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Sep 30, 2015

How to Get Your Phone and Tablet Travel Ready

How to Get Your Phone and Tablet Travel Ready

Clear Out Apps


Apps can make your phone or tablet be a lot more useful. Some of these I use on daily basis, some weekly, and other rarer. And then there were some that I barely, if at all, has used. All apps take up space and some a lot more than others. I have plenty of great apps from travel and utilities to productivity and games, but they can fill up available space that can be utilized for photos, videos, and notes.
Going through apps on your device and determining which are still good and which take up too much memory, would help to create extra storage space for your next trip.

In Apple iOS 8, go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage. For iOS 7 and earlier, it’s just Settings > General > Usage. Here you’ll see a list of apps and how much space they use. This helps you make an informed decision about where to clean up. To delete an app you don’t want, simply tap its name. Then tap the “Delete App” button on the next screen at the bottom.

In Android, go to Settings > Applications.  On some gadgets, it is Settings > Application Manager. Swipe left until you end up on the “Downloaded” tab. Here you’ll see a list of apps you've downloaded and how much space they take up. To remove an app, just tap the name and then tap the “Uninstall” button. Start removing the apps you no longer use, then take a look at the largest apps that are left and think about how much you really need them.

Organize your photos and videos

Smartphone cameras make it easy to snap dozens of pictures of that family vacation or everyday moments. Do that every couple of days, if not every day, and you will end up with your phone memory being full.

Take a look through your phone’s camera app. Are there any accidental photos, such as photos of the floor, sky or dark matter you can delete?

To free up space, you can transfer and organize photos and videos on your home computer or online storage using programs like iPhoto, Dropbox or Picasa. With Android, you might also be able to plug your gadget into your computer and drag the files directly and then delete them from your gadget.

Your camera isn’t just for photos; it can shoot video, too. A dozen one-minute videos you shot at birthday parties and other celebrations can take up gigabytes of space. You’ll definitely want to move these over to a computer to free up space. You can also upload them to an online storage site like Dropbox or Google Drive, or put them on a video-sharing site like YouTube. If you don’t want everyone seeing them, mark them as private so only people you choose can see them.



Stream music and movies

Your smartphone or tablet works great as a media player for music and videos, but those take up a lot of space. Instead of loading your entire media library on your gadget, consider using a cloud streaming service instead.

For iPhones and iPads, Apple’s iTunes Match will hold your entire music library in the cloud and stream to you the songs you want. Sure it costs $25 a year, but that’s much less than spending hundreds on a new gadget with more storage that will just fill up again.

Google Play Music is another solution. This service can hold your entire music library, including songs from iTunes, and stream your music to you whenever you want. The only space it takes up is for the Google Play Music app. There’s also an option to get a subscription to add new music and movies, similar to iTunes.

If you purchased movies via iTunes, Amazon or Google Play, those are available in the cloud and you can stream them using each service’s respective app. You can also stream movies from Netflix, Hulu, and other services via their apps.



Store Movies and Heavier Files Externally

When it comes to movies, just five feature-length HD movies will take up 15GB or more of space. That’s all the space available on many devices.

Instead of storing movies on your phone or tablet, bring along a light and high capacity portable hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1 TB Portable External Hard Drive has the capacity to store over 330 of those same movies. This will keep more space on your phone for impromptu videos of your travels. Moreover, by keeping them on an external device, you can also share them between your multiple entertainment gadgets.

Also be sure to check out and download the VLC app (Android or iOS, Free) that can play any movie file. It cuts down on the headaches of making sure your movies are in the right format.

USB Drivers And Adapters
For easier transfer of files between your devices, a USB drive would serve great.
Not all devices have a USB port, and even some laptops don't have those anymore. This is where USB adapters would come in handy. It can be used to move and store data on a USB drive and/or use the adapter to store or upload data from SD card.




Sound-off: Do you and how do you get all your devices ready for travel? Let us know below 

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