Samsung Galaxy S4 thread - See Mod Warning in Post #1

themacdaddy

Hi All,

Just got myself one. It has Vodafone bloatware on it but is unlocked (as the person I bought it from got it unlocked for me).

Anyway how do I get rid of all the bloatware? Feel free to point me to a website or tutorial or something if ye have a spare second.

Do I need to reinstall the firmware etc.

I have moved from Apple to Samsung for the first time. Sorry for all the questions and my lack of knowledge.

balkieb2002

kave2 wrote: »

I got mine in CPW on Vodafone PAYG and it was locked and there was some vodafone bloatware(you can get rid of it easily by flashing unbranded official UK rom). I already requested unlock code, it should take 7-11 days to get it. Here is the link to request NAC code :http://onlineforms.vodafone.ie/nac/

The one on My Vodafone doesn't work.

How much did it cost you from CPW? I'll go the same route next week.

Cheers for the link. I noticed there is certain conditions that need to be met before they will unlock (top up certain amount etc). Did they ignore these for you?

DesperateDan

Not sure if this was brought up but do you know what's really annoying...the default lock screen clock has a delay of about 3 seconds on my phone when I light it up from being locked, it shows the time from when the phone first locked itself and not the current time for about 3 seconds, anyone else have this and a nice/sexy solution?

kave2

balkieb2002 wrote: »

How much did it cost you from CPW? I'll go the same route next week.

Cheers for the link. I noticed there is certain conditions that need to be met before they will unlock (top up certain amount etc). Did they ignore these for you?

Hi, I paid 599€. First log in to My vodafone, NAC request, fill in IMEI code and it will show you if you are eligible. Next stage won't work, if you are eligible just use the link I gave you. I think it's 129€ spent last 6 months to be eligible.

themacdaddy wrote: »

Hi All,

Just got myself one. It has Vodafone bloatware on it but is unlocked (as the person I bought it from got it unlocked for me).

Anyway how do I get rid of all the bloatware? Feel free to point me to a website or tutorial or something if ye have a spare second.

Do I need to reinstall the firmware etc.

I have moved from Apple to Samsung for the first time. Sorry for all the questions and my lack of knowledge.

You will find everything on XDA Developers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2162

Basically just download UK BTU rom, use Odin to flash it. It's dead simple.

themacdaddy

themacdaddy wrote: »

Hi All,

Just got myself one. It has Vodafone bloatware on it but is unlocked (as the person I bought it from got it unlocked for me).

Anyway how do I get rid of all the bloatware? Feel free to point me to a website or tutorial or something if ye have a spare second.

Do I need to reinstall the firmware etc.

I have moved from Apple to Samsung for the first time. Sorry for all the questions and my lack of knowledge.

If you don't want to go to the effort of flashing a stock rom, theoretically couldn't you just go settings > apps > select bloatware app > disable?

You'll still have splash screen from whatever provider you use, but the app will essentially be frozen out of the system.

kave2

Basil3 wrote: »

If you don't want to go to the effort of flashing a stock rom, theoretically couldn't you just go settings > apps > select bloatware app > disable?

You'll still have splash screen from whatever provider you use, but the app will essentially be frozen out of the system.

No splash screen on Vodafone S4. Actually you can uninstall 3 out of 5 apps, the 4th one can disabled and fifth one(I think is called Vodafone Update) - nothing you can do about it.
UK BTU rom seems to be snappier thb and transparent status bar which looks much nicer than solid gray.

themacdaddy

kave2 wrote: »

You will find everything on XDA Developers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2162

Basically just download UK BTU rom, use Odin to flash it. It's dead simple.

Thanks Mate, the guy I bought the phone from got the unlock code and it worked perfectly. If I do as you say above will it relock the phone to vodafone only?

I think it won't but you may know better.

kave2

themacdaddy wrote: »

Thanks Mate, the guy I bought the phone from got the unlock code and it worked perfectly. If I do as you say above will it relock the phone to vodafone only?

I think it won't but you may know better.

Not sure, probably not. Head over to XDA and ask them, they will know for sure.

DesperateDan

Also has anyone got watchOn semi working yet? It works with the LG TV but not with the upc box, I've tried cisco and Thomson providers as some suggested but am not able to change channels, let alone fix all the channels appearing as German for some reason!

Thor

I just finished my review if anyone still thinking of getting the Galaxy S4 wants to check it. I have in fact reviewed the Xperia Z and HTC One as well, so you can take a look at all of them. I know a lot of people will are still deciding between all three devices.

