• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Verizon GS4 missing features

S

Squark

Newbie
I noticed that the Verizon removed some of the GS4 features that other carriers left in place. The first one is the Wi-Fi toggle in the settings menu. I don't know why they would remove it except to encourage people to leave Wi-Fi on. Thankfully it can still be disabled, but it takes an extra step. The other is Blocking Mode, where you can disable ringers and notifications during certain times of the day (like when you're sleeping at night). I wish they left that one in there. Has anyone noticed any other differences?
 
Why would they remove blocking mode?? I was looking forward to using that. I also tried the trick that worked with the Verizon Note 2 but it didn't work. What's with Verizon! Seems so strange they would nitpick like that.

I also really don't like that persistent Wifi notification. Oh well. Loving the phone so far otherwise.
 
Loving this phone as well but also wish these features came with the verizon S4's. I'll definitely be rooting the phone and installing custom roms when they become available.
 
There are plenty of scheduling apps in the Play Store that can do what you described Blocking Mode doing. I use Tasker, but there are plenty of others (Llama and Timeriffic come to mind - I used the latter back in 2010).

Does seem a strange thing to remove though.
 
This is insane. Why on earth would Verizon removed a toggle for wifi? That makes no sense. The effort of removing it would be more than any possible gain they could hope to achieve.

Does anyone know why they would do that? I can't even make up a poor reason to removed it.

This ticks me off because I figured out that 16gb (9) will be plenty of storage for how I use my phone and was going to head to Verizon and grab an S4 after work. Removing something as basic as a wifi toggle is so far in left field, I'm gobsmacked.
 
Hmm, that is very strange. But Verizon has some strange obsession with meddling with the wifi settings, case in point the annoying wifi popups.
 
No, the power control widget is missing too. I don't know if that was done by Samsung or Verizon.

While there are ways around these things, it's still frustrating that Verizon would remove them. I'm planning on jumping to T-Mobile when my contract is up and buying phones that haven't been carrier-customized.
 
dgold82 said:
Why would they remove blocking mode?? I was looking forward to using that. I also tried the trick that worked with the Verizon Note 2 but it didn't work. What's with Verizon! Seems so strange they would nitpick like that.

I also really don't like that persistent Wifi notification. Oh well. Loving the phone so far otherwise.
Click to expand...

That sucks. I was also looking forward to that. Oh well . . . :mad:
 
AntimonyER said:
Hmm, that is very strange. But Verizon has some strange obsession with meddling with the wifi settings, case in point the annoying wifi popups.
Click to expand...


My guess is their wifi intrusion efforts are a buffer from any future consumer litigation and to also guide unlimited data users to use wifi. At some point, there probably will be consumer and internet provider pushback.

Consumers: 4G, streaming content and clouds with small data caps do not mix. Oil and water. Carriers and content providers are pushing MORE data use, but the data caps are nuts low. Just one or two movies can bust a cap. Carriers know and expect this and expect it on their P&L. Sad to eat your data cap on your OWN content in the cloud, but happens all the time.

Internet providers: There is about to be a sea change on the data bottleneck landscape known as the Xbox One and PS4. Both are going to be using a lot more data downloads and the Xbox One will apparently require most games to be downloaded. Even compressed, you are looking at 12 to 20GB for main releases, depending on the title for next gen devices.

Something has to give here.
 
rushmore said:
My guess is their wifi intrusion efforts are a buffer from any future consumer litigation and to also guide unlimited data users to use wifi. At some point, there probably will be consumer and internet provider pushback.

Consumers: 4G, streaming content and clouds with small data caps do not mix. Oil and water. Carriers and content providers are pushing MORE data use, but the data caps are nuts low. Just one or two movies can bust a cap. Carriers know and expect this and expect it on their P&L. Sad to eat your data cap on your OWN content in the cloud, but happens all the time.

Internet providers: There is about to be a sea change on the data bottleneck landscape known as the Xbox One and PS4. Both are going to be using a lot more data downloads and the Xbox One will apparently require most games to be downloaded. Even compressed, you are looking at 12 to 20GB for main releases, depending on the title for next gen devices.

Something has to give here.
Click to expand...

It's true. Some broadband providers have put data caps in place and I expect more will come. It's going to be a rough time ahead for consumers until either consumers finally stand up for themselves, or the government steps in.
 
jhawkkw said:
It's true. Some broadband providers have put data caps in place and I expect more will come. It's going to be a rough time ahead for consumers until either consumers finally stand up for themselves, or the government steps in.
Click to expand...

That usually does not turn out good either.
 
Did I miss something? Can someone tell me how to scroll through gallery pictures using hand gestures? Maybe I am just not doing it right.

Edit: Found it...I just need to learn the phone. LOL
 
Yeah, just searched a few variants, and nothing obvious.

Ok, on my note2 I ran Cleanrom, and bluetooth worked, and it didn't on the stock rom. Scott's cleanrom when attempting to pair, had me put in the passcode manually and it worked.



Same issue here with the S4... any ideas?
 
Travisimo said:
Doesn't appear to work. Downloaded the app and searched for "Blocking Mode" but nothing came up. They must have fully removed it on the GS4. Unless it's got a different name?
Click to expand...

Hmm.. interesting. Verizon blocked "Blocking Mode" on my GS3 and using Quick Shortcut Maker worked.
 
Any way to remove that annoying persistent WIFI notification? You know, the one that tells you WIFI connections are available... and then when you ARE connected via WIFI, it still shows the notification saying you are connected.

They did this on the GS3, but I think there was a work-around, though I think you may have needed to be rooted?

Thank goodness there's a root method available and a work-around for the bootloader already. I'm going to wait a few days to make sure the tools are stable.

Any way to make sure we don't accidentally update the firmware on this phone while we are non-rooted? Does it automatically download and update by itself?
 
It looks like Verizon has also removed the option for the continuous scroll of the homepages. I've been told other varients of the S4 still have it and my S3 had it. I don't understand why they feel it necessary to remove such a benign feature that a lot of us had gotten used to having. To paraphrase Ricky Riccardo; Splain it to me, Verizon.

I hope I don't start regretting this upgrade. That would really be a shame.
 
Can someone explain this persistent wifi notification better? Like a notification on the top left that won't go away?
 
TheyCallMeBT said:
Can someone explain this persistent wifi notification better? Like a notification on the top left that won't go away?
Click to expand...

Verizon has done it on many of their phones if memory serves correctly.

It constantly informs you if you are/aren't on wifi

Typically in the statusbar
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom