Company is giving me a S4, what should I do to make it suck less?

[apolloa]

I'm very well compensated for my time here, and this change will definitely give me a strong position when im are negotiating for a raise. Not sweating it. If the phone ever rings after hours it means that the ish has really hit the fan, and I would want to know anyway.

I spoke to the cto today, and he said that we can also bring our own devices, but the company will only pay for these s4s. I think I may look around on cl for a used lg G3, or htc m8.

Your paid well for being on Mac Rumors!! Tell me how!!

It's cool if you get paid for being on call etc, but don't sell yourself out for a corporation, but of course you need a job to look after your family. It's all about balance really unless you win the lottery that is!

I would do what you said though and get another phone. The S4 is good, but it is a bit old now. An M8 or G3 are great choices, I think the G3 has the better camera and the M8 better speakers and possibly build quality.

 

[dojoman]

Quit working for Samsung.

 

[maflynn]

I spoke to the cto today, and he said that we can also bring our own devices, but the company will only pay for these s4s. I think I may look around on cl for a used lg G3, or htc m8.

As long as they don't require certain apps on the phone. I use my own iPhone 6 to get emails, and notifications. Pages go through my texts instead of carrying a pager. I could have pushed for a corporate phone but then I'd be stuck carrying two phones around.

 

[Breaking Good]

I will be spending a lot of time with this phone since I will be required to have it with me at all time. Short of rooting it, can you guys give me some tips on cleaning up the interface?


Also any must have cases/accessories?

Set it to extreme power saving mode and forget about it unless you get a call/text/e-mail from work.

Our company said they were going to launch a BYOD program, but then pulled back due to security issues like you mentioned.

 

[Wrathwitch]

To actually give you some advice you can work with: (vs move away, cry etc)

Go to the app manager settings and disable a lot of the crap. You can't delete it but you can disable it.

Use a different launcher like Nova.

Look up how to get into developer settings and you can adjust the animation speed to a bit faster or no animations.

I have had the S4 and it's really not a bad little phone. I am using a Note 4 now as my daily driver but the S4 is my back up.

There is a lot the phone can do, just mess around with it until you are happy. Custom ring tones and wallpapers are a cinch with Zedge.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I use my S4 as an IP cam.

 

[Vegastouch]

You can't do much about the interface.

I would say flash it with cyanogen.
But heck, why such an old phone?

I assume they got them cheap being a GS4.

 

[MasterRyu2011]

It could be worse. I get a Blackberry

 

[coleblk]

Nova Launcher for sure. I played around with a Note 3 that was running a stock-looking version of Nova and for the most part I thought it performed and functioned great. You can replace most of the ugly Touch Wiz parts of the OS but you'll still have to bare through the cartoon-look of any of their own apps such as the dialer etc.

 

[touchstoned]

Oh wow, this takes me back. The only android phone I ever had was a Galaxy S4 I got in June 2013 and kept until I switched to a 5s in April 2014. The sequence of phones I've had is : Iphone 3G , 3GS, 4, Galaxy S4, and now iphone 5s.

I guess I just wanted to see what android had to offer. Coming from an iphone 4, the Galaxy is impressive if only for its size. The thing is a palette.

The UI (kit kat) was pretty garbage, but there were a few things it did really really well. Problem is, battery life was horrendous. It also got slower and slower over time, and I eventually allowed a friend to tinker with it and root it and for awhile it was faster... but it always came back to glitches and re-install.

The thing that truly made me go out and buy an iphone 5s in mid cycle just to get away from android was the pop-ups. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to try an answer a call from your boss only to accidentally press a pop up add and be sent to some obscure website. The operating system is the least secure OS i've ever seen by far. It doesn't appear to have any security at all, you can do whatever you want with it. That's great in a lab, not so much in my pocket.

 

[mellofello]

I must say that after a weekend of playing with this thing I am pretty happy with it. As a second phone it is a nice size. It does run quite a bit slower then modern flagships, but overall not bad.

I installed nova launcher and go locker, and the interface is much improved.

The only huge issue is the battery life. 24 hours of not touching it once and it drained the whole battery.

Oh well I will continue tinkering with it. Other than that I am actually pretty happy with it. I'm glad they didn't issue us larger phones.

 

[Tsuchiya]

I like the S4.

Mine is still in a drawer as a backup phone should my 6 Plus die on me (seems likely). Still functions great with Nova launcher.

 

[Wrathwitch]

I must say that after a weekend of playing with this thing I am pretty happy with it. As a second phone it is a nice size. It does run quite a bit slower then modern flagships, but overall not bad.

I installed nova launcher and go locker, and the interface is much improved.

The only huge issue is the battery life. 24 hours of not touching it once and it drained the whole battery.

Oh well I will continue tinkering with it. Other than that I am actually pretty happy with it. I'm glad they didn't issue us larger phones.

One thing that might help is in settings you can turn off the wifi scan while sleeping. I know it made a difference for me. The only draw back to that is the 3-4 seconds it takes for the device to search for wifi etc when it wakes.