So I just got my first Smart Phone - Samsung Galaxy S4

[SciFiSam]

@BrianJ

Thanks for the info. This phone seems to be gimped. there is not bottom right button for linking either

it has Contact Name
then the picture icon
then mobile
then phone number and on the right the call and mesage icons

thats it

I misspoke - I meant left.

But there must be both a bottom right and a bottom left button. You have the centre button that you press like an enter key, right? Next to that, on the left, is a little picture that’s a square with the bottom cut off and two lines in it. It doesn’t stand out, so it’s understandable that it might not look like a button. It is, though. It will bring up extra options.

[BrianJ]

@SciFiSam

I misspoke - I meant left.

But there must be both a bottom right and a bottom left button. You have the centre button that you press like an enter key, right? Next to that, on the left, is a little picture that’s a square with the bottom cut off and two lines in it. It doesn’t stand out, so it’s understandable that it might not look like a button. It is, though. It will bring up extra options.

Oh, THAT thing, I barely noticed it before heh.

The options while on a contact page are:

Edit
Delete (I was wondering how to delete too, so cool)
Share Namecard Via
Add to reject list
Add shortcut to home

I have no idea what the last three do yet.
When in edit contact mode the right lower button does nothing

[SciFiSam]

@BrianJ

Oh, THAT thing, I barely noticed it before heh.

The options while on a contact page are:

Edit
Delete (I was wondering how to delete too, so cool)
Share Namecard Via
Add to reject list
Add shortcut to home

I have no idea what the last three do yet.
When in edit contact mode the right lower button does nothing

Huh. Mine comes up with a lot more options. Since it’s about phone contacts, maybe it’s to do with the carrier? No idea otherwise.

[BrianJ]

@SciFiSam

Huh. Mine comes up with a lot more options. Since it’s about phone contacts, maybe it’s to do with the carrier? No idea otherwise.

Possibly. The phone may be gimped.

[Dr.Righteous]

All sorts of device specific info can also be found here

[GargoyleWB]

@GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams

You can use a program called Kies to do backups, updates etc. It’s available free from Samsung here.

Grats on a very good phone choice, explore and have fun!

It helps to know what kind of backup/sync you are wanting. Just photos? Contacts? Everything?

As mentioned, Kies is kind of slow and bloated and it seems to choke or time-out on large media/photo/music libraries.

What I do for the following:

Pictures (use a removable memcard, then directly drag folders onto PC periodically)
Music (sync with Google Music & Winamp, and/or memcard again)
Documents (drag whole user directory to PC)
Contacts (export as .csv every month or so)
Notes/Settings/Config stuff (drag whole user directory over to PC)

IMO the best thing to do is get the largest memcard you can slot (I think 64GB on the Galaxy?) and house as much as possible on it instead of your phone’s system memory.

With Android/Galaxy phones, there is no “right” answer on how to use it best, it is insanely customizable. My wife and I both have the same phone, and after only a couple of months we can barely even use each others because we’ve tweaked them so differently

[BrianJ]

Thanks GargoyleWB,

Mainly pictures I suspect.

I’d like to copy music from my Ipod to the phone but I doubt Apple would allow that to be possible!

[BrianJ]

gs4_en.pdf

Well, found that…

So it isn’t my provider that gimped the phone. Maybe defective, or maybe Best Buy sells gimped phones?

I’m gonna swing by there tonight

[J-P_L]

I do not know about the S4, but on my Samsung Infuse, there is two ways to enter contacts, to the “SIM card” or “the phone”. If you choose to the SIM card, you can only enter one phone number and e-mail address, choose “to the phone” to enter multiple details.

[BrianJ]

@J-P_L

I do not know about the S4, but on my Samsung Infuse, there is two ways to enter contacts, to the “SIM card” or “the phone”. If you choose to the SIM card, you can only enter one phone number and e-mail address, choose “to the phone” to enter multiple details.

Yup, this was it, I was adding them under sim card. Thanks!

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

Good choice! I’m still using an S2 that I remain very happy with, and wouldn’t hesitate to pick the S4 come upgrade time.

You should get yourself an “external” SD card if you haven’t already, at least 16GB. (“External”=merely external to the so called “internal” SD card. It still goes inside the phone.) You want to keep important data, favorite tunes, backups, etc. on the external SD card so that if you ever need to do a factory reset–and I’m not saying you will–you’ll still have your data. Also when you upgrade to something else in a year or two, you will be able to move your data simply by moving your external SD card.

If you’re of a mildly technical bent consider rooting your device and flashing a custom ROM.

[stui_magpie]

@BrianJ

Thanks GargoyleWB,

Mainly pictures I suspect.

I’d like to copy music from my Ipod to the phone but I doubt Apple would allow that to be possible!

If you can get the songs off your ipod/out of itunes and onto your PC, you can load them onto the phone easy.

Use the same method as you would to make an MP3 CD.

[GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams]

@BrianJ

Thanks GargoyleWB,

Mainly pictures I suspect.

I’d like to copy music from my Ipod to the phone but I doubt Apple would allow that to be possible!

If you use Itunes you set up bidirectional syncing with your android phone using a desktop program called Isyncr. It has a companion app that goes on your phone. If you use a compatible audio player app, it will even sync ratings and playcounts, which I find very useful for Itunes smart playlists.

[dublos]

Did you intentionally avoid the S5?

I’m still adjusting to my S5 having upgraded from my Motorola Photon.

My Samsung is just huge in comparison… I had a Nutshell holster for my Motorola and it’s way too small for the Samsung.

[Voyager]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

Good choice! I’m still using an S2 that I remain very happy with, and wouldn’t hesitate to pick the S4 come upgrade time.

You should get yourself an “external” SD card if you haven’t already, at least 16GB. (“External”=merely external to the so called “internal” SD card. It still goes inside the phone.) You want to keep important data, favorite tunes, backups, etc. on the external SD card so that if you ever need to do a factory reset–and I’m not saying you will–you’ll still have your data. Also when you upgrade to something else in a year or two, you will be able to move your data simply by moving your external SD card.

My S4 is the third phone I’ve moved my memory card to. It makes life really easy.
Besides music I have various want lists and lists of the books I have on the phone, loaded from my PC. When I go to a used bookstore I can check to see if I have something already.

BTW, you should install a Find my phone app. It lets you lock your phone remotely and even better get its location if it gets swiped or misplaced.

[Revtim]

@Voyager

BTW, you should install a Find my phone app. It lets you lock your phone remotely and even better get its location if it gets swiped or misplaced.

You don’t need an app for that anymore: https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

[BrianJ]

@chiroptera

If your phone didn’t come loaded with an antivirus program, it would definitely be a good idea to install one. I use the paid version of Avast for my PC and bundled my mobile device into the plan.

How do you get avast for the android? I only see PC versions?

SO, this thread went dead for a while because I returned the phone.

Now, a few weeks later, I’ve gone and got a Galaxy S5

[GSV_Consolation_of_Dreams]

You should have an icon somewhere for Play store. That’s the official google app store. Just do a search there for AVAST.

[chiroptera]

Download from the Avast site, or from Google Play.