IR Blaster?

In bygone years a number of mobile phones had an IR blaster on the edge of the handset. This was used back then mainly for file transfers allowing you to to send a picture, for example, to your buddy's phone from yours.

Since then things have changed and IR (Infrared) is no longer seen as a viable option for file transfer due to things like bluetooth (which is much faster), e-mail (which has been helped thanks to increased mobile internet speed) and various other apps (think Dropbox, Whatsapp? and Skypath). Sadly this saw IR blasters being made all but extinct with only a small selection of handsets using IR.

Thankfully IR seems to have made a bit of a comeback in recent years with several phones (notably the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One X) including them and seeing their uses, not in file transfers but in every day situations.

If you look around your house you will almost certainly have a device that uses "IR", notably your television which uses an Infrared Remote to change the channels. Having just recently noticed my remote is now snapped in two (thanks to my wonderful partner...sigh women!) we're now using my phone to turn over the television. The IR "blaster" works just like a TV remote and with the right apps you'd never need the remote again (great if your family has a remote hog).

Sure it's not ideal but it beats not being able to turn the television over for what reason is a real pain in the backside so this can save you from needing to buy a new TV or getting up and changing the channel manually (do new TV's even let you do that?)

We imagine that the inclusion of "IR Blasters" will become a popular feature over the next few years, especially when you consider that companies like Sony and Samsung also produce TV's which allow them to sell you an in-built remote in their phones for their television sets. A genius move by companies trying to secure cross-product loyalty.

Phones in the bath, a gimmick?

Earlier this year Sony released their new flagship phone the Sony Xperia Z a phone that tries to set a new standard for mobile technology. Whilst it may not be the first ever water proof phone it is by far the most widely available, though the question is "is it a gimmick?"

The big question we've been asked when talking about the phone on various forums is "why would anyone want a water proof phone?" Well the reasons are actually numerous and with it being the phones key selling point we've decided to answer that question in detail.

Firstly the device can be used perfectly well in the rain without the fear of setting off the "water damage" sticker currently on phones. This has been a major issues especially with major phones including Apple's iPhones and some of the Samsung Galaxy series which are really expensive bits of kit to replace (even if you have insurance the process of going through it can be a pain in the backside).
Sure the rain rarely sets off the sticker but it's still a risk and one that needn't be run with the Xperia Z.

Secondly the phone can be used in the bath. I know what you're thinking and no, that's not the only reason (you dirty boys and girls!) for people like me who watch a lot of sport the fact you can use it in the bath means you can relax in the bath with the football, boxing or cricket on the phone, whilst for others you could watch the news, soaps or even a movie in the bath.
Just sit there for a second and think about the possibilities. Silly cat videos from youtube, BBC programs from iPlayer or of course making the most of your Netflix/LoveFilm subscription.
You now have no excuse for missing any program, in fact you can actually watching programs whilst having a bath in preparation for a night out.

Thirdly and possibly the most entertaining (I know, hard to believe) is the fact you can just show off! Just imagine the fun you could have by scaring your mates by dropping it in the sink whilst they are watching and panicking whilst you act all heart broken...then vamoosh still working much to their surprise....

...OK that's a poor reason but the fact you can use it in bath is a huge appealing point for us (yes we're slimy little nerds!) The phone it's self however doesn't rely solely on this gimmick but if you're still wondering what to pick the phone is genuinely top notch, looks fantastic and is cheaper than the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 (arguably the only phone better than the Xperia).

How to change the default home screen on the Samsung Galaxy S3

With the Samsung Galaxy S3 having 7 different home screens a nice hidden feature is that the the user can select which home screen can be used as the "default" home screen.

Firstly let me explain what a "default" home screen actually is. The default" home screen is the one the phone will revert to when you press the phone's "home" button, it's also the screen that new app shortcuts will be added to when you download them.

To change the default screen you will need to go on to any of the home screens and pinch the centre of the screen to change the screen to something like the image at the top. From this screen you will see your 7 home screens with 1 in particular having a little blue home icon in the top right corner (in the top picture it's in the top left screen, which we will call "screen 1").

To change the default screen you merely need to click in the little house icon on which ever screen you would like to become your new default screen. For the sake of this example I've selected the screen on the bottom right corner (or "screen 7"), though you can select any screen there.


