Today I want to tackle how to free up space on your Android phone.

What I want to do is:

1. Delete temporary files
2. Uninstall apps you are not using
3. Set up photo backups using google photos

Uninstall apps:

settings

Android allows its manufacturers to customize all aspects of Android.  What I’m showing you is from my Nexus 5, which is how Google envisions android.  Samsung, HTC, LG do a lot of customizations, while Motorola does very minimal.

Go to your settings, and click storage.  This will bring up how your phone uses storage.

Temporary Files (Cache)

Both images are of my storage tab, with the right one, being the “2nd page.” As you can see, my 16GB nexus 5, has only 12.55GB available.  This is good considering that a Samsung Galaxy uses close to half for the operating system.  You iPhone users also use close to 4GB for the operating system.  So Apps are using 8GB of space, pictures with 2.31GB of space, and Cached Data with 579MB of space.  If you click on any of these options, it will bring up another menu. Hold off with pictures just yet.

Simple first step is to clear “Cached data.” This is information that an app downloads to “make things faster.” Google play music will cache the next two songs so when you hit next, you don’t have to wait.  Click on it, and hit clear.  I don’t think anything there is mission critical. In my case, I saved 600MB.

Applications

Hold down apps I get the following screen.  It lists all my apps in decreasing size.  (You may have to swipe left/right to get the all tab at the top.  The top 4 apps are Music/Games.  If I delete PocketCasts (podcasting app), it will save me A LOT of space.  PocketCasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, and other music apps cache music so it is easier to access. In my case, my podcasts are 50+MB each. This is a big reason, people run out of space so quickly.  Go through your list, and delete apps you never use.  You will be surprised by how many you don’t use, and how much space you will save.  Check to make sure you are not duplicating functionality.  Your phone may have a flashlight app, so downloading another one is a waste.

To Uninstall: Click on the app, and click uninstall.

If you want to examine why this app is taking a whole lot of storage space you can see more details by clicking on it. Facebook is a perfect app to highlight.  Facebook stores everything in the cloud, so why is it holding 314MB of data.

The App itself is 210MB. That is a lot, but apps are becoming ever bigger, so it isn’t outrageous.  Data is 104MB.  If you clear Data it basically will delete everything, so a warning pops up.

“All this app’s data will be deleted permanently.  This included all files, settings, accounts, databases, etc.”

This applies mainly to games who save locally.  If a game saves locally, you will lose saved game data.

In Facebook’s case you will have to log in again. Everything is saved in the cloud.
Spotify is the same thing.  Clearing data will make you log in again, and you will lose saved to device music.

Downloads/Music/Photos:

If you download a lot of attachments from email, this folder may be very large. You can either delete manually, or connect to your computer and take everything off at once. Before you do anything, ask yourself, can I get this from another place.  If they are email attachments, you have them in your email program.

I’m using a mac, but the PC is almost identical.  It opens an explorer window where you can manage your space.  This is where you can move large amounts of data on or off your device.

If you want to transfer the downloads to deal with later, double-click on it, and it will show you all your files.  You can then drag/drop onto your computer. It will not delete after you move it, so you will have to delete it by selecting the files, and choosing delete.

DCIM is your photos folder.  You can drag and drop, but note it will not delete off your device. You will have to delete manually again.  Read the next section first before you do anything with photos/videos

Photos

I want you to back up your photos first. Google Photos is EXCELLENT.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  It auto backs up everything, and stores it for you. I want to help you set it up.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos&hl=en

The app looks like a colorful pin wheel.  You may already have it installed.

Click on options (top left, three horizontal lines).  The left screen is what you should see. Scroll down to settings (Right screen).  Click on back up and sync. ->

In the backup and sync options, you have two things you need to check.  First is upload size.  Click on that, and choose high quality.  It is fine, you don’t need to store full quality.

Next Choose back up photos.  Make sure you choose wifi, unless you have a HUGE data plan.  It will start uploading everything automatically.  You may want to choose wifi only for the immediate future, then when finished uploading switch back to anytime.

This app is great.  It will keep everything backed up, and let you share to Facebook, Twitter, G+, or just give you a link.  You can also access these uploaded photos at https://photos.google.com

Once you do this, you can go back and delete the photos off your phone.  This should save a ton of space.

Text message threads:

I don’t text message that much, but from what I hear, this saves a ton of space, especially if you send a lot of photos.  What I can say is delete the text message treads if you need just that extra space the above can’t give you.

