What is S Pen and its benefits. Additional Useless Pen Features

The S Pen makes using apps easier and more convenient. About what opportunities the stylus opens for Note S will be described below.

1. Quick commands.

This is one of those S Pen features that most people overlook for a long time. But it is incredibly useful - because it allows you to run any application with a flick of the pen. All you need is to hold down the button on the stylus, then swipe across the screen in the direction from bottom to top. At the same time, a quick command window appears on the screen. The right application will be launched by you when you draw on the screen a symbol that you have previously defined.

2. Optical letter recognition.

The OCR function will allow you not to even remember about virtual keyboard. And if you suddenly need to write a text message, send an email or find something in global network- take the stylus, and at that moment your keyboard will become a window for writing. OCR recognizes characters perfectly, although we have not tested this function with a doctor.

3. Stylus keeper.

The S Pen is a useful tool, but losing it is as easy as using it. Samsung has developed S Pen Keeper, a program that will not allow you, for example, to go far from the stylus. The gadget itself informs you that there is no stylus in the phone. It's easy to check - put the stylus away from the phone and move away, then you will hear the alarm clock.

4. Draw with the S Pen.

The S Pen stylus opens up new horizons for creative people and children. The S Note has a great Idea Sketch feature. It makes it possible to add thumbnails of objects by name - perfect for teaching kids or having fun.

5. Screengrabs.

The stylus allows you to make screengrabs, and it's amazingly easy to do. Hold the button on the S Pen and draw any area. Immediately after that, everything that was in the selected area will be saved as a screengrab.

Yesterday, Apple introduced its first tablet with a stylus, before that Microsoft did the same, and even earlier, Samsung launched devices with styluses. Let's see how some styluses differ from others.

Galaxy Note

S-Pens for smartphones and Samsung tablets manufactured by Wacom. They have a rather complex electronic filling, but despite this, they are passive, that is, they do not require power from electricity. How is this possible?

In the design of the S-Pen stylus, you can find an inductor and an oscillatory circuit with a variable resonant frequency. A receiver is built into the screen of Galaxy Note tablets and smartphones, which responds to changes in the inductance in the stylus coil depending on how hard the tip is pressed against the surface.

The "fourth generation" S-Pen used in the Galaxy Note 5 is the most advanced. It can emulate gestures, and you can draw with it even when the screen is off, and when you push the stylus back into your smartphone, the note is automatically saved. Stylus from original Galaxy Note perceived pressing with 256 gradations of force, in Galaxy Note 2 and 3 the number of gradations was increased to 1024, and in Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 5 it doubled to 2048.

Samsung does not sell styluses separately, they are included as standard with the Galaxy Note series devices.

Surface Pro

The stylus for Surface Pro is powered by an AAAA battery and communicates with the tablet via Bluetooth.

This stylus was specifically designed for Surface Pro tablets, so it comes with three additional buttons - to erase what you have written or drawn, to simulate a right mouse click, and to Launch OneNote or save a screenshot. The sensitivity of the stylus is adjusted through a special application.

Surface Pro styluses are manufactured by N-trig, which was acquired by Microsoft last winter. While the first two generations of Surface styluses supported 1024 pressure levels, the Surface Pro 3 uses a 256-stop stylus. By according to Microsoft, professional artists and designers, even this is more than enough.

A stylus is included as standard on Surface Pro tablets, but it's also sold separately on Microsoft's website for $50.

iPad Pro

Apple Pencil for iPad tablet The Pro is battery powered and charges via the Lightning port. One charge is enough for 12 hours of work with it.

Apple does not disclose either the manufacturer of this stylus or its technical parameters (such as the number of gradations of pressing force), apparently believing that ordinary consumers do not need to go into such subtleties at all. Just watch the video, which shows what masterpieces you can create with this stylus, and look at its tip in the section.

It looks really nice, much better than any capacitors, coils and AAAA batteries. Something like an expensive fountain pen.

The Apple Pencil is not included with the iPad Pro and is available separately for $99.

As you can see, companies have a completely different approach. The Samsung pens are given free to Galaxy Note users and are compatible with all devices that work with Wacom products. Microsoft has created a proprietary stylus and is giving it away to its tablet buyers, and Apple is back in its repertoire - its stylus must be purchased separately and is not compatible with anything other than the iPad Pro.

