50 Android Jelly Bean tips, tricks and hints

Jelly Bean may not be the same huge leap forward as Ice Cream Sandwich, but it still brings a lot of new features and functionality to the operating system.
Many of these are improvements to the smoothness of rendering on the device - it even briefly boosts the CPU when the screen's turned on to make things super slick and speedy. Google dubs these little performance and software improvements as being "buttery", assumedly referring to some nice spreadable Lurpak rather than a solidified hunk of congealed milk.
The other big addition here is Google Now. This adds personalised recommendations and information based on your browsing history. Some people love its perceptive usefulness, others hate its pervy, intrusive nature.

One thing's for sure though: the Siri-like voice search feature is awesome.

As ever, these tips are based on the vanilla installation of Android, so your mileage may vary depending on how many layers of extra "features" have been added by your phone or tablet's manufacturer.

1. Say "Google" to search

If you're in America, you can open Google Now and say "Google" followed by your query to search the net. If you're not in America, you can trick Android into thinking you are. Open the settings on your device, choose "Language and input", then switch Google Voice Typing's language from "Automatic" to "English (US)". Next go to Google Now's settings and again change the language to "English (US)". You should see "Search or say Google" in Now's search bar. Faking an American accent: optional.

2. Now settings

You can open now in two ways - either swipe up from the Home icon, or swipe the lock icon up when the screen is locked. When you first start it, Now will run through the basics of what it does, and even show you some example cards. In Now's settings, you'll find each card has its own notifications settings, which apply to both the Now homescreen and the Notification shade. Standard means that new cards are accompanied by a ringtone and vibration, Low priority places them at the bottom of the list without any notification, and off, well, turns them off altogether.

3. Talk to Google Now

Google Now also includes Siri-like functionality, supplying spoken answers to your inane questions. Try things like, "what time is it in Kuala Lumpur?", "when's Tom Cruise's birthday I want to send him a card?", "how do I get home?" or "will it be sunny tomorrow?" and Now will speak the answer back at you or search the web for relevant pages.

4. Get more Google Now cards

Google Now presents relevant information such as weather and places on "cards". To begin with it may be a little sparse, but searching the web from any device will give you more. Just make sure your web history is enabled: visit history.google.com, hit the settings cog and ensure that Web History is on and not paused. Next, search Google for favourite football teams, planned flights and destinations and the relevant cards will pop up automatically.

5. Notification Shade

We previously referred to it as the "pully-down menu thing", but apparently it's officially called the "Notification Shade". Niftily, certain notifications in the shade can be expanded by sliding two fingers outwards on them, giving you an overview of the subject headers in your email inbox, for example. Moving two fingers inwards on a notification neatly contracts them, too.

6. Rotation lock

You're sitting on a plane watching a vid in horizontal orientation. Suddenly, the plane banks sharply to the left and - oh no! - the video changes orientation. This worst-case-scenario can be avoided by tapping the rotation lock in the Notification Shade, which keeps the screen in its current orientation. Tap it again to unlock the rotation.

7. Turn notifications off

Install enough apps and the notification bar at the top of your Android device becomes the digital equivalent of an unending stream of ticker tape. In fact, Airpush is an entire advertising company that makes money in this way. Fortunately, each and every app you install in Jelly Bean has the option to turn this off. Go to its info page under Apps, uncheck the box labelled "Show notifications" and enjoy your empty notifications bar.

8. Equalise your music

The ability to adjust those all-important bass and treble settings has been sorely missed on Android devices - so much so that a bunch of apps have been made to enable it. It's fixed in Android's stock music player, though. Open a music file in the stock player, hit Settings then choose Equaliser. Here you'll find manual sliders, a load of presets and bass and 3D effects. Unfortunately it doesn't work for the whole device, but it will give your tunes a little more oomph.

9. Rearrange your home screens

Long-press on any icon or widget on your homescreen and you can move it around, and other icons and widgets will shift out of the way to fit it in. Bigger widgets can also be resized by long-pressing and releasing them, and then dragging the circles that appear on the edges. It's actually quite fun and satisfying. We just spent three hours doing nothing but this.

10. Fling to remove

Homescreen app clutter (surely the worst of all types of clutter) can be quickly and easily defeated. Long-press an icon or widget, then fling it upwards and it'll ascend into shortcut heaven. This won't uninstall the app, though - it'll still reside in your app drawer.

11. Owner info

Wait! Put down that blunt rock you were about to use to chisel your contact details into the back of your Android device! Jelly Bean includes the ability to display a few lines of contact details on the lock screen, such as your email address, name and phone number. You'll need to enable a screen lock from Security, and then you'll see the Owner info option appear. This information is mirrored across all Jelly Bean devices, too.

12. Access App info

The all-important App info screen - which allows you to uninstall, stop and disable apps - can be accessed in a completely new way with Jelly Bean. Pull down the notification shade, long-press on an open task and you'll be taken straight to the settings page for the relevant app. It's handy if you don't know which app displayed the notification.

13. Volume controls

You can now set the volume for all the noisiest bits of your Android device individually. Press the volume up or down key and you'll the familiar little slider with a settings icon to the right of this. Tap this and you'll see separate sliders for media, and notifications and ringtones. Bonus tip: each of these sliders can be, er, slid, with your finger.

14. Talkback

Designed for blind and low-vision users, Talkback provides an ongoing narration of what's displayed on your phone or tablet. You can turn it on via Accessibility, and then you'll be taken through a tutorial of its functions. It's a very different way of navigating your device, and quite interesting to experience. It also supports braille input and output devices via USB and Bluetooth.

15. Blink to unlock

While face unlock is smart and quick, more paranoid users may worry that a ne'er-do-weller could somehow steal an image of their face - or their actual face - and use it to access the device. Android's Liveness check requires the user to blink before the device is unlocked, preventing access if a quick eye-shut isn't detected.

16. Offline speech-to-text

Being able to dictate long and rambling texts to loved ones is quite an old Android feature, but it's just got a whole lot better with an offline mode. Go to Google voice typing settings under Language & input and choose Download offline speech recognition. Now you'll be able to dictate that great novel without being distracted by Reddit.

17. Beam it across

Android Beam works with near-field communication (NFC) to enable fast data exchange between two devices. You'll need to make sure it's enabled first - you'll find it under Wireless & networks. You'll also need to know where the NFC area is on your device. This isn't a problem for phones, but it can be just about anywhere on the back of a ludicrously large tablet, so do a quick Google to find out where it is.

18. Simple secure pairing

Simple secure pairing works alongside NFC to provide a quick and easy way to connect Bluetooth accessories such as headsets, speakers and keyboards. You don't actually need to do anything other than activate NFC to use it, but make sure whatever you're pairing with is Simple secure pairing-compatible.

19. Calendar notifications

Any events you've been invited to via Google Calendar will show up in the notifications blind. From here you can expand it and quickly send a pre-defined response (Such as "I'll be there in 10 minutes") or type your own. Quick responses can be edited from within the General settings of the Calendar app itself. Perfect for you social butterflies.

20. Gallery views

Android snappers will love its new gallery features. Pinch on photos to zoom out into a filmstrip mode, where all your pics are displayed side-by-side. Swipe left and right to browse all your snaps quickly, and slide up and down on individual images to delete them. The gallery then gives you just enough time to realise you've canned the wrong thing and undo your delete.

