Update: Wow I'm an idiot. There's an icon right on the address bar that opens the exact window I'm thinking of. In my defense, I don't think I used to have to access it this way. I seem to recall there being a menu option. Who knows. I bricked my G1 so I can't go look.
On my G1 I could long-press on the Back button and get my browser history. I've read elsewhere that this is the case on other phones. This is mysteriously missing from the Vibrant. Plus there used to be a menu option to see it. I can find no way to access the history using the "Web" app. There is a button in settings to clear the History, but what's the point if no one can ever see it?
Same with Bookmarks. I can create bookmarks, but there don't appear anywhere! The button that normally shows bookmarks (if I recall correctly) is now an "Add RSS Feeds" button. The only way I've been able to access bookmarks is by creating a shortcut on my home screen. That's pretty ridiculous.
I seem to remember bookmarks, history, and possibly the open window list all being in one spot with a tabbed interface. All I can get to now is the open window list. EDIT: No, wait, I think it was bookmarks, history, and downloads all in one place. I was using CM5 at the time if that matters.
Am I missing something obvious here?
Also, does anyone else think it's annoying that the browser has it's own brightness setting and you can't just tell it to use the normal brightness setting? I understand the idea behind the future. You spend a lot of time staring at the screen when using the browser, so it's nice to be able to dim it to save battery power, but I sure wish there were an option to just make it use the normal brightness, because I really don't care. This is especially annoying when I have the brightness in the browser all the way up, and I'm using the reddit app at night in my bed, and I click a link. BAM! I'm blinded by the bright screen and have to keep staring at it to go find the setting to lower it.
I think Samsung made some really dumb mistakes with their version of Android. I know that custom roms solve these problems, but users shouldn't have to hack their phone to get basic features like access to browser history and bookmarks.
Overall, I think the move from Blackberry to Android/Note was the right one but the transition has been painful in a few areas. I'll list them in this one post instead of inundating the forums with single posts with only one question.
Phone Application -
Admittedly, this is the most frustrating part about going with the Note (outside of the loss of a physical keyboard). The phone application is ridiculously inefficient compared to Blackberry.
Is there a way to prevent the phone from locking (PIN required) when I navigate away from the phone application while on a call? There is nothing more frustrating than having to enter my PIN to simply hang up a phone call. Also, while on a phone call only (meaning I don't navigate away from phone), the screen times out and turns off... forcing me to press the side key to get back into phone. Is there a program that can map the capacitive search key while on a phone call so I can hang up a call?
Regarding "Contacts", is there a way to default to keyboard entry upon opening Contacts? Does Android think the average person has only 6 contacts??... Because that's how many contacts show up when you enter Contacts. This forces me to press "search contacts" every single time I enter Contacts... and the magnifying glass is all the way at the tip top of the screen. Using one hand, it's impossible to comfortably extend my thumb all the way to the top of the screen after pressing my Contacts application icon on the very bottom of the screen. Then I am forced to pull all the way back down to the keyboard just to enter the first letter of the person I'm searching for! I call out of my Contacts list 50-100 times a day so this gets very, very cumbersome and time consuming.
Is there a way to change the text size in my contacts list? I'd like to see more than 6 contacts per page... the phone screen is HUGE!
Now this complaint I'm sure a lot of ex Blackberry people can relate with... Blackberry (via an available OPTION) would consolidate call logs into each individual contact. Android, for some strange reason, does not consolidate history to each individual contact. So when I pull up recent history, the top 100 entries can be from only 10 or 15 people Wouldn't it make more sense to have ONE entry PER CONTACT? I wouldn't have to go into Contacts as often if Android actually consolidated phone call logs into one log per contact because I could go into the phone log and call out people from there... instead of seeing a sea of missed, outgoing, incoming calls... from the same person. I really hope there is a way to consolidate these logs.
S Memo -
There is an option to pull up the S Memo pad in phone but for some strange reason, it always defaults to "drawing" mode instead of entering text. I'm often in a flustered state when on a phone call and/or listening to voicemail and trying to jot down notes... so having to punch that tiny little "T" at the very upper left hand corner of the screen is a pain.
Is there a way to decrease the font size? I never did understand why some native programs have no adjustments for font size... not everyone is 80 years old w/bad vision. I mean... what's the point of having such a high res screen if the font size is a quarter inch tall? Blackberry allowed text size to be adjusted in ALL native applications.
I'm assuming there is no way to increase the amount of text I can enter onto one S Memo page? It seems extremely limited (about ~100 words max).
Am I the only one that seems to have notes that don't save? I recall entering text into several notes and backing out supposedly automatically saves what was inputed... but often times the text is not there when I return to the note. Are others having this issue?
Finally, is there an alternative memo program that anyone could recommend that is as simple and easy to search as Blackberry's memopad?
