In most cases it’s due to a bit of protective plastic that was placed on the camera surround at manufacture to remove it takes seconds and can improve your Galaxy S4 camera images considerably.

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We discuss the difference between the S4 and other leading handsets as well as explore the camera and settings area of the Galaxy S4 so you can get a better idea of what to expect.

The Galaxy S4 is a fine device and now that Samsung has spent some time fixing bugs and finishing off features we are confident you will find the S4 the best Smartphone on the market today.

I was negative about the S4 when it was first released their were many rough edges and un-optimized features that it marred what should be a great device.

With those issues now fixed we can see more clearly the device that was waiting to burst forth. The 1080p display is the best I’ve seen and beats even those LCD panels.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is by far the fastest Smartphone on the market today never stalling or letting me down when it comes to even the most demanding games.

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Everyone loves the thrill and excitement of a top class racing game on any platform but on Android it’s all the more epic.

The games we have selected for our Top 5 are in our opinion the best reflection of Racing games on Android so far.

• Pocket Rally
• Need for Speed Most Wanted
• Riptide GP
• Real Racing 3
• Carmageddon

Do you agree with our Top 5 which titles would make it into your best of Android racing games?

Tell us in the comments below.

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I’ve installed the latest ROM so you can get an idea of what to expect if you go for Pure Android. What you lose is everything Samsung added including their interface and apps, what you gain is a clean Android device with no bloat and that you can customize as you choose.

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In comparison, the Galaxy S4, running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, outshines its main rival in the $253 billion smartphone market with a performance that is almost twice as fast.

Which? says that the Samsung S4 scored 3,188 on the Geekbench speed test, an industry standard, while the iPhone trailed along on 1,664, behind six other handsets.

The tests measure processing and memory speed and Which put seven handsets through their paces including those from Google, Sony, HTC and BlackBerry. They looked at their performance for playing games, multi-tasking, using apps and editing pictures.

Some of the results are likely to be down to the speed of the processor. The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 1.9GHz quad-core processor while the Apple has a 1.2GHz dual-core.

The Android HTC One was second in the ratings on 2798 followed by the Sony Xperia Z third on 2173 and the Google Nexus 4 fourth with 2134.

In fifth place was the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on 1950 and the BlackBerry Z10 on 1698 was sixth.

Samsung has loaded its new S4 with masses of features including the ability to call a friend, answer the phone, preview emails and control videos without even touching the phone. It can also be used as a controller for your home entertainment system.

Androidizen put both the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One through a comparison, see how they did.

It has some innovative features including S Health which lets you monitor your fitness levels during workouts and tracks your diet. You can also ask it to keep an eye on your comfort level with temperature and humidity info.

If you buy a compatible body scale it checks your weight and uploads it to the S4 via Bluetooth. The S Band, a simple clip on wrist band, can measure your sleep efficiency with a 3D sensor and report back to your phone.

One of its new features is S Translator which will be a boon to anyone who has to travel abroad for business or on holiday and wants a quick way of making themselves understood.

Which? testers found the S4 good to use for editing pictures. It has a rear 13 megapixel shooter on the back and a 2 megapixel camera on the front with full HD recording at 30 frames per second. There are lots of features including dual shot, drama shot, sound and shot, 360 degree photo, animated photo, eraser, night, best photo, best face, beauty face, high dynamic range, panorama and sports mode.

Meanwhile, the iPhone has an 8 megapixel iSight camera with video recording HD at 1080p up to 30 frames a second with audio. The Face Time HD camera has 1.2 megapixel photos and 720p HD video up to 30 frames a second. It has improved video stabilisation and photo and video geotagging.

In other news the little Android games console we all hope can OUYA has been released to retail so those that skipped it during it’s Kickstarter can now pick one up for $99 or £99 we have them now in our Store.

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Turning your Android Smartphone into a PC of sorts is really easy and a fun weekend project, combined with a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse or a Joystick and you can extend the power of your Smartphone in new ways.

With the Galaxy S4 you have more than enough power to play the best Android games and 60 fps on a big TV.

Use an MHL Dock with your Galaxy S4 or S3

Using a Smartphone like the Galaxy S4 as a PC is easy all you need to do is plug in the KiDiGi  MHL Dock to your TV or Monitor using an HDMI cable and then plug-in the Micro-usb adapter so it has power.

The benefit of this is the dock will also charge your Galaxy S4 while it’s sending a picture to your TV or Monitor.

One you have the dock wired up to your display device plug-in the galaxy S4 or S3 by placing it into the dock.

