Samsung Galaxy S2

Elessar

Is anyone else here using a Samsung galaxy S2 with a mac?

How do you update the firmware or even do a backup?

conor.hogan.2

I am looking into possibly buying it.

Virtualbox, with an installation of windows on it. But you would need a copy of a Windows license.

urbanomad

I have just tried to connect my Galaxy S2 via USB cable to a VirtualBox WinXP install. It froze my whole system, iMac with Mac OS X 10.6.7 installed... It seems there's no way to do updates without a Windows box... Besides not being able to update the firmware, I love the phone

Backups are done automatically of contacts and calendar events via Google. There's SyncMate which will do simple syncs and backups for free and a lot more for pay.
http://mac.eltima.com/sync-mac.html

Sad Professor

urbanomad wrote: »

I have just tried to connect my Galaxy S2 via USB cable to a VirtualBox WinXP install. It froze my whole system, iMac with Mac OS X 10.6.7 installed... It seems there's no way to do updates without a Windows box... Besides not being able to update the firmware, I love the phone

Have you no Bootcamp partition?

conor.hogan.2

Make sure you install guest additions i think they are needed for usb to work properly.

But as sad professor said you could try bootcamping windows on there.

urbanomad

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Make sure you install guest additions i think they are needed for usb to work properly.

But as sad professor said you could try bootcamping windows on there.

Guest Additions were installed. I don't have the capabilities of Bootcamp at the moment. My CD/DVD drive isn't working... I really don't want to have to Bootcamp either really...

urbanomad

There is this option with Heimdall that runs on Mac OS X... It requires you to basically be a programmer. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13995677&postcount=5

conor.hogan.2

There is a light version of kies for mac - get that.

I was very annoyed when i heard you cant just drag and drop to an sd anymore in android.

urbanomad

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

There is a light version of kies for mac - get that.

I was very annoyed when i heard you cant just drag and drop to an sd anymore in android.

Not any longer. Samsung is now providing Kies Air but it doesn't allow you to update the firmware

conor.hogan.2

If I buy this phone on wednesday I will try kies on Virtualbox.

But I will most likely just use a wireless sync app to put my pdfs etc on it as I dont often put stuff on my phone so it seems easier.

I use awesomedrop on my G1, so Ill just keep using that for the once a week on average I sync my phone.

conor.hogan.2

Ye I cant get this to connect in a win7 VM, sigh.

That just made this a lot harder than it had to be.

conor.hogan.2

Ye you need to virtualbox's settings and enable some extra usb setting and then it ungrays out the option to add it but i still cant add it as its an unknown device - i presume its a driver issue.

Plug and play my…..

nesf

Sorry for dragging up an old thread but thought this might be relevant.

I got Kies to work on Parallels. So an option there.

I couldn't get the phone to be recognised or to connect when in download mode though (i.e. the mode for flashing a custom ROM/rooting etc).

So Bootcamp looks to be the main way to handle the phone I'm afraid.

kingcurls

Going to buy the Galaxy S 2 at the end of the week, not looking forward to the hassle of connecting to my mac...by the sound of things on this thread its not easy.

I am not going to install windows on my mac for the purpose of managing files on my phone so alternatives would be great.

Can anyone currently using a mac and Galxy S 2 help me out and answer a few questions.


1. Copying my music/movies from mac to Galaxy out of box via USB....is this possible without developing my own software or paying for a glorified file transfer program?

2. Wifi File management...reserved for windows users only?

3. Kies for mac....pointless? any screen caps if possible please?

4. Is my life going to be hell for switching from iphone -> Mac connection to Android -> mac?

5. Should I just get an iPhone 4 and patiently wait for iOS 5?

Thanks in advance

quad_red

Was looking seriously at an S2 as a new phone.

But not after reading this.

DubDJ

Think the Galaxy S range has been banned from sale in the EU due to the ongoing patent war between Apple & Samsung so getting one might be harder than you'd think. This was annnounced in the last 24 hours.

spannerotoole

Heimdall does not require you to be a programmer. All of the hard work has been done. Just install heimdall-frontend afterwards.

You need to get the correct rom and PIT file 512 , I recommend Darky'sRom and heimdall version 1.1.1. Extract the files and put them in the right places (this isn't hard if you can read) Put the phone into recovery mode plug it in via usb and click start. Wait a few minutes and your phone will be updated. Back-up important files first.

I brought a dead galaxy S back to life using this.

If anyone wants the files, PM me.

conor.hogan.2

quad_red wrote: »

Was looking seriously at an S2 as a new phone.

But not after reading this.

I dont see why - any android phone would have these issues…. besides the G1 but that was a special case.

conor.hogan.2

You need to install Windows fully or a linux distro fully to root this phone as far as I can tell.

I could not get heimdall to detect the phone in osx or windows in VB, paralells or VmWare no matter what I tried.

I installed Windows 7 in bootcamp and as soon as I installed the drivers, and Odin and restarted and opened up Odin it rooted the phone within 30 seconds all through the GUI.

Nesf already came to the same conclusion over 5 months ago, but having spent the last two days on and off trying heimdall and Odin in osx and in several vms you do definitely need a full Linux or Windows install.