Do you have a tip/trick for ICS? Post it here.

[susst1]

I used to be able to put a shortcut for manual sync on home screen but cant now on ICS anyone know how?

If you could physically do it before posting to make sure its not just me...

thanks

ah easy answer download syncshortcut from Google Play...

 

[rezeew]

I just discovered today that I could double-space at the end of a sentence and have it insert a period for me. Protip!

 

[sich48]

There indeed is a stock Soundrecorder but not accessible. Why, I don't know.
However to make it accessible, install Sortcut Creator from Google Play. Open it, go to New shortcut, Activity, select Soundrecorder. Your Soundrecorder shortcut will be created on your Home Screen. Recorded files can be saved.



https://play.google.com/store/apps/....&purchaseButton=zHjzVbYvpIZ1IJxSaQtfSxjBo28=


sich48

 

[sich48]

I meant Shortcut Creator or Shorty. Sorry

 

[wrecklass]

I'm a new Sprint Gnex user, and I'm loving the new phone. Just upgraded from the HTC EVO 4G (the original model).

Finished reading all 570+ posts, including the non-tips ones. Great thread, and thanks to all of you tipsters.

So rather than just saying thanks, here are some tips for folks who are coming over from the EVO like me:

Nova Launcher is tremendous. It gives you all of the wonderful tastes of the Stock ICS launcher with a few additions that Sense users will appreciate:

1) Hitting the Home button while on the main Home-Page brings up the "Preview" screen which displays a miniature version of all of the home screens. Touch one to go directly there. You can also add Home screens so you can have seven just like you did on the EVO.

2) Pinching the home screen will give you the Preview also, but this is only in the Pro version of Nova.

3) Long pressing the Home screen wallpaper will bring up a menu to install new Apps, Widgets, Shortcuts or Wallpapers. I really missed that with the stock Launcher. I thought that was included in ICS, but apparently only Wallpapers can be installed this way.

Now some tips for the Stock Gnex crowd:

With older versions of Android it was difficult to reorganize a home screen if it was full. You had to delete an icon to make room to move others around, but with ICS's folders it is a snap:

Drag one icon onto another to make a folder with the two icons inside.

Open the folder and drag the second icon back of the empty spot left by the original icon. Viola, you have swapped two icons without deleting one first.

Make a Quick Dial tool of your own like this:

Create a new Direct Dial Shortcut on your home screen, attach it to a contact number in your People list. Then create as many more as you want.

Drag the first onto the second to create a folder and give it a name like: Quick Dialer. Drag all of the shortcuts you created into this folder.

Put the folder onto your Dock and you have a quick way to call anyone you need to. Touch the folder and then touch the icon of the person you want to call.

Create one folder for your friends and another for your office mates. You can also drag and reorganize the icons to be in whatever order you find easiest to remember.

And something for those of you with Bluetooth keyboards: the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard works great with the Gnex. I'm using it now to type this. Having a nearly full sized keyboard and Cursor Keys(!) really makes a difference when you have some serious correspondence to do. I suspect other Bluetooth Keyboards work as well.

 

[NJSmoke]

Magnify the sound coming out of your speaker by cupping your hand behind the device. Basically make a C with your hand and make sure the palm is behind the speaker.

Listening to music you can put the phone in a plastic cup or bowl to amplify the sound.

Leave your Wifi on to make the battery last longer, Leaving your GPS on won't effect your batter in a negative way.

 

[Hyran50]

go to settings-about phone-android version and keep clicking it and bunch of times. It will bring up the green Droid I'm an ice cream suit. Then click and hold it on him he will grow and explode then a fun little video.

I also learned this works for 2.3 just a different different event happens. Don't know about other versions.

 

[NJSmoke]

With ICS 4.0.4 if there is bloatware that you want to hide you can just drop it over App information and select the disable button and it will disappear.

 

[breadnatty08]

With ICS 4.0.4 if there is bloatware that you want to hide you can just drop it over App information and select the disable button and it will disappear.

All versions of ICS can do this, one of the big features added.

 

[NJSmoke]

All versions of ICS can do this, one of the big features added.

You are right i am on 4.0.2, but it wont let you hide some apps like Google Messenger or My Verizon. But many other apps do disappear.....epsi: thanks

 

[NJSmoke]

By the way this is how you can use the phone's WiFi direct function.

Wi-Fi Direct on Tv Sony Bravia: Tutorial - YouTube

I am not sure if you can use WiFi direct to play game emulators on your TV as well. But one must have a TV with WiFi to start with. Some thing that I don't have at the moment.

 

[viebroccoli]

Leaving your GPS on won't effect your batter in a negative way.

I beg to differ, my battery drains much quicker whenever I have GPS on. Especially when I'm using it for navigation. Although, you could say navigation and data are used for navigation.

 

[NJSmoke]

I beg to differ, my battery drains much quicker whenever I have GPS on. Especially when I'm using it for navigation. Although, you could say navigation and data are used for navigation.

I met leaving it on in general. There is a widget called power control or something that gives you the ability to manuelly turn the Wifi, GPS, Blue tooth, Sync and brightness. Leaving on GPS, Wifi, and Sync do not effect your battery life. Because none of those features run unless an app requesting it to.

But if an app is trying to use GPS or Sync that will effect it. Then you have to adjust the app that is trying to use them.

As for the blue tooth I leave that off cause of security reasons. I remeber a number of celebs getting pictures stolen off there phone because of blue tooth but this might of changed.

 

[jj14x]

ahhh that is sweet if only swype had the prediction and spell correct of swiftkey... that is the only thing keeping me from swype again

I agree...why can't Swype install the word predication that swiftkey uses? It would make it much more complete. It's stopping Swype from being my full time replacement keyboard.

Swype has tried to grant this wish in the new beta that they released. I installed it and really like it so far

 

[jj14x]

I beg to differ, my battery drains much quicker whenever I have GPS on. Especially when I'm using it for navigation. Although, you could say navigation and data are used for navigation.

When used for navigation, yes, it will drain your battery down. But leaving your GPS on (when not actively in use by Navigation or other apps that use active GPS) shouldn't cause a battery drain.

 

[flagasse]

Use zedge app for downloading live
Wallpaper keep a corner open on home screen
For bringing up wallpaper menu bar!

 

[Deleted User]

I read all 11 pages and although 2 tips, I thought would solve my need, they didn't. Or I wasn't smart enough to figure it out.
I miss the battery status led that I had on my Dink. I tried Lightflow & morequicklypanel, but neither actually provides, in a clear /visible manner, status. Lightflow has the full screen random leds when the screen is off, but it's only the (very) small Notice bar when on. With mqp you need to pull down the icon to get the info.
When I'm driving & using Google maps I would like to " easily " see what the various status are. I have beautiful widgets battery on my home screen. I guess I could cycle between the home screen & maps every once in a while. Unless someone has a tip or what I could use

I Use ChargeBar https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tombarrasso.android.batterybar&hl=en to give me a nice quick visual to see what my current battery status is. I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to or not, but I hope it helps! It even gives you the option to keep it turned on while using full screen apps. You can adjust the thickness of the line to better suit your needs.

 

[JBNex]

To boot into safe mode:

Hold power button until poweroff /airplane mode promo pops up

Hold Power off option

Press OK to boot into safe mode

 

[tenchy]

My TIP Would Be NOT toUpgrade To Jelly Bean If You Like Using The Internet!

 

[mogelijk]

My TIP Would Be NOT toUpgrade To Jelly Bean If You Like Using The Internet!

Jellybean is great for the Internet. Swype not working properly yet on Jellybean is not Jellybean's fault, nor does it prevent people from using the Internet.

 

[Copacetic]

Jellybean is great for the Internet. Swype not working properly yet on Jellybean is not Jellybean's fault, nor does it prevent people from using the Internet.

Swype works for me!

 

[Caddyman]

everything works for me on jelly bean, love it.

 

[sniperfox47]

I have 3 tips.

1) On 4.1 the icecream-sandwich man is instead a jellybean android head for the version cutscene ("Settings", "About phone", triple tap "Android version"). After you double tap it you get floating jellybeans you can toss around <3.

2) Hold down both volume-down and power at the same time to take a screenshot

3) a security tip

If using a pattern unlock you can make it harder to guess your pattern by disabling "make pattern visible" and "Vibrate on touch". This makes it much harder for someone who does not know your password to randomly hit the right spots. If you do this though make sure to practice your pattern on the "Choose your pattern" screen before you accept it as your password.

When these two options are disabled I would argue that it is the most secure lock method relative how hard it is to remember your password. I only wish they had an option to make the pegs invisible too.