Galaxy Note Tips & Tricks

Top 10 new features in Galaxy Note after ICS update

By 184 Comments · ·

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.

Table of Contents hide
1) 1. Pop- up play (ICS 4.0.4 update is needed)
2) 2. S Note
3) 3. My Story
4) 4. Face unlock
5) 5. Notification
6) 6. Data usage monitor
7) 7. Developers options
8) 8. Quick access to task manager/ Swipe to close
9) 9. Signature unlock (ICS 4.0.4 is required)
10) 10. Chrome browser

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.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shaurya says

    Hey I too have a serious problem in my galaxy note……
    It was first having android os 2.3.5 & I upgraded it to 2.3.6. Then I upgraded it to 4.0.4 & it had problems after upgrading. Something is coming continuously which is giving information (like given in settings in about phone).First when I saw it I thaught it a widget but no.And there is another problem too.When I press the power button it doesnot lock.Even I have tried all locks but no, it doesnot work………….

    Please help me ! Please.
    Reply soon !

    Reply

  4. Danny says

    Hey, I have a problem with my documents folder, I dragged and dropped my work folder from my computer into the documents folder on my phone through Kies. However, when I access my folders on the phone, none of the sub-folders show up, so I just have one big folder with tons of stuff, rather than having everything organized into sub-folders. Anyone else have this problem? I know I can download a third party app for better organization of my folders, but I would prefer to avoid that.

    Reply

  5. Magnolia Vargas says

    When I answer or make a call on My SGH-I717, the other party is unable to hear me! Can you help me in fixing this problem??? I love my phone, this is the only problem I have right now

    Reply

  6. Keith says

    Hi- I have Galaxy Note 4.0.4 ICS and I seem to have all the features you spoke of *except* the ability to use a signature to unlock my screen. Is there something I need to do to activate this or do you have any suggestions? Thanks!!!!

    Reply

  7. sally says

    Hi, I’m using Samsung galaxy note 10.1 and after updating my phone, the long press home button show google instead of popping up task manager. How to change it back?

    Also, is there a way to safely revert back because I found this update sucks.

    Reply

  8. Jessie Liggayu says

    HEY! i got the galaxy note 1 recently for xmas, and i noticed the battery dies too fast. i charge my phone and then 3 mins later without using it it says “97%” of battery…i dont get it. i dont have much apps, or use it a lot. i turn off the wif-fi or other unnecesary stuffs..

    Reply

  9. Andrea Nicole Caicedo says

    Hey! I have a question. So I got the galaxy note 1. And i like how when you get a message you swipe. But i want to set up a passcode too. Like if i get a message i just swipe the little bubble that shows me the message in red..but i also need to put my passcode. Idk if you get me, im sorry my english is not that good.

    Reply

  10. Muhammad Kashif says

    I have little issue with widgets sizes, my brother has galaxy note 2 he has full screen widgets display on home screen of different apps like flipboard and tweet caster on other hand i have note n7000 ics 4.0.4 unable to load full screen size widgets like note 2, i have tried all size small medium and larg but cannot fit, is it for JB or something else ?

    Reply

  11. Paul says

    I have updated my Note to ICS 4.0.4 Before the update, the HOME screen displayed a number of S MEMO’s by default, and even after the update, these default MEMO’s were re-displayed. However, after having deleted these, I cannot find any way, either in the manual or online, that explains how to create an S MEMO and then display it in full on the HOME screen. The only thing I’ve found is the BOOKMARK function, but its not the same. Can this still be done with ICS? The dafault memos are the castle, the dog, the map etc. I used to use this function to display a MEMO of things I wanted to see as I unlocked the phone.

    Reply

  13. lost reception says

    Hi!

    I updated my Galaxy Note N7005 software to 4.0.4 and I got some issues with regards to lost signal reception. I can not text nor call or even receive them. Can you help me on this? Thanks

    Reply

  14. deepesh says

    i just update my samsung galaxy note in ics 4.0.4 ver. but when i using screen lock option it doesnt work

    now what can i do…….

    Reply

  15. Bunny says

    I just got ma galaxy note wid 4.0.4……but sometimes d contacts open slowly in it…..it takes about 2-3 seconds to open….whereas on ma friend note it opens quiclkly…………help me

    Reply

  16. John says

    does samsung note 1 support s voice? If not, will s voice run after i upgrade my note to ICS? And what is the difference between s voice and voice command?thanks

    Reply

  17. sameh says

    I have just updated to 4.0.4 but notification remain the same, no new items is added.
    do you guys know this issue.
    i have used middle east version and update with ODIN

    Reply

  18. heian says

    a game as simple as ‘take me home lite’ says that my phone is too weak to handle it. thats just pretext. the thing is i am thinking of getting a new launcher and concerned if my phone can handle it. is it healthy for it? should i change the default launcher? i am no pro. i’ll be doing it only for UI(which is kinda the only tech word i know, if it is considered a techword). i dont want to do anything harsh. i am the play safe kind of person. not gonna do anything thats not worth the risk. wont do anything beyond minimum risk. so should i go for it?

    p.s. : see my comment/query? see everything in lowercase? thats because my samsung keyboard’s auto- capitalization has refused to work. i checked and set the settings. its just not working. whats up with it?

