Best Tips and Tricks for your ZTE AWE!

Paul

Common questions!

I’ve been getting a few common questions and thought this was a good time to discuss a few of them and help you increase your productivity on your ZTE AWE phone.   Each one of these tips is good to use for your phone to help you make it easier to get what you need to get done with your phone.  This phone is 4.1.2 Android (Jelly Bean).   

TIP 1: Keep your Phone updated

If you haven’t already, you should check to make sure you ZTE AWE is updated in several areas.   You can easily do this by hitting the 3 dashes on the phone that look like a small bar graph.   Then select “System Settings” and scrolling all the way to the bottom of the screen.   You will select “System Updates”.  Once your their you will find 4 options: 

  • Update PRL
  • Update Profile
  • Update ZTE Software
  • Update Firmware

Each one these can help you in several areas.  First question people ask me is what is a PRL it is “Preferred Roaming List” and can be very useful to keep your signal strength at highest possible strength for your location.   You should do this from time to time or when you have done a hard reset to get put keep your phone updated to any new cell towers in your area.  

Updating your Profile basically helps you keep your phone validated with the network.   You should occasionally keep it updated to make sure you have the latest codes for your phone to be able to communicate with the cell towers and for you to be able to use their services.   This can be quite useful if your experiences some problems with connectivity problems with your 3g service.

Update ZTE Software is a form of drivers that you need to use to have your phone work with Jelly Bean.   I am sure there are some Cyangen Mods out there that can get around this but I am not really concerned with using a mod right now.  As you know it is another layer to the Android community for them to have some for of ownership of their phones.   Nothing you can do about it but you should keep that updated just in case there is something new you can use with your phone.

Update Firmware can be very useful if your just bought your phone and you wanted the latest version of Android on your phone.   You will get updates from the provider if there is an OTA (Over The Air) update that is available for your device but those aren’t very reliable and thus you can check manually.  Who knows you might someday be able to use the Android 4.3 or 4.4 the Kit Kat Versions!

Tip 2: Multiple Folders and Groups

The nice thing about Jelly Bean and above on the android devices is that you can now have folders on your  home screen and any other menu area you are wanting to put it.   On the ZTE you have 4 spots that you can have a permanent folder.  The Home bar as I call it can be easily used to keep those folders of apps that help you on your phone.   I’ve got a Social Folder with Facebook, Twitter, and any other social app that I want.   I also have several different phone apps that allow me to do stuff like Google Voice.   I even have a games folder so I do have to go back to the home screen to play games that I use offten on my device like Words With Friends.

If you would like to add or remove icons on the bottom bar, just press on the icon shortcut and hold for a second or two and then move it to where ever you wanted to move it to.   If you happen to delete an important shortcut just find them in the apps menu.   That is the Circle with 4 small squares in it!  

TIP 3: Adding a VPN

If your are worried about people spy on you on public or when you use your phone.   You can have a VPN on the phone.   You can use something like VPN4ALL but if your wondering what a VPN is, check out my article on the subject.   If you value your privacy you will want to read both articles to better understand how to use a VPN.   

Adding a VPN is easy, just hit the menu key (3 Bars) and then select:

System Settings  —-> More —-> VPN —-> Add VPN

There are sever different options to setting up a VPN on the ZTE AWE but I recommend the L2TP/IPSec PSK or the IPSec Xauth PSK ones.   They may not be NSA backdoor but I can’t be 100% sure about that.   I do not recommend at all to use the PTPP for VPN because that is not the best idea for keeping people out!

More to Come!

It seems this will be a good one to come back to in the coming weeks.   I will post even more tips and tricks in the coming weeks and if you haven’t subscribed to my RSS Feed or my Email list.  If you don’t you might miss a valuable tip or trick for your ZTE AWE or some other device that I’ve talked about in the past!