Related
Just thought I'd share this one I found.
If you hold down the "home" button for about a second you get an easy task switcher to any app that was running in the background. It's faster than hitting back till you get to the menu or getting to the menu and then finding the app you are after .
Sliding your finger across the notification window just as it drops down changes the brightness of the screen.
Any others that people have found?
You can add shortcuts to phone numbers and messages on the home screen by holding your finger down and selecting shortcuts on the home screen somewhere. This also appears to work with a lot of apps, like kindle shortcuts to a specific book.
All android phones do this, Holding the Home button is a standard android way to "Switch fast" between apps
A few things I found out reading the SGS forum here:
1. You can control the brightness by sliding your finger left to right when pulling down the notification bar. Just keep your finger on the edge of the pull down window.
2. You can have the SGS announce the title/artist of a song from the Music player by pressing and holding the Up Volume button while a song is playing.
3. You can "lock screen" while watching video by pressing Power Button while a video is playing. This is great at preventing unintended clicks while holding the phone watching a video.
tenshi888 said:
A few things I found out reading the SGS forum here:
1. You can control the brightness by sliding your finger left to right when pulling down the notification bar. Just keep your finger on the edge of the pull down window.
2. You can have the SGS announce the title/artist of a song from the Music player by pressing and holding the Up Volume button while a song is playing.
3. You can "lock screen" while watching video by pressing Power Button while a video is playing. This is great at preventing unintended clicks while holding the phone watching a video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the third one, but didn't know the first two. Thank you tenshi, for sharing.
However, I don't quite understand how exactly you can change the brightness in the day you described, cos I can't seem to do it.
Also, I got the feeling that to effect number 2, there is a monthly subscription that I need to pay to Optus. They gave me a 7 day free trial before continuing, and I did not continue.
eaglesteve, for #1, make sure auto-brightness is off in your display settings, now when you slide the notification bar panel down try sliding your finger left to right and you'll notice the display brightness change.
for #2, I don't think its connected to your provider as it doesn't even need a data connection to work, it's just using text to speech. You might have to enable or download it the first time.
eaglesteve said:
I know the third one, but didn't know the first two. Thank you tenshi, for sharing.
However, I don't quite understand how exactly you can change the brightness in the day you described, cos I can't seem to do it.
Also, I got the feeling that to effect number 2, there is a monthly subscription that I need to pay to Optus. They gave me a 7 day free trial before continuing, and I did not continue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tenshi888 said:
eaglesteve, for #1, make sure auto-brightness is off in your display settings, now when you slide the notification bar panel down try sliding your finger left to right and you'll notice the display brightness change.
for #2, I don't think its connected to your provider as it doesn't even need a data connection to work, it's just using text to speech. You might have to enable or download it the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My auto-brightness is already off, but I still can't seem to change the brightness when sliding from left to right or right to left while pulling down the notification curtain. Any other clue?
For 2, you're right, once I downloaded the voice synthesising software from the market place, it works. I need to make sure the music player is in the foreground for this to work, right?
spenceee said:
If you hold down the "home" button for about a second you get an easy task switcher to any app that was running in the background. It's faster than hitting back till you get to the menu or getting to the menu and then finding the app you are after .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically it's a "most recently used" list rather than a list of apps running in the background. For example if you have just exited a navigation app, or killed an app from a process manager, it will still appear in this list.
Interesting thread.
I just want to add some "shortcuts" I discovered myself using the Galaxy (maybe they aren't so hidden. I am a lousy user, don't like to read manuals. So maybe they are very obvious )
Close pull down window/curtain, close desktop layer folders and close keyboard by tapping back key
Access to the bookmark button and address bar in the brower by tapping the menu button (no need to scroll all the way up)
Open soft D-Pad by tap-and-hold the "?123" key on the standard Samsung Keyboard
Quick and reliable GPS reception by editing the ntp server in the gps.conf file
Someone I only just learnt...
Pressing and holding the power button performs a reset. (Keep pressing it after you get the shut down/mute/airplane options and the phone will suddenly restart. Have to keep the button pressed for 5 secs atleast).
dagrim1 said:
Someone I only just learnt...
Pressing and holding the power button performs a reset. (Keep pressing it after you get the shut down/mute/airplane options and the phone will suddenly restart. Have to keep the button pressed for 5 secs atleast).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool
holding menu key for about a second brings up google search.Im sure its probably a feature of all android phones and probably in the manual but im new to android and dont read manuals much.
