Database Develop

[Q] Buying an i9000M, but would you recommend this?

Hello.
Directly to the question: Is the current state of the (Bell) i9000 Galaxy S completely working? (Lag, GPS issues, 2.2, etc)?
A little bit of background:
I own a Galaxy Tab, and it's absolutely the best mobile device I've ever had and seen. I've had nothing but good experience with no issues at all.
My dad wanted to jump the smartphone bandwagon and started to inquire about the iPhone, naturally I was like lolwut? Hellz no! Android + 4" screen + Google Maps Navigation baby!
Because the P1000 and the i9000 models are world class devices (multiple region specific firmwares and support, such as Arabic) I thought the i9000 would be the best choice for him since he already likes what my phone/tablet does.
Then I came here to the forums just to see what's up... and BAM! ...greeted with problems being reported left and right like no tomorrow! Flashing issues, updates bricking, GPS issues, lag and all sorts of issues. Now i'm hesitating and and having second thoughts about buying one at this point. But what is the alternative? Are the minority just having these issues or bad luck?
But man seriously, it's hard to ignore the awesome features this phone has, and the rather great experience I'm having with the Samsung Tab, I'm dying to know whether its safe to buy this now or wait.
Alternatively, what would be an equivalent device with features like a front facing camera, 4"+ screen, huge internal app storage, global support (arabic, europien), etc)?
You're advise is highly appreciated, I have two 1.5 months to decide!

If you've got 1.5-2 months, I say wait for the Nexus S.
Pretty much the same phone, but with all issues addressed and no Samsung B.S.
If you want one before that, then yes: go for the i9000m. I had to swap mine during the DOA period (30 days), but aslong as you upgrade via CWM and not ODIN or Kies AND make sure you have one of the new batch, you won't have any issues.

Honetly, the only "real" issue is the GPS
I got a SGS since october and I don't use lagfix or whatever and it's a pretty good device.
Only GPS can be, sometimes, kind of "all over the place". I've had "some" issue (not all the time) with it but that's about it.
And since the new Nexus S is almost the same hardware (but SGS has better options, IMO) we'll surelly get an even more optimised Gingerbread!

[Q] Should i trade my Captivate for Bell Vibrant

hey guys, i have a unlocked captivate but i was wondering is it worth it switching to vibrant, i had it b4 but it got the internal sd card of death so i dont want to ahve issues with myphone... should i bother switching? like the button and the white light up buttons r really good for me and i liked the shape way better also FFC was asuperplus. but i dont want to have to wrry about the internal sd card issues also i think captivate has way better signal idk what to do whats your input?

It's up to you. I have a i9000M as well, and it's done me well. My previous two phones have both failed (one of them within 2 days of receiving it and flashing maybe 5 times), but with my current phone, I've flashed many different ROMs well over 100 times and it's as fast as ever.
Many believe the bootloader in the latest Bell firmware, JL2, fixes the issue.

yeah? iwas offered a late december model after 12.10 or somthign

Would you recommend a galaxy S?

Hello guys,
My brother is going to get his first smartphone. Initially they offered him a galaxy ace, but now (the phone operator) gave him the offer for an S. Would you go for it?
What i recall from this phone was that it was rather cool and powerful, but with an infernal gps. Did it get fixed eventually? How is it? Any remark?
Thank you very much!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Hi,
I have been using SGS GT-I9000 for a year and half, and frankly, it has been the worst smartphone purchase I've made over the years.
It:
1. Hangs up for no apparent reason, even when it is sitting idle.
2. Crashes or reboots at its own every now and then
3. Performance gets extremely sluggish to a point where it becomes Royal Pain in ....... (you know what).
4. Doesn't want to connect with PC except in 'Storage Mode'. Hence I am stuck with Froyo since there is no other way of updating the OS.
Now I have sent this unit to Samsung twice but they say it is 'in perfect' condition. Anyway, long and the short of it I am poised to jump the ship and buy Lumia 800, making SGS as my first and last droid.