Check out this video that shows the process in action on our YouTube Channel

You may need to push it down firmly but try not to move it too much as you do this as it can cause the Micro-usb adapter in the dock to flex.

Due to the way Samsung’s Auto-rotate option works you will be stuck in Portrait on your Display to solve this download an application called Rotation Locker it’s free and it will allow you to force Landscape for your output.

Once you have that done you can hook up a Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse or a Joystick via Bluetooth.

Android makes for a great Gaming system when hooked up to a large TV or monitor and if you want to get some work done using an app like Multi-window allows you to have a desktop like experience.

You may want to avoid running your Galaxy S4 display all the time as it lowers it’s life span so either turn the brightness right down to save the back-light or use an app that shuts down the display until you want to power it back on.

Alternative to MHL Docks

You can also use a simple cable like an MHL Adapter that will allow you to do all of the above but with a more cable management, in my opinion using an MHL dock with your Android device is so much easier and not a lot more expensive.

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Tom’s Guide: How To Root the Samsung Galaxy S4 (via Tom’s Hardware)

The Galaxy S4 has an extremely impressive spec sheet, which means developers and enthusiasts were particularly keen to gain root access to the device. This task has already been achieved and instructions are available on how to do it yourself, should you feel so inclined. There are many benefits to…

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So far spotted are in this Galaxy S4 update

• Apps2SD support – although it wont move data only the main app files which is a pity
• HDR Video Camera – Too make your videos look even better
• Lag Fixes – Lets see how that works out
• Statusbar hidden – Looks nice
• Secure Boot – In settings you can now see the secure boot status gee thanks Samsung!
• Camera Firmware – The camera has been given an update as well, lets hope improved low light!

There maybe more to discover some are saying the purple smear issue is fixed others that its not.

See the full thread over at XDA-Developers or download the update and install via ODIN

Firmware details:
Model: GT-I9505
Country: Germany
Version: Android 4.2.2
Changelist: 768421
Build date: Wed, 29 May 2013 16:05:23 +0000
Product Code: DBT
PDA: I9505XXUBMEA
CSC: I9505OXABMEA
MODEM: I9505XXUBMEA

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They’ve just shown-off a wireless charging unit for the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Google Nexus 4.

The Qi Wireless Charging Stand is the answer to all our prayers and what’s not to like as the price is comparable to wired chargers, instead of being more expensive.

It’s a two-in-one device which not only charges your smartphone but also flips open to use as a desk stand. It doesn’t matter which way round you want to use it, portrait for work or landscape for gaming, it works either way.

Nexus 4 users just get the gear out of the box and away you go because the Nexus 4 has integrated wireless charging.

It’s a bit more complicated for the Galaxy S4, but not much. You’ll need to get a Qi Samsung S4 Wireless Charging Cover, to replace the original battery cover. Once you have that you can watch the MobileFun video for step-by-step instructions on how to set it up.

Unlike most power units, the one for the S4 comes in white as well as black and you can pre-order through the Mobile Fun website. The charger costs £34.99 and the new battery cover is £24.99.

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So first off spec wise, this is by far the most powerful smartphone ever created. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor is backed up with great GPU, a 1080p 5in display, 2 gig of system ram… it flies. Let’s face it, this is the fastest smartphone ever created.

But it’s let down in a few areas which we’ll come on to later in the review. Now, first off, the style of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is striking, but maybe not the most progressive of designs we’ve ever seen.

Certainly when placed against something like an HTC ONE this does look a little bit out of date, let’s say, a little bit too close to the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 with only really minor updates to the general look and feel of the hardware.

However, one massive change that Samsung have made is the in-the-hand feel. Now, the Galaxy S4 feels great in the hand.

With the Note 2 and the S3 at times you could feel your finger starting to strain a little bit because of the kind of curved back wasn’t quite as curved as it could be.

Now, though, the feel certainly in my hands is very very good. The weighting as well has been distributed much better so at no point do you quite feel the device is tipping.

Galaxy S4 Build Quality

The continued use of polycarbonates in the Galaxy S4 does make you feel that the device is little bit cheap.

The S4 does feel shiny and plasticky and a little bit nasty which is a shame because the weight is brilliant, the hand feel is perfect, it’s comfortable to use but it just feels a little bit plasticky and cheap which is such a shame.

We can argue all day long which is better – aluminium or polycarbonate but again this is one of those personal choice moments.

If you’re someone who wants aluminium, you feel that gives you more durability then the S4 is not going to be for you. If you’re someone who’s willing to trade off the polycarbonate for the replaceable battery and more spec for your money then the S4 may very well be a good choice.

