Keyboard Shortcuts

Why use keyboard shortcuts when you have a mouse?  This sounds not practical but short cuts are faster than using a mouse, at least, when you know what to press. But there are times that the mouse is not working well, especially when they get dirty or there's not a suitable mouse pad around. Optical mouse misbehaves as well especially when working on a shiny surface. Knowing what to press without a mouse or touch pad  will surely save the day. 

The following are my most used keyboard shortcuts that can help in everyday browsing to save time and sweat!

The Keyboard Shortcuts

• The Ctrl Combis

Ctrl + Alt + Del is the most common combi I use. I use this when I want to go to the Task Manager and see what program is not responding following a crash or the system sluggish or not responding at all. This combi key brings options like lock the computer, switch off, log off and so on.

Ctrl + Esc will bring about the Start Menu. And whilst at the Start Menu, pressing the Tab will highlight the first menu option of the selections, and whilst on a selection, pressing the Navigational Keys upwards forwards, or whichever side, will highlight the sub menu's, then just press enter when you've chosen your selection.

Bloggers or anyone using a word document can benefit from the ctrl combis below.

CTRL+C: Copy

CTRL+X: Cut

CTRL+V: Paste

CTRL+Z: Undo

CTRL+B: Bold

CTRL+U: Underline

CTRL+I: Italic

There are also cool shortcuts using Ctrl key whilst in the internet. Browsers with tab browsing will open a new tab with Ctrl + T combination. Ctrl + W will close the tab you are viewing. And when you have mistakenly closed a tab Ctrl + Shift + T.  Ctrl + E will ready the address bar for you to type any query. Whilst typing the name of the site followed by pressing Ctrl + Enter will add www at the beginning and .com at the end. Zooming in is easy with Ctrl +  + sign. Ctrl  +  -  will zoom out and Ctrl + 0 will revert any changes into the normal size.

If the website you are viewing does not appear properly, and you suspect that your cache is affecting what is shown in your screen, press Ctrl + F5 to override loading pages from the cache. This is useful especially when your cache is not yet cleaned or cleared.

Ctrl + U will let you see the source code of the site you are at. Handy for bloggers like me to see the landing links or URL source of any photo, video, audio or anything. Or simply to copy some codes. 

Most browsers has download managers and automatically download items to it's default folder, but sometimes it is hard to determine where is the default download folder is! To get round to it, press Ctrl + J 

• The Alt Key

Sometimes whilst browsing, the mouse key seems not doing anything no matter how you press it. There are systems that can lock the mouse with a combination of keys that the user is not aware. If this happens, try to unlock the mouse key by pressing Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock then try clicking your mouse.

There are also occasions that the screen seems dull and the text is hard to read especially when you are in a highly bright environment or light is reflecting in your screen. Your computer can use a special colour scheme to increase the contrast of the text in the screen so you can read it easier by pressing Left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen. You can undo it again by pressing the same key combination.

Alt + Tab simultaneously will display the program's icons that are running  and you can toggle between these opened applications by continues pressing of the Alt Key and a tap at the Tab. This is a good trick to see the applications opened at the same time rather than manually looking for them. Then release the Tab key followed by the Alt key to open up the application that is selected.

• The F Keys

If ever you are stuck on to something and need help, just press F1 to bring up the windows help menu. When you are looking for a file, F3 will let you help and search for it. Whilst browsing and the website or page seemed not doing anything, you can refresh the page by pressing F5. If you are watching a movie F11 will get you on or off the full screen mode.

• The Windows Logo

The Windows Logo key can also bring about the start menu. Windows Logo + M will minimise the window you're in, Shift key + Windows Logo + M will undo it. If you can't find show desktop icon in it's usual place, and you want to get in your desktop quick, pressing Windows Logo + D will get you there in no time.

Windows Logo + L will lock your computer straight away, without pressing to Ctrl + Alt + Del first. 

If you want this post and want to book mark it just press Ctrl +  D.

How to Extend the Battery Life of Samsung Galaxy S II

Sexy and light yet powerful, that's the Galaxy S2. The only let down with this smart phone is the battery life. In my experience, I need to recharge everyday. My usage is not really that heavy, I rarely use it for calls, I am not a game addict as well, but most of the time I use it for browsing the apps store, check social status and emails using wifi.

