Leaving Windows thinking ATT Captivate

Leaving Windows thinking ATT Captivate - Captivate General

After 6+ years with a Windows Smart Phone (1st MPX220) I see the platform is dead and I have to go elsewhere. I am thinking of going to the Captivate. I like the new BB also but I am not sure if I want a crack berry. I think the Captivate will be more fun to have in the long run.
The cheapest I can find the phone with a 2 extention and keeping my old plan is Best Buy for $149 plus a $30 one time credit to my account.
I am wondering how to get I get all my texts and info from my old phone to my new phone. I have used PPCPIMbackup when doing firmware updates to my phone to back up all my info. Does this work with Captivate also? I am not sure because of the different OS.
I have never had a phone with out a keypad. This will be new for me. I wish I could have a phone with one. I see having a nice slim phone will also be nice. I think the keyless pads is how all phones exept for BB will be very soon.
Does anyone have any good tips or information before I go over to this phone? I know going from a Windows phone to this is going to be very different.
Thanks,

Swype makes everything all good.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I'm using the xda app so can't see your sig, what phone are you coming from? I've used winmo for about 2 yrs and love this phone. Not sure how to copy things over, seen alot of posts with problems. Best I've seen is manually enter em in google and sync that way. I just used my sim card. Didn't have a bunch of special contact info to copy.
From a phone on an app

I am coming form the Samsung Epix.
Anyone know if the PPCPIMbackup software will work on getting my old texts to my new phone?

veener79 said:
I am coming form the Samsung Epix.
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Click to collapse
I also migrated from the Epix... you will not be sorry. With regard to your question about transfering texts, generally anything is possible in Android, and a quick google search confirms this:
http://www.google.com/search?q=transfer+texts+from+windows+mobile+to+android&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=

veener79 said:
I am coming form the Samsung Epix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gave up on my Epix. Were you one of the lucky ones?
The Captivate is a wonderful phone, if you don't mind waiting for a GPS fix.
My own experience: I was concerned about the lack of a physical keyboard, but found that swype makes things easy. However, I am more frustrated that I expected at the lack of really good business applications in android (I am waiting for Pocket Informant android, specifically). Also, if you use Outlook, you may have some frustration with syncing.
There is certainly no android phone to compare on ATT.

Thank you for the link. Looking over this site the only issues I see is with GPS on this phone. Is that about correct? Also it looks like it will get the 2.2 upgrade?

Kanzeon said:
I gave up on my Epix. Were you one of the lucky ones?
The Captivate is a wonderful phone, if you don't mind waiting for a GPS fix.
My own experience: I was concerned about the lack of a physical keyboard, but found that swype makes things easy. However, I am more frustrated that I expected at the lack of really good business applications in android (I am waiting for Pocket Informant android, specifically). Also, if you use Outlook, you may have some frustration with syncing.
There is certainly no android phone to compare on ATT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After ATT sent me my 4th or 5th phone I was doing better because it did not have the ID1 update. I kept on using firmware updates from this site to make the phone better. After the 6.5 update came out and the phone still was not right I gave up. GPS is still a issue but not like ID1. My texts and e-mail keep on crashing on it. I have not been able to update my hotmail via Live for over a week. Every time I close out of my texts it locks ups for about 20sec to a minute or two. I have finaly given up. Now my battery is only lasting about 2 days on standby. After about 1 hour long call I go though about 40% battery. I am just happy I can start doing a upgrade now.
I just hope the GPS fix comes soon for this new phone.

veener79 said:
Thank you for the link. Looking over this site the only issues I see is with GPS on this phone. Is that about correct? Also it looks like it will get the 2.2 upgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, GPS is not fully functional at this point, but it appears that Samsung is working on correcting the problem. 2.2 is in the works, but no word yet on when it will be released for the Captivate... best estimates seem to shoot for 1-2 months from now.

The gps works well for me with the update. It just takes longer than what I was used to wth the iphone. I get a solid lock in 30 seconds.

k2snowboards88 said:
The gps works well for me with the update. It just takes longer than what I was used to wth the iphone. I get a solid lock in 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excuse me, *for some*, GPS is not fully functional.

For the most part the captivate is great. Just needs a little bit of tweaking here and there. Gps is pretty much b0rked at the moment. Til Samsung gives us an actual fix. Or we find one. Gps can lock somtimes but it will jump around a lot or lose the fix. Navigation wont work for the most part. Aside from that the phone captivate is a great choice.

OK so the GPS sounds about as good as my epix right now. I can not even get a GPS signal in the car unless I have it on the dash with nothing blocking it. If all it takes is 30 seconds to lock on I will be set. That is better then the Epix. What is up with Samsung and the GPS.

veener79 said:
...What is up with Samsung and the GPS.
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Click to collapse
Nobody knows for sure. Some speculate it is hardware and won't be fixed. Most of us feel it is software. It supposedly works for some people, but those that can't get it to work are dubious that the ones that work are just not hitting the right circumstances for it to fail. It actually seems to be accurate a high percentage of the time, but when it is off, it is waaaaayyyyy off. Sometimes only for a few seconds. Very inconsistent.
Samsung has indicated it will be fixed in September. Not much time left for them on that commitment.
If they don't make it by then, there will be lots of whining and griping. I'll be doing that in my mind, but plan to refrain from doing so in the forum The GPS problem is probably the single largest issue that has caused a lot of threads, and several contentious posts.
It is a great phone. Hopefully the GPS issue will have true resolution very soon.

I switched from a moto Q. To a samsung jack, used a epix for a bit as well. Got this phone a few weeks ago and have not regretted it for a second. Android and win mobile 6.5 are not even close enough to compare.
Also swype beats out any virtual or physical keypad I have ever used.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I'd SERIOUSLY wait 2 months until the Windows Phone 7 devices are out. I was at MSFT this week and got to play with a dev model for a few minutes, it does seem pretty nice. It will all really depend on what apps are available.

[email protected] said:
I'd SERIOUSLY wait 2 months until the Windows Phone 7 devices are out. I was at MSFT this week and got to play with a dev model for a few minutes, it does seem pretty nice. It will all really depend on what apps are available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My impression, personally, was that windows mobile seemed like it was as locked down as the iphone, but without all of the iphone's features and polish. In short, It seemed like the worst of both worlds. The only thing I that it has going for itself is the nice looking homescreens. That is just my initial impression though and I hope I'm wrong.

