How-to: Galaxy SIII Tips & Tricks - gestures, security, S-Voice, battery life, sounds

There are several neat features on the new Samsung Galaxy S3 that are turned off by default or not immediately obvious. Here's a list of some of them:

Gestures
Go to Settings > Motion to activate Gestures
Clicking on one will show you a tutorial on how to do each action



They are:

1. Direct call
2. Smart alert
3. Tap to top
4. Tilt to zoom
5. Pan to move icon
6. Pan to browse images
7. Shake to update
8. Turn over to mute/pause
9. Palm swipe to screen capture (power button + home button also does a screen capture)
10. Palm touch to mute/pause

Some others:

1. Tap and hold the lock screen, then rotate it to landscape to activate the camera. This cannot be done with the face unlock is being used.
2. Call the person you are viewing by putting the phone up to your ear.

Security
There are a several different combinations of features on the phone not only for screen locks, but also for encrypting data. You should consider something other than the default in case your phone gets lost. To access these options go to Settings > Security

For screen locks you have the option of:

• Face lock - the phone will recognize your face and unlock the phone. If it can't you have the option to set a pin or pattern unlock. Keep in mind that someone who looks similar to you could unlock the phone.
• Face and voice - you use your face and a spoken word or two to unlock the screen
• Pattern unlock
• Password unlock
• Pin unlock (numbers only)

Consider encrypting data on your phone if you commonly store sensitive emails, pictures, or other documents.

On the "Encrypt device" page it states "You can encrypt accounts, settings, downloaded applications, and their data, media, and other files. Once you encrypt your device, a password will be required to decrypt it each time you power it on". It also states that encryption takes an hour or more, so make sure your phone is charged above 80% and plugged in if you decide to do this.

Before you encrypt data, you must have a password set. You can not use face unlock, pin, or pattern unlock for data encryption. Optionally you can choose to only encrypt files stored on the SD card, excluding multimedia files.

Note: If the SD card or the whole phone is encrypted, but you don't want to use a password every time you unlock the phone, you must un-encrypt everything, and then change to a different screen unlock method.


Sounds
Go to Settings > Sound to change how the S3 makes sounds.
From here you can set:

• Device Ringtones
• Device vibration
• Default notifications
• Keytones
• Touch sounds
• Screen lock sound
• Haptic feedback (turned off by default)

To change email sound notifications:

1. Open the email application
2. Select Settings > settings > general preferences > select ringtone
3. Change to the sound you want

To set you own ringtones:

1. Long press a sound file that you want to use
2. Select Set as - Phone ringtone, Caller ringtone, or Alarm ringtone

To use your own notification sounds:

1. Apps > My Files - go to the file you've already saved to the phone
2. Long press the file and choose Move (or Copy)
3. Put the file in Apps > My Files > sdcard > media > audio > notifications
4. The file will now be in Settings > Sound > Default notifications

Battery life
There a number of different things you can do to save battery life:

1. Settings - under device > Power saving - this feature limits the CPU performance so it doesn't suck up so much battery power
2. Settings > Display - Display battery percentage - this may make you more aware of the battery power left
3. Settings > Display > Brightness - set to automatic so the screen isn't all the way up when it doesn't need to be
4. Settings > Display > Screen timeout - set this to something low and then enable Smart stay so the screen doesn't turn off when you're looking at it.
5. Settings > Battery - to see what things are sucking up the most battery power .
6. Consider pulling down the notification bar and disabling as many antennas as possible, especially mobile data, when not in use. Constantly searching for wi-fi, data, and voice signals sucks up a lot of battery.
7. If you see "Android OS" taking up a lot of battery power. This is probably happening because of the wi-fi connection constantly gathering data from your router. To alleviate this turn off wi-fi or assign the S3 a static IP address.
8. More on battery life here: http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung/t...galaxy-s3.html

S-Voice
S-Voice is Samsung's Siri. While not as intuitive, it still does a good job of taking commands and interpreting text messages. Double tap the home key to activate.
Here are some things you can say:

• "call [contact name]"
• "send text to [recipient] [message]*"
• "navigate to [address/city/business name]"
• "driving mode on/off"
• "find [name of business]/resturants/gas station"
• "map of [address/city]"
• "note to self [message]"
• "new task [do something]"
• "new event [event name] [time & date]"
• "record voice"
• "listen to [artist/song/album]"
• "send email to [recipient]"
• "search for [term]"
• "go to [website]"
• "open [application name]"
• "set alarm for [time]"
• "set timer for [x minutes]"
• "what is the weather for today?"
• "turn wi-fi on"
• "Twitter update [message]"

Factory Resets

If you want to reset everything: Settings > Back up and reset > Factory data reset

If you can't boot the phone (after a failed root maybe):

1. Turn off the phone
2. Press & hold volume up and home at the same time
3. Press the power button until the phone turns on (vibrates)
4. The Android logo should appear - release the buttons
5. Select wipe data/factory reset with volume down, press the power button to choose
6. Select YES with Volume down, power to choose
7. The phone should format
8. Press power to reboot

Other things

Manage your data limits: Settings > Data usage and check Set mobile data limit

Task Manager: hold down the home button to get a view of apps that are open - open the task manager to see what is using up memory & cpu

Multiple contact entries for the same contact: long press and select Join contact

Files can be shared through a feature called S-Beam with other phones or devices with DLNA or NFC cabability. The setting to turn this on is under Settings > More settings. Nearby devices will be shown.

To use HDMI you must use a Samsung MHL to HDMI Adapter

The SD Card slot (which does not come pre-loaded) can use up to a 64gb card

Unfortunately you can't move apps to an SD card

More:
http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung-g...y-siii-s4.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung-g...laxy-siii.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung-g...laxy-siii.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung-g...iii-vs-s4.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung-g...-variants.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/samsung-g...-variants.html

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