Contributing factors

The smaller and slimmer chassis really made an impact with the battery life, as it can only accommodate a smaller capacity power pack. It's larger and brighter screen requires more juice than smaller ones. Dual cores bring about multitasking, although useful in bringing apps into a faster pace, it takes a faster bite as well in battery consumption. Some of the apps run in the background and there is no easy one click to monitor or even disable this apps. Free apps that need to access the internet contributes to power depletion, and others that users let on and  always active like  wifi and 3G or 4G connections. All of these drink the power of the battery in no time.

To see what's drinking the most juice, go to settings, about, battery usage.

Battery Saving Tips

Decide what do you want to do with your phone.

• If you plan not to do anything than placing a call, then disable data calls. This will disable the reception of 3G and 4G signals but will allow your phone to take 2G's or placing and receiving a call or text messages. 

• Disable wifi when you're going away from home network. There's no point finding a wifi you can not connect to. It will only uses more battery without gaining anything.

• Adjust the screen time out to the shortest possible time. You can also automatically adjust the screen brightness automatically.

• Use a darker screen wallpaper, darker colours use less light, the brighter your screen the shorter your battery becomes.

• As much as possible, just press the power button slightly to turn off the screen when you finish what you are doing. Chances are, if you wait for the screen time out before putting your phone in your pocket, you might be pressing some buttons you are not aware of and this will make the screen on for longer time. This will also avoid accidental dialling.

• Use built in power saving mode. Customizing this setting can let you save more battery. You can tweak the screen brightness, screen time out and most of the connectivity functions from here. Press settings, power saving, custom power saving setting.

• The galaxy S2 has a task manager than closes running applications when you press clear memory under RAM. Don't be scared as this will make the applications run faster and unloading the burden on battery usage. It does not affect the phones function on receiving calls or going online.

• Application writers are always on their feet to keep their apps more battery friendly. Updating them will benefit not only for mobile threat attacks but to make them use power efficiently.

• Syncronize email, social networks and other live gadget widgets manually. This prevents these applications from becoming active to use your phone's resources and battery all the time.

• Use Juice Defender. I was skeptical with apps like this before. But juice defender does what it is advertised. The best part is it has a free version that really works. I've been using it for at least a week now and I noticed a big difference. Before, I charge once a day, now every other day! Get it by going to the Play store and just type juice defender. There is also an instruction on how to use it. Brilliant app!

• And this is the ultimate remedy to do more with your device without clock watching what's going on within your device. Buy a bigger capacity battery pack.Use the search tool below to see what's in offer.

Accessories Your iPAD

iPad made tablets very popular. It's not just it is easier to carry around than most laptops, but I personally use it when lying down relaxing on bed. The virtual touch screen keyboard made it it all possible to type even the device is upside down. And the long life battery is suitable when watching movies on bed.

Ipad Accesories

Case

Protecting it from bumps is the first priority when selecting an accessory. There are cheap cases out there but they are boring. There are also expensive ones and others with physical keyboards that can be connected wirelessly, but cost an arm and a leg. Good news is there are premium accessories with prices cut from 20 to 75%. The accessory below is worth £49.95 and can be bought for £16.95. A saving of at least 66%.

Screen Protectors

Protect your iPad's screen free from smudges, specially from sticky fingers of little tots, tapping games and watching videos with screen protectors. An investment of  at least £ 2.79, normally £7.99, will make sure the screen of your iPad remains pristine for years to come. Amazon give's you not just one but 6 screen protectors and a cleaning cloth for that price, the extras can serve as a back up or better tshare it to your friends that are iPad crazed as you are.

Stylus

Sometimes tapping with fingers is also tiring. You just want to rest your fingers and use a stylus instead. Or sometimes you are doing something that made your fingers dirty like helping the kids with their paintings. There is a real  a call to use the stylus in these cases. So be sure to get one of these as they can be easy to bring around and can fit perfectly to the 3.5mm audio or headphone port of your device.

Sound Dock

The sound quality of the iPad is already reasonably allright  on it's own, but still can be improved by providing a docking speakers. This will improve the way you watch movie or listen to music on your iPad. The device below is not only compatible to iPad but also compatible to iPhone, and iPad. The device can also charge you device while docked and can be syncronised with iTunes without removing it from the dock. You do need to connect the usb cable to the dock and the computer though. It can also be used as am audio enhancement by any music player or games console that has a 3.5mm audio output. Normally at £119, you can get this dock for £52.55.

