Android phone settings

To conserve your battery, reduce your cellular data usage, and increase your privacy, here are settings to change on your Android phone.

Open Settings ➢ Connections ➢ More connection settings and turn off Nearby device scanning. Turning this off will keep your phone from scanning for other devices to connect to and save your battery life.

Go back to the main Settings page and click on Google. Now click on the three dots menu in the upper right corner and click on Usage & diagnostics. Turning this off means your phone won't send information about how and where you use your phone to Google. It saves your battery life and cellular data and takes back some privacy.

Click the Back button on the Usage & diagnostics screen and look for Ads. Next, click to turn the toggle On for Opt out of Ads Personalization. Of course, you'll still see ads, but your phone won't be sending any personal information about what you do on your phone to the various ad networks. If your phone shows you an information screen after you click the toggle to On, click OK.

Go back to the main page of Settings and click on Location. Next, click on the Improve Accuracy setting and turn off both Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning. Turning these off keeps your phone from constantly scanning for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections to improve accuracy, saving your battery. Don't worry; your phone will use the GPS to figure out your location.

Go back to the Location page and click on Network Data Analytics. Clicking the Off button stops your phone from sending data points and location analytics to your wireless carrier. Turning this off saves your battery and your cellular data. If you see an Are you sure? screen check the Don't show me this again box and then click OK.

Go back to the main page of Settings and click on Apps. You'll see a list of all the apps on your phone. Click on any app and click on Mobile Data, then Restrict background data. Setting this to Always for any apps you don't recognize will help your cellular data use and improve battery life. Leave the setting on While roaming only for apps you want to download in the background, like your stock trading app or email.

Go back to the main Apps page and click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Next, click Special Access and scroll down to Install unknown apps, and turn this off for every app on your phone. Turning this off keeps apps on your phone from installing other apps that might have nothing to do with the main app and is one way to keep malware off your phone.

A few fun/useful websites

Bongo cat: More than just bongos, cymbals, cowbell, piano, and marimba, too. Just the one cat, though. http://www.bongo.cat/.

Ten Years Ago: See what the internet looked like ten years ago: http://www.neal.fun/ten-years-ago/.

No More Ransom: If, and I hope it never happens to you, you do get caught up in a ransomware situation, there is help. The No More Ransom site helps people decrypt their files without paying the ransom. A joint effort of McAfee, Kaspersky, Europol, and the Dutch police, the site can decrypt dozens of different ransomware types. Not all of them, but lots of them. http://www.nomoreransom.org/en/index.html.

Manual labor

Our computers all went down at work today, so we had to do everything manually.

It took me like half an hour to find and shuffle the cards for Solitaire!

Do you have a computer or technology question? Greg Cunningham has been providing Tehachapi with on-site PC and network services since 2007. Email Greg at [email protected].