Here are 25 pro tips for getting the most out of the new features of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and its operating system, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Let’s get right into it!

Editor’s note: This post was originally written late last year, but for unforeseen reasons wasn’t published on schedule. As such, excuse any youthful exuberance for the then freshly released Ice Cream Sandwich.

Set a data usage cap

One of the coolest additions of Ice Cream Sandwich are the new built-in data usage features. The Data Usage app, which you’ll find near the top of the settings menu, will allow you to see how much data you’ve used so far this month, as well as setting an optional mobile data limit that will prevent you from incurring overcharges on data-limited contracts or pay-as-you-go deals. As well as showing you overall data use, there’s also a list showing how much data each app has used and a graph that shows expected data usage.

Find backgrounds

With your new HD phone, you’ll want some nice and crisp HD wallpapers to go along with it. While the Galaxy Nexus comes with a number of nice wallpapers (accessible via a long press on the home screen, then choose the Wallpaper option near the bottom), you can find new ones yourself.

Just head over to Google Image Search, and go to the search filters on the left hand side of the screen. Put in the phone’s native resolution (720 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall, and not the more standard 1280 x 720) and a search term – if you’re looking for a wide range, try putting in a generic term like ‘wallpaper’ or ‘720’.

You could also try looking on sites like wallbase.cc which specialise in wallpapers. Again, select the custom 720 x 1080 resolution or look for the ‘portrait’ aspect ratio option.

Take screenshots

Taking screenshots in Ice Cream Sandwich is much easier than in previous iterations of the OS – just hold down the volume down and lock screen buttons simultaneously for about a second. Your current window will be saved as an image and put into the screenshot folder as you see the nice animation above. It’ll also appear as a notification, so you can easily get to the newly taken image.

Swipe to shut down running apps

Ice Cream Sandwich’s multi-tasking is great. One of the coolest features is how easy it it to close a background task – just bring up the tasks menu with the dedicated button on the bottom right of the screen, then swipe across (both left to right and right to left work in portrait, while it’s up and down in landscape) to ask the task to close. It’s useful to note that the apps aren’t force-closed, so it’s quite possible for them to still be running in the background.

Quick access to settings menu from notifications

A quick way of gaining access to the settings menu is (almost) hidden in the notifications menu. See that icon just to the right of the date (December 7, 2011)? That’s a quick link to the settings menu – very useful!

Try out a new lock screen

If you’d like to try out the new face unlock system in Ice Cream Sandwich, or indeed any of the other options (including the traditional slide, pattern, PIN and password) then just head over to the Security option in the Settings menu. Then, choose screen lock to see the available options.

In addition to the ones listed below there’s a none option, which instantly returns you to the screen that you were on. As the screen can’t be manipulated without a finger coming into contact with it, this should be safe even when your phone’s in your pocket.

Quick Response to incoming calls

You’ll notice that when you receive an incoming call, you’ve got a new option available to you. As well as sliding left to reject and right to accept, you can also slide up to reject the call and send a text message to the caller. It’s a jolly useful system, and you can also customise the responses available.

Save webpages for reading later

If you’re offline a lot on your phone (e.g. you’re traveling through areas with no cell service or you’ve turned off mobile data), then this can be a godsend. Just navigate to the page that you want to read later and select ‘save for offline reading’ from the menu. Later, you can access that page without a connection – dead useful.

Go incognito

Incognito mode for mobiles might make a little less sense than for desktop users (as typically mobiles are shared less), but private browsing is still occasionally useful.  Just click the tabs button near the top of the screen, then go to the three dots for additional options. One of them is ‘New incognito tab’, which will ensure that your browsing isn’t tracked – at least by your phone.

View Desktop Versions of websites

Frustrated by redirections to mobile sites that were obviously built for old school mobiles with tiny resolutions? In the new Ice Cream Sandwich browser, you can tick a box to request the desktop version of any site that has one, which works by spoofing your browser’s user agent identification. This means the site thinks you’re visiting from a desktop version of Chrome, and gives you the full experience. This feature was hidden in Gingerbread, requiring you to type about:useragent into the title bar then select an option in the popup that appeared, so this implementation is definitely a lot more convenient.

Pinch to zoom in calendar

One of the cooler features in the new calendar mode is the inclusion of pinch-to-zoom. This was present in some manufacturer’s distributions of Gingerbread, but is new to stock Ice Cream Sandwich. Using pinch to zoom, you can really stretch out the hours for a detailed look at your appointments if they’re coming fast and furious, or pinch it together to get a grasp on the whole day.

Do video group chats in hangout

The most requested feature of Google Plus has finally been added – video hangouts. While you still can’t launch a hangout from your mobile from the Google+ itself, you can at least join into and be invited to hangouts that are already in progress, or launch a hangout from the Messenger app.

Equalise your music in the music player

Another addition that was made by many OEMs in their custom builds of Gingerbread has made it into the stock kernel of Ice Cream Sandwich – audio equalisation. The controls, which are pretty standard for their utility, work well enough and provide a degree of control over your aural experience. There are several presets available as well as the custom mix. To get here, go to ‘Now playing’, then ‘Sound effects’.

Use voice recognition to dictate messages

In the voice-control wars, Google have struck a powerful blow with the new microphone technology present in ICS. The new ‘open-microphone’ feature allows instant feedback on your dictation, meaning you won’t get to the end of a long rant before you realise that the first half was completely misunderstood. It’s also easier to add punctuation, as you can specifically say “comma” to add a comma, instead of having the phone guess where you would like it. Other punctuation works similarly well, and while it sounds odd out loud it makes a lot of sense for dictation.

Panorama mode

A cool addition to the camera is panorama mode. This mode, which was rumoured to be in iOS but is yet untapped, allows you to move your phone from left to right to capture a wider vista. The mode isn’t perfect, given the Galaxy Nexus’ imprecise camera, but should be golden for later models with more impressive hardware.

