Switched from iPhone 5 to Note 3 - Need help and advice

weelzSA said:
So I take it there is no way to get Netflix or Hulu installed via the play Store? I can see the apps there but get the message" This app is incompatible with your device. Not supported in your country".

Is there a way around this without rooting my device?
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I downloaded the APK files from XDA and sideloaded them. Don't know if sideloading works on a non rooted phone though.
 
Park@82 said:
For me this is it:


Other apps that I use almost daily is:
a Flashlight app via a wiget so I can toggle it on and off from the home screen.
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Or you can try a nice app like Appshaker launcher which allows you to launch a list of your favourite apps (works great with a flashlight app) by merely giving the phone a quick shake to activate the launcher.
 
ngwe23 said:
I downloaded the APK files from XDA and sideloaded them. Don't know if sideloading works on a non rooted phone though.
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Yes is does, you just need to have Unknown Sources ticked off.

qsdX8zU.png
 
That's a monster screenshot there Dom...

Once you've established that your Note is running to spec root it and unleash the full potential.

I also went from iPhone to Samsung and currently doing duty on my rooted S4

Email client - K9
Launcher - Nova Prime
DCikonZ custom icon pack (coming from iOS there is still an obsession with icons).
Music player - NRG Player
Teslaunread plugin for notification badges
Wanam exposed custom rom
Widget locker for lockscreen modifications.
Swiftkey Keyboard
Push notification fixer - I been experiencing one or two push notifications with Whatsapp but not since installing the fixer.
Andmade Share to customize share lists
Minimalistic text widget

Edit: coming from iOS you will be used to notification badges. Missing it is an app that brings those notification badges to Android, as well as extensively customizable widgets. You will need Nova Prime launcher though and tesla unread plugins.

http://imgur.com/Q1mRj9y

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...MissedIt&hl=en

http://forums.androidcentral.com/and...fications.html

Thanks to Maverick Jester for this one....
 
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As mentioned by Sand- Man - Swiftkey - the best and only kepboard app you need :)
 
+1000 for SwiftKey best keyboard you will ever use.

The best music player if you prepared to spend little is Poweramp. They have a 15 day trial so you can try it. You should add a theme to poweramp because the normal version is not so pretty in my opinion
 
Don't know if anyone has mentioned Tasker yet. If I were to choose one app for my phone it would be this. Once you get a hang of it you can automate a lot of functions with your phone, e.g automatically switch off WIFI when you are not at home and switch it back on when you get home/work, or automatically toggle to silence during a meeting. To give you an idea on what you can do have a look at http://www.pocketables.com/2013/03/overview-of-pocketables-tasker-articles.html. Also check out the many Tasker videos on YouTube.
 
Lupus said:
But Android cames standard with data monitoring since ICS? Does a really good job of it as well.
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The stock monitor is very limited.

My Data Monitor gives me a nice breakdown of data used on Mobile, Roaming and Wi-fi.
On my contract I have 5GB Mobile, 150MB Roaming (Via MTN) so it is useful to me to have these displayed separately: Screenshot_2013-10-14-08-49-58.jpg
 
weelzSA said:
As the title reads, I have finally made the switch to Android after using every iPhone since the very first one. Decided it was now or never and went for the Note 3 and so far it has been a learning curve but am sure there still a million things I am missing, doing wrong or just not doing at all.

Just have a few questions (I apologise if these have been asked before)

1 - Is there a diference between the Google Play Store between countries as it is with iOS? I had been on a UK appstore as SA one had nothing so was wondering if it works the same with Play Store?

2 - Is it possible to get notification badges on the actual app icon? For example on iOS when you received a Whatsapp message, there would be a red notification on the corner of the app icon informing you there was a new message - I have searched for this but can't find anything. I get them on the facebook app icon but nothing on Whatsapp or messages.

3 - I know this must have been asked thousands of times but what are the most recommended apps that any Android phone can simply not live without? And is it recommend to install an anti-virus app on the phone? If so are there any negatives to doing so as in slowing the performance down ect?

Thats all I can think of now (but Im sure the more I mess around with Android, the more I will find out / struggle with).

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get into Android.
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1. Yes, although in terms of apps it's very small. For example you can't get the Nook app on our SA version. Also as has been mentioned ours has no content like music or videos and no hardware.

2. This depends on the launcher, some have that feature, others (such as Touchwiz) do not. But surely it's much easier to just look in your top left corner than to actually open up your full app list to check for notifications every time.

3. A good file/network/Bluetooth browser, such as Estrong's File Browser, now just called ES File browser. Since you're using a Samsung phone I'd also recommend a launcher that isn't awful like the stock Touchwiz one. Nova is pretty good, as is Apex. Apart from that, it just depends on what you want/need.
 
I've just migrated someone from an Itoy to the Android Army and found a GOOD (meaning simple and effective) way to get all the contacts across. I got the contacts extracted from an Itunes backup with iPhone Backup Extractor (the free version allows you to extract four datasets), which is enough for this purpose, which pulled all the contacts out to separate .vcf files. As there were a bunch of copies, e.g. name.vcf and name-1.vcf, I got those out with a *-?.* search and saved them outside the main dataset. It then turns out that the best way to get the contacts into 'droid world is through Gmail, which will read .vcf just fine ..one at a time! Which, with (only) 200 contacts I was really not going to do. But it turns out you can merge them all into one file, and you then import THAT file.

The magic, from a cmd prompt (so work in a dir close to root, e.g. c:\contacts) is done with for /F "delims=" %i in ('dir /b *.vcf') do @more "%i" >> _all.vcf - paste that into your prompt, hit go and *voila*, you've got it all in one file; which you them import from a Gmail > contacts (instead of mail) page. It's also smart enough to detect duplicates and merge them, which basically finishes the job off.
 
I transferred all my contacts from iPhone to my s4 using an app called bump.

Simply load on both phones, select what u want transferred (contacts, notes etc)

Bump the phones together and done :)

Oh and the app was free
 
^ helps to have both devices, I got saddled with having to factory reset the iphone so it would be *immediately* gifted, and spirited far, far away. Still, link to that bump app; it will still help someone else down the line. Seems bu.mp (cute domain hack) is here; links to /var on that page.
 
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Another app would be excel<>contacts. Lite version is free and backs up 150 contacts to an excel file on your pc. Can be restored from the new device also loaded with the same app.

Paid version is R30 but needs separate purchases for each OS. Unlimited number of contacts backed up

Problem is I purchased on iPhone and tried to use the lite version on S4, but it will only restore files from those saved by the same version ( lite or paid)

You can also edit the contacts on excel and update to phone
 
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