Category: How To

There are times when Project Fi just doesn’t behave like it should.  It’s rare but it happens and when it does, figuring out how to sort yourself out can be a real time saver.  Recently I had an issue where I was receiving calls but it would ring once or twice then roll to voicemail.  I did some testing, restarted my Nexus 6 and cleared the app cache but nothing seemed to work.  The strange thing was, it started somewhat out of the blue.  One day I was fine, next I wasn’t.

I spoke with the Fi support team and I got this series of instructions to solve the issue.  And solve it, it did.  While the steps are a bit involved, it is worth having these instructions handy in case you ever run into this problem.  Obviously I can’t promise or guarantee that this will work 100% for you as it did for me – but it should.  As you will see after the break, the process is pretty involved and invasive. Also be aware that this involves clearing your device’s cache.

To go through this process, you will need to have your Nexus device running on Project Fi and will need to have a paperclip or SIM pin tool to extract the SIM from your device.  The step-by-step instructions on how to solve the 1 ring problem can be found after the break.

Gmail, like many aspects of your Chromebook, PC or Mac, can be customized to suit your liking and personality.  While some find the simple white background that comes standard in the web-based email service, I for one am not a big fan of leaving things generic.  I like having a little color and more specifically, I like having things that match across all my devices.  Themes and wallpapers are part of that but so is Gmail for me.  My current favorite wallpaper is the default wallpaper that comes with Android Marshmallow.  It is the wallpaper on both my Nexus 6 and Nexus 7 as well as the wallpaper on my Chromebook and my Windows PC.  Now it is also the wallpaper for my Gmail account.

My Gmail Android Marshmallow Background

To be clear, in this How To I am talking about Gmail on the web, not the Android app.  Whether you are using Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari, you can have a theme for your Gmail account in just a few simple steps.  First, make sure you have the photo that you want to use as your wallpaper saved somewhere on your PC or on Google Drive so you can access it.  Once you have that done, continue on after the break to see how to set it up, configure & customize it and finally share it with anyone.

Keep track of the amount of data you consume on your mobile plan is something that the majority of us have to do.  While there are some unlimited data plans that meet the need for power users, the rest of us usually have a limited amount each month or top up of our mobile accounts. To aid in this, there are several apps out in the Google Play Store to help you get a reasonable grasp of the amount of data you are using for a specific period of time.  My personal favorite has been My Data Manager as I’ve been using it on Android and iOS and it is reasonably good at tracking not only your mobile data usage but your Wi-Fi usage at the same time.

With the release of Android Lollipop, Google added a data manager into the platform directly.  Designed to give you information on your cellular usage as well as Wi-Fi, the Data usage feature in Android Marshmallow is nearly identical to that which we found in Lollipop.  In this How To I will show you where to find this on your Android Phone and how to configure it to set thresholds so you will know if you are approaching your data allotment for your billing period.

You install a new app on your Android phone and suddenly, stability is out the window.  While it doesn’t happen often, there are times when you have a misbehaving app that is just creating havoc on your ability to use your phone.  Sometimes it is to the point where you can’t even get your phone to a point where you can deal with the misbehaving app.  For such circumstances Google has built in a Safe Mode into Android that allows you to boot your phone into a mode where all 3rd party apps are disabled, giving you the opportunity to deal with it in a stable environment.  Getting into Safe Mode is pretty easy and you should only use it in a situation like I’ve described above.  In this How To I’ll show you how to get into Safe Mode on your Android devices.

While we often think of the Chromecast as a media and streaming tool, it actually has a lot of versatility when it comes to your computing needs. The most common use of course is to show a presentation from Slides via a Chromecast on your Android phone or tablet. However you can easily show the content of your Chrome browser or your Chromebook to a Chromecast device with one simple extension in Chrome.

In this How To I’ll show you what you need to get all of this setup which is pretty simple. Once you have it setup you can easily show your Chromebook’s browser or desktop and if you are on a PC, you can show a tab in your Chrome browser.

If you are like me, next to my bed each night is my Android phone or tablet.  I use either of them for reading in the evening to wind down and given that my mobile number is the only number most of my family have for me, I want to have it near me in case of emergencies.  That said, I work for a global company and I get email at all hours of the day and night and the occasional call when someone forgets the world is round and we have time zones.  What I don’t want – and my wife really doesn’t want – are these tones and rings waking us up at night. Likewise, I don’t want the vibration of my phone sitting on my nightstand waking me up.

There have been a variety of apps that give you a Do Not Disturb like function for Android but with Android Marshmallow, it went native.  Google now includes a DND mode in their latest build of Android and it is highly customizable for your needs.  In fact, you can even have multiple rules for different days of the week.  All of this can be configured with just a few taps and I will show how to set these up so you can take advantage of this great new feature.