You can see my list of phones in my SIG and I know my thing when it comes to HTC and WinMo.... all those phones in that list, were me trying to find a device that ran...well.... the way my Captivate does. Even with fat thumbs I can still type on the software keyboard... I go back to my TP2 and I actually type slower. I just cant type without looking at the keyboard, one thing a software keyboard will never accomplish.
Ive been following WinMo for years, and I can tell you, this makes me never want to go back, even for WP7.

ewingr said:
Nobody knows for sure. Some speculate it is hardware and won't be fixed. Most of us feel it is software. It supposedly works for some people, but those that can't get it to work are dubious that the ones that work are just not hitting the right circumstances for it to fail. It actually seems to be accurate a high percentage of the time, but when it is off, it is waaaaayyyyy off. Sometimes only for a few seconds. Very inconsistent.
Samsung has indicated it will be fixed in September. Not much time left for them on that commitment.
If they don't make it by then, there will be lots of whining and griping. I'll be doing that in my mind, but plan to refrain from doing so in the forum The GPS problem is probably the single largest issue that has caused a lot of threads, and several contentious posts.
It is a great phone. Hopefully the GPS issue will have true resolution very soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I got the phone on the way home.
I am likeing it a lot all ready. I used Travel for the GPS app. That thing worked great. I hope maybe I got a good one. Before I did anything on the phone I did the software update. I am going to play with it for a little and see what else if great. I do love the voice activated things. That is great.

veener79 said:
Ok I got the phone on the way home.
I am likeing it a lot all ready. I used Travel for the GPS app. That thing worked great. I hope maybe I got a good one. Before I did anything on the phone I did the software update. I am going to play with it for a little and see what else if great. I do love the voice activated things. That is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from a HTC Tilt, which had HORRIBLE GPS. I was able to get a great Froyo ROM in it and had a ton of time to play with it before I got the Captivate. The learning curve is very low for basic operation. It'll take a bit of research to get the rooting/sideloading etc down. Most everyone here is fantastic at helping out and I've gotten some excellent advice from people on how to mod my Captivate. Coming from a WinMo phone to this one, I HIGHLY doubt you'll be disappointed

Related

No Captivate S for me

Because of all of the issues about the Captivate S I've read about on this forum, I've decided not to purchase one. I travel a lot (read GSM/UMTS) and need an unlocked handset for local numbers. I also depend on GPS navigation that isn't functional on the Galaxy S.
Goodbye Android, hello Symbian ^3 in the form of a Nokia N8 I just ordered.
I really appreciate the good info I got from this forum. Next year I'll again consider an Android handset.

And Symbian dont have ANY problems? That is hard to believe.

ha great choice, not.

To each his own I suppose... have you tried using the Captivate? I have a feeling with even all the supposed negatives, it still blows any Nokia away. The GPS isn't a big deal for me and I'm sure a sim unlock is just a call to ATT away (I've called and asked for 3 unlock codes for an LG and two blackberries just last year).
The problem with coming to this type of board for the kind of advise you're seeking on getting a new phone is, a lot of people complain about the negatives. People are seeking out fixes or mods for this issue or that.
To be fair, I'm not a big fan of Nokia or Symbian. I owned a 5800 XM and it was pretty horrible and the N8 or Symbian ^3 doesn't really do it for me. The apps are sorely lacking, messaging and email left a lot to be desired. I'll probably get another iPhone 4, jailbreak it and run ultrasn0w baseband unlock so I can use international sim cards before going with the Nokia again.

I can tell you from personal experience that one of the better phones from Nokia in the past 3 years is the e71.
The n81 is a very cheap feeling phone, and you'll hate the buttons. The n82 is good, but only has european 3g.
n95 is still a beast of a phone, and the 8gb model is nice.
You should be looking at the n8 if you really want to go with symbian, or wait for their S-Series to come out running MeeGo!
And it is not symbian^3, it is just s60.

Go to any forum for any phone and you will see hundreds of negative posts, but most issues don't effect most people.
I have not had the gps issues or many other problems. Also, the users with no problems never post.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

alphadog00 said:
Go to any forum for any phone and you will see hundreds of negative posts, but most issues don't effect most people.
I have not had the gps issues or many other problems. Also, the users with no problems never post.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats a good point. ne way his loss. I question the purpose of this thread though, what exactly was the intention here?

ua549 said:
Because of all of the issues about the Captivate S I've read about on this forum, I've decided not to purchase one. I travel a lot (read GSM/UMTS) and need an unlocked handset for local numbers. I also depend on GPS navigation that isn't functional on the Galaxy S.
Goodbye Android, hello Symbian ^3 in the form of a Nokia N8 I just ordered.
I really appreciate the good info I got from this forum. Next year I'll again consider an Android handset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. I used the GPS tweak on this forum and my Captivate has been rock solid since the tweak! I use the Google navigation all the freaking time! By the way, the Google navigation is > the ATT Navigation (AKA Telenav) & it's free!! Sorry to hear you didn't utilize the level of detail available to you. Good luck with the Nokia.

returned my captivate for an iphone 4 today...i wanted to love this phone and it just didn't work out. today was real bad and i had enough of it. it was lagging really badly, it would take 10-15 seconds to open an app, screen froze up for a good 30 seconds, and phone wouldn't turn on from being locked. gps is still an issue, even with the tweaks...it takes 15-30 seconds to lock on which is not good enough for me. The music player is terrible, its very sluggish and theres no set program to transfer music/videos/whatever onto the phone. It took me an hour just to transfer 300 songs over to the captivate...wtf. android market wasn't that great, the facebook app was terrible for it btw. there are some good points to the phone, it has nice widgets, swype, camera, and videos are amazing on this. i blame samsung, they pushed this phone out before it was ready, if they had waited and fixed the problems it would've clearly blown iphone out of the water.

kashc2 said:
returned my captivate for an iphone 4 today...i wanted to love this phone and it just didn't work out. today was real bad and i had enough of it. it was lagging really badly, it would take 10-15 seconds to open an app, screen froze up for a good 30 seconds, and phone wouldn't turn on from being locked. gps is still an issue, even with the tweaks...it takes 15-30 seconds to lock on which is not good enough for me. The music player is terrible, its very sluggish and theres no set program to transfer music/videos/whatever onto the phone. It took me an hour just to transfer 300 songs over to the captivate...wtf. android market wasn't that great, the facebook app was terrible for it btw. there are some good points to the phone, it has nice widgets, swype, camera, and videos are amazing on this. i blame samsung, they pushed this phone out before it was ready, if they had waited and fixed the problems it would've clearly blown iphone out of the water.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow..... Seems like you had a "special" captivate.

