Samsung Features
How To: Downgrade Apps on Your Galaxy Note 3 or Other Android Device
Normally, it's good to automatically update your apps to the latest version, but sometimes those updates take away features that you've grown to love.
How To: Save Battery Life & Never Get Lost Again with Offline Maps & Directions on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
When you have to take four different freeways to go twelve miles, Google Maps becomes a very close and dear friend—especially in Los Angeles. Without my trusty Samsung Galaxy S3, I seriously don't know if I could make it back home half of the time. Of course, you'd probably get better directions using a Garmin, TomTom, or other GPS device, but when you already have a smartphone like the GS3, dedicated GPS units become nothing more than a luxury item.
How To: Tint the Status Bar to Blend in with Different App Colors on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
With the Android 4.4 KitKat update slated for release sometime in October (according to Nestle), I'm sure you're excited to get your hands on and test out all of the new features of Google's latest mobile operating system.
How To: Launch Apps While the Screen Is Off on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
Samsung has a long-standing reputation for packing their devices with lots of added functionality, and the Galaxy S6 Edge is no exception. It comes with a nifty feature called "Information stream," which allows you to get quick, at-a-glance information by swiping the edge of your screen back and forth while the display is off.
How To: Get Rid of the Annoying Low Battery Alert for Good on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
If you use your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 consistently throughout the day, you're more than likely to encounter the low battery warning on occasion—anytime you dip below 15 percent remaining. While the low battery warning may be a convenience for some, it can also be a nuisance for others (like me), as it continues to appear intermittently after dropping from that 15 percent. In this softModder tutorial, I'm going to show you how to get rid of that annoying low battery alert for good.
How To: Stop Lag & Save Battery on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 by Hibernating Background Apps
If your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has been feeling sluggish lately, or you've noticed the battery not lasting as long as usual, the problem could be that you have too many applications running in the background.
How To: Disable the "Clear Defaults" Popup Alert When Setting Default Apps on Your Samsung Galaxy S4
Customization is one of Android's popular selling points, and going hand-in-hand with that is being able to set default apps for different actions. Whether you want to play a song, navigate somewhere, or send a text, you can set a go-to app for each of those tasks.
How To: Install Jelly Bean 4.2's Photo Sphere Camera & Gallery on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
The rumors are flying everywhere about the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 getting updated to Jelly Bean 4.2, but as of now, we have no freakin' idea when. Among all of the features sported in the update, Photo Sphere is one of the more popular, allowing you to snap incredible and immersive 360 degree photographs. So, until that update comes, you're probably still marooned with Jelly Bean 4.1.2 on your Note 2, and that means no Photo Sphere camera.
How To: Type More Accurately & Efficiently on Your Samsung Galaxy S3 with WordWave's Intelligent Keyboard
The absence of a physical keyboard is both a gift and a curse. When it was announced in 2007 that the first iPhone would have a touchscreen only, people literally lost their shit. Now, almost 7 years later, you'd be hard-pressed to find a smartphone that still has a physical keyboard.
How To: Turn Your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 into a Galaxy S5
When the Samsung Galaxy S5 launched a few months ago, I was pretty envious of the new UI elements Samsung included on it, as I'm sure you were. The flatter interface provided for a more polished and less cartoony feel, bringing the device more in line with Google's design elements.
How To: Control Music Playback from the Side of Your Galaxy S6 Edge’s Screen
The Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a useful feature called Information stream that allows you to view quick tidbits of info with a quick back-and-forth swipe on the edge of your display while the screen is off. Apparently, Samsung left the door open for third-party plugins to use this feature, and now we're starting to see an influx of useful additions.
How To: Remove Moving Objects & Unwanted People from Photos on Your Galaxy S5
Fast moving cars, strangers in the background, and even birds flying by can all ruin a great shot. Thankfully, TouchWiz provides the tools to remove unwanted objects, right in the stock camera application.
How To: Type More Efficiently on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Using This Intelligent Keyboard with Speedy Gestures
With all of the new features and third-party apps out there making Android better and faster every day, it's quite frustrating to me that keyboard advancements remain relatively static.
How To: Remove the Grassy Background on Your Galaxy S5’s Stock Weather Widget to See More Wallpaper
The weather widget on the main home screen of a fresh-out-of-the-box Galaxy S5 is meant to show off the screen. Super-high contrast and crisp definition on the individual blades of grass in the background let you know that the phone you're holding has one helluva display.
