Database Users

i-317 (or other carriers' GN2) radio + N7100 firmware?

So, I'm looking at selling my Note I and getting a Note II. I did not get AT&T's version for some reasons, which is non-existent on the current AT&T's Note II:
No branding in the front - props to AT&T and Samsung's design of such a thin bezel!
No hardware degradation - all same chipsets + extra LTE capability
However, i317 will still come with crappy firmware controlled (and ruined) by AT&T with all those bloatwares and update holds.
My idea here is to discuss about the possibility of flashing N7100 firmware while retaining the i317 radio so we get promptly upgrade and nice&clean (relative to ATT version) the RoW could get.
This possibility should be inclusive to Note II from other carriers including Verizon/T-Mo/Sprint? I'm not sure though.
Anyone with such knowledge please kindly chime in!
Cheers
P.S., I believe I should have posted in i317 forum, but, it looks like that forum is very young with little traffic, and I believe most people interested in the new i317 still comes here for Note II information.So I posted it here and hope to get more discussion to benefit future searchers.

I am planning on getting the tmobile version and would also really like to do this. I've been agonizing over the thought of having carrier BS controlling my phone's firmware and updates.

Definitely. I could think only about good things if we could use a carrier subsidized phone with non-subsidized firmware..

Galaxy S3 LTE i9305 Kitkat Official Thread

The International 4G capable twin of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9305 Model) has been completely neglected when talked about the Official Android 4.4.2 KitKat update but this will change with the latest piece of information we poses. The UK Carrier EE will be the first to provide the LTE variant of the Galaxy S3 with official KitKat update, our source provided us with the Build Number I9305XXUFNM6 that will come with this official update. The update will begin to roll out this month itself and the time frame that users on EE must expect is last week of May or Early June 2014.
We do agree that this might not be the most solid proof but seeing the things turning out positive in case of the Galaxy Note 2 and Sprint Galaxy S3 the update isn’t far away and the Galaxy S3 LTE is expected to get official KitKat anyways as it has 2GB of RAM. The features that this update will bring for the Galaxy S3 LTE will be similar to other variants, some of those are Wireless Printing, Emoji Support for Keyboard, Full Screen Apps, Improved Lock-Screen Etc. The KitKat update will also make the “now old” Galaxy S3 LTE faster by improved RAM Management it comes with. Stay tuned for Manual Update Method and Rooting solutions once the update is available.
Source : http://www.justaboutphones.com/android-4-4-kitkat-update-samsung-galaxy-s3-lte-gt-i9305/

Do you think Samsung will Unlock bootloaders and Unite all Galaxy S-whatever series??

Good evening Ladies and gents,
I'd like to vent a little, I'm sure a lot of us are fed up with the locked bootloaders on S4 models and the lack of freedom a lot of us experience, but I am curious as to see if there is a chance to "persuade" Samsung to unite all their Galaxy S-whatever products.
Galaxy S - United updates, unlocked bootloaders?
Galaxy S2 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders?
Galaxy S3 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders = already done, for like 90% of the S3 models
Galaxy S4 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders! - And I'm sure many demand their rightfully bought freedom that's damn well worth the 700 dollars!
Galaxy S5 - United updates, as far as I know, the S5 bootloaders are unlocked.
Bootloaders a protected by a 512-bit encryption key that can take the next 1000 years to crack for all we care.
We need to go directly to the source.
Samsung has united some of their galaxy S products, the S3 for example, and for every carrier (except AT&T, and some others) the OTA updates come directly from samsung and no BS.
I have half a mind to go talk to a samsung rep before the week is over and at least try and figure out if it's at all possible to obtain an unlocked bootloader.
Most of this info is gathered from posts throughout the net, including xda here and there. I cannot guarantee any legitimacy unless it's from xda.
What are your thoughts on this?!
PS: I'm sorry if I am in the wrong section. Still new and doing tons of reading!
Please move this post if you find it to be necessary, thank you!

