There's more to your Nexus 7 than meets the eye. The tablet has dozens of secret hacks buried within menus, as well as tips and tricks. Here we show you how to find the most useful of these hidden treasures. new tool for Firefox. Chrome and Safari homescreen and Favorites Tray: controlling individual app preferences: enabling built-in dictionaries and keyboards; taking screenshots; switching to safe mode; and encrypting everything on your device. Many of these tricks are features introduced in Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and require a 'long press'. This means pressing and holding an icon, notification or button for two seconds, to open a new menu. On Jelly Bean, there are also two notification shades.Brightness and battery settings, along with the rotation lock, which stops the screen from switching between portrait and landscape automatically. To check which version of Android your Nexus 7 is running, go to Settings and 'About tablet'. Click 'System updates' to update to the latest version.
1. You can move up to six apps from your homescreen onto the Favorites Tray. Long press the app's icon and drag it on or off the dock. Drag and drop the apps along the dock to change their positions.
2. You can also create app folders on the Favorites Tray. Drag and drop an icon on top of another to create a folder. Click the folder to open it. Click 'Unnamed folder' to rename it. Drag apps out of the folder to remove them.
3. To turn off individual app notifications, open Settings and go to Apps. Select an app from the list, untick 'Show notifications' and click OK. To restore apps to their default settings, click the menu button and choose 'Reset app preferences'.
4. Certain notifications in the left-hand shade]] including emails and screenshots, can be expanded or contracted by pinching and zooming, to show or hide more information such as subject lines or picture previews.10
5. Expert Tip! For extra security. you can encrypt your tablet. This means you'll need to enter a PIN each time the tablet is turned on. If anyone gets access to the tablet without the PIN. they won't be able to read any of your personal information. This encryption option is in addition to a screen lock. To enable encryption, go to Settings. Security and click 'Encrypt tablet'. Set a PIN or password and the tablet will be encrypted. Encryption can only be set up when your battery is full. Be warned that encrypting your Nexus is irreversible, so think carefully before activating it. The only way to revert to an unencrypted device is to perform a factory data reset, erasing all your data.
6. 'Touch sounds' only disables sounds when the tablet is silent. To turn them off, go to Settings. 'Language & input' and your default dictionary to open 'Android keyboard settings'. In 'Advanced settings'. change the key-press sound volume to 0.
7. To add new dictionaries in 'Android keyboard settings', click 'Add-on dictionaries',choose the dictionary and Install. The keyboard comes with gesture typing built in. Disable this by unticking 'Enable gesture typing'.
8. To enable the newly installed dictionaries and keyboards, go to 'Language & input' and tick the relevant boxes under Keyboard & Input Methods. For a new keyboard or input method, like Google voice, long press the spacebar.
9. Take screenshots of your tablet by pressing and holding the power and volume down buttons. The screen will flash. The image will be shown in the left-hand notification shade. To edit it, open it in Gallery and click the circles icon.
10. The Nexus 7 comes with a built-in music equaliser. Open a song in the Android music player, click the menu button, go to Settings and choose Equaliser. Change the bass and 3D effects using the sliders,or select a different preset.
11. If you install any dodgy apps or your tablet gets infected with malware. reboot it in safe mode. Hold down the power button, then long press 'Power off'. Click OK. To reboot in Normal mode, turn the tablet off and on again.
Thanks for the safe-mode tip! That could really come in handy.
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