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Why I didn’t get the Nexus S

I was really considering getting the Nexus S, even though I just bought the Samsung Vibrant back on its release date on July 15th, 2010. I usually don’t upgrade phones very often, I take very good care of them and only upgrade to phones I actually love and will use for a long time.

I really wanted the Nexus S but only prior to learning all about it and what it does not have which is really upsetting. One great point was that it was running 2.3 and that updates will come straight from Google themselves and I won’t have to deal with Samsung any longer. I have put up with them all this time, I constantly flash unofficial (or if ever, official) updates of rom updates to my Vibrant too, so it is not like I am running an outdated version of Android such as JL6-2.1. I am currently running the unofficial stock Froyo JK6-2.2.

Here are the reasons why I won’t be getting the Nexus S, and why keeping any Samsung Galaxy S phone (Vibrant in my case) is better:

  • No 720p recording — It IS a hardware limitation, it is not software. You won’t ever be getting it.
  • No Gorilla Glass — Why not have it? I take excellent care of my phones and their screens, however, mistakes happen, I love to know that I would have a great protective screen to protect me from most accidents (even if they are not mine).
  • No microSD card slot — I still have yet to exceed or need more than my 16GB + 2GB sdcard in my Vibrant, however, knowing I can always add more space and switch the sdcard is a plus with the Vibrant, the same cannot be said about the Nexus S.

Now the Nexus S also has the following over what most Galaxy S phones, including the Vibrant, do not have:

  • Front Facing Camera (FFC) — This is not a big deal to me, it would be awesome to have but it is not going to make me switch seeing as the top 3 above, concern me more.
  • NFC chip — I likely would only use this 1 time just to play with it and see how cool it is. However, not many places do this anyways plus I would likely either forget about it or just opt to not use it this way.
  • Flash — I wish prior to getting the Vibrant that it had flash, especially coming from a camera in the past that had it, but not my last camera, the G1. But seeing how great the night mode is on the Vibrant camera, and how rarely I take pictures at night, this is not a big deal even if it would be nice to have.

Froyo coming to Vibrant and Captivate mid-October

Normally I would not write on such a story that Froyo is actually finally even coming to the Vibrant but this is just one of those times where if you put all of the Samsung news, Facebook updates and official tweets together, that you just think that this is actually true and finally going to arrive for us Vibrant users on T-Mobile.

Now, before I finally get to this story that will make you further believe it, you may already know or not that 2.2 Froyo was leaked for the Captivate. However, you cannot flash this or other versions on the Vibrant, even if the Vibrant barely different than the Captivate. I recommend waiting for the official build, even if leaked before OTA over custom roms unless others have made aware that are safe to flash and no issues reported.

Before I get to the story, this is what one of the Official Samsung Twitter accounts tweeted:

T-Mobile & Samsung hear your questions about timing of Vibrant update. Look for more info on OTA next week. Thank you for your patience.

Scott Young from TalkAndroid made a post today stating that he had bumped into someone from Samsung and after a while of talking he finally asked when Froyo was coming to the Galaxy S. He stated “mid-October” for the Vibrant and Captivate. Though he pointed out that it will take a little longer for the Epic 4G and Fascinate to get Froyo because they have CDMA. On another note, 2.2 was leaked for the Captivate as I stated above if you didn’t know.

Now this is coming from me, but Samsung did promise to have 2.2 shipped out to all Galaxy S phones by the end of this year, so even if you had to wait another few weeks for you Epic 4G and Fascinate users, you won’t have to wait long as long as they fulfill their promise. I am sure they will.

Source: TalkAndroid.com

Remove Layar from Samsung Vibrant (or other devices)

I usually do not mind bloatware to begin with, and I almost never use them either anyways. But after a while, you just want a clean device after having a while to play with it. Especially a Samsung Vibrant for how great this phone is, not just the screen.

I just wanted to take the time and explain to you how you can remove Layar and other “bloatware” applications that either T-Mobile, AT&T or others provide to you with your Galaxy S phone (Vibrant, Captivate, etc) if you want them gone for good. Now you will need root to do any of this. Rooting your phone is extremely easy and safe.

