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Watch here for a quick and simple unboxing of the new Samsung Galaxy S10+

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Itâ€s as simple as holding down the Power button:

and Volume Down button:

for a couple seconds at the same time until you see the screenshot taken:

From here, either share it from the notification bar, or itâ€s also saved in your screenshot folder located at Internal Storage (/storage/emulated/0)/Pictures/Screenshots:

Alternatively, you can also add the option to take a screenshot from the Power button menu by going to Settings –> Buttons –> Power menu –> check “Screenshot”. 

Now, when you press and hold the power button, youâ€ll see the option to take a screenshot:

And thatâ€s it!  Two ways to quickly take a screenshot on the OnePlus One.

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Video Guide:

Step by Step guide:

1. Press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons for a few seconds (from any screen):
   

 

2. Youâ€ll see youâ€re successful once you see the screenshot appear slightly smaller: 
   
3. Now, you can pull down the menu and share it with any app you want, or you can also access it from the Internal Storage –> Pictures –> Screenshots folder (such as by using the included File Commander app):
   

    

And thatâ€s it – please ask any questions or share any other tips you may have in the comments below!

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If you still want to access the bare drive, hereâ€s how you do it:

In short, take a plastic scribe (such as an old credit card) and simply pry off the lid from the bottom chassis, and youâ€re done:

1. Start by sticking your card in between the lid and chassis:
   
2. Then, start to wiggle the card/scribe left and right in order to try to pry apart the clips that are holding the lid to the bottom chassis:
   
3. Continue to do this for all four sides until the whole lid is loose:
   
4. Remove the lid, and then use your card/scribe to pull out the drive:
   

And youâ€re done!  Again, note that the USB 3.0 port is the only connection available to the drive (thereâ€s no SATA port for using it in a laptop, etc):

  Also, at the time of this post, the 2TB versions use the larger 12.5mm drives whereas the 1TB use the standard 9.5mm drives. 

For any questions or comments, please share below!

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Video review:

Look and feel:

Inside the packaging you are given 5 individual tags which come wrapped in a blue metallic shield (to prevent programming from occurring in transit) and a short instruction guide:

The back of the packaging lists a few sample ways they can be programmed and it also explains that you need to use the Samsung TecTiles app to program them (at the time of this post, this app is only available in the US and Canada play store):

Each tag is a 1”x1” (2.5cm x 2.5cm) sticker with NFC technology built into it:

On the front side you have the glossy, Samsung TecTiles logo/text and on the “sticky” side, you can see the passive NFC coil that makes this all possible (well, that, and your active NFC phone):

What you can program:

Through the use of the TecTile app, you can program the tag to perform various functions when a phone with NFC comes near it. 

There are 4 categories each with a few programmable actions.  Below are all the functions (“TecTile Actions”) you can program:

1. Settings and Apps:

 

• Change Phone Settings – Here you can have it set the alarm, car mode, night mode, toggle bluetooth/wifi/silent/automatic brightness, set the volume for the ringer/music, or set the brightness:
  
  One thing to note here is that anything that deals with the Alarm actually sets an internal alarm within the app (and not the system alarm). Meaning, if you have an alarm already set outside the app – in the standard android Clock application – this is completely separate. 
• Launch an App – This is just as it sounds, it simply will launch an app of your choosing:
  
• Join a WiFi Network – This allows you to save a SSID and network key for a given WiFi network to the phone (ie, youâ€re a store/hotel/etc that offers WiFi, or an easy way to get visitors to your house connected):
  
• Show a Message – this will simply show a message on the screen when passed over the tag:
  

2. Location & Web:
 

• Show an Address or Location – This option will simply pull up the given location in a Google map as shown below:
  
• Foursquare or Facebook Check In – As it states, this will allow you to choose a place/location to check in through Facebook or FourSquare:
  
• Open a Web Page – this will cause the specified URL to open in the phoneâ€s default browser:
  

3. Phone & Text:
 
 

• Make a Call or Send a Text Message – here you supply the phone number to call, or text message to send, and then when a user passes over the tag, the phone will prompt them to call or text the number/message: 
  

• Share a Contact – this will share either a contact of your choice or the “ME” contact (which is your contact information that you have saved on your phone):
  
• Start a Google Talk Conversation – this will open up Google Talk and start a chat with the email address that you specify:
  

4. Social

   

• Update Facebook Status or Tweet a Status – these are what youâ€d expect.  You set the tag to send a status update to Facebook or Twitter (assuming the phone has Twitter and Facebook installed).
• Facebook Like – This will take the specified URL and post it on the userâ€s Facebook wall:
  
• Follow a Twitter User – What this does is actually open up the browser to the specified userâ€s twitter page:
  
• Connect on LinkedIn – This will open the browser and bring the user to your LinkedIn public page and allow them to request to follow you:
  

How to program them:

Once you have your action setup (for example, set the alarm and turn on silent), you will be brought to the programming page:

From here, you simply hover about 1 1/4” (or less) above the TecTile:

And if successful, youâ€ll be presented with a “Your TecTile Has Been Written” message:

Then, all you or a user needs to do is hover their NFC enabled phone over the tag and bam!

Now, letâ€s go back to the programming page where there were two other options you could choose:

• Lock TecTile so it canâ€t be re-written:  Doing this will permanently program the TecTile with whatever action you currently have selected.  You can never undo this or write to it again. 
• Allow multiple writes:  Without this selected, when you program the TecTile, you will be brought back to the main app page and youâ€ll have to setup the action again if you want to write another tag.  However, if you select this option, youâ€ll be brought back to the programming page where you can hover over as many other TecTiles as you want to program them with the same action. 

What canâ€t you do with them:

• You canâ€t program more than one action via Samsung TecTiles app – for example, you canâ€t update a Facebook status AND change a phone setting.  
• Do not stick them to metal surfaces – if you do, the tag wonâ€t work.  (NFC utilizes magnetic fields generated by the phone and the NFC coil.  If there is metal to interfere (ie, sticking it to a metal surface), it wonâ€t create the proper magnetic field for communication. 
• Not all actions will work without the proper app installed.  For example, if you program the tag with the TecTile app to change phone settings, it will only work on NFC phones that have the TecTile app installed.  Same goes for other apps that may perform other NFC tasks (such as custom tasks from NFC Task Launcher discussed below)

Final thoughts

The Samsung TecTile tags are a cheap and easy way to get into NFC tagging.  You are also not limited to only using the Samsung TecTile app to program them, you can also use other apps available in the Play store (which are not geo restricted) such as NFC Task Launcher which gives you even more functionality such as toggling between two tasks each time you access a hover over a Tag.    I have yet to choose the option for locking the TecTile, so I hope there is a confirmation before programming it in the event that you may accidentally check that option – that, and itâ€s too bad thereâ€s not a way to “password protect” writing to it (though, that may be a limitation of the NFC tag?). 

For personal use, I could see this being useful as turning on car mode setting when you place it in a car dock or setting alarms/etc when placing on a bed side table.  For commercial use, stick it one on your shop/hotel window or cash register to allow people to check in, gain access to your wifi, or access your website for coupons or similar.  If youâ€re interesting in buying them, they are available at the time of this post for $15 at Amazon.com or Samsung.com, or for various prices on eBay. 

Have an NFC phone and want to share your thoughts on Samsungâ€s TecTiles?  Do you have other NFC tags that are different/better or a NFC app to share that wasnâ€t discussed here?  Sound off in the comments below!

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This is a pretty straight forward post – how to take a screenshot with the Samsung Galaxy S3.  There are two out of the box ways to do it, and for both, the screenshots are saved to the /mnt/sdcard/Pictures/Screenshots directory and also copied to the clipboard.

