[How-to] Nexus S Answers

[Baconator]

And what about contacts? Do they get backed up and restored too?

Yes they will be transfered also.

Can you tell me whats this about the home screen lag? I've noticed that at times, when i toggle between the home screens, they dont move freely. There is considerable lag. It gets fixed only by shut down and restart. Any fixes available?

You will probably have to deal with this a little while longer. Their really isn't a solution for this (or one I know of). I am positive Google will fix this in their Gingerbread 2.4 update coming REALLY soon. Sorry.

 

[Baconator]

Some good advice here, however I take issue with the Charging section:



Firstly, you shouldn't need a task killer with Android 2.x, and if you really must kill apps, prefer the built in mechanism, in Gingerbread this is easily accessible by pressing the menu key on the homescreen and then selecting "applications".

Secondly, I have some questions about the tips...

1. Is this just so it charges quicker?
2. This goes against what I have previously read, do you have a source or rationale for this advice? I have previously heard that with Lithium batteries you should charge them as soon as you can, preferably before it gets below 20% and only let it completely run down occasionally for calibration purposes.
3. So it charges quicker again?

1 and 3 are so they get a better charge.
I updated #2 check it out.

I have no solution to getting a quicker charge my only answer is to call Samsung. This might be fixed in the Gingerbread 2.4 update.

 

[Grimmy]

Thanks, for updating the post.

If you are interested in prolonging life of your battery, here is a informative article: How to prolong lithium-based batteries

 

[Baconator]

I updated the OP again. Thanks for the information.

 

[radamo]

Sync with Outlook

I am really thinking of switching from a BB bold to the Nexus S. I need to be able to easily sync my outlook contacts, calendar, tasks and notes. It baffles me that this is not standard.
RA

 

[Baconator]

Sorry it took me a while but here is what I have found. Click HERE for the 101 on switching from Blackberry to Android. This should help you sync your contacts and other stuff. Tell me if this helps. Thanks for posting! If you have any other questions please post again here and I will try my hardest to answer your question as best and fast as I can. Thanks!

 

[radamo]

Sorry it took me a while but here is what I have found. Click HERE for the 101 on switching from Blackberry to Android. This should help you sync your contacts and other stuff. Tell me if this helps. Thanks for posting! If you have any other questions please post again here and I will try my hardest to answer your question as best and fast as I can. Thanks!

Baconator,
Thanks for the link. Yes, I have a Gmail account. I have a gmail account already and don't seem to have issues with how my contacts have been imported (although I am not loving the lack of ability to format them differently).
I still use outlook to manage, add, edit new contacts and keep logs of activity with contacts in the notes field (that does seem to move to Gmail contacts). I also use Outlook calendar, tasks and notes. How does one keep these all in sync? I guess I could create a google calendar but is there a way to keep the Outlook and google calendar in sync? What about Notes and Tasks?
Thanks,
RA

 

[sdoo25]

Baconator,
Thanks for the link. Yes, I have a Gmail account. I have a gmail account already and don't seem to have issues with how my contacts have been imported (although I am not loving the lack of ability to format them differently).
I still use outlook to manage, add, edit new contacts and keep logs of activity with contacts in the notes field (that does seem to move to Gmail contacts). I also use Outlook calendar, tasks and notes. How does one keep these all in sync? I guess I could create a google calendar but is there a way to keep the Outlook and google calendar in sync? What about Notes and Tasks?
Thanks,
RA

I too was wondering how to get my calendar synced on my phone. Google has a program, Google Calendar Sync (Sync with Microsoft Outlook - Google Calendar Help, that works pretty well. I only entry calendar entries into outlook so I only use the 1 way sync from Outlook to Google. It sometimes has trouble with invitations sent to me but calendar entries I input into Outlook work great.

I don't think that notes and tasks sync but since I don't use those features in Outlook I haven't done much research for solutions. Also haven't found a live link to sync contacts, like the calendar, so I'll make any changes manually twice for now.

Hope this helps!

Tom

 

[druk75]

Help needed again guys..........

I thought my nexus s will play any and all video formats.... But none of my videos play on it. It does recognize them as video files but when i switch on the player it says "cannot play video file"

I had downloaded a few videos from my pc...avi. wma 3gp etc..

Which formats are supported out of the box? How do i make it work? And do i need any converter? If so which?

 

[Baconator]

From Wikipedia:

The Galaxy S comes with support for many multimedia file formats, including audio codecs (FLAC, WAV, Vorbis, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MID, AC3, XMF), video codecs (mpeg4, H.264, H.263, Sorenson codec, DivX HD/ XviD, VC-1) and video formats (3GP (MPEG-4), WMV (Advanced Systems Format), AVI (divx), MKV, FLV).

