Hands-on with Microsoft’s New

Hands-on with Microsoft’s New Spartan Web Browser

David PogueApril 1, 2015

yahoo.com

 

Every now and then, the universe shifts. Humanity sees the earth from space. The Berlin Wall falls. Justin Bieber apologizes. 

And now this: Microsoft has put Internet Explorer on an ice floe and pushed it out to sea to die.

When Windows 10 comes out this summer, it will have a new, much more modern Web browser, code-named, for now, Project Spartan. (That won’t be its final name.)

Why would Microsoft do this? Doesn’t it have the world’s most popular browser, Internet Explorer?

Well, yes. When you consider how many people are using all versions of Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s browser still represents over 50 percent of all Web visits. So, OK, maybe not “most popular” for some definitions of popular. But most used, yes.

But over the years, IE has accumulated two bad kinds of cruft and baggage.There’s the underlying code, which has become outdated and bloated over thedecades. And then there’s a worse problem: the reputational baggage. Peoplejust don’t think much of Internet Explorer. It’s the butt of jokes and insults, and its 50 percent market share is actually a low point; its market share has been declining for years.

Enter Project Spartan

On Monday, Microsoft revealed a rough, early version of Spartan, so that programmers and power users could get their hands on it and supply feedback. 

“This preview is NOT a polished, ready-for-everyone release,” cautions Microsoft product manager Joe Belfiore on his blog.

Read more:

• Microsoft Clears Up Just Who Gets Free Windows 10
• How to Install the Preview Version of Windows 10

And that’s true. This is a preliminary sketch of a Web browser. Microsoft makes no pretenses of its being complete. But the point is to crowdsource this browser’s development, both before and after the 1.0 version appears this summer, with Windows 10. That is, Microsoft plans to continue refining and improving Spartan, with a steady stream of updates through its life.

(“Not for everyone” also applies to the act of getting Spartan. It requires downloading the very latest technical preview of Windows 10, which requires signing up for the Windows Insider Program. Then, in the Windows Update settings, you have to click “Advanced options” and switch your preview-downloading settings to Fast. Then tell Update to download the latest software updates — they’ll include the new Windows 10 build and Spartan.)

Even in their evolving stages, though, both Spartan and Windows 10 look terrific.

Here’s what characterizes this first public release of the Spartan browser:

* A modern engine. Spartan abandons the caked-up, decades-old plumbing of Internet Explorer and replaces it with a new engine, tuned for the modern Web. “Faster, more secure, and more reliable,” Microsoft says.

We’ll see about reliable — this fledgling version crashes often. But already, it’s fast and clean.

* A cleaned-up design. It’s really slimmed down. You might even say its look is spartan.

There are no traditional menus at all (no File, Edit, or View), not even if you tap the Alt key. There are only two toolbars across the top. One displays your side-by-side tabs (wasted space if you have only one tab open). The other displays the standard address bar, Back/Forward/Reload buttons, and five icons at the right side. One of them opens up the closest thing Spartan has to an actual menu:

See the smiley-face button next to this menu? It won’t be in the final version. It’s there to let you report bugs (and happy surprises).

* Cortana. Cortana is Microsoft’s Siri or Google Now — a virtual assistant. She’s built into Windows 10, and into Project Spartan. (Cortana, of course, is named after an artificial-intelligence character in the video game “Halo.”)

In the first public version of Spartan, you can use Cortana to get extra details about whatever you’re looking at. You can right-click a word, and, from the shortcut menu, choose Ask Cortana; a panel opens on the right side. It may offer a dictionary definition of the highlighted text, or a Wikipedia-type article.

When I tried asking Cortana about the street address of a restaurant, expecting her to provide driving directions, I was surprised to discover that she gave me instead real-estate details about the building itself, including the estimated current purchase price.

In some situations, just typing something into the address bar (like “weather”) produces a drop-down panel containing relevant information (like the local weather).

Microsoft plans to add a lot more to Cortana’s smarts in the next few months. Also, at the moment, she’s U.S. only.

* Reading View. As in Safari, this view strips away everything from the Web page you’re reading except the text and photos. No ads, blinking, links, banners, videos, or promos.

The text is also changed to a beautiful font and size, and the background is simplified to a soothing shade. It’s fantastic.

