Having in your possession one of the World-most-widely used Linux-based device is not an assurance that you will know some more important #Facts about it. With that, I am here to make know some if not all.
1. The malware threat nearly vanishes if you stick to Google’s Play
store: Apps that can steal your data are a real threat on all mobile
devices. But the security firm F-Secure found that in the second half of last
year, only
about 0.1 percent of apps surveyed in Google’s Play store contained malware
— lower than any other Android app store. Further, it noted, “the Play Store is
most likely to promptly remove nefarious applications, so malware encountered
there tends to have a short shelf life.”
2. Chrome can impersonate a desktop browser: Tap the menu button in Chrome (the stack of three dots at the top-right corner), scroll down the menu and tap Request desktop site, and Chrome on an Android device will fetch a desktop version of the page. This is a great way to work around sites that would otherwise lock out Android — such as Apple’s “Find My Phone” tool.
3. GPS still works in Airplane Mode. Unlike iOS, Android doesn’t shut down a phone’s GPS receiver in Airplane Mode. One neat trick this makes possible: If you’re on a plane, you can run an app like the free FlyoverGPS to detect your position and then plot your aircraft’s position, altitude, and speed.
4. You can take “Photo Sphere” panoramas. In about a minute, you can use Google’s camera app to assemble a 3D interactive panorama that viewers can then pan around not just left and right, but up and down. (For an example, see this sphere I captured inside the otherworldly Sagrada FamÃlia church in Barcelona.) That’s kind of amazing, considering all the specialized tools you needed to create a QuickTime VR panorama in the ’90s.
Google’s mobile operating system is an extraordinarily
flexible tool. But not all of its features are easy to discover — especially if
you have a phone onto which the manufacturer or carrier has sparkled its own
interface. Fortunately, I'm here to help you get more out of your mobile
device, and maybe also clear up a myth or mystery or two about it.
Let's get started with some of these:
2. Chrome can impersonate a desktop browser: Tap the menu button in Chrome (the stack of three dots at the top-right corner), scroll down the menu and tap Request desktop site, and Chrome on an Android device will fetch a desktop version of the page. This is a great way to work around sites that would otherwise lock out Android — such as Apple’s “Find My Phone” tool.
3. GPS still works in Airplane Mode. Unlike iOS, Android doesn’t shut down a phone’s GPS receiver in Airplane Mode. One neat trick this makes possible: If you’re on a plane, you can run an app like the free FlyoverGPS to detect your position and then plot your aircraft’s position, altitude, and speed.
4. You can take “Photo Sphere” panoramas. In about a minute, you can use Google’s camera app to assemble a 3D interactive panorama that viewers can then pan around not just left and right, but up and down. (For an example, see this sphere I captured inside the otherworldly Sagrada FamÃlia church in Barcelona.) That’s kind of amazing, considering all the specialized tools you needed to create a QuickTime VR panorama in the ’90s.
5. You can’t banish bloatware, but you can
bury it. You can’t uninstall most of the unwanted apps bolted to a
phone by its manufacturer or your carrier without “rooting”
the device (not recommended for the uninitiated), but you can recover much
of the space they waste and then hide them permanently: Open the Settings app,
select Apps, select the unwanted bloatware, tap Uninstall
updates, and then tap Disable.
6. NFC may not be useful for
buying stuff, but it can help your phone talk to other gadgets: The
NFC (near
field communication) chips in many Android phones were supposed to have us
all tapping our phones on special tags to buy everything from sodas to subway
tickets, but that’s yet to take off. You’re
more likely to find that NFC helps your phone talk to other devices — for
instance, you can use it to automatically configure wireless picture transfer
to a “real” camera.
7. Google Wallet can store
loyalty cards: Like NFC, this
app was supposed to shine in mobile payments. In practice, however, I’ve found
it more helpful as a way to replace frequent-customer cards and apps. For
example, by entering my credentials for the Belly
rewards service there, I don’t need to bother installing its app — and
Google Wallet is smart enough to brighten the screen automatically and display
the Belly QR code when I need to scan at a participating establishment.
8. When in doubt, swipe from the
sides: Android often uses swipes into the screen as shortcuts. For
example, swipe from the bottom on Nexus and some other phones to invoke Google
Now; to get to the Play store’s menu, swipe from the left edge across; for
quicker adjustments to things like WiFi and Bluetooth, swipe down with two
fingers from the top. It’s not always obvious what your options are, but Google’s
new “Material Design” is supposed to help.
9. Android
devices are underrepresented on the Web: Android has an overwhelming
share of the mobile market — almost
85 percent of smartphones shipped in the second quarter and almost
66 percent of tablets shipped in the first quarter, according to Strategy
Analytics. But Android devices are not used that much on the Web. Another
research firm, NetMarketShare,
found that in June, more mobile Web users ran iOS (45.61 percent) than Android
(43.75 percent). One common theory for that: Many low-end Android phones are
used more like traditional “feature phones” — as in, their owners mainly employ
them for phone calls.
With all these, I hope you've gotten to know your Android-OS based gadgets/Devices much more better now.
Cheers.
