Chapter 1

The First NOOK in the Galaxy

In This Chapter

Figuring out how to turn it on and off

Going into Airplane Mode

Putting memory on a microSD card

You've got a small box that holds a thin, flat piece of plastic and circuitry that has more speed, more intelligence, and more magic than an entire field of mainframes. It can hold and display nearly all of the world's books, magazines, and newspapers. It can sing, show videos, take pictures, make movies, determine its location from an orbiting satellite, connect to the Internet, and send and receive emails and messages.

Just about the only thing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK lacks is a decent instruction manual. If I might be so bold, I'm here to help.

Cozying Up to Your NOOK

To download books (or anything else) or to browse the web with a Tab 4 NOOK, you need access to a Wi-Fi system with an active connection to the Internet. See Figure 1-1.

The small, unpretentious brown cardboard box is about the size of a thick paperback book (remember those?) There's not all that much within: the Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK and some goodies beneath it:

• A USB cable: This cable carries data to and from your tablet when you connect the tablet, via the USB cable, to a laptop or personal computer. The USB cable also lets you recharge the internal battery.
• A battery charger: When you're ready, plug it into an AC wall socket and attach the larger connector of the USB cable to it. Then plug the smaller connector to the Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK. See Figure 1-2.

  Photo courtesy of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

  Figure 1-1: Wi-Fi signal strength, battery level, and time are in the upper right. The icon in the lower right displays apps.

  Figure 1-2: The AC adapter plugs into a wall socket; the larger end of the USB cable attaches to the charger.

• Two business-card-sized booklets. One is called the Health & Safety and Warranty Guide and it advises you not drop the tablet on your toe, and how if you do Samsung isn't going to pay for the repair. The other booklet, all 20 pages of it (with about six blanks) is called the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK Quick Start Guide.

Keep the box, along with the warranty information and your receipt. If you need to return the tablet to the seller, send it in for service, or ship it to someone else, the original box is ready to serve and protect.

Sooner or later, you should remove the protective plastic sheet that sits atop the LCD screen. It works well to protect the device in transit, but it will interfere with your use of the touchscreen and collect dirt. Put it back in the box as a memento.

Nothing like Moses's

What's a tablet? Way back in ancient times, about 2007 or so, there were laptop computers and the first electronic reading devices, which were single-purpose handheld devices that used something called eInk to draw text on a nearly white background. A few years later the two devices came together in the first successful tablets, which were thin, flat multipurpose computers that used touchscreens instead of keyboards and memory chips instead of spinning hard drives to hold on to data. In 2010, Apple Computer jumped way out front of the pack with the first iPad, and everyone else-Samsung included-has been playing catchup ever since.

Charging the Battery

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK comes with a built-in (and non-removable) rechargeable battery. The battery probably still has some power in it from testing at the factory (mine arrived about half full), but please resist trying to use it immediately.

There are three reasons why you want to fully charge the battery before first use:

• You want to be assured that the battery, the charger, and the tablet itself are each working properly.
• It may help the battery's longevity. That is, if you properly condition it with a full charge before using it first. See Figure 1-3.

  After the battery is fully charged for the first time, let it drain down to nearly empty, then recharge it fully; do this for the first three or four cycles.

• When you first turn on the tablet, you have to register the device with all of its various parts makers. You have to sign in to a Wi-Fi system with an active Internet connection and sign in with Samsung, Google, a few apps makers, and Barnes & Noble; be sure to install any software updates.

  Figure 1-3: The tablet beeps and warns you when the battery level drops to 15 percent. Don't let it drain to 0.

And so, here's how to give your tablet its first full charge:

1. Attach the larger end of the USB cable to the charger.

   Pay attention to the black positioning bar inside the charger and its corresponding bar inside the cable. Don't force the two positioning bars against each other; the cable only fits one way.

2. Attach the USB cable to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK.

   The smaller connector on the cable connects to the port on the bottom of the tablet. The side of the cable end that has the three-forked USB symbol will be facing you as you're looking at the front of the tablet. Again, don't force the plug in the wrong way. See Figure 1-4.

3. Plug the charger into a wall outlet. Go for a walk, mow the lawn, read a book, bake a cake. For the first three or four times you use your tablet, I recommend draining the battery to near-empty and then fully recharging it.

Figure 1-4: The smaller end of the USB cable plugs into the bottom of tablet.

When you plug the charger into a powered-off tablet, the screen will briefly show a battery-like object. You can see roughly how full (or empty) the device is. The drawing disappears after about 15 seconds, and after that there's no way to know the device is being charged: no indicator lights. You'll just have to school yourself to recharge the battery for six or eight hours if it nears empty.

You can recharge your Tab 4 NOOK by connecting the USB cable to a USB port on a PC, although this is a very slow process that takes as many as 10 hours for a full refill. Consider the USB charging option as an emergency backup only.

Inspecting the Gadget

Now for a physical examination. No need for a stethoscope or rubber gloves. Take your Tab 4 NOOK and place it on a desk or table in front of you. See Figure 1-5 for a guided tour of the front of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK. All of the following descriptions are based on looking at the tablet lying on its back, with its top facing away from you and the bottom closest to you: very much like the way you would look at a page from a book.

The front

The front is home to several items of note, one strictly for advertising purposes:

• A Samsung logo at the top of the front
• The front-facing camera lens
• The LCD color touchscreen
• Three keys at the bottom are shown in Figure 1-6. They are, from left to right:
  • Recent. Touch and hold it to see apps you've used recently.
  • Home. Wherever you are on your tablet, press this key to go to the Home screen.
  • Back. Touch to return to the previous screen or option.

Figure 1-5: A map to the external parts on the front of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK.

Figure 1-6: The keys just below the LCD screen are Recent, Home, and Back.

The left side

Move along. There's nothing to see here, folks. Really. Nothing. The left side of the Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK is so elegantly empty it should go on display at a museum of contemporary art.

The right side

The right side is where you'll find several essential keys, a blaster, a pinhole, and a slot. Yes, I said blaster. From top to bottom on the right side, they are:

• A tiny hole behind which hides a microphone. It picks up sound for videos, video conferences, and your voice for Internet (not cellular) phone calls. Make sure neither the protective case you use, nor your hand, blocks the opening.
• The Power/Lock key. Press and hold it for a second or two to turn your Tab 4 NOOK on or off. Press it briefly and release to lock the tablet or wake it from sleep.
• The Volume key. When the Home screen is displayed, press one end or the other of this rocket key to adjust the volume. When you're playing music, any adjustments you make here affect only music volume. Either way, you know how they work, I'm sure: + means louder and - means quieter, all the way down to mute.
• The Infrared Blaster. Sorry to have to tell you, but this isn't the latest version of Han Solo's particle beam energy weapon; I'd love to have one to render harmless drivers who cut me off on the expressway. What you have here is an infrared beam that can do things like control your flat-screen TV.
• Memory card slot. This tiny opening can accept a little sliver of microSD or microSDHC card that holds information in addition to your tablet's built-in memory....