Here’s the before and after:

In the current version, the Reading View is unavailable on many sites, including Wikipedia, Yahoo, and even Microsoft’s own MSN.com. But it works beautifully on The New York Times, USA Today, and other newspaper sites.

Frankly, it’s hard to understand how anybody can get through an online article without this feature. 

* Annotations. With one click on a special button at top right, you open a toolbar full of annotation tools. You can use them to mark up a Web page.

For example, you can create a text box and type some notes; drag across text with a yellow highlighter; draw arrows, graffiti, or obscenities with colorful “ink.” Once you’ve sufficiently vandalized the page, you can export the result as a canned graphic, to an app like OneNote or a sharing site like Twitter. (You’re not actually making changes to the live Web page. Sorry, script kiddies.)

It’s neato, especially when you’re using a touch screen — drawing with your finger on a Web page is giddy fun. Microsoft suggests that this feature is great for doing research, and I suppose it’d be handy when you’ve been trying to win an argument and you find something online that supports your point. Otherwise, though, it’s not exactly clear how often you’ll use this feature.

See also: Microsoft Reinvents the Conference-Room Whiteboard With the Surface Hub

What’s to come

Lots and lots of standard browser features will be in place for the finished product, Microsoft says. Still to come: A History list, Downloads list, offline Reading list, and syncing of tabs and bookmarks across multiple machines.

Microsoft says that the finished browser will also offer extensions: plug-in features, like the ones offered for Firefox and Google Chrome, that let you customize your browser to within an inch of its life. Extensions are awesome. This is great news.

Now, Internet Explorer isn’t exactly dead. It’s still there on the Windows 10 taskbar, right there with the Project Spartan icon, and Microsoft plans to support it for corporations who rely on it.

But it’s safe to say that work on Internet Explorer — creating new versions, new features — is pretty much over at Microsoft. Spartan is the new Microsoft browser.

And from what we can see so far, that’s terrific news for everyone.

Microsoft Offers

Microsoft Offers up to $150 to Swap Its Obsolete RT Tablets for a Surface 3

Tom Warren, The Verge May 5, 2015

 

yahoo.com

 

Microsoft’s new Surface 3 tablet goes on sale in the US today, and the software maker has a trade-in offer ready for Surface RT and Surface 2 owners. Both of the Windows RT-powered tablets won’t be upgraded to Windows 10, and Microsoft is offering up to $150 to trade them in for a Surface 3. Microsoft’s latest Surface is a smaller and less powerful version of the Surface Pro 3, and it supports traditional desktop apps and will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 once it’s available this summer.

Microsoft’s trade-in offer is for a limited time, and available in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico only. You won’t get the full $150 for a Surface RT (released in 2012), as the max is $100, but Microsoft is offering up to $150 for the Surface 2 (released in 2013). Microsoft will determine and trade-in value based on accessories and working condition and then email a promo code once the device has been sent in. If you’re looking to get rid of a Surface RT or Surface 2 then Microsoft’s trade-in offer is available at the company’s online store.

More from theverge.com:

LG G4 Review:

LG G4 Review: A Leather-bound Smartphone with an Excellent Camera

Daniel Howley

yahho.com 

 Technology ReporterMay 5, 2015

LG’s new G4 is a contender for the best smartphone you can buy. It has an incredibly crisp display, a powerful camera, and long-lasting removable battery. On top of that, you can get it with a sweet optional leather back panel.

Designed for the times

Smartphones are as much fashion accessories as they are pocket-size supercomputers for watching cat videos. And the proof that LG understands that is in the G4’s new leather-bound back panels. Each panel is treated with vegetable oil to give it a smoother, more luxurious feel, and treated to prevent abrasions and water stains.

If leather isn’t your thing, you can instead opt for a gold, grey, or white patterned plastic back panel. Without the leather panel, the G4 looks like just another bland black slab, so if standing out is important, get the leather back. .

The G4’s body has an ever-so-slight curve that LG says makes the G4 nearly twice as durable as the S6 and iPhone 6. That doesn’t mean that it won’t break if you drop it — just that it can take a bit more punishment than its competitors.

But the thing that truly differentiates the G4 from every other smartphone is that it has the power and volume buttons on the back panel, not the side. LG says this makes it easier to reach the buttons without having to reposition the phone in your hand. It’s a good idea, but it takes getting used to.

