In This Chapter

Extending your warranty

Finding the hidden Task Manager

Using Safe Mode to troubleshoot apps

Performing a factory data reset

This chapter gives you lots of tricks to put up your sleeve.

Extending Your Warranty for Free

Many credit cards offer added protection for devices that you’ve bought with those pieces of magic plastic. For example, American Express Extended Warranty automatically doubles the warranty protection for most devices — including tablets — for as much as one year. There are similar programs offered by some issuers of MasterCard or Visa cards. Some credit cards even offer free coverage for theft or accidental damage during the first few weeks or months of ownership. What’s in your wallet?

Contact customer service for any credit cards you own to see if this is included, and find out exactly the terms of coverage.

My recommendation: Always use credit cards with warranty protection when you buy electronic devices. Keep records of purchase dates; the credit card company should be able to assist you with this.

Using Your Tablet as a Backup Device

The Galaxy Tab S2 will work with a variety of file types: jpg images, MP4 videos, WMA or MP3 audio files, and EPUB or PDF files for NOOK books and Adobe Acrobat files.

But here’s a tip for travelers and others who need access to unusual types of files: Even if the Tab S2 NOOK won’t work with a particular file type, you can still use your tablet as a storage place. Connect your tablet to a desktop or laptop PC with the USB cable and drag and drop files into a folder on the Tab S2 NOOK.

Yes, you’ll probably see a warning message from the NOOK saying that the file type won’t work on the tablet. Ignore it and store the files anyway. And then if you ever need them, connect your tablet to a computer and move them the other direction.

I do this all the time as one of several sets of copies of speeches, presentations, and other materials I need to take with me.

Glimpsing Your Office on the NOOK

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK is a marvel of technology, wedded to a solid and capable operating system, and able to run some very impressive apps. But it isn’t a fully featured desktop or laptop computer. Someday, I expect, that step of convergence will arrive: a holographic projection of a full-sized screen, a wireless real keyboard, and completely uncompromised software programs. We’re almost there: I’m not the only one who can envision the necessary next steps.

With this edition of the Galaxy Tab, Samsung delivers a tablet version of Microsoft Office with versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Why didn’t I include Microsoft Office in Chapter 14? Well, I could have (which would have made the Part of Tens into a Part of Elevens), but I held back because I’m not yet willing to think of a tablet as a direct replacement for a desktop or laptop computer.

Don’t get me wrong: Word, Excel, or PowerPoint on your tablet are amazing pieces of work. You can create a document, spreadsheet, or simple presentation on your tablet, and you can download (by USB cable, by Wi-Fi Direct, or by email) an existing file from one of these programs and perform some basic editing on them.

But, at least for me, we’re not quite there yet. I could have written this book using Word on the Galaxy Tab S2 that’s sitting in front of me, but it was much easier to use all the features of my desktop computer. The same goes for managing the chapter structure of the book, something I do on an Excel spreadsheet that’s running on the second screen attached to my desktop PC.

And as far as PowerPoint, which is a great tool for many of us, I have loaded my presentations for an upcoming speaking engagement onto the Galaxy Tab S2 and they look marvelous, but on the tablet they don’t include special visual and audio effects or any embedded audio or video. And I can’t (yet) output the presentation in high definition and audio and video to a projector in a theater.

Someday, I expect all of this will be possible. But, for the moment, I include Microsoft Office on the tablet in this chapter of tricks and tips.

Herewith my tip: Upload copies of your important Office files to your tablet to allow you to edit, notate, rehearse, and admire.

Transferring from One Device to Another

Many of us are the sort to always want the latest and greatest hardware. But one reason to resist that urge is the prospect of not being able to bring to the new device all the apps, as well as photos, videos, and music you have acquired along the way.

Samsung makes it relatively painless with a software utility called Smart Switch. One part installs as an app on smartphones or tablets and the other on a PC or Apple computer, which serves as the intermediate stop in a mostly automated process that can use a USB cable or wireless transfer. You can get the tablet app from the Play Store and (if necessary) a utility to install on a desktop or laptop computer at www.samsung.com/smartswitch.

The software can work from most current Android-based tablets or smartphones (including the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK and most Samsung Galaxy phones). Android-to-Android transfers require that the Smart Switch Mobile app be installed on both the old and new devices.