1)  Power + Home button

Simply press and hold the Power and Home button at the same time for about two seconds until the phone creates zoomed out view of your screen (screenshot).   It then saves it to the Screenshots directory and copies it to the clipboard:

2) Palm swipe motion gesture

For this, you must first make sure that “Palm swipe to capture” is enabled under Settings –> Motion:

Then, all you need to do is take your palm, or the side of your hand (like a “karate chop”) and swipe from left to right/right to left on the screen and itâ€ll take a screenshot (and save it/copy to clipboard):

and thatâ€s it!  Two simple ways to take screenshots on the Samsung Galaxy S3. 

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In an effort to go completely paperless, I was presented with the problem of needing to sign a document that was emailed to me and send it back. Without having to print out the form to sign it nor needing access to a scanner or fax machine to send it back, you can simply take a picture of your signature, and then using free tools you can insert it onto the PDF and email it right back!

Since the time this guide was originally written a couple of years ago, thanks to commenters and software updates, there are now much easier methods to add your signature to PDFs for free (though, you can still follow the old guide if youâ€d like, but itâ€s more complicated than it now needs to be).

Note, like with the old guide, the below may look a little complicated at first, but thatâ€s only because I explicitly go through each step/click/etc. Once you read it and try it, itâ€s a lot easier and quicker than it may look.

Method 1 – Adobe PDF for Android/iOS

Perhaps the easiest way to sign PDFs would be to use Adobe Reader for Android or iOS. Of the many new features in the latest version, one is being able to add a signature to PDFs; unlike using the Nitro PDF Reader (the other new method discussed later in this post), you use the touchscreen of your mobile device to add your signature directly – thereâ€s no need to have a separate image of your signature ahead of time.

• First, open the PDF that you want to sign with Adobe Reader on your phone/tablet/mobile device and tap on the Editing tool button along the top:
  
• Then, tap on the signature tool (the fountain pen icon) up top, and tap in the general area where you wish to draw your signature. If you already had a stored signature, youâ€d have the option to “Add Signature”, which would place your existing signature, or “Edit Saved Signature”, which would bring you to the signature window.
  

  Otherwise, if you donâ€t have one already stored, youâ€ll be brought directly to the signature window:
  

• Here, youâ€ll do what youâ€d expect – simply use your finger (or stylus) and draw your signature.
  

  Once you stop writing for a second or two, an option bar will appear which allows you to either clear (erase) the signature or change the thickness (I personally prefer the 1pt thickness). You can also change the thickness once itâ€s on your pdf.
  

• Click “Save” and it will appear where you originally tapped on the PDF. If you then tap on the signature, you are given a few more options: resize, move (by dragging), thickness, color, opacity, or simply delete it:
  
• Once youâ€re satisfied, all you need to do is tap anywhere else on the document so the signature is no longer selected and Adobe will resave the PDF with your signature. Done!
  

Method 2 – Nitro PDF Reader

This next method is by using the latest (free) version of Nitro PDF Reader, and no other software is necessary. One of Nitro PDF Readerâ€s useful features is that it allows you to import an image of your signature and stamp and resize it onto a PDF without having to do the all the editing from the old method (screenshot of the pdf, adjusting the color and brightness, creating a transparent background, etc) – hereâ€s how you do it:

• Download and install Nitro PDF Reader.
• You still need to get your signature in digital format. My preferred method is simply signing a piece of paper and using your phone to take a picture of it and sending it to yourself
  

  (In particular, I like to use DropBox for Android which now has the convenient option of automatically uploading pictures taken with your phone to your DropBox account for easy access to your photo from your computer)
  

• Using Nitro PDF Reader, open the PDF you want to sign:
  
• From the main ribbon bar, click on QuickSign –> Create New Signature:
  
• Click on Browse to upload the image of your signature:
  
• Once you import your signature, depending on how well of a photo you took, you may have some “extra image” (black smudges) in your previewed signature:
  

  To fix this, youâ€ll have to either try to take a better photo, or (and I know I said you wouldnâ€t need any other software, but…) simply crop out any part of the image that isnâ€t your signature by using your favorite image editing software. For example, in MS Paint for Windows 7, simply select your signature (zoom out if you have to), click Crop,
  
  and save it:
  

  Now, once you upload this cropped version of your signature, it should look much cleaner in the Preview window:
  

• Now, give it a name if you want (useful for if you store multiple signatures), and I would suggest applying a password to it if you choose to not delete it after you use it (so someone canâ€t just open up your Nitro PDF and start signing documents as you):
  
• Once you click Save, you will be brought to the main ‘Manage Signature†window (this is where you can edit or delete your stored signatures).
  
