Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual

Introduction

WHAT GIVES YOU HIGH-SPEED Internet access, runs thousands of apps, lets you take high-resolution photos and HD videos (and play them on a TV as well), gives you immediate access to information about all your friends, family, and contacts, handles any email you can throw at it, is a wizard at Facebook and other social networking services…and lets you make and receive phone calls as well?

It’s the Samsung Galaxy S II—the smartphone with a big 4.3-inch screen and enough tech specs to make any smartphone lover’s heart skip a beat.

The Samsung Galaxy S II brings together superb hardware from Samsung with Google’s powerful, flexible Android operating system. Many people consider the Galaxy S II to be the best smartphone on the planet. If you’re holding this book in your hand, you’re probably among them—or soon will be.

This book will help you get the most out of your Galaxy S II, and there’s a lot you can get out of it, as you’ll see. Whether you’re looking just to get started, or want to dig deep into the phone’s capabilities, this book’s got you covered.

About the Samsung Galaxy S II

THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S II is one of the hottest smartphones on the market, with good reason. First, there’s the hardware. Samsung gave it a 4.3-inch, high-resolution screen; an 8-megapixel camera for high-res photos and video; and a back-facing 3-megapixel camera for video calling and video chat. Its brain is a superfast 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor. For keeping you connected, the Galaxy S II has antennas for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

Note

This book was written based on the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S II. Versions from other carriers will be just about identical to it, with possible minor variations.

It has access to speedy 3G and 4G networks, which let you talk, text, and surf the Web almost anywhere in the U.S. (Anywhere important, anyway.)

Google contributed its Android operating system, with seamless access to Gmail, YouTube, and other Google services. The worldwide developer community created thousands of apps—programs for your Galaxy S II—in the Android Market (with more coming every day).

Put it all together, and you can do just about anything. You can get turn-by-turn directions, check weather and traffic, and identify landmarks. You can work with word processing and spreadsheet files and manage your email and calendar. You can take pictures and share them on Facebook, or shoot videos and upload them to YouTube. You can even turn the Galaxy S II into a Wi-Fi hotspot for getting up to five computers online.

Oh, and it’s also a darn good phone with great sound quality and all the calling features you could ask for.

You could figure out how to make the most of all these features on your own, but by that time there’d be a whole other generation of smartphones to learn. This book will put you on the fast track to all of the Galaxy S II’s magic.