Hopefully this is easy to understand.  I hope to keep this updated, so consider this V1.

First Floor apartment in a two-family home in Highland Park. Located two blocks off Raritan Avenue, and within walking distance to houses of worship, shops, the New Brunswick Train Station and bus stops. Close to Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Hospital and Saint Peter’s Hospital.

Apartment Details:
7 large rooms – 3 Bedrooms with large closets, Living Room, Formal Dining Room, Bonus of Office, Foyer
Eat-in Kitchen with newer appliances (fridge, dishwasher, stove, microwave)
Washer/Dryer IN UNIT.
Newer windows.
Use of large basement for storage
Use of yard
AC wall units in most rooms
Walk to downtown in less than 5 minutes
On-Street Parking

Great for families, commuters, or graduate students.
Very good school district.
No pets, no smoking.

Rent: $2,000 plus utilities (Electric, gas and heat) (owner pays for water).
Security Deposit (1.5 months), credit report required or proof of employment.

Lease expires in August.

TL;DR Social media should be social

We have one of the most important messages that affects every single public employee. This includes the front office, not just the teachers. This is not a job action against the Boards of Educations. Why are these communications hidden?

Why should I have to know who my uniserv rep is to get this information? (I don’t know who it is).

This is so important that locals should have had data collection campaigns to get the word out. I volunteered to set this up, but was never asked for help.

I signed up for everything I was supposed to, and still nothing.

To say to use Facebook is the wrong answer. No less than 3 months ago, we were still listening to the NJEA tell us that Facebook is evil and don’t use it. Now we should be friends with all these groups, and participate?

Facebook uses an elaborate algorithm to display the most important stories. Most pages that can be deemed commercial are not shown because Facebook wants you to buy ads. I was too busy congratulating a friend on the birth of her baby, and the subsequent baby pictures that I either missed this post completely or it was never shown to me. Look at your news feed, and see that it is not in chronological order.

Twitter is more of the answer because it is asymmetric. You can follow but not ‘be friends.’ Twitter is also in chronological order, and every tweet is displayed. Speaking of Twitter, retweets are not considered endorsements. Read most bios of reporters, where they state exactly that. The NJEA should be tweeting what we should do, not retweeting others.

My last #fundnjpension email was dated May 13. No where was it said to wear black. Nor does the website have anything regarding this.

The NJEA website, also doesn’t have one mention about wearing black.

The only references to wearing black tomorrow are the Facebook post (after digging), and 2 twitter pieces (1 retweet) and something on 5/14 at 7pm or so after I complained that I wasn’t informed.

Here I am, someone who uses social media (I’ve used services you’ve never heard of), begging to be informed socially. Give me an email field, phone number, hashtag, and I’ll gladly put it in.

Should it be okay to publicly post photos of students doing positive things?

With the ease of just simply hitting share, we as educators have to think about what we share, and who we share it with.  In thirty seconds, I can take a photo, have it back up to Dropbox / Google Photos / Sky Drive / Facebook, while typing out a tweet, Instagram, or Facebook post.    The following scenario is very common, and has lots of nuanced issues that could get people in trouble.

First, the idea of taking a photo, especially of students has legal implications.  The simplest cheat sheet I can find is from LifeHacker, which you should read.  I’m not a lawyer, nor can I pretend to be one.  However, if we are discussing legal matters, maybe the issue needs to be discussed further, with more clear-cut guidelines.

Years ago to get a picture, you had to take a picture, develop the film, scan the photo in, then post.  With the advent of smartphones, sharing has become so simple that the masses can do it.  However, with the ease of use, came more legal complexity.

I’m not saying that posting students doing positive things is a bad, however, are we sure that these students want to be made public?  It follows on the same idea of why I don’t post my son’s photo on Facebook.  We don’t know if there is something that stops them from posting publicly.  Remember, immediate posting is worse than posting after some editorial process.  The immediacy also gives location, which again, needs approval.

If you came from a closed system, most people found a way around the roadblocks to allow them to better communicate with their students more conveniently. Whether they used a “school” vanilla Gmail account, or kept everything in another cloud service, they found a way. Now the school’s job is to force the issue to migrate. This is hard!

This all assumes that GAFE has been implemented correctly. The mission of use, as well as the deployment needs to be in place before any expectation of use is expected.

