Just switched to the S6 from an iPhone 5s..... Wow.

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[H]ard|Gawd
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All I can say is jesus fuck nuts! This phone is awesome....so much better then my iPhone 5s it's not even comparable.

It's my first Android phone. I haven't owned any other smart phones aside from this and two iphones. So I can't comment on any other ones but this thing has blown away my expectations. Being able to download and view torrent and video files on VLC made my friggin day. (Free shows you can legally watch for free online, no pirated stuff ; )

So, if anyone has any tips or preferred apps please share. I have aDownloader, File Explorer, podbean for podcasts and other basic stuff.

Any useful/awesome apps that may be less known or not available on the google/galaxy app store? Looking to get the most I can out of this so please let me know what you guys like. Thanks
 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ospolice.packagedisablerpro

Totally worth the $2 or whatever it is currently. Basically without rooting, you can still remove all the Samsung bloatware you want. Just be careful as it can remove stuff you actually don't want removed if you tell it to.

Instead of giving the software free reign to delete all bloat at once, I would research which bloatware packages you actually don't want as some are actually useful/good.

FYI: also have an S6 that I used the software on with no problem.
 
Congrats. I have the S6 Edge Plus and I'm quite enamoured with this phone.
 
I have a handful of Android apps that might help, depending on your circumstances (these are on iOS too, but now's a good time to start exploring).

Transit: If you take the bus or subway, this is extremely useful. It'll give you stop times for routes near you (real-time, if your mass transit authority offers it). You can even get some hire-a-car services, like Uber.

Swarm: Yeah, it's location check-in stuff, but it's good if enough of your friends use it -- you'll know if friends are in the area and what they like.

Flickr: Now that you have a 16MP camera on your phone, you'll want a place to show off those photos... Flickr gives you 1TB of free space (and a pretty affordable paid tier), so it's a good way to show off your creativity.
 
^^^ Those apps will only impress your grandmother.

To the OP, welcome to the real PC replacement party.

Flud is the best mobile bittorrent client.

Native video player is better than VLC for media consumption since it does PinP. It's so good that you can get by without MX Player Pro.

Solid Explorer file manager with good consistent SMB throughput to move files to/from PC and also access cloud storage

BubbleUPnP to easily stream content on your WLAN from any device to any device

Automagic location and event triggered automation because working smart not hard

There's a ton more but we don't want to overwhelm you yet.
 
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Awesome. Exactly what I was looking for.... thank you! I've noticed that simply searching Google to find apps like this the results tend to just be the same regurgitated most popular ones based on downloads. So thanks again
 
If you're looking for something to wake you up in the morning, then Timely is great! Sleep as Android is great as well, although it's more about tracking your sleep pattern and doesn't look as beautiful.

Music player:
I used to run PowerAMP, but ditched it in favor of Stellio, which I really recommend.

When it comes to wallpapers, check out Paperland. That's something you will not see on iPhones anytime soon.

As someone mentioned Before, Nova Launcher is a must. I use Nox icon pack with it.

Swiftkey is keyboard app that made me change from Windows. It was the one and only app that I could not live without. You can sync it to your Twitter/Facebook/SMS etc and it will learn your typing pattern. VERY useful for us who type in few different languages, it predicts everything without me having to swap keyboards.
 
Be sure to pick up a gearvr, something the iphone peasants can't take part of.

Pity them.
 
I'm sorry but comparing a last gen phone to a current gen phone? okay :rolleyes:

grats on the new phone. I love new tech and the excitement that comes with it.
 
Be sure to pick up a gearvr, something the iphone peasants can't take part of.

Pity them.

Gear VR is nice, but I don't think most non-Samsung phone owners are wracking their brains wishing they had VR housings. Not as of the very start of 2016, anyway.
 
Gear VR is nice, but I don't think most non-Samsung phone owners are wracking their brains wishing they had VR housings. Not as of the very start of 2016, anyway.

ignorance is bliss, it's the greatest advantage apple ecosystem people have
 
Solid Explorer, Textra to replace messaging, Swiftkey to replace stock keyboard.
All in one Toolbox is a great app to clean up junk and shut down apps simultaneously.
Easytether and FoxFi is useful if you're travelling or whatever.
Electrodroid is an awesome app if you are into electronics at all.
Scanner Radio is the best app to listen to police scanners, pretty interesting stuff out there.
Airdroid is my favorite on the fly file mover.
 
S6 has been considered as the top smartphone of the year 2015. So, its obvious that you might be using an amazing smartphone. I wish I too could own it... congrats bro.. !! ;)
 
ignorance is bliss, it's the greatest advantage apple ecosystem people have

No, you don't get to use that bogus claim. I'm saying that VR isn't nearly as important an advantage as you think it is, and there are plenty of people who know what Gear VR offers and just don't care. The GS6 is a fine phone in numerous respects -- you don't need to lean on a VR headset to sell it.

Also, a friendly reminder: Gear VR also doesn't work with anything beyond Samsung phones. So you're also saying that ignorance is bliss for people using phones from Google, LG, Motorola... sorry, but trying to turn this into an ideological war isn't going to work.

To turn this back to something productive: I'm going to echo the recommendation for AirDroid. It's like a cross between the iPhone's native AirDrop and Continuity features (file sharing, taking calls/messages on your computer) with notification mirroring and remote control of the phone.
 
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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ospolice.packagedisablerpro

Totally worth the $2 or whatever it is currently. Basically without rooting, you can still remove all the Samsung bloatware you want. Just be careful as it can remove stuff you actually don't want removed if you tell it to.

Instead of giving the software free reign to delete all bloat at once, I would research which bloatware packages you actually don't want as some are actually useful/good.

FYI: also have an S6 that I used the software on with no problem.

It doesn't "remove," it just disables bloatware. You can do that yourself from the settings.

The major benefit from that is: right now you have plenty of space, but over time updates for all then preinstalled crap will slowly take that away,

But the good news is you can at any time disable AND back-out any updates, so you don't have to bother with this today.
 
It doesn't "remove," it just disables bloatware. You can do that yourself from the settings.

The major benefit from that is: right now you have plenty of space, but over time updates for all then preinstalled crap will slowly take that away,

But the good news is you can at any time disable AND back-out any updates, so you don't have to bother with this today.

Package Disabler Pro can disable all APKs, even the ones that don't have the disable option available in settings.
 
No, you don't get to use that bogus claim. I'm saying that VR isn't nearly as important an advantage as you think it is, and there are plenty of people who know what Gear VR offers and just don't care. The GS6 is a fine phone in numerous respects -- you don't need to lean on a VR headset to sell it.

Also, a friendly reminder: Gear VR also doesn't work with anything beyond Samsung phones. So you're also saying that ignorance is bliss for people using phones from Google, LG, Motorola... sorry, but trying to turn this into an ideological war isn't going to work.

To turn this back to something productive: I'm going to echo the recommendation for AirDroid. It's like a cross between the iPhone's native AirDrop and Continuity features (file sharing, taking calls/messages on your computer) with notification mirroring and remote control of the phone.



Gear vr has the benefit of being free with the samsung pay promotion though.

https://samsungpromotions.com/celebratefootball/


200 dollars to use at samsungs online store, the gearvr is a hundred bucks. OP you may want to look into this, samsung is essentially giving the gearvr away for free if you sign up for samsung pay (costs no money).


And there is still google cardboard for non samsung phones which works well enough. And in some cases with the right goggles even surpass oculus in some areas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wii2tCHfHDU



To your larger point, it's true that not everyone cares about vr, but it's a nice perk to a lot of people to play around with, and it's icing on top of going with an android phone with certain capabilities.

Further, a lot of iphone users who are oblivious to vr would actually enjoy using it and having it to play around with if they only had the option. The stuff you do on an iphone can largely be mirrored on pretty much any android phone, aside from some specific apple tie ins with other apple focused products, but you get more perks on the android side. The primary reasons iphones are so popular is because they were the first modern smartphone, the early adopters recommended those phones in larger numbers, and like good followers who listen to their peers people stick with what people around them have.

This is why so many people think imessage is indispensable vs something cross platform like watsapp.
 
Package Disabler Pro can disable all APKs, even the ones that don't have the disable option available in settings.

Fair, but how many of those are:

(1) You are sure they're not necessary

(2) Eat up tons of space with their updates (over time)?

AFAIK, you can't DELETE bundled packages without root. So you can only prevent update bloat from intruding. However much free space you have, that's the best you'll ever get...but on the flip-side, freezing the base package means you can back-out any update that breaks things.
 
I'm sorry but comparing a last gen phone to a current gen phone? okay :rolleyes:

grats on the new phone. I love new tech and the excitement that comes with it.

IOS is still basically the same. Sure this phone is bigger and more powerful because it is newer... that isn't a fair comparison. However the operating system is comparable. The IOS would be the same basically for the iphone 5 or the new ones. In my opinion the android OS kicks the shit out of the IOS. Like I said this was my first android so there is a bit of bliss, however you just get so many more options and customization. I feel now that the IOS is far more simpler, which may indeed be why some people like it. I've read that people don't like the android phones because after 10 minutes they couldn't figure out how to do everything they wanted with it. People who actually have patience and a little bit more know how probably wouldn't share that opinion. Just how it seems to me.
 
