Slow Alpha Camera? No Data on/off shortcut?

[zr2s10]

My wife chose a Galaxy Alpha for her new phone last night. She didn't do much playing around with the demo in the store (as usual), and didn't get much of a feel for it until we got home. For the most part she really likes it. She didn't want the size of the standard S5, so the Alpha was a good fit for her.
BUT (and there is always a but!) we noticed two things pretty quick:

1. The camera is painfully slow :-\ Every time she tried to take a picture of my son, he had moved (he's 2 1/2), and the shot was missed/blurred. Our old S3's were faster than this thing. Does anyone know of a setting to speed it up? Also, it was low light, and the flash had to be set to "on", auto wasn't deciding to turn it on. We can live with that I suppose (our S3's were bad with that too), but the speed is absurdly slow for a "high end" phone.

2. This may be something I just need to dig a little deeper for, but there is no shortcut in the notification center to turn Cellular Data On/Off. I figured it just needed added in from the list, but it's not shown as an available shortcut. Anyone else missing this, or know a solution?

Any suggestions are much appreciated! My wife is even less tech savvy that me, so until I solve her problems, they're my problems. And all married men know how that goes!

 

[thoots]

2. This may be something I just need to dig a little deeper for, but there is no shortcut in the notification center to turn Cellular Data On/Off. I figured it just needed added in from the list, but it's not shown as an available shortcut. Anyone else missing this, or know a solution?

I think I can give this one a shot: Why do you want cellular data "off?" Do you just want to switch to WiFi whenever it's available, and then switch back to Cellular when WiFi is not available? If so, just go into the settings, into WiFi, and right at the top is the "Smart network switch" function -- just check that, and the phone will automatically use WiFi if it can, or use Cellular if there's no WiFi available. That's certainly what I have been doing.....

 

[zr2s10]

Yeah, the phones we have had in the past always did that, so I assumed they want you to just trust that to always work. We always turn the data off at home though, or if we're trying to save battery while we're out (not as common). The main reason we want to switch it off, is because if the router fails, and you don't notice it right away, you end up using more data allowance. We only have 1 GB, so we try to be very careful with it, to keep our bill low. Basically, we always turn it off unless we're in the car. I may end up adding NFC tags in our cars, and one by the front door anyway. That way we can have it kick the data on, and turn the wi-fi off when we're driving. I like to turn the wi-fi off when driving, because it messes with things if you're trying to look something up, and you momentarily sign in to someone's open wi-fi.

My wife was trying to mess with her camera settings yesterday, not much luck so far. Holding down the shutter, then releasing when you want to take the picture helps a little. But it's still a bit slow, for something that is already supposed to be focused.

 

[Phillip Pugh]

Yeah, the phones we have had in the past always did that, so I assumed they want you to just trust that to always work. We always turn the data off at home though, or if we're trying to save battery while we're out (not as common). The main reason we want to switch it off, is because if the router fails, and you don't notice it right away, you end up using more data allowance. We only have 1 GB, so we try to be very careful with it, to keep our bill low. Basically, we always turn it off unless we're in the car. I may end up adding NFC tags in our cars, and one by the front door anyway. That way we can have it kick the data on, and turn the wi-fi off when we're driving. I like to turn the wi-fi off when driving, because it messes with things if you're trying to look something up, and you momentarily sign in to someone's open wi-fi.

My wife was trying to mess with her camera settings yesterday, not much luck so far. Holding down the shutter, then releasing when you want to take the picture helps a little. But it's still a bit slow, for something that is already supposed to be focused.

Wel, first things congratulations on your wife's purchase of the alpha nice phone if your gonna be taking a lot of pictures of moving objects like kids and dogs make sure you have a lot of light next if you don't have a lot of light your gonna need to go I to the settings and click on the setting for actions shots that will automatically change everything in the camera for fast moving thing like kids haha to be honest if you gonna be taking a lot of action pictures you really need to think about getting a dslr just a thought

Posted via Android Central App

 

[zr2s10]

We actually have a pretty good camera, but it stays in the case unless we plan on taking lots of pics. Taking good impromptu shots are one of the main reasons we got smartphones in the first place a few years ago. If she puts it down for more than a minute I'll do some more work on the settings. Maybe try to find a fast camera app...

 

[sydneycooper1979]

Go into camera settings and turn off steady hand (I think that's what it is called). This should speed up the camera quite a bit.

 

[zr2s10]

That worked great! Thank you very much! I just noticed when taking a pic before changing that setting (for comparison) , it was popping up with a message basically saying that. BUT, it disappears so fast it was impossible to read the whole thing! I took a few to get it to pop up again, and was able to read it. Since that's fixed, my wife seems much happier with the phone.

 

[robertkoa]

Surprised there is no toggle for Data on /off thought that is part of Android Menu.
Perhaps Samsung overrides that with Touchwiz.