21. Wi-Fi savings

It's all too easy to run up costs when you're on public or mobile WiFi. Tethering a tablet to a phone can suck a surprising amount of data, and public WiFi, such as that found in hotels, sometimes have ridiculously strict usage policies. In Jelly Bean's Data usage settings you'll find the option to designate certain WiFi networks as Mobile hotspots, which stops background apps accessing data and could save you lots of cash. If there's another Jelly Bean device on the same network it'll pick up its Mobile hotspot settings, too.

22. Try the stock keyboard

The Swiftkey keyboard is enormously popular among Android users, and for good reason: it monitors your typing and grammatical style uses this to predict words. Jelly Bean's keyboard now offers the same functionality, using bigram prediction and correction to complete words and sentences. We've found it to be every bit as good as Swiftkey, and even slightly faster and slicker.

23. Reboot to safe mode

Ah safe mode, the saviour of so many Windows PCs. Thanks to the sheer amount of dodgy apps on the Play Store it's on Android now, too. Long-press the power button, then long-press the Power off option. Choose OK to reboot in safe mode, which completely disables all third-party apps on your device. Then hunt down and destroy that nefarious bit of software..

24. Reset app preferences

Android gives you loads of different options for each installed app, and on the whole this is a very good thing. Sometimes it can be a bad thing, though: you may find your phone playing up because a crucial app has been disabled, or you've changed the notifications for something important like emails. In the apps drawer, you'll find Reset app preferences under the settings. This resets all your apps on a global level, returning actions and data settings to their original levels.

25. Add emojis

"Emojis" are the Japanese version of emoticons, and like most things from Japan they're much better and cooler than their western counterparts. You can enable emoji support for the default Jelly Bean keyboard by choosing Language & input in the settings app, then going to the settings for the stock Android keyboard. Here, choose Add-on dictionaries and select Emoji for English words. When you next type certain words (there's a complete list here) you'll see its symbol appear in the predictions bar. It's like Wingdings never died.

26. Sound search

The good news: Google has created its own version of Shazam. Known as What's that Song?, the widget works in much the same way, matching snippets of music to its database and providing you with the artist, track and album. The bad news: due to licencing restrictions it's only available in certain countries, and we don't live in one of them. Keep an eye on your widgets tray when you update, though - Google could well re-implement it in the future.

27. Add accounts

Android devices - especially tablets - are great for passing around and sharing. But until now switching between various Google accounts has involved wiping the whole device and starting again. Jelly Bean's handy Add account feature takes pride of place in the settings app, making it easy to add multiple Gmail addresses to your device. There's still no quick way of switching users, but it is a step in the right direction.

28. Take and share screenshots

The number of times we've pressed the power button and volume down to take a screenshot is truly astonishing. It gets even better in Jelly Bean - as soon as you've taken a screenshot, you can expand its notification from the blind and share it from there. Perfect for showing off just how handsome and brilliant Android is to your iOS friends.

29. Device encryption

Paranoid users with sensitive materials on their devices love encryption: it basically scrambles all your content so it can't be read by hackers or thieves. It's been a part of Android for a while, but Jelly Bean gets it spot on, even periodically reminding you to encrypt your device. You'll find Encryption under your phone or tablet's security settings.

30. Voice searches on the go

Plug an Android-compatible headset into your device, then long press its button and voila: Google voice search. You'll get spoken results and answers straight into your brain, and it comes in especially useful if you're lost but don't want to stop listening to your banging, disorientating tunes.

31. Add quick controls to the browser

One of the options buried beneath the Labs section of Android 4.0's web browser is the Quick Controls option. This adds a pop-out menu to the browser, which pulls in a little semi-circular collection of shortcuts to the main browser features, removing the URL bar and giving you more screen to play with. Also, holding down the Back button is the Android standard way of bringing up the bookmarks and history tool, too. But that's been around for years.

32. Long-press to uninstall

Long-pressing on an app within the app drawer lets you drag it to a Home screen, but it also pops up a couple of menus along the top of the screen. App Info gives you the boring technical stuff about how much memory it's taking up, or you can fling it off the other way to uninstall it.

33. Flying Android screensaver

One odd undocumented little secret within Android 4.0 is this strange little collection of flying Androids, which you can... look at. Look at for as long as you like. To activate it, head into the phone's About screen and hammer away at the Android Version tab and it'll all happen.

34. Save your eyes with inverted rendering

Inverted rendering is a posh way of saying it makes the pages black and turns the text white, so it looks like you're reading the internet from 1997. It also supposedly saves battery, plus is easier on the eyes if you're reading in the dark. It's under the browser's settings tab, within the accessibility area - and there's a contrast slider, too.

35. Set a custom rejection text message

When your Twitter action is rudely interrupted by someone actually telephoning you, there's a polite way to give the caller the boot. Android 4.0 lets users ping a rejection text message to callers - and you're able to customise this too. Just answer a call and ping the lock screen notification up to access to custom rejection messaging area.

36. Stop app icons automatically appearing

One of the many new ICS features is the way Google lets apps automatically add shortcuts to themselves on your Home screen when they've finished installing. It's useful, but if you're a control freak and wish to remain 100% in charge of your Home layout, head to the Google Play app's settings tab and untick the Auto-add Shortcuts toggle.

37. There's a Settings shortcut in the Notifications pane

That little settings icon in the ICS notifications area isn't just art to fill the space. It's a shortcut to your phone or tablet's settings area. So use that instead of giving it a Home screen icon slot all to itself.

38. Manually close apps

Google's lovely new recent apps multitasking menu also lets you close apps quickly, should you suspect one's gone rogue. A Long-press within the Recent Apps listing lets you visit the app's info page, from where you can easily force close it.

39. Remove the lock screen

It's possible to entirely bin your Android 4.0 lock screen, making the phone instantly turn itself on when you press the power button. It's a security nightmare, but if your phone lives entirely on your desk and you demand instant access without any unlocking, head to Security > Screen lock and select none. Then be very careful.

40. Folders in the dock

Android's new official love of folder formation makes it dead easy to combine app shortcuts and make folders, simply by dragging one icon on top of another. You can make these groups of apps even easier to access by dragging a folder onto the ICS floating dock, meaning you can squeeze stacks more content on to each creaking Home screen.

41. Take photos while recording video

The Android 4.0 camera app that arrived with the Galaxy Nexus has one cool little extra feature - the ability to fire off still photos while recording video clips. Simply tapping the screen takes a shot at full resolution, which is saved to the phone's gallery while the video's still happily recording away.

42. Bin animations and transitions

Hidden within the Developer Options section of the Ice Cream Sandwich software are quite a few nerdy ways to adapt your phone. Most won't be of any use to those who are just using their phone as a phone, but if you want it to feel faster, or at least look a little different, the scrolling, zooming effects on windows and menus can be edited in many ways.

43. Take a grab of your phone

Screen grabbing of your phone's display is finally in Android. On the Galaxy Nexus, it's activated through holding the power button and volume down switch. On HTC's new models it's done by holding the power button and pressing Home. Other phones had different techniques for doing this before Ice Cream Sandwich, but it's good to see this now becoming part of the standard Android feature set in Android 4.0.

