Keep seeing the list of hover-friendly
additions, this time you can use the S Pen to scroll up and down on a list or a
page. In other words, now it's just a matter of holding the pen directly on the
top or bottom of the screen that can be scrolled. Obviously, it seems like the
advertising tips and it is unnecessary, but we found we had to use this feature
more often than you thought. The scrolling action is a bit slow, so it is not
sure that you've wanted to use it on a long website, but it's pretty handy when
you just need to move down the bottom of the screen a bit each time - for
example, in the settings menu or Twitter feed. Another interesting feature that
takes advantage of the new hovering ability is the ability to change between
the brush, pencil and eraser by holding the stylus on the screen and clicking
the button. This creates a smooth, fast experience if you frequently make
mistakes (or change your mind) when drawing. When in the S Note, you can also
hold down the button on the screen and press its button long to activate a new
feature named Idea Sketch. A blank notepad will appear, you write down the name
of a particular item (or just browse through the list) and the entire groups of
illustrations appear for selecting. When you choose what suits your preference,
it appears in the S Note where you can adjust the size and type of sketch -
then you can find inspiration from it, or just color between the lines as it is
a coloring book.
You
can use the S Pen to scroll up and down on a list or a page.
When
in the S Note, you can also hold down the button on the screen and press its
button long to activate a new feature named Idea Sketch.
We have mentioned Popup Video available on
the Note II, but that's not the only thing that appears - you can do the same
with Popup Note, which is activated by holding the S Pen button and double
tapping on the screen. Basically, this is a miniature version of the S Note
application, which occupies less than half of the screen space. This means that
you can both take notes and watch videos simultaneously. (Popup Browser is also
available). This is the best example of the real multitasking that we've ever
seen on a smartphone, and there was no delay, coughs or any signs that the a quad-core
Exynos processor was worn out under the load. If this is just the beginning of
what these phablets could do with the appropriate engine below, we were really
impressive. But that is not all, dear multitasking fans. Samsung advertises
another feature called Multi-Window, which is equal not superior – the Popup
Note mentioned earlier about awesomeness. Recently we have seen the
implementation of this feature in the Galaxy Note 10.1, and it has come back in
the Note II as a Multi-Window. The implementation is a bit different this time,
with a long press on the back button brings up the side bar of applications to
select. On the tablet version, it includes 6 options. This time we have more
things to choose from, including YouTube, Chaton, Gmail, Maps, Internet, and as
you know this list can also be customized so that you can remove the
applications you do not need, and put your favorite apps on. In fact, it works
well. We had the videos running while checking email, and happily looked for
Google maps while keeping some restaurant reviews open in the other pane. It's
good to see you can use this in two ways, with the phone’s buttons are applied
to the currently focused windows. If you used to set up two monitors for your
desktop, you will understand the massive productivity boost and such a feature
may bring to the smartphones - especially based on the screen space that the
Note II offers.
Popup
Note
Quick Command is another new feature that
takes advantage of the S Pen’s gesture proficiency. It is activated by pressing
a button while dragging the stylus up from the bottom. A familiar-looking
handwriting box appears to prompt you to write one command symbol followed by
one keyword. For example, write "@ Susie" to send email to Susie;
"? [Search term]" to do a web search; "#Joseph" tells the
phone to call Joseph, and so on. Looking at from the surface, this seems to be
very useless when S Voice or Google voice search can do the same thing, but
this is a plus point: it can be fully customized, and you can add any commands
you want - and these commands can even open up the applications or perform a
group of automated tasks (please think of SmartActions or Tasker). You can
program it to open WiFi, GPS and Blocking Mode by drawing a letter
"C", if that's what you like.
Quick
Command is another new feature that takes advantage of the S Pen’s gesture
proficiency.
S Voice has reappeared, regardless of the
existence of similar functions in Jelly Bean. It is not surprising. It
surprised us that this time it includes the self-identification as S Pen. Of
course, this is a nice addition; from our point of views, it is not wise to
write a sentence that we can easily say with less time - not to mention the
fact that Quick Command processed this capability, even though it is in a
separate application. This seems like one of the features that Samsung put in
just because it could. But it's there if you want, and we believe that there
are a few users like the idea of this. As you know, the Note II pre-loaded many
applications. The S Pen experience between the first-generation device and the
second are so different as a day and a night: the original Note looks like a
temporary concept in comparison. This is the best stylus we have ever used on a
smartphone. If you are a fan of the Note, you will be surprised with its
successor.
Finally, Samsung has released the version
2.2 of S Pen PDK, which gives the third-party developers the ability to enhance
their applications with hover function support, new brushes, the special
effects and the context perception. There is nothing to ensure that your
favorite apps will have the great new S Pen features, but there are a variety
of choices so that the developers add a little extra spice if they like.