Quantum leap

LG has created a new kind of screen for the G4 that it calls its IPS Quantum Display. Sci-fi name aside, the G4’s 5.5-inch panel is made to be brighter and offer far more vibrant colors than that of its predecessor, the LG G3.

The G4’s 2560 x 1440 resolution is exceedingly high, meaning text looks incredibly sharp. In the TV show “Daredevil,” the subtle threading on the titular character’s black costume looked exquisite.

The big to-do about LG’s screen, though, is that it is compatible with Hollywood’s Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), which means colors should look the same on the G4’s display as they do on the big screen. Compared with the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, colors on the G4 looked less saturated and more realistic. 

Unfortunately, the G4’s screen is rather dim, which makes images and videos a bit difficult to see at times, especially if you’re binge-watching a fairly dark show. Like “Daredevil.”

That said, it’s not as though the display particularly problematic. In fact, until I put it next to the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, I thought it looked incredibly bright. But the Galaxy S6 still has a better screen, thanks to its brightness and vibrant, oversaturated colors.

Camera

The LG G4’s camera is made to outshoot the iPhone 6’s and Galaxy S6’s cameras. It has a 16-megapixel sensor with a 1.8 aperture that helps the camera pull in more light. That’s wider than the 2.2-aperture lens found on iPhone 6. The Galaxy S6 has a 1.9-aperture lens.

LG says the G4’s camera also has a color spectrum sensor that can detect both visible and invisible light waves to help ensure better overall color accuracy, and create images that look closer to how you would see them with your own eyes.

During my testing, photos snapped with the G4’s camera looked incredibly detailed, easily besting the iPhone 6 when zoomed in, and rivaling the Galaxy S6’s shots. Colors, though, looked a bit too white in certain situations, especially shots of the sky.

In a photo of the lawn at New York’s Bryant Park, the sky looked far too blown out compared to the same shot taken with the iPhone 6, which produced a gorgeous azure color. The Galaxy S6’s shot fell between the iPhone’s and G4’s.

On the flip side, a photo of an orange and yellow tulip taken with the G4 looked spectacular, as the phone’s camera was able to capture the subtle color changes between the flower’s hues. The iPhone 6’s and Galaxy S6’s cameras, on the other hand, made the flower’s petals look oversaturated, making details difficult to see.

Low-light photos taken with the G4 looked particularly clear, thanks to the camera’s wide aperture. Details were easy to make out and colors were fairly accurate. More importantly, there were far fewer artifacts in the G4’s photos than in the iPhone 6’s or Galaxy S6’s images.

Android with a twist

The LG G4 runs on the latest version of Google’s Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system. Like Samsung and HTC, LG puts its own twist on Google’s mobile OS by changing the appearance of its various icons and settings menus.

LG also throws in a new notifications and settings menu that lets you adjust your phone’s screen brightness, Wi-Fi, volume, as well as open what LG calls QSlide apps.

QSlide apps, — which include things like a video player, calculator, and dialer — can be viewed two at a time in their own windows that you can move around the screen, minimize and full-screen just like on a PC.

The apps are fairly useful, but with a 5.5-inch display, using two at a time is too cumbersome.

LG also adds its own Smart Notice widget that includes the weather, time, and a small notification that lets you know if you should wear a jacket, bring an umbrella, or rub on some extra sunscreen if it’s especially sunny. It’s basically an overbearing parent in smartphone form.

(Thanks, Mom)

The G4 also gets a Smart Bulletin home screen that provides you with quick access to apps like LG Health, Calendar, and Music. It’s genuinely helpful if you want to see how many steps you’ve taken today, or if you’ve got an upcoming meeting without having to open a separate app. If you don’t want to see Smart Bulletin, you can always disable it in the G4’s settings menu.

Performance

LG packed the G4 with a quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM, which means it will be able to handle all of your games, apps, and Snapchats without a single hiccup.

Onboard storage space is limited to 32GB, but unlike the Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6 — which offer up to 128GB of built-in storage — the G4 includes a micro-SD card slot, so you can expand the handset’s storage by up to 2TB.

(Actually, 2TB microSD cards don’t exist yet, but it’s nice to know that you can pretty much add as much space as you want.)

