Official Gingerbread for the Captivate?

[mty msi]

Took only about 10 minutes to update, didn't lose anything. Having used it for maybe 5 minutes before this post I'd say it's considerably quicker, enough that you immediately notice it and the colors seem much sharper. Kind of thing that if you didn't update you'd never realize the difference. A few days ago I was prepared to wait for my upgrade & ICS but I'm glad we finally got GB.

My understanding of the dual & upcoming quad core phones is they use much less power (especially the quadcores) so you have a lot longer battery life. For that reason alone I'm looking forward to a new phone. That and 4G/LTE as I tether to my laptop for business purposes.

 

[fldude99]

I'm not sure there are so many bugs.The only one I'm really aware of is the tethering message and that doesn't seem to happen to everyone.

Maybe so, but I really would rather not lose root. What does gingerbread bring to the table though? I must be missing something.

 

[mty msi]

GB is much faster than Froyo. On Froyo my emails took a long time to open, on GB they open instantly. There is literally no comparison. The colors are noticeably more vibrant too and I use a fingerprint smudge proof screen protector which degrades the native screen's quality but I can still easily see the difference. I use my phone for business rather than entertainment so I can't comment on those aspects but I'd have to believe no matter what you're doing the increased GB speed would be very noticeable.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Maybe so, but I really would rather not lose root. What does gingerbread bring to the table though? I must be missing something.

This is just a quick list from the Samsung page:

Release Notes
Android Gingerbread Highlights
New User Features

Download Management.
Intuitive Text Input.
New layout for larger fonts and easy inputs
Word prediction. Multi-touch for numerical input (Shift + Numbers)
One-touch Word Selection and Copy/Past

UI Improvements

Fixed Top-menu in Gmail.
Voice Search added into the search categories.
Vertical play mode added for YouTube.

New Developer Features

Enhancements for Game.
3D Graphic driver updates
Additional Khronos standard such as OpenSL ES, EGL for better multimedia performance
Concurrent Garbage Collector technology imbedded to reduce lags in playing games

From here: SAMSUNG

I've also heard it corrected some issues with the GPS. I don't use this GPS, I have one installed in my car, but the GPS on my phone is used for a weather app I have. Since I've upgraded to GB, I always have the correct location on my weather app when I didn't always before.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Also one of the biggest things, IMO, is tons of people are saying the battery life performance is so much better.

 

[skulldroid67]

Although I have seen the tethering pop up twice it's only happened as I've been disconnecting the device from my laptop. Aside from that no bugs here...at least none that I've discovered. I think one of the best perks has been the ability to access apps from "unknown sources" outside of the android market.

Prior to the update there was no way to download Amazon's Android App store or apps from other sources without rooting. So updating your device to 2.3 GB does give you this nice little perk which I thought was cool and worth mentioning.

 

[JackImageX]

I decided to update my wife's phone (I handed this phone down to my wife and have an HTC Inspire for myself). I did have some problems but was able to overcome them.

When I first tried to update the Captivate, I kept getting an error where the machine would not recognize the Captivate when plugged into USB. Since I had other drivers installed from when I had rooted the device before, I figured this was the issue. I plugged the Captivate into another PC and the problem was resolved.

Once I started to update the Captivate, I was called away from the PC and as I was walking away, the USB cable came unplugged - in the middle of the upgrade. It "killed" the phone. Luckily, Kies gives you an option to recover the phone (Nice add by Samsung). I followed their simple instructions and was able to upgrade the phone without a problem.

Before the upgrade, the Captivate was slow. My wife would call me and I wouldn't be able to hear her or the phone would just lock up in the middle of a call. After the upgrade, the phone is like a new phone. It works great. It doesn't lock up. There's no lag.

I did see the tethering error pop up when connected via USB.

I'd say it's a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I've seen the tethering error 3 times today and they only way mine has been plugged up is to the wall. Also, I don't have tethering turned on, have not ever tethered on this phone.

I'm going to be doing a live chat with Samsung about the tethering issue in the next few days.

 

[rootNtoot]

GB is much faster than Froyo. On Froyo my emails took a long time to open, on GB they open instantly. There is literally no comparison. The colors are noticeably more vibrant too and I use a fingerprint smudge proof screen protector which degrades the native screen's quality but I can still easily see the difference. I use my phone for business rather than entertainment so I can't comment on those aspects but I'd have to believe no matter what you're doing the increased GB speed would be very noticeable.

My Quadrant score went from 980 on 2.2 to 1330 on 2.3

 

[fldude99]

So has anyone been able to root the stock GB?

