How to Speed up your Mobile Computer

Your smartphone is a computer, and what’s more - it’s a more powerful computer than the desktop machine you were using ten years ago. And that, in turn, was more powerful than the supercomputers of the late 80s - huge machines designed to run the stock exchange and co-ordinate military networks. You now have that all that power in your pocket.

Just like any other computer, your smartphone starts its life operating at tip top speed, uncluttered and clean. But, as you use it, your home screen fills with icons, your contacts book gets crammed and apps fight for every scrap of available memory they can get. Inevitably, over time, it slows down.

Regular check-ups

It becomes harder to find things among all the mess and occasionally it may freeze or crash. It’s easy to blame a security problem for your smartphone woes, but often other things may be causing the problem.

Your smartphone needs to be looked after - just like a desktop computer - to make sure it continues to work as well as the day you first switched it on.

So here is an easy fix to try; you don’t leave a desktop computer running all the time. The reason why? The longer a computer is running, the more errors in memory pile up, including threads running in the background and cached processes left by apps that have failed to properly clean-up after themselves. So try rebooting your phone as this can give a temporary speed boost. Do this by simply switching it off and then on again.

Firmware and Operating System Upgrades

The next thing to be aware of are updates to the phone’s operating system.  Don’t be tempted to ignore them. Aside from security concerns, updates patch the bugs that slow your phone down and help to ensure compatibility with all your programs. To minimise hassle, always update your phone manually. A good time is in the evening right before bed, while the handset is charging. That way you’re less likely to be interrupted by a call - or have the device run out of power.

If you’re an Android phone owner Norton Mobile Utilities has several tune-up features that are handy too.  The Performance Monitor enables you to pinpoint which apps use up the most memory, CPU cycles and network resources.

That includes apps that boot up at start up. Once you identify the culprits, you can decide whether or not you really need them.

Performance Monitor

You can use the Performance Monitor feature in tandem with the tool’s Task Ender to stop apps that don’t need to be running, freeing up resources for your phone’s other functions. Although you can stop apps individually with the Android settings screen, Norton Mobile Utilities enables you to shut down multiple apps at once.

As for those apps that clutter up your phone’s memory, the App Manager feature gives you the power to remove unnecessary data from Android’s cache and uninstall apps to free up storage. Again, you can target one app at a time or remove a batch of programs.

Try these tips and you should be able to get your phone running at fresh-out-of-the-box speeds all over again.