Wow, I'm just really surprised that you researched some Captivate problems but didn't bother to research all of Symbians problems.
The biggest problem not having as much features as any Android phone does.
I've been happy with my Captivate, and it does everything I need it to do and a lot of times it does more than I need it to.
I even save $15 a month with free SMS with google voice. Picasa syncs and saves all my pics to my phone from my PC, and so does my calender.
Captiate has been the best phone I have ever had.

dressanderc said:
Wow..... Seems like you had a "special" captivate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope. mine was starting to get to that point and then did a factory reset and the phone is blazing again. I think it was all the apps because i felt like some apps like apndroid didnt uninstall right(yes i know i gotta enable b4 uninstalling).

tytdfn said:
nope. mine was starting to get to that point and then did a factory reset and the phone is blazing again. I think it was all the apps because i felt like some apps like apndroid didnt uninstall right(yes i know i gotta enable b4 uninstalling).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i also did factory reset...it didn't help. i might have had a defective captivate maybe idk, but im the type of guy that likes it simple and get it done, with the captivate you have to do a lot of tweaks and stuff like that, until it gets fixed atleast. i was disappointed when i had to return the phone...i really wanted to like and i thought it was the phone i was gonna keep for a long time when i first got it.

Your experience hardly reflects the average user experience with this phone though....i love mine and so do a lot of people...sorry to hear about your issues but maybe you should have gotten a replacement or do you really think all the people praising it are just putting up with all the stuff you experienced?

I've used message boards for years. I've even adminned a few, and I still maintain my own small one. And I still don't understand why people start threads based on this kind of pap, other than to draw attention to themselves either for self-aggrandizement or to make martyrs of themselves.
In either case, I don't care. I'm not here to find out what phone anyone uses or why, nor do I care about the second-hand opinions that fuel those decisions. All I care about is learning more about the experiences of others with the one I've chosen in an effort to both expand my own experience with it and to share likewise.

I agree with not buying the captivate, I would have gone with a Nexus One or a Dell Streak though.

shaolin95 said:
Your experience hardly reflects the average user experience with this phone though....i love mine and so do a lot of people...sorry to hear about your issues but maybe you should have gotten a replacement or do you really think all the people praising it are just putting up with all the stuff you experienced?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i admit, i think most captivates are fine but i also think there are plenty of users that are willing to put up with the problems of this phone, i wasn't one of those users though. those users that are willing to put up with this phone are hoping that samsung will come out with a fix for it and who knows when that is and whether that even fixes the problem. Like froyo, i hardly doubt it will come in September. I'm not going to sit and wait for that to happen when i can get a phone (iphone) that works flawlessly and can perform the same core functions as a captivate. i gave this phone a try and didn't work out, it's simple as that.

Shwiggie said:
I've used message boards for years. I've even adminned a few, and I still maintain my own small one. And I still don't understand why people start threads based on this kind of pap, other than to draw attention to themselves either for self-aggrandizement or to make martyrs of themselves.
In either case, I don't care. I'm not here to find out what phone anyone uses or why, nor do I care about the second-hand opinions that fuel those decisions. All I care about is learning more about the experiences of others with the one I've chosen in an effort to both expand my own experience with it and to share likewise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yet you take the time to vent on other people expressing their opinions. Whats the difference from the man telling us why he dosent like the phone, vs. You telling us why you dont like the thread?

kashc2 said:
It took me an hour just to transfer 300 songs over to the captivate...wtf. android market wasn't that great, the facebook app was terrible for it btw. there are some good points to the phone, it has nice widgets, swype, camera, and videos are amazing on this. i blame samsung, they pushed this phone out before it was ready, if they had waited and fixed the problems it would've clearly blown iphone out of the water.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking at your complaints, seems to me that your biggest problem is that you never got off the Apple tit, and don't know how to live without iTunes.
The rest of the issues you listed have easy fixes found on this very forum.

to the OP...
Obvious Troll is Obvious...

I emailed Samsung about a few things, here is the response

Thought I'd share this with you guys. I recommend sending out a similar email so that they know that there are serious concerns about the phone. I did it online at the Contact Us page on the Samsung website.
Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I am quite pleased with the device. However, there are a few things that irritate me about it that I was hoping you could comment on:
1.) There is a serious lag issue. Do a quick google search and you'll find that this is a universal problem with the phone.
2.) The GPS does not work. Also a universal issue.
3.) No 2.2 Froyo.
4.) No last.fm scrobbling support for the default music player (which I love by the way!)
5.) Drivers for Windows 7 x64 do not work well. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got it. Again, a universal issue.
A lot of people complain about the TouchWiz UI, but I personally enjoy it, as long as the lag issue is taken care of. Also I'm pleased with the phone call quality, and almost all other aspects of the phone.
I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
[thecoolestcow]
Here is the response:
Dear [thecoolestcow],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regarding the GPS on the phone, Samsung Mobile is aware that under certain conditions, the GPS on our U.S. Galaxy S devices may not be meeting performance expectations. We are diligently evaluating the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
We advise you to use assisted GPS powered by your service provider.
We still don't have any update regarding the release of the Android 2.2 for the Captivate and the drivers that will be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.
We will forward your report of this behavior along to the appropriate parties for additional review and consideration.
We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Should you desire additional assistance resolving this, we invite you to call Samsung Customer Support by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357 between the hours 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Sincerely,
Technical Support

thecoolestcow said:
Thought I'd share this with you guys. I recommend sending out a similar email so that they know that there are serious concerns about the phone. I did it online at the Contact Us page on the Samsung website.
Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I am quite pleased with the device. However, there are a few things that irritate me about it that I was hoping you could comment on:
1.) There is a serious lag issue. Do a quick google search and you'll find that this is a universal problem with the phone.
2.) The GPS does not work. Also a universal issue.
3.) No 2.2 Froyo.
4.) No last.fm scrobbling support for the default music player (which I love by the way!)
5.) Drivers for Windows 7 x64 do not work well. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got it. Again, a universal issue.
A lot of people complain about the TouchWiz UI, but I personally enjoy it, as long as the lag issue is taken care of. Also I'm pleased with the phone call quality, and almost all other aspects of the phone.
I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
[thecoolestcow]
Here is the response:
Dear [thecoolestcow],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regarding the GPS on the phone, Samsung Mobile is aware that under certain conditions, the GPS on our U.S. Galaxy S devices may not be meeting performance expectations. We are diligently evaluating the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
We advise you to use assisted GPS powered by your service provider.
We still don't have any update regarding the release of the Android 2.2 for the Captivate and the drivers that will be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.
We will forward your report of this behavior along to the appropriate parties for additional review and consideration.
We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Should you desire additional assistance resolving this, we invite you to call Samsung Customer Support by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357 between the hours 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Sincerely,
Technical Support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
man I just dont see this lag yall are talking about... Had the phone since day 1, no lag fix and its fast as my n1 on 2.2. about.. Wierd...
Also GPS does work, just not reliably all the time, some works fine, others not, others sometimes.. So saying it dont work is exadurating. I just dont want people that dont have one think that the GPS dont work. It does and I use it everyday without issue. No fixes or anything, mine and some others works...
2.2 froyo will be here soon. Hold your horses on and it will be here next month I will bet...

