How to Install a Custom ROM on your Android Phone using ROM Manager

Installing a custom ROM is a great way to get the most out of your Android phone, but you need to find the right custom ROM for your device. Once you’ve found a custom ROM that’s right for your needs. The next step is to install it on your Android device.

There are different ways to install a custom Rom on an Android phone, like flashing in recovery mode or using an app, but the easiest way is through an app called ‘ROM Manager’.

ROM Manager is a must have app for Android root users who regularly tinker with their device’s ROMs. The app lets you flash your recovery to the latest and greatest ClockworkMod recovery. Besides that, it will help you to manage and install your custom ROMs and backing-up your current ROM.

It has both free and premium versions. The paid premium version includes additional features like automatic backups, web connect and incremental ROM downloads.

How to Install a custom ROM using ROM Manager

1. First, download and install the ROM Manager app on your Android phone.
2. After installing, launch the app and from the main menu, tap on ‘Flash ClockworkMod Recovery’.

3. You’ll be asked to confirm your phone’s model. Select your phone’s model and your phone will reboot and flashing CWM.
4. Now, before you go installing any custom ROMs, I suggest you to back up your current ROM. To do that, tap on the ‘Backup Current ROM’.

5. Give the backup a name and then click OK.

6. You will be asked to allow ROM Manager superuser access, tap on ‘Allow’ to grant this. The backup process can take a little while, so make sure you aren’t expecting any important calls.
7. Once done, reopen ROM Manager and tap on ‘Install ROM from SD card’

8. Find the folder where you placed the .zip file in. A box should pop up with three options like the image shown below.

9. Tick the ‘Wipe Data and Cache’ and ‘Wipe Dalvik’ boxes, and then click OK. The phone will now reboot and start installing your custom ROM. This might take a little while, sometimes up to 15 minutes, so be patient and don’t panic if the device appears to have frozen.

Once the phone has booted up, you will be prompted to enter your Google account details. Congrats, you have successfully installed a new ROM and you now have a brand new ROM to explore!

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Turn Your Android Phone Into a Portable Scanner With CamScanner App

These days you can use your Android phone to do just about anything and scanning documents is no exception. With the phone’s built-in camera, you can easily scan any documents by photo shooting.

While taking a photo of your document may suffice for most, but it doesn’t offer OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capabilities which converts scanned paper documents, or images into editable and searchable data in accessible formats like PDF file. And therefore, you need the help of a third-party app which can scan an image into a PDF file.

One of the most popular mobile document scanning apps is Camscanner. It is a powerful android app that enables you to scan and digitize documents, images, and anything you want using your mobile phone camera. Simply take a picture of any paper documents, and the CamScanner can auto-crop image, enhance image quality and create a PDF file.

You can change the scan quality and brightness to export the best possible result. The scanned documents can be shared via Email, uploaded to Cloud, and printed via Internet. You can also manage them by tagging or searching.

CamScanner is available in Free and Paid version. The free version watermarks your scans and has advertising in the app. The paid version removes the watermarks and advertising.

There is also a tablet friendly version of this application, called CamScanner HD, which turns your Android tablet to a portable scanner. It supports tablet with Android version 3.x and higher.

Other CamScanner features:

• Advanced Document Editing
  Make annotations on documents with a full set of editing tools. Also adding customized watermarks are made available to mark your own documents.
• Collaborate on Documents
  Want to get feedback on your documents? Invite friends or colleagues to collaborate on documents. They can view, comment and exchange ideas on documents in groups.
• Secure Important Documents
  If you want to protect confidential contents, you can set passcode for viewing important documents; also, while sending document download link, you can set password to protect others from seeing it.
• Quick Search
  When you have plenty of documents, you can use Tags to categorize and easily find them. In addition, OCR for Search helps you find texts inside image and notes. Just enter one keyword, you can quickly find the document you want.
• Sync across Platforms
  Sign up to sync documents on the go. Just sign in with your smartphone, tablet or computer (visit CamScanner website), and you can view, edit and share any document.

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How to Password Protect Your New Google Play App to Prevent Unwanted Purchases

Google Play Store, or previously known as the Android Market, is the official app store for Android device that contains both free and paid applications. If you have linked up your credit card or Google Wallet to your Google play then you can easily purchase apps or in-app purchases within no time. But this might be a downside if your children gets hang of your phone and purchases any applications without your knowledge.

Fortunately, Google has a hidden setting to enable password protection and prevent accidental or unwanted purchases from the Google Play Store.

Previously, the app could only be set to require the password after a 30-minute window expired. But after being sued by a mother in New York whose child spent $65.95 in in-app purchases from an Android game without her permission, Google has pushed out an update to the Play Store that prompts for a password every time a purchase or in-app purchase is made.

