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April 24, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
If you’ve seen XDA Developer TV Producer Steve’s video on switching from Windows Phone to Android, you know Steve has no problem sharing his thoughts. He has been reviewing apps on the different operating systems. He has been using Samsung Devices to represent Android and Windows Phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Samsung ATIV S, respectively.
However, his satisfaction with his Samsung devices has waned and he is switching to HTC. Steve takes the time to explain why Samsung is not the brand for him. He shares the frustration and quirks he experienced with Samsung. Check this video out.
March 3, 2013 By: Haroon Q. Raja
This year’s Mobile World Conference was different from most. There were still all the device presentations, announcements, and revelations that we’ve come to expect from the biggest tech event of the mobile industry each year. What’s different was that this time, the spotlight wasn’t taken by hardware, but rather by software—and for good reason. After all, it isn’t every day that three upcoming mobile operating systems backed by big names like Samsung, Intel, Mozilla, and Canonical are showcased at the same event. Apart from Mozilla’s Firefox OS and Canonical’s Ubuntu Touch, MWC 2013 also saw Samsung and Intel finally showcase Tizen OS running on actual hardware.
Among all contemporary mobile operating systems, Tizen OS has had perhaps the most tumultuous and complex history. First there was Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin, before the two companies decided to combine them together into MeeGo, in collaboration with many major hardware and software partners. Then Nokia decided putting all its eggs in Windows Phone’s basket, and abandoned the platform after releasing the amazing N9 running MeeGo with Nokia’s Harmattan UI that won hearts of users and critics alike, despite not making many sales due to Nokia’s abandonment. While all this was occuring, Samsung had also decided to build an open OS of its own in order to decrease its dependence on Android, and the result was Bada. After Intel’s abandonment, the future looked bleak for MeeGo, and it indeed proved out to be so as well. The OS was shortly abandoned completely by all other supporters as well, and Tizen was born under the patronage of The Linux Foundation. Later, Samsung decided to join the picture as well, with an aim to merge Bada with Tizen.
After being in works for several years under all the different names, it was actually disappointing to see what was showcased at the MWC demo. With a conventional home screen that seemed to be nothing more than a mere grid of icons and an overall UI not too different from Android’s, Tizen seems to bring nothing new to the table that might lure users into switching to it when devices running the OS show up in the market. Granted it’s still in the making and what was demoed was essentially an early preview, it came nowhere close to what Canonical showcased in Ubuntu Touch.
The experience offered by the OS running on the demo devices was sub par at best, being laggy as well as lacking anything truly special and intuitive that’s not already out there. For an OS that has been in the making for several years by now and has major names of the industry backing it, this seems nothing short of inexplicable. One good thing was the announcement of the Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK being made available for developers to start working on apps for the OS. That said, there’s still a long way to go before we start seeing devices running Tizen hit the market. There have been no official time frames announced in this regard, but it is expected to be late 2013 by earliest. Also, since Bada is essentially being merged into Tizen, many are speculating whether Samsung will decide to abandon the devices running Bada, or upgrade them to the new platform in the future.
Here at XDA, we get excited about any development in the smartphone industry, especially when it’s an open-source mobile operating system aimed to offer a completely open alternative to Google’s semi-open Android ecosystem. We have also merged our Tizen and Bada forums to consolidate development for them under once roof, where you can also join several discussions about the OS.
You can learn more about Tizen and download its SDK from the Tizen website.
January 19, 2013 By: Jimmy McGee
Another wonderful International CES has passed us by. The event was filled with many exciting displays, like the Intel Ultrabook Tree, but most important were the announcements made by many manufactures. Some announcements are still years out, embodying nothing more than an idea. Other announcements having working prototypes, while still others are in the final stages before release or have been released.
January 1, 2013 By: Haroon Q. Raja
Due to the open nature of Android, at times device manufacturers make absolutely ridiculous decisions in an attempt to set their devices apart from those of the competitors. A perfect example of this is Samsung’s choice of using a proprietary QMG format for its boot animations, as opposed to the standard bootanimation.zip format used on Android by default. The QMG files need to be created using the expensive Qmage commercial software, thus effectively barring the average consumer from cooking up their own.
XDA Recognized Developer smokin1337 decided do something about it and created a hack that brings back Android’s standard bootanimation.zip support to Samsung devices. The mod was created for the Samsung Galaxy Note II, but should work on any Samsung device that uses samsungani to load up the bootanimation. The developer has also provided the Google Gears boot animation with the package, but you can choose an alternate instead.
This will add the ability to use a custom bootanimation on any rom with any kernel and probably any samsung device.
It has been tested on the Note II but should work with any samsung device that uses samsungani to load boot animations. If it doesn’t work for you please post here.
