I’m excited to announce the launch of our new RingCentral Cloud Touch platform, the first and only phone system that enables businesses to set up, manage and use their phone system from smartphones and tablets.

We’ve completely re-imagined the phone system, enabling businesses to turn any location into an office while giving employees the flexibility and freedom to access the system from any connected device. We help businesses, administrators and end users work the way they want to – from anywhere and on any device.

Our new platform includes three key components:
1. RingCentral Touch – Fully touch-powered platform for phone systems, enabling full management capabilities from any tablet or smartphone. Intuitive customizable settings for administrators and users provide unmatched flexibility and control.

2. RingCentral Presence – Presence is extended beyond desk phones, enabling users to see availability based on smart mobile devices. Enabled with simple controls, users can access from everywhere. Employees are better connected with presence that integrates mobile users.

3. RingCentral Connect – RingCentral integrates with Dropbox, Box and Google Docs, enabling customers to share documents and files in the cloud, providing enhanced productivity.

We’d love to hear how RingCentral Cloud Touch enables you to work from anywhere and manage your phone system with ease!

Today’s guest post is written by Joe Ballarino, President and Co-Founder of Amerivest Realty, a full service real estate brokerage. Amerivest switched to RingCentral service last year to address business challenges and improve business operations. Here Joe shares his thoughts about why he made the switch and its positive effects on Amerivest Realty.

Challenges with Our Old Phone System

Previous to RingCentral, we hosted an on-premise phone system. The system often had technical issues which required costly consultants to repair. More importantly, these issues were often total outages which were not only inconvenient, but also adversely affected our business, potentially causing loss of revenue for the brokerage and our associates.

Additionally, system configuration was always challenging. As real estate professionals, most of our associates work outside of the office, relying on their cell phones to properly conduct business. Our system could forward calls to cell phones, but this was an insufficient and inelegant solution because we had no way to monitor or manage calls from our office.

At Amerivest Realty we pride ourselves on the service we provide to our associates and their customers, and strive for an efficient office and business practices, and we knew the on premise system was woefully inadequate to meet these goals.

Why We Moved to RingCentral

The timing was right to make a decision on a new platform because we were about to open an additional office in a new area code. We wanted a single system to accommodate all offices, but the cost of expanding the on-premise system was exorbitant. As we researched the market, we were impressed with RingCentral’s service offering.

In addition to solving issues with hardware and remote associates, RingCentral also let us combine phone and fax services into a single number. We have less to manage, our associate have less to manage, their customers have simpler communication channels, and we could retire the old fax server.

Are We Happy with RingCentral? Yes!

Our switch to RingCentral reduced our telecommunications costs by almost 30 percent, and RingCentral’s cloud-based phone services have exceeded our expectations.

The Genie in the Phone Cloud: Top 5 Small Biz Features

Entrepreneurship is at an all-time high and innovative small businesses are sprouting and flourishing. Personal service, attention to detail, and feeling good about supporting local and sustainable companies are some of the most popular reasons people choose the little guy over big, aggressive brands.
Maybe you sell delectable gluten-free scones out of a food truck, or are a general housing contractor with a small team of employees. Being great at your trade is one thing, but there’s also the matter of managing communications and connecting smoothly with your customers. With a cloud-based phone system from RingCentral, small businesses are able to walk (and talk) in big business shoes. You can become the wizard behind the curtain, orchestrating spectacular feats with ingenuity and some smart technology.

The Auto-Receptionist is always in and on

Your Auto-Receptionist is the personal assistant that never calls in sick! You or your administrator set the parameters so you can be reached anytime and everyplace. Define the routing criteria, and you’re connected to customers, vendors, and your cycling group, with calls forwarded to multiple numbers and devices, text-to-speech translation of messages, and department-specific messaging. Want someone with a crisp English accent orating your menus for callers? Greetings are customizable, and you can even source professional talent for your recordings. Your three-person organization can perform with the finesse and functionality of a traditionally larger and more established operation.