And these are really the choices we have to make, It’s aluminium and less spec for our money, no removable battery or polycarbonate plastics, removable battery and a higher clock and higher spec overall. So, we have our trade off. My personal feeling is I like removable batteries and that probably answers the question.

Software on the Galaxy S4

So, on the software side of things. Samsung have thrown everything and the kitchen sink into the Galaxy S4.

You’ve got everything from an optical character recognition system which can also do translations so you can point it at an object which has text on it and it will translate that text in real time for you either into English or into other languages.

S Voice which I still wish Samsung would dump! It’s not a patch on Google Now, S Translator, S Planner and S Memo round out the software offerings from Samsung.

S Translator being one of the new items which allows for near real-time translation between two languages so if you’re travelling into a foreign country or something or you meet somebody from a foreign country and you’re having trouble having that conversation you can use S Translator to assist you. For the most part it works well. It does require you to speak fairly slowly and quite deliberately but it gets there in the end.

S Health though, is by far the shining example on the S4 and it makes you wonder why all of Samsung’s apps can’t be of this quality. With the S Health app it tracks your day-to-day life. It monitors how many calories you’ve burned how much weight you’ve gained and helps you stay fit and healthy. And as you can see the app is beautifully designed.

In comparison to some of the other Samsung apps it’s like they’ve got somebody else to build this for them.

The S Health app it’s phenomenal, maybe not the reason to buy the S4 in its own right but if you’re a fitness fanatic or if you’re someone who’s looking to get fit, the S Health app might be a tipping point compared to other handsets on the market.

S Memo and S Planner are unchanged from the previous editions, they’ve been given a few tweaks here and there but the basic functionality is still the same.

If you use them on the S3 or on the Note 2 effectively these are Samsung’s versions of a note taking app and a calendar app. I’m afraid to say Google does it better.

Samsung Link is the new name for the Allcast and Share application I believe. This allows you to link up multiple different devices including PCs and other phones and share information wirelessly between them. They work quite well in practice.

We were able to pull graphics and video footage from a local PC over wifi and display them on the S4 with very little time delay and it all felt very fluid and easy to use. However it was quite a chore setting up the Samsung software on the PC. It took several attempts, a few reboots and a bit of magic.

It was strange, we couldn’t work out exactly why it wasn’t working it just seemed to be a bit glitchy.

Watch On is a very interesting and useful app it will allow you to pick what types of shows you enjoy watching. It will then make suggestions to you about what shows you might like to watch and if you want to watch the show you simply tap the show’s name and the infrared port on the Galaxy S4 will automatically change the channel for you.

Likewise, you can set up all of your audio video equipment in the WatchOn app and by doing so you can then control your television your audio video equipment Blu-ray player, all from your smartphone.

For me, that is a bit of a killer feature and it kinds of puts the S4 heads and shoulders above any of the other smartphones out there. It’s a very nice implementation, I would have preferred an application built solely by Samsung because this one is a bit ugly in places.

Samsung have also seen fit to put their own app store on there which is not as good as the Play Store but it has a reasonable attempt.

The standard Google apps are all included as well, so you’ll find Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Play music ,Play movies, Play books all of the usual things you would expect on any Android device is here.

Samsung have also seen fit to include their video app and a few other little bits and pieces. What Samsung have done really is improve the sensors in the Galaxy S4.

There’s a lot more sensors, including things like barometers, temperature gauges, tilt control, gyroscopes it’s all available on the S4 and also things like Smart Scroll, Smart Stay Air Gestures and Air View.

One cool feature of Air Gestures is to be able to pick up an icon and then instead of having to try and move the icon to the edges of the screen you can simply wave your hand over one of the sensors and then drop the icon where you’d like.

Multi window allows you to have two applications on screen at the same time which is cool we like that idea but it would be nice if it could be two different applications at the same time just picked from your app tray.

So overall we really like the Samsung Galaxy S4.

While we’ve had quite a lot of teething troubles with it, the overheating issue, the headphone jack issue and the general manufacturing, and as we’ve got used to the S4 and we’ve found a few workarounds to some of the problems, we found it to be a very competent device, one of the better smartphones on the market.

We will be taking a look at the HTC ONE and we’ll also be comparing it to the S3 and the Note 2 but overall I think if you’re in the market for a new phone now, the S4 is the one to go for.

If you already have an S3 or a Note 2 I would say there’s not quite enough here to justify it. Not unless you need the bigger 1080p screen or the faster processor.