44. Long-press dotted words

When typing on the Android 4.0 keyboard, you may see some suggested words appear with the "..." icon beneath. Doing a long-press on this one will pop up a much bigger window of suggested words, letting you bail out on some of that tedious typing a little quicker.

45. Add additional faces

The ICS face unlock feature, as found in the Galaxy Nexus, lets you unlock it by scanning your face with the front camera. Which is great, but what if you haven't shaved for a month? The software can actually store multiple images of your face, so you can do left parting, right parting, shaved, unshaved - or even add a trusted a friend to the visually verified user list.

46. Experiment with GPU settings

Another hidden little gem found within the Development options tab is the hardware acceleration 'Force On' toggle. This makes ICS attempt to boost the performance of any apps that don't already use the feature. It may also break them in the process, though, so it's something of a trial and error fiddling exercise to do on a very rainy day.

47. Type like an adult

Make a stand for grammatical standards in this day and age by long-pressing on the stock Android 4.0 keyboard's full stop button. This brings up such doomed punctuation as commas and speech marks, plus even a semicolon for the extra brave mobile typist.

48. Nick wallpapers off the internet

Found a lovely photograph of some stars, a pretty computer generated planet or even the mighty Professor Brian Cox himself? Long-pressing on any image in the web browsers lets you instantly set it as your wallpaper, without the hassle of saving it, finding it, and setting it the long way.

49. Limit background process

If you fancy an even more serious bit of fiddling, the same ICS developer area contains the option to "limit background process" demands by the OS. You can use this to stop your phone or tablet storing so many apps in memory. Whether this has any effect of the actual battery life of us users is up for debate, but again, it's something to play with and see if it suits your phone use patterns.

50. Quickly access Notifications

Here's a simple yet huge change Google's made in Android 4.0 - the Notifications pane can be accessed from the lock screen. Press power, touch the Notifications area, then scroll down to read your latest messages. Obviously it's a bit of a security risk and lets anyone access your messages, so best be careful.

25 iPad mini tips and tricks

Part of the iPad mini's appeal is its simplicity -- just switch it on and go -- but there's plemty more to explore if you dig a little deeper.
Whether you've treated yourself to a new iPad mini or came across one underneath the Christmas tree, you should find these tricks and tools useful in helping you get more out of Apple's latest tablet. Many of these tips can also be applied to other devices running iOS, including the iPad mini's bigger brother.

1. Sync Facebook contacts and events

Sign into the world's biggest social network from the Facebook page in Settings and you have the option to import events and birthdays into the Calendar app, and your friends' details into Contacts. You'll also be able to post status updates from the Notification Centre.

2. Accents and special characters

Tap and hold on any keyboard letter to bring up accents and other variations.

3. Turn off 'Sent from my iPad'

By default the iPad mini appends 'Sent from my iPad' to the end of your emails. Deactivate this via Mail, Contacts, Calendars in Settings, or tap the Signature option to clear or change the message.

4. Audio equalizer

The iPad mini includes a variety of audio equalizer settings for changing the sound of your music. You can find it on the Music screen in Settings.

5. Take a screenshot

Snap whatever's on your screen by pressing the Sleep/Wake button and Home button together.

6. Start the countdown

Hidden away in the Clock app is a Timer feature you might not know about -- you'll find it handy whenever you need an accurate countdown.

7. Switch search engines

Tap Safari in Settings to change the default search engine when you run queries within the browser or from the Spotlight Search screen.

8. Turn your iPad mini into a Kindle

The iPad mini's smaller size makes it perfect for catching up on your reading. If your ebook collection is locked away on your Kindle, install Amazon's iPad Kindle app to get at all your literature.

9. Add a keyboard

Typing for extended periods of time can be a struggle on the iPad mini. If you're composing a lengthy email, or your next novel, invest in a compact Bluetooth keyboard -- you'll find a wide selection online.

10. Reset your iPad mini

A reset is like a PC reboot and can fix numerous errors and crashes without losing your apps and data. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button together for at least 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo appear.

11. Make your own wallpaper

You can load any image in your Photo Stream as a background via Brightness & Wallpaper in Settings. Set your source image as 1,024x768 pixels for a perfect fit.

12. App folders

If you're new to iOS you might not know you can create folders of apps. Tap and hold on an app then drag it on top of another one to create a folder. Tap, hold and drag other apps to move them to the same location. Folders can be a useful alternative to having to swipe through multiple home screens.

13. Dock apps

The dock at the bottom of the home screen has four apps by default but you can have up to six -- tap and hold an app, then drag it down to the dock.

14. Experiment with Siri

Siri is Apple's voice-operated assistant tool and you can call it into action by pressing and holding the Home button. Try asking Siri when your next meeting is or how to get home, or tell it to queue up all the blues music on your iPad mini.

15. Share via Twitter

Sign into Twitter via the Settings app and you can share all kinds of content from all kinds of apps straight to your profile, as well as tweet from the Notification Centre.

16. Read websites offline

Choose Add to Reading List from the share button in Safari (to the left of the URL bar) and you can cache websites for offline reading (in the garden or on a plane, perhaps).

17. Attachment options

Tap and hold an attachment file in Mail and you'll be shown all the installed apps that can open it.

18. Mute or lock

The switch above the volume controls can mute your iPad mini or lock it to the current orientation (landscape or portrait). Head to the General page in Settings to change its function. Another way of muting your iPad mini is to hold the volume down button for a couple of seconds.

19. Bring back alerts

iOS now eschews pop-up windows in favour of a more discreet, Android-style notifications bar. To bring pop-up alerts back for a certain app -- Gmail, for example -- head to Notifications in Settings. Tap the app name and switch the alert style from 'Banners' to 'Alerts'.

20. Pin websites to the home screen

In Safari tap the share button, and from there you can pin any link to the home screen for easy access.

21. Zoom

If you're having difficulty picking something out on screen, head to the Accessibility page from the General tab of Settings. Turn Zoom on and you can double tap three fingers in any app to zoom in; then drag three fingers to pan around.

22. Multi-task

Double tap on the Home button to bring up recently used apps. Swipe right to see more apps, or left to see music/podcast controls and volume and brightness sliders.

23. Use your iPad mini as a picture frame

Turn your little iPad into a picture frame by tapping the flowerpot icon on the lock screen. To change the picture slideshow settings, visit Picture Frame in Settings.

24. Protect your data

You may have put a lock code on your iPad mini, but you can also tell the device to erase all of its data if the code is incorrectly entered 10 times in a row. The Erase Data option is on the Passcode Lock menu under General in Settings. Probably not recommended for those with children.

25. Find your iPad mini

Use Find My iPad to locate your tablet if it's stolen or simply lost under a sofa. You'll need to activate the feature via the iCloud screen in Settings, then head to www.icloud.com to check the location of your device. You can make your iPad mini play a sound or even erase all of its data remotely. An active data or Wi-Fi connection will be required for the mini to be able to report its location.

50 Google Nexus 10 Tips and Tricks

Welcome to the most comprehensive list of tips and tricks for the Nexus 10 you’ll find anywhere on the Internet. This started off as part of a Nexus first impressions article, but quickly grew into a list of 50 tips, so I’ve broken it out on its own. Because this article is intended for everyone from beginners to experts, there will be some things here you already know here, but you’ll also find tips you won’t find anywhere else.

