The beast is about to get its hands dirty with a ‘somewhat official’ Froyo announcement up at samsung-firmware.webs.com. No one expected it to come so early and we were barely getting used to our Eclair tweaks.

This build seems to be a test build and its called JP1, but we’ll take it anyways.

… Tock goes my clock (no pun intended)

Samsung Galaxy S

This mighty beast is the latest addition to my Smartphone Library. Well, its been a couple of weeks actually, which also explains why there’s been no new ROMs coming for the HTC Diamond (which I still have – actually my wife does now).

A day into the purchase and I rooted this beastly android wonder and also put up a custom ROM on it and managed to pull the charts down with some neat benching results.

The only complaint so far has been the fact that Froyo is due to come to the beast sometime in August (Korea first of course). Will have to belt the beast with some cool Android apps till then and keep benching the shine off it.

In good time I’m hoping to figure building something that resembles a ROM kitchen. Just thought I’d put up an update here and also put up the benching result that can bring down some of your thoughts on purchasing the Desires and the Droid Xs of the world.

The benching was done using Quadrant Standard and the chart on the side shows where a stock Galaxy S stands in comparison with where I’ve managed to pull it to (in yellow). There’s no over-clocking here folks, and all this is achieved primarily with the help of some pretty clever thinking fellow Galaxy owners. The chart shows Desire and Droid X (Moto Shadow) with the Froyo 2.2 Desire standing below the optimized beast still sporting Eclair 2.1

I’m telling ye all, get this beast and you won’t be disappointed even after a year of Win Phone 7 and 1.5 dual specs coming into the scene.

Stay tuned for more goodies on Android in this space. I promise to not play with the beast as much and write more often than I have over the last month or so.

Update: Another bench with some tweaks.

ralphusion Lite ROM (RaL.GT1e)

About the ROM
Version: RaL.GT1e
XIP/SYS Build: 23518
Release Date: Feb 02, 2010
Free Program Memory: 52.78 MB (at bootup – without Titanium running)

Applications in this ROM:

• Office Mobile 2010 (with new outlook conversation mode)
• Opera 10 beta
• PHM Registry 0.70
• Gen.Y. DualBoot loader only (with ElCondor’s Theme for the loader)
• Advanced Config
• Arcsoft MMS
• Youtube
• FM Radio
• Fullscreen Player
• BsB STaskManager (courtesy makeveral & recommended by bankai)
• Leo Calculator
• Leo Connection Setup (with latest operator configs)
• Marketplace (pre-downloaded)
• OpnMarket
• QuickGPS
• Chome Editor
• AmarullzGreenBlack theme (with ralphusion custom background)
• Aluke’s taskbar theme (uninstallable)
• Facebook 1.1
• Google Maps 3.2.1.17
• RAM Sweeper
• BsB Linterna
• BsB Black Dialer Skin
• Teeter
• Slide2Shutdown

Apps not included in this ROM:

• Sense 2.1 (never was a fan)
• Advanced Taskmanager
• Pocket RAR 3.90
• Diamond Tweak
• Windows Live
• Skybox
• eNatives ShowcaseSuite 1.1.0 (too buggy with current build)
• Dialer Tachi (or others) <=you can install your own preferred canvas (or Qilin from post #2)
• … some more apps to keep this ROM clean

Download:
Click here to download RaL.GT1e from 4shared

TO AVOID SYSTEM CRASHES, ALWAYS REMEMBER TO USE MTTY BEFORE FLASHING

You can follow the proceeds of this thread at XDA (here)

We’ve had this coming for a while now and have thrown out our devices like a village bicycle to makes the best of what XDA developers give us.

The latest  bit of scoop (a little late into its arrival @ Surffin today) is that Android and WinMo will co-exist on the same device. And whats more, there will be a boot-up option to select the OS of choice.

Of course, not all features are functional in the latest builds of android for diamond, touchpro etc. but the fact that yozgatg (of Gen.Y ROM & Kitchen fame) has put his famed touch into the effort already started at by the XDANDROID team means more than anything for those who’ve followed his ROMs over time.

The ROM is slated to set rapidshare on fire tonight @ around 11 GMT. Make sure you get your doze of Android this week.

For the rest of you with WVGA & WQVGA devices, there are plans up ahead and soon enough one would think. Just imagine the latest build of Android running on dual boot on a Leo (HD2) … yumm!!

There are so many vigor filled claimants in the Smartphone market today, each claimimg superiority over the other in their top five or six self made basic feature sets that a Smartphone of this day and age should apparently spoil its users with.

The question here is – Has anyone asked the user what they really want? But yes, one would argue that there are numerous usability design and experience design teams that come out of the choicest of design schools. Each individual in the team thinks out of the box to come up with that one feature (most likely panned up in the above 6) that would blow people’s minds out.

This brings me to an important quote taught to me over a glass of scotch, “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig”.

Which implies that the below two points really should have been thought of first before bringing forth an argument (or for that matter a Smartphone):

1) Is there really a Smartphone that packs the punch with irresistible features?
2) Are users really smart enough to appreciate the work behind a Smartphone?

The answer to both of the above is NO. The point being that no single claimimg device manufacturer has ever built a smart enough phone. And to add to that, world over there exists an upper figure of 0.01% smart users that are capable of using a smart phone (doesn’t it surprise you that so many people actually buy an iPhone – chuckles)

Anyways, as usual I seldom make sense enough to convince myself, so I’ve conveniently put myself into the shoes of the 0.01% and ask thee who remains on the same side of this 0.01% – Should I buy the new fingery touchy mushy (and the other 5 feature pack) Nexus One, or should I say hello to the HD2?

Anything you say or do will have no effect on my thinking. It will also not change my wife’s mind, she has already disapproved of any new purchases for the next few months.