Unlimited Toll-Free, Local, and Vanity Numbers

Your phone number says a lot about you. Literally it could spell out a memorable word or two. A standard toll-free number, including the classic 1-800 number, tells your customers you’re well established and ensures that your customers can reach you at no cost to themselves. Choose a few local numbers for areas you want to service and instantly become a hot, new, neighborhood business.

Yes, that’s my Department

Getting dumped into a general voicemail box or simply not being able to reach someone in a timely manner is alienating for callers and can send potential customers searching for a more responsive and better-prepared business. Instead, create virtual departments with a group of extensions as a fantastic way to add real structure to your business and make it easy for your contacts to connect with you. For example, create the ‘Sales’ department and when the designated reps aren’t available, the system puts callers on hold until someone can take the call. Hold times can be customized as well, so your callers never feel lost or unimportant.

Get ahead with Call Forwarding

So what happened to the caller on hold for sales? Realizing every second counts and all’s fair in love and brand loyalty, you set Call Forwarding to reach you or another contact after, say, a 30-second hold time. The call instantly goes to your business partner’s mobile phone. If they’re also not available, the call finds the next contact and, as a last resort, it routes to the extension at your poolside cabana in Orlando. You can set specific parameters for After Hours as well and avoid the cost (and antiquated style) of an outside answering service.

The thrill of the (easy) chase

You want your business to be pursued and easily caught. FindMe-FollowMe is the cyber stalker you’re glad to have on your side. You control connectivity by directing incoming calls to any and all your phones, whenever you want. You can even set it to call multiple phones simultaneously, in a specific order and even by date, time, the caller’s Caller ID, or the number dialed.

You had the vision and grit to launch your business, and the progressive thinking to ditch the room full of obsolete and costly phone system hardware. Your contacts will be amazed at how you always seem to magically appear when they need you. Building a successful business starts with the basic steps like establishing a phone system, and being easily reachable by customers whenever they need to reach you.

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Why pay more than you have to every month? These tips, tricks, and services can help you SAVE plenty of money on that monster cell phone bill.

See that cell phone next to you? Unfortunately, you’re paying too much money for it–every month. If overpaying for what you need sounds like a bad idea to you, stop doing it. We’ve assembled 12 simple actions that you can take to reduce your cell phone bill, so that some of the cash you now spend for service–maybe even half of it–remains in your possession. So check out our tips, and use one or more of them to save big bucks on your bill.

Covering the Basics

1. Find the right plan for you: Carefully review how often and in what ways you use your phone. Ideally, you should do this before signing a cell phone contract, but of course it can be difficult to know exactly how you’ll use your phone until you spend time with it every day.

If you’re already using your phone, take a close look at your cell phone plan, examining the calling, messaging, and data plan options you’ve chosen. Then scrutinize your usage pattern. Check several months of phone bills to see whether you pay for more minutes and megabytes than you use, or whether you regularly exceed your usage limits.

How much can I save? Let’s use a Verizon Wireless plan as an example

Possible Savings on Monthly Cell Phone Voice Plan (One Example: Verizon Wireless)

On the other hand, if where you exceed the 450-minutes-per-month maximum just once during the life of your two-year service plan–even if you exceed it by a lot that one time, you still come out ahead with the lower limit overall. Suppose that you incur $157.50 in overage fees one month but stay under the 450-minute limit during the other 23 months of the service contract. Then you’ve saved overall by opting for the $39.99-per-month contract instead of the $59.99-per-month contract, since paying $20 more each month for 24 months would cost you an extra $480. Suddenly, that one-time surcharge of $135 seems like a bargain.

2. Trim the fat: Examine your cell phone plan to see what services you’re paying for above and beyond your voice and data plan. Are you paying your carrier for mobile insurance? A GPS service? Roadside assistance? Visual voicemail? Then think about whether you need these extras. In the case of voicemail, for example, your call log shows you the name and number of incoming callers, anyway–and that’s free.