With a 3,000-mAh battery, our G4 lasted all day without needing to be recharged. When you do need to recharge the phone, though, you’ll have to wait a while, as the G4 doesn’t offer the same kind of super charger technology as the fast-charging Galaxy S6.

One thing that will make power users in particular happy is the fact that the G4’s battery is completely removable and replaceable. So if you have to go on a long trip and you’re not going to be near a charger, you can swap in a new, fully charged battery and keep going.

Neither the Galaxy S6 nor the iPhone 6 have removable batteries.

Should you buy it?

The LG G4 is one of the best smartphones on the market, but it falls short of passing Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Apple’s iPhone 6. It has a sleek leather design, colorful screen, and exceptional camera, not to mention its removable battery and expandable storage.

Still, I prefer the Galaxy S6’s and iPhone 6’s displays to the G4’s. What’s more, both the S6 and iPhone 6 offer built-in fingerprint readers and their own mobile payment solutions.

This decision comes down to whether you want a removable battery and expandable storage. And if that’s the case, the LG G4 is the easy choice. If you’re more interested in a bright display and extras such as a built-in fingerprint reader, the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 are your best options.

LG G4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6: Which Android phone should you buy?

By Kyle Wiggers — April 30, 2015

digital trends

Jeffery Van Camp/Digital Trends

It’s finally official: LG unveiled its next flagship, the LG G4, at events simulcasted throughout the globe. With an exterior engineered around the tenant of “comfortable elegance” and a litany of hardware enhancements over last year’s model, the Korea-based electronics giant has made what is calls a “handmade masterpiece.”
But the G4 isn’t the only fancy new handset on the block. Samsung released its own highly anticipated smartphone, the Galaxy S6, to critical acclaim last month — DT’s own Ted Kritsonis scored them a 4.5/5. And if demand is any indication, it’s a very compelling devices in its own right.
The obvious question, then, is how the G4 measures up to the S6, arguably its biggest rival. While we’ve yet to put LG’s smartphone through its paces, we’ve cursorily compared the two in the meantime to illustrate the biggest differences.

Design

When you walk into a store, a smartphone’s design is what attracts you, and what sticks with you. After all, after you buy that smartphone, you’ll see it a countless number of instances every day, for years. It may sound like common sense, but unless you want to end up regretting your purchase every time you pull it out of your pocket, you want a phone with a design that you find pleasing.

LG claims the shock-absorbing bend makes the G4 20 percent more durable than the G3

What about the G4’s? It’s less striking than refined — there aren’t many surprises in store for those already familiar with the LG G3. It adopts the same, inoffensive design language, delegating the speaker, power, and volume buttons to the upper back for a minimalist presentation. It’s just as curvaceous, too: the rear panel arcs as it tapers on either side, a contoured bezel borders the display, and the entire outer shell itself is ever-so-slightly curved. That last characteristic is a major selling point — LG claims the shock-absorbing bend makes the G4 20 percent more durable than the G3. The effect, lucky for those put off by the G Flex 2’s exaggerated angle, is nearly imperceptible.
The Galaxy S6 is flat, by contrast. Samsung opted for Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and rear, which fabricator Corning claims is twice as tough as Gorilla Glass 3, the iteration in use on the G4. But the display glass is just the beginning of the aesthetic differences between the phones. The Galaxy S6 is a refinement of Samsung’s design paradigms, retaining the signature Galaxy home button and sensor placement. There are, however, touches worth noting, like a metal bezel made entirely of aluminum, bottom-level speaker placement (the G4’s is on the back), and a bulging camera module.

 

Jeffery Van Camp/Digital Trends

If some of those sound like compromises, they are. Samsung made them in the pursuit of thinness, which it definitely achieved — the Galaxy S6 measures just 6.8mm, a number the 9.4mm thick LG G4, can’t touch.
But the G4 is a standout in other areas, namely some of its removable (unlike the S6) back covers. LG says material engineers spent more than three years researching and developing the leather, which uses Gutermann’s Mara sewing threads for the stitching. It’s very soft to the touch (a characteristic the company attributes to its proprietary, 3-month vegetable tanning process), and in our limited experience it’s also fairly resistant to scratching.
If leather isn’t to your liking, though, LG will offer three “metallic craft” plastic covers in three colors: “titan black,” “shiny gold,” and “ceramic white.” Like the brushed finish on the G3’s rear panel, they definitely won’t be mistaken for metal, but they’re an appealingly neutral alternative to the more conspicuous leather.
In terms of coloration, the S6 and G4 are evenly matched. The S6 comes in white, black, gold, and blue, while the G4 will be available in black, beige, blue, and yellow.
What about size, you ask? While it’s true the G4’s display is a few tenths of an inch larger than the Galaxy S6’s (5.5 inches versus 5.1 inches), it never feels unwieldy — like the G3 before it, LG’s managed to squeeze the panel into a relatively compact frame. One-handed operation is out of the question for most, but it’s never uncomfortably large.
– Winner: LG G4 (so far)
The LG G4 is more comfortable to hold and practical, but the Galaxy S6 does look prettier with its dual-glass sides.

