Why does my Samsung Galaxy S3 have an "i" ina circle?

Since using your Samsung Galaxy S3 you may have noticed an "i" in a circle with a line through it in the notification bar (as you can see in the screen shot on the left). You may be wondering why it's there, or what happened to make it appear, the answer is simple.

The symbol is the symbol for "no notifications" meaning that at some point you've turned off the notifications on your phone (probably by accident in all honest). To do this you'll have likely pulled down the menu (see the pictures below) and turned off the notifications.

 To get rid of the "i" and turn your notifications back on you need to again pull the menu bar down and click on the "Notification" icon. After pressing this icon, you'll see it light up and your notifications will return to the bar.

3G Watchdog

 After having used 3G Watchdog since getting my HTC Wildfire (and subsequently my Samsung Galaxy S2) it seems only fair to look at one of the must have apps for any mobile internet using android phone users. The basic app is available for free from the Market and is one that you should already have (and if you don't, get it now!).

What is 3G Watchdog?
The application is currently the best way to keep track of your data usage on an Android phone. It does this by recording all your usage in a screen like the one in the image to the right hand side.

 For those who are on a capped allowance of mobile data, this is an application that will allow you to set a your plan into the app and then track how much data you are using. The screenshot to the left is the plan setting, which allows you to select your allowance, you time span, you reset date and when you want the phone to alert you that you're getting close to your limit (i.e. when 75% of your allowance is used).

As well as tracking usage through the month the app also allows you to see data usage for the last 31 days as both received and sent this is where the application can do that little bit extra.

If you're on a capped allowance, no matter how big, 3G Watchdog is a must have app that will allow you to track the usage on your phone. It adds a feature that SHOULD have been put in the phones when they were made.

SoundHound

Here you can see the widget on the right

 So after playing about with the Samsung Galaxy S2 I decided to try out some new apps. I originally set about searching for “Shazam”, a song recognition app that has often been given rave review and you often hear spoken about. Whilst searching for it I managed to find an app called “SoundHound” a completely different song recognition program that was free and promised things such as unlimited tags. As it was free and very highly ranked on the Android market I decided to give it a try.

After downloading the app I tried it on a few tracks and quickly realised it worked well, it was recognising the tracks within 15 or so seconds and getting it right pretty much every time (the only failure it had was when it failed to hear the music due to it being too quiet). To use the app we really don't need to do much at all so here's a literal step by step.

1-When a song is playing we need to open the app, we can either do this by going through the app screens or using a shortcut/widget.

2-Press the large button on the app that says “Tap Here”

3-Give the phone a few seconds to take a sample

4-Wait for the reply from the app

The app will recognise a large number of tracks and often very quickly, though where the app really comes into it's own is it's ability to then find things like the lyrics of videos for the songs you have found. The app, whilst also available in a paid format, is one of the truly exceptional free apps on the android market and is also currently available on iTunes.

This is an example of the screen after it has recognised the track, showing the inbuilt google links to both the lyrics and YouTube, two of the features that make the App such an excellent one. If you've ever wanted to know what song it is you're listening to then use this free app, it's really an exceptional tool.

Reasons to download it:
Free
Large Library
Great additional links
Quick to recognise tracks
Easy to use

How to get the best upgrade deals

When it comes to mobile phones we all want the best deal we can get. When it comes to the end of a contract and we are being hassled by our provider to upgrade with them calling a few times a day we often don't quite know what to do. Do we snatch and take the first offer they provide and think that we've got a good deal with a network that have done well for us? Do we say no and wait for them to come back to us with an improved second offer? Do we we shop around and see the best offers available and take the best that's on offer through the general channels? Do we call the cancellation line and threaten to take our custom elsewhere?

Well the actual answer is none of them. What we need to do is look at the options that are available but don't try to jump the gun, don't take any offer until you've weighed all the options that are available. What you need to find is a deal that you like the look of, whether it's with your current network or not, you need to find a deal that is open to all customers. When you have found a deal like this you should wait for the sales team to contact you from your current provider and see if they can match it, usually they can unless you've seen a genuinely amazing deal. From here you can choose to take it, though if the company can match the deal you've seen then decline it, they can certainly under-cut themselves.

The following day you need to call up the cancellation line of the company you are with and request your “PAC” number. The PAC number is your Porting Authorisation Code, or the number you need to transfer your number to another network. When you request this you are generally passed to the “retentions” department, this is the section of the company that will be more flexible than the people calling you. The people that call you are the “Sales team” and are trying to sell you a deal, they aren't given a lot of flexibility the retentions team are trying to keep you and will often bend over a bit more. If when you talk to the retentions team they fail to offer a much better deal then just leave them with something along the lines of “I've seen a better deal”.

