Fring has released version 3.40 of its application, which now includes support for Samsung Symbian handsets. The changelog for this version includes unification hints, user profiles and big fixes. You can download fring for your i8910 here.

fring is a peer-to-peer Mobile VoIP based telephony network. It enables users to talk and chat using Skype, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN Messenger / Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and SIP providers.

Digia recently launched its @Web browser for S60 5th Edition mobile handsets. This (obviously) includes the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD along with other devices such as the Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97.

The i8910 HD is a wonderful handset but the browsing experience is one area that hasn’t been up to par in my opinion. The standard browser feels sluggish with pages taking a long time to render. Also, my normal mobile browser of choice, Opera, crashes often due to Java issues.

Digia’s @Web browser is said to be “fully finger touch controllable”, including full finger touch UI. It also includes direct page control with finger, multiple browser windows, url auto-complete and automatic full screen browsing.

It’s worth noting though that it uses the WebKit engine built into the S60 handset. What this means is that it uses the same rendering engine as the standard browser but simply adds an UI layer on top. Therefore, you still won’t get kinetic scrolling on your i8910. The S60 5th Edition version is currently in beta. For those wanting to give it a try, it is available to download here.

I haven’t tested it myself yet, but have heard that it can be buggy. Also, as it relies on the standard browser, some reports say that is slower. Have you tried it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

For anyone that has looked to generate a certificate key for their Samsung i8910 Omnia HD, the main method up until now has been to submit a request to the Chinese OPDA website. This can be quite problematic to navigate, especially for most westerners.

We therefore thought we’d highlight a new website recently launched called S60Certkey that promises to do the same but in a much more user friendly way and in English! You can check out the site here. It’s already seen quite significant growth since its 1st August launch with 2,850 members and counting.

Samsung is looking to address the low number of applications for its handsets by launching its Application Store in September. The Samsung App Store is already being trialled in UK & Germany but is expected to launch across Europe next month. Hopefully, this means that searching for Samsung i8910 Omnia HD apps will become easier than current methods.

To gear up for this launch, it recently launched the Application Seller Site portal. This is a channel to encourage developers to offer both Symbian and Windows-based apps for Samsung handsets. Developers can sign up for membership of the new site for $1. As they register relevant apps or content, including suggested price and target markets, their software is filtered through a back end system and then promoted for download via the app store site.

Phone widgets are becoming ever more popular on handsets. Samsung is encouraging widget support for the i8910 Omnia HD handset through a competition that we’ve discussed previously. The great thing about it, is that anyone can enter.

Whilst some of you may wonder how on earth you go about creating one, All About Symbian has created quite a handy guide. It covers the simplest form of a widget, the shortcut. You can use one as shortcut to your favourite web site or online service (like Gravity of Profimail). I haven’t tried it myself yet (I’m still working myself around the phone), but would love to hear if any of you have got this working!

Update: Enterprising forum member warpfive has created a widget for this website. Click here for more details!

Now that the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD has finally found its way into reviewer’s arms, it looks like we may finally start to see some final reviews of Samsung’s wonder handset. Following two preview articles on the i8910, GSMArena has finally released its full review.

They confirmed that the delay was due to the fact that Samsung froze production of the i8910 shortly after its release on carriers at the end of May due to software problems. It claims that the handset is now available worldwide with “all bugs fixed”.

Their overall verdict was certainly a positive one, calling it “one of the best equipped handsets we’ve ever had the chance to review.” It refers to the AMOLED screen as “one of the top units in the touchscreen realm.” They were pleased with the HD camcorder output (given the improvement in audio), although they felt there was room for improvement with the framerate.

The review includes a number of camera and video samples. I couldn’t see exactly what firmware was being used, but it would be interesting to know. You can check out their full review here.

Okay, so I know that a lot of you have the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD already and I know that many of you have seen quite a few i8910 unboxing videos too, but I couldn’t resist throwing mine into the ring too! We put together a quick video that shows us unboxing the handset and we’ve also included some pictures of the whole thing too.

The i8910 HD we were sent was the Italian version, so the box included a European plug and Italian manuals, but this is not too much of an issue. I was a bit upset not to find the key-ring phone stand in the box, this was included in the Orange UK boxes. Initial impressions of the phone are very positive and it’s certainly not as tall as we’d come to believe. We’re still at the very early stages of playing around with the handset, so expect some more useful updates going forward. In the mean time check out our unboxing video and pictures after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

After a longer than expected wait, the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD handset has finally arrived at SOHD HQ. It has been a frustrating time watching everyone get hands-on with the phone, whilst we have sat patiently on the sidelines rearing to get involved. However, bygones are bygones and we can’t wait to get up to speed with all that the phone can do and give you our impressions.

It’s worth noting that some sites have suggested that the UK sim-free units should now be available. However, our unit, along with all of the other Ambassador’s ones, are the Italian versions. The box is in English but it boots up initially in Italian and also has a European charger. I don’t know whether this means that the proper UK units are still delayed or not, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Read the rest of this entry »

There has been no hiding from the fact that the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD has not been as widely available as one would expect at this stage. Remember, this is a handset that was released in the UK around the middle of May. Here we are, two months later and sim-free handsets are still hard to come by (well in the UK at least).

