Overclocking & Underclocking, Full Screen Movies, Closed Captions and Volume Boosts

Overclocking and underclocking

If you have rooted your phone or tablet you can overclock it to improve performance and underclock it to increase battery life. Experiment with which settings work for you, but don’t push things too far or performance will be hit.

Grab an app

Search for ‘Overclock’ on Google Play to find a suitable app. We are using No-frills CPU Control to demonstrate how clocking works – make sure you accept any permission requests before you continue.

Set your speed

Tap the ‘Max. clock freq.’ option and then choose the maximum allowable speed. The app is designed to not let it be overpowered which may cause damage. Do the same for the minimum speed.

Meet the governor

The Governor option lets you quickly change the profiles of the maximum and minimum speeds with just one tap. These are useful when trying to undertake specific tasks, but your mileage may vary.

This clip is also providing useful information on how to overclock/ underclock Android devices

Watch full screen movies

You can change the way movies are displayed on a mobile screen by tapping the small icon in the top-right hand corner when playing a movie. It will show widescreen by default, which highlights blank bars above and below the screen, but a quick tap will fi ll the screen and hide the edges. Different movies will suit different settings so find which is most comfortable for you, and your device, and try to stick with it.

Closed captions

The closed captions can be displayed during a movie by tapping the ‘CC’ icon in the bottom-left hand corner. A dialog will pop up which lets you choose the language and whether you want them on or off, but the display may not always be suitable for you if you are watching on a small screen. Tap the menu button and then select the ‘Caption font size’ option. Here you can change the captions from small to huge with one further tap. It’s a simple setup procedure and perfect for those of us that struggle with our eyesights.

Boost your device’s volume

Not all Android devices come with external speakers that make the most of the audio components inside. This is tricky to resolve because it is a hardware limitation, but there are apps that can help to get around the problem. Volume+, available from Google Play, is a good example and is known to work with the Galaxy Nexus, which does not have the best speaker in the world. It won’t solve the problem completely, but does provide a welcome boost in terms of the general speaker volume.

Instagram everywhere

The latest versions of the stock Android camera let you add various special effects to all of your photos as soon as you have snapped them. When you are in the default Gallery app, select one of your photos and the tap the three circles at the bottom of the screen. You will now be presented with a selection of varied effects to apply and one tap will do all of the work for you. Once complete, you can select the photo again and share it on any social network you care for. It’s like the popular Instagram service without using the actual app.