Things to do before selling your android phone

If you want to sell your android phone, there are some task that you must do before selling. Here is the list of things you should do before selling

Backup Your Data

You can backup your data in to your computer or you can backup data to your Google account. The simplest and the more secure way to backup your data is by using Google drive account.
The back up option will be available under settings> Accounts > Google Account and select the data which you want to sync. This way you can back up all important things in your phone like photos, videos, files, bookmarks, apps, passwords, settings.

If you have a slow internet connection or you can back up your important data to your PC. Just connect the phone and PC via USB cable and transfer the data which you need to your computer.

Reset 

Next step is to encrypt your data, that is to completely wipe your data from the phone. For this go to your Settings >Backup and Reset > Factory Reset. Once you had tapped on factory reset, it will erase all data on your phone and the device will be like when you have bought it.

Remove the SIM Card and Memory Card

You may have many contacts saved on your SIM card and also data stored on your Memory card. So it is important to remove both of this and keep it with you to ensure full security.

Before removing the memory card, go to Settings> Sorage and tap on Unmount SD card Option and your memory card is now safe to reove.

Pack It Up

You might have got a box and accessories like charger adaptor, USB cable, headset, bill, guide along with your phone when you had bought it. Re assemble everything in the box, if you have it. having all the accessories including box will add to the value of  your phone and it is most likely to be selled at a higher price. 

Clean It

Once you had completely cleaned the inside of your phone, next step is to clean the outside. If there are many scratches at your screen guard, it is better to replace it a new one so that the phone will look much better.Also clean any dirt or build up in the outer portion your phone so that the buyer will be satisfies and feels that your phone is money -worth.

Rooting your Android Phone - things you should know

What is Rooting?

Rooting is the process of unlocking the Operating system for specific purposes. Rooting is performed to overcome the limitations put the hardware manufacturers on the device. With rooting , you will get the root access to your device . By this you can modify your Phone's software to the deepest level.The process of rooting is not recommended by the manufacturers and  can ruin the Phone's warranty.

Need of Rooting

By rooting, you gain the ability to load Custom ROM of your device. There are many Custom ROM's available which has completely different look and performance. Some of  the popular one's are CyanogenMod, AOKP, Paranoid Android.  You can select from the wide range of ROM's available based on your need. Here are the advantages of Rooting

* Install Incompatible apps

Sometimes, Android will block installation of certain apps which may hack into the android system or which might be a threat to your device. By rooting, you can install incompatible apps to your device and unlock new features.

* Update your OS

If your device is working on an older version of  OS and the manufacturer does not provide a way to get updated to the latest version, you can get latest version of OS in your device even before they are officially announced.

* Change Theme

By rooting, you can get the full themeing capabilities of your device and every graphic on your device can be customized. Even the colour of the battery indicator and the font of the device can be altered.

*Full Control of the CPU and the Kernel

*Improve Battery life and Speed

  There are many Custom ROM's available which would increase the speed and performance of your device and also improve battery life

*  Better Backup

By rooting you can backup or recover all the data ( pictures, apps, files, audio clips and so on ). You can even recover the information stored in your apps.

*  System processes can be automated

Disadvantages of Rooting

 In spite of all the benefits you gain via rooting, there are some disadvantages too which are discussed below.

* Security 

  There is an increased risk of getting malware into your device by rooting. Root access the permissions to the apps which might be harmful to your phone. on rooting, these permissions are removed and the harmfull apps gain the right to control the device. Because of security reasons, even Google refuses to support the Google Wallet service for rooted devices.

*  Warranty

 Once you have rooted your device, you had void your warranty of your phone but you can always un root your device by simply re introducing the original Backup ROM onto your device.

* Bricking

 ' Bricking' means screwing up your phone's software so badly so that your phone can never function properly. Loading of Unsupported Custom Rom into your device can also ruin the software and cause bricking.  

What is a Custom ROM?

If you own an Android device, You will get to hear about terms like Custom ROM , Custom Recovery Rooting and so on. Most people don't know what exactly these terms are meant for. Today I will let you know about Custom ROMs and their influence on your device.

Custom ROMs

In Android sense, ROM is typically a file that contain the executable instructions to run the OS. A Stock ROM is the one which is developed by the manufacturer and comes with the phone when you buy it. Custom ROMs are also filled with features and customization options which control the behaviour of the device. There are many custom ROMs available. Some of the popular Custom ROMs are

CyanogenMod

This is the best custom ROM available and as reports suggest, till now, there are more than 4.2 million active installation of CyanogenMod releases. Some of the features of CyanogenMod are Open VPN integration, DSP equalizer, Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, USB tethering, CPU over and under clocking.