There are many methods to root your phone, you can look over at the XDA forums for easy ways to do it for your device. One quick method to root is by using the One Click Lag Fix app found in the Android Market. Do not let the name fool you, and you do not need to use the lag fix to get root either. You can unroot with this app or any other app, at anytime. Though there is no reason to unless you are sending the device back to T-Mobile or your carrier.

You can remove most bloatware with Titanium Backup which is free in the Market. You could also use Root Explorer however that is not free in the Market. So if you are in this same scenario and do not want to pay for Root Explorer than this easy method will work for you. You can also back up all of these apps with Titanium Backup in case you ever decide to want to use these again and want them back.

When you are removing applications, make sure you know what exactly you are removing. I take no responsibility if you remove something you should not that could lend up to messing up your phone or bricking it.

Use Terminal Emulator if you do not already have it, if not, you can grab it from the Market. Then in Terminal you are going to type of the following:

su
rm /data/app/com.layar.apk
rm /system/app/Layar-samsung.apk

Then there you have it, you have successfully removed Layar. You can actually use this method to remove other apps as well if you are unable to uninstall them in Manage Applications in your phone or with apps such as Titanium Backup.

If you are unsure of the application name, you can use this ‘ls’ command to find it.

su
ls /data/app/
ls /system/app/

My Top G1 Apps #3

G1screen0003 This is my third list of my top G1 Apps. I think I will do this every so often months just to give some people a fresh list of what is out there, what is better than previously was and so forth. If you would like to, you can read my previous top G1 apps lists here, #1 and #2.

I have since rooted my phone as of last week. I am sure if you have rooted your phone by now, you have already installed aNetShare if you at any point in time plan to tether your phone to your laptop/other devices. Also Advanced Task Manager is key to have to close apps in use.

If you use JesusFreke’s root, make sure you grab JF Updater if you have not. I however am not nor going to use any type of App2SD, I do not recommend using Move Cache either (see an earlier post of mine about this).

If you have not rooted your phone, unless you plan to tether, control tasks or do something else that requires root then you do not even bother to, though it is very, very easy to accomplish.

Since before I have removed AnyCut and replaced it with Better Cut. I actually decided to make my phone more Apple theme like using BetterCut to replace a few icons on the desktop (I am an Apple fan just not an AT&T fan).

I also decided to replace the default virtual keyboard that came with Cupcake with Better Keyboard.

If you do not know by now, make sure you download the new version for Google Maps. You will find it much better with more features, it sadly does not show up for an update until you do this. Google also just came out with a new application about 2 weeks ago called Places Directory and boy, what an amazing new app by Google. Very good and useful, I highly recommend adding it to your collection.

Here is the “full” app list I am currently using that I recommend that most people have or try out not including root apps: AK Notepad, Better Cut, Better Keyboard, aTrackDog which will check apps for updates, Movie Finder, My Account, MyBackup Pro which backup text messages, apps, contacts and more, OI File Manager, OI Flashlight, Places Directory which will find nearest gas stations, restaurants and more, ShopSavvy, Weather Channel, TuneWiki which is the best music player, Twidroid best Twitter client so far, Txtract which backs up text messages and WeatherBug.

Android Move Cache Back to Internal Memory

So yesterday I finally decided to root my Android G1. Basically so I could tether its internet to my laptop as where am I at, the WiFi signal is so low and bad. Well I decided to use “Move Cache” from the Market place which allows you to also move your cache for apps such as Browser, Market, Maps, Street View, GMail and Steel cache to your SD card instead of using Internal Memory.

Well I decided just to try it out and use it only for the Browser, Market, Maps and Street View. Well things only went downhill from there, force closed so much in each of those maps or it would be utter slowness like in the Browser. So storing cache back to Internal Memory was never really a problem, just wanted to try it since I do have an 8GB SD card that only uses 1GB. So I selected the options from Move Cache to move it back to Internal Memory, rebooted and removed Move Cache.