Uses the typical settings bootanimation is at /system/media/bootanimation.zip, this is for those using a stock rom or a rom the dev didn’t add it in.
As always, more information and download links can be found in the forum thread.
Update: As pointed out in the comments, this was also accomplished by XDA Senior Member anbech in his thread originally aimed at the SGS3.
December 30, 2012 By: Joseph Hindy
Android devices support a lot of external devices. From Bluetooth speakers to external hard drives, there really isn’t much you can’t hook up to an Android device anymore. However, one thing that users may have trouble with is an external microphone.
XDA Elite Recognized Developers AdamOutler and Rebellos are at it again. This time with a hardware mod that will allow better external mic support on most Samsung Galaxy devices. This includes the Galaxy Note II and the Galaxy Camera. AdamOutler explains the mod in more detail:
Elite Recognized Developer Rebellos searched the code, and we figured out that the device wouldn’t recognize my mic because its Ohms are too low. The WolfsonMicro chip uses any value below 1000 Ohms to signify button presses. Above 1000 Ohms, it signifies a microphone. My microphone is a 900 Ohm microphone, so in all actuality, it’s pretty high considering most are around 100-500 Ohms. However, Rebellos and I managed to hack through it. I wanted to share this method.
The result is a hardware mod that allows the use of larger external microphones. There are a few things to note. As Adam stated, in order to be detected, the mic must offer 1000 Ohms of resistance. If it doesn’t, then the device won’t register it as a microphone, but rather, as a button press. Since most of us don’t want to buy an entirely new microphone, a tempting solution is to create an adapter to enable the one you already have to work on the device.
According to Adam, you’ll be building a, “Samsung 4-pole to 1/4″ Mic adapter with a 200 Ohm resistor inline.” The process itself isn’t overly difficult, and for frequent hardware modders, it should be a walk in the park. Since you’re not soldering anything onto your device, you most likely aren’t putting it in direct jeopardy. Just be careful not to burn yourself with that soldering iron.
If this looks like something worth trying, head over to the original thread.
December 17, 2012 By: jerdog
We recently told you about the Exynos4 security hole found by XDA Member alephzain. This is a security hole in the kernel that allows malicious code full access to all physical memory. XDA Elite Recognized Developer Chainfire would have none of it, and not only pointed out the security hole by creating an app that roots your device without ODIN, but also provided a way to plug it.
His application, aptly named ExynosAbuse APK, gains root privileges via the ExynosAbuse exploit and installs SuperSU. In addition, in version v1.10, it allows you to disable the exploit at boot. The downside of disabling the exploit is that your camera may break. However, this is not so bad considering how your device can no longer be compromised by this exploit. Lesser of two evils, right? If you absolutely must have your camera, the application allows you to re-enable the exploit.
Unlike the other app-based patches out there, Chainfire’s solution to patch on boot runs before any normal Android apps perform their launch after boot code, thus preventing that attack vector as well. One thing Chainfire points out is that the protections included in his APK are just workarounds, rather than actual fixes. For that, we’ll have to rely on our talented developers in the XDA Developer community or Samsung. (Do I hear crickets chirping?)
For more details on the exploit, you can head over to alephzain’s exploit thread or Chainfire’s application thread. When visiting the latter, be sure to help Chainfire test various Samsung devices by stating your device, its firmware, and whether the application and fix worked.
December 5, 2012 By: Jimmy McGee
Today on XDA Developer TV, XDA Recognized Developer and XDA Developer TV first timer Benjamin Dobell gives us a tutorial on USB logging. Dobell is responsbile for Heimdall. Heimdall is an open source cross platform flashing utility much like Odin, but better. Heimdall lets you flash ROMs on Samsung devices, only Heimdall runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X.
In today’s video, Dobell introduces himself and his Heimdall suite. He then he shows you how to log the USB connection of a flash download on your Galaxy device. Dobell explains that if you log a USB connection during a Kies firmware flash and send the resulting file to him, he may be able to reverse engineer the log and get your device working in Heimdall. So check out this video and help out the community.
November 18, 2012 By: Conan Troutman
“Why not upset the Apple cart? If you don’t, the apples will rot anyway.” – Frank A. Clarke
The news that Apple and HTC had decided to settle their differences outside of the courtroom in favor of a licensing agreement came as shock to many, not the least of whom was Samsung. Not only are they somewhat surprised at this turn of events, but they are also very, very curious—so curious in fact, that they’ve asked the courts to force Apple to reveal the details of the agreement in the hope that it can help them in their continuing struggle against “the fruit company.”
