Samsung Galaxy S II

ciaran75 wrote: »

Lads,

Trying to update my S2 to 2.3.4 from 2.3.3
When i connect via Kies it said i am on the latest firmware XXKE7

I want to stay official and not interested in custom ROMs but surely there is a new official firmware out?

Cheers,

Do you want to "stay official" to your carrier, or to Samsung?

If you want to stay official to your carrier, you'll have to wait until they've added their bloatware and then it will be available to you via Kies.

If you just want a Samsung firmware that hasn't been tinkered with by a developer or a carrier, then the leaked Samsung firmwares are usually up unmodified on Samfirmware site. Which has instructions how to flash them -You will need Odin (which is also freely available) -some of the leaked Samsung ROMs are Beta ROMs, but that info is available if you just search

ciaran75 wrote: »

Hi Zagato, thanks for your reply.

I don't care about carrier (meteor), woudn't mind taking some of the crap they've installed off, just would prefer to load only official samsung releases not some random developers take on it, afraid of breaking phone. Sorry new to smartphones.

Am i correct in my thinking? Google release android update, samsung then modify to get working on S2, then carriers (meteor add their stuff to it) and release via kies

is http://www.samfirmware.com official? do you have to be a member to download firmware? can't see any links, looked through that website and still a puzzle.

thanks anyway,
ciaran

Yeah, that's pretty much it, just to bear in mind that Samsung adds stuff (some good, some bad) to it as well. The 'developers' mostly get the official leaked firmware from Samsung, add and remove some of the apps to try and optimise it a bit, as they have no ulterior motive to get you used to their apps so that you buy their next phone, and change the themes sometimes.
If you the ROM doesn't work well for you, you can just change it to another.

The potentially messier stuff would be custom kernels and custom radios (you don't really see these)

Important to remember that you don't need to root to change the firmware and if you are rooted and flash an official/stock firmware, you will lose root.

You do have to register on Samfirmware site, just an email address required.

It's is not official -hence the disclaimers, but they do not modify firmwares, just upload them once they become available.

It's pretty difficult to brick your phone, unless you have a problem with one of the hardware buttons or something (someone recently here had a dodgy home button)


The other option is to go down the Cyanogenmod road, they are proper developers that build a firmware for the phone from the android source code, in the same way as Samsung would, so you get a Vanilla Android experience, similar across phones. They just released their first stable firmware last night for the SGS2

Thanks Zagato,
I'll give that a go.

TheBazman wrote: »

I didnt get any disc with the phone so is there a Samsung equivalent of Itunes where I can manage my music/playlists etc? I've manage to get into this Kies air but so far not convinced with the user-friendlyness of it

ShaneU wrote: »

I tried to use doubletwist to sync from itunes but it's not transferring some of the artist names over, just the song and album titles, I'm left with a bunch of songs named <unknown>.

I tried another app called easy phone tunes, and that couldn't detect the phone at all.

After trying a few apps, winamp is by far the best. It has wireless syncing and last.fm support too

re Touchwiz - install Go Launcher. Its nice and its free and its got a bunch of sense like (skin with "transparent" skin) widgets that cover just about everything.

Keyboard - install or switch to skype (its already installed in the sg2). takes a short time to get used to it but you'll never go back!

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Picked an SGS2 up just over 2 weeks ago now, having upgraded from a Hero.

So far:

• Liking the screen. Bug bear with the Hero was couldn't see it in day light.
• Battery life is acceptable. With the Hero, I was charging at least twice a day. SGS2, day & 1/2 with medium/heavy use. When I was away last week, knocked off Synch, Data, GPS, and used wifi sporadically, and a charge would do at least 3 days.
• Getting used to TouchWizz. Have to say I prefer Sense. Makes more sense for me to have the Home screen in the middle, and swipe to either side, rather than swipe att the way across 7 screens. Also liked that I could zoom out and fit 7 screens on 1 on Sense, allowed for fast travel, don't think is possible on TouchWizz
• Was apprehensive about the build quality at first, I like my phones to feel solid. But getting used to the lightness, and the quality feels ok.
• Don't like the keyboard. On the Hero, it would autocorrect, and be accurate to the right word approx 90%. Now I'm forever having to correct my spelling when I'm in the middle of the next word.
• One thumb typing isn't easy.

Haven't decided if I'm going to root yet. I was using VilliamRom/CyagenMod on the Hero, before the screen borked and I had to send it back for repair. Didn't bother installing custom rom after that.

ooops meant "swype"!!!

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

The SG2 has skype on it?:O

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Also liked that I could zoom out and fit 7 screens on 1 on Sense, allowed for fast travel, don't think is possible on TouchWizz.

On any of the 7 home screens, pinch in from the corners towards the centre, and the display will zoom out to show all 7 screens at once!

Also, if you are on screen 1, and you push the 3rd dot button from the right, it will jump straight to screen 5, or any button you wanna press to jump straight to the screen.

Finally, if you press and hold your finger at the dot buttons for about a second, the dots change to a slider, and you can slide back and forth to quickly move between screens also!

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

The SG2 has skype on it?:O

You can download skype from the market if you are looking for it!

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

For free?do I have to install anything first though?or flash anything?

Yeah, it's free.
It's available from the android market. Just search for "skype" in the market, or go to the link below to install from the web market.
No need for flashing or anything!

Skype

Sofiztikated wrote: »

You sir, you are a gent. You're a gent, and a scholar. And a fine judge of bad whiskey.

Ok, I'm happy now. Once I get the keyboard sorted, then I'll be happy with TouchWizz. God damnit Android, I likes you.

Thanks

Yeah, I was also unimpressed with the default keyboard on the phone.
I went with one called Swiftkey X, available on the market. There's a free version that allows a months use, or a paid version for around 2.99!

You could try the free version of it, and see what you think. I like it cos it scans your existing text messages (if you allow it) and learns how you write, so the prediction is pretty good

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Swiftkey X is great. It's crazy accurate.

It is

Sometimes I can write texts without having to touching the actual keyboard!

marcbrophy wrote: »

Thanks

Yeah, I was also unimpressed with the default keyboard on the phone.
I went with one called Swiftkey X, available on the market. There's a free version that allows a months use, or a paid version for around 2.99!

You could try the free version of it, and see what you think. I like it cos it scans your existing text messages (if you allow it) and learns how you write, so the prediction is pretty good

Keep this up, and you'll have a stalker admirer!

Takes up a bit more retail space than standard keyboard, but its damn nice.

Thanks for the SwiftKey keyboard suggestion.... Absolutely love it! Was using slideit and swype up till now and while they were good.... This thing is just savage in comparison! Really missed the auto correct on the other keyboards but it's back now with SwiftKey!