Camera and USB Connector

You can transfer your photos or supported videos from your camera into your iPad using this connector. It is affordable at below £3. This device can make your iPad more flexible in sharing files, as the bluetooth function has no file sharing function to other devices. You can now enjoy movies from other devices, and store or see pictures from your mobile phones through this.

How to perfect timeline Facebook profile cover

After the timeline in Facebook is activated there's no going back. Although a lot of people like it, there are still many, including myself that like the old interface better. Why? It is simplier and easier to follow. It is also easier to see and search for what you're looking for. But timeline is here to stay, so we just need to live with it.

The profile cover is something new. Seems like so easy to set up but is not really easy to perfect. Sometimes the part you want others to see in the picture is not the one shown. Specially when you use the photos in your FB album without editing first.

Like the one above, I am sure the owner wants to show something else. Or maybe she really loves the trees, or nature! But looking at the original photo gives the clue, that she might have wanted to show their pretty smiles rather that the tree tops.

Although we can drag the photo when setting the profile cover, sometimes we just can't. Like the one profile cover below. Only a part of the face is showing, like peeking through a window. I am certain the owner wants to move the photo a bit higher but can not! 

The solution is to customize the photo you want to use into a banner format. You can crop a part of your photo using any built in photo editing software, a rectangular shape of 1:3 or 4 ratio. I use paint  (click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint)  usually to crop things. Then resample or resize it into a specific dimension. Then edit it or upload it straight away.

Below are the simple steps that can guide you into making your  perfect FB cover.


Choose a photo

You can choose any photo you want and crop it into a rectangular dimension using  paint program or irfanview  (click for free download) or any photo editing program that is available on your computer. If you want a photo in your FB profile, you can screen capture it or download it into your computer then do the editing. In this example I used a screen capture of my site.

Resample/resize

Then open up the cropped image using  irfanview or any other photo editing software that can resample or resize a photo. To resize using irfanview, click Image, Resize/Resample, tick Set New Size, choose Pixels as Units, then type the dimensions width = 850, height = 320

Upload

The image at this point can now be uploaded to your profile cover with almost accurate dimension. You can edit it into your liking and upload it later. Just make sure you have the dimensions 850 X 320 pixels at the end.

The resulting edited profile cover is below, with all the captions and elements I wanted to show.

How to Diagnose a Samsung Smartphone Without Any Tool

There is a simple way to diagnose a samsung smartphone without the aid of any tool or professional help. Although the functions that can be tested with this built in tool is just limited, the said functions are essential in the usage of the phone, like the phone's speaker, proximity sensor, light sensor, the RGB pixels of  your phone, accelerometer and so on.

Latest Samsung Offers

Samsung Galaxy S2 £18.50 per month best buy!!!

Samsung Galaxy S3 £31 per month cheapest deal

Samsung Galaxy Note £20.50 per month limited offer

Testing the speaker, where's the volume gone?

Why would you do that? Sometimes the speaker seems dead. Your phone does not ring, does not play a sound, does not play music and you do not know what happened. Testing the speaker if it is functioning would save you a lot of time in determining if you have just turned the volume at it's lowest or you've put your phone into mute.

To get the phone into test mode, dial * # 0 * # on your phone. After pressing the last character which is the  #  symbol, your screen would give you a screen like this.

Fig. 1 

Pressing the SPEAKER will make your phone ring even when you turn the volume down or your phone is on silent mode.

If you hear the ringing sound, you are assured that you might have just muted the phone, accidentally turned it off or put the volume at its lowest.

If you do not hear anything, then you are sure your speaker is the problem.

Wrong Picture Colours

If the colour of any picture shown at your screen seems not right, there might be dead pixels or dead colour pixels in your phone. Press RED, GREEN and BLUE(see fig. 1) to see if your screen gives a solid red, green, or blue depending on what you press. There might be dead pixels when you can see a dot or gap on the screen, And you will know which colour has the problem when you see dead pixels depending on which colour you have pressed.