 

[mty msi]

I've had the tethering error numerous times today while the phone was not connected to anything. So far I'm not seeing any improvement in battery life, seems the same to me. I don't use the GPS much but to test it today it is so accurate it showed me moving in my condo (from one end to the other) using WiFi & location sensors.

Anybody know how to enable Street View when using Google Maps?

Does GB/Captivate support A2DP?

 

[fldude99]

I'm not interested in this upgrade until it is easily rooted

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Did they fix the Market or is this something good from Gingerbread?

I had to do a reset to get rid of that tethering error message after the GB update. I knew my paid apps would be listed there under "my apps" but now my free apps are also. I know they are SUPPOSED to be there, but that wasn't the case before and I didn't know if that was a market issue or an android issue.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Well almost all, just a couple of small things not there, like Zedge.

 

[G.murph]

Is anyone else's phone randomly shutting off? Twice this week I have pressed the power button to check my phone, nothing happens. So I pressed the button 3-4 times to make sure it wasn't the button getting stuck and then the phone turns on, even though I had just used it 10 minutes earlier and has over 90% battery.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Is anyone else's phone randomly shutting off? Twice this week I have pressed the power button to check my phone, nothing happens. So I pressed the button 3-4 times to make sure it wasn't the button getting stuck and then the phone turns on, even though I had just used it 10 minutes earlier and has over 90% battery.

Mine has done that a few times in the past. There is a thread somewhere here about that happening. Supposedly it was just with phones made before a certain time under certain IMEI numbers. Mines was not one of those and it hasn't done it again since I upgraded to GB.

I would find it generally happened when mine was charging at night and the batter was full. I'm going to watch mine closely and if it does it one more time, I'm going to have AT&T switch my phone. AT&T was aware of this issue with the earlier phones and switching them with no problem.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Here is the AT&T release. I think this is happening some still, but like I said, not sure if this is a software or hardware issue now. BTW, my phone was manufactured way after what they referenced in the memo below.

Date Published: December 20, 2010
Manufacturer(s): Samsung
Model(s): i897 (Captivate)
Issue Type: Informational

Issue Summary

AT&T and Samsung are working together on a power off issue on the Samsung i897 Captivate. There is a small group of Samsung i897 Captivate devices which may experience power off when in standby mode. All devices manufactured after November 6, 2010 should not have this issue. Most customers are not expected to see an issue, however the following IMEI range could potentially have the issue and AT&T and Samsung want to ensure these customers have the best possible experience and quickly address customer care inquiries should they arise:

IMEIs manufactured before November 6, 2010: 352982040855394 or lower - 5393, 5392, etc.

If customers reports that their device is powering off when in standby mode please assist them with exchanging their device.

SKU: 65187

Critical Must Know/Must Do

Customer/Embedded Base: If a customer has the power off issue when in standby mode please exchange their device. Customers with the launch software version i897UCJF6 are more apt to have the standby power off issue. Meanwhile customers that have devices manufactured after November 6, 2010 should have software version i897UCJH7 which fixes the Power Cycling related to SW issues.
Existing Product: All devices that were manufactured before November 6, 2010 have the potential to be affected.
New Product: Devices manufactured after November 6, 2010 should not experience this issue.
Distribution Center: No action necessary.
Channel Instructions

Company Owned Retail: Continue to sell through existing inventory. If a customer has the power off issue when in standby mode please exchange their device.
Dealers: No action necessary.
National Retail: No action necessary.
Direct Fulfillment: Continue to sell through existing inventory. If a customer has the power off issue when in standby mode please exchange their device.
Customer Returns and Exchanges: Standard under 30-day returns are in effect for this issue.
Accountability/Responsibility

Distribution Centers: No action necessary.
Channels/Markets: Adhere to Standard Operating Procedures.
Returns Processing Center: Adhere to Standard Returns Processes.
Supply Chain: Please send questions or comments to SCM Product Advisory.

**If your Captivate has already been exchanged at your local device support center ignore the last 4 digits as the units the device support center gives you in exchange are not known to have this defect**

 

[stew1411]

I'm not interested in this upgrade until it is easily rooted

It is easily rooted. All you have to do is install a kernel that includes root. I installed Samurai kernel and root was included. Then all you do is install superuser from the market.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

 

[G.murph]

Thank you guys for the update about the random shut-offs. I do remember seeing that before. My phone does have a much lower IEMI than that (got it in Sept 2010), but I've never had the shut-off issue until last week. Strange. I wonder if they would still exchange it over a year after that message. I'm well out of my warranty at this point.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I would think they would exchange it, that memo looks like "exchange it, no questions asked" to me.