There are a few camera samples and videos in there as well, but check out the gameplay video as well, the screen is absolutely amazing on the S4 and by far beats every other device I have seen. The colors are just amazing.#

Galaxy S4 Review

CreepingDeath

DesperateDan wrote: »

Also has anyone got watchOn semi working yet? It works with the LG TV but not with the upc box, I've tried cisco and Thomson providers as some suggested but am not able to change channels, let alone fix all the channels appearing as German for some reason!

I've it "sort of" working.

I went through the initial setup, and I think I answered "No" to the questions do you see channels 1 & 102.... and said continue/skip.
I can see all the Irish channels.

When I went through the device setup, I've a Samsung TV and it was able to turn it on/off and perform channel up/down in the setup wizard.
Then I selected "Cisco" for my UPC DVB Mediabox, and again it was able to select channel up/down.

So I am at the stage where I can browse the Irish channels and click "Watch", but the remote control doesn't transmit the channel number correctly.

Eg. If I select "110", then it looks like it's delaying and sending "1", "1", "0". The UPC box ends up going to channel "1" or the like.
As if it's not transmitting the numbers fast enough, or trying to change the channel after each digit.

philthrill69

Thor wrote: »

I just finished my review if anyone still thinking of getting the Galaxy S4 wants to check it. I have in fact reviewed the Xperia Z and HTC One as well, so you can take a look at all of them. I know a lot of people will are still deciding between all three devices.

There are a few camera samples and videos in there as well, but check out the gameplay video as well, the screen is absolutely amazing on the S4 and by far beats every other device I have seen. The colors are just amazing.#

Galaxy S4 Review

Shocked the HTC fanboys aren't jumping all over this review.

beno619

philthrill69 wrote: »

Shocked the HTC fanboys aren't jumping all over this review.

HTC fanboys have already had their victory.

The tech world has already declared a "Winner".

Their both great phones designed for different people still the S4 will outsell the One.

philthrill69

beno619 wrote: »

HTC fanboys have already had their victory.

The tech world has already declared a "Winner".

Their both great phones designed for different people still the S4 will outsell the One.

I totally agree the tech world chose the One over the S4 and I almost went for the One myself.

In my decision making they were almost neck and neck in every aspect, the only thing that tipped it for the One was in a lot of Web browsing tests that were done it got 2 hours longer than the S4!

So I went to the Carphone Warehouse to have a hands on experience with both to make my final decision and I couldn't put down the S4.

And after using both I can see why the tech heads love the One, Sense has been totally stripped back and that's what they love.

They can't wait to get their new phone home to root it and add a custom rom to improve performance and get rid of bloatware and gimmicks.

But imho Htc went too far and it's actually a really boring ui, once you hit the applications menu it's just a load of dull lifeless icons on a black background, it reminds me of my N900.

And the camera ui also lacks personality. I used Zoe to take a snap of my daughter and went through it to find the perfect frame to save as an image and big deal. I can take a still from my S2 video already. I still don't get Zoe.

Also a deal breaker for me which I've mentioned already is the lack of the pull down toggle bar, Htc really dropped the ball there and I know I can download an app to do the same thing but I shouldn't have to.

I think the Htc One is great if your a tech head or power user and love a minimalistic ui.

Maybe it's just me coming from an ics S2, but I reckon your everyday user will prefer the S4. Give me the bells and whistles, give me the gimmicks and give me the lower ppi amoled that makes every game, photo, video and website pop.

And give me the company who are making profits and are denting Apples, which in tow is the company with a future.

ED E

Samsung are "designed for humans" or "designed for life", HTC cant compete with that and their dominance so they targeted the nerds, a smart move. Id get a one if I could.

philthrill69

philthrill69 wrote: »

I totally agree the tech world chose the One over the S4 and I almost went for the One myself.

In my decision making they were almost neck and neck in every aspect, the only thing that tipped it for the One was in a lot of Web browsing tests that were done it got 2 hours longer than the S4!

So I went to the Carphone Warehouse to have a hands on experience with both to make my final decision and I couldn't put down the S4.

And after using both I can see why the tech heads love the One, Sense has been totally stripped back and that's what they love.

They can't wait to get their new phone home to root it and add a custom rom to improve performance and get rid of bloatware and gimmicks.

But imho Htc went too far and it's actually a really boring ui, once you hit the applications menu it's just a load of dull lifeless icons on a black background, it reminds me of my N900.

And the camera ui also lacks personality. I used Zoe to take a snap of my daughter and went through it to find the perfect frame to save as an image and big deal. I can take a still from my S2 video already. I still don't get Zoe.

