In past Galaxy models a lot of complaint has been leveled at Samsung for basically trying to shove every single setting possible into just a single page and the problem with that is you just couldn’t work out where settings were going to be.

You would find some things were in the security section which were lock screen related, it was just a complete mess.

So with the Galaxy S4 they’ve obviously taken that criticism to heart and they’ve split things down so you now have these tabs on the bottom previously everything was just in one long scrolling list which made life difficult so now you have a connections tab your my device, your accounts and a more option.

Connections as the name suggests deals with anything connection related so you’ll find your wifi, your Bluetooth your data usage and your ability to change your 3G networks etcetera available in there as well as things like your roaming if you go into more networks.

So also flight mode tethering and your VPN is available in there.

NFC and S Beam which are one and the same thing really they both use the near field communication with the S Beam it also uses the wifi and you can quickly flick those on or off as you need to, you can also access those through the quick short cuts up at the top here as well if you need to but the option is there within the primary settings. You also have a screen mirroring device nearby and Kies via wifi.

Again all of this is connection related, related to you connected to the device, or having other devices connecting to it.In my device it’s very much about personalization creating your custom lock screen tweaking your display settings if you’d like to notification panels, multiple windows, brightness and your auto rotation, fonts and everything like that.

That’s not to say that Samsung haven’t still crammed in an awful lot of settings but at least things are now a little bit better laid out and a bit more logical. Your LED indicator can be changed there or turned off completely if you’d like to.

Home screen and sound mode.

The home screen mode is if you want to switch it into easy mode.Why would you want to do that? And sound is where you can set up your ring tone, vibration patterns, dial pads and more importantly if it’s annoying you, turn off that touch sound, so you know, that weird water droplets sound that you get every time you touch anything. There is where you can turn it off.

If you want rid of that, that’s where you get rid of it I would strongly urge you to turn it off if you value your sanity! You can also change your call settings as well, your call settings in here including how you reject whether you should automatically answer calls, your alarms and everything like that. And the ringtones that will appear in there as well.

A lot of options here to look at but you know, it’s what we expect from Samsung. You’ve got the blocking mode which will allow you to simply block calls or notifications and a new feature which I don’t recall seeing on the previous Galaxy S models is Safety Assistant.

Effectively in an emergency the device can automatically do some stuff for you So for instance it can display your emergency contacts, send an emergency picture send messages etcetera.

Very useful if you happen to be out and about if you’re a walker or anything like that you have an extra safety feature there that can keep you safe and alert people should there be a problem.

The power saving mode is obviously very useful in any smartphone. It allows you to drop down various settings on the phone to a lower power mode so for instance restrict the amount of cpu you’d be using put the screen into low power and turn off the Haptic feedback.

Which, you know, all of these things drain the power. If you drop those into lower mode you may get a couple more hours worth of use out of your device.

Accessibility and accessories. those are there, if you’ve got accessories things like your dock those options are available in there and for accessibility you have all of those accessibility features to make it easy if you have a particular problem using a device.

So things like magnification is available in there, adjusting the colours everything you could possibly need if you need the accessibility features in that particular section.

Your keyboard controls are in language and input. Now I’ve installed Swiftkey. I remember the announcement initially they were saying that Swiftkey or Swipe was actually going to be coming with the Samsung phones. I can’t find it anywhere so I’ve installed mine off the Play Store.

And in there you’ve also got your text to speech options as well, voice typing and everything like that. Motion and gestures, this is where we get into more of Samsung’s kind of added extra features.

These allow you to interact with the device without actually physically having to touch the screen necessarily. You can make a gesture, for instance flicking the wrist, swiping across the screen with your hand will allow the device to recognize those actions and do whatever it’s been designed to do.

Normally moving between panels and things like that and you can just flick those on very very easily.

With the Air gestures you’ve then got even more options there for which Air gestures you would like to use bearing in mind that all of these features do run your battery down because it’s constantly having to use things like the camera to judge whether your hand has moved across the screen or not.

You have your Voice control down at the bottom here.This is very much the S Voice kind of stuff I have mine turned off because it just annoys the heck out of me.

