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Hello and welcome to the ultimate quick hints and tips guide to the Nexus 7 2013 edition.
If this video you'll find 50 tips, these are all listed in the description of the video.
If you want to learn a lot more about many of these tips check my one hour Nexus 7 guide
that goes through many of these tips in a lot more detail.
Anyway, let the tips commence!
To place an application on a homescreen: go to the application drawer using the middle
button in your dock. Then long press on the application until the background switches
to your homescreen. Then drag the icon to the position you want and let go.
To remove an application from a homescreen: long press on an icon to pick it up and drag
it to the top of the screen marked remove.
To uninstall an application completely from your device: go to the application drawer,
long press to pick up the application and then drag it to the top left of the screen
marked uninstall. This will prompt you with the option to confirm or cancel the action.
To create a folder of icons on your homescreen: long press on an icon to pick it up and then
drag it over another icon, if you let go this will automatically create a folder. You can
then drag more icons into the folder in the same fashion.
If you open the folder and tap on the name you can rename it.
To change the appearance of the folder: open the folder and rearrange the icons. The first
three will be used as stacked images when your folder is closed.
To remove a folder: drag it to the top of the screen as previously shown or pick up
each icon and drag it outside of the folder. If you continue to do this your folder will
automatically disassemble itself.
To show the task manager: press the right icon at the very bottom of your screen. This
will display a history of applications you have used in chronological order. You can
remove individual apps from this list by swiping them to the left or right of the screen. If
you tap on an app you will be taken to that application. Finally if you long press on
an app you can either remove it from the list or look at the application information.
From the top of the screen you can swipe down from the left hand side to display your notifications...
If you swipe down from the right side of the screen a series of quick-setting options will
be displayed.
Two of these settings have a double function. If you tap on either the wifi or bluetooth
buttons you will be taken to their respective settings screen. However, if you long press
either of them they will either toggle on or off depending on their current setting.
To take a screenshot of your tablet: you need to long press on the power button and the
volume down button at the same time for about a second, the screen will animate and make
a noise to indicate a screenshot has been taken.
When a screenshot is taken a notification will appear in your notification tray. You
can view a small snapshot of the picture by using a pinch gesture to expand or shrink
the notification. Other applications also use this feature such as this battery widget
that gives you a snapshot of your usage and estimated time remaining.
You can remove individual notifications by swiping them off the list or remove all your
notifications by tapping the stack icon in the top right of the notification tray.
To change individual sound settings on your tablet: go to settings and then choose 'Sound'.
The top option is 'Volumes' and if you press this you will be presented with three different
volume levels for general sound, notification sound and alarm sound levels.
To turn sound on or off when you type on the keyboard: go to settings, scroll down the
screen and then choose 'Language and Input'. On this screen you need to press the settings
icon next to Google keyboard. On this screen there is a 'Sound on Keyboard Press' checkbox.
Turn it on or off to suit your preferences.
To make a large Jellybean appear on screen: go to settings, scroll down to the bottom
of the list and press on 'About Tablet'. Now tap on the 'Android Version Number' several
times and a large jellybean will appear.
To make this jellybean transform into many tiny ones, long press on it. You can then
fling the jellybeans around the screen.
To enable developer options on your tablet: Go to settings and again choose the 'About
Tablet' option. This time you want to tap the 'Build Number' several times. You will
start to see a countdown and when you press 'Build Number' enough times the developer
mode will be unlocked. To access it, go back to the main settings screen, this will now
appear above 'About Tablet'.
You can't uninstall system applications, but you can disable them. To do this go to settings
and then choose 'Apps'. Swipe right-to-left twice to reach the all column. This will list
every application installed on your tablet including the system apps. If you press on
a system application you will have the option to disable it. Do proceed with caution however
as disabling system apps might cause the tablet to be unstable.
From the same list you can also disable notifications you receive from applications. To do this,
select the application from the list that you wish to disable notifications for and
uncheck the 'Show Notifications' option. Bear in mind however that you might be able to
do this from options within the application itself.
If you make several changes like this to your applications there is a master reset switch
and this can be found by pressing the settings button in the top right of the applications
list screen.
To enable on screen zooming on your tablet: go to settings and choose the 'Accessibility'
option. On this screen choose 'Magnification Gestures' and toggle the on button in the
top right of the screen. Now, if you triple tap and hold your finger on the screen you
will zoom in, lift your finger off the screen to automatically zoom out. For more control,
triple tap the screen to enable the zoom mode and then use two finger gestures to move and
zoom in or out of the screen. Triple tap again to turn off zoom.
To copy and paste text from one application to another: long press on a piece of text
to bring up two sliders that will highlight selected text. You can drag the two sliders
to select the text you want. Then press the copy button - note that it might be in different
places depending on which application you are using. Next, go to the application you
want to paste the text to, long press and then press the paste option - again this may
vary depending which application you are using.
To install applications that are not downloaded from the Googleplay store: go to settings
and then choose Security. Check the option marked 'Unknown sources'. This will allow
your tablet to open and install APK files.
To install and enable flash on you Nexus 7: do a Google search for 'Archived Flash player'
or use the link in the description to get to Adobe's Flash player download page. Scroll
down to the Android Flash players and download the most up to date version.
Once the download has finished swipe, down from the top of the screen and press on the
downloaded file to install. Note that to install Flash in this fashion you will need to have
unknown sources ticked in your security settings as previously illustrated.
Next, download an internet browser that supports Flash such as Boat Browser. Once you have
the browser installed, go to the settings and look for an option called page content
settings. There should be an option enable Flash plugins (or similar). Turn that on and
Flash should now work within that browser.
To install an application from a PC onto your tablet: go to the Googleplay website and log
into your account. Locate an application you want and click on install, you will then be
given the option to push the application to Android devices you own. Select the appropriate
device and within seconds the application should automatically download and install
itself onto the tablet.
