Android Newbie!

[hougtimo]

Now then chaps.

I have just taken delivery of my first Android powered phone in the form of a Galaxy S3.

My last phone was an iPhone, and before than Nokia's Lumia 800 offering, Samsung Omnia 7 before that, iPhone before that etc... etc... You get the picture.

I'm very impressed with the Galaxy S3 so far, and I'm really enjoying using it.

I've got it all nicely set up, got all the apps I need, and stuff. One of Android's main selling points is that you can customise it to a greater extent the iOS or WP.

i'm just looking for a few pointers on using Android in general, as well as any excellent apps I should be aware of!

Cheers!

[Detection]

If you are rooted, "AdFree" is pretty nice, it does what it says on the tin

For news I like "Pulse"

If you are in the UK, "TV Catchup" is a freeview TV app

For browsers, I like "Dolphin"

File explorers "ES File Explorer"

News widgets for RSS feeds "Taptu"

Video Player "MX Video Player"

Office "Kingsoft Office"

Wireless scanning "Wifi Analyser"

[Growled Member]

^ Nice list. I use Chrome for web browsing but other than that.....

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

^ Nice list. I use Chrome for web browsing but other than that.....

I would suggest the Chrome beta channel for Android. It's a lot faster than the stable build imho. Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrome.beta

[AbandonedTrolley]

Not sure what Album/Picture viewer the S3 uses, but I've always put QuickPic on my phones, as it's loading is almost instant no matter how many images you have.

SatNav (if you need it) I use Co Pilot Live Premium, it's about ?19 and comes with 12 months traffic updates.

[pixelpixel88]

<p>I just want to give you one advice as and Android user and developer: download apps only from Google play%

[djdanster]

Not sure what Album/Picture viewer the S3 uses, but I've always put QuickPic on my phones, as it's loading is almost instant no matter how many images you have.

SatNav (if you need it) I use Co Pilot Live Premium, it's about ?19 and comes with 12 months traffic updates.

I find the Navigation app that comes with Android works brilliantly :)

[Guest]

I've been out of the Android loop too for a while actually, I was hoping to find something to help my sync (docs/music/vids) wirelessly but so many of the apps on the store look ancient now! Any decent suggestions?

[The Evil Overlord]

another thing, don't worry about 'default noticitactions' you can go into all apps individiual settings and change the ringtones independently no default whistle for me thank you :p

(example, my texts come through as a voice mp3 i downloaded, my email is the default Nokia symbian chime, and so on)

the phone is very customisable, like you mentioned, great to play with.

Samsung Voice isn't as good as siri tho, or at the very least, not as much fun.

it is a nice device to just have a play with so enjoy, and feel free to let us know if you find something interesting that people like me might not know it could do :)

[Soldiers33]

Just use tock apps, the ice cream or jellybean browsers are excellent. not sure why you would want a wifi scanneer when android has that built in anyway.

[djdanster]

I've been out of the Android loop too for a while actually, I was hoping to find something to help my sync (docs/music/vids) wirelessly but so many of the apps on the store look ancient now! Any decent suggestions?

Dropbox? If you use their service that is :). Free 50GB method here. It will even sync your pictures as you take them from your camera (assuming you set it up in your settings). Mediafire also have a pretty good app.

As Dushmany mentioned about, sVoice isn't very good, but Google Now is fantastic! Once you have downloaded the OTA to bring your phone to Android 4.1.1 Jellybean download Google Now from the Play Store.

I also use Airdroid instead of my data cable for smaller files, works really well. If you don't know what Airdroid is, it's an app that lets you access your phone in a GUI in your browser through wifi. It has a file explorer, contacts, SMS and a quite a bit more!

[Richteralan]

Not familiar with Samsung.

But I would suggest you start from trying a new launcher, then maybe new clock widget and such.

There will be till a point that you want to unlock your S3 and put custom ROMs on it.

[guitmz]

i dont really like touchwiz :( if i own a s3, i'd flash a stock rom haha stock browser FTW!

[ichi]

If you don't mind forking about $4, Plex is well worth it.

It's a lot more polished that any other streaming app I've seen so far and works great even over 3G (it transcodes video on the fly to keep playback smooth).

I've been out of the Android loop too for a while actually, I was hoping to find something to help my sync (docs/music/vids) wirelessly but so many of the apps on the store look ancient now! Any decent suggestions?

I don't sync media libraries so I don't use it myself but people usually suggest DoubleTwist's AirSync.

[Nashy]

If you are rooted, "AdFree" is pretty nice, it does what it says on the tin

For news I like "Pulse"

If you are in the UK, "TV Catchup" is a freeview TV app

For browsers, I like "Dolphin"

File explorers "ES File Explorer"

News widgets for RSS feeds "Taptu"

Video Player "MX Video Player"

Office "Kingsoft Office"

Wireless scanning "Wifi Analyser"

I've always found all the ad blockers to be completely hopeless.

I don't use android any more.

My top apps were:

- Chrome

- Linda File Manager

- MX Player

[Detection]

I've always found all the ad blockers to be completely hopeless.

Ad Blockers work 100%, no ads on my droid

You have to be rooted for them to work though because they have to modify the hosts file

[Nashy]

Ad Blockers work 100%, no ads on my droid

You have to be rooted for them to work though because they have to modify the hosts file

Yep, always rooted. Worked in browsers, never in apps as promised.

[Detection]

Yep, always rooted. Worked in browsers, never in apps as promised.

Strange, can you remember which blocker you used?

[ashpowell]

Look up CyanogenMod :)

[Nashy]

Strange, can you remember which blocker you used?

ABP was the last I used. Prior to that, I don't recall the name.

Don't get me wrong, it didn't overly bother me.

[Detection]

ABP was the last I used. Prior to that, I don't recall the name.

Don't get me wrong, it didn't overly bother me.

ABP is for browsers only anyway, probably the reason :)

For system wide you need something like AdFree

[Guest]

ABP is for browsers only anyway, probably the reason :)

For system wide you need something like AdFree

And the other tool which I can't name here, which removes ads completely from apps.

[Detection]

And the other tool which I can't name here, which removes ads completely from apps.

AdFree does that too :)

Unless you mean actually remove them vs blocking them ?

[f0rk_b0mb]

Get adblock plus for android! It blocks ads on the web and in apps! I haven't seen any ads thus far!

I love using this as my wallpaper: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=simosoftprojects.matrixlivewallpaper&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInNpbW9zb2Z0cHJvamVjdHMubWF0cml4bGl2ZXdhbGxwYXBlciJd

[Guest]

AdFree does that too :)

Unless you mean actually remove them vs blocking them ?

Yes, remove as in patch but I will say no more!