Support for Samsung i8910 Omnia HD to continue till end of 2010

Upadate: Update: I’ve moved to a new website

From what I’ve observed with the Samsung i8510 Innov8, it is apparent that Samsung will continue to produce updates for the i8910 up to at least the end of 2010. That’s really promising considering that many people thought the i8910 had reached the end of its life cycle and it had been left out in the cold.

Samsung i8910
Samsung i8910: It's not over yet!

So, the question is, what are they going to be doing in this time? Fixing bugs only? From my meeting, it appears as if the features are generally permanent and they may consider implementing only a few of the proposed suggestions from the report. Adding kinetic scrolling was quite a leap, it was never described as a feature on the phone but they decided to add it to enhance the devices functionality. What else is in store for the next couple of months?

Samsung has failed to deliver

Before we go into the updates, it is now apparent that Samsung has failed to deliver the official update on time. They said in their press release that:

“The firmware update will be available from January 2010 in the UK and gradually rolled out to other European markets, Southeast Asia, the Middle East Asia, Africa and rest of the world.”

According to information that I got from i8910 owners around the world, the update has not been released anywhere. Continue reading Support for Samsung i8910 Omnia HD to continue till end of 2010

Can’t Samsung Re-Launch the i8910 Omnia HD?

Samsung i8910
Bright Future?

The Samsung i8910 was announced at the Mobile Wold Congress 2009 and officially launched around the world some time in May 2009. At the time it was announced, it was not short of innovation. Being the first mobile phone to boast a 3.7″ AMOLED display, first Symbian phone with a capacitive screen, first mobile phone to support OpenGL ES 2.0 and the first mobile phone with HD video recording. Add to that an ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor with a Hardware Graphics Accelerator, 256MB RAM, an 8 Mega pixel camera and a compass just to mention a few of the highlights. Some of these features are the same as, if not better than the features seen in mobile phones that have been launched lately. Continue reading Can’t Samsung Re-Launch the i8910 Omnia HD?

Screen test and simple concept for a torch app for the Samsung i8910

DIY Screen test

I recently read this article, on the MOTO labs website, for a DIY touch screen test for capacitive touch screen phones. So, I decided to put the i8910 to the test to see how it compares to the others and this was the result, click on the image for a better view:

DIY Screen Test
DIY touch screen test with the i8910 factored in

The test on the i8910 showed there’s waviness and stair-stepping, an indication of low touch screen sensitivity. The outer edges show low sensitivity as well but this is probably deliberate because of the screen’s close proximity to edges and also because there are no contours around the screen. Continue reading Screen test and simple concept for a torch app for the Samsung i8910

If wishes were horses…the i8910 would ride

Note: this article is not factual. It’s a wishful/sarcastic post meant to highlight the potential of the i8910 and what Samsung could do with it.  I’ve included details and ideas that I mean to present to Samsung in my meeting with them. This may not be real now, bit with more pressure on Samsung it could soon be a reality.

Exciting news guys, Samsung has just released an awesome update for the i8910! Pure gold of an update! This update is packed to the brim with features and fixes I don’t even know where to begin! That’s a lot coming from me after that report and petition fiasco.

Samsung i8910 Updated

Continue reading If wishes were horses…the i8910 would ride

Version 3 of the report on the Samsung i8910 is ready, a great conclusion…

Report on the i8910 v3 Yes the report is up, better than ever before! It took hours so feel free to dive in and enjoy!!! 7421 words, 38 images and countless hours of work! Coinciding with 2000 signatures signed! Here’s a screen cap of a few pages:

Screen cap of report in progress
A screen cap of my report in the works

A few corrections have been made, some people picked up a few typos and stuff. This is the last report. The journey ends here.. I’ve worked really hard to deliver on this report but now I have to move on to other things. Three weeks in the making and countless hours of work. I really hope this pays off, I put my heart and soul into it. At the end of the day, the situation is out of my hands, its up to Samsung. I will continue to update on the progress the report has made but unless something really big happens, this report is final. Thanks to everyone for the support, it has been a great journey and learning experience for me.

So here’s the press coverage so far for the petition and report:

  1. Engadget Mobile: Wronged i8910 buyer prepares doctral-quality thesis on issues
  2. Samsung Omnia HD Blog: Samsung i8910 owner preps 25-page quality control report
  3. GSM Arena: Report on the i8910 Omnia HD points out its flaws
  4. All About Symbian: Samsung i8910 HD: Miscellaneous Musings
  5. 8910.cz: 20 years after a general strike against Samsung
  6. Omnia HD Users: Petition for Samsung to improve i8910 Omnia HD Firmware

Yup, the petition and reports are all over the place too, like Twitter, Digg, Facebook etc and the stories from the above have been recycled by several blogs. So for now, that’s what I’ve done with the first 3 weeks of my summer amongst other things.. Gotta keep it moving!