Complete Guide to Extend & Improve Battery Life of Samsung Galaxy S2 Android Device

Samsung Galaxy S II is currently one of the best smartphone in the market which stand tall above most of the other competitor brand like Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia and it is believed to be on-par-with or better than Apple’s latest Phone 4S. Since it was last launch back in the June, Samsung Galaxy S2 has sold more than 10 million units worldwide and it is crown as one of the best Android smartphone to date. In term of the international recognition, Samsung’s GT-I9100 model has even won the title as “Phone of The Year’ by annual T3 award.

So everything seem to be perfect huh for Samsung Galaxy S II? Not really folks, one of the major complaint of Samsung Galaxy S2 is that the battery drain off too quickly. Yes, indeed Samsung Galaxy SII does has a bad battery life. I am experiencing the same problem too as I just got my brand new Samsung Galaxy S2 on last Thurs and one thing I did notice, the battery will get discharge too quickly when I using the device. And it has triggered me to do a lot of research on how I can possibly improve the battery life of my Samsung Galaxy S II.

Basically in this post, I will share with you all the research and study I have found so far that will be able to improve and extend the battery life of your Samsung device greatly. Checkout all the tweaks and hacks below on how to increase Samsung Galaxy S2 battery life.

Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100/ I9100G Hidden Tips ,Tricks and Secret Dialer Codes ~ How-to

So how far have you learned about your Samsung Galaxy S II I9100/ I9100G? Do you know that you can actually perform a lot of stunts for your SG2 by simply pinching an icon, swiping on the contact and access your phone’s detail and debugging mode by keying a special number in your phone dialer? You know some of it but not all of it? Nevermind, today we at 10Division going to unveil all the hidden tricks and tips for your Galaxy S II or Android device. Ready? Here we go…

WARNING:  THIS POST IS FOR RESEARCH AND LEISURE READING ONLY. YOU SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DONE TO YOUR SMARTPHONE! THE AUTHOR OF THIS BLOG WILL NOT BE LIABLE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY TO THE LOST OR DAMAGE OF YOUR SMARTPHONE.

Samsung Galaxy S II I9100/ I9100G  Tips and Tricks

Home Screen Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. Pinch the Home screen to reveal thumbnails of your screens.
2. Click on the Dots on the Home screen to go to the respective screen.
3. Press and hold a Dot to turn it in to a slide bar and fast scroll between screens.
4. Press and Slide your finger left or right on top notification bar to adjust your screen brightness.
5. Long Press on empty screen to add widgets/ wallpapers etc.

Contacts Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. Left swipe on contact to message and right swipe to call.
2. On the right hand side click on alphabets to jump to corresponding contact.

Camera Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. If you open the camera app and long press just above the settings button ( menu > Edit Shortcut ) you can add two more settings of your choice besides the camera/video and flash shortcuts.
2. Just click anywhere on the screen to focus.

Screenshot Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. Hold the Home Button + Power Button and you will be able to get the instant Screenshot of your phone.

Home Button Tips for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. Hold and press long Home button to bring up Task Manager.
2. Double Tap Home Button to bring up Voice Commands and other options

Change Default Font Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. You can change your phone’s fonts, including default text on websites and apps by go through the following steps

Settings > Display > Screen Display > Font Style menu

Arrange Apps Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. You can rearrange all the folders and apps in your menu by go through

Menu > Edit

Keyboard Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. Swipe left or right on the keyboard to go to other characters/numbers quickly.
2. Settings on keyboard  gives you options of different keypad types including Handwriting.

Calendar Tips & Tricks for Samsung Galaxy S II

1. Pinch once in calendar App to display all the months of the year.

Samsung Galaxy S II I9100/ I9100G  Secret Dialer Codes

Show 102550100 entries

Search: 

No	Code	Function
1	#*#8377466#	S/W Version & H/W Version.
2	#*0227#	GPRS Switch.
3	#*0277#	GPRS Switch.
4	#*2027#	GPRS Switch.
5	#*2077#	GPRS Switch.
6	#*2252#	Current CAL.
7	#*2255#	Call Failed.
8	#*2256#	Calibration info? (For CMD set DEBUGAUTONOMY in cihard.opt)
9	#*22671#	AMR REC START.
10	#*22672#	Stop AMR REC. (File name: /a/multimedia/ sounds/voice list/ENGMODE.amr)

Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100) – Shortcuts & Tips

Tips and stuff you won’t find in the manual, collected from the xda-developers forum, personal experimentation and other sources. Please use only tips you understand – if you don’t know what a factory reset means, you do not want to find out :)

Explanation

• “Pinch” means using 2 fingers to zoom in our out (Google this if you don’t know the word :)
• The buttons are depicted here:
  

User interface

• Scrolling:
  - Use two fingers to scroll until fingers are released.
  - Use three fingers to scroll fast until top/bottom.
• Phone wake up: Via home or power.
• Hold menu: Quick access Android search.
• Dobule click home: Quick access voice commands.
• Screenshot: Press home and power simultaneously. Screenshots are saved in/sdcard/ScreenCapture/

Home screen

• Multiple home screens: Touch the dots to switch directly to a screen or hold and drag left/right to scroll very fast.
• Changing shortcuts at the bottom: Click „Applications“ (bottom right), then menu, click „Edit“: Now change the three (left) icons via drag & drop. Afterwards click menu and choose „Save..“.
• Quick brightness change: Hold the notification bar (on the top) and drag left/right to modify brightness (if not set to auto).
• Pinch home screen to view all home screens and add/delete them.
• Pinch application screen to view all application screens and reoder them.
• Set background image for lock screen: When changing your desktop background image, there are two buttons, choose the right one (smaller area) and save. Now you‘ll be asked to use this image for the lockscreen too.

