New to android (samsung s4)

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Sage2k

[H]ard|Gawd
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Just got my first android phone. I used to have an Iphone 4...

Decent phone so far. Getting used to the keyboard. It kind of sucks because the letters are spaced out more than I'm used to haha..

Anyway, my biggest concern is how so many apps seem to "require" access to things I feel like they shouldn't. News apps and flashlight apps shouldnt require access to my camera. But if I don't grant it, it won't install. Is there anyway around this?

Also my company has an exchange server. When I hooked it up I had to give it permission to basically do whatever it wants to my phone, including completely wiping it or spying on it. Can I also figure out a way around that?

And any tips to keep this thing running smooth? I notice sometimes its slightly jerky when swiping from screen to screen.

I also noticed the touch doesn't seem to be as accurate as the iphone 4 was. I have to zoom in much closer to tap on a link.
 
First off, get rid of the samsung keyboard, it's garbage. I personally prefer the actual google keyboard, which you can download from the play store. Make sure Google is the developer, so you get the right one.

Secondly, a flashlight app kind of needs to access your camera, since it's activating the flash to you know, be a flashlight. News apps though? Perhaps it's allowing you to share pictures through the app?

As for your exchange server, any phone you use with exchange will have those permissions, because it's an exchange thing, NOT an android thing. I don't mean this to sound harsh, but if you don't like your company able to peek into your phone at ANY time? Get a separate work phone and have them pay for it.
 
Sage2k said:
Just got my first android phone. I used to have an Iphone 4...

Decent phone so far. Getting used to the keyboard. It kind of sucks because the letters are spaced out more than I'm used to haha..

Anyway, my biggest concern is how so many apps seem to "require" access to things I feel like they shouldn't. News apps and flashlight apps shouldnt require access to my camera. But if I don't grant it, it won't install. Is there anyway around this?

Also my company has an exchange server. When I hooked it up I had to give it permission to basically do whatever it wants to my phone, including completely wiping it or spying on it. Can I also figure out a way around that?

And any tips to keep this thing running smooth? I notice sometimes its slightly jerky when swiping from screen to screen.

I also noticed the touch doesn't seem to be as accurate as the iphone 4 was. I have to zoom in much closer to tap on a link.
Click to expand...
first, download another browser such as chrome, rather than using that samsung browser (unless you MUST use it for multi-window browsing, which I don't believe there is much use to...)

Exchange is supposed to do that. No way around it.

Disable all the infrared sensor gimmicks such as eye stay on and that hover touch stuff. The primary cause of GS4 lag.

With apps, you'll have to be careful. It's great that android actually warns you. But if you download from trusted developers, you should be fine. Other way to get around it still requires rooting I believe.
 
Sage2k said:
Just got my first android phone. I used to have an Iphone 4...

Decent phone so far. Getting used to the keyboard. It kind of sucks because the letters are spaced out more than I'm used to haha..

Anyway, my biggest concern is how so many apps seem to "require" access to things I feel like they shouldn't. News apps and flashlight apps shouldnt require access to my camera. But if I don't grant it, it won't install. Is there anyway around this?

Also my company has an exchange server. When I hooked it up I had to give it permission to basically do whatever it wants to my phone, including completely wiping it or spying on it. Can I also figure out a way around that?

And any tips to keep this thing running smooth? I notice sometimes its slightly jerky when swiping from screen to screen.

I also noticed the touch doesn't seem to be as accurate as the iphone 4 was. I have to zoom in much closer to tap on a link.
Click to expand...

Flashlight apps need access to the camera to access the Flash hardware. There's no way around that.

Best thing to do is it understand why an app is accessing that information. A lot of people are way too tin foil hatting things. For example the wallpaper/ringtone app called Zedge requires access to your Contacts. People flip shit about that because they don't bother reading the description. Zedge needs access to your Contacts in order to set a custom ringtone and an individual contact. If you still don't like it...well then don't install it.

I haven't touched an iPhone in a long time but I'm under the impression that installing apps is the same. When you install an app you don't know what permissions the apps are actually getting. So those flashlight apps on iPhone were accessing the camera just like they do on Android.

When it comes to your companies Exchange system my advice to you is keep your device yours and don't plug into your companies network. There are ways around it (root, install other software, etc) but the best thing you can do since those permissions are required by Exchange is not connect to it.
 
There are ways to connect your phone to your works exchange server without all the security permissions, but you'll have to root the phone to do it. I would suggest going to the XDA GS4 forums and browsing around there for the instuctions on how to install and set it up.

But if I'm not mistaken, didn't the GS4 debut a new "Fort Knox" feature for people using exchange on their phone? It's supposed to keep your work and personal information on the phone on totally seperate partitions to prevent data spillage and to keep you from losing personal information should they try to wipe the phone.

Edit: Yeah, Knox was supposed to launch with the GS4, but it seems it wasn't ready at launch time and got delayed.
 
Thanks for the info guys.

Once I get my contacts moved over I'll probably take exchange off of this phone.

Ok, I get that flashlight app needs access to camera. It was just an example tho. I think I installed a news app that wanted camera access too...Eh whatever. Was just wondering if there were ways around it.

Not interested in rooting. I guess I'll just deal with it.
 
Welcome to android ;)

As said get a better browser, IIRC the S4 has chrome pre-installed as well.

You need to remember, on your iPhone they needed the permissions as well, just did not warn the user, essentially the same permissions were needed.

The only way around the permission thing is sometimes through rooting, I dont think that the tricks there work with all apps, all the time.


As for touch sensitivity, i find it more accurate than my sister iPhone 4, but its all about perception I guess. That is more of an app / app basis at times as well.
 
As for the lag issue also check and make sure the power saving features are off. Specifically the one in the pull down bar. There are also other options kind of buried in settings. Spend some time exploring it will help .
 
I moved up to the S4 just last week.
I had a DroidX for three years.
The only gripe I have with the Galaxy is how deep you have to go into some areas to set your preferences.....

As others have said.....spend time with the menus and I think you'll really like the S4. I find it to be superior to my DroidX already in many ways.
 
dsystem said:
As for the lag issue also check and make sure the power saving features are off. Specifically the one in the pull down bar. There are also other options kind of buried in settings. Spend some time exploring it will help .
Click to expand...

Interesting thing I just learned post with phone no signature.
 
I liked my galaxy s3, the s4 has been a piece of shit the more I use it and I know ins and outs of this phone. It has restarted in my pocket countless times, the reason I know it restarted is because everytime the phone restarts it asks you to sync with facebook by login in. Horrible software, all the bullshit gimmick features other than smart stay or viewing picture gallery without touching the pictures are pretty good. smart scroll, hand gestures are just load of bullshit. It feels like Samsung made Touchwiz worse this time around with putting so much bloat on this. I got this because I had very good experience with galaxy s3, but seems like Samsung was busy fucking around with needless features than actually focusing on the overall user experience of the phone. I have had Samsung's own apps like watch on crash on me randomly. Black screen and phone stopped responding 2 or 3 times in the last few months, not a whole lot but it is pain when you are navigate and it crashes and restarts. I should have gone for the HTC one and that's after using my friends phone and it is smooth as butter.
 
I have had no problems with my S4??? Not one crash, lockup or restart. I also came from an S3.
I will agree with you on some of the new features and Samsung software/apps...junk!
Otherwise it runs smoother and faster than my S3. Although one of the 5 S3's we had ran like crap...idk
Maybe it comes down to luck of the draw? lol
 
I don't know its mostly fine, but I have shit load of apps on it. LOL> it is just that random one to two hangs that I have had and at absolute worst times to be honest that have pissed me off.

I have no problem with speed but random shit that has pissed me off. I just updated the WatchON app and shit crashed the app everytime I hit remote control so I uninstalled the update and reinstalled it and it works but all my settings for tv, sound system and dvr were gone, lol.

Feels like the more apps you run, and I run a lot, the overloaded Samsung crap touchwiz just gets really bogged down. I have about 100 apps installed on it and it has gotten progressively worse lol.

That is why user experience counts so much. I used my friends HTC one and literally I hate sense everytime I used it prior, but the One was butter smooth and fluid Ui. Just absolutely loved it, may be just because I just hate overblown touchwiz now so much, lol
 
You sound like you download too much and run too many simultaneous programs. I know a few people who have the S4 and don't have a single complaint, these aren't even power users either, regular smoe's who love their device.

I will guarantee you that if you run the HTC One the way you run your S4 you will run into the same problems.
 
Trimlock said:
You sound like you download too much and run too many simultaneous programs. I know a few people who have the S4 and don't have a single complaint, these aren't even power users either, regular smoe's who love their device.

I will guarantee you that if you run the HTC One the way you run your S4 you will run into the same problems.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't multitasking and power using be the point of having a quad core phone with 2gb ram etc? Regular schmos could get by with much less than an S4.

I have an S4, rooted and running Synergy's ROM and it's been great. It is a TW based rom because I actually like a fair amount of the Samsung stuff.
 
mutti_wilson said:
Wouldn't multitasking and power using be the point of having a quad core phone with 2gb ram etc? Regular schmos could get by with much less than an S4.

I have an S4, rooted and running Synergy's ROM and it's been great. It is a TW based rom because I actually like a fair amount of the Samsung stuff.
Click to expand...

downloading too much to bring your phone to a crawl or crash? Not sure where you are coming from.
 
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