1. Upgrade to the latest version of Android – There have been several updates to Android since the first Nexus 10 tablets left the factory. Make sure to install the newest Android system update. If your tablet isn’t already running Android 4.2.2, and it doesn’t appear under Settings > About tablet > System Updates, scroll to the bottom of this article to learn how to force an update to Android 4.2.2.

2. Choose your screen orientation – The startup screen, volume control and speaker placement seem to indicate Google intended the Nexus 10 to be used horizontally in landscape mode. However I prefer the vertical portrait mode for the following reasons: First, it’s better suited for most web pages. Second, apps like Instagram and Spotify can’t be used in landscape mode. Third, it’s easier to hold the Nexus 10 vertically with one hand. Of course you’ll want to use portrait when watching most movies. In the end the choice is yours, just keep in mind if you use it in portrait mode the volume control will be reversed (e.g. pushing the lower button turns the volume up.)

3. Activate Google Now – Swipe up from the bottom of your tablet screen near the center to access Google Now. Before using Google Now you must go through a tutorial and then activate it. Then make sure location services are on. To do this you need to check the box next to ‘Wi-Fi & mobile network location’ and agree with the prompt. Then go through the settings for Google Now and enter your favorites sports teams and adjust a few other settings. When you’re finished Google Now will start presenting you with information tailored to your needs like the local weather. You can see what my first Google Now page looked like in the screenshot above. It’s worth mentioning I’ve never taken my tablet to the gym, or asked Google for my drive time to work. It provided that info based on my previous behavior. I know some people have privacy concerns, but I think this feature is great.

4. Download the official Nexus 10 Guidebook – Google just made available a new 159 page Nexus 10 Guidebook. You can download this excellent guide here. Once downloaded, I recommend you copy it to your tablet, so you can refer to it anywhere you go. Make sure you have a PDF reader on your Nexus 10 however. You can download Adobe Reader here. 

5. Download some tablet-optimized apps – You’ll quickly discover not all of your Android smartphone apps adapt well to the extremely high pixel density of the Nexus 10.

For this reason, Google recommends you download some of the following apps: Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for Tablets, Cat in the Hat, Cut the Rope Experiments HD, Evernote, Expedia, Fandango Movies for Tablets, Friendcaster, Google Currents, Fancy, Heros Call HD Widgets, Hipmunk, Hulu Plus, Magic Piano, Mint.com, Netflix, News Republic for Tablets, Ocean HD, Office Suite Pro, OpenTable, Picsay Pro, Plume, Pinterest, Pulse News, SplashTop Remote Desktop HD, Strikefleet Omega, Sprinkle, SwiftyKey3 Tablet, Pocket, SeriesGuide, Taptu, TED, Trulio, Zappos and Zoomingo. In addition to the above apps, I would add the following apps which have all been optimized to run on tablets like the Nexus 10: 500px, AccuWeather for Android, AirCalc, BaconReader for Reddit, Business Calendar, Calendar, Flipboard, Google+, Hotel Tonight, Kingsoft Office, NYTimes for Android, Pinterest, Sing! Karaoke, Smart Tools, SkyDrive, Solid Explorer, Songza, SoundHound, Tasks, Temple Run 2, The Weather Channel, USA Today, Wunderlist 2 and Yahoo! Weather. 

6. Install the Adobe Flash plug-in – Flash may be a dying format, but there are still millions of Flash videos around and the Nexus 10 should be able play some of them. To install Flash from the official Adobe website, follow the instructions at the bottom of this page.

7. Expand your keyboard – Since the Nexus 10 has such a large screen you may want to expand to a full-sized PC-style keyboard that includes number keys and extras like the screenshot above has. It’s tricky to set up, but worth it if you like to type in landscape mode. Go to Settings/Language & input and then touch the settings Sliders next to ‘Android keyboard.’ Next, touch ‘Advanced settings’ and touch ‘Custom input styles.’ It will say Deutsch and Francais, but you can ignore that. Touch ‘Add Style’ near the upper right. Then select your language and change the layout from QWERTY to ‘PC’ or one of the other styles. Now touch ‘Add’ and you’ll see your new style appear in the list. Touch ‘Enable’ and use the back key to go back to the Language & input screen. Now touch ‘Input languages’ near the top and uncheck ‘Use system language.’ Lastly, touch ‘English (US) (PC)’ and you’re done.

8. Control your tablet using your voice - Most people don’t know you can have your tablet open an app, create a calendar event, display a map, navigate to a place, send an email, set an alarm, define a word, show movie times, take a note, display a weather forecast, identify a zip code or area code, provide flight info, find a restaurant, run a calculator or provide a translation by simply speaking. Start by touching the microphone next to the search box. For more info, go to pages 58-64 in the Nexus 10 Guidebook (See Tip 3 to find out where to get this). There’s also a list of all 53 types of voice requests here.

9. Download a high-quality video – If you really want to see what the Nexus 10 display is capable of when it comes to video, download Timescapes. It it the first 4K movie that you can purchase for $29.95. It has almost twice as many pixels as a normal high-definition video. If you’re not ready to shell out $30 bucks, but want to watch a free 1080p preview of the movie click here. If you decide to buy the movie, make sure to download the 2560×1440 version and not the others. The movie is over 6GB, so you should back it up to your computer, so you can free up space on your tablet if you need to later. In order to play this video, you may have to download free MoboPlayer software (or equivalent). 

10. Turn off haptic feedback if you don’t like it – When touch the screen on the Nexus 10 to navigate, you get a little vibration. If you don’t like this, go to Settings > Sound and uncheck ‘Vibrate on touch.’ Making this change will not turn off the vibration you get when you type on the onscreen keyboard. To turn that off, go to Settings > ‘Language and input.’ Then touch the Setting icon for the ‘Android keyboard’ and uncheck ‘Sound on keypress.’ Make sure ‘Vibrate on keypress’ is unchecked as well. If you’re using SwiftKey 3 Tablet, go to its settings page, touch Advanced. Touch ‘Audio and haptic feedback’ and uncheck Haptic feedback. 

11. Shoot and edit video on your tablet – If this is your first Android tablet, you probably haven’t used ‘Movie Studio’ yet. Movie Studio lets you edit video clips together in a timeline with transitions, music, effects and titles. Movie studio has been around since Android 3.0, but the tablets back then didn’t have enough power to run it well. Here are some good instructions how to use Movie Studio. 

12. Unhide Developer Options – Earlier versions of Android had a ‘Developer options’ area in Settings but that’s no longer present in Android 4.2. However, you can still put your tablet into Developer Mode by going to Settings and touching ‘About tablet.’ Then click the build number seven times. After you do that you will see ‘Developers options’ appear in the Settings menu! This great tip came from Wai Ho Cheung. 

13. Try a tablet-optimized keyboard – If I had to pick one single app that softened my transition from the iPad 3 to the Nexus 10 the most it would be the SwiftKey 3 Tablet Keyboard. The reason for this is because I type a lot and I like to work in portrait mode. That squeezes the keys closer together and makes typing harder on the stock keyboard. I can’t say enough good things about this app. It takes a while for you to learn it, and for it to learn you, but when that happens, you’ll never go back. 