If you don’t need either of those two things really what Samsung have offered here is not enough to justify selling your S3 or Note 2 or trading in and buying an S4.

It’s a great device it’s got a lot of rough edges. And the extra stuff that we’re getting here is mostly software.
There is not really enough to justify dumping a device like the S3 or Note 2 that’s barely a year old.

Those are great devices, so is the S4 and for me, this device sits in between the S3 and the Note 2 and it’s kind of like the S3 now becomes the mid range model the Galaxy S4 becomes the high end smartphone and the Note 2 is still the king. I would also suggest checking out some Galaxy S4 cases as well to help protect your investment.

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Consumer Reports names Samsung’s Galaxy S4 the world’s best smartphone (via The Inquirer)

PRODUCT TESTING OUTFIT Consumer Reports has named Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone the top smartphone in the world, dethroning LG’s Optimus G. Consumer Reports is an independent, non-profit organisation that tells subscribers what are the best products on the market, and the Samsung Galaxy S4…

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I’ve been playing with loads of Galaxy S4 updates and roms to see if things improve and for the most part they do.. though I now have some interface lag meh!

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To me it appears Samsung has rushed to market, failed to QA their product sufficiently and entered a race to have the biggest product spec at the expense of usability and quality.

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We found the app to be a bit of a gem on the S4 compared to many of the stock apps S Health is very well designed, easy to use and very functional.

If only all Samsung apps were this good.

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The plastic cover does mean that the chance of taking a nasty knock increases quite considerably. So, with something like the FlexiShield Galaxy S4 cases the idea is it’s flexible but hard-wearing.

So when you pop this on your device and if you happen to drop it or it takes a knock it’s the FlexiShield that is going to take the brunt of the force and not your back cover or the sides of the S4.

It does work quite nicely, more importantly when they’ve milled the ports out they have left plenty of room around all of these various port holes so if you’re using either non-standard cables or if it’s your camera or your speaker grille the case isn’t interfering. With the camera especially it’s not blocking any light around the outside and it’s not obscuring the LED flash either.

On the bottom you can see that it’s leaving plenty of space for your micro usb so if you happen to be using a third party usb cable maybe it’s got a slightly bulkier end to it, it’s not going to interfere and it will still go in quite neatly.

On the front of the case, and one of the reasons I like these gel cases so much is this lip. If the device happens to fall on its face, the actual screen isn’t going to take the hit on the desk, or on the floor.

The covering around the outside, the lip, will take the brunt of the force.

Obviously, if you take a trauma directly onto this screen something that’s slightly raised up, then I’m afraid this case is not going to protect you but to protect the back of your case and the sides, to prevent that face plant from occurring then the gel case is absolutely fantastic and one thing I really like about the FlexiShield is how hard-wearing it actually is.

Having that additional skin on there really makes a big difference.

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This includes setting up lock screen widgets, changing the welcome text and setting up your security.

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The addition of a small magnet triggers a sensor in the S4 to lock and unlock the Galaxy S4 just by opening and closing the cover.

The Galaxy S View cover. Now what’s quite special about this S View cover. Like the previous covers it replaces your battery compartment cover as well, the back cover but it also has the front cover with a cutout. And that’s actually got a piece of plastic there.

Now this plastic is actually conductive as it were, so when we place it on the smartphone on the Samsung Galaxy S4 what will happen is we can use this window here to quickly check for alerts or notifications or if the phone rings we’ll be able to answer a call.

So, first of all, how do we actually attach this to the device.

So what we first have to do is remove the old back cover and it can be reasonably tight to remove so you’ll have to get your finger in and just pries it away.

The great thing with the S View case is there’s a small magnet inside here so as you can see there notifications popped up and I’ve got my notification there, I can quickly see the information but it’s still leaving you with my clock nicely there.

Now when you open the case because of the magnet that’s been attached into the inside of the case the device actually knows that you want to look at it so it will immediately drop into homescreen view.

Likewise, when I close the case it knows the case has been closed and it switches over to this S View mode which allows you to see the information.

One of the things I found slightly awkward  with this case as you can see in the video it has an absolute love of just popping open on its own.

One thing Samsung really should have done here if they were putting a magnet in to detect when the cover was over the screen or not is maybe put a stronger magnet that would keep the actual cover attached to the front of the S4.

It does seem to be a little bit of a design flaw that really.

A lot of people found that the best thing you can do is just try and flex the spine in a few different directions just to remove some of the kind of starchiness from it.

After a couple of weeks worth of use you will find that it sits much more comfortably on the top of the phone.

