One of the most important question your friends and relatives (see: mom) will probably ask you is "how much storage do I need for my new mobile device?" Then, you will give them that look, that ‘erm…’ and that cautionary start, "Well, it depends… what do you want to do with it?", before suddenly turning shopping advisor for the rest of the day at the gadget store.

(Image Source: Windows Phone Central)

Choosing the amount of storage you need for your device is more often than not decided by how much you are willing to splurge on your new gadget. For instance, if you are looking for an iPad, this is the price range you will probably be looking at – a $300 difference for an extra 112GB.

But do you really need that much storage space? 128GB is quite absurd for a mobile device, considering that you can do so much more with it on a 128GB solid state drive in a laptop. Then again, it depends on what you put in it.

Recommended Reading: Clean Your iOS Devices For Extra Space With PhoneClean

Let’s take a look at the optimum amount of storage space you need.

Space Hoggers – The Culprits

One fo the major problems many smartphone and tablet users experience is running out of space to store their content, content such as:

1. Photos

Everyone takes photos with their smartphones: kids, pets, airplane window shots, selfies, food, a new purchase etc. The point is it is so easy to take a snapshot these days that we almost always overdo it. Plus, photos taken with smartphones are improving in quality, which is why you might see them to reach 4MB per photo.

Using that as an estimate benchmark, 1GB would hold about 256 photos:

• 16GB = 4096 photos
• 32GB = 8192 photos
• 64GB = 16384 photos
• 128GB = 32768 photos

To make it simpler, if you take 10 photos a day, you’ll fill up 16GB in a little over a year.

But If You Are A: "Photographer"

Photography Addicts, instagrammers and new parents be warned, the photos you take can take up a lot of storage space, very quickly. By housekeeping your device once in a while, you can probably survive on 16GB but if you create albums after albums of retakes, this is going to run out pretty quickly.

Note however that housekeeping doesn’t mean that you have to delete all your photos (ok, some of the failed ones), it just means you should transfer them to your computer or to a larger storage space for better safekeeping.

Verdict: 16GB or 32GB – 16GB is quite enough for smartphone quality photos. If this is a professional route for you, try shifting to using a digital camera instead.

Read Also: 10 New & Fresh iPhone Photography Apps

2. Game Apps & Videos

Apps have also grown in size since its birth. These days high-ranked games can go from between 40MB to over the 1GB mark per game. Nicer graphics, faster response time, more complicated gameplay, storylines etc, contribute to the hallmark of popular games played by a global audience, and a lot of these games rake in millions every year. But I digress.

Here are some of the more addictive games you would probably find on the random iPad.

• Angry Birds Star Wars 2 – 44.3MB
• Plants vs. Zombies 2 – 44.7MB
• Minion Rush – 45.5MB
• Candy Crush Saga – 45.6MB
• Temple Run 2 – 46.8MB
• Fruit Ninja HD – 49.3MB
• Asphalt 8: Airborne – 884MB
• FIFA14 – 1.17GB
• Infinity Blade 3 – 1.4GB

But If You Are A: 2010s Parent

The iPad is a great tool to keep kids (and sometimes adults) entranced and sitting still in a corner. Parents these days know the effect Angry Birds can have on a rowdy child, and if you happen to come across this dynamo duo on your 3-hour flight, you may probably object less to a child being enamored with colorful and fun games that will keep them entertained until touchdown.

(Image Source: myeasybee)

A savvy parent’s tablet might also include some video content like cartoons for the kids to watch and probably an abundance of learning apps. Videos can take up a lot of space (around 300MB), but a few videos can easily provide hours of entertainment, so long as they don’t bore of it quickly.

Bear in mind, while there are replacements required, you might want to keep the older apps intact in case there is a demand for an encore out of the blue.

Verdict: 16GB – It is not like photo-snapping where you stockpile snap after snap on a daily basis. One well-designed app can keep the other apps at bay for a relatively long time.

Read Also: 5 Ways To Make Your IOS Devices More Kid-Friendly And Child-Safe

3. Music

Music can help kill time while commuting on public transport, studying, jogging or even swimming. If you’re one who cannot go a day without music, there are bound to be music files on your mobile device – and the need for ample storage.

