Just took delivery of this on 3 network today. Really like it but i am coming from an old basic blackberry so i am confused a tad.

1. I am on 3 network unlimited data etc but when i try to connect to apps etc that use internet it says no connection available “No Network Available”. However if i turn on the wi-fi it connects to my home wireless network and works ok, surely it should go through the phone network too or i wont be able to connect when away from my home?. Am i missing something?.

2. Where can i find out on the phone what network signal i am getting as it only displays 2-3 bars of signal but not whether its 2G 3G etc?

3. When entering contacts is it best to store on the Samsung Dropbox or sim card or phone?

Sorry for the numpty questions but as i said earlier my old phone was basic indeed.

Cant help with much I’m afraid but Three only has it’s own 3G network facility and does not have any 2G facility what so ever. If ther 3G signal falls out and requires 2G it ‘piggy backs’ onto another network which i think is Orange / T-Mobile as they have an agreement with them.

Ok, i have just turned it off then on again and i can connect to the net etc no probs. The signal bars are displaying what i am recieving also eg…3G etc. One signal type confuses me it says ….H is that HDPSA or whatever?.

Just where to store contacts now then,sim/dropbox/phone??

Yeah, don’t worry about the details – it’s all bloody slow in comparinson with wifi regardless of the letter 🙂

I store everything on google servers for ease of sharing, backup and connectivity. Sims are still limited in contact numbers and phone is an issue if it keels over.

bigbloke – Member

Ok, i have just turned it off then on again and i can connect to the net etc no probs. The signal bars are displaying what i am recieving also eg…3G etc. One signal type confuses me it says ….H is that HDPSA or whatever?.

Just where to store contacts now then,sim/dropbox/phone??

or save the bother and set yourself up a gmail account and sync the contacts, calendar, email, google drive/docs etc there

Another couple of dumbass questions.

When i want to use Facebook mobile etc it keeps asking for a Google account or set one up. Is this going to be a common factor on the Android system?

Also the accuweather screen on the home screen what does the number in the sun mean next to the time and can the accuweather thing be taken off?

to get rid of the weather thing on the home screen, hold your finger on it and it will let you drag it to the bin that appears in the bottom right. to put it back, or put something else there, click on apps in the bottom right, then widgets in the top menu and you can drag any of those onto any of the home screens.

you can also rearrange those screens by clicking on the button to the left of the home button (when on one of the first screens) and clicking edit. then you can drag them all around into different configurations.

Cheers for that. I know what an App is but what the hell are Widgets??

have a look and you’ll work it out. they’re basically embedded devices that sit where you place them on the home screens and do things like weather updates, music player controls, clocks etc.

Thanks for all the info.

Whilst looking around the phones menus i looked in Apps running and there are loads , are these constantly on?

My battery was charged to max this morning and since lunchtime has gone to less than 40% now, is that a result of too many Apps etc running. How do i know which Apps etc are required for the phone to work properly?.

Finding myself confused with all the choices 😕

Any Galaxy users have advice for what is and is not needed really?

i just charge my phone all the time, plug it in in the car, work and home, battery life is never going to be amazing with a big screen

The battery will take a few charges to get to capacity…if you leave everything switched on i.e. data/wifi/gps/etc. then the battery will run down quicker. There are apps that can be installed that allow you to switch these on/off quickly…try putting your finger at the very top of the screen and pulling down, what options do you have? If you have everything turned on, then switch them off if you aren’t using them.

Apps can have a widget with them, basically you can add the widget to your homescreen and it gives you access to the app with a user friendly interface…the Accuweather app thing on your homescreen is a widget.

Not sure about the logging in as I already had a Google account so just plugged that in and it hasn’t asked me to login since.

I keep my contacts on the phone…sim isn’t great as each contact’s number is counted as a single item (if you have home, mobile and work for a mate, that counts as 3 entries on the sim). I don’t sync with Google as the format for the contact detail is different and when I then sync back it then adds them as brand new contacts – so I end up with 2 entries per contact and the only difference is the format of the phone numbers.

Turn the screen brightness down to 50% or else, this will make a significant difference in battery life as well…I have mine set to 30% but also ‘auto adjust’…this means the default is dull but when active it is bright enough to use.

Also adjust the screen timeout for as low as possible as this can also improve battery life…basically the phone has a huge display and it requires a fair amount of power to run…also the quad-core processors will also drain battery.

Background sync can also drain the battery so if you can adjust all your apps background syncing to as long as possible (or never).

If I’m being anal about my phone (including putting it in flight mode at night time when I’m sleeping), I can get 6 days life out the battery but that also means I spend less than 10 minutes a day online…which isn’t good.

Normally, I’m getting 2 days between charges and that includes using wifi when at home and my data when I’m not…but I have everything switched off and only activate it when I need it.

It is a great piece of kit but if you have everything turned on and turned up then the battery will die very quickly…

The ‘H’ is your data connection speed – HDPSA (or HDSPA or whatever) – it is the fastest data connection on your phone (unless in the middle of London and you are likely to get H+)…for data connection, H is the best, then ‘E’ (Edge) then ‘3G’ (3G)…2G if your network allows it (although that normally just appears as a ‘G’).

The phone feels fragile to begin with but you will soon get used to it and realise that it is tougher than it feels…but it isn’t indestructible!

You may have access to a Task Manager – long hold the middle button at bottom of screen – this can give you details of what is actively running just now and you can then close it if you aren’t using it…it also gives access to the RAM usage and allows you to close unused processes that are hogging memory…this can also help improve battery life.

Enjoy.

DickBarton….you are a star. Brilliant info, i really am a bit in awe of the phone and worried i’ll fluff something up and destry it.

On the drop down settings menu from home screen i have it all off except…….sync/mobile data/notification/power saving/screen rotation

does that sound about right?

overall the phone is incredible its just the user thats pants 😆

When you say except…does that mean they are all on?

Unless you are needing to be connected to the web, I turn mobile data and sync off…

Happy to help (assuming my ramblings have made sense!)…I’ve been using an Android phone for a few years now and finally starting to work out the basics…so happy to spew forth my knowledge if it helps someone else.

If you start getting technical, there are a fair few folk on here that seem to know their stuff – Cougar springs to mind but there are a couple of others who are also knowledgeable.

I’m just an end user who can’t stop fiddling with his phone – not to break it or develop for it, just I can’t help doing something with my hands!

No, the info you provided was really helpful. Guess i will have many an hours fiddling ahead of me, still while i’m doing that i’m not doing anything else troublesome 😉

Depends…is the S3 that much bigger than the S2 that is needs both hands to operate it? 😉

Just a few bits in addition to what’s already been suggested:

Don’t worry about task killers. Android sorts that side of things for you, and actively buggering about with it will probably make battery life worse rather than better.

Your 40% battery is probably that the battery isn’t calibrated fully yet combined with “hey, I’ve got a new toy” syndrome.

If you haven’t got a Google / Gmail account, get one. You’re missing out on a large chunk of functionality otherwise. Over-the-air backups of your contacts etc to the cloud for starters. I think you also need an account for Market (“Play Store”) functionality?

Cheers Cougar, all signed up and getting used to the phone functions now. Even managed to track my ride today on sportstracker awesome.

have you heard of strava? 😀

strava???

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=strava

I’d never heard of it neither. Though with My Tracks, Endomondo and Runkeeper (and Fitocracy), I think I’ve more than enough route tracking software to be going on with… (-:

I unboxed my fella last night, didn’t get chance to do that much to it except transfer contacts and load all my Apps.. all good so far.

Only one annoying little thingumybob…. When I click the browser the screen dims a little, well a lot actually. All the brightness settings are on full etc. and the brightness is excellent when doing other stuff around the phone, the dimness only happens when I got into the browser..

Bit yuk that.

Anyone else have “issues”/fixes or indeed a simple “click this..?

When I click the browser the screen dims a little, well a lot actually. All the brightness settings are on full etc. and the brightness is excellent when doing other stuff around the phone, the dimness only happens when I got into the browser..

Go into the browser settings – I think there is a browser brightness setting in there.
The reason the browser is set to dim is that web pages typically contain a lot of white, and on a very large amoled screen like the S3 has, that means a very high power draw (black backgrounds use much less power as many of the screen pixels are switched off – this is the reason many of the Samsung apps have black backgrounds).

Also, because of the high power drain of the large screen, it may not actually be able to go to full brightness white over the whole screen….

Go through your Widgets, and find the power bar that looks like this…

The left button turns wifi on and off, the next turns Bluetooth on and off, the next turns GPS on and off, the next turns syncing on and off and finally on the right is brightness, usually you can press it 3-4 times for different levels of brightness.

If you keep these at hand and turn them off when not needed your battery will last much better. For some reason these power bars don’t seem to include a data(3G) toggle. There should also be a widget for this.

Stick that where its handy next to the power bar and turn that off when you don’t need it too. Battery will last better….

As said above, you should consider getting & using a Gmail account with the phone. The increased app/Android integration and backup options it gives is one of the most useful aspects of the Android smartphones.

Regarding contacts – I’ve never had a problem with contact detail fields/formats between the phones & the ‘cloud’ (i.e. Google syncs). It’s only when I mistakingly Sync’d contacts with Facebook that it goes a bit weird and I get double calendar birthday entries, extra info in a Contact’s entry, etc.

Turning the screen brightness down will help preserve battery life.

In the Settings menu, under applications, there should be an option to view running apps. You can review that and manually stop things you know you don’t need (maybe some crappy Samsung apps running in the background or whatever), but I’ve found the best way to ‘kill’ apps, is to repeatedly press the “back” arrow button to exit out of multiple website pages / applications, this seems to exit them and stop them running in the background anymore.

All good chaps, thanks.

Found the “browser brightness control” it’s in the browser (duh) left click the bottom home button (menu) scroll down the menu and into settings.. tahhhh dahhhh!

“I can see, I can see the world from here”

Google sync for contacts proved excellent, no problems, but then I have them in Kies…

Incidentally, try Dolphin HD browser from Google Play. Its pretty cool and you side-swipe the screen right to get to all your bookmarks, left for other controls…

this seems to exit them and stop them running in the background anymore.

Apps, generally, don’t run in the background except when they have to (eg, a music player). The best thing you can do with “running” tasks is leave them alone.

To toggle data on / off I use a free app called DataSwitch which is a bit quicker than long pressing the power button. Definitely helps the battery life by keeping data off when not required.

But be careful – I got my S3 on Monday (moved form iPhone) – logged in with my google ID and everything was nice and slick.

Then the Gallery proceeded to download 500mb of content from my Picasa without me realising….I now know there is a setting to stop background data activity..

But I guess on three is not an issue with all out can eat

Then the Gallery proceeded to download 500mb of content from my Picasa without me realising….I now know there is a setting to stop background data activity..

Just switch off picasa sync in your google account settings (although if it’s done it all now, it’s probably not worth worrying about).

Hi!

My new S3 arrives in tomorrows mail so I’ve just been looking for tips
Lots of good stuff here even for an Android user but ideas welcome on what best to do with my 20gig iTunes library and the 32gig memory card I’ve also bought

Cheers

Careful where you visit.