Android Magazine 58 - 2015 UK

Hacker Zøne

BoththenewNexusphoneshaveUSB-C

portsinsteadofmicroUSB.Thisissetto

become the new industry-wide standard,

but until we’ve upgraded all of our devices

it’sgoingtobealittleinconvenient.

Especially as the Nexus 5X only ships with a

USB-C to USB-C cable. Fortunately, cables can

bepickedupcheaplyfromeBay,ascantips

that will make your existing microUSB cable

compatible.Youcansafelyuseanycable,but

will need to use the plug supplied with your

NexusifyouwanttomakeuseoftheQuick

Chargefeatureinthedevices.Trickle

chargingviaalaptopisalsomuchslower.

When you connect your Nexus to your PC

via a USB-C cable, it will default to charging. Pull

down the notification shade and tap USB for

Charging to enable it to be read by your PC.

ConnecttoaPC

The Manual Camera app is best for

shooting RAW images on a Nexus phone. Grab the

app from the Play store then double press your

phone’s power button to set it as your default.

Manual Camera

Tap the Settings icon and hit the JPEG

button to shoot in both JPEG and RAW – this saves

a sharable image plus a high-quality one. You can

edit RAW images in Snapseed.

ShootinRAW

To connect to the PC tap File transfers –

you’ll need the Android File Transfer app. With

Power supply mode you can charge another device

and PTP makes the phone function as a camera.

Understand modes

USB-C

Disable and remove

bloatware from your

Nexus device

Nexus phones have far less bloatware

than devices from other well-known

manufacturers, but they still come with

plenty of Google apps installed.

Some Google apps can now be

uninstalled without root, such as Google+, Keep,

Newsstand and the News and weather app. Go

to Settings>Apps, tap each one and hit Uninstall.

1 Uninstall select apps

Key apps like Calendar or Chrome can’t

be uninstalled, but can be disabled. Find them in

Settings>Apps and hit Disable. This will uninstall

updates and hide the app from the system.

2 Disable System apps

Download System App Remover if you

have root and want to remove apps you can’t

normally touch. This is useful on LG and Samsung

phones, where apps can be moved to the SD card.

3 Uninstall fixtures

Make sure you’re fully compatible

with the new Nexus connector

Marshmallow phones can shoot photos

in R AW, but you need apps in order to

capture and edit them


^6


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(^8) The
quickest way to
speed up an Android
phone is to shorten the
animation speeds in
Developer options. Reduce
Window Animation Scale,
Transition Animation Scale and
Animator Duration Scale to
.5x and your phone will
be much snappier.
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