How much can I save? This time, let’s use AT&T as an example.

Monthly Costs of AT&T’s Extra Services

Opting out of just half of these billing add-ons can save you anywhere from $7.97 to $26.97 each month.

Get the Details on Data

3. Go data-free: Kick it old-school style by dropping your data plan altogether. This option may not be available if you’ve purchased a smartphone that requires a data plan; but for some consumers it’s a sensible move.

And it is possible: When my iPhone 4 suffered a fatal fall recently, I went back to my elderly flip phone and relied on an iPod Touch for apps and Internet services. When I wanted to check email or browse the Web, it was Wi-Fi only.

My pockets were heavier, in part because I was carrying two devices around, but also because my pockets had more cash in them thanks to my lower monthly bill.

How much can I save? $15 to $50 a month, or more.

4. Go on a data plan diet: Not ready to opt out of a data plan completely? Try cutting back instead.
Opt for the lowest-tiered data plan that your carrier offers, and make sure that you stay within your limits. Visit WhatIsMyCap.org, a handy site that offers tips on avoiding overage charges, using your current data plan as an example.

Also, find out what apps are claiming most of your bandwidth; the culprits may be obvious ones like Pandora and Netflix, or sneaky ones like Google Maps that increase your data usage by serving up ads.

How much can I save? $15 to $35 a month, or more.

5. Compress, compress: Having trouble reducing your data usage? Check out Onavo’s free iPhone and Android app, called Onavo Extend, which claims to make your data usage up to five times more efficient.

How much can I save? $15 a month or more.

Shake Things Up

6. Switch carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless are the big four in cell phone service, but they’re hardly your only options.

Signing up with a smaller carrier, like Boost Mobile or US Cellular, can cut your monthly cost significantly

How much can I save? Boost Mobile offers an unlimited Android Plan for $55 per month, and an unlimited BlackBerry Plan for $60. (Both of these plans cover unlimited nationwide talk, text, Web access, 411 service, instant messaging, and email.)

In contrast, opting for a similar plan from Sprint, which is one of the only big carriers still offering an unlimited data plan option, will cost you $99.99 a month for unlimited voice, data, and messaging.

How much can I save? $40 to $45 per month.

7. Go contract free: It may seem counterintuitive, but one way to lower your monthly cell phone bill is to go contract-free. This isn’t the same as buying a prepaid cell phone (we’ll get to that next); here, you still pay your carrier month-to-month for cellular service, but you pay less. The trade-off is that you pay more for the phone itself up-front. But depending on the phone you choose, you could save big in the long run with this strategy.

How much can I save? You’ll pay T-Mobile $350 for its MyTouch Android phone, but you won’t sign a contract. A monthly service plan from T-Mobile with unlimited talk, text, and data costs $59.99 per month, so the cost of buying and using this phone (spread over two years) is about $1790.

That may sound like a lot, but consider this: It’s actually a savings of $180 over buying the phone with a two-year contract. In the latter case, T-Mobile subsidizes the cost of the phone, so the same myTouch device will cost you just $50, but the monthly service charge rises to $79.99 (or roughly $1920 over the life of the contract). So over two years, the total cost of the same phone and service comes to $1970–and you’re locked into a 24-month service contract.

8. Go prepaid: Paying for your phone service ahead of time is a sure-fire way to save money. After all, it guarantees that you pay only for minutes that you’ll use. And prepaid phones have come a long way in recent years, with carriers offering various cell phones and smartphones with prepaid plans.

How much can I save? With one of Virgin Mobile’s prepaid “PayLo” plans, you can spend as little as $20 per month for cell phone service. The lowest-cost plan includes 400 voice minutes.

charges messages (at 15 cents per message) and data (at $1.50 per megabyte of data used) on this plan against your $20 balance, and your credits are valid for 30 days. In one month, a light user could save as much as $40 off the price of a standard cell phone plan with messaging and data from a major carrier.