Alarm Clock -
I realize that there are a ton of alarm apps out there but I've heard horror stories about apps that crash and/or don't work properly. I need a reliable alarm clock so would prefer to stick with the native application. It actually works perfectly... except that the alarm lasts for only 60 seconds. I've slept right through the alarm several times already. Is there any way to make it loop for a longer period? Say 5 or 10 minutes?
I have a ton of other questions but if anyone can help with these for now it would be much appreciated!
U have a button dedicated to search at the bottom. I use dw contacts. Not the cheapest solution but very customizable
There's an app to increase/decrease font size, I haven't used it but I saw someone mentioning it here the other day, the alarm is fine, I have never had any issues with any android alarm, and you can add as many alarms as you want, I get up at 3am to go to work and I can't ever be late so I have set like 4 alarms to go off in set times in order so if I don't hear one the others will follow.
As the issue with being able to reach the full length of the screen one handed , it is what it is, a big a$$ screen that for the most part demands two handed control.
Sent from my awesome Galaxy Note!
Do you have to use a PIN?
Go to settings, display, screen timeout. You can change how quickly or slowly your screen times out on you.
On your contacts app, just hit the magnifying glass at the bottom right and it'll pull up your keyboard and search function. Or there's teh alphabet running down the right hand side, just click on the letter the name starts with. Or for more customization and ease, install exdialer. It looks good, easy to use, font is small, etc. Exdialer also consolidates your call logs.
There are a ton of memo apps in the market. Personally I love Gnotes. It syncs with google, saves everything, is easy to use, and you can inbed pics, etc.
I don't know about the spen. So far I've only used it to make cute pics to send to my wife and to draw up soccer drills and practice plans.
esincho said:
U have a button dedicated to search at the bottom. I use dw contacts. Not the cheapest solution but very customizable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll give it a try. Does the phone still maintain its ability to keep a log and back up the calls to my computer?
roloracer said:
There's an app to increase/decrease font size, I haven't used it but I saw someone mentioning it here the other day, the alarm is fine, I have never had any issues with any android alarm, and you can add as many alarms as you want, I get up at 3am to go to work and I can't ever be late so I have set like 4 alarms to go off in set times in order so if I don't hear one the others will follow.
As the issue with being able to reach the full length of the screen one handed , it is what it is, a big a$$ screen that for the most part demands two handed control.
Sent from my awesome Galaxy Note!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the program Big Font but unfortunately while the font size decreases, it does nothing to decrease the size of the useless silhouette image next to the contact name. So I still only get 6 contacts per massive page. I'm hoping there is another solution.
kiltedthrower said:
Do you have to use a PIN?
Go to settings, display, screen timeout. You can change how quickly or slowly your screen times out on you.
On your contacts app, just hit the magnifying glass at the bottom right and it'll pull up your keyboard and search function. Or there's teh alphabet running down the right hand side, just click on the letter the name starts with. Or for more customization and ease, install exdialer. It looks good, easy to use, font is small, etc. Exdialer also consolidates your call logs.
There are a ton of memo apps in the market. Personally I love Gnotes. It syncs with google, saves everything, is easy to use, and you can inbed pics, etc.
I don't know about the spen. So far I've only used it to make cute pics to send to my wife and to draw up soccer drills and practice plans.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, unfortunately I do need to use a PIN or some other form of security. I just don't think it makes any sense to require a PIN if I already entered one and then make a phone call. It's just silly that Android would require a PIN if you're clearly using the phone (on a call). Apparently Google thinks that using the phone does not include being on a phone call. Absurd.
As for your advice about using the magnifying glass, it doesn't work. Because if you pull up the contact via the magnifying glass, you cannot dial from it (swipe right for dial, left for text like you would if you clicked the text box at the top of the phone). You have to click on it and then click once again on what you would like to do. Not sure why it's like that but there are a lot of Android "features" that leave me scratching my head.
I'll give Gnote a try. Thanks!
pj737 said:
I tried the program Big Font but unfortunately while the font size decreases, it does nothing to decrease the size of the useless silhouette image next to the contact name. So I still only get 6 contacts per massive page. I'm hoping there is another solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please don't mix up Google and Samsung. You see Samsung customizes the Android OS, and the stock contacts app is different than the stock Google one. Everything you see is what Samsung did not Google.
If you don't like it I suggest you switch phones or you try third-party apps like exdialer(excontacts comes with it), and it is a very popular choice people use as an alternative. Also, I if you have rooted your phone you can change the DPI, so everything will be smaller and more things can fit on the screen, but like I said you will need ROOT. Download a DPI changer app and go for 240dpi.
Sent from my GT-i9220 using Tapatalk
Or if you're brave enough you can always change the lcd density in the build.prop but beware if you make a mistake editing It will brake the rom and unless you have it backed up like in cwm you'll be forced to flash it to bring it back to life.
