Help Note - Android Veterans - Help with Note 3 Please

[Heineken77]

Hello Everyone Hope you are all doing well!

I am a long time iPhone user who finally made the jump to Android. God do I feel cheated being with the iPhone for so many years! So I picked up a Note 3 and I'm trying to figure things out...if I could get some insight that would be much appreciated!! I will make this in point form to make it easier My phone is stock and I am using a stock launcher....don't know much yet about launchers but will do some research, but for the time being:

1) How do I close all active processes so that my battery won't drain? I have the Active Apps Widget on my home screen, but whenever I click 'End All' I notice 2 things:
a) If I go to the RAM menu and click Clear Memory...it closes another slew of applications. Am I getting any benefits to battery life from hitting 'End All' then going to the RAM menu and Clearing Memory?
b) Even after using 'End All' and clearing the memory, I noticed that if I have Maps navigating me somewhere, the app stays open and I hear voice guidance as it's still running in the background. The only way I can stop it is to hold down on the home button and swipe the Maps app out of the list of recent apps.

2) When I hold the home button down and it shows a list of recent apps. Are they still open? Any benefit to clear this list? Any fast way to do it rather than swiping through each of them individually?

3) Any way to disable swiping up from bringing up the magazine app? How do I remap it?

4) How can I get double tapping the home button to take me to google now rather than s-voice? I see home2 shortcut app may do this....is this a good way to do it or is there a better way?

5) When I swipe down on my screen I see 'Ongoing' which has the weather....fine....then under that after clearing my notifications I see 'New Voice Mail' from December 3rd...I can't clear that notification...it's always there..how can I get rid of it? lol

6) I have simple MP3 downloader (blue app icon) ... anyway..if I am listening to a song and then pause/stop it ... and then a phone call comes in ... when I answer the call the song starts playing as I am in phone conversation and I can't hear the other person...wtf??

7) When I have maps navigation running and a phone call comes in...when my exit comes up for example I will hear the app talking in the ear piece over the person I am talking to in conversation. Any way for the voice navigation to work but maybe pause when I am in a phone call?? Makes hearing the person impossible and hard when it's a business call :/


Thanks everyone!!

 

[Rukbat]

1) How do I close all active processes so that my battery won't drain?

First mistake for an Android newbie - YOU DON'T. Android has a very efficient app manager, and will close the apps that need closing. An app doesn't "drain battery" just by being in RAM.

Am I getting any benefits to battery life from hitting 'End All' then going to the RAM menu and Clearing Memory?

No, you're wasting battery life every time one of those apps you closed has to be opened again because some other app you're running needs to make a call to some code in the closed app.

RAM: What it is, how it's used, and why you shouldn't care | Android Central

OTOH, if you're running a benchmark program, and want your phone to look faster than next year's top-of-the-line monster, kill all running apps and clear all cache before you run the benchmark. (It's like making LA to NY in 4 hours because there's a 300mph hurricane heading east. It really happened, but it's not a real-world number. My normal out-of-the-box AT&T Note 3 hits nearly 36,300 on AnTuTu. It's a fast phone, but come on, folks, that's not a real number in every-day use.)

b) Even after using 'End All' and clearing the memory, I noticed that if I have Maps navigating me somewhere, the app stays open and I hear voice guidance as it's still running in the background. The only way I can stop it is to hold down on the home button and swipe the Maps app out of the list of recent apps.

You can close the Maps app. (Or you can download a sane nav app, like Mapquest.)

2) When I hold the home button down and it shows a list of recent apps. Are they still open?

They're still in RAM. Whether they're "open" in some sense or not depends on the Android app manager. (And on what you mean by "open".)

Any benefit to clear this list?

No, as I said, this usually wastes time and battery if one of these apps has to be loaded back in. If Android needs the space an app is taking, and it's not likely that the app will be accessed in the near future, Android will get the app out of there.

3) Any way to disable swiping up from bringing up the magazine app? How do I remap it?

Yes, it's in Settings somewhere (I think - at least, I've turned mine off), but I don't remember where.

5) When I swipe down on my screen I see 'Ongoing' which has the weather....fine....then under that after clearing my notifications I see 'New Voice Mail' from December 3rd...I can't clear that notification...it's always there..how can I get rid of it?

Listen to the voicemail.

 

[zipred]

To the OP, Rukbat did a great job with your questions.

Here's a few thoughts. As someone who's had iPhone's I'd encourage you not to compare the two platforms. Just think of them as different. Before you start modifying your new phone, give yourself a month to learn about Android by reading the resources here in the forum.

This will give you the knowledge to form your own opinion regarding if and what you want to change based on your preferences, not some one else's. Frankly I've found the new and improved TouchWiz quite nice and left it as it is.

Battery life is terrific and this is one fast and smooth phone. Use it and enjoy the experience before changing things around.