If you come into accounts now at very least accounts aren’t buried under another submenu as such.You can come into the accounts section and see all of your accounts listed, add a new account or trigger back-up and reset. In here is where your factory data reset is. If you need to wipe everything on your device and start again this is where you can do it.

And you can also set your back-ups as well in there if you need to.

The private options allow you to save various features of the phone so your settings and so on and that all goes straight up to Samsung’s cloud and then obviously restore them again later if you need to, say for instance if you’ve done a wipe or a reset.

The accounts section is very much a muchness, there’s nothing really new here as such other than what a particular application might install for you But you’ve got your Samsung account as standard, Chat On, Dropbox and Google.

Email, LDAP if you’re network orientated and the Microsoft Exchange and custom serve is there as well. If you’ve installed Facebook you’ll also get the Facebook accounts there.

In More, finally in More we just get down to the stuff they couldn’t think of anywhere else that it could kind of go.So you’ve got your location services in here.

So do you want your gps or wifi location being reported, and available for applications. In security you’ve got encrypting your device, encrypting your external SD card, really nice to see those encryption options Remote control, SIM change alerts there. you can SIM card lock in there as well.

Verifying your apps. Now this is an interesting one. Google in Android 4.2 I think introduced a new feature which would analyse applications you were installing and make sure that they weren’t dodgy in any way, stealing data or anything like that.

Turning that on and using the unknown sources allows you to sideload an application but still check it against Google’s good list as it were to make sure there’s nothing bad going on.

Very useful if you’re like me and you take a lot of apps in from developers for reviewing and so on that aren’t actually available through Play Store yet.Just helps us keep our devices safe.

Trusted credentials again that tends to come into play with things like exchange server if you’re a business user and have to talk to exchange.

The application manager is very similar to the application manager of old. Shows you everything you’ve got installed on the device and let’s you uninstall it as long as it’s not one of these stock applications or preloaded applications as it were. So if you want to uninstall something go into there, hit your uninstall button.

You can also clear down your data, clear your cache data, or force the application into a stop, Those sort of things can come in handy as my wife discovered the other day with Facebook playing up clearing the cache on the Facebook app solved her problems.

You can also see what applications you currently have running and using up processes, again this will list absolutely everything that’s available including the stuff that is stock and running in the background that’s required to actually run the phone itself.

So, you know, don’t be surprised if you do see quite a lot of odd things in there like filter, and store and factory mode. These are all part of the Android operating system. Don’t turn them off now.
And then if you go all the way to all you can see absolutely everything for those people that love to scroll.

So if we come back out of there and go into battery again this battery app is very much as we’ve seen many times previously. It allows us to see what the current charge is, how long the device has currently been running on battery and which applications are currently drawing down on the battery.

So you can see I’ve been playing Carmageddon there, my screen has been burning through 70% and my maps has been flicking on a little bit.

In storage we can see what is using what space and where broken down by application types. Pictures video audio downloads miscellaneous data and then at the bottom what is available.

So here we can see applications are currently taking up 5gig of my storage space. I can click on applications and I come into the application management just so.

Likewise I can come into pictures and video and I can make changes there as well all nice and easy.

It does also show you your SD card down at the bottom as well if you have that installed, but it doesn’t give you the breakdowns.

In date and time surprise surprise it allows you to change the date and time as well as things like the automatic time zone formatting and when your daylight savings is likely to kick in as well.

Developer options is only available if you’ve done a particular action on your handset which brings you into the developer mode. To do that you come into about device you come down to your build number and you tap many many times until you see a message pop up that says type one more time, two more times, three more times or what have you and the developer mode will be active.

Once you have your developer mode you’ve then got some things you can do. Usually this is pretty much just for developers but there are a couple of interesting things in here.

Checkout the windows animation scale and transition animation and animator. If you drop these down to 0.5 or put them on off completely you can actually find your device runs a little bit quicker. It’s not actually running quicker but you’ve actually reduced the amount of animation time for when you transition between various screens.

By reducing that transition time it makes things feel a little bit more fluid and snappy.

