Moving over from the Apple system... having a bit of a hard time.

brnc

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Well I love the new S4, but I'm having a bit of adjustment shock. I've been using Apple since the 3GS, and upgraded to the S4 from my current iPhone 5. I could use that thing very quickly to get whatever I needed done. I'm having a bit of a hard time getting into Android's way of doing things... can anyone help?

I bought a 32gb SD card and installed it. Do I just use my phone as normal, and stuff automatically overflows into the card when the physical memory is full? Or do I have to manage the SD card as a separate folder? If the latter, I would move all my music to the SD card and occasionally move photos and videos to it as well. Unless there's a way to set the camera to automatically save photos and videos to the card?

Also, I read the S4 was going to come with Swiftkey standard. The standard keyboard doesn't have autocorrect of any kind. I was very disappointed with this, since Apple's autocorrect is great, and I'm sure swiftkey's is as well. IMHO, not having autocorrect on a phone is ridiculous. I did ensure the "prediction" option was on, and the stock keyboard DOES suggest the right word, but doesn't correct it for me automatically. I have to tap the word above the keyboard to get it to correct. Do I just have to pay the $4 for the swiftkey board?

Apple had photostream, which means whenever I take a photo it would be on my PC waiting for me in a folder. Is the Android system capable of something similar? Also, it'd be nice for the phone to automatically and wirelessly (over WiFi) backup every day at my home. Is this possible?

If I get a text message when the phone's screen is off, and i press the home button, I can see a preview of the message. That's great, but if i tap the message nothing happens. The preview gets smaller and some white zone highlights, like it's inviting me to move things around or something. I'd like to tap the message and have the messaging app open the message where I left off (assuming the phone is not locked of course). Can I make it do this?

Also, do you guys use any of the Samsung apps or just ignore them? "Samsung Apps", "Samsung Hub", "Samsung Link", etc.

Thanks! Hope I can start enjoying my phone soon, lol.
 

estebancam

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Hello and WELCOME TO ANDROID!!! You picked a good device to start off with!

First, when you insert the memory card into your phone and begin to take a picture, the phone should pop up a prompt that asks if you want to default your media storage to the SD card. Most people tap "yes." So once you put in the sd card, all of your pictures and videos should be on your SD card. You can double check this by going to "file manager" in your apps drawer and going to "extSDCard" then "DCIM" (this is where media is stored on Android) then "Camera." If you see pictures there, then they are on the SD card!

When you put music on phone from your computer, it will depend on where you drop the files. I will help you more here once you tell me HOW you plan to transfer music, or if you don't know how, I can tell you how to start.

Second, Samsung's keyboard comes with SwiftKey's prediction engine built in, not with the actual swiftkey keyboard. In my humble opinion, the Samsung keyboard is absolutely horrible. One of the AWESOME features of Android is that if you don't like something, you can completely change it without any kind of hackery. So, I would recommend you go over to the "Play Store" in your app drawer (the equivalent of the App Store on Apple), and search for "Jelly Bean Keyboard 4.2." I have tried dozens of keyboards and the top two have been the SwiftKey keyboard and this Jelly Bean I am recommending. The reason I recommend Jelly Bean one for you is because it is free to download. You can also just visit this link from your computer and download it from your PC to your phone, but here it is:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...plbGx5YmVhbmtleWJvYXJkLmYuZyJd&token=bLPwzoDI

That is the jelly bean keyboard.

Third, Android phones back up your pictures automatically through Google Plus instant upload. Go to your app drawer, open up "Google +" and when you set it up, it will ask you "turn instant upload on" and there is an option that says "Only over wifi." I would choose that and then VIOLA, your pictures are all backed up to Google +. Plus, it is an awesome social network with the abolsute best video chat available. Better than facetime, and it is also available on Apple devices in case you have family with those devices.

Fourth, when the home screen is off, that means the phone is locked. You have to unlock the phone in order to gain insight on the notification completely, OR you can try a lock screen widget from your phone settings. I would just unlock the phone and drop down the notification bar. If you don't want to act on the notification right away, but would like to read it, you can swipe down with two fingers in the notification area and can read the whole message or see the picture message.

Last: I would not use the samsung apps. lol.

Hope it helps, let me know what you do with music and I will let you know what the best way to do it is. :)
 

brnc

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Wow thanks for that awesome reply :) I downloaded the swiftkey trial and like it a lot. I am downloading your Jelly Bean suggestion as well to try out.

I'd prefer to just manage my music by clicking and dragging (or copy/pasting) between folders on Windows Explorer. When I get tired of an album or need room, I'd like to just delete the album out of the phone through Explorer.

I'd also like to make sure the album art comes through. iTunes handled this automatically but I'm sure there's a way for android to do it. The only media player I see at the moment is the Samsung one simply called "Music". Is this one adequate?

Does Google+ store the photos as the full file sizes? Or compress them down? What about using Google Drive here? Can I use Google Drive as an auto backup feature as well?
 

nata_panya

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Hi All,

Like the thread author, I picked up the S4 after being an iPhone user starting with the 3GS. (My own personal experience was surprisingly easier than I had feared!)
Estebancam covers most of the questions. But I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

Autocorrect (and adding full-stop by double tapping space bar) - these are available but switched off by default.

AUTOCORRECT
Settings>My Device>Language and input>
Next to "Samsung keyboard", click on the gear icon
Long tap the text "Predictive text" (not just turn it on), then let go
Choose "Auto replacement" (and any other options that you may like)

FULL-STOP WITH DOUBLE TAPPING SPACEBAR
Settings>My Device>Language and input>
Next to "Samsung keyboard", click on the gear icon
Select the option (and any others, such a "no haptic feedback" if you prefer)

Probably worth giving the Samsung keyboard a go because my understanding is that it's been upgraded, and I have found it not too bad. Personally speaking, I found it a little better than "Swiftkey", which I trialled but later removed.

Hope the above helps.
 

estebancam

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Wow thanks for that awesome reply :) I downloaded the swiftkey trial and like it a lot. I am downloading your Jelly Bean suggestion as well to try out.

I'd prefer to just manage my music by clicking and dragging (or copy/pasting) between folders on Windows Explorer. When I get tired of an album or need room, I'd like to just delete the album out of the phone through Explorer.

I'd also like to make sure the album art comes through. iTunes handled this automatically but I'm sure there's a way for android to do it. The only media player I see at the moment is the Samsung one simply called "Music". Is this one adequate?

Does Google+ store the photos as the full file sizes? Or compress them down? What about using Google Drive here? Can I use Google Drive as an auto backup feature as well?

You are very welcome!

Two options for music, and bear with me because I will try to explain deeply so you don't get confused. One is set up locally, and ran locally (Double Twist), the other is set up through the cloud with the option of storing it locally on your phone (Play Music).

If you want to manage your music in that way, and already have itunes, I would recommend an app called "DoubleTwist." Go to the internet and download it (free). It is just like iTunes, except it does everything over there air (wifi). Your music will be synchronized as soon as you walk in your wifi zone. You will then go to your phone and download these two apps:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...idPlayer&feature=search_result&token=swz_bYlD.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...erProKey&feature=search_result&token=vMLYXuzp.

One is for the double twist app on your phone, the other is for the wifi sync part of it. Ever since Android moved to Android 4.0, the Double Twist team has made it a wifi sync application. Once the desktop version finished downloading, launch it, and double twist will bring in all of your itunes music and playlists into the double twist client and thus, your phone as long as it is connected to the same wifi network.

If you don't listen to music that much every day, and have a good amount of data on your plan, I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you use Google Music for your music needs. It is fully cloud operated, and the good part is that it works flawlessly with itunes, bringing in your playlists and muisic to the cloud. This will store all of your music for free on google's servers, unless you have more than 20,000 songs. In which case, you will have to pay a little. To do this, you don't need to do anything on your phone other than have a gmail/google account. You already have an app called "Play Music" on your phone, which is the right app. Go to your desktop/laptop that has your music, and search the web for Google Music Manager. Download the software and launch it. It will then take all of your itunes music, and any other folders that you tell it to take, into the cloud and immediately available on your device. You can set 10 devices over the cloud to use your google music library which means you can access your music ANYWHERE. As soon as you buy a new song on itunes, it will be on your phone flawlessly. It is awesome. But again, it requires data streaming AT FIRST.

