Samsung has baked a new firmware, JV9, for Galaxy S. This latest firmware upgrades the Galaxy S to android 2.3.3.

Kies only recognise official firmware versions, i.e. those with telco modifications (XSO). Local firmware w/o telco mod (XSP version) is not eligible for the upgrade still.

Check out this page to switch to XSO


JV9 brings mainly comestic changes, following is a list of changes i have observed so far,

• standard android icons on the status bar, instead of Samsung typical blue icons
• new icons on the notifications tray
• alphabet bar in phonebook as been reverted to the full list
• daily briefing widget has been broken into 4 seperate widgets now
• wallpaper picker now has 2 size templates to choose from
• android text selection cursor has replaced the samsung cursor
• "ask on connection" in USB settings has been removed
• OTA Software Update has been built into the firmware now

In terms of performance wise, the phone seems a lot faster now. One noticable speed up is the downloading and installing of apps over market, the stall has been reduced significantly. But this is a fresh update, so only time will tell if samsung has really fixed the lag issue.

First run of the GPS seems to give a slightly better results too. Runkeeper manages to track my position accurately for most part of the trip. Somewhat puzzling is that both readings suggested that I have crossed the road along Tampines Central 2, which I have not.


All in all, JV9 seems to be a nice upgrade. Onto gingerbread now.

While your phone is powered off,

1. Press and hold [Volume Up], [Home], and [Power] buttons together.
2. Release them when the Galaxy S boot up animation is shown.
3. Select "wipe data/factory reset" to hard rest. Use the [Volume Up], [Volume Down] to navigate through the list, and [Home] to select.
4. Lastly, select "Yes -- delete all user data" to confirm the hard reset

Remember how dell makes customising your own pc ever so easy?

Now someone has done the same for building your own roms for galaxy s.

Head out to http://romkitchen.org/ to build your own rom now!

Press *#272*HHMM# for android 2.1, or *#272*IMEI# for android 2.2 in the dialer, where HHMM is hour and mins in 24hr format of the current time

Singtel users choose SIN

Starhub users choose STH

M1 users choose MM1

for naked sgs rom, choose XSP

Select your option and click the install button to complete the setup.

I'm using the following 3 fonts to replace those defaults,
Kristen ITC for english characters or system fonts
Eunjin for korean characters
Hua Kang for chinese characters (you will need one that support both simplified and traditional chinese or you will need another font for the other variant)


1. Copy the system font to Windows\fonts folder, while the korean and chinese fonts will go to the Windows folder.


2. Using any Registry Editor, navigate to the following keys, replaces the contents with the appropriate information from your fonts. Grab the font name from the font viewer. Changes to be made are highlighted in bold. Create a new value with the name of the new system font and value of those chinese and korean fonts.

[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\FontLink\SystemLink]
Courier New = \windows\huakang.ttf,Hua Kang;\windows\eunjin.ttf,Eunjin
Tahoma = \windows\huakang.ttf,Hua Kang;\windows\eunjin.ttf,Eunjin
Kristen ITC = \windows\huakang.ttf,Hua Kang;\windows\eunjin.ttf,Eunjin


3. This value registers the system font, so change the value to the one you want to replace with.

[HKLM\System\GDI\SYSFNT]
Nm = Kristen ITC


4. Now create a new key under GDI with the name FontAlias, and create a new value with the old value from Nm (previous step) and the name of the new system font.

[HKLM\System\GDI\FontAlias]
Tahoma = Kristen ITC


5. save all settings and restart the device =)




finally get rid of the monotonous fonts!

(P.S. some areas like the Today screen still remains in the original font, one solution is to place the desired system font in windows directory. But the side effect is having the sms view mode messing up)

Here's the link to the huakang.ttf, tis version is rather large as it supports both simplified and traditional chinese, and japanese
http://www.4shared.com/file/215544287/1b97cc4e/FrLtDFGirl__simplified__tradit.html

Digital Frame
This software has been there since i900. It is kinda making i8000 to behaving like a digital photo frame. The software will cycle through the selected photos in the background, with some of the phone's notifications overlaid.




Photo album
This nifty software allows you to browse through your photos. In landscape mode, it has this cool 3D card effect with the photos of each folder being spread across the screen. While viewing the photos, you could use the one finger zoom to enlarge the photo or tilting the phone sideway would scroll to the next photo =D

5 MP Camera
As the old saying goes, if it's aint broke, don't fix it. The camera interface remains largely the same as what is on i900. The video recording mode does receive a slight upgrade, with the added resolution of 720 x 480.




Midomi Mobile
If you are on the move and overhear something you like, could not recognise what music is that? No worries, just whip out your i8000. Another neat application included in i8000 is this piece of software that allows you to search for music by singing, or humming to the phone.

Recording and recognising the song.


No problem recognising non-english song! Cool!


They even provide links to the mv and lyrics ;D



FM Radio
Same old radio application here, you could record the channels, and set up to 12 favourite frequencies.





Touch Player
Lastly, the multimedia player. 2 possible audio enhancement for you to choose from, namely DNSe and SRS. The largest video resolution the player could playback is 720 x 480. That means no HD videos, but the wealth of codec supported should be more than enough to justify the lower resolution.

