Anyone know how to replace At&t atrocious Priv firmware with a regular blackberry firmware, one not modified by any carrier. Mine has issues with MMS which At&t has still not sent a fix update for, and marshmallow deployment is unacceptably slow considering all they are delaying it months for is to ensure junk like at&t nav or their other bloatware works, especially since once android N comes having the touchpad and keyboard will make multitasking a dream (if At&t even releases n when it comes out).
it cannot be unbranded or debranded, you can freeze bloatware and install alternate apps for your device, it is what it is, on samsung devices you can do it.. even with stock software
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I'm trying to decide between Sprint's version of the Galaxy S2 and the HTC Evo 3D. The one big knock on the Galaxy S2 I keep hearing is Samsung's lack of support and updates when compared to HTC.
Is this something that has really been problematic for Samsung phones in the past and will it be a huge problem for this phone?
A carrier branded phone is subject to their scheduling for updates. The U.S. carriers typically mandate substantial changes to the hardware and software that add additional layers in the updating and testing process. Samsung's been really good so far in updating the non-carrier version of the SGS2. The UK version got its fourth update in two months yesterday. It'll all come down to Sprint in the long run and I don't see there being a big difference between Samsung and HTC in terms of making updates available to Sprint. At least the SGS2 has an unlocked bootloader making dev support easier.
Samsung Galaxy S2 you can flash latest firmware via ODIN, no root required
I want to start by saying how much I loved my Note3, it is an amazing phone, and has done a lot for me in the time I've had it. That said, I've recently upgraded to a Note4, and it's time to part with the Note3. I always root my phones, and put roms on them, and all of that, but before selling it, I want to revert it back to a fully "stock" configuration. Ideally I want the next owner to be able to start fresh, and even get updates if/when they become available.
The phone came from TELUS, and, as far as I know, is still locked to that provider (I haven't checked, but neither have I done anything to change that)
I found a couple of supposed "TELUS" firmwares that I flashed via ODIN, however in each case when I booted the phone up, I was surprised to see Bell pre-installed apps, and not TELUS. Now I understand that Bell and TELUS phones are the same except for the software, but the software is the important part here. If I'm selling the phone, someone is going to be mighty confused to buy a TELUS phone, that must be used on the TELUS network, but has all sorts of Bell garbage per-loaded. (even more so in that TELUS pre-loads less bloat on their phones than Bell does)
So, does anyone have a source for an actual TELUS image I can put on this thing? (not a Bell one labelled for TELUS)
I had an interesting conversion on AT&T's forum today. In short, I learned that both AT&T and Verizon had Samsung "hard code" their software to all their phones by altering the bootloader in version 5.1.1. This is nothing new to anyone who's tried to root their AT&T or Verizon Note Edge after the update. We know it as "branding", but in the past it was something we could usually bypass. No more. These "damaged" bootloaders will never allow these phones (and all future phones) to be rooted or upgraded EVER AGAIN. It's just not something a piece of software or an app can ever bypass. Even if you had AT&T unlock the SIM and you went to T-Mobile, you still have to live with AT&T's mountain of bloatware because the ROM can't be flashed. It like buying a PC and not being able to delete Windows Vista...ever. The horror.
What makes it worse is that doing a carrier unlock and jumping ship will get you no joy. I asked how someone gets OTA updates on a carrier unlocked phone and they said you can't. You can never update again. You'll need to go to Best Buy and have them flash updates for as long as you own the phone. How this doesn't violate the carrier unlock law is beyond me.
Google created an operating system that was supposed to be open source. We were happy to play the root game for years, but now AT&T and Verizon have changed the rules of the game and effectively put an end to the idea of open source. Now AT&T and Verizon androids are no better than iphones. If you ever want to root your Samsung devices in the future, DO NOT BUY YOUR PHONE FROM EITHER OF THESE CARRIERS!
This is a practice that they have already admitted will continue.
So yeah about a year ago when I purchased my International S7 I was so happy and thinking my friends got subsidized ATT and T-Mo versions of S7 will have bloatware and they wont update to 7 for years and I couldn't be more wrong. Both ATT and T-Mobile units got updated already and they're laughing at my international model and all bloatware all of they can be simply disabled and stuff. I never buy international version again (Unless Exynos9 is so OP I have to get it)
On top of that I looked at my CSC and it's from PAK (Pakistan) I mean got damn it I be all "stan" countries getting update last if any at all. I wish it was one of the European countries. Anyhow bottom line is this. The reason I got International version to get UPDATES because thinking SIM-FREE version don't have to mess with carriers blocking and tweaking updates. Well WRONG. And Bloatware like I said features can be disabled and if you think about programs that pre-installed, just disable them or something and space that they take .... I mean come on now, grab a sd card.
I am REALLY upset on this, I was hoping to get update for MY version of the phone without ODIN re-flash crap. I think I am forced at this point to update manually. SAD
can't you just update your international model once to another European Baseband DQB7 or whatever CSC type so when that 'chain' gets updates, you get updates too? Does it not work like that?
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.