I didn't see the lag either for a while, but I see it in most of the Samsung native apps, like Messaging and the screen unlock.
GPS also used to work amazingly. It just stopped completely now for me.
It's good though that they acknowledged in the email that they were going to release a fix for it.

thecoolestcow said:
I didn't see the lag either for a while, but I see it in most of the Samsung native apps, like Messaging and the screen unlock.
GPS also used to work amazingly. It just stopped completely now for me.
It's good though that they acknowledged in the email that they were going to release a fix for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, Well Im certain it will be fixed. The samsung epic 4g is rumored to have a working GPS (more testing needs done for me to believe it for sure) and if we have the same hardware gps wise as the Epic 4g we should definatly see a fix...

Nice, Engadget confirms.
engadget.com/2010/08/18/samsung-says-gps-is-tested-and-validated-on-epic-4g-our-testi/

There is most certainly lag. Like you guys, it wasn't a big deal until I saw the lag fix.
Long story short, I've been running the lag fix about a week, then borked my phone with another tweak and had to revert back to stock. HOLY COW was that thing slow... I never really knew any different until I had seen greener pastures
I will say I don't think the DEFAULT lag is worse than any other phone on the market. But it is capable of much, much faster.

Also you forgot to include the complaint that MMS doesn't work on EDGE, only 3G.

TexUs said:
There is most certainly lag. Like you guys, it wasn't a big deal until I saw the lag fix.
Long story short, I've been running the lag fix about a week, then borked my phone with another tweak and had to revert back to stock. HOLY COW was that thing slow... I never really knew any different until I had seen greener pastures
I will say I don't think the DEFAULT lag is worse than any other phone on the market. But it is capable of much, much faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which lag fix did you use? I saw several. I haven't rooted my device yet because I'm a little girl. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible first.

thecoolestcow said:
Which lag fix did you use? I saw several. I haven't rooted my device yet because I'm a little girl. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I did all my tweaks manually the first time. However when I borked and started over I used this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934
That will do all necessary tweaks at once. Just download the update.zip file to the root of your INTERNAL card, reboot into recovery mode (ask if you don't know how... easiest way is to use ADB), and select "reinstall packages" and you're done.
Just check the post I linked to, but it'll remove all the ATT crapware, remove the loud startup sounds, install root, block ads, etc.
After it's ran you then can go into the app it adds and run the lag fix... After you run that script it needs a reboot... And then you've got a lag fixed phone that runs twice as fast. ROM Manager, for instance, takes like a whole freaking minute it seems to open un-lag-fixed. Lag-fixed it takes several seconds max.

TexUs said:
Well I did all my tweaks manually the first time. However when I borked and started over I used this: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934
That will do all necessary tweaks at once. Just download the update.zip file to the root of your INTERNAL card, reboot into recovery mode (ask if you don't know how... easiest way is to use ADB), and select "reinstall packages" and you're done.
Just check the post I linked to, but it'll remove all the ATT crapware, remove the loud startup sounds, install root, block ads, etc.
After it's ran you then can go into the app it adds and run the lag fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy crap, how did I miss that one? Excellent, thank you. I will likely be doing that in the near future!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

thecoolestcow said:
Holy crap, how did I miss that one? Excellent, thank you. I will likely be doing that in the near future!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NP.
I'm happy with 2.1 right now... I mean the Captivate at 2.1 runs faster than anything else on the market, including the N1 2.2......
So I can live with 2.1 until Samsung releases 2.2
Once you see how much faster it is with the lag fix, you'll start to wonder how much faster 2.2 will be. The Captivate will be untouchable.

There is definitely significant lag on the stock firmware - most notably for me with the marketplace but s also for some other apps when they are loading data. I haven't applied any fixes yet as I'm waiting for a decent firmware update before I do too much with my phone.
JH2/3 are looking like good bets, but I would suspect that an official firmware is right around the corner given the few changes between JH2 and JH3.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Why wait? It takes 5 minutes to vastly improve the usability of your phone.

And worst comes to worst, you use the Odin3 one-click to restore it to stock. Seems pretty awesome. I'll probably be "super-rooting" tonight!

Also to note you should only be doing that super-rooting from stock to start with... It's the most reliable method anyway. You can try it from what you've got but- if there's issues you just need to do it from stock.

Hm. And there's no way to back up my apps/data right?

thecoolestcow said:
Hm. And there's no way to back up my apps/data right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, download ROM Manager but you need to be rooted first I think... So you can root your phone only (same process but it just does rooting: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=725555), download/install ROM Manager (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734163). Then when you reboot into the ROM Manager recovery screen there's nandroid backup utility that'll back up everything.
If you like selective backups of stuff you can also use Titanium Backup (also requires root).

smashpunks said:
man I just dont see this lag yall are talking about... Had the phone since day 1, no lag fix and its fast as my n1 on 2.2. about.. Wierd...
Also GPS does work, just not reliably all the time, some works fine, others not, others sometimes.. So saying it dont work is exadurating. I just dont want people that dont have one think that the GPS dont work. It does and I use it everyday without issue. No fixes or anything, mine and some others works...
2.2 froyo will be here soon. Hold your horses on and it will be here next month I will bet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.

derek4484 said:
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're about a month after release and have Vanilla Android 2.1 ROMs, so chill out. Have some patience, I'm sure we'll see them for 2.2 as well.

derek4484 said:
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine works and so do others in those thousands of people threads. If you would like I can copy n paste them for ya...
Its directed me to many places perfectly so it works, its just unreliable and not the best, hence needs to be optimized ...
now post a link where samsung admitted using incorrect drivers? I've never saw that...

Buy Captivate now or wait!?

Hi,
I need some help to decide.
Should I buy this phone now or wait for later this year, or even maybe 2011(witch is to long time waiting).
Currently I own a Xperia X10(tired of this phone, no software update, captivate has way better screen) on Tmobile, and moving to ATT would be good I think.
Plan difference is not so big besides the cap limit on internet.
Please help, I will sell my Xperia X10, to have money ready for a new phone.
Thanks.

nj777 said:
Hi,
I need some help to decide.
Should I buy this phone now or wait for later this year, or even maybe 2011(witch is to long time waiting).
Currently I own a Xperia X10(tired of this phone, no software update, captivate has way better screen) on Tmobile, and moving to ATT would be good I think.
Plan difference is not so big besides the cap limit on internet.
Please help, I will sell my Xperia X10, to have money ready for a new phone.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well honestly it is really up to you. I don't think the community should decide for you. Would the possibility of having a non working GPS bother you? Would the possibility of having a phone that randomly shut down bother you? ( then you'd have to deal with AT&T warranty and such ) Those are some examples of problems that you should consider about. Samsung is known for having ****ty customer service and lack of updates. You see, the latest OTA update that we received were supposed to fix GPS problems... but it didn't... so... * shrug *
Don't get me wrong, I love my phone. It's just that samsung frustrates me at times because of their incompetence.

How about...would I if I were you...
I don't have the Xperia..but did have the Hero..and they are fairly close..
I look at it like this..as much as I loved my Hero with CM6 over clocked to 768mhz and all the themes and goodies...I wouldn't go back. I don't depend on my gps in my telephone to make my life easier..If you do..then you might want to wait..but..know this..You can copy Walmart's info from the web for the Captivate and go into a ATT store and walk out with one for $59.00.
As too the random shut downs..I'm running bare bones stock...I've had my phone on solid since last Thursday and have loaded and played 5 HD movies on it..talked for about 200 hours and sent about 30 text messages..and not one blip/fc/shutdown or anything else..Also..I told the sales lady I wanted one where it would do the 3 button recovery..She Googled it to see what I was talking about and said ok..no problem..Mine worked first time..but had to open the 7th box to get one that did for the wife.Both of ours works great..and the GPS isn't real bad..I lock on to about 8-10 sats under 10 seconds with mine..the wifes is about the same..
If it were me..Hell yes..I love this phone..
Mac

The leaked froyo sure is nice though. I haven't had any random shut down issues unless I let the phone stay on the charger to long and then it will only shut down when its sitting without being used.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Um, not to be a hater here but....
This was the only high end android device that ATT had. All the other phone s the carrier offers besides the Aria is a joke.
I feel very lucky that XDA and Design Gears is around or I would have a completely useless device. No way would I recommend this phone to John Q Public.
There are too many awesome devices out that work. Sure the screen is awesome and its fast as hell. But it is laden with bugs and took folks in this community to get it to run.
Couple that with Samsung's track record? I would recommend getting another device. Most likely an HTC.
Of course with all that being said... I love my phone and wouldn't trade it for any other on the market today...... Until the next shiny new device comes out.
With my phone using Cognition, because it just runs better.

avgjoegeek said:
Um, not to be a hater here but....
This was the only high end android device that ATT had. All the other phone s the carrier offers besides the Aria is a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you meaning to tell me that the Moto Backflip is not a quality phone?! /sarcasm

Thanks for all your sugesstions,
A reply to second post: I am not looking for someone to pic a phone for me, I was trying to get information if there is a better choice comparable to Captivate and better than Xperia. And I didn't find any better device at this time or any confirmed device that would be available later. Sorry if I didn't express myself clearly.
As for Gps issue I know, trouth to be told I don't really use it so no big deal there, as for restarts and lag Captivate is not the only one doing that, my X10 does it to, I noticed it based on ever root or updates, mostly I think it's from incompatible software And hardware, even my Windows and Mac does that. My wife's IPhone 3GS does that too when using it too much and having to many apps xD.
So, are there any shortlly upcoming devices I should know? My google research didn't get far, maybe there is anyone with more information about it.
Thank you, I appreciet all your opinions

better but comparable to captivate, hmmm the g2 from t-mobile. thats about it. no other phone has the 3d procesing of a galaxy s. but some are faster at other things. the g2 is very fast across the board.
snapdragon htc phones have bad battery life, the aria has too small of a battery. i had one it had alot of features but the screen was too small and no battery life, its basically a hero with android 2.1. so other than the g2 that leaves motorola phones that are only on verizon and have less performance than the g2.
i like the captivate but i think i would also like a g2.

nj777 said:
Hi,
I need some help to decide.
Should I buy this phone now or wait for later this year, or even maybe 2011(witch is to long time waiting).
Currently I own a Xperia X10(tired of this phone, no software update, captivate has way better screen) on Tmobile, and moving to ATT would be good I think.
Plan difference is not so big besides the cap limit on internet.
Please help, I will sell my Xperia X10, to have money ready for a new phone.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would and did and don't have an ounce of regret. I have learned so much in the past few weeks which is empowering when it comes to choosing and flashing ROMS. My expectations from a $500 device that does so much is very low so I am rarely disappointed.
My GPS works to around 30 meters. Good enough. The Music player is phenomenal even through the stock buds.(and I normally use Westone 3s and ETY 4s) I have never seen such a customizable device and fool proof as well IF you take the time to really understand and follow directions
Read the later parts of long threads so you don't get into the middle error area where issues are resolved. Don't be afraid to ask questions after you look for an answer. It is a very friendly forum. Very few "self appointed forum cops"
I would not wait. get the JH6 and begin playing with ROMS and recovery. When the official 2.2 comes out you won't be afraid to burn a better cooked Cognition ROM of it later.
There will be bugs...There are always bugs......

i say get it, i went from the fuze to the captivate and im never looking back, couldnt be happier

If I were you, I will wait probably... X10 is a great device, but i dont know if they are going to release update... I will stick with X10, and change to a better phone next year... samsung is too ****ty, dont get ur hand with them if u can... also, dont even try to get att, they are ****ty too...
if u want, sell ur X10 and buy a vibrant...
im with att because they are the only carrier with rollover... and i have captivate because its the best android on att
Foxy Roxy said:
Well honestly it is really up to you. I don't think the community should decide for you. Would the possibility of having a non working GPS bother you? Would the possibility of having a phone that randomly shut down bother you? ( then you'd have to deal with AT&T warranty and such ) Those are some examples of problems that you should consider about. Samsung is known for having ****ty customer service and lack of updates. You see, the latest OTA update that we received were supposed to fix GPS problems... but it didn't... so... * shrug *
Don't get me wrong, I love my phone. It's just that samsung frustrates me at times because of their incompetence.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tHe OTA update BRICK my phone, and att/samsung are blaming each other... they sucks...
Mac11700 said:
How about...would I if I were you...
I don't have the Xperia..but did have the Hero..and they are fairly close..
I look at it like this..as much as I loved my Hero with CM6 over clocked to 768mhz and all the themes and goodies...I wouldn't go back. I don't depend on my gps in my telephone to make my life easier..If you do..then you might want to wait..but..know this..You can copy Walmart's info from the web for the Captivate and go into a ATT store and walk out with one for $59.00.
As too the random shut downs..I'm running bare bones stock...I've had my phone on solid since last Thursday and have loaded and played 5 HD movies on it..talked for about 200 hours and sent about 30 text messages..and not one blip/fc/shutdown or anything else..Also..I told the sales lady I wanted one where it would do the 3 button recovery..She Googled it to see what I was talking about and said ok..no problem..Mine worked first time..but had to open the 7th box to get one that did for the wife.Both of ours works great..and the GPS isn't real bad..I lock on to about 8-10 sats under 10 seconds with mine..the wifes is about the same..
If it were me..Hell yes..I love this phone..
Mac
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you mind to share your gps configuration?

