NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, January 2013
Free "Advanced Mobile Care" for Android
By Ira Wilsker, Radio Show Host,
Columnist, College Professor and deputy sheriff
iwilsker@sbcglobal.net
(click to email author)

WEBSITES:
http://www.iobit.com/advanced-mobile-care.php
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iobit.mobilecare

It should be no surprise that smart computing devices are outselling traditional desktop and laptop computers. There is an intensive battle for market share of operating systems for these smart devices, which includes smart phones, tablets, and related devices. The primary combatants for this market share are Google with its Android operating system, Apple with its iOS, and Microsoft with its newly released Windows 8 version for smart devices. While it may appear that Apple and its iOS seems to get the most media coverage, and has a large and very loyal user base, published reports indicate that Google's Android operating is outselling Apple's product by a wide margin, with Microsoft barely getting an "honorable mention".

As smart devices become more powerful and more widely used, they are encountering many of the same types of software and security issues faced by their older cousins, the PC and laptop. Many of the traditional software and security companies have come to market with versions of their products for smart devices, while countless smaller companies and individuals have also created system utilities for smart devices. With their prolific numbers, and the fact that more of us are using our smart devices for daily transactions, including as an "electronic wallet", it was inevitable that cyber crooks, malware authors, and other miscreants would start to target smart devices of all operating systems. While there are many smart device security utilities that protect against malware, and there are many other system utilities to maintain and improve smart device performance, there are relatively few comprehensive utilities that perform both essential tasks. One well known software publisher, with many millions of loyal PC users, recently introduced just such a product for Android smart devices, IObit's Advanced Mobile Care, which is available as a free 3.1mb download from the Google Play store.

IObit calls its newest free product a, "... security and optimization app ... (that) gives Android users an excellent way to protect their smartphones from Android security and performance problems." Using a build of its respected anti-malware engine of PC fame, IObit provides significant protection from the malware targeting the Android platform with dramatically increasing frequency. Also integrated into the new Advanced Mobile Care is an Android optimized build of its wildly successful and popular Advanced System Care (over 150 million downloads of the PC version). This feature provides for a comprehensive system tune-up of the smart device, including memory recovery (cleaning), deletion of obsolete cache files, and the removal of useless junk files. By performing these system maintenance tasks, Android speed and performance may be improved, while minimizing the content of the limited storage capacity of the device.

In addition to protecting an Android device from malware and improving general system performance, Advanced Mobile Care also offers Android users additional functionality and features. In terms of usability, malware detection and removal, junk file cleaning and system improvement functions are all started with a "One Tap Scan", which commences the complete scanning and cleaning process. Many people have become avid game players on their Android devices; this IObit product includes "Game Speeder" which serves as a game launcher that can improve the performance and speed of the games.

Compared to PCs and laptops, most Android devices have much less built-in storage that can hold the apps and operating system which can restrict the number and size of apps that could be on the Android device at any time. Almost all Android devices can optionally utilize some form of additional storage, typically some variety of SD memory card that can hold many more apps (programs), music, videos, and other data. Coupled with the fact that there are nearly a million apps for the Android, many of which are free, Android users often download more apps than they can likely use. To better meet the needs of Android users, Advanced Mobile Care includes an App Manager which can display all of the apps on the device sorted by frequency of use, name, or size. The App Manager can also be used to uninstall unwanted apps as well as free up internal storage by moving apps to the SD card, freeing up the integral memory and storage for other functions.

One common complaint in the smart phone and tablet blogs, regardless of operating system, is limited battery life. On more than one occasion, my smart phone shut down unexpectedly when the battery power dropped below a predetermined level. I was initially unaware that many of the apps that I had loaded were continuously running (Facebook, Gmail, Groupon, and others) and were resource hogs, all of which combined to drain the battery faster than I had expected. Advanced Mobile Care offers a "Battery Saver" utility that offers three user selected battery management modes in order for the user to better control battery usage. With the Battery Saver integrated with a Task Killer, the user can easily decide which apps to kill. By stopping unnecessary apps from running, battery power is conserved, and memory is freed, leading to improved performance and longer battery life. The Battery Saver displays the projected remaining battery life with different combinations of running apps, as well as the remaining time to recharge the battery during the charge cycle.

Because of their inherent portability, smart devices seem to be borrowed by others, and sometimes "misplaced" (lost or stolen). Many of us carry a large quantity of personal information on our smart devices which could be purloined by others in possession of our devices. Our personal information may be valuable to others, especially to identity thieves who may make illicit use of our sensitive data. Advanced Mobile Care includes a password protected "Privacy Locker" which enables the user to hide and secure sensitive information, as well as personal photos, family videos, and other content from those whom we do not want to share that information.

Advanced Mobile Care, available for free from the Google Play store, will run on almost all contemporary Android devices (smart phones and tablets) including Android 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3 (Gingerbread), 3.x (Honeycomb, both versions), and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean). I downloaded and installed Android Mobile Care on my Android 4.04 smart phone, and it seems to run well doing precisely as advertised. The newly released version 1.0 is very well done and seems to run smoothly on my smart phone. This product would be a worthwhile download for any compatible Android device.


Click here to return to top
====================================================================

==================================================================