Processing power

The internals are where things get interesting. The Galaxy S6 eschews Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoC for the in-house, 64-bit Exynos 7420. It’s an eight-core monster of a chip, packing more than enough oomph to send the Galaxy S6 soaring past competitors in benchmarks.
LG chose the less exotic route. A Snapdragon 808 processor powers the G4, which the company says is very purposeful — it collaborated with Qualcomm to “optimize” the processor. LG may have had its reasons to skip the 810, but optimizations may not be enough to push it over the performance gap.
– Winner: TBA
LG’s processor is slightly weaker, but may produce better battery life.

Display

The Galaxy S6 made the jump to Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) AMOLED to much fanfare, but it was a catch-up move, in a sense — the G3 achieved that a year ago, but with compromises in brightness and contrast. The G4’s panel is an improvement in every way. It’s what LG calls a “Quantum” LCD IPS display: by using negatively charged liquid crystal instead of the typical positive and leveraging a color-transforming backlight, LG says the G4 is able to reproduce more accurate, less saturated colors than all other competing display technologies.
Our initial comparison between the S6 and G4 screen yielded mixed results. Some colors, like red, looked far better on the G4, but the differences were harder to perceive in photographs with lots of blues and greens. It’ll take more testing to make a definitive call, but LCD does have it’s inherent drawbacks — blacks on AMOLED are inherently better, for one, and power consumption is, in some cases, lower. We also noticed a yellowish tinge on the S6, a tinge that remained even after switching off the Adaptive setting in the display options. It’s possible we have a bad panel, but a similar, subtler shift towards warmer colors was observable on the our Nexus 6, too. There definitely appears to be something to LG’s claims.
– Winner: LG G4 (so far)
Head to head, LG’s screen looked better. Samsung also doesn’t fully take advantage of its AMOLED screen, rarely showing deep blacks.

Battery and storage

The other divergences are many. The G4 has a 3000mAh battery, while the S6 settles for 2550mAh. We don’t know for sure yet, but we are guessing that the G4 will hold a charge longer. And since it’s battery is removable, there is some more flexibility there, as well.
When it comes to storage, Samsung has taken the Apple route of removing its MicroSD slot and instead selling 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB models of the Galaxy S6. This is a fine route, but we like LG’s decision to make a 32GB model and including a MicroSD slot that can hold up to 2TB cards.
– Winner: LG G4 (by a landslide)

Camera

Considering the amount of use smartphone cameras get, it’s no LG and Samsung spend so much time improving them. The S6, for its part, packs 16-megapixel back-facing shooter with a f/1.9 aperture lens and built-in optical stabilization. That falls slightly short of the G4’s specifications: f/1.8 aperture — “the brightest lens in the world on a smartphone,” LG says — and “three-dimensional optical stabilization,” which ups the compensation level and accounts for motion on the z-axis (forward and backward) in addition to the x (vertical) and y axes (horizontal).

Jeffery Van Camp/Digital Trends

That’s not the only trick the G4 has up its sleeve, though. LG’s “color spectrum sensor” is an inconspicuous little meter beneath the flash that uses light and object recognition to “read color as you understand it with your own eyes.” It’s meant to help automatically adjust white balance and color temperature, but that’s proven hard to test in our short time with the G4. It’ll take shooting in different lighting environments to highlight the differences, if any, the new sensor makes.
We should also note that the G4 does have a full manual mode for adjusting ISO and other elements, and can shoot in RAW format, which is a plus for any serious photographers.
– Winner: LG G4 (so far)
So far, we are impressed with the LG G4’s ability to replicate the natural color of objects and not wash them out, though it did tend to make objects bolder and brighter than in real life.

