Jo3 Blogs

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was released last month. Most people have a social media account and mobile phone videos and photos form the bulk of the activity to these platforms. I always like to know that if I am paying top dollar for a smartphone then it must stand up to the test. I do the reviews on my YouTube channel but here I like to share samples so you can all view at your leasure. Hope you find these interesting. Wide angle (0.5)   No zoom   2x zoom   10x zoom 20x zoom 50x zoom          No zoom         10x zoom       20x zoom     50x zoom   108mp   108mp 108mp All images were taken during the day and on auto mode.

Took these photos in auto mode on my Galaxy Note 7.                                     No zoom No zoom                                     X3 Zoom                                    X1.3 Zoom

I went for a walk in the park this evening and decided to take photos with my edge plus camera to share. Flash was off and the camera was set to auto at 16megapixels. Spot the moon.

Many of us will be struggling to decide which smartphone to get or maybe firstly, which platform e.g android or iOS. In the past few years, I have tended to go with Samsung. The clear contenders are the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge plus and Galaxy Note 5. Galaxy S6 This is a beautiful phone, introducing the glass finish and premium look. However, the edge display is sexier looking and so you could do better. Galaxy S6 edge Worryingly, many people who bought this device were disappointed to later learn that Samsung was releasing the edge plus. Pretty much the same phone but bigger display at 5.7 instead of 5.1in, bigger RAM at 4gb instead of 3gb, bigger battery at 3000mAh instead of 2600 and a higher pixel density on the edge plus. Galaxy S6 edge plus If you are looking for bigger is better, this is your device. Galaxy Note 5 The best Samsung device ever, up to last year in my opinion, was the Note 4. Multitasking capability was from another dim...

If you use a magnetic phone case/cover, it will affect your S Pen's response on the screen of the phone. This will be greater where the screen is right above or next to the magnet. I tried many screen configuration settings before I found out what the cause was and how to fix it. http://youtu.be/xAO8pg_1EWE

I have spent a lot of time researching this and will keep it short. This is a software issue and hopefully it will be resolved in the next update. In the meantime if a soft or hard reset does not work, like in my case, then your only option is to go into settings, general, developer options and tick "disable hardware overlays". You may also want to tick "force GPU rendering" but not really necessary. If you can't see Developer options go to settings, general, about phone and tap the build number at least 7 times. Please note that if you turn your note 3 off you will have to go back into developer options to tick again. Mine now works fine whereas before it had so much flicker I couldn't actually see a playing video.

I currently have a Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Gear. The Galaxy  Note 4 and Samsung Gear S were announced at IFA today. I'll certainly be ditching my Galaxy S5 for the Note 4 but will not be going for the Gear S. The main reason is the lack of a camera. The whole idea of the Gear S is that you will not need your phone. All Samsung had to do was ensure that the social media essentials on the phone were transferred to the Gear S. The camera is one of the most used features on the phone in this day and age. I can't help but feel that this was intentional oversight by  Samsung so they could include it on the next release. Marketing tactics perhaps but not good enough. I believe the Gear S will sell very well because of the buzz but I'll wait for the next release when they include the camera, and a few more new features.

Samsung changed the left soft key from a menu key to a recent apps key. This does not mean that the menu functionality has disappeared. It's simply hidden. All you need to do is long press the left soft key in any app. See the video below; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvzK_uFgss

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/android-phones/1400481/samsung-galaxy-note-4-release-date-specs-price-rumours-and-news

You can activate voice control on the Galaxy S5 by simply saying smile, cheese, etc. This is particularly good for selfies. Samsung has hidden this option in the camera settings but you have to scroll to find it. Sounds obvious but believe me, it's not. See the link for a video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP0F9tnkXNs

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s5-hidden-features-369870/

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s4-kitkat-update-europe-asia-353904/

Samsung Galaxy S5 hands-on and first impressions http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s5-hands-on-350394/

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Browser-Wars-the-best-10-Android-browsers-go-toe-to-toe-part-1_id48166

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/12/13/whats-really-new-in-android-4-4-2/

So last week I decided to sell my galaxy s4 and to give my galaxy tab 10.1 to my father in law. Got £265 for my s4 on eBay by the way. I got thinking about which device could handle being both a tablet and a phone. The galaxy tab 3 was top of my list. I chose the 8" because it's light and has the best camera of the tab 3s. Off I went to O2 Crawley were 3 staff laughed at me when I said I wanted the tablet to also use as a phone. They said the 3 or 4g only referred to data not gsm support. Little did they know that I always do my homework and know my Samsung gadgets. I bought it for £350 and put my O2 card in and that was it, a very functional big phone. I did let O2 know to inform their staff about the gadget's capability. First thing I noticed was battery drain and Google+ was responsible for over 40%. This was with instant upload off. I uninstalled and all was restored. Before this I had 11 hours usage and after this I now have just over 24 hours with WiFi constantly o...

Best Android smartphones of 2013 http://www.androidauthority.com/best-android-smartphones-2013-321012/

Learn the secrets of Google Now voice commands (infographic) http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57613787-285/learn-the-secrets-of-google-now-voice-commands-infographic/?part=rss&subj=AndroidAtlas&tag=feed

Samsung tips: 10 Galaxy S4 “hidden” features and tricks http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-tips-10-galaxy-s4-hidden-features-tricks-247798/

Google Now will change the way we use our smartphones http://www.androidcentral.com/google-now-will-change-way-you-use-your-smart-phone