Maybe in App Store you can download a quick toggle fpr that.

 

[zr2s10]

Never found an official way to add the Data toggle, and since this, I have picked up a Galaxy S5 Active for myself. It is also missing the toggle, with no way to add. And of course, my data use is up. Mostly, because when I bought the phone, the rep at the store signed me into their wifi, and started downloading all my apps from Google, that I had on my last phone. I was at the store for another 30 min, and left. While driving home, I realized it was still going, and using my data connection. I had to pull over, because there was no quick toggle, and I hadn't learned the menu layout yet.

I have since found a widget (just searched "data toggle"), and it works perfectly. But I did see a review saying that it won't work with Lollipop, because Google took away setting controls from 3rd party apps. I hope that's not true, and if it is, Samsung better add the toggle back, because it's BS it was taken away in the first place. Not sure what I can really do about it, but still, irritating.

 

[robertkoa]

I am thinking of an Alpha and researching the quirks- very strange that Samsung does NOT have a Toggle for Data On/Off.

Possible workaround- set to Wifi Only but turn Wifi OFF ?

Maybe Android L will force them to retain,Data ON/OFF,in Menu ?

Hopefully the,Toggle will still work.

 

[zr2s10]

I am thinking of an Alpha and researching the quirks- very strange that Samsung does NOT have a Toggle for Data On/Off.

Possible workaround- set to Wifi Only but turn Wifi OFF ?

Maybe Android L will force them to retain,Data ON/OFF,in Menu ?

Hopefully the,Toggle will still work.

My wife likes her Alpha. She only uses it for Facebook, eBay, internet, and maps (beyond usual phone usage), so she probably doesn't really push the limits of it. But it's a nice size considering the screen. It's smaller than her GS3 was, but the same size screen. The one thing I would knock on it is the battery life. She is usually on her charger before bed time, but I think she spends a lot of time on it during the day. My S5 Active however has phenomenal battery life. On one instance, I unplugged at 7:30 AM, and then plugged back in at 10 PM the NEXT night, at 20% power. But I'm not a heavy user. I do more things with mine, but I'm not on it as much. On a "heavy" use day for me, I typically go all day, and end up around 40-50% remaining.

The best thing to probably do, if an update kills the toggle widget, is to use the "Sync" shortcut in the dropdown. That will prevent most things from running in the background. I find that if you hit "disable background data" on Google's apps, the system gets pissy. Third party apps that show high use, I go into that app, and disable background data on those, and it's usually fine. But you won't get push notifications. It all depends on the app, and how you want to use it. It can be a pain in the ****, however, my wife and I easily stay under 1 GB per month shared, saving us money every month.

 

[zr2s10]

hmmm, so B U T T is considered offensive, but I can say pissy? odd, lol

 

[sdmf]

Lol

 

[csanad_kocsis]

My wife chose a Galaxy Alpha for her new phone last night. She didn't do much playing around with the demo in the store (as usual), and didn't get much of a feel for it until we got home. For the most part she really likes it. She didn't want the size of the standard S5, so the Alpha was a good fit for her.
BUT (and there is always a but!) we noticed two things pretty quick:

1. The camera is painfully slow :-\ Every time she tried to take a picture of my son, he had moved (he's 2 1/2), and the shot was missed/blurred. Our old S3's were faster than this thing. Does anyone know of a setting to speed it up? Also, it was low light, and the flash had to be set to "on", auto wasn't deciding to turn it on. We can live with that I suppose (our S3's were bad with that too), but the speed is absurdly slow for a "high end" phone.

2. This may be something I just need to dig a little deeper for, but there is no shortcut in the notification center to turn Cellular Data On/Off. I figured it just needed added in from the list, but it's not shown as an available shortcut. Anyone else missing this, or know a solution?

Any suggestions are much appreciated! My wife is even less tech savvy that me, so until I solve her problems, they're my problems. And all married men know how that goes!

I'm a little late to the party but if you want to shut mobile data off go to

Settings>More networks>Mobile networks>Mobile data

There doesn't appear to be a shortcut.

 

[zr2s10]

yeah, that's how we were doing it. But I noted in one of the replies above that I installed a widget on her phone (and my S5A) that toggles the data for you. So far it's been working fine, and we've both been updated to 4.4.4 (that's what mine is on, not 100% sure about hers)

 

[robertkoa]

Data "on" or " off" is in toggles in quick settings menu.

Normal to turn on or off -that's why it's there.

 

[zr2s10]

Yes, it is in the quick settings menu, but it's not available in the notification panel as a "button". You know, like it is on other manufacturer's phones. I tried out a G3, and it had it in there. They can call it "quick settings", but it's still faster and easier to drag down, tap the button, drag up. It takes about a second...