Fair, but how many of those are:

(1) You are sure they're not necessary

(2) Eat up tons of space with their updates (over time)?

AFAIK, you can't DELETE bundled packages without root. So you can only prevent update bloat from intruding. However much free space you have, that's the best you'll ever get...but on the flip-side, freezing the base package means you can back-out any update that breaks things.

You are also preventing it from running and using memory.
 
IOS is still basically the same. Sure this phone is bigger and more powerful because it is newer... that isn't a fair comparison. However the operating system is comparable. The IOS would be the same basically for the iphone 5 or the new ones. In my opinion the android OS kicks the shit out of the IOS. Like I said this was my first android so there is a bit of bliss, however you just get so many more options and customization. I feel now that the IOS is far more simpler, which may indeed be why some people like it. I've read that people don't like the android phones because after 10 minutes they couldn't figure out how to do everything they wanted with it. People who actually have patience and a little bit more know how probably wouldn't share that opinion. Just how it seems to me.

No, it's changed a lot over the years. The difference is that a lot of these changes aren't really obvious by looking at the home screen, and aren't necessarily as dramatic. Multitasking, notifications, even share sheets... they all make a big difference, but they're hidden out of view.

iOS is indeed simpler, but I don't think you're necessarily impatient or less tech-savvy for preferring it. Some people just aren't worried about having their home screens just so, and aren't about to sideload or pine for deeply integrated apps. As I remember from my tech support days: there are plenty of intelligent people who simply don't have the time or inclination to dive into tech... and Apple generally does a good job of courting that crowd.
 
Nova Launcher is the first app I install on any Android device I get in my hands.

Considering how much TouchWiz imitates iOS last time I checked (on a Galaxy SII), the stock launcher might not be a bad idea for OP in the beginning.
 
It doesn't really matter which OS is simpler or has more features. What matters is what lets you do common simple tasks easily.

iOS is a toy. Basic stuff like copying files requires you to learn another app like iTunes, which is a bloated pig and doesn't work well. On Android the phone works like a USB drive, simple and obvious.

Same for running background apps like a file download, web pages, gps etc - on iOS its constantly killing and swapping tasks out due to no multitasking and less memory.

Its no wonder iOS has been copying features from Android every year but not the other way around. Everything Apple claims is not needed - multitasking, notifications, copy paste, control center, task manager, big screens, all the stuff they claim makes the phone harder to use, they end up copying and claiming as their own.

Android has come a long way, no one can say with a straight face that it lacks in ease of use today, in fact its easier to use and more feature packed.
 
It doesn't really matter which OS is simpler or has more features. What matters is what lets you do common simple tasks easily.

iOS is a toy. Basic stuff like copying files requires you to learn another app like iTunes, which is a bloated pig and doesn't work well. On Android the phone works like a USB drive, simple and obvious.

Same for running background apps like a file download, web pages, gps etc - on iOS its constantly killing and swapping tasks out due to no multitasking and less memory.

Its no wonder iOS has been copying features from Android every year but not the other way around. Everything Apple claims is not needed - multitasking, notifications, copy paste, control center, task manager, big screens, all the stuff they claim makes the phone harder to use, they end up copying and claiming as their own.

Android has come a long way, no one can say with a straight face that it lacks in ease of use today, in fact its easier to use and more feature packed.

Lol.
 
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It doesn't really matter which OS is simpler or has more features. What matters is what lets you do common simple tasks easily.

iOS is a toy. Basic stuff like copying files requires you to learn another app like iTunes, which is a bloated pig and doesn't work well. On Android the phone works like a USB drive, simple and obvious.

Same for running background apps like a file download, web pages, gps etc - on iOS its constantly killing and swapping tasks out due to no multitasking and less memory.

Its no wonder iOS has been copying features from Android every year but not the other way around. Everything Apple claims is not needed - multitasking, notifications, copy paste, control center, task manager, big screens, all the stuff they claim makes the phone harder to use, they end up copying and claiming as their own.

Android has come a long way, no one can say with a straight face that it lacks in ease of use today, in fact its easier to use and more feature packed.

As far as I know, there is no user accessible file system unless you jailbroken, or you talking about iCloud drive (Can work just by the phone itself).

iOS do have multitasking, not sure where you got that idea from. GPS / File Sync never get killed by the system, even if memory is overloaded. The only app doesn't works are those who didn't enable the background service permission. This isn't Android where your OS constantly killing your app to free memory up. 1GB is definitely enough for most people, due to iOS has far better memory management than Android. Look at Note5 with 4GB, still shutting apps down constantly.

