The Samsung Galaxy Note is a smartphone and tablet in one! With its 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED screen the Galaxy Note isn’t invisible. The Galaxy Note is equipped with a a 1.4 GHz dual core processor and a 8.0 megapixel camera capable of recording Full HD 1080p video. All this power fits in your pocket!

Samsung Galaxy Note in action

Samsung Galaxy Note highlights

Large & immersive screen with smartphone portability
The Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch screen, this is the largest screen with smartphone portability. A Super AMOLED display gives a premium viewing experience.

Full screen utilization for fast and effective tasking
The display size optimizes usability by minimizing scrolling and and effective screen transitions. S Planner is a powerful tool tom manage schedules in a intuitive way.

Samsung Galaxy Note Specifications

Network

• HSPA+ up to 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100
• 4G LTE
• EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900

Processor

• 1.4GHz Dual Core Processor

Display

• 5.3” WXGA (1280 x 800) screen
• HD Super AMOLED

Platform

• Android™ 2.3(Gingerbread)

Camera

• Main(Rear) : 8 MP with LED Flash / Front : 2 MP
• Action Shot, Beauty, Panorama Shot, Smile Shot

Video

• 1080p Full HD video recording & playback
• Recording: 1080p@24~30fps/Playback: 1080p@30fps
• Codec: MPEG4/ H.263/ H.264/ DivX, Xvid, WMV, VC-1

Audio

• Codec : MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA, WAV, FLAC, OGG
• Music Player with SoundAlive
• 3.5mm Ear Jack, Stereo FM Radio with RDS

Multi Input

• Full touch + S Pen (Advanced smart pen)

Connectivity

• Bluetooth^® technology v 3.0 + HS
• USB 2.0 HOST
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct

Sensor

• Accelerometer, Digital compass, Proximity,
  Barometer,Light

Memory

• 16GB Internal memory
• microSD (up to 32GB)

Size

• 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65 mm, 178g

Battery

• Standard battery, Li-on 2,500 mAh

Value-added Features

• Samsung Touchwiz/ Samsung Live Panel UX
• S Memo/ S Planner/ S Choice (Apps for GALAXY Note)
• Samsung Apps
• Samsung kies 2.0/ Samsung kies air
• Social Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub
• Google™ Mobile Services : Gmail™, Google Talk™,
  Google Search™, YouTube™, Android™ Market,
  Google Maps™ with Google Places™ and Google- Latitude™
• A-GPS, Glonass

After wasting two evenings of trying to connect my Samsung Galaxy to my computer I finally got the USB connection with Samsung Kies working. The connection problem occurred out of the blue and only when trying to connect to Kies. Using the phone as mass storage device was no problem at all. When the cable is connected the phone says “connected” and Kies says “connecting…”. Waiting didn’t work…

After searching the internet and finding several solutions that worked for other people I succeeded in restoring the connection.

The solution that worked for me:

1. Take the SD card out of the Samsung Galaxy
2. Connect the phone using the USB cable
3. It will say something like can’t connect to Kies without SD card
4. Plug the SD card back into to Samsung Galaxy
5. Kies finds the phone…hooray!

After doing the above once my phone connects to my computer without a problem. If this procedure doesn’t work for you try something of the following:

Dial *#7284#. PhoneUtil will open. Set the USB mode to “MODEM” and back to “PDA”. Try to connect the phone…

Do a factory reset of the phone (you’ll find how to do this on http://www.google.com). Try to connect the phone…

Remove the phone using the “device manager” in windows. Disable the function to install drivers from windows update. Reinstall the Samsung drivers. Try to connect the phone…

Finally I can start developing applications for my phone again! The USB debugging didn’t work either…

Let’s share some useful information… Today I wasted more than an hour trying to get my phone to scale my Android application as expected. The cause of the problem was a line in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

To enable correct scaling the manifest file must contain the targeted version of the SDK.

If the <uses-sdk> element is not used in the manifest file at all, the platform assumes that your application was written for Android 1.5 on a “normal-mdpi” screen. When your application actually runs on an “hdpi” screen the edges of the widgets used in the layout will look messed up.

Creating a simple beep on Android is pretty easy. Once you know how…

Add the following code to the onCreate method:

You can choose another stream, depending on your needs. Use auto completion to see the choices. The second int value of the ToneGenerator constructor is the volume in percent (0-100). With 0 being useless.

The startTone method creates the actual beep. Again, have a look at the possibilities using auto complete in you development environment.

After running the Hello World Android application I wanted to go real. Using the virtual device is fun, but seeing my first application run on my Smart Phone would be so much nicer.  The driver to connect my Samsung Galaxy to the computer comes with the Samsung Kies software. No need to install extra drivers or stuff.

USB Debugging on Android

Before downloading the application to the Android phone USB debugging must be enabled. To do this go to the settings > applications >development and enable USB debugging.

Downloading the application to Android

Now just connect the phone to the computer using a USB cable. When running the application from Eclipse you can choose to debug the application in your phone.

The time that smart phones were for the rich  only is over. That’s why I bought one. Being the proud owner of an Android phone and a nerd, developing my own applications is an obvious need.

So I have a Android based phone and a computer. What’s next?

1. Install Java SDK
2. Install the Android SDK
3. Install Eclipse

That’s easy.  If it’s to short for a tutorial have a look at the official installation guide.

One issue I had after creating the Hello World (or better: Hello Android) app was the virtual device that couldn’t be found. The solution was found in adding an environmental variable to windows:

Android SDK System Variable

Afterwards the Hello Android application ran like a charm. Next step will be developing on the phone…To be continued…