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 you'll see its symbol appear in the predictions bar. It's like Wingdings never died.
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