The chic Galaxy Note 4 phablet with the S Pen was able to bypass its “brothers” from the Note line in popularity. Frankly, this device has exactly the functionality that we expected from devices of the Note series, plus a few new features. The settings and tips below will help you get the most out of your S Pen on your Galaxy Note 4.

Basically, the S Pen can do everything your finger can do when navigating this phablet's display, including running apps and composing messages and emails. However, the stylus is not limited to the shortcomings of our frail human bodies. When you take it out of the socket of the device, you can notice not only its sensitive rubber tip, but also the clickable button. We certainly do not see such things on our fingers.

The functional tip of the stylus and its button are the main elements for the very advanced features of this device, but let's not forget about the induction technology. The weak magnetic field emitted by the Note 4 energizes the S Pen, and this field makes this stylus more precise and advanced than a conventional passive capacitive stylus.

S Pen Settings

The first step to getting the most out of your stylus is to correct settings. Finding them is easy enough: you just need to go to the "Settings" menu and find the S Pen subsection there. Later in this article, we will discuss some basic settings, but for now, here are short list how certain options affect the use of the electronic pen.

• Pointer - used to show or not show a visible pointer on the display when using the stylus;
• Direct pen input - when enabled, allows the stylus to do handwriting input;
• Disable Pen Detection - Disable stylus detection when stored and removed to conserve battery power;
• S Pen sounds - turn on or off sounds when inserting or removing the stylus from the slot;
• Vibration response S Pen - enable / disable tactile (vibration) response when using a stylus;
• Separation of options - choice whether to launch Action Memo, Air Command (or none of them) when the pen is taken out of the socket;
• Add / remove sound - choice sound signal when inserting/removing the S Pen (the "S Pen Sounds" option must be enabled);
• Add / remove vibration - toggle tactile feedback when removing or replacing the stylus in the phablet slot;

Again, the above settings do not cover all the options in the S Pen settings submenu. So it's time to talk about a few key functions electronic pen.

Never lose your stylus

The S Pen can be conveniently stored right in the Galaxy Note 4's case, but the stylus itself is quite compact and easy to lose. To avoid this situation, you need to check the box "S Pen alert" in the stylus settings.

When you turn on the notification, your phablet will notify you if you left the stylus somewhere and began to leave without it. In our opinion, this function must be enabled - it will save you a headache if you have to look for a replacement for a stylus lost somewhere on the road.

air view

The Air View function can be called main function S Pen. If Air View isn't available, then you won't be able to take advantage of what makes the Note 4 and its electronic pen almost unique. You can enable this feature in the S Pen settings.

Air View takes advantage of magnetic induction technology that acts as a battery for the stylus and allows the phablet to track the cursor and stylus actions without touching the display. If you have Air View and the S Pen pointer turned on, you can quickly demonstrate these capabilities by moving the pen a few millimeters above the display and making a circular motion. The pointer on the screen will follow the tip of the stylus even if it is not touching the screen.

One of the areas of application of the Air View function is the category of SMS messages: if you hover the tip of the stylus over an open message, you can see its full text. Other features will be discussed later in our article.

Air Command

Air Command provides quick access to common functions that are available with a stylus. You can also turn on Air Command through the S Pen settings. This option can be accessed from any window by bringing the stylus to the display and pressing the button on its body.

4 options included with Air Command:

Action Memo

This option allows you to open a memo pad to enter small notes and information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and web addresses. Pressing the active button (dotted circle with an arrow) allows the written text to activate certain actions, such as making a phone call or going to a website. You can also easily pin this notepad to your home screen by clicking on the corresponding icon.

smart select

This option allows you to quickly select any part of the screen and save it as a picture on the clipboard for sharing or saving to a digital photo album. To do this, circle the desired area of ​​the screen with the stylus in the form of a square. You can collect multiple images by clicking on the Collect button and using Smart Select again to highlight and capture another image.

image clip

Image Clip is somewhat similar to the previous option. With it, you can select a more detailed section of the screen using the S Pen. You can also select a specific shape for the outline of the area, such as a circle or a square. Cut out images can be stored in your digital photo album, where relevant information can be added to them.

screenwriter

This option allows you to take a screenshot of the entire screen and immediately add the appropriate annotations. You have several options for changing the style and color of the stylus input, which gives you the ability to write various texts on images copied from the Internet, and perform other actions.