But, from a functionality point-of-view the S View cover is an absolute dream.  It’s a great idea having this cutout.

The fact that this is a touch sensitive cutout as well using Samsung’s glove tech effectively means that you can use  this to interact with  the S4 if you  get a phone call or to check what actually going on with your latest alerts without even having to open the cover.

The idea of being able to reject a call really quickly and easily is just fantastic. Like I say, the only drawback is this slightly springiness coming from the Galaxy S4 S View cover when you first get it but that can be solved with a little bit of work.

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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.

The post Galaxy S4 settings options and customization guide appeared first on Androidizen.

If you take a picture all the text can be converted to text and edited, shared or translated. It really is a very clever app and in most cases the Optical Reader app works very well.

The post Galaxy S4 Optical Reader demonstration appeared first on Androidizen.

How about the Galaxy S4 on Orange 400 Minutes, Unlimited texts and 750mb of data for £31 a month.

Three are offering 500 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited internet for £35 a month.

O2′s deal is looking sharp with Unlimited mins, Unlimited texts 1GB of internet for £37 a month.

EE however are a bit out of the running offering Unlimited minutes, Unlimited texts and 3GB of internet for a whopping £46 a month.

Vodafone meanwhile have Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 1GB of internet for £37 a month

All these are on 24 month contracts minimum and the handset is free.

That’s just some of the deals available for the Galaxy S4, if you have seen a Galaxy S4 deal let us know.

The post Free Samsung Galaxy S4 UK Deals appeared first on Androidizen.

Now if you have Root access to your Galaxy S4 with the help of an app called Folder Mount it’s easy to trick Android into thinking your data is still on the S4 internal memory even though it’s been easily copied to your SD card.

This one needs Root to function but it will save you loads of internal memory space and stop you having to delete your favorite games or apps to make room for new stuff.

The post Solve Galaxy S4 Storage problem Folder Mount root only appeared first on Androidizen.

Really it’s a case of new material has been used to create the look and feel of the Samsung Galaxy S4  and replicate it on the cover.

Now, as you’ll know from the previous covers the idea behind Flip Cover is to protect the front of the screen from taking any substantial knocks and it does a very good job at that. It’s quite hard wearing although a little bit flexible as you can see and it has a nice inside lining which stops the screen from getting any scratches or smudges and what I’ve actually found it can actually help to take off some of those smudges over time.

It’s made of that lovely material that you get, like a chamoix or something like that, you know, lint free cloths that have become very popular for cleaning up screens.

Overall, it’s a nice case, it does the job well. Because realistically all it’s doing is replacing your back cover, you’re not gaining any extra protection for the back or sides of the device particularly.

It’s stylish and it certainly will stop those knocks from occurring that could potentially damage the lovely 5in display that comes on the Galaxy S4 but it is a fairly limited cover in the sense that is not providing any additional protection here.

One of the things that’s always worth noting with any of these flip covers is that the case  itself does not stay attached to the screen the whole time, as you can see in the video it’s actually raising up of its own volition which is a little bit of a problem.

One thing that people have found is if you give this a bit of a flex in a few locations on the spine it will eventually sit much more neatly but it’s one thing to keep in mind that while it is protecting the front of the device it’s not staying absolutely flush at all times so it does allow the potential that if you drop the device it could just flap open and you could still end up taking that knock.

With that said, it certainly is a very stylish case and protecting that screen is a massive bonus.

It would be nice though to see a bit more protection for some of the other areas of the Galaxy S4 and also maybe they could do something just to make the spine on the flip cover just a little bit better at staying flush but overall yet another reasonably good case from Samsung.

The post Galaxy S4 Flip Cover case review appeared first on Androidizen.

Also in this overview we take a look at port and button placement and discuss where things have changed from the previous generation Galaxy phones.

The post Galaxy S4 Hardware overview appeared first on Androidizen.

The symptom is your S4 draining battery whilst using the Google Maps Service that handles location updates for other android apps.

To fix the issue on my Galaxy S4 I did a factory reset which wipes all the data from your handset and restores the default software as it came from the factory.

This resolved the battery drain issue I was having with Google Maps service.

The post Galaxy S4 Battery Drain Fix Google Maps service appeared first on Androidizen.

We will have a full review and a deep dive into every bit of the Galaxy S4 over the next week stay tuned and subscribe for more.

The post Samsung Galaxy S4 unboxing and startup appeared first on Androidizen.

To help you choose the best protection for your Samsung Galaxy S4 check out our round-up of some of the best Galaxy S4 cases on the market today.