Now when you press on the phones home button, from any app or screen you will then be taken to the screen you selected as the home screen (as you can see "screen 7" in the image on the side).

As mentioned above any apps you now install will install their app icon on to your new default home screen (see the icon for "New Gold Minder" on the top line of apps in this second screen shot).

Whilst this is just another way for a person to personalise their phone it's a nice feature and one that some really will make the most of, whilst others will just ignore another feature that they don't need, though it is nice to see that it is available.

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.

Connecting a Samsung Galaxy S3 Smartphone to Wifi

One of the greatest features of modern smartphones is the fact the phones can be connected to Wi-Fi effectively giving you unlimited internet on your phone. Whether you're at work, at home or in somewhere like a Café you tend to be able to get access to a Wi-Fi system somewhere. So it seems to make sense to do a guide to show you how to connect to a Wi-Fi system on a Samsung Galaxy S3.

Firstly you need to go to the phones home screen then press the menu button. This will open up a menu like the one in the screenshot on the left. From this menu you need to select the bottom option "Settings".

After clicking on "Settings" you will see a huge list of options allowing you to change almost anything to do with the phone. Rather than scrolling up and down all the options you need to click on the "Wi-Fi". You will then be told to "Turn on the Wi-Fi". To do this you need to drag the grey circle beside "Wi-Fi" across until it turns into a green block.

After turning on your Wi-Fi you again need to click "Wi-Fi" which should do an automatic scan of the area and give you a list of available Wi-Fi connections (as well as storing any you may have previously used). If the phone doesn't do an automatic scan you will need to to select scan from the bottom of the screen to prompt the phone into doing a scan.

Hopefully when you were doing your scan you found the connection that you
are wishing to use, in my case the connection is the "SKYE18EB" connection, then click on that connection. If the connection then requires a password you will need to enter the password (see the screen shot on the right) an then click "connect".

After clicking on connect the connection should authenticate (if you enter the correct password) and then obtain an IP Address. After this has been done you should be able to connect to that connection at will (as long as it's in range). With your Wi-Fi connected you will be able to surf the net, watch videos, use facebook/twitter and anything else you would want to do online, often with a faster connection than the one you'd have via mobile internet.

Note-This guide should work with pretty much all phones running Android 4.0.4.

How to delete icons from a homescreen on a Samsung Galaxy S3

 I recently showed you how to personalise your phone by moving the icons around on the home screens of your your Android Smartphone, specifically the Samsung Galaxy S3. Now I'll show you how to delete icons from your home screens allowing you to tidy up mistakes (i.e. having the same icons on home screens twice), get rid of icons for apps that you no longer use or just create some extra space.

For this example I will be deleting the "ESPN Cricinfo" incon that sits in the middle of the 4th home screen. I accidentally placed it on the same screen as an existing icon for the same app.

Firstly you need to select the icon you wish to delete. To do this you need to hold your finger on the icon for a few seconds until the screen looks like the image on the right with the icon you selected looking a little bit "ghostly".  After selecting the icon you will notice that the "Apps" icon from the bottom right hand corner has now turned into a bin with the word "Delete" underneath it.
You need to drag the icon from where it is down to the bin. After doing this the icon will be gone from the home screen, however the app will not be uninstalled from the phone and you will be able to replace it on the home screen easily if you wish, or if you delete the wrong icon by mistake.

How to move Icons on a Samsung Galaxy S3

One of the great things about modern day smart phones is the ability to customise your phone exactly how you want it. You're not limited by just changing the background or the ringtone but you can change literally everything about the phone. This guide hopes to show you have to move icons as further customise how your phone looks. Whilst this guide was done with screenshots from a Samsung Galaxy S3, the same method applies with pretty much every phone running Android.

Firstly you need to open up your home screens and find an icon you want to move. For this example I will be selecting the icon for "Ebuddy XMS", which is sat on the bottom left corner of the 3rd home screen (See top left). To select the icon you need to hold your finger on the icon for a few seconds and this will then allow you to drag the icon around the screen.

You can not only drag the icon around the same screen as it started on (see the picture on the right) but also place it on other screens by dragging the icon to edge of one of the screens. This allows you to drag the icon to any of the phone's home screens as you perhaps choose to put your most regularly used icons to the first screen whilst your lesser used icons can be put to the most distant homes screens.