Android Apps

• E-Mail: Pinch in the overview list to fold/unfold by date.
• E-Mail: Click longer on a date (either the sent date or a date in the email text): Create a new calendar event for this date.
• Contacts: Drag left over a contact to send SMS, drag right to call
• Keypad: Use the letters on number keys to type a name, the triangle on the right shows how many matching contacts are found, clicking on it reveals them.
• Camera: Change shortcut buttons by clicking menu, “Edit”, then modify shortcut buttons via drag&drop.
• Camera: Pinch to zoom in/out.
• Browser: Pinch to view all tabs/windows.
• Browser: Go to “about:debug” via address bar. Now you have additional options when pressing the menu (at the bottom)
• Browser: Go to “about:useragent” via address bar. Now you can modify the user agent string.
• Video player: Drag left/right to Fast forward/Rewind
• Video player: Power locks/unlocks the screen
• Calendar: Pinch in month view to get an overview, swipe left/right to change the year.
• Easter egg from Google: Go to preferences, about phone, click some times on “Android Version” (try multiple times)

Forum link: Feature discoveries – xda-developers

Factory reset (Everything is deleted!)

Via these three ways:

• Turn phone off, press and hold: Volume Up + Home + Power. Use volume keys to navigate up/down, home key to execute.
• Via dialer: Enter *2767*3855#
• Menu: Settings > Privacy > Factory data reset.

Codes (enter via Keypad, the ones below work for me)

*#0*# LCD Screen test
*#06# Show IMEI Number
*#2222# HW Version
*#1234# Phone info
*#34971539# Camera Firmware
*#9900# Sysdump (Logfiles etc.)
*#0228# Battery diagnostics
*#7284# Phone utility
*#7353# Function testing
*#9090# Service Mode
*#*#197328640#*#* Service Mode Menu
*2767*3855# Factory Reset (not tested.. :)

Phone 4 Tips: 10 Things New Users Should Know

Please do take note that we are not going to discuss what’s new in iOS4 (operating system) as it has been pretty much covered elsewhere. This article is basically- what you can expect with the new iPhone 4.

1. Update All Your Applications

First things first, check for application updates. If you have lot of applications installed in your previous iPhone 3G or 3GS, chances are they will need to be updated again so that they can take advantages of the new iOS4 features and iPhone 4 capabilities. So before you start trying out your existing applications on iPhone 4, take a moment to check if they need to be updated.

2. Where’s Facetime?

This is probably one of the first thing you’d like to explore on new iPhone 4, but where’s the Facetime app?Facetime is actually not an application, in fact, it’s an option available (for now) only when you make a call via WiFi to another iPhone 4 user.

Facetime is turn off by default. To turn it on, go to Settings → Phone and turn Facetime on. Carrier activation might be required. Learn more about Facetime.

3. You’ll Need A New Wallpaper

With retina display, everything on iPhone 4 looks amazingly vibrant and high quality. The screen supports up to 960×640 pixels at 326ppi, approximately 4 times higher than the resolution in a iPhone 3Gs. In another words, it makes your current wallpaper looks weak and you’ll need to look for a higher resolution wallpapers :-)

4. Try IMovie For IPhone 4

iMovie for iPhone4 is a light version of iMovie for Mac and it’s awesome. It allows you to edit and share your recorded videos on the fly. And did we mention all videos recording with iPhone 4 are in high definition (HD)?

iMovie for iPhone 4 cost $4.99.

5. Tap To Focus Object – Video

Even the smartest gadget can use a some human touch. While video recording, you can tap on different objects on the screen to have iPhone focus on them.

6. View Widescreen While Recording

If you swap from camera mode to video mode, you’ll notice that the objects are actually getting closer. That is because video recording is done in wide screen mode. To display in wide screen while recording – double tab the screen.

7. Search Web, Wikipedia On The Fly

By swiping right on the home screen, you’ll activate Spotlight. Type in something and scroll all the way to the bottom and you’ll noticed two additional search options have been added, respectively the "Search web" and "Search wikipedia". Both search uses Safari browser.

8. Mirror, Self-Shot

iPhone 4 comes with an additional front camera. By clicking on the camera icon on the top right, the front camera is activated instead of the back. We thought this could be useful for those who want to use their iPhone as a mirror, or perhaps, it makes taking self-shots easier too!

9. The IPhone 4 Reception Problem

This is the question most people are most concerned about. To be fair, yes signal bars do dropped when gripped – they call it the Death Grip.

However, signal drop only happens in areas where receptions are weak, so it very much depends a lot on your service provider. The problem is mild, don’t get too worried about it.

10. Yellow Splotches On The Screen

Some users are reporting that they have been noticing yellow patches on the iPhone 4 screen. According tomacintouch, this is just a small temporarily problem as these yellow splotches are nothing but some bonding agents for the glass that will evaporate as the device is exposed to the air. You can relax now.