Camera Functions


Mega cam and front cam will let you test whether  your camera is functioning well without opening up the camera application. Why do you want to do this?

On this mode the camera is tested if it can capture still image but the image is NOT normally saved into your phone or memory card thus saving you space on the phone's memory and finger taps to delete the test shots!

Test Vibration

This will test the phone's vibrate function, specially when in silent mode. 

Touch Accuracy

Do you make a lot of error when you type? Or do you suspect that your keyboard is too small to make a precise tap on your phone's virtual keyboard? Try this one and this will help you decide if you need to put the phone into landscape mode or you need a stylus pen or recalibrate your device.

The aim is to touch the middle of the small squares and after you have touched all the small squares, depending on the accuracy of your touch, it will flash a PASS or FAIL message. 

Sub key 

This is a test for the two light sensing button at the right and left of the home button. Pressing this buttons will change the colour of your screen. This means, both buttons are working.

Gyroscope and Accelerometer functions

Why you need to test this?

This is helpful for the gaming generation, you can be sure that your gyroscope and accelerometers are calibrated and functioning properly. Imagine if these do not function correctly, this will result in error and playing faults, especially on games that requires tilting and moving your device. It can also affects other applications like measuring gauge, level gauge, I use this to correct straight angles when helping with kid's assignments but too lazy to look for a protractor or triangles, and those applications that needs precise 90 degrees angle to work.

Just tap the SENSOR button and it will give you an interface like this.

Pressing the graph under gyroscope function will give you a graphical representation of your movement.

The self test will assure you that you have a fully functioning movement sensor on your phone when it says PASS

Windows Media Player Buffering.....

Discussed at a party,  some of my friends are having problem watching streaming movies using Windows Media Player. Particularly videos from ABS-CBN, a subscription video services showing TV programs from the Philippines ABS-CBN channel 2 network.

The symptom of their problem is the movie being streamed stops and the player says buffering, then starts again after buffering, or the player completely stops and freezes while buffering.

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There are many  possible causes and the most obvious is internet connectivity causing a slowdown of data exchange from the website server into their internet provider and finally unto their computer. Slowdown can be caused by heavy traffic, or too many users online within the internet providers, or too many users accessing ABS-CBN's server. Anything excessive from the two can make a slowdown. And here are simple remedies that can help.

• Low Bandwidth and busy server

There's not much you can do with this but to adjust the way you access the video. Luckily for ABS-CBN users, there's an option for low bandwidth for smaller file size. This makes a significant improvement with lower bandwidth internet users. If this does not work, you can choose to click download. Once the file has been downloaded, the windows media player will play the file continuously. The file is usually found at the download folder, if you want to delete it later.

Sometimes  internet providers "trottles" the internet connection. This means they deliberately give  lower bandwidth, thus slowdown of connection. You can check the speed of your internet connection at the link below, and if it is lower than what you should have been getting then you can make a screen shot and forward it to your internet provider. To watch a streaming video, like the abs-cbn,  at least 2mbps or more is needed to enjoy it.

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

• Slow computer

Sometimes, your computer, slows down because of a lot of things. In this "buffering" problem, I suspect that it is time to clear the internet cache. Internet cache  are stored bits and pieces of data from the websites you have visited. Your computer fetch these cached data for the websites to flash on the screen faster. But sometimes the cache gets confused especially when a website has just updated it's contents. What you will see when this happens are partially loaded web pages, badly formatted web pages, incomplete pictures, or in some cases, the wrong picture in the wrong place.

How to clear internet explorer by browser

Internet Explorer


Go to Tools from the Internet Explorer menu bar
Then click Internet Options
Then General Tab
Delete Files button in the Temporary Internet files section

Firefox


Goto Edit from the Firefox menu bar
Then click Preferences
Expand the Advanced menu by clicking the plus sign
Click Cache
Then Clear Cache button


Chrome

Click the Wrench Icon at the far right found on top of the browser
Select Tools
Click Clear Browsing Data
Then check tick clear browsing history, clear download history, empty cache
Then  Clear browsing data

Opera


Click Opera Logo at the top left hand
Then Settings
Click Delete Private Data
*Optional You can choose to click the dropdown(detailed options) menu to see what data are to be deleted
Then click Delete.

