Few Note 3 questions

[Adrenaline]

I just got one and am having a hard time finding some stuff that I am spending a lot of time online trying to figure it out.

I am trying to save a picture from facebook, and it shows up nowhere. It is not in the gallery or the scrapbook. Any other suggestions?

(When I go to set the wallpaper my gallery shows pictures. When I go into my gallery, it goes straight to my camera and tells me I have no pictures.)

Half my music has pictures for it, the other half does not. How do I fix this? I have full pictures under iTunes (yes, this is annoying me).

Does the Samsung recognize mp4 format movies? I have not gotten to this yet.

Can I make the weather panel transparent?

This is becoming an extreme hassle for me. I am trying to get through all of this but I am spending more time trying to locate some stuff (especially the pictures) than I spent figuring out an iPhone.

 

[mnewsham]

I am trying to save a picture from facebook, and it shows up nowhere. It is not in the gallery or the scrapbook. Any other suggestions?

Not gonna try with your other points, but go into the file browser and open up the DCIM folder and check in there OR check the "downloads" folder.

 

[Yuriman]

I would download a file explorer and check in your downloads folder to see if your downloaded pictures are there. It's possible that the media scanner hasn't picked them up yet - sometimes this would happen on my S2 and a reboot would restart the media scanner.

Are you using the stock music player? I'm not sure where it pulls album art from. I use Cyanogenmod's Apollo and it quickly gets album art for any music I add.

I use Beautiful Widgets weather widget and it's highly customizeable(sp?). The stock widget on the S2 had no appearance options, nor the ability to choose how often it syncs.

 

[Oyeve]

Pics saved from Facebook show under gallery and in a folder called Facebook on my note 3. I am exhibiting other issues on my note 3 like not able to shut down using power button. I'm gonna wipe it today to see if it gets fixed. Go ogling note 3 issues brings up tons of hits.

 

[Adrenaline]

I am having problems getting videos to play. I have been messing with different mp4 players and none are working. This appears to be a fantastic phone but the other parts of it working together has been going rough for me.

I have found the pictures. The music stuff is severely lacking. I downloaded the apollo player and beautiful widgets and they lack as well. I got a different phone as I am tired of iPhone but this "system" is not nearly well designed as iOS. I am going to give this another day to see if I can get it working, if not, I will return everything. I have already spent ten times the amount of time I did in getting my iPhone to get entirely set up how I want it.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[bearxor]

I don't know how long you have before you can return it, but if you're coming from being a long time iOS user, there's a LOT to get used to. Just in navigating and finding things. I'd say that even two weeks isn't really enough time to grasp it all.

 

[mnewsham]

I am having problems getting videos to play. I have been messing with different mp4 players and none are working. This appears to be a fantastic phone but the other parts of it working together has been going rough for me.

I have found the pictures. The music stuff is severely lacking. I downloaded the apollo player and beautiful widgets and they lack as well. I got a different phone as I am tired of iPhone but this "system" is not nearly well designed as iOS. I am going to give this another day to see if I can get it working, if not, I will return everything. I have already spent ten times the amount of time I did in getting my iPhone to get entirely set up how I want it.

Thanks for the help so far.

Odd i moved from ios7 on the iPhone 4s to android 4.2 on the Lg G2 (comparable to the note 3) and i haven't had really any problems. I had an android 2.2 phone 3 years ago but even so 4.2 is a distinct change. I say give it some time, android is to ios as windows is to osx, its not as user friendly but its much more powerful (widgets, custom ROMs, USB OTG, etc etc)

 

[Yuriman]

Sorry to hear you're having a bad experience. How else is the music player lacking, other than not quickly pulling album art? We may be able to make some suggestions if we know specifically what you're looking for.

Also, iOS doesn't have weather widgets (afaik) so you could just not use one and get the same experience, right?

My only other suggestion is that you might try a Moto X before going back to the Apple camp. It probably has the best out-of-the-box experience of any Android phone on the market right now, even if it doesn't have the largest screen or fastest SoC.

 

[Oyeve]

I am having problems getting videos to play. I have been messing with different mp4 players and none are working. This appears to be a fantastic phone but the other parts of it working together has been going rough for me.