Galaxy S4 Flip Cover

If you owned the Galaxy S3, or the Note 2, you will be familiar with Samsung’s standard Flip Cover. This clever case replaces your battery cover and offers a hard front face that flips across your screen to protect it from bumps and knocks.

Consider this the gold standard in cover safety. Available in black or white.

Galaxy S4 S View Cover

New to the Galaxy S4 is a case that you will wonder why they aren’t all like this. It features a cutout on the front of the case and a small magnet.

The S View Cover allows you to see notifications and answer calls, all without having to open up the case to look at the full screen. The magnet wakes or sleeps the S4 automatically when the cover is used.

There’s something very cool about receiving a phone call with the S View Cover. Reject or answer with just a swipe on the touch sensitive S View panel without ever opening the cover. Awesome! Available in black or white.

Galaxy S4 FlexiShield

The FlexiShield Galaxy S4 case is a great third party case for users who don’t want their screen covered at all with a flip cover.

The meta-material of this case is like a hard gel, flexible yet tough, encasing the rear of the device and offering a small lip around the front of the screen.

The FlexiShield will help protect against knocks and drops, although a direct hit to the screen will still be a possibility with this case. Maybe invest in a toughed screen protector when using a FlexiShield. Available in many different colours.

There you have three awesome cases for the Galaxy S4 have you spotted a great case? Let us know in the comments.

The post Protect your Galaxy S4 investment with the best cases appeared first on Androidizen.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Released on EE (via SBWire)

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been released on the 4G EE network in the UK. There are a number of deals available, directly through EE and on EE with independent retailers. London, UK — (SBWIRE) — 04/29/2013 — The Samsung Galaxy S4 was released on the UK’s only 4G network, EE, on the 26th April. Available…

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The post Samsung Galaxy S4: Price, release date and where to buy appeared first on Androidizen.

On first impressions the S View Cover is a thing of beauty made of a hard plastic polymer it wraps around the entire S4 by replacing the back cover.

The inclusion of the S View window as part of the cover design should make it quick and easy to check basic information or answer calls without having to open the cover first.

We can now get a better idea of the case design for the Galaxy S4 including the pattern that is very reminiscent of the Galaxy S2.

Those prone to dropping their phones will be please to hear the back cover isn’t as shiny as the S3 cover although it’s still not as grippy as it could be.

We will have to see how the overall design and weight of the S4 plays into it’s in the hand feel.

We will be bringing you a full review of the Galaxy S4 S View Cover in a few days time.

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First published on ProductReviewShow

The post Galaxy S4 S View Cover first look unboxing appeared first on Androidizen.

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Brilliant S4 hardware

Yes of course, there’s a faster processor, more ram (2 gig) and a bigger 5 inch screen running at 1080p, but that’s just for starters.

There are some other big extras which make the Samsung Galaxy S4 the must-have phone.

Infrared Blaster port

What’s really exciting is the inclusion of an Infrared Blaster port that will allow you to control any device with an infrared receiver, like a TV, blu-ray player or another S4.

It turns your Galaxy S4 into a central control device for a range of products, no matter if it’s NFC, Bluetooth, wifi or now infrared. To my mind that’s exciting stuff.

One device to control them all, no more fumbling around to locate the remote in the dark.

The Camera

Another area we are looking forward to with the hardware is the camera that has been given a worthy bump to 13mpx, promising much better low light performance than the Galaxy S3.

Weight Reduction

The weight reduction should be welcome to some although we are a little concerned it will be too light, could be a good idea to invest in a Galaxy S4 case to help add some bulk and protect it just in case of a drop or knock.

Glove touch

At last, is all I can say! No more cold fingers on winter days. The Galaxy S4 will allow you to interact with gloves on. A simple feature but one that is going to be of huge use to most S4 owners.

We love these Galaxy S4 software features

Dual Camera

The ability to add the front and rear cameras to record simultaneously and overlay one on the other in the final render is brilliant and you have to wonder why no one thought of that earlier. You can also do it with pictures allowing the photographer to be included in the picture.

S Translator

This is possibly the best idea ever and while others have had a go at it, Samsung’s implementation in the Galaxy S4 appears to be very well executed. We can’t wait to try out on-the-fly translations… if we can find someone who speaks a language other than English anyway. Still, for anyone who holidays or travels abroad a lot for work, this app could save some embarrassment if you think you’re asking where the toilet is but instead find you’ve accidentally insulted your host!

