12
Mar

Android 1.6 for Samsung Galaxy is released

Some time ago I wrote on how to get firmware updates for Samsung Galaxy. A few days ago I have read that Samsung is releasing a firmware update for i7500 that includes Android 1.6! The firmware version is supposed to be I7500XEFJB2. I tried to get it myself through NPS but apparently it’s not available for me yet. I can’t wait to get it, but some of the reviews aren’t as good as I’d expect. If you’re into hacking (which I’m not on my phone), there is a zip file with the downloadable firmware. I suppose you have to use software called Odin to install it.


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9
Mar

Find firmware updates for Samsung Galaxy i7500

Finding firmware updates for my Samsung Galaxy i7500 Android phone is sometimes much harder than it should be. Samsung has developed a special tool for managing the phone and they named it “New PC Studio”. I don’t know if the old PC Studio exists, but the name of the new program is very often refereed to as NPS or seldom as NPC in the forums. The point is that the program offers a lot of tools for phone synchronization and management, but in fact it supports only one thing: downloading and updating the phone’s firmware. Once you realize this you don’t try to figure out all the program functions – you need only one icon that has an “Update” tool tip on it.

But first, how to get New PC Studio (NPS) and where? Sure, you could use the CD that came with the phone. But have in mind that the older versions of New PC Studio (yes, there is a joke about an old new software) don’t always download fresh updates! I tried to use my NPS version 1.3 something and it reported that there are no updates for my phone. After upgrading to 1.4 something, the update was waiting for me.

Important: always download the latest version of Samsung New PC Studio in order to be able to download the latest firmware.

You can download the latest version of NPS from official site at http://www.samsungmobile.co.uk/support/softwaremanuals/softwareNpsUpdate.do

Beware that if you select your phone (in this case Galaxy) you won’t necessarily get the latest version of NPS. The best way to get the latest version is just to continue downloading without selecting the phone model. At the time of writing the latest version of NPS seems to be New_PC_Studio_1.4.0.IL2.exe and can be downloaded directly from here. It’s wise to check other (download) sites for the latest version, for example Softpedia.

After you download and install NPS you can connect your phone to the USB port. The program should start automatically and after it loads you should click the Update button in the lower part of the screen. A new window opens with two tabs: one for updating the NPS program itself (the default tab) and one for updating the device (firmware). First see if there are any updates of the NPS (that never worked for me, even where there actually was an update – I always get a “The latest version is already installed” message) and always install the latest version. Second, see if there are any updates of your phone’s firmware. Switch to ‘Update device’ tab, select your i7500 from the list and refresh the display. If you’re lucky, the message won’t read “You have the latest version installed, there is no need to update”. What you need is “The device requires an update” text! For my phone and settings, the latest firmware version for i7500 I could download was I7500XXII7. Note that the version will differ from your phone’s settings and your CSC version, which defines your country and carrier (I am in Slovenia and I have I7500MOTIJ1).

After finding a fresh update just click on the Update button to start updating. The phone should be fully charged and the update process took less than five minutes with my phone. After the firmware was updates the phone was restarted, all the settings stayed intact and I could use the new firmware right away.

I hope to see fresh firmware release soon, as well as the new versions of Android operating systems for my phone – Android 2.1 for Samsung Galaxy i7500 would be nice.


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5
Mar

Gesture Search – not for Android 1.5

Yesterday Google announced a new application for Android phones: Gesture Search. The application would enable the phone a new and useful feature, the one I use in Firefox all the time: gestures. You could write a letter in the address book and find the person you’re looking for faster. Scrolling can be slow if you have over 1000 contacts like I do.

As with Buzz for Android and G0ogle Earth for Android Gesture Search made the same mistake: it’s available for Android 2.0 or higher. I own Android 1.5 Samsung Galaxy i7500 so I can’t use this software. Again, grrr. Sometimes it makes me sad that my three months new phone is actually old.


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