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questions from a potential new user

pathsny

Lurker
Aug 3, 2010
8
0
Hi
I've never owned a smart phone before, but I'm planning to buy the new Galaxy S, but I have some questions. So it would be great if someone would be able to help me with these
1) As someone who buys the phone fresh, what are the things I must do asap to improve my experience? (like maybe deleting default apps, I see people talking about rooting it for some purpose, intalling fixes for lag etc)
2) over time if samsung loses interest in this phone, is it possible to install the base android OS, or am I always dependent on a Samsung update?
3) does this phone have built in speakers? Are they stereo? and are there any external speakers it works with?
4) this might be a silly question, but it has wifi right? I found atleast one site suggesting that it didnt
5) since it's been a while now, has anyone noticed any significant issues since?

thanks
 
1) As someone who buys the phone fresh, what are the things I must do asap to improve my experience? (like maybe deleting default apps, I see people talking about rooting it for some purpose, intalling fixes for lag etc)

Quite a few things can help your user experience right off the bat. I'd get LauncherPro on there ASAP to replace TouchWiz, pony up for the plus version, you'll get the LauncherPro widgets then, which are nice additions (especially the calender widget from the latest update). In the UI improvement stakes I also like Power Strip (Quick Desk is a similar free alternative), and Widget Locker.

I'd probably update the firmware - Paul OBrian's Modaco ROMs are a good place to start (they come with Root and allow you to remove Samsung bloatware in the online ROM kitchen). His current latest one still requires you to flash a stock firmware with Odin first. XDA developers and the Modaco forum can help you out with all of this.

Once you're Rooted you can install Titanium Backup and the Clockworkmod recovery, both of which will come in handy if you end up flashing your phone as much as the rest of us.

Apply Mimocan's SD fix to address the lag issues. Again, XDA and Modaco are your friends there.

Make sure you get the latest version of Kies on your computer if you intend to use Kies, early reports suggest its a little easier to connect to than previous versions.

Get a Nokia TV Out cable from Ebay for a couple of dollars (+/- a Zeemote and the GamePro drivers :))

2) over time if samsung loses interest in this phone, is it possible to install the base android OS, or am I always dependent on a Samsung update?

The Cyanogenmod Team have announced support for the Galaxy S, so there is a good chance that we won't be reliant on Samsung for future Android OS updates. I don't think it'll ever be possible to just install stock vanilla Android though.

3) does this phone have built in speakers? Are they stereo? and are there any external speakers it works with?

It has a mono speaker, its OK, far better than say the Desire or Nexus One, but still not brilliant. Any external speaker than can connect to a 3.5mm jack should work fine, there is the option for bluetooth connection too, and USB connection if the speaker supports it.

4) this might be a silly question, but it has wifi right? I found atleast one site suggesting that it didnt

It has WiFi :)

5) since it's been a while now, has anyone noticed any significant issues since?

The main issue for people is the lagging, but there are fixes available. Behind that issue lots of people are having issues with the GPS, mine has been fine, but it certainly seems to a more widespread, rather than sporadic, issue.


You're welcome :)

If this post helped please hit the thanks button!

...and for what its worth, if you want to get along here then getting pushy about your questions not being answered ASAP is probably not the best policy. This isn't a Samsung helpdesk, nobody here is under any obligation to help you, we're volunteering our own time here...
 
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what, are the questions that obscure?

No, in fact, just the opposite, the answers are all over these forums and I bet some folks just were waiting for you to read the subject lines of the 1st two pages of topics to have the majority of the questions answered.

I don't really answer folks who can't take some of their own time to look for answers first, my time is just as important as yours.

NZtech took a great deal of time to answer you as well, you should hit the thank you button to thank him.
 
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hmm, then do you think it makes sense to sticky these? You're right that I did find some of these answers, but regarding a list of "must do's" I couldnt quite find a single list (which makes sense as this is a forum filled with experts). So to someone like me coming from a noob perspective, it's almost bewildering. The list of things to do of the bat is awesome!
 
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Quite a few things can help your user experience right off the bat. I'd get LauncherPro on there ASAP to replace TouchWiz, pony up for the plus version, you'll get the LauncherPro widgets then, which are nice additions (especially the calender widget from the latest update). In the UI improvement stakes I also like Power Strip (Quick Desk is a similar free alternative), and Widget Locker.

I'm interested in this because I am frustrated by the poor syncing and inability to default to adding events to Google Calendar with the default calendar app. Tell me, does the LauncherPro software overcome this problem, or is there another good calendar app I could use which syncs well with Google Calendar?

By the way, great info for a newbie so thanks.
 
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