AOKP (Android Open Kang Project)

AOKP allows more customisations than what is available with stock ROM. This is rising in popularity now . It allows customizations which are normally not permitted by the factory firmware. Some of the features are use of Custom Toggles,  CPU overclocking, Navigation ring, Wi-Fi , Bluetooth, USB tethering, LED control.

Paranoid Android

Paranoid Android is a Custom ROM aiming at enhancing the beauty of the android system and allow more customizations in the system. It is completely different from CyanogenMod and also packs some cool features like Hover, Pie and Peak. Hover allows you to to interact with the notifications as soon as they arrive at your screen . Pie helps to enhance the simplicity of the navigation bar and the navigation buttons can be used with just a simple swipe at the screen. Peek feature allows you to take a glance at your notifications as soon as you take your phone out of your pocket. Other Features of Paranoid Android are Multi-tasking and Floating notifications, UI customization, Gesture control and so on.

Nexus 6P Review

Google is back with its most awaited, feature rich new-generation Smartphone Nexus 6P. Nexus 6P is not like its predecessors - it's far too better.Google has stated that the 'P' in the device name stands for Premium.

The last Nexus device which was really popular was the LG made Nexus 5X which was launched at 2013. even though Google couldn't make a big impact last year, with the launch of Nexus 6P they had made their comeback with a blast. The device was announced and launched this September and the reviews seems to be much satisfactory.

This is Google's first partnership with Huawei. Coming to the design aspect, the device had come with metal body instead of plastic and is made of anodised aluminium with diamond-cut chamfered edges. With a thickness of 7.3 mm and weight of 178 grams, Nexus 6P is not the lightest of the phones available.

The device has a 5.7 inch 2K AMOLED huge display which is the best currently available and with rich range of colours and wide viewing angles. It also has Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. 

It works on Android v 6.0 Marshmallow OS and is powered by a quad-core 2 GHz Qualcomm MSM 8894 Snapdragon 810 processor with 3 GB LPDDR4 RAM. IT comes in 3 variants 16 GB/ 32 GB/ 64 GB internal storage space and there is no option for increasing the Storage memory as there is no external memory card slot.

Nexus 6P has a rear camera of 12.3 MP f/2.0 with laser autofocus and dual-LED flash. The rear camera is placed inside a corning Gorilla Glass 4 enclosure and hence the camera has pop out to a small extend at the top. It also has an 8 MP front facing camera with FULL-HD video recording. Other camera features include HDR+ mode, Panorama mode, Timer mode, lens blur, geo-tagging, face detection and Photo Sphere.The rear camera is capable of shooting 4K videos at 30 fps.

The Nexus 6P also houses a non-removable Li-Po 3,450 mAh battery. The 3,450 mAh battery along with the Android Marshmallow battery new saving feature like doze will provide a long lasting battery life.Nexus 6P has a stand-by time of up to 440 hours and a talk-time of 23 hours on 3G mode.The device also supports USB-C charging port and hence faster charging can be attained in minimum time.

Nexus 6P supports a single nano-SIM slot which supports a 4G LTE SIM card as well. Other connectivity options of this device include Wi-Fi 802.11, Bluetooth v 4.2, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC and so on. It also Packs sensors such as fingerprint, gyro,accelerometer, proximity, compass and barometer.

Priced at Rs 39,999 for the 32 GB model and 42,999 for the 64 GB model, Nexus 6P is available in Aluminium Graphite and Frost colours. Being a Google device, Nexus 6P will also be the first device to get any ne Android OS updates in the future. 

Android 6.0 Marshmallow Features

Android v 6.0 Marshmallow is somewhat visually similar to its predecessor but Marshmallow have come out with many new stunning features. 

Memory Manager

One of the most heard disadvantage of Lollipop was its looting memory for apps. Android 6.0 marshmallow has come with a new inbuilt feature which allows you to check out the memory usage of newly installed apps without the help of any third party app.

You can browse through the RAM usage over the last 3, 6, 12 or 24 hours and identify when RAM looting have occured without much concern from user's side.

Type 3 USB

Marshmallow supports the new Standard Type C USB. which is associated with the USB 3.1 . The new feature supports faster charging . Type C charging cables and adaptors are currently available for a few hand picked number of devices. Type C cables support faster charging, faster data transfer and advanced multi tasking.

Marshmallow devices will also be having reverse charging feature which allows it to reverse charge other devices using Type C cable.

Google Now on Tap

Google Now on tap is the most highlighted feature of Marshmallow update. With this feature, you can go to Google Now with just a long press of the Home button. You can activate this even without leaving the current app you are using. 

while using an app, Tap will create a new Google Now overlay with your running app as the background. Now on Tap scans the current page, and provides relevant details regarding what now seen on the app. In case of music may show links to Youtube, saavn, and if it is a place then it will provide you with its directions on Google Map.