However, when you crunch the numbers, based on a 4-min song being 5MB heavy, 1GB would give you roughly 200 songs (most of which you will skip through) aka 13 hours of continuous playback aka way more than your battery can survive through per charge.

But If You Are A: Music Junkie

Opt for online radio services like Pandora and Spotify instead. With these radio services, you don’t have to lug around your entire song collection on your device anymore, leaving space for other materials. If data connection is a problem where you are, Spotify’s premium service also lets you create personal playlists and download songs to play offline.

If, however, you’re an audiophile that enjoys only top quality music, more than anything else, you might prefer FLAC files stored on your device, in which case 32GB should be more than enough.

Verdict: 16GB or 32GB – Alternatively, you can always tune in to a regular radio station like how we did in the 90′s.

4. Documents & Reading Material

People who enjoy reading are in luck as reading materials do not take up much storage. Unless it’s a comic or very visually laden, carrying around 1GB of free ebooks is equivalent to a library that fits in your tablet or smartphone.

But If You Are: Always Taking Work Home

There might be a need for higher capacity storage if the device needs to be filled with business related apps, utilities and large PDF manuals that load faster outside of the cloud, but if you can charge it to the company, 128GB sounds like a good deal. (We kid. We have solutions if you happen to need more than 32GB.)

Verdict: 16GB or 32GB

Read Also: Free PDF Apps For Smartphone & Tablets

Cloud, Cards & Cables

All the above are common culprits of space hoggers in your mobile device so while 32GB will more than suffice, if you need more storage later on, you can always fall back on cloud storage apps, micro SD cards and OTG cables.

Cloud Storage

Our favorite cloud storage app for music, video, ebooks and doc files is Dropbox with its many desktop Dropbox tools and apps that support many file types. There are of course other alternatives, depending on your requirements e.g. the Google Drive app is handy for document editing.

Micro SD Cards

Certain Android and Windows devices provide the option of expanding your storage space with a micro SD card. This is a very inexpensive option to give you another 32GB (or sometimes 64GB if it’s supported) that will cost less than $20.

On The Go USB Cables

These OTG USB cables for Android devices allow users to transfer data in and out from the Android device to a USB flash drive, an external hard disk, or other storage form. This allows another form of storage expansion and to access files outside of the device’s internal storage.

Apple also has an iPad camera connection kit for you to export pictures from your photo gallery. This gives you the option of housekeeping without a computer and freeing more space for more photos.

Conclusion

So there you have it, 16GB or at most 32GB, is more than enough for anyone to survive on due to the little amount of time we spend on mobile devices. Larger storage does give you room to hoard more files before a springclean is needed but if you aren’t a power user, you can spend the extra $100-$200 on other things.

Come to think of it, tell us how you would optimize the usage of 64GB or 128GB of storage space on a smartphone or tablet in the comments area below.

In terms of screen size, mobile devices have smaller screens than a PC monitor. When viewing webpages or apps, there are some elements that are translated to accommodate this screen limit. Commonly, there is a button at the right or left, which will reveal hidden elements when it is tapped.

Take the Facebook app for iOS as an example; if you tap the icon on the left side, it reveals the link menus to navigate the app, while if you tap the icon on the right side, it will reveal your online contacts. Most of today’s apps apply a similar approach.

In our previous post, Jake has shown you how to build this kind of function from scratch using jQuery. Today, we will explore another way of using jQuery Mobile.

jQuery Mobile is a framework that is specifically designed to build user interface and interaction for mobile devices – like iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and Symbian. In the context of our discussion, it provides a component called Panel Slide to build that function in a much easier way.

Recommended Reading: Ultimate Resources For Mobile Web Application Design

Requirement

First, you need to download jQuery, jQuery Mobile Library, and jQuery Mobile Stylesheet. Then link them to your HTML document, like so.

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://code.jquery.com/mobile/1.3.0-beta.1/jquery.mobile-1.3.0-beta.1.min.css" /> <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/mobile/1.3.0-beta.1/jquery.mobile-1.3.0-beta.1.min.js"></script> 

HTML Markup

Depending on the App you build, Panel can be anything. In this example, I will just follow Facebook to make it easy.

In this post I will be creating two panels, left and right. The left panel is for placing the app menu navigation, and the left one is for listing the people that are currently online.