I have found the pictures. The music stuff is severely lacking. I downloaded the apollo player and beautiful widgets and they lack as well. I got a different phone as I am tired of iPhone but this "system" is not nearly well designed as iOS. I am going to give this another day to see if I can get it working, if not, I will return everything. I have already spent ten times the amount of time I did in getting my iPhone to get entirely set up how I want it.

Thanks for the help so far.

Get mxplayer it pretty much plays anything and also get power amp, it's the best music player ever.

 

[Zaap]

I am having problems getting videos to play. I have been messing with different mp4 players and none are working. This appears to be a fantastic phone but the other parts of it working together has been going rough for me.

I have found the pictures. The music stuff is severely lacking. I downloaded the apollo player and beautiful widgets and they lack as well. I got a different phone as I am tired of iPhone but this "system" is not nearly well designed as iOS. I am going to give this another day to see if I can get it working, if not, I will return everything. I have already spent ten times the amount of time I did in getting my iPhone to get entirely set up how I want it.

Thanks for the help so far.

Honestly, it sounds like Android is not for you. Not a slam, just probably a fact. It's not for everyone.

"Lack" isn't really a useful term, as it's not entirely clear what you're lacking. What 'lacks' in a widget, vs. having no widgets? Sounds to me like widgets in general just aren't for you. There's plenty of decent 'music stuff' for Android, but if all of it "lacks" for you, then there's not much anyone can say.

It's also unclear what 'get this working' means. No one is going to justify their own preference of Android for you, vs. your fairly obvious preference for iOS, if that's really what you're after. (Kind of reads like it.)

If Android isn't working out and you were happy with iOS- I'd say stick with what works for you. Also, maybe give Windows phone a try.

 

[Adrenaline]

Any good m4v video players to use? I have tried a few and none will work with the files I have. I got mp4 videos to play.

I am trying handbrake for converting the files but it is over 2 hours converting a file an hour long.

 

[Adrenaline]

Honestly, it sounds like Android is not for you. Not a slam, just probably a fact. It's not for everyone.

"Lack" isn't really a useful term, as it's not entirely clear what you're lacking. What 'lacks' in a widget, vs. having no widgets? Sounds to me like widgets in general just aren't for you. There's plenty of decent 'music stuff' for Android, but if all of it "lacks" for you, then there's not much anyone can say.

It's also unclear what 'get this working' means. No one is going to justify their own preference of Android for you, vs. your fairly obvious preference for iOS, if that's really what you're after. (Kind of reads like it.)

If Android isn't working out and you were happy with iOS- I'd say stick with what works for you. Also, maybe give Windows phone a try.

It was really easy to use iOS. Android is pick and choose here and there. I am trying to get it, just lack patience. I was looking for something new as I do not like iOS 7 at all. I had to undo iOS 7 which was interesting and then they took the ability to downgrade from it away, so I am lucky.

I really would like to get the hang of this as it seems to have a lot more user control than iOS.

 

[dawheat]

Any good m4v video players to use? I have tried a few and none will work with the files I have. I got mp4 videos to play.

I am trying handbrake for converting the files but it is over 2 hours converting a file an hour long.

1. Have you tried MX Player? I haven't found a format that can't be played. Sometimes HW+ decoding won't be supported, but you click the H/W button and select S/W decoding. From then on it'll remember to play that video via software. No quality difference IMO.

I've rotated probably 40-50 different HD movies onto my Note 3 over the last couple months without any issues.

2. I use PowerAmp, though frankly I'm not a huge music person. As long as it has my music and playlists, I'm fine. No idea if it's better about album art.

3. If I save a photo from Facebook, it's saved in my stock gallery. When you first open the Gallery, it opens the most recent photo in my 'Camera' folder within the Gallery. Clicking the back caret in the top left corner go see all the folders in your Gallery. Facebook automatically appears for me with the photo I just saved.

4. Widgets are really up to your own preference. I use HD Widgets with the Colourform pack which let's me choose different widgets, including weather info, with a transparent background. See my homescreen below (though it's outdated a bit).

5. FYI - I use Nova launcher, screen mode set to Movie, adjust screen off, motion gestures off, most of the smart screen stuff off, Lux Dash to control auto-brightness.

Really the Note 3 let me setup my phone 'exactly' the way I wanted. Not sure how you exactly customize your phone in iOS beyond setting a background and organizing your apps.

