AT&T??
You should have either deactivated iMessage on the iPhone 5 or stopped it from using your phone number.
This had nothing whatsoever to do with AT&T.
Michael
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Galaxy S4
- Thread starter Chris092881
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You should have either deactivated iMessage on the iPhone 5 or stopped it from using your phone number.
This had nothing whatsoever to do with AT&T.
Michael
Yeah, I have come to pretty much the same conclusion.
I have been trawling xda for the past hour and the SGS4 seems to have some notable issues with lag, overheating, battery drain, screen smearing etc.
These are all probably firmware/software issues (exacerbated by Samsung's resource-hogging bloatware) and may be fixable with updates.All new phones have problems so I'll wait for 2-3 months until these are ironed out before revisiting the SGS3->SGS4 upgrade question. I am more interested in the Note 2/3 anyway and the rumored Moto X-Phone (hopefully without any non-google bloatware).
Until then the SGS3 will do fine.
Went to the store again today... Grab the S4 and closed all the running applications to give it a try again. Went to the home screen and boommm... There was the lag again.
I looked at the S4 again, at Best Buy this time. The dialer on all of the S4s on display was dark instead of white, like the one I saw at AT&T. I wonder, is there a setting somewhere to change it?
That's what I'm planning to do now although that 1080p screen and form factor is mighty tempting. Plus I'm curious to see as to what the 4.2.2 update will bring from the s4
Anyone else notice any issues with the phone going into Airplane mode? For the last couple of days I've had to tap the "Airplane Mode" option in the notification center more than once to get it to fully enter into the mode. Eventually it gets there, just not very "gracefully".
Yeah I had that a couple times.
The other buggy thing for me was the keyboard area there seemed to be a dead zone it was more noticeable with swiftkey or Swype installed. Basically the Q key was unresponsive and required many attempt to register input. 2 restores didn't solve it.
I checked XDA and a few others were having similar issue.
Took the leap and got the S4 at Best Buy today. What a gorgeous device. I played with it and the One for quite a while but for me, there was no question which one wanted to go home with me.
NO LAG! But, before I ever left the store, all smart and air things were switched off. Everything is smooth like glass ...
EXCEPT, Bluetooth kept disconnecting and connecting in my car. It paired easily and worked fine on a hands free phone call, until I got on the freeway to go home and that's when it began. Happened every 3 minutes for 20 minute drive. Comments? Suggestions? Help!
More observations to follow.
NO LAG! But, before I ever left the store, all smart and air things were switched off. Everything is smooth like glass ...
EXCEPT, Bluetooth kept disconnecting and connecting in my car. It paired easily and worked fine on a hands free phone call, until I got on the freeway to go home and that's when it began. Happened every 3 minutes for 20 minute drive. Comments? Suggestions? Help!
More observations to follow.
Can someone video this lag? I know some people are very picky so id like to see how bad it actually is. We dont have the GS4 here where im at. At least there wasnt one at the t-Mobile store i was in. They didnt have a HTC One either, i messed around with that in Best Buy.
My favorite photo editing app, Snapseed, doesn't like the GS4's 13MP hotness. The reduction in photo size is defeats the point. I hope they update it to support 13MP soon.
It seems to be very varied between devices. I occasionally get a frame skip when I unlock or close an app, but it's nothing that I would call lag - its more just a ui stutter.
There are people here complaining about black screens, apps taking 3-4 seconds to open, app crash errors etc. I haven't gotten anything like that on mine. I bought mine unlocked, so admittedly it doesn't have any carrier bloat, but I'm really happy with it.
Screen is nice, battery is solid, everything is smooth and responsive - like I said, the occasional frame skip its the only thing that I could chalk up under the negative column.
After a Week with the S4
My take on the Galaxy S4, First Droid after iPhone for several years
After considering the S3 for a fair amount of time, I came to the decision to try it in December. However, knowing Samsung would likely release the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the coming months I decided to hold off until the S4. I waited and waited and waited until it finally was announced. I was COMPLETELY turned off by the terrible display of the unveiling and felt sick to the stomach. It made me almost not want to buy the device. Seeing many other keynotes, Apple's in particular I found it strange and frustrating they didn't include many key features. Who's getting what phone, pricing, availability, what sizes does it come in, will they be available on launch day or later? Let's just say there was much to be desired from their keynote and I hope they learn for next time. The one main thing on everyone's mind is why are they still using plastic, When manufacturers like Apple and HTC are using better materials. You COULD argue that they like to invest more on whats inside and the screen technology but after using TouchWiz UI it definitely does not feel like I'm using a 1.9 Ghz, 2gb ram power house. It's certainly slow by no means but performance is not shining through either.
My curiosity ended up getting the best of me, and being so intrigued that they were able to get a bigger, better screen into a smaller form factor was extremely impressive and being stuck on iOS since the Original iPhone i've been itching to try something new, and this seemed to be it, so I took the plunge.