I am one of the few or possibly not so few people who did not really have any problems with my Captivate on the android 2.1 release, and actually the 2.2 recently leaked os either.
One thing people do not appear to keep in mind that these phone are closer to a PC now than ever before with pound for pound nearly the same power house operating systems on them. With such a customizable OS on a phone like Droid its bound to have some kinks as I think alot can agree on this, most operating systems do.
That said, its not unheard of for there to be lots of updates, firmware fixes etc, and the numbers in this forum who are posting may not seem to be all that many people when you consider that there are probably far more Captivate owners out there with no issues whatsoever.
What I am saying is that this phone may have some kinks for the people posting in here but it clearly is not every captivate owner having a problem. You can go to any other forums from other sites, and even manufacturers and read hundreds of posts about nearly every phone made with problems.
Do not let the people here steer you one way or the other, but heed the notices regarding possible issues. All the reviews for this phone are not that bad at all, and there are alternative phones, but keep in mind that any galaxy s phone will most likely have the same OS and some of the same kinks. All are samsung so.
imo this is a pretty damn decent phone, it is better than my iPhone 3gs was and I am glad I dont have that pos anymore.
The GPS on my phone is pretty fast to get a signal, it was on 2.1 and 2.2 android, but I do find it to be a tad bit sensitive. Gotta leave in stationary in the open the first lock, after that it appears to maintain pretty well, and i have put it through its paces, average for me in my location for a lock on is roughly 10-45 seconds depending on occlusion.
The phones default power saving scheme to be appears to be very aggressive.

My 2 cents
If I were you, I would keep the X10. I just left my ATT Touch Pro and upgraded to a Captivate. At first i was really excited about it. The screen size, brightness, slim form-factor of the phone were awesome. A week later I am looking at the phone going is this really that much better than my Touch Pro?
All I ever used my phone for were to make calls, emails, texts and spreadsheets. Doing the same on the Captivate was better in some area's and worse in the other. Exchange support is no where near where windows phones, but that is to be expected.
I don't have any GPS issues, random shutdowns or reboots or anything, the phone just works great. Yet I still have a little remorse.
Also when the 2.2 update does come out for this, expect this to be the last update they ever make. I have had a few Samsung phones and they NEVER release a lot of updates, very few actually.

jev3gs said:
Exchange support is no where near where windows phones, but that is to be expected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Imagine that.
To the op,
I bought the Captivate, it's not a Cappy, as my first smartphone. I have no regrets what so ever. I must also be outside the norm because I understand that it's a phone first, GPS is a luxury. It works fine for my tastes as well.
If you like to tinker, then you can't go wrong. There is a lot of support and great support at that here.

i would wait. i'm on my 3rd captivate due to either build quality issues, or gps that never fixes. i must just have the worst luck ever to have 3 phones with non working gps i guess. and for those that say its a luxury, yes to a degree it is. but you cant use poynt, places, weather apps, all sorts of things if the gps isnt working right. forget foursquare, twitter locations, geo tagging photos, etc. i depend on my phone for work, and gps is critical to me as my phone replaced my stand alone tomtom unit. and yes i know that its a phone not a dedicated gps, but i never had issues with gps with my iphone 3gs, i left that phone for other reasons however. i like the android os, like the form factor of the captivate, and really like some aspects of the touchwiz interface. but in comparison to some of the other android phones, we really dont have it all that good on ATT. no flash, no led notifications, the capcacitve buttons dont stay on very long at all, and a real lack of accessories for the device in general.
i know that you can root and use custom roms and such, but i just want my phone to work as is. 200 dollars up front plus the cost of the phone over the contract time is a lot of money to spend on a device that i have to void the warranty on in order to get it to do half of what its supposed to. i would wait and try a different phone. problem is i dont think att is too worried about getting any other android phones right now. I would almost get the aria over the captivate at this point. i wish we had a good top line android phone from motorola, or htc to compete with the captivate at this point.

Anytime you buy a product and it has a feature, you expect it to work. To say it is a phone and has GPS but it doesn't work is alright is BS. That is like buying a car and when you take it home the radio doesn't work, the wipers don't work and the dealer tells you to live with it. I don't buy that one bit.
If MFG's can't make something work in a phone when they make it, they better just leave it out then.
I will say though that i have not had any issues with my Captivate.... especially since now I am not running the ESPN widget anymore. Man that always slowed down my phone like crazy!

eclypse3demons said:
I am one of the few or possibly not so few people who did not really have any problems with my Captivate on the android 2.1 release, and actually the 2.2 recently leaked os either.
One thing people do not appear to keep in mind that these phone are closer to a PC now than ever before with pound for pound nearly the same power house operating systems on them. With such a customizable OS on a phone like Droid its bound to have some kinks as I think alot can agree on this, most operating systems do.
That said, its not unheard of for there to be lots of updates, firmware fixes etc, and the numbers in this forum who are posting may not seem to be all that many people when you consider that there are probably far more Captivate owners out there with no issues whatsoever.
What I am saying is that this phone may have some kinks for the people posting in here but it clearly is not every captivate owner having a problem. You can go to any other forums from other sites, and even manufacturers and read hundreds of posts about nearly every phone made with problems.
Do not let the people here steer you one way or the other, but heed the notices regarding possible issues. All the reviews for this phone are not that bad at all, and there are alternative phones, but keep in mind that any galaxy s phone will most likely have the same OS and some of the same kinks. All are samsung so.
imo this is a pretty damn decent phone, it is better than my iPhone 3gs was and I am glad I dont have that pos anymore.
The GPS on my phone is pretty fast to get a signal, it was on 2.1 and 2.2 android, but I do find it to be a tad bit sensitive. Gotta leave in stationary in the open the first lock, after that it appears to maintain pretty well, and i have put it through its paces, average for me in my location for a lock on is roughly 10-45 seconds depending on occlusion.
The phones default power saving scheme to be appears to be very aggressive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you are one of the VERY VERY few....5 million sold. The "issues" people are having are directly related to their expectations. I bought two..One to experiment with and one to use while giving my wife the N97. Once I realized they were both ok and I could not brick it I loaded froyo on both , gave her one and retired the N97......
I don't expect a $500 device to lock on to GPS within a minute with 10 feet of accuracy....a few minutes and 100 feet is ok and it EXCEEDS those expectations for me....at the end of the day it WILL get you home. I made some settings adjustments and dialed it in as best I could get it. I am confident Samsung will "fix" things that are broke.
I did not expect this phone to deliver the quality of natural lighting pics and videos it does.....bat my expectations.
There is no area where this phone did not at least meet my expectations.
But then again I took what the open device gave me.......did some leading and learning and MADE it what I WANT....not what ATT or Samsung wants. At least they gave me the choice to so, JB an Apple is a joke compared to what can be done with this OS. Been there done that..
My Nokia N97 cost the same and was 1/2 the device this is.....The iPhone is a toy compared to this OS and what can be done with it.
The people who are having issues usually are not following the directions SPECIFICALLY to do things. I know because I too have been guilty of missing a step here and there and panicking LOL
The carrier is fine...T Mobile's 3G is faster...Sprint 4G is faster...Verizon is Apple's sister in control freaky......The iPhone on Verizon will be a lock down on lock down But for those who want to press and play iPhone is perfect....fast and easy.
ATT is not the best nor the worst..they are what they are. You either stay wth them or leave...Simple choice. They give some and take some...