Our demo page consist of four sections, the header, the content and two panels. In jQuery Mobile, these sections are defined using HTML5 data-role attributes, as follows.

 <div data-role="page"> <div class="header" data-role="header"> <span class="open left"><a href="#panel-01">&#61641;</a></span> <span class="title">Hello World</span> <span class="open right"><a href="#panel-02">&#9776;</a></span> </div> <div class="content" data-role="content"> <h3>This is the content</h3> <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam [...].</p> </div> <div class="panel left" data-role="panel" data-position="left" data-display="push" id="panel-01"> <ul> <li class="newsfeed"><a href="#" title="Home">News Feed</a></li> <li class="profile"><a href="#" title="Profile">Profile</a></li> <li class="setting"><a href="#" title="Setting">Setting</a></li> <li class="logout"><a href="#" title="Logout">Logout</a></li> <li class="report"><a href="#" title="Report">Report Bug</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="panel right" data-role="panel" data-position="right" data-display="overlay" id="panel-02"> <ul> <li><a href="#" title="John Doe"><span class="avatar"><img src="img/mambows_120.jpg" width="30" height="30"></span>John Doe</a></li> <li><a href="#" title="Jessy Doe"><span class="avatar"><img src="img/mkalalang_120.jpg" width="30" height="30"></span>Jessy Doe</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> 

jQuery Mobile provides three methods to show the panel namely reveal, push, and overlay; these methods are specified with data-display attribute.

reveal will show the panel by sliding the content page. It is the default method applied if the attribute is not specified explicitly. The push method will display the panel by sliding both the panel and the content at the same time, while the overlay method will show the panel at the top of the page content.

CSS and Theme

As we have linked the jQuery Mobile stylesheet, our page has also been styled up without the need of additional style rules.

You can apply the themes that are provided using data-theme attribute. But, in this example, we will just leave the header style as shown in the above screenshot, then style the page and the panels on our own. Here are our style rules.

 .open a, .open a:hover { padding: 7px 15px; background-color: #000; border-radius: 3px; } .open { color: #fff; position: absolute; } .open.left { left: 20px; cursor: pointer; } .open.right { right: 20px; cursor: pointer; } .panel { background: #7F8C8D; color: #ECF0F1; } .panel a { color: #FFF !important; text-shadow: 0 0 0 rgba(0,0,0,0); font-size: 14px; padding: 15px 20px 15px 60px; display: block; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px solid #475657; border-top: 1px solid #95A5A6; position: relative; font-weight: 400; } .panel ul { padding: 0; margin: 0; list-style: none; border-bottom: 1px solid #95A5A6; } .panel .avatar { position: absolute; top: 8px; left: 20px; } .ui-panel-inner { padding: 0; } .panel a:hover { background-color: #95A5A6; } .panel.right a:before { content: ''; display: block; width: 12px; height: 12px; border-radius: 50%; position: absolute; background-color: #2ECC71; right: 20px; } .panel.left a:before { content: ''; display: inline-block; position: absolute; width: 24px; height: 24px; top: 15px; left: 20px; font-family: 'hk-demo'; text-align: center; font-size: 18px; } .panel.left .newsfeed a:before { content: '\f09e'; } .panel.left .profile a:before { content: 'ðŸ'¤'; } .panel.left .setting a:before { content: '\2699'; } .panel.left .logout a:before { content: '\e78e'; } .panel.left .report a:before { content: '\f0e0'; } 

I will not slice how these styles work bit per bit, as we already discussed this in our previous posts – such as Pseudo-elements and Font Icons.

That’s all we need. We don’t need to add extra pieces of JavaScript as it all has been handled by the framework, and the panel is now workable.

You can see it in action from this demo; you can click the icons on the header, or if you view it in a touch-enabled device, you can also swipe the screen to display the panels.

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Ads are a necessary evil. Many websites and applications are providing you with free service, free content and free software because someone else is paying them to keep them up. Thus, the service provider has to serve ads to you in return for the income that is keeping them in business, and in development. As the user, you reap the benefit of using the product for free.

However, sometimes the ad placements can be really annoying, contributing to not-so-appealing user experience. In this post we will look at methods to block ads from showing up on Android. You can block ads from appearing in apps and games, or only on browsers.

