The new year got off to a rocky start over at Samsung's official Twitter account, where a harmless call for New Year's resolutions resulted in a barrage of hostile replies that forced Samsung to revisit the nasty Froyo-on-Galaxy-S issue. Probably expecting folks to rehash plans to lose weight or quit smoking, Samsung was instead greeted with numerous responses centering around two themes: pleas for getting Froyo on American Galaxy S variants and vows to never buy Samsung products again. And then there was user @BlackMoonWolf, who probably spoke for many with the suggestion that Sammy ...

If you feel like Samsung's playing a game of keep-away with your Froyo update, we'd understand, as earlier today the company's site changed its information on several handsets to indicate they'd soon be running Android 2.2, only to revert the edits. The Epic 4G, Fascinate, and Vibrant - Galaxy S phones - were briefly listed as operating on Froyo; not "set to receive Froyo", but currently running it. At first, it looked like another inadvertent leak, with some Samsung webmaster accidentally updating the site with information intended for future use. Now they're all back to Android 2.1, with ...

In what can only be considered a very "experimental" release, the developers over at Team Whiskey have a build of Android 2.3 Gingerbread booting and operating, though with a fair share of bugs. Most notable amongst them are GPS not working, the Home button is "back" and back is home, the camera isn't working, it only mounts the internal sdcard (not the external card), and data works only after a delay of 2-5 minutes after booting. You can read more about this ROM on Team Whiskey's thread on XDA-Developers.com. Source: Android Spin

As Samsung Mobile Canada promised, Bell has started to roll-out the Android 2.2 Froyo update for their Samsung Galaxy S variant, the Bell Samsung Vibrant. If the update has not reached your device yet, don't worry, it should be available in a couple of days. Meanwhile you can download the KIES application necessary for downloading and installing the update. As Samsung Mobile Canada also promised a mid-December update for the Rogers Samsung Captivate, we're sure it's just a matter of days till the carrier starts rolling Froyo out too. With all these updates being offered (a bit late for the ...

Visa has approved a new method of contactless payment that endows existing smartphones with NFC-like capabilities via a special microSD card. Developed by a company called DeviceFidelity, the In2Pay cards are currently supported by the Samsung Vibrant Galaxy S variant from T-Mobile, BlackBerry Bold 9650, and all Apple iPhones save for the first generation; before you go crying that these latter handsets lack expansion slots, keep in mind that the cards are inserted into a case which hooks up to the dock connector. Visa claims that more phones, including Symbian and Windows Phone 7 models, ...

The Samsung Galaxy S Series of phones are really quite impressive. At least their hardware is impressive. Software-wise, the phones suffer from "bad timing" syndrome. By that, I mean they Galaxy S phones were well on their way to being finished when Google released Android 2.2 Froyo -- leaving the Samsung devices running Android 2.1 Eclair. Since there's nothing worse than selling a new phone with an old OS, Samsung promised us they were working on Froyo and would release it to all Galaxy S devices as soon as possible. The T-Mobile UK version of Vibrant (a Galaxy S phone) was to be the ...

Before you run out and void your warranty, although the guys over at #teamdouche have gotten CyanogenMod 6.1 to boot on the Samsung Vibrant, you may want to hold off for a little while. As of yesterday, @thedudesandroid and @Jeagoss successfully booted CyanogenMod 6.1 on the Samsung Vibrant. However, @Jeagoss is quick to admit that an official "nightly" release is still a way off. A "nightly" build, for those that don't know, isn't a final release, it's not even a beta or a release candidate. A "nightly" is just the progress on the project that the team made that day. Some bugs are fix, ...

Android handsets were rated to be the best smartphones on each of the four major US carriers in Consumer Reports' latest evaluation. Out of the 41 models reviewed by the publication, four stood out as tops: the Motorola Droid X on Verizon, Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile, HTC EVO 4G on Sprint, and Samsung Captivate on AT&T. Notably, Verizon's Motorola Droid 2 scored nearly as well as the top finishers, half of which are Samsung Galaxy S variants. In fact, 11 of the 20 phones recommended by CR are Android-powered, with BlackBerry holding down three spots, both Windows Mobile 6.5 and webOS two ...

After an unwelcomed false start as well as a sporadically-effective homegrown solution, T-Mobile is apparently pushing out the highly-anticipated update for the Samsung Vibrant -- its Galaxy S -- which promises to fix the poor GPS performance on the devices. In addition to allegedly faster and more accurate locks, the JI6 upgrade apparently brings access to Samsung's DLNA-capable Media Hub (meaning the device can now share content with other compatible products over WiFi) as well as a direct shortcut to the camcorder's HD capture mode. The one thing not found in this update is a general ...

If you like T-Mobile USA's Samsung Vibrant as a worthy member of the Galaxy S family of Android smartphones from Korean phone maker Samsung but wished the device had a front-facing camera, then you'd be happy to know that you can hack a hardware camera into your Vibrant to bring on the video chats. The good news is that the part costs around $15, but the bad news is that it does require a bit of technical know-how and instructions on XDA-Developers are not for the faint of heart. Essentially, you'll need to buy the hardware part, solder it in, and install some drivers to get the camera ...

Apparently all versions of the Samsung Galaxy S phones have an annoying little WiFi bug. When WiFi is turned on and you turn off the screen, WiFi does not turn off like you'd expect it to,and that can chew up your battery life. Reportedly, the WiFi sleep policy that you can configure in the WiFi settings doesn't seem to be respected by the device. At least not the way you'd think. Rather than turning WiFi off within seconds of the screen turning off, it waits 15 minutes. Using this hack you can change that to whatever duration you'd like. Prerequisites 1. ADB root shell access. 2. SQLite3 ...

Thanks to a watchful reader we've learned that the Samsung Galaxy S phones (including the Captivate, Vibrant, and Epic 4G) may not have the previously reported microUSB to HDMI capabilities. Apparently, someone inside Samsung inadvertantly included the Galaxy S phones on a compatibility chart with the HDMI adaptor that was only intended for the Mondi. That having been said, when I last checked the accessory page at Samsung's website there are only two "compatible products" for the adaptor. Both are hard drives, but clicking on the "more" button shows two Mondi's. Maybe they're still ...

It is now possible to carrier unlock all GSM varieties of the Samsung Galaxy S, according to a detailed thread at the XDA Developer forums. Usually third party services charge up to $30 for the privilege of opening a handset up for use on unintended carriers, so the free method cooked up by "dagentooboy" and others should prove popular assuming that it is stable. Unfortunately for the average user, the unlock procedure is a bit complicated, and should not be attempted by those uncomfortable with HEX editors or entering command line script. It should also be noted that just because a phone ...