Megneto said:
Hi,
I have been using SGS GT-I9000 for a year and half, and frankly, it has been the worst smartphone purchase I've made over the years.
It:
1. Hangs up for no apparent reason, even when it is sitting idle.
2. Crashes or reboots at its own every now and then
3. Performance gets extremely sluggish to a point where it becomes Royal Pain in ....... (you know what).
4. Doesn't want to connect with PC except in 'Storage Mode'. Hence I am stuck with Froyo since there is no other way of updating the OS.
Now I have sent this unit to Samsung twice but they say it is 'in perfect' condition. Anyway, long and the short of it I am poised to jump the ship and buy Lumia 800, making SGS as my first and last droid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Never had that problem.
2. Never had that problem with proper ROMs.
3. Lag fix, custom ROMs like CM7 and MIUI.
4. Again, never had that problem, pretty sure you never bothered to install the Samsung drivers for the phone.
Jump ship, Android doesn't sound like it's for you anyway, but don't go telling people about how you struggled with the phone without even flashing any new firmware when that's what Android is all about.

Megneto said:
Hi,
I have been using SGS GT-I9000 for a year and half, and frankly, it has been the worst smartphone purchase I've made over the years.
It:
1. Hangs up for no apparent reason, even when it is sitting idle.
2. Crashes or reboots at its own every now and then
3. Performance gets extremely sluggish to a point where it becomes Royal Pain in ....... (you know what).
4. Doesn't want to connect with PC except in 'Storage Mode'. Hence I am stuck with Froyo since there is no other way of updating the OS.
Now I have sent this unit to Samsung twice but they say it is 'in perfect' condition. Anyway, long and the short of it I am poised to jump the ship and buy Lumia 800, making SGS as my first and last droid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Never had that problem either
2) Never had that problem either
3) As already stated add a simple lagfix.
4) Install the correct drivers onto your PC and install Kies or use odin to flash new firmware.
Adslee is 100% correct. Android isnt for you. dont tell people horror stories about this device just because you dont knowe what your doing...
Now back to the OP.
Even though the Galaxy S is over year old now it is still a good device on the market and for the price you can pick them up on contract these days i would say they are well worth buyng still.
The XDA custom rom support for this device has been amazing and there are tons of custom roms out there to choose from if you wish to flash custom firmware, such as several MIUI version; several CM7 versions and a ton of samsung based custom roms.
There are now even a couple of active ports of ICS from the galaxy nexus for the galaxy s.
Samsung have surpassed many people expectations with the support and updates they have brought to this device.
My GPS has always worked absoloutley perfect. I believe it was just the early models that had a problem witht he GPS. Even with that said, it was found that if your GPS was poor, all you had to do was fold a piece of paper up and put it in the top corner of the phone where the GPS antenna was and put the cover back on. This added pressure on the the antenna and made the GPS better for some strange reason lol.
The galaxy s started on eclair and we are now on 2.3.6 gingerbread.
This phone still has everything the new devices have and can still handle everything very well.
Dont forget the super amoled display that this device uses aswel which is amazing.
For a first smartphone it is a good start.
That being said though if you want to spend a bit more cash you can get a more updated phone like the galaxy s 2 or maybe even a galaxy nexus if your brother really wants to splash out, and likes the look of pure android without the likes of touchwiz or HTC's sense layerd over the top.

timonoj said:
Hello guys,
My brother is going to get his first smartphone. Initially they offered him a galaxy ace, but now (the phone operator) gave him the offer for an S. Would you go for it?
What i recall from this phone was that it was rather cool and powerful, but with an infernal gps. Did it get fixed eventually? How is it? Any remark?
Thank you very much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first couple of version of the OS were a little buggy for the Galaxy S, but the latest one is solid, no issues with it very fast and stable. The GPS issue was fixed.
If your brother is into modding and hacking his phone he would love the Galaxy S. Mine started with Android 2.1, and now I'm running a port of Android 4.0. Just be aware that most likely this phone will not get an official upgrade from Samsung to the Android 4.0

[Q] Is it Captivate?

Hello all,
I have a very interesting (at least I think so ) problem with a Galaxy S mainboard I have. The problem is I do not know what exactly variant/model this is. The mainboard came with 16GB flash and only back camera (no front facing), so I assume this is Captivate model. This is not the end of the story though. The board was initially with broken system, so after I managed to get it back working it was registering as GT-I9000 (as it still is). I have currently installed cyanogenmod 10.1.3 for standard international version. So you may ask - what is the problem? It is standard Galaxy S International. Well, I am not so sure. For one, based on my knowledge international versions have both back and front cameras (this came with only back one, unless someone switched it) and also to check if this is international I installed double camera in this phone (from another board). After that the back camera works fine (takes photos etc.) however as soon as I swap to front camera I get "Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped." and I am unable to launch camera again without full wipe (probably there is some setting that could be reset, so that camera app uses back camera, but I do not know what that that setting is). Anyway based on that I assume it may be a different model. Visually there are also some differences in mainboard vs. other 100% sure international mainboards I have (I can post photos if this will help). I have tried installing cyanogenmod for captivate without luck (ro.product.model error), as well as other mtd mods - all go with this same error.
There are also other issues with this mainboard which make me believe that this may be a different model:
the wifi range/signal is very low compared to other same but international models (may be because of kernel issues, I read about that somewhere, unless a hardware problem(?))
the sound from speaker works when I change ringtones for example, but does not on youtube (headphones work fine with sound)
when phone goes to sleep very often it restarts or hangs (just black screen)
this may be unrelated, and should not cause mentioned issues, but the mobo also has broken EFS partition, so you cannot make calls and there is no IMEI present
My question is: could someone overwrite this setting so that it "thinks" it is a GT-I9000? How can I check which model this actually is? Were there any international models with only one camera?
Thanks a lot!
XaFFaX