Access camera settings

Camera settings are partially hidden away on Ice Cream Sandwich, at least compared to its predecessor Gingerbread. The settings are revealed by tapping on a settings button on the lower left hand side of the camera window, and allow you to change the white balance, exposure and scene.

There are also options to lower the picture size (by default, the biggest the sensor will support) and save GPS information with each picture taken.

While custom camera apps will undoubtedly include more features, as will later phones with better hardware, this is a good start.

Camera from lock screen

In another move that mirrors the iPhone 4S, you can access the camera from the lock screen in Ice Cream Sandwich. Just move the slider to the left instead of to the right, and you’ll soon find yourself in the camera application.

This pairs well with the instant shutter feature of the camera, meaning that the time from having your phone in your pocket to a picture being taken is much smaller than it was in previous incarnations of Android.

Disable apps

One of the most annoying things about many manufacturer’s custom Android builds were the unremovable branded apps. While some of these were genuinely useful, many were wastes of space that couldn’t be removed or hidden. Now you’re able to disable apps that you don’t want, preventing them from being run if not completely obliterating them. It’s unknown if carriers will allow this control to remain in their custom versions, but it’s a good sign that it’s included in the first place.

Access the Nyan Cat Android easter egg

Everyone’s favourite internet feline has made a cameo appearance in Ice Cream Sandwich. Using the now well-known trick, just go to the ‘About Your Phone’ section in the settings menu. If you tap continually on the Android version label, you’ll soon see the beginnings of a Nyan Cat-style animation. Long press on the centre, and soon Nyan-Droid will begin flying through space in the typical fashion.

Change screen animations, transition animations

A good way to make your phone act and feel faster is to turn off the screen and transition animations. Whilst these look cool and are great for showing off your delicious Ice Cream Sandwich, they can cost you a bit of time and leave the phone feeling a wee bit sluggish.

If you go into the development options menu of the settings, you can choose a multiplier of the animation speed, anywhere from 10x as slow to zero. Without the animations and transitions enabled, the phone does feel that extra bit speedier, so it’s up to you to decide if the lowered swish is worth it.

Change your launcher

Of course, custom launchers make a reappearance in Android 4.0. Launcher Pro is a good choice for Galaxy Nexus users, as it allows many more apps to be shown on screen at once, a worthwhile investment given the phone’s HD screen. Other launchers, including Go Launcher EX, are also available, although none are quite as nice-looking as the default Ice Cream Sandwich launcher at present.

Stay awake

Another interesting development option in ICS is the ability to keep your phone awake whilst its charging. This means that the screen will only dim instead of turning off, allowing you to check the screen without needing to unlock first. This can be a real time-saver, particularly if you’ve got your phone on your desk and you need to refer to it often.

Install new firmware

The source code for Ice Cream Sandwich has only been available for a few weeks, but already enterprising XDA developers have begun creating their own builds. One, called MoDaCo Custom ROM, includes a number of bug fixes and feature enhancements to the stock OS — the chocolate alternative to vanilla Android. Other popular distros, like Cyanogen Mod, are coming as well.

Create app folders

In Gingerbread, creating app folders was a bit flaky. Now things have improved significantly, with the plain manila folders being replaced with transparent globules that show off the first three apps inside them. This gives a bit of character to each one, and means that it’s much easier to tell them apart at a glance.

Upgrade your notification menu

By installing the Beautiful Widgets package, you’ll find you can add the current weather conditions to your notification screen. The temperature will be displayed at the top left of the screen, and if you can scroll down you can see the weather report as well. Very useful stuff!

Thanks for reading — if you’ve found this useful, why not leave a comment below?

With the release of our popular Sandisk 64 GB MicroSD card (also known as MicroSDXC), we thought we’d share precisely how you can get this to work in your Android phone — we’ve tested it as working in the Samsung Galaxy S2, but it should work in others as well. Let’s get started.

1. Un-mount your current microSD card. You can do this by going to Settings > Storage > SD Card.
2. Remove your case, then the back cover of the phone.
3. Carefully remove your existing microSD card, sliding it out of the microSD card slot. If your microSD card slot isn’t visible, it may be underneath the battery.
4. Insert the new 64 GB MicroSDXC card into the slot, and replace the back cover and your case.
5. Now, you’ll need to format the SD card so that the phone can read it. Go to Settings > Storage > Format. Accept the message that you’ll lose all data on the card, and let the format proceed.
6. You should now see that you have just under 60 GB of available space on your SD card. This is normal — you never get the full size of the card, thanks to indexing, directories and other reserved space. Congrats, you’ve successfully installed the new microSDXC card!

What will you do with all that space — perhaps watch HD films? Download loads of games? Or just copy over your entire music collection? Whatever the reason, you’re sure to find that the Sandisk 64 GB MicroSDXC card will give you unparalleled storage space for your Android smartphone.

Found this helpful? Let us know by writing to us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+!

1. Use Contacts Quick Shortcuts

If you’re on the contacts menu, you can use a few quick shortcuts to speed things up.

• If you drag along a contact to the left, you’ll send them a text.
• If you drag along a contact to the right, you’ll place a call to them.
• If you hold down on a contact, you’ll be a given a context menu that allows you many options.

2. Use The Hidden Brightness Shader

If your phone isn’t set to automatic brightness, you can adjust the brightness from any screen. Just hold your finger on the notification bar at the top of the screen for a few moments. After a while, the notification bar will return from whence it came, and then you can swipe left or right to adjust the brightness.

3. Activate Test Mode

If you’d like to check your phone for dead pixels, make sure the touch screen works, or test out the cameras, you can access test mode.

To do so, just enter #0*# into the phone dialer.

4. View Desktop Version Sites

Have you ever gone to a website, only to find that you’re forced into using a ‘mobile’ version that hides or obfuscates the content you’re interested in? You’ve got a quick processor, a big screen and Flash support, so most websites should work just fine, if you could actually get them to be displayed.

This is where the UserAgent tweak comes in. Your browser’s User Agent is an identifying string that tells the website what browser and platform is trying to access the site. To see the full desktop version of a website, you can just change the UserAgent to pretend that you’re running a desktop browser.

If you type about:useragent into the URL bar, then a window will come up asking you which browser you’d like to pretend to be. There’s options for the Galaxy S, which is the default option, as well as the iPhone, the Desktop, and other options. You’re even able to write in your own custom string, if you know what you’re doing.

5. Rearrange Your App Drawers

One useful feature that isn’t immediately obvious is the ability to ‘zoom out’ and see each of the seven app drawers at once. To do so, just do an outward pinch (if you’ve got a Galaxy S2 pouch, take it off first).

6. Take a Screenshot

If you’d like to take a screenshot (for example, if you’re illustrating a guide of the top 10 SGS2 tips and tricks) then you can do so easily.

Just hold down the Home button, then press the Power button once. You’ll hear a shutter sound effect, and your current screen will be saved as an image.

The screenshots will be saved in the ‘ScreenCapture’ folder, visible in the Gallery app.

Once there, you can share the screenshot via email, Bluetooth, Dropbox or whatever else is convenient.

7. Choose Smaller Font Sizes

One issue I had with the Samsung Galaxy S2 was that so little fits onscreen. Text-heavy applications like email, messaging and the web were the worst culprits; if you wanted to read the whole text message you just received to respond to it whilst you have the keyboard up, you had to keep scrolling around your tiny viewport to get it all in.

If you’ve got good eyesight or corrected-to-good eyesight, then you’ll be able to easily read a much smaller font. In the Messaging, Gmail and Internet apps, just select the smallest font size available in the settings menu (which is accessed by pressing Menu ->  - ‘Tiny’ in the Messaging and Gmail apps and Default Size as ‘Far’ in the Internet app.

As you can see, these changes make quite a difference, and thanks to the sizeable S2 screen reading remains easy.

8. Upgrade the Keyboard Software

The default software keyboard is rubbish, particularly if like me you’re coming from the delightful iPhone keyboard. The vital comma button is hidden on the second page of characters and the space bar is tiny. Worst of all, the auto-correction software is woefully inadequate, bursting into view and vanishing again after each word, failing to spot obvious capitalisation mistakes and missing apostrophes.

It’s time to upgrade that software to something of a higher standard: Smart Keyboard Pro.

Smart Keyboard Pro replaces the existing software keyboard with one that offers a much more clever autocorrect function, easier to hit keys, and markedly better customisability. The feature that I needed was putting that comma key on the front page. Another excellent one is holding down on a key to instead select its alternate (including numbers and punctuation), meaning you don’t have to go digging into the second menu to find what you need.

You can also install your own skins (with hundreds available) and choose any of more than 50 language layouts. This app is available in the Android market for just £1.76; there’s also a trial version that nags you occasionally but is otherwise fully featured, so at least give that a go. This is probably the one change that made the most different to the whole user experience of the SGS2.

9. Access a Google Easter Egg

Go to Settings -> About This Phone.

Then tap ‘Android Version’ about five times. It’s a bit hit or miss, but eventually you’ll get this screen:

Aww.

10: Get an Animated Nyan Cat

As this is the modification that gets the most attention on my phone, I thought I’d include it here as a kind of bonus tip.

It’s possible to get animated backgrounds with Android 2. I have a fondness for internet memes, so I went with the always-popular Nyan Cat, a rainbow exuding pastry-based feline.

The app is called Nyan Cat Extreme Live and is available for free off the Android Marketplace.

As well as the animation, which shows the cat flying through space, lasers are shot from the cat’s eyes wherever you touch the screen.

There are quite a few options available, although thankfully the music that usually accompanies the meme is not included.

There are other great animated backgrounds available as well, but I’ll save these for a possible future post.

Conclusion

If you’ve got your own tips and tricks for the Samsung Galaxy S2, why not let us know? If it’s a good tip, we’ll be sure to feature it in an upcoming blog post. I’m also your go-to resource for any Samsung Galaxy SII accessories, including how to pick the best Samsung Galaxy S2 case. You can get a hold of me via Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus at the links below. Of course, you can always leave a comment here on the blog too!

• Reach us on our Facebook page at Love Your Mobile
• Talk to us on the Mobile Fun Twitter
• Reach me personally on Google Plus

I’ve just updated that article with a new product I’ve found, which is perhaps the most comprehensive and elegant package I’ve yet seen. The new addition is reprinted here for your convenience:

A Universal Solution: One Accessory to Rule Them All

Some accessories, instead of choosing one method of doing things and accept the tradeoffs that come with it, you can simply bundle as many options as you can into a single piece. Usually this turns into a rather cumbersome, multi-fangled monstrosity, but sometimes an unusually elegant design results. One instance of this is the Tunelink Auto from New Potato Technologies, which presents many of the same features as the TrailBlazer covered earlier but in a much neater package.

The idea of the TuneLink is to provide all of the options you’d want for an in-car connection with the absolute minimum of physical bulk. The TuneLink’s small chassis has a USB socket, 3.5mm stereo jack and plugs into the auxiliary power point. Instead of relying on physical controls, which necessitate plugging in your transmitter where you can reach it, the TuneLink instead opts for a wholly app-based approach, where you can select the FM transmission channel and access other controls through your phone itself after connecting over Bluetooth.

This means that the entire assembly can be left safely in a glove box or other niche area, oft-times next to the auxiliary power point and auxiliary stereo input. This elegant placement keeps the car clutter free, and built in features like automatic pairing whenever you turn on the engine mean you can keep it there indefinitely, instead of constantly having to plug and re-plug.

The TuneLink also features some other nice features, like a USB socket for charging and RDS capabilities so that the song title can show up on your car’s display. Of all the solutions listed, the TuneLink provides the most features in the most elegant package, making it a good choice particularly if you have a hidden-away auxiliary power supply.

Read More, Or Write Us Back!

