Seven new ways to use Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 Bluetooth S Pen
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Early PDAs and smartphones used the stylus for navigation and note taking. Samsung has continued to use an external accessory in the Note line and in this year's Note 9 the S Pen is better than ever.
Also: Samsung Galaxy Note 9: Release date, features, and everything we know so far
Traditional usage of a stylus to serve as a supplement for a finger is useful on the Note 9, but with the Bluetooth radio contained inside there is so much more you can do with the S Pen. It's rather stunning that the thin S Pen contains a Bluetooth radio and battery with the capability to fully charge in less than 40 seconds and function for 200 button clicks before needing to be recharged.
Based on my experiences with the S Pen on the Note 8, it is now an essential tool for me. In addition to the five ways I detailed using the S Pen in that article, here are several new ways you can use the S Pen on the Note 9:
- Launch an app: From within the S Pen remote settings, you can select which app you want to launch right from the S Pen button when you press and hold the button. The camera is selected by default, but you can change this to your preference too.
- Capture photos: After launching the camera, you can press the S Pen button to activate the shutter and capture a photo. Press the button twice with the camera app open to toggle between front and rear cameras.
- View photos in your gallery: Thankfully, Samsung continues to include its own gallery app so you can view and edit photos. When the gallery is open, you can use single and double presses on the S Pen to move to the next image or previous image.
- Record your voice: With the voice recorder app open, use the S Pen to record/pause your voice recording.
- Control your music: When media is playing on the Note 9, you can play/pause or skip music using the two variations of button presses. We will have to test if this functionality works with streaming service like Spotify or if it just works with music loaded on the phone itself.
- YouTube remote: With a YouTube video playing in the app, you can use S Pen button presses to play/pause or skip videos.
- PowerPoint slide control: While PowerPoint is open you can use button presses to move to next or previous slides.
With the Note 9 now in hand, we will continue to explore the Air Command options and other ways that the Bluetooth radio enables advanced functionality with the S Pen.
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Later this year, developers will be able to integrate the S Pen's new Bluetooth Low Energy options into their apps so stay tuned for much more productivity with the Note 9 S Pen.