You know, carriers are in higher position when dealing with manufacturers so att and verizon can demand whatever they want . Samsung have to make profit through selling phones. Without dealing with the carrier, samsung wont make as much profit as selling through the carriers. Apple is a special case. People like iphone and is well known brand, and carriers want to make munnies by selling iphones. So this time Apple stands above the carrier.

ryujeff said:
You know, carriers are in higher position when dealing with manufacturers so att and verizon can demand whatever they want . Samsung have to make profit through selling phones. Without dealing with the carrier, samsung wont make as much profit as selling through the carriers. Apple is a special case. People like iphone and is well known brand, and carriers want to make munnies by selling iphones. So this time Apple stands above the carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After the S3, Samsung really stepped up their game!
The S3, S4 and S5 are excellent flag ship phones!
Quad cores at close to 2+ Gigahertz, 2 - 4 Gigs of ram, 16 gigs ROM. in addition to some really cool features that make using a mobile device a breeze!
Right now the S5 is stronger than my gaming pc, LOL!
but in all seriousness, if Samsung does the right advertisement, they won't have to rely on s**tty carriers like AT&T to lock down their devices and ruin user experience and annoy the hell out of people "because they can"

VladimirMan93 said:
Good evening Ladies and gents,
I'd like to vent a little, I'm sure a lot of us are fed up with the locked bootloaders on S4 models and the lack of freedom a lot of us experience, but I am curious as to see if there is a chance to "persuade" Samsung to unite all their Galaxy S-whatever products.
Galaxy S - United updates, unlocked bootloaders?
Galaxy S2 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders?
Galaxy S3 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders = already done, for like 90% of the S3 models
Galaxy S4 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders! - And I'm sure many demand their rightfully bought freedom that's damn well worth the 700 dollars!
Galaxy S5 - United updates, as far as I know, the S5 bootloaders are unlocked.
Bootloaders a protected by a 512-bit encryption key that can take the next 1000 years to crack for all we care.
We need to go directly to the source.
Samsung has united some of their galaxy S products, the S3 for example, and for every carrier (except AT&T, and some others) the OTA updates come directly from samsung and no BS.
I have half a mind to go talk to a samsung rep before the week is over and at least try and figure out if it's at all possible to obtain an unlocked bootloader.
Most of this info is gathered from posts throughout the net, including xda here and there. I cannot guarantee any legitimacy unless it's from xda.
What are your thoughts on this?!
PS: I'm sorry if I am in the wrong section. Still new and doing tons of reading!
Please move this post if you find it to be necessary, thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never going to happen and there are no united updates or S models. All the carriers release THEIR specific bloat and device specific updates when they feel they are ready and these are not interchangeable. AT&T and Verizon get major corporate and military contracts because of their coverage areas and being the most secure phones. As mentioned the carriers in the US dictate to Samsung their requirements. Samsung would be MORE than happy to release one update for all the phones.

VladimirMan93 said:
Good evening Ladies and gents,
I'd like to vent a little, I'm sure a lot of us are fed up with the locked bootloaders on S4 models and the lack of freedom a lot of us experience, but I am curious as to see if there is a chance to "persuade" Samsung to unite all their Galaxy S-whatever products.
Galaxy S - United updates, unlocked bootloaders?
Galaxy S2 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders?
Galaxy S3 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders = already done, for like 90% of the S3 models
Galaxy S4 - United updates, unlocked bootloaders! - And I'm sure many demand their rightfully bought freedom that's damn well worth the 700 dollars!
Galaxy S5 - United updates, as far as I know, the S5 bootloaders are unlocked.
Bootloaders a protected by a 512-bit encryption key that can take the next 1000 years to crack for all we care.
We need to go directly to the source.
Samsung has united some of their galaxy S products, the S3 for example, and for every carrier (except AT&T, and some others) the OTA updates come directly from samsung and no BS.
I have half a mind to go talk to a samsung rep before the week is over and at least try and figure out if it's at all possible to obtain an unlocked bootloader.
Most of this info is gathered from posts throughout the net, including xda here and there. I cannot guarantee any legitimacy unless it's from xda.
What are your thoughts on this?!
PS: I'm sorry if I am in the wrong section. Still new and doing tons of reading!
Please move this post if you find it to be necessary, thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not Samsung locking the bootloaders, it's at&t and Verizon that's doing it because all other variants are unlocked. Here is a list of the at&t variants with and without a locked bootloader:
Samsung Galaxy S Captivate - unlocked bootloader
Samsung Galaxy S2 - sgh-i777 - unlocked bootloader
Samsung Galaxy S3 - sgh-i747 - unlocked bootloader
Samsung Galaxy S4 - sgh-i337 - locked bootloader - LOKI bootloader bypass available for MDB and MDL firmwares.
Samsung Galaxy S5 - SM-G900A - locked bootloader
Samsung Galaxy S6 - ???? - most likely locked bootloader

Offtopic but not: Fighting the Good Fight. Nougat for our SM-G935U? no love???

seriously.. you'd think that after you pay full price for an unbranded S7 Edge from Samsung you'd get 'access' to Nougat before more carriers since hey, it's already almost vanilla android and has no carrier bloatware? nope.. zero timeline for us.. here's my latest twitter chain w/SamsungUS Support.. it's almost comical.
https://twitter.com/jimmyselix/status/830191588307501056
can others perhaps chime in on twitter to get the point across?

Samsung doesn't care because they prioritize their new flagships

true.. but i will wear them down..

Back when droid was still a fledgling OS trying to compete fiercely against a few other competitors, the issue of Android updates and their delay came up very frequently as an argument against the OS. The basic bone to pick was that Android updates would rarely be rolled out to devices in a timely fashion. The problem gets even worse when you add in carriers to the picture, as most of the big telecoms insist on every update passing through them.
So the process that already took months added on more time delay, with the end result that updates would already be outdated by the time they reached the end user. The Android update situation has slightly improved in a few regards. For one, OEM flagships do get increased attention and accelerated update timelines nowadays, as OEMs try to retain their competitive edge for a few months after the device has launched.
Further, with the introduction of Android security patches as a separate update cycle distinct from the Android OS update, OEMs can incorporate patches and fixes for security vulnerabilities without needing to update the OS for the most part. This gives them more flexibility on how they can incorporate updates as they need not wait for an OS update to be ready just to push forth security patches. With security becoming a recent focus point (not to mention a pressing issue), a dual-pronged approach has worked out very well in favor of Google and BlackBerry doing their best in pushing out regular and timely security updates to supported devices.
Samsung has been doing a good job too, for the most part. Samsung’s Mobile Security Blog is updated periodically to display the latest information such as the Security Patch Bulletin for every month, in addition to the supported devices as well as information on Samsung-specific patches too. The effort is commendable and sets a good standard for the rest of the smartphone industry to follow.
However, what does not set a good standard is Samsung’s partiality against unlocked flagship devices in the USA.
Internationally and generally speaking, all unlocked variants of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge receive regular security updates. Experiences vary with some regions and users getting updates a week or two later than others, but on a general level, most flagships devices from Samsung are on a recent Security Patch.
But in the USA, if you purchased the carrier unlocked phones in the form of the S7 G930U model or S7 Edge G935U model, security updates on your device will come long after carrier variants receive theirs. This time delay extends on to months, as it has come to light that Samsung follows a quarterly update cycle for unlocked Galaxy devices. Users are reporting that the security patch level on unlocked devices is as old as September 2016. In contrast, some US carriers have already pushed the December 2016 carrier update and are in the process of rolling out January 2017 security patches.
To make things worse, the unlocked variants were also left out of the Nougat Beta test.
A primary reason on why the update cycles between the USA variants and the International variants of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge differ is simply because of difference in internal hardware. The International S7 and S7 Edge utilize the Exynos 8890 Octa SoC, while the USA variants of the same make use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC which has support for CDMA technology that US carriers continue to use. This creates a crucial difference between the two variants, and does not allow for easy comparison of update cycles.
On the other hand, there are no internal hardware differences between the carrier variants in the USA and the unlocked variants in the USA. So their update cycles are comparable due to similarity in hardware. Carrier variants would be expected to be updated slower because of the added middleman who needs to approve the update (i.e. add their own bloatware). But as mentioned, the scenario is quite the opposite!
It is unclear why exactly Samsung chooses to push security updates slower than carrier variants, while adopting a quarterly update cycle for unlocked variants elsewhere. One explanation could be carrier pressure or a collaboration arrangement, whereby Samsung promises to provide quicker updates at the insistence of the carrier. The other line of reasoning could be the low number of unlocked devices in the USA, which predominantly sees contract-based sales of smartphones across OEMs.
Either way, the end result is the same — users who purchased the phone at full retail are at a disadvantage against users who opted for a carrier-based contract. While unlocked users can enjoy their carrier-bloat free experience, they do so while staying on older Android versions and security patches.
With the upcoming Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, we hope Samsung clarifies on its security update policy. While they won’t give us our security update, they certainly can not take away our hope.