 

[Oyeve]

5. FYI - I use Nova launcher, screen mode set to Movie, adjust screen off, motion gestures off, most of the smart screen stuff off, Lux Dash to control auto-brightness.

Really the Note 3 let me setup my phone 'exactly' the way I wanted. Not sure how you exactly customize your phone in iOS beyond setting a background and organizing your apps.

I use Next Launcher 3D on my Note 3, lets me squeeze as much screen real estate!

 

[dawheat]

I use Next Launcher 3D on my Note 3, lets me squeeze as much screen real estate!

Heh to each his own but holy clutter dude

I've actually aggregated stuff to keep my homepage slightly less cluttered as well as using Wanam to declutter some of my status bar.

- To launch clock I click the time in the widget
- To launch calendar I click the date in the bottom widget
- To launch camera I double click the screen
- To launch app drawer, I slide 2 fingers

 

[Adrenaline]

1. Have you tried MX Player? I haven't found a format that can't be played. Sometimes HW+ decoding won't be supported, but you click the H/W button and select S/W decoding. From then on it'll remember to play that video via software. No quality difference IMO.

I've rotated probably 40-50 different HD movies onto my Note 3 over the last couple months without any issues.

2. I use PowerAmp, though frankly I'm not a huge music person. As long as it has my music and playlists, I'm fine. No idea if it's better about album art.

3. If I save a photo from Facebook, it's saved in my stock gallery. When you first open the Gallery, it opens the most recent photo in my 'Camera' folder within the Gallery. Clicking the back caret in the top left corner go see all the folders in your Gallery. Facebook automatically appears for me with the photo I just saved.

4. Widgets are really up to your own preference. I use HD Widgets with the Colourform pack which let's me choose different widgets, including weather info, with a transparent background. See my homescreen below (though it's outdated a bit).

5. FYI - I use Nova launcher, screen mode set to Movie, adjust screen off, motion gestures off, most of the smart screen stuff off, Lux Dash to control auto-brightness.

Really the Note 3 let me setup my phone 'exactly' the way I wanted. Not sure how you exactly customize your phone in iOS beyond setting a background and organizing your apps.

I tried MX Player. It would not play m4v files that I got off iTunes at all for me. Do I need to get the DRM off the files? Where did you put the movies at? I tried the SD card and downloaded a codec and the movies still won't play.

What is a good podcast player?

I found this that is supposed to remove the DRM. I will try it out.

 

[dawheat]

I tried MX Player. It would not play m4v files that I got off iTunes at all for me. Do I need to get the DRM off the files? Where did you put the movies at? I tried the SD card and downloaded a codec and the movies still won't play.

What is a good podcast player?

Oh m4v files are DRM protected - I assume you bought them from iTunes? The same way iTunes won't play m4v files you've bought elsewhere, I don't think you can play them on any non-iOS device not synced to your Apple account.

This is why I never buy DRM protected content.

 

[poofyhairguy]

What is a good podcast player?

I usually download my podcasts and play them in Poweramp.

 

[tsupersonic]

What is a good podcast player?

Pocket Casts. It costs $3.99, but it is hands down the best podcast app on Android imo.

 

[Zaap]

2nd'ed for Pocketcasts.

 

[WelshBloke]

3rded.

OP sounds like you are just getting overwhelmed with options.

With your music it could either be a problem with the way iTunes has tagged the images in the files or they could be not transferring over properly.

Theres a few apps that will let you correct that sort of thing (just search for an album art downloader in the Play store) but it would probably be better to make sure that your music library is in order on your PC first.
You could also use Google music if you dont mind a cloud based solution.

Most android video players should handle .MP4 files so I'd say that its definitely the DRM. If they are .M4V you could just try renaming them to .MP4, obviously that wont work if they are DRM protected.This is a problem with ecosystem lock in. I always try to buy DRM free versions of things or I'll buy the DVD and rip it myself.


As a general point just take it slowly and dont try to get too technical too quickly.

OH and ask for help if you get stuck.

 

[Adrenaline]

It has been a lot. I had an issue today where my phone went totally unresponsive and rebooted. After the reboot it has been fine.

That program requiem ripped the DRM off 54 out of 55 m4v files successfully.