Samsung Galaxy Note Tips and Tricks

Android 2.3
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note
Factory OS: Android 2.3

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie) & Android 8 (Oreo)
Or view tips for all Android versions

We produce a great list of the best mobile phone accessories and if you have purchased a smartphone, one of the first things you will want to do is accessorise it. Our guide shows you the best accessories and the best places to buy them from.

Simply go to the menu at the top of this page and select: Phone Guides – Best Cell Phone Accessories (for US users) or Best Mobile Phone Accessories (for UK users).

If you want to use your phone as a torch, then there are a couple of great Apps that use either your phone’s camera flash or the phone’s screen to illuminate your life.

The first is called Tiny Flashlight and it’s a brilliant App. The App comes with many different Torch types and can use both the screen or your camera flash. It is also super simply to use.

The second is called Brightest Flashlight. This App turns on every available piece of phone hardware that can be illuminate and puts them on maximum illumination.

Both of these Apps are available from the Android Market.

Unlocking can bring many important benefits and can save you a considerable amount of money.

We can recommend a safe, reliable and low cost phone unlocking supplier or you can read more in our comprehensive phone unlocking guide which explains what it means, why you should unlock, and the safest and cheapest place to get it done.

1) Go straight to our recommended phone unlocking provider.

or

2) Read our phone unlocking guide for more information.

Go to Settings – Display. Then tick the Display battery percentage checkbox. If your phone doesn’t have this option, then go to the Google Play store and download a useful App called Battery Percentage.

There are two different Apps under that name, but they are both good.

When browsing on your phone you may notice images are quite blurry. This is because your telecom provider is compressing the images before they are downloaded on to your phone.

There is no way to prevent this, but if you have a WiFi connection nearby, then you can turn that on. This will mean that all browser downloads come through the WiFi connection, rather than the carrier, and your images will appear normally.

If you are browsing Youtube videos on your phone and they appear blurry, then this is usually because of your connection speed.

If you are using 3G / 4G and you’re in an area of low signal strength, then Youtube will sometimes automatically reduce the quality of the video. Unfortunately this can make the video very pixelated and of poor quality.

If you are using the standard Android browser, then when the video is in full screen, press the back button. Then press HQ and start playing it again.

If you are using another browser, then press the Settings icon on the bottom right of the Youtube video. Then change the quality.

This may improve the quality, but it may also lead to buffering issues.

Another solution is to use a WiFi connection, if one is available.

If you are browsing a website and want to see the HTML source code behind the page, then Android doesn’t offer you the ability to do this by default.

There is however a handy App called View Web Source which can be installed. Whenever you want to view the HTML of a web page, you just press the Menu – Share – View Web Source.

You can then browse the code or copy the content into the clipboard.

If you have Android 4.0, then one neat feature is the ability to clear single notifications.

Simply pull down your notifications bar by swiping your finger from the top of your phone downwards. Then when you see each individual notification, swipe your finger left or right to clear each one.

Normally you don’t have the ability to create shortcuts to files or folders on your home screen.

There is a workaround however. Go to the Play Store and download an App called Linda File Manager.

Once installed, browse to a file or folder. Then press and hold on the file and select Create shortcut.

The shortcut will be created on your homescreen where you can hold and drag it elsewhere if you want.