The Samsung Galaxy S4 keeping the plastic design and back cover.

Love it or hate, Samsung is sticking to their guns with the "plastic-y" design and removable back cover.  The biggest complaint I would say I hear most about the Samsung Galaxy S III is how plastic-y it feels in your hands, while other companies are using glass, aluminum and other higher quality plastics.

Samsung has argued that the plastic back is more durable than competitors because it can absorb physical impact due to it being bendable.  They are also fond of the fact that that this particular plastic is faster to manufacture which means they can ship a higher volume at a faster rate (so that's what happened to the Nexus 4).

Whether you're a fan or not of Samsung's "plastic-y" feel, this is how the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being shipped.

Source : cnet

Sasmung Teases the Galaxy S4 with no peeks for us

With just about over a week left for Samsung's unpacked event, Samsung has started teasing us with those unpacked videos. The first teaser video was upload a few hours ago on Samsung's Youtube channel.

There is no glimpse of the Galaxy S4 for us on the video, but one thing is worth mentioning, even Samsung knows that girls can't keep secrets (no offense meant to any of our female readers).

Ubuntu Touch ported to Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100

With the release of Ubuntu Touch images for the Nexus devices and the source code last week, we knew that ports for various devices would start coming up soon. Ubuntu touch has been ported to the Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 (please do not try to flash it on other versions).

Please note if you flash the build it will wipe ClockworkMod Recovery (or any other custom recovery you have), and you cant transfer files to the phone. so make sure you have a PC, This will also bring back the Triangle of Evil.  To re-install CM or AOSP or any other ROM, you will need to use Odin or Heimdall.

For download links and installation instructions head over to the original thread on xda developers.

Confirmed : Galaxy S IV launching on March 14th 2013

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, mark your calendars, the much awaited Samsung Galaxy S IV is launching on March 14th 2013 at 7pm EST. Samsung is handing out paper invitations for the event at MWC.

We already have an idea of what to expect in the new smartphone from Samsung from the leak over the weekend, but rest assured more leaks will pop up over the internet in the coming few days.

So, whose excited for the Galaxy S IV? I am pretty excited about the new Samsung flagship Android smartphone.

Source - engadget.

Dual Boot Kernel for Samsung Captivate

Ever wanted to dual boot your Android phone, well if you own the good old Samsung Captivate, you can now do that.

XDA recognized developer DerTeufel1980 has made this possible through his custom kernel. This is why we love XDA, the developers out there never let your phone get old enough for you to not get excited every few months.

For details, download links & instructions head over to the original thread.

Leak: Samsung Galaxy S IV (aka GT-I9500) Image & Specs

Leaks are stating to trickle in fast & steady for "The Next Big Thing" from Samsung, the Galaxy S IV (aka GT I-9500) just showed up in an image thanks to the guys over at sammobile. It won't be having Samsung's Exynos processor because of overheating issues, instead will have a Snapdragon 600.

We know it's only the boot logo but we can be pretty sure that the release is not far enough now, we would be correct in saying that this is the most awaited phone of the year for Android nerds.

The specs as per insider information obtained by sammobile are :-
- 4,99″ Full-HD SoLux Display
- Snapdragon 600 1.9 Ghz
- 2 GB RAM
- 16, 32 or 64 GB internal memory
- 13 Megapixel rear camera
- 140.1 x 71.8 x 7.7mm
- 138 gram
- Home button with touch buttons
- Plastic back with aluminum sides
- Removable battery
- Black / White
 
Source - sammobile.

Galaxy Nexus one click root method. Actually Galaxy Nexus one click everything!

Galaxy Nexus one click root methd, unlocks bootloader and installs ClockworkMod.

 

The Galaxy Nexus one click Toolkit by forum moderator and recognized developer mskip has always been the must-have tool for owners of that device. It easily unlocks the bootloader, roots the phone, and installs ClockWorkMod to get you all ready and set up for your flashing needs, and provides many other useful options.
Better yet, it was just updated to version 3.0, which does all of the aforementioned steps with one click – so, even if you’re not familiar with all that stuff but are willing to take the risk of voiding your warranty, you can now go ahead and enjoy all the custom ROM goodness the Galaxy Nexus has to offer. Should you change your mind, it also allows you to relock the bootloader and reflash the stock recovery.
Sounds good enough? Visit the forum thread, which also provides detailed tutorials and lots of FAQs to help you get started.

Thanks to all the brilliant devs over at XDA!

MIUI on your phone with out flashing a thing (well kind off)

Theme your phone with MIUI with out rooting, flashing or any of that scary stuff with 2 simple apps.


We recieved an email from someone yesterday asking if there was any way to get MIUI on their phone with out rooting or flashing anything.  The answer is NO but.....  you can get it to look pretty darn close to MIUI with a launcher and a widget.  There are other apps you can pile on to make it look alot more like MIUI but these 2 are a good starting ground.
Here are some screen shots from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G (mouthful there) using the MIUI.ADW.Launcher app and the MIUIDark Digital Weather widget from the Android Market.  No rooting or hacking nessesary and if you find you don't like the whole IOS feel you can uninstall them and go back to your stock look.  These apps work with pretty much any Android phone or tablet.

As you can see the home screen and app drawer have an iPhone look to them.  This is not everyone's cup of tea but the emailer is one of many that want to have the MIUI look and feel on their phone with out doing a little hackery.

Just a quick lesson on launchers on your phone and from the market.  If you have an HTC phone it comes with a "Sense" UI and launcher, Samsung generally has "Touch Wiz", Motorolla has "Moto Blur" and so on.  When you install a custom launcher from the market like this MIUI ADW Launcher it just pretty much covers the launcher that comes stock on your phone and gives it a whole new feel and look.  Motorolla users generally don't like Moto blur so they will put another launcher over it with Launcher Pro or like the launcher I'm writing about here.  It's all preference!  Also in a lot of cases a launcher can actually make your phone smoother.  The head writer over at our sister site Root Your Droid's main phone is a Motorolla Droid X2 and he feels that Launcher Pro makes his whole experience with that particular phone snappier and more customizable.  My main phone is the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and I personally can't stand Touch Wiz so I use a launcher by the name of ADW EX (I'll be doing a write up on both).

There's also a lot of different customizations you can do with this launcher, screen preferences, drawer settings, general behavior, UI settings and a whole bunch more.

The weather clock that is in the screen shot of my home page is a widget  from the market called MIUI Dark Digital Weather Clock (and it's free).  This widget IMo just gives it that final touch to give it a more of a MIUI ROM experience.

There you have it folks!  You can enjoy MIUI on your phone with out voiding your warranty by rooting or flashing anything.

One last thing before you go and grab this launcher.  When you first start the launcher it doesn't have an app drawer button (ala iPhone).  Just long press your home screen and press "Launcher Actions" then press "Open/Close App Drawer".  You can drag and drop it in your launcher bar and change it to any icon you want (long press the app drawer icon and edit it).

Thanks for the email!  I hope I answered your question :)

Links for these apps
MIUI ADW Launcher
MIUI Dark Digital Weather Clock widget