If you´re in "contacts"
slide to the right for an instant call or slide to the left for messaging the contact
mazurson said:
If you´re in "contacts"
slide to the right for an instant call or slide to the left for messaging the contact
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool, this is handy when you're driving
i usually double tap the contact, but if your car goes over a bump or pot hole, then the 2nd tap is missed, and wont work.
mazurson said:
If you´re in "contacts"
slide to the right for an instant call or slide to the left for messaging the contact
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SWEET, this is a great way to dial and text people from contacts
Thx for the info
1. Browsing in the Gallery
When browsing your large list of photo's in the 'Gallery', click the icon on the right to group them into date taken ~ makes browsing much more manageable.
2. Locking the Camera
If you wish to leave the camera on but worried you may accidentally touch the scrren/controls you can lock the camera.
Once you have the camera set up how you want it, simply briefly press the Power button. You will then see a white padlock appear on screen. Now you can hold the camera and phone how you like until you are ready to shoot.... When ready again briefly press the Power button, the padlock disappears and you can take your shoot/video.
sammy555 said:
holding menu key for about a second brings up google search.Im sure its probably a feature of all android phones and probably in the manual but im new to android and dont read manuals much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, it's samsung's replacement for the search button that's a Google requirement. They don't have a button for it, so they assigned long-press menu for search, whereas on the Nexus One, it'll make force the soft-'board to come up.
yes it works...
eaglesteve said:
My auto-brightness is already off, but I still can't seem to change the brightness when sliding from left to right or right to left while pulling down the notification curtain. Any other clue?
For 2, you're right, once I downloaded the voice synthesising software from the market place, it works. I need to make sure the music player is in the foreground for this to work, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At first it didn't worked for me also, because I understand bad.
Not pulling down. Go to the upper of the screen, press till the botton of the dropdown curtain appears, but don't slide it down. Once that appears the BAR move left or right your finger, and it will adjust.
pafh99 said:
At first it didn't worked for me also, because I understand bad.
Not pulling down. Go to the upper of the screen, press till the botton of the dropdown curtain appears, but don't slide it down. Once that appears the BAR move left or right your finger, and it will adjust.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yes, I got it to work too. The trick is not to pull it down but just to make the curtain barely appear before you slide.
Thanks for your excellent explanation.
sammy555 said:
cool
holding menu key for about a second brings up google search.Im sure its probably a feature of all android phones and probably in the manual but im new to android and dont read manuals much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, didn't know this one. Very useful and now I can get rid of the google search bar on the desktop too
when receiving a call press the volume down button to mute th ringer
old but cool
As far as physical goes...Android has too many buttons. IMO you only need:
Button 1
Press Once = Sleep
Press Twice = Wake
Long Press = Shutdown/Turn On
Button 2
Press Once = Desktop
Press Twice = AppDrawer
Long Press = Open/Close Dockbar (scrollable dock for heavily used apps such as phone, messaging, music, etc that doesnt take up screen space.)
Button 3
Volume up/down
and possibly a dedicated CAPACITIVE scrolling/zooming button for fast scanning thru the app drawer and/or desktops and/or scrolling/zooming in web browsers.
(this way u can have larger widgets on ur desktops because u have a dedicated app drawer button and not one that takes up space on ur desktop. plus ur not limited to just 7 desktops like u get with HTC preview screens or launcherpro, etc because it would be easy to scroll thru 20 desktops with the dedicated capacitive scroll)
Ok. So if u put the sleep/wake on top of the phone, volume button on the left side, your left with just one button like the iphone and maybe my proposed idea of the capacitive scrolling button (thats if u like that idea).
this would be different from the iphone even though the iphone has one button because its functions are different. the iphone button does BACK+LONG PRESS=HOME. this would do a DESKTOP/APPDRAWER+LONG PRESS= DOCKBAR.
so it has 3 functions instead of 2. add in the capacitive scrolling and u have a simple easy to use device without redundant buttons thats still different from
apples iphone.
-no need for back button. browsers and apps can provide soft buttons in its user interface.
