Clean up your Android tablet with AVG Uninstaller

AVG is well known to PC users and the company produces security software like AVG Antivirus, which is very popular indeed, particularly the free version.

The company also has a free utility for Android users and if you have a phone or a tablet you might want to head on over to the Google Play Store and grab a copy of AVG Uninstaller. It's free.

All Android phones and tablets have built in facilities for uninstalling apps of course, but which apps should you uninstall?

AVG Uninstaller makes the decision easier to make by enabling you view a list of apps in different ways. For example, you can view a list of apps sorted by usage (you need to use your phone or tablet for a week or two to build up the usage data). This will highlight the apps that you haven't used for a long time and could therefore be uninstalled. After all, if you don't use an app you aren't going to miss it.

You can also view a list of apps apps sorted by battery usage. If you are having problems with the battery draining far too quickly, you might want to uninstall those apps that use the battery the most. It will extend the life of your phone or tablet between charges.

Apps can also be viewed by data usage, which is important if you use the phone or tablet on 3G. (It's less important on Wi-Fi because it's free unless your ISP imposes a very low bandwidth limit.) Those apps that are consuming the most bandwidth should be the first to be uninstalled if you frequently exceed or get close to your bandwidth limit.

The final sorting method is by app size and this is useful if you are running short of memory on the device. It enables you to find out which apps are using the most memory and remove them.

With each of these app lists you can select one or more apps using tick boxes and then uninstall them with a tap. It is simple, but effective.

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Add, delete, rearrange home screens on Android

Android is fairly straightforward to use and most people can figure out how to use it, at least all the obvious functions. However, some things are not so obvious. For example, your phone might come with several home screens of widgets that you aren't interested in. You delete the widgets, but are then left with a blank screen. How do you delete empty home screens?

Another situation can arise where there are several screens containing widgets or icons and you wish the fourth screen was the second one because it has really useful things on it and it would save lots of swiping to get there. How do you swap the second and fourth home screens?

If your home screens are full of icons and widgets, how do you add more screens? How do you quickly browse them (other than swiping)?

These tips will work on most phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 for example, and tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and others.

Samsung Galaxy S4 and similar Android phones and tablets

On some devices, such as Samsung phones and tablets, this is very easy and you may have discovered some features yourself. For example, find a screen with an empty spot and press and hold until a menu appears. Select the Page option and a new empty home screen is added. Just add as many as you need.

You can move icons onto them by pressing and holding an icon, then dragging it to one of the thumbnail images of screens at the bottom. It is useful to group similar icons on the same screen.

Press any home screen with two fingers and pinch to display thumbnail images of all the screens as shown in the screen shot on the left.

The plus button adds a new empty screen to the collection and you can press, hold and drag empty screens you no longer want to the trash icon at the top of the screen to delete them.

Screens can be rearranged by by pressing and holding, then dragging them to a new position.

Press the Home button to return to the home screen and near the bottom, above the tray of icons, is a line of dots. Each dot represents a screen, so you can see how many there are. You can also see which screen you are on as the current dot is highlighted. A mini home icon shows the home screen - the screen that is displayed when you press the home button. It is useful to arrange screens to the left and right of the home screen, then they are just a swipe or two away, rather than have them all following the home screen.

A quick way to browse the screens is to press and hold the line of dots on the home screen. The screen is shrunk a little and displayed at the top and a number shows the screen you are on. Keep pressing and slide your finger left and right to flip between the screens. It's great for jumping between screens.

Google Nexus 7 and other stock Android phones and tablets

The functions described above are not part of the core Android functionality. If you have a stock Android phone or tablet, such as a Google Nexus 7, the techniques above won't work. It is a limitation of Google's OS and it isn't clear why the company hasn't added a simple home screen manager. It wouldn't be hard, so come on Google!

The only solution for users of stock Android devices at the moment is to add a launcher. Many phones come with launchers and that's why the Samsung GS4 and others have the ability to add, delete and move home screens - it's a launcher.

There are many free launchers in the Google Play Store that can be added to stock Android devices. Two examples which are typical of this type of app are Nova Launcher and GO Launcher EX, the latter has over one million five-star ratings, which gives you an indication of how highly users regard it.

With Nova Launcher for example, tap the Nova Settings icon and then select Desktop, then tap Home Screens. Press and hold on an empty screen and then drag it to the cross icon at the top of the screen to delete it.

To rearrange the home screens, press and hold on the one to move and then drag them to the position you want. The others scoot around to make room. The plus button in the top right corner adds new screens if you need them. GO Launcher EX has similar facilities and it is just the menus that are different.

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Apple under attack again? Beware dodgy emails

Remember when Apple's Developer Center was taken offline for a week? It was around this time last month and it was because of security issues. Apparently there was a security breach or an attempted one and the whole service was shut down while Apple fixed it.

At the time I received one or more emails like this:

It's an email from Apple asking me to reset my Apple ID. I was 99.99% sure it was was fake. The main reason is that the email address is arrived on wasn't the one known to Apple. I have several email addresses and different ones are used with different companies. If an email comes on the wrong address I know its not real.

The thing is, the link in the email is real. Usually email scams point to a fake site with a dodgy URL that is obviously not the real website, but this one really does take you to an Apple website. You can usually see the URL in the status bar of your email program or web browser if you mouse over the link. But this one is fine. I checked the source code and it was fine too.

There is one slightly odd thing about the URL though, and this is a long string of letters and numbers after the URL. You can see it at the bottom of the screen shot. It's not unusual to see this in URLs and it's just encrypted information being passed to the website. However, in this case I wonder if it was designed to exploit some flaw in the way the server handled URLs though. This could have been the mechanism of the security attack on Apple's servers.