Story Album

Taking lots of picture is great, organising all those pictures later not so much fun. Story Albums takes the hard work out of it by intelligently grouping images as they are taken, based on your location and other information.

Group Play

Do you have friends who own Samsung Galaxy smartphones? Well, now you can get eight devices together and all play the same track, creating a surround sound system to rival a nightclub. Now what song to play first, Hey Macarena!

Air Gesture

Incredibly, you don’t even have to touch the Galaxy S4 to interact with it. Air Gesture will allow you to complete basic operations or peek at files just by hovering your finger over the screen. This is a by-product of the Gloved interaction but a welcome and time saving addition.

S Health App

Get fit and let your Galaxy S4 help you by tracking your progress and providing updates in real time. Combined with the S Health band I can see I will be shedding a few pounds and putting my S4 to more productive use than sitting on the couch playing Real Racing 3.

What are you looking forward to with the Galaxy S4? Let us know in the comments.

The post Samsung Galaxy S4 on the launch pad appeared first on Androidizen.

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The FlexiShield is a gel type material that is very hard wearing and tough to boot. It snaps around the Galaxy S4 rear and with a slight over lip for the screen will prevent face plants and knocks doing any damage.

This is very similar to the Galaxy Note 2 case we reviewed a few months ago and came away impressed.

We will have a full review of the case along with a Galaxy S4 just after launch.. hope you enjoy this early look.

The post First look video Samsung Galaxy S4 FlexiShield Gel Case appeared first on Androidizen.

For now, let this image of the Galaxy S4 White and Black Flip Cover whet your appetite. They look to be of the same high quality construction as Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and Note 2 flip cases.

 Key features of the Galaxy S4 Flip Cover

The Galaxy S4 Flip Cover has the following stand out features:

• Replaces the back cover of the Samsung Galaxy S4
• Provides full screen protection without additional bulk
• Durable construction offers premium protection for your screen
• Official Samsung accessory made for the Galaxy S

Available in white or black to match the Galaxy S4 launch colours, these stylish Flip Covers are going to fly off the shelves.

Look out for a full Video Review coming in the next few days!

The post Exclusive – Official Samsung Galaxy S4 Flip Cover cases first look appeared first on Androidizen.

With the first two months at half price the effective cost starts at £36 a month and the handset free.

At the moment some of the tariffs look a little strange offering the same minutes, texts and contract length but costing more per month.

We have pre-ordered our Galaxy S4 and will be bringing you our review just after launch at the end of April.

The post Galaxy S4 Pre-orders at Mobiles.co.uk appeared first on Androidizen.

If you’re thinking of pre-ordering maybe these will take your fancy:

• Orange (24 months) 900 minutes, unlimited texts, 1GB data, £36 a month (handset £49.99);
• Vodafone (24 months) unlimited minutes and texts, 1GB data, £37 a month (handset £49.99);

We expect more pre-order tariffs and maybe a deal or two over the next few days.

The post Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-orders are live appeared first on Androidizen.

JK Shin introduced the Samsung Galaxy S4 to a packed Radio City Music Hall, saying Samsung had listened to users to find out what they wanted from a smartphone.

It’s expected to launch at the end of April with  3G and LTE 4G, FDLTE and TLTD, all frequencies and standards worldwide.

Featuring a slimline case in black or white polycarbonate, it weighs in at 130g and 7.9mm thick. It has 2GB RAM and a hefty 16GB ROM storage as well as a micro SD expansion slot and 2,600 MAh battery.

New software Features:

Touchwiz interface improvements will better integrate indicators like the battery. There’s a new rendering engine to bring it all to life.

Hardware features

• 5 Inch AMOLED 441dpi display, full 1080p HD
• Two different CPUs depending on region Exynos 5 Octa 1.6GHz or 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon
• 130 grams
• 13 megapixel camera and 2 megapixel front facing camera.
• 100/50Mbps hexa band LTE Cat 3
• 2GB DDR3, 16/32/64GB microSD upto 64GB
• a/b/g/n/ac WiFi
• MHL 2.0
• Bluetooth 4.0
• IIR blaster
• Black and White polycarbonate
• Galaxy S4 looks very similar to the Note 2 in aesthetics

This smartphone, which will run on Android 4.2.2, with it’s snazzy new hands-off features and 1080p HD display, will fly off the shelves and is a real game-changer. Korean electronics giant Samsung are expecting pre-orders to be massive, particularly as they’ve already spent a mega $4 billion on advertising.

