Manage your Android battery

Keeping track of the occasional rogue app is important when it comes to making sure you've got enough battery left for those odd occasions when you might actually need to make a phone call. The data collected by your phone and stored under Settings > About Phone > Battery use will tell you if one of your apps is staying on and hammering your battery, letting you do the human thing and delete it.

Read More

Bypass Android slide unlock

You don't have to slide the screen locker to bring your phone out of standby. A double press of your phone's Menu button will also wake it up, as long as your manufacturer hasn't removed that feature from its skin.

Read More

Add a hotline to the Android Home screen

If there's one person you tend to call more than most - wife, councillor or parole officer - make it easy on yourself by adding a Direct Dial shortcut to the Home screen. Long-press on the background, then select Shortcuts then Direct Dial - to add the modern equivalent of a big red telephone to your Home page that instantly dials the one number without messing around with the Dialer or Contacts pages.

Read More

Turn off Google auto-suggest

If you're phone's a bit on the entry level side of things, your Google searching will be speeded up quite significantly by turning off the web suggestions feature. Having Google constantly guessing what you're about to type is nice, but can bring older phones crunching to a halt. Deactivate this feature by heading to Settings > Search > Google Search Settings.

Read More

Multiple Gmail accounts in Android

Android 2.1 added support for multiple Gmail accounts. Add a new internet identity to your phone by opening the Gmail app, then pressing Menu > Accounts > Add Accounts. Then remember who you're pretending to be.

Read More