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

Feb

T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant Returns To The List Of Supported CyanogenMod Devices As The Emergency Dialing Bug Gets Squashed

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, News, Samsung, T-Mobile, Vibrant

Back in December of 2011, the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant was canned by the CyanogenMod team due to a 911 emergency dialing bug that was considered crucial and unfixable:

We are no longer supporting the Vibrant due to the inability to dial 911. We consider the issues related to this unresolvable without source code from Samsung related to the Radio interface layer and its interactions with the Audio layers and have taken the decision to no longer support this. We apologize for the inconvenience and strongly suggest that Vibrant users use a Samsung ROM due to the 911 issues with any ROMs based on open source code.

Dec

CM Team Dropping Samsung Vibrant Support 'Due To The Inability To Dial 911'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Vibrant

If you have a Samsung Vibrant running CyanongenMod, then you probably want to flash a a stock-based ROM double-quick. Why? Because you can't call 911 while running CM on this particular device. Sure, you may not remember the last time you had to call 911 (if ever), but can you imagine what would happen if you were in a situation where you needed to call 911 and couldn't?

For this exact reason, the CM team has decided to drop support for the Vibrant. The issue could be resolved with the radio source from Samsung, so if Sammy ever decided to release this code, there is a chance that CM could pick up support for the Vibrant again.

Jun

CyanogenMod 7.1 Release Candidate 1 Available Now For Most Supported Devices

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Development, Gingerbread 2.3, Tips & Tutorials

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting
Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About: Part 1 (Apps 1-8),Part 2 (Apps 9-16), Part 3 (Apps 17-25)
Custom ROMs Explained And Why You Want Them
How To Flash A Custom ROM To Your Android Phone With ROM Manager + Full Backup & Restore
So You Want To Know About Bootloaders, Encryption, Signing, And Locking?

The latest version of Android's most popular custom ROM, CyanogenMod, is now available for most of the officially supported Android phones on the CyanogenMod device list.

Jun

XPAL PowerSkin Review + Giveaway: Extra Juice Meets Extra Protection [Updated: And The Winners Are...]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Contests / Giveaways, Droid X (Shadow), Droid X2, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Galaxy S, Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy SL, myTouch 4G (Glacier), Vibrant

Last Updated: June 15th, 2011

Horrific battery life on Android phones is nothing new, and neither is the mind-~~blowing~~ shattering frailty of said handsets. We've seen - and reviewed - solutions to both of these issues, but for those who want a convenient, all-in-one product, nothing beats XPAL's "PowerSkins."

Available for a variety of devices, PowerSkins are, in a sentence, silicone cases with built-in batteries from which your phone can sip juice once its internal supply has run dry. With the help of the kind folks on XPAL's PR team, I hooked my EVO 4G up with one and am now ready to report on the aftermath.

May

Galaxy S, Vibrant, And Nexus S 4G Join The Captivate As The Latest Officially Supported CyanogenMod Devices - First Gingerbread Nightlies Served

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Captivate, Development, Galaxy S, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Samsung, Vibrant

What a week for Samsung Galaxy S family device owners! First, the Captivate was officially added to the list of devices supported by CyanogenMod, the largest Android ROM community in the world, and now not 1 but 3 more phones are following suit - the Galaxy S, the T-Mobile Vibrant, and the Sprint Nexus S 4G (crespo4g).

The news hit yesterday, but since no downloadable builds were available from the CM mirror network until late last night, we decided to wait until they're up.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting
Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About: Part 1 (Apps 1-8), Part 2 (Apps 9-16), Part 3 (Apps 17-25)
Custom ROMs Explained And Why You Want Them
How To Fully Back Up And Restore Your Android Phone Using Nandroid Backup
How To Flash A Custom ROM To Your Android Phone With ROM Manager + Full Backup & Restore

Of course, support for these Android 2.3.4 "Gingerbread" (GRJ22) releases is right now limited to said nightly builds of CyanogenMod 7, which will graduate to release candidates and stables releases when the time is right and all but non-serious bugs have been ironed out.