After you set up the cloud, there is a little button on your phone's Play Music app that looks like a little pin. If you press this, the songs you choose under that pin will be downloaded into your phone. This is good because if you have a very large collection, all you need to pin is the music or playlists you listen to most.

So both options are good, but in the long run, I recommend Google Music Manager. Both methods should give you album art, but I am not sure of the effectiveness. I would not use Samsung's music player, but keep in mind that Smasung's music player will also show any songs you have on your phone's storage or SD card.

Google Plus, in my experience, has kept the photos in full size. Google Drive is absolutely usable and a much more complete solution. The reason I don't use it for photos is because of the interface. Google + User interface looks and functions better for media like photos, looking like a photo gallery on an iphone or Galaxy S4. Google Drive looks just like your file explorer on your Windows machine. So google drive is an awesome app to keep files, and I would compare that to iCloud, while I would compare Photostream to Google + Instant Upload.
 

nata_panya

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Hi BRNC,

A couple of other things worth considering:

1. "Easy Phone Sync" software, which is optimised and free for Samsung Galaxy phones (I just googled it). It's available for both Windows and OSX.

For me, it was a really good experience because the programme detected the back-up of my iPhone on my Macbook and transferred all my data, including photos, music, contact, SMS messages, etc.

After that, it was just a case of downloading my Apps.

2. S4 and Samsung KIES software, there is a feature that allows syncing over WIFI. Not yet tried it, but will do.

Hope that helps too.
 

oshogg

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I bought a 32gb SD card and installed it. Do I just use my phone as normal, and stuff automatically overflows into the card when the physical memory is full? Or do I have to manage the SD card as a separate folder? If the latter, I would move all my music to the SD card and occasionally move photos and videos to it as well. Unless there's a way to set the camera to automatically save photos and videos to the card?

Stuff doesn't just automatically move to the SD card. I believe you can set-up the camera app to directly save to the SD card. I asked how to do this in another thread and someone replied with an answer. Here is a link: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...p-save-photos-videos-sd-card.html#post2736209.

Also, I read the S4 was going to come with Swiftkey standard. The standard keyboard doesn't have autocorrect of any kind. I was very disappointed with this, since Apple's autocorrect is great, and I'm sure swiftkey's is as well. IMHO, not having autocorrect on a phone is ridiculous. I did ensure the "prediction" option was on, and the stock keyboard DOES suggest the right word, but doesn't correct it for me automatically. I have to tap the word above the keyboard to get it to correct. Do I just have to pay the $4 for the swiftkey board?

I would highly recommend to buy the swiftkey directly on Play store - it is one-time charge (not once per phone charge) and well worth it.

Apple had photostream, which means whenever I take a photo it would be on my PC waiting for me in a folder. Is the Android system capable of something similar? Also, it'd be nice for the phone to automatically and wirelessly (over WiFi) backup every day at my home. Is this possible?

You could use dropbox or box.net cloud syncing service and they would automatically show up on your PC if you have a folder synced for dropbox or box.net. Personally, I do not like this solution. I prefer to directly sync to my PC wirelessly when I get home. Use Cheetah Sync (Cheetah Sync) - I set it up to sync to my PC at a specific time everyday and it works very reliably. All your folders you want to sync (in either PC->Phone or Phone->PC) get synced every night. Very convenient.


Also, do you guys use any of the Samsung apps or just ignore them? "Samsung Apps", "Samsung Hub", "Samsung Link", etc.

Ignore samsung apps :).

Osho
 

texasotts

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I can say I moved over from the iPhone back in November after always owning iPhone. I had a hard time but I officially love android. I am not looking back. I even put my iPhone 5 on Craigslist, figured I could finally let go since I went and got the galaxy s4 after having the 3.thr thing I have learned is apple is ready to use out of the box. Android is a phone that yes works out of the box but in order to get it the way you want you need to customize it. Read the forums, Google top apps for Android and try them out. It helped me to download SwiftKey. It's not what came standard on this phone its in the app store. It has the autocorrect closest to iPhone once it learns. It will learn and start to guess what you want to type. As far as messenger goes I had a hard time bot having the pop up so I use glow fly and a tally prefer it better than the apple notification. There's also an app I think called easy sync that I use to sync my iTunes to my android so I didn't lose any music when I made the switch. Good luck and just play with it A Lot.
I originally upgraded to the iPhone 5 then bought the galaxy s3,had it two days and gave up and returned it. Then went back to my iPhone and missed the galaxy so I went back and bought it again and never looked back. I cannot stand my husband's iPhone now. It will grow on you. The customization is endless.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums
 

