8.5.6542-1.Y of Google Play Music comes with no additional feature but a fix to the bug reported earlier. Reddit users have confirmed the swipe-to-delete gesture to have been fixed with the new version.

Now, we are having the cool and bug-free Google Music player app available on Google Play for safety download.
Haven't used Google Play Music before? This should be the right time to get involved with the app and enjoy its amazing features. You can download the new version of Google Play Music from Google Play directly from here.


However, there are other amazing Android Music player apps with equalizer support available on Google Play. Why not click here to know my five best Android Music Players?

Thursday, November 9, 2017

How to take long scrolling screenshot on your Android device.

How to take long scrolling screenshot on your Android device.

Android devices are always useful when you install useful apps on them. In this post, I have discussed two simple tools you can use to shoot long scrolling screenshot on any Android device.


Ever since the introduction of this screenshot feature into smartphone devices, users have found it more useful as the camera. With the help of screenshots, we grab images containing pictures, written contents on the web, and more displaying on our phone screen. But there are limitations to this, a full webpage, for example, containing relevant info cannot be grabbed with one screenshot.



Not quite long, long scrolling screenshot was introduced into Android platform, with only Android devices with higher OS being able to access the feature. Thanks to some excelling tools available on Google Play which will allow users of Android devices with lower OS enjoy the same benefit of grabbing long scroll screenshot.

Below are the two tools I've been using on my Android smartphone to take long scroll screenshot.

1. Scroll Capture
This is one of my favourite tools. It is very useful especially for taking screenshots of full web pages.
Using Scroll Capture tool gives you ease in grabbing your preferred info on the web.


How does Scroll Capture work?

It's pretty simple. All you need to do is; launch the app, load the web address whose webpage is to be captured and click the ‘Capture' icon, then wait while a long screenshot of the webpage is being captured.



This is another useful tool available on Google Play. LongShot lets you capture the long form screenshot with your Android device. It is very easy to operate with other cool features in it. 
The only thing required of you is to open the app and then select ‘Capture’ option. While the screenshot is being captured, on your pointing screen, move slowly by scrolling through the page to be captured, and at the end, you'll get a long-form screenshot.


Cool Features of LongShot
Auto capture screenshots after scrolling.
Fine-tune a pixel-perfect long image with excellent manual stitching tool.
Automatically merge multiple screenshots/images. into one vertically or horizontally, with options.
Grab long web page with just 2 clicks: set start position (optional), set end position – done!
Floating screenshot capturing buttons make take multiple screenshots like a breeze.
Absence of watermarks, all features are free and non-interruptive (closable) ads.


With the above tools, you can capture that informative web page you wish to have on your phone gallery and can access it when you think its necessary. There are other tools available on Google Play which does a similar task like these ones though. If you know of other amazing apps please share with us using the comment section. Thanks for reading to this very end, please do come back more tech info.


Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Google Home Mini review-A smart speaker for you at $49

Google Home Mini review-A smart speaker for you at $49

Why Google Home Mini Speakers? Learn the things you can do with Google new home mini speakers having its tagged price as $45

Thinking of improving your music experience? Why not try out the newly released Google Home Mini Speakers?


Some days ago, early this month, on October 4 Google held an event in California which everyone knew the Pixel 2 & 2 XL smartphones would be launched during the event. Meanwhile, not only the Pixel smartphones got launched that day, but also the Google Home Mini Wireless speakers and other products.




In this post, I have discussed the features and/or specifications of Google Home Mini Speakers and see if it truly worths the $45 price tag Google said it would be sold for.

The Google Home Mini Speaker as it is called connects wirelessly to your home gadgets. The connection can be achieved either by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth as it uses the Bluetooth v4.1 connectivity.
It also supports internet connection,
has Chromecast Audio built in for the playing of audio files.

Apart from using the Google Home Mini voice-controlled speaker for playing music and control home gadgets, it can as well be used to create calendar events, update shopping list, respond to trivia questions, or even play video formats on a screen compatible with Chromecast.

That's not all, Google recently added new features to the Home Mini speaker allowing you perform some tasks which include; the use of Home Mini speaker to find your phone if you've left it somewhere in your home, and also you can now make phone calls from the Home Mini speakers.

The Home Mini speaker is powered by a 5v power adapter giving out 1.8 amperes per hour. It has a Micro USB port.


Google Home Mini Speaker Design
According to Google's term of describing the speaker, the Home Mini speaker is like the size of a “doughnut”, funny enough.

Colours
Google Home Mini speakers are available in three colurs- light gray, dark gray, and coral red 

Its height is as little as 1.65 inches and is 3.86 inches wide, weighing about 173g. The device comes with a power cable of length 4.92ft, both the power cable and adapter weighs an extra 75g.
The device is made of Plastic housing, Non-skid silicon base, and a Fabric top which Google says it is durable.


The Fabric-covered top of the Home Mini speaker is what's like the physical hardware-control interface.
You can choose not to control the mini speaker using your voice but instead, with just a tap on the fabric top sends in your command.
See how the fabric top operates
The fabric top is a very sensitive part of the Home mini speaker, it's so responsive to touch.
Tapping either left or right of the disc (fabric top) will lower or increase the volume, tapping the middle will pause playing music, stop an alarm, or cancel a command.

The Google Home Mini is more or just as the Google Assistant present on smartphones.
Google announced that you could use the “OK Google” or “Hey Google” wake words, the listening feature can be activated with just one tap and hold on the top of the speaker.

Attached to the fabric cover are four multi-coloured LED lights acting as the indicator that lets you know when the Home Mini speaker is muted, processing, or listening.


On the back of Google Home Mini speaker is the physical mute switch. Sliding the switch will turn off the always-listening microphones, sliding it back will turn its the microphone on.


Google Home Mini Multimedia & Phone Support
The Home Mini speaker supports the following audio formats;
MP3, HE-AAC, Vorbis, LE-AAC+, Wav (LPCM), and FLAC.

Google Home Mini Speakers work with Android devices running on Android 4.4 OS and above, as well as iOS support for iOS 9.1 and above.

What Do You Think About Google Home Mini speaker? Does it worth $49
For me, it worths $49. At least with all these features exhibited by the device, one can still be able to afford it. Or don't you agree with me?
Let's create a discussion trend using the below comment box.