    Reply

  19. myfuture says

    after updatting to ICS I could not find facility of Show on map for GPS tagged photos which was there with previous OS on Galaxy note.

    Reply

  20. jason says

    I have a new samsung galaxy note, and sometimes the back button just stops working until i restart. any idea what can be done?

    Reply

  21. Yvonne says

    Hi there,
    I’ve upgraded to 4.0.4, camera shutter sounds loud. I can’t find way to off it.
    Please advise is there option to off the sound?

    Reply

  22. varad says

    Hey i recently bought(been 1 month) the galaxy note and i am willing to update it from 2.3.6(gb) to 4.0.4.(ics)
    well…problem is some of my friends updated it and they are saying the ics update is slowing down the phone horribly and some services like bluetooth service became unusable after update..i am from india..so my question is…is it safe to update note to 4.0.4??

    Reply

  23. Ali says

    After ics update i can’t load flash videos anymore. It just shows a blue brick and that’s it. I tried restarting it but it didn’t work plz help

    Reply

  24. rohit raj says

    i updated my note to ICS 4.0.4 last week. after that it has started hanging. especially when i use my phone in the morning. when i go to application screen, it stuck in between when i slide to other screen. please help me out in fixing this problem.

    thank you.

    Reply

  25. okyan says

    I found this very helpfull. I have updated my os now ICS. But the problem is in video player i still dont have the pop up play. Can you please help me with your expertise? Thanks a lot.

    Reply

  26. adidoc says

    I have faced two few new loss of functions:
    1. Whenever I used my cordless mouse with note, the right click used to function as return button. But after 4.0.4 I have it does not and u have to end up keeping your phone in hand while connected to a tv or monitor. The right click for return is not even working for a USB mouse connected by OTG. Any comments or solutions.

    2. Another major problem is, my note has stopped recognising my samsung printer since 4.0.3. And this persists even with 4.0.4. I tested with other latest samsung printers also. Its not printing. Please help. This issue has drastically reduced work efficiency.

    3. Finally a petty issue. But for the sake of it. i found that the image rotating fuction of gallery is missing. Any ideas?

    Reply

  27. Som says

    I found two new features after update my note… one is near proximity calling and other one is gallery update. We can play slide show of pics from the gallery and also we can directly launch the cam from gallery.
    what other cool feature we will get apart from the above.

    Reply

  28. Shaleen says

    One more important feature we are getting in ICS is near proximity calling. If you are viewing any message or contact just bring the phone closer to your ear and that number get dialed. Is it not available in all countries. In India I got it as a new feature.

    Reply

  29. RAJA ZAHID says

    Hi guyz I just upgraded mau note in 4.0.4 via wifi in Pakistan (purchased in spain)now every thing is fine accept PLAY STORE and GMAIL….I cant open play store and gmail.plz give me a soloution.
    tnx

    Reply

  30. G_Note from Canada says

    Hi,
    I am still in the GNote version of 2.3.6. Please advise how can I updates to the latest version from Canada.

    Thanks

    Reply

  32. asif mohammed says

    I bought a note from dubai and i am using it in india. The.phone came with ICS 4.0.3 but i wanted to upgrade 4.0.4 but i couldnt find any upgrade available through samsung skies or through phone. Pls help if there is anything to do.

    Reply

  33. Raz says

    Hello,I just bot my new note couple of days ago.Since I was new to it I was checking its Smemo by writing few text in it ,after that I deleted my memo.But soon I realized that the memo in which I was writing contains the stars constillation photo is also deleted.After that I tried several sites to download it but couldnt find it anywhere.Then i tried to restore my phone to factory settings.But after restoring only galaxy note logo appeared in the bottom right side but not the picture.Please tell me how how will I get that again.

    Reply

  34. Mitra JK says

    Hello, after updating Note to 4.0.4, I can no longer delete icons from home pages by sliding them downwards into delete, like before:(
    Is this a bug or is there a different way to delete icons?? TIA

    Reply

  35. Janak says

    Hi, I updated the Note with 4.0.4 yesterday. I’m having issue in launching S Choice app. When I click on S Choice app it says “Get the latest Samsung apps first”. Any idea what is this and whats the issue?
    How can it be resolved?

    Reply

  37. Anton says

    B4 I cud adjust the screen brightness by touching the bar on top. But after updating the software I am not able to do it. Can some help me………

    Reply

  38. Stephen A says

    I am from India. My note is automatically forwarding all the text messages I receive to my other phone. How do I resolve this?

    Reply

  39. Meghna says

    There are some issues I have:
    1) My menu icons get rearranged on their own atleast twice a day :/
    2)Y gallery and messaging esp the samsung keyboard freezes or force closes. Whemever i switch the phone on after power off it says sorry messagng unfortunately stopped :/
    3)netqorking apps like Chaton and Viber are crashing :/
    Help! !!

    Reply

  41. Jack says

    I tried to update my Galaxy Note from 4.0.3 to 4.0.4 but it failed.

