First up, hello to everyone.
I'm a new convert to Android having picked up a Galaxy S a couple of weeks ago, and I've got a couple of (what I'm sure are) basic questions about how best to work it:
First up, how do I go about creating folders on my SD Card. I'm assuming that's the best way to organise things like icons, themes, wallpapers etc.
Is it possible to edit the icons on the dock at the bottom of the screen? Can I put different Apps down there? Can I change the icons that those apps use?
I'm having issues with Widgets - do I need to restart the phone each time I install an app with a widget? There are some apps which allow me to use a widget straight away, but then there are some (like the BBC news feed) which just doesn't show up in my widget list
Can anyone reccomend a good link or article on how to root the Galaxy S? I'd like to it be as simplified as possible please.
Thanks loads in advance for both your help and your time.
Cheers
1)while browsing your sd card, press menu button and it will you the option to create a folder
2)click on applications button while on home screen to change to applications view, then click menu (left button) and edit, then you can just drag the icons in and out of the dock
3)not sure, widgets that i tried all ran after installing them without rebooting the phone
4)I suggest you check out the Galaxy S I9000 Android Development subforum right here on xda, there are some great guides there.
1) I just do it when plugged into my PC via USB in Mass Storage mode. =)
2) As random.si said.
3) I've never needed to restart the phone for widget...are you sure those apps actually have widgets?...Any widgets from the Market or installed apps should always be under 'Android Widgets' as soon as the app is installed, otherwise try using the app first as it may have a config or something.
4) There's a stickied guide in the Android Development subforum here! It's dead easy, so no worries there. Just follow the instructions to the letter, but that's not hard for rooting the Galaxy S.
Hi there. Could you just tell me how to close running application? There is 6 application when i open my task manager (middle button for 3 sec) and i cant do anything with them. Is there any button to close application, not minimalize?
Like now i'm installing facebook and setting up my account. Phone seems to hanging. I dont know how to close it?
mika34 said:
Hi there. Could you just tell me how to close running application? There is 6 application when i open my task manager (middle button for 3 sec) and i cant do anything with them. Is there any button to close application, not minimalize?
Like now i'm installing facebook and setting up my account. Phone seems to hanging. I dont know how to close it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Applications open in the background don't use any CPU time and if the RAM they use is needed Android closes them by itself.
Android isn't designed to let the user close applications. If you really have to close them for some specific reason you can use a task killer from the market.
mika34 said:
Hi there. Could you just tell me how to close running application? There is 6 application when i open my task manager (middle button for 3 sec) and i cant do anything with them. Is there any button to close application, not minimalize?
Like now i'm installing facebook and setting up my account. Phone seems to hanging. I dont know how to close it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually those 6 applications are NOT actually running(necessarily).They are just the last 6 applications you have used.
saldawop said:
Actually those 6 applications are NOT actually running(necessarily).They are just the last 6 applications you have used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. Thanks very much guys for your help.
One more question.
How to enable vibration to incoming text message? Can`t see any option for that.
You should try out prehome. When you press home key, it will show the active task, and you can switch or kill task there. Press home key the second time will bring you to home. I love it.
Does anybody knows how to set vibration on incoming messages? Can`t find it. strange
mika34 said:
Does anybody knows how to set vibration on incoming messages? Can`t find it. strange
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Messages > Menu button > settings. It's at the bottom : D
Rawat said:
Messages > Menu button > settings. It's at the bottom : D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Big thx for that.
mika34 said:
Big thx for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If ever in doubt, always try the menu buttons.
Pretty much every app hides its settings and many controls under the menu buttons to stop the screen being cluttered up with buttons.
The menu button is also context-sensitive to whatever you're doing at the time, so you just need to get used to remembering it's there.
As the previous guys said, Android is designed to not have specific 'closing' or exiting of apps. Rather, they'll hide themselves in the background and once the system needs to free up some ram it'll close once you haven't used for a while automatically in preference of those using the most RAM. It will also usually save the state of that app, so if you go to use it again and Android has already closed it, it will still appear where you left off but just take a bit longer to start since it was cleared from the background.
