Samsung Galaxy S6 for Dummies. Bill Hughes

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      What You’re Not to Read

      I think you’ll find every last word of this book scintillating, but I may be a little biased. The truth is, you don’t have to read:

      ✔ Sidebars: Sidebars are those gray boxes throughout the book. They’re interesting, but not essential to the topic at hand, so if you’re short on time (or you only want the information you absolutely need), you can skip them.

      ✔ Text marked with the Technical Stuff icon: For more on this icon, see the “Icons Used in This Book” section, later in this Introduction.

      Foolish Assumptions

      You know what they say about assuming, so I don’t do much of it in this book. But I do make a few assumptions about you:

      ✔ You have a Galaxy S6 phone. You may be thinking about buying a Galaxy S6 phone, but my money’s on your already owning one. After all, getting your hands on the phone is the best part!

      ✔ You’re not totally new to mobile phones. You know that your Galaxy S6 is capable of doing more than the average phone, and you’re eager to find out what your phone can do.

      ✔ You’ve used a computer. You don’t have to be a computer expert, but you at least know how to check your e-mail and surf the web.

      How This Book Is Organized

      The 18 chapters in this book are divided into six parts. Here’s what you can find in each part.

Part I: Getting Started with the Samsung Galaxy S6

      The first part of this book gets you familiar with the basic capabilities of your Galaxy S6 phone. Chapters 1 and 2 are an introduction to everything from turning it on and off, to understanding cellular billing, to managing battery life.

Part II: Communications

      In this part, I walk you through the basic capabilities of the Galaxy S6 for communicating with voice, texts, and e-mail. Chapter 3 is about making calls. Chapter 4 covers what you need to know about texting. Chapter 5 covers e-mailing, and Chapter 6 explores how the phone works with your Contacts database.

Part III: Live on the Internet: Going Mobile

      This part is all about the Internet – how to access it from your Galaxy S6 phone. I also introduce you to the Play Store, where you can trick out your phone with more apps.

Part IV: Entertainment Applications

      An important use for many smartphone owners involves entertainment. Chapter 9 covers the impressive picture-taking capabilities of your phone, but really only covers some of the capabilities. Chapter 10 looks at the impressive gaming capabilities; Chapter 11 explores navigating to all the fun places you can go in the real world; and Chapter 12 walks you through playing music and video on your phone.

Part V: Productivity Applications

      In this part, I cover the capabilities of the Galaxy S6 smartphone that make you more productive at home and work.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

      This wouldn’t be a For Dummies book without a Part of Tens. In this book, the Part of Tens covers ten ways to customize the phone to make it truly your own, how to keep your information safe, and ten capabilities to look for in future releases.

      Icons Used in This Book

      Throughout this book, I used icons (little pictures in the margin) to draw your attention to various types of information. Here’s a key to what those icons mean:

      

This whole book is like one big series of tips. When I share especially useful tips and tricks, I mark them with the Tip icon.

      

This book is a reference, which means you don’t have to commit it to memory – there is no test at the end. But once in a while, I do tell you things that are so important that I think you should remember them, and when I do, I mark them with the Remember icon.

      

Whenever you may do something that could cause a major headache, I warn you with the, er, Warning icon.

      

These sections provide a little more information than is necessary to use your phone. The hope is that these sections convey extra knowledge to help you understand what is going on when things go wrong, or at least differently than you might have expected.

      Beyond the Book

      This book has more great online extras. To access the book’s online cheat sheet, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/samsunggalaxys6. To read articles about the Samsung Galaxy S6, go to www.dummies.com/extras/samsunggalaxys6.

      Occasionally, we have updates to our technology books. If this book does have technical updates, they will be posted at www.dummies.com/extras/samsunggalaxyS6.

      Where to Go from Here

      You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover. You can skip around as you like. For example, if you need the basics on calling, texting, and e-mailing, turn to Part II. To discover more about photos, games, and apps, go to Part IV. To find out about the phone’s calendar functions or about using the Microsoft Office, turn to Part V.

      

Many readers are already somewhat familiar with smartphones, and won’t need the basic information found in Parts I and II. A reasonably astute mobile phone user can figure out how to use the phone, text, and data capabilities. Parts I and II are not for those readers. For them I recommend skipping ahead to the chapters in Parts III through VI.

      Former iPhone users, on the other hand, are a special case (first, welcome to the world of Android!). The reality is that the iPhone and Galaxy S series have very similar capabilities, but these functions are just done in slightly different ways and emphasize different approaches to the similar problems. iPhone users, don’t worry if you find that this book spends a fair amount of time explaining capabilities with which you’re familiar. You can read through those chapters quickly, focus on the how instead of the description of what, and bypass potential frustration.

      Current Samsung Galaxy S5 users are also a special case. The Samsung Galaxy S6 is very similar to the Galaxy S5 in many ways. Galaxy S6 operates mostly like the S5, but has improvements in usability, power consumption, and performance. If you’re comfortable