Android phones allow for an impressive amount of customization. Simply follow the tips below to create a smartphone that’s as unique as you are.

One-touch dialing

Are there certain numbers that you dial more frequently than others? With Android smartphones, you can set up one-touch dialing for those people whom you call the most. Simply press an open space on your screen and select the “Shortcuts” option. Then press Direct Dial and pick the right person from your list of contacts. Now you’ll be able to call that person simply by pressing a single button.

Home-screen shortcuts

You can customize your Android phone so that you spend less time searching for your favorite web pages, too, by moving your top websites directly to your phone’s home screen.

Do this by pressing and holding onto any site listed in your browser’s bookmarks. Soon, a list of options will pop up. Press the “Add Shortcut to Home” option, and the selected web page will now appear on your phone’s home page.

Organizing with folders

By creating folders on your Android phone, you can better organize everything from your contacts to your most important work documents by grouping these items into their own folders.

For instance, you can create a folder reserved specifically for your most frequently called contacts. If you’re working on an important project for work, you can create a new folder that’s reserved for documents, Web addresses, and contact numbers related to this particular project.

To create folders, press on a blank space on your phone’s screen. When your list of options pops up, press “Folders.” This will allow you to create your own folder and name it. You can then drag and drop important documents, images, and files into these folders.

Cloud computing has certainly caught on among business owners. No surprise there: the cloud offers more computing power, cheaper storage, seamless scalability and the simplicity that comes with someone else taking care of your servers.

But there’s a catch. To take advantage of cloud software and infrastructure, you’ve got to give up some control over your data … Or do you?

Have your cloud and your privacy too

Here’s the thing: not all clouds are the same. There’s the public cloud, the one with which we’re most familiar. But then there’s the hybrid cloud too. As its name suggests, the hybrid cloud is a combination of two different types of clouds, public and private. The hybrid cloud can give your business all of the benefits listed in the first paragraph (power, affordability, scalability and simplicity) without the tradeoffs that come with entrusting your data to an unknown (or unresponsive) quantity.

How might that work in practice? Here’s an example: A business provides some resources in-house. For instance, it might store current consumer data on its private in-house cloud. It might also store employee records, new marketing campaigns, and current proposals to new clients on its in-house storage.

That same business, though, might store older, archived data on a public cloud service. This frees up space on the business’ servers, and allows its in-house computers to operate more efficiently.

At the same time, taking a hybrid cloud approach to data storage allows businesses to take advantage of the space-saving benefits of the public cloud without also exposing their sensitive current data to third-party providers. In other words, the hybrid cloud provides businesses with security, cost-savings, and efficiency.

Why the hybrid cloud approach makes sense

It’s little wonder, then, that so many businesses today are moving toward a hybrid cloud approach. There is simply too much data floating around today for smaller businesses to adequately store. At the same time, businesses in today’s competitive environment don’t want to expose company secrets and sensitive consumer data to either their rivals or hackers.

The hybrid cloud allows businesses to have the best of both worlds.