Most apps will fully close however if you exit by using the back button (bottom-right touch button on the phone), basically reversing your way out of the app until you hit the home screens.
Holding the Home button shows the last 6 apps you had open, whether they're still running in the background or not. It's just a quick way to jump between stuff rather than an actual task manager.
In the JM2 firmware Samsung have added a great widget and task manager app. The widget shows the number of apps still running in the background, as well as a colour for if they're draining battery or performance (ie: processing lots in the background). All you need to do is touch the widget and it'll take you straight to a list where you can close any. Very handy!
While it's easy to get obsessed with using one of the task killer apps on the market all the time, I eventually found with my old Hero that it performed just as well if you ignore what it's doing with RAM or apps since it's intelligent enough to prioritise and close appropriate background stuff without your intervention.
The only reason people were recommending task killers for the Galaxy S was because of the random lags / stalls caused by bugs in the firmware, some of which were caused by it not closing stuff or managing itself properly in the background.
My advice: JM2 firmware and just use the Samsung task manager widget as a guide to if for some reason something high-powered like a game was left open and Android didn't clean it up yet.
Phone number format
How can I change the format of the phone number which is displayed when I have an incoming call ? Thanks ?
While writing SMS, contacts displayed twice
Hi to all,
When I write an SMS and want to choose a contact, they all appear twice, even tough in the phonebook they only appear once because I ticked the option of displaying only contacts from the phone and not from the sim card.
Is there a similar option in SMS that I'm missing here?
Thanks in advance,
Itay
Glad to see this thread has taken off a bit.
One more question from me:
random.si said:
1)while browsing your sd card, press menu button and it will you the option to create a folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming I need some sort of File Explorer app to be able to do this - can anyone recommend one?
Cheers
Astro file explorer
is there any way to stop sms being converted to multimedia message? if i write a text message consisting of more than 3 messages (i believe 180 characters) it converts it to multimedia, which costs me!!!
There are a few threads all over the place about how you can get your mess of applications into alphabetical order using grid-view. I don't know of a way to sort it automatically, but if you want to you can do this:
Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> TwLauncher -> Clear Data
This will completely reset your home screen to defaults (assuming stock launcher) - however you will find all your apps (system and user) neatly ordered in alphabetical order.
For most people I think recreating the home screen will be much easier than sorting every app alphabetically.
I've only tested this on the International version, so I'm not sure if it will work on other variants.
would be a bit of a pain to do this everytime you installed any application.
Shame there isnt a default setting as my partner ( for some crazy reason) likes the sideways scrolling rather then up and down.
iammodo said:
would be a bit of a pain to do this everytime you installed any application.
Shame there isnt a default setting as my partner ( for some crazy reason) likes the sideways scrolling rather then up and down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeh I prefer grid view too and doing this after every app install would be a nightmare. I typically use it once after a fresh install - mass install every app I want then reset TwLauncher. I arrange manually after that.
Hey all, I originally got my Nexus 4 back in December and just received an RMA unit today. Upon going through all the set up stuff I realized that the 'phone info' app that I got off the store way back no longer exists. It was super handy because I could use it as a shortcut to the phone testing menu as opposed to entering (and remembering) *#*#4636#*#* every time.
Is there a reasonable app that will do the same job? I searched and nothing on the market seems to do this.
Thanks!
Battery monitor widget by 3c has this function. From the main screen of the app, choose "Tests" in the bottom right and it will take you to the testing menu.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ccc71.bmw
Hi!
I'm trying to help a guy building an disc golf score input app for Android Wear to find a solution to force the app to stay open/in front while active. This to save battery, so you can turn off the screen between holes/baskets and when waking the screen the app is there again.
Now every time the screen goes off you will get back to the watch face when waking it up. Then you need to navigate back to the app to be able to continue your score input. This make it all inconvenient.
The same goes for example Google Keep. If you have a grocery list you use while shopping you want to go right back to the list. Today you must turn on the screen, go into your launcher, and re-enter the app, not really convenient right?