Both party copy things from each other, it's not one sided. Hence, it takes Google so long to copy that Permission/Privacy control from iOS into Android. Then, fingerprint payment, Hangout SMS hybrid....etc

None of them are better than each other in terms of feature. They all copy each others.

Easier to use? Tell that to the granny.....
 
Another year goes by and some are still clueless about how iOS works. Download any SSH/telnet client from Apple app store, make a connection and after 3 minutes in the background it gets killed even with keep-alive enabled unless you bring each and every session to the foreground to reset the countdown timer. This limitation also applies to other interactive background connected clients such as VNC, RDP, etc. Some of the apps mention this specifically in the description or in the comments:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vssh/id527244258?mt=8
"- Background work (up to 3 minutes for iOS 7, up to 10 minutes for iOS 5/6, alert on timeout)"

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prompt-2/id917437289?mt=8
"[Feature Request]: Keep connection open when app is in the background."
 
I've seen you bring that up before and it sounds like something that might be a real issue for maybe 1% of the .01% of iDevice users that ever try to SSH/RDP into something. How about a much more common scenario where a normal person might actually be affected by that background timeout?
 
Background interactive connected apps are pretty broad so bittorrent, ftp/ftps/sftp, file sync, GitHub, IRC, nmap, pentest, etc. Your average John Doe off the street probably isn't affected but it pretty much eliminates the power user, sysadmin, network, pentester, developer, etc.
 
Another year goes by and some are still clueless about how iOS works. Download any SSH/telnet client from Apple app store, make a connection and after 3 minutes in the background it gets killed even with keep-alive enabled unless you bring each and every session to the foreground to reset the countdown timer. This limitation also applies to other interactive background connected clients such as VNC, RDP, etc. Some of the apps mention this specifically in the description or in the comments:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vssh/id527244258?mt=8
"- Background work (up to 3 minutes for iOS 7, up to 10 minutes for iOS 5/6, alert on timeout)"

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prompt-2/id917437289?mt=8
"[Feature Request]: Keep connection open when app is in the background."

Clueless troll as usual, and same example you used for all Apple thread....

Because this developer doesn't know how to do it doesn't mean it wont work.

The reason why it was 3m timing was because the guy didn't even bother to enable "Background Mode" in the project plist properly. Also, you can use silent APNS if you didn't even have those enable to keep the app / connection running actively.

Also, why in the world would you run SSH on a mobile phone and keep the connection alive at all time? It's freaking stupid if you ask me.

Affect the developer? Power user? Both me and my wife are developers and power users, and we haven't found a single thing that our phone couldn't do for our needs. Both Android / iOS.
Except the Burmese font that wouldn't install on Android phone without Root.

Torrenting? What kind of kid these days still do torrent? Downloading Linux distro sure, but why would you do that on a phone than a computer?
 
OP was asking for useful tips/tricks/apps for his new S6.

Get off the Apple vs Android pissing match.
 
Also, why in the world would you run SSH on a mobile phone and keep the connection alive at all time? It's freaking stupid if you ask me.

Was thinking the same as well. And if this really were an issue, then basically any music streaming app would be useless on iOS.
 
I doubt you're a developer because you would know how to read Apple's documentation that explains background execution is very limited. Prompt 2 is considered one of the better iOS clients so if they and all the other clients can't accomplish it then I doubt you can.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html

Why do people want to do it? Because laptop and desktop can but don't fit in the pocket when on call and out and about without them along.
 
I doubt you're a developer because you would know how to read Apple's documentation that explains background execution is very limited. Prompt 2 is considered one of the better iOS clients so if they and all the other clients can't accomplish it then I doubt you can.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html

Why do people want to do it? Because laptop and desktop can but don't fit in the pocket when on call and out and about without them along.

Do you even code? Have you read through the entire documentation ?

In documentation, it already said exactly what I was talking about.

At section "Implementing Long-Running Tasks"
Wit the mark "Apps that need to download and process new content regularly"

This is exactly talking about the plist flag that in my previous comment.

If you don't know how to code or even know anything about platform, I suggest a silent would bring more peace than making samsung / android into a new form of scientology.

Also, you realize plenty of app that was able to do this for very long time?
For one example, even before Apple introduce Background fetch / process, Dropbox already achieve it by using the location flag that was also mention. Skype back in the old iOS 4/5 period was already able to keep the background connection the whole time, but since keeping socket connections while inactive drains too much battery, they soon removed that in later update. Another example is Audi's MMI connect app, it records the location where you park in background.

What in the world is the advantage of having SSH connection on the whole day? You still hasn't answer that question yet.
 
Put your money where your mouth is and write or show a SSH client that runs in the background for longer than 3 minutes. You can't.
 
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