Wiki says the only I9000 model without front facing camera is GT-I9000T - Mexico, Latin America, Caribbean version of I9000.

Val D. said:
Wiki says the only I9000 model without front facing camera is GT-I9000T - Mexico, Latin America, Caribbean version of I9000.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not entirely true, unless I am reading another wiki .
Captivate
AT&T released this variant (SGH-I897) for the United States on July 18, 2010,[65] while Rogers released its own variant (SGH-I896) for Canada. Both variants include 16 GB of internal flash memory, but without the front camera, FM radio and LED camera flash present on other Galaxy S variants. Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" is available for this model.[66] The Rogers version includes minor GPS functionality differences and the ability to utilise HSUPA.
Vibrant
T-Mobile released this variant (SGH-T959) for the United States on July 15, 2010.[67] It is the third Android 2.x phone officially supported by T-Mobile (after the Nexus One and MyTouch 3G Slide). Like the Captivate, it includes 16 GB of internal flash memory, but omits the front camera, FM radio and lacks a LED camera flash. Android 2.2 "Froyo" is the last version available for this model.[68]
T-Mobile and Wind Mobile also released the closely named Vibrant 4G (SGH-T959V/W) in February 2011. It adds HSPA+ support and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.
Fascinate
Verizon released this variant (SCH-I500) for the United States on September 9, 2010.[69] It omits the front camera and FM radio of the base model, but adds a LED flash. Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" is available.[68] Its release was accompanied by some controversy over Verizon's decision to replace Google Search with Bing as the primary search engine.[70]
The SCH-I500 is also known as the Mesmerize for US Cellular and the Showcase for C Spire and Ntelos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously this is not Fascinate, since the mobo lacks LED flash, but still at least 3 models without front camera...
EDIT:
I have added pictures of label of the battery compartment with some information, maybe this will help in determining what model is this? I am wondering about the NTT in the upper left corner.
The second picture shows that there is a place for front camera, however is was not made transparent it is black as seen on the picture, which means it was a back-only camera version of the phone.

Looks like the board came from NTT DOCOMO SC-02B phone - a version of Galaxy S for Japanese market.

Val D. said:
Looks like the board came from NTT DOCOMO SC-02B phone - a version of Galaxy S for Japanese market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, exactly I just made the same conclusion. I just flashed stock ROM using Odin from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=11614716
and the phone works fine (in terms of not hanging/restarting). I even have baseband visible, unfortunately it did not fix the EFS partition (what is not news for me, but still I had hope... ). Interesting thing is how it got itself in Europe... Anyway, the issue with speaker (not working with youtube for example) still persists, as well as very low wifi range and GPS not locking. This is probably due to differences in back casings (antenna), however in general it works fine. The camera software works fine too, only with back camera (not possible to change). I replaced it back to original one and works fine. Maybe I will take this mobo to Samsung service, they are able to restore EFS for not so much $.
Anyway, thanks for all help, I appreciate it.
XaFFaX

The_XaFFaX said:
Maybe I will take this mobo to Samsung service, they are able to restore EFS for not so much $.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The shipping + diagnostic only will be more expensive than the board. Upgrade the phone to a better one. SGS is a 3y hardware, it's not worth it to repair. Try to find a DYI solution to the EFS problem. You may have to learn Japanese first...