Also a deal breaker for me which I've mentioned already is the lack of the pull down toggle bar, Htc really dropped the ball there and I know I can download an app to do the same thing but I shouldn't have to.

I think the Htc One is great if your a tech head or power user and love a minimalistic ui.

Maybe it's just me coming from an ics S2, but I reckon your everyday user will prefer the S4. Give me the bells and whistles, give me the gimmicks and give me the lower ppi amoled that makes every game, photo, video and website pop.

And give me the company who are making profits and are denting Apples, which in tow is the company with a future.

Hmmm. Don't know where to start there. Wouldn't call myself an HTC fanboy, although I have owned a fair few of them. Have also had the Galaxy S, S3 and Note 2 though. Liked them all for different reasons. There's definitely a lot of misinformation around though, opinion getting confused with fact.

If you think Zoe is the same as freezing a frame on a video, then you don't understand what Zoe does. Each of those frames are full 4MP resolution, and I have used it to catch some very cool pics of my kids which I know I would never have dreamed of with previous phones.

I'm not going into which is the most boring UI, because to me TouchWiz is ugly as sin, very dated....but all the bells and whistles allow me to look past that.

Regarding the screen, the Amoled is still a long way behind the LCD. In web browsing, the brightness of the Amoled is throttled to 1/3 that of the LCD in an effort to save power....the screen definitely doesn't pop in that situation.

I'm still planning on getting the S4, but it fascinates me that people prefer the S4 for what I view as it's weak points (screen, general UI)

ED E wrote: »

Samsung are "designed for humans" or "designed for life", HTC cant compete with that and their dominance so they targeted the nerds, a smart move. Id get a one if I could.

That, in a nutshell, is why Samsung do so well. Their marketing machine tells you what their phone is for, and people eat it up. I don't think the One is for nerds at all....to me it targets the iPhone crowd better than any other android device. Amazing screen, premium feel, camera designed for great pics in low light for posting on to social networks. It's what the iPhone 5 should/could have been.

beno619

philthrill69 wrote: »

But imho Htc went too far and it's actually a really boring ui, once you hit the applications menu it's just a load of dull lifeless icons on a black background, it reminds me of my N900.

And the camera ui also lacks personality. I used Zoe to take a snap of my daughter and went through it to find the perfect frame to save as an image and big deal. I can take a still from my S2 video already. I still don't get Zoe.

Also a deal breaker for me which I've mentioned already is the lack of the pull down toggle bar, Htc really dropped the ball there and I know I can download an app to do the same thing but I shouldn't have to.

I think the Htc One is great if your a tech head or power user and love a minimalistic ui.

Maybe it's just me coming from an ics S2, but I reckon your everyday user will prefer the S4. Give me the bells and whistles, give me the gimmicks and give me the lower ppi amoled that makes every game, photo, video and website pop.

And give me the company who are making profits and are denting Apples, which in tow is the company with a future.

Zoe is a way more powerfull tool for photography than anything in the S4 HTC just dropped the ball by hiding it behind settings instead of making it an easy demo in store.

I agree about the power toggles very silly exclusion from HTC but it will come with 4.2.2.

In term of UI touchwiz has always been an abberation the only reason people put up with it was because if was smooth unlike Sense 4, Samsung seen to have regressed in terms of UI responsiveness tho.

Basil3 wrote: »

Hmmm.

I'm not going into which is the most boring UI, because to me TouchWiz is ugly as sin, very dated....but all the bells and whistles allow me to look past that.

Regarding the screen, the Amoled is still a long way behind the LCD. In web browsing, the brightness of the Amoled is throttled to 1/3 that of the LCD in an effort to save power....the screen definitely doesn't pop in that situation.

I'm still planning on getting the S4, but it fascinates me that people prefer the S4 for what I view as it's weak points (screen, general UI)

That, in a nutshell, is why Samsung do so well. Their marketing machine tells you what their phone is for, and people eat it up. I don't think the One is for nerds at all....to me it targets the iPhone crowd better than any other android device. Amazing screen, premium feel, camera designed for great pics in low light for posting on to social networks. It's what the iPhone 5 should/could have been.

+1000

Amoled is still behind LCD/IPS.
It has great promise but until it can display Whites as white and not blue im not sold.
Basil has outlined all the other drawbacks.

ED E

Basil3 wrote: »

That, in a nutshell, is why Samsung do so well. Their marketing machine tells you what their phone is for, and people eat it up. I don't think the One is for nerds at all....to me it targets the iPhone crowd better than any other android device. Amazing screen, premium feel, camera designed for great pics in low light for posting on to social networks. It's what the iPhone 5 should/could have been.