Using the S Pen to surf the web

The considered stylus works quite functionally with many applications from Samsung, for example, with a browser. Using the pen to surf the web makes it easier to scroll through web pages or copy and paste text for sharing.

Website scrolling

To scroll a web page with the stylus, bring it close to the screen and move it to the top or bottom edge to scroll the page up or down, respectively. A small pointer arrow will appear showing the direction of scrolling. You will probably need to hold the tip of the stylus at the edge of the screen for a second or two for the device to accept the request to scroll.

Selecting text on a web page

Manage saved photos

The S Pen also has some features for easy management of the image gallery on Note 4. With their help, you can preview photos, select the ones you want and share them.

Pointing the stylus at labels

You can quickly preview images in your gallery by hovering over them with the stylus. When the preview appears, you have access to quick shortcuts for sharing and editing. You can even call the Screen Writer function to open an image and quickly write something on it.

Multi-selection in the "Gallery" section

To select multiple images in the gallery at the same time, press and hold the button on the stylus and drag the pen tip across the screen to draw a rectangle around the selected images. You can also add more images by repeating the above steps. You will be able to quickly share selected images, delete them, or apply other functions to them.

S note

The S Pen stylus can show its professionalism in all its glory in an application like S Note. This application includes many options regarding customization appearance your pen input, and takes full advantage of the sensitive pressure of the stylus to give your scribbles beautiful swirls. If you make your own stylus settings, you can save them as presets for quick recall.

Editing text from a photo

Using the S Note application, you can take a photo of a page with text, and then use the stylus to convert such a photo into an editable one. Note that the pen recognizes texts well, but if you need to edit several of these photos, then this will not be an easy job. It may be more useful to use the S Pen settings, such as a marker to highlight important information and writing notes.

handwritten keyboard

In many text fields throughout the Note 4 interface, users can use the stylus to enter handwritten characters. When you enable the "Direct input" option in the menu settings, when you hover the stylus over the text field, look for the 'T' icon with a pen. Click on it to activate the handwriting keyboard, which will help you convert handwriting to digital for use in e-mail, SMS message and even to access the Internet.

Copy text to memo

When you have entered text in the form field, look for the above icon again. Clicking on it will convert typed text into artificial handwriting, and such text will be saved as an editable memo.

Last update: 2 months ago

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All modern smartphones today they are so similar to each other that often the choice of a new gadget is based solely on which brand the buyer prefers.

In the same time Samsung managed to create a smartphone Galaxy Note, which offers a truly unique functionality in the form of S Pen.

There is only one question left - does anyone really need it today? After all, the era of styluses has sunk into oblivion along with PDAs and handhelds, leaving the modern Galaxy Note 9 () in splendid isolation. What is so interesting about this little pen? Let's figure it out.

Pocket notepad with pen

Pocket notepads with a pen have long gone out of fashion, although some still use them because of their convenience. When you need to quickly write down something or draw it schematically, using a smartphone for this is not as convenient as we would like. Having unlocked the device, we launch the application (if the application is functional, then the launch will take some time), then we add a new note and only after that we type the text. And if you need to quickly sketch something else, then everything becomes even more inconvenient and time-consuming.

With Galaxy Note 9 ( almost everything that will be discussed below can be done on previous smartphones of the Note series) you just need to take the pen out of your smartphone and write/draw anything on the screen. You don't even need to unlock your device or turn on the screen:

For example, I often use this mode when a child comes up with a request to explain something, say, in mathematics. There is not always a piece of paper and a pen at hand, but to get a pen and draw a rectangle right on the switched off phone - what could be easier?

Many people also use this feature to quickly jot down a shopping list before going to the store. Or record something right during the call (just transfer the call to the speakerphone, take out the pen and instantly create a note).

The convenience is that you do not need to open, download or save anything. They took the smartphone in their hands, pulled out the pen, wrote something on the screen turned off, put the pen back into the smartphone. The drawn note automatically disappeared from the screen and was saved. You can then open samsung app Notes and view all previously made notes.

Reading text in foreign languages

What does a pen have to do with reading, you ask? It doesn't matter if you are reading a book or an article on the Internet in a foreign language, do it with the S-Pen (that's what the pen / stylus is called in Galaxy smartphone Note 9) will be much more convenient. It is enough just to point the stylus pointer at an unfamiliar word (or even a paragraph of text) without touching the screen and a translation will be displayed in a pop-up window:

Moreover, you can translate any text that is displayed on the screen, even if it is an interface element (an inscription on a button, a menu item) or text on picture. For people learning a foreign language, one can hardly think of more convenient way translation.

