Kinetic scrolling remains atop of most wish lists in terms of how one would improve the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD. Seeing how well it is implemented in the Gravity twitter application makes me yearn for this functionality even more.

Good news though, for those willing to upgrade to the latest Chinese firmware (I8910UZCII1), you will be treated to kinetic scrolling in the browser. This is because it uses the newest version of the Nokia WebKit browser (7.1.13841). Check out a video of this in action after the jump and also note that the browser also offers an auto-fullscreen mode. Let’s hope this makes it to other regional updates as soon as possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly a week after Samsung released the Russian XEII1 firmware update, the company has released a new XXII1 update for Italian handsets. The similarities between both code names is not a coincidence – from what I can tell this new update (dated 7th September) is near enough identical to the Russian firmware.

I upgraded to this new firmware from IG2 yesterday and am enjoying it so far. You end up with a new 3D Task Switcher (a carousel showing opening apps) – it’s certainly not needed, but it sure looks fancy. There is also a Grid View of open apps if you prefer it to remain simple.

Other changes include a new zoom icon for the browser. You can also now zoom in/out of pictures in MediaBrowser. It’s good to know that the frustrating stop bug in the browser has also been fixed. The dial pad also sports ‘abc’, ‘def’ lettering on numbers now too.

From what I can tell, the update has made no change to the frame rate of HD video recording (you still get AAC audio though). There is also no App Store icon, despite the store launching shortly (Monday 14th September). A quick video tour of the new firmware is attached after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

A new Samsung i8910 HD firmware update is now out for Hong Kong & Russian models. The XEII1 has some quite interesting additions including a new 3D TaskSwitcher. We’ve attached a video of this in action after the break and appears to work very smoothly.

Other additions include an improved keyboard with increased spacing between keys. The browser stop bug has also been fixed. We have attached a changelog after the break that includes a number of other changes. Sounds like some worthwhile additions and we look forward to this being rolled in other regions soon. Read the rest of this entry »

We only recently upgraded our i8910 Omnia HD to the newer IG2 firmware. We didn’t upgrade as soon as we got the handset as we wanted to find out about the limitations of the current firmware before moving on. One of these limitations was AMR audio when recording video. The newer IG2 firmware upgrades this to AAC audio with a higher sampling rate.

To determine what the real-world difference might be, we shot a couple of videos using near-enough identical shooting conditions. We used one of my child’s toys, the singing lobster, to try and show off any improvements using IG2. You can check out both 30-second videos below , to hear the difference. 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!

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 »

It appears a fix for the much-maligned video recording issue on the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD may be on its way. If you remember, Samsung is currently using the AMR audio codec, which means that when recording video the sound quality is quite poor. It has been the biggest criticism that the phone has received since its launch.

Samsung Italia has now given an update on its Facebook page that is likely to please both current and prospective i8910 owners. It is saying that two updates are planned in the coming weeks. The first update will be released next week and will improve the general performance of the phone. The second update will replace the AMR codec with AAC when recording video at HD 720p resolutions. This particular update is planned for release in a fortnight’s time.

We would still be cautious until we hear it from a more official source, especially as Samsung always insisted that due to the sheer data being processed at 720p, a more enhanced audio codec wasn’t feasible. Also, it’s unknown at this stage whether AAC is coming to lower-resolution video recording such as VGA as well. So far, there is no confirmation on the Samsung Innovator boards, but fingers crossed this much needed update is on the way.

Thanks KILLERluki!

A number of Orange Samsung i8910 Omnia HD users have been looking to try and debrand the phone, to get rid of all the Orange bloatware on the phone. Thankfully, it looks like a working solution has been found – the only negative appears to be is that it will cost you €15 to download the necessary files from share4gsm (a small price to pay considering the price of the phone though).

A site is also up and running called Debrandi8910 which details the step-by-step requirements in which to go about the debranding. Remember, this is only a debranding, it will not unlock your phone and allow it to be used on other networks. However, it will upgrade you to the latest XXIE6 firmware. Once debranded users see the following benefits:

• Phone feels faster and slicker
• Widgets that were missing are now back, including Facebook and Youtube
• BBC i-player comes pre-installed
• Support for Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Myspace pre-installed
• Anti shake setting in camera now saves ok

The main negative seems to be that the firmware flashes into the Polish language to start with, so you need to remember where to change the language. Also, remember to backup everything before rebranding. Also, this only works in Windows XP and NOT Vista. Check out the debranding video tutorial after the break.