14. Toggle between MTP and PTP – Here’s another tip you won’t see anywhere else: You can put the Nexus 10 into Camera (PTP) mode by going to Settings > Storage and then selecting the menu in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you can select ‘USB computer connection,’ which allows you to toggle between MTP (which is the default) and PTP which lets you transfer photos using camera software. PTP also works on computers that don’t support MTP. 

15. Learn how to use Quick Settings – You can use the Quick Settings menu to turn on/off Wi-Fi, change screen brightness, turn off auto-rotate and more. To open Quick Settings, swipe down from the top right corner of any screen. You can even access the full settings menu from Quick Settings. 

16. Try the new Notification Shade – To open the Notification Shade, swipe down from the top left corner of any screen. You can do this even when your Nexus 10 is locked. Certain notifications like emails or calendar events can be expanded to show more information. Some notifications let you take action by touching icons. For example, Calendar notifications allow you to Snooze or send email to other guests. To collapse a notification, pinch it. To expand a notification, glide using two fingers. When you’re finished with a notification, just swipe it to the right to make it go away. To dismiss all notifications, touch the icon at the top right of the notification shade. If you long-press on an open task, you’ll be taken straight to the settings page for that app. 

17. Uninstall unneeded apps – After you’ve been using your tablet for a while you’ll probably have apps that you never use. You may want to remove any unused apps to free up space. The easiest way to uninstall an app is to press and hold the app icon in the app drawer and drag it to the top of the screen where it says ‘Uninstall.’ If it only shows App Info, it is a system app and cannot be uninstalled. However, if you drag the app to where it says App Info you’ll have the option to disable the app, which frees up memory. 

18. Download a new game – Playing games on your Nexus 10 tablet is very different than playing games on your smartphone. The large screen, killer graphics, faster processor and great sounding stereo speakers take gaming to a whole new level. Make sure to download a game with great graphics like Asphalt 7, Dead Trigger, or Shadow Gun. All of these will cost you, but there are many great free games as well, including Temple Run 2. 

19. Improve your gaming graphics – If you’re a hard-core gamer, you probably already know what 4x anti-aliasing is. You can enable this on the Nexus 10 if you know a secret trick. First, enable Developer Options as described above in Tip #11. Then go to Settings and click on Developer Options. You will now see an option on the right to enable Force 4x MSAA. Multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) is a technique used to improve image quality. Since the Nexus 10 has a GPU capable of supporting MSAA, this setting should make your graphics look more detailed when you’re playing advanced games. Keep in mind this will also cause your GPU to work harder and your tablet may get hotter and consume more power than normal. It’s also possible that all games may not support this, but this seems to work great with games like Asphalt 7.  

20. Use a gaming controller with your Nexus 10 – If you game a lot, you might try using a gaming controller with your Nexus 10. You have three options: If you own a Sony PS3, you can use up to four PS3 controllers with your Nexus 10 at the same time. Instructions here. You can also plug an Xbox gaming controller into the Nexus 10, as long as you have a micro USB to USB adapter. Lastly, you can purchase a wireless gaming controller like the Nyko Playpad. 

21. Copy your media to your tablet – One of Android’s best features is the ability to plug your charging cable into the USB jack on your computer and have your tablet appear as a hard drive. Once you do this, you can easily copy over the music, photos, videos or documents you want to take with you everywhere. 

22. Select a lock screen – If you plan to bring your Nexus 10 outside of your house, you should go to Settings/Security and pick a pattern (recommended), PIN or password-based screen unlock. 

23. Connect your tablet to a television – The Nexus 10 has a standard micro HDMI jack, so you can purchase a high-quality cable which connects to your TV for as little as $3. This allows you to watch high-definition videos from YouTube, Netflix or any other site on your TV. Unlike other tablets, the Nexus will display a video on your tablet and television at the same time. It will also automatically scale 2550x1440p videos to 1080p, so your television can display them. As you can see from the screenshot above, the picture quality is great. Important: Make sure to power down your tablet and television before connecting or disconnecting an HDMI cable. If you don’t, it’s possible that you could damage your tablet. 

24. Hook up an external keyboard and mouse – You can easily connect your tablet to an external keyboard, mouse, or other input device and use these just as you would with a PC. This can be done using Bluetooth or direct USB connection. To connect via USB you will need an adapter like this. To connect more than one USB device at a time, use a powered USB hub to reduce drain on your battery. I’ve tried a wired keyboard and a standard wired mouse with the Nexus 10 tablet and both work pretty well. The mouse had no issues whatsoever. The keyboard seemed to miss keys or spaces occasionally when I typed too fast. However, I really like using the arrow keys on the keyboard to precisely move the cursor around text on the screen. I also like the fact the tablet can tell there is a keyboard attached and does not display the onscreen keyboard. This saves a lot of space on the screen.

25. External keyboard tips – In addition to entering text, you can use your keyboard to navigate your tablet’s features: Use the arrow keys to select items on screen. Press Return after selecting an item is equivalent to touching that item. Press Escape to go Back. Press Tab or Shift-Tab to move forward on a screen with multiple text fields. For maximum typing speed, turn off auto-replace, auto-capitalization and auto-punctuate. To do this, swipe down on the top of the screen and ‘Select keyboard layout.’ To do this, swipe down on the top of the screen and ‘Select keyboard layout.’ Don’t forget you can use keyboard commands like Ctrl-V to paste text just like you would with a PC. 

26. Expand your memory – One of the biggest complaints about the Nexus 10 is the fact it doesn’t have a memory expansion slot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add your own memory by buying a short micro USB to USB cable and connecting a low-cost memory stick. However, stock Android devices do not automatically “mount” mass storage devices like USB sticks, so one additional step is required. If you’re Nexus tablet is rooted, the best solution is an app called Stickmount (Note: I was recently told there may be problems with it and Android 4.2, which the developer are working on now). Once StickMount is installed you connect a USB stick to your Nexus using a USB OTG cable and the device will show you a popup and ask if you want to open StickMount. You’ll need a file viewer app like ES File Explorer to display your files. More details. If your Nexus 10 is not rooted, you have two options: The first is a $3 app called Nexus Media Importer, which allows you to import or stream music, video, photos and documents from a USB flash drive or SD card. More info. The second option is free. You can enable PTP on your Nexus 10 by following the instructions in Tip #13 above. Once PTP is enabled, when you plug in a supported device it should immediately bring up the Gallery app with a new folder containing all of your photos. When you open that folder, you can either import, or browse the photos. All of the above options require a USB OTG to mini USB adapter.

27. Edit your photos like a pro – The Android 4.2 Gallery app is more than just a photo viewer. It now has some serious editing capabilities. In addition to all of the standard Instagram-style filters, this app has some advanced photo editing features that are similar to the ones you’ll find in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The incredible screen on the Nexus 10 and fast processor, make it a serious photo editing station. For even better editing options, try Snapseed or Pixlr Express.  

28. Learn how to take a screenshot – To take a screenshot on the Nexus 10, press the power button and the volume down button and continue to hold them until you hear a beep and see the screen zoom in. The volume down is on the top part of the volume slider when you are holding the tablet in portrait-mode. 

29. Use the new Google Voice search – It doesn’t make sense to type your searches any more. Just touch the microphone near the top of the screen and talk, or say “Google” when you are on the Google Now page. 

