A few days ago I asked TMobile if they had plans on updating the Samsung Vibrant with Android Froyo 2.2. Well TMobile replied to me earlier today and the answer was yes, it was released about a week and a half ago.  I didn’t receive any notice through my phone about it. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to text users of the phone and notify them. The update isn’t OTA, meaning you have to go and download it manually. You can find the update for the Samsung Vibrant here over at the TMobile site. As far as updates go I was impressed with this one. I knew Google was going to deliver with Froyo. You notice overall the phone is a lot smoother. YouTube got a fresh look when you click on a video while the browser has mobile Flash. I noticed TMobile pushing one of their own apps called TMobile tv. A pretty cool feature added was the Google search which allows you to start applications  or functions by speaking into the phone. The speaking feature had been in place before with search but now with commands it’s pretty nice. Well what else…. how about wifi phone calls? I thought this was great especially when your in an area that doesn’t have great coverage but amazing wifi. Along with all of this Google really pushed Froyo to the future of mobile development by enhancing the capabilities of the OS. Already they have Gingerbread and Honeycomb for the tablet to be previewed soon. So I have to say I’ve always been impressed with how Google is handling Android and it keeps getting better!

A couple days ago I noticed a TMobile commercial that was taking some shots at Apple and the iPhone 4. Basically the new marketing campaign is “look what the HTC MyTouch 4g can do and what the iPhone 4 can’t do”. Now as far as I’m concerned I do not like Apple for many reasons including their stance on Adobe Flash. So to say the least I am not an Apple fan, that being said it’s a little interesting how TMobile is going about pitching the new MyTouch from HTC. I mean honestly the reviews from Sprint’s 1st 4G phone (HTC EVO) has been good but many are sayin the 4G coverage is sporadic at best and with this we know that 4G coverage isn’t quite there yet, a work in progress I would say. So what I’m basically trying to say is that TMobile’s marketing campaign is kind of silly and they should work on their own network before making commericals like these. How about working on 3G coverage; making it great then step it up to 4G. It’s just an idea, or better yet make the 4G coverage what 3G was never CONSISTENT! How many of us use the TMobile 3G coverage and see it go to Edge. It’s not much of a complaint at this point because I’m so use to it but I think TMobile should take a look at themselves before they go mentioning other companies like Apple about how great one of their products are.

I haven’t been waiting that long for Android’s Froyo 2.2 for the Samsung Vibrant but after reading some of what Samsung has been releasing I would of expected to have it on the phone by now. From what I’ve heard the original date was set for the end of the September then moved to the end of October. Samsung is saying the release will be done by each carrier. Even more recent people are reporting that the update will come by the end of the year. I don’t know about you guys but this is almost pushing me to just root the phone and install it myself, something I’ve been avoiding. I’ve rooted other phones before and it’s not the biggest deal but honestly how hard is it to release an update. If anything I would think an update via download would of been the quicker solution. So what do you guys think? Have any of you rooted your Samsung Vibrants and if your running Froyo 2.2 already how is working out?

The one thing I noticed with the Samsung Vibrant was how hot it can get while charging. I’ve done a lot with the phone and it never got really hot until it was being charged. Even when I would remove it from charging it would be so hot that you wouldn’t want to hold the phone. After experiencing this I started thinking the phone had a defect but wanted to try something first. I started charging the phone this time with the phone face down. After a full charge I picked up the phone, no heat issue.  Try this solution out and see if it works for you.

After much talk about returning to Android I decided to contact TMobile and ask them to send me the Samsung Vibrant. The Samsung Vibrant, a Galaxy S phone as Sumsung refers to it is an incredible Android device. With a super amoled screen I noticed an amazing display. The phone also comes equipped with a 1 Ghz processor for very fast navigating throughout the phone. Android 2.1 known as Eclair is the shipped stock rom on the phone. From what I’ve heard Samsung announced that the Vibrant will get the 2.2 Froyo update most likely sometime in September.  As far as I’m concerned I’m happy to have Android again and get back to an enjoyable user experience. Android has come so far from when I was using my G1 and the fact that you can really take advantage of it with a great device like the Vibrant makes it all worth while. Some things that I liked included sending and receiving calls with no problems; probably one of the most important things I like, live wallpapers, easy access to functions, browser speed which in the Froyo update will be even faster. The Android market has come a long way since I had experienced it. I ported Froyo to my HTC HD2 so I was a bit familiar with how it looked but it’s great to use it on an Android phone. As for the Vibrant itself I thought the way the phone wakes up was a little annoying. You have to press one physical button at the very least I think they should allow the phone to wake up as well by pressing the volume adjuster, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Besides that I heard the camera has no flash and I have to tell you, after owning the HTC HD2 with a flash I rather have this phone without it.  I’m giving this phone rave reviews. To me it came down to the OS and Windows Mobile just didn’t deliver anything close to Android. I guess I didn’t realize how important having Android on the device was until I didn’t have it. From what I’ve heard about Google TV this is just the beginning for Android. By the way did you hear Oracle is suing Google over it’s use of Java, particularly in Android. Looks like more and more people are taking notice of this successful platform from Google.

RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie released a statement yesterday in response to Apple’s latest press conference discussing the antenna issue in their phone. During the conference Steve Jobs showed the press video of other smartphones that he said had similar antenna issues, which included the Blackberry Bold 9700 with the RIM OS. He also mentioned the HTC Droid Eris with Android and the Samsung Omnia ll running Windows Mobile.

Well RIM has fired back with the following statement: “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.”

Personally I was expecting some sort of response from at least one of the manufacturers that were included in Steve Job’s presentation. RIM called it exactly right, Apple is trying to deflect and tried bringing others into the mix to alleviate their own problem. What Apple also has done is created more enemies in the cell phone manufacturing industry. For starters Apple has only been in this industry for a few years. Their inexperience is coming through with this latest iphone 4 design and they should of just owned up to the problem. They come off very much as a design first company and they obviously chose that over the hardware in this situation. Many of these other manufactures have faced  issues with releases but their PR didn’t involve passing the buck. In the press conference Steve Jobs said something to the effect of “their all good phones”, but in him saying that he’s basically saying look they do it too so stop giving us a hard time. That’s not exactly a good argument. In fact during the conference  a member of the press immediately brought up his claims on the Blackberry phone and said he couldn’t reproduce the problem on his phone. Steve said it had to do with the location also. So where do we go from here? One thing is for certain, this antenna story is far from over. People are already broadcasting themselves on YouTube showing the signal issue while using the bumper on their iphone 4. Apple may want to revisit that solution.

Did you hear about the antenna on the Iphone 4? This week I’ve been getting asked about my thoughts on the new Iphone 4 and the latest news on the antenna flaw in it’s design. I had no idea that this was an issue until people on Twitter and CNN wrote an article on this. In my original post on the Iphone 4 I did mention one design feature that Apple was boasting about in their keynote; which was the design of the antenna. It’s kind of ironic days later we’re all talking about this. Apparently if you hold your Iphone 4 and are covering an area on the side of the phone you will greatly interfere with the phone’s signal. So much that people are contacting Apple directly asking for answers on this issue. Well we got one answer this week. In a reply to this issue Steve Jobs said their was no issue while also suggesting people hold the phone a different way! Could you imagine you spend a few hundred dollars on a mobile device and your already being told, “don’t hold it like this or else it won’t work”. Knowing what I’ve known about Apple for a long time now I’m not surprised by their reaction. In a recent report by CNN which you can find by clicking here, internal memos from Apple on this issue have been leaked. Employees are being encouraged to tell consumers well basically telling them theirs nothing to worry about and this is the best phone. It’s a mixed bag of nuts or Apple employees trying to just deny it. In the meantime I would like to welcome Apple and their fans to the world of mobile devices and development. The reason I say this is because Apple is not the first company to release a mobile device with known issues to the public. Other companies have released these devices with updates being rolled out within the same month of the phone’s launch. To some of those other companies credit they have acknowledged issues with various releases and produced updates fairly quickly. On the flip side I don’t think Apple will keep this tough stance for long. After numerous calls and reports they will eventually admit to this antenna issue with the Iphone 4. This story makes me happy though, not because people are having problems with their phone. Believe me I know how annoying dealing with a phone with known issues can be. But the fact that today people are aware that the provider and manufacturer share the blame speaks volumes. Too often these companies will pin the blame on each other and leave the consumer in the middle. In this case AT&T is not getting the blame and people were more aware to question the new design of this phone. I’ll be very interested to see how Apple deals with this issue knowing people are pinning the blame on them. On that note I’ll see you guys in the next post!