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Mobile : Galaxy S III Starter Guide

The Samsung Galaxy S® III is packed with features designed to make everyday tasks easier, whether you’re instantly sharing photos with friends or connecting with colleagues at work. This guide will help you set up your phone so you can start exploring everything it has to offer.

Set Up Your Accounts

With the Galaxy S III you can stay connected to all your networks and get access to great services by simply setting up your accounts on your phone.

Google Account: If you previously had an Android™ device, your apps will start downloading when you sign in. If this is your first Android device, sign in to your Google account and check the boxes to back up and restore with Google. This makes it easy to jump from one Android device to another and it ensures all contact information is stored in Gmail™.

Facebook®: Facebook Sync is a special feature on the Galaxy S III that will bring all of your Facebook albums to the gallery, so you’ll have quick access to all your favorite photos. It also brings all of your Facebook events to your calendar, so you’ll never worry about missing an event again. Once you download the Facebook app, you will see a second Facebook account option. This is the traditional Facebook setup where you are able match your phone contacts with your Facebook friends.

Samsung Account: Samsung brings you many great services including app recommendations, movies on demand on your device, and the ability to share media content on your Galaxy S III to a Samsung Smart TV. Click the left capacitive button > Settings > Accounts and Sync > Add Account > Samsung Account. Once you set up this account, you can quickly access all of these services.

Other Accounts: To access your work email, social feeds and other accounts, tap the left capacitive button > Settings > Accounts and Sync > Add Account. Start inputting information for your various accounts.

Personalize Your Galaxy S III

Make your Galaxy S III a reflection of your personality by customizing it to fit your interests and preferences. These features will help you add your personal touch:

Face Unlock: State-of-the-art facial recognition technology lets you switch on your phone and look at it to get past the lock screen. To set this up, click the left capacitive button. > Settings > Security > Screen Lock > Face Unlock.

Music: You can also use your Galaxy S III as your personal music player, so you can listen to your favorite songs on the go, at the gym and at your desk. It’s easy to transfer your music files, including MP3s from your iTunes library, to your new Galaxy S III. Check out “How to Transfer Media to Your Galaxy Device” for step-by-step instructions.

Ringtones: Once you’ve imported all your favorite tracks to your device, you can access these songs to use as ringtones and for your alarm clock. No more waking up to buzzing and beeps—now you can wake up to your favorite artists.

Widgets: Widgets are experiences that sit on the homescreen and typically grant quick, easy access to something that your phone already does (or to an app that it came with), while an app allows your phone to do entirely new things. The Galaxy S III has many widgets to choose from to help you customize your Android experience. First, let’s review the widgets already on your device:

  • Starting on the center homescreen, you can see a clock and weather widget brought to you by AccuWeather. This widget is a live experience, updating regularly to adjust for changes in the weather and even your location.
  • Swipe the homescreen to the right and you’ll see a widget for Media Hub, presenting you with the best movies and TV shows on demand.
  • One more swipe to the right, and you can see a widget for
    S Suggest. Discover top apps right from your homescreen.

Adding widgets is easy. Simply swipe over to a blank or partially blank homescreen. Click on the Apps icon > Select Widgets (top menu) > pick a widget that looks interesting.

The Calendar (mini today) widget is a great way to stay on top of a busy schedule. The Assistive light widget is extra helpful when you need to find a pen in a purse or when you’re in a dark restaurant and can barely see the menu. Check for new widgets regularly. Your favorite apps are often packaged with widgets, so you’ll be able to interact with these apps on your homescreen using widgets.

To remove a widget, simply hold your finger down on the widget. Once selected, drag it to the bottom-right corner of the screen, where you will see a trash can.

Get to Know Your Apps

The Galaxy S III is preloaded* with apps that offer great services that can help you connect with contacts, share and access content, perform simple tasks and more. Click the apps icon on your homescreen to check out these apps:


AllShare® Play: Bring your videos and photos to life wirelessly on your Samsung Smart TV and stream your favorite songs to your entertainment system with AllShare Play. You can also remotely access files from your AllShare-enabled home PC or share interactive presentations and photos instantly across multiple Galaxy S III devices with real-time group sharing.

