The Android device sticky thread...

[Steve A.]

If you're rooted, this one is the best. It's free. Get it.

AdAway

I'll give that a shot on one of my rooted devices. BTW when I mentioned "ads" I was also referring to the excessive graphic and video content on webpages which can slow down webpages and make them difficult to read. In older versions of Chrome I was able to turn off the automatic downloading and display of graphics but that option is long gone.

Here is a link to the webpage which drove me bonkers today. Spoiler alert: it is the EW recap of last Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones (Season 6 Ep 8):

http://www.ew.com/recap/game-thrones-no-one

Steve Ahola

[Steve A.]

In view of my love/hate relationship with my Samsung Tab 4 7.0 I swore to never buy another Samsung tablet. Well, I decided to get a new tablet and ran across a new Samsung Tab A 8.0 at a price too good to pass up. Fool me once...

One of the big problems with the Tab 4 7.0 was that it only had 8GB on internal SD card and running KitKat it was not allowed to write to the external SD card. I was always running out of internal RAM and had to delete apps and content at least once a week. (Being OCD I would zip up files and upload them to DropBox.)

My new Tab A 8.0 has 16GB on its internal SD card so that bottleneck is removed. There seems to be a lot less bloatware installed so it is running slick as bat shit.

JET.COM is selling the tablets in white for $169.99 but they are offering a 15% discount for up to 3 purchases which brought the price to under $144. Unlike Amazon they don't charge sales tax for CA residents which makes it like $134.

https://jet.com/product/detail/6f5d2...3679ed263cad76

Steve A.

[mozz]

Check out Ghostery for ad blocking, tracking and more.

[Steve A.]

Check out Ghostery for ad blocking, tracking and more.

The Ghostery browser looks great for anonymous browsing but Opera Mini Beta does a better job of stripping out unwanted page elements which detract from the text of articles I am trying to read.

When I said "ad" I didn't just mean the pop-up variety but the ones embedded in the damn webpage. For awhile there some pages were so busy that I would convert them into PDF files just to be able to read them in peace. (What a hassle!)

Thanks for the tip!

Steve Ahola

P.S. For the benefit of non-Android aficionados unlike Windows you can run many different browsers with none of them designated as your primary browser. I read one local paper eEdition in Chrome and another one in Dolphin, as they each have different strong points.

Chrome is good for storing passwords and settings, and sharing them across the several different Android tablets I use but it really gets bogged down with webpages on sites heavy with content (I don't buy the super-expensive super-fast tablets.)

[Steve A.]

I may be sending the Samsung Tab A 8.0 back (see post #17) and will order this mfg refurbished Samsung Tab 4 7.0 Nook Edition instead for $85. (I already have the non-Nook version of this tablet but want to have a spare because the battery always will run down. Also allows for 100% real multi-tasking.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252352493979

There is one feature on the Tab 4 that I find indispensible: the expanded clipboard accessible through the on-screen keyboard. It holds up to 20 entries, 10 of which can be locked and used like keyboard macros. I use Evernote to save articles in text format and like to credit the source and date.
... Here's what I use for the Chron: [SF Chron 06/23/2016]

The Tab A 8.0 also has an expanded clipboard which might even hold more clips but they can't be locked.

Another reason for me to get a second Tab 4 7.0 is that I can go ahead and try to root my old one- if I screw up and brick it I won't be up sh*t creek without a Tab 4.

The big weak point of the Tab 4 7.0 is that there is only 8GB on the internal SD card (and that KitKat blocks read-write access to the extSD card.) I tend to be a serial downloader- like the comic strips from the daily newspaper. But if I zip them up and move them to DropBox regularly they won't clog things up. (Once I successfully root the tabs I will be able to move apps and data to an external card.)

Steve A.

EDIT June 29: Do NOT order Nook SM-T230NU tablet in link above. The one I rec'd was defective- it would not charge and being in a plain box with an LG charger it sure did not look like a mfg refurbished device.

[Steve A.]

How to find Saved Passwords in Android Chrome!

After looking high and low for instructions on how to display my Saved Passwords in Android Chrome I ran across this article, thank God...

Based on this help link *, to manage your password and find your username in the Chrome browser for Android:
● Open the Chrome app.
● Touch Chrome menu Menu.
● Touch Settings > Save passwords.
● Touch the link for Manage saved passwords in your Google Account.

However, following the above steps only reveals the username and the website url and you can delete the password but not view it.

