Posts tagged Vibrant
Bell Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant Unlocked!
Aug 21st
Finally! After almost a month of turmoil, Canada’s “best” Android phone has finally been unlocked, and it isn’t through one of those expensive third-party providers. In fact, you can unlock the device yourself. All you need is root access, a tiny .exe file, and a little Command Prompt knowledge.
See, the unlock code is in fact embedded in the device; all that needed to happen was someone to decode the hex values. So, over the last 24 hours, Galaxy S owners the world over have paraded around in their large underwears, dancing the jig of the carrier-free man.
I can confirm that procedure works, and I am currently using a Rogers SIM on the Bell Galaxy S Vibrant.
Hit up XDA-Developers for more information, and thank the original poster for his hard work!
Rumour: Bell Samsung Vibrant not unlockable
Aug 7th
Now this won’t really be news to anyone except Canadians who want to unlock their newly-minted Bell Vibrant to be used on another provider, but it turns out that the device for whatever reason is not unlockable. There is a thread going on at Howardforums where the consensus seems to be that no company can seem to find a suitable unlock algorithm for the phone, and for most new Samsung devices. Bell will, after 30 days and for $75 dollars, sell you an unlock code for the device, but the price seems exorbitant.
Besides the iPhone, which is either factory or software unlocked, this Samsung device is the first I’ve heard that is hard to crack.
Remember, BlackBerry devices are always going to be easy to crack, and they can be obtained from our store should you need one. This goes for the Torch 9800 when it is released, too.
HTC Desire Available From Telus for $79.99! Whoa!
Aug 6th
Seriously?
Ok, so we actually knew this was coming, but looking back at it, we didn’t realize how important this phone would be to the Canadian Android market once the iPhone 4 was released. And since Telus is wisely pricing this phone at a very cool $79.99 on a 3-year term, I have no doubt that it is going to push a lot of people weary of the iPhone’s issues over to this bad boy.
The Desire is essentially the Nexus One on steroids. Which is a very, very good thing. While it doesn’t have the same “oomph” of the Bell Samsung Vibrant, its implementation of HTC Sense is a huge advantage compared to Samsung’s attempt to “improve” Android with their own TouchWIZ3 overlay. Consider as well that the Desire is half the price of the aforementioned Bell device, and we are talking a seriously attractive deal.
As for the upgrade path of the Desire, we know that unlocked European versions of the phone have already seen Android 2.2 released officially, so while the device is being released with 2.1, it shouldn’t be long before it sees Froyo. Right, Telus?
Check out the hella cool HTC Desire at Telus’ website, or go into a store to touch one.
Samsung Gem - a Wave with Android for Verizon?
Aug 5th
Verizon peeps have all the luck. According to a leak by IntoMobile, the Samsung Gem will be a lower-cost version of the Fascinate, running Android 2.1, when it is released sometime soon. The Gem looks not-so-vaguely like the newly-released bada phone, the Samsung Wave, on which the company installed their own awful software onto some beautiful metallic hardware. Honestly, 800×480 Super AMOLED on a 3.2″ screen is GORGEOUS. That the UI and apps are wholly unusable is infuriating.
So Samsung must have taken a cue from their manufacturing process; they know they’re not selling a ton of Wave devices, so why not take the hardware as is, or close enough, and slap some Android love on it. Makes perfect sense to me. Heck, I’d buy one if the price was right.
Along with the Gem, the Fascinate will be coming to Verizon in the next few weeks as well. This is their Galaxy S variant and shows little difference to the already-released Captivate and Vibrant, on AT&T and T-Mobile respectively. Rogers will also soon be getting the Captivate, and Bell the Vibrant even sooner, this week in fact.
(IntoMobile)
Bell Samsung Vibrant launching August 6 for $149.95
Aug 4th
This wasn’t unexpected, but the news is here, and it’s officially official. The Samsung Galaxy S variant that we’ve seen floating around the US in T-Mobile bands is now in Canada, and will be priced at a fairly expensive $149.95 on a 3-year term, $499.95 without one. While cheaper than the 16GB iPhone 4 by $10, it doesn’t exactly scream “alternative!” to me. That’s because, for all it’s beautiful specs, the phone runs Android 2.1 underneath Samsung’s less-than-ideal TouchWiz3 interface.
I will be getting a demo to try as soon as it’s released, and a full review will be forthcoming, but until then, hold tight.
In the meantime, try to win one yourself at Bell’s contest page.
This Week In Android 7/18-7/24
Jul 25th
It’s been a rough week for Android with the largest (and saddest) story being that the famous Google Nexus One is no longer available for sale from Google. GuruDaniel wrote a heart-wrenching salute to the handset, explaining how the Nexus One helped push Android hardware into the next generation, and how it is the ultimate slate for developers and hackers to build on. Other than that, we have a few Android handsets hitting the Canadian carriers Bell and Telus as well as an extra blurry shot of a Droid slider device hopefully headed to Verizon. Check in after the break to see what Android news you may have missed this week.
Google’s Nexus One Discontinued. Wherefore Art Thou, Open Android?
Bell To Get HTC Wildfire? Say It Ain’t So!
If A Droid and Palm Pre Had An Affair…This Would Be The Result
Android 2.1 clears half of all Android devices, Froyo creeps up
Bell Samsung Vibrant Hitting Early August
Jul 23rd
If the rumours are true, Bell will attempt to counter Telus’ HTC Desire with its own superphone at the beginning of August, with the Samsung Vibrant. The build is the same as that of the T-Mobile Vibrant, sans extra apps and Avatar, but the hardware still screams quality. Electronista is calling for August 6th, though that’s still rumour.
When this comes out it will be the most powerful Android device available in Canada. While the Desire and the Vibrant each have 1GHZ processors, the latter’s Hummingbird processor is much more powerful than the Desire’s Snapdragon (though they both have equally awesome names). In 3D tests, especially, the Vibrant’s graphics processing power blows the Desire out of the water.
The Vibrant ships with Android 2.1, a 4″ 800×480 Super AMOLED screen, 5MP camera that can shoot 720p video, 16GB built-in flash memory, WiFi, GPS, etc. Should be a killer phone.
(via Electronista)
This Week in Android 4/11-4/17
Jul 17th
It was kind of a slow week for the Android community with the iPhone signal issues and press conference stealing most of the spotlight. Still, we had two highly-anticipated device launches this week-the Motorola Droid X and the Samsung Vibrant. The Droid X and the Samsung Vibrant launched Thursday the 15th for Verizon and T-Mobile respectively, each priced at a dollar short of two benjamins with a two-year agreement. With the launch of the Droid X there was a lot of hubbub surrounding Motorola’s inclusion of an eFuse chip which could potentially halt hackers’ attempts to unlock the bootloader. It still isn’t confirmed that the eFuse will actually brick the phone if it’s meddled with. Even Motorola’s highly-hackable original Droid had the same eFuse chip onboard though it wasn’t implemented to stop modification of the software.
We also got word that the Motorola Droid is nearing its end of life. If the Droid X proves to be too much for Android modders then the Droid may be the last truly open Motorola handset we see. Time will only tell if rooting the Droid X will be a reality, but I have a feeling nothing will stop the Android community from opening up this phone. Check out this week’s Android news after the break.
Will the Droid be Motorola’s last hackable phone?
Motorola Droid, Droid Devour, and BlackBerry Tour End of Life Imminent
T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant Photos Emerge
Jul 14th
Can’t wait till July 21st to feast your eyes on the Samsung Vibrant? Then you’re in luck because we have a couple shots of the to-be-released T-Mobile handset for you. Now the actual device isn’t going to be released for another week but that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited with some leaked photos of it in the wild. As you will recall the phone is part of Samsung’s Galaxy S line and features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor along with Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen of the 4″ variety. If you’re on T-Mobile this is sure to be their next (and one of few) high-end smartphones, so get excited. Hit the break for a shot of the backside of this bad boy.
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