Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

My unbiased story of another users experience leaving the iPhone to Android. Originally an iPhone user he finally made the break of Apples tight grip of an OS to Android. First choice was the Samsung Captivate, a Galaxy S phone. I think it was the obvious choice for him as it was the best option of the 3 Android phones from AT&T at that time. Not to mention I was very happy with mine. First impressions as an owner was not the greatest as he quickly noticed some problems. No easy 1 button click to a silent mode and syncing email to exchange was problematic from the start. Soon he updated to Froyo 2.2 (found here) and quickly followed with using custom ROMs, via ROM Manager and Cognition. His happiness was only short lived with the Captivate and the new ROMs as he began to have the phone shut-off at random. This seemed to be strictly a hardware issue and was resolved with a trip to AT&T and getting a replacement. Since email was high priority use of his phone and the issues for email continued, He actually contemplated going back to his iPhone. Enter the htc Inspire, the latest Android phone from AT&T. Within 28 days of first purchasing the Samsung Captivate he had, upgraded to 2.2, used custom ROMs, replaced the phone and finally traded it back in for the htc Inspire. He has only had the Inspire for less than 24 hours as I write this, but has implied clearly that it has been a better purchase than the Captivate and may lie on the same playing field as the iPhone.

So to summarize the issues and ratings he has suggested; Captivate had problems with exchange and playing music stored on the phone. He rates the Captivate under the iPhone for these reasons and currently rates his new htc Inspire at the same level as the iPhone. He is as of now still currently happy to be away from Apple and I will update this once he has had the Inspire longer.

I tried to keep my own thoughts and opinions away from everything up to now, you honestly didn’t think I would leave my opinion completely out did you? Some things I would like to point out is obviously the no easy button for silence is user preference, working with anything custom is always prone to bugs, however he did point out that he had the email issue prior to touching the OS. I know of another Captivate user that seemed to be having problems with email as well. His wasn’t exchange, but actually Yahoo. Myself I get to much personal email to mess with my main Yahoo email, so I send only a very small amount to my Gmail account which I get on my phone. Another few that I’d like to point out is that the Captivate and Inspire have the same speed CPU. Captivate has 4 times the internal memory and a Super AMOLED screen. The Inspire has an 8megapixel camera with an LED flash as well as .3 inches more of a screen. Inspire is also a 4G phone, although it’s not wide spread yet. I think the biggest thing to point out is that the Inspire comes with Froyo. This is huge because it works and is made to work and will be less likely to have bugs unlike the Captivate which is sure to have many since Samsung doesn’t care. Having 2.2 can only be accomplished using custom ROMs’ or custom upgrades which although helps getting flash and hotspot ability, it also brings more bugs.  Overall I think the Captivate was a big shot that only has become a failure due to the lack of OS support and updating from Samsung. The biggest example of this is the GPS a feature that only works well if you have used a custom ROM. They have taken a great piece of hardware, shoved it out the door and never looked at it again.

With all the devices coming to the market at increasing speed, everyone’s phone is sure to be outdated by the time they get it home. So, I guess what should become a big part in the decision of you next phone isn’t as much the hardware, but more will the maker support the damn thing after you get it home and update the OS. Samsung obviously won’t. Will I trade in my Captivate for the Inspire or the upcoming Atrix? No, I’m still going to stand behind my Captivate and keep it as it still does what I want it too and works pretty well. -Greg

 You’ve heard “go big or go home”, well Motorola could use that as their new slogan. I had planned on waiting out my next 2 years on AT&T with my Captivate. I love it, don’t really have the problems (except that notoriously slow GPS problem) or complaints of some owners and have had it running Froyo for a while. I am more than satisfied and had planned on only looking to grab a tab after the frenzy that is about to be unleashed in 2011. I planned to let every major player get their tab out and fully tested and in the hands of the public before making my decision. However, Motorola has decided to tempt my patience with not only a tab, but also a phone.Motorola is looking to top Samsung in the Android Phone and Tab market, and help leave Apple’s iPhone and iPad in the dust.

I’ll start with their tab, Motorola’s XOOM:

• Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
• 10.1″ screen
• 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 CPU
• 1280×800 resolution
• 1GB RAM
• 32GB internal
• front and rear facing camera
• records 720p video
• plays 1080p
• 32GB microSD
• HDMI & USB 2.0
• Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope
• 3G/4G
• and of course Flash.

Safe to say it’s pretty well the top of its class. This out of all the tabs I read about from CES is the one that caught everyone’s eye and are sure to be purchasing. The Galaxy S and iPad (maybe even iPad 2) just can’t compete with this. Of course it’s only to be expected that the devices will continue to get better. So, I thought that once it had been out for a month or so, I’d grab one. Now somehow either in concentration for only Captivate and tab related posts or my laziness of scanning Android related blogs all together, I missed Motorola’s game killer of a phone the Atrix. Thanks to John for pointing out this mammoth of a phone and creating a stir in my head on what the heck do I do now? If you haven’t read much on this phone (as I hadn’t) then you might not understand the dilemma that I have now found myself in. So, let me enlighten you..