• Once you close this window, your mouse cursor will be replaced with your transparent signature. Hover around to where you want to place it and then left-click once which will place it on the PDF. (you can actually place it anywhere because you can move it around once itâ€s placed).

  Once itâ€s placed, itâ€ll be highlighted in blue and you can move and/or resize it:
  

• Once youâ€re satisfied with where it is and how it looks, simply double click on it and itâ€s finished!
  
• Now simply re-save the PDF (file->save/save as) and you have a signed PDF (and your signature is stored within Nitro PDF Reader for easy access to sign future PDFs).

Of these two methods, using Adobe Reader mobile is the easiest, though using the Nitro PDF route gives a more ‘true†signature because itâ€s using a picture of your actual signature; Adobe Reader doesnâ€t have the ability to record the variable width/thickness of your pen strokes like an actual pen/pencil on paper. But either way, both are much better methods than I described quite a while ago and work great for adding your signatures to PDFs.

So there you have it, you were able to bypass having to print, sign, and scan (or fax) a document! Have a simpler (free) way to add a signature to a PDF? Did I miss a step you canâ€t seem to get passed? Perhaps you know of a way using a non-Windows OS? Let everyone know in the comments!

(caveat emptor, this guide is in no way meant to act as a way to forge, or otherwise impersonate, someoneâ€s signature!)

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After waiting for what seemed like forever, I woke up this morning to find a notification for an ICS update for my Galaxy Note!   After downloading and updating, Iâ€ve noticed that there are some neat features that are now available;  some may simply be because of Android 4.x, some are from the Galaxy Note Premium Suite, and others may be just new to me but I never noticed before.   Of these new changes, below are a couple that I thought were notable (ha)

for those wondering, I have an international Galaxy Note (N7000) which had

• PDA: N70000XXLC1
• PHONE: N70000XXLB2
• CSC: N70000CPWLB2
• Product Code: GT-N7000ZBADBT

and it was rooted by following dr.Ketanâ€s guide from xda-developers.  The OTA update failed (I think because I am rooted), so I instead used mobile odin pro to update using the N7000OXALPY firmware from samfirmware.com in order to have it actually work, while also preserving my root.   After the update, I have:

• PDA: N7000XXLPY
• PHONE: N7000XXLPT
• CSC: N7000OXALPY
• Product Code: GT-N7000ZBADBT

Pen hovering and itâ€s icon:

With the latest update comes the ability to use the s-pen to utilize cursor hovering events.   You can also enable the Hovering Pen Icon from Settings –>  Pen settings,  which “when pen tip is near the screen, the hovering pen icon is shown on the screen” (notice the tiny circle in the screen shot – thatâ€s the hovering icon):

This is quite a nice feature, for example, because you can hover over items on websites or flash objects that utilize the hover event such as expanding menus:

(main navigation menu from www.slickdeals.net)

It also makes using the S-Pen for drawing and cropping a bit easier – since then pen is not 100% pin point accurate (not to slight it, just being honest), it helps let you know where your ‘”mark” is going to be before the pen touches the screen.

That all being said, you donâ€t need to enable the icon for the hover event to work – it just makes it easier to see where your “cursor” is while hovering.   When enabled, the icon appears on the screen starting when the pen is about 1/4 inch away.

Better UI for Email conversation view:

Prior to this update, whenever I enabled conversation view within the (non-gmail) Email app, every message was bold when not expanded.  This effectively made it impossible to tell if there were any new messages in the conversation without expanding the conversation first.  After the update, however, conversations are only bold if there are any unread messages in the conversation.  Finally!

