Coolest feature you've found?

[Flumme]

Love this feature. It always announces the title of the alarm first, so I renamed my daily alarm to Good Morning Eddie so every week morning when it goes off, it says "Good Morning Eddie, it is 0500am,....." Love it!

I'm so sorry, but it's not possible to love something that tells you to get out of bed at that unholy hour...

Especially if it does so cheerfully and by name!

 

[Shootr]

OK, just spent the better part of the day going through the whole thread listing things to do when my new phone shows up Wednesday. Listed everything I thought applied to me - might save you some time if you just found this thread - like me!

I just copied/pasted as I went - so if something doesn't make sense - you're just going to have to hunt it down in here somewhere...

-When viewing a text or contact and need to call that person just hold the phone up to your ear.

-Swipe contact left to send a text, right to call.*

Settings>language and input>voice command for apps>camera*

You can also answer and reject calls w/voice

When creating a new alarm or changing am existing one, look for "alarm type" my and change that to briefing. Load 'Clock' then 'Alarm' tab.Next tap the + symbol to create a new Alarm.
Now look down where it says 'Alarm Type' and tap to select the bottom item 'Briefing'.

Love the palm swipe for screen shot, so much easier than 2 buttons at once

Another cool thing: creating custom vibration patterns for each contact. The interface for doing this is just perfect! click on Sounds>Device vibration>Create(at the bottom)

Also, taking a picture by voice is really handy, since you can steady the camera with both hands and tell the camera when to shoot.

I was really impressed with the Panorama camera mode (accessed by setting your Shooting mode to Panorama). It enables you to pan while the camera snaps photos to create stitched together panoramic photos.

A well documented feature, but the live backgrounds are really cool, I use the windmills displaying the current weather conditions (at the moment it's raining and there's water drops coming down the screen) also darkens at dusk/night etc.

Once you enable it you open the camera, you will notice a new icon on the screen a face with little waves. Now if you say shoot or one of the other words it takes a picture when u say the word. It's pretty cool, just don't say shoot on in a airplane. The google voice will not work with the voice app recognition built into the phone for some reason - you have to change it to Samsung Vlingo for those voice commands to work

The answer reject calls should work the same way, but I haven't had any luck with the answer or reject yet.

To answer calls hold the phone face up in your hand and semi close to your face and say answer and it answers the call, same for reject.

I stumbled across the "Assistive light" widget

wireless transmitting of video over wifi to my tv. Found this by accident when I clicked on a symbol whilst playing a video,

Double tap the top of the phone to get to the top of a list (ie Contacts

Is there a way to remove the "Swipe screen to unlock" text from the opening screen?
Settings, security ,lockscreen options and untick "Help text"

multi-task function. Press/hold "home" button at bottom

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...y5hbmRyb2lkLm1pbWFnZS5waG90b3JldG91Y2hpbmciXQ

1)Settings -> Language and Input -> Text-to-speech output -> Driving mode -> slide to on -> check all 7 items (including "Message Read out senders' information when new messages arrive").

2) Select S Voice -> Settings -> Message check "Show body of message".
Once I have done the above, I select "Diving mode" on from icon at the top of the pull down menu from the home screen (it goes green from grey/blue).

Settings-->developer options-->*
change windows animation scale and transition scale to off.*
Home button and lock screen are now at ludacris speed.

put on headphones and go through the personal call equalization process. Who knew the S3 includes a free hearing test? Call Settings>In-call sound EQ settings>Personalized EQ The phone will test each ear with a range of tones at various volumes and frequencies and produce a custom equalization curve for each ear. You can then apply the appropriate curve based on which ear you use most often while talking on the phone

but if I miss a text my phone vibrates when I pick it up.
That's Smart Alert under the motion settings

Small but nice feature I found: while in call log, press a contact's picture and the contact's info pops up in a small window. Scroll down for more info on the contact. Press icons to email, map location, etc.

 

[bunnypoo]

i have the smart alarm turned on but it doesn't work

 

[bunnypoo]

i typed in my wireless password but i will never connect. what am i doing wrong?

 

[starman316]

Sounds like DNLA. I know I can show my gallery images from my Droid X on my parents LG 55" TV, but not on my LG 42". Both devices have to be DNLA compatible.

Yeah I cant get DLNA Mode to work using my S3 and my LG 42 inch either, yet no problem on my HTC sensation

 

[mted558]

Hi, driving mode is already there just scroll across and it will show.

OK is my phone defective? All I have when I pull down my notification is
WIFI, bluetooth, GPS, Sound, screen rotation, mobile data, power saving, airplane mode, sync

Where exactly is the driving mode?

