10 Awesome Features In Android Developer Options..

The Developer Options on Android are most often skipped by users, but they are of the utmost importance for developers. That said, there are many features on this that may be useful to users too. Moreover, even developers tend to miss these features sometimes. Here they are,

1. Enable And Disabling USB Debugging

When you try to run Android-related tools on your PC, most of them require you to enable USB debugging. This can be done by the following method.

- Open Settings -> Developer Options.
- Put a check mark on the USB debugging option.
- This will prompt you with a message to allow USB debugging, select ‘Ok’.

2. Desktop Backup Password

The Android developer options allows you to create a password for your desktop backup.

- Settings -> Developer Options.
- Select Desktop Backup Password.
- Follow the steps to create the password.

3. Tweak Animation Settings

The animation that appears when you’re moving from one screen to the other can be tweaked using the developer options. You can speed up the animation or completely switch it off.

- Settings -> Developer Options.
- Find Window animation scale, Animator duration scale and Transition animation scale.
- Adjust the scale. Smaller the number you choose, faster the animation.

4. Enable MSAA For OpenGL Games

Force enabling MSAA gives you higher graphics in your games. This drain’s your device’s battery much faster though.

- Settings -> Developer Options.
- Choose ‘Force 4x MSAA’.

5. Allow Mock Location

Faking GPS location requires an app, but using that app required you to enable ‘Mock Location’ from Developer Options.

- Settings - > Developer Options.
- Open ‘Allow Mock Location’.

6. Stay Awake While Charging

It is always better for the screen to turn off while charging, but in case you want it on, here’s how.

- Settings -> Developer Options.
- Click Stay Awake

7. Display CPU Usage Overlay

If you keep this feature on all the time, then it encroaches on the space available on your screen for other activities. This is because the number of processes going on keep increasing over time.

- Settings > Developer Options.
- Choose ‘Show CPU Usage’.
- The overlay appears on the right side of your screen.

8. Don’t Keep App Activities

Your activities on an app are usually saved on your device, but there are some apps perform a lot of activities. This you could avoid.

- Settings -> Developer Options.
- Choose ‘Don’t keep activities’.

9. Switch Dalvik To ART

This is an experimental runtime that has been designed by Google. You need a device that runs Android KitKat in order to test this one though.

- Settings -> Developer options.
- Choose ‘Select Runtime’ and switch to ART.

ART may make the device slower since it is an experimental runtime and not many apps support it at the moment.

10. Enable Wireless Display Certifications

This option is useful for Miracast-enabled devices and other similar technologies. To do this,

- Settings -> Developer options.
- Choose the ‘Wireless Display Certification’ option.

Hide Last Seen Status, Profile Pic on Whatsapp For Android..

WhatsApp is heading to punch its Android users with a surprise after the famous acquisition by Facebook for a whopping $19 billion. The users can now hide their 'last seen' status on Android as well. The feature already exists in the iOS version, though.

This new feature is currently available on the WhatsApp apk, only, which is available on the website. In a tweet by @NotPriyanka, who apparently discovered the settings on Android, the users will now have time privacy on Google powered platform. Furthermore, the users can also hide their profile pictures and status messages, too.

The added advantage to the app's Android version is that unlike on the iOS, the user can swap freely between visible and invisible status, and not wait for 24-hours. The feature enabling hiding of profile pictures and status messages are nice surprise by WhatsApp, for its users.

This privacy feature is not available on the Google Play Store version of WhatsApp, yet. It needs to be fresh downloaded and installed from the website using an apk file. The new version of WhatsApp enables the new privacy tab in Settings and then listed in Account Settings.

Now Book Your Bus Tickets Through An Android App

With the growing smartphone market in India, the easy availability of the Android and iOS platforms, has got us hooked on to the operating systems with devices ranging from budget segment to elite. In a new, the online bus ticketing portal, Ticketgoose.com, has reportedly announced to launch its very own Android and iOS mobile app, to make ticket bookings, in Mangalore, Karnataka.

 Karthi Easwaramoorthy, the president and co-founder of Ticketgoose.com, said that the app was developed three months ago. It was introduced among some loyal customers for testing of the portal, as reported by the Hindu Business Line. After the sample testing succeeded, the company formally launched the app.

The Ticketgoose.com app can be download from both, the Google Play store and the Apple iTunes store. Easwaramoorthy also said that the ‘bus tracking’ option in the app allows the passengers / customers to keep track of their buses, with frequent updates on the location of the bus.

The company says that since bus ticketing is Rs 300 billion market, and upcoming technology is steadily gaining pace. Easwaramoorthy said only 5 per cent of bus tickets are sold through online system, in the country, in the same report. The feedback for this app, right now, counts to nearly 300 to 400 tickets per day sales. The Ticketgoose.com's customer support service helps the customers get information on pick-up points, approximate time of arrival and also bus delays.

The company also has an agreement with the United India Insurance, that will provide travel insurance to its passengers, with an optional service. The service is priced at Rs 20 per passenger, exclusive of the ticket charge. As per the policy, it provides personal accident cover for Rs 200,000 to each passenger, and damage or loss of baggage can be claimed at up to a maximum of Rs 15,000.