Over the following few days the company will generally call back again and now you will see the company offer some of their best deals. The company will beat the offers made by the original sales team though may not manage to match the retention offers, this is effectively them trying their hardest to keep you and will often be the most flexible that the company will offer.

Sometimes the company may also have a web relations team (most notably Vodafone who's team is really excellent and deserve all the praise they get). These are often worth contacting (before you request your “PAC” number) as they can often offer deals that are actually better than the retentions team. The team aren't on any sort of commission and aren't taking a cut for themselves so won't “hike” up the price to cover themselves so are worth a try. Again if you want to go this way you really must know what the competition are offering (and you may need to provide them with a link so make sure you're online whilst talking to them) to get the best deals.

Whatever you do, do not take the first offer from the sales team, they are often unable to, or unwilling to match the best offers available from some of the other companies. This is because they ARE on commission and will be trying to pocket some money themselves and won't be flexible with you. Just remember this when you try to upgrade and you will almost certainly save money via the retentions teams.

Some quick tips:
-See what the competition can offer
-Aim high
-Don't take the first offer
-See if the company has a web team
-Request you PAC number (but don't use it straight away)
-Check online, in store and in as many places as possible
-Only accept an offer YOU are happy with

The changing faces of Mobile phone deals

When I did my last article on the best deals available online for the top 3 smart phones I'll admit I didn't have a really great look around. What I did manage to stumble on was an awesome deal for the Samsung Galaxy S2 on allmobiles.co.uk, the deal (no longer available) was pretty much unbeatable and offered the following:
500mins, 5000 texts and 500mb all for £26 a month for 2 years. This deal gave you the phone for free and even the Web Relations team for Vodafone were unable to match it. The brilliance of the deal seemed to be too good to keep open and the deals gone now less than 24 hours later. They have been replaced by some other similar deals on the site but none are even close to it.

An example of the sites new deals include the following
500mins, 5000 texts and 500mb and an ipod shuffle all for £26 a month for 2 years...and a £89.99 up front payment. Although the free gift is nice it's actually only worth £39.00 (the price of the item from Tesco) meaning you will be paying £50 for the phone. This deal looks to be a noticeable disappointment considering the how good the deal had been 24 hours earlier. Another point regarding this deal...why would you want an ipod shuffle as well as the phone? The phone it's self has a pretty amazing media player and the shuffle is...well a bit turd.

If you are still looking to get a Samsung Galaxy S2 (and I can't see why you wouldn't want one to be honest) there are great offers available, some even come from allmobiles.co.uk though make sure you look through all the available options. As with all phone deals take a look through the likes of all the networks (Vodafone, O2, 3, T-Mobile, Orange and any small ones) as well as shops such as Phones 4 U, Tesco, Carphone Warehouse and the online retailers including allmobiles.co.uk, mobiles.co.uk and Dialaphone.co.uk.

If you a due an upgrade have a look at all the available deals and see if your company can match the deals that are online, sometimes they will attempt to beat them even if the offers themselves are short lived ones.

A little bit of a playing with the Samsung Wave Camera

I've had a very quick play with the camera of the phone and taken some photographs of the room I was where I was sat whilst writing a small beginners guide to using the camera function. These photographs aren't supposed to be masterpieces but are just to try and show the differences between what the Camera CAN do and how bad some photographs are with the phone. IF you know what you are doing (not that I actually do) you can take some fantastic pictures. These have just been taken with various settings to see the differences between a good photo taken with the correct settings and those taken with "bad" settings.

Terrible photo that was taken with a "macro" focus and the lowest resolution. As you can see it looks blurry and just not particularly good. This is a bad photo example we are using and one that was used in the article linked to above. The problems extend much deeper than the blurring effects, just look at the TV in the background to show the problems with this image.

Although this needs to be perhaps darkened slightly it's a much better picture of the same thing as the above picture. Whilst it's not ideal (remember this is me taking the photograph) you have gotten a much crisper image, if you view the image in full size you can visible see the lines on the table and the lights on the DVD player under the TV. As well as the difference in sharpness you can also make out the image on the TV and the cup is white instead of an off-white "dirty" colour.

When blown up this picture is strikingly blurry and that was due to making a really small movement when using night mode. The image although looks "acceptable" when viewed in a small image really doesn't look good at all when blown up and the blurriness really comes out. The features of the "Night" scene is that the picture takes a while to take and is high quality, though movement really blurs images.