Calidoc

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Good thread. I just moved from iOS also. I'm just having a tough time with Doubletwist. It won't recognize my S4 and I'm not sure why. I'd like to use it to sync music and photos as the software seems similar to iTunes. So far though, I'm loving android. It's just going to take a while to work everything out.
 

texasotts

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Use easy phone sync. It will sync all your iTunes music. I like power amp for my music.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Android Central Forums
 

Reuben Chew

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I just moved from an iPhone 4 to an S4 too. Don't really have much time to configure it thus far, but here are things I used:

Smartphone Content Transfer Made Easy | Samsung Smart Switch --> this will sync all your contacts, messages, etc.

Then I purchased iSyncr and it syncs all my playlists from iTunes seamlessly. Supposedly if you use their RocketPlayer two-way sync works. Really useful.

For me I've been using iTunes for ten years, and bloated or not, I've been so accustomed to it and its playlist management that I don't wanna switch away.
 

estebancam

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I forgot about iSyncr. That one is good too!

Honestly, for all of you switching to ANdroid from iPhone, the absolute best option (and easiest) will be Google Music Manager for music.
 

zipro

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I'd also like to make sure the album art comes through. iTunes handled this automatically but I'm sure there's a way for android to do it.

I just keep using iTunes for this. There's an app called iSyncr in the store. Syncs all your music, podcasts, playlists etc.

As for the pictures : Dropbox does that as well. I don't like to have my pics loaded to Google+ automatically.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2
 

brnc

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Hi All,

Like the thread author, I picked up the S4 after being an iPhone user starting with the 3GS. (My own personal experience was surprisingly easier than I had feared!)
Estebancam covers most of the questions. But I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

Autocorrect (and adding full-stop by double tapping space bar) - these are available but switched off by default.

AUTOCORRECT
Settings>My Device>Language and input>
Next to "Samsung keyboard", click on the gear icon
Long tap the text "Predictive text" (not just turn it on), then let go
Choose "Auto replacement" (and any other options that you may like)

FULL-STOP WITH DOUBLE TAPPING SPACEBAR
Settings>My Device>Language and input>
Next to "Samsung keyboard", click on the gear icon
Select the option (and any others, such a "no haptic feedback" if you prefer)

Probably worth giving the Samsung keyboard a go because my understanding is that it's been upgraded, and I have found it not too bad. Personally speaking, I found it a little better than "Swiftkey", which I trialled but later removed.

Hope the above helps.

When I press the "Predictive text" option, a new window does come up, but all I see are options for Personalization. Nothing for "Auto replacement" :(
 

brnc

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Thanks everyone! I'm giving Google Music a go. I still might download an audiobook or two for those long plane flights, etc :)

I also checked out Glowfly, it looks very promising. I do like the pop up notifications of iPhone so that should help me get back that functionality. I will research all the options you guys gave for auto-syncing both photos and data. Thanks!

When you guys say no Samsung apps, does that include the Calendar, stock email app, Polaris office suite, "Gallery", etc? Or are those more Android apps? They all look pretty good to me to be honest. Is there a way to delete the unwanted programs from Samsung and AT&T?

One other thing: no visual voicemail?! There's a voicemail button in the phone app but it brings me to an old school call-in voicemail :(. I have AT&T.

edit: I found the AT&T visual voicemail app, but this is still a separate app solution. It's not the end of the world, but is there no way to integrate this functionality into the phone app?
 

mayconvert

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ugh. you are making me second guess giving android a try. I plan to try the S4 or HTC one (Long time iPhone user) but having to download 2-3 programs and 15 apps to cover what iOS/iPhone 5 just does automatically because its built IN the OS itself ( Visual Voicemail, Native Email app that works with Every kind of email on the planet, the best auto correct on the market, iPhoto/photo stream, do not disturb, notification center, Pages, keynote, numbers, iCloud, cards, facebook/twitter integration)
iOS my not have the customization of android, but seeing all this extra stuff you have to do just to mimic some of the features iPhone has built in, making me doubt my idea of trying android...
must buy S4 before I change my mind and back out of this idea....
 