Overall winner: LG G4 (so far)

So far, who is the winner? Probably the G4. While we haven’t had a chance to thoroughly review the hardware yet, what we’ve observed so far is enough to give it the edge over the S6. Accessories like leather backing aside, the display’s colors are incredibly impressive. The camera, too, seems to take shots at least as bright and colorful as the S6, although we’ll have to take a lot more shots to see if it holds up in dimmer lights. And the G4 just feels great in the hand — it’s light and conforms to the curve of your fingers, very unlike the angular and hefty competition.
If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, then, we recommend waiting for the LG G4. Check back for our full review.

Spec comparison

	Samsung Galaxy S6	LG G4
Size	143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 (mm)	148.9 x 76.1 x 9.8 (mm)
Weight	138g	155g
Screen	5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED	5.5-inch IPS LCD
Resolution	1,440 x 2,560 pixels	1,440 x 2,560 pixels
OS	Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz	Android 5.1 Lollipop with LG UX 4.0
Storage	32GB, 64GB, 128GB (non-expandable)	32GB (expandable up to 2 terabytes)
SD Card Slot	No	Yes
Processor	Octa-core 4×2.1GHz + 4×1.5GHz 64-bit 14nm Samsung Exynos	Hexa-core 2×1.8GHz + 4×1.44GHz 64-bit 20nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 808
RAM	3GB LPDDR4	3GB LPDDR4
Connectivity	Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, HSPA+, NFC	Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, HSPA+, NFC
Camera	Front 5MP, Rear 16MP	Front 8MP, Rear 16MP
Bluetooth	Yes, version 4.1 LE	Yes, version 4.1 LE
Sensors	Accelerometer, barometer, compass, gyroscop, heart rate monitor	Accelerometer, barometer, compass, gyroscop
Fingerprint sensor	Yes	No
Battery	2,550mAh (non-removable)	3,000mAh (removable)
Charger	USB 2.0, PowerMat wireless	USB 2.0, Qi wireless charging with compatible case
Colors	White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue Topaz	Grey, White, Gold, Blue
Marketplace	Google Play Store	Google Play Store
Ave. Price	$199.99 to $679.92	TBA
Availability	April 10 on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Cricket, and U.S. Cellular	Late May/early June on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular
DT Review	Samsung Galaxy S6 Review	Hands On: LG G4

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5 annoying Samsung Galaxy S6 problems, and how to fix them

By Simon Hill — May 4, 2015

  digital trends

 

 

Digital Trends

It’s easy to fall in love with the Galaxy S6. Samsung’s design is refined, there’s plenty of raw power under the hood, and the feature list is impressive. But as wonderful as it is, you can still find flaws. We’ve been gathering user feedback, checking out complaints, and searching for solutions to the biggest Galaxy S6 problems. Here’s what we’ve got so far:
Related: 20 awesome Galaxy S6 tips and tricks

Click on a problem or go to the next page:

• Problem: Refreshing and restarting apps
• Issue: Battery life is poor
• Glitch: Wi-Fi slow, won’t connect or drops
• Problem: Signal strength is weak
• Issue: GPS not accurate

First problem: Refreshing and restarting apps

Problem: Refreshing and restarting apps

There has been quite a bit of chatter about the Galaxy S6 having poor memory management. A lot of people are irritated to find apps refreshing when they return to them, or apps closing by themselves, despite the device apparently having free RAM. The S6 has 3GB of RAM, and you can get a snapshot of what’s in use by opening up Smart Manager and tapping on the RAM. The cause of the problem is unclear, but you can still try a few things:
Workarounds:

• It’s a good idea for general performance and battery life to disable or uninstall any app you aren’t using regularly.
• Facebook and Facebook Messenger are known memory hogs. If you can live without them, it will probably make a discernible difference.
• Use another launcher. TouchWiz is better than it used to be, but it can still be pretty demanding. The Google Now Launcher or the Nova Launcher might help.

Potential solutions:

• This could be some kind of bug in the software. Samsung will roll out updates to alleviate issues like this, if it can, so keep an eye on Settings > About device > Software update > Update now.