Upon receiving the phone not only did I have to get use to the new form factor, but also a completely new OS. Not too sound nerdy but I loved every minute of this, even though it was quite frustrating in the beginning. The screen it self is AMAZING, and is as good as everyone rants and raves it to be. My minor complaint is sometimes on a black scene of a movie or APP if you're in a complete pitch dark room the screen has a red-ish halo effect that takes over the screen and the infinite black they boast about is thrown out the door, not sure if it's just my model or what. It hasn't been noticeable any other time for me.
I was also impressed with how light and sturdy the phone felt. In the hand it didn't feel any more cumbersome then the iPhone 5 i've been using since launch day, and the curved edges make it quite easy to hold. All though plastic it still feels sturdy and the buttons are firm and responsive.
The "TouchWiz" UI is definitely not the greatest, and tends to be the root cause of many of the slow-downs and lags people are experiencing upon using the device. Even with the S-Apps turned off and minimal background apps/processes running it seems to choke up every now and then EVEN with 2GB of Ram and 1.9 Ghz. I can't stress enough how little benchmarks and specs mean when the hardware is running on inefficient software that is wasting resources for no reason (phone is averaging 1.1-1.3gb of ram used).
TouchWiz is far from intuitive, it's extremely cumbersome and as flexible as Android is you should be able to select a Samsung/ATT (or carrier of your choice) bloatware free device. They have the numbers to pull what Apple does and not let any Carriers effect their user experience, and that's the way it should be.
The Browser, whether you use Firefox/Chrome/Chrome Beta/ Stock, Is not that pleasant either. As opposed the Safari, it renders text slower while scrolling, once you scroll to the bottom of the page you can't double tap the top bar to shoot back to the beginning, and unless you use Chrome Beta which isn't all that smooth (IMHO) you end up with the search bar / cell status bar cutting off a good chunk of screen and you're almost back down to a little bit wider version of the iPhone 5's screen.
The Stock email is terrible, and to be honest I haven't tried any 3rd party mail apps yet, but plan on testing them out this weekend. I shouldn't have to install a 3rd party email program just to get push-email to my inbox... it's 2013.
Bluetooth has been extremely wonky for me and does not seem to ever want to show the Artist/Song/Album info from Pandora. Sometimes it will randomly disconnect. Bluetooth is meant for Hands free but it certainly doesn't feel that way.
Choice of Apps/Games/Emulators
The APP Store is more robust then I had imagined and has many great Apps and Games ready for downloading. Once I make my final decision to keep the device I will invest more heavily into the Google Play store. I love how you never have to enter a password for downloading FREE apps. This drove me nuts in the App Store, as all I wanted to do was download something free.
Storage, Expandable storage and change-able battery is a huge selling point for me. While traveling or heavy use of the phone I hated being tethered to a charger/wall when my iPhone was low in juice. I'm extremely happy I have the option to swap batteries out at will and be at 100% battery in a matter of seconds. Also getting sick of paying Apple $100 each time I wanted to jump up a little bit of memory. 32GB should be the new standard for internal phone storage (HTC got this right). As the OS get more sophisticated and loaded with more features it's taking up more and more usable space from the 16GB. In addition to the larger OS file, you have Apps beginning to grow larger as they become more detailed, and at a higher resolution. That 16GB Disappears fast, I can't see 16GB holding out for much longer.
Messaging, I do miss iMessage and the way the group threads worked, The group messaging on the S4 works but does not seem as thought out and clean as the iMessage app but hopefully Google Babble will put an end to this. Swype is awesome, I'm still getting use to it and half use swype half peck at the keyboard and still misspell tons of things but it's becoming more accurate for me and better text prediction.
Sound, The sound is somewhat tinny but also loud and can fill a small room pretty well. I would definitely recommend a sub~$100 bluetooth speaker if you plan on listening to alot of music and want good sound quality. The call quality is extremely good and the calls came through clearly, can not complain at all.
Battery Life, After a week seems slightly better then what I would get out of my iPhone 5. It's really hard to say in real world usage as most my days (10-11 hours) a day are spent at work in a building where my phone bounces from no service to 1-2 bars max. It's not the best, but definitely not bad and I would like to do some more test with power saving off / power saving on all day.
Camera I use my Camera on my phone for nearly everything. The Galaxy S4 takes tremendous pictures ( On par with my iPhone 5 i'd say) The videos also come out extremely well, and 1080p recording paired with the 1080p screen compliment each other nicely, as well as when you hook it into your big screen HDTV
Widgets I use less widgets then I can count on one hand and haven't found any of them to be incredibly useful. I do however use the Main Time/Date/Weather one on the home screen, the Facebook widget and Pandora widget. After all the talk about how great widgets are I really still don't see the point in having them for every little thing.
