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Who stole my butter? Solving slowness probelms in Galaxy Note after Jelly Bean update

April 9, 2013 in Galaxy Note Guides

slow-jelly-beanJelly Bean 4.1 updated for Galaxy Note has been rolled out in phases since February 2013. This update brings Galaxy Note owners many excited improvements, new features and apps. Some of the new features were explained in  the Top 12 new features you should try after getting Jelly Bean 4.1 update for Galaxy Note.

However, some users reported serious slowness issues after the Jelly Bean update in their Galaxy Notes. It seems the Project Butter is nothing, or Samsung stole our butter.

What are the causes, and what are the solutions?

First, Galaxy Note is powerful enough for running Jelly Bean smoothly. 1GB RAM, and dual core 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Dual 4210 chip are still decent hardware specifications even after1.5 years. A lot of middle range Jelly Bean handsets has far less powerful hardware specifications.

So, do not suspect your hardware. Jelly Bean is not hungry for hardware. Any hardware that can run Ice Cream Sandwich should meet the requirements of Jelly Bean. A lot of manufactures do not give Jelly Bean update simply because  they do not want to put more resources on an old model. In this sense, Samsung did an excellent job.

The slowness problem in Jelly Bean update lies on the update itself. When you update the system, most of your old settings will be kept, some are necessary, some are unnecessary . Some of these settings are fully compatible with Jelly bean; some are compatible  but with degraded performance. For the known incompatible settings, the update will handle them. The biggest issue is that some old settings are not compatible to the new OS/ROM, but it is unknown yet.  Therefore, for the slowness caused by such problematic settings, a factory reset will solve the issue.

Please be careful when performing the  factory reset because it will erase your internal storage. You need backup all your data in the internal storage, including your contacts and messages. Apps can be re-installed, but the settings will be gone. If you have rooted your phone, you can use Titanium Backup  to backup and restore almost everything. If your phone is not rooted, you may try Carbon to backup and restore your apps. You may check this tutorial on how to use this app.

Of Course it is a good idea to use Kies to backup  all supported items (contacts, messages, s notes, photos…) to your PC. After resetting, you can restore the backup.  But you should never rely on Samsung’s Device backup. It is not reliable based on my personal usage.

Sometimes, the slowness is due to insufficient available RAM. Yes, I just said our Galaxy Note has sufficient RAM (1GB)  for Jelly Bean. Even you add up all Samsung’s TouchWiz, and all bloatware from Samsung and from your local carriers, the 1GB RAM (800-900MB accessible) should be able to handle all apps easily. So, why is there this  insufficient RAM issue?

As discussed in Why did I get less free RAM after the ICS update in my Galaxy Note? Android is very efficient in memory management. The RAM in our Note has 4 portions: reserved, used, cached, and available.  Reserved part is for system devices, e.g., GPU, in this Jelly Bean update, it is about  130-140MB. So, about 860MB is available for Android, and all stacks over it. Among this 860MB, Jelly Bean actually only require less than 200MB, slightly more than Ice Cream Sandwich. The TouchWiz UI (aka Samsung’s skin) is over-bloated, and needs about 200MB. This implies users get more than 400MB for their apps. This is more than enough for any app in the Play Store.

But in our Galaxy Note, there are some bundled apps (bloatware) from Samsung and local carriers, e.g, Yahoo Finance, Learning Hub, always running because these apps mark themselves as essential (it will restart itself if you kill them use task manager), although they are not essential.

An app can also listen to reboot or start services, and therefore launches itself when you reboot your phone. So, immediately after you reboot your Galaxy Note, if your Note uses more than 600MB RAM, you may have RAM issue with apps. Your Note may be sluggish gradually. You can read the RAM info in any task manger or through Application Manager–running. If this happens, it simply means you have too many apps either marking them as essential (usually bundled ones) or trying to auto-restart themselves. You should check the RAM before using any other apps except task manager. Only check this immediately after rebooting.