    It appeared to download fine, rebooted and started to go into what looked like ClockWorkMod, but after a few second rebooted and message said it had failed

    I have unrooted my phone – could that be the problem?

    I’ve not changed the kernal just done an unroot, also I’d done a full reset of my phone before trying the update.

    Reply

  43. Pramod Panigrahi says

    Can it improve my Battery… :((((((
    I am feeling like throw away my galaxy note or sell it at any cost due to poor battery performance…

    Please help me…

    Reply

  44. CuminParsley says

    Under “5. Notifications”, you say: “From the lock screen, you can also launch apps directly.”

    How exactly did you get this feature? Everyone I know who has upgraded to stock ICS 4.0.4 ROM on the Galaxy Note (N7000) does not have this feature.

    Reply

  45. Sidharth says

    ok im sorry i didn’t realise you could scroll on the menu pop up… yes the settings option is still there. feeling stupid! 🙂

    but i did notice that Voice Talk stopped functioning with ICS update.
    does this have anything to do with making S voice exclusively available to galaxy S3?

    Reply

  46. Sidharth says

    I updated to ICS 4.0.4 here in India. There were a few glitches which I shall come back to later. My immediate concern is this. After upgrading to ICS i had activated “inverted rendering” [browser—>menu option—>settings—-> accessibility—Inverted rendering] after activating inverted rendering there was a software update and now i can’t access browser settings by clicking on the menu button when the browser is open. How do you access the browser settings now after the update?

    Reply

  47. julien says

    When playing in pop-up mode, you can go back in full screen mode by double-clicking on the video. The video will then continue playing normally (ie, it won’t go back to the beginning as stated in this article).

    @claudia Are you sure you’re running version 4.0.4? The firmware lists I found online state that only 4.0.3 was released in Switzerland yet. And the pop-up video play is a feature of 4.0.4 only.

    Reply

  48. Andrea says

    I’ve a problem with stock Mail app. On my note i setted a company exchange mail account.
    When I try to to get access to folders i can see only: inbox, outbox, drafts, trash, etc.. I cannot get inside inbox and inside each of subfolders.
    I can’t neither move mails from inbox to subfolders, because i can’t see them.
    I know that i should tap on the folder logo on the left and i should open the “tree” below, unfortunately it doesn’t work!
    Anyone can help me?
    Thank,
    Andrea

    Reply

  50. claudia says

    Hi..
    I just updated to 4.0.4 on my galaxy Note in Switzerland and the pop-up-play is not there…sad! I really don’t understand Samsung’s update policy….

    Reply

  51. Steven says

    Hi, I had upgraded to 4.0.3 earlier but had a major issue. Battery was the second on my list as that didn’t bother me so much. The big problem I had was typing whether it is SMS, email, search, etc basically my keyboard (standard/swype or even 3rd party) was either missing or no respond; because of this I had to used Odin to downgrade back to gingerbread. Do you know if this bug is resolve in 4.0.4? Thanks.

    Reply

  53. Andrei Savescu says

    Hello. I’ve just upgrade my Note to 4.0.4 but i can’t find the popup play button in Movie Player. Any ideas? Thanks.

    Reply

  54. Wayne says

    Hi, I’m not sure whether it is appropriate to ask question at here. I see there are a lot of experienced Galaxy Note users here so I would like to ask about the In-Call volume issue.

    I’m a new owner of Galaxy Note and I found out that the volume during call could not be reduced even I pressed the key at the side of the phone.

    One more thing is that, the person which I talk with claimed that he can’t hear my voice well when I’m using the headset. The volume of mic seems to be very low.

    Please help me on this problems. Thanks in advance.

    Reply

  55. Ash says

    Hi
    Does the ICS update bring the camera features to the Note – 1. Burst shot 2. Taking a still within a video recording.
    Or are those camera features hardware related?
    Thanks

    Reply

  56. Knut Nyhagen says

    Where did my wallpaper go??? After installing the latest version, the wallpaper was gone. Originally it was in the earlier version, coz can’t find it – not even in accuweather. It was live making rain, if the weather was rain, dark clodes, sun, etc. And it had a wave on the beach, really nice. And I miss it!!!! Anyone who knows how to find it again? Must be a Samsung app, but cannot locate it…. 🙁

    Reply

  58. Thomas Bo Andersen says

    I downloaded the ICS 4.0.4 update yesterday and I’ve been exploring the improvements compared to the 4.0.3. One thing I was looking forward to was the improved web browser with the possibility of opening 16 tabs. However I still can open only 8 tabs. I know that with chrome that’s not an issue, but as chrome doesn’t support flash yet I still use the original web browser more.

    Reply

  59. Elmar says

    Hallo,
    I just have bought brand new Galaxy Note and upgraded it to Android 4.0.3. It randomly turns off and freezes (usually within 5 minutes). I have made few factory resets and wiped cache partition. Did not help. I did not root. I can not believe that this is hardware problem. Poland. Can You help ? Elmar

    Reply

  60. selly says

    One question about Chrome

    After closing all the tabs，Chrome shows a gray page.Then I exit the app to desktop,CPU is still running in background .Is it a bug?

    thanks

    Reply

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