The image above isn't the one I received a month ago, but is actually from another one I received today. Is this email part of last month's attack on Apple or does this indicate a new attempt to hack into Apple? It could be that the hackers have modified their original code and are trying exploit another security flaw. Who knows? What should you do if you receive an email like this, especially if it is on the right email address and it looks genuine?

Never click links in emails.

What you should do is to go to the Apple site - iTunes, the Developer Center or wherever, and log in to your account in the usual way. Just check that everything is OK with your account. You'll see messages if something is wrong. (The same advice applies to banking, shopping, credit cards and so on.)

There are also emails going around that warn you that your iPod, iPad or iPhone will soon cease to function. It tells you to click a link in the message to enable the device to continue working. No doubt you'll need to enter your username and password. It's obviously a fake because I know people that don't have any Apple kit that have received this email. Besides, this couldn't happen anyway and Apple would never send out emails like this. Beware of scams.

Never click links in emails.

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Apple clearing stocks ready for new iPad?

Apple kit has never been the cheapest around and it is quality, but at a price. If you struggle to afford the prices Apple charges for its gadgets and computers, you should visit the Refurbished and Clearance store. This is a section of the Apple website where the company sells old stock at reduced prices. It looks like new, works like new and Apple treats it like new, so you get the same warranty and support as new kit, but at a bargain price.

What caught my eye recently was the large number of iPads in the refurb store. Take a look at the Apple US store and scroll down the page - it goes on and on and there are dozens of refurbished iPads at knockdown prices. There are almost as many in the Apple UK store too.

Why are so many iPads for sale at such reduced prices? Is it normal to have so many or is this an indication that new models are coming soon and Apple is clearing out all the old ones? It certainly makes me wonder.

So what is Apple clearing out? All models are available. including the current 4th generation tablet, but the iPad 2 and mini make up the bulk of the offers.

Does this mean that the iPad 2 is soon to be dropped? It seems likely to me for several reasons. One is that this is getting quite old now and if people want a cheap iPad they can buy the mini. It will seem even older when the iPad 5 is launched, which is a sure bet in the run up to Christmas, otherwise a whole year would go by with no new iPad as the 4th gen model was launched last year. It's not that the iPad 4 is struggling to keep up with competitors, it's still the best tablet around, but Apple needs to maintain interest and cash flow. iPad sales were down last quarter and it's a fickle market.

Another reason why the iPad 2 might be on its way out is the upcoming release of iOS 7. Will it be compatible with the 2nd gen tablet? It would be a surprise if it was and I wouldn't expect it to support such old hardware.

Talking of old hardware, some of the iPad mini's internals are 2nd generation too. For example, it runs the same processor and has the same screen resolution. I think the large number of iPad mini's in the refurb store could well mean that an upgraded model is on its way.

The dual-core A5 chip powers both the iPad mini and iPad 2. The mini desperately needs an updated CPU to cope with the latest apps. I've noticed that some apps, games in particular, can be quite slow to start up on the iPad 2, and presumably the iPad mini is the same as it has the same specs. Apple has to upgrade it soon and I mean in the next couple of months. The chip in the iPad 4, a dual-core A6X with quad core graphics is just so much better.

Check out the Apple UK Refurb Store and the Apple US Refurb Store.

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The difference between Surface, Nexus 7 and iPad

The number of stories about Microsoft's Surface are growing and most of them have a similar theme - how poorly it has performed. Why have so few people bought the Surface when clearly tablets are really hot sellers right now. Just look at iPad sales and Android tablets like the Google Nexus 7 are doing pretty good too.

It is all down to the way that Microsoft sees tablets:

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On the left is the iPad mini and on the right is the Google Nexus 7. Notice that they are hand held devices that are designed to do fun stuff.

This is how Microsoft sees tablets. It is a Surface RT and both Microsoft's advertising and reviews have highlighted the keyboard. This is not a tablet!

Screen + keyboard + Windows = Laptop Computer.

Microsoft isn't competing with other tablets. It isn't even in the same market. What it is selling is an ultra-light laptop computer with a removable touch screen. Microsoft clearly sees the Surface as a computer and not a tablet and that's where it is going wrong. It's too big, it runs a desktop OS and it has a keyboard. None of which people want in a tablet.

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Protect your Kindle Fire from unauthorised purchases

Hardly a week goes by without there being a story in the news where a child has racked up a bill of £1,000 on a tablet or smartphone that has been given to them. In-app-purchases are often the cause of the bill and it is possible under some circumstances to hand a device to child after downloading an app and the password is remembered, so when the child goes to the store and buys lots of upgrades for their game, they are all simply added to the bill and there is nothing to stop them buying whatever they want.

If you have a Kindle Fire HD and you set it up with the default settings, no passwords are required to download from the app store. It basically assumes that the tablet is being used by a responsible adult. To prevent children from accessing things they shouldn't, like expensive apps and other content in the store, you need to configure the parental controls.

Even if you don't have children, you might be the unlucky victim of a burglar or pick-pocket and have the Kindle Fire HD stolen. You don't want the thief to have full access to the device and be able to purchase anything they like.

Swipe down from the top edge of the screen and tap the More button in the top right corner. Press Parental Controls and select the On setting. You will need to think up and enter a password. This prevents anyone but you from getting into Parental Controls after you have changed them.

 

There are a number of settings and several apps and features can be blocked. Everyone's different, but my preference is to unblock or turn off everything except for Password-Protect Purchases. Turn this on and the device will always ask for a password before you can buy or download anything from Amazon. That includes apps and other items, even if they are free,. Which password? The one you entered when setting up Parental Controls.

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