So, the solution for the slowness problem caused by insufficient available RAM includes:

  1. disabling some unnecessary bundled apps (of course, if your Note was rooted, you can uninstall them). You should be very careful and only disable the apps that you are not going to use. This can be done in Application Manager–all. For each apps, you can choose disable. If there are updates installed, you need uninstall the update first, then to disable.
  2. preventing some apps to start automatically. You can go to Application  Manager–downloaded. For each app,  you can choose “force stop” if it is not grayed out. During the Jelly Bean update process, the updater actually marked all old apps to start automatically! This was done in the optimizing apps stage in the updating process.  Force stop may be not consistent (depending on app). So, a more powerful approach is to use some autorun manager. For non-rooted phones, you may try an app called Autorun Manager (in basic mode).

 

To sum up, if you feel your Galaxy Note is getting slower after the Jelly Bean update, you may try:

  • Step 1: Back up all important data in the internal storage. You may use Kies for some files, contacts, S Notes, messages, photos, and Carbon for app settings. Make sure the backup is in a safe place.
  • Step 2.: Perform a factory reset (settings–backup and reset)
  • Step 3: Disable some unnecessary bundled apps;
  • Step 4: Reboot and monitor the RAM usage. The used RAM  immediately after reboot should be less than 600MB.
  • step 5: Re-install backups from Kies
  • Step 6: Re-install apps one by one  from Play Store.
  • Step 7: Reboot
  • Step 8: Force stop all downloaded apps,
  • Step 9: Install Autorun Manager, and disable most apps in the list (in the Basic Mode)
  • Step 10: Reboot and check.

Is the slowness problem in your Galaxy Note solved? If not, post your questions in the comments box below of discuss it with other Galaxy Note owners in Galaxy Note discussion forum.

 

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Top 12 new features you should try after getting Jelly Bean 4.1 update for Galaxy Note

April 1, 2013 in Galaxy Note Guides, Galaxy Note News, Galaxy Note Reviews

jelly-bean-update-for-galaxy-noteJelly Bean 4.1 update has been available in more and more regions since February. Now our almost 1.5-year-old Note get a new  life again after the Ice Cream Sandwich update last year.

If the rumor can be trusted (and it is usually can be trusted), Galaxy Note will get Jelly Bean 4.2 update this year as well. Even better news for Galaxy Note 2 owners, Key Lime Pie (aka, Android 5.0) update will very likely be available for your Note 2. Well done Samsung!. Now Samsung is only second to Google in providing update for their Android handsets.

Last November, we list top 10 expected features in this Jelly Bean update for Galaxy note. After testing the update recently, we found all features mentioned except Airview were included in this update.

Some of these new features and improvements are part of Jelly Bean update, for example Google Now and popup browser. Some are Samsung’s extension or exclusive apps, for example, multi-window, Paper Artist,  and easy clip.

In this post, I will share with you 12 must-try new features in this Jelly Bean 4.1 update in your Galaxy Note. All these features are already available in Galaxy Note 2 and Note 10.1. So, if you own Galaxy Note 2 or 10.1, you can also try all  these features out of box.

1.  Google Now (part of Jelly Bean)

Google Now is the killer feature of Jelly Bean. It was officially unveiled in Google I/O 2012. With Google now, you become the master, not the slave of your smartphones. Google Now essentially digs all your info in your Google accounts, then predicts what  info you may need before you ask. The info is presented in “cards”, which are presented  once you start Google Now. In Jelly Bean 4.2, more cards will be available.

Of course, you can also use Google Now as knowledge navigator: simple ask questions, Google Now gives you results in natural language. It works far better (not so arguable) than Siri in iPhones.

To launch Google Now, you can long press menu (left) key. You can also long press Home button, then choose “g”. For Note 10.1, press the Home button (software, as there are no physical buttons) then swipe up.

2. Blocking mode

You can mute incoming calls, sound and notifications, if the blocking mode is turned on. Just like DnD in iOS 6, you can configure the timing and add an exception list.

Just like DnD on iOS 6, Blocking mode has an exception list where you can add some contacts that won’t be affected by its restrictions.