9. Dump the smartphone: Sure, your smartphone is cool. And you may think that you can’t live without it…but giving it up can be surprisingly easy. If you can’t bear to surrender access to the Web, email, and apps, try using a Wi-Fi-device, such as an iPod Touch, instead.

How much can I save? $15 to $50 a month–that’s how much you’re likely paying for the data plan on your smartphone.

Use the Web to Your Advantage

10. Go VoIP only: If you’re paying for a data plan on that smartphone, why not put it–and your phone’s Wi-Fi access–to good use?
Fring is one of a number of budget-friendly Voice-over-IP phone services.Dump your voice plan (if your contract permits you to, of course) and use a voice-over-IP service, such as Fring, Google Voice, or Skype, to make calls. A PCWorld writer took the plunge, and lived to tell the tale. Voice quality may not be perfect, but when was the last time your cell phone offered perfect voice quality?

How much can I save? $40 a month, or more–whatever the monthly cost of your voice plan is.

11. Get texting help: When it comes to texting, you probably think that you have to pay for a texting plan (at anywhere from $5 to $20 per month) or have to pay a per-message fee (of around 20 cents).

But you have a third alternative, and it’s free: Use an app to text at no charge. Free texting apps–which include Nimbuzz, WhatsApp,GroupMe, among many others–let you text and IM for free, using popular messaging networks such as Facebook and AIM.
You may have to get your friends or family to sign on in order to obtain completely free texting, but convincing them of the app’s merits is likely to be worth your while.

How much can I save? When you kiss your texting plan goodbye, you’ll be able to pocket an extra $5 to $20 per month.

12. Get outside help:Not sure which path will save you the most money? Get help at BillShrink.com. This very cool site analyzes your cell phone usage (you can grant it access to your account or enter the information manually), and points out plans that will save you money while meeting your needs.

How much can I save? BillShrink alerted me to a $30-per-month plan on T-Mobile that would save me about $50 per month.

And when I requested to keep using an iPhone, it alerted me to a $70-per-month plan on Sprint, which would save me $10 per month or more. (AT&T charges for data overages, while Sprint offers unlimited data.)

I think it’s time to make a change.

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I have a small business that is growing rapidly- I hope to double my payroll
this year. My need for comprehensive business services is going to grow even
faster than my staff. We are a technical company that offers services over the
phone, as well as personal service right to our client’s locations. That means
we need to be able to receive calls, transfer them to our reps in the field, and
have them be able to transfer calls right back to the office all on the same
phone system. Up until now, we have been using a plan from a business cell phone
company, but as we grow, we are going to need a service to handle our own PBX.
That’s a private branch exchange- basically our own internal business phone
service. The days of ‘family plan,’ style business phone services are
(thankfully) behind us.

We are going to be moving into a multi- floor office building, so we will
need a service that can provide my people with business phone lines at their
desks, but also with cell phones that are part of the same system. I need to be
able to monitor and record calls, direct clients to the right place with a
short, simple automated system, and even make automated message calls to clients
at their request. Basically, I’m pretty sure we need everything a business phone service
could offer. I need one that does it all- but don’t let that fool you; we’re
still a small business with only about one hundred regular clients.

I have been looking into enterprise business services for business cell phones, and it is a
complicated world. There are a lot of companies that make bold, vague promises
about ‘providing solutions,’ ‘business services,’ etc. There’s lots of smug,
high-brow language that does not say very much. I won’t know if a company can
help me, and for how much, until I actually tell them what I need. We are in a
precarious position- needing a lot of different services but still being
relatively small, so I want to avoid the big companies. I don’t want to get
locked into a service that has an attractive introductory deal and then held in
by a complicated contract. I want a company that just handles business phones. I
want a small, dedicated company like mine to handle our phone system for
life.