Here’s the product page, with more information on TuneLink. If you’d like to read more on this topic, please have a look at the rest of the article.

• TuneLink Auto BlueTooth Transmitter for Android
• How To Stream Music From Your Phone To Your Car

If you have any questions or would like advice, please feel free to send me a message via the usual channels. Thanks for reading!

• Reach us on our Facebook page at Love Your Mobile
• Talk to us on the Mobile Fun Twitter
• Reach me personally on Google Plus

If you keep most of your music on your phone these days, you might have given up on trying to get that music playing on your car’s speakers. There’s no ‘smartphone slot’ you can just slide your music into like you could a CD or cassette. With the right accessories though, playing your smartphone’s music on your car stereo can become just as easy.

We’ll have a look at the different options available, including some that you may already have.

Bluetooth Streaming: Convenient, Requires Bluetooth-capable Car Stereo

Probably the nicest solution is that of Bluetooth streaming. Originally designed for hands-free calling, car stereo manufacturers quickly included music streaming too. With this solution, you just need to have a car stereo with Bluetooth connectivity.

Once you’ve paired your phone and the stereo, you can typically use the stereo’s controls (including those integrated into the steering wheel, if available) to control your phone’s music player and accept or reject incoming calls. Any music you play or calls that you accept will be streamed over the car’s speakers.

Parrot ASTEROID Bluetooth Car Stereo and Hands-free Kit

This is one of the easiest methods, but does require that you have a fairly expensive Bluetooth-capable car stereo. One problem is that Bluetooth streaming will take up addition juice, so it’s best to invest in a mobile phone charger.

In many cases, you can achieve much of the same results using much cheaper accessories, which we’ll expand upon in later sections.

iPod Integration: Stream and Charge Your iPhone or iPod

Another easy win if you have it installed, iPod integration is now found in many vehicles sold in Western markets. While you do have to pay extra for the privilege, if you’re a proud iPhone or iPod user, it makes a lot of sense.

Apple iPod in a Mercedes

The system works similarly to Bluetooth, but instead of pairing wirelessly you’ll just plug your iPhone into the provided 30 pin connector, the same connection as your charging and synching cable at home. As with Bluetooth, your music will now play through the car’s speakers. This type of system also commonly charges the iPhone as well, meaning you won’t need a dedicated iPhone 4 charger.

Auxiliary Input: Universal Device Compatibility, No Control

Auxiliary input is the third and final type of car stereo integration, where you just plug a 3.5mm stereo cable (as used by most digital speakers) into your phone at one end, and into the car stereo at the other. You can see what the ‘aux’ input looks like on a typical car stereo:

If you've got a little AUX port like this, you can plug in your phone!

The auxiliary input option has a few advantages: firstly, it’s often the cheapest option; even inexpensive car stereos will have this option.  Another point in its favour is compatibility; anything that produces sound through a 3.5mm stereo jack will work. This includes MP3 players of all types, iPods, iPhones, Android phones, BlackBerries, and Windows phones — all except the most budget models will include a 3.5mm port. Plugging it in is simply a case of getting a double-ended 3.5mm cable, then plugging one end into the phone and the other into the auxiliary input.

3.5mm to 3.5mm Audio Cable

One problem with auxiliary input is that you don’t gain the ability to control your music via the car’s controls. It can be quite dangerous to reach for an iPod on the seat while driving, so avoid that wherever possible. Instead, put your music on shuffle, enlist your passenger to serve as ‘iPod commander’, or invest in a mobile phone car holder.

FM Transmitter: Listen to Your Music on the Radio

The trusty FM transmitter is the first of our methods that don’t require a recent or after-market car stereo. The FM adaptor is a small box that you charge with your car’s lighter socket, which comes with a 3.5mm stereo plug for your phone. Some models also use Apple’s proprietary 30 pin dock connector. Once everything’s plugged in and turned on, the box will transmit on a FM channel which you can pick up using your car’s FM radio. Good adapters can also include a phone charger, either via Apple’s dock connector or over USB.

KitPerfect In Car FM Transmitter For iPod And iPhone

If you use this method, it’s important to make sure that the channel you’re transmitting on is empty; if it is close to other local stations then they will interfere. Most modern FM transmitters will allow you a choice of FM frequencies for this reason, so test each one until you find one that’s free of interference.

One downside to the FM transmitter is that the transmission isn’t perfect; you will find that you will receive better or worse quality based on where the FM transmitter is located in your car; again experimentation is the key to success here. Another is that even at the best possible transmission, you are limited to a fairly low quality signal; approximately equivalent to 48kbps in digital music. This compares unfavourably to the Bluetooth and auxiliary input methods, which typically stream as high as necessary for the source files.

Tape Adapter: Old Reliable

Tape adapters are for the most part relegated to use in older vehicles, but I thought I’d include them for the sake of completeness. Essentially, they are dummy cassette tapes with a 3.5mm stereo cable attached, which comes out of the cassette slot and into your phone.

Cassette Tape Adapter

While these adapters boast none of the complications of FM adapters, fewer vehicles still have cassette players in the first place. Another down side is the audio quality, which isn’t ideal (as you might expect for something transmitted via magnetic tape.)

Still, the tape adapter is often the solution which works best for older vehicles, and certainly deserves a mention for technological ingenuity.

Crossover Methods: A Good Compromise

In addition to the methods listed above, there are crossovers. For example, take the TrailBlazer Bluetooth Car Kit & FM Transmitter. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth, then transmits the resulting signal over FM to your car’s stereo.

TrailBlazer Bluetooth Car Kit & FM Transmitter

This hybrid method has a few benefits, namely that you can control the phone using the transmitter itself, instead of having to change songs using the phone’s touchscreen. Another advantage is that it offers a USB port for charging your phone.

