Hasta La Gadget!

Whoever’s cranking out the kernel source in Samsung’s headquarters has some serious aspirations. Cooking it up for the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch the day it was released was a rather snappy process, but the manufacturer’s managed to one-up even itself by pushing out AT&T’s version a full week and a half early. Talk about an exciting deal for developers, who now have a sizable head start ahead of the Galaxy S II’s October 2nd launch. Not too shabby, right? Let’s see exactly what those with the know-how can build in the meantime — we predict customization options aplenty by the time the phone’s officially stocked on store shelves. How early can we expect to see the kernel for T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II? Hard to say, but for now you can grab the kernel source at… well, the source below.

Samsung releases AT&T Galaxy S II kernel source far in advance of the phone’s release originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since you can’t upgrade the GPU or add more RAM to your smartphone, there’s really only one way to improve upon an already impressive handset like the Epic 4G Touch — root it. It hasn’t been on the market for very long, but the crafty hackers over at XDA forums have already figured out how to open up the phone to your every whim. The crack is “experimental” at this point, so proceed with caution. You’ll also need to have both Kies and Odin 3 up and running, which makes this a Windows-only treatment at the moment. Head on after the break for a pair of videos and hit up the source link for full instructions. Oh, and happy modding.

Continue reading Epic 4G Touch gets ‘experimental’ Windows-only root, overclockers and undervolters dance for joy

Epic 4G Touch gets ‘experimental’ Windows-only root, overclockers and undervolters dance for joy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touchstone mod blesses Samsung Epic 4G Touch with inductive charging powers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android updates

• The HTC Merge on US Cellular can now be bumped up to Android 2.3.4. It appears to be a manual install, so visit here to download the file and learn exactly how to update your device. [via UnwiredView]
• HTC has added another device to its growing list of phones and tablets that now support the HTCDev bootloader unlock tool. [via PocketDroid]
• The LG Optimus S on Sprint is now on the receiving end of an OTA Gingerbread rollout. [via UnwiredView]
• Great news, Samsung Infuse 4G users: you’re getting an update. The bad news: it’s a maintenance fix, rather than a full-out Gingerbread upgrade. Still, it may be worth the download if you have the time or opportunity. [via AndroidCentral]
• Samsung has released the kernel source for the Epic 4G Touch. [via PocketNow]
• Sprint’s certainly getting a lot of love this week, and we’re not done yet: the Motorola Photon 4G is beginning to push out another smallish bug fix meant to curb WiFi issues experienced by a few users, and appears to be a gradual rollout. [via SprintFeed]
• The original Motorola Droid X is expected to receive a maintenance refresh as early as tomorrow, which is intended to resolve a widespread issue with the keyboard. If you’re in this category, definitely keep a close eye out on this space. [via Droid-Life]
• We’re hearing that the Droid 2 R2-D2 update to Gingerbread, which we originally reported on last week, is officially rolling out to eager fanboys and fangirls countrywide. [via AndroidCentral]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

• Those CyanogenMod7 builds for the HTC Sensation and EVO 3D we were talking about last week? They’re now available. As extremely early builds, download and flash at your own risk. [via AndroidCentral]
• Since we’re talking so much about HTC, here’s one more thing: you can now grab a ROM for your HTC Desire HD that enables the beats audio technology. [via GSMArena and Android Community]
• A dev has been hard at work pulling various Motorola Atrix ROMs and porting them over to the Droid X2. The first one available is plain vanilla Android 2.3.4, if you’re just not feeling up to using MotoBlur (aka the now-nameless Moto UI). [via Droid-Life]
• The initial build of the Motorola Droid Bionic bootstrap is available for install, which essentially will enable you to bootstrap your recovery and create backups on your device. Custom ROMs still aren’t around for the Bionic yet (although early builds of CM7 began showing up this week), but the bootstrap is a big step toward achieving that goal. [via Droid-Life]

Other platforms

• Symbian’s Anna update is continuing to expand support to more countries, including Italy, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey. The refreshes for the US, Canada and Australia — according to an email from Nokia — is expected to arrive within the next two weeks. [via MyNokiaBlog]

Refreshes we covered this week

• AT&T Windows Phone 7 devices to receive Mango this fall
• BlackBerry PlayBook to get OTA update next month that will offer native email, calendar

Refresh Roundup: week of September 12, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just can’t wait to get your Epic 4G Touch order in? You’re in luck, as the Sprint version of Samsung’s powerhouse Galaxy S II is finally available on its website. It’ll cost you a cool $199 with a new two-year contract (and after $300 instant savings), but we’re sure the long wait for this dual core beauty to cross the ocean has left plenty of time to get one’s financials in order. If you’re somehow still not sure if this is for you there’s always our review for an extra bit of convincing. Otherwise, just punch the source link, sit back, and wait for all the 4G WiMAX goodness Sprint can stuff into that 4.5-inch plastic shell.

[Thanks, tiwey]

Samsung Epic 4G Touch now available to all on Sprint.com originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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