Takeaway: The fifth generation iOS, the engine that powers Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad devices (among others), introduces several important changes and refinements.

Apple’s iOS, though only four years old, has changed the way users connect, purchase and maintain applications, collaborate, and more. The fifth generation iOS, the engine that powers Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad devices (among others), introduces several important changes and refinements. Here are the top 10 things you should know about Apple’s new iOS 5.

1: Requirements

The fall 2011-release iOS 5 upgrade works with a variety of current and legacy handsets, tablets, and devices. iOS 5 is compatible with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. iOS 5 is also supported on the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch as well as the original iPad and iPad 2. There is no cost for the upgrade.

2: PC Free

One common complaint prior to iOS 5 has been that a computer was required to fully utilize and back up new iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touch devices. No more. iOS 5 severs the tether and makes it possible to activate and configure new devices without having to tie them to a computer. Further, with iCloud support, iOS 5 devices can be backed up automatically without having to use a computer.

3: Mail improvements

iOS 5 also introduces overdue Mail improvements. The new iOS provides indentation support, enables rich text (bold, italic, and underline) formatting, and can even flag messages. iCloud, meanwhile, helps ensure email accounts stay synchronized across multiple devices. As email’s importance continues to grow, such refinements on the iPhone and iPad platforms are a necessity.

4: Tabbed browsing

A seemingly minor innovation when originally introduced on computers, tabbed browsing enables users to maintain multiple active Web pages within a single browser instance. The feature has proven popular, especially as users have become more dependent upon Web-based applications and Web-based email. iOS 5 updates the Safari browser to bring tabbed browsing to compatible iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. This enables multiple concurrent Web page sessions and considerably simplifies the process of switching between open pages,.

5: Reminders

A cottage industry of iOS to-do and task list application providers has arisen over the past few years. That’s because Apple’s iOS didn’t previously do a very good job natively managing or synchronizing organizational tasks. Reminders is a new iOS 5 feature that addresses that shortcoming. With iCal, Outlook, and iCloud integration, changes automatically synchronize across multiple devices. Better yet, users can associate due dates and locations with the tasks they set. Productivity and efficiency result, while dependency upon a third-party application decreases or is eliminated altogether.

6: iCloud support

iCloud support within iOS 5 means applications, photos, music, settings, and other data isn’t lost if a compatible Apple device goes missing. Because iCloud stores data on the Web, files, configuration information, and even applications previously purchased on one device can be pushed to a replacement or other authorized device wirelessly. Calendars, contacts, and mail benefit from iCloud, which powers wireless synchronization between devices, too. iCloud even enables synchronizing iOS data with a PC, so Windows users benefit from iCloud/iOS 5 integration. And 5GB of free storage means the price is right.

7: iMessage

The simplicity and immediacy of text messaging has fueled its meteoric popularity. One can hardly even visit a neighborhood grocery or airport without hearing others’ text alert beeps. Built into the Messages app, iOS 5’s new iMessage feature enhances traditional messaging by adding support for sending photos, videos, locations, and contacts for iPad and iPod Touch users. iMessaging includes group messaging support, too, which better enables team collaboration and communication. iMessage also synchronizes iMessage conversations across multiple devices.

8: Notification Center

As iPhone and iPad use has grown within businesses and as users have loaded a veritable cornucopia of applications on those devices, mobile users sometimes feel assaulted by the number of updates, new email alerts, unread text messages, and other notifications.

Prior to iOS 5, all these different updates lived in different locations and sometimes proved distracting. iOS 5 users can take advantage of the new Notification Center to select which notifications they receive. And copping a popular feature I associate as being introduced with Microsoft Outlook 2003, new notifications appear briefly (in this case at the top center of the screen) before fading out of view. The Notification Center presentation of these messages is less distracting and doesn’t require switching applications, yet it still communicates the same information quickly.