-no need for search button. widgets and apps can be used for this on ur desktop
-no need for settings button. again, widgets and apps can be used on ur desktops. put ur desktops to use!
great if u understood what i said. sorry for the rant if u didnt. just an idea and my 2cents.
.
Get an iphone if you want less buttons.
I personally love the back, home and menu buttons, and find them very very useful.
Errr... my three most frequent used buttons are: back, home and menu and you want to remove 2 of them. Yeah, great idea ;-)
Brut.all said:
Errr... my three most frequent used buttons are: back, home and menu and you want to remove 2 of them. Yeah, great idea ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, the last iphone I used pissed me off hard not having a physical back button....
I agree. back and home are essential! relying too much on soft buttons is silly. Also if you really dont like the OS because of the number of hard buttons then I think you are a little confused.
The hard buttons are usually decided by the manufacturer arent they? maybe your rant should be directed at htc and not android? I could be wrong.
mini_robot said:
As far as physical goes...Android has too many buttons. IMO you only need:
Button 1
Press Once = Sleep
Press Twice = Wake
Long Press = Shutdown/Turn On
Button 2
Press Once = Desktop
Press Twice = AppDrawer
Long Press = Open/Close Dockbar (scrollable dock for heavily used apps such as phone, messaging, music, etc that doesnt take up screen space.)
Button 3
Volume up/down
and possibly a dedicated CAPACITIVE scrolling/zooming button for fast scanning thru the app drawer and/or desktops and/or scrolling/zooming in web browsers.
(this way u can have larger widgets on ur desktops because u have a dedicated app drawer button and not one that takes up space on ur desktop. plus ur not limited to just 7 desktops like u get with HTC preview screens or launcherpro, etc because it would be easy to scroll thru 20 desktops with the dedicated capacitive scroll)
Ok. So if u put the sleep/wake on top of the phone, volume button on the left side, your left with just one button like the iphone and maybe my proposed idea of the capacitive scrolling button (thats if u like that idea).
this would be different from the iphone even though the iphone has one button because its functions are different. the iphone button does BACK+LONG PRESS=HOME. this would do a DESKTOP/APPDRAWER+LONG PRESS= DOCKBAR.
so it has 3 functions instead of 2. add in the capacitive scrolling and u have a simple easy to use device without redundant buttons thats still different from
apples iphone.
-no need for back button. browsers and apps can provide soft buttons in its user interface.
-no need for search button. widgets and apps can be used for this on ur desktop
-no need for settings button. again, widgets and apps can be used on ur desktops. put ur desktops to use!
great if u understood what i said. sorry for the rant if u didnt. just an idea and my 2cents.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is steve jobs talk. -_-
LOL...I'm short of buttons. Idea = Long press Menu-> contacts and Long press Back->screen off or Camera, Trackball press -> receive/pickup call at lockscreen.
search button: yep, that button is needless, I never use it.
All other buttons are essential.
The home button and back button are very important. The back button isn't just for going one page in a browser back. Couldn't live with it. The menu button is very important, too, because it's a dedicated button which is the same in EVERY app, so you always know how to find the settings.
And then, volume and power button, you can't remove them.
PS: Two times button hitting to execute a command is silly.
UpSpin said:
search button: yep, that button is needless, I never use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is where the Galaxy S shines: the menu button acts as both the menu and search buttons.
I think the search button is indispensable. When I want to find any contact or document in my phone, any thing in google it gets me there in one step.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Lol, this dude is tripping. Giving up my 4 beautiful and all useful buttons. In instead lose screen estate cause every app is gonna make the SAME thing at the bottom as the buttons?
Lol. GTFO
You may have heard of this semi-obscure device that is basically what you are looking for. It is called the "iPhone", if you look it up on the interwebs you may be able to find something about it.
less buttons? seriously? im sorry to hear you cannot afford an iphone if you want it that bad.
I'd agree as well that some physical buttons are very useful to avoid wasting screen real estate with buttons. That said, the HTC Hero has 6 buttons (call, hang up, menu, home, back and search) which is probably a bit OTT as call and hang up are replicated on-screen all the time. But buttons like home, back and menu are essential, as others have said.