Fingerprint Scan

Google introduces System Level Fingerprint support for the Android Marshmallow. We have seen enormous number of third party finger print sensors in the hardware, but this is the first time fingerprint sensors are supported by the core itself. 

With this feature, you can use fingerprint lock to unlock your device,make payments in Android Pay or log in to various apps and services as seen on iPhone. 

Doze

This feature helps to improve the battery life of the device. This feature senses whether your device is in rest and put your device somewhere close to Airplane mode when not in use and thus adds more life to the battery. It simply cuts down the background processes . 

Cut and Paste

After you had highlighted a text, options for cut/copy/paste will float over the highlighted text rather than at the top of the screen. This feature is seen on iOS devices.

Moto X Play Specifications and review

Moto X Play has the features in between Moto G and Moto X. Moto X Play is one of the 3 Moto X devices in 2015. other devices being Moto X Style and Moto X force.

Coming to the design , Moto X Play is solid , neat and good looking with just speaker grills and front camera sensor at the front side. With a thickness of just 8.9 mm at its thinnest point and curving out to a maximum of 10.9 mm thickness, the handset is pretty much comfortable in hands with its rubberised robust rear panel. It also has a customisable rear back cover.

Moto X Play comes with a giant 5.5 inch full HD  IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3.0 protection and with a pixel density of 403 ppi. Instead of AMOLED display, this device features an LCD panel. 

The smartphone runs on quad-core 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset  and with 2 GB of RAM. It is powered by Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Android 6.0 Marshmallow update . Moto X play has two variants available based on its internal storage either 16 GB or 32 GB.  The 16 GB variant is priced at Rs 18,499 while the 32 GB variant goes at Rs 19,999. It also has a micro-SD card slot with which Storage space can be expanded to up to 128 GB.

One of the most highlighted feature of Moto X Play is its huge 3630 mAh battery which will last for almost 2 days on a single charging. It also includes Motorola's Turbo charging facility which provides 8 hours of battery life in just 15 minutes of charging.

One of the disappointing feature of this phone is the lack of water resistant feature which was previously seen on Moto G 3rd Generation handset. 

Apart from its huge battery, another stand out feature of Moto X Play is its camera. It packs a 21 MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture, face detect autofocus, and with dual-tone LED flash. It also has a 5 MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture  for taking better selfies. Both the front and rear camera have a blue glass filter which would remove the infra red and thus the pictures look more natural.

The connectivity options of this device include Bluetooth v4.1, Wi-Fi, GPS, A-GPS ,GLONASS, FM radio with RDS, 4G LTE support, NFC. The Smartphone has customisable polycarbonate back plate and is available in 14 colours. 

The handset is available for purchase at Flipkart.

Xiaomi Mi 5 Specifications and review

Xiaomi has announced its latest smartphone Xiaomi Mi 5 this month. The release date of this phone is not yet confirmed, but is expected to come in the market at January 2016.

The phone will be having a 5.3 inch IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 1440 pixels by 2560 pixels and a pixel density of around 525 ppi. According to the reports by Xiaomi, Xiaomi Mi 5 smartphone is seemed to have an impressive bench mark score of  73,075.

The device is expected to run on Android v 5.1.1 Lollipop, powered by 2.2 GHz Adreno 530 Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and with 4 GB of RAM.  It is also rumoured that , since many heating reports has been filed against Snapdragon 820 processor, Xiaomi Mi 5 might run on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC chipset.

Another highlighted feature of this device is its 16 MP primary camera with LED flash which would be a strong competitor for latest HTC, Samsung, and Sony Smartphones. It also features a 6 MP front camera with 1080P full HD video recording. The rear camera is expected to be a ' flip side camera ', suggesting that it would be hidden in the chassis by default and will prompt out when a picture is taken. 

The Xiaomi Mi 5 will include a 3D touch technology , which allows pressure sensitive interactions with the screen. with this feature, you can copy a text by light press on the screen and cut a text by touching hard at the screen.

The device is available as 2 variants, one with 16 GB internal Storage space and other with 32 GB internal Storage. Based on the informations received from various sources, it is expected that Xiaomi Mi 5 packs a Non-Removable Li- Po 3800 mAh battery. Faster charging can also be achieved through Quick Charge v 2.0. 

Connectivity options of this device include Wi-Fi 802.11 , Wi-Fi direct,Wi-fi Hotspot, Bluetooth v 4.1, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS. It also feature sensors such as Fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro sensor, proximity sensor, compass, barometer.

The price of this device is not yet known. Xiaomi Mi 5 will be available in White Colour.