As if the brand new Galaxy S4 and last year’s best selling phone the Galaxy S3 didn’t already look enough alike, Samsung is looking to make the software as similar as possible as well. SamMobile has a leaked version of the Android 4.2.2 build that Samsung is working on bringing to the S3. Not only does it upgrade your device to the latest version of Android, but many of the new features from the S4 will be included as well. 

The list of features that come from the new version of Android and the new TouchWiz is pretty long, but the big features include the new S4 lockscreen, which includes multiple widgets, clock resizing and other nifty features. New S-Voice, settings menu and smart switch widgets have all been added as well. If you are looking for the full list of changes or to install the leak for yourself, hit the source link below for instructions on how to do so.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via: SamMobile

Android 4.2.2 Firmware Leaked for Galaxy S3, Brings Lots of S4 Features is a post from: Droid Life

If you needed a freshening up on what specs the new Galaxy S4 is bringing to the table, this infographic should be just the thing. Samsung placed this beauty on the Samsung Tomorrow page, giving a clean and cute look at each of the S4′s specs including processors, exact dimensions, version of Android, and more. 

And for safe measure, they even gave us the colors. I am so all about that black mist.

Via: Samsung Tomorrow

Samsung Sums Up Galaxy S4 Specs With Sweet Infographic is a post from: Droid Life

If you caught yesterday’s Unpacked event from Samsung, you noticed they took plenty of time to show off a lot of interesting new software features that will come baked into the Galaxy S4. In a recent interview, Samsung’s VP of Portfolio Planning confirmed that a lot of the software enhancements that we saw yesterday would make their way to Samsung’s other flagship devices, as long as they are not hardware dependent. 

Anything that we can do that’s not dependent on hardware like infrared, we’ll definitely bring to all the flagship devices.

It would be nice to see some of that new camera software make its way to the Galaxy S3 and Note 2, along with the new scrolling features as well. I know a few folks think that some of the new features are somewhat “tacky” or “gimmicky,” but it’s nice to see a company thinking completely out of the box and bringing new and innovative features to the Android platform. Keep it coming, Samsung.

Speaking of software, check out Kellen’s software tour from yesterday.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via: PC Mag

Software Enhancements Seen on Galaxy S4 Will Come to Galaxy S3 and Note 2 is a post from: Droid Life

We finally have our hands on the new Galaxy S4 from Samsung. In this video, Kellex gives us his customary first impressions and software tour of the device. With the S4 running that same TouchWiz UI, but with Android 4.2.2 underneath and a ton of new proprietary software, this phone looks to be a major improvement over last year’s Galaxy S3.

For the full device gallery and software video overview, check below.

Update:  Added hardware tour as well. 

Gallery:

Hardware Tour:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Software Tour:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video Overview: Samsung Galaxy S4 Hardware, Software Tour and Gallery is a post from: Droid Life

This morning, we have two sets of screenshots to discuss, both of which hint at some of the new features and specs we may see when Samsung unveils the new Galaxy S4 on March 14. The first set that arrived was thought to be from the new Galaxy, but later debunked to simply be from a leaked Android 4.2.1 ROM for the Galaxy S3. The second set may actually be from the device, as a couple of the screenshots reveal specs that match up to what has previously been rumored, yet are also not found in any current Samsung phone. 

The shots that are purportedly from the GS4 are at the top of this post and directly above this sentence. What we’re seeing is a slightly tweaked TouchWiz UI with a grey back instead of black in the Settings menu, transparent notification bar from home, and new Smart features call Pause and Scroll. Smart Pause looks as if it will pause a video you are watching should you turn your head and look away from the screen. Smart Scroll is a feature that was rumored a week ago as a way for the device to scroll through internet pages, emails, etc. as your eyes stare at the screen.

Below, we have screenshots from a Galaxy S3 ROM that show similar features, but also dive deeper into this Smart Scroll. You can see in the settings for this feature that you can adjust the speed and acceleration of the scroll and also decide which apps can take advantage of it.

Last, we have a couple of screenshots (mid-post) that show what appear to be a confirmation on specs for the new Galaxy S4. What we’re seeing is a 5″ 1080p display (480dpi), quad-core processor clocked close to 1.8GHz, and a 13MP camera (not pictured).