The key is that if *all* Android hardware has the same core set of buttons, then developers can rely on those buttons being there and use them intelligently. All too often you see programs which have clearly been ported over from another system without any effort having been made to adapt them to the Android system. Not only do these waste space, but they also feel counter-intuitive to an Android user because they use a different UI model. My particular pet-peeve is apps which forget to take control of the volume rocker for their audio - that makes me accidentally adjust my ringtone volume (which is normally silent!) instead of the app's volume
Umm, sorry for the rant...
Steven__ said:
...All too often you see programs which have clearly been ported over from another system without any effort having been made to adapt them to the Android system...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like the pause button on angry birds. Have they realised androids have a button called menu?
I love the 4/5 physical buttons on android, even if you don't use the search button a lot at first, you can always assign that button to something you want.
I wish I had 1 more button...a dedicated forward button...I get a little jumpy with my back button.
Less is not always more. Less is sometimes just less(i.e. iPhone)
mercianary said:
Like the pause button on angry birds. Have they realised androids have a button called menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you could try pressing the Menu button to see that they have!
veetip said:
Well, you could try pressing the Menu button to see that they have!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know. My point is the button onscreen is a waste of space because it it replicated by a hardware button.
The "search" button is more of a Google thing. Its a android phone (google) so they want a search option of there database to be easily accessed.
Ok, something really weird.
Yesterday, I was showing off my Tab to a friend, and we kind of got stuck on comparing how fast the portrait/landscape switch works on ADW launcher vs. stock touchwiz. So we were tipping the device back and forth for a while when it froze for a few seconds.
Trying to get it to react, I hit back, home, power, probably in that order, but I'm not sure.
The reaction, a message pops up about the image capture being saved. Then again. And indeed, in my Gallery I now have a folder call Screen Captures and inside it there are two screenshots. One of my standard homescreen and one of a force close error message (for the calculator app I use - Kreac).
I've been trying to reproduce this since, but without any success. Is there a hidden screenshot app in there somewhere?
Hi , just keep pressing the back button and double press the power button to take screenshots.
adolfotregosa said:
Hi , just keep pressing the back button and double press the power button to take screenshots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed.
Is this common knowledge that I had missed? I ask because I've seen several threads on various forums claiming that there is no app and no way to take a screenshot?
Interesting. Is there a service running that handles this feature or is it a core process?
Don't know. But I just noticed there's an entry 'com.sec.android.app.screencapture' in the application manager list.
Rapax said:
Don't know. But I just noticed there's an entry 'com.sec.android.app.screencapture' in the application manager list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i remember it... but ive removed it now and theres no apk, so theres no way to restore without flashing
i was trying screens with one of the root apps on the market and they all came out in funky colors so i got rid of it (must have taken sammys built in app out as well by mistake)
IMHO, best way to take screenshot on any device, galaxy tab included, is via ddms.bat ( Dalvik Debug Monitor) under dir tools of SDK. You can find "screen capture" under Device menu.
Can't for the life of me see how using DDMS can be "better" than this on-device method in general use!
This is a good find - we need a sticky for these tidbits!
Regards,
Dave
adolfotregosa said:
Hi , just keep pressing the back button and double press the power button to take screenshots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a good tip, but I much prefer using DropCap 2 from the Market, at least for when I'm not using a full-screen application. Talking of which, are in-game screenshots possible with the hardware button method ?
I was able to capture a screen shot by pressing back and then pressing the power button twice. But that does not capture the screen that I wanted. Instead, it captured the screen of "back" when I press the back button.
This button combination does not make much sense in my opinion. Any say?
It works fine for me in most apps (including Angry Birds), but not in the stock Video player or in the Gameloft games like N.O.V.A.
Regards,
Dave
Is there any other way to do it ? Ad soon as I hit back it goes back to the previous screen and take screenshot of that screen. Isnt that kinda pointless?
Sent from my SGH-T849 using XDA App
dliao said:
Is there any other way to do it ? Ad soon as I hit back it goes back to the previous screen and take screenshot of that screen. Isnt that kinda pointless?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For this cases I suggest ddms in the previous post. ddms don't need any user interface and grab everything, also video played in stock video player. And grabbed screenshot can be saved directly on HD, rotated, discarded...
I find that "holding" the back button down until vibrates (rather than merely just pressing it) and then pressing the power button just once works consistently well for me. Haven't needed DDMS yet.
For me it works fine; keep pressing back and tap power button.
dliao said:
Is there any other way to do it ? Ad soon as I hit back it goes back to the previous screen and take screenshot of that screen. Isnt that kinda pointless?
