It Articals

Use the IMEI Number in Android

Every android phone carries a unique IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity Number). It will be printed at the back of your device. If you are unable to find the number, you have to launch your phone app and dial the number *#06#. This will give you the IMEI number of your phone. Store this number in a safe place so that it helps you in locating your phone when it is lost.

When you file a complaint, this number has to be added in the report. Your service provider uses this number to track your phone and tell you where it is. No matter if the person using the phone is using a different SIM card or has switched off the phone. Once the device is traced, you can request your service provider to block it from using.

This is one of the easy ways of locating your lost Android phone or tablet.
Android Device Manager

Google has recently released a new locator feature for Android gadgets called Android Device manager, which helps its users locate their lost or stolen phones and tablets. It functions in the same way as Lookout and Samsung?s ?Find My Mobile?. Here?s how to use Android Device Manager.

Go to the Google Settings app, then select Android device manager. By default the locator feature is activated but to activate remove data wipe, select the box next to ?Allow remote factory reset?, then select ?activate?.

To use this feature, open the site https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager and sign in to your Google account. You may be prompted for permission to allow Android Device Manager to use location data. Select the Accept tab to continue.

Now you will be provided with a map that shows the location of your device along with other details such as the name of the place, when it was last used and more. The location data doesn?t help you if your phone is misplaced somewhere in your home. Instead of making a call to your phone using other?s phone, you can call your phone directly from Android Device Manager. This will make your device to ring with high volume for 5 minutes, even if it?s in silent or vibrate mode.

One feature that is missing in Android Device Manager is remote locking, which can be useful in preventing a stranger from accessing your data, while you?re tracking its location.

Apart from these, there are other apps such as Android Lost, Where do My Droid and GadgetTrak that help you in finding your lost Android phone/Tablet.
Android 4.4(KitKet)

Android 4.4 is designed to run fast, smooth, and responsively on a much broader range of devices than ever before — including on millions of entry-level devices around the world that have as little as 512MB RAM.

KitKat streamlines every major component to reduce memory use and introduces new APIs and tools to help you create innovative, responsive, memory-efficient applications.

OEMs building the next generation of Android devices can take advantage of targeted recommendations and options to run Android 4.4 efficiently, even on low-memory devices. Dalvik JIT code cache tuning, kernel samepage merging (KSM), swap to zRAM, and other optimizations help manage memory. New configuration options let OEMs tune out-of-memory levels for processes, set graphics cache sizes, control memory reclaim, and more.

In Android itself, changes across the system improve memory management and reduce memory footprint. Core system processes are trimmed to use less heap, and they now more aggressively protect system memory from apps consuming large amounts of RAM. When multiple services start at once — such as when network connectivity changes — Android now launches the services serially, in small groups, to avoid peak memory demands.

For developers, Android 4.4 helps you deliver apps that are efficient and responsive on all devices. A new API, ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice(), lets you tune your app's behavior to match the device's memory configuration. You can modify or disable large-memory features as needed, depending on the use-cases you want to support on entry-level devices. Learn more about optimizing your apps for low-memory devices here.

New tools give also give you powerful insight into your app's memory use. The procstats tool details memory use over time, with run times and memory footprint for foreground apps and background services. An on-device view is also available as a new developer option. The meminfo tool is enhanced to make it easier to spot memory trends and issues, and it reveals additional memory overhead that hasn't previously been visible.