 This is essentially a very similar picture to the one above though with out the phone being moved at all. The blurring is gone and it's incredibly smooth and crisp. Sadly with using the "Night" scene and needing to hold the camera still it had to be rested on the floor (hence the slight change in angle from the image above). "Night" scene really does increase the quality of a picture though if used properly.

This was taken with slightly different settings and as a result it lost some of the colour quality of the picture above. Whilst it's still "acceptable" it's not as good as the really good night mode one above. Again it's a crisp image though the colours are a little too bright.

This is an odd picture, I do rather like it for the way it shows the rotting orange off and the carpet looks "almost" right. Though it's focused very heavily on the foreground and as a result really neglects the background and looks darker than it should do. I class this as a good photograph though it's the qualities it has rather than anything technical that makes me like it.

 This is pretty much the opposite of the picture above. It shows the background well though the fruit and the fruit bowl are really bad amd dark. I dislike this one despite the fact it does show some of the background features. The problem is that the whole photograph is just too dark and the fruit is really terrible.

This one is simply too bright on the oranges and has overly brightened the carpet. The dark colours on the carpet "should" look rather deep red and instead they look really bright red and the even the rotting orange looks like it could just have been from the flash. Really terrible picture in terms of lighting even if it is relatively sharp.

This one was taken using the "macro" focus, and as you can see it's just blurry and horrific. Out of the "Orange bowl" pictures this is my least favourite as it's blurry, the colours are generally hit and miss and it's a just not very good.

This one is quite possibly the best of the photographs as it's got both the foreground and background looking good and the carpet, although not perfect is pretty accurate. The oranges don't overly reflect the flash and on the whole it's a pretty decent photograph for a complete amateur.

 This is a really poor picture, it almost looks as if it was taken in black and white (though it wasn't) and the colours just seem to be drained out of the image. It's an interesting one in regards of this blog entry though had it not been for this blog it'd have been deleted instantly.

This is probably the best one from a technical view point, the colours are all spot on and the image is crisp, true and sharp. Although not my favourite picture it is a solid image and really show off the ability of the camera. It's a photo that should be zoomed into to really see why it's the best image out of the orange ones.




Although it's pretty obvious I'm not a photographer these have all been taken with the same phone and you can see the vast difference between images from just playing with the settings. If you're a good photographer you will be able to get some very decent photographs out of the phone by using the right settings.

Samsung Wave

It's been ages since I last posted on to this blog and I've since had a pretty fun play with a Samsung Wave GT-S723e. The things I've learnt from this phone have been put into a number of hubs for Hubpages which I'll link you to through out this piece.

The Samsung Wave I have is currently with Vodafone in the UK on some special 24 months offer with unlimited texts and 300 minutes for a nice price though the phone it's self isn't anything brilliant it's ok for what it is. The phone runs the "BADA" software which when compared to things like Android, Windows and iOS seems relatively limited. Despite this the handset is easy to use and the touchscreen is pretty accurate and works well. The battery can last a while and you can of course use a bunch of tricks to stretch out the phones battery life which aew pewtty simple and painless.

The phone has a solid 5MP camera which although not brilliant does take some pretty decent photos and are incredibly easy to transfer to a computer with out too much effort. Though admittedly I've not really played with the camera enough to work out how good it actually is. In all honesty it does seem slightly better than the HTC Wildfire's camera though not as good as the Sony Ericcson C902 one (the three phones I have for comparison at the moment).

As with all modern phones you can easily put your music on to the phone and of course select your own tracks as a ringtone. With out a memory card you are pretty limited to a handful of songs or photographs. The memory card you will be needing if you purchase the phone is a Micro SD card which can come in some hefty sizes and are afforable (though not "cheap" per se).

As with all modern phones there is a real depth to how far you can explore the phone but you will still be surprised by the depth of the handset and the fact there is a real wealth of secrets. I sadly didn't find some of them out until it was too late, though here is a heads up on some of them to allow you to do things like "Screenshots" and factory resetting the handset.

On the whole the phone is a "decent" handset but not a particularly great one. If you want to be up to date this isn't the phone for you though it's a steady handset for those who aren't too big on multi-tasking. It does all the basic things well such as making calls, playing music, allowing you to use the net (via either 3G or Wi-fi), texting, photography, being an alarm but it doesn't do the advance things. Don't look to this phone to be a mobile office or to be a replacement to your Nintendo DS as it's not that kind of device, it's a phone first and foremost with some bonus'.