satannik

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ugh. you are making me second guess giving android a try. I plan to try the S4 or HTC one (Long time iPhone user) but having to download 2-3 programs and 15 apps to cover what iOS/iPhone 5 just does automatically because its built IN the OS itself ( Visual Voicemail, Native Email app that works with Every kind of email on the planet, the best auto correct on the market, iPhoto/photo stream, do not disturb, notification center, Pages, keynote, numbers, iCloud, cards, facebook/twitter integration)
iOS my not have the customization of android, but seeing all this extra stuff you have to do just to mimic some of the features iPhone has built in, making me doubt my idea of trying android...
must buy S4 before I change my mind and back out of this idea....

Then don't switch and keep your iPhone. You have to understand that they are different OS, and if you want to keep everything you have to bear with it. This is why the apple fanboys switching to the S4 **** me off..
 

onick

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Well I love the new S4, but I'm having a bit of adjustment shock. I've been using Apple since the 3GS, and upgraded to the S4 from my current iPhone 5. I could use that thing very quickly to get whatever I needed done. I'm having a bit of a hard time getting into Android's way of doing things... can anyone help?

I bought a 32gb SD card and installed it. Do I just use my phone as normal, and stuff automatically overflows into the card when the physical memory is full? Or do I have to manage the SD card as a separate folder? If the latter, I would move all my music to the SD card and occasionally move photos and videos to it as well. Unless there's a way to set the camera to automatically save photos and videos to the card?

Also, I read the S4 was going to come with Swiftkey standard. The standard keyboard doesn't have autocorrect of any kind. I was very disappointed with this, since Apple's autocorrect is great, and I'm sure swiftkey's is as well. IMHO, not having autocorrect on a phone is ridiculous. I did ensure the "prediction" option was on, and the stock keyboard DOES suggest the right word, but doesn't correct it for me automatically. I have to tap the word above the keyboard to get it to correct. Do I just have to pay the $4 for the swiftkey board?

Apple had photostream, which means whenever I take a photo it would be on my PC waiting for me in a folder. Is the Android system capable of something similar? Also, it'd be nice for the phone to automatically and wirelessly (over WiFi) backup every day at my home. Is this possible?

If I get a text message when the phone's screen is off, and i press the home button, I can see a preview of the message. That's great, but if i tap the message nothing happens. The preview gets smaller and some white zone highlights, like it's inviting me to move things around or something. I'd like to tap the message and have the messaging app open the message where I left off (assuming the phone is not locked of course). Can I make it do this?

Also, do you guys use any of the Samsung apps or just ignore them? "Samsung Apps", "Samsung Hub", "Samsung Link", etc.

Thanks! Hope I can start enjoying my phone soon, lol.

I am using samsung stock jelly bean on my s2, so i am assuming some options will be similar and answering based on that assumption.

1. in your camera's "settings" option , there is an option called "storage", with it you can select to either save in your phone memory or in memory card. By default, the camera saves where you have the largest free storage. when you connect your phone to your computer with usb cable, it will show up as a portable device. double click that icon, it will show up two drive, your phone memory and memory card. you can decide where to copy your music, movies, or other documents.

2. in samsung keyboard settings you need to enable "predictive text". i am using "continuous input" so i don't have to press each letter, instead i swaype over the letters and it is great at coming up with the letter you trying to type. I used to love swype before, but now i am really liking the default samsung keyboard with predictive + swype feature. some times you can just press the first couple of letter and it will show up a list of possible words you want to type. the more you use this keyboard the better it gets at predicting your letter.

3. the closest to photo stream, i can think of is, sign in to your google plus account and enable instant upload. it has additional options to set it up to upload pictures and videos only when you connected to a wifi network. that way, when ever you take a picture, or video, it will save in your google plus account, which only you can see when you sign into your account from a computer. in your phone settings, there is an option to back up and reset. there you will see option to back up appdata, wifi passwords, and other settings to google servers, and an option to restore the settings once you reinstall a program. which i also find very useful.

4. regarding the texting, you need to touch and swipe the round text icon on your lock screen instead of just tapping, then your message will open in your messaging window.

5. the only samsung service i am using is, find my mobile. it is under settings> security. i set up remote control and sim change alert.