If you’re upgrading from an Apple iOS device including iPads and iPhones, the Smart Switch Mobile app needs only to be installed on the Android device — in this case on your new Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK.

You can get a free copy of the Smart Switch apps from Samsung. From your tablet, load an Internet browser, search for Samsung Smart Switch and download it to your device. You can also find the app in the Play Store or the Samsung Galaxy store. See Figure 15-1.

Taking a Screenshot

Everything you see on the screen of your Tab S2 NOOK is based on a “map” of the page constructed in the almost infinitesimally small recesses of the memory chips of the device. There’s an instruction for each of the nearly three million individual dots (320 pixels per square inch). That’s a huge amount of information, but something that is easily managed by a modern computer or tablet.

The fact that the screen is created based on the memory map means that it is very easy to convert that image into a file; it’s called a screenshot or capture.

You can capture a Web page, or a page of a book or publication, or anything else. Now, for the record, I will point out that the fact you can capture a screen doesn’t give you the right to violate copyright. However, as long as the captures you make are only for your own personal use, the law is on your side.

There are two ways to make a screen capture. They both end up with the same result: an image, at full resolution, of everything you can see on your tablet. It’s stored in the Gallery in a folder called Screenshots.

Display on the screen whatever you want to capture. Then do either of these procedures:

• Press the Home button and the Power button at the same time for three seconds. Listen for the electronic reproduction of the sound of a camera shutter.
• Place your hand at the left or right side of the screen with your pinkie and side of your hand touching the screen and your thumb pointed up. Now sweep across the display while maintaining contact with the screen. You’ll hear the camera shutter sound.

Images you capture this way can be viewed within the Gallery, shared with other users over email or by Wi-Fi connection, and adjusted using photo editing programs.

Staking Your Power Vampire In the Heart

What can you do when your tablet seems to drink too deeply of the cup of electrons within?

• Turn down screen brightness using the slider at the top of the notification panel; the lamp that illuminates the screen is one of the largest users of battery power.
• Set the automatic sleep mode to 2 minutes or 5 minutes.
• Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and location services if you don’t need them.
• Get in the habit of pressing the Power/Lock key anytime you walk away from the tablet for a few minutes.
• Turn on Power-Saving Mode.

Adding Apps from Strange Places

To be absolutely safe, Samsung and Barnes & Noble and Google individually and collectively advise you not to add, install, or use an app that comes from someone other than them. That is probably good advice, assuming we believe that the makers and marketers of our Tab S2 NOOK truly know what’s good for it (and us).

That said, there are some apps floating around in the digital universe that come from other sources. Some of them may not be the highest quality, and some of them may be malware or spyware or other forms of evil. But some just might be fine pieces of work that exist outside of the official world of the NOOK.

Consider yourself warned.

Say now that you come across an app from an unofficial source and really do want to install it on your device. To do that, you need to take down — permanently or temporarily — one of the fences erected by Samsung. Here’s how:

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon, and then tap the Settings icon.
2. Tap Lock Screen and Security.

3. Tap Unknown Sources.

   This opens the door to installation of apps from … unknown sources, or at least not from Samsung, Google, or Barnes & Noble.

You can (and probably should) re-enable the block against foreign apps after installing and testing any app you get in this way. In fact, I recommend installing only one such unknown source app at a time and use your tablet for a few hours to see if it misbehaves before adding a second or third new app. Doing it that way should allow you to figure out the source of problems easier.

Taming a Misbehaving NOOK

The Samsung line of tablets is pretty mature; the hardware is in its fourth or fifth generation, and the Android operating system is in a similar state of advanced evolution. Leaving aside problems caused by accidents — drops, dunks, and other physical disasters — I suggest there are three broad categories of possible issues for a NOOK: It won’t turn on, it won’t turn off, or it won’t behave.

Seeking Safe Mode

Most apps work as advertised. Some don’t. I discuss the Application Manager in Chapter 15, which allows you to stop, disable, or remove most apps.

One way to see if one of your added apps is causing problems is to reboot your tablet into the somewhat secret Safe Mode. See Figure 15-2.

Try to work backward from the most recent app you installed or updated. What’s changed since the last time the tablet was working properly? It may take a while, but uninstall one app at a time and restart the tablet each time. You can’t uninstall apps that came preloaded on your tablet.