Blocking mode can be activated/deactivated from notification panel. You can also activate/deactivate it, or customize it (e.g., set schedule, or add exception list)  from settings–blocking mode.

3. Multi-window

You can run two apps side by side when the multi-window is turned on. At this time, only selected apps support this feature. In the right side of your phone, there will be a blue multi-window panel handle,from which you can pull out the panel containing all supported apps. Simply drag two apps one by one, each app will take half of the screen.

When in multi-window mode, you can re-size each app, or make one of the app take the full screen. But what you cannot do is to overlap these apps as in Q Slide in Optimus G. Q Slide is similar to popup (browser, video, note) in Galaxy Note mentioned below.

Multi-window can be activated/deactivated from notification panel (by default). You can also activate/deactivate it from settings–display.

4. Popup browser (part of Jelly Bean)

Popup browser allows you to open a link in a popup window. You can move the popup browser on the screen, but you cannot re-size it (at least we did not figure out how to do it), or push it back unless you close it. Of course, you can tap the button in the top left  corner to maximize it. This essentially change the popup browser to the in-stock one.

This popup browser is part of Jelly Bean and there is no corresponding app for it. The only way to invoke it is to open a link in an app (except in other browsers) and then the system will give you the option to use popup browser or any other browsers. Of course, you can make it (or any other browsers)  default if you want. Then you will not see the options window. If you want to get this option window back, you have to clear the defaults for the browser chosen in applications manager.

There are two other popup apps you may already know. One is the popup note (it is called quick memo in Ginger Bread, and ICS). At any time, you can press down the S Pen button, and double tap the screen, a popup note will be available. This is very useful when you want to write down something during a call. You can re-size the window and move it around.

Another one is popup video play debuted in the ICS update in some regions as explained in this post. The in-stock video player can be re-sized and move around. You can  also switch to other apps and keep the video playing.

5. Offline voice typing (part of Jelly Bean)

The new embedded speech recognizer lets you use Voice Typing even when you don’t have an Internet connection. You need download about a 15MB file for each language. Of course, this offline version is not as good as the cloud version, but it is surely usable.

You can change the settings from Settings–Language and input–Google voice typing.

6.  Expandable notifications and controllable notifications from apps  (part of Jelly Bean)

The notification panel can now expand to show you more info, for example, a portion of your incoming email, rather than just the number of emails waiting for you in the inbox. Moreover. notifications from the same application will be  grouped together, and the first item is automatically expanded. You can pinch notifications to expand or collapse them.

Another nice feature related to notification is that you can disable notifications from any apps. In the Settings–Applications manager, you can disable notification for any apps.  You can  also identify the apps by long tap the notification. Then you can disable the notifications for this app if the notifications are annoying, but you need keep this app.

7. Easy clip

Press down  the S Pen button, draw any closed shapes on the screen. The closed region can then be used as an image in  other apps. You can paste this clipped image to the scrapbook , to S Note, to email, to Facebook… This is very handy for saving or sharing.

8. Contextual filename for your photos

When GPS tagging is on,  you can adjust the file name based on contextual information such as your current GPS location.  You can also add weather tag, person and date of course. Before shooting photos, you can go to camera settings to enable GPS tag and contextual filename. Once in the gallery (the in-stock one), you can add more tags after tapping the menu key..

9. Photo Note

You can simply put handwriting notes on the back of your photos! You can access this function from the Gallery app. Once a photo is loaded, tap the menu key, you can  then select photo note to write on the back of the photo.

Similarly, You can also add frames to your photos as well.  You can also write something anywhere on the photo or the frame. The framed photos will then be saved in /storage/sdcard0/pictures/photo frame folder.So  a new photo (re-sized and in PNG format)  is saved, and you can use this framed photo on other systems. This is different from photo note, which is only readable for Samsung’s Android phones.

10.  Paper Artist

 Paper Artist is an app exclusively developed for Samsung (by JFDP-Labs). It was first introduced in Galaxy Note 2. Paper Artist essentially is an image editor, but with very special tools and effects. With this app, your Note turns you into an artist, at least  you will get this feeling.