To connect a Bluetooth device to the Nexus 7: ensure that the Bluetooth device is available
for scan, then on your Nexus 7 swipe down on the right portion of the screen and choose
Bluetooth. Turn Bluetooth on and press 'Scan for Devices'. Your Bluetooth device should
be detected. Press on it to pair the device with the Nexus 7. On some occasions you may
need to type in a passkey which is usually 0000 and do bear in mind that not all Bluetooth
devices will work on your tablet so test it and see what happens.
To connect USB devices you need a USB on the go or OTG cable. This cable has a micro usb
port to plug into the Nexus and a regular USB plug on the other end. These cables are
readily available from Amazon for couple of pounds or dollars. Again do bear in mind that
not all devices will work so it's a case of trial and error.
To plug the Nexus 7 into a computer: use the USB cable that came with tablet. When you
connect the tablet to a computer a notification will appear. If you press this option you
can choose to define the tablet as a camera so you only get access to pictures or as a
hard-drive so you can delete and transfer files.
You can transfer files like any other hard drive by simply dragging and dropping files
from one location to another.
In order to view and access these files on the Nexus 7 it is recommended that you download
a file browser such as ES File Explorer which is free from the Googleplay market. This will
allow you view the folder and file structure of the Nexus 7 and play files you have transferred
from your PC.
To change the default homescreen launcher: go to settings and then choose apps. You will
need to locate the current application that is you launcher. The original app is called
launcher but if you have downloaded a new launcher you may need to locate that application.
In this example Nova Launcher is set as my default so if I go to the application info
I can choose to 'clear defaults'. This means that when I next press the home button to
return to the homscreen I will be prompted with which launcher to use.
You can either select to use that launcher once or always. Once always is selected your
will need to clear the default again as demonstrated. Note that this technique can be used for all
sorts of defaults such as watching media, listening to music, reading books and working
on documents.
When looking at pictures through the gallery application you can change the style by pressing
the name of the album in the top left hand corner and choosing filmstrip or grid view.
To quickly delete any of these pictures simply fling the picture to the edge of the screen.
You can quickly undo this if you need to at the bottom of the screen.
To check for system updates for the tablet: go to the settings screen and scroll to the
bottom option marked 'About Tablet'. The top option here is 'System Updates' press on that
and the following screen will tell you whether the tablet is up to date. It automatically
does this check on a regular basis but you can manually check by pressing the check now
button.
To get a refund from an application you have purchased from the Googleplay store you can
press the refund button. Note that this is not available on all applications and you
have around 15 minutes to do this after purchase.
To turn Wifi off when you put the tablet to sleep: go to settings and choose Wifi, there
are three dots in the top right hand corner of the screen. Press that and then choose
advanced. On this screen there is an option called 'Keep Wi-Fi on During Sleep'. If you
press this you have three options. Note that if you turn this function off your tablet
will only receive notifications when you bring the tablet out of sleep mode.
To put a widget on your homescreen: go the to the application drawer and then choose
widgets in the top left hand corner of the screen. Scroll to the widget you want to add
and then long press. As you can see if I drag the widget around the screen, other icons
will shuffle around to make the widget fit. Once you place the widget in position you
might be asked to set it up. Once that's completed, you can, if you wish, long press to pick it
up and move it. Note that some widgets can be resized. If a border appears around a widget
you can pull the sides of it to make it larger and smaller.
If you download any files they will appear in your notification tray. Once they have
disappeared from the tray you can find them again by going to the application drawer and
pressing on downloads.
To put a message on your lockscreen: go to settings and then press on security. Next
press 'Owner info'. Tick the 'Show Owner info on Lock Screen' checkbox and then type in
your message. When you next press the power button to show the lockscreen you will see
you message right in the middle of the screen.
To prevent icons automatically being created when you install a new application: go to
the Googleplay store and press the three dots in the top right hand corner and press settings.
The option to toggle off here is 'Auto-Add Widgets'. Also note that your homescreen launcher
may override this function.
To turn off individual components of account synchronisation: go to settings and then select
an account such as your Google account. Then select a particular user. This screen will
list all the features that Google will sync with your device. It's defaulted to automatically
sync everything so you can uncheck individual areas here.
To completely disable all auto syncing on your device: go to settings and select data
usage. Press the three dots in the top right to bring up the options. One of these options
is to uncheck 'auto-sync data'.
To turn off the notification light: go to settings, then select display and finally
uncheck 'Pulse Notification Light'.
To add a lockscreen widget: bring up the lockscreen and then swipe the current widget from left
to right. Press the plus box and then add the widget you wish to use. Lockscreen widgets
are always displayed by swiping left-to-right to cycle through them.
To remove a lockscreen widget: long press on it to pick it up and drag it to the top
of the screen where the remove x is and let go.
To uninstall system application updates: go to settings and then choose apps. Swipe from
right-to-left twice and then scroll down the list to find a system application. In this
example I have chosen Google Chrome and if I press on this app I have the option to uninstall
the updates to this application to revert it back to its original state.
To prevent downloaded applications from automatically updating: go to the Googleplay store and press
the down arrow icon in the upper right of the screen. Select an application you have
download and then press on the three dots in the top right hand corner. You can uncheck
the 'Auto-update' option to prevent further automatic updates.
And finally, to do a cold boot of your Nexus 7: when the device is switched off, press
the power button and volume down button at the same time to reach this screen. This will
enable you to enter bootloader and recovery mode or start the tablet as normal. Use the
volume buttons to select the different options and the power button to select.
Thank you very much for watching. I hope you found this guide useful. Don't forget, if
you want a more detailed guide of these tips check out the full hour long video and if
you think this guide might useful to someone else please share. See you again soon.