How to let your Android smartphone faster, productive and safe

IPhone owners love to brag about their appliances. They come in huge queues and wait for hours whenever a new model is launched. Still, for many users, Android is the best platform for smartphones. Yes, the system Google has a huge Achilles heel: its openness and large market share mean that it is an attractive target for cybercriminals.

However, this openness of Android also provides some serious benefits. It allows more customization, its apps are generally cheaper and various handset manufacturers can provide significantly different features, such as hybrid between smartphone and Samsung Galaxy 3 

With a few tweaks, you can speed up and optimize your Android so let iPhone users jealous. Check out 9 tips to get your Android smartphone faster, productive and safe.

Let your Android faster

One. Get a better browser

One of the biggest advantages of using the popular Opera Mini browser is your engine in the cloud compresses data by up to 90%. He brings tabbed browsing, support for widgets and the ability to configure advanced features of privacy, such as automatically clean passwords, cookies and browsing history.

The advantage for Android users: the ability to use Opera Mobile instead of Opera Mini. The Mobile version of the browser supports Flash and 3D graphics engine has an HTML5 rendering engine and a navigation alternative to more faithfully. You can adjust the rendering engine to work locally when in a Wi-Fi standard and for the rendering engine based on the cloud when using a 3G or 4G to minimize the high data usage (if you do not have a data plan unlimited). It also allows you to access your camera from your browser.Expect cool new widgets to start using this feature soon.

2nd. Install an optimizer

Applications like Android Assistant Android Booster and give you the power to automatically kill applications running in the background, eating up your battery and draining the CPU. You can configure an unlimited monthly data and monitor exactly how much data you've downloaded on your wireless network, and clear your history, cache, etc..

3rd. Conserve your battery

Nothing will delay longer than a dead battery. One advantage of Android devices over the iPhone is that you can replace your battery. But the correct energy management can avoid this headache. Applications like JuiceDefender Battery Stretch and help regulate your energy usage.

With over 7 million downloads, JuiceDefender is the most popular of these applications. It offers three different profiles: "Balanced", "Aggressive" or "Far".

The "Balanced" is the default and requires no configuration by the user. If you switch to "Aggressive", the app will automatically disable data connections when the battery is low. If you are really worried about a dead battery, the setting "Far" disables data connections by default. You can set them back manually, and you can also create a "whitelist" with the apps that you want to have connectivity.

Let your Android more productive

4th. Discover the best apps which "eat" your data

If you constantly exceed their data limits, an application like Android Assistant may not be enough. Of course, you will be alerted when you are getting close to your limit, but what exactly is causing the problem? Is Facebook, podcasting software, that racing game? Who knows?

Well, with Onavo you can find. The main menu of the software displays statistics about data usage in the previous month, and points out the apps that are eating more bandwidth. Many of them are obvious, like any program, streaming video, but I was surprised to discover the amount of data that Google Calendar Sync wore with his constant, and after consultation with Onavo, decided to synchronize the calendar app less often.

You will also find the apps that are online even when they are open. Do not be surprised to see that many games do this, so if you have not played for a while, might want to delete them. Otherwise, those free games for Android may end up costing you money if you do blow your data limit.

For international travelers, the Onavo can also be useful to prevent (or limit) high roaming charges for data.

In addition, the app has a feature (only available for users of Android Ice Cream Sandwich) that performs data compression for the user.

5th. Choose your own keyboard

The voice-controlled assistant Siri, the iPhone 4S, has received much press coverage lately, and it really has some impressive features, including dictating texts. But to use a data plan on your smartphone, can be more interesting enter text by typing good old manual (or nearly so).

m downside of the iPhone is its hostility to applications like Swipe. On Android, you have the ability to choose your own keyboard (well, iPhone users can jailbreak to get the Swipe, but it is an added complication to this process).

Many Android devices already come with preloaded Swipe, and need only select it as the default keyboard on your smartphone.

For those unfamiliar, the Swipe is a keyboard that lets you drag your finger across a screen from letter to letter. His engine "prophetic" discovers what word you will write (and it gets better as more is used).

6th. Flip the screen lock, but do not use a standard

The easiest method to unlock a screen is to trace a pattern on your screen. It is easier and more convenient than typing a PIN or password. However, if you lose your smartphone or stolen, you better hope that your screen is clean now.

The oils from your fingers will leave a distinctive pattern on your screen. Unless you always wipe the device after unlock the pattern lock will only stop the criminals more stupid.

7th. Install an antivirus

Why have not you done it? Malware creators are going all out for Android. We are seeing a lot of what happened in the world of desktops repeat with smartphones. Google's system is more open, has a larger market share and is a more attractive target than the iPhone, which has a closed ecosystem.

But remember that although Apple close more input apps and prevent third party software exploit key features of the system, the user depends entirely on the company. If she makes a mistake, then all users are in danger. As has happened recently with apps like Path.

Although Android is less secure for its larger aperture, it is also more open to free security tools from third parties. So there is no excuse for leaving your device unprotected. A good free option is the program's Lookout, but there are many others. Most of these apps allow you to lock and "wipe" your smartphone remotely.

8th. Stay away from stores that do not know apps

Google has taken some steps to "tame" the Old West who was the Android Market (now called Google Play). The store now has a "Bouncer" (security) checks that makes searching for malwre. And, contrary to what advocates can say Apple, Android was designed from the beginning to leave the least destructive malware on phones than on PCs they are to perform in the sandbox apps and force them to ask for permission (yes, those same permissions that almost everyone ignores).

The problem is that Android users can download apps from anywhere. Do not be led to do this. If you are not using Android, make sure you're in a store know and trust such as Amazon. Most Android devices come with a default configuration that does not allow you to download apps from "unknown sources." If you've been a victim of social engineering attacks before, it's always best to remember that and leave this option checked.

When you download an app, try to put into practice the permissions check. If a game wants to send SMS messages, for example, this can be a red flag warning.