• Modem

I've read an article about some modems that use Network Address Translation to forward  UDP pockets. Whatever that means, it is one of the reasons why windows media player buffers! So we need to disable this kind of handling of data from the windows media player.

Open up windows media player
Click Tools
Then Options
Then click Network
Untick RTSP/UDP
Apply then OK

Phishing Attempt on Amazon Accounts

Just the other day, I received an email supposedly coming from amazon, saying my order is successfully cancelled. The truth is, I do not know what the email is all about. I did not ordered anything from amazon this month yet. I do have an amazon account but from another email provider! It was dodgy and made me doubtful.

The email sender is from order-update@amazon.com. It sounds legitimate at first thought, but the email itself is just plain and not even in rich-text format. There is not a single amazon logo or any graphics related to amazon. Both accompanying links like the order number (103-977-685) and www.amazon.com at the bottom has the same URL address and redirects the browser to    http://ebookzforsale.com/asking.html

The legitimate automated purchase email response from amazon always comes from digital-no-reply@amazon.co.uk. The true amazon email is always with amazon graphics and logo's that has reference to amazon. All of the hyperlinks are redirected to amazon's domain and subdomains and not to strange sounding addresses.

Whatever the reason the sender of these emails is, one thing is clear, he wants to create problem on you and your computer. I suspect that this is more of a trojan attack, to infect the recipient's machine and to create more problems later on. Trojan attack is serious, as this is like a thief that have sneaked into a house and just waiting for an opportunity to open up the back door so that other bad elements can go inside the house and join him create havoc or steal anything within!

If you have received any letter from order-update@amazon.com, or any sender with similar emails, not only those supposedly coming from amazon, telling you that your order is cancelled but you know you did not ordered any, just delete the email.


Below is the discussion from amazon users that have received the same email. Read what they think at

http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-sent-me-order-update-/forum/Fx1CZJV4VBZQPY0/Tx9WBN35EX0FL/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B002GPPPS4

How to avoid unnecessary smart phone mobile charges

It's handy to have a smartphone. You can do almost anything. And there's no need to bring along a load full of gadgets. Just one device will do, the mobile phone. But sometimes there is an unpleasant news that can happen to anyone with a smartphone. And that's the shocking unexpected monthly bill. This happened to a friend's friend I met on a party. And complained about charges that her provider sent her. It was not really clear when she told about her additional charges but I am already suspecting data excess.

I've inspected her phone, an iPhone4S and here are the things I found out that suspected to contribute to the shocking bill.

1. Email was on "push" mode

I did not checked how many email accounts were receiving push notifications, but this is clearly one of the contributors to data wastage. When in the "push" mode, your phone notifies you the moment an email reached your email server, thus your email data allowance starts to tick. I've told her to put it into manual mode bypassing the push and the fetch method (where you can set an interval for email notification) to conserve network data charges.

You can set your email push notification to manual by tapping the home screen, settings, mail contacts calen.., Fetch New Data, and choosing manually.

2. Facebook push notification is also on

This is worst than email, specially when you have many friends in your network that update their status everytime. You can turn this into manual mode by going to settings, scroll down to facebook, tap push notifications, and turn off all push notifications.

3. She watches videos and browses pictures on social networking sites

It's so tempting to watch videos sent by friends, especially from social networking sites. As you just need to tap the screen. But remember that videos contain a lot of data and depending on your bandwidth, especially when you're on 3G or HSPDA, you may have been viewing the video version on higher resolution. This means more data bite on your allowance. The same with viewing on photos that are on social networks. Your phone needs to download it first before you can see the image and in the process uses your data allowance.

If you can't help watching a clip or looking at pictures, you can turn off 3G and automatically your phone will use EDGE or GPRS connection. This will be automatically detected by the audio and video servers and will realise that you have a lower bandwidth available and stream you a lower quality and smaller data media files, therefore saving you on your data bundle.

Or better, just watch movies when you are within wifi range.

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4. Location services is on

There are native applications and downloadable apps that always tracking the location where your device is. To do this, the apps either use GPS or mobile network to get and send data according to your location. To check which applications are using your location services, tap settings, general, location services. You can tell the application that has requested your location within th last 24 hours by the location icon next to it's name. The native application Maps require constant internet access, this can be downloading data all the time while updating it's location. Applications like the ones to guide you to where you park your car behave this way as well. If you can't help to use it, turn it off when you have marked your location and turn it on when you're going to where you have parked your car specially when you plan to leave your car for sometime.

