TouchWiz - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

Samsung Promises To "Review The Possibility" Of Freeing Up More Storage On The Galaxy S4

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Galaxy S4, News, Samsung

The Galaxy S4 is a beast of a phone, and very likely to be the best-selling Android device in the world this year. It's also pretty bloated when it comes to software: on a brand new, unsullied phone, more than 6GB of internal storage is taken up by Samsung's TouchWiz version of Android. Most markets don't yet have access to a 32GB or 64GB model, and the base 16GB version has less than 10GB of user-accessible storage available. After a less than flattering feature on the BBC consumer protection show WatchDog, Samsung gave the following statement to CNET UK:

"We appreciate this issue being raised and we will improve our communications.

Dec

[New App] GMD Smart Rotate Copies Samsung's Camera-Based Orientation Control - Perfect For The Frequently Horizontal

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Does the fact that your smartphone or tablet's orientation control conform to its orientation rather than yours constantly enrage you? Well, you could go buy a late-model Samsung device for its Smart Rotate feature, which uses the front-facing camera to see which way your face is pointing and adjusts the screen accordingly. Or you could download GMD Smart Rotate, which does the exact same thing.

GMD replaces the accelerometer function with facial recognition, meaning that if you hold your phone in portrait mode even when you yourself are horizontal, it will know not to rotate the screen. I can think of exactly one amazingly good use-case scenario: when you're lying on your side and want to read or watch something, and don't have five precious seconds to toggle the auto-rotate function in stock Android.

Oct

[Updated] Official TouchWiz Jelly Bean Leaks For The Epic 4G Touch On XDA, Look At Two Screenshots To Your Heart's Content

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Epic 4G Touch, News

Did you think that the Galaxy S III was the only one getting all of Samsung's Jelly Bean attention? Not so! As it turns out, the company is also working on Android 4.1 for older phones, including but not limited to the...*deep breath*...Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. A build has leaked out over on XDA of 4.1.1 in all its TouchWiz-ified glory that's ready for the ~~flashing~~ looking at, if you're feeling ~~adventurous~~ bored.

Of course, keep in mind that this is an early build of unreleased software, so make your backups and be prepared for some problems here and there.

Oct

Editorial: Does Samsung Really Innovate, Or Is TouchWiz Just A Big Bag Of Gimmicks?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Samsung

Nothing quite stirs me up like people heaping praise on Samsung for "innovating" with TouchWiz’s software features. And every time I try to dismantle this notion, I get called a Luddite. I’m not forward-thinking. I don’t appreciate new technology that’s in its infancy. I’m not curious.

Which is interesting, considering how fascinated I am by it, and how generally up to date I like to keep with technology at large. I make no qualms of the fact that I am a cautious adopter of cutting-edge gadgets, though. I don’t look at a new phone or feature on one and suddenly become enamored with the possibilities it portends gazing 10 years into the future.

Oct

TouchWiz-ified Jelly Bean For Sprint's Galaxy S III Leaks On XDA, Eager Upgraders Have A Field Day

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy S III, News

Sure, the Galaxy S III is the first major flagship device to get Jelly Bean outside the Nexus line. That's not fast enough for you, though, is it? Of course not! We can do better! Or, more accurately, XDA can do better. In fact, a TouchWiz Jelly Bean ROM has found its way to the development forum giant's threads already!

The build is still unofficial and obviously there are inherent risks to flashing it. Some users are reporting trouble with MMS, and as usual, root is not guaranteed to remain intact. Be sure to read through the thread before doing anything fancy with your phone.

Sep

[Update: Not Just Samsung] Exploit Could Force Factory Reset On Many Android Phones

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Samsung

Update 2: This exploit probably won't work on most Galaxy S III's as long as they have the most recent OTA update, as we demonstrate on video here.

Update: This issue is, unsurprisingly, a lot more nuanced than the video here lets on. The bug is based in the stock Android browser, is in fact quite old, and has been patched in more recent builds of Android - this is probably why Nexus devices running the most recent OTAs are unaffected. The fact is, this is not a Samsung problem, it's an old Android problem that has been known about for some time.

Aug

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Review: An Embarrassing, Lazy, Arrogant Money Grab

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000 / N8010 / N8013), News, Reviews, Samsung, Tablet Reviews

A little over a year ago, before I was hired at AP, I wrote about the things I wanted my new Honeycomb tablet to be able to do in the next version of Android. Multitasking on tablets was (and still is) non-existent, and I wanted my tablet to be less of a big phone, and more of a small computer. I wanted split screen, and floating apps, and really, I wanted to just make use of this nice, big screen I had. One task at a time isn't good enough. The big difference between a tablet and a phone should be the ability to multitask.

Jun

Samsung Galaxy S III Review: Not Revolutionary, But Another Solid Step Forward For Android

Posted by Ron Amadeo in AT&T, Galaxy S III, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Reviews, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: June 24th, 2012

The Galaxy S III is a big deal. It's kind of hard to overstate it. Samsung is the biggest, baddest Android manufacturer out there, and this is their new flagship device for the next year.

Samsung is taking advantage of their newfound clout in the Android ecosystem: it's the first Android phone to escape the cellular carriers' meddling changes. Sammy managed to pulled off a unified launch across all the major US carriers - there will be no weird variants, and no names that sound like Street Fighter II sequels. It's just the "Galaxy S III." They are all the same, and you can get one on whatever carrier you want.

May

Full Hands-On With Samsung's S Voice From The Galaxy S III

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Galaxy S III, Leaks, News, Samsung

Last Updated: July 4th, 2012

S Voice is Samsung's entry into the fledgling "virtual assistant" market currently occupied by Siri, Evi, Speaktoit Assistant, Vlingo, and a handful of others. The Galaxy S III rom leaked earlier today, and while most of the stuff in it is broken and completely useless without the version of Touchwiz it's meant to run on, S Voice is a perfect combination of being interesting AND working. So we're going to take a look at it on my Galaxy Nexus, which is currently running vanilla (well, AOKP) 4.0.4.

S Voice is only meant to run on the GSIII's Touchwiz build, so I expect lots of force closes.

May

Full Galaxy S III Android 4.0.4 ROM Leaked, S-Voice And All The Other Goodies Up For Grabs

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Galaxy S III, Leaks, News, Samsung

Hey kids! Looking for an early taste of the new Touchwiz? Well you're in luck! A leaked Galaxy S III ROM is out in all it's bandwidth crushing glory! A whopping 800MB download awaits those eager to get their hands on Samsung's latest.

The Galaxy S III and its new version of Touchwiz will make about a million additions to Android. Somewhere in this download are things like S-Voice (a Siri-style virtual assistant), Pop-up Play (a floating video window), and Smart Stay (which uses the front facing camera to refresh the screen timeout), just to name a few. Developers (and eager bloggers) should start ripping into it immediately.