How To: Change App Icons on Your Galaxy Note 3 Without a Third-Party Launcher
Samsung devices may dominate the Android market, but that doesn't mean everybody loves TouchWiz, the user interface on all of their smartphones and tablets. It's difficult to modify, comes with lots of bloatware, and isn't much to look at, to say the least.
Editor's Choice: 11 Camera Apps to Put Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on Steroids
There are many impressive features on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but just like any other smartphone on the market, the most used one is the camera. How many times did you take a picture today? Or admire all the selfies in your gallery? Or upload a video to Instagram, Vine, or Snapchat?
How To: Effortlessly Hack & Mod Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Using the Android Everything Tool
There are a ton of cool features available on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but if you're a softModder, you can make your phone do just about anything.
How To: Make Incompatible Apps Work in Multi-Window View on Your Galaxy Note 2
Multi Window, a feature that was greatly improved with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, is still quite limited on the older Note 2, allowing only the use of a few stock applications to multitask with.
How To: This Intelligent Personal Assistant for Your Galaxy S4 Is Way Better Than S Voice Could Ever Be
One feature of Samsung devices that's less useful than I had expected is S Voice, the voice assistant that ships with all new Galaxy devices. The voice is annoying, the features are lacking, and it's an all around subpar product. With Google Now, Siri, and now Microsoft's Cortana, Samsung needs to really step up their game—even on the new Galaxy S5.
How To: Make Your Galaxy S4 Scroll-to-Top When Tapping the Status Bar—Like iOS Does
While browsing the internet on your Samsung Galaxy S4, you've probably scrolled to the bottom of a very long webpage, Twitter feed, or down into the abyss of some other app. Depending just how far down you've scrolled, it can be a test of your patience (and fingertips) scrolling back up to the top.
How To: Get the S5's New Rounded Quick Settings Toggles on Your Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung's TouchWiz skin gets a lot of flak for its appearance, namely the garish colors on the quick settings toggles. The bright green on dark blue scheme is definitely an eyesore compared to the ones in stock Android, and even other manufacturer skins like HTC's Sense.
How To: Get Lenovo's Exclusive Super Camera Apps on Your Galaxy Note 3
Lenovo brought out the big guns for CES 2014, with the Vibe Z showcased as the Chinese company's' first foray into the LTE smartphone space. Slated for a February release, the ultra-thin and extremely light smartphone will certainly be in the running for top smartphones of this very new year. Photo via CNET
How To: Enable the Front-Facing "Flash" on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for Better Selfies
The outstretched arm, the perfectly positioned angle, the shot and the subsequent array of tinkered saturation, contrast and shadows. In almost every car, changing room, or Starbucks, these string of events happen—you might know it as the selfie.
How To: Mod Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for Multi-Window View with Any App
With the new Samsung Galaxy Note II, there's a new Multi Window mode that allows users to run two different apps simultaneously on the tablet's screen. This feature works with Samsung and Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, Chrome and Talk.
How To: Auto-Change Keyboards on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Based on the S Pen's Position
Got a Samsung tablet with an S Pen stylus? Then you might be one of the many people irked about having to manually choose a different keyboard layout after pulling the S Pen out of the device. For instance, if you have a Samsung Galaxy Note I or Note II, when you pull the S Pen out, the keyboard layout stays the same. But if you'd like it to switch to a different keyboard, say, from the stock Samsung keyboard to something like SwiftKey, then you're out of luck.
How To: Add Your Favorite Apps to the Pen Window Drawer on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 3
There wasn't really anything too special about the S Pen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, with its limited capabilities and finicky sensitivity. Luckily, the S Pen was greatly improved on the Note 3, the biggest enhancement being Air Command, a floating menu that appears when the S Pen is removed that gives quick access to all the new features.
How To: Text Better on Your Samsung Galaxy S4 with This Hybrid Messaging App Based on Android 4.3 & CyanogenMod 10.2
With CyanogenMod 10.2 recently released and the Samsung Galaxy S4 still waiting on Android 4.3, it only makes sense that the coveted features from both firmwares are highly desired by Android owners all over. We've already brought you a feature from each firmware—the cLock home/lock screen widget from CyanogenMod and the Google Play Edition Camera and Gallery from Android 4.3. Now we're bringing you another in the form of an updated text messaging application, ported from both Android 4.3 and...
How To: Download Instagram Pics & Videos on Android Without Rooting
Scrolling through my Instagram feed, I inevitably come across an image or video that I genuinely like amongst the countless selfies and plates of food porn. Naturally I want to save this image before it's buried under new posts from the heaps of people I follow, but I'm left stranded with only the ability to take a screenshot.
