How to delete text threads from a Samsung Galaxy S2

Due to the way the Samsung Galaxy S2 (and Androids in general) store the texts in "Threads" (or "Threaded conversations" if you prefer) the texts are kept pretty tidy by default. One of the best things about threaded conversations though is how easy they are to delete from the phone. Whether you want to delete some texts from an ex, a friend or just delete something a company has sent you, this guide will show you exactly how you delete those threaded conversations from a Samsung Galaxy S2.

Firstly you will need to open your text app, which should look something like the image on the left. This will show a list of all the text conversations on your phone with the persons picture, their name, the latest message and the date all being shown. What you need to do at this point is hold your finger on the conversation that you want to delete. For this example we are using "Tara Lewis" so I held my finger anywhere in her "block" (from the picture to the date).

After holding your finger down you will notice an option (see the screen shot on the right) with "View contact" and "Delete thread", at this point you need to select "Delete thread". After this you will be given the screen you can see in the screenshot to the left with a choice to "Cancel" or "OK" the deletion.

Please note- Only use this method if you want to delete all the messages in a conversation as that is what this does, it completely deletes the conversation from your phone. If you want to delete specific messages they you will need to open the thread and delete the messages individually.

How to change the lock screen on a HTC Wildfire

As we all want out phones to be really "ours" we like to tinker with things like ringtones, fonts and wallpapers. With many phones however you can also change the lock screen wallpaper independent of the normal wallpaper, this guide explains how to set a lock screen wallpaper for the classic HTC Wildfire smartphone. This lock screen wallpaper will show up in the background behind the clock on the lock screen of your phone.

Firstly you need to press the phone's "menu" button and then select "Wallpaper" and then simply choose "Lock screen". After this you will be given 2 options "HTC Wallpapers" or "Gallery". If you want to just change the image to something generic feel free to have a look at the HTC Wallpapers, though I advise it's more fun to use a photograph of your own and searching your Gallery for a picture to enjoy.

Using a picture you've taken can add not only a nice personal effect by allowing you to display things such as a garden, your family, a sports team or yourself but also a smart little visual effect using pictures that were taken with added effect. In the wallpaper to the left the wall paper image was taken in sepia giving a rather antiqued look to the phone behind the clock and battery warning.

Whilst this is a little bit pointless it's a nice little thing you can change if you want to personalise your phone that little bit more with out downloading apps to really take a hold of your phone.

A solution to an MMS problem on the HTC Wildfire

I know the phone is old an old one but people are still using it and thanks to the HTC Wildfire S the name seems to have popped up once again. I've not a Wildfire S to test on but if you are trying to send MMS (media messages) on a HTC Wildfire and keep getting a "Generic network failure" the solution is usually really simple to solve.

Most of the time if you're getting this error you are connected to Wi-Fi with your phone and as a result the phone isn't able to send OR receive things over the data network. What you need to do is turn off the Wi-Fi connection and let the phone attempt to resend the picture. This should solve that problem as long as you can actually receive an internet connection via the data network.

Please note I've not tested this with a HTC Wildfire S so I'm not sure if it's been corrected on the new version of the phone.

How to take a screenshot with a HTC Sensation

The screenshot feature has been included in a number of Samsung devices and now you can join in if you have a HTC. Before you start you will need to make sure you are running Android version 2.3.4. To check your version you will need to go into the phones settings screen and then find the "About phone" option and scroll to "Android version". As long as it says 2.3.4 (or higher) you're ready to go.

Now on any screen you want to take a screen shot on press the power button and the home shot and the phone should take a screenshot of it's self with out any need to download an app or even rooting the device.

One of the key uses of this is for guides though another, growing use, is to use the images to post them on forums to show off problems. For example if you have a specific symbol showing and want to know what it is you can post a screenshot and make things easier for people trying to help you.

How to watch live TV on your Samsung Galaxy S2

If your in the UK did you know you can free AND legally watch Freeview TV on your Samsung Galaxy S2 (or other modern phone, though I'm not sure on which phones in particular).

Firstly you will need to go to www.tvcatchup.com and create a free account then visit the site on your phone and login on the phones browser. The sign up is completely free and really simple, so you really won't struggle with doing this.

When you've logged into the account on your phone you will be able to access a channel list like the one in the screen shot on the left hand side with (almost) all the freeview channels. Whether it's a BBC channel (1,2,3,4, News and Parliament) an ITV channel (1,2,3,4 and some of the +1 channels) or the other channels displayed in the screen shot to the left, all you need to do is select one of them.

After you've selected a channel you'll  see a new screen like this one on the right hand side with a white space and a small triangle in a square block. You need to click inside the space here to "load" the video which should play. You may however want to turn on "Auto rotate" and flip the screen on it's side to get a full wide screen type of view of the channel.


As you can see in this screen shot to the left the quality is brilliant on a good phone (this shot was taken on a Samsung Galaxy S2). The best thing is that the stream is only a few seconds behind "live" TV.

Before you start doing this to watch all your TV just be aware you will be using data so either make sure you're on unlimited data (such as that offered by T Mobile) or your connected to the internet by Wi-Fi as it is very data intensive.

Whilst this guide was done with a Samsung Galaxy S2 it's worth trying with any "new" phone (any phone running Android 2.1 or better should be fine).

How to add music to your videos on a Samsung Galaxy S2

 One of the questions we've seen asked on forums regarding the Samsung Galaxy S2 is "How do I add music to my videos?" This is a question that is actually remarkable simple and yet incredibly effective, especially if you want to make a home made "music video".

Firstly you obviously need to have your video, so make sure you film the video you want to use. After this you need to open up the "Video Maker"

app (you made need to look in the app drawer to find it). Then choose "New" on the first screen and select a theme (I advise using none) then find your video. Once you've found your video drag it to the bottom of the screen then click on the musical note. Now you can select a song from your phone, when you've found the one you want to use drag it to the box under your video and you'll have added music to your video.

Now to find the video with your music add you will need to press "menu" and then export the video which can take a little while, but afterwards the video should be found in your gallery in a folder called "Video Maker"

How to add new fonts to a Samsung Galaxy S2

In the past we've looked at changing the font on your Samsung Galaxy S2 but by default there is only 3 fonts, now we are going to show you how to add a whole lot more! Before you begin going into your settings screen and click on "Applications" and tick the box next to "Unknown sources".

After allowing "Unknown sources" with you will need to download "Font for Galaxy SP" from the market, this is a free app and can be used for any Samsung Galaxy phone so if you've stumbled here and are using a different Samsung Galaxy model you can follow the guide anyway!

When you open the app you will see something like this, click on the F in the middle to open a list of fonts that the app has. Whilst the list isn't exhaustive and it does miss a lot of well known fonts it does have a really decent amount. When you select one one you can see how it looks and decide before downloading it whether or not you like it.



When you find one you like and want simply click on it and the phone will automatically download it so pull down the notification bar (like in the picture to the left) and click on the newly downloaded font to install it.






After installing the font you need to follow the guide for changing font so go into your "Settings" and open up "Display" and then "Screen display" before opening the "Font style" option which should now list your new fonts (like the image to the right). So whether you want a bold font, a small font, an italic font or something else, you'll likely find one there somewhere.

Just note you will need to add every font individually (which is a bit time consuming if you want to add a lot of fonts) and the app doesn't have all the fonts you may be used to using (for example no "Arial" and no "Times New Roman") but there is a lot of choices open to you.