Galaxy S3 apps, tips and tricks

[Dolorian]

I finally made the switch to Android two days ago, had been considering it for a few months actually. I had an iPhone 4 as my phone and before that a 3GS. I made the switch to a Galaxy S3 and am in the process of selling my iPhone 4 to a co-worker. I'll make a thread later on that will serve as a review of sorts after i get to use S3 some more, so I won't focus on that here.

First off, I am a complete newbie when it comes to Android (and the S3 for that matter), really, I've only been using it for two days, so this thread isn't really about me giving other S3 owners tips and tricks (you likely know far more than I do about the device), I just want to share some of the things I've installed and done with my S3 to kick start the thread. Hopefully other S3 owners (or Android users in general) will chime in and post their own apps recommendations, tips and trick.

I already got installed and working the common and usual bulk of apps...Google apps (Chrome, Google+, Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, etc.) and other common apps (WhatsApp, Evernote, Dropbox, Twitter, Amazon, IMDB, Netflix, etc.) and the default apps (no need to list them).

The following are some additional apps that I've found useful in my "adventures" through the Play store during the last couple of days:

• SwiftKey 3: Awesome keyboard app, bought it today and it makes typing so much better.
• GNotes and GTasks: Very nice notes and to-do apps that sync with Google. Serve as a nice Notes/Evernote and Things alternative.
• doubleTwist: Really nice music and video player, it has a Mac app that allows you to copy music, photos and videos from your iTunes library wirelessly and also allows you to stream them from the phone to your PS3 or xBox (more on this app below).
• AirDroid: Good app that allows you to access and manage your Android Phone wirelessly via any browser be it on Mac, PC or Linux.
• Simple Last.Fm: For scrobbling music to my Last.fm account.
• AndroZip: Utility for unzipping downloaded files.
• N64 Emulator: For playing Nintendo 64 ROMs, works very nice.
• SuperGnes Lite: For playing Super Nintendo ROMs, also works well.

A couple of nice tips I've found in a forum:

Make touchWiz even faster:
Go to Settings -> Developer Options -> User Interface -> and reduce Window animation scale and Transition animation scale to 0.5. It makes the transitions/animations shorter and speeds things up considerably.

Make the home key respond faster:
Go to S-Voice -> Settings -> General and disable Launch S Voice.

...

Some issues with doubleTwist:
I've found the app very nice and it is rather easy to copy music and photos into it from the Mac. But it is a different story when it comes to videos as doubleTwist always wants to transcode the video even if it is already an mp4 file. It is also rather slow to transfer over wifi. Additionally, I tried to use it with my PS3 and it was giving an error randomly that didn't allow it to play stuff. I managed to get it to play music files but when it came to videos it didn't work, even while the videos play fine on the S3 and if I stream them from my Mac with the Playback app to the PS3.

Has anyone gotten it to work with a PS3 and solved the issue with the videos?

...

Well that's it from me for now!

Please do post recommendations about apps, usage as well as tips and tricks for the S3 (or Android in general)!

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

Lightflow if you want to customize the LED light.

Printshare if you want wifi printing from your phone.

Better battery stats if there's any issues with life and you want to know exactly what the cause is.

Juice Defender if you really want to optimize the battery life.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

If you haven't already installed, I suggest ......

Power Toggles ... It's the best widget for toggles on your home screen.

Home2 Shortcut .... I used this app to make double tap home button go open camera.

Ultimate Samsung Galaxy S3 App (Drippler) .... Gathers articles from differ sources about the S3 and has notifications.

Pocket .....Securely store private info like CC info, passwords, and such. Syncs with Dropbox.

Hide it Pro .... Hides stuff. It's free.

MX player ..... My favorite video player

 

[Dolorian]

1- Lightflow if you want to customize the LED light.

2- Better battery stats if there's any issues with life and you want to know exactly what the cause is.

3- Juice Defender if you really want to optimize the battery life.

1. Ah sounds nice, I will check it out!
2. How is it different from the battery option in the settings? It shows everything that uses the battery and gives percentages on how much they use.
3. I have Juice Defender installed but have not activated it yet since I threw a warning about turning Wifi and Networks off when the screen goes to sleep. I will have to check it out and see what options it offers.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

1. Ah sounds nice, I will check it out!
2. How is it different from the battery option in the settings? It shows everything that uses the battery and gives percentages on how much they use.
3. I have Juice Defender installed but have not activated it yet since I threw a warning about turning Wifi and Networks off when the screen goes to sleep. I will have to check it out and see what options it offers.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Better battery stats will tell you EXACTLY which process is causing battery drain. If you go into settings and battery, if android system is using a ton, there's over 15 processes that that encompasses. BBS will tell you which of those 15.