In order to manage/view your passwords from any device/browser visit this site** and re-enter your google account password to login and to view all your saved passwords*** if:

● you’ve signed in to Chrome and saved passwords or
● you’re using Google Smart Lock for Passwords on Android

Click on the specific website and select the eye symbol to reveal the password for that particular site.

* https://support.google.com/chrome/an...droid%20device

*** https://passwords.google.com

*** except your currently signed in google account password won't be displayed

How to retrieve saved password in Google Chrome for Android? - Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange

Steve Ahola

[Steve A.]

Evernote and MEF work well together like soup and salad, soup and salad...

After having lost still another post I was composing here while browsing for a schematic on my Android tablet I decided to enforce my rule to copy the text in the text entry box before browsing around doing research... even better to post it into an Evernote document although it should still be available in the 10 available slots in my Samsung SM-T230NU tablet extended clipboard.

I usually use Evernote to edit longer postings here for grammar or clarity so I might as well invoke it earlier in the chain of events. (It is very hard to edit longer posts in the text entry boxes here at MEF.) Same for Facebook...

Steve Ahola

EDIT 07/22. It is always a good idea to select all of your text and copy it to the Clipboard before submitting a post here or anywhere...

[Steve A.]

This is an example of the very irritating "popover" bullshit that makes it difficult for me to read certain webpages using Chrome. Don't webpage designers realize that crap like that encourages potential readers to leave immediately?



With the Opera Mini Beta browser the popover stays in one place and doesn't scroll down blocking the text you are trying to read...








Steve Ahola

P.S. Some of the "popovers" disappear after clicking them once but not this one encouraging you to share the webpage on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or email (I just checked.) Yes, I definitely want to share crap I can't read with all of my "friends"...

[nickb]

Crap! And I thought a popover was tasty treat

Still haven't rooted mine yet. But I sooo want to.

[Steve A.]

Beware the Dropbox bloat!

Dropbox likes to create a cache on your local drive which can eat valuable internal space on your Android mobile device. While this can speed up Dropbox operations it can slow down the overall performance of your device if available space has dropped to a drastic level.

You can't turn off the cache but you can Clear the cache by going into Settings. With the versions I've examined the cache is displayed in a light grey font. I was shocked to find out it had grown to ~300MB... almost 1/3 of a GB on my Samsung Tab 4 7.0 which has only 8GB of internal storage.

Another space hog is Chrome which has a cache which can't be turned off in Chrome Settings but can be cleared in Apps or Applications under the device main Settings menu. I just looked and the cache was 157MB! This on a tablet that gives me low storage warnings when it drops below 500MB...

Chrome is also using 62MB for data but clearing that might delete my bookmarks and preferences... and who knows what? I need to investigate that.

Steve Ahola

[Steve A.]

Another space hog... thumbnails!

Various programs and perhaps even Android itself like to cache thumbnails to make some operations run faster. I have found .thumbnail files and folders grow as large as 300MB. Some programs give you the option to delete them upon exiting or to not cache them at all; others offer no such options.

Here is one trick to get rid of persistant thumbnail caches that keep returning after you have deleted them:

A. If the cache is stored in a folder titled .thumbnail(s) delete that folder and in the same folder create a file titled .thumbnail(s)
B. If the cache is stored in a file titled .thumbnail(s) delete that file and in the same folder create a folder titled .thumbnail(s)

Doing this can often fool the operating system but not always. FWIW I use an old version of ES File Explorer (3.2.3.1) to find and manipulate files on both my rooted and my unrooted Android devices. Be sure to set the options in the Tools pulldown menu in the left pane to Show Hidden Files (the files and folders with a name that starts with a period (.) ) Here is a link to download ESFX 3.2.3.1...

download es file explorer 3.2.3.1 free (android)

BTW I recommend clicking on the Settings button on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen and reviewing them all, especially Window Settings as you can only have 12 windows open at a time... no sense wasting one slot on a window that you never use. (Usually each time you click on a selection in the pull-down menus in the left pane ESFX tries to open a new window- if that folder or display is already open it is more frugal to go to it through the Windows button on the menu bar, sometimes displayed under the "More" button.)

One more tip: check and edit the Favorite drop-down menu in the left pane - you can list your favorite folders here rather than opening them automatically as a window when you load ESFX.

Steve Ahola

P.S. Here is an article titled "Here's why we're removing ES File Explorer from our best apps lists" referring to the latest versions released earlier this year...

https://www.androidpit.com/this-is-w...-file-explorer

... which is why I *always* select "Do not auto-update apps" in the Google Play settings menu. BTW ESFX will ask you if you want to update to the current version unless you uncheck the Auto Check option under its Update settings entry in Settings. "If its working fine why risk screwing that up with an update that you don't need???"

