Gadgetory

coming up we've got 10 awesome tips and tricks for the Samsung Galaxy s4 greetings s4 owners and owners to be I am Chris look I know you're hungry for some tips and tricks so let's get started with number one the galaxy s4 is already fast but if you're looking for more speed we've got a few options first if you don't like the slight pause between hitting the HOME key and actually seeing the home screen there is a fix C tapping the home button twice as a shortcut to s voice by default so it waits a little bit for the second tap now go to S voice settings and turn off the open via the home key option now you'll instantly get to the home screen whenever you tap the button the second is a bit more tricky first you want to enable the developer options menu to do this go to settings then more than about device now find the build number and tap this seven times yes seven now that the developer options menu is open you can go in and turn off window animation scale transition animation scale an animator duration scale now TouchWiz should feel a bit faster battery life is already nice on the galaxy s4 but there are still a few things you can do to stretch it out which could be crucial for a long day the first and easiest option is to turn on power saving mode go to settings my device and then power saving mode you have three options you have CPU and screen power saving and then the option to turn off haptic feedback using all three options will provide the best results now if you want to save even more battery life you can start turning things off turning off mobile data will help quite a bit and then it's kind of up to you air gestures bluetooth sbeam and NFC are a few options to start with in the s4's notification drop-down you've probably noticed the icons at the top that allow you to do things from changing the sound mode to turning Wi-Fi on and off chances are fairly good that you use some of these more than others so why not get them in an order that works for you simply pull down the notification pane then tap the upper right most icon now tap the icon that looks like a pencil you'll be able to drag and drop the quick settings buttons and put them in an order that puts your most-used settings first the galaxy s4's camera comes with more options than ever although some are arguably more useful than others still there are some steps you can take to make sure you're taking the best photos you can first you might want to adjust the photo size and settings by default the s4 is set to 9.6 megapixels with the 16 by 9 aspect ratio for the best quality you can switch to 13 megapixels which uses the more traditional 4:3 aspect ratio the other settings like ISO and anti-shake are worth exploring as well then you'll want to pay more attention to the modes you're using eraser and drama sha aren't something you'll probably use too often Auto might be your best bet but Beauty face panorama sports night and rich tone or HDR are all useful for the most part you'll probably want to turn the flash off as well while the s4 has a nice display there are certain times where you just want to see a photo video or game on a larger screen and there are a few ways to do it the first and easiest if you have a Samsung TV or an All Share cast dongle is to use the built-in screen mirroring feature just turn it on and wait for it to find your device the second option is to use MHL now this is the fastest option but you'll need an 11 pin NHL adaptor make sure you get the right adapter because a standard 5 pin MHL adapter won't work the final option doesn't quite work the same way but it does work as a last resort DLNA sharing allows you to share from your s4 to other DL na capable clients like blu-ray players tvs and other home electronics this won't mirror your screen but it will let you access your photos videos and music with the s4 there are a few ways to control who can get in touch with you and when the first is blocking mode you can find this option under settings than my device it allows you to disable notifications calls the LED indicator and even alarms either all the time or between set hours this is great if you have friends or family who love to send you late-night emails or even worse make late night calls the second option is better for dealing with specific numbers to set up automatic call rejection head to settings my device and then call the easiest and probably most common way to do this is to auto reject certain numbers only just add numbers to your list and they'll automatically be rejected optionally you can also send them an automated message telling them why their call was rejected by default the Galaxy s4's lockscreen is a little on the boring side luckily it's easy to spice it up by customizing it and adding a few widgets head to Settings my device then lock screen there are a lot of options here you can put application shortcuts or multiple widgets on the lock screen and change whether you want a clock or personal message once you've enabled multiple widgets you can go to the lock screen itself and either swipe to the left to get to the camera on the screen to the right side or head in the opposite direction to add your own widgets now you can check your email or other messages right on the lock screen yeah the s4 shoots some pretty nice video out of the box but what if you want to get a little more creative with it two of the coolest options are fast motion and slow motion video you can enable these by opening the camera app tapping the Settings icon and then the icon that looks like a video camera now you can switch between normal limit for MMS slow and fast motion with slow motion you can go from half speed all the way down to one-eighth of normal speed with fast motion you can go from double speed to eight times normal speed neither of these options will produce video as clear as the normal mode but they are still fun to play around with to be honest I wasn't too sure about the adapt sound feature until they tried it out myself but after trying I had to include it in this video go to my device then sound and scroll all the way to the bottom make sure to have your headphones hand what adopt sound does is play a series of tones to test your hearing and to a certain extent your headphones just start the test listen closely and answer whether or not you heard the sound after this process is over you'll have the option to preview the newly adapted sad for me the difference was noticeable compared to the original sound the adapted sound sounded clearer and more detail if you're like me and I know I am one of the first things you do on any phone is turn off auto brightness in this case though there is actually a good reason for using it at least occasionally users have found that the s4 screen brightness can go higher with auto brightness turned on then you can manually set it yourself it's probably done this way to prevent damaging the screen still if you're in bright sunlight and having trouble seeing the screen try turning on auto brightness to see if the screen gets any brighter and that's it hopefully at least a few of these tips will help you get more usefulness and/or enjoyment out of your s4 if you want a little more detail we have an in-depth article at Android authority com you can find the link in the description if you enjoyed this video maybe give it a like or share it with your friends if you want to stay caught up with all of our videos make sure to subscribe to our Channel I'm Chris look for Android Authority and as always thank you for watching