Copying text

This is such a useful feature that it is worth mentioning it as a separate item. Yes, you can copy text on any smartphone, but there are many cases when everything is not so simple. For example, you received a message in which you need to select and save only a certain part (say, the contract number, or cards for payment). But, the application allows you to copy only the entire message, and not its individual parts. With the S-Pen, just hold down the side button on the pen and drag it over the desired part of the text - and it is already copied:

As in the case of the translation, you can copy any text, even if Android does not allow it (for example, by holding the button, you can drag the pen over the name of the menu item in the phone settings and this text will be copied).

Working with the screen image

Thanks to the S-Pen, it is very easy to take a screenshot by adding your own notes (for example, highlight a page with products in an online store and circle certain products with a pen):

A whole world for creative people

With the S-Pen and the PenUp app that comes with your Galaxy Note, you have incredible creative possibilities. PenUp is not just a "drawing game", it's a whole social network, in which hundreds of thousands of registered members share their work and rate the work of others.

The application allows you to draw pictures of any level of complexity, there are many tools for the artist (all kinds of brushes, paints, markers, pencils):

It is so addictive that you do not notice how the hours fly by. And yet, every 15 days in this application there are contests for the best drawing on a given topic, after which the results are summed up and the winners (10 people) are determined. So if you like to draw, you won't be bored with Note!

Feather as an antistress

Have you ever heard of antistress coloring pages? This product appeared in 2010 and very quickly became popular all over the world. A distinctive feature of such coloring pages for adults is the presence of small details and intricate patterns. Their main purpose is relieve stress and fatigue, reduce anxiety.

The principle of anti-stress coloring is very simple: while painting small details, a person focuses on monotonous work, completely immersing himself in the process, enters a state comparable to meditation, during which thoughts turn off and a feeling of calmness and peace appears.

Despite its simplicity, this process is creative, and therefore very exciting. But what does the S-Pen have to do with it? The most direct! The PenUp application contains a whole section of coloring pages, which is also updated regularly. And the result of your creativity will be appreciated by other users around the world. And all this is available completely free of charge, which is a very nice bonus.

Here is an example of such a coloring:

By the way, the S-Pen is able to replace another tool for anti-stress - a regular fountain pen with a button. According to psychologists, the vast majority of people enjoy clicking the button of a pen, as it also relieves tension and stress. The S-Pen is equipped with exactly the same mechanism!

Filling out and signing documents

If you have to fill out PDF documents for work, with the Galaxy Note 9 you no longer need to print them out, fill them out by hand, and then scan them again to email or save them to your computer. You can fill out documents with the S-Pen on your smartphone screen and immediately save the result as a PDF!

Additional Useless Pen Features

We've talked about the main use cases for the S-Pen. If everything that was said earlier is not interesting or necessary for you, then there is no point in overpaying for all this functionality and buying Note 9. If you like what the S-Pen has to offer, then here is a quick list of other features that you are unlikely to use regularly:

• Pen wireless features. S-Pen in Galaxy Note 9 is equipped with a bluetooth module, which means it can be used as a control panel (switching music tracks, stopping and playing movies or videos on Youtube). You can also use the pen to control the camera (take a photo by pressing the button on the S-Pen). Naturally, bluetooth functions require power, which means that the pen needs to be charged. It is very easy to do this - just insert the pen into your smartphone. From 0% to 100%, the pen is charged in 40 seconds and this charge is enough for half an hour of battery life.
• Magnifying glass mode. Yes, the pen can be used as a magnifying glass - point at any part of the screen (without touching it) and this part is displayed magnified several times.
• Producing a presentation. If you set up screen casting from Note 9 to the projector, then the slides in Power point presentations can be switched with the pen.
• colorful messages. Quite a fun feature that you can play enough of at one time, and then never use it again. Its essence is to create short animations (when each stroke of the pen is accompanied by some kind of effect) and send these short videos in messages.
• Bixby Vision. Point the S-Pen at a picture and the smartphone tries to find similar pictures, or determine what is shown here. If you hover over the QR code, the smartphone will decrypt it.

And with the help of a pen, you can enter handwritten text and Galaxy Note will instantly recognize it. But, in everyday life, it is much more convenient and faster to type text on the keyboard.

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