A Universal Solution: One Accessory to Rule Them All

Some accessories, instead of choosing one method of doing things and accept the tradeoffs that come with it, you can simply bundle as many options as you can into a single piece. Usually this turns into a rather cumbersome, multi-fangled monstrosity, but sometimes an unusually elegant design results. One instance of this is the Tunelink Auto from New Potato Technologies, which presents many of the same features as the TrailBlazer covered earlier but in a much neater package.

TuneLink Auto Bluetooth FM Transmitter for Android

The idea of the TuneLink is to provide all of the options you’d want for an in-car connection with the absolute minimum of physical bulk. The TuneLink’s small chassis has a USB socket, 3.5mm stereo jack and plugs into the auxiliary power point. Instead of relying on physical controls, which necessitate plugging in your transmitter where you can reach it, the TuneLink instead opts for a wholly app-based approach, where you can select the FM transmission channel and access other controls through your phone itself after connecting over Bluetooth.

This means that the entire assembly can be left safely in a glove box or other niche area, oft-times next to the auxiliary power point and auxiliary stereo input. This elegant placement keeps the car clutter free, and built in features like automatic pairing whenever you turn on the engine mean you can keep it there indefinitely, instead of constantly having to plug and re-plug.

The TuneLink also features some other nice features, like a USB socket for charging and RDS capabilities so that the song title can show up on your car’s display. Of all the solutions listed, the TuneLink provides the most features in the most elegant package, making it a good choice particularly if you have a hidden-away auxiliary power supply.

Rejecting the Premise: Install Your Own Speaker

You might find that installing your own small speaker works just as well, if not better than your car’s built in speakers.

Enter Bluetooth in-car speakerphones like the Jabra Freeway that support A2DP streaming. These speakers are fitted to be slung under your sun visor, and deliver streamed music (as well as podcasts, GPS directions and calls) without needing to be connected with your car’s speaker system.

Jabra Freeway Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone

This is an excellent option if you want a very simple solution, particularly if your car’s speakers aren’t that great anyway.

Conclusion

So if you’re looking to stream music from your phone to your car, there are quite a few options available. Here’s the short version:

1. Check to see if your car stereo supports Bluetooth, auxiliary input or a direct iPod/iPhone connection.
2. If it doesn’t, what else do you have available? If you have a working radio, an FM transmitter is a good option. If you have a cassette player, then a cassette adapter works well.
3. If you’d prefer a higher quality solution, then you will need to replace your car stereo or install your own Bluetooth speakers, depending on how much time and money you’re willing to invest.

Leave a comment!

So that’s it, I think. I realise it’s a fairly complex topic, so I hope that this article has proved elucidating. If you have any questions or would like advice, please feel free to send me a message via the usual channels. Thanks for reading!

• Reach us on our Facebook page at Love Your Mobile
• Talk to us on the Mobile Fun Twitter
• Reach me personally on Google Plus

The high cost of a top-end smartphone, whether paid up front or spread out over a 24 month contract, is causing many smartphone owners to turn to insurance to protect their investment. After all, it makes sense to spend a small amount of money to obviate a large amount of risk, right?

Well, sometimes. Even if you believe in the value of insurance it’s difficult to figure out which of the myriad plans available is the best for you. While you can have a look at insurance comparison websites, these can often be overly reductive and ignore many viable options.

In this article, we’ll examine the possibilities and help you figure out the option that works best for you.

No Insurance: No Monthly Cost, No Protection

It’s entirely possible that you can get by without phone insurance. If you’ve never lost or damaged a phone in years of owning one, you’ve purchased a good case for your phone, and you don’t travel into areas with high crime, then you might not need insurance at all.

This is especially true for pay-as-you-go customers, as losing your phone can only result in your remaining credit being used; it is impossible for further fraudulent charges to be applied.

For contract customers, this possibility can be one of the strongest reasons that you should invest in insurance of this kind; to make sure that hundreds of pounds of further charges can’t be accrued. If you do lose your phone and you don’t have insurance, contact your mobile operator immediately to prevent fraudulent use. You’ll still have to pay out the rest of your contract, but at least you can get your SIM card replaced fairly inexpensively (if not for free) to use in an old phone.

If you have lost phones before, even from accidental damage or theft, then you may be at greater risk for losing your phone in the future. In this case, you’ll probably want to examine one of the other options presented below. The same is true if you’re a contract customer, as you’ll want to avoid potential fraudulent use if someone finds or steals your phone.

Self Insurance: As Much Protection As You Put In

An unusual half-way house between no insurance and insurance is so-called “self insurance.” In this case, you can voluntarily put some money each month into a high interest savings account.

This self-imposed financial backup will allow you to ensure you can afford to buy a new phone if your original is lost or damaged, although of course you won’t be actually paying any more or less than if you had no insurance at all. If you don’t need to ‘claim’, then you can simply transfer the money and the interest back into your primary account.

To determine how much you should set aside each month, have a look at the replacement costs, typically the cost of the phone. If you’re close to the end of your contract, it’s possible to negotiate a new phone by signing a new deal.

Home Contents Insurance: A Risky, Low Cost Option You Might Already Have

A tempting insurance option is to cover your mobile phone using your existing home contents insurance. Your mobile phone may already be covered, so if you have home contents insurance you should check to see if this is the case. If your smartphone isn’t covered by your policy, then you may be able to add it by paying an additional premium, increasing the total price by perhaps £25 per year.

This sounds like a pretty good deal, but there is one major drawback: If you do lose your phone and claim it on insurance, then you lose your no-claims discount for the entire account. This means that you will likely lose more than the claim is worth on future rate increases, making this a tenuous option.

Another problem is that the cost of the phone may not be entirely covered, as you will likely have to pay an excess. Hopefully this will be a small amount (less than £30) but higher amounts are quite possible. It’s also likely that you will not be able to have your phone replaced as quickly as more specialised services, which we will cover later. Finally, your phone might be replaced, or you might have its cash value returned — but beware, this can be the retail price, market price, or price of network replacement.

