Fun and Frustration with S Pen

[dianehelen]

So, got my new Note 10.1 2014, just spending some cuccoon time with it, getting to know it. Mostly seems great, I do see some of the lag issues some have talked about, but so far not a deal killer. Some of the features are cool and fun. One thats both amazing me and driving me to drink, is the S Pen.

After a few tries on the "I dont need no stinkin manual" logic, that I usually start out with all my tech toys, I broke down and called Samsungs , less than stellare tech support, and did get some help on how this thing works.

The one that really tickles me, is how , aside from the standard Multi-View setting to have 2 apps side by side, you can draw a circle on any screen with the pen and it lets you bring into that area new windows, where a few apps that are supported can go. The stock browser being one. So I can have a browser, my email, a calculater, youtube, and even some others, all running at the same time, and able to bounce back and forth between any of the windows.



Im also getting the hang of scrap booking, a litte tricky, but once you get it, its pretty handy..

S0 what cool/fun things have you discovered you can do with the S pen?

 

[Haalcyon]

I liked using it to take notes in meetings. The folks were like, "You're such a geek...can I try?"

 

[ddavtian]

If you're rooted, you can add all the apps to pen window list. And pen window launcher allows to open them in small windows even without the pen.

 

[dianehelen]

If you're rooted, you can add all the apps to pen window list. And pen window launcher allows to open them in small windows even without the pen.

Do you have a quick link to the rooting instructions and any apk files needed to that. I have not messed with that since my Palm Pre, but I'm sure i could handle it. Seems a few tweaks I'd want are possible if rooted. One in particular, to get a permanent way for chrome to request the desktop user agent over the annoying mobile version on many sites, without having to remember to check silly box every time

 

[ddavtian]

I used this:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2490805

 

[dianehelen]

I used this:

[root][port][p600] cf-auto root - xda-developers

cool,looks very doable, but I'm a bit leary of the Knox efuse/trip voiding the warranty. any way around that, that you know of?

 

[SpookDroid]

I accidentally found that you can mimic pinch-to-zoom with the S-Pen and even your fingers. Just double tap with the S-Pen on a browser (or your finger), don't lift the pen from the screen and move around; instead of scrolling, you'll zoom in and out. Just make sure you're viewing a zoomable page or it won't do squat.

Of course Air View is a nifty trick. Auto-scrolling when you hover the pen on the edge of the stock browser and some other apps (Still haven't figured out why it works in some apps, not in others...unfortunately it doesn't work with Chrome). Scrapbook is handy, but I still don't know why Sammy decided to sepparate S-Notes, Action Notes and Scrapbook into three separate, non-related entities. They could have just merged everything under a single roof and have it all synced into one 'world'.

I'm still holding out on rooting and hacking the device, but being able to have any app into MultiWindow is really enticing hehe

 

[dianehelen]

Hey that scrolling is kinda cool. I can only get it to scroll bottom to top. How do you get it to change directions?

I agree, the whole scrapbook/snote/action note is a bit redundant. Also poorly documented.