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Samsung Galaxy S III (new flagship Android phone from Samsung)

Toki767

Member
So I know someone who got the S3 recently and it's almost my first real experience with a smartphone. I've understood everything and know how to teach it back, but one thing I don't understand about multitasking in general is what does pushing the middle button do? Does it hide or close the current screen/application?

Also, data usage can be an issue. It says the OS has used 88MB in background processes. What does that mean and does that blow through the data cap?

The middle button is your home button. When you press it it'll take you back to your homescreen. Pressing and holding it will take you to a list of the previous apps you have used and you can switch to that app by pressing on the picture of it.

When the OS says it uses 88MB in background processes, that is RAM. It is not your mobile data. If you're worried about blowing through your data cap, you can go into settings, then data usage, then check the box that says set mobile data limit and adjust the graph to where you want it to warn you or disable mobile data and such.
 

MooMoo

Member
Awesome, thanks :p

Also sad face on the whole JB situation. Was kinda hoping that it would help with my poor battery life. Probably should have exchanged my phone while I had the chance but I'm convinced that having a weak LTE signal is the root of the cause.
 

effzee

Member
So this might be a stupid question but I had the Galaxy 1 (Vibrant) for nearly two years. One of my favorite features was the email notification on the dashboard.

How do I set up my gmail on the Galaxy III so that I get a similar notification?

Or is it not possible?
 

Argyle

Member
So this might be a stupid question but I had the Galaxy 1 (Vibrant) for nearly two years. One of my favorite features was the email notification on the dashboard.

How do I set up my gmail on the Galaxy III so that I get a similar notification?

Or is it not possible?

I had a Galaxy S phone but I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean exactly? Maybe post a screenshot?
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
Need you guys help with an app. Don't even know if something like this exists. But is there a way to have my phone on silent but the ringer still go off for certain numbers? So, for instance, I want to sleep but also know if my work is calling.

Is this possible?
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
Need you guys help with an app. Don't even know if something like this exists. But is there a way to have my phone on silent but the ringer still go off for certain numbers? So, for instance, I want to sleep but also know if my work is calling.

Is this possible?

I use Llama. It puts the phone on silent/vibrate during certain times of day, but you can designate certain sources to bypass the setting and still ring at an individual setting.

So for example during the day I have the ringer on setting 7 for everyone. And at night it goes to 0 for all except my wife and our house which is set to 2.
 

Argyle

Member
Need you guys help with an app. Don't even know if something like this exists. But is there a way to have my phone on silent but the ringer still go off for certain numbers? So, for instance, I want to sleep but also know if my work is calling.

Is this possible?

This is also going to be built into the phone once the Jellybean update hits.

Screenshot_2012-10-18-08-33-50.png
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Anyone use Chrome and just get frustrated with typing in GAF? Words will auto correct then randomly place it in the middle of the paragraph above. I went from Swype to Swiftkey 3 and get the same issues again.
 

effzee

Member
I had a Galaxy S phone but I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean exactly? Maybe post a screenshot?

Whenever I received a new email, the phone would notify me. The notification would be on the drop down dashboard menu. Currently with my Galaxy 3, to check if I have email I have to open up gmail and then refresh it.
 

Toki767

Member
Whenever I received a new email, the phone would notify me. The notification would be on the drop down dashboard menu. Currently with my Galaxy 3, to check if I have email I have to open up gmail and then refresh it.

Make sure your Gmail is being synced. Also make sure your notifications are on in the Gmail settings.
 

HildyB

Member
Do y'all think I should get a s3 now or wait and get a galaxy note 2? Another possibility is that lg nexus4 I guess?

Well, you came into a S3 owners (mostly) thread asking if we think you should buy it or wait... get it, it's an excellent phone. With smart phones, the next latest and greatest is always right around the corner. It depends on your needs from a phone. My advice is go to the store and put one in your hand. That sold me on it. I played with the iPhone 5 after owning the S3 for a month and it just felt... quaint.
 

rc213

Member
Free cases from ZooGue came quickly since they're based in California.
Both have a soft matte finish, feel great, not thick but not thin. Buttons feels great, Not to clicky, You can definitely tell when your pressing them.
Grey one has the mic holes slightly off center but they already sent a replacement case so no big deal. Definitely worth the $3 each I paid!