There are also unnecessary  Data waster ay iPhone4S systems location services like diagnostics and usage. This application send to apple automatically,how and where you use your iphone. Other data wasters are location based i-Ads, Setting Time Zone, and Traffic. To save on data, turn these off.

And remember next time you install an application, take a note at the end of the installation as some apps will ask your permission to enable push notification. You need to choose NO.

The surest way to avoid unnecessary data use is to turn off the cellular data button, if you do not like this idea then the surest way not to spend beyond your data limit is to upgrade your data tariff into unlimited internet!

But if upgrading your tariff is not possible then using wifi is the best option when using skype and other type of voip communication, watching movies and clips, listening to streaming music and any other bandwidth hungry online activities.

Accessorize your iphone 4s

No doubt iPhone variants are popular. Most phone accessories are made and focused to the iPhone users. Perhaps users like me are just familiar with the very obvious accessories there is, which are really necessary like the screen protectors, body cases, earphones and hands free kits. And there are accessories out there that users never noticed they ever existed and do not know what they are for, and if thinking if they'll ever be needing it. Here are some accessories I think can improve your iPhone experience.

1. Iphone power sleeve

This accessory is essentially a battery within a casing that doubles up as an iphone case. There are models of this product that are compatible with the iPhone 3 and 3GS or iPhone 4 and 4S. It is a useful piece of equipment especially when you are going somewhere where power grid is not available or when you do not want to bring cables with you. As it doubles up as a casing, it will also be protecting your phone from scratches and falls. When you can buy a fancy case, why not try this case doubled up as a battery tank? Surely will make you use your iPhone for longer.




2. Iphone bluetooth FM transmitter

Essential for every car owners. I am sure nobody wants to be fined up to £1000 and 3 points mark on his license while driving. But I am also sure the first natural thing for us to do when the phone rings is to pick it up and see who's calling, and eventually answer the other person at the other end. You are lucky when you are not caught first time, but what you've just did is illegal. So be road legal and install a bluetooth receiver with FM transmitter.

The way it works is, you need to pair your phone to the device through bluetooth, and set the device to transmit the received voice data from your phone to your FM radio through a certain frequency you'll select yourself, or just go to the existing lowest FM broadcast of the device at 88.1. Your car's FM radio should be tuned in into the frequency you've chosen to use your phone, for example with this post, at 88.1 FM.



3. Bluetooth receiver

I know this might be not essential because there are beautiful iphone docks available out there. But if you want to use your existing stereo without bluetooth capability to hear from music stored in your iPhone wirelessly, then this is the solution. If you are ok with wired connection, just buy 3.5mm male male connector.



4. Optical zoom lense

The iphone 4S has an 8 megapixel camera that can take clear photos. This is the reason why many users prefer this to take photos in everyday and random happenings rather than the full specs digital camera. The only problem is when the subject you want to focus on is far from you, like you are at the back when watching a play and you can not move forward.  The iphone 4S is equipped with a digital zoom function and it should be no problem. Only that digital zoom is inferior to optical zoom. Digital zoom is just like cropping the photo and the resolution is compromised or affected depending on how far you  "cropped" or how much you zoomed digitally. Optical zoom is a physical lense like that of the interchangeable DSLR's that can give you a crispier and sharper resolution than digital zoom.




5. TV output cable

There is no better way to share the contents of your phone other than to connect it to a bigger screen. Maybe to a bigger computer screen or a 40 inch TV. The later is my preference. There is a connector to do just this and it won't necessarily breaks the bank, like when you choose an apple TV. You can show your latest pictures and can even watch movies you've made or downloaded through this.



As you can see, there are many different ways to enjoy more your devices without spending a lot. Simple solutions that you thought complicated. The most important is, I am confident that any user can do this without any professional help. That's practicality!

The Samsung Galaxy S III

This is a mission post  submitted for samsung mobilers.

Quad core, S beam(NFC), s voice (siri equivalent), wifi direct, 20 burst shots, these are just a few of what's to expect with the new Samsung Galaxy S III, the latest, most powerful slimmest and sexiest  galaxy varaint at the moment. It has landed and now available to all mobile retailers over the UK! 

