Company is giving me a S4, what should I do to make it suck less?

[mellofello]

It was just decreed that they will be passing out Galaxy s4 phones for all the people in my department. Joy now I can be on call during my off time.

I will be spending a lot of time with this phone since I will be required to have it with me at all time. Short of rooting it, can you guys give me some tips on cleaning up the interface?


Also any must have cases/accessories?

 

[illusionx]

You can't do much about the interface.

I would say flash it with cyanogen.
But heck, why such an old phone?

 

[cube]

Move to Germany.

 

[apolloa]

It was just decreed that they will be passing out Galaxy s4 phones for all the people in my department. Joy now I can be on call during my off time.

I will be spending a lot of time with this phone since I will be required to have it with me at all time. Short of rooting it, can you guys give me some tips on cleaning up the interface?


Also any must have cases/accessories?

When your on your 'off time' use the advanced feature of the power button on the phone and live life for what its actually meant for, which is not serving others to benefit them like employers and share holders etc...

Unless they will pay you a ton to be on call that is?

Otherwise flash it.

 

[maflynn]

Joy now I can be on call during my off time.

I'm on call, and get paged (texts on my iPhone) for priority tickets. Depending on your job it may not be too bad. If its just your boss wanting to reach you to talk/discuss work stuff, then maybe using the off time as apolla mentioned is your best bet.

Unless they will pay you a ton to be on call that is?

Unless you're salaried like me, I'm on call 24x7 and don't get any overtime. When I was hired, it was laid out that I'll be responsible for on call. My prior job had the same requirement. Depending on your field, there may be a requirement to be available off hours and it usually does not include overtime

 

[LukinLedbetter]

You could sell it and use the cash to buy an S6. That would make it suck less. =)

 

[I7guy]

I'm on call, and get paged (texts on my iPhone) for priority tickets. Depending on your job it may not be too bad. If its just your boss wanting to reach you to talk/discuss work stuff, then maybe using the off time as apolla mentioned is your best bet.


Unless you're salaried like me, I'm on call 24x7 and don't get any overtime. When I was hired, it was laid out that I'll be responsible for on call. My prior job had the same requirement. Depending on your field, there may be a requirement to be available off hours and it usually does not include overtime

Careers in IT have turned into a 24x7 job across most of corporate America, tacitly and overtly.

 

[gotluck]

Flashing the gpe roms is like having a completely different phone if you don't have the locked down att or Verizon versions, but may not a good idea for you

 

[Saturn1217]

You can install a custom launcher and go into settings and turn off all the Samsung gestures etc. Also disable double tap to activate s-voice.

I don't have a galaxy phone but these are the basics I hear from others. Are you also allowed to have your own personal phone? If so it shouldn't be so bad. Only use the s4 for job calls and emails.

 

[jamezr]

It was just decreed that they will be passing out Galaxy s4 phones for all the people in my department. Joy now I can be on call during my off time.

I will be spending a lot of time with this phone since I will be required to have it with me at all time. Short of rooting it, can you guys give me some tips on cleaning up the interface?


Also any must have cases/accessories?

As others have pointed out. They cannot make you be available 24/7 without compensation. I have a company iphone 5s. When I am on call it is attached to my hip and I am available 24/7 for the two weeks during my on call rotation. But when it is someone else's turn to carry the torch. My phone is set to silent. During my oncall rotation we get a stipend on our checks to make up for the 24/7 availability. I think this is a legal requirement in the US.

 

[nickchallis92]

Even two years old, it's still a capable handset. It has a snapdragon 600 doesn't it?

 

[maflynn]

Careers in IT have turned into a 24x7 job across most of corporate America, tacitly and overtly.

I've been in the IT field for over 25 years now. I can safely say for around 25 years, I've had to deal with the prospect of being on call. Many systems process batch jobs over night and as such need attention if something fails. I remember plenty of times when a financial job related to the close failed at 3:00am and I had to dial into work. This was back when we had 2400/4800/9600 baud modems and the company gave us portable terminals to use.

 

[bobenhaus]

It was just decreed that they will be passing out Galaxy s4 phones for all the people in my department. Joy now I can be on call during my off time.

I will be spending a lot of time with this phone since I will be required to have it with me at all time. Short of rooting it, can you guys give me some tips on cleaning up the interface?


Also any must have cases/accessories?

Its a phone for work and that's about it. Rooting and messing around with it could get you in trouble.

 

[iConnected]

Cry?

 

[ucfgrad93]

Its a phone for work and that's about it. Rooting and messing around with it could get you in trouble.

Agreed. Before you do anything like rooting, etc. be sure and check with someone at work to see if you are allowed to do that.

 

[mellofello]

Not allowed to root it. There has been a implied on call policy for as long as I have been in the job, and up until now we received a small stipend for our cell bills. There was some sort of security incident that caused this change. I am not sure of the details, but we will no longer be allowed to Vpn in from any personal devices, and the company developed a "secure" android app for mobile login.

This was all good news to us because we thought we could choose whatever phone, or at least be able to pay the difference to upgrade. Then the bean counters got involved and had the bright idea to purchase a crate of s4s

 

[AppleRobert]

Plug in some earbuds, I doubt you would be disappointed with the S4 sound quality with whatever you like listening to.

Slap on Nova launcher and disable whatever features you will not use.

This is still my current smallish Samsung smartphone. Back in the day one could have done much worse.

 

[Zaft]

Nova launcher?

 

[mclld]

Nova for sure

 

[Cnasty]

Find a new job.

 

[flybub]

An S4?? Ouch. Anyway, disable S-Voice, disable everything else Samsung you don't want, enable developer options in settings and set transitions to .5. Install Nova. That's about all you can do.

 

[nia820]

Display all the useless features like air gestures and nfc. Use a third party launcher like apus .

Never keep wifi or mobile data on unless you are actively using it.

I had a s4 for a year. It was a good phone.

 

[mellofello]

Find a new job.

I'm very well compensated for my time here, and this change will definitely give me a strong position when im are negotiating for a raise. Not sweating it. If the phone ever rings after hours it means that the ish has really hit the fan, and I would want to know anyway.

I spoke to the cto today, and he said that we can also bring our own devices, but the company will only pay for these s4s. I think I may look around on cl for a used lg G3, or htc m8.

 

[Cnasty]

I'm very well compensated for my time here, and this change will definitely give me a strong position when im are negotiating for a raise. Not sweating it. If the phone ever rings after hours it means that the ish has really hit the fan, and I would want to know anyway.

I spoke to the cto today, and he said that we can also bring our own devices, but the company will only pay for these s4s. I think I may look around on cl for a used lg G3, or htc m8.

Was totally kidding and wish ya the best in your role.

 

[youradhere4222]

Nova Launcher