Hey @Rob, nice work on the GPe! The best way to avoid all that nasty Samsung bloatware. And welcome to Android and AndroidPIT!
Fortunately for you, Android lets you do whatever you like, so there's always a way. The answer to your SD card question is: no problem. Just install a decent File Manager (Astro, ES File Manager etc) and/or an app to let you move apps/data etc to the SD card if you have any problems. Music, photos etc can also be stored and accessed from there with no problem.
Launchers are basically the main thing you see on your phone: the home screen setup, the app drawer (which you don't have on iPhones) and the way you can customize your home screens and app launching activity. Basically it lets you set up folders of grouped apps, different animations for swiping between screens, app launch animations, gesture controls (like a swipe down on a home screen launches Gmail or anything else you like) and a whole bunch of other options like icon size, number of icons on a screen/on an app drawer page, whether there's titles under app folders, themes, and basically anything else you could possibly want to visually change on your phone. You can download heaps of free ones from the Play Store so just play around and find one you like. Popular ones are Apex (my current), Nova, GO Launcher, Action Launcher and plenty of others.
Same goes for your lock screen, you can set up widgets for any apps you like, either from within the OS (stock Android for the S4 GPe) or via lock screen apps - again, you can search forever and find one to match any preference or particular mood you're in. Welcome to the freedom of Android @Rob! To start with on the S4 GPe, just add an unlock method from the Settings menu and Security, then when you're on the lock screen just swipe to either side: to the left will bring up a shortcut to the camera, and to the right will let you add different lock screen shortcuts and widgets.
— modified on Dec 18, 2013, 11:27:20 PM