All signs point to a beast of a device when it comes to specs, but more innovation on a software front from Samsung to make the experience more than about power, speed, and efficiency.

Via:  PhoneArena | SamMobile

Cheers Open1Your1Eyes0!

First Galaxy S4 Screenshots Show Off Specs, New TouchWiz Smart Features, and More is a post from: Droid Life

Concerning news this morning for any Samsung owner who is running TouchWiz on their phone. A little slice of HTML code was found that when clicked, can reset the Galaxy SII instantly to factory settings. The factory reset could also be triggered by a QR code or via NFC. The culprit seems to be the TouchWiz skin that Samsung has stuck by on top of Android. When this malicious code is triggered through a device, it pops up the dialer which then automatically activates a factory reset code, causing the phone to wipe itslef with no option for stoppage.

So far, The Verge has been able to replicate the exploit on the Galaxy SII and the AT&T version of the Galaxy SIII. Samsung is apparently “looking into” the exploit but there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix this quite yet. The only advice we have is don’t install any fishy-looking applications, click any weird HTML links, scan random QR codes, or touch NFC tags that you haven’t set up yourself until we hear more word. We’ll keep you updated if we hear more.

Update:  Reports are coming in now that this is an Android issue that was patched long ago, but may still affect handsets not running the most current versions of Android. In theory, this vulnerability could be exploited on any older version of Android, probably pre-Ice Cream Sandwich. Thankfully, a number of updates to a handful of devices over the last few weeks likely closed up this gap, including ones to the Galaxy S3.

Via: The Verge

TouchWiz Has a Major Security Flaw that Allows Factory Resets With Just One Click (Updated) is a post from: Droid Life

Is there anything those developers can’t do? Well, besides truly unlock the DROID X’s bootloader? Let us all take a second and be thankful that device is water under the bridge.

Recently, a developer successfully ported a leaked TouchWiz Jelly Bean build from the T-Mobile Galaxy S3 to the Galaxy S3 on Verizon. With working 4G data, camera, and almost everything else, if you’re the hacking and modding type, then this could definitely be your daily driver until Verizon and Samsung are ready to make their version available to the masses.

Your device will need to be unlocked and rooted, but the methods for installation aren’t very difficult past that point. If you would like to download and see instructions for installation, simply follow the via link down below.

Via: XDA

Cheers Marcus!

Developer Successfully Ports Official T-Mobile Jelly Bean Build to Verizon Galaxy S3 is a post from: Droid Life

An official build of Jelly Bean for the international Samsung Galaxy S3 variant has leaked and a user has posted up a beautiful video going over the build in great detail. Although, you may want to brush up on some of your high school Spanish notes. From what we see so far in the video, Samsung has allowed for only a little of Jelly Bean to show through in terms of UI and have stuck to their TouchWiz UI look. 

Fortunately, they did include many of the Jelly Bean core features that ROM users have come to love. For example, we note they have implemented the new Notification system that allows for more interactive controls on an individual notification and they have also added a brightness dial right on the pulldown bar.  Google Now is most definitely on board, and you better believe there’s some Project Butter in there too.

Jelly Bean roll out is rumored to begin August 29 for the the Galaxy S3, although Verizon’s version does not have an ETA of delivery yet. Sorry, folks.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via: AndroidMX

Video: Official TouchWiz’d Jelly Bean Leaked, Up and Running on Samsung Galaxy SIII is a post from: Droid Life

Samsung has made some major changes to its TouchWiz UI through the Galaxy S3. In fact, they made so many, that it took a 26-minute video from us to touch on about half of them. The video is below and includes a tour of the camera, S Voice, UI customizations, and more. If you were looking for a more detailed video of this latest custom skin from Sammy, you may not find one elsewhere. This video was also posted in our full Galaxy S3 review, in case you missed it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: Samsung Galaxy S3 TouchWiz Overview is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video from the folks at The Verge that is floating around today, is simply put, hilarious. During the clip from their podcast, they interview a guy who goes by the name “Big Poppa Joe” and claims to be the biggest Samsung TouchWiz fan on Earth. Yeah, you may need to read that again. Someone who admits publicly to loving TouchWiz. He may just be a brilliant troll, but if you needed a good laugh as we head into the weekend, this one is worth a watch.