As Samsung knows that two of the patents the courts previously ruled had been infringed upon were also being used against HTC, they are understandably curious to know whether these are covered by the agreement between HTC and Apple. If so, it could certainly work in their favor, as they attempt to fight a permanent US sales ban on some devices. As the two companies are scheduled to meet on December 6th to discuss the issue, Samsung will no doubt want to have all the facts available.
You may ask why this would have any effect on whether Apple can acquire a sales ban. However, it’s simple. Apple previously stated Samsung’s behavior caused them “irreparable harm,” and monetary compensation was not sufficient. However, Samsung’s line of thinking is that if these patents have been licensed to HTC, that’s not the case. When you also consider the billion dollar judgement against Samsung, it might be likely that things do not go quite so smoothly for Apple in their quest for a flat out sales ban.
This of course is all dependent on a great deal of things—mainly whether or not the two “infringed” patents that connect Samsung and HTC are contained in the recent agreement. It remains to be seen how this will pan out. Stay tuned.
November 17, 2012 By: Conan Troutman
Well, it’s been a long time coming. But after a whole load of nay-saying, conjecture, and incessant optimism, Samsung Galaxy S II owners can finally grab hold of a leaked Samsung test build of Android 4.1.
Although Jelly Bean has been available for the Galaxy S II for some time now, there’s been no sign of a version from Samsung. But thanks to XDA Forum Member izap, build XXLSJ based on Android 4.1.2 is now available to download. The build features the latest version of TouchWiz known as Nature UX, which will give your Galaxy S II something of an S III look and feel. And to quote one user - “It’s freaking smoooooooooooth…”
So far the general feedback seems to be quite positive, and it looks like the i9100 is handling the transition to an official version of Jellybean quite well. You’ll need to be familiar with Odin to flash this latest build, as there’s currently no flashable .zip available. If you’re not familiar with Odin, I’d strongly suggest you read up first to save yourself from running into trouble further down the line.
If you want to take this build for a spin, check out the original forum thread for the details and those all important download links.
November 15, 2012 By: Jimmy McGee
The story of the Samsung Galaxy Note II is an interesting one. When the first Samsung Galaxy Note came out, many people panned it, saying it was too large to be a usable phone and too small to be a usable tablet. The sales must have been good enough because Samsung has released the Galaxy Note II, and it’s bigger than before. So we got our hands on one, and we took it for a test drive.
This is the second part of a two part review series by XDA Developer TV Producer TK. You can catch his full write up here. This part covers an overview of the phone’s power, camera, and the coveted S-Pen. So check out this Review of the Samsung Galaxy Note II.
November 14, 2012 By: Haroon Q. Raja
In a move for which no level of facepalm can suffice, the USPTO granted Apple a patent for a rectangle with rounded corners last week. Regardless of how ridiculous it may sound, sadly it’s true. According to patent no. D670,286, design rights for a “portable display device” with an external shape that is a rectangle with rounded corners are now owned by Apple.
November 12, 2012 By: jerdog
There are always inherent risks when you root your device, though voiding your warranty in and of itself is not one of them, unlike what manufacturers would have you believe. Instead, the real risks are those things like having your /data partition readable by any app in the /system partition, as XDA Recognized Developer and Forum Moderator graffixnyc found out recently.
While browsing his AT&T Samsung Galaxy S3 on a lazy Saturday afternoon, graffixnyc opened the Samsung S-Memo SQLite files and found something shocking: S-Memo stored his Google account password in clear text. After posting his findings in the thread, fellow XDA Recognized Developer ViViDboarder reminded graffixnyc that since he was rooted he was able to view the contents of the SQLite files. And while this is true, graffixnyc pointed out that even though the only users affected by this are root users, the records themselves should have been encrypted.
Let this be a warning to you that if you find yourself with root on your device, be careful. Some developers don’t take proper precautions when creating an application. They can’t be trusted to protect your credentials; only you can.
November 11, 2012 By: Haroon Q. Raja
Custom Android ROMs are great because they often bring bonus features that let us make the most of our smartphones. While some may be perfectly happy with their current ROM, many will find themselves longing for more once they see it in another build.
If you find yourself bringing up a task manager app or going into settings to manually kill misbehaving apps, CyanogenMod and AOKP (as well as a few other ROMs) allow you to long-press the back button to kill the currently active app. Thanks to XDA Senior Member Mirko ddd, you can now get this feature right away on your device without having to flash a different ROM, provided it’s running a TouchWiz-based ROM.
The developer also offers a complete how-to guide for implementing this feature in any TouchWiz-based ROM, as well as a flashable zip file for salesale’s neat ROM. If you can’t implement it for your TouchWiz ROM yourself, the developer offers help with that as well. More information and the link to complete instructions can be found at the forum thread.
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