 

[koopatroopa]

OK is my phone defective? All I have when I pull down my notification is
WIFI, bluetooth, GPS, Sound, screen rotation, mobile data, power saving, airplane mode, sync

Where exactly is the driving mode?

Do you have AT&T? Driving mode does not exist on my notification bar and others reported the same, while a few do in fact have it.

 

[phillyphill39]

i have the smart alarm turned on but it doesn't work

It doesn't start playing your alarm earlier and gradually gets louder?

 

[markymiles]

Hi does anyone know any shortcuts for screen brightness. Used to be able to swipe left/right on the notifications bar on my GS2. Doesn't work on this one unfortunately.

 

[Doit2it]

Yeah I cant get DLNA Mode to work using my S3 and my LG 42 inch either, yet no problem on my HTC sensation

I think you have to turn sharing on before DNLA will work. Settings / More Settings (under Wireless and networks) / Nearby devices / File sharing to On. Your TV should show up on the Nearby devices list in the Notifications bar. I was playing around with it and my mothers 55" LG this weekend, but I can't remember the specifics. I went into Gallery and either there was a pop up, or I had to tap the share button at the top to get the popup. The pop up asked to connect and share with the found device. I said yes and was off and running. Much more difficult than it was on my Droid X. The DX just did it.

 

[trunkmonkey]

Hi does anyone know any shortcuts for screen brightness. Used to be able to swipe left/right on the notifications bar on my GS2. Doesn't work on this one unfortunately.

Pull down notification bar and adjust via slider.

 

[scooter1942]

Pull down notification bar and adjust via slider.

if he hasnt gotten the update he wont have the slider. i dont have a slider...

 

[markymiles]

if he hasnt gotten the update he wont have the slider. i dont have a slider...

Nope no slider on mine. What update?

 

[trunkmonkey]

if he hasnt gotten the update he wont have the slider. i dont have a slider...

That's true. I just answered the question which didn't mention the update and isn't in an update thread. In that case, go get the update Is the answer!

There's a lot of advice on this in other threads.

 

[scooter1942]

he cant just "go get the update". his carrier needs to release it. and the update also breaks some search functions if i remember correctly.

 

[markymiles]

Thanks didn't want to tie up this thread, thought this would be a good place for my original question given all the excellent tips so far.

 

[trunkmonkey]

he cant just "go get the update". his carrier needs to release it. and the update also breaks some search functions if i remember correctly.

My bad. I get lost in tapatalk sometimes and thought I was still in the sprint sub. Google search fail was prev update. Download the .apk file from xda developers site and reinstall after each reboot.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1762570&highlight=google+search+box&page=2

 

[mted558]

Do you have AT&T? Driving mode does not exist on my notification bar and others reported the same, while a few do in fact have it.

I have Sprint so does that mean no driving mode?

 

[bennybbc]

I have Sprint so does that mean no driving mode?

They just assume that people who have Sprint probably don't drive much anyway so they don't need driving mode... Sorry, just kidding, really.

Benny

 

[Toosploos]

Dont know if this has been posted already, but I just stumbled upon something I hadnt seen after using this phone for a month.

When you open the multitask function by long pressing the home button you see a list of recent apps. I accidentally noticed that you can close these apps individually by sliding them to the left.

Small thing, but it's these small things that make this phone so great.

 

[Beards]

Dont know if this has been posted already, but I just stumbled upon something I hadnt seen after using this phone for a month.

When you open the multitask function by long pressing the home button you see a list of recent apps. I accidentally noticed that you can close these apps individually by sliding them to the left.

Small thing, but it's these small things that make this phone so great.

That's an ICS thing. Nothing to do with the Galaxy S3.

 

[Toosploos]

That's an ICS thing. Nothing to do with the Galaxy S3.

Didnt know that. Live and learn. Still a nice little function though.

 

[Beards]

Didnt know that. Live and learn. Still a nice little function though.

No problem

 

[disc golfin]

I have Sprint so does that mean no driving mode?

Goto Setting---->Language and Input---->Text to Speech output to turn ON/OFF Driving Mode.

 

[ylexot]

Cool feature that I found recently...Emergency Alerts.
Go into your messaging app, then settings and scroll down to the bottom and click on Emergency Alerts to select which ones you want to receive. The options are:
Presidential Alerts (which can't be turned off)
Extreme Alerts
Severe Alerts
Amber Alerts

Now for the story...I'm driving along the other day and this "Extreme Alerts" message pops up telling me that there's a tornado watch and the alarm sound doesn't go away until I've looked at the message. Apparently it is location aware since my wife did not get the message and she was a few miles further away from the tornado that was spotted. Pretty cool feature!