jev3gs said:
Anytime you buy a product and it has a feature, you expect it to work. To say it is a phone and has GPS but it doesn't work is alright is BS. That is like buying a car and when you take it home the radio doesn't work, the wipers don't work and the dealer tells you to live with it. I don't buy that one bit.
If MFG's can't make something work in a phone when they make it, they better just leave it out then.
I will say though that i have not had any issues with my Captivate.... especially since now I am not running the ESPN widget anymore. Man that always slowed down my phone like crazy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just saying it has "GPS" does not entitle it to be a good a GPS as a standalone! LOL It requires a phone to eventually lock on a satellite and get you to a destination. Which this phone does. I have Garmins in my cars. They SHOULD and do get immediate locks and tracking is perfect. They cost almost what this phone does. They don;t take video,pics, make calls...on and on.....
Some phones may have a real issue. But most of them have working hardware and SW is fixing many as well, It is just that people are fixing them themselves.....while waiting for an official fix. I fine very few posts where GPS does not work at all. More of people having to wait too long for a lock. That issue depends on so many factors it's silly to compare. Another brand may have a better GPS implimentation but be poor in other areas....
You choose a device based on it's STREGNTHS based on YOUR NEEDS...If you want a great camera you buy a Nokia N8, If you want geat GPS you buy a G2 or another camera with such.
It's not like this issues has been "hidden" I knew about it reading threads before I bought the phone but I also knew I could live without the GPS...and in all likelihood (as always) it would not be as bad as people claim......
It wasn't perfect..but it is not as bad as people claim either. It is exactly the same on both my Cappys.....when both are set the same and on the same ROM.

My two cents, get it now while you can still unlock it.
The 2.2 update will remove the file that gives you the codes for sim unlocking.

jev3gs said:
Anytime you buy a product and it has a feature, you expect it to work. To say it is a phone and has GPS but it doesn't work is alright is BS. That is like buying a car and when you take it home the radio doesn't work, the wipers don't work and the dealer tells you to live with it. I don't buy that one bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. It may not be "broken" but the quality is definitely "sub-par" IMO.
To the OP. If you can live without having quality GPS performance and willing to spend a few hours with ATT warranty department if Samsung releases a phone with a fix (if it is hardware) then I say get it now. That's my current plan. But I've never had much trouble with AT&T's warranty department.
Despite the GPS issues, the Captivate is still my favorite Android phone. One the few I've even liked.

Why I am not angry at Samsung or [email protected]

Maybe I am the only one, but flashing roms and learning how to screw up my captivate, and more importantly learn how to fix it afterwords, has made me not really care about when my phone will get 2.2 or 2.3. The developers here have made roms that I believe are just as good, if not better than the "official" versions. Sure Samsung promised 2.2 a long time ago, but what is the fun in just a boring update? Am I the only one who feels this way, or am I just addicted to flashing?

Here, here!

The only thing an official AT&T update would bring at this point in the game, would be better custom ROMs.
IMVHO of course.

I respect your right not to be upset. Still, I think there are a number of things to be legitimately upset about - none of which are addressed by the ROMS on xda.
The restart issue: this problem has been known for a long time. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have made it easy to get a working phone. They denied the issue for a while. They then recognized it, but never made the exchange process easy. Look at all the random shutdown threads and see the mixed experiences people have had. To make matters worse, broken phones are often replaced with other broken phones. AT&T has been either too lazy or too cheap to pull the affected IMEIs from circulation. People have gone through 2 or 3 phones before getting one that 'works.'
My GPS doesn't work at all. I can stand out in the middle of a field and my phone will see 1 satelite. I get a lock every once in a while, but it NEVER has tracked. I've tried just about every GPS fix out there and none of them work for me (and I shouldn't need to try a bunch of fixes off some internet forum anyhow). Has there been any help from AT&T or Samsung on this issue? - No. They seem to pretend it doesn't exist. To make matters worse, some phones seem to work as expected - BUT some of those have the shutdown issue. People are afraid to turn in their screwed up phone with a working GPS because they might end up with a 'normal' phone with a broken GPS. That's outrageous. Seriously, it shows the truly pathetic quality of the Captivate and the companies that manufacture/distribute it.
There are features that came on my phone that have still not been enabled. Media Hub, for example, was billed all over the place as a great new feature - to be enabled later. It's later...much later. When do I get Media Hub? I don't see it. I can't get it to work via any custom ROMs (unless I'm missing something).
The way that AT&T and Samsung have handled this situation reads as a case study in poor customer service. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it enough to get me to avoid another Samsung phone? Probably. I bet many others would say the same.

Custom ROMs saved me from hating this phone and made it a really great device in every way I can think of, but it doesn't excuse AT&T+Samsung's lack of support on this device.
All I can say is thank goodness for people on this forum who have the interest, know how and drive to do what those companies have not done: make the Captivate a great device.

delugeofspam said:
Here, here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? Where?

Wdustin1 said:
acctually there is a working media hub .apk in one of the forums and it works great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? 10 characters

I agree, I love this phone and I'm thankful for samsung and AT&T not doing their job, because it's made people on these forums come up with some amazing roms/kernels/what-have-you.