If you want to do the transition in stages, the very first thing is to educate the reason why work need to stay in the domain. With all these new technologies in place, we have to be careful that all the data is safe and secure. This applies to both staff and students. Students will listen more, but the staff is who needs to be reached. Remember students do not have a workflow yet. It is our job to create positive computer habits.

Second, all correspondence that can be made in a Google doc, should be made in a Google doc. This sounds obvious, but breaking a workflow is hard. This will cause more work from management at first, but leaders need to lead by example. If the leaders don’t see the point of using Google docs, how can teachers be expected to do similar? The *.doc vs *.docx is still ‘a thing.’ The buy-in must occur.

Finally, a school-wide decision on how to share these files will occur. Do you share it public in the organization, or public for all with link? Obviously, public in the organization is more appropriate (easier, in my opinion). Public in the organization means that even more push-back from those who have vanilla Google accounts, and are resistant to change. Remember, you don’t want to alienate people who have the vision, but need more time to transition. You can always change permissions later, so starting public to ease the transition is not the worst thing.

Remember that the transition needs to be a complete buy-in. Do not allow the fallback because it is easier, or in a rush, or we need more training. There is enough avenues to learn, whether that be YouTube videos, having someone to offer assistance, or trial and error.

Over the past 18 months, my focus has been on security.  As you know I produce and host a security podcast for the average people.  Simultaneously, I’ve been focusing on helping my school become more technologically connected. Making this transition has shown me a lot of issues that expands beyond handing someone a device, and saying GO! I feel that I need an outlet to explain things that social media can’t.  As an educator, I need to separate my compartmentalized my ideas, being careful where I publish things.

I want to use this site to explain ideas I have as it relates to Education, Technology, and Security.  Hopefully I can get back to posting a lot more regularly.

I’ve been annoyed with a facebook post that I can’t get rid of.  It is the one about your IQ.  I initially said it was bogus, but then I ran some numbers.

A Quick Aside:

[Please stop posting your IQ results. It isn’t a real test by virtue of it saying “quick.” The test had 15 questions tops.  Here are the list of accepted tests and the scores needed for Mensa ]

Some Math: 

Friends: 293
Approximately 10 posts with scores ranging from 120 – 134 (me).
One of my friends whom I consider very intelligent got a 132.

Yes… I got the highest scores of everyone on my news feed (who have played).

On a standard IQ test, it is 15 points per 1 standard deviation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient

So a score 120-134 is:
120: (120-100)/15 = 1.33 – Smarter than 90.82% of the population
134(me): (132-100)/15 = 2.13 -Smarter than 98.34% of the population

Here are a few takeaways: 

People won’t post bad scores

This website is a commercial entity, so it is in their best interest to skew towards the higher end.

All  of my friends have graduated from high school, most from college. Since I consider myself an educated professional, I generally am friends with said group.  Therefore my friends are a smart bunch.

Based on this article from wikipedia: 12% have a masters degree or more.  Doing a non-scientific, cursory look at my facebook friends, I can count more than 12% with a masters.  All the more reason to skew the numbers towards the right (smarter).

Their IQ results should be skewed towards the higher numbers.  If I’ve gotten all results (approximately 10) greater than +1.33 standard deviations.   That means that at least 10% of my friends (or almost 30 people) are in that range.  This assumes a normal distribution, which we discussed above that they are not.

I would like to add, that my friends whom I consider to be smarter than me, rarely use Facebook, and if they do, don’t share nonsense posts like this.  So, yes I’m saying, I should be getting numbers that aren’t that high, but higher than average.

New Glass explorers are becoming very loud in their belief that Glass should be everywhere, and get outraged when someone has a problem.  Maybe I’m just jaded, or was in that camp and forgot, but I’m trying to be respectful of new technology.  I don’t think Glass is a right.   If we get an update, then hooray, but we paid to be in an extreme beta.  If Google thinks that Glass is a failure, then they will stop the program.  Unfortunately, you paid the money, and they delivered a device.  That is it.  There was no expectation of updates or new revisions.

I’m not a developer, but I do want to call myself an advocate. My whole purpose was to see how glass, or any wearable technology can make my life easier. Glass hasn’t done it for me yet, but I can see potential. I go around answering any questions from people. Mainly I want to make people comfortable. I want them to see the positives, rather than the recording aspects that make people so nervous.