Packaged Bank Accounts: A Low Cost Alternative You Might Already Have

Another type of insurance that you may already have comes from your packaged bank account. Usually this mobile phone protection is one the major selling points of a packaged bank account, but it’s worth checking your current account just to make sure – you don’t want to be paying for mobile phone insurance twice.

Otherwise, packaged bank accounts can be a good option, but it’s always important to read the small print and make sure the excess is not excessive and the terms are favourable.

Mobile Provider Insurance: Well Suited, But Can Be Expensive

Another popular insurance option is to receive insurance from your mobile provider themselves. All of the major operators (T-Mobile, Orange, O2, Vodafone and 3) offer insurance, so have a look at your network provider’s offerings on their official website.

If you’re on one of the many virtual operators, it’s more of a mixed bag – giffgaff and Tesco Mobile both use O2′s networks, but giffgaff don’t offer insurance.

If your provider does offer insurance, then it can often be a fairly good deal, and you can be assured that the replacement that you receive will work well on their networks. These deals often have good replacement time frames as well, typically offering replacement with 24 to 48 hours.

Still, there can be better options available – as with any insurance policy, calculate the excess and the monthly price to figure out how much you would save by replacing your phone after a year of payments. Also, be sure that you register the phone properly, giving serial and IMEI numbers where appropriate – you really don’t want to find out later that you didn’t get around to it.

Stand-Alone Insurance: Competitive Prices, Customised Protection

The final and usually most competitive option is that of specialised mobile phone insurance. This insurance is typically quite good value, offering extra coverage such as worldwide theft, breakdown, liquid and accidental damage.

The amount you pay each month can depend on the phone that you own, so if you have a particularly expensive or cheap phone then it can be advantageous to spend some time shopping around to get the best policy; expensive phones can be covered under cover-all rates, where as cheaper phones could be best insured on sites that base the monthly cost on the model of the phone. Generally the iPhone can be the most expensive phone to get insured, so you’ll want to find an insurer that doesn’t force you to pay an extra premium.

Another benefit of stand-alone insurance is that you can typically add additional mobile phones to the same plan relatively inexpensively, making getting your entire family insured quite convenient.

Overall, this can be the best option if you’re not already covered by your bank or mobile operator.

Conclusion (TL; DR)

There are quite a few insurance options available, but hopefully this article will have gone some way towards simplifying the matter at hand. The key advice is this:

1. Don’t get insurance if you don’t need it — if you don’t lose phones as a rule, then you’ll probably spend more money on insurance than you would on replacing your phone.
2. If you do need it, first check to see if you’re already covered by your bank or home contents insurance.
3. If you’re not covered, stand-alone insurance can often be a great starting point, usually offering low prices and the most comprehensive coverage. Another good alternative is coverage from your mobile provider.
4. Finally, always shop around and read the fine print — there’s a lot more to insurance than money in, money out — check to make sure that the excesses are reasonable and everything you need is covered.

What Do You Think?

I hope this was a useful article. If you’ve found a particularly good deal or would like share your experiences with mobile insurance, please feel free to let us know!

• Reach us on our Facebook page at Love Your Mobile
• Talk to us on the Mobile Fun Twitter
• Reach me personally on Google Plus
• Leave a comment in the box below

This led me to start a quest for workarounds that would let me enjoy a beautiful smartphone experience without any painful ‘Battery Empty’ notifications. Here are the fruits of that quest – wisdom to keep your smartphone juiced up.

1. Keep your cool phone cool

Never leave your phone is direct sunlight or near a heat source. Heat is the number one culprit when it comes to dying batteries.

2. Firmware Updates

Though the tip is universal it holds particularly for Symbian devices. Symbian firmware updates usually have battery performance as it’s number one priority – probably because there’s nothing much to work with that OS.

3. Love GPS modules

Get yourself a bluetooth GPS module like the Motorola MotoNav SIRF 3 gps module. Bluetooth only sips through battery power and when you use an external Bluetooth GPS module for lengthy navigation you actually shift a lot of processing strain from the phone to the module, thus making huge savings on battery life.

4. Get an alternative power source charger

You could go for a mobile phone car charger if you’re someone who carpools or have your own car. Otherwise you could go for a Nexus Battery Pack or a Solar charger depending on your lifestyle. The Nexus battery pack comes with a whopping 2 Amperes of storage cased in a slick black case. I recommend it.

5. Go hands-free

Again there may be nay-sayers who target the Bluetooth wasting power. But I have personally achieved much better uptime for my phone using a Bluetooth headset than without. Moreover, since you’re already using the technology for your GPS module you might as well make the most of it. Make sure to shop for good BT headsets as some are more power efficient than others. My personal favorite is the Sony Ericsson MW600 – it features the ability to pair with 3 devices at a time giving you a lot of flexibility if you’re a gadget freak like me.

6. Power User?

If you’re a power user who makes the most of everything that your phone offers, or if you’re a Nokia N900 user, then I’d suggest installing a battery monitor that tracks your power usage to specific apps so that you can use only the more efficient ones.

7. Transfer data through the USB

Most modern smartphones support charging through USB cables. If you need to transfer files to your computer use the the USB instead of WiFi or Bluetooth. Not only will the transfer be faster but you’ll gain charge instead of losing it.

The first decision you have to make is whether to go with a contract or a pay-as-you-go option.

The contract will typically allow you to have a much lower upfront cost (as low as the first monthly bill) and you’re also sure to enjoy slightly better value for things like minutes, texts and internet allowances, although it’s likely that at some point you won’t use up all of your allowance, or go over it. Most mobile phone contracts are 18 or 24 months, meaning that you will have to keep your phone (and your plan) for quite some time, giving you less freedom in the long term. Finally, contracts are the most expensive over the long term.