With that said, we would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the OEM skins out there. I’m curious to know which you would choose if there was no other choice but to have a skin. Stock Android is gone for good, which skin would you choose and why? HTC’s Sense, Motorola’s Blur, Samsung’s TouchWiz or something else?

As of today, I would go with Blur. While it was complete garbage for a a year or two there, the latest version is not all that bad (assuming you like the color blue). With its built in MotoCast software, semi-customizable launcher, gradually improving camera software, and new lockscreen, it’s not half bad. My opinion may quickly change on this once I get my hands on the HTC One X and see Sense 4.0, but until then, as surprising as it may sound, I would go Blur.

If You had to Choose a Skin for Android, Which would It be? is a post from: Droid Life

If you own a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 4G LTE on Verizon, you should have a pretty major update available to you any day now. The update is version EL01 and includes TouchWiz for tablets along with a ton of other fixes and improvements. The document above (click to enlarge) will walk you through all of the major changes such as the mini apps tray, quick panel, and social hub widget. If stock Honeycomb was becoming a bore, this should give you some much needed spice.

The update itself is 351MB in size, so be sure you are in a strong LTE area or on WiFi before attempting to download.

More details after the break.  

More info.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE EL01 Update is Ready, TouchWiz for Tablets has Arrived on Verizon is a post from: Droid Life

Most of the time that fragmentation is discussed it is in direct reference to different versions of Android running on different handsets. The cause of this fragmentation is usually identified as the sundry skins that manufacturers develop in order to differentiate their devices from others and create brand awareness and loyalty. Though critics and users have often called for stock Android to be at least an option on Android handsets (if not the standard), manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung have continued to create more and more invasive and intricate skins on the devices they offer to consumers. Though a lack of updates is certainly reason enough for users to be upset, a more important issue may be the very different experiences that are presented to consumers because of these skins.

If the average consumer were to pick up the HTC Sensation and then pick up the DROID Bionic, they might be inclined to believe that the phones run totally different operating systems. And in a sense (no pun intended), they do. A phone made by HTC and running Sense offers a completely different experience than a Motorola phone running Blur (or “Android with Motorola Enhancements” as Motorola inclined to call it these days) or a Samsung phone running TouchWiz.

These manufacturer skins have altered Android so much that something as simple as unlocking your screen is a fundamentally different experience on different Android phones. On a stock device like the Nexus S I simply slide the lock tab to unlock the screen, but on a TouchWiz device I push the lock screen away or complete a puzzle, on a Sense device I slide down the lock bar or slide the lock ring upward, and on a Motorola device I slide the lock tab which also varies in location from device to device. In other words, the first screen that a consumer sees in a store when looking at an Android phone can be completely different from the Android phone next to it.  

The Droid X2 is only a few months old, and yet the Droid 3 has a completely different lock screen. On first glance a consumer might be convinced that the Droid X2 and Droid 3 are made by different companies because of how different the lock screens are. On a device with TouchWiz 4.0 there are additional sliders for missed calls or new test messages, yet these features are completely absent from any other Android lock screen. It gets even worse on an HTC device. The image above shows all of the possible lock screens you can select on the HTC Sensation.

I like being able to customize my device, but there comes a point where these skins aren’t just differentiators. They are creating a completely different experience, and by proxy a completely different OS. Sure, I can play Dragon, Fly on my Droid 2 or on my Droid Incredible and get the same experience, but when I hit the home button I’m greeted with a very different home screen on each device. On my Droid 2 I have a row of 4 buttons, three of which are customizable, whereas on my Incredible I have three buttons on the bottom, none of which are customizable. The polish of HTC’s widgets is incomparable with the widgets offered by Motorola or Samsung (or Google for that matter).

In a community like Droid Life, skins can be somewhat irrelevant because many users hack their phones and use custom ROMs or use a home replacement app like ADW or Launcher Pro to hide the manufacturer’s home screens, but to the average consumer the notion that the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy SII both run Android is asinine – they do not present the same interface in the least. When someone buys a phone like the Sensation they get Android, but they get the Sense interface too. I’d wager to say that a lot of consumers buy a Sense device because it looks pretty and polished and pass over a phone like the Photon because it doesn’t have a giant, magnificent weather widget for a lock screen.

