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Samsung Galaxy S7: Big brand Android flagship champ

Samsung made its big break with tradition last year, and this year’s model sees only positive improvements. Last year Samsung took its Galaxy S moneyspinner down a major new route, and not before time: the design was weary and the software bloated and incoherent. But not everyone liked the changes Samsung made. The S6 looked better and more modern, but the battery life wasn’t very good, and now you couldn’t change the battery, or put in a memory card. The S6 was all sleek glass and metal looks, but many Galaxy owners have been practical types, and had to look elsewhere for something with expandable storage and replaceable battery.

Read on, source: Samsung Galaxy S7: Big brand Android flagship champ • The Register

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Supreme Court takes up Apple v. Samsung, first design patent case in a century

If Apple was finally feeling like it had a solid win after getting paid $548 million in patent damages by Samsung—well, now it shouldn’t be so sure.The Supreme Court said today that it will consider what kind of damages should be warranted when a design patent is found to be infringed as the court takes up the blockbuster Apple v. Samsung case.After a 13-day trial in 2012, a jury held that Samsung’s phones infringed Apple utility and design patents. Apple was originally granted $1.05 billion, but that number was slashed down on appeal. Samsung paid $548 million late last year, but the company didn’t give up its right to one last appeal. A Supreme Court win could result in Samsung getting much of that money back.

Read on, source: Supreme Court takes up Apple v. Samsung, first design patent case in a century | Ars Technica

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Steely wonder? Samsung Galaxy S6

Review I’ve found life is so much easier if one sticks to three simple rules. Never drive a Volvo car, never buy a Samsung phone, and always grind your own coffee. However, I might have to rethink one of those – and it isn’t the coffee.Samsung’s Galaxy S6 flagship handsetSamsung can’t do anything without a cacophonous bang, whether the product is good, bad or indifferent. Yet in a sober assessment, Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 is the best phone you can get today that isn’t an iPhone, and is actually preferable to an iPhone on several counts of quality and convenience.I’ve spent a few days with the S6, and a few minutes with the curved glass S6 Edge, which means it only gets a footnote here. In both cases, every part of the flagship has received some long overdue TLC. The S6’s style unabashedly apes the iPhone, with mixed results.

Read on, source: Steely wonder? It’s blind to 4G and needs armour: Samsung Galaxy S6 • The Register

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Galaxy 551

You have just purchased the samsung i 5510 – the standard Android version is comes with is 2.2.

The firmware upgrade will be one of your first goals.

Note that searching google will show a lot of options as far as the flashing goes, all with the same issues; the keypad on the unit has buttons that do not correspond with the physical keys.

There were two variants of problems I discovered. First, the “A” and “Y” keys were reversed between themselves, second was the question mark key being mixed with a Armenian A (small 0 on top).

That said, after trialing with about 6-7 different Android releases I have found a Polish version that works.

Lets begin with the flashing:

  1. Download your firmware from here.
  2. Download your flashing program (Odin Multi Downloader) from here.
  3. Copy and paste the following into a text file, then rename to CALLISTO_v1.0.ops :
    0,mibib
    1,qcsbl
    2,oemsbl
    3,amss
    4,arm11boot
    5,boot
    6,recovery
    7,system
    8,data
    9,csc
    10,
  4. Prep your Odin. You will need to point it to your new OPS file (CALLISTO_c1.0.ops), tick the “One package” and lastly to point it to your downloaded firmware (from step 1). The end result will look as such:
  5. Next, your phone will need to be put into download mode. This can be done by switching it off then holding down the power button + Q key.
    If sussessful Odin will recognize the com port mapping and mark with yellow highlighting:
  6. You are now ready to begin, press “Start”
  7. Upon completion, the phone will reboot itself. Now we need stock factory condition *remember to do your backup first!*. The way we bring it to factory condition is to start it in recovery mode by using the same procedure as with download more except this time we hold down Power + T. You will “wipe data/factory restore” and “Wipe Cache Partition” with a combination of the ALT and Middle Enter Button. Once complete reboot the phone.

Voila, you now have a samsung i 5510 running Gingerbread 2.3.6.

Other things you may want to know about this phone is that is has recently been taken off the shelves by Samsung so we should not expect further updates; at least not from them.

I have also found the battery to last about 2-3 days depending on use; which is great. You will also find all the new garnish to be to your liking.

This was tried and tested with the 2DegreesMobile carrier in New Zealand and the samsung i 5510 / 551 mobile.