So here is how to configure the new feature. Please note that you need to have Google Play Store version 4.6.16 or above for that. If you do not have it yet, you can update it by tapping the Build version in the app’s Settings.

• Open the Play Store app.
• Tap the Play Store icon -> Settings.

• Under “User controls” section, you’ll find the “require password for purchases” option which is set to 30 minutes by default.

• Tap on the option, and select “For all purchases through Google Play on this device”.
• Enter your password when prompted
• That’s it!
Now, whenever anyone tries to purchase an app, book or movie from your Google Play Store, they’ll need to enter this password. This also includes in-app purchases as well.

If you want to turn off password protection on your device, just follow the same steps above but this time choose ‘Never’ in the “require password for purchases” option.

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How to Track or Locate Your Lost Phone with Android Device Manager

Losing your smart phone can be a big problem. Phone these days is not only a mobile device that can be used for various tasks, but it is also used to store various types of information, such as contacts, messages, credit card numbers, passwords, and other valuable infos, and therefore, losing such an important device can be a real big problem.

If you’ve lost your Android phone, don’t panic because Google has released a new service called Android Device Manager which will help you to locate your phone even if you haven’t installed a tracking app before it was lost.

The best thing about it is that you don’t need to install an app to be able to track your devices. The only requirement is that your lost device is connected to your Google account, GPS services enabled and connected to the internet.

How to locate your lost phone using Android Device Manager

First, visit www.google.com/android/devicemanager on your computer web browser and log in with your Google account. You may get a prompt asking you for permission to allow Android Device Manager to use location data. Click on the “Accept” button to continue.

Then a map will pop up with some information about your device. If you already have a device with GPS/location services turned ON then it should automatically appear on the map otherwise it will report that the location is unavailable. So it is a good time to head into your device’s location settings and make sure your GPS services are enabled. GPS doesn’t drain your battery unless it’s actively being used, so it wouldn’t hurt to leave it on for good.

In addition to tracking your phone location, the Android Device Manager also allows you to ring a lost phone, remotely lock the device, and erase all your data.

Select the ‘Ring’ option, and your device rings at maximum volume, even if it’s set to vibrate or silent. This is particularly helpful if you’ve lost it somewhere in the house.

Clicking on ‘Lock’ option will bring up a dialogue box that lets you remotely create a new password for the lock screen while the ‘Erase’ allow you to wipe all data from your device and return it to factory settings.

If you are sure that you can’t get your phone back and you have sensitive information on it, then the Erase option function will come in handy. After you click Erase, a pop up will prompt you to confirm the action and tell you that the procedure will erase all of the data from your device and reset it. If you confirm the erase, the device erases itself and reboots. Once your device has been wiped, you will no longer be able to access it from Android Device Manager. Also keep in mind that a remote factory reset may not wipe external SD memory cards.

To be able to use the Lock and Erase functions, you’ll need to enable Android Device Manageron your Android device. (If your device is already missing, then it is too late). To activate it, go to the Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators. From there, check the checkbox next toAndroid Device Manager. You’ll be prompted with the following screen. Tap Activate, and you’re all set.

Android Device Manager won’t work for devices that are powered off, but actions you initiate while the device is turned off will be performed as soon as the device is back online.

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Two Simple Methods to Factory Reset Your Android Wear Watch

There are many different reasons why you might want to factory reset your Android Wearsmartwatch. For example, you might want to sell the watch and make sure all your personal data is removed from the device beforehand or just feeling like a fresh start or free up space. Whatever the reasons, you can easily restore your Android Wear watch to its out-of-box state. Here are two simple methods to perform a factory reset on an Android Wear device.

Please note that performing this action will erase all data stored on your smartwatch such as notifications and cards, fitness data, third-party apps, system settings and preferences. However, the smartphone counterpart will be unaffected. After the reset you’ll need to re-pair the watch with your smartphone again.

Method #1: Reset with Touch Display

1. Tap your watch’s screen to turn it on.
2. Tap again on the background and you’ll see a white screen with a red “G”.
3. Tap anywhere on the screen and a menu will show up
4. Scroll down until you see “Settings” option and tap on it.
5. Now, scroll down and select “Reset device.”
6. Confirm you want to reset your Android Wear watch by tapping the check icon.

After confirming the reset, the device will power off and perform a factory reset.

Method #2: Reset with Voice Commands

1. From the home screen, say “Ok Google”.
2. At next screen, say “Settings”.
3. Then scroll down until you see “Reset device” and tap on it.
4. Confirm your choice and wait for your Android wear to revert to factory settings.

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How to Play .VOB Video File On Android

VOB is a file extension that mostly found on DVD disks. A VOB extension can contain anything from audio and video to subtitle and menu information. Unfortunately, it is a kind of file format that are not supported by the default Android video player.