Anyone good at this stuff, and have any idea how to code this right?
//Soren
nnevynn said:
Hi!
I'm trying to help a guy building an disc golf score input app for Android Wear to find a solution to force the app to stay open/in front while active. This to save battery, so you can turn off the screen between holes/baskets and when waking the screen the app is there again.
Now every time the screen goes off you will get back to the watch face when waking it up. Then you need to navigate back to the app to be able to continue your score input. This make it all inconvenient.
The same goes for example Google Keep. If you have a grocery list you use while shopping you want to go right back to the list. Today you must turn on the screen, go into your launcher, and re-enter the app, not really convenient right?
Anyone good at this stuff, and have any idea how to code this right?
//Soren
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Within your own app:
https://developer.android.com/training/scheduling/wakelock.html
android:keepScreenOn="true"
But you can just do this with another app:
Pin An App for A.W.
Bubble Launcher
sirrelevant said:
Within your own app:
https://developer.android.com/training/scheduling/wakelock.html
android:keepScreenOn="true"
But you can just do this with another app:
Pin An App for A.W.
Bubble Launcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man! "Pin an app for A.W" is a good workaround for now. It made it faster to access the app, but still I only get to the app "homescreen".
//Soren
I already tried to make such feature, simply using WAKE_LOCK and I had the same issue (will have to check again).
I did not make any new attempt to solve this (in standby ), but I think that we should do this with handled app that keeps WAKE_LOCK and run/update android wear app when you turn on watch screen.
I used to have this issue, when I used Google Assistant on my Huawei Watch (1st Gen) and create a reminder (e.g. Ok, Google, remind me to take out the trash at 12pm) the reminder would be set just fine. It was visible in the reminder section of my phone and my watch.
However, when the reminder was supposed to go off, it would only go off on my phone (with a tone) and then display the set reminder.
On my watch the reminder is only found when I swipe up an look at the notifications. But there would be no vibration or pop-up notification.
This issue seems to be widely known and affects a lot of Wear OS users. On my search for a solution to this issue, I've found some workarounds using Tasker (which is a paid app and probably not very user friendly for the average user) but I found nothing that would solve this issue quickly and easily.
Now, some might have already done this, but since I did not see any thread describing a workaround with IFTTT, I'm just gonna put this here.
What you need:
- IFTTT app installed on your phone.
- IFTTT app installed on your Wear OS watch
Now you simply create an IFTTT applet (which can still be done for free, but if you want to create more than 3 custom applets, the app wants you to pay).
Here's how I did it:
1. Tap on create new applet.
2. The app will ask you "If this" at first, and you just tap on "Android Device".
3. Select trigger: Here you just tap "Notification received from a specific app".
4. Just enter "Google" under app name. (I tried to enter "Reminder" to be more specific, but unfortunately, that didn't work)
5. Now the app will ask you to add "Then That". Choose Wear OS.
6. The only option given here is "Send a notification". Choose this.
7. Tap continue and now you can name the applet, then just click finish.
Now, every time the reminder triggers on your phone, you will get a notification from IFTTT on your watch for this reminder.
It worked pretty good for me, but I'm not sure what other Google service notifications are triggered. Maybe some of you guys can try this and come up with a more specific way to trigger only the reminders.
I hope this helps some of you guys dealing with this issue! It's been bugging me (and others, as far as I read) for quite a while.
Enjoy!
Zee
I almost never use reminder, seems to be handy. I just tried it and it create notif on phone and my ticwatch E. Maybe you need to allow permission or enable notification for WearOS app on your phone. Make sure also the notification on the watch is not block (app info of Reminder).
Alternatively, you can use Automagic instead of tasker. The app now is free on the main website (unfortunately, development stopped already). It has companion app on the watch need to be installed too. Then create flow with trigger Notification on Statusbar Displayed, select the WearOS one. You can choose action to vibrated, recreate the notification on Watch or create full screen display on watch, using widget. No IFTTT nor internet needed.