Next problem: Battery life is poor

Issue: Battery life is poor

The 2,550mAh-rated battery in the Galaxy S6 is not the biggest battery on the block, and a number of users are having issues with poor battery performance. The phone is quick to charge, but it’s also quick to drain, and a lot of people are not making it through the day without a top-up. The fact that there’s no removable battery makes this a bigger issue for some people.
Workarounds:

• Start by turning off features that you aren’t using, and set the screen brightness as low as you can without making it tough to read. You can check out more general battery saving tips for the basics.
• Background syncing is likely to be causing a lot of battery drain. Do you need all that syncing? Check in Settings > Accounts, and turn off anything you really don’t need to sync in the background. Remember that this stuff will still sync when you check it.
• Some people report an improvement after switching off VoLTE or Wi-Fi calling. It will depend on your carrier whether these are available on your S6, but it’s worth checking.
• Go to Settings > Wi-Fi > More and turn Smart Network Switch off.
• Go to Settings > Wi-Fi > More > Advanced and turn Always Allow Scanning off.
• Some people report that connecting to a Wi-Fi router on 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz reduces battery drain. Your connection won’t be quite as fast, but it might be a trade-off worth making.
• Head into Settings > Battery, and you’ll find a Power saving mode that can really boost your battery life. However, there is a cost in terms of reduced brightness, vibration, and performance. Ultra power saving mode is only really suitable for emergencies, because it severely limits your S6 functionality.
• Consider getting a portable battery charger as a backup.

Potential solutions:

• Take a look in Settings > Battery and check out Battery usage. You can find power-guzzling apps and replace them, or try to reduce their consumption by turning off notifications.
• Go to Settings > Application manager and run through the list on the All tab. Any app you don’t use, tap on it, and Uninstall or Disable it.
• You may as well try wiping your cache partition — It can help sometimes, and it certainly won’t do any harm. Turn your S6 off, then hold down Power, Volume up, and Home together. You’ll get the recovery menu, and you can use the Volume buttons to highlight wipe cache partition, and then hit the Power button to select it. When it’s done, you want to highlight reboot system now with the Volume buttons, and then press Power to select it.

Next problem: Wi-Fi slow, won’t connect or drops

Glitch: Wi-Fi slow, won’t connect or drops

A lot of people run into problems with Wi-Fi when they get a new phone, and the Galaxy S6 is no exception. There are a lot of potential causes of a Wi-Fi problem. You might find that the connection is slow, maybe it simply won’t connect, or maybe it keeps dropping the connection at random.
Potential solutions:

• Turn your S6 and your router off, and then turn them on again. This often works, but it’s rarely a permanent fix.
• Go to Settings > Wi-Fi, long press on your troublesome router, then tap Forget network, and try setting it up from scratch.
• If you’re connecting to 5GHz and there’s a 2.4GHz option, try switching to see if it makes a difference.
• Use a free app like Wifi Analyzer to make sure that your channels aren’t too crowded. If you find that you’re using a busy channel, then try switching — It could make a huge difference.
• Check that the MAC filter on your router is off or add your Galaxy S6 MAC address. You should find it listed in Settings > Wi-Fi > More > Advanced.
• Make sure that Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep is set to Always. You’ll find it in Settings > Wi-Fi > More > Advanced.
• Make sure that your router firmware is up to date. Check with your ISP or manufacturer about updates.

Next problem: Signal strength is weak

Problem: Signal strength is weak

A few Galaxy S6 owners have been complaining about terrible signal strength and frequent dropped calls. There appears to be a major issue for people on Sprint specifically, but some people with other carriers have also had problems.
Potential solutions:

• Go to Settings > Mobile networks > Network mode and switch to CDMA/LTE, if you’re on Sprint or Verizon. If you’re with a different carrier, then Global might work better.
• For some Sprint users switching to CDMA only actually resulted in a faster, more stable connection than they could get with LTE. This could be because your local tower is being upgraded. If this is the case for you, then you’ll also want to complain to Sprint about it.