To be able to play .VOB files, you need to install a third-party video player, which can play various formats including .VOB format, in your Android device. One of the best Android video player apps to play .VOB file is Wondershare Player. Wondershare player is a free media player that lets you play video and audio files in all popular media file format like AVI, FLV, MKV, WMV, VOB, MOV, RM, RMVB, ASF, MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, M2TS, F4V, 3GP, and more.

It also supports subtitles embedded video files, such as .SSA, .SMI, .SRT, .SUB, .MPL, .PSB, and .TXT.

How to Play .VOB Video File on Android using Wondershare Player

1. Download and install Wondershare player app on your Android phone or tablet
2. Once installed, launch the app
3. On the Local menu, tap on the ‘three horizontal lines’ that are placed at the top left corner of the screen and then tap on ‘Gear’ icon to open the settings menu.

4. In the Settings menu, tap on ‘Decoding Mode’ option.

5. Now, you’ll see a number of file formats which are supported by Wondershare player. Find ‘VOB’ format and tap on it and then check the ‘Auto’ option. Done!

Now, Wondershare Player will start supporting .VOB video files in your Android phone and you can start playing the video file without any interruption.

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How to Use Whatsapp on PC Using Airdroid

WhatsApp is one of the best mobile messaging apps that allow you to chat with your friends and family for free. With this app, you can send text and voice messages, share pictures, audio notes, videos, location, and many more.

However, Whatsapp is only available for mobile platforms like Android, iOS, Windows phone, Symbian and Blackberry. Although WhatsApp has not been created for PCs, there are ways to run it on PC and use it.

If you’re looking for a great and easy way to run Whatsapp on your PC, then you should give Airdroid a try. Airdroid is free Android device manager app that allows you to transfer files between your Android phone and PC via WiFi. Apart from that, it also allows you to mirror your Android device to PC, which means you can interact with all the apps installed, including WhatsApp. Now let’s see how to use Whatsapp on PC using Airdroid.

1. Download and install AirDroid on your Android phone
2. Sign in into the app or Sign up with a new account.
3. Once you’ve signed in, the app will ask you to enable real time notifications on your PC. Tap on ‘Enable’ button.

4. Enable the Android Notification Mirror feature.

5. Now head over to the www.airdroid.com and download the respective Airdroid client for your Mac or Windows PC from the download links provided.
6. Install the application on your computer.

7. Sign in to your AirDroid account using the same username and password that you used to sign up on your Android phone.

That’s it! Now whenever you receive Whatsapp’s message on your Android phone, the same message will be also displayed on your PC in real time. Click on the message notification to reply.

Please note that you should have your Android phone and PC connected to the same network to get notifications.

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How to Easily Record Screen on Android Lollipop Device

The native screen recording was initially introduced on Android 4.4 KitKat but the functionality required either a rooted device with a Screen Recording app installed or a non-rooted device with some Android Debug Bridge (ADB) commands.

Luckily, on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the process is much, much easier, as the new OS version released with a new API that allows developers to build apps that can record screen without the need of root access or any ADB knowhow. Currently, there are few apps which have taken advantage of the new API and let’s users to record screen on their lollipop smartphones or tablets.

If you’re looking for a great screen recording app, then you should give AZ Screen Recorder a try. It’s by far one of the best app to record a video of your Android screen. The best part of this app is that it has no recording time limit and there’s no watermark or logo of the creator will be displayed on your videos. Moreover, it also allows you to pause and resume while recording.

After you install and launch the app, a small toolbar will appear in the middle of your screen. The toolbar contains four different controls like Recording, Settings, File Manager and Exit button.

When you start recording for the first time, a few prompts will explain how the recording feature works. You will always be able to access the recording panel in your notification bar. On the recording panel you can pause, stop, and start new recordings.

In the settings, you can enable touches to show up on the screen, enable or disable audio recording, set time limits for recording, as well as change the resolution and bitrate of video captured.

The output format will be MP4 file, and you can select the default folder where the file will be saved, although it will automatically appear in your gallery app.

The app is completely free to use, but as mentioned above, you need to have Android 5.0 Lollipop installed. If you have a prior version, your best bet is to root your Android device and install a screen recorder app called Shou.TV from Google play store.

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3 Best Apps to Automatically Backup Your Android Phone Photos & Videos

Your smartphone isn’t just a mini computer that fits in your pocket, it’s also a great device for capturing life’s best moments anywhere you go. We all love to capture photos in order to preserve the happy moments with our friends or families. However, once we capture a photo or video, most of us don’t think about backing them up. There are so many inevitable things that can happen to your phone, for example, your phone can get lost or stolen without any warning.

While you can buy a new phone afterwards, but you can’t get back all those beautiful memories that you had captured on your phone. This is why you should consider backing up the photos and videos on your smartphone.

