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

PH4T

I just got an S4 today?

Is it possible to get rid of all the Samsung software and make it stock Android?

MrVestek

PH4T wrote: »

I just got an S4 today?

Is it possible to get rid of all the Samsung software and make it stock Android?

Yes you'll have to root and reflash it.

yllw.ldbttr

Switched to an S4 recently after iphones for years.
The phone charges relatively quickly with the stock samsung USB cable but I notice it's much slower to charge with a couple of cables I bought on ebay and one I had at home.

I thought these were generic micro USB cables, am I imagining the speed difference in charging?

Turtwig

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

Switched to an S4 recently after iphones for years.
The phone charges relatively quickly with the stock samsung USB cable but I notice it's much slower to charge with a couple of cables I bought on ebay and one I had at home.

I thought these were generic micro USB cables, am I imagining the speed difference in charging?

Thank God I'm not the only one. I've "noticed" it with my Kindle and S4. Both seem charger faster with some cables rather than others. It might also just be me though.:o

yllw.ldbttr

Jernal wrote: »

Thank God I'm not the only one. I've "noticed" it with my Kindle and S4. Both seem charger faster with some cables rather than others. It might also just be me though.:o

The paranoia in me is telling me Samsung want me to buy their SPECIAL micro USB cable for 20 euro instead of another generic, but maybe I've just been usnig Apple products for too long.

The generic cable definintely takes twice as long to charge it though, so I'm confused (and this is drawing from a wall socket, not a USB port of an underpowered machine).

evolutionqy7

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

Switched to an S4 recently after iphones for years.
The phone charges relatively quickly with the stock samsung USB cable but I notice it's much slower to charge with a couple of cables I bought on ebay and one I had at home.

I thought these were generic micro USB cables, am I imagining the speed difference in charging?

No. Samsung charger is a fast charger. Other ones ate just generic speed ones.

yllw.ldbttr

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

No. Samsung charger is a fast charger. Other ones ate just generic speed ones.

Ok, I get that, but I'm talking about cables here, rather than the actual plug.
I've used generic cables in the samsung charger and the process is slow.
I've used the samsung cable connected to a pc/ generic plug and the process is fast.
Any combo not involving the actual stock samsung cable is slow.

Hence my confusion.

evolutionqy7

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

Ok, I get that, but I'm talking about cables here, rather than the actual plug.
I've used generic cables in the samsung charger and the process is slow.
I've used the samsung cable connected to a pc/ generic plug and the process is fast.
Any combo not involving the actual stock samsung cable is slow.

Hence my confusion.

Samsung obviously tunes their gear to work better. I've bought USB cables from eBay that never worked. Can't expect cheap eBay cables to perform as good as the genuine ones.

Ardent

I notice that charging through a generic cable attached my PC's USB port is painfully slow. Would using the Samsung cable make any difference in this case? Or is the USB port output the limiting factor?

yllw.ldbttr

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Samsung obviously tunes their gear to work better. I've bought USB cables from eBay that never worked. Can't expect cheap eBay cables to perform as good as the genuine ones.

Not so sure about that, I've bought dozens of USB cables over the years and have never had any issue. Micro USB is an open standard, generic cables should operate in exactly the same way as Samsung ones.

I've enver had one charge slow, they either work of they do not in my experience.

Turtwig

Just got the update there that allows me to put Apps on the SD Card. Time to dabble into the HD gaming now and push this thing to its limits.:D

Squaredude

Ardent wrote: »

I notice that charging through a generic cable attached my PC's USB port is painfully slow. Would using the Samsung cable make any difference in this case? Or is the USB port output the limiting factor?

Won't make a difference,the port has limited power.Unless you have a usb charger port on your pc then it may make a difference.

madmoe

Cossax wrote: »

To come back to this, the more I read, the more I think this may be the case. There's already a way to flash any AOSP ROMs for the US carrier versions on the I9505 as per this, so it would seem we could flash it and Google would push out the updates a la the Nexus line.

EDIT: Also, Cyanogenmod is now supporting us officially! Up to now there were unofficial nightlies but this have progressed. Gonna stick with stock until the Google Edition comes out and see what the story is then WRT Google releasing Samsung sources.

When is the Google Edition due mate?

Cheers,
M

beauf

seanbmc wrote: »

Does anyone know how to get the 40% 02 code? 02 sent me a text saying I could get 40% off the Galaxy Y...no thanks.

The 40% on other phones was a priority code on upgrade only, I think its expired though. I can't find it on the site any more.

Dozen Wicked Words

Kenno90 wrote: »

Lets be clear here, people are talking about using the IR blaster on the phone to change the channels , not have both phone and box connected to the wifi ??

Yeah, sorry about that.

