Samsung Galaxy Note Review (mentioning iPhone 4s and Dell Streak)

Went to test Samsung Galaxy Note today at Vivo City. Most of the other reviews tell you the surface basic stuff like specs etc. Mine is more in depth and critical.

Note is different in 2 aspects: size and pen.

Size

Size wise, it's big but yet light. Can put in my work pants easily. Resolution is good but not as good as retina display of iPhone 4s (btw Siri don't understand Singapore accent even if I speak perfect English). Still it's good enough for my standards. The big screen will suck battery life though, so either bring portable charger or reduce screen brightness.

Pen - surprisingly, it's precise and you can write properly with it, unlike the stylus and iPad combo. Good for business and taking notes. Not as unprofessional as typing or writing with fingers during a meeting.

Also, the writing to text conversion is surprisingly accurate. Need to keep pressing the spacebar or draw strokes to the right for space though. If they can use dictionary to automatically predict when words are completed will be great.

Some flaws:

1. Screen rotation - changing orientation takes 4 to 5 seconds!! I tried with my iPad it only takes about half a second.

2. Camera snaps the pic about 1 second after you click. iPhone is instantaneous, so iPhone is better if you want to use the phone as a camera.

3. Pen inserts from below. Should be better if it's from the top. Strange design decision.

Others

Another thing is that now ios 5 has a task list that syncs to office outlook. Gingerbread doesn't have.

I didn't try the network as the display set don't have sim card inserted, but no matter how fast the phone itself is, there's no point in singapore as 3G network is very very slow anyway, if it works at all. Especially using starhub in the CBD area.

Selecting individual text is now easier as you can scroll cursor around after tapping, like iOS.

That's all I have from my limited time testing it. Only came up with 3 flaws, which speaks very well of it,as I am a tough reviewer.

I will probably buy 1 in jan to replace my dell streak which dell discontinued and refused to give any more updates (and Michael dell criticized android - after I bought the product). Threw away my dell streak yesterday after dell refused to honor the warranty agreement and repair my charging port after 10 months of use, and the service lady told me its not covered under warranty as the port is linked to the motherboard which is "expensive to replace".

Didnt bother to quarrel with them as they are not the decision makers in the organisation and didnt want to waste my precious time. Don't think I will buy dell products again for as long as I live and has also started to share this with my colleagues. Thinking if I should post this experience on Facebook.

How to remove programs from autostarting

Using this tip, you can minimize the startup time of windows XP and Vista also. You can disable some optional windows applications like windows messenger, Yahoo messenger, QuickTime and many others auto startup programs that run automatically when you start your computer.

Follow the given steps to disable the windows auto run applications: 

To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

Click Start button and type msconfig in Run option then press Enter for next.

A small System Configuration Utility dialog box will appear with many options like General, System.ini Win.ini, Boot.ini, Services, Startup and Tools.

  

Now select Startup tab and uncheck the applications that you want to disable from windows startup.

Now click on Apply button to implement the changes then click on Ok button to end the configuration process.

Again close the all program and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

How to disable to Windows key on keyboard

got this somewhere to prevent coming to screen when playing dota:

Automated method

Disable the Windows key

Step 1: Download the Microsoft Fix it program 50465 from Microsoft at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9738719.

Step 2: Double-click on the file you just downloaded, MicrosoftFixit50465.msi, and click Run to install the fix.

Step 3: Follow the short installation prompts and restart your computer.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Enable the Windows key

Step 1: Download the Microsoft Fix it program 50464 from Microsoft at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9738718.

Step 2: Double-click on the file you just downloaded, MicrosoftFixit50464.msi, and click Run to install the fix.

Step 3: Follow the short installation prompts and restart your computer.

Manual method

Caution: Please take care when working in the registry. Mistakes made in the registry can cause serious problems. If you are not comfortable working in the registry, consider using the automated method.

Disable the Windows key

Step 1: Click Start, then type regedt32 in the search box.

Click image to enlarge

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 2: Double-click on HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE, then SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, Control.

Click image to enlarge

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 3: Click on Keyboard Layout, then in the Registry Editor menu, click on Edit, New, Binary Value.

Click image to enlarge

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 4: Name the new entry as Scancode Map.

Step 5: Double-click on the new entry and type in 00000000000000000300000000005BE000005CE000000000as the value data, then click OK. You must type it in manually; copying and pasting will not work. It might be easier to look at it in pairs, as three rows of 16 digits:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0
00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00

Click image to enlarge

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 6: Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

Enable the Windows key

Step 1: Click Start, then type regedt32 in the search box.

Step 2: Double-click on HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE, then SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, Control.

Step 3: Click on Keyboard Layout and right-click on Scancode Map. Click Delete then click Yes.

Click image to enlarge

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 4: Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

Change Vista sleep button to shutdown

Got this from how-to geek... for really cool people who like to do cool things like us.

Change Windows Vista Power Buttons

You can configure this setting easily by using the advanced power settings panel, which is a little tricky to get to normally, but we’ll take the shortcut.

Open a command prompt (type cmd into the start menu search bar), and then type in the following:

powercfg.cpl,1

You could also take the long route (Control Panel \ Power Options \ Change Plan Settings \ Change Advanced Power Settings)

Once you get to this dialog, browse down to “Power buttons and lid”

From here, you can change the options:

• Power button action – Changes the hardware power button action
• Start menu power button – Changes the power button on the Start Menu

You can change the power button to either Sleep, Hibernate or Shut Down, or even nothing for the hardware power button.

PPS - Chinese characters instead of gibberish

when you first install and run PPStream - you may see gibberish instead of chinese characters.  Have to go control panel, region and language, language, administrative tab, then change non-unicode language to chinese.

Garena

Downloaded the Garena from Sg website, but the client got bug, cannot see region.  Some site recommend going to get international version, but what worked for me in the end is just to widen the bar for the region area...

New laptop - Warcraft 3 and Windows 7

Got new laptop today, and installed warcraft 3, but the game wont run in full screen... this is useful (not from me, but from one of the forums I searched):

I had recently upgraded my laptop from Vista to Windows 7 Basic. Everything was fine until i opened warcraft which did open, but not in full screen. I tried setting resolutions etc etc but in vain. But then finally i found a way to make it fullscreen, and I want to share this to all of you who have come across this bug.

First go to Start>Run
Type Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Blizzard Entertainment>Warcraft III>Video

Now comes the slightly tricky part
Right click on reswidth>Modify....click on decimal and change it to 1300>OK
Right click on resheight>Modify>Decimal>900>OK

Close Registry Editor and then Open Warcraft
FULLSCREEN