I’ve never encountered an Android device yet that doesn’t work just as well when you put it off or 0.5 as having it on 1.It just adds to a little bit of snappiness of the device. Which, you know, hey, we like snappiness don’t we.
Those are core Samsung Galaxy S4 settings.

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Facebook Home Is a Nightmare (via NewsLook)

Video News by NewsLook Facebook’s new “Home” application for some Android models leaves a lot to be desired. TheStreet’s Gary Krakow explains.

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The post Facebook Home Is a Nightmare appeared first on Androidizen.

Dubbed Facebook Home, it has a novel lock screen which has been named “cover feed” and notifications, images and messages will appear on this screen instead of a downloadable app. Swiping up from this screen launches the rest of the phone apps.

Notifications are sorted by friend, not app, so you get an alert when a friend is doing something, rather than when an app has something new.

Users no longer have to fiddle about to unlock the HTC First phone, they can leave a Facebook comment, double tap to like something or browse pictures.

Zuckerberg, who unveiled the Android HTC smartphone at a fairly low key event in San Francisco, said it was designed around people, not apps. Facebook’s research shows that users spend 25% of their time looking at their feeds and chatting to friends.

Among the useful innovations is the “chat heads” feature in which people can take part in conversations in their messaging windows without having to access apps and navigate through menus.

Facebook Home, which behaves more like a newsfeed, will be in the Google Play Store on April 12 and you can try it out before deciding if you really want it as the default. There’s no tablet version yet but Facebook are planning to launch a version shortly.

Zuckerberg is adamant that Facebook is not creating an operating system and to begin with only five devices will be catered for, all running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. They are:

• HTC One
• HTC One X/X+
• Samsung Galaxy S3
• Samsung Galaxy S4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 2

The HTC First will be the first phone to come with the Facebook Home as the interface. You’ll be able to get it in black, white, blue and red at $99.99 for a two-year contract in the US where the only carrier will be AT &T.

There won’t be any on the app for the time being but it’s expected they will eventually be placed on the cover feed.

The post Facebook Home for Android detailed at event appeared first on Androidizen.

There##Q##s nothing we like better than zooming round a racetrack with the more noise the better. Add in arcade style gameplay and we##Q##re in heaven!

Our first thought about Slingshot Racing was that it was a pretty innovative game, there##Q##s more to it than pressing the pedal to the metal.

It##Q##s excellent on the Android device too, because it##Q##s been developed specially for touchscreens so you can get up to speed quite quickly with not too much faffing about.

The scenario is a steampunk environment with icetracks and grappling hooks which you use to slingshot around corners like a rocket. However, it can be quite tricky to start with so best to start with the tutorial tracks and then when you##Q##ve got some practice in, head out onto the real time racing and take on the other bad boys, or girls.

There are 80 races so you can choose which you want to do, depending on how much time you##Q##ve got. There##Q##s everything from the simple race to time trials in day and night settings.You get better at the game with more practice.

Slingshot Racing is a multiplayer game so you can pit your skills against other players and you won##Q##t tire of the lovely 3D graphics.

It##Q##s 62p from Crescent Moon Games and worth the investment so that you can boast about your achievements on Twitter or Facebook.

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The v.2.1 version of the Facebook app is being rolled out at the moment and includes the ability to open and look at photos more quickly, you can share your friends##Q## postings to timelines, groups and pages and you can also, in a revolutionary move, send voice messages.

If you##Q##re someone who likes accessing photos through Facebook then you##Q##ll be pleased about the picture upgrade as it could be a little tardy at times on the original version.

The new share option means that you don##Q##t just share from your own timeline but if you want to, you can share things your friends have posted in theirs as well as groups and pages where you have registered a like.

Being able to send a voice message is a welcome innovation, although Facebook Messenger on iOS and Android already have it. It##Q##s part of a promise Facebook made that it was going to invest in upgrades to release updated apps every month or so.

Facebook has recently announced Graph Search, although it isn##Q##t available in the UK yet. For instance, if you want to eat at a particular restaurant, you##Q##ll be able to see which of your friends have already eaten there and whether they recommend it. Before you put in a job application you could also search for friends who worked at a certain firm if you wanted to find out what they thought about working there.

