It’s a Thursday afternoon and that tip-time-of-week again. This week we’re looking at managing audio profiles on Android phones, accessing Google Bookmarks on Android, and vintage organization with Cable Lacing.
Manage Android Audio with Toggle Settings Profiles Lite
Want to manage and create audio profiles for distinct situations on your Android phone? Gulshan writes in with the following tip:
I just read the tip about AudioManager managing volume settings on Android by creating different profiles. I just wanted to recommend Toggle Settings Profiles Lite (Everything I need is in the free version). With this app you can do everything AudioManager does with profiles and more.
You can create profiles that control every setting of your phone, like Bluetooth, volume, orientation, screen timeout, Wi-Fi, brightness, volume, and more. To change profiles you can click on the little icon in the notification bar and a screen pops up with different tabs. Here you can change your profiles or specific settings. But my favorite part of this app is the Rules settings, which allows automatic changing of profiles based on different settings.
For example, one that I commonly use is my Headphones profile. I hate when I take my head phones out of my phone and the volume is still high, creating very awkward situations. Instead, there is a rule that changes to my Headphones profile when I put my headphones in and changes to the last used profile when I take them out, so the volume is always low when I take them out. There are tons of other rules, like what day of the week, the state of each and every one of your settings, your location, and more.
I assume people will find the location setting very useful, as you can set a profile for home, school, and work, and have the profiles automatically switch when you get there. One warning is that in the lite version there is a limit to how many rules you can use, but other than that, the lite version works great for me. I hope others find this app as useful for them as it was for me.
AudioManager is a great little app but the profiles feature is only available in the premium version. If you’re looking for fine control with profiles included at no cost, Toggle Settings Profiles Lite looks pretty sweet. Thanks for the tip off Gulshan!
Easily Access and Manage Your Google Bookmarks on Your Android Phone
If you’re a heavy Google Bookmarks user and you want access to your bookmarks on your Google phone, Rashim writes in with the following tip:
I’ve been searching for a good Google Bookmarks manager for my Android phone and tablet and I finally found one. MobileGBM Lite. You can access your bookmarks, add to the list, sync, view your web history (handy when you want to look at a web site you visited on a different computer or device earlier in the day), and sort the bookmarks. It only supports one account and has advertisements… but you can upgrade to the premium version (no ads, and multiple accounts) for an oddly priced $2.72. I’ve never needed the premium features and am happy to have found a free version!
There you go; if you’re looking for a mobile Google Bookmarks manager for Android you know which link to click. Thanks Rashmin!
Organize Your Cables with Vintage Cable Lacing Tricks
Susan writes in with an interesting and certainly vintage tip:
My father is an old school computer engineer from back in the day when you often had to build the machine you were going to work on. He taught me how to cable lace and I find it to be a fun and almost Zen-like practice to engage in when setting up a permanent workstation or working on an electronics project. Cable lacing was yesteryear’s answer to how to effectively bind and organize cables in a time before zip ties and velcro wraps. I’ve included a link to a good article an article about it at Make magazine and a wiki entry with great old diagrams of how to do it.
We’re not going to lie; after looking at the cool diagrams we started thinking about how cool the back of our desk would look if everything were laced together with a contrasting thread. We might stick with a traditional wire loom just yet, but if we lace things up know that we were inspired by you! Thanks for writing in.
Have a tip to share? Drop us a line at tips@howtogeek.com and you just might see your tip on the front page!