Galaxy S II - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

AT&T's Galaxy S II Skyrocket Getting Its Official Taste Of Jelly Bean, Rolling Out Now Via Kies

Posted by Cameron Summerson in AT&T, Device Updates, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, News

Last Updated: April 26th, 2013

You know the spill by now: Samsung is pushing Jelly Beans to umpteen hundred Galaxy devices, yadda yadda yadda. Now, it's the Galaxy S II Skyrocket's turn. We haven't heard anything about this phone in some time, so to see this update make its way to the airwaves was quite a welcome surprise.

Like many of the Jelly Bean updates for other Galaxy devices, this one appears to be rolling out exclusively via Kies – at least for the time being. There's always the off chance that AT&T could start pushing it via OTA as well; if it's like the others however, it's nearly a gigabyte in size, so OTA may not be the best way to go.

Apr

T-Mobile's Galaxy S II Now Getting Jelly Bean, Available Via Kies Only

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Device Updates, Galaxy S II, News, T-Mobile

Last Updated: April 26th, 2013

The Jelly Bean rollout for Galaxy device has been fast and furious as of late, with Samsung making the update available to nearly all of its current and former flagship devices. Today's the day for T-Mobile's version of the Galaxy S II – but the download is only available via Samsung's Kies software.

In order to pull the update, you'll need to be on the latest official firmware from T-Mobile, and must have at least 50% battery. Otherwise, grab the newest version of Kies, plug up, and get to downloading – the 756MB file is going to take some time on slower connections.

Apr

[Video] Watch A Galaxy S2 Run Two Instances Of Android At The Same Time With New Experimental Virtualization Tech

Posted by Cody Toombs in Android OS, Development, News

Go ahead and file this one in the Super Cool Tech category. A Russian blog, Rozetked.ru, posted video of a Galaxy S2 running two copies of Android at the same time. The three-and-a-half minute video takes us through a demo switching between a pair of ROMs while playing music from both, proving that the hardware resources can be shared. After the audio segment, we are shown decently high frame rates on a 3D benchmarking app and Angry Birds. According to the team behind the project, running two concurrent instances of Android only takes about 10% off of battery life while the impact on system speed is negligible.

Mar

AT&T Pushing Small Update (I777UCLL6) To Galaxy S II With Bug Fixes And Security Enhancements

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in AT&T, Galaxy S II, News

According to a forum post on AT&T's support site and some scattered user reports, the carrier's Galaxy S II variant is receiving a small update today. Rolling out over the air as you read these words, the software fixes an issue where devices would become unresponsive or power down while idle.

The update also includes the requisite "security enhancements." If you haven't updated your phone to 4.0 yet, well for starters, why not? Secondly, you'll need to do so first before you can apply the update. This is rolling out over the air, so hit your Settings app to find it or just wait for the notification to show up.

Mar

[Updated] Sprint's Epic 4G Touch Gets An Update To Jelly Bean, Requires Kies Due To File Size

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Epic 4G Touch, News, Sprint

We sure weren't expecting this, but today Sprint announced on its support site that the Epic 4G Touch (the Now Network's branded version of the Galaxy S II) is getting an update to Jelly Bean. Undoubtedly version 4.1, but this would still be a welcome upgrade as it brings with it the ability to access Google Now, among a host of other features.

The update will require Samsung's Kies software to install. Apparently the file size is too big to rollout over the air. Though, if we had to guess, the fact that the device is nearly two years old by this point and is relatively low-priority for Sprint played a factor in the decision to let consumers foot the bill for the bandwidth.

Feb

Samsung Posts Jelly Bean Kernel Source For The Galaxy S II GT-i9100 And GT-i9100M BMC

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Bell, Development, Galaxy S II, News

Samsung recently starting updating its aging-but-not-dead flagship phone from yesteryear (OK, technically it was the year before that, but yesteryesteryear isn't a thing) to Jelly Bean. And when Samsung updates things, you know what that means, right? Source code. Because a new version of Android brings with it a new kernel. And Android modders want new source to go along with that new kernel. So Samsung delivered, as always.

This go around, it's uploaded the kernel source for the Galaxy S II i9100, as well as Bell Canada's variant, the i9100M BMC. So, if you maintain a ROM, want to tweak some code, or some other third thing – you can hit the appropriate link below to grab the download.

Feb

T-Mobile's Galaxy S II (Hercules) Gets Official CyanogenMod 10.1 Builds

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy S II, News, T-Mobile

The CyanogenMod team has been hard at work building CM10.1 for various devices over the last several weeks, with new devices getting official builds almost daily. Yesterday, we saw 10.1 hit AT&T and T-Mobile's versions of the Galaxy Note and AT&T's S II Skyrocket; today, the first nightly just landed for T-Mo's Galaxy S II, as well.

The device, codenamed Hercules, differs from the rest of the S II family, as it has a Qualcomm processor instead of the Exynos of the other variants. This is likely the reason that it is getting 10.1 builds, while most of the others are stuck on 10, or even 7.

Jan

T-Mobile Pushing A Couple Of Small OTA Updates To The Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, News, T-Mobile

Last week, we reported on an OTA update for the T-Mobile Galaxy S II that brought a "Qualcomm fix," along with some general security enhancements and Vlingo S Voice improvements. It looks like that update was delayed shortly after it started rolling out, as Team Pink just updated its support docs with details of the update with a set rollout date of January 31st, which is today.

Thus, if you didn't get the update last week, then you should expect it to hit sometime over the next few days.

The GSII isn't the only T-Mo device getting some OTA love today, though – the carrier's version of the Galaxy S III is also getting a small update.

Jan

T-Mobile Sending A Small OTA Update To Its Variant Of The Galaxy S II, Mostly Packs Security Fixes

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy S II, News, T-Mobile

A small, 11MB over-the-air update is on its way to T-Mobile's variant of the Galaxy S II this morning, which brings a few minor enhancements to the year-old device. Among those, you'll find a "Qualcomm fix," along with Vlingo S Voice improvements, and some general security enhancements.

As usual with Samsung devices, there are a couple of different ways you can apply the update to your device. First – and probably the easiest – is to just pull it via OTA; you can either wait until the automatic notification shows up letting you know that an update is available, or head into Settings > About Phone > System Updates to manually check.

Jan

Samsung Giving The International Galaxy S II (GT-I9100) The Jelly Bean Treatment, Now Rolling Out In Spain

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy S II, News

Nearly two years ago, Samsung unveiled what would become one of the most iconic Android handsets of all time, and its powerhouse smartphone for the year: the Galaxy S II. This follow-up to the original Galaxy S brought the goods in a major way, further increasing Samsung's undeniable presence in the Android world. And now the company is updating it to Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.2).

Owners of the unlocked international version of the handset in Spain should be receiving the update now – either over-the-air or through Samsung's Kies software – which brings an absolute slew of new things to the device, according to SamMobile.