Galaxy S - 5/8 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

CyanogenMod Looks To Continue Its Reign, Expand To Acer Liquid, HTC Wildfire, Samsung Vibrant, and HTC G2

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Captivate, Development, Devices By Manufacturer, Fascinate, G2 (Vision), Galaxy S, Liquid A1, News, Vibrant, Wildfire (Buzz)

Good news for what's likely to be a whole crapton of users: CyanogenMod, Android's most popular ROM, will be coming to a handful of new devices with CM6.1. Namely:

There will also be support for a few new devices- Acer Liquid, HTC Wildfire and Samsung Vibrant. My eye is also on the new HTC phones that are about to get released like the G2.

It looks like their doors are still open to new devs and currently unsupported devices, as well - to quote Cyanogen once more:

A lot of people ask me about adding support for their phone, but we can only support phones that we actually own.

Aug

Coming Soon: Stock Android 2.1 For Samsung Galaxy S

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Eclair 2.1, Galaxy S, News, Videos

It seems a few community developers (@barakinflorida) have been inching towards releasing a functional, bone stock version of Android 2.1 for the Samsung Galaxy S (That is, without Samsung's TouchWiz interface). Their efforts are paying off, as this video shows.

The only big issues remaining lie in getting the camera/camcorder to actually, well, work. A relatively minor inconvenience, and a problem many developers have struggled with when developing full-ROM releases for phones with UI overlays.

Android 2.1 is starting to seem a little dated to be utilizing for development of ROMs - maybe a stock FroYo update will follow? But now that members of the CyanogenMod team are working on a CM6 build for the Galaxy S, it's hard to say if there will be much demand for a stock Froyo.

Aug

Holy Turbochargers Batman: Speed Up Your Galaxy S With LagFix BETA

Posted by David Ruddock in Galaxy S

Galaxy Not-So “S”

Is your Galaxy S a little laggy (experiences stutters, delays) at times, even on Froyo? It’s not your imagination; your phone’s internal storage is probably the culprit, and LagFix addresses the problem quite cleverly, helping you put the “S” back in your Galaxy.

As you probably know, Galaxy S phones boast either 8GB and 16GB of internal memory. Pretty hefty for an Android phone (the most spacious available, in fact). And yet, the Galaxy S is no more expensive than any comparable, high-end Android phone. So, how did Samsung do it?

Your Galaxy S’s cavernous capacity is owed to Samsung’s choice to use internal SD (rather than Flash EEPROM, HTC’s favored storage method) for system, app and data storage.

Aug

Samsung Unleashes Galaxy S Phone Accessories: Desktop, Car Docks, and Spare Battery Charger; Teases WMG160 HD Media Streaming Device For The US

Posted by David Ruddock in Galaxy S, News

It’s hard to say if it called for a full-blown press release, but Samsung today issued a statement announcing the availability of official Samsung-branded accessories for Galaxy S devices in the US.

What kind of goodies can users expect? Well, as the title suggests, Samsung has produced some very shiny photos of a desktop dock, a car dock/charger, and a spare battery charging system (they’ve apparently caught on that many Android users go through multiple batteries in the course of a day). You can see them in all their glossy black plastic glory below:

Sunglasses not included.

Tomfoolery aside, these are necessary accessories for a phone as robust as the Galaxy S; the car and desktop docks/chargers in particular.

Aug

Verizon 2010-2012 Roadmap Leaked, Shows A Whole Lot Of Android Love

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Fascinate, Galaxy S, HTC, Motorola, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

There have been plenty of rumors lately about the iPhone launching on Verizon within the next several months. Looking at Verizon’s incredibly successful history with Android and the Droid brand, it seems unlikely; and in case you thought that Verizon might be giving up on Android, think again. A Verizon roadmap leaked by Boy Genius Report shows that the Big Red has plenty of new Android goodies in store for us over the course of the next year.

Roadmap

Droid Pro

First off, a new addition to the Droid family. Along with the Droid X, Droid 2, and Droid Incredible, Verizon will be launching the Motorola Droid Pro.

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

UK Samsung Galaxy S To Receive Froyo Official By The End Of September

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News

According to the Samsung UK Twitter account, the Froyo update for all Galaxy S phones in the UK is on the way, and is set for release on every carrier by the end of September. They’ve given themselves a full two months of wiggle room, so this seems like a date you can put some faith into.

This is still good news for everyone outside of the UK. The update may still be in the development phase, but a September release means carriers in countries outside the UK should be receiving the update in the same timeframe (which is good, because the phone has already launched in several countries.) If you simply can’t wait, you can try out the leaked Froyo ROM that is already available here.

Jul

Video Review Of Samsung Galaxy S Running Android 2.2 Froyo

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Froyo 2.2, Galaxy S, News, Samsung, Videos

Yesterday night, a build of Froyo for Galaxy S was leaked by a previously relatively unknown Samsung firmware site Samsung-Firmware.com. Now, keep in mind, while this is an official build that came from Samsung itself, it is only a test version still using an Éclair kernel.

I wouldn't recommend you flash it just yet - instead we can enjoy this 9 minute video preview by the guys from HDBlog.it who already dared to take this ROM out for a spin. HDBlog.it is an Italian tech blog, but they were kind enough to provide an English version (though the speaker has a pretty heavy accent).

Jul

Samsung Galaxy S Strikes Again - Now Available At Three UK

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Galaxy S, News

Just in case you thought the Samsung Galaxy S would stop its myriad of launches around the world – the Super AMOLED phone has just become available at Three UK under three different pricing plans.

The three price plans are £35, £38, and £40 a month for two years, with the highest plan (called “The One Plan”) giving you 2000 calling minutes, 5000 texts, and 1 GB of data – something users in the US aren’t really familiar with (Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile all having unlimited data, and AT&T having a max of 2 GB.)

If you’re interested, head over here and check it out.

Jul

Koush Releases Final Version of ClockworkMod Recovery For Samsung Galaxy S

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Captivate, Development, Fascinate, Galaxy S, News, Vibrant

Koush has released his new version of ClockworkMod for the Galaxy S series of devices. Users who flashed older versions of CWM will have to reflash the stock kernel. However, CWM doesn’t touch the kernel – Koush says it’s “…Completely uninvasive” – rather than hard-installing, it installs to the ramdisk so that it’s gone when the phone restarts.

Installation is pretty simple – users download ROM Manager from the Market, and then flash CWM. The first time users run CWM, an additional reinstall may be needed. Koush’s instructions:

First things first, if you flashed a previous version of Clockwork Recovery using Odin, FLASH BACK TO A STOCK KERNEL using this Odin package:
http://koush.tandtgaming.com//test/k...-stock.tar.md5

This recovery is *very* safe to use.