You can launch this app just as other apps. Alternatively, you can access this app from your gallery. Tap the menu key  when a photo is opened, select edit, and an option for Paper Artist will be available.

11. Improved S Note

S Note is simply getting better in this update. More contextual options are added and it likes the S Note in Note 2. Another notable new feature is added sketch effects for any images in your S Note.

12. Page buddy

Page buddy essentially display contextual popup widget depending on the accessories connected or  removed. For example, when a headset is inserted, a page with music player widget and video player widget will pop out. You can enable or disable this function from Settings–Display-Page buddy.

Unfortunately, unlike the page buddy in Note 2,  there is no S Pen page, because Galaxy Note does not have a sensor to detect the removing of S Pen.

Of course, there are many other new features, for example, re-sizable widget,  Smart Stay, Handwriting email and S Planner, configurable notification panel, ChatON and group play. Most Google apps were also optimized for Jelly Bean.

Any questions on Jelly Bean update for your Galaxy Note? Or any questions on these features in you Galaxy Note , Note 2 and Note 10.1? Please post in the comments section below.  You can also start a discussion in our discussion forum.

 

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Top 10 expected features in Jelly Bean 4.1 update for Galaxy Note

November 20, 2012 in Galaxy Note Guides, Galaxy Note News, Galaxy Note Reviews

jb-new-logoWe all know Samsung has been working on Jelly Bean (4.1) update for Galaxy Note, although this Korean company never officially confirm or announce this update. The information we have is the update may be rolled out as early as in December. and most users will get it in Q1/2013. There is no information on Jelly Bean 4.2 update yet.

Anyway, the waiting is almost over. Now, let’s list the top 10 anticipated features in this Jelly Bean 4.,1 update for our more-than-one-year-old Galaxy Note. For Top 10 new features in ICS update, please read this post: http://www.allaboutgalaxynote.com/top-10-new-features-in-galaxy-note-after-ics-update/ 

1. Faster, smoother, and more responsive as claimed by Google

Thanks to Project Butter, one major improvement in Jelly Bean is the performance: faster, smoother and more responsive. Of course, I guess Samsung’s TouchViz UI may degrade the performance a bit. Some carriers’ bloatware may also have negative impact on the performance.

But overall, we should notice significant performance improvement.

2. Google Now

It is a shame that Google Now has not got sufficient attention. Google Now is a true innovation on getting relevant information on a mobile device. It makes you the master, not the salve, of the information. Just as claimed by Google, Google Now gets you just the right information at just the right time. If you do not have any Jelly Bean devices now, you may get more info on the Google Now offical site

3. Multi Window

Yes, you can run two apps side by side. Although very limited apps are compatible with multi window at this time, it is a really nice feature for a 5.3″ screen. Of course, this feature is best for Galaxy Note’s bigger brother Note 10.1.

4. Offline voice typing

In Jelly Bean, a new embedded speech recognizer lets you use Voice Typing even when you don’t have an Internet connection.

5. New notification system

The notification system will have significant improvements: more info and more controls. Notifications from the some app will be grouped and you can take actions directly in notification page. You may also identify the apps generating the notification and disable the annoying notifications from such apps.

Hopefully, Samsung will not chop off too much.

6. Smart stay

Screen will be bright as long as you are looking at it! Although it will not save much battery juice because of the involvement of the front camera, it makes your Note more personal.

7. Direct call

This trick was first introduced in Galaxy S3. Your phone looks smarter than others: it knows when you want to talk, who you want to talk When you look at it, smart stay comes!!

8. Photo note

Add notes on the back of your photo!!

9. Air view 

Hovering your S Pen over photo gallery, messages, planner…will give you the preview of the items without opening them!!!

Due to differences in S Pen, this feature may be not available for Galaxy Note.

10. S  Note 2.0

There are a lot of improvements in S Note app in Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Note 10.1. Most of such improvements will very likely be brought to Galaxy Note’s Jelly Bean update.

 What are the features you are expecting for this coming Jelly Bean update for your Note?

Update 1: Samsung officially confirmed the Jelly Bean 4.1 update will come soon through another Premium Suite. Here is the link: http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote/note/benefit.html?type=find

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Top 10 new features in Galaxy Note after ICS update

July 16, 2012 in Galaxy Note Guides, Galaxy Note News

After the official release of ICS 4.0.3 update for Galaxy Note  in May and ICS 4.0.4 update last week, some users asked me what the new features are. Thanks to Samsung’s Touch Viz UI, most users will not visually find any changes after the update. Here I prepared the top 10 new features in your Galaxy Note after the ICS update.

Each update fixes some bugs and the performance should be improved, so we usually recommend users to apply the update, although some new problems may be reported, e.g. battery issues, RAM issues. Given the short lifespan (1-3 years) of samrtphones, it is impractical to wait for the perfect firmware.

In this post I will try to introduce you the features. I will create  tutorials for some of these features later.

1. Pop- up play (ICS 4.0.4 update is needed)

pop-up-play-galaxy-notePop up play was debuted on Galaxy S3  last May. In the Googl Play store, there are a few paid apps (e.g., Stick it! (Pop-up Player)) doing the similar job. What it does is quite simple, you can watch your video and use other apps at the same time. The video will be re-sized as thumbnail and you can move it to any locations on your screen. Pretty cool, right?

Of course, only the built-in video player support this. Once the video is open, you can find the re-sizing (or pop up play?) button in the top right corner. If you want to stop the video, just touch the video area and release your finger. If you want to go to full screen, you can long press the home button to get the task manager and open the video player.

Two limitations: 1). the size of the video cannot be adjusted, at lest I did not find any ways to adjust it; 2). If you want to go back to full screen, the video will be played from the beginning, not from where you stop in the pop up play mode. Thanks to julien for correcting me. (Tap the video,  it will go back to the full screen and continue.)

2.  S Note

S Note is part of the Samsung’s Premium Suite for Galaxy Note and is installed as part of ICS update. It comes with 6 samples, 6-page S Note Tips, and a 6-page productivity Tools Tips. So, you can start to use it quite easily.

With S Note, you can directly convert your handwriting into text, convert your drawing into polygonal shapes, and convert your writing into mathematical formulas. You can even import PDF file for annotation!

After the ICS update, you should be able to find this app among your applications.

3. My Story

My Story is also part of the Premium Suite for Galaxy Note. But it is not installed automatically during your ICS update. You can download it either from Samsung Apps or Google Play store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.app.mystory)

This apps help you create multimedia letter or a card or an album. It comes with 4 templates (birthday, thank you,  letter in a bottle, ans memory).

This apps need verify your phone number. So, when you open it first time, it will ask your phone number and a verification code will be sms to you. So, remember to provide correct phone number, especially country code.

4. Face unlock

Face unlock is a standard feature in ICS (Android 4.0). You can unlock your phone by using your face (and the front camera). You can turn on this by going to settings–security–screen lock. Of course, if the light is so weak, you cannot use this feature. So, your Galaxy Note will ask you to setup PIN or password as well in case your face is not recognized.

5. Notification

In ICS, notification is significantly improved. Shortcut for Settings is added there. From the lock screen, you can also launch apps directly.

6. Data usage monitor

ics-data-usageFor people with data quota, monitoring mobile data usage is important to avoid hefty and stupid charges from the greedy telecom operators. In the past, you may use some apps, e.g. 3G Watchdog to monitor the data usage. Now, it is not necessary.

Under settings, now you can find Data Usage. All your data usage will be reported here. You can set the limit, and disable background data if your data quota is very low.

7. Developers options

Occasionally, some background processes (usually from poorly written apps) may drain your battery  quite quickly, and hog on the ram. So, your system may be not so responsive. IN ICS, you can go to Settings–Developer options to setup the background process limit. You can choose No Background processes as a test if you suspect the battery drain is due to background process. Normally, you should not choose no background processes, as Android system may need this function to improve performance.

