How to use the lock screen shortcuts on a Samsung Galaxy S3

If you've recently got yourself a Samsung Galaxy S3 Android powered smartphone you may have noticed that the lock screen typically features some icons at the bottom of the screen. On most other (older) Androids these icons aren't present however they act as easy to access shortcuts which allow you to jump immediately from a lock screen to the app in question. What this effectively means is that you don't need to unlock your phone, scroll to the app you want to use and select it instead you just need to use the shortcut.

So the next question is "How do I use them?" Well that is an easy question to answer. To use the "Shortcuts" on the lock screen you simply need to hold your finger on the relevant icon (for this example I'll be using the "Camera" icon) then swipe, or drag, the icon for a second or two into the middle of the screen.

After swiping the shortcut icon you will instantly be taken to the app you wanted to open. As you can see in the image to the right I dragged the Camera icon which then
opened up the Camera app (as seen on the left).

You are actually able to select which icons appear as shortcuts, allowing you to have shortcuts to any app that's on your phone. If you wish to change the shortcuts then give this guide a read.

How to take a screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S3

Just over a year ago we did a guide looking at how to do screen shots with the Samsung Galaxy S2, now however the Galaxy S2 has been over taken as the Samsung flagship device by the Galaxy S3, the new Samsung super phone. We thought it would make sense to a similar guide to explain how to take screen shots (also known as "screen captures" or "print screens" with a Samsung Galaxy S3.

Firstly you need to go onto a screen that you want to capture. For most this will be
something like their homescreen or a screen that has something interesting on (perhaps high battery use or odd data use), for this example we're using a home screen.

Whilst on the screen you want to capture you need to press and hold the phone's "Home" button on the centre of the phone and the "Lock" (or power) button on the right hand edge of the phone for about 2 seconds. After holding the buttons the screen will flash for an instant and then you will get two messages-
1-On the status bar you will see a message saying "Saving screenshot..."
2-A second or so later a massage on the lower part of the screen will show "Copied to clip board"

After these messages you will be able to find your screenshots saved in the "Gallery" app in a folder called "Screenshots".

Note-For people who used the Samsung Galaxy S2 with Gingerbread, the technique is almost identical. If however you used the Samsung Galaxy S2 with the updated updated Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) the technique is widely different.

How to take a Screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S2 with ICS

When the Samsung Galaxy S2 first came out it was using the "Gingerbread" version of Android since then however the Galaxy S2 has been updated to "Ice Cream Sandwich" (or ICS). Whilst the update to ICS was a pretty big step forward it also changed a few things about how the phone operated, notably how a user took a screen shot.

 Originally to take a screen shot with the Samsung Galaxy S2
 a user had to press the Home Button and then swiftly press the power button, as described in our original guide.

Now however the user needs to press and hold both the volume down and the power button for around 2 seconds. After doing this the phone screen will "flash" and you will get a message like the one in the screen shot on the right with the phrase "Saving Screenshot..."  This means your screenshot is taken.

A few seconds after the "Saving" message you will see a new message saying "Copied to clipboard" then you are all done and the image is saved. From here you can either "Paste" the image into an e-mail or message (as long as it's still in your clipboard) or go into your gallery and find the "Screenshots" folder, where the screenshots will now be stored in.

Note-This isn't as easy as the old method, so you may find yourself needing practice. The best advice is to hold both buttons until the screen flashes, if the volume shows on the screen however try again.

Vodafone

Over the last week we've found ourselves wrangling with Vodafone n the UK. Our payment date was changed to THURSDAYS despite the fact we made clear in the original contract more than 2 years previous that we got paid on FRIDAY'S. In February they tried to take a payment that obvious bounced and WE were hit with the direct debit cost of £8. We understood that and CALLED the customer services the following month to get the direct debit changed.

The CUSTOMER service advised us to CANCEL the direct debit (which we did) and pay online the day the money was in out account and set up a new direct debit, simple...right? The following day we did cancel the direct debit (AS ADVISED) and eve went into a Vodafone store to advise them them of our decision (we weren't asked for ANY details in store). Come the following day, the day we told the customer we'd be able tom pay the bill...their online customer service desk kept giving up "technical errors". Technical errors are understandable usually, but when they are the followed by an e-mail saying the following:

"Hi, We've received your payment and we are currently processing it. If you need any more information, or help, our online Help Centre is open 24/7. To view your bills and manage your account online, visit www.vodafone.co.uk/myaccount. Yours sincerely ,Vodafone Customer Care. This is an automated message. Please do not reply to this email address."