9: AirPlay

Many users will find iOS 5’s new AirPlay innovation a critical component of the new OS. Others may never use it. But those who do will find the video mirroring feature an intriguing and convenient improvement in the mobile OS.

AirPlay enables presenters to wirelessly stream their iPad 2 display information to an HDTV via an Apple TV device. Attendees see exactly what’s on the presenter’s iPad, meaning iPads can fully replace desktop or laptop presentation systems in boardrooms, classrooms, conference rooms, and other presentation areas.

10: Calendar improvements

Calendar operations receive a needed boost within iOS 5, too. iOS 5-powered Calendars now synchronize across multiple devices leveraging Apple’s iCloud technology. Further, iPad users can display year views of their Calendar, while iPhone and iPod Touch users can display a weekly view of their calendar — previously unavailable options. Individual calendars can now be added and edited directly from iOS 5-powered iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. Possibly most important, though, is the fact that Calendar attachments are now viewable on compatible iOS 5 devices without having to switch applications.

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Kon’nichiwa, hola, and bonjour says Google, as it expands Gmail calling to support a total of 38 languages and four currencies including Euros, British pounds and Canadian / US dolla dolla bills y’all. The calling feature allows Gmail users to call landlines and mobile phones from within their Gmail browser for next to nothing, making the email center a one-stop shop for IMs, emails, video and voice calls. The year-old service is lowering its call rates to $0.10 per minute to mobile phones in the UK, France, and Germany, $0.15 per minute to Mexico, and $0.02 per minute to any number in China and India. Calling landlines is even cheaper — which would be fantastic if you actually knew someone that still used one. The expanded language support and cheaper calls adds another piece of ammo to Google’s arsenal as it goes head-to-head with Skype (which charges $0.18 – $0.25 per minute for calls to UK mobile numbers), after the company conveniently partnered with Google+’s arch nemesis for calls from within the social network. But hey, at least those late-night arguments won’t cost the former nearly as much as it once did.

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Takeaway: The HTC ThunderBolt may be breaking land speed records with its 4G LTE connection, but all that speed seriously drains the battery. Here are practical tips for squeezing out more battery life.

As I mentioned in my review of the HTC ThunderBolt, the ThunderBolt is a top-notch device that breaks through the speed barriers of the traditional smartphone. However, the ThunderBolt also has one big caveat: Battery life. This is a foible that many Android devices suffer from, particularly HTC devices. The HTC EVO and HTC Incredible are both excellent smartphones that struggle to get through an entire business day on a single charge.

For the ThunderBolt, the primary issue is when it’s in 4G LTE mode. That’s when it really screams — in terms of speed — but it’s also when the battery can completely drain in as little as four hours with heavy use. In order to help ThunderBolt users get the most out of this otherwise useful device, I’ve put together some power tips for squeezing extra battery life out of the ThunderBolt. While these tips are aimed primarily at the ThunderBolt and reference HTC-specific widgets and settings, they can also be applied more generally to almost any Android device (and specifically other HTC devices), with just a few adjustments.
I should also note that when the ThunderBolt is not in 4G mode, its battery life is actually very respectable. Using the tips in this article, I was able to get through a full day of normal use with the HTC ThunderBolt on a combination of 3G and Wi-Fi and still had 70% of the battery left after 10 hours. On 4G, I was able to use these tips to stretch the ThunderBolt battery to almost eight hours.

1. Tweak the display
If you want to see what’s draining most of your power, go to Home screen | Menu button | Settings | About phone | Battery | Battery use. You’ll see a screen like the one below. In most cases (except for when you’re on 4G), the display will be at the top of the list because the display is the primary power drain on nearly all smartphones.
There are several things you can do to reduce the display’s hit on your battery. Go to Menu | Settings | Display and adjust the following settings:
•    Turn off auto-brightness: Uncheck the box for “Automatic brightness” and drop the slider down to about a third. The ThunderBolt screen is still bright and clear, even at this setting.
•    Decrease screen timeout: The default is 1 minute. Drop it down to 30 seconds.

