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

[zipro]

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.

Dropbox is almost exactly like Photostream. Uploads your pictures automatically and then downloads them again to your Dropbox folder on your computer.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[mayconvert]

and you samsung fanboys **** me off with comments like this. We know its a big switch and that why we came here in the first place. excuse us for being used to an OS that doesn't need 20 apps to just to get basic functionality.



"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.."

 

[patelkedar91]

There are those kinds of guys (I'm avoiding the word troll) in every forum. Excuse him.

Anyway, you got used to certain things on the Iphone and coming to Android can be a pain... but once you get a system going it'll be just as hard when you go back to the Iphone.
Things like Photostream, you cannot expect a direct copy of it in the Android system, at least out of the box.
In the same way, accessing and toggling settings shouldn't be as difficult as it is in Iphone. I had some issues with that when in Android I could change brightness and other things easily.

Two different phones. What I consider basic functionality on Android may not be available on Iphone out of the box and vice versa.
Be open about these things -- like the OP. Try out the S4/One in stores or through a friend. Good luck =)

 

[goelz83]

You can also use Samsung's new tool to help you move your content from other devices:

Samsung Campaign

 

[maverick96]

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)

this feature doesn't exist as far as i could find

 

[snookasnoo]

That was an immature and unhelpful response.

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..

 

[snookasnoo]

If you like photo stream I would recommend having your photos go to Dropbox. Upload your music to google music or put it on an sd card. Where you put it depends on how much you want to have instantly available rather than streamed.
Do a search on the Samsung apps. I think you can ignore most of them. Alot of features on this phone are more for marketing than practical use. I like to shut down as much as possible especially since Samsung somehow managed to have lag in this phone despise using jelly bean and high end hardware.

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.

 

[Calidoc]

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....

Don't be discouraged. Remember that many users on here are new to Android (like me) and haven't quite figured it out yet. So, when someone says what their S4 does or doesn't do, take it with a grain of salt, as they may have just not figured it out yet. For instance, the S4 keyboard with default swipe and predictive text is awesome. I didn't know how it'd like it, but I much prefer it to iOS's keyboard which seems very 90's now to me. I've been iPhone since 2008 and am loving the S4. There are still things for me to work out finding the Android replacement for iOS functionality, but it seems like it's all in the ecosystem somewhere. If you want to give Android a shot, I think you have to commit and give it a few weeks at minimum. Don't expect to work it all out in a day or two.

 

[brnc]

Thanks for the dropbox suggestion. I downloaded it and it's EXACTLY the same as photostream . After doing all the "get free space" bonus "quests" I have 3.375GB, which should hopefully be enough for a while.

 

[estebancam]

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....

Well see, that's not true my friend. Android comes built in with all those apps. The only ones that I mentioned it didn't come with is Double Twist. Everything else is good. It comes with a keyboard that some people like, I just recommended a better one.

Different OS for different folks, but give it a try. The iPhone is very simple, but what sucks about it is that it can't actually do anything. On a modern Android device, you basically have a portable computer:

1) it recognizes external peripoherals like SD cards, flash drives, mice, keyboards (even wired ones!), and hard drives
2) Has a built in file manager. Tell me what you would do with your computer if it didn't have a file manager.... I still don't know how iOS users can stand this. This feature allows you to not even be able to send multiple attachments in an email, or even attach something from the email app itself (not possible on iOS....crazy)
3) You can replace ANYTHING. Don't like the keyboard? Replace it. Don't like the home screen? Replace it. Don't like the lock screen? Replace it. Don't like the built in messaging app? Replace it! The best part.... no ROOTING OR "JAILBREAKING" involved!
4) If your phone doens't do something natively, it can do it through an app. ALmost anything actually. The reason iOS cannot do this is because of the three reasons above. The system is so locked down that developers cannot write apps that replace core system attributes.
5) If you like it the way it is, just use it the way, but it is always nice to have the OPTION to change it. iOS? Just no.

Also, please keep in mind that your complaint is actually wrong because iPhone doesn't come with that built in. iTunes is an external music manager just ike Double Twist would be. Either way, you have to download external software, and like I said before, everything that you mentioned that was built in to iPhone is also built in to Android. The main difference is trhat you are switching from one platform to another, so you have to start from scratch, which is why it SEEMS more difficult. You have been with Apple's ecosystem for years. This change will take some tweaking, but then it will be as easy as Apple's ecosystem.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

EDIT: also, if this sounded or came off at all as if I am frustrated, I apologize that is not the case. lol. I am simply making a point! As I said before, give it a try and if it doesn't work out for you, then iOS just may be your best option, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

 

[badbrad17]

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=QMnatAWx.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...erProKey&feature=search_result&token=Qh8mELHT.

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.

You are a saint. Thank you for taking the time with new users. This is why AC rocks.

 

[badbrad17]

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....