There may be a valid reason for this. According to GSMArena, the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD will effectively get a re-launch on 1st August selling for €540. They go on to say that mass production was stopped shortly after the soft launch “for some i-dotting and t-crossing to take place”.

Now exactly what that means is anyone’s guess. Could Samsung have taken the phone back to the drawing board for some (minor) internal changes? Or are the changes all related to firmware? We recently saw the IG2 firmware release that has enabled AAC audio when using video recording. That particular firmware is currently localised to the Italian market, but maybe Samsung are including a version of this to ship in all handsets?

At this moment in time, one can only guess what exactly Samsung wanted to fix before the handset received wider availability. However, it is interesting that some of the major mobile phone websites out there (like GSMArena and All About Symbian) refuse to publish reviews until they get hands-on with final sim-free i8910 HD handsets.

We received an email from Samsung PR yesterday apologising for the delay in sending out handsets to Omnia HD Ambassadors. They attributed the delay to the following: “The delay has occurred because of an update to the software being used, and Samsung want to ensure that you have the newest software during your use of the handset.” This is likely to mean that the bug squashing is related to software rather than hardware changes. After all, how much of an uproar from the early adopters would there be, if newer versions of the phone had some ‘enhanced’ features. Anyway, there’s not too long to find out now. We should be getting our handset within the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed!)

Thanks box360!

Cypress has announced that it is the company behind the 3.7-inch capacitive AMOLED display of the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD. According to the press release, “Samsung selected the TrueTouch solution based on its fast response time, gesture support and character recognition capabilities that enable the I8910’s outstanding multimedia player and fast internet browsing.” Given the wide acclaim the screen has garnered, it seems like Cypress has done a pretty good job.

Cypress’ role in the i8910 doesn’t end there. The handset also uses the Cypress MoBL dual-port as an interconnect between the application and baseband processors. This enables data to be exchanged efficiently with each subsystem being self-contained.

This is the firmware fix that everyone’s been waiting for. Samsung Italy has announced that a new firmware update has been released that enables AAC audio when video recording. The I8910XXIG2 update promises to replace the poor quality AMR audio with AAC when video recording at 720p HD resolutions. Whilst the AAC-fix is only included for HD video recording, hopefully the lower resolutions (D1, VGA) will get the same fix in future firmware updates. The update also adds a couple of games (Poker and Brain Challenge).

Before you all rush off to update your firmware, it’s worth noting that you will need Italian firmware on your phone before attempting the update. You will also need PC Studio 7 and you need to make sure that the sim-card is inside the phone when attempting the upgrade.

We haven’t seen an official changelog yet, but will keep you updated as soon as we do. There’s no news when other regions will get the update, but hopefully it can’t be too far away. There are already a number of YouTube videos from Italian users who are giving examples of the new audio fix. Check out one such example after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you looking to purchase a sim-free i8910 Omnia HD in the UK, you may want to head over to Pixmania. They are selling the handset for a bargain-tastic price of just £399 excluding delivery, by far the cheapest price I’ve seen it. The i8910 HD is currently in stock on their website.

As a guide, Play.com has the handset listed for £529.99 whilst Expansys are pricing it at £599.99. However, you’d better hurry as the deal will only last until 11pm Monday 6th July, judging by the timer that’s running on the product page.

I’ve personally not used Pixmania before and have heard mixed reviews about their service. The listing points to the phone running Windows Mobile 6.1, so it’s not the most up to date product page. Also, the phone may not be official UK specification as often Pixmania sources some stock from within mainland Europe. However, for that price, it’s surely worth considering.

Thanks andyd!

Our UK readers will probably have heard of Tim Lovejoy, who used to present Soccer AM and now is the anchorman for the Channelbee website. He recently went hands-on with the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD and you can watch his humorous tour of the phone here.

Channelbee is also giving you the chance to win the Samsung i8910 HD. All you have to do is create some original video content and upload your video onto the Channelbee website. The best one walks away with an i8910 handset. You’d better get cracking though as the closing date is Monday morning!

Nokia Messaging is a service that allows users to set up, access and use their email including a push service. Despite operating on a number of S60 devices, Nokia only supports its own handsets for this service. However, HDBlog.it is reporting that it has managed to get Nokia Messaging v10.00.14 working on a Samsung i8910 Omnia HD handset (which of course runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition).

There is a slight caveat though, you need to install the HelloOX v1.03 hack to get Nokia Messaging to work. Then you need to sign up to the Nokia Messaging service online to create an account. The program link to download will then be sent via SMS to the handset. Once you’ve installed the program and entered the password and followed the setup instructions, you will have access to your mail including push functionality.

Judging by the pictures on the HDBlog.it site, it appeared to work flawlessly once working. Now all we need is a widget that shows emails on the homescreen as seen in the Nokia N97. Hopefully, that can’t be too far away either. Has anyone managed to get this working yet? We’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

As expected, Samsung is now shipping the sim-free version of the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD in the UK. Online retailer Play.com has already started to ship pre-orders of the 8GB version SKU that costs £529.99. The phone is in stock with the retailer dispatching the phone “within 4-5 days”. Expansys is not expecting stock for a further six days.

We were promised to get our phone this week, but we’re not too surprised to be still waiting. At this rate, all of the Samsung Omnia HD ‘Ambassadors’ will be the last ones to get hands-on with the phone!

Thanks OHDFanatic and warpfive!