Galaxy Note Premium Suite:

Thereâ€s actually a pretty good video about this that Samsung has already made.  I originally thought this was going to be released as a separate update, but looks like they just ‘upgraded†it into a full ICS update!  This basically consists of quite a few “S” app upgrades (S-Note, S-Memo, Samsung Hub etc):

However…

Unfortunately, there is one feature that no longer works which is being able to take a screen shot by holding the home button and then pressing the power button.  Doing this now will only bring up the ICS recent tasks menu:

You can still take a screenshot using the s-pen (holding the s-pen button and tap+hold on the screen) or by doing a palm swipe on the screen, but I miss the simplicity of just pressing the buttons.

Have you noticed any other changes that I may have missed?  Perhaps there are general ICS updates that stand out on the Note?  Sound off in the comments below!

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I purchased an Intel X25-V 40GB SSD a while back, and with Windows 7 installed, I quickly found myself needing to find ways to free up space.  I especially ran into a problem as soon as I upgraded my memory from 4GB to 8GB, and even worse when I went to 12GB;  because the pagefile grows in direct proportion with the amount of memory, I soon was left with less than 1GB of free space.

Therefore, I searched around for ways to clear up large amounts of space and here are a few that I found most effective (and of course, this would work on any Windows 7 system, regardless of hard drive type or size):

1. Disable hibernation:

If you donâ€t use the hibernate feature, turn it off – itâ€s a quick and easy way to save a bunch of space as it creates a ‘hiberfil.sys†file in the root of your C drive to dump the contents of your memory for when your system hibernates.  For example, if I were to disable hibernation on this machine, Iâ€d clear up about 6gb of storage space!  (note, in order to see this file in explorer, youâ€ll need to enable viewing hidden/protected operating system files)

To disable hibernation, open a command window with administrator privileges by right clicking Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator

and type:

powercfg –h off

You probably wonâ€t see any sort of confirmation, but if you look back at the root of your C drive, youâ€ll see that hiberfil.sys is gone and you now have a lot more free space.   (thanks to www.howtogeek.com for showing how to do this!)

2. Clean up your WINSXS directory:

In trying to find things to delete to free up space, I ran across a program called WinDirStat which helped me find files and directories that were taking up a lot of space – besides the hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys, one of the largest culprits was the c:\windows\winsxs directory which was initially taking up 10.2gb on my machine:

With that info in hand, I found out that the winsxs directory basically holds files pertaining to installing of programs, windows updates, and items like that (more information can be found at this post from blog.tiensivu.com).   Anyway, thereâ€s a way to clean some of this up by running a command to delete some of these files.  Depending on what updates you have performed (such as Service Pack 1), this may not do anything, but go ahead and try.

The tool you will be running is the “Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool” – when I ran it, it shrunk my winsxs directory from 10.2GB down to 6.8GB which freed up another 3.4GB.  To do so, run an elevated command prompt again (like with disabling hibernation above), and run the following command:

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

(as mentioned, depending on your setup, you may not have any service packs to clean up, in which case youâ€ll get a message such as the one below:)

3. Move your program installer files:

Every time you install a program, thereâ€s also an ‘uninstall†file that is left behind that will let you repair/uninstall that program.  As it turns out, a lot (all?) of these files are stored in the \windows\installer directory and can take up a lot of space.   What you can do is move these files to a different location so you can free up space (and if you need to uninstall, upgrade, change any of those programs, simply move the files back before hand).  Navigate to the C:\windows\installer directory and sort by file size. 

Now, you probably could just move all of these files, but I just chose to remove the larger ones that would free up the most space.  If you want to know what program uninstaller you are moving (so you can move it back in case you want to edit or uninstall it), simply right click it, select properties, and choose the Details tab.  For example, “140e3d3.msi”, weighing in at ~102MB, is the uninstaller for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4RC: 

So, you would just simply move it off to another other hard drive to free up 102MB!  Continue to do this for any other files you want to move to save more space.

Do you have any other quick and easy ways to free up space on a Windows 7 installation?   Or perhaps you have some that require a bit more effort or ways to make the initial Windows 7 installation smaller to begin with?  Sound off in the comments!

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