30. Set up a guest profile – You may want to setup a guest profile on your Nexus 10, so a friend can check their email, and install their own games, but can’t update your Facebook status. Their app settings, screen background, game-progress and high-scores remain separate. To add a new user, go to Settings/Device/Users. Touch ‘Add user’ and then touch OK. Touch ‘Not now,’ if your guest is not available. A generic new user should now appear in the list. 

31. Customize your home screen – Every one uses their tablet differently, so you should customize your home screen(s) to meet your needs. Here are some suggestions:

a. Make shortcuts on your home screens for all of your favorite apps. To do this go to the App locker and then touch and hold an app and drag it to the desired screen.

b. Create folders for different categories of apps (e.g. Games, Utilities, etc.) and move all of the related apps into those folders.To create a new folders drag on app on top of another similar app. After the new folder is created, make sure to name it.

c. Uninstall any unnecessary apps or widgets from your existing homescreens. To do this, simply touch and drag them into the text ‘Remove’ near the top of the screen.
 
32. Buy a carrying case – It’s a good idea to purchase a leather case for your Nexus 10. This will protect your screen from scratches and give you additional protection if you drop it. Most cases also act as a stand for your tablet. Nexus 10 cases are just starting to appear on sites like google.com. 

33. Don’t forget about the free music – Although you won’t see the free music that is included with your Nexus 10 in the “My Library” widget, if you go into ‘All Apps’ and open ‘Play Music,’ U.S. Nexus owners will find ten free songs from The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, M. Ward, The Lumineers, Bob Mould, Eskmo and more. Preloaded music in other countries varies. 

34. Install tracking software – You paid good money for your Nexus 10, so you don’t want to lose it. Make sure to install software like ‘Where’s My Droid‘ which allows you to track your tablet if lost or stolen. If you spend $4 to upgrade to the Pro version, you can also remotely lock your tablet, enable the camera to see the thief and as a last resort erase your tablet remotely. If you install this app, make sure to run the setup and connect the Commander screen to your Google account. 

35. Try gesture typing – The standard Android keyboard now allows you to slide your finger over the letters you want to type, and lift it after each word. You don’t need to worry about spaces, because they’re added automatically for you. This feature used to be only found in premium apps like Swype. Now you can use it whenever you like. 

36. Zoom two different ways – There are different ways to zoom in on the Nexus 10. The first is called double-tap. You can quickly tap two times on most webpages in Chrome to zoom in. Double-tap again to zoom out. This feature works on most webpages, maps, and other screens. Android 4.2 also has an interesting new feature called magnification gestures. When enabled, you can triple-tap the screen everywhere (except on the keyboard or notification bar) and zoom in. The nice thing is that you stay zoomed in, until you triple-tap a second time. To enable this feature, go to Settings > System > Accessibility and touch Magnification gestures. Then slide it from off to on and hit the back button. It’s worth mentioning that the way you zoom in works differently when you double or triple tap. Both have advantages, try each and see which is better for certain things. One user has reported that enabling triple-tap doesn’t work well when playing games like GTA3.

37. Access your Google Play media offline – Normally Google Play streams your content from the cloud when you access it. This is done so the content doesn’t take up any of your precious storage space. However, there are times where you may not have access to the Internet, but still want to read a book or watch a movie. To do that you’ll want to download or ‘pin’ the media on your device so you can access it offline. To ‘pin’ a book, open the Play Books app, go to the menu and select ‘Make available offline.’ A blue dot with a pin in it means the book is available for offline, but has not been downloaded yet. To download it, tap it once and the pin should turn white. Once the book is finished downloading, the pin icon should be upright, white and surrounded by a blue dot (like “The Time Machine” book above). Keep in mind that downloading a movie will consume a substantial amount of storage space (~1.7GB).  

38. Quickly change camera settings – You can now press and hold on the camera app screen and swipe to quickly change white balance, HDR and other camera settings. You can also go directly from the camera app to the Photo Gallery app by swiping to the right. Swipe left to return to the camera. 

39. Improve your Internet download speeds – If you have Wi-Fi range issues like I do, you may want to purchase an Ethernet adapter. The Nexus 10 supports USB-OTG, which makes this possible. Although micro USB to Ethernet adapters are available, they don’t get good reviews, so you’re probably better of with a USB to Ethernet adapter and a micro USB to USB adapter. More about the types of things you can connect with USB-OTG. 

40. Pinch-to-zoom Gmail – Gmail has a new setting called ‘Auto-fit messages’ which is not enabled by default. When you enable this setting, you can manually pinch to zoom in or out on an e-mail. This is really useful. 

41. Learn how to decipher the notification LED – You’ve probably noticed there’s an LED on the front of your Nexus 10 that flashes occasionally. It’s there to let you when you have one ore more notifications waiting. Its LED is capable of displaying multiple colors so you can tell what type of notification you have without unlocking your tablet. Since there is no mention of this feature in the Nexus 10 manual, there is some confusion over the colors used. It appears Google uses white for Gmail or SMS texts, blue is for Facebook notifications, green indicates your tablet is 100% charged, and also may show Google Voice notifications, yellow is for Google Talk and red is for Google+. It appears third-party apps can trigger the notification LED as well. One thing I’ve noticed about the notification LED is it sometimes continues to flash after you’ve cleared your notifications. If this blinking bothers you, you can turn off the notification LED by going to Settings > Display and unchecking ‘Pulse notification light.’

42. Customize your LED notifications – A free app called Light Flow Lite allows you to take control of the colors of your notification LED. It also makes your Nexus 10 flash one color after another. This app allows you to set the notification color for the over 250 applications and system events including missed calls, low battery, no signal, voice mail, calendar reminders, Gmail messages, email messages, SMS messages, MMS messages, Twitter notifications and more. 

43. Quickly silence or restart your tablet – To quickly silence your Nexus 10, press and hold the power button for 1-2 seconds. To restart your tablet, press and hold the power button for 8 seconds.

44. Make it easy for someone to return your tablet if lost – It’s a good idea to add a message to your lock-screen like the following: If found, please call [Enter your area code and phone number here]. To do this, go to Settings > Security > and touch ‘Owner info’ (or User Info, for other users). Then enter the text you want displayed on the lock screen. 

45. Backup everything on your tablet – Although it’s true Google backs up some of your data, it doesn’t back up everything. My Backup Pro backs-up your photos, SMS texts, contacts, call log, browser bookmarks, system settings, Home screens, music playlists and apps. Your entire backup is stored online. 

46. Use your tablet as a phone – You can turn your Android tablet into a phone with apps like Talkatone, GrooVe IP, Viber, Tablet Calling or others. A free Google Voice account is required by most of these programs. For best results, you’ll want to use a Bluetooth earpiece, since the mic used for this is located on the back of your tablet. For video calls try Skype or Tango. Video calls use the front camera on the Nexus, which works pretty well, however you still should use a Bluetooth earpiece for best results. 

47. Let Google know where you live and work – In order to get the most out of Google Now you must enter your home and work addresses. To do this go to maps.google.com using your browser, touch the Menu icon in the upper right hand corner, and open My Places. From there, you can enter your home and work addresses. 

48. Nexus 10 features to avoid – Because Android 4.2 and the Nexus 10 are still so new, there are several features you may want to avoid until the next update is available. Avoid using Lock-screen music widgets and Auto-brightness.