2. Throttle sync settings
Once you get your display settings under control, another quick thing you can do that will immediately make a big impact on your battery life is to get your sync settings under control. When you install and use various apps and widgets, they often set themselves up to automatically sync without warning you or allowing you to set up the sync settings such as how often to update. As a result, most Android devices end up with a bunch of things running in the background updating themselves constantly, which drains battery life and quietly eats away at your mobile data allotment on 3G/4G.
To see which of your apps and widgets are doing stealth syncs in the background, go to Menu | Settings | Accounts & sync. I prefer to uncheck the “Auto-sync” box and simply disable background syncing altogether (especially when I’m trying to ring out every last drop of battery life). You can always compensate by using HTC’s “Sync all” widget so that when you unlock your phone you can just tap the Sync all button and all of your data for all of your approved apps and widgets get synced (on 4G it will sync really fast anyway). If you want to take it a step further, in the Accounts & sync screen, uncheck the “Background data” box so that no apps are allowed to quietly transfer data in the background.
Alternatively, in the sync settings you can also grant just a few select apps the ability to sync and then set the frequency for syncing to a longer interval.

3. Manage your radios
Another way to have a quick impact on battery life is to shut down some of the radios. Nearly all modern smartphones are packed with multiple radio transmitters and each one draws power when they are turned on. Turn them off when you’re not using them. HTC makes this easy on the ThunderBolt because it has a bunch of toggle widgets that you can tap to enable/disable the various radios/features.

I always turn off Bluetooth and GPS, except when needed. If I know I’m going to be on the mobile network for an extended period of time then I turn off Wi-Fi so that the Wi-Fi radio isn’t wasting power searching for connections. One of the things I did to save battery life when I was on the 4G LTE network was to use “Airplane mode” when I was in meetings or other long periods where I knew I wasn’t going to be using the phone. This turns off all of the radios, including the cellular network.

4. Turn down the eye candy
One of the attractive things about the HTC Sense UI — as well as the newer versions of Android and some of its third-party add-ons — is that it has some great eye candy. The animated weather on HTC’s default home screen clock, the live wallpapers that move in the background, and the eye-popping skins and alternative home screens all look great, but they can be an additional drain on the phone’s resources.
I’d recommend using the simple and elegant “Slate” skin (below) on the HTC ThunderBolt. I’d also recommend avoiding the live wallpapers and selecting a static image. For battery savings, I’d also recommend turning off animations by going to Menu | Settings | Display | Animation and selecting “No animations.”

5. Manage apps and widgets
We’ve already talked about how some apps and widgets can slowly siphon resources by syncing in the background. Many apps will also turn themselves on automatically (or remain in memory even after you close them). Of course, the widgets that you put on your various home screens are also running quietly at all times as well, so you’ll need to be wise about which ones you use and keep an eye on them.
To monitor and manage your apps and widgets you’ll need to download a task manager like the popular Advanced Task Killer. This lets you see what you’ve currently got running (and what is quietly turning itself on without your permission). You can do this periodically and manually kill all of your open apps to avoid letting power-hogs drain your battery. Advanced Task Killer even comes with a handy widget that you can place on your home screen. Just tap it once and it kills all your apps, and gives you a short message telling you how many apps were killed.

Even better, open Advanced Task Killer and go into Menu | Setting and set the “Auto Kill” option. I’d recommend setting the Auto Kill Level to “Safe” and setting the Auto Kill Frequency to “Every half hour.” If you’re really paranoid and want to keep stuff under wraps, you can set the Auto Kill so that it wipes everything out every time you turn off your screen. Keep in mind that some people argue that killing processes on Android has dubious value, but I find that it’s a good way of keeping potential battery hogs under control, even if it knocks out some harmless stuff in the process.