Under developers options, you have a quite a lot advanced controls, e.g., show CPU usage, or force GPU rendering.

8. Quick access to task manager/ Swipe to close

ics-task-manager-swipe-to-closeAt any time, long press Home button, you will get the task manger (pop up). From the thumbnail list of running and recent apps, you can swipe to left or right to close it . Touch it once to open the corresponding app.

9. Signature unlock (ICS 4.0.4 is required)

This is a cool feature, although not so useful. You can unlock your phone with your S Pen by signing on the screen. That’s it.

You can set it up from Settings–Security–Screen lock.

10. Chrome browser

ICS has a improved web browser. You can open up to 16   8 tabs (thanks for Thomas who found we can actually open 8 tabs in Galaxy Note, not 16, It seems Samsung gave us 50% discount.).  It sounds good?

Even better, you install Chrome browser ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome) on your Galaxy Note. It is super fast and you can even share the bookmarks and browser windows with your desktop!.

Any comments? please post in the comments section below or in our Galaxy Note forum.

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ICS 4.0.4 update for Galaxy Note is arriving, globally

July 12, 2012 in Galaxy Note Guides, Galaxy Note News

ics-4.0.04-galaxy-note-300After 2 months of the initial ICS update(4.0.3) for Galaxy Note, Samsung now quietly roll out ICS 4.0.4 globally. I was a bit surprised when I saw the update notification, because I just got the information the 4.0.4 update would be roll out gradually.

Apparently, immediately after releasing the ICS update for AT&T’s version Galaxy Note on July 11, Samsung also pushed out the ICS 4.0.4 update for Galaxy Note users in German. And today, more regions including most European countries and Asian countries get the Android ICS 4.0.4 update for Galaxy Note.

Hopefully, this update will solve some of the battery issues most users experienced in GB and ICS 4.0.3.

Now, all Galaxy Note users are expecting the next major update for Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). The information we have is that Galaxy Note  and S3 will get the Jelly Bean update, probably in Q1 2013.

Also, the coming Galaxy Note 2 (with ICS pre-installed, not Jelly Bean) will be very likely announced in the IFA 2012 (August 31-Sept. 5) and start to shipping in November (roughly one year after the release date for Galaxy Note) . So, hopefully, in the Q1 of 2013, both Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2 will get the Jelly Bean (4.1) update.

Anyway,today’s minor update (from 4.0.3 to 4.0.4)  is about 100MB.  So, please try to download through WiFi or Kies if your mobile data is very limited.

Any questions? please post the  in the comments section below or in the Galaxy Note Forums.

ics-4.0.4-galaxy-note-updated

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Why did I get less free RAM after the ICS update in my Galaxy Note?

June 28, 2012 in Galaxy Note Guides

Some users felt the sluggish immediately after the ICS update on the Galaxy Note. Some users even want to go back to Gingerbread, as commented by some users on the post of Top 10 questions on ICS update for your Galaxy Note and Ice Cream Sandwich is coming to your Galaxy Note

Of course, it is NOT necessary to go back to GB. Don’t over-react on the feeling. In this post, I will share with you how to read your available RAMs, and some tips to make your Note more responsive.

During the ICS update, for some unknown reasons, all apps will be started (we all know all apps will be re-installed by the updater, but I am not sure why they are started). So, after the update, your Note will not so responsive. A quick solution is rebooting your phone after the update. Most apps will not run automatically, so, after the reboot, only some apps started.

Now, you can check your memory (RAM) usage through Settings–Applications–Running. You should have 200-400MB free RAM. This is more than sufficient for most apps!! For example, for my note as shown below, it still have 299MB free RAM after running a few days.

ram-reported-by-system

This shows the actual available RAM.

But if I use the bundled Task Manager, it reported only 101MB free RAM as shown in the screenshot below. This is why a lot of  users get scared!. Do not trust any task manager or system info apps. Most of them suck. Most of apps report available RAM inaccurately.

ram-reported-by-task-manager

This shows why most Task Manager suck!