Now that I have had  Glass for just under a year, I forgot how I was when it first launched. Maybe I’m exactly guilty of what I’m trying to rail against, but the recent crop of explorers seem more vocal in their insistence of wearing glass to places they shouldn’t.

I don’t take off Glass in the bathroom. I don’t see a need. People talking on cell phones are more intrusive than me using the bathroom. I guess that is my one personal issue. At work, I was approached and asked to remove glass. I felt attacked. I felt that people didn’t trust me. I am the computer science teacher. My job is to get students excited about technology. My students are excited. I have the highest enrollment the school has ever had. I am also a professional; it says so on my union card. I am not allowed to photograph students, with career ending consequences if I do. Knowing that, why would I do something I shouldn’t? Not only that, people that were complaining ,did not ask about the capabilities. People listen to the news, and there aren’t any positive articles regarding glass.

I would never wear Glass to a movie theater. There is no reason to. You should not be doing anything else other than watching a movie. Likewise, I don’t wear glass to the doctor’s office. I have in the past, but was really careful to make sure I didn’t offend someone. Privacy is important, therefore, I do not want to make it look like I’m doing something I shouldn’t.  The goal is to use personal responsibility when debating of whether Glass is appropriate.  When people have asked me to take it off, I ask to talk to them about it.  Usually I will ask if I can show them how it works.  If they still feel uncomfortable, then I will take it off, and respect their wishes.

Glass is supposed to help us get information fast, and easy. The goal is to not try and force a use for it. If it is easier to get the job done on your phone, then do it. The new explorers in my mind are forcing actions that it is not. If you cannot talk in the space you are in, then pull out your phone and send that text message. Don’t annoy others because you HAVE to use Glass.

Glass is a beta product. It isn’t for everyone. Yeah it is the new hotness, but I try to explain to people who want to know that this is either an expensive toy, or a completely new development platform. It isn’t a finished product, and you shouldn’t expect it to be ready for commercial release. Send your constructive criticism to the Glass team.

Glass Explorers are supposed to be advocates. If you want Glass to succeed, positive news must be shared. Being creepy in public does not set a great example. Remember, our goal is to show that this is a useful product. Be smart about it. We are supposed to take the negativity and show people the future of wearables.

The customer service with glass is phenomenal. Once you have Glass, they treat you very well. They listen to the complaints, they fix issues that you caused, and they are overall pleasant. Their communication to current Glass owners is very good. They care about all the explorers.

Recently, they’ve decided to stop the monthly updates. Back in December or January they said that February will be the next update. Well February came and gone, but they did tell us they were sorry, and we wouldn’t be disappointed. This got people upset. They have shown that they care about providing support, so a delay shouldn’t be the end of the world.

I want Glass to succeed.  I want to be a part of a community that wants to try new things and advocates for them.  I want to be a part of the future.  I do not want to be lumped into a category of people who feel like they have the right to violate peoples’ privacy.

Comments:

I’ve said over and over, the best password is one that you don’t know, and is so incredibly long and complicated that you need to write it down. That is what security people have always recommended, yet for whatever reason people are still using insecure passwords. Mainly because websites impose so many restrictions to what a password can be. These same restrictions the hackers understand, and will use against you, or the site.

The problem is two-fold. First, entering data into a smartphone or any small keyboard is time-consuming. Having to go back and forth to where the password is stored, writing a character or two at a time (due to its complexity), will cause anyone to give up. You can not have secure and convenient. Using a password manager is inconvenient, but much more tolerable if the process was made easier. Second, websites in order to be more secure, are banning password managers from filling in the fields, or not allowing copy and paste. While, preventing these two actions make it more secure in a perfect scenario, where the average person understands this, the reality is people want access to their stuff NOW! By lifting these restrictions, and pushing password managers, you will increase security.

The new recommendation is to use a password manager. Let the password manager create, store, and fill in the password. Set it to create the longest nonsense it can. So difficult, you won’t remember, nor write it down. All of this is in addition to using a second form of authentication, however, the password is the most important part.

I spent a lot of time explaining managers here: http://chaimtime.com/2012/07/25/the-sad-state-of-passwords-part-1-use-a-password-manager/

I’ve drafted a letter that I want people to email to any website that refuses to allow a password manager from doing their job. I’ll leave it editable, so that people who are much better writers than I am can add to it.  Hopefully, this will be a catalyst for everyone to email the webmaster and forcing a policy change.

