Would you switch to the new iPhone this year

The new iphoneOS4 or 4G what ever the name will be has already been leaked and looks less curvy but interesting nonetheless.

Having owned the original iphone (non 3G) version I was quite happy with it. At least for the first couple of months and before I found out it's limitations such as limited bluetooth profile, no flash, no multi tasking and one that bothered me a lot was the low ringer volume.  Some of these issues were resolved in the the 3G and 3GS versions but the lack of multi-tasking and flash support still kept me away and I enjoyed my Samsung i7500 as a replacement smart phone in the meantime.   Now that Samsung has let us down with no release in sight for a new Rom 2.x updates I am having a second look and evaluating my options for either iPhone OS4 or the new 1Ghz Android devices.

Samsung 1.6 ROM sources

For those who just want the sources, may be tweak your own rom version

http://box23.org/pub/7500/index.php?dir=misc/sources/

or from Samsung's portal

Samsung released Donut Kernel and System resources

Now Drakaz is on it.  He was stuck on his Eclair 2.1 ROM development and admitted he can't proceed with out the sources.  Now I believe Drakaz and Mustymod will race against time to release a solid 2.1 ROM Beta with working bluetooth, proximity sensor, camera and 3D.

Android running on iPhone 3G

I watched through this video clip and thought I'd share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yO2KQHkt4A

Still awaiting Eclair 2.1 on my I7500 Samsung

Taking for ever.  May be I will dive into a musty's or Drakaz's cooked firmwares to taste Eclair.

Samsung Galaxy i7500 New Rom 1.6 - Finally

Looks like Samsung surprised us with this new Donut ROM (Leaked or not !)   - I7500XEFJB2 


I7500XEFJB2.zip


I flashed my phone with ODIN after removing the cache.img from the archived file and indeed it was the 1.6 Rom.  Not quite the anticipated ROM Eclair 2.1 but I see that as progress.


There is a mixed optimism about the battery life with this rom.  Some say it is much better than it's predecessors and some say that battery goes away quick.  I thought my battery was not a good performer with this rom compared to IK5.  I will not jump into conclusion and will at first assume I have some a rogue app eating away battery juice. 


Now does that mean we are getting an Eclair soon after this Donut.  I'd say yes but will not put money it will be the official Samsung one.  Some nice dudes are working hard on making this happen. 

Space physics for android

This is a fun 2D Physics game but not comparable to the fun I used to have with Cryon Physics on my previous IPhone.   I believe developers have issues with memory management with this type of game as the more objects you create the slower the game will perform.

IPhone 2D Physics engine is written in C++ and memory management although vulnerable to memory leaks is still better managed than Dalvik VM's garbage collection on an android device.

Flashed my Galaxy with IK5

Seems the battery is better. I didn't find much difference over the IK4 except for the missing Samsung keyboard.  Both IK4 and IK5 seems to leave plenty more ram in place. 

Immediately after flashing with Odin, I checked the memory and it was a whopping 44MB.  Later in the day it was around 30-36MB which is much better than the 14-25MB I was getting with II5.

Samsung Galaxy and Eclair 2 now possible

Thanks to mustymod,  finally we can try Eclair on Samsung Galaxy I7500. 

As of today 7th Jan 2010 the following works/ or not.

Working devices:
- GSM (call, text, data, no CDMA support)
- Base devices (touchscreen, sound, sd-card & usb)

Devices will be implemented:
- WIFI (work in progress)
- Sensors (accelerometer, light, compass)
- Camera

Installed Extra Programs:
- Market
- Google Maps
- GMail
- GTalk
- Youtube


----------- News Flash ----------

mustymod is not happy (claims to no longer be motivated) as PayPal is not accepting donations as per his post on http://mustymod.wordpress.com/

 So it looks like the project is on hold.  On the other hand it seems another good developer drakaz might be up to the task.