 

Cipherr

Member
Anyone use Chrome and just get frustrated with typing in GAF? Words will auto correct then randomly place it in the middle of the paragraph above. I went from Swype to Swiftkey 3 and get the same issues again.

Its a known issue with Chrome with certain keyboard apps from what I have heard in the mobilegaf thread.
 

BiggNife

Member
Anyone use Chrome and just get frustrated with typing in GAF? Words will auto correct then randomly place it in the middle of the paragraph above. I went from Swype to Swiftkey 3 and get the same issues again.

Yes, this is a bug that happens when you use SwiftKey (and Swype apparently, though I haven't used it myself) with Chrome. The stock Samsung keyboard seems to have no problem with Chrome, and using SwiftKey with literally any other browser that isn't Chrome seems fine too.
 

justjohn

Member
Does anyone know if dust can affect the performance of this device; especially its screen quality? My room is quite dusty and I'm afraid dust could get underneath the holes.
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Its a known issue with Chrome with certain keyboard apps from what I have heard in the mobilegaf thread.

Yes, this is a bug that happens when you use SwiftKey (and Swype apparently, though I haven't used it myself) with Chrome. The stock Samsung keyboard seems to have no problem with Chrome, and using SwiftKey with literally any other browser that isn't Chrome seems fine too.

Thanks. Guess Ill go back to stock keyboard :/ Sucks since I really started to get use to swifts prediction text lol and I like Chrome much more that stock browser (besides bookmarks).
 

Liquid_015

Gold Member
After 1.5 - 2 months of owning my International S3, it has finally broke. All I did was charge it overnight, and when I woke up a blue LED was on indicating that I had a notification but when I tried to turn the phone on, nothing happened. And so, I tried a soft reset and no response; tried a hard reset and no response; connected the S3 to laptop and no response. Talked to a SAMSUNG agent, and said they can't deal with this as they only deal with US S3 and not INTL S3s. Worse of all, I didn't backup recently, so everything will be gone. I don't even know what the fuck happened to the phone, as I don't mistreat it or abuse it in anyway.

Once I repair this POS I'm switching back to an iPhone 5. Anyone have a similar issue to me?

Thanks
 

VanWinkle

Member
After 1.5 - 2 months of owning my International S3, it has finally broke. All I did was charge it overnight, and when I woke up a blue LED was on indicating that I had a notification but when I tried to turn the phone on, nothing happened. And so, I tried a soft reset and no response; tried a hard reset and no response; connected the S3 to laptop and no response. Talked to a SAMSUNG agent, and said they can't deal with this as they only deal with US S3 and not INTL S3s. Worse of all, I didn't backup recently, so everything will be gone. I don't even know what the f*** happened to the phone, as I don't mistreat it or abuse it in anyway.

Once I repair this POS I'm switching back to an iPhone 5. Anyone have a similar issue to me?

Thanks

Phones break, even iPhones. It's too bad that you had a negative experience, but it's not like S3's have this huge crisis with phones breaking.
 
Anybody played the game, Order & Chaos? I'm trying to figure out why the loading screen keeps popping up. I hear a sound notification from outside the game before this happens.
 

BiggNife

Member
Thanks. Guess Ill go back to stock keyboard :/ Sucks since I really started to get use to swifts prediction text lol and I like Chrome much more that stock browser (besides bookmarks).

I think I'm going to switch to Firefox for the time being. I love SwiftKey too much, and while Firefox isn't as good as Chrome it's definitely better than the stock browser.
 

Talon

Member
Phones break, even iPhones. It's too bad that you had a negative experience, but it's not like S3's have this huge crisis with phones breaking.
I imagine he's stating that 'cause at least Apple usually takes care of you in terms of repairs and such.

Hmm...wonder when Samsung stores make the jump to these shores. They do loose affiliations with some Korean businesses stateside but nothing formal that I'm aware of.
 

ElyrionX

Member
Coming from an iPhone 3GS, the S3's battery performance is really weak. And I've already turned off LTE and WiFi and GPS and have turned off notifications and autosyncs wherever possible and my screen brightness is almost always at 10% with auto brightness off. It's kind of ridiculous really. I can't go a full 24 hours on a single charge with fairly light data usage. The phone just feels very poorly optimised energy usage-wise.

