The computer has evolved to the stage where you no longer need a table, bag not even your lap to carry or hold them. Yes, your computer can now conveniently fit into your pocket and perform the tasks you used to depend on desktops and laptops to perform.
That's what the android device and other smart phones and similar devices have delivered to us. But in addition to the advantages that these smart devices bring also come challenges. The challenges include slow processing speed, Short battery life and very Security and importantly data consumption.
After a few months of usage, most people begin notice that the speed of their android device is reducing drastically especially if you are constantly downloading stuff like Apps, widgets, Music and Videos etc.
These activities also reduce the battery life of your device as your device has to find the energy to power all your stuff from somewhere – but there is only your device battery to do all the extra work.
Finally, all those downloads depend on your data bundle to complete – this has turned data bundle into an essential commodity. There is nothing strange in people keeping an eagle eye on the data consumption of their devices.
In this e-book, we bring to you the ultimate material to help you understand your android device and other smart devices and hence understand how to get the best performance out of your device. Read on ……
PERFORMANCE: Speed
As the saying goes, speed is everything and believe it or not, your android device is built for speed. But, there is a limit to how fast your android device can perform from the moment you start loading it up with so much stuff. So below we set out some of the things you can do to keep your device going at tip-top speed.
Know Your Device (KYD):
It is very important that you understand the capabilities/limitations of your android device. This will be very important in informing the kind of App, Widgets and other things you download on your device. For example, downloading a piece of software that is meant to run on android 4.2 on android 2.0 is a no brainer. 
Keep you device Operating System Up to Date:
This is very important because with each release, Google constantly come up with tweaks to the OS that improves on the previous release. 
Update Your Applications:
App developers also understand your ‘need for speed’ and efficiency and work on bringing better user experience in all ramifications to you. So, don’t shy away from updating your device thinking it will consume your data bundle. On the contrary, it may actually save your data bundle for you. Access the Apps updates options in Play Store
Remove Unwanted Apps:
Unwanted Apps are like clutter in your work or living space. They just consume space and by extension energy. Identify some of those Apps that you rarely use or don’t use at all and uninstall them. If and when the need arises for you to use such Apps, you can easily reinstall such Apps. Disabling some of these Apps where such options are available will effectively work for you too.
Go to settings
>select Apps
>Scroll to All
>Select the specific App from All
>choose Force Stop or Uninstall
Remember you can always re-install/enable the App later.
Use Normal Wallpapers:
I love my Live Wallpapers but the sad truth is that most live wallpapers need a lot of juice to run. This slows down the speed of your device consequently constituting a drain on your battery. So if you are really interested in optimizing the performance of your android device, do what I did, turn off those beautiful Live Wallpapers. How to do that?
Just press and hold down on your Home screen for 3 second and go from there. You may love them, but they do not love your battery.
Use Lightweight Background Apps:
Background Apps are those Apps that continue to do what they were created to do even when you are not directly interacting with them. In fact, background Apps continue to run even when you are doing something else with your device. For such Apps, it is advisable to choose those that do not require too much space or power to run. An excellent example of such an App is your music player. For such Apps, as long as it does what it is supposed to do, install and use those that require minimal space.
Stop Syncing:
Actually, I got to know about this while researching this material. The fact is that when Sync is set to On, Your device will at a given interval check for updates, incoming messages and notifications on Google server. This constitutes a drain on performance. So check your Accounts and turn off unnecessary sync options for un-required services.
Go to Settings > Accounts
> Select any of the Running Apps you want to stop from Syncing automatically.
You can also stop and similar Apps from your home screen on this widget >>
Use High-Speed-Capacity-Quality Memory Cards:
The use of high-speed, high-capacity and high quality memory cards reduces the toll on your device’s internal memory. It is important for to you buy high quality memory cards that are compatible with your device.When you have properly mounted the memory card, you can offload some of you multimedia files into it to reduce the burden on the internal memory.
How to properly mount the memory card?
Turn off you device
> Insert the card
> Turn on your device
> Go to Settings
> Select Storage
> scroll to SD card, continue from there
Keep Only Necessary Widgets:
Widgets are like Apps but with far less functionalities than Apps. Widgets unlike Apps only run on the home screen. So when you see that attractive weather info screen or time or temperature interface on your home screen, you are actually looking at a widget. The point here is don’t leave a widget running simply because it looks attractive. Only keep it running because it is useful.
Turn Off Animations:
One the joys of using an android device is the experience of just watching your screen fade from one position or window to other. Some flip over, some rotate while others wheels around. Now all this reduces the performance of your device.
If you’d rather get the work done without all the drama then go ahead and turn off animations. But if you need a little drama in your life like my humble self keep this on and tweak other performance enhancing settings as we discussed above.
You can access most of the performance related issues through the settings options of your device. For example, updating your Apps and android operating system, removing unwanted/unnecessary Apps, removing Live Wallpapers, using only light background Apps, removing unnecessary widgets, stopping sync and turning off animations can be done by accessing your device settings options. Like we said earlier all it takes is getting to know your device a little bit more.
BATTERY
One of the biggest threats to all batteries no matter the device – whether a car, train or your android device is extreme weather conditions. There are good reasons for equipment manufacturers to continually warn against letting machines run or operate in extreme temperature – whether extreme cold or extreme heat.
The same goes for your smart phones and other devices. You may assure yourself that you do not use your device at extreme temperatures but have you noticed that when you use your device for extended periods of time (especially when it is plugged to power source) the general area where the battery is installed sometimes gets really hot?
Well, that is not a sign from above; it is a sign from your device battery that it is being put under too much pressure. So here is our first piece of advice for preserving your device battery.
Do Not Use Your Device While Plugged to Power source:
It may be fine for you to use your laptop while it plugged to power source but not so for your android device. I think this is because your laptop battery is built to handle a little bit more heat than smart phones and the like. So if you want to use your device, unplug it.
Avoid Using Your Device Until it Runs Down:
Sometimes we use the device until the battery is exhausted; this is not healthy for your device’s battery life. It is advisable to recharge your device when the battery is between 25% to15%. This way, you avoid over tasking or permanently damaging the battery. 
Reduce your Device Screen Brightness:
An undisputed fact about mobile phones and smart devices is that the highest consumer of energy is the screen brightness. So, as much as possible, reduce the screen display brightness. Better still, you can set to Automatic Brightness this way, the screen brightness will automatically adjust given the environment. Use of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, LTE:
Your device comes with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and other stuff that enhance user experience but also constitute a drain on your battery. Realistically, you do not need these settings to be On at all times but only when you need to use them. So, turn them off when not in use.
Use a Battery App:
There are several Apps in Google Play Store specifically dedicated to helping you get maximum performance from your device battery. These include: Battery Doctor, Du Battery Saver, Battery Manager etc. It is most likely that your device came pre-loaded with one of these. If none is installed, check the Assistant App for the Apps that are not installed. If you desire a different one, go to Google Play Store.
Du Battery Saver for example will show you a list of Apps that are running on Device at any given time, if you are not using them, you can simply turn them off. You can also set it such that it will automatically turn off all Apps that are running in the background but which you are not using. So, get a battery App.
DATA USAGE
One of the biggest challenges faced by android device users is the high rate at which these devices consume data bundles.The way to handle this problem is two-fold. One we have already discussed above:
Turn off unnecessary Apps and widgets that may be using your data bundle without your knowledge.
Stop syncing – this is a natural data consumer
Turn off Automatic Updates: Let Plat Store inform you of available updates, you can choose whether or not to update the specific App.
Turn off data when you are not using the device for browsing.
All these you can do by accessing settings options on your device.
The other option to reduce your device data consumption which we have not discussed is to install an App that will help to compress data for download. There are many Apps out there but my favourite is Onavo Extended.
This App reduces data consumption by as much as five times (5x). Go to Google Play Store on your device search for Onavo, follow the instructions to install.
SECURITY
Protect Your Device From Intrusion and Virus:
Not much can be said about theft, that’s your business. However, if you happen to have sensitive material or information on your device, you can protect against such information falling into the wrong hands even if the device is stolen. 
Encrypting Your Device:
You can secure your device such that whenever you put it on, it will require a password for you to be able to use the device. And if it is stolen, without the right password, your data, information and other media will be in an unusable or unreadable form. Only use this option if you have really really sensitive information to protect on your Tablet or other device.
Pattern Lock and Password
Pattern lock will safeguard your device from intruders and prying eyes. If you lock your device with a secure pattern lock or password, you can be sure that people will not ‘mistakenly’ stumble on sensitive information on your tablet. You can access these security features by going to Settings and scrolling down to security.
Anti-Virus
I am not going to over flog this issue. I am only going to tell you that if your device does not have a good anti-virus, the clock is ticking on a major disaster waiting to happen to your device.CONCLUSION:
Everything we have been saying boils down to knowing your device, if you’d understood your device very well in the first place, well there wouldn’t have been need for this e-book. Thanks all the same for your patronage and hopefully you got your money’s worth.For feedback and more information, email us:
optistrat.info@gmail.com with android info on the subject line.
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