1. Reduce the number of applications and games on your Android device , keep only the frequently used or very useful ones...
2. Turn off your GPS settings except whenever necessary...
To do that, tap on 'Settings' then under 'Personal' tap on 'Location Access', then untick the box for 'Access to my location', then turn off 'GPS satellites'. (On Android 4.x Jellybean OS). You should only turn this on when you want to use your phone to navigate an area, most especially when you have to use Google Maps or similar apps on your phone...
3. Use only the data compressing browsers like Opera Beta, UC Browser Mini, Chrome Beta, Opera Mini, Chrome browser for Android... which you can download and install on Google Play Store or Mobo Market. Don't use the conventional data consuming browsers like Firefox for Android, Maxthon Browser, etc. To compress data on Opera Browser Beta (or Opera Beta) turn on "Off-Road Mode" after downloading and installing the browser.
Chrome browser offers proxy data compression through Google for Google Chrome on Android devices. One of the great features is its calculation and graph showing just how much data has been saved. Here’s what we got from Google, read on...
Data Compression Proxy
Faster, safer, and cheaper mobile web browsing with data compression
The latest Chrome browsers for Android and iOS can reduce cellular data usage and speed up mobile web browsing by using proxy servers hosted at Google to optimize website content. In our internal testing, this feature has been shown to reduce data usage by 50% and speed up page load times on cellular networks! To enable it, visit “Settings > Bandwidth Management > Reduce data usage” and toggle the option – easy as that.
4. Go to Play Store on your device and search for the following apps to help you minimize your data usage, enhance your battery life, and monitor your data:
i) Data Savings | Onavo Extend
ii) Onavo Count | Data Usage or 3G Watchdog
iii) Advance Task Manager - Killer by INFOLIFE LLC (Optional)
IMPORTANT!: You can use the 'Settings' on 'Advanced Task Manager - Killer' to kill background apps automatically without your manual input but this might let other apps (including Onavo Extend) work intermittently! So use it manually once in a while, you don't have to set the auto functions.
Although it is often better to use 'Advanced Task Manager - Killer' manually, you may prefer setting up the auto functions in order to save yourself some time, energy, and to help increase your device's memory (RAM space). To do this, tap on it's Settings icon represented by the three square dots at the top right hand corner of the screen and turn on all the 'Auto kills'. Setting up the automatic functions on Advanced Task Manager - Killer can help you minimize data usage and save you energy. It will also boost your battery life and continuously boost your device's memory (RAM) without any effort on your side. But remember doing so will make Advanced Task Manager - Killer make some of your apps work intermittently, so you might have to 'Force stop' it from the 'Settings' feature and then launch it back if need arises.
However, if you choose to use 'Advance Task Manager - Killer', remember that it is a task killer. A task killer is an app from which you can manually (or sometimes automatically) force other apps to quit, the hope being that the fewer apps you have running in the background, the better your Android's performance and battery life will be. Proponents of task killers are of the opinion that closing apps running in the background will get you improved performance and battery life, in addition to lesser data usage by the Android device– that’s the idea, anyway. However, opponents of task killers deduce that in reality task killers can reduce your performance and battery life.
This argument about whether task killers are effective or not rages all over the Internet: Android forums on the Internet are full of threads with constant bickering and conflicting anecdotal experience, making it difficult for most users to make sense of the situation.
Excerpts from Lifehacker do however suggest that using task killers on Android could be bad news for us because Android handles process management by default. Read on:
"In Android, processes and Applications are two different things. An app can stay "running" in the background without any processes eating up your phone's resources. Android keeps the app in its memory so it launches more quickly and returns to its prior state. When your phone runs out of memory, Android will automatically start killing tasks on its own, starting with ones that you haven't used in a while.
The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows. On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing. It means that when you relaunch an app you've previously opened, the app launches quickly and returns to its previous state. So while Android actually uses RAM efficiently, most users see that their RAM is full and assume that's what's slowing down their phone. In reality, your CPU—which is only used by apps that are actually active—is almost always the bottleneck."
Thus, you may want to have a rethink about using a task killer like 'Advance Task Manager - Killer' or any other task killer.
As for 3G Watchdog and Onavo Count, test both of them to see which of them you prefer, or keep both of them if that's what you would want; but you may want to uninstall one of the two just to create room for some other app on your device.
NOTE: Onavo Extend relies on a server to compress your data, so your image/picture quality may somewhat or at times be reduced while browsing the Internet via their server. You can always use the 'Manage Apps' feature on your Android device to 'Force Stop' it whenever you want to, then 'Launch' it again at your own convenience!
Onavo Extend uses its servers to compress the data you request before it gets sent to you, so it is not ideal for large file downloads, as it will reduce your speed. In addition to this, some websites may not load properly, or at all, but this seems to happen in a limited number of cases. However, you can disable the app at any time if your download speed is too slow or you realize a website won't load. But don't forget to re-enable it when you are through. To disable the app, just open it and tap the button. You can also go to your device's Settings (i.e. System settings) and then use the 'Manage apps' feature to 'Force Stop' it. But don't forget to re-enable the app after you're done with your download or through with the website that had issues loading. To re-enable the app at anytime, simply open it by tapping on it and then grant it access for adding a VPN connection (for Onavo's servers).
Whenever Onavo Extend is active you will see a small key shape icon on top of your screen, if you don't see this icon it means the app isn't active, go back to the app and re-enable it. After installing Onavo Extend on your Android device, you will have to open the app and grant it access for adding a new VPN connection (for Onavo's servers).
Onavo Count can be downloaded and installed from http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.onavo.android.onavoid
3G Watchdog can be downloaded and installed from http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:net.rgruet.android.g3watchdog
Onavo Extend can be downloaded and installed from http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.onavo.android.onavoics
Advanced Task Manager can be downloaded and installed from http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:mobi.infolife.taskmanager
Or simply search for them on Play Store or Mobo Market (an alternative to Google Play Store for Android apps).
Mobo Market can be downloaded and installed from http://mobomarket.moborobo.com/m/android1/
Bingo! That's all for now!
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