Well everything seemed to work until I went to the Market and then later Street View. The Market would prompt you with the following message: “A Server error has occurred. Retry, or cancel and return to the previous screen.” So if you want to go back to storing your cache in your Internal Memory than do the following in Terminal Emulator (or any other similar app out there). Especially if you went through a process similar to what I did to remove.

Make sure you are the root user. Run the following command if you have any problems: This obviously will only work if you have rooted your phone such as with JesusFreke’s builds.

su (press enter)
id (press enter)
*It should ask you to allow access, allow it.*

Market Cache to Internal Memory

cd /data/data/com.android.vending
rm -R cache
mrdir cache

Street View Cache to Internal Memory

cd /data/data/com.google.android.street
rm -R cache
mkdir cache

Official Android 1.5 “Cupcake” Manual Update Released

Finally! U.S. users of the Android OS phone or G1 can get their 1.5 Cupcake update. Follow the instructions below to do so, I have already updated with this file and it is the Official U.S. version of Android 1.5 Cupcake.

I am very impressed with this update (that finally has arrived). I have seen my share of videos of the updates but after having used it, it feels so much better than what I was expecting which was good already. The on-screen keyboard is nice, it takes some getting used too. Some larger fingers can have a harder time getting use to. I think I will just be using the on-screen keyboard for quick writing and not long text messages or anything. The user interface updates are even more beautiful.

Disclaimer: I am NOT responsible for anything that may go wrong while updating your phone. Make sure you have a good amount of battery, to be even safer plug the power cord in.

Instructions:

  1. Download: https://android.clients.google.com/updates/partner/signed-kila-ota-148830.de6a94ca.zip
  2. Rename this file to update.zip.
  3. Mount your SD card to your PC through the phone.
  4. Save ALL the contents of your SD Card to a new folder on your PC.
  5. Delete all the contents off the SD Card and put update.zip onto the SD Card.
  6. Shut down your phone.
  7. Hold the HOME button as you press the POWER button to turn on.
  8. When you see a yellow triangle icon appear on your screen, press and hold ALT+L.
  9. When a new screen appears, press ALT+S to apply the update.
  10. It will go through a serious of verification and updates here.
  11. When told to, press the HOME and BACK button.
  12. The phone will restart twice, this may take a few minutes to complete.
  13. Now re-mount your SD Card, copy all the files you backed up, back and delete update.zip.
  14. Now just enjoy all the new GREAT features in Android 1.5 Cupcake.

G1 Phone Review

I picked up the G1 phone from T-Mobile this past Saturday. Now having played with it for almost a week I must say this is such a great phone. I honestly had so many doubts about the phone to where I stuck with wanting to purchase the Sony Ericsson W902, well that finally came out and just as expected, price was $550. Honestly, such a great phone but did not want to pay that price especially when you do not get much out of it for what the G1 offers especially for $199.

I started with the RC29 update, battery life and things were great having just used it, few recharges from Saturday through Tuesday. Early Tuesday morning came finally with the RC30 update. Whoa, did that help the battery life so much more. I especially love the fact that if needed I could change the battery out unlike say the iPhone.

The applications so far are not so bad, I am loving ShopSavvy even though I do not use it as much but it is still nice. The iPhone has such an app too, so not like it has not been done before. I love the Google account integration, works flawlessly just as you would hope. Amazing. I am just anxiously waiting for more applications to come to the phone though.

Keyboard and touch screen work great. I honestly had doubts about the phones look when deciding about finally purchasing it. After going to the local T-Mobile store it did not look as bad as it did online pictures. The plastic is not so bad at all, I think it looks like in black and not so good in brown. The white and gray is very nice though and which I bought it in.

It has a great phone. If you are a T-Mobile customer or not, I would really recommend looking into purchasing this phone, go play with it and possibly even buy it. It can definitely compete with the iPhone and overs advantages over the iPhone but vice-versa disadvantages as well.

12
2015 Mistical.com
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