re: Made the switch, now what are some apps to get?

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The only downside so far is that it comes with a ton of bullshite aps on it, but a few hours of sorting through it all and keeping what you want fixes that.

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Learn the process of rooting the phone. Once you do that, go to the Play store, download Titanium Backup, and Pay for the pro license. Just a few bucks.

It allows you to go through a list of the apps on the phone. If you don't want one you can either freeze it (basically just hides the app temporarily) or you can completely Uninstall any app. Freeze it first if you are unsure and see if anything stops working. If so, you can unfreeze the app and all is well. If you freeze and everything still works, then proceed with the full Uninstall.

Most items that can be uninstalled right away are obvious like included games, etc.

Titanium Backup PRO also let's you backup all apps and data on your phone and automatically can upload the contents to Dropbox or Google Drive.

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virus protection

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at people that have to deal with viruses on their phones or computers.

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I'm about to switch from the iPhone to a Samsung.

Am I making a big mistake?

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Buy and use whatever you want to or what you like.

Unless you are planning on sideloading apps or apks (installing apps from sources other than the play store or Samsung's app store) you don't really need "virus" protection. The only way to get malware on android is to install it. Google's verify services that run inside the play store on your phone will even verify if sideloaded apps have malware, so you don't even really need to download any other apps for that.

Clean Master is good for cleaning up app caches. You can also try out SD Maid.

Nova Launcher is a good app to install. It will basically replace touchwiz (which is the current launcher on your phone). With Nova, you can do a lot of customizations (like change the grid sizes on your screen). Once you download a third party launcher, you can find an icon pack that you like (these replace the standard icons on your phone with better looking ones).

There are tons of third party apps out there to replace stock apps. Messaging apps, music players, etc.

I wouldn't worry about rooting your phone just yet. You can customize the shite outta your phone without super-user access, so I would get much more familiar with your phone before attempting to root. When you do decide to root, chainfire already has a program for rooting the S5.

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I wouldn't worry about rooting your phone just yet.

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COMPLETELY DISAGREE

you cant even install adaway without root.

this is the easiest thing you can do for a new phone is to root it so you never have to worry about it later.

do it now before you have a bunch of stuff on the phone setup that you don't want to lose

ADVANTAGES
- everything from play store will work..you won't get a bunch of 'sorry this requires root access' errors when downloading stuff
- you can backup your samsung touchwiz and install a pure vanilla kitkat android ROM as GOD INTENDED IT and avoid any carrier bloat (and then flash it back to samsung touchwiz it you dont)
- the custom recovery makes backup of your *ENTIRE* phone a snap. way better backup capabiities than not stock backup shite
- paranoid android

DISADVANTAGES
- you have to be able to read and watch a youtube video that walks you through the process for your particular phone
- you have to download a couple of files to do it

Nova launcher
Swift key keyboard

iPhone does everything I want my phone to do. I am glad everyone loves their droid, I'm sure they are awesome.

It is nice to know when I get a new phone, I'll be able to see my iphone for what I will spend to get a new one under contract.

(no message)

I've had my S4 for about a year and I want to root it. How much of a PITA will it be to back up what I already have on my phone?

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I've had my S4 for about a year and I want to root it. How much of a PITA will it be to back up what I already have on my phone?

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depends on what is 'painful' to you?

tons of apps? they can be easily reinstalled but you'd have to do it app by app
tons of photos & video? if you have google+ it should already be backed up in the cloud
tons of music? if you have google music its in the cloud
contacts? you should have these in gmail or corporate exchange service already
files? i have onedrive cloud, gdrive and box and everything i need is in one of those places
customized settings? YEP, PITA if you put lots of doo-dads on your phone & have to go in and tweak all the settings.


the good news? all of those issues go away after you've rooted it due to the custom recovery you will install that will image your phone so the next time you want to mess with your phone you can literally snap your fingers and everything comes back.