The pay-as-you-go option has a very high upfront cost, as you’ll typically have to purchase the phone outright (or at a small discount) from your mobile provider. Once you’ve got the phone, you’ll be paying less each month (as you only need to buy as much credit as you use), but you’ll be receiving slightly worse value for money: £30 spent on a month of contract will usually get you a lot more than £30 spent on minutes, texts and internet individually. There are some good deals that nullify this, to some degree. The big advantage of the pay-as-you-go option is that you have much more freedom. You get to choose precisely how to spend your money, whether on minutes, texts or internet allowance, to suit your own usage patterns. You can even pay to have your phone unlocked and then switch providers.

It’s also possible to take a 12 month contract. These middle-of-the-road deals offer a lower (but still significant) upfront cost but a higher monthly rate. The advantage of the 12 month contract is the cost is spread out more evenly across the year, and you’re free to upgrade your phone or switch to a cheaper contract after a year, which seems a much more reasonable amount of time than two.

Now that we’ve laid out the trade-offs, let’s have a look at some specific deals for the Samsung Galaxy S2, starting with the contract deals. We’ll look at the best contract deals currently available for each price point, then move onto how to check for the latest deals using comparison websites, and what to look for.

Best Contract Deals

Here are some of the best contract deals on a Samsung Galaxy S2 currently available. These deals are changing all the time, so if you’ve spotted a better one then please let us know in the comments section!

Best Deal for £20: Vodafone Your Plan MI

£20.50 / month, 24 months, handset costs £69.

This plan is the cheapest contract deal I’ve found for the Galaxy S2, as you’ll save £10 off the normal price each month for all 24 months of the contract. For just over £20 a month, you’ll get 300 minutes, 3000 texts, and 250 MB of internet allowance.

The allowances are low, but reasonable for someone that makes calls infrequently. If you spend much of your time in a home or office with wireless internet, 250 MB of mobile internet allowance should be fine, but you will have to monitor your usage.

You do have to pay for the handset, but still have upfront costs of under £90, which is pretty good considering the low monthly price. Overall, this is an incredibly attractive deal for value-oriented consumers.

Click here to view more details and buy this contract.

Best Deal for £25: Three Internet Texter 900

£26.00 / month, 24 months, handset is £19.99

This text-based plan is quite generous, with 900 minutes and 5000 texts in your monthly usage allowance.

You also get a great 1 GB data allowance, which should be more than enough for even the most avid smartphone enthusiasts. You’ll also get free Skype-to-Skype calls, free Windows Live Messenger usage, and free voicemail.

This deal seems fairly good, particularly if you’re a big user of Skype or Windows Live messenger (aka MSN).

Click here to view more details and buy this contract.

Best Deal for £30: Voda Essentials £31

£31.00 / month, 24 months, handset is £49.99

This Vodafone plan offers 1200 minutes and unlimited texts, but doesn’t mention mobile internet. This means that it’s likely to be the smallest common allowance, 250 MB.

Even so, this contract sports a fairly low up-front cost and good value.

Click here to view more details and buy this contract.

Best Deal for £35: Vodafone Your Plan MI

£36.00 / month, 12 months, handset costs £99.

This is a rare example of a decently priced 12 month contract, this time from Vodafone. You’re given a 500 MB data allowance, 300 minutes and 300 texts. Overage charges are quite high however, with calls beyond your allowance being charged at 35p a minute (compared with the more common 20p or 25p).

Still, this is a good opportunity to break free after 12 months, and provides a nice half-way house between a low up-front cost and the ability to make a fairly quick exit.

For reference, the 24 month variant of this plan costs £33.50 a month and includes 500 minutes instead of 300, as well as the standard free phone. Total cost for the 12 month plan is £531, the total cost of the 24 month plan is £804.

Click here to view more details and buy this contract.

Best Deal for £40: Orange Panther 45

£40.00 / month, 24 months, handset is free.

The plan will be more than enough for even the busiest talker*, with 1200 minutes (20 hours) of call credit and 3000 texts. This is definitely one of the most expensive plans available, but you do get quite a lot for it. Beyond the aforementioned minutes and texts, you also get a generous 1GB usage limit (more than enough for strictly mobile use, and doesn’t include email use) and free use of the answering phone.

This contract is definitely on the less desirable end of the value scale, and is included more for reference than actual use. It works out to being a whopping £960 over the 24 months, more than double the upfront cost of the phone itself.

Click here to view more details and buy this contract.

*If you’re really concerned this might not enough, you could try one of O2′s unlimited deals for £62 a month… and possibly some other hobbies!

How to Choose a Good Contract Deal

There are also quite a few useful contract comparison websites which you can use to look at deals from multiple networks and retailers. The two I’ve used are omio.com and phones4u.com, but others are available too.

BillMonitor.com is an excellent resource for choosing the right plan based on your actual usage habits; given your login details it can check your usage patterns and advise you as to which plan would give you the best value.

Finally, you can also apply the standard array of discounts and vouchers to get better deals or money back. One good site for this is QuidCo.com, which offers money back offers on a wide range of products, including smartphones like the Galaxy S2.

Using these resources, you now must judge each deal as its presented. It’s a good idea to write things down on a bit of paper (real or virtual) as you go along, so you can get a clearer idea of the various deals, as there will be different ones between comparison websites. Remember to ensure that your plan fits your usage habits, so don’t pay extra for a plan that has unlimited texts if you only use a few dozen a month. You’ll be stuck with your choice for up to two years, so take the time to find the best deal!

If you’ve found a particularly good deal for the Samsung Galaxy S2, why not share it with us by leaving the details in the comments below? If it’s a top deal, we’ll add it to the article!

Best Pay-As-You-Go Deals

Here are some of the best pay-as-you-go deals on a Samsung Galaxy S2 currently available. These deals are changing all the time, so if you’ve spotted a better one then please let us know in the comments section!

O2: £479.99

Three: £499.99

Vodafone: £509.90

Orange: £509.90

You can also buy a sim-free Samsung Galaxy S2, often for cheaper than locked to a given network. Once you’ve got your sim-free phone, you may want to check out the new and popular pay-as-you go operator GiffGaff. They offer surprisingly good deals, frequently with unlimited texts and internet allowances.