This may just be the Galaxy S and not the Nexus S. I will investigate further.

 

[Baconator]

From Pocket-lint:

We mentioned media previously and as it is, without a third-party media player, the Google Nexus S only offers basic video format support. However, we did get it to play 720p MP4 files without noticeably dropping frames or losing lip sync. If you want it to play a wider range of formats, you’ll have to go and find yourself an alternative player. Online video is served better however, thanks to Adobe Flash 10.1 support in the browser, giving you a much wider palette to choose from than just those offered by YouTube.

From FoxReal:

Nexus S Supported Formats
Video Types: MP4/DivX/WMV/H.264/H.263
Audio TypesMP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC

As you see, the Android Nexus S can only handle limited media files. Is it possible to transfer TiVo, MKV, MOV, VOB, M2TS, MTS, EVO, MPG or other video formats to Google Nexus S for playback? Well, you are in the right place. To play all media files on Nexus S, you have to convert videos to Nexus S compatible formats and then stream them to Nexus S.

To read the rest of this article and learn how to put other media files on the Nexus S visit this site: ->FoxReal<-

Tell me if this helps! Thanks for posting!

 

[Baconator]

Have a question about the Nexus S then please ask. I will try my hardest to answer them. Thanks!

 

[justhaightingit]

How Much Memory for Apps?

How much memory of the 16GB is available for installing applications from the Market?
Is it the full 16GB or does it have a smaller partition of 512MB or 1GB or ?

Thanks,

Alan

 

[dadds27]

1 gig for the main stuff and any app you want and the other 15 acts like a usb/sd card device

 

[Baconator]

How much memory of the 16GB is available for installing applications from the Market?
Is it the full 16GB or does it have a smaller partition of 512MB or 1GB or ?

Thanks,

Alan

Hi Allen,!

Menu> Settings> Storage
If you look it says total space is 13.31GB so my guess would be 13.31GB. I have no clue what the other 2.69GB is used for. Hope this helps! Thanks for posting!

-Baconator​

 

[dadds27]

i hate how devices use a certain amount of memory. it could be a xbox, ps3, computer, phone or drv. it always seems likes its the same percent to no matter how big the storage is or what product it is

 

[Baconator]

i hate how devices use a certain amount of memory. it could be a xbox, ps3, computer, phone or drv. it always seems likes its the same percent to no matter how big the storage is or what product it is

Yeah! They tell you 32GB but out of that you can only use like 22GB. (I know that isn't right but I am just.... well....... idk lol)

 

[font1975]

The Nexus S uses the full memory. I guess they could say exactly how it breaks down, but it does use the full memory.

For the record it breaks down thusly:
16GB total:
-2 GB designated as "internal" with:
1GB for the System (OS and built-in apps + OS updates)
1GB for User apps

-14GB for "USB Storage" or what other phones call SD storage. You can also use "Move to SD" to put apps here.

Hope that clears it up!

 

[dadds27]

thanks for explaining it! im sure all devices do the same thing but its always a kick to buy a bigger hard drive or something and not get all of it. i installed a 2 terabyte hard drive at work the other day for a cctv dvr and it was 190 gigs less. it also had a 500 gig hard drive and that used about 50 which would be almost the same percent (or maybe even the same i dont remember the exact number)

 

[justhaightingit]

If you are using a Microsoft OS, it defaults to using ~10% space when you add a disk, for the Restore Point area. That was ok back in the days of 200Gb or less drives, but with todays 500GB+ drives you don't need that much space for Restore Point information. And if you are adding a disk that's just going to be used for Storage, you probably don't need any Restore Point space on it, because I don't believe anything ever triggers a Restore Point to be created on it, unlike the OS disk partition.
So, you can do the following to reduce that space:

Right click on "Computer" icon on desktop or in Start Menu
Select "Properties"
Windows 7 - Click (left side) "Advanced System Settings"
Click on "System Protection" tab
Select a Drive under "Protection Settings"
Click on "Configure"
Slide the slider to 1% for 1TB drives or larger. Or turn off system protection all together if it's not the C: drive.
Press "OK" all the way back out.

Your available diskspace should have increased if you decreased or turned off your restore space for that drive.

If you are using a large (1TB+) drive for your C: OS drive, you can still decrease it from the default 10%, but be sure to leave at least 1%.


PS: The other space you are magically losing is just from formatting the drive. And that differs depending on what kind of Disk File System you are putting on the disk.
The drive size manufactures advertize is the RAW amount of space that is there when you buy it. They don't know if you are going to put Miscrosoft, MAC, LINUX, etc FileSystems on there.