5 Things to do right away on your new Android device: Part 2

10) Get rid of widgets you don’t use

It seems obvious, but it’s a frequent comment I get from new Android phone owners: “I don’t use this Facebook thingy that you swipe over to see, but, whatever.” Widgets, the larger items you keep on a home screen, use memory, and can slow the responsiveness of your home screen. What’s more, widgets of the kind phone companies and device makers like to add, that constantly check for social updates, weather reports, and the like, also eat up battery and a bit of data usage.

So if you’re really not using something on your home screen, get rid of it. Press and hold on the widget with your finger (you’ll get a very brief vibration if you’ve held long enough), then drag it upwards, so that it hovers over the “Remove” label that appears at the top of your screen. You can always add it back if it turns out you really do need to see Twitter trending topics at a moment’s notice.