[The Dude]

I use this app and periodically run it to keep things clean. It's ad supported, which can be a bit annoying, but not a huge deal. Seems to work quite well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...r.mguard&hl=en

Edit: The first thing you'll want to do (as with any app you download) is go into the settings and disable notifications and any other BS you don't want the app doing. Most people don't take the time to do this, so their apps are constantly uploading usage data and doing other crap you don't want them doing. One can speed up any android device by simply taking the time to go through the settings in every app and disabling crap you don't want running, and believe me, there's plenty of that going on behind the scenes.

[Steve A.]

I use this app and periodically run it to keep things clean. It's ad supported, which can be a bit annoying, but not a huge deal. Seems to work quite well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...r.mguard&hl=en

Yikes! I just tried Clean Master out, going through each item and deciding whether or not to delete it... only an inadvertent click initiated the cleaning procedure with no confirmation prompt resulting in 750MB worth of files removed, many of which I had intentionally been saving. Ouch! I guess I'll find out in a day or two what sort of files were deleted.

My recommendation: Thumbs down mainly because there was no prompt confirming my intention to start the cleaning process. (I will uninstall it and try older versons hoping to find one that has the absolutely necessary confirmation prompt for any program that can delete thousands of files.) My other reason is the presence of so many very obtrusive ads...

EDIT: I decided to check out Clean Master Lite and with its simpler interface I will recommend it. It is very simple to edit the Ignore List so that it will only mess with the apps you don't care about. BTW the Play Store has two free listings for the full strength Clean Master app, one with an Ads icon and one without, but both listings say "Contains ads". Here is link to Lite version:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...=com.cmcm.lite

And here is the UpToDown listing for older versions of Clean Master which I will look into:

http://clean-master-cleaner.en.uptodown.com/android/old

Edit: The first thing you'll want to do (as with any app you download) is go into the settings and disable notifications and any other BS you don't want the app doing. Most people don't take the time to do this, so their apps are constantly uploading usage data and doing other crap you don't want them doing. One can speed up any android device by simply taking the time to go through the settings in every app and disabling crap you don't want running, and believe me, there's plenty of that going on behind the scenes.

I am quoting that because it is such good advice that bears repeating!

Steve Ahola

[The Dude]

Oh shizz! Sorry, Steve. It works well for me, but there are different options on what it cleans. I must have not ever used the option that you did. My apologies for causing your files to be deleted. I'm a bit stumped, though. On my phone and tablets, there are boxes you can check before cleaning so that you can choose what to clean and what to leave alone. I'm surprised you weren't presented with that option.

[Steve A.]

QUESTION: Is the Clean Master app for Android really useful?

I read this particular answer on the Quora site and must disagree with it strongly! What Shad Khan has to say applies more to the various Task Killer apps which were very popular (and needed!) with the initial versions of Android, but became unnecessary and actually detrimental once Android introduced better memory management.

Shad undoubtedly has never owned an Android device which will refuse to install another app from the Play Store with a message that free memory or storage space is too low. I've been dealing with this manually for several years now by deleting either apps or stored files. Having a program to simplify the operation is a big plus as long as you have control over what it does.

QUESTION: Is the Clean Master app for Android really useful?
We need answers for two types of phones:
• One with low RAM (512 MB) with OEM bloat and low phone memory(2GB)
• One with reasonably high RAM (1 GB or above) and more internal memory (like in Moto G first and second gen)

I feel the first category of phone needs this app.

ANSWER from Shad Khan 10/27/2014: Please stop using it as you may be killing the performance of your phone.

These apps may have once been useful but the Android has progressed far enough that they are now outdated, unnecessary and rather harmful.

On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM as possible as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.

This is not true for Android.

Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing.

Not only does Android handle RAM assignment, but it also keeps track of background apps so they don’t use up unnecessary processor resources. There’s no noticeable performance hit for leaving apps loaded in RAM.

App killers, memory boosters, performance enhancers, etc all claim wiping memory will speed up the phone. With current versions of Android, that's simply not true. It's actually the opposite. What will happen is the task killer app kills other apps which use resources to process. Then the OS restarts those, or other apps to fill the memory again, which takes even more resources. The task killer app kills again and the process repeats over and over. So in reality, those kinds of apps reduce performance and increase battery usage by restarting apps again and again. Remember, those dormant apps don't consume any additional battery or CPU in the first place.

https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Clean-M...swer/Shad-Khan

Steve Ahola