32 essential Android tips and tricks

Several weeks ago, we highlighted 40 useful iPhone tricks everyone should know. We got such good feedback from that feature that we wanted to share the love with Android users – who, after all, make up the largest proportion of the smart phone community.

32. Keep Gmail secure with two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication uses your phone to add an extra layer of security to your Google account (and works with other services, too). Here, the Google Authenticator app displays a code that must be entered to access a Gmail account.

This isn't an Android-exclusive tip, since Google authentication also works with iOS and BlackBerry devices. But since it comes from Google, we figure it's okay to include here.

Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security for your Google account beyond just a password. With two-factor authentication enabled, bad guys would have to know your password and physically possess your phone to gain access to your mail and information. To set it up, download the "Google Authenticator" app, then enable Google's "two-step verification" for your account. You'll be prompted to pair your phone with your account using either a QR code or a manual entry. From that point on, when you're signing in to Google, you'll also have to enter a verification code that Google sends to the Authenticator app on your phone.

For some people, this may seem like overkill -- but you can always tell Google to trust certain computers (such as your home and work computer, if you frequently use them to sign on to your Google account). That way you won't be prompted to pull out your phone every time you need to use Gmail, but Authenticator will still activate if someone tries to access your account from another computer.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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