True, but only the "nerds" will see that its the better device. HTC cant beat samsungs PR so average joe is going to get a GS4. Sure many people think its Apple and Samsung not apple and android, that's how effective they've been.

rok

Hoping to get an S4 next week.
What comes in the box with the s4 - headphones, charger etc?

Any tips for a good case?
I was looking at an Otterbox case but some reviews say they are a bit bulky, Ballistic seems to have a 1 month delivery time through Amazon.co.uk
The local 3 shop has a movit case - might do for the short term.

beno619

ED E wrote: »

True, but only the "nerds" will see that its the better device. HTC cant beat samsungs PR so average joe is going to get a GS4. Sure many people think its Apple and Samsung not apple and android, that's how effective they've been.

Yeh its pretty incredible actually people want the Samsung experience over Google's, they have to be applauded for that there really is nothing stopping them from going all in with Tizen and leaving Android behind.

philthrill69

rok wrote: »

Hoping to get an S4 next week.
What comes in the box with the s4 - headphones, charger etc?

Any tips for a good case?
I was looking at an Otterbox case but some reviews say they are a bit bulky, Ballistic seems to have a 1 month delivery time through Amazon.co.uk
The local 3 shop has a movit case - might do for the short term.

In waiting for the glacier otterbox defender myself from Amazon to compliment the white S4.

80% of the ballistic maxx reviews I've read say the rigid replaceable screen protector is awful and kills the screen and is useless in sunlight.

Have you bought the handset yet, if not it might be worth your while waiting for the S4 Active in July. Rumours say it's gonna have the same spec just it's gonna be ruggedised. Would rule out the whole case problem also.

philthrill69

philthrill69 wrote: »

In waiting for the glacier otterbox defender myself from Amazon to compliment the white S4.

80% of the ballistic maxx reviews I've read say the rigid replaceable screen protector is awful and kills the screen and is useless in sunlight.

Have you bought the handset yet, if not it might be worth your while waiting for the S4 Active in July. Rumours say it's gonna have the same spec just it's gonna be ruggedised. Would rule out the whole case problem also.

Sorry completely missed the start of your post about getting it next week.

Mc Love

Went for a more cosmetic case this time from casemate instead of a tough case. hopefully it will do the job. Its some getting used to its size compared to the S2

balkieb2002

Is it as durable as the SG2? While the plastic look of them is not as nice as say the One, I feel that it helps with falling damage. I'm not a great fan of cases especially bulky ones and while I've dropped my SG2 on quite a few occasions, the worst thats happened is the back became lose. Front is still near flawless.

beer enigma

Just got my S4 having changed from Apple and am delighted - one annoyance is the appearance of 4 photos (just old photos of an apartment I viewed) appearing in the gallery under the folder of "instant upload". I can open them but if I hold on them instead of giving me an option to delete it offers to download them

Any ideas where or what app is storing these photos - must be a default that the S4 searches for photos, so I'm presuming its a google program somewhere

Andip

Andip wrote: »

Just got my S4 having changed from Apple and am delighted - one annoyance is the appearance of 4 photos (just old photos of an apartment I viewed) appearing in the gallery under the folder of "instant upload". I can open them but if I hold on them instead of giving me an option to delete it offers to download them

Any ideas where or what app is storing these photos - must be a default that the S4 searches for photos, so I'm presuming its a google program somewhere

Instant upload is usually related to google+, go into it's settings and see if it's activated.

beer enigma

Basil3 wrote: »

Instant upload is usually related to google+, go into it's settings and see if it's activated.

Disabled google+ and deleted data but they are still there....

Andip

Andip wrote: »

Disabled google+ and deleted data but they are still there....

i don't have the actual device, but as they aren't on your phone, have you turned off syncing picasa web albums and google photos in settings?

beer enigma

Basil3 wrote: »

i don't have the actual device, but as they aren't on your phone, have you turned off syncing picasa web albums and google photos in settings?

Thanks - have just sorted it, its a mixture of clearing data and unsyncing

"Go to settings-application manager-slide over to the "all" tab and find the "Gallery" app. Go and clear the data for it (dont worry, you wont lose any pictures.) Now go back to settings, go down to google under "accounts" click the email account that your pictures are showing up under. Click on picasa web albums. They shouldn't appear anymore"

Doom

Anyone recommend a good cover website? Love the Samsung branded one with the 'S view' window in it, it has NFC chip or magnet to adjust the screen display when closed, but its costly.

http://m.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EF-CI950BBESTA