8835994 fg
Val D. said:
The shipping + diagnostic only will be more expensive than the board. Upgrade the phone to a better one. SGS is a 3y hardware, it's not worth it to repair. Try to find a DYI solution to the EFS problem. You may have to learn Japanese first...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah well, I was asking around about it, if the situation has not changed it costs about $20 to do that, while the board is about $70 (I mean only the EFS repair). But in general you're right, there may be something more wrong with it and it will not be worth it. I will consider it.
About EFS repair DIY: I searched about it over the internet, everywhere I got information that you cannot do it "for free" there is a software that can do it using servers, but that costs A LOT. I will look around more, but I do not think it is possible unfortunately (without backup).
Thanks again,
XaFFaX

If services are so cheap in your country, than go ahead and see what they can do.

Recommend the Note 3? What's to know before I buy?

Hi all, I've been a fan of the Note 3 since it came out but it was out of my budget (I buy unlocked), now it's very affordable, I'm very aware of the specs and hardware and what draws me to it on paper (the screen size, 1080p, removeable storage, replaceable battery, the S pen, etc.).
However, I'd like to hear from real users, do you like the phone? Do you recommend it? Is this a phone that I "have to" root+ load custom to make it "work right", or does it run ok stock? What's your take and feedback? I'd love to hear it.
What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? What's there to know before I decide to make the purchase?
Building on the root topic, how hard is it? I was on other forums and I remember many complaining about Samsung and their bloatware and how it's "unlockable" (but from what I understand it's not necessary to really have it unlocked while still being very powerful/customizable).
I looked at the LG G pro 2(5.9" screen, microsdxc, replaceable battery etc. great phone, but too expensive right now), Sony Xperia ZU (camera not that great, somewhat dated hardware, can't get it for dirt cheap anymore), Sony Xperia Z2 (smaller, but amazing camera). Any other phones to consider? (I won't consider a phone that doesn't have expandable memory, so no Nexus phones for me).
Any/all feedback welcome, thanks!

The Note 3 is fantastic phone, I had it for a week, It is faster than the Galaxy S4, I love its stock ROM that why I have the Galaxy S4 for almost a year and i did not changed it is ROM.
My Note 3 is an ATT phone and I have it unlock to use it with tmobile, rooting the phone was easy, but the ATT phone has a locked boot loader, so regular recovery does not work like other phone.
My advice is to use the stock ROM and start reas this forum, if you don't like the stock ROM after a while then think about rooting and other things, I broke my phone after one week after installing a custom ROM and have it not fixed yet.
I hope that helps

abofihmi said:
The Note 3 is fantastic phone, I had it for a week, It is faster than the Galaxy S4, I love its stock ROM that why I have the Galaxy S4 for almost a year and i did not changed it is ROM.
My Note 3 is an ATT phone and I have it unlock to use it with tmobile, rooting the phone was easy, but the ATT phone has a locked boot loader, so regular recovery does not work like other phone.
My advice is to use the stock ROM and start reas this forum, if you don't like the stock ROM after a while then think about rooting and other things, I broke my phone after one week after installing a custom ROM and have it not fixed yet.
I hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Appreciate the input! I was doing some reading and found out that the T-Mobile version does not have a locked bootloader and can be rooted and unlocked. I think I might end up trying to get a n900T instead of the n900A (though I may change my mind because I just need a phone to work out of the box for the time being.. I don't know if I'll have much time to screw around with custom roms just yet).
Although... I heard of people not getting full speeds on LTE with the Tmobile version on At&t, even with correct APN settings. I found it to be "inconculsive" for now, I'll keep looking, but I probably do need a phone soooon!

My ATT note 3 gives amazing speed on T-Mobile network, speed test reports 60 mbps.
not sure how tmobile phone works over ATT network.

abofihmi said:
My ATT note 3 gives amazing speed on T-Mobile network, speed test reports 60 mbps.
not sure how tmobile phone works over ATT network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, wow, interesting how the n900a gets good speeds on T-mobile's network.
Btw, you mentioned that you broke your phone, was it a note 3? I soft bricked my Asus TF700, thank God it's working now. Yeah, flashing and reflashing can be cumbersome and risky if you don't read the details and something small goes wrong, I think I got my softbrick from a dirty flash, it was such a headache.

Yes, my note 3 is currently broken and I am waiting for the power button to come, hopefully that will bring it back.
see my post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-3-att/help/note-3-failed-to-charge-phone-off-t2986953

Definitely do not buy an n900a due to a locked bootloader. It's going to be a fast phone with or without root but I rooted it added firekat rom combined with nova launcher,greenify, some personal customization mods and I absolutely love it although I hardly ever use the s pen as much as I thought so I wouldn't let that be a selling point for you no matter how much you think you may use it.