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The Verizon Stratosphere II is one of those phones. You know, the quirky - I mean, qwerty - kind that packs just enough punch to be functional but not enough to wow the bulk of us. Today Verizon has announced the latest firmware update, version I415VRBMF1, that gives the little handset a little tune-up. The device should now give a more accurate read of data usage and leave behind a few jarring bugs, such as issues where auto-correct inadvertently replaces an entire text message and the SIM pin entry screen displays the incorrect number of remaining attempts. If any owners out there have suffered from the screen going blue and requiring a hard reset, that should also now be a thing of the past.
If QWERTYs are your thing, the Samsung's Galaxy Stratosphere II on Big Red is one of the only choices left on the market. And while it may be nothing to write home about in general, it is getting a nice bump up to Jelly Bean right now. Announced officially on the Verizon Blog just a bit ago, the update has started making its way out in phases and brings all sorts of fun goodies like voice search, enhanced notifications, Google Now, and lots more.
Do you want a QWERTY slider phone on Verizon? Then your options are pretty limited at this point. And by "limited," I mean this is basically your only one: Samsung's Stratosphere II. It's WVGA-tacular! It's also free if you use your existing Verizon customer upgrade over at Amazon Wireless, which is a good deal. I guess. New customers looking to get in on this not-exactly-bleeding-edge slider will have to fork over a Benjamin, though $100 is still thirty bucks less than what Verizon will charge you.
Does the idea of an Android 4.0 QWERTY slider on Verizon with a WVGA display excite you? Then head on over to Verizon's website, and order yourself a Stratosphere II. Announced a couple weeks ago, the Stratosphere II is definitely on the low end of mid range, with a 4" 480x800 display, Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Android 4.0, and a 5MP rear shooter.
We've seen a few leaks of Verizon's upcoming Stratosphere II over the past couple of months, and Big Red just made the handset official. As expected, it's a modest mid-ranger with a 4-inch display and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Like its predecessor, the Stratosphere II will also sport a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Samsung is back again with a fresh batch of source, today dropping open source kernel files for the Note 10.1 (N8000), its LTE counterpart N8020, the Stratosphere II (SCH-I415), and Sprint's version of the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (SPH-P500). The most interesting device on the list, though, is probably the Galaxy Camera (EK-GC100), which is just arriving at UK retailers this month, with no firm date announced for a state-side debut. Though the Galaxy Camera is a somewhat unconventional Android device, it's still great to see Samsung keeping up with its pattern of timely open source file releases.