Motorola’s Atrix:

• Android 2.2 (Froyo)
• 4″ qHD display – 24-bit
• 2GHz NVIDIA Tegra dual core processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB internal
• microSDHC 32GB
• 5MP Camera w/ Flash
• VGA front facing camera
• Dual microphone
• 1930mAh battery for 9hrs of talk time
• Full version of Firefox
• 3G/4G
• and of course Flash

As if that’s not enough, this thing docks and I mean it docks. First, how about a multimedia dock that connects to your TV and lets you use a remote to playback everything you could think of. Next up, how about docking your phone into a laptop shell whichturns it into a full fledge laptop. You beginning to see where my problem is, do I buy the tab or upgrade my phone to the Atrix. I’m thinking the cost will be similar, XOOM I’m looking at around $600. For the Atrix I’m looking at $150-$200 for the phone and then another $150 for the laptop dock and maybe another $100 for the media dock. Really either way you go it’s going to be about $600, then the additional data plan. If it wasn’t for my new truck and upcoming honeymoon, I’d probably get both <insert huge grin>. Maybe your in the same dilemma, maybe you have an easy answer, maybe you just don’t care (loser). Well I leave you with the latest video from Motorola for the Atrix, enjoy. -Greg

**UPDATE – Froyo will never becoming to the Captivate.  

So it looks like the Vibrant on T-Mobile won’t be the only Galaxy S phone that is getting the long over due Android update to 2.2, Froyo. Recently I have spoke with my own source from within AT&T and they tell me that they are going to be having a meeting later this week. The meetings main topic is helping Captivate customers with any problems associated with getting the OTA update to Froyo. So, either its pure coincidence or the recent uproar about the cell phone carriers not paying Samsung for update has kicked the Galaxy S line of phones updating into high gear. The meeting is to take place this week and following that meeting we should know more about when we will actually see the update hit the phones. I’m not holding my breath, but I am pretty excited. -Greg

Turning your Samsung Captivate into a mobile hotspot with Froyo (Android 2.2) couldn’t be any easier. Setting this up is easier than setting up your home network. Its minimal options make it both easy for the average joe and boring for the geeks. I had this setup with 2 iPhones connected to me in under a minute. The speeds were getting better than 250k down and 75k up. Considering that’s over 4 times the speed of dial up, I’d say it’s not to shabby. This of course was through AT&T’s lovely 3G network. 1 thing to note is I’m using the leaked I897UCJI6 version of Froyo from xda, which I’ve posted just recently. Lucky for me I was grandfathered into the unlimited data plan so I can suck it up for now. I’m very curious to see when the official Froyo build comes out if AT&T will have removed the Mobile AP feature altogether or add some nifty feature that tells AT&T to start running the meter. If that’s the case I will hang on to my leaked Froyo even after the official release.
Accessing and setting up the hotspot is pretty simple so I’m not going to narrate, but if you do have any questions let me know I’d be glad to help. -Greg

Torrents for both official versions of Android 2.1 and 2.2, for the Samsung Captivate, have been added below and on Demonoid. These are the official versions posted by designgears in the xda developers forums. These are odin 1 clicks, so it can’t get any easier.

Android 2.1 (stock) for Samsung Captivate – Torrent
Android 2.1 (stock) xda developers forum – link

Android 2.2 (froyo) for Samsung Captivate – Torrent
Android 2.2 (froyo) xda developers forum - link

Thanks again to designgears and xda! -Greg

“The snap of a few sparks, a quick whiff of ozone, and the lamp blazed forth in unparalleled glory.” Ok so maybe that’s not exactly how it went, but that unforgettable line from A Christmas Story is exactly how I felt flashing and booting Froyo (Android 2.2) for the first time on my Captivate. XDA forums user designgears has become mine and many others hero with his post where he shared the freshly leaked official Froyo build for the Samsung Captivate. I spent a fair amount of time trolling through the already popular thread reading everyones comments looking for complaints or proof that it was not the official build. It seemed that it was true the official (leaked) Froyo build was upon us. I pained through over 20 minutes downloading the Froyo Odin build, while biting my nails and sitting on the edge of my seat. I will be adding the Stock and Froyo Odin Roms to a torrent later tonight and posting it here, so check back. I backed up my paid apps using Titanium, then pulled my external SD and copied it completely to my PC. I also downloaded the stock Odin build for the Captivate just to be safe. I’ve added my own version of an easy to follow guide to share with anyone who needs it. 

Keep in mind a few things. My phone is running JH7 and is rooted. I’m not saying you need either of these, I just want you to know where I’m starting from.

* Make sure you already have your Windows drivers, which you can grab from here, installed for the phone before you begin.
* Make sure to run Odin with Windows admin privileges.
* Make sure to back-up anything and everything you might have stored on your phones internal storage. (phone book, pictures, music, documents)
* Also note that your phone will be wiped of all history, call logs, text messages, root access, the bloatware will return (which is easily hidden with Launcher Pro and if you need it back for warranty purposes its easily returned), it will be a stock phone running Froyo.

• Power off phone
• Remove SD Card (if you have one)
• Start program on computer
• Plug USB cable into computer
• Hold both volume up and volume down buttons (it can be done, you will feel them both go down)
• Plug USB cable into phone
• Odin will detect the phone in whatever com port its attached.
• Release Vol up and Vol down
• Press the START button in the program
• This will give some info in the program, wait
• It will have a progress bar on Odin and on the Phone.
• The phone will reboot itself and install Froyo
• The phone will reboot itself again and BAM you have FROYO!!

That’s it for now, I’m going to be posting later today about some of the great things I’ve found using Froyo, such as the new task manager, added hotspot, updated cut and paste, and the almost fixed GPS. What you think I haven’t played with it yet? Yeah right, those are what I think are the biggest things and I can’t wait to talk about them!! -Greg

A special big thanks goes out to designgears and XDA!

Thats right folks, you can get the new Samsung Captivate on the AT&T network for only $0.01 from Amazon.  This is with a new 2 year contract. Existing AT&T customers can get the Captivate for $99 with a 2 year contract. For whatever reason if you have the family plan its up to $149. If you are on the fence about getting an Android phone or the dreaded iPhone, now is the time to make the right decision and grab the Samsung Captivate. -Greg

Grab your Samsung Captivate now on Amazon.