Next problem: GPS not accurate

Issue: GPS not accurate

Most people are finding that the GPS on the Galaxy S6 is excellent, but a few people are having trouble getting accurate positioning. There are reports that it keeps losing the lock, and some fitness apps that track runs are returning odd results. Start by going into Settings > Location, make sure it’s on, and set to High accuracy.
Potential solutions:

• If you have Power saving mode turned on in Settings > Battery, then try turning it off. Now turn your Galaxy S6 off and on again.
• Go into any app that you are using GPS with, via Settings > Application manager, and tap Clear cache.
• To determine if you have a real fault, try installing the free GPS Test app. Ideally, compare results with another phone that also has the app running. If it’s not picking up the same satellites, then it may be a hardware fault. Contact Samsung, your carrier, or your retailer to ask about a replacement.
• You could try a factory reset. Backup everything first, and go to Settings > Backup & reset > Reset device > Erase everything. Now be careful about what you install afterwards, and take note of any app that impacts your GPS performance.

20 Awesome Galaxy S6 tips and tricks to make you a Samsung master

By Simon Hill — April 8, 2015

  Digital Trends

 

 

 

Ted Kritsonis/Digital Trends

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is a beautiful phone that’s going to prove very hard to resist. If you’ve been seduced, then you’ll be delighted to learn that there’s a lot more to this phone than meets the eye. You’ll find that Samsung has worked hard to add value with a treasure trove of handy shortcuts and extra features. Some of them are familiar from previous Galaxy S phones, some are new entries from Samsung, and some come courtesy of Google’s latest Lollipop-flavored Android 5.0 release. Here are some of the best Galaxy S6 tips we’ve uncovered so far.

• How to streamline navigation, get a theme you want, use the fingerprint sensor, enable split screen, and launch the camera quickly
• How to easily take a selfie, not be disturbed, download files quickly, take a screenshot, and use Google Now
• How to use private mode, beef up security, use gestures, get the most from your display, and customize vibrations
• How to use Smart Lock, save battery life, disable/uninstall apps, unlock developer options, and get 100GB of free cloud storage

How to streamline your navigation

Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends

One of the first things you should do to start customizing your S6 for your own personal needs is to pull down that notification shade and tap on Edit. Now drag and drop all the features, functions, and shortcuts you want to have easy access to into your quick settings menu and ditch anything you don’t need. When you’re happy with the line-up tap Done.
Related: Samsung Galaxy S6 review
You should also edit the Quick settings that appear at the top of the Settings menu. Once again, there’s an Edit button at the top right and you can choose up to nine specific Settings to appear as large icons at the top of the list. Stick the stuff you most commonly go to in here and you’ll save yourself some time.

How to get the theme you want

You’ll find the usual batch of wallpapers and widgets when you tap and hold on any empty space on your home screen, along with the option to change your screen grid size. You’ll also find Themes in here that can give your phone an entirely fresh look, changing app icons, the font, the backgrounds on your home screen, and elements of many of your standard apps, like Phone and Contacts. You can preview themes before applying them.
There are only three themes on the S6 by default, but you’ll find lots more to download via the Store link at the top right of the Themes page. There is also a theme tool on the way which will enable you to create your own themes.

How to use the fingerprint sensor

The fingerprint sensor is by far the coolest, quickest, and most secure way to unlock your Galaxy S6, so dive into Settings > Lock screen and security > Screen lock type > Fingerprints and follow the onscreen instructions. You can always add more fingerprints later or remove fingerprints in the same menu.
It makes a lot of sense to use your thumb if you want to be able to unlock the phone one-handed. You also have the option to set your backup password. At the bottom you’ll find two toggles that dictate whether you can use the fingerprint sensor for Web sign-in and to Verify Samsung account. That means you won’t have to enter passwords for either, you can simply scan your fingerprint instead.

How to enable split screen

The Galaxy S6 has a stunning, 5.1-inch display and you can have more than one app on it at the same time using the split screen function. All you have to do is hold down the apps or multitasking button at the bottom left for a couple of seconds. The bottom half of the screen will display a menu of apps you can choose from and the top half will go on displaying whatever it was displaying. If you want to change the space allocated, drag the icon in the middle up or down. You can also access more options, such as the option to flip, window, or close apps, by tapping on the circle.

How to quickly launch the camera

The Galaxy S6 has a fantastic 16-megapixel main camera and you can boost your chances of catching those spontaneous moments with this handy camera shortcut. Simply double tap the Home button and the camera app will launch. It works anywhere, even when the screen is off.
It’s worth noting that this shortcut results in a small delay when you press your Home button once, as the S6 is waiting to see if you plan on tapping twice for the camera. If you find it annoying then dip into the Camera settings and toggle Quick launch off.