Dual Camera

The Dual Camera allows the front and rear camera to record at the same time, overlaying one over the other allows everyone to be in the video. It allows you to add the extra camera at will. You can also add images to the captured image for a unique and cool finish.

You can add sound to your images, before or after taking the image, when you look at the image later you can hear the sound recorded. Erazer allows you to remove people or objects from an image.

You’ll be able to take really stunning pictures with the 13 mega-pixel camera on the back and 2 megapixel on the front. The 8-mega pixel shooter on the Galaxy S3 was one of the best features for day-to-day use and the S4 goes one better. It not only has a Micro SD slot but also infrared gesture and temperature and humidity controls.

The photographer can also be in the video or photo! You can shoot with both cameras at the same time. There are loads of options like fisheye or heartshape, or even cubism. It will take 100 shots in a few seconds.

Eye tracking, Smart Scroll and Smart Pause:

This is an expected development from the Samsung Galaxy S3 where the display stays on as long as the user is looking at it, no matter what time had been set for the screen to turn off.

The Smart Scroll means that you’ll never have to touch the screen again to scroll down, a touchless hover when you’ve reached the bottom of an internet page or email will move you to the next page automatically.

It’s joined by Smart Pause, a clever tweak, which means that the Galaxy S4 will stop playing a video if it senses you have looked away from the screen.

S Translator:

You’ll be able to communicate in different languages. You can ask the phone a question and it will translate it into another language, ideal for tourists needing directions abroad. The response from the person you’re asking will also be translated back into the language of your choice.

You can also use it if you don’t have a network connection as it comes pre-loaded with useful phrases.

Adapt display

The screen automatically adjusts to your surroundings.

This takes over from the previous setting-based functionality and automates the process to create the best viewing experience in any situation.

Story Album

You can create an album with pictures so you can record where you’ve been. The system is smart. It knows if you are on a trip or an event and it will ask if you want to create a Story Album. You can add text like notes about the weather.

You can send a copy of the album to people at home so they can enjoy your pictures as you are taking them, along with sound.

Home Sync

This fab development allows you to share pictures and video to your connected devices like the TV. Home Sync has a terabyte of storage capacity. You can have eight users with their own personal storage and you can connect your S4 via NFC to tap and connect to the Home Sync device. It works with any NFC device or smartphone.  It’s a hub for all your content stored at home.

S Voice Drive

The simpler S drive interface has been designed for hands-free car use, with bigger text display with Bluetooth to provide an optimised experience. This will make the S4 safer and easier while on the move.

The Galaxy S4 responds to voice commands and allows you to reply to and respond with voice commands to your emails. The launch had a very impressive demonstration. S Voice Drive allows the S4 to act like a personal assistant, taking over many areas of your communication needs with voice commands..

It makes transferring your old content to your new Samsung Galaxy S4, simple fast and easy. All you need is the Smart Switch software, plug in in your old device and back it up then plug in your S4 and it will copy all your old personal data onto your new S4.

Glove touch

As a major feature, the S4 works with gloved hands so no more chilly days. Just glove-up and game on.

Samsung Knox

Knox is designed for business and enterprise users, built on top of government standard security. You can use it for business and home. Your personal space is private and your work space is secure.

Group Play

You can play music through as many as eight devices, turning the phone into surround sound. It also allows you to share pictures.

Chat On

Chat On Includes video calling for up to three people with you on the front facing camera and your friends on the back camera.

Air Gesture:

Samsung  Galaxy S4 will be using Air Gesture, already in use to preview on the Galaxy Note 2. You just hover your hand over something like a date on the calendar so you don’t need to touch the screen with your finger.

Battery:

2,600 milliamp battery. We’ll have to see how that fares with the new CPU and display technology that the Galaxy S4 is packing.

S Health App

Also included on the S4 is Samsung’s Health App so that if you have a separate pad you can monitor blood pressure, heart rate, weight, BMI and blood sugar. It can tell you how many calories you’ve burned up and calculate your sleep pattern. You can print out the results..

The post Samsung Galaxy S4 launch & specification detailed appeared first on Androidizen.

But what about the CPU and GPU will Samsung go for a Exynos processor or a Qualcomm as been rumored? All will be revealed on March the 14th at the Samsung Galaxy S4 Unpacked event. An image on Twitter and accompanying tweet reveal the date  “Come and meet the next Galaxy”.

We can##Q##t wait to see what they have planned for the S4, throwing money at my monitor isn##Q##t making the 14th come any faster. Let us know in the comments if you are interested in the Galaxy S4.

The post Galaxy S4 unpacked Event March 14th appeared first on Androidizen.