Other noticeable features
We haven’t finished yet: there’re some
special feature that are worth emphasizing. IR seems to be an important
comeback, and the transmitter appearing on GS4 turns the smartphone into a
remote control. HTC One and LG Optimus G Pro do the same thing, and Samsung is
partnering with Peel – not quite surprise, because the 2 company have partnered
before on the products such as Galaxy Tab 7.7. The app they have made is WatchON,
acting as a joint remote, entertaining instruction and Netflix port. These 2
final features are different in usability depending on the cable provider and
equipment (suggestion: Netflix seem to do not much if you don’t have Google
TV). We can use remote feature to connect many entertainment system without
having to sweat; in fact, we have set up the system of one member in the family
faster than the time we need to find their messy remote.
We will mention briefly about the next
feature just because of its cleverness, despite the fact that it won’t be
available in any American model at release (which means we can’t put in on a
test). The app we’re mentioning is Safety Assistance, 1 tool you can launch if
you have an emergency case and need to transmit your location (of course,
without the use of GPS). Activating the service, done by pressing and holding
the volume up and down within 3 sec, will remind the phone to take images from
2 cameras and automatically send them to a preset contact. It will allow that
person to see exactly where you are. Hope that it will never be used, but such
feature must be included on many phones.
The
app we’re mentioning is Safety Assistance, 1 tool you can launch if you have an
emergency case and need to transmit your location (of course, without the use
of GPS)
Galaxy S 4 has a unique ability we have
never seen on other phones: compatibility with Mobeam. Haven’t heard of it? Don’t
be afraid. This new company makes any standard bar code scanner – the grocery
store is the most typical example, but it can expand to any script – scanning
the digital coupon saved on your smartphone. How is this performed? It uses the
proximity sensor which is pre-installed to the phone to bounce the light onto
the scanner, imitating the model of the coupon during that process. We may
begin to see this ability appear on many newer devices (the legacy phones can’t
be programmed with this feature), but GS4 is the first phone that provides this
special ability.
Galaxy
S4 has a unique ability we have never seen on other phones: compatibility with
Mobeam.
Finally, GS4 includes 3 features which are Adapt
Display and Adapt Sound which work exactly as the name implication: Display is
an interesting auto brightness tool helping you to find out what you’re watching,
as well as the environment you’re staying in, and adjust the screen brightness
to be suitable for your demand. Naturally, Adapt Sound is the same thing in
term of audio of this feature and is adjustable in music or audio book volume
when you change the song or the video, making the sound optimized in the
consistent way following your taste.
Look, no S Pen!
One of the unique respects about Galaxy
Note series of Samsung is S Pen, 1 device that looks like a stylus, giving you
the new ways to interact to the screen. However, thanks to the extremely
sensitive screen of GS4, the S Pen features are starting to flow to more
devices without the use of the pen. The best example for this is the Air View, which
does many similar things done on Note 2, but with the active fingers such as S
Pen. Keeping on of your fingers on the working calendar to have a pop-up screen
about the appointment during the day, on the email to see some of the few lines
of the text (regretfully, Gmail is not included), on the browser to magnify the
text and on the process bar when watching movies to preview a scene.
However,
thanks to the extremely sensitive screen of GS4, the S Pen features are
starting to flow to more devices without the use of the pen.
Samsung has added the tricks based on the
interesting gestures and movements for its high-end phones for several years
thanks to a big array of sensor which is available for the Android devices. In
case of GS4, the company has combined a group of features called Air Gesture. The
first time we saw this is on Note 2 with Quick Glance, but it has been expanded
much this time. Air Jump lets you scroll up and down the page by waving your
hands up or down, while Air Browse will bring you from one browser tab to
another one when you wave your hand side to side. And Air Move helps you to
rearrange the icons (which mean the apps and the calendar appointments) to
other pages by holding them with 1 finger and wave the free hand from left to
right.
Finally, the last feature which is popular
in Note series is Multi Window, and it works in its full capacity in GS4. Pressing
and holding the back button and 1 tab will magically appear. Tap on it to see 1
sidebar which consists of the apps supporting the features. Since the
third-party developers have participated in, many apps already have
compatibility.
