Captivate

Sep

Battery Lives Of 8 Flagship Android Phones Tested And Compared - LCD Wins, AMOLED Loses, Droid X Takes Home The Crown

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Captivate, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid 2, Droid Incredible, Droid X (Shadow), Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Streak, Vibrant

Here’s something to get your teeth into. Over at LaptopMag, a whole host of Androids have been put through their paces in a grueling battery life endurance test. The goal was to keep the phones’ screens on while doing a moderate amount of processing, namely cyclically browsing a collection of web pages. Despite the supposed power savings afforded by AMOLED screens, the phones employing that screen technology fell quite a ways behind in comparison to the traditional LCD phones.

Why is that? AMOLED is supposed to only use up power on non-black pixels, right? Well, as LaptopMag points out, the majority of webpages are actually dark text on a light background, a scenario in which AMOLED actually uses more power than an equivalent backlit LCD.

Sep

Back To School With Android: The Budget Phones And Awesome Apps That Will Help You Get Through The Year

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Ally (Aloha), Applications, Aria (Liberty), AT&T, Backflip, Captivate, CHARM, Devour, Droid (Sholes), Hero (Sprint, HeroC), Intercept, Moment, myTouch Slide (Espresso), Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vibrant

Last Updated: July 3rd, 2011

Phones

Not everyone needs a new phone at this time of year, especially as you probably got your last one some time around Christmas, but if you’re in the market for a decent Android phone on your college-sized budget, here’s the what you’re looking at if you’re one of the four major carriers:

Verizon

Motorola Droid - Affordable doesn’t necessarily have to mean cheap, and such is the case with the original Motorola Droid. While Verizon itself no longer carries the original, (it’s been dropped in favor of the Droid 2) it can be had for the price of $0.00 (or, at most, $0.01) at third-party retailers like WireFly, Amazon, and LetsTalk.com.

Aug

Samsung Hits A Milestone: Over 1 Million Galaxy S Devices Shipped In US

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in AT&T, Captivate, Epic 4G, Fascinate, News, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vibrant

Samsung just sent out a press release that should help dampen the dullness today: according to Samsung, they've shipped over 1 million Galaxy S devices in the US. Not bad, especially considering they've only launched on 2 of the 6 carriers that will be getting the device. With such a hotly-anticipated and well-received line of devices, it's likely sales are really just getting started - after all, the Vibrant and Captivate only launched just over a month ago.

Samsung's Epic 4G will be launching on Sprint in just a few days (August 31), and rumor has it that Verizon's Fascinate won't be far behind.

Aug

Deal Alert: Move Over, Vibrant - AT&T Samsung Captivate Now Also A Penny On Amazon.com For New Customers

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Captivate, News, Samsung

Remember the $0.01 Samsung Vibrant deal Amazon put up last week in response to T-Mobile's $99.99 sale? After running for a few days, the promotion ran out (the Vibrant is now $69.99), only to be replaced by another one, this time for AT&T customers.

That's right, the Samsung Captivate now costs a cool 1 penny for new accounts and comes with a free activation and 2-day shipping. This is the best deal on this phone to date, and it will probably last only a few days, judging by how long it took the Vibrant deal to vaporize.

Hit up the AT&T Samsung Captivate AmazonWireless page to feed Amazon that penny and pick one of these bad boys up.

Aug

Samsung Captivate/Vibrant Now Rootable With One Click™

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Captivate, Mods, Vibrant

Android dev TGA_Gunnman has been added to Amazon’s hit list for this latest in a litany of single-click phone unlocking methods. In spite of the impending lawsuit (not really), his Samsung Galaxy S One-Click Root program does exactly what it says on the, err, titlebar.

There are separate versions for the Captivate and Vibrant, so make sure you get the right one. All users have to do is download the program - currently Windows only - run it, and click the One Click Root button with their Captivate/Vibrant connected up to USB. Now all you have left is to sit back and wait for the custom ROMs to start rolling in (since there aren’t any yet).

