How to play NES, SNES and Genesis games on your Android phone

Whilst playing games on your mobile phone may often seem as limited as playing Angry Birds or Fruit Slice you actually have a lot more freedom. If like me, you remember when video games were about having fun, jumping on robots heads and chasing Bowser through dungeons you'll love the fact that the Android phones have a huge number of emulators flying about online.

Whilst the legality of emulation is a somewhat grey and murky place (as a result I won't be directing you towards any ROMs) the actual practice is incredibly simple and in some cases is the only way to play specific games. To do this you need to start with an emulator, this is an app (or program if your old fashioned like myself) that needs to be found. Their is a huge number of these available on one...or another market that is used by Android (I'd advise looking on the SlideME market as well as the official Android Market). When you download one of these and then install it, you will then be able to play the ROMs of the game.

For some phones it is possible to use various wireless controls though for others you may find yourself using on screen buttons, both ways are have their pros and cons. Sadly unless you root a Samsung phone however you may be forced into using an onscreen control.

Some emulators that are recommended:
FPSE-A Playstation Emulator
The "oid" series (n64oid, GBCoid, Gensoid, SNesoid, Nesoid, Gearoid, GameBoid, Ataroid) for N64, Game Boy Colour, Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, NES, Game Gear/Master System, Game Boy Advance, Atari)

We also recommend using a controller like the PhoneJoy to play games for the emulators of the newer consoles.

How to solve the "The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected" error on a Samsung Galaxy S2

 Having recently updated both my version of KIES and my version of Android I've come across a number of  issue regarding file transfers from my Laptop to my Samsung Galaxy S2. The most notable of those was that when I was trying to place files onto the phone I was getting an error sayig "The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected" despite the device still being connected and still visually looking like it was working.

Although I never solved the actual reason as to why I was getting this error I've concluded it was due to the update of either Android or the incredibly irritating "KIES" software. Instead of coming up with a solution that would make things as easy as they used to be I instead found a work around. The work around involves using the phones
in built menu's to use the phone as a USB storage device.

Firstly you will need to open the phones menu screen (see above) and then open the "Wireless and Network" settings where you'll be able to find the option for "USB utilities" (see the screen shot on the right). At this point make sure your USB cable is not already connected (or disconnect it if it is already linked to both the phone and the laptop/computer you are using).



After you have clicked on "USB utilities" you will be greeted by the screen on the left with just a single option. When you see this screen you need to press where the phone says "Connect storage to PC".

After  doing the above you will be prompted to connect the USB cable to use mass storage (see the image to the right). This is the first point where you should connect the USB cable if you are going to be using this "work around".


After connecting the cable you will see a screen like the one on the left with the green Android having a hand like a USB device. From here you need to open up the explorer in you computer or laptop and find a "Removable disk" with the right amount of memory (for the Galaxy S2 it should be 11.5GB). From the explorer you should be able to copy files onto or take files from the phone and generally use it as a USB memory card style device. This allows you to easily put music, ROM's, pictures and videos onto the phone.

How to save pictures from the internet on an iPhone 4S

A little while back I showed you how to take pictures from the internet and save them onto your Samsung Galaxy S2. The Galaxy S2 however isn't the only super phone that can take the images from the web and save them. If you are using the new Apple iPhone 4S you can very easily save pictures from the web to the photo roll.

Firstly you will need to use Safari and find the picture you want, and then hold your finger on the image you want to save. This will open up a new menu allowing you to "Save Image" or "Copy" (to add it to an e-mail or MMS message). If you choose to save the picture you will be able to easily and swiftly find it in your photo roll.

How to save pictures from the internet on a Samsung Galaxy S2

We've all seen pictures online that we like and we want to keep. Using a Samsung Galaxy S2 this is incredibly simple and this guide will show you how to take the images you see on the web and download them directly to your phone. Firstly you'll obviously need to find a picture you want to use and go to the webpage with that image, for the sake of this example we're using this websites own article on taking screen captures with a Galaxy S2 (see the screen shot to the right).

When you find the image you need to hold your finger on it for a second or two before being given a contextual menu like the image on the left of the screen. You will need to scroll down this list to "Save image" and then select it.

To find the image on your phone you will need to open up your "Gallery" app and you should find the image in a folder called "download".

How to turn Haptic feedback off on a Samsung Galaxy S2

 When using a Samsung Galaxy S2 you may notice that that screen vibrates when you touch it, a small vibration as if to acknowledge that you've been touching it. This function is called a "haptic feedback", and laymans terms is basically "feedback to being touched".

Whilst it has it's uses some people don't like it and want to know how to turn it off, this
guide is to show you how to disable it in only a few quick steps. Firstly you need to access the the settings menu (like in the screen shot on the left) and then access the "Sound" options. In side the sound options you will see a screen like the one on the right hand side.

At the bottom of the screen (you may need to scroll to it) you will see the option called "Haptic feedback". You will need to uncheck this box and then you will notice that the vibrations stop.

You can of course feel free to turn this back on if you ever want to use it in the future.

How to factory reset a Samsung Galaxy S2

 With modern phones we seem to end up passing them on to friends and family though before we pass them on we need to give them a factory restore to delete all our information from the phone. This guide will show you how to factory reset a Samsung Galaxy S2.

Firstly you need to open up the phones settings menu and scroll down to "Privacy". The privacy screen should look like the screenshot to the left with 3 options but the key one is the bottom option, "Factory data reset". Click on the "Factory data reset" option and you will see a new screen.

The new screen will look something like this one the one on the right of this article. It will explain what a factory reset actually does so make sure to know what a factory reset is. Also make sure you actually do want to factory reset your phone before going any further.

When you've read everything and are sure you still sure you want to reset the phone click on "Reset phone" at the bottom of the screen and then "Erase everything" on the screen that follows.

After this the phone will go into an "auto-pilot" and stop you from doing anything as it resets the phone to it's "new" factory state. This will delete everything stored on the "internal" storage (so contacts, apps and system settings) as well as erasing all accounts associated with the phone (so the handset will no longer be getting E-mails, twitter alerts etc).

Whilst this guide is specifically for the Samsung Galaxy S2 which are where the screenshots are from most Androids can be factory reset in a very similar way and hopefully it answers the question of "How do I factory reset my phone?"

How to safely disconnect the Samsung Galaxy S2 a USB connection

When you've connected your Samsung Galaxy S2 to a PC or laptop by USB and done all the stuff with either KIES or dragged and dropped all the stuff you need to do you'll want to safely remove your phone from your computer. Usually to do this sort of thing you need to click something on your laptop however with the Galaxy S2 things are easier.

Instead of "safely" disconnecting you need to look at your phone and you will see a screen like the one on the left. If you click "Home" on the phone at this screen it will disconnect you from the PC connection. If you wish to leave the phone to charge you can leave the phone physically connected but outside of the "USB connection mode".