Why do you and I want to have one? Here's my reasons why I've fallen for the S3, the S3 factors.

Shame I have the S2 recently, but nevertheless, it's hard not to dream about and  get my hands on the new S3! What I like the most on Samsung's high end smartphones is the vibrant screen, second is  the ability to customize the screen the way I like it. The S3 has added attractions and new tricks to awe the users. Here's a list of some of the features.

Lock screen rippling effect.

The first noticeable boast is the way it mesmerises users when they touch the screen. It's like touching a bucket of water as the image ripples when the screen is unlocked. This is not really new and there are apps like this. The original samsung galaxy has this kind but as a wall paper but it has not been used in the locked screen before.

The bigger screen is also a plus not only to game addicts but to movie fans as well.

Quad core

A buzz on iPhone 4's quadcore turned out to be a misunderstanding and misleading to apple fans. It was actually the graphics that has the extras and not  it's processor.

This time at Samsung, when they say quadcore, it is really a quadcore processor! If you believe that two heads are better than one, then what is four heads? I am guessing than Samsung wants to make a killing on gamers, and thinking two steps ahead on the future of mobile gaming, which is getting more sophisticated and needing more processing power as it progresses.

The S beam

This is actually a new kind of  wireless sharing protocol, like the bluetooth and wi-fi. The S beam or NFC(near field communication) which is already existing in debit and credit card applications, is a kind of technology in data transfer that covers distances up to 10 cm, with data transfer rates from 106, 212 or 424 kbits/sec. This kind of contact less technology on transactions with the debit and credit cards that is embedded with this device would change the way we shop in the future. There will be no need to carry our  cards, just our phones to do all the shopping. Convenient! 

The S voice

Like the SIRI, the S voice can answer your questions about locations, weather, the time or anything that is in it's data base. You can also dictate what's on your mind and it happily types the word for you, then it can send it as a message or text to anyone in your contact without lifting a finger. Indeed, it is your personal digital slave.
See what you can do more with S voice at

http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/s-voices-practical-application.html

Text to voice call

While reading a text message, just lift the phone into your ear and the number that have texted you will be dialled. This saves time and few screen touches. It also enables you to respond faster. Clever!

Burst camera shot

I have not tried using any camera with a burst shot of 20 pics. My compact systems camera can only do 10 shots, but this phone can promise 20! This means you could possibly capture the moments you really are waiting for. Good for the sports enthusiasts or those new parents trying to capture the first steps of their child, or preserving those unguarded shots when having fun.

Smart stay.

It is annoying sometimes that the screen just timed out and goes blank when you are looking at your messages for sometime. Especially when you set the time out for 3 seconds just to save battery. This is a useful and sensible feature. The screen stays on until the phone's camera cannot detect the user's face or eyes focused on the screen on a certain distance. This function can be turned off as well if you prefer to wakeup your phone by touching it.

Pop out video player

Other phones stop the video you are playing when you want to do something else like calling a friend, checking your messages, or making a note. This phone does not! You have the choice to "detach" the video and continue watching while surfing the web, making a call, checking your mail or doing anything. Multi tasking, huh! What do you expect with a quadcore? Really a hardcore!

4G phone

It is a 4G enabled phone meaning it can handle the future 4G data connections that will be provided by mobile networks in the future. This means a faster internet and bigger bandwidths. The data transfer for 4G is at least 100mbit/sec. To get the idea how fast the connection is, the 3G has 3.85mbit/sec only.

Other top features

• Dimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
• Weight: 133 grams
• 4.8" HD Super AMOLED
• 8MP Camera
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Smart Rotation
• Video Pop
• S-Beam
• 1080p Video Recording
• 16GB Internal Storage

Where to buy?

• Dialaphone

You can get this great phone for  an effective £28.50 a month from  Dialaphone  with unlimited texts, 600 minutes talk time and 1GB data allowance.

• Carphonewarehouse.

You can get  this for £26 a month with £49 upfront cost  from  Carphonewarehouse, the lowest tariff so far, with unlimited texts, 300 minutes talk time and 750MB of data

Video


Watch the video of the Samsung S3 in action