How To: Boost Headphones Volume on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
The Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a very nice pair of earbuds, which might possibly be the best set I've ever owned. They're quite comfortable, and they provide clear and robust sound, but they could still use just a little boost in volume.
How To: Add a Floating Softkey to Your Samsung Galaxy S3 for Faster “Screen Off”
Sometimes, you just don't want to hit the Power button to turn your screen off. In the current age of touchscreens, you've got to wonder why we even have physical keys anymore.
How To: Make the AccuWeather Widget Transparent on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 3
The stock AccuWeather widget on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is great if you want a super quick way to see the current time, date, and weather forecast for your area, but personally, its design just doesn't do it for me. It's big and bulky and I find that the background weather imagery is distracting. Developer ElMartinoAT feels pretty much the same, and brings us nine alternatives to choose from when it comes to the stock AccuWeather widget on Galaxy Note 3 devices running Android KitKat.
How To: Install the New S Translator from the GS4 onto Your Samsung Galaxy S3
If you watched Samsung's Unpacked 2013 live last month, where they announced the new Galaxy S4, you probably sat through this awkward skit: This was Samsung's way of introducing their new translation software, dubbed S Translator. In the skit, the backbacking American traveler in Shanghai typed his question in English, and the phone spoke it aloud in Chinese. The other man replied in Chinese, and the app translated the message back into English. Live conversation translation aside, the app ca...
How To: Unlock Your Samsung Galaxy S3 with Magic
David Blaine has made millions off his magic tricks and mind-bending illusions, so why shouldn't we get in on the action, too? Well, your Samsung Galaxy S3 can do all kinds of things, but magic isn't one of them...yet.
How To: The Fastest Way to Read & Access Notifications from Your Galaxy S4's Lock Screen
Here's a routine that I'm sure all of us smartphone users go through at least several times a day. You notice your Samsung Galaxy S4's notification LED blinking, grab your phone to see what it is, and enter your PIN. Only instead of anything important, you find that it's just some online store enticing you with sales promotions, or some other email that you could have easily done without.
How To: Get Rounded Screen Corners on Your Samsung Galaxy S3 or Other Android Device
Tired of your Samsung Galaxy S3 being a square? Make it more well-rounded by ditching those 90-degree corners on your screen for new adjustable round corners instead. It may be a minor tweak to your device, but the psychological effects of a more circular screen may help you feel more connected, safe, and, well…perfect. If you're the type that prefers the logic, order, and security of a sharp-cornered screen, then stick with your standard Android interface. Otherwise, keeping reading.
How To: Customize Quick Settings Toggles with Colors, Photos, & New Icons on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2
I've been on a customizing kick over the past few weeks, showing you sweet mods for your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 like interactive live wallpapers, app and settings backgrounds, status bar tweaks, and more. But, I'm not done yet. There's still plenty to softMod on your Note 2, and today I'm going to show you how to customize your Quick Settings toggles.
How To: Get Back the "Hide Applications" Option in Your Galaxy Note 3's App Drawer
After the Galaxy Note 3 firmware updated to NF4, Samsung decided to remove the option to hide apps in the app drawer, replacing it with an uninstall/disable feature instead. Before, with the hide feature, you could simply hide third-party apps that were barely used or that you didn't want others to see. Now, you can only completely get rid of them.
How To: Turn Your Galaxy Note 2 into a Secretive Photo-Capturing Motion Detector
I know I can't be the only person whose socks go missing in a shroud of mystery, but I'm determined to catch the sock-thieving gnomes in the act. While I have my suspicions, I can't quite prove it. Sure, I could drink a load of Red Bulls and never sleep, guarding my socks—but that's just crazy right? Luckily, I've found a way to set up my phone to catch the culprits.
How To: See Who's Trying to Unlock Your Galaxy S4—And Where
There's a lot of personal information residing on your phone, possibly even more than on your computer, so it's only a matter of time before someone tries to access it.
How To: Personalize Sound Quality for Headphones on Your Galaxy S6
Chances are your hearing isn't the same as the person next to you. Personally, I have moderate hearing loss, so I tend to turn the volume nob towards the loud side. For others, it may be that one ear is slightly better or worse than the other, not only in perceiving volume, but tone as well. Considering this, is it possible for smartphone manufacturers to ensure the best sound quality on their devices?