ChatON™: Samsung’s cross-platform messaging service enables you to send messages to friends and family without using up your text messaging plan. It's full of fun features, such as animated messages and group chat. ChatON supports many platforms and devices, and helps you have better, richer communication with friends. This app offers a variety of fun ways to chat, including group chats, broadcasts, animated messages, pictures and audio.

Flipboard™: Beautifully designed for your Galaxy S III, the Flipboard app creates a personalized magazine out of everything being shared with you. Flip through your Facebook newsfeed, tweets from your Twitter timeline, photos from Instagram friends, sounds from SoundCloud and much more. This app creates a single place to enjoy, browse, comment on and share all the news, photos and updates that matter to you.

KiesAir: Wirelessly manage phone content via any web browser—including photos, music, video and contacts with Kies Air. You can even send text messages from your PC.

Media Hub: Access thousands of movies and TV shows through Media Hub. With progressive download optimized for mobile devices, begin watching movies in seconds.

Music Hub™ 3.0: Samsung’s new music service is a great 3-in-1 music product that enables personal music management with cloud storage, music store to buy new albums and tracks, and access to 14 different genre radio stations or create your own personal radio station. For $9.99, you can access all your own music plus our library of over 19 million tracks, wherever you are and whenever you want.

S Memo™: This app allows pictures, voice recordings, typed text, and even handwritten notes and drawings to be combined in a single application, converted into a "memo," and then shared with family, friends or colleagues. Your memos have never been so expressive.

S Suggest™: If you’re new to Android or just looking for recommendations on top apps, then check out S Suggest to find the best apps for your new phone. It is a great recommendation tool for finding apps from Google Play. Check it regularly to discover top and trending apps. The App Essentials category showcases the must-have Android apps, and the Get Connected category features apps that will help you use your device to share anything and everything across your devices and with friends.

S Voice™: Just speak naturally and S Voice understands what you’re looking for. Wake up your phone with a simple “Hi, Galaxy” and use the power of S Voice to find everything from directions to trivia answers to the current weather forecast. All you have to do is ask. You can even use voice commands in some apps, like taking photos by saying, “Cheese.”

Do More with Samsung TecTiles and NFC

Ever wish you could just instantly silence your phone during a meeting or that your phone could call home as soon as you get in the car? With your NFC-enabled Galaxy S III and Samsung TecTiles™, now you can control your world with just a tap.

The Samsung TecTile app lets you create your own NFC tags or TecTiles, which are smart stickers that enable you to control the world around you. Follow these steps to start creating your own TecTiles:

  • Step 1: Enable NFC on your phone. NFC is just a close distance pairing technology that is incredibly secure and easy to use. Click the left capacitive button > Settings > More Settings (wireless and network) > check the box next to NFC.
  • Step 2: Purchase Samsung TecTiles. These come in convenient packs of five and are reprogrammable, so you can use them over and over. You can buy TecTiles at your carrier’s retail store or at Samsung.com/TecTiles.
  • Step 3: Tap your phone to one of the TecTile stickers. You will be prompted to download the TecTile app from Google Play™. The app is simple, so just click on the different icons and follow the on-screen directions. Now, fill your world with TecTiles.

NFC isn’t just for stickers. You can also share files, music, videos and photos with friends by simply tapping your phones together with S Beam. To transfer a photo, start by going into the gallery then opening the photo you want to share. Hold your phone back to back with a friend’s Galaxy S III. They will see an indication that your photo is being downloaded. Just like that, you shared the picture with a tap.

Learn More

Check out our YouTube channel to find out how to use Galaxy S III features such as S Beam, Share Shot, AllShare Play, Smart Gestures, Pop Up Play and more. Watch our videos.

Learn more about the Galaxy S III for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular.

* Preloaded apps vary by device and carrier.
© Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC. Samsung, Galaxy S, S Suggest, AllShare, ChatON, Music Hub, S Memo, S Voice and TecTiles are trademarks of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Android, Gmail and Google Play are trademark of Google, Inc. Other company names, product names and marks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners and may be trademarks or registered trademarks. Screen images simulated. Appearance of device may vary.
The above content is provided for information purposes only. All information included herein is subject to change without notice. Samsung is not responsible for any direct or indirect damages, arising from or related to use or reliance of the above content.

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