May

CyanogenMod Gets First Official Galaxy S Release - Captivate Nightlies, Now Serving Gingerbread 2.3.4 (GRJ22) On Aisle You

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Captivate, Development, Epic 4G, Fascinate, Galaxy S, Gingerbread 2.3, News, Samsung

Galaxy S owners, you may have a reason for some early celebration. CyanogenMod 7 for the GS variants, which has been around in relatively unsupported early alpha stages for the last couple of months, has just gone quite a bit more formal with the introduction of the new "captivatemtd" device branch.

What does it mean? Captivate is the first device of the Galaxy S bunch to move to the official CM download area in the form of nightlies. Once the nightlies, which, as the word implies are rebuilt nightly, are stable enough to warrant a daily driver, you can expect to see a number of RCs (release candidates), culminating in a stable release.

Feb

Samsung Video Editor Available For 2.2+, Irony Effect Included

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Samsung

Whilst browsing the Apps and Games section of XDA-Developers we came across an interesting thread about a relatively new application from Samsung, for the Galaxy S. This simply-named Video Editor looks to fill the void until the delicious-looking one from Honeycomb trickles down to our phones' OS versions.

Strangely enough, the app appears to only work on 2.2+ devices, limiting it to the i9000 and Vibrant when it comes to Samsung's own devices. The XDA devs have unsurprisingly gotten it working on a bunch of non-Samsung devices too, so check out the source thread beneath for that. Along with this thread also came a highly informative walkthrough from Aatif Sumar at ZOMGitsCj.com, so we'd suggest you give it a read before having a go yourself.

Feb

T-Mobile Valentine's Sale: All Android Phones Free February 11-12

Posted by David Ruddock in Deals, News, T-Mobile

T-Mobile just announced their upcoming Valentine's Day sale: all smartphones will be free on a new 2-year agreement, upgrade, or the addition of a new line from February 11-12. This includes all two of T-Mobile's available HSPA+ devices: the G2 and myTouch 4G. Why this Valentine's day sale doesn't actually take place on Valentine's day is somewhat obvious: a slew of new Android handsets will probably be announced that day at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

If you're looking to get a solid Android handset (or "4G" subject to your definition) on the cheap, T-Mobile's deal is pretty attractive. Be wary, though - with devices like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and likely others to be revealed at MWC, you may end up kicking yourself within days of your purchase.

Feb

Samsung Galaxy S 4G, T-Mobile's Fastest Smartphone Yet, Launching Later This Month Alongside An Expanded HSPA+ Network

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy S 4G, News, Samsung, T-Mobile

Following several wild conspiracy theories, a smattering of purported leaks and rumors, and an odd semi-announcement a few weeks ago, T-Mobile and Samsung have finally revealed the full specifications of their latest smartphone, the Galaxy S 4G.

While it's not exactly revolutionary, it does pack some unique goodies - most importantly, T-Mobile claims its Samsung ST-Ericsson M5720 HPSA+ 4G modem makes it capable of theoretical peak download speeds of 21 Mbps, whereas the G2 and myTouch 4G are limited to 14.4 Mbps. As an added bonus, T-Mobile just announced that it's expanding its HSPA+ network - it is now available in eight new major metropolitan areas.

Feb

Gingerwhat? You Can Start Forgetting About Those Galaxy S Updates Now - Samsung Teases Next-Gen Galaxy S

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, News, Samsung, Videos

Whether you believe the rumors about Samsung's Android upgrade plans or not doesn't really matter - the company has proven again and again that when it comes to older devices (read: released more than 3-4 months), your chances of an update drop dramatically. Froyo has been around for over 6 months now, but 3 out of 4 flagship Galaxy S devices in the U.S. (Captivate, Fascinate, Epic 4G) are still sporting outdated and Flashless Eclair builds, while the rest were only just upgraded in the last month or so. And this is just Froyo - let's not even talk about Gingerbread.