Google is currently the world leader and most popular search engine but Facebook is hoping that it will corner a large part of the market. It already has a billion searches on its system every day.

Graph Social is being rolled out very slowly to see how it goes. Around 100,000 people can access it at the moment. There will be new privacy settings so that Facebook users stay in control of their content.

The free v.2.1 update is available on the Google Play Store.

Link Market – Free Link Exchange, Link Building and Link Trade Directory
Have you ever tried to exchange links, link building, or trade links? Was it hard? Use Link Market instead; – it is easy to use, free and very smart. It will save you hours of work.

The post Facebook v2.1 rolls out for Android appeared first on Androidizen.

Employees at the social networking giant have previously been given iPhones but the massive rise in the number of people with Android phones has made Facebook realise they need to cater better for Droid Dudes among their one billion active users. The firm launched an updated Facebook app for Android back in 2011 which made it easier to share photos and made it possible to respond to friends and stay updated without leaving the page you were on.

In a clever campaign based on the theory of eating dog food ie tasting your own products, Facebook is reminding workers that Google OS is likely to bundle with double the number of devices as Apple in the next four years.

The firm has realised that it needs to beef-up its knowledge of all things Android pretty smartish to keep up with demand from Facebook users who will expect as good a service as Apple users.

Initially, Facebook, which started in 2004, didn##Q##t see too much of a problem because the first Android smartphones were nothing like as good as Apple. But with the massive rise in interest in Android operating systems Facebook needs to make a move now and start droidfood as a program for employees.

droidfood equals new Android phone

Company testers get the chance to play with the latest version of Android apps and Facebook has incorporated droidfood Rage Shake, where if something goes wrong, testers shake their phones and their problem is automatically logged with tech support.

This means that more bugs are reported by more people. Nobody has to log on to fill in complicated forms for tech support, and hope someone will get back to them to discuss the issue, probably taking them away from other work.

If only Rage Shake was available for every Android problem! We could all droidfood for Facebook.

The post Do You DroidFood? Facebook asks employees appeared first on Androidizen.

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The post Rope Escape Android played on Galaxy Note 2 appeared first on Androidizen.

It##Q##s a bit pricey, at £3.10, but you##Q##ll get a lot of gameplay for your money with Avengers Initiative from Marvel Games.

This is the first installment of a series of Marvel adventures featuring Hulk and there##Q##s plenty of action as you try to save the world from the antics of villains like The Skrulls and Abomination.

The story line is that a top-secret facility in the Rockies has emptied out all the monsters and other weirdos incarcerated there. Obviously, they##Q##re none too happy with the way they##Q##ve been treated, and they##Q##re out for revenge – Big Time!

So when Nick Fury calls on Hulk, he##Q##s expecting him to sort out the monsters while he finds out how the bad guys got out of the mountain.

Along the way there##Q##s some stunning HD graphics, a vast array of wipe-em-out weapons and some mega bosses to get to grips with.

As we said, it is quite expensive when so many games are free to play, but this is a cross-over mobile gaming event so you also get updates and scheduled events so that the game takes you out into the real world too and has a longer interest value.

Avengers Initiative tracks progress with a free live service and you can unlock bonus content like info about the characters by registering on Facebook.

It##Q##s been enhanced for NVIDIA Tegra as well so that gives you even better graphics and gameplay. Have a look at the compatibility list on the Google Play Store before you download this one though, some of the reviewers say they##Q##ve had loading problems.
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The post Marvel Avengers Initiative Android played on Galaxy Note 2 appeared first on Androidizen.

Tower defense games are always popular and Royal Revolt has some entertaining gameplay which cast its spell over us.

From Flaregames, the creators of Ocean Tower, this latest graphically cute game sees you using magic to try to overcome family members who have grabbed your father##Q##s throne.

You need to conquer 30 castles to vanquish your foes and get the throne back.

It##Q##s a little bit reminiscent of Harry Potter, with a school called Bogsmarts, but good fun, for all that, especially as it##Q##s free and also multiplayer so you can get your m8s to play as well. Invite other people using Facebook or just at random.

