Samsung Galaxy S3 : Top Tips, Tricks and Features

The Samsung Galaxy S3, the phone which has been designed for humans, packs quite a few features, some new, some old, some unique. Here are the tips, tricks and little-known features that every S3 owner should know.

1. S-Beam

   A function found on the Galaxy S3 which is similar to the Bump application on smartphones using iOS and Android operating systems to share information and files by simply knocking two devices together. In the S3, theS Beam works with NFC and Wi-Fi Direct to exchange information between two S3s by tapping them together.

2.  Smart Stay 

   A simple yet a very smart feature on the Galaxy S3 which keeps the screen from dimming even when a task is being done on the phone. If the smartphone senses the hand of the user in front of the screen and even if it detects the user looking at the screen, the screen will automatically remain sufficiently bright.

3. Direct Call 

   A tremendously effective function. Direct Call allows the user while he or she is typing a text message to instead call the recipient by just lifting the phone. The Galaxy will automatically call the person by recognizing where the text message was going to be sent.

4. Buddy Share

   Photo sharing to the next level even after you stop taking pictures. The smartphone groups people together depending on the tags and faces so to ensure multiple persons can be marked as    family and they will be grouped together and then it does more. Click on the images and you

5. Best Photo 

   Another very smart feature on the Galaxy S3 which takes just a few seconds to complete. The camera on the smartphone, after a zero shutter lag, clicks 20 pictures at one go and the Best Photo selects eight pictures which it senses are the best and allows the user to select what he or she thinks are the pictures they want to keep.

6. S Voice

   Siri-like feature in Galaxy S3. To launch this feature just double tap the Home button.

7. Pop Up Play 

   For now smartphones are good for only one-app-one-window use. This means that unlike on a computer, it is not possible to use two or three windows at the same time on a smartphone. Galaxy S III takes a tiny step towards a future where these devices can open apps in different windows and allow people to multitask in a better way.
   It  allows users to watch a video in small window while they are working inside some other app. For now, the Pop Up Play window cannot be resized. Also, the feature is just restricting to video playback.

8. Smart Alert 

   Keeps a track of the missed calls or messages. Once you pick up the phone, it vibrates a bit to tell you that there are missed calls and you ought to check them.

9.  Tap-to-Top

   Allows the user to quickly jump from anywhere in your e-mail inbox, contact list or within an e-mail message to the top of the list or message, which can save you time. To jump to the top of your e-mail inbox, contact list or the start of a message simply double tap the top of your Galaxy S3 device, just above the ear-speaker–tap the top of the device, not the top of the display.

10. Customize the Lock Screen - 

    Want superfast access to your favorite apps and widgets? On the S3, you can completely customize your lock screen with shortcuts to apps, widgets, and the camera. But first, a heads up: you must disable your screen lock (PIN, pattern, face unlock, etc.) to get these features. Trading security for convenience will be up to you. If you decide to live without the security, keep reading. To customize your options, go to Settings > Security > Lock Screen Options. From there, pick and choose the items you want to appear on the lock screen. You can also change the app shortcuts by tapping  ”Shortcuts” in the Lock Screen Options settings.

11. Set data usage limits 

    If you have a limited data plan, keep a close eye on usage (and prevent overage charges) with your S3′s built-in data-monitoring tool. To get started, go to Settings > Data usage. First, check the box next to “Set mobile data limit.” Next, define your billing cycle. If you’re not sure, you can check your bill or call your service provider to find out. Finally, tap and drag the red line to set your data limit, and use the orange line to decide when your phone will warn you about your data usage.

12. All Share Play

    Another way to Share content on various Devices. It’s called AllShare Play, and it lets you share with everyone, Access Documents and Multimedia even when you’re away from your Computer. It lets us work together through the magic of DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct, giving us Remote access to Documents and Multimedia files when we Work on a different Screen somewhere else.

