Icon management idea

This is an example of keeping my multitude of apps organised. Using the folders option I categorise my apps into the categories as seen in the  screen shot.

The fiery background is a live wallpaper. Easily obtained from the play store.

Extended Battery Pack

I am excited to receive my extra heavy duty battery today.
5800mah! I know that there is 6200mah and 7000mah versions, but this was the most cost effective. HAHA. Normally I think I'd go all out and get the 7000 but was going on the cheap. My original battery life was on average 6.5 - 8 hours.

My main aim is that later I will go on to mod this case for better GSM signal, etc.

The case is essentially double the original case width.

I may add a small sponge filter to prevent things from entering the speaker area.

The original case is extremely slim in comparison to the buffalo!

The battery looks massive, sticking out like that, but in reality it is only double the size.

With the new battery, the average use so far is nearly 15 hours. Most of the day was pretty much just, viewing the clock, using the net, checking and replying messages. The end part is pretty much because I played candy crush, ran music player and surfed the internet.

OTG cable for the galaxy S4

This cable is really good for allowing you to connect the device with a USB drive or even connect to another phone and view its contents! Perhaps you may even want to charge the other phone or USB device.

So now you can plug a hard drive and play music or movies!

Setup Samsung remote WatchON app.

This app seems to have appeared several days ago 14/5/13? and the setup process is very simple. The prompts are straight forward.

Once set up, just press the 'ON' button and if it didn't work you can choose the next frequencies until it works.

The optical reader app.

This is a very gimmicky tool, it is fun to use. It would only recognise print text, meaning that it won't recognise handwriting. It'll only recognise when at 90° and won't accept even 45°.
It'll provide definitions of words that you hover over.

How to get camera on the lock screen?

For several days I was not able to get the camera on the lock screen as the 'Favourite apps or Camera' setting had been greyed out, see below:



The reason is that when you have any of the security options set, other than 'Swipe' (no security) the feature becomes unavailable to use.

However, when you do not have security then you can access the following features, i.e. having the camera or favourites at the lock screen. You'll just need to swipe the panel, this is further customizable to have only camera or favourites.

Changing the APN settings? Vodafone.

Vodafone preloaded my phone with an unknown APN configuration, perhaps in preparation for its 4G rollout. However, this setting doesn't allow some VPN services to work for me. To change to the postpaid configuration the steps are as follows.

In the settings menu
Choose more networks
Mobile networks
Access point names
add
Name: Vodafone postpaid
APN: vfinternet.au
No user or password

If in other countries, it would be as easy to set the APN up for internet and MMS use. One of the main things is to check the MNC codes from wiki.

How do I do screen shots?

Screen shots are done by pressing the power and the home button simultaneously for roughly one second. Then the screen corners will flash a white border, with acamera snapshotsound and a notification will pop up.
In the second image is the result that appears in the pull down notifications panel. This is accessed by simply swiping from the top of the screen to the bottom.

How do you switch between apps?

If you hold the home button for roughly two seconds, when released the screen should switch to have the currently open apps,as in the image.
Click on the app to open it up or to close it by swiping it right off the screen.

Starting up the device

After placing the micro sim and battery into the device, I connected the power cable provided and the device turned on. Got the fuzzy feeling of excitement mixed with anticipation.
Start with setting the time and timezone. The initial steps are pretty straight forward as seen below.
The thing I was very impressed with, is the additional 50gb of Dropbox space.

Exciting start

As always getting new tech or gadgets is a very blissful event. This case for me it was the Samsung galaxy s4! Pre-ordered through Vodafone on Saturday and arrived on Monday. Very happy!