Here’s how to turn on your tablet in Safe Mode:

1. Turn off your Tab S2 NOOK.
2. Press and hold the Power/Lock key for one or two seconds to turn it on.
3. When the Samsung logo displays, press and hold the Volume – (down) key until you see the lock screen.

4. Let go of the Volume key.

   The unlock screen shows up, and you’ll see the words “Safe Mode” in the lower left portion of the display.

   Note that any apps you may have installed on or moved to the SD card are marked with an SD icon and are disabled.

5. Test your Tab S2 NOOK.

   If all seems well, your next step is to figure out which app is causing the problem.

Safe Mode is turned off when you shut down and restart your tablet. Here’s a quick route to that:

1. Press and hold the Power/Lock key for one or two seconds.
2. Tap Restart.

Visiting Android System Recovery

Deeply hidden — and not mentioned in the NOOK manual or the Samsung manual or in that email you keep getting from Nigeria declaring you the winner of a gazillion dollars tax-free or an invisibility cloak (your choice) — is a secret control panel for Android. Please, please, be careful here. For most users, there’s only one option you’ll want to try here: clearing the system cache, which may solve some problems you encounter with your tablet such as system crashes or freezes.

Now, if you want, go ahead and look at this screen. But please read all of the instructions fully and don’t make any sudden movements because you could end up making things much worse. Ready? Really? Okay, this is going to take a bit of finger gymnastics:

1. Turn off your tablet and let it catch its breath for a second or two.

   Crack your knuckles and stretch your fingers. Take a deep breath. Look up at the ceiling and spot a few cobwebs that need clearing.

   In other words, think about what you’re about to do and follow these instructions carefully.

2. Place the tablet on its back on a soft surface, in a safe location where it won’t easily fall.
3. Press and hold the Volume up key and the Home key at the bottom of the tablet.
4. While still holding those two button, press and hold the Power key.

5. When you see the Android System Recovery screen appear, let go of all three keys.

   A few seconds later you you’re in the deep, dark recesses of the Android system recovery screen. The highlighted line on the screen says Reboot System Now.

6. Read this carefully: Use the Volume key to move the highlight bar. Go down four steps, to Wipe Cache Partition.

   Don’t go anywhere else. (Especially stay away from Wipe Data/Factory Reset.)

7. With Wipe Cache Partition highlighted, press the Power/Lock key.

   The little Android guy on the screen will hop, and a message reports that the cache has been wiped, which means cleared away.

8. Make sure that Reboot System Now is highlighted. Check again, please.

9. Press the Power/Lock key to restart your tablet.

   Welcome to the super-secret Android geek club.

Performing a Factory Reset

Beyond here lie dragons. If you really, truly want to (or need to), you can perform a factory reset that takes your Tab S2 NOOK back to the condition it was in when first you pushed its power key. Gone will be any updates, registrations, configurations, downloaded apps, and any other files you installed; the original Samsung and Android setup files remain.

You might consider performing the dire act known as a factory reset for two reasons:

• All other attempts at fixing an operating system or app problem have failed and you’re willing to start over. Completely.
• You want to sell or give your Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK to someone and you want to remove all traces of passwords, account names, photos, and anything else you’ve added to the device.

A factory reset deletes all your settings, including your NOOK account, Google account, Samsung account, and any others you have registered. It also permanently removes all files, including books, movies, music, text, and photos. That’s what it means by factory reset: The tablet will go back, as closely as possible, to the pristine state it was in when it arrived.

Here are the steps:

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon and then the Settings icon.
2. Tap Backup and Restore.

3. Tap Factory Data Reset.

   Really? Are you sure?

4. Confirm your intentions.

5. Tap Reset Device.

   This should work properly to wipe out all apps, personal files, settings, and other changes you have made to the system since you first got it. In this procedure you’re working within the shell, or skin, that Samsung has placed over top of the Android operating system that lies beneath. See Figure 15-3.

If you suspect there’s a problem with the Samsung shell, or if you want to really scrape away all evidence of previous use, you can go to the Android System Recovery Page and perform a hard reset there. Once again, all will be lost except for the Android operating system itself. I discussed the Android System Recovery Page just a moment ago; re-read it and proceed carefully if necessary.