{"id":4823,"date":"2017-01-03T09:09:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T17:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/?p=4823"},"modified":"2023-01-11T15:50:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T23:50:29","slug":"ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Steps For a New Year\u2019s Cellphone Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As much as we all love our cellphones, we can also be mighty tough on them. My family is always coming to me with stories of \u201ca friend\u201d who set aside their phone and promptly forgot where they left it. I even find that I, against my own advice, sometimes forget to delete apps I\u2019m not using, eating up precious memory.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s all commit to a fresh start this year, for the sake of our hardworking phones. My New Year\u2019s resolution is to treat my phone right\u2014and enjoy the rewards of better performance and security that I know will follow. To get started, I put together this list of what I\u2019m calling my \u201cCellphone Self Improvements\u201d for 2017. I hope that by sharing them, you might benefit from at least a few of these, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.) Download a Password Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A password manager app (like <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.lastpass.lpandroid&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LastPass<\/a>) securely stores passwords and logins for all your devices, taking the guesswork out of signing in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.) Backup your photos every month using Google Photos or iCloud<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Make sure you have space available to capture that beautiful sunset or unique family moment!<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.) Charge your smartphone every day<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let \u201clow battery\u201d interrupt your busy day! Setup a charging station at home, or get a car charger if you need to \u201cjuice up\u201d on the go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4.) Delete apps you never use\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you really \u201cneed it someday,\u201d you can always download it again later.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5.) \u2026but try a new app every month or so!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are so many fun and helpful apps coming onto the market all the time! You can always find my recommendations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/Blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">right in this blog<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><strong>6.) Always keep Wi-Fi turned on<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wi-Fi is available just about anywhere now, so why not preserve the data from your cellphone plan for when you really need it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>7.) Turn off GPS and Bluetooth unless you really need them <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a double benefit here: you\u2019ll conserve precious battery life, and in the case of GPS, save on data usage as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8.) Put your phone in the same pocket of your purse or bag<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Imagine not having to fumble and search every time you reach for your phone. Pick a spot, and stick with it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9.) Download \u201cFind My iPhone\u201d or \u201cAndroid Device Manager\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the quick and easy way to locate a missing Android device or iPhone! Just follow the steps I listed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/asked-answered-find-missing-smartphone\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10.) Learn a new feature each month<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Even if it\u2019s as simple as something like using emojis, commit to mastering one skill each month and you\u2019ll be an expert in no time!<\/p>\n<p>The beauty of this list is that the payoffs are immediate. Even if you only do half of them, you\u2019ve still improved your phone\u2019s performance and reliability (or in my case, made sure I can actually find it when I need it!) Let\u2019s start our \u201ccellular New Year\u201d the right way\u2014we\u2019ll benefit all year long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As much as we all love our cellphones, we can also be mighty tough on them. My family is always coming to me with stories of \u201ca friend\u201d who set aside their phone and promptly forgot where they left it. I even find that I, against my own advice, sometimes forget to delete apps I\u2019m [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-tricks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Ten Steps For a New Year\u2019s Cellphone Makeover<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Let\u2019s all commit to a fresh start this year, for the sake of our hardworking phones. Here\u2019s a list of ten tips to get you started.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Susan Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ten Steps For a New Year\u2019s Cellphone Makeover","description":"Let\u2019s all commit to a fresh start this year, for the sake of our hardworking phones. Here\u2019s a list of ten tips to get you started.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Susan Thomas","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/","url":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/","name":"Ten Steps For a New Year\u2019s Cellphone Makeover","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-03T17:09:58+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-11T23:50:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ae811ea927a57cdfa8f2807cea3dca95"},"description":"Let\u2019s all commit to a fresh start this year, for the sake of our hardworking phones. Here\u2019s a list of ten tips to get you started.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/ten-steps-new-years-cellphone-makeover\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ten Steps For a New Year\u2019s Cellphone Makeover"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/","name":"Our Blog","description":"Consumer Cellular Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ae811ea927a57cdfa8f2807cea3dca95","name":"Susan Thomas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f3b402ab9417c4dd647da1a8dc1b85e2f84e29f06fa8d366a203f01362f4fc6d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f3b402ab9417c4dd647da1a8dc1b85e2f84e29f06fa8d366a203f01362f4fc6d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Susan Thomas"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.consumercellular.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/author\/susan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7483,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions\/7483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consumercellular.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}