Love your username BTW. I will say first of all that I am an Android fan completely. I think that Apple has nothing on Android "IF" that person likes to use their phone completely. Some people don't care about how their technology works and just want to follow the instructions that have been given and do the basic tasks. For these people an iPhone will do fine. BUT if you are a person who loves technology and want a broader experience then Android is for you. Ironically I recently purchased a new iPhone 5 for my daughter last week. She had been using my old Samsung Galaxy S2 and was due for renewal so I purchased her the iPhone mainly because she felt pressure from friends to get an iPhone and there was the Video Star app she wanted to use. Well after only 4 days she has asked me 3 times if her phone can do this or that and I have had to say no, you can only do that on Android. She is only 14 but still realizes some features are very handy on Android. Don't get me wrong, she still loves her new iPhone but she has already after 4 days missed some features. I even skinned her old SGS2 for her sister to look like an iPhone. Try making an iPhone look like a SGS4... not gonna happen.

I think that once you use an Android device you will realize that there are so many very useful and even critical features that you have not been getting from you iPhone. File management, copying files and music are far superior on Android. OPTIONS OPTIONS OPTIONS. As explained earlier this is YOUR phone and you should be able to do what you choose with it. Downloading an app that better suits your needs is a no brainer. Why should this be a huge deal. You have been using iTunes for crying out loud! It took me literally 25 minutes on the weekend to figure out how to copy over one song onto my daughters iPhone using iTunes. I love the player and use it daily, but after the latest update I had never sync'd the kids iPods so I was lost. What happened to just plug it in and it works? Well with and Android phone I plug it in and it works just like a USB stick. Copy the mp3 file into a folder ironically called "music" and it's now available.

I have found that learned behavior is really the big deal. Some people that have used an iPhone for a long time have been told how to use their "device". This is no different than using a DVD player or a toaster. Android users have been told that they can use their phone any way they like but in order to do that they will need to think about what they really want to do. If you don't want to think then the iPhone is a better option. This is not a slag, it's a fact. Choose how deep you want to go with your investment and the options are easy.

 

[sportzking8131]

Anybody know how to use the emoji's that are used on iphones?

 

[brnc]

OP here. Liking android a lot, but still might go back to iPhone to be honest... I'm split 50/50. The S4 is much more laggy, and it always takes more swipes/presses to accomplish the same tasks. Can you do more? Absolutely. But from a usability standpoint with the core apps, iPhone is still better in my OPINION. Also iPhone 5 kills it on battery life. On the other hand the screen real estate is so nice to have, and I really like android's on/off buttons in the notification center they have. Torn :/

 

[Jaimeg123prmt]

best keyboard, for me, is the Swype beta.

 

[badbrad17]

Anybody know how to use the emoji's that are used on iphones?

I use Go SMS and you can download an Emoji pack for it. Works great.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[badbrad17]

OP here. Liking android a lot, but still might go back to iPhone to be honest... I'm split 50/50. The S4 is much more laggy, and it always takes more swipes/presses to accomplish the same tasks. Can you do more? Absolutely. But from a usability standpoint with the core apps, iPhone is still better in my OPINION. Also iPhone 5 kills it on battery life. On the other hand the screen real estate is so nice to have, and I really like android's on/off buttons in the notification center they have. Torn :/

I think the HTC One is a nicer phone build wise. You are still living in the iPhone head space once you continue to customize your phone you will find that things will become be just as fast with more options.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[texasotts]

I will tell you I had the same complaints when I switched this fall. Hated that everything took more actions to accomplish the same outcome as iPhone but really iPhone is just simple. Not much to do on it. You are just used to it. You will get used to the android way soon. I had my iPhone 5 and galaxy 3 at the same time. I used my galaxy as a wifi tablet for a couple weeks. It got to the point that when I used my iPhone it was too small and I hated that I didn't have a back button on it. I just grew used to android and finally put my sim card in and divorced apple. Now when I do something on my husband's iPhone I cannot stand the simplicity of it. Don't get me wrong some things are nice on an iPhone but I have found for me that android can basically give me everything I like in an iPhone through customization and apps all while having the screen real estate. You just have to make the phone yours and tweek it.

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

 

[archer75]

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....

Yeah, android has all that. It had a do not disturb before ios. It's called blocking. You can use picasa on the desktop like iphoto and google+ on the phone for your iphoto/photo stream. I also installed dropbox and photos auto upload there too. Android had a notification center first. Not a fan of the apple pages, keynote, etc. as it can't be done on the web and you have to use their devices to acces it. Google docs gives you more freedom to use whatever devices you wish. Access via google drive.

icloud is just too limiting and locks you into the apple ecosystem. While I can use google services with much more freedom on ios, android and even windows phone.

Android will give you more than just facebook/twitter integration. It integrates pretty much anything. Select share in whatever app you are in and you can choose from almost whatever you have installed. And you can set default apps.

One of my favorite things on android is the back button. Genius! And the notification LED. I can't live without either.

I could list several other little neat things i've found in android over the years if you're interested.

 

[Jnorton2724]

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....

I'd say just give it a try and return it within the return policy if you don't enjoy Android. Doesn't hurt to try but at least give it a chance. You have been using iOS, from what it sounds like, for awhile so probably have to get use to some of the differences between the two OS.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums