Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update now rolling out for Samsung Galaxy S III

Great news for Galaxy S3 (i9300, Int version) owners,

according to Sammobile, Samsung has started rolling out official Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for Samsung Galaxy S3 International version (i9300), which probably every S3 owner has been waiting more and less patiently a couple of months already.

According to earlier mentioned article, changelog for MJ9 is worth of mentioning, in other words here are changes and improvements listed briefly:

• GALAXY GEAR Support
• TRIM Support (Makes the device much faster)
• ANT+ Support
• Core UI elements updated to the ones on the Galaxy S4 (Galaxy S4′s theme all over)
• New Samsung Keyboard
• GPU drivers have been updated (Higher GPU benchmark scores)
• New Lockscreen: Multiple Widgets, improved ripple effect than Android 4.1.2, ability to change clock size and set a personal message
• New Screen modes (From S4): Adapt Display and Professional Photo
• Daydream
• Driving mode
• Actionable notifications
• Move-to-SD-card feature
• New Camera mode : Sound and Shot
• New Additions in Notification Centre
• Completely revamped Settings UI (Tabbed interface – Exactly like the Galaxy S4)
• Implementation of Voice controls (Let’s you control various parts of the phone using voice commands – Galaxy S4 feature)
• New Samsung Apps: Calculator, Clock, Contacts, Gallery, Music
• Full screen Samsung apps
• New S-Voice (from Galaxy S4)

In my case I'm waiting new build for my favorite custom ROM - Android Revolution HD which is probably more well known as ARHD. According to its developer, new build is coming out soon. Now I've to just wait it patiently due not going to change from ARHD to another custom ROM just because would be already existing new build based on Samsung's latest 4.3 JB update.

In nutshell: I'm going to wait for ARHD's next build, then make fresh install through factory reset and manually install all needed applications and configure all required settings. After that I'll post here some thoughts and personal user experience to share knowledge among my fellow readers.

Stay tuned!

Samsung's 4.2.2 XXUFME7 leak through ARHD 32.0

After long consideration (and reading through ARHD's official XDA thread) I decided give a try for latest Samsung's leaked 4.2.2 (XXUFME7) which was base of Android Revolution HD 32.0.

So I did following:

1. took all necessary backups from internal and external memory (inc. contacts, sms and EFS)
2. flashed mega wipe tool (by zoot1, xda developer) in recovery
3. flashed ARHD 32.0 in recovery
   -inside AROMA: wipe, selected GAPPS, no Samsung apps, no tweaks, recommended superuser app
4. fixed permissions and restarted phone

Conclusions

After a bit more than one week lasting testing it seems to be that latest leak works just fine in daily basis. Haven't found any major (or even minor) bugs or other relevant issues, like FC's, hanging etc. Unfortunately battery duration has decreased when compared to latest official Samsung's build which is 4.1.2 XXEMF1.

Official 4.2 coming ahead

According to several Android interested sites, Samsung would release official 4.2 build for i9300 during July-August 2013 but who knows if it's all about rumors or is there truth behind those releases.

Dualboot with newest Siyah kernel

Greetings folks,

there've been a while since my previous post. Whoever there haven't been going on that much during past months. In other words it all about updating ARHD (Android Revolution HD) custom ROM to latest available version.

But turning point appeared since kernel developer gokhanmoral released newest Siyah custom kernel which provided dualboot utility allowing to install two different ROM to mobile. In my case that provided me to use newest Android 4.2.2 and the most stable Sammy 4.1.2 in dual boot. Practically it means that I use newest AOKP custom ROM (Android 4.2.2) on daily basis unless I want to use my camera, I'll boot my phone ARHD custom ROM.

Using dualboot utility is going to be a temporary choice if it's possible to assume that after Samsung release official 4.2.x source, developers in XDA are able to compile even more stable 4.2.x custom ROMs' which would more than enough for everyday use.

Ps. I'll update this post later by providing more information about Siyah custom kernel (inc. explanation of dualboot utility) and quick glance for AOKP custom ROM.

Rollback to ARHD

Hola again,

even though I praised newest CM 10.1 Nightly custom ROM more than a lot, after testing for a while, I've discovered a few issues which were bugging me. To be more specific, mainly it was all about "touch to focus issues with enabled flashlight". In real life this means when I use "touch to focus" ability, camera fails to work. According to CM developers this is reason from lack of official source.

Summarum: if I want to return to use CM 10.1 (Android 4.2.1) with my Galaxy S3, I've to wait for Samsung release of 4.2.x base. Currently Samsung reveals new updates quite often, but not yet 4.2. Anyway Samsung hasn't announced anything official about 4.2 release, so only option is to wait patiently.

New year means new era - Please welcome Cyanogenmod

Hola folks!

It's been time since last post in my Android deving blog. After clearing my thoughts, I finally decided to give try for Cyanogenmod, to be more specific newest version CM 10.1. That was the best choice in my opinion even though it wasn't so called stable build.

Moving from thoughts to action

So here comes what I really did via step-by-step procedure:

1. Back'd up current ROM (ARHD 19.0) via CWM
2. Downloaded official CM 10.1 Nightly build (build Jan 22nd) and newest Google Apps (known as GAPPS)
3. Booted phone to CWM
4. Did full wipe (wipe data, cache and dalvik cache)
5. Installed first CM 10.1 and then GAPPS
6. Fixed permissions
7. Finally did reboot

Boot went fine, saw fancy CM logo and waited for a while that fresh install completed to desktop.

First thoughts of CM 10.1

After having first glance of the entire view, CM 10.1 looked pretty much same when compared to my previous experience of CM during my earlier HTC deving times. As already pointed out earlier in this blog, my first Android phone was HTC Desire Z which had Mimicry custom ROM (based on CM repo and 4.0.4 base).

I'm more than glad that currently CM dev team has included ROM auto update, which makes updating CM Nightly much more easier. In other words just connect to Wi-Fi, go to settings and search new updates, download possible update and install it. Hitting install basically means that CM boots automatically to CWM, flashes newest update and reboot back to business. I would say that is a nice user-friendly addon because new updates comes every day, that's what Nightly version is all about.

Current thoughts of CM 10.1

Currently running newest CM 10.1 Nightly (cm-10.1-20130125-NIGHTLY-i9300) with CM own kernel. So far I've been satisfied it and haven't been thinking about returning to ARHD even though it's also worth of mention custom ROM based on stock Sammy 4.1.2 (XXEMA1).

Haven't installed any mods or tweaks, only installed custom icon pack to make homescreen more personal based on my interest. Take a look my current view of modified homescreen.

Personally modified homescreen of CM 10.1 Nightly.