When it comes to this, nothing is more convenient than taking a photo and have it automatically backed up to the cloud, so that you won’t lose them even if your phone gets lost or stolen. If you have an Android phone and don’t mind trusting your photos to the web, these three apps will do their part to make sure your memories are safe and sound.

Note: Before starting make sure that your phone is connected to an unlimited internet connection. If you are not on an unlimited data connection, the data transferred in auto backup will consume a lot of your data plan. So unless you have unlimited data on your device, I would not recommend using it.

1. Google+
   Google+ is by default installed on most of the Android smartphones. While you are setting up Google account with Android, you would asked several options like sync Google+ albums and syncing contacts etc. Generally on Google+, there would be Google Plus Auto Backup feature that is ON by default. It would backup your taken photos from your phone on your Google+ Account.
   Your stored photos and videos on Google+ would be in private place and would not be shared to anyone until you select to share it publicly. You will get 15GB of total free space that is shared between Gmail, Dive and Google+ photos.

2. Dropbox
   Dropbox is a cloud storage service which allows you to backup photos, videos & documents to access them from anywhere on your device. It often comes pre-installed on some Android devices. When you first launch the app, it gives you the option to automatically upload your photos & videos to your Dropbox account account as soon as you take them. You just need to turn ON “Camera Upload” feature during the initial setup on your Android phone. You can also turn ON “Camera Upload” feature from settings. It will create a private folder named ‘Camera Uploads’ on your Android phone for backed up photos & videos. This app offers 2GB of storage with a free account.

3. OneDrive
   OneDrive is another great cloud storage that allows you to backup photos & videos to access them from anywhere. You will find the same option to automatically backup your photos and videos that the Dropbox has. During the initial setup, OneDrive prompts you to turn ON automatic upload. Just turn ON the ‘Camera Backup’ and backup all your photos & videos to OneDrive account from your Android phone. Like Google Drive, you’ll get 15GB of space to store your photos and videos for free.

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The Easy Ways to Download Facebook Videos on Android

If you have an Android phone and an active user of Facebook, you must have wondered about the ways to download Facebook videos that appears on your timeline so that you can watch it over and over again without needing an internet connection.

Although, Facebook does not offer a direct link for you to download a video, but you candownload the Facebook videos on your Android phone using a third-party app calledMyVideoDownloader, which is available for free on Google play store.

MyVideoDownloader for Facebook is the leading app to download videos from your Facebook to your Android device. It is very easy to use. With MyVideoDownloader, you can download any kind of videos from Facebook. Videos like tagged, shared and uploaded by you or your friends can be downloaded using this app. It is also allows you to download videos from the pages and groups you liked.

How to Use MyVideoDownloader for Facebook

• Once installed, launch the app and log in to your Facebook account.
• Swipe in to the right to access the menu. In the menu, select ‘News Feed’ to search for the video you want to download.

• Once you have found a video you like, tap on the little tick icon beside the video you would like to download, and hit the download icon located on the top-right corner of the screen.

• Your downloaded video will be saved to you phone’s SD card by default, but you can choose to save videos to your phone SD card from the Setting’s menu.

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5 Easy Ways to Prevent Android Malware

Malware is a malicious software that is designed to damage or disrupt the system of your computer or mobile device. They include virus, spyware, Trojan horses and more. Once the malware enters the mobile phones, it can perform a variety of unwanted activities like stealing your important data or contact list, disrupt the operation of your phone, and even steal your money by making unwanted calls or sending SMS messages.

Among the mobile phones malware attacks, Android is the most targeted mobile operating system by malware developers and hackers. Fortunately, there are several steps that you can take to prevent the malware from infiltrating your Android device.

1. Don’t install and download apps from unknown sources unless you are sure it is safe
   Many apps from unknown sources contain malware that once installed can steal information and cause harm to your device. So never download and install apps from outside of Google play and Amazon App store for Android unless you’re sure that the site is safe for download.
2. Check the reviews and ratings of the app by other users
   Before downloading an app, read the reviews from other users as people will give a negative review and low rating if the app contains malware.
3. Understand app permissions before accepting them
   Permissions are a key to any mobile application. These permissions are crucial to the overall security of your system. If any of the permissions seem a little odd, such as a wallpaper app wanting to make phone calls or send SMS messages, then it’s best to not install the app.
4. Install an Antivirus app on your device
   Make sure that you have an antivirus app installed on your Android device. The tools can detect potential phishing websites, provides information about the kind of permissions other apps are requesting, and have anti-loss tool that can help to locate your lost or stolen device.
5. Don’t root the device
   Rooting an Android device does has some advantages. However, this break the security model and allowing all apps, including malicious app, to access the data owned by other applications.

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