Phone Medics

If you’ve spent much time as a smartphone owner, you know the feeling of using up your cell phone plan’s monthly data allowance before the month is over. It’s especially frustrating if you aren’t even sure exactly how it happened. Fortunately, at Phone Medics Plus, we’ve got some ways you can take control of your phone’s data usage and keep from going over your limit. In our last post we talked about some of the ways to do that on your iPhone . Today we’re going to talk about how to manage your Android device. Data Limits Android has a fantastically helpful feature for managing your data usage built right in. If you go into Settings, then tap Data Usage, Billing Cycle, and Data Limit and Billing Cycle, you’ll see a series of options to help keep you from going over your monthly allotment of data. You can put in the details of your cell phone plan - how much data you’re allowed per month, and when your billing cycle renews - and see how much data you’ve used in the current cycle. Y...

In our previous post we talked about the need to have a little control over what your kids do on their devices, and some of the best ways to implement that on the iPhone (and other Apple devices). Today we’re going to go over how to accomplish some of the same things on Android devices. Fair warning: the variability of Android devices on the market means that some features, settings, and options might not be available on your particular device. With that caveat in mind, here are some of the things you can do to keep your kids safe when using Android devices. System Settings While Android lacks an equivalent to the device restrictions settings on the iPhone, there are still some things you can do to control what your kids do on their phones. For one thing, any tablet running Android 4.3 or newer offers you the option of creating restricted profiles - separate user profiles for your kids that limit their access to certain apps, the Google Play store, etc. Phones running Android 5.0...

We live in an increasingly DIY-focused world. When something goes wrong, we tend to want to take care of it ourselves, rather than pay someone else to take care of it for us, and the age of the internet makes that easier than it's ever been. If you want to learn to do it, chances are there’s somebody on YouTube who’s eager to teach you. We’re big fans of DIY solutions at Phone Medics Plus, but the truth is that when it comes to your electronics, DIY repairs can get pretty tricky. The truth is, sometimes you're just better off bringing your phone or computer problems to a professional. In today’s post, we’ll tell you a few reasons why that's the case. Identify the problem quickly We’ve seen it all, so if you’re not sure exactly what’s wrong, we have the experience and knowledge to quickly troubleshoot the problem. Help you understand the problem and the best way to fix it Some problems have more than one solution, and some solutions are easier or cheaper than other...

As more and more of our everyday life is lived online, passwords are becoming more and more important. You need a password for just about everything you do online, and a lot of things you do offline, too: social media, email, banking, shopping, logging into wifi, logging into your personal computer, logging into your work computer, and even unlocking your phone, if you’ve got a passcode lock. All these things require their own password. It can all be very difficult and confusing to manage. In today’s post we’re going to give you some tips and tools for creating strong passwords, keeping track of your passwords, and what to do if you forget a password. Good Password Practices First things first, we’re going to talk about some tips for creating and using strong passwords. The first and most important tip is pretty simple: don’t pick something that’s easy to guess. “Password” is a lousy password. Variations on your or your family members’ names aren’t great either. Those are all th...

Cell phones have taken an increasingly important role in people’s lives since they first started to see widespread adoption in the ‘90s. With the rise of the smartphone a decade ago, that process has accelerated, to the point that for many of us, our cell phones are vitally important tools for certain aspects of our lives. They’re the keeper of our calendar, our contacts, our family photos, they’re our means of communication with friends and family, how we find our way in a new place, and so much more. As our phones have taken on greater importance, the need to secure them has also grown. That’s why today’s post will be focusing on ways to secure your cell phone and its data. Keep Your Phone Backed Up The first step to securing your cell phone is keeping your data backed up. That may seem odd at first, since we don’t normally think of backups as a security feature, but think of it this way: what’s the most important thing on your phone? It’s the data, right? When we panic ove...

In previous articles we’ve talked about keeping your computer safe from malware  and from excess apps and files that can slow down your performance . What we haven’t talked much about before is the best way to protect your phone. The truth is that while your phone is safer from malware than your PC in many ways, you still need to be careful about what you download, and be aware of what certain apps are doing with your data. Malware Now, you may be thinking, “can my phone really get a virus?” The answer is “yes, but…” While there are legitimate malware threats out there that can infect your phone, there aren’t many programs that really infect your phone the way malware infects your computer. This is especially true for iPhones, since Apple’s “walled garden” development philosophy heavily restricts the access third party apps have to the device’s basic functions. So, in other words, malware for phones does exist, but most of the time the threats to your phone are going to com...

At Phone Medics Plus we’re dedicated to helping you keep your phone in great shape for as long as you own it, but we also know that there will come a time when you want to upgrade to a newer phone. We want to be there for you during that process, too, so that the transition from your old phone to your new phone is as smooth as possible. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of things you should do before you sell your Android phone. Backup Your Stuff The first thing you should do is backup your phone. We talked about how to backup your Android phone in a previous article. To recap, there are several ways to backup your Android device’s data. Use your Google account to backup all of your account data, calendars, contacts, web bookmarks, app data (for Google apps and apps that use Google Play Services), wifi passwords, and device settings. Use an app like Google Photos to backup all your photos and videos, and an app like SMS Backup and Restore (free in the Google Play S...

At Phone Medics Plus, we’re not just committed to providing the best possible repair service for your phone or PC. We also want to make sure you have the tools to get the most out of your experience with your device, and to make sure that even when something does go wrong, you can get back on your feet as quickly as possible. That’s why we’ve spent our last two blog posts talking about the best ways to backup your data. In our first post, we talked about the best backup solutions for your iPhone , then we talked about how to backup the data on your PC . In today’s post, we’re going to finish up by talking about the best ways to backup the data on your Android device. As with PCs and iPhones, there are two basic ways to backup your Android device: on-site and off-site. On-site backups are saved to your own computer, while off-site backups are saved to the cloud. There are a wide variety of applications out there that will help you create both kinds of backups. Manufacture...

The hurricane season may be nearing its end for this year, but it's far from over. With Hurricane Michael about to make landfall in the Florida panhandle and a few other systems threatening to spin up in the Atlantic, now is a good time to take a look at some of the ways your cell phone should factor into your emergency preparedness plan. Weather Apps In preparing for a hurricane, as in many things in life, one of the most important tools you have is information. While you can access information about hurricanes from a variety of sources, including local news, there are a number of smartphone apps that can help you get a handle on what’s going on. The two most popular are Hurricane Tracker and Hurricane: American Red Cross, both of which are available for iPhone and Android. Manage Battery Life Hurricanes and power outages go hand in hand. If you’re in an area that gets hit, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose power for at least a few hours. When that happens, you want to...