still fighting the good fight on twitter... anyone else got the S7 Edge update for the USA SM-G935U models? OTA so far has nothing. i'm done w/samsung unlocked phones; your better off going w/a factory branded one sadly... i plan to move back to either sony or apple depending on iphone announcements (however i will be holding onto s7 edge; it is an amazing phone overal still w/microsdxc and waterproofing and headphone jack).

so.. i think it's working.. finally are going to try to get monthly security updates to unlocked models of S7.. feel free to join the fight.. i will not linger!!
http://wccftech.com/samsung-monthly-security-updates-nougat-unlocked-galaxy-s7/

you rock! and get it!
Desterbance said:
Back when droid was still a fledgling OS trying to compete fiercely against a few other competitors, the issue of Android updates and their delay came up very frequently as an argument against the OS. The basic bone to pick was that Android updates would rarely be rolled out to devices in a timely fashion. The problem gets even worse when you add in carriers to the picture, as most of the big telecoms insist on every update passing through them......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you!! i also do not see how the hell they can't release a proper unlocked nougat rom? what do they give say ATT? give us that and we can make it what it needs to be on our own. god i miss the modaco rom ovens they had for paid members; my nexus one rocked some seriously awesome custom backed stock roms

Potential reason for quarterly G930U updates.

Everyone seems to have their own reason for the slow updates for the G930U and I'd like to chime in with mine. This is 100% speculation and I have no proof to back it up, so take it as such. In theory, the G930U should be updated faster as they have already had the OS updates compiled for the device and sent to the carriers for their individual updates. The carriers add all their bloat and remove features from the Samsung Vanilla update. The carriers have to do all their modifying before they release it, which can be time consuming. Since the OS is already complete before the carriers receive it for modifying, why does the Vanilla variant(G930U) take so long???
I believe firmware is the cause for the delays. The G930V firmware is designed to work great on Verizon, and Verizon doesn't care if it works well on T-Mobile, AT&T, or anyone else. The G930T is optimized for T-Mobile, and they don't care if it works well on Verizon or any others. However, the G930U is programmed to work on "ALL" carriers, so firmware has to work well across multiple carriers. I believe the delays in updates are from Samsung working out as many bugs across all the major carriers before releasing it.
I've come to this conclusion from being on U-firmware PEH, then PG9, and most recently PL2. I am on Verizon service and every update works much better than the last. I have heard the same thing from users on AT&T and T-Mobile. This could realistically be a cause for the slow updates, as they have to optimize the firmware to work across many services, whereas the carrier-specific variants are optimized to work on that one specific carrier.
Maybe I'm just being naive. Does anyone else see this as a viable reason for slower updates for the Vanilla device?

you have very good points and i think it could be, but what about the SM-G930F for example, this device is the international variant and is updated frequently across countries and carriers that use the same exact device. How can samsung update that device almost every month but the US unlocked one can only be updated quarterly? My speculation is that since the US had never had an unlocked samsung device, the US carriers didn't really like the idea of samsung selling an open device in their territory and so maybe they only way they would allow it was if samsung committed itself to quarterly updates for the unlocked S8 in the US. As you, i am also speculating but given the way US carriers work i don't think i may be wrong. i do know the carriers may want that the Unlocked version is optimized but i don't think that process takes months to do.

The 930F uses the Exynos processor, correct? If so, I'd suspect they have a lot more hurdles to jump on the G930U firmware with Qualcomm as another important party. The Exynos processor is made in house, so they don't need outside assistance.