Overall the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a great phone and does what it needs to. Is it mind blowing fast and leaps and bounds over your last gen devices (S3/i5,4s/etc) No, I wouldn't recommend it as a "Must-have" unless you're like me and update once a year. However the screen is immaculate, extremely accurate, vibrant, and pleasing to the eyes. The phone itself seems sturdy and has many options. I feel if you root it and get rid of the bloatware this thing will be EXTREMELY speedy, however I don't feel comfortable enough doing that with my device just yet. This phone will not disappoint, unless you go expecting the moon and the stars when coming from an s3/iphone5 or anything else recent and speedy.
Short Version
Samsung Galaxy S4
+ Display
+ Expandable Storage
+ Changeable Battery
+ JB 4.2.2
+ Camera
- TouchWiz
- Lags a little at times
- Duplicates of things that should be perfected and not multiplied (Music Apps)
- Bluetooth not wanting to display Pandora info with Stereo
Thanks for reading, and I'm sure i've missed or over looked a few things and will go back and edit/update when I haven't had a few beers. Cheers
My take on the Galaxy S4, First Droid after iPhone for several years
After considering the S3 for a fair amount of time, I came to the decision to try it in December. However, knowing Samsung would likely release the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the coming months I decided to hold off until the S4. I waited and waited and waited until it finally was announced. I was COMPLETELY turned off by the terrible display of the unveiling and felt sick to the stomach. It made me almost not want to buy the device. Seeing many other keynotes, Apple's in particular I found it strange and frustrating they didn't include many key features. Who's getting what phone, pricing, availability, what sizes does it come in, will they be available on launch day or later? Let's just say there was much to be desired from their keynote and I hope they learn for next time. The one main thing on everyone's mind is why are they still using plastic, When manufacturers like Apple and HTC are using better materials. You COULD argue that they like to invest more on whats inside and the screen technology but after using TouchWiz UI it definitely does not feel like I'm using a 1.9 Ghz, 2gb ram power house. It's certainly slow by no means but performance is not shining through either.
My curiosity ended up getting the best of me, and being so intrigued that they were able to get a bigger, better screen into a smaller form factor was extremely impressive and being stuck on iOS since the Original iPhone i've been itching to try something new, and this seemed to be it, so I took the plunge.
Upon receiving the phone not only did I have to get use to the new form factor, but also a completely new OS. Not too sound nerdy but I loved every minute of this, even though it was quite frustrating in the beginning. The screen it self is AMAZING, and is as good as everyone rants and raves it to be. My minor complaint is sometimes on a black scene of a movie or APP if you're in a complete pitch dark room the screen has a red-ish halo effect that takes over the screen and the infinite black they boast about is thrown out the door, not sure if it's just my model or what. It hasn't been noticeable any other time for me.
I was also impressed with how light and sturdy the phone felt. In the hand it didn't feel any more cumbersome then the iPhone 5 i've been using since launch day, and the curved edges make it quite easy to hold. All though plastic it still feels sturdy and the buttons are firm and responsive.
The "TouchWiz" UI is definitely not the greatest, and tends to be the root cause of many of the slow-downs and lags people are experiencing upon using the device. Even with the S-Apps turned off and minimal background apps/processes running it seems to choke up every now and then EVEN with 2GB of Ram and 1.9 Ghz. I can't stress enough how little benchmarks and specs mean when the hardware is running on inefficient software that is wasting resources for no reason (phone is averaging 1.1-1.3gb of ram used).
TouchWiz is far from intuitive, it's extremely cumbersome and as flexible as Android is you should be able to select a Samsung/ATT (or carrier of your choice) bloatware free device. They have the numbers to pull what Apple does and not let any Carriers effect their user experience, and that's the way it should be.
The Browser, whether you use Firefox/Chrome/Chrome Beta/ Stock, Is not that pleasant either. As opposed the Safari, it renders text slower while scrolling, once you scroll to the bottom of the page you can't double tap the top bar to shoot back to the beginning, and unless you use Chrome Beta which isn't all that smooth (IMHO) you end up with the search bar / cell status bar cutting off a good chunk of screen and you're almost back down to a little bit wider version of the iPhone 5's screen.
The Stock email is terrible, and to be honest I haven't tried any 3rd party mail apps yet, but plan on testing them out this weekend. I shouldn't have to install a 3rd party email program just to get push-email to my inbox... it's 2013.
Bluetooth has been extremely wonky for me and does not seem to ever want to show the Artist/Song/Album info from Pandora. Sometimes it will randomly disconnect. Bluetooth is meant for Hands free but it certainly doesn't feel that way.
Choice of Apps/Games/Emulators
The APP Store is more robust then I had imagined and has many great Apps and Games ready for downloading. Once I make my final decision to keep the device I will invest more heavily into the Google Play store. I love how you never have to enter a password for downloading FREE apps. This drove me nuts in the App Store, as all I wanted to do was download something free.