The community has called out manufacturers for putting skins on their devices that delay updates – the question is, does the problem run deeper than updates? Is there a difference between someone who loves Android on the Samsung Galaxy SII and someone who loves Android on the HTC Evo 3D? Would Android be a better platform if Google stopped allowing customizations like Microsoft has with Windows Phone 7? Does Sense or MotoBlur or TouchWiz make an Android handset better or worse? Should Google stop offering Google services to devices that offer such a vastly different experience? There are no definite answers, but I think the questions are important ones for the community to ponder.

My first smartphone was the HTC Touch Pro2. It ran Windows Mobile 6.1 (though it was eventually updated to WinMo 6.5). Anyone who ran WinMo 6.5 knows that HTC TouchFlo 3D (the precursor to Sense) was near essential to make Windows Mobile useful, though my TP2 did suffer from slowness because of the skin. When Android first came out it needed a lot of polish. How many of us would be comfortable going back to the Éclair interface? My Droid Eris originally ran Android 1.6 – there is no way I would have found Donut’s interface likeable compared to what iOS was offering at the same. In the Donut and Éclair eras, skins like Sense made sense (pun intended). It made sense to make Android look prettier and in many ways easier to use, but can anyone honestly say that Gingerbread is that confusing to use? It’s not my favorite UI, but it is leaps and bounds away from the drudgery that was Android 1.6.

As Google continues to improve the polish of Android I don’t think skins will be necessary anymore. In fact, I think Android skins like Sense, though gorgeous, will be detrimental to Android in the long run. The only commitment that Google has gotten out of manufacturers has been to support devices with updates for up to 18 months, but often those updates are impossible to accomplish because of the skins. When my Droid Eris was updated from Android 1.6 to Android 2.1 I loved the new Sense features, but my phone was doggedly slow (often the phone would ring several times before the screen would respond to my finger’s demand to answer the call). I think Android will be better off if Google begins pushing for a consistent UI across devices. Manufacturers can differentiate through form factors, not skins, that way updates come faster and having an Android phone doesn’t mean dozens of drastically different experiences for consumers.

If the message from consumers to Google and manufacturers has been a demand for updates, then the message to Google from manufacturers has been that the only way they believe they can compete is if they skin Android to the point that their experience is vastly different (and in their eyes, superior) to another manufacturer’s skin. This doesn’t lead to the united front against iOS and Windows Phone 7 that Google wants and Android fans envision – it leads a confused consumer base a system fragmented by both updates and experience.

What do you think? Are skins good or bad for Android? Should Google exert more control over user experience? Does a phone’s skin impact your decision to buy it or not? Sound off in the comments to let us know where you stand on Android skin fragmentation.

Android Fragmentation is Much More Than Just Numbers, It’s About Skins Too [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life

Are you a happy Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi owner? Then you should start checking your tab for an update this Friday, August 5th. If you just so happen to live in New York City, and don’t have time to just sit around and wait for an update, Samsung is also hosting an “Update Party” in Columbus Circle today. Get on it.  

The update will have a few additional features besides just the bump up to the TouchWiz UI. It will also come with Words with Friends, and Amazon Kindle pre-installed, plus the newest version of Swype for Honeycomb. Samsung has been on top of their game lately, so let’s hope they stay consistent. We should point out again, this is just for the Wi-Fi only version. No update expected yet for the Verizon 4G LTE version.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via: Samsung

Cheers Scott!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi Updates Begin Rolling Out On Friday, Ready For TouchWiz? is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

No one was complaining when Samsung announced that its new Galaxy Tab 10.1 wouldn’t launch with their special TouchWiz UX on it.  Unfortunately they still had plans to introduce the first ever Honeycomb (Android 3.1) skin in the near future and have provided a full 12-minute video of what you can expect.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that it looks awful, because it does add some nice new functionality and features.  The problem is that TouchWiz on phones is indeed awful and also makes updating happen at a much slower pace.  We won’t know how UX will affect the Tab 10.1 in the future, but it’s still something to be concerned about.

Anyone pick up a Tab 10.1?  Any of you want TouchWiz UX on it?

Via: Phandroid

Samsung Provides a Full 12-Minute TouchWiz UX Preview for Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a post from: Droid Life