Samsung Galaxy S II Running Android 4.0 Official ROM

We’ve seen Android Ice Cream Sandwich getting ported or leaked for many devices, including the unlikely Samsung Galaxy S, Amazon Kindle Fire and HP TouchPad. Well, those were all unofficial release, but this time we have something truly official: the leaked ICS ROM for Samsung Galaxy S II, that has just been tried on by the guys of Pocketnow.com.

They also made a video showing their experience, that you can check out below. The Galaxy S II runs Android 4.0.3, apparently with an improved TouchWiz, that to me looks exactly the same. Also, the handset is now more stable, it’s really fast, smooth and even the battery life improved. Android 4.0 has arrived on this phone before, via custom ROMs, so we know what to expect here. The Robot font looks nice on the crisp Super AMOLED Plus display and the Exynos dual core 1.2 GHz CPU seems to fit the experience like a glove.


Well, Gingerbread may have become sluggish if you had a ton of updating widgets enabled, but that’s in the past now, courtesy of ICS. The performance upgrades are also pretty clear, as shown by everyday use (Video below) and a couple of benchmarks, generating 6257 points in AnTuTu, 4225 in Quadrant and 2517 in SmartBench. I guess that it’s only a matter of time till all the Galaxy S II (tens of millions) units get the update to the latest Android, which Samsung promised for Q1 by the way.

Samsung Galaxy S II Running the Official Ice Cream Sandwich ROM XXLPQ:

Android 4.0 For Samsung Galaxy S II Leaked Again

In another Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich leak for Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S II smartphone, we’re seeing a more stable build of the Android operating system. The engineering build bears the version I9100XXLPB and has a date of January 29. The version combines Google’s Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich along with Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz user interface experience overlay on top.

The new build is said to be a lot more stable than the prior version, which had the version I9100XXLP6. Both builds were designed for the international GSM version of the Galaxy S II smartphones. Samsung had promised that Android 4.0 will be coming to the Galaxy S II line early 2012, and it looks like the company is progressing along to making that happen. A user had posted their hands-on video of the new Ice Cream Sandwich for the Galaxy S II smartphone, which is re-posted below:

I9100XXLPB:

Samsung Star 3 And Star 3 Duos Mobile Phones Announced

Samsung has added a couple of new mobile phones to its range with the launch of the Samsung Star 3 and the Star 3 Duos, which will launch in Russia at first and will then be available in Europe and other countries around the world.

The two handsets share the same specifications, except that the Star 3 Duos comes with a dual SIM card slot allowing you to use two seperate SIM cards on the handset. The Star 3 and Star 3 Duos feature a 3 inch QVGA TFT LCD touchscreen display and a 3.2 fixed focus megapixel camera, and it also runs Samsung’s TouchWiz Lite.

“We are pleased to launch the Star 3 and Star 3 DUOS, a further enhanced version of the bestselling Samsung Star series. With the new Star 3 touch phones, Samsung continues to offer the best social networking experiences and opportunities for our feature phone users,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. There are no details on pricing or availability as yet on the Samsung Star 3 and the Star 3 Duos, you can find out more information over at Samsung.

Samsung Star 3 and Star 3 DUOS:

Apple gives Samsung advice on non-patent infringing designs – hilarity ensues

s you probably know, Apple and Samsung are in the middle of a no holds barred, worldwide battle royale over design patents. Apple claims that the design of Samsung’s devices is too close to that of Apple’s iPad and iPhone. Samsung insists that Apple is trying to protect functional elements that are required by today’s standards and says it had no other realistic options.

In order to disprove Samsung’s claim, Apple needed to provide alternate design options to prove that Samsung did, in fact, blatantly copy Apple’s design. Some samples from these suggestions include:

Smartphones:

Front surface that isn't black.
Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
Display screens that aren't centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
Non-horizontal speaker slots.
Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
No front bezel at all.


LeapPad by LeapFrog

LeapPad by LeapFrog
Tablets:

Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
Thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface.
Front surface that isn't entirely flat.
Profiles that aren't thin.
Cluttered appearance.

Essentially by Apple’s standards, Samsung can make all the thick, ugly, hard-cornered, non-rectangular devices its little heart desires. We assume LeapFrog’s popular children’s tablet, the LeapPad, would be a perfect example of what Apple finds acceptable.

Apple has even requested a ban on the recently re-released Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N. We will have to wait until the final decision on a possible injunction to find out if Apple is in fact the ruler of all thin, black, rounded rectangles.

Samsung Exynos 5250: first dual-core Cortex A15 SoC surfaces on the horizon

Samsung has just unveiled its new Exynos 5250 system-on-chip arriving on mobile devices in the near future. It’s the first to feature two Cortex-A15 cores running at 2GHz, and the chip is manufactured using 32nm process. This, Samsung promises, will translate into double the performance of a current Cortex-A9 dual-core SoC clocked at 1.5GHz.

The Samsung Exynos 5250 also improves vastly in the graphics department. It pledges to deliver four times the graphical punch of Cortex-A9 APUs, and also adds support for devices with a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels, as well as 3D stereoscopic screens.

The best thing about the Samsung Exynos 5250? We could see it on a Samsung Galaxy S III or IV of sorts or the next Galaxy Tab as it’s already sampling and will ship in volume in the second quarter of 2012.

Samsung GALAXY Nexus shipments resume after quick hiatus to repair software

With word of a volume bug affecting the Samsung GALAXY Nexus, it was good news when the problem turned out to be software related. And while a fix was being developed by Samsung, the Korean based manufacturer decided to stop sending inventory to stores so that the phones could be reflashed before getting sent out.

The good news, according to Samsung Distribution, is that shipments to retailers should start again starting Monday with the newly reflashed models ready to be put up for sale. And newly produced units will have the revised software already installed out of the box. That leaves those who already purchased the phone and have had problems with the volume. We would imagine that an OTA update should be coming fairly quickly for those who already own the phone, considering that Samsung is able to reflash its unshipped models with a new OS version.

According to those who have suffered with the volume bug, the sound out of the speaker starts to decrease until the phone suddenly goes mute and the Samsung GALAXY Nexus becomes unresponsive. Of course, it goes without saying that we are talking about the GSM model of the Samsung GALAXY Nexus. Verizon is expected to launch an LTE enabled CDMA variant of the first Android 4.0 handset sometime next month for a contract price of $199.99 with November 29th the latest rumored launch date.

Samsung opens up S Pen SDK to devs

Strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy S II have fueled Samsung’s phone division success and as the demand persists the Korean company has revised its 2011 sales forecast upwards. Apart from the Galaxy S II, the company is also basing its more optimistic estimate on expectations for sales of 2 million units of the Samsung Galaxy Note, the 5.3-inch powerhouse which sits between a phone and a tablet.

Now, it’s definitely not a device for the mass user, but creatives (and we don’t mean baristas) can make great use of the added space. And now, Samsung has released the SDK for its S Pen stylus for the Galaxy Note. This opens the door for Android developers to add support for the S Pen in their applications. The SDK weighs 2.43MB and comes with four major features:

- CanvasView : basic background for drawing,

- Pen Setting Popup : a pop-up panel for adjusting the width, opacity and line color,

- Eraser Setting Popup : Panel for adjusting width for eraser,

- Undo/Redo : Enable undo/redo previous draw.

Hit the source link below to explore the additional layer of functionality you can add to apps via the S Pen SDK.

Samsung Galaxy S III To Feature Quad Core Exynos 4412 Processor?

The Samsung Galaxy S II have been a huge success for Samsung, and we have already heard some rumors about the new Samsung Galaxy S III, which we have previously heard may come with a dual core processor. Now it would appear that the new Samsung Galaxy S III will use the new Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core processor, which will apparently have a clock speed of up to 1.5GHz.

This would make sense for Samsung to use a quad core processor in the next generation galaxy S smartphone, as we have already heard some rumors of quad core handsets from the likes of HTC using the new NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor. We have also heard that the Galaxy S III will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, 1GB of RAM and a 4.6 inch Super AMOLED Plus HD display witth a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, it is also rumored to feature a 12 megapixel camera, and offer support for NFC and LTE. Considering that Samsung produced the Galaxy Nexus for Google, we suspect that their own flagship smartphone will come with higher specifications than the Nexus, and these rumored specifications sound about right.

More information's:
http://androidandme.com/2011/11/news/quad-core-exynos-4412-could-power-samsung-galaxy-s-iii/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quad-core-exynos-4412-could-power-samsung-galaxy-s-iii

Samsung Galaxy S 3 III - Leaks and hopes:

Samsung Focus Flash And Focus S Now Available From AT&T

The latest Windows Phone smartphones from Samsung are now available on US mobile carrier AT&T, the Samsung Focus S and the Samsung Focus Flash, and both devices come with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

The Samsung Focus S features a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display, and processing is provided by a single core 1.4GHz processor there is also an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera, it is available from AT&T for $199.99 when you sign up to a new two year contract. The Samsung Focus Flash comes with a 3.7 inch Super AMOLED display, there is also a single core 1.4GHz processor, a 5 megapixel camera on the back and a front facing camera for video chat, it will set you back $49.99 when you sign up to a new two year contract with AT&T.

More information's:
http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/samsung-focus-s-focus-flash-available-online-from-att?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pocketnow+%28pocketnow.com%29

Hands-on: Samsung Focus S:

Samsung Galaxy Nexus And Galaxy Note Already Rooted

The Samsung Galaxy Note only went on sale in the UK yesterday and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is being released on the 17th of November in Europe, but now according to a recent report both devices have already been rooted.

The guys over at AndroidNZ have posted details on how the Galaxy Note can been rooted, whilst Paul O’Brien over at MoDaCo has posted a utility that will let poeple root the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is expected to go on sale in Europe on the 17th of November, and we heard earlier today that it may also launch on Verizon Wireless in the US on the same date.

More information's:
http://liliputing.com/2011/11/samsung-galaxy-note-galaxy-nexus-already-rooted.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Liliputing+%28Liliputing%29

Samsung Galaxy Note Goes On Sale In The UK

Probably one one the most anticipated Android devices from Samsung, apart from the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, is the Samsung Galaxy note which has gone on sale in the UK today, have a look at our Samsung Galaxy note hands on.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is now available from a number of mobile operators here in the UK, it is also available SIM free from a number of mobile stores, and it is available for £594 including taxes SIM free. The Galaxy Note comes with a5.3 inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, there is also a dual core 1.4GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, it comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but Samsung has said it will be getting updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich later this year, there is also an 8 megapixel camera with an LED flash and a front facing 2 megapixel camera.

More information's:
http://blog.clove.co.uk/2011/11/02/samsung-galaxy-note-now-in-stock/

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: