Five Hidden Features on Galaxy S4 That You Can Use

According to research from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 61% of Americans own a smartphone. Just ten years ago most of the people carrying smartphones were business executives who were carrying Blackberry’s or Palm Treos.

So what kind of smartphones do people carry today? According to Pew, 28% of all cell phone owners are Android users, while 25% are iPhone users. With T-mobile carrying the Galaxy S4, people have even more incentive to become Android users. Even the most experienced users are in for a few surprises with the Galaxy S4; it has several features that are hidden in menus and behind settings.

Eraser

You took some wonderful family photos while you were on vacation, but some of them were ruined by people strolling through the shots. The Galaxy S4 has a hidden camera editing feature called “Eraser” that enables users to show or hide moving objects in the background.

The function is located in the Camera app. You must change the shooting mode to Eraser before taking any photos. Otherwise you won’t be able to edit the photos in this manner. Once you are in this mode, the Galaxy S4 will take 5 pictures after you tap the shutter button. Any moving objects will be removed in the final image after you tap the save button.

S Translate

You may be familiar with translator apps, but Galaxy S4’s S Translate app is different. It is an intuitive, real-time translator. It knows 9 different languages – it really knows them. It understands Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and English in both a text-to-speech capacity and a speech-to-text capacity.

It even has a built-in optical reader that can translate printed text. S Translate helps you with anything from reading menus to communicating with others in text or speech, and is part of the “life companion” experience of the new handset.

Image Licensed Under Attribution

Audio Adapt

Adapt Sound is a feature buried in the Galaxy S4's sound settings. It is no one-size-fits-all audio. It allows you to customize sound to your hearing. To access the feature go to Settings -> My device tab -> Sound -> Adapt sound and follow the prompts.

You’ll be taken through a setup session (You will need headphones for this) that is basically a hearing test. The best results are received in a quiet environment. When you complete the process, you’ll never have to adjust the audio again.

WatchOn

Is it a phone or a remote? You can program your Galaxy S4 to control TV, DVR, Blu-ray player, and home theater. It recognizes your cable/satellite provider and displays a programming guide. It even suggests programs based on your preferences, provides program schedules, and channel surfs. Just access the app and follow the prompts to set it up.

Access the Camera From the Lock Screen

Have you ever missed getting a great picture because of the time it takes to access the camera on your smartphone? You can quickly access the camera from the lock screen on the Galaxy S4. You can access this feature by going to Settings > My device > Lock screen > Lock screen widgets and selecting camera. Swiping left on the lock screen launches the camera. This shortcut does not work if you have set the lock screen as a pattern or PIN.

  Faizan Ahmad

About the Author:

This article is posted by Faizan who is the Author and Founder of TechSenser. He is a Professional Blogger from India and a passionate writer about Technology, Gadgets, How-to-Guides, etc. You can connect him on Google+.