Note we got 4 of those e-mails...then on Monday morning we get cut off.

Now to me, maybe I'm being simplistic, we should NEVER have received those E-mails IF their was a technical error. First thing on Monday morning however, they let the SAME payment from THE SAME card go through no issues.

We have made a note of this on Vodafones own forum, if we do not get a reply we will be cancelling every contract as they cone to an end and we will be moving to O2, Everything Everywhere or 3 as wel feel this isn't only ridiculously but is utterly disgusting.

Vodafone the ball is in your court, we WILL make anything you say public, so make sure not to screw us again. We pay in excess of £70 a month, I'd expect that would make us "valued" customers.

How to make a "Fake Call" on a Samsung Guru1080

The Samsung Guru1080 (other wise known as a Samsung GT-E1080i) may not be a fashionable phone though it does have one of those features that we here at mobile phone tips and tricks love to share, the "Fake Call" trick. A "Fake Call" is a way to make the phone act as if you are receiving a real call and can be used to get you out of things like an unwanted conversation.

To make a "Fake Call" on the Samsung Guru1080 you need to press the "down" key 4 times when the keys are locked. This will make the phone ring (or vibrate) just as it would had the phone actually of been called.

Getting pictures from Facebook to your Android phone via the "Box" app

I've said in the past that one of the things I dislike about Android is that a lot of simple things really aren't as straight forward as they should be. Whilst I love the overall system I hate how tricky it makes things that really shouldn't be difficult and one of the most complex things is using the Facebook app to "save pictures" of your friends. You'd have thought just holding the picture would give you the option but sadly not, instead you need to use another app such as "Box".

Firstly you need to open your friends profile, here we are using the facebook profile of boxing website "Ringnews 24". From the person's profile you need to click "Photos" from the bottom of the screen and then find the specific photograph that you want to
use. For our example we are using the Ringnews24 image of David Haye that the site uses for it's Facebook picture.

When you have opened the picture you need to press the phone's "Menu" button which will see you given 6 options at the bottom of the screen. From those options you need to select "Share" from the bottom left hand corner. After clicking on "Share" you will

see a list of all the sharing apps on your phone, from the list you will need to select "Box" (obviously to use the "Box" app you will need to already have installed on your phone before getting to this stage).

After clicking on "Box" from the list of share apps you will be taken to the Box app "Upload screen" (which should look like the image on the right). The file name by default will contain "facebook", though you can feel free to rename the file in the usual way when using the "Box" app and when you are happy with the name you have to click "Upload".

After uploading the file to "Box" you will then need to download the file (which we wrote a guide on yesterday) to your phone before you can see it in your gallery.

Trust me I know this is an incredibly long winded way to save the pictures from facebook onto your phone, sadly however their doesn't seem to be a more logical one unless you log in to your facebook account via your browser and save the picture the way we explained in this guide.

What is "Cloud" storage?

Yesterday we had a number of article put up about the excellent "Box" app that is available on a number of mobile phones. "Box" and "Dropbox" are both forms of "Cloud storage" which for those who aren't too technologically advanced is the future of storage and the next step on from needing physical storage systems such as USB memory sticks.

In the past if you wanted to work on a document in 2 places you either had to send your the file as an e-mail or you had to have it on some form of physical storage (such as Floppy Disk, CD Rom's, DVD's and USB memory drives) with Cloud however there is now no need for a physical version of the documents to have the file wherever you are. Cloud storage systems instead see you storing the document "in the cloud" or online in a personal online storage system that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. You can access your own storage space anywhere simply by logging into your own account much like you would with your e-mail account and as a result the files are very easy to access.

Cloud storage was originally used primarily by business customer who had staff working both at home and in the office however as the services have become more affordable and easier to use they've started to be used by more and more personal customers who would like to access their files where ever they are. Thanks to apps like "Box" and "Dropbox" we can now have our files anywhere we want due to the fact they are Cloud storage systems.

Just as a little example, I could have my free "Box" account (5GB) filled with my music tracks from my home computer down here in Manchester. I could then visit my cousin in Glasgow and using his computer have access to my entire 5GB of music and play it on his computer or at my mother's in London. I could also access it via my smartphone on the Train and again play the songs as I move.

The Cloud systems also have other features however and those features allow us to get even more from the services. One of the key uses is to allow you to share your things with friends, for example you can share home videos or party pictures with friends over Cloud by having open/public folders. You can also take a file from a friends public folder, read it and correct the spelling mistakes before saving the corrected version for them to print off.

In simple terms "Cloud storage" is the future ...that's here today.