Storage, Expandable storage and change-able battery is a huge selling point for me. While traveling or heavy use of the phone I hated being tethered to a charger/wall when my iPhone was low in juice. I'm extremely happy I have the option to swap batteries out at will and be at 100% battery in a matter of seconds. Also getting sick of paying Apple $100 each time I wanted to jump up a little bit of memory. 32GB should be the new standard for internal phone storage (HTC got this right). As the OS get more sophisticated and loaded with more features it's taking up more and more usable space from the 16GB. In addition to the larger OS file, you have Apps beginning to grow larger as they become more detailed, and at a higher resolution. That 16GB Disappears fast, I can't see 16GB holding out for much longer.
Messaging, I do miss iMessage and the way the group threads worked, The group messaging on the S4 works but does not seem as thought out and clean as the iMessage app but hopefully Google Babble will put an end to this. Swype is awesome, I'm still getting use to it and half use swype half peck at the keyboard and still misspell tons of things but it's becoming more accurate for me and better text prediction.
Sound, The sound is somewhat tinny but also loud and can fill a small room pretty well. I would definitely recommend a sub~$100 bluetooth speaker if you plan on listening to alot of music and want good sound quality. The call quality is extremely good and the calls came through clearly, can not complain at all.
Battery Life, After a week seems slightly better then what I would get out of my iPhone 5. It's really hard to say in real world usage as most my days (10-11 hours) a day are spent at work in a building where my phone bounces from no service to 1-2 bars max. It's not the best, but definitely not bad and I would like to do some more test with power saving off / power saving on all day.
Camera I use my Camera on my phone for nearly everything. The Galaxy S4 takes tremendous pictures ( On par with my iPhone 5 i'd say) The videos also come out extremely well, and 1080p recording paired with the 1080p screen compliment each other nicely, as well as when you hook it into your big screen HDTV
Widgets I use less widgets then I can count on one hand and haven't found any of them to be incredibly useful. I do however use the Main Time/Date/Weather one on the home screen, the Facebook widget and Pandora widget. After all the talk about how great widgets are I really still don't see the point in having them for every little thing.
Overall the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a great phone and does what it needs to. Is it mind blowing fast and leaps and bounds over your last gen devices (S3/i5,4s/etc) No, I wouldn't recommend it as a "Must-have" unless you're like me and update once a year. However the screen is immaculate, extremely accurate, vibrant, and pleasing to the eyes. The phone itself seems sturdy and has many options. I feel if you root it and get rid of the bloatware this thing will be EXTREMELY speedy, however I don't feel comfortable enough doing that with my device just yet. This phone will not disappoint, unless you go expecting the moon and the stars when coming from an s3/iphone5 or anything else recent and speedy.
Short Version
Samsung Galaxy S4
+ Display
+ Expandable Storage
+ Changeable Battery
+ JB 4.2.2
+ Camera
- TouchWiz
- Lags a little at times
- Duplicates of things that should be perfected and not multiplied (Music Apps)
- Bluetooth not wanting to display Pandora info with Stereo
Thanks for reading, and I'm sure i've missed or over looked a few things and will go back and edit/update when I haven't had a few beers. Cheers
Great advice and exactly what I've decided to do. I'm sticking with my S3 and Optimus G while I see what's in store at I/O. I don't expect them to introduce the Nexus 5 yet, but if they release an updated Nexus 4 that's got LTE and possibly 32gb (as some scuttlebutt has suggested), I'll be all over that.
Any idea why the video I shot today - played back perfectly fine on my new S4. But when I uploaded to Facebook, played back upside-down. (landscape mode). Is there a correct way to hold it, even though it recorded and played back fine on the phone? So weird.
Do you really have to root your device to add PS3 controller compatibility?
I don't think you need to, the PS3 controller (as far as I know) can pair with any Bluetooth device.
Been doing some research and it seems you either need the adapter to go from Full USB to the size of the s3 and do it wired, or have root access. Man i've been saving my PS3 controller for this very moment. I wanna play vice city with a controller damnit!
Been doing some research and it seems you either need the adapter to go from Full USB to the size of the s3 and do it wired, or have root access. Man i've been saving my PS3 controller for this very moment. I wanna play vice city with a controller damnit!
Or you could just get a wired Xbox 360 controller and USB OTG cable. Should work with no root.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2256651
Looks like the red tint and/or smearing are known issues. I haven't read the whole thread but probably another software screw-up by Samsung. They ought to fix this with a future update.
On the whole, the impression I get from reading the xda forum is that this phone was rushed to the market before all the bugs were fixed. I think Samsung should have taken its time to ensure that everything was in order before selling such a powerful and complex device.
There also seem to be some QC issues (as expected for early units) so if any of you suspect hardware faults with your s4, you should be able to get it exchanged.