To Whom It May Concern:

I appreciate the security imposed by the site to keep my information safe and secure, but may I offer a few suggestions.  My suggestions are based on technical support inquiries I’ve been getting from less tech savvy and security conscious people.  I understand that as a business you have to weigh security versus convenience, but I don’t think the security you implement is acceptable enough to warrant the inconvenience

I’ve been a proponent of password managers to fill in credentials.  Your website will not allow the auto complete of username and passwords.  Password managers allows people to create passwords to your current website password restricts easily, and fills it in automatically.  They also make it easily to remember the change when needing to change passwords.  Allowing the automatic filling or copy and pasting means people can create more secure passwords with less inconvenience.  Allowing copy and pasting makes entering credentials on a smart phone much easier.  If you want people to use your app, you need to make it easy to log in, and keep user data secure.

Thank you for listening to my suggestion.  I am open to discussing this with you, or your security team.  I believe that this is a simple change that will allow a better experience on your website.

Your Customer,

As always, please comment on the Google+ Post below:

Even before my son was born, I was stuck with the dilemma of how to show everyone who wanted to see photos, the photos I took. I’m a very security minded person, and the last thing I want to do is put my son in the public eye. It is fine if I do it, but my son, should have at least a choice. Children born in the Facebook era, are in the public spotlight from when they are born. By the age of thirteen, when they are finally able to use the internet, most of their milestones have been publicly documented (including the answers to their security questions).

I am really against all the moms and dads that lost their individuality because they want to everyone to see photos of their kids.  I’m friends with the adults, not the child(ren).  I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I when there are facebook extensions to remove baby pictures, I think it cross the line into a ‘thing.’

With security being the enemy of convenience, I have to manage both.  I need to make it easy for people to access and easy for me to post, but I make sure it is secure.  I don’t want the photos easily accessible by people I don’t want. Rolling my own photo service makes viewing photos a burden, but I control who sees it. Using an ubiquitous service makes it easily accessible to all, but not secure. With all the public services, I am aware that nothing will do everything what I want, nor will they not be stealing my (child’s) information.

The other issue that I have is I don’t want all my ‘friends’ seeing the photos.  I only want a certain subset of them (close friends and family) to see the photos.  On an aside, I find it strange by how many people want to see baby photos.  Maybe I’m weird.  I understand babies are cute, but I don’t need millions of photos.  I really want the control. Control is more important that simple.

I’ve decided to use Google+, not because I’m a fanboy. I decided because I think Google took the right approach in sharing. The circle concept has been very successful, and from privacy settings were apparent from the start. People who want photos can get it, and those who don’t won’t. The photo editing has only been getting better, and the album view has really improved. I can also share out of Google+ without a hassle. I can take an album and set permissions to only people with said link.

Not to mention that Google Glass integrates very well with Google+.  The photos get backed up, and easily allow sharing from all my devices.

Dropbox has also emerged as a competitor in a different way.  I give family a link to the shared folder.  In the meantime, any photo my wife and I upload we stick in dropbox.  My family can then see all the photos.  I can sort of do the same with others, but it gets to be cumbersome.

If you have spoken to me at all regarding my social networking habits you know that I am not a fan of Facebook. I’ve gotten to a point that I some photos, some public knowledge information, and almost no details about myself. I purely use it for Facebook Messenger, and to keep in touch with friends. I don’t have my favorite books, or movies. I don’t have more than a handful of photos. I reject most tags of myself, and refuse to allow anything other than some innocuous posts. I just don’t trust Facebook. There were always security and privacy concerns that have always rubbed me the wrong way. With that said, I don’t want pictures of my child on there.

Because I have to use Facebook if I want my friends and family to see my photos, I will link the G+ album to a Facebook post. It is the easiest way of posting on facebook, but leaving it without content. Facebook to my knowledge doesn’t scrape the photos of a link.

Twitter is just not an option. The feature set does not allow albums.

Instagram also has the same problem as twitter.

Flickr was an option, and a decent one at that. However, I was never a Flickr fan, nor are any of my friends. Plus the pro account, costs money. So while Flickr should be the obvious choice, nobody, not even me uses, Flickr. So many years of neglect, didn’t help either.

My personal site was an option, but there is too much overhead for me. There is too much work for me for a photo here or there.

After rambling, it is important to remember that I want to keep the photos and exposure of my child as controlled as possible.