Hasta La Gadget!

Believe it or not, Samsung is only now getting around to introducing its Galaxy S handset to the fine isle of Japan. Its announcement of a late October availability for the home of CEATEC was also accompanied by the little note that the rest of the world has already bought up five million units of its multivariate Galaxy S phone family. More than two million of those sales have been notched up in the US and over one million can be found in Samsung’s home field of South Korea. Or could be found if they actually had working GPS units. Zing!

[Thanks, Matt]

Samsung Galaxy S sales surpass five million, world domination plans still on track originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that your AT&T-locked Samsung Galaxy S can occasionally find satellites, you’re probably hoping that the carrier kicks out some creamy Froyo as well, and it looks like that day isn’t far away — an unofficial but seemingly feature-complete Android 2.2 build is available for the Captivate right now. The faithful fiends at xda-developers have got build UCJI6 ready for download, which brings a mobile hotspot, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, the JIT compiler, Media Hub support, and a host of UI tweaks to boot. Instructions are available at the links below to walk you through the process, assuming you’ve already got root, have backed up all your files and are willing to take the risks in case this leaked build isn’t as official as it seems. See a video walkthrough of the new software right after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Samsung Captivate gets unofficial Froyo build, with Flash 10.1, mobile hotspot and more (video)

Samsung Captivate gets unofficial Froyo build, with Flash 10.1, mobile hotspot and more (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Oct 2010 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re a numbers geek, you’re trying to be scientific about your next smartphone purchase, or you just like pretty colors, you might appreciate DisplayMate’s latest report rounding up examples of all (well, most) of the latest and greatest display technologies out there: IPS LCD, Super AMOLED, AMOLED, and TFT, represented by the iPhone 4 and Droid, the Galaxy S, the Nexus One, and the iPhone 3GS, respectively. Noticeably missing is SLCD, the technology HTC has been using to make up for lost ground on its AMOLED shortage from component supplier Samsung, but we’ve got a hunch DisplayMate’s hard at work at adding that into the mix.

Anyhow, considering the sheer number of variables the firm takes into consideration — everything from color depth, to brightness, to reflectance, to color gamut — there’s no clear-cut winner, but the Droid and iPhone 4 are obviously a cut above the rest with generally higher scores and better performance across the board. The Galaxy S’ Super AMOLED turns in a decent performance, too, but takes a little hit for its 16-bit color depth and blown-out colors. Of course, if you consider any of these — even the crappy TFT on the 3GS — to a phone from five years ago, it still looks like science fiction… so you really can’t go wrong, can you?

Latest smartphone displays pitted in no-holds-barred deathmatch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Fascinate’s ride at the top of Sammy’s Android lineup for Big Red might be a short one — a very short one. Feast your eyes on this monster, said to be the rumored SCH-i400 Continuum, whose biggest claim to fame would be the addition of a secondary OLED display below the main. What might you use it for? Well, it’s called the “Ticker,” and it’ll show notifications and RSS updates (and judging from that picture, weather conditions, too). Naturally, one of the selling points is that you can access basic phone functionality and information without having to fiddle with the normal UI or turn on that big, power-sapping primary display; in fact, the Ticker will automatically turn on when you grasp the bottom of the phone. The Continuum’s also got a microSD slot on the side (accessible without a battery pull) and a dedicated camera button, and judging from one of the shots we’ve got, it might be Galaxy S-branded. Follow the break for a couple more shots!

Continue reading Exclusive: Samsung Continuum for Verizon has double the displays, double the fun

Exclusive: Samsung Continuum for Verizon has double the displays, double the fun originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since the Epic 4G launched on Sprint August 31, we’ve been receiving notes from owners on various issues they’ve experienced with the phone. We’ve heard about and experienced problems with the supposedly-fixed GPS, to surprisingly slow 3G uploads (fix on the way), to odd issues with battery drain and glitchy market install problems. Now that we’re facing the end of Sprint’s 30-day return period, we’re wondering if Sprint and Samsung have shown enough of a commitment to resolving any problems to keep owners and potential buyers hanging on. Check after the break for a few of the issues we’ve found and what can be done about them, and let us know in our poll how optimistic you are about the future of this otherwise well-received device.

Continue reading Epic 4G: problems so far — and a few solutions

Epic 4G: problems so far — and a few solutions originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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