EDIT: Oh, and to make matters worse, the battery takes a really long time to charge.
 
Coming from an iPhone 3GS, the S3's battery performance is really weak. And I've already turned off LTE and WiFi and GPS and have turned off notifications and autosyncs wherever possible and my screen brightness is almost always at 10% with auto brightness off. It's kind of ridiculous really. I can't go a full 24 hours on a single charge with fairly light data usage. The phone just feels very poorly optimised energy usage-wise.

EDIT: Oh, and to make matters worse, the battery takes a really long time to charge.

Something is probably draining your battery. I regularly get 30+ hours with light usage. I don't know how long it takes to charge an iPhone 3GS, but I was actually surprised by how fast the battery charges on the S3.
 

McLovin

Member
Anyone use Chrome and just get frustrated with typing in GAF? Words will auto correct then randomly place it in the middle of the paragraph above. I went from Swype to Swiftkey 3 and get the same issues again.
The letter i gets randomly capitalized for me. And once it starts doing it it doesn't stop. Can't backspace and uncap. It's really annoying.
 

nib95

Banned
Coming from an iPhone 3GS, the S3's battery performance is really weak. And I've already turned off LTE and WiFi and GPS and have turned off notifications and autosyncs wherever possible and my screen brightness is almost always at 10% with auto brightness off. It's kind of ridiculous really. I can't go a full 24 hours on a single charge with fairly light data usage. The phone just feels very poorly optimised energy usage-wise.

EDIT: Oh, and to make matters worse, the battery takes a really long time to charge.

There's got to be something wrong here. I'm on 74% now with 8 hours on and like 1+ hour WiFi Internet browsing, plus a few calls etc.

What do your battery stats say? Might be a particular sync, notification, auto update or widget or something.
 

Ixian

Member
Yeah, my battery holds up pretty well. I know my coworker got a GSIII as well recently and for some reason Google+ was destroying his battery, even though he had never logged into it.
 

ElyrionX

Member
There's got to be something wrong here. I'm on 74% now with 8 hours on and like 1+ hour WiFi Internet browsing, plus a few calls etc.

What do your battery stats say? Might be a particular sync, notification, auto update or widget or something.

7snOV.png


Granted this screen includes about 1.5 hours of data usage. But still, 50% battery drain after 1.5 hours of data?
 

nib95

Banned
Edit: gotta reupload

Granted this screen includes about 1.5 hours of data usage. But still, 50% battery drain after 1.5 hours of data?

Yea that doesn't add up. How's your network connection? It it seeking much throughout the day? Switching from 2G and 3G a lot etc. What about notifications and sync accounts? Widget update time frames? (ie how often does weather or Gmail etc refresh).

Perhaps even a simple restart might solve the issue.
 
Do any of you guys have Samsung Push Service listed as one of the running apps in Application Manager? Disable and then force stop it. I can't remember, but you might have to go into the All tab in Application Manager to disable it.
 

ElyrionX

Member
Yea that doesn't add up. How's your network connection? It it seeking much throughout the day? Switching from 2G and 3G a lot etc. What about notifications and sync accounts? Widget update time frames? (ie how often does weather or Gmail etc refresh).

Perhaps even a simple restart might solve the issue.

Network is fine though it switches a lot between 3G, H and H+.

Nope, I restarted my phone plenty of times.
 

USF

Member
New problem with my S3
Cannot copy/paste without crashing! Restarted the phone and cleared the cache with no use..
 

Cipherr

Member
Can it be the OS? I am on Android 4.1.1 and using the Samsung default Touchwiz OS.

Nah, 1.5 hours of browsing eating 50% of your battery is abnormal all the way around. There is no scenario where that is normal.

47403.png


47401.png



There is something wrong, 1.5 hours is brutally off the mark. Even moreso with the screen at a low 10% which is a lot lower than the auto brightness defaults to. I would try a factory reset, then do some browsing before reinstalling any of your apps. Just browse on the phone with it absolutely clean for a few days. If the battery life is still bad, then its probably a bad battery or phone. If the battery holds up until you reinstall and re-sync your apps and data, then its probably safe to assume something else is responsible.
 
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