Recommended Reading: 20 Essential Apps For Your Android Phone

The methods here may work for both rooted and non-rooted devices. It will be specified for each method. Before we begin, you need a File Manager, e.g. Astro File Manager. Any other file manager will work fine.

Disclaimer: Attempt ad-blocking at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible for any effects on your device resulting from these methods.

1. Adblock Plus (ABP)

This method uses ad-blockers (apps) to block all ads in your device, including the ads shown in various apps and games. There are many ad-blockers for Android, thanks to the ever-growing Android developers. The top two would be Adblock Plus (ABP) and AdAway; we wil discuss the former, but you can install AdAway if that’s your preference.

Using Adblock Plus

We’re going with Adblock Plus as it is an open source project and has the option to allow non-intrusive ads. This method works for both rooted and non-rooted devices. Installing an ad-blocker app requires your device to allow applications from unknown sources.

Sideloading is required as Google has removed ad-block apps from Google Play Store. You need to sideload any ad-blocker, i.e. install ad-blockers using its APK file and not from Google Play Store.

Follow the given steps to set this configuration:

1. Go to Settings > Applications (or Security on 4.0 and above) on your Android device.
2. Navigate to the Unknown sources option.
3. If unchecked, tap the checkbox, and then tap OK on the confirmation popup.

Your Android device is ready to install ad-blockers.

Installing And Configuring Adblock Plus

1. Open a browser in your device and download Adblock Plus for Android. Your device will receive the APK file: adblockplusandroid-version.apk.

2. Navigate to where your downloaded files are kept, then tap on the file and install. (If you open the APK file using a file manager, select Open App Manager and then click on Install.)

3.1 On rooted devices: after installing, open Adblock Plus. It will request for super user permissions. Allow super user permissions to Adblock Plus and you are good to go.

3.2 On non-rooted devices: you need a few more steps, to manually set up proxy in your Android. You will need to follow the instructions here as instructions are different for Android versions up to 3.1 and 4.0+.s

Now Adblock Plus will start blocking ads. You can set more options in Adblock Plus like ads filter lists, non-intrusive ads, etc in Settings.

Adblock Plus – Browser Extension

Adblock Plus is also available as a browser extension for Firefox. With this method, only the ads shown on web pages inside the browser are blocked. Ads in apps or games are not affected. This method works for rooted as well as non-rooted devices.

Setting Up Adblock Plus (Extension)

1. If you are not using Firefox as a browser on your Android yet, get it here. Run the browser on your device and go to the Adblock Plus add-on here. Add it to Firefox and Install it.

2. Restart Firefox and browse ad-free. You can set more options in Adblock Plus by going to the Menu > Adblock Plus and going through the options you can configure.

2. Block Ads using ‘hosts’ file

This method uses ‘hosts’ file to block ads. This method blocks all ads in your device, including the ones shown in various apps and games. This method works only for rooted devices.

What is a ‘hosts’ file?

‘hosts’ file is a plain-text file in an operating system to map hostnames (like anything.com) to its IP address. Whenever you try to launch a website using its hostname, the operating system will usually search the ‘hosts’ file to find the corresponding IP address first.

If the search is successful, then its mapped IP address is used; otherwise a query is sent to DNS (Domain Name Service) to find the IP address of that hostname.

Setting Up ‘hosts’ file

1. On the computer, open MVPS (or pgl.yoyo.org or hostfile.mine.nu) on your browser. A plain-text page will open. Save this page as the name hosts in the computer.

2. Using Bluetooth or a USB connection, copy this hosts file from your computer to your Android device. Note the file path.

3. On your Android, open the file manager in your device and copy the hosts file to /etc or /system/etc. Accessing this location may require you to ‘allow super user permissions’ to the file manager.

4. Rename the original hosts file (if present) to a .txt or .bak extension. Paste the saved hosts file here. Reboot your Android and your Android is now ad-free.

Wrap Up

Although ads are annoying, they are also a great way to try out new apps, products or sites. Allowing non-intrusive ads is a way to be exposed to these new and sometimes great apps via ads. Alternatively many apps offers you the option to buy an ad-free version of the app, so you can support your favorite apps without being annoyed by the ads.