I had just been flicking through the thread on phone in work, didn't take enough time to get the proper gist of discussion.

Kenno90

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

Yeah, sorry about that.

I had just been flicking through the thread on phone in work, didn't take enough time to get the proper gist of discussion.

I was wondering , you confused me. Gonna start looking for a universal remote app, i think Watch On is too cluttered for my tastes, just want a simple interface that'll work with popular brands of TV

If there is none, i might even make my own :P

Nikond800

Jernal wrote: »

Just got the update there that allows me to put Apps on the SD Card. Time to dabble into the HD gaming now and push this thing to its limits.:D

Did you just pull the firmware from Samfirmware and flash through Odin? just got my S4 yesterday through vodafone. Would like the newer firmware

Turtwig

Nikond800 wrote: »

Did you just pull the firmware from Samfirmware and flash through Odin? just got my S4 yesterday through vodafone. Would like the newer firmware

It came through automatically for me. Didn't do anything other than press Install package.

Cossax

madmoe wrote: »

When is the Google Edition due mate?

Cheers,
M

26 June, I believe.

balkieb2002

Achilles wrote: »

Actually yes I did but I'm honestly not sure what I did to fix it.

When I set it up last night I noticed that it had the correct channel lineup. I selected UPC as my provider and then hit the 'set up later' option when it asked if I received channel 102 or not.

Apparently that allowed it to pick the correct package and not one of the Dutch ones.

Although it still makes the '102' question very confusing as 102 is RTE2 on our EPG. Ohh well!

Wow thanks, that actually worked! I downloaded the updated version of watchon just to be sure and followed your instructions and finally got the correct guide!

Any idea what you did to get your UPC box working with the remote? I have my TV working but can't get the UPC box to play ball.

MrVestek

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Wow thanks, that actually worked! I downloaded the updated version of watchon just to be sure and followed your instructions and finally got the correct guide!

Any idea what you did to get your UPC box working with the remote? I have my TV working but can't get the UPC box to play ball.

I have the Horizon box which is also a Samsung device so that may have made my setup a little bit easier.

Anyway when setting up a TV it'll ask if you need a decoder to select TV channels - select yes.

Now depending on whatever box you have from UPC it gets a little tricky... any idea which decoder you have? It'll either be from Pace, Thompson, Cisco or Samsung.

balkieb2002

Achilles wrote: »

I have the Horizon box which is also a Samsung device so that may have made my setup a little bit easier.

Anyway when setting up a TV it'll ask if you need a decoder to select TV channels - select yes.

Now depending on whatever box you have from UPC it gets a little tricky... any idea which decoder you have? It'll either be from Pace, Thompson, Cisco or Samsung.

Cheers for quick reply. I'm in work at moment so not sure of the box brand. I thought there may have been just one box for all (like under UPC) but I did remember seeing cisco mentioned earlier in the thread so thought I'd better ask.

I'll check the box brand later and should hopefully find a working code. Thanks again for the help.

themacdaddy

Anybody know how I can disable the Android Sidebar that seems to pop up from time to time?

puddinboxxx

long press the back key

themacdaddy

puddinboxxx wrote: »

long press the back key

Thanks, typically it just disappeared when I locked the phone and unlocked it, so the next time is appears I will try that.

Actually do you know how to make it appear?

balkieb2002

themacdaddy wrote: »

Thanks, typically it just disappeared when I locked the phone and unlocked it, so the next time is appears I will try that.

Actually do you know how to make it appear?

Long press the back key

This only works if you have the multi window option enabled.

themacdaddy

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Long press the back key

Hahaha so simple. I really feet stupid now. Thanks for that.

markc1184

Is there a way of stopping that Google music app running in the background? If I manually stop it, but check the active apps then a little later its back running again. No matter what way I try to have it set up it keeps running in the background on and off.

MrVestek

markc1184 wrote: »

Is there a way of stopping that Google music app running in the background? If I manually stop it, but check the active apps then a little later its back running again. No matter what way I try to have it set up it keeps running in the background on and off.

It's designed to do this as it can sync your music to Google's cloud services.

The only way to permanently disable it would be to root the device.

Philip42

Nikond800 wrote: »

Did you just pull the firmware from Samfirmware and flash through Odin? just got my S4 yesterday through vodafone. Would like the newer firmware

I'm on Meteor. I pulled the German firmware from Sammobile and flashed through Odin and now I have all the aforementioned features but what I was really after was a bug fix to the 4X3 T9 layout keyboard which caused the word suggestions window to flash open/closed without allowing me to choose a word! infuriating! Anyway, this update fixed that too. Be warned though, this probably invalidates your warranty. Couldn't resist myself though and couldn't be bothered waiting for Meteor to release it.