Getting started The first steps
Smart gestures
on your Galaxy
As well as having the standard Android gestures,
Samsung Galaxy devices have a few of their own...
1 Direct call If a contact’s details, such as their call log entry or a text message, are
visible on the screen then the mere act of raising your Galaxy to your ear will be
enough to call them. (Fig 1) You won’t need to tap at the screen at all to identify
them to the handset – it just knows what you want it to do. This makes calling a
quick and easy process that requires minimum effort on your part.3 Double tap to top Sometimes you’re working your way through a long list.
Perhaps you’re looking through your contacts to find someone, or rooting
through old emails or reading a particularly long email message. Simply tap
twice on the top of your Galaxy to go straight to the top of the list (Fig 3). This
can save you seconds by enabling you to skip having to scroll back up again.5 Pan to move icon If you want to move icons to a different home screen, as a
way of reorganising your shortcuts, you can drag one to the screen edge on any
Android handset (Fig 5). With a Galaxy you can also hold the icon down with a
fingertip and then pan your handset left and right to move it around (imagine
the edge of your device is a hinge). It’s a very cool system that works very well.2 Smart alert Missing a call or message can be irritating, and you don’t always
glance at the screen to see the information that tells you something has been
missed. You can use smart alerts to get your Galaxy to vibrate when you pick it
up if there’s a missed call or message, so that you know you need to check. This
can be a life-saver if you happen to miss something important (Fig 2).4 Tilt to zoom Pinch to zoom is a well known Android gesture that’s used on
all handsets, but the Galaxy goes one better and lets you tilt the whole device
to zoom. If you put two fingertips (or both thumbs) on the screen and tilt the
handset away from you then it will zoom out of what’s currently showing on the
screen, and if you tilt it closer to you then it will zoom in (Fig 4).6 Pan to browse images If you are currently viewing a large image on your
device that runs over the edges of the visible screen area, you may want to
pan around to see more of it. To do this, you can simply hold a fingertip on
the screen and then move the entire handset up, down, left and right to pan
around the image, as though you were holding a window onto it.Fig 1 Simply lift the handset to call
Fig 2 Vibrations remind you of alerts
Fig 3 Quickly scale a long list
Fig 4 Bring the device in to zoom
Fig 5 Move apps around easily