13. Motion Features 

    With a host of unique features on the Galaxy S3 such as S Voice and AllShare, Samsung is looking to stand out from the rest of the Android crowd. Less documented among them is motion control, which allows you to do various activities through tilting your handset and making use of shortcuts.
    To activate motion control, navigate to :  Settings > Motion, and toggle the switch to enable it. As there are a lot of motion features available, you can choose to use individual ones and leave others that you’re less interested in disabled.
    Here are a few that you should look out for.
    Palm swipe to screenshotTaking a screenshot on Android phones is an effort at the best of times. There’s no built-in screenshot function in the operating system, so it’s up to third-party manufacturers to implement it themselves. Samsung has chosen to do this using what it calls a hand gesture. Simply take your hand and swipe it across the screen and your phone will take a screenshot.
    Palm touch to pause musicIf you use the Galaxy S3′s built-in music player, there’s a really easy way to quickly pause the track you’re currently listening to. Take your palm and place it on top of the screen and anything that’s currently playing will stop straight away.
    Turn over to mute incoming callsIf you’re in a meeting and want to make sure that your phone is on silent, this is a great little shortcut. Simply place your phone on a surface, screen down, and all incoming calls and sounds will be muted until you turn it back over again.
    Pan to move iconIf you’re cleaning up your home screen and want to move some items around, you might want to enable the “Pan to move icon” feature. With this enabled, you can tap and hold an icon and switch home screens by tilting your phone left and right. As you can see from the picture above, there are more minor motion features available that might be useful to you, including shaking your device to check for updates or tilting the phone to zoom in or out of photos and Web pages. 
    Samsung Galaxy S3: Camera quick launchYou can also use the motion control to quickly open the camera app. From the lock screen you just have to tap and hold the screen with one finger, then rotate the handset into landscape mode and the camera app with open.

14. Security

    We’ll kick off with security because a lot of the handy features on the S3 are only available if you don’t engage some of the tougher security lock options. It’s an unfortunate trade-off between convenience and security. Although, you can always just set up an unlock pattern or password and only turn it on when you go out.
    Go to Settings > Security to begin and select Screen lock. Motion is the handiest option as the phone will unlock when you tap and hold the screen and tilt it towards you. Swipe is equally easy but neither offers any real security. The gimmicky options are Face Unlock and Face and Voice. To set them up you use the front facing camera to record your face and if you want the voice too then you record a phrase or command. If someone looks or sounds similar they can unlock your phone and it can be fooled by a photo as well, but more often you’ll find it doesn’t recognize you and it’s annoying to have to run through the process every time you want to unlock your device. Pattern unlock is still the best option for a mixture of security and convenience. For real security nothing beats a PIN or password. You can make the pattern unlock a little more secure by going to Settings > Security and turning off Make pattern visible. That way if anyone is peeking over your shoulder it won’t be quite so easy for them to see your pattern.

15. Sound

    By default, your S3 will be noisy, emitting a tone every time you touch the screen. Go to Settings > Sound and tap Touch sounds. You can decide when you want sounds to play and how much vibration feedback you want in here as well. If you go to Device vibration you can select Create at the bottom and make your own vibration pattern. There are a range of sounds to choose from in Default notifications and you’ll find a few ringtones in Default ringtones. The chances are good that you’ll want to use your own sounds and ringtones. It’s easy to set a general ringtone, a ringtone for a specific contact, or an alarm. Just find the track you want and long press until the menu pops up. Select Set as and choose Phone ringtone, Caller ringtone, or Alarm ringtone. If you pick Caller ringtone you’ll be taken to your list of contacts to select one. If you want to set your own notification ringtone for the Samsung Galaxy S3 then you will need to put the track or sound you want in the right folder.
    Go to Apps > My Files and then navigate to wherever you put the file you want to use. Long press on it and choose Copy or Move then go to Apps > My Files > sdcard > media > audio > notifications and click Done at the top right to place it. Now when you go to Settings > Sound > Default notifications you should see it in the list.

16. Contact 

    If you end up with multiple entries for a single contact then long press on the one with your preferred photo or name and select Join contact then tap on the entry you want to merge.

17. Light Flow

    The Galaxy S III is the first handset in the Galaxy series to come with a notification LED. The RGB notification LED has been beautifully hidden at the top left of the handset. By default, the LED will blink blue for any missed notifications, and red when the battery is low.
    However, using an application called Light Flow, users can customize the LED color according to the notification. The application does not work properly with the Galaxy S3 at the moment though. A temporary issue floating around the Internet is to revoke the Accessibility access from the app.

18. Flip

    Place the phone screen down to mute ringtones, pause media playback, or mute the FM radio.

19. Shake 

    Shake your phone to search for Bluetooth devices and to update the list of email messages or information from Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, or AccuWeather

Take a look at the complete list on your Galaxy S3 and play around with the ones you think will regularly come in handy. If you have any favorites I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments below.

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