Jul

Motorola Droid X And Samsung Captivate Open Source Code Released

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Captivate, Droid X (Shadow), Eclair 2.1, Motorola, News, Samsung

Last Updated: November 23rd, 2011

As part of the Android's open source Apache license, manufacturers are required to publicly release all of their own modifications and improvements made to the Android core. Today, both Samsung and Motorola decided it would be the perfect time to drop the Captivate and Droid X code to their respective open source sites.

This will allow ROM developers to figure out all those little quirks specific to the hardware and incorporate them into their releases.

Note, however, that the Android license doesn't cover proprietary extensions, such as custom vendor applications and widgets, and therefore does not require manufacturers to open source them:

Licensing
With the exception of brief update periods, Android has been available as open source since 21 October 2008.

Jul

Samsung Shows Off All US Samsung Galaxy S Series Phones In This Promo Video - Share It With Your Non-Android Friends

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Captivate, Epic 4G, Fascinate, Galaxy S, News, Samsung, Vibrant, Videos

Samsung Galaxy S series phones - Captivate, Vibrant, Epic 4G, and Fascinate - are definitely the cool new kids on the block, and Samsung wants everyone to know that.

In this relatively lengthy promotional video, Samsung has showcased all 4 models (though, we don't get much of the Fascinate past the initial glimpse), highlighting some important aspects of these devices, such as:

Super AMOLED display
keyboard on the Epic 4G
1GHz Hummingbird CPU speed
3D audio
DLNA output
Android 2.1 Eclair (though, the Froyo upgrade is only 1-2 months away)
TouchWiz interface
HD video
Swype
social integration
apps and 3D games
browser with pinch-to-zoom

Of course, they forgot to mention that the phones that are already out have been successfully rooted, but we'll keep that between us.

Jul

Samsung T-Mobile Vibrant, AT&T Captivate Galaxy S Series Phones Not Without Their Own Signal Problems: Major GPS Issues Emerge For Some

Posted by David Ruddock in Captivate, Galaxy S, News, Samsung, Vibrant

Can You Find Me Now?

A substantial thread on the XDA forums over GPS-related woes for people using the Samsung Galaxy S i9000 has left users of the device puzzled for nearly two weeks across Europe and Asia. Now, there are similar threads for the currently available American versions, the Vibrant and Captivate, that are quickly increasing in length as well.

So, what is this problem? The Galaxy S (for some users) has difficulty locking onto enough GPS satellites to maintain an accurate fix on the user’s position. This translates to unusable GPS car navigation apps, inaccurate map readings, and generally makes using any GPS-enabled application a less-than-enjoyable (and inaccurate) experience.

Jul

[Lava Hot] AT&T Samsung Captivate Deal: $0. That's Right - Free, As LetsTalk.com Beats Out All Competition Yet Again

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Captivate, News, Samsung, Tips

LetsTalk.com, an A+ BBB accredited online mobile phone store, killed it earlier this month when they announced their prices on T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant and Motorola Droid X, beating out all competition.

With AT&T's newly released Samsung Captivate (Vibrant's 3-day younger brother), LetsTalk.com has outdone everyone else yet again - this is the best deal on Captivate you'll be able to find anywhere, offline or online:

free (as in $0), for both new accounts and upgrades, after $200 in instant discounts
free shipping
2 year activation required, as usual

Other Deals Compared

Hard to beat this deal, really:

AT&T tried at full price - $199.99 (ha!)
Wirefly.com tried at $149.99
Amazon.com tried at $99.99 for new accounts and $174.99 for upgrades

Specs

For those looking for quick specs, here's a recap:

1GHz Hummingbird processor
a gorgeous 4" Super AMOLED
a 5MP camera with 720p HD video recording
16GB internal storage
DLNA certified
comes with the Swype keyboard pre-installed
Android 2.1 Eclair
4.5oz
9.9mm
1500mAh battery

So now, who's up for a free Captivate?

Jul

AT&T Samsung Captivate Galaxy S Series Phone Now Available For $199.99

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Captivate, News, Samsung

Today, right on schedule, AT&T has launched Samsung Captivate - a 2nd Galaxy S series phone incarnation in the US, 3 days after T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant. The phone is available for $199.99 on a contract and $499.99 without.