Update: Neil W from Debrandi8910 got in touch to say that it is offering the files needed to debrand the Samsung i8910 HD for just £5. Read the rest of this entry »

There has been much furore over the audio codec used whilst video recording. The AMR-NB codec at an 8,000Hz sampling rate means that HD video recording is combined with sub-standard sound quality. Samsung has said that it is using the AMR codec as it provides the best balance when recording HD video, without stressing the OMAP3 CPU too heavily. Whilst this is understandable, it is hard to understand why the phone uses this same AMR codec when recording at lower resolutions.

Up until now, Samsung has not communicated clearly whether a fix for this is on the agenda. Some of the comments made in the Samsung Innovator forum (which is meant to be for developers) have been open to interpretation. However, it seems that this audio problem is now being “escalated” to a number of divisions within Samsung, following complaints.

Ben, who is a Samsung developer on the Innovator forum, has confirmed that the AAC issue has been escalated “through the development team to understand the problem, through the engineering organisation to try to understand whether this is a defect or is by design, escalated through the management side to alert them to the need to plan for firmware updates, escalated through the management side to alert them to the damage this issue is causing.”

Now, this doesn’t mean a fix is definitely on the way. After all, the Samsung INNOV8 i8510 uses the same AMR codec and this has never been upgraded in firmware updates up until now. However, it certainly is encouraging that Samsung is starting to listen to its consumers. Fingers crossed, that an update is planned and hopefully not too far away.

Despite heavy criticism, Samsung has once again confirmed that it will stick to its choice of the AMR-Narrow Band audio codec when video recording. A spokesman on the Innovator forum said that there is currently no plan to upgrade this audio to the AAC codec in future firmware releases.

He also confirmed that the audio codec used in the latest firmware (XXIE4) will use the same AMR-NB codec when video recording. Interestingly, when using the voice recorder, the AAC codec is available. This news is a big shame, especially as it sounds like Samsung doesn’t even have this issue on its agenda to ‘fix’. It looks like the AMR codec for video recording is here to stay.

Thanks scoopex!

Samsung has released a new version of its firmware for the i8910 Omnia HD smartphone. We believe that this new XXIE4 firmware is only for unbranded handsets only, so UK Orange users won’t be able to try it out (although please let us know if it works!) Heading over to the Samsung Innovator dev-site is greeted by the following message:

Before anyone gets too excited, we have been told that this new firmware version does not update the audio codec, it still runs the AMR codec unfortunately. The XXIE1 firmware is currently running on unbranded sim-free i8910 HD handsets.

We haven’t been made aware as to what changes this firmware offers over the current Orange version, but hopefully this should be made clear soon. The Orange handsets are using firmware (I8910XXIDD) dated from 6th May while this new I8910XXIE4 firmware is dated 18th May 2009.

Update: We have a screengrab of the new firmware running on the i8910 HD. Click through for a larger image.

Update 2: It looks like that Samsung has taken down the i8910 HD firmware from the developer site, whilst it was up this morning. No idea why , hopefully we’ll find out soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have already seen a number of photos showing the Orange branded Samsung i8910 Omnia HD handset in all its glory. We now thought we’d share some photos as to what the actual Orange branded user interface looks like courtesy of SOHD forum user scoopex. From the screengrabs that we’ve seen the Orange branding doesn’t look too bad.

Interestingly, one screengrab shows the firmware version that is currently being used in Orange handsets. The phone is using the I8910ORAIE2 customised Orange firmware, which is based on the I8910BVIE2 software version. The date of this firmware is from 6th May 2009, it will be interesting to see how proactive Samsung will be in providing firmware updates for the phone. I do wonder whether the sim-free handsets will come with a different software version compared to the current I8910BVIE2 when it is launched next month. Check out all of the screengrabs after the break. Read the rest of this entry »