Sent from my SGH-T849 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hit back and power at the same time... and then hit power again... and you hear a sound like a camera shutter... and says it's saved.
Dear all
Very simple
. Press and hold back key
. Short press power key
screen will automatic save in folder Screen picture
regards
-------------------------------------
Sent via Galaxy Tab
Ok, I got it now. The theory is to hold the back button and do not let go until you hit the power button twice. It works!! But it takes quite a while for the picture to show up in the Gallery. I thought the screen capture did not work.
SOLVED: How to screen capture if Back key exits from the current screen
I just solved how to capture the screen if holding down the Back key exits from the application so you end up capturing the previous screen, or the Home screen in most cases.
For example, in Maps, I couldn't capture the Map as it goes back to the Home screen once I hold down the back key. The technique is to go one screen deeper; example in Maps, press Menu key then select Layers. When you hold down the Back key, the Maps image screen is displayed. Keep holding the Back key then press the Power key. Screen capture now completed on the desired screen.
I think you can do the same technique for other apps.
Hope you enjoy using your Galaxy tab as much as I do, like me having sleepless nights on the porch using Google sky map, or playing Guitar solo (paid version is much better).
balmazan said:
I just solved how to capture the screen if holding down the Back key exits from the application so you end up capturing the previous screen, or the Home screen in most cases.
For example, in Maps, I couldn't capture the Map as it goes back to the Home screen once I hold down the back key. The technique is to go one screen deeper; example in Maps, press Menu key then select Layers. When you hold down the Back key, the Maps image screen is displayed. Keep holding the Back key then press the Power key. Screen capture now completed on the desired screen.
I think you can do the same technique for other apps.
Hope you enjoy using your Galaxy tab as much as I do, like me having sleepless nights on the porch using Google sky map, or playing Guitar solo (paid version is much better).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange... it should not go back until you have taken your finger off the back button and if you hit the power button whilst holding the back button it should cancel out any back button command.
hi, i discovered kinda weird problem while using fpse, I am kinda relying on its options to quickload/quicksave and on n10, I cant bring this menu up... I though itll be "as usual" by holding recent apps button, but it just dont do anything... friend of mine told me to look for softkey mods, but 99% are just removing them/adding them to phones which have hardware buttons, could someone point me to any mod/another solution which would help me bring apps menu while there is no actual button in app for it and youre depending on hardkeys/softkeys?
solved: partly my idiocy, partly htc/samsung transition, its on back button while holding
mindlesSheep said:
hi, i discovered kinda weird problem while using fpse, I am kinda relying on its options to quickload/quicksave and on n10, I cant bring this menu up... I though itll be "as usual" by holding recent apps button, but it just dont do anything... friend of mine told me to look for softkey mods, but 99% are just removing them/adding them to phones which have hardware buttons, could someone point me to any mod/another solution which would help me bring apps menu while there is no actual button in app for it and youre depending on hardkeys/softkeys?
solved: partly my idiocy, partly htc/samsung transition, its on back button while holding
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some custom versions of Android can also force the menu overflow key to always appear.
I have a stock Nexus 6P with Marshmallow's February update.
Is there any key that will allow me to exit an app that isn't working proprely? Previously I had an HTC One M8 with ViperOneM8 ROM. That allowed me to long press the back button to close an app.
I have a game that has gotten stuck after their update. This happened in the past. The game says Touch Screen, but it doesn't respond. If I hit the back button it gives me the open that No I don't want to quit or Yes I want to quit, but it's unresponsive.
If the Recent apps button isn't working maybe long-pressing the power button will have some impact.
I thought the square button was just a list of recent apps, not a list of apps currently running, so I never thought to use it. I just figured that button is to clear stuff out of history. I mean, because there's a ton of stuff in there and I know 100% not all that is running at one time.
The home button.
siren_shadows said:
The home button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The home button doesn't CLOSE the app, though, like a force close or whatever you want to call it. That just minimizes the app so you can see your home screen or open other apps, but the app is still running in the background. If you re-open the app you're still stick at the screen that didn't work in the first place.
What the previous person said works, though..
Well of you can hit the home button and then get into settings, just go to apps tap on the app and hit force close
Hit the recent apps button (square one lol) and just swipe the app away... It will close it.