Speed up the Alexa app on Android – no more sluggishness

You know how it is: you open the Alexa app on your Android smartphone, click through the menus—and every “click” feels like it’s in slow motion. Whether you’re controlling smart home devices or looking for a simple setting, instead of a quick response, using the app becomes a test of patience.
I had exactly this problem. And the solution is as simple as it is curious.

The culprit: Contacts permission

In most cases, the cause of performance issues is not your smartphone or your internet connection, but rather an app permission. More specifically: access to your contacts.
In my case, the app apparently tried to scan through my 1,000+ contacts every time I changed pages. On a second smartphone with fewer contacts, it worked much faster. The fact is, as long as the permission was active, the app became a test of patience.

The solution: revoke authorization

Here’s how it works:

Open the settings on your Android […]

How to install Ubuntu on Samsung Galaxy S2

Android Ubuntu ScreenshotToday there is again an article on Android. More specifically, it’s about how you can run Android and Ubuntu (Linux) in parallel on your smartphone or tablet. Although I had already blogged about it before, but today I want to explain the whole setup process, step-by-step (using a slightly different method).
The title of this article is actually not quite correct, because we will not install Ubuntu, but setup some kind of a live system – so we get down to business.
I used my Galaxy S2 for the project. If it works with other smartphones, I could not test, but would be happy about comments on your part, if you tried it.
 
For our purposes we need the following things / conditions:

Android based device with root rights
Android Terminal Emulator (freely available on Google Playstore)
android-vnc-viewer (freely available on […]

Android DiskUsage – check your free space

What to do when the memory card or internal memory is full on you Android device? How to find the real nasty memory hogs? That’s what the following article is about.
A few days ago I was confronted with the fact that my memory card on my Galaxy S2 was full. Unfortunately, I could not imagine what would consume so much memory, yet I was willing to to clear something up on a venture.
So there had to be an app. As always, I prefered a free one. And here it is – Disk Usage – my find of the day.
With DiskUsage you can visualize which folder uses how much memory. So you get a quick overview of where the real “memory hogs” are.
After starting the app, you must first select which storage medium has to be analyzed. You have the choice between the internal (device) memory and/the SD card(s).

How to stream your pictures and videos to any browser from your Android device

Now that’s success! I have just tested the vscreens app for Android and am really excited. But first things first.
vscreens is a free app from Sony Mobile Communications. But kindly runs on any device with Android (version 2.1 or newer needed) and not only on the Sony devices. With vscreens images and videos can be quickly streamed from your smartphone, simply and wireless, to any device that has a browser and an internet connection.
For this purpose, you have just to surf to www.vscreens.com, open the vscreens app on your Android device and scan the QR code on the target device. Then you select those pictures and videos from your smartphone you want to stream and they’ll appear directly on the target device. If the target device and smartphone are in the same Wifi network that’s going to be really fast. (But it will also work with your mobile internet connection.)
Those […]

How to play N64 games on Android

n64oid (1)Are you one of those people who used to (or still do) spend hours, sitting in front of a game console? I for one was never the hardcore gamer and have only owned one console, but I loved my N64.
When I moved, I found some of my old N64 games and felt the need to once again play Super Mario World. Unfortunately it stayed with the discovery of the games. My N64 itself is gone without a trace.
Then last week I stumbled “accidentally” on a N64 emulator for Android. It’s called n64oid and is apparently a bit longer on the market. But to me it passed so far.
Anyway, I got spend the $4.99 and have thrown me n64oid on my Samsung Galaxy S2. And what can I say? I’m excited!
Although it runs not all of the roms I […]