Wait a minute, the specification says my Galaxy Note have 1GB ram, but it shows I only have about 800MB.  Is Samsung cheating us? Surely not. The about 200MB RAM is reserved by the system, mainly for GPU.  In your Galaxy Note, there is a GPU (Mali 400-MP, to be precisely) whose duty is to render whatever to be shown on the screen. All such embedded GPUs do not have “dedicated” memory: they have to share the system RAM (your 1GB RAM). As GPU need contiguous (both physical and virtual)  address, memory should be reserved.  This is something similar (but not identical)  to your integrated graphics card on your PC (if you still have such a PC).

Your Android kernel (ICS) and drivers will use about 200MB RAM. Another about 200MB were used by your launcher and other bundled apps (both essential and bloated). So, after rebooting your Galaxy Note, you should have 300-500MB available RAM. Don’t use any task manager to check!! 

Android (and its father or mother? Linux)  is very efficient in memory management. Any unused RAM is wasted!  Android caches some apps in the RAM so that when you want to launch these apps, it will be super fast because they will be loaded from memory instead of from the storage card. Most of the time, your newly closed apps get higher priority of being cached. Of course, Android will not use up all your RAM; it will always leave 100-200MB as unused in your Galaxy Note so that you can launch any apps without feeling the sluggish. If the unused RAM is not sufficient, some cached RAM will be released immediately based on priority and other factors.

So, you should never worry about RAM management in your Galaxy Note. Most task managers and RAM boosters are useless.

If you feel the phone is sluggish, the problem can be caused by some poorly-written apps or some other settings (e.g., excessive power saving settings). You can always check the running apps from Settings–Applications–Running to find out which app is hogging the resources.

As mentioned, some apps start itself automatically when you reboot your phone. If you are curious to know which apps in your phone will start automatically (usually during boot time), you can install this Autorun Manger (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rs.autorun). If your phone is not rooted, you can only temporally stop such apps through Settings–Applications–Downloaded–choose the app–Force Stop. Anyway, for most users, this is NOT necessary.

Ok, a few tips to make your phone more responsive:

  • Turn off Power Saving. Based on my personal experience, the Power Saving can extend the battery life only about 10%, and your CPU seldom goes to 1.4GHz with Power Saving on. I tested for a few days. When it is off, my Note became far more responsive,and may battery is still enough for my daily use. Occasionally I still turn it on if I know I need user it for longer time on some days.
  • Turn off Screen Rotation. You can always turn it man when you need it, e.g., browsing web pages, watching videos.
  • Turn off Touch sounds and vibrate on touch. You can do this from Settings–Sound–System

What are your tips to make your Galaxy Note more responsive? Or do you have comments to share with us?

 

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AllAboutGalaxyNote updated: from one-way communication to N-way

June 24, 2012 in Galaxy Note News

galaxy-note-owners-communityYou may already notice this blog was updated this weekend: from a blog to a community.

Blogging is an effective to share experience, to discuss some specific issues with a small group peers. This is the original format of AllAboutGalaxyNote.com, powered by WordPress.

However, when a blog post has 100-200 discussions, the limitation is obvious: it is hard to navigate (although WordPress is really a solid platform). In addition, it is very hard for a visitor to start a new topic  due to the default security control in WordPress. So, an integrated forum is needed.

Sometimes, some people prefer private discussions. This is also hard to implement in WordPress.A private messaging system would be also helpful.

After some comparison, I chose BuddyPress, which is a social plugin for WordPress to extend the functions of WordPress.  So, all contents (posts and comments) are preserved. Now we get additional features with this update:

  • Private messaging (for registered users)
  • Forum
  • Chat room (coming soon)
  • Facebook integration (some users want to receive update from Facebook)
  • Google+ page (again, some users, like me, prefer receive update through RSS or Google +)

Now the communication is N-way.

Please give us feedback on any features, as well as your other suggestions.

What else do you want to have here?

 

 

 

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