49. Get yourself some wireless headphones – The Nexus 10 is great for multimedia. After Google fixes the Bluetooth issues with Android 4.2.2 you may want to get yourself a wireless headset. It’s stereo, sounds good and also has a mic, so you can make calls with it. If you have problems pairing your Bluetooth headset, try it several times. It took me at least three tries before it worked. 

50. Get help from Google – You can call (855) 836-3987 and ask Google questions about your Nexus 10 24/7. I know some people are bashing Google for their phone support, but my phone support experience was positive. Once I waited on hold for 15 minutes, but the person who answered my call was able to quickly solve a difficult problem.

Best PDF Reader Apps for Android, Both Free and Paid Apps

Below is a list of the best free and paid PDF Reader apps for Android. It turns out finding a good Android PDF reader is harder than it sounds.

Running a search for “PDF Reader” or “PDF Viewer” in the Android Market turns up hundreds of results, and finding one that has all the features you’re looking for can take a lot of time and research, especially when the search results seem list anything with the word PDF in the title or description.

This list isn’t by any means all the PDF Reader apps for Android, just the best ones I’ve tried over the past year on various Android tablets, and even on the rooted Nook Touch ebook reader. Feel free to add your own PDF Reader app suggestions in the comments section below.

I’ve included links to the Android Market so that you can jump over and read the reviews and download them if you want, along with the Amazon Appstore when available. You can probably find most of them at other app stores like SlideMe and GetJar too, and websites that host apk files like Freeware Lovers.

Best Free Android PDF Apps

Adobe Reader – This app used to be really basic until Adobe updated it, and it’s now one of the best PDF apps for Android. For features it has search, text re-flow with variable font sizes, pinch zooming, on-screen markup, notes, highlights, a sharing feature for sending the file to email or another app like Google Docs or Dropbox, and more. Free at Android Market and Amazon.

EBookDroid – This is a nice basic PDF viewer that is a little smoother and quicker than some of the other free apps. It has pinch zooming, a zoom dial, go-to-page with location slider, table of contents, night mode, option for 2 page landscape, and a few other misc settings. Free at Android Market.

Aldiko Book Reader – Aldiko is more of an ePub reading app, but they added support for PDF files awhile back and it does a serviceable job displaying PDFs. It doesn’t have any advanced features like it does with ebooks, just search, table of contents, pinch-zooming, and go to page. It has on-screen functions for copying, sharing, and looking up words in the dictionary, but with PDFs this feature tends to have a hard time detecting the beginning and ending of a word properly. Free at Android Market and Amazon.

Bluefire Reader – Like Aldiko, Bluefire is more of an ePub reader but serves as a decent PDF viewer as well. For features it has table of contents, a page slider, night mode, pinch zooming, and different page turn settings. Sometimes you can bring up the on-screen functions for copying text and adding bookmarks, which double as highlights and text notes, but this doesn’t always seem to work with PDFs. You can still add bookmarks and notes to individual pages, though, so that makes it the best option as a free app for notes and bookmarks. Free at Android Market.

APV PDF Viewer – A decent free PDF viewing app with on-screen zooming icons and different zoom settings, go-to-page, you can change to various text and background colors, search, and some other advanced settings. Free at Android Market.

Best Paid PDF Readers for Android

ezPDF Reader – Whether it be a tablet or a hacked Nook Touch, ezPDF is my PDF Reader app of choice, and it’s the most popular paid PDF app for Android. It has a ton of features, including text re-flow, fit text to column, pinch zooming, text-to-speech, play embedded video and audio, active hyperlinks, thumbnail view, bookmarks, add notes, highlights, on-screen annotations, and plenty more. Costs $1.99 at Android Market and Amazon.

RepliGo Reader – I haven’t used this app personally but have heard good things about it. Plus it seems to be the most popular and well-rated paid PDF Reader app aside from ezPDF Reader. Has lots of features, especially when it comes to annotating: Add highlights, cross outs, underlines, sticky notes, arrows, lines, ovals, rectangles, freehand drawings and text boxes. Integrates with Gmail, Dropbox, and Evernote. Costs $4.99 at Android Market and Amazon.

Mantano Reader – I briefly tried the free trial version of this app and it has a fair amount of PDF features. It’s kind of expensive, though, so make sure to try the trial version first. PDF features include pinch zooming, margin removal, adjustment to one column for multi-column documents, TOC, word selection with a long press, copy, TTS, dictionary, search, add notes, highlights, bookmarks, on-screen scribbles. Costs $7.49 at Android Market and Amazon.

40 Google Nexus 7 Tablet Tips and Tricks

Below is a list of forty tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the Google Nexus 7 tablet, from basic getting started tips for the beginner to hacks and ROMs for advanced users.

The Basics – Getting Started

1. Nexus 7 Guidebook – The Nexus 7 Guidebook contains a lot of useful information for getting started with Google’s new tablet. It comes pre-loaded on the Nexus 7 and is located in the Google Play Books app.

2. Screen Rotation – By default, the Nexus 7 is locked in portrait mode. You can switch to auto-rotate by pulling down the notifications menu at the top of the screen and tapping the rotate icon to the right of the date. Note that the homescreen doesn’t support landscape mode, however (see #11 and #38 to fix that).

3. Notifications – Pulling down the notifications menu at the top of the screen grants access to the button for the Settings Menu, the time and date, and a list of all your recent emails, events, activities, app updates, etc. Tap a notification to access it, swipe left to remove it from the list, or hit the button in the upper right corner to close all notifications. Sounds for notifications can be changed in Settings > Sound > System. The volume of notifications can be set separately from the master volume by pressing the settings button next to the on-screen volume slider. Turn off notifications by going to Settings > Accounts > Sync.

4. Widgets – The homescreens can display widgets, bookmarks, individual ebooks, folders for certain apps, and a lot more (it all depends on what apps you have installed). Widgets are located in the widget section of the app drawer. By default the homescreen shows a large Google widget. You can remove it and any other widget simply by long-pressing and dragging to the remove icon at the top of the screen. You can also re-size many widgets by long-pressing and then adjusting the blue lines that appear.

5. Folders – Android supports creating folders on the homescreen to group apps, bookmarks, and ebooks together. Simply hold and drag an icon onto another. You can also name the folders.

6. View Available Storage Space and RAM – Since the Nexus 7 has limited storage space, you are going to want to keep an eye on the available space from time to time. Hit Settings > Storage. To see available RAM go to Settings > Storage > Apps > Running.

7. Uninstalling Apps – The easiest way to uninstall an app is to press and hold the app icon from the list of apps in the app drawer and then drag it to the top of the screen where it says uninstall. If it only shows App Info and no uninstall option is available, then it is a system app and can’t be uninstalled. However, if you drag the app to where it says App Info you’ll have the option to disable the app.

8. Lock Screen – It’s a good idea to go into Settings > Security to configure a lockscreen to make your tablet secure. You can set a password or pattern or even set the Nexus 7 to wake up by showing it your face. For added security you can set it to open when you blink your eyes so a photo will not unlock the screen.

9. Font Size – The font size can be adjusted in Settings > Display > Font Size. There is also a secondary setting for large text in Accessibility > System.

10. Wallpapers – Long-press on any open space on the homescreen to bring up the wallpapers menu. Android has live wallpapers, static wallpapers, or you can use your own photos and pictures or some downloaded from the internet.

More Nexus 7 Tips and Tricks

11. Homescreen Landscape Mode – Annoyingly the Nexus 7 doesn’t have landscape mode for the homescreen, although I bet Google will update to add it at some point. In the meantime, you can either root your Nexus 7 to get landscape mode (see #38) or install a different homescreen launcher like Nova launcher that supports landscape mode (enabled in Nova settings). Update: Another option is to use the Ultimate Rotation Control app, which is free for 7 days then costs $2.99. Rotation Locker is another option and is free. Both have a bug that causes video and games to lag and stutter every 7 seconds or so. The paid one has a fix described on the app’s description page.

12. Amazon Appstore – There’s no question that the Google appstore is the best place to find the widest selection of Android apps, but you can also install the Amazon appstore onto the Google Nexus 7 to take advantage of Amazon’s free daily paid app. Click here to download the Amazon app directly to the Nexus 7. Then you’ll need to follow the next step before installing it.

13. Installing Apps From Outside Google Play: To install apps from appstores and websites other than Google, you need to go to Settings > Security > and then check the box to install apps from unknown sources.

14. Screen Dimming – The lowest brightness setting sometimes isn’t low enough for some people when reading at night with the lights off. With an app like Screen Filter you can adjust the brightness of the screen to as dark as you want it.

15. PDF Reader Apps – Every tablet needs a decent PDF app. Here’s a list of the Best PDF Android apps both free and paid.

16. eReading Apps – The Google Nexus 7 comes with the Google Play Books apps for reading ebooks, but it is severely lacking in features. Below is a list of some of the best ereading apps for Android; and Aldiko will even display ebooks from Google because it supports Adobe DRM.

• Aldiko
• Kindle
• Nook
• Kobo
• OverDrive (library ebooks)
• Cool Reader
• FBReader

17. Using the Camera – The front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 was designed for video chat only so there is no onboard app for using the front-facing camera to take pictures or record videos. Luckily an Android developer has already created the Camera Launcher for Nexus 7.
 
18. Power Control Widget – One annoying thing about the phone interface on the Nexus 7 is that it doesn’t show quick power controls from the notification menu so you have to go into settings for everything. A workaround is to put the power control widget on the homescreen for easy access to adjust the screen brightness, turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and sync.

19. Cloud Storage – Since the Nexus 7 lacks a memory card slot, you are probably going to need to use cloud storage at some point to get around the Nexus 7′s limited storage space. Between Google, Amazon, SugarSync, and Dropbox you can get nearly 20GB of free cloud storage space just for signing up.

20. Wireless Hard Drive – An alternative to using cloud storage is to get a wireless hard drive to expand the Nexus 7′s limited storage space. Kingston Wi-Drives are one option; you’ll need the Kingston Android app too.

21. Alternate Keyboards – If you don’t like the built-in keyboard there are a lot of options for downloading alternate keyboards. To active a new installed keyboard go to Settings > Language & input.

22. Select Text/Copy and Paste – To select text, touch and hold on a word until the highlight and arrows pop up. Drag the arrows to the desired location and tap copy. Then go to any text field, long-press, and select paste.

23. Adobe Flash Player – Flash doesn’t officially support Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and never will. You can try installing an older version of Flash, but it mostly just crashes all the time. Here are some directions for getting Adobe Flash to work that has done the trick for some Nexus 7 owners. Update: Flash works with the Puffin Web Browser.

24. Android Beam – With Android Beam activated you can share web pages, videos, maps, and other content with other Android Beam-supported devices simply by touching the devices’ backs together. Turn on and off in Settings > More > NFC.

25. USB OTG Cable – The Google Nexus 7 supports connecting external keyboards, mice, and game controllers. In most cases you’re going to need a micro USB adapter. Note that the Nexus 7 does not support mounting external memory cards and thumb drives unless it is rooted with StickMount installed. Update: Now there’s an app called Nexus Media Importer that allows you to import and stream music, video, photos and documents from a USB flash drive or SD card without rooting.

26. Offline Google Maps – Google recently updated their Maps app and now it can save maps for offline viewing. Just hit the settings menu in Maps for the option. The limit is only about 87MB worth, however, so it’s not as useful as it could be.

27. Speech to Text – You can use your voice to input text in most cases. Just hit the microphone icon on the keyboard and start talking. This requires WiFi to use.

28. Voice Action Commands – Here’s the list of voice actions commands you can use with Google’s Voice Search, which is activated by tapping the microphone icon on the search bar or by doing #35. Say the phrase and then whatever you are looking for after it.

• Map of…
• Directions to…
• Navigate to…
• Go to…
• Send email…
• Note to self…
• Set alarm…
• Listen to…

Battery Saving Tips

29. Screen Brightness – Obviously this is a no-brainer. Turning down the screen brightness can greatly increase battery life and setting it so the screen turns off after 1 minute of inactivity helps too.

30. Turn off WiFi – WiFi has a big impact on battery life because apps are always checking for updates. Turning off WiFi when doing offline activities like reading ebooks can save a lot of battery power.

31. Turn off GPS – GPS requires a lot of power so you can save on this by not leaving the Maps app open when not in use or by turning off GPS and location services entirely in Settings > Locations services.

32. Battery Monitoring App – Some poorly coded apps and widgets can drain battery life excessively. One thing to do is install an app like GSam Battery Monitor that keeps track of which apps are draining the most power.

33. Battery Widget – This isn’t exactly a power-saving tip, but one annoying thing about the Nexus 7 is that you have to dig deep into the settings menu just to get the battery percentage. I installed a battery widget app so I could see the exact percentage from the homescreen.

Google Now

With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google introduced a new feature called Google Now that uses all your information from Google’s services, search history, GPS, etc., to give you information about the local traffic, weather, news, popular nearby places, interests, etc.

34. Accessing Google Now – Swipe up from the bottom center of the screen or tap the search bar on the homescreen.

35. Google Now Voice Search – With Google Now open all you have to do is say the word "Google" out loud to launch Google voice search.

36. Turn Off Google Now – Don’t like Google spying on you? Well, it’s easy to turn off. Launch Google Now, hit the menu button at the lower right, then settings, then Google Now, and slide the off button at the upper right.

Google Nexus 7 Hacks and Mods

37. Rooting the Google Nexus 7 – Developers managed to root the Nexus 7 before it even started shipping to customers. Here are a few different threads at XDA with rooting directions:

• Toolkit: Nexus 7 one click root tool
• Toolkit: Nexus Root Toolkit v1.5
• GUIDE: Unlock and Root a Nexus 7
• Superboot: rooting the Nexus 7

38. Enable Tablet Interface – Switching over to the tablet version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is a simple matter of editing the build.prop file. This adds landscape to the homescreen and moves the notifications bar and time to the bottom right corner, among other changes. Here are the directions at XDA. This requires the Nexus 7 to be rooted, however.

39. Recovery – Here is the thread for Clockwork Mod recovery for the Nexus 7. And here is the thread for TWRP 2.2.1.

40. Nexus 7 ROMs – Here are some early ROMs for the Nexus 7; check XDA for more.

• ROM: KRAKD-7 by SoCal Devs
• ROM: STOCK Android 4.1 (JRN84D) ROOT, DeoDexed & Odexed
• ROM: Virtuous S-Series
• ROM: Jr4 (JRO03D / 4.1.1)