New programs installed always appear in smaller icons with a common white backing. To change to one larger icons similar to that of Samsung, you will need at least one image file of size 128 x 128 and add a few entries to the registry.

Here's the step to add you own customised icon

1) Navigate to the folder where the program reside, jot down the full filename. For instance, the default windows inbox, "tmail.exe".

2) Prepare an image file with the background set to transparent. Copy the file to your device.


3) To add a new icon, edit the following registry entry and increment the stated number in Decimal by one
[HKLM\Software\Cube\MenuSpecialItemCount]
e.g. Since my last count is 65, i entered 66 here.

4) Navigate to the following registry key and add a new value of REG_SZ type[HKLM\Software\Cube\MenuSpecialItems\]
Value Name: 65 (Input the original value in step 3)
Value Data: tmail.exe (the actual filename that you wish to customise)

5) Add a new value of REG_SZ in the either of the following registry key, 3D refers to the green menu while 2D refers to the red variant.

[HKLM\Software\Cube\MenuSpecialItemImages3D]
Value Name: 65 (Same value as in step 4)
Value Data: @menuimage-\Windows\gmail.png

[HKLM\Software\Cube\MenuSpecialItemImages2D]
Value Name: 65 (Same value as in step 4)
Value Data: @menuimage-\Windows\gmail.png

6) Finally, save the changes and restart the main menu =D

->

Use your favourite registry editor and do the following to retrieve back the default mailbox.

Use Email Composer
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Inbox\MsgTypes\IPM\Note\]
Change the value of DLL from EmForm.dll to htmlnote.dll

Use SMS Composer
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Inbox\MsgTypes\IPM\SMStext]
Change the value of DLL from mms.dll to htmlnote.dll

Enable Threaded SMS
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Inbox\Settings\OEM\]
Change the value of SMSInboxThreadingDisabled from 1 to 0

Enable auto-complete for To: field (only available for default Keyboard)
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Layouts\e0010409]
Change the value of Ime File from \windows\XT9ime.dll to \windows\compime.dll
Change the value of Layout Text from "Samsung Keypad" to "COMP IME"
(excluding the quotes)

Samsung Inbox
Samsung has revamped the inbox, making it more touch friendly, though right now it is non threaded. The new QWERTY keyboard works pretty well, except that comma is rather inconvenient to input. The shadowed symbols on top left corner of each key could be inserted by pressing and holding the respective key.


The other 2 keyboards are well hidden. To activate them, press and hold the Mode key until a dialog appears as shown below. Unlike the QWERTY, these 2 are not as well designed. The 20 keys do not have a key to enter punctuation easily. As for the 12 keypad, you could only input the first punctuation as indicated on the keys (though they show 2 there) with the xt9 turned on. Lastly, the default Transcriber, Keyboard and Block Recognizer are skinned also.


This is the only keyboard shown while the composer is in landscape mode.


Tap on the recipient field, a dialog shows up before you could select the guys.


To change between CC, BCC, and To recipients, only way is to do it over at this screen one by one.




Samsung Phonebook
Continuing from Omnia, the current phonebook is very easy to navigate. All the possible entries could also be filled up using Samsung phonebook.


The issue with the contact view is that text that exceed the width of the string will remain hidden. 2nd tab is the categories as per windows mobile implementation. You are able to mass send sms or emails to everyone in the category. 3rd tab is the speed dial settings, you could configure up to 99 entries!


The last tab allows you to filter off unwanted calls =)
I would have prefer it to accept certain calls, instead of just black listing a few numbers.




Touch Calendar
The new calendar app is more finger friendly now. The added bonus of Samsung version is the ability to set different colors for each category.







Clock
Despite being named as clock, this application does more than that and does it well. The wake-up alarm allows you to set up to 3 different timing, including auto power up if the phone is switched off.



Set your anniversay here for the clock to alert you. The Countdown widget takes the date from here.


Set the world clocks here




Calculator




Opera 9.5
This is not your usual Opera. The Touchwiz customisation went so deep that even Opera is customised. The picture on the right shows the one-finger zoom as per Samsung Jet =)


The same old boring bookmark page.


The new Samsung bookmark with preview of the site.




Audio Note
Samsung voice recording application. You could choose 5 different type of recording formats (AMR, WAV, MP3 (Low), MP3 (Medium), MP3 (High)).




Podcast


RSS Reader





Smart Converter
The converter has been upgraded now with currency conversion and a tips calculator.





Smart Memo
Quite a nifty app in my opinion, you could draw, insert text, images, voice recording, and even alarm! This is quite a good replacement for the default task list i would say.




Smart Reader
Its a pocket OCR that does recognition for Business Cards, Documents and translating them on the fly. Despite being an asian set, the only language available available for translation is French.








Smart Search
Allows you to search within messages, contacts, and files.




Bluetooth and WIFI
Tap on the center to toggle on/off, drag the surrounding nodes to the center to connect to them.






Last but not least, the File Manager
Similar flick scrolling and a tab at the side to jump straight to certain letters.


Only way to copy or move files is through the menu, right clicking on the files does not do the job. The search function implemented in file manager is even more powerful, it could return results that include system and hidden files.