Sent from my awesome Galaxy Note!
roloracer said:
Or if you're brave enough you can always change the lcd density in the build.prop but beware if you make a mistake editing It will brake the rom and unless you have it backed up like in cwm you'll be forced to flash it to bring it back to life.
Sent from my awesome Galaxy Note!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just use LCD resolution from the market. Much simpler for a novice
I really like the phone, but the browser is the weak point for me. its just buggy, the text resize-when-zoom puts it JUST too wide, and bla bla bla, finally something to complain about. youtube links wont associate with the youtube app. i'm upset. thats another thread. thanks apple.
Anyway, the best part of the sense browser was you could just tap the address bar and you got a list of most-visited sites automatically. Now, its like any 3rd party browser where you have to at least type the first letter of any site before the list shows up. How do i get back the autolist function like the sense 3 and sense2 browsers?????? This was such a great awesome thing. gone.
Also, do you all know about the gestures??? i couldn't find a help explaining what they all are. I couldn't figure out how to get the address bar without scrolling all the way back up to the top.
Discovered you can finger-swipe a "L" or backwards L shape, down then right or down then left, and it'll bring up the address bar. OK, cool, i can live with that. But seriously people, HOW DO I GET THE STATUS BAR to show up while using the browser!?!? How do i get to pull it down, i can't even figure out how make it appear! someone help!
---
i'll stop at those two major issues and whine about other minor problems later in the thread.
1)omnibar / awesomebar list of most visited sites by just tapping in it instead of requiring a typing of a letter.
2) what are the browser gestures, where can i get a list of them, "L" shape will bring up the address bar, but why and how does the broswer totally hide the status bar????? isn't the point of android you can pull down the status bar, see notifications, etc etc please someone help me
seriously no one knows about the default browser's guestures? any of this?
Since installing Lollipop 5.02 I notice that when there now appears to be a "feature" that calls in google search when a swiping up from the bottom of the screen in the region of the home button.
I find this to be a flipping nuisance when scrolling through pages of info - I seem to have a tendency to place my swiping finger near the middle of the screen and keep getting google starting up all the time.
I don't recall seeing this in KitKat so I assume it came with Lollipop.
Does anyone know where to disable this "feature", it's driving me up the wall.
wooly1 said:
Since installing Lollipop 5.02 I notice that when there now appears to be a "feature" that calls in google search when a swiping up from the bottom of the screen in the region of the home button.
I find this to be a flipping nuisance when scrolling through pages of info - I seem to have a tendency to place my swiping finger near the middle of the screen and keep getting google starting up all the time.
I don't recall seeing this in KitKat so I assume it came with Lollipop.
Does anyone know where to disable this "feature", it's driving me up the wall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is extremely annoying. I know some Xposed modules for HTC phones have an option to disable it all together, but so far I haven't seen anything similar for Sony's UI.
I use this app to make it less annoying..it just reassigns the Google shortcut to the app itself, which then makes the swipe up do nothing (except for the brief animation): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.AdrianCampos.swipeuputility
Thank you, thank you, thank you for that link.
There has to be an app for everything nowadays!
So it appears the function is baked into the firmware, that explains why I could not find a way of disabling it.
At least this app minimises the disruption to workflow and restores a little bit of sanity.
Anyone being bugged by the swipe up feature - install this app and be happy
Lucky though I am to suffer such trivial problems on my journey through life, I'd be very grateful if anyone has a solution to this particular Rich World problem.
On my Tab S3 I am in landscape and Split Screen Multi window mode. I want to change the app in the Left Hand pane. If I press the Recents button I am only ever given the option to change the apps in the Right Hand pane. It does not matter which pane, left or right, is in focus I can only change the app in the right hand pane.
The only way I can figure to change the app in the left hand pane is to 1. Swop the panes about so Left pane becomes Right pane. 2. Hit the Recents button and select the new app. 3. Swop the panes back. That's rubbish! Does anyone know if there is an easier way to change the Left hand app?
Why do I want this? I am right handed. I like to use the stylus with Samsung Notes in the right hand pane. I keep whatever app I am referring to or watching in the left hand pane and I like to change to different apps there fairly regularly. All this daft swopping is dementing me. I could just do my writing in the left hand pane but that is also rubbish as it feels awkward.
Really like the Tab but wondering if I should have got an iPad Pro for my notetaking.
Ok this is pretty trivial i know, hence plenty views but no replies! I'll leave it up in case someone else is puzzling about what multi window does and doesn't do.
Midgeslayer said:
Ok this is pretty trivial i know, hence plenty views but no replies! I'll leave it up in case someone else is puzzling about what multi window does and doesn't do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not trivial. But it is how the multi-window is implemented by Google in Android Nougat. So there isn't a solution unless Google change their mind on the implementation.
Source: Same issue with my Sony phone.
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk