Samsung Galaxy S 4 For Dummies^®

Introduction

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is a powerful smartphone, perhaps the most powerful phone ever sold. As of the publication of this book, the Galaxy S 4 is the standard against which all other Android-based phones are measured.

Each cellular carrier offers a slightly customized version of the Galaxy S 4. Some cellular carriers’ phones come out of the box with preloaded applications, games, or files. Some come with accessories, like a corded headset, whereas others don’t. This book doesn’t dwell on these kinds of differences.

Although the name for each network is different, these phones are largely the same (at least one marketing person at each cellular carrier is cringing as you read this). This allows me to write this book in a way that covers the common capabilities.

At a core level, these phones are built for high-speed wireless communications. The cellular carriers have spent kajillions upgrading their networks to offer more coverage and better data speeds than their competition. Again, this book doesn’t dwell on these differences in network technology because they don’t really make much difference (again, at least one engineering person at each cellular carrier is cringing as you read this).

I assume that you already have a phone, and I just hope that you have good coverage where you spend more of your time with your phone. If so, you will be fine. If not, you need to switch to another network because the experience with your phone will be frustrating. I would advise you to return your phone to that carrier and buy another Galaxy S 4 at another cellular carrier. As long as you have good cellular data coverage, owning a Galaxy S 4 will be an exciting experience!

First, all Galaxy S phones use Google’s Android platform. This is the equivalent of different brands of PCs all being based upon Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Although there are some differences in how the operating system appears when you turn on your PC for the first time, the experience is largely similar whether the PC comes from Dell or from HP. (Now at least two PC product managers, one at Dell and the other at HP, are cringing.) This is in contrast to the experience you have when you bring up a PC running Ubuntu Linux, which is noticeably different.

The good news is that the Android platform has proven to be widely popular, even more successful than Google originally expected when it first announced it in November of 2007. More people are using Android-based phones, and more third parties are writing applications. This is good news because it offers you more options for applications (more on this in Chapter 8 on the Play Store, where you buy applications).

In addition, all Galaxy S 4 phones use a powerful graphics processor, employ Samsung’s super-bright AMOLED touchscreen, and are covered in Corning’s Gorilla Glass. The superior screen experience differentiates this product line from other Android phones. Because of these enhanced capabilities, you can navigate around the screen with multi-touch screens instead of hierarchical menus that are found on lesser Android phones. Plus, the videos look stunning from many angles.

Smartphones are getting smarter all the time, and the Galaxy S 4 is one of the smartest. However, just because you’ve used a smartphone in the past doesn’t mean you should expect to use your new Galaxy S 4 without a bit of guidance.

You may not be familiar with using a multi-touch screen, and your new phone offers a lot of capabilities that you may or may not be familiar with. It would be unfortunate to find out from a kid in the neighborhood that the phone you have been carrying around for several months could solve a problem you have been having because you were never told that the solution was in your pocket the whole time.

In fact, Samsung is proud of the usability of its entire Galaxy S lineup. It is so proud that the user’s manual is really just a “quickstart” guide. You can find instructions on the web. However, you have to know what you don’t know to get what you want unless you plan to view every tutorial.

That’s where this book comes in. This book is a hands-on guide to getting the most out of your Galaxy S 4.

About This Book

This book is a reference — you don’t have to read it from beginning to end to get all you need out of it. The information is clearly organized and easy to access. You don’t need thick glasses to understand this book. This book helps you figure out what you want to do — and then tells you how to do it in plain English.

I don’t use many conventions in this book, but here are a few you should know about:

Whenever I introduce a new term, I put it in italics and define it shortly thereafter (often in parentheses).

I use bold for the action parts of numbered steps, so you can easily see what you’re supposed to do.

I use monofont for web addresses and e-mail addresses, so they stand out from the surrounding text. If you're reading this as an e-book, these links are live and clickable. Note: When this book was printed, some web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that we haven't put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending as though the line break doesn't exist.

What You’re Not to Read

I think you’ll find every last word of this book scintillating, but I may be a little biased. The truth is, you don’t have to read

Sidebars: Sidebars are those gray boxes throughout the book. They’re interesting, but not essential to the topic at hand, so if you’re short on time or you want only the information you absolutely need, you can skip them.

Text marked with the Technical Stuff icon: For more on this icon, see the “Icons Used in This Book” section, later in this Introduction.

Foolish Assumptions

You know what they say about assuming, so I don’t do much of it in this book. But I do make a few assumptions about you:

You have a Galaxy S 4 phone. You may be thinking about buying a Galaxy S 4 phone, but my money’s on your already owning one. After all, getting your hands on the phone is the best part!

You’re not totally new to cellphones. You know that your Galaxy S 4 phone is capable of doing more than the average cellphone, and you’re eager to find out what your phone can do.

You’ve used a computer. You don’t have to be a computer expert, but you at least know how to check your e-mail and surf the web.

How This Book Is Organized

The 18 chapters in this book are divided into six parts. Here’s what you can find in each part.

Part I: Getting Started with the Samsung Galaxy S 4

The first part of this book gets you familiar with the basic capabilities of your Galaxy S 4 phone. Chapters 1 and 2 are an introduction to everything from turning it on and off, to understanding cellular billing, to managing battery life.

Part II: Communications

In this part, I walk you through the basic capabilities of the Galaxy S 4 for communicating with voice, texts, and e-mails. Chapter 3 is about making calls. Chapter 4 covers what you need to know about texting. Chapter 5 covers e-mailing, and Chapter 6 explores how the phone works with your Contacts database.

Part III: Live on the Internet: Going Mobile

This part is all about the Internet — how to access it from your Galaxy S 4 phone. I also introduce you to the Play Store, where you can trick out your phone with more apps.

Part IV: Entertainment Applications

An important use for many smartphone owners involves entertainment. Chapter 9 covers the impressive picture-taking capabilities of your phone but really covers only some of the capabilities. Chapter 10 looks at the impressive gaming capabilities, whereas Chapter 11 explores navigating to all the fun places you can go in the real world. Chapter 12 walks you through playing music and video on your phone.

Part V: Productivity Applications

In this part, I cover the capabilities of the Galaxy S 4 smartphone that make you more productive at home and work.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

This wouldn’t be a For Dummies book without a Part of Tens. In this book, the Part of Tens covers ten ways to customize the phone to make it truly your own, how to keep your information safe, and ten capabilities to look for in future releases.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, I used icons (little pictures in the margin) to draw your attention to various types of information. Here’s a key to what those icons mean:

This whole book is like one series of tips. When I share especially useful tips and tricks, I mark it with the Tip icon.

This book is a reference, which means you don’t have to commit it to memory — there is no test at the end. But once in a while, I do tell you things that are so important that I think you should remember them, and when I do, I mark them with the Remember icon.

Whenever you may do something that could cause a major headache, I warn you with the, er, Warning icon.

When you see this icon, you’ll find interesting but optional information you can skip if you like.

Beyond the Book

This book has more great online extras. To access the book's online cheat sheet, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/samsunggalaxys4. To read articles about the Samsung Galaxy S 4, go to www.dummies.com/extras/samsunggalaxys4.

Occasionally, we have updates to our technology books. If this book does have technical updates, they will be posted at dummies.com/go/samsunggalaxys4fdupdates.

Where to Go from Here

You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover. You can skip around as you like. For example, if you need the basics on calling, texting, and e-mailing, turn to Part II. To discover more about photos, games, and apps, go to Part IV. To find out about the phone’s calendar functions or S-Voice, turn to Part V.