The game begins easily enough but some of the higher levels are much more challenging although you don##Q##t particularly need to make any inapp purchases so it##Q##s good value all round if you plan your strategy sensibly. It##Q##s also economical with few nag screens so they don##Q##t interfere with the gameplay much at all.

It is quite loud though, so you might want to turn your speaker volume down a smidgen.

Royal Revolt has had a lot of top ratings in the Google Play Store so go get it now!

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The post Royal Revolt for Android played on Samsung Galaxy Note 2 appeared first on Androidizen.

Some of the best games on Android really push the power of our favorite device, look for the best then check out the video below.

We provide links to the playstore on the video so you can quickly download the games that interest you most.

The  Top 5 3D Android Games

• Bombshell Hell – fantastic 3D graphics and a slick presentation
• HORN – Deep game play and console quality graphics
• Deadtrigger – One of the best games ever made
• Real Racing 2 – Racing at it##Q##s finest on portable devices
• Bard##Q##s Tale – 3.5 gig of textures make this a monster of a game

Some android devices wont be able to play all of our  Best 3D Android Games so check on the play store page first to see if your device is compatible. Also bear in mind that the more demanding the game the more powerful android device you will need, we would recommend 1 gig of ram for the best experience when gaming on android.

The  Best 3D Android Games video has annotation to take you directly to each games play store page where you can learn more about the game and download to your android device.  It##Q##s great to see so many new games in our Best 3D Android Games the quality has really lept over the last few months, time and again we are seeing near console quality graphics and game play in the palm of our hands.

Do you have a suggestion for our  Best 3D Android Games we would love to hear it, drop us a comment below or on our YouTube Channel. You can also visit us on Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook and connect with us socially.

The post Best 3D Android Games appeared first on Androidizen.

Take your travel sickness pills before you jump aboard the Rail Rush game for a roller coaster ride of fun.

You##Q##re a miner in this wacky Android game from Miniclip, and you##Q##ve got to collect precious stones as well as gold, all the time tearing along in a wagon, trying to avoid obstacles using tilt control.

There are four different characters and you can level up to earn more gems. The scenarios include caves, waterfalls as well as more unusual habitats like spider nests and dead cities.

It##Q##s got cartoony style graphics so there##Q##s plenty of colour to entertain you while you##Q##re whizzing round the track.

Power-ups can help you on your way through the six challenging Rail Rush environments and you rank up as you complete missions successfully.

This is another game you can play against your M8s or with anyone else as there are game statistics and online leader boards. Catch up with all the latest gen on this game on Twitter and Facebook.

Can be a little bit laggy but not bad on Android tablets or phones and free to play from the Google Play Store.

The post Rail Rush Android Review on Samsung Galaxy S3 appeared first on Androidizen.

Draw Something
This fun game is perfect for those who love playing Pictionary. Draw Something converts your phone screen into a virtual sketch pad where you are able to use a variety of colors and tools to create a sketch for your opponent to guess. You can even play against your Facebook friends and send instant messages to each other. Each time you or your opponent guesses correctly, you are rewarded with coins. You can use these coins to buy more colors or word hints if you cannot decifer one of your friend##Q##s drawings!

Words With Friends
If you##Q##re into Scrabble then this sounds like the perfect game for you. Play scrabble against your friends and earn extra points by placing letters on double or triple letter squares. You can even play via Facebook and post your scores online. You can also instant message your friends by clicking the chat icon.

The post Top Free Android Apps appeared first on Androidizen.

The best way to describe Dolphin Browser HD is as Firefox for Android, Tabbed browsing, plugins, skins and Flash support (For 2.2 owners) and its fast, very fast!

The developers make great use of the screen space, for instance swiping your finger left or right away from the screen edges displays slide out panels that contain more options like bookmarks or addons.

The Tab##Q##s along the top of the window allow you to easily keep more than one page open and accessible, much easier than the awful window slide animation that iphone and the inbuilt browser uses.

Probably it##Q##s most compelling new feature is Gesture controls, these allow you to draw a shape and the system will then visit the defined website, draw an F and the browser will load Facebook…Very cool.

Considering it##Q##s free Dolphin Browser HD is easily one of the best apps for Android.

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