Conclusion

I hope this has been a useful article! Be sure to let us know if you’ve found any great deals in the comments section. You can also write to us on Facebook or Twitter.

There are a few ways to deal with this; you can ensure that you carry your HTC Desire S charger with you wherever you go, and invest in an HTC Desire S car charger, so that whenever there’s an electricity outlet or a car cigarette lighter nearby you know you’ll be able to top yourself up.  Or you can do what I did and pick up an emergency charger, which slips into your bag and is perfect for times like festivals when you know you won’t be able to access an electricity socket for a while.

Another option which will keep your phone running for longer on a daily basis is the Mugen HTC Desire S Extended Battery, which boasts 1800mAh of power – an extra 350mAh up on the 1450mAh contained in the standard HTC Desire S battery.  Although the Extended Battery is bigger in battery size, physically it’s exactly the same, so it fits into your handset perfectly and won’t add any extra weight or bulk.  That also means you won’t need to upgrade any cases or covers you use for your device; your current HTC Desire S cover will still fit fine.

Mugen HTC Desire S Extended Battery - 1800mAh

A variety of other HTC Desire S accessories are available on the main website.

There are a number of obvious benefits to taking out the iPad on contract, the main one being that you won’t have to hand over as much cash up front in order to get one, but the general feedback floating around the web is that the price plans are just too expensive compared to the Sim Only option.

I was quite surprised to find that when you sit down and do the maths that this isn’t always the case, and that in most cases, the contract option is the most cost effective way of running an iPad.

If you want to take a look at the table in full, you can download an excel version, where you’ll be able to tweak it depending on the deals that you find when you start shopping around for your next phone.

On the table below, the left section is for the iPad on a 2 year contract, the section on the right is for buying an iPad outright and using a Sim Only deal on a rolling 30 day contract over a 2 year period. iPad prices are based on Apple’s RRP, and are for the 3G + Wifi Version.

iPad Tariff Comparison

What about Mi-Fi?

Good question. For those of you that have looked into Mobile Broadband recently, you’ll have spotted that most networks now do a Mobile Broadband Dongle that creates a portable Wi-Fi network. These little gadgets are great as they allow you to use multiple devices on the same connection – including iPads. It would be unfair of me to not include this in the comparison for iPad as they do provide another way to run an iPad. Instead of buying the 3G enabled iPad, you can simply get the Wi-Fi only version and connect to the internet when you need to using your Mi-Fi dongle.

There are a few drawbacks to this, the main one being that data obviously won’t download in the background. This means no push notifications, no push email, no calendar sync and no online gaming unless you’ve got the dongle switched on and connected. For those of you who use your iPad a lot, this will be a big issue, but for casual users it’s worth considering.

WiFi Only iPad and Mi-Fi Dongle Comparison

I’ve added a chart to the spreadsheet that shows the total cost of ownership for an iPad + MiFi. O2 are the only network not to do them and are therefore missing from the chart. To keep things fair, all prices are based on running the contract over a 2 year period, the same as the iPad contract deals, however the actual contract term varies from 1 – 24 months.

How this works

Line Rental and Handset cost.

These two rows are all pretty straight forward. To keep this chart as fair as possible, these prices are all based on the current prices listed on the network websites and are correct as of today (6th Dec). You may be able to find discounted deals with independent retailers, but as the iPad is so popular, I wouldn’t expect to find many discounts.

Data Allowances.

Again, they’re fairly straight forward, but as some networks offer a number of different tariffs at the same price point I’ve opted for tariffs that give similar allowances.

The Off-Peak data offered by Orange and T-Mobile can only be used between midnight and 10am.

Data allowance is quoted in GB.

Effective Monthly Cost (EMC)

This is where it may start to get a bit confusing. The Effective Monthly Cost is the fairest way to compare how much each option will cost you each month. The Effective Monthly Cost is calculated by adding up the total cost of your line rental and the cost of the iPad and dividing it by the contract period. This makes it a little easier to compare deals that are over different time periods (ie 18/24m).

Unlike last week’s comparison, there are no discounts included from cashback sites or network discounts as I can’t find any as yet for the iPad, presumably due to it not needing any incentives to sell.

Value

It’s not always easy to look at a set of tariffs and work out which ones are good value for money, so that’s where this figure will help you. To determine the value figure I awarded points to each tariff for GB of data that you get. I then divided this number by the total cost of ownership (TCO) to get a value for money figure. To a certain extent, how this is calculated doesn’t matter too much as no matter how it’s calculated the result is the same. What is important though is that the lower this number is the better as it means you’re getting more for your money.

You’ll notice that the Value for Money figure on the contract iPad deals is a lot lower than that of the sim only deal. This means that you get less for your money by opting to go down the sim only route. In most cases you’ll get less data included each month, but having said that, you’re not tied in to a long contract and are free to stop using it at any point.

Green tariffs are good value for money, amber tariffs are ok, but nothing special, and red ones should be avoided at all costs!

So Which is the best deal?

There’s no definitive answer to this question, but what the chart should help you decide on is which networks are worth spending more time looking at and which ones to avoid.

Based on the information above though, the best deals that you can get on the iPad are with Three. They provide greater value for money as you get loads more data included, regardless of whether you opt for the contract or sim free option. Personally I’d suggest taking it out on a contract. Even though you’d be paying £10 a month more than you would for the sim only deal, the total cost of ownership over a 2 year period is £90 less than buying the same sized iPad outright and using a £15 iPad Sim only deal. (Based on the 16GB model).

Download and Experiment

If you understand all that and want to have a play with the spreadsheet yourself, feel free to download a copy of it in XLS format. There’s a bit less colour coding on it and you’ll notice that there are also a few extra rows in each table. I won’t go into detail on what these are on here, but you’ll find explanations on the first tab of the spreadsheet.

If you have any questions or want me to put one of these together for any other phones, let me know using the comments section below or message me on Twitter.