The rom leaks developers are working on are part of a conspiracy. Think about it.

rwj5279955 said:
The only thing an official AT&T update would bring at this point in the game, would be better custom ROMs.
IMVHO of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup! My Sentiments exactly.

fldude99 said:
Where? 10 characters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was on the Epic forums.
I tried this a while ago on one of the early versions of cog and it worked fine, but I don't use it enough to keep it on my phone. But I can confirm that it did work for me.

sarcasmo said:
I respect your right not to be upset. Still, I think there are a number of things to be legitimately upset about - none of which are addressed by the ROMS on xda.
The restart issue: this problem has been known for a long time. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have made it easy to get a working phone. They denied the issue for a while. They then recognized it, but never made the exchange process easy. Look at all the random shutdown threads and see the mixed experiences people have had. To make matters worse, broken phones are often replaced with other broken phones. AT&T has been either too lazy or too cheap to pull the affected IMEIs from circulation. People have gone through 2 or 3 phones before getting one that 'works.'
My GPS doesn't work at all. I can stand out in the middle of a field and my phone will see 1 satelite. I get a lock every once in a while, but it NEVER has tracked. I've tried just about every GPS fix out there and none of them work for me (and I shouldn't need to try a bunch of fixes off some internet forum anyhow). Has there been any help from AT&T or Samsung on this issue? - No. They seem to pretend it doesn't exist. To make matters worse, some phones seem to work as expected - BUT some of those have the shutdown issue. People are afraid to turn in their screwed up phone with a working GPS because they might end up with a 'normal' phone with a broken GPS. That's outrageous. Seriously, it shows the truly pathetic quality of the Captivate and the companies that manufacture/distribute it.
There are features that came on my phone that have still not been enabled. Media Hub, for example, was billed all over the place as a great new feature - to be enabled later. It's later...much later. When do I get Media Hub? I don't see it. I can't get it to work via any custom ROMs (unless I'm missing something).
The way that AT&T and Samsung have handled this situation reads as a case study in poor customer service. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it enough to get me to avoid another Samsung phone? Probably. I bet many others would say the same.
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Click to collapse
Very well said! Btw, LOVE the screen name, lol.
I don't even own this phone, my gf does and I've done limited research so I could flash Cog2.3b8. The phone is WAAAAY better with Cog, but the gps blatantly disappeared on us halfway to our destination last weekend. I sighed and pulled out my mt4g which caught a lock in about 1/10th of a second and guided us there with absolutely no errors.
This made ME feel pretty stupid considering I gave her the phone as a gift. Thank god I bought it used and can probably sell it for what I paid for it.
From my limited experience with AT&T and Samsung I am furious. This phone had tremendous potential but I will avoid Samsung and AT&T like the plague from now on.
Delaying updates is one thing but the GPS issue is ****ing ridiculous. It's a joke!! There's no other way to describe it. You should all be irate and demand your money back.
Yes, T-mobile has had QC issues with the MT4G but everyone in the thread who has returned their phones has praised T-mobile for the way they handle their customer service, including myself. How many have had that experience with AT&T?

You should still be mad at Samsung.
Instead of making good ROMs great, we're making crappy ROMs good.

vunuts said:
It was on the Epic forums.
I tried this a while ago on one of the early versions of cog and it worked fine, but I don't use it enough to keep it on my phone. But I can confirm that it did work for me.
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It worked for me as well. I just didnt care for it. I would much rather have netflix. I have a different apk somewhere around here. If his doesnt work for you let me know via pm and I will send it... nm i just posted it

Phateless said:
You should all be irate and demand your money back.
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Click to collapse
Nah. I don't really need GPS, and last time I tried it outside my work building it got lock in about 2 or 3 seconds. I've tried it a couple of times while driving with mixed results. It seems to depend a lot on the area. As expected (or maybe not), it seemed to worked the best in the "wealthy" part of the city. I live in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Other than that I don't know. I haven't had any single random restart that I know it wasn't caused by me, same with charging death, mainly caused by bad UV settings.
I only used the stock rom for about 2 days before I moved and lagfixed it. I killed it once in a bad kernel flashing attempt. The fact that I can revive it using a home made usb jig makes me love it even more.
Right now, I just wished people could experience that same phone I'm experiencing. I think I'm in love with it.

I'm mad at both. My Captivate is my work phone, provided by my employer - so I am less comfortable flashing it to overcome the shortcomings of the standard AT&T build - yet I did root the phone and install the MobileAP so I can actually work when my client doesn't let me connect to their network.
My beef is on smaller things like - disabling tethering, not having more robust support for Exchange, the inability to sideload, or even load Android Market apps that AT&T doesn't want me to see.
As a work tool, I want my phone to let me work, and these limits, largely self-imposed are galling.

I've learned so much over the last week. I must have flashed my phone at least 20 times and got a few good bricks out of it too. Samsung and At&t can do what they want. These roms works much better than anything they could ever do.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I'm not mad at Samsung or Rogers for the reasons stated above, I'm mad at them for broken promises as they relate to hardware - namely the USB-to-HDMI issue, which was a big reason for me to go with this phone over another. We were promised a software update to enable this and were even shown a cable on the official Sammy site, but nada.

Now very upset about the CRaptivate

I took my sister to the AT&T store yesterday and bought her the HTC Inspire 4G. VERY nice phone. So while in the ATT store, the Inspire was on display at the back of the store. I took the liberty and installed GPS Test program from the market and let it run, just for the heck of it.
The damn thing locked on and saw 7 sats within 2 seconds, and got 9-11 sats within the next 5.
So I whipped out my CRaptivate, and ran the same GPS test program. Pathetic POS didn't even lock on to one. I had to walk outside in order to even see sats, and then it took an extra 30 seconds for it to lock on to anything. This is with Firefly 2.4, latest updates, GPS fixes, the whole 9 yards.
Now I see how bad this CRaptivate is. It took just one moment with that HTC to see the light.
The question is, I bought this POS back in October, as it was the only Android offering that was worth it at the time. After having all the problems I do with this phone, what can I do to get ATT to take it back so that I can switch to something like the Inspire??? Or is that a lost cause?

ajm786 said:
I took my sister to the AT&T store yesterday and bought her the HTC Inspire 4G. VERY nice phone. So while in the ATT store, the Inspire was on display at the back of the store. I took the liberty and installed GPS Test program from the market and let it run, just for the heck of it.
The damn thing locked on and saw 7 sats within 2 seconds, and got 9-11 sats within the next 5.
So I whipped out my CRaptivate, and ran the same GPS test program. Pathetic POS didn't even lock on to one. I had to walk outside in order to even see sats, and then it took an extra 30 seconds for it to lock on to anything. This is with Firefly 2.4, latest updates, GPS fixes, the whole 9 yards.
Now I see how bad this CRaptivate is. It took just one moment with that HTC to see the light.
The question is, I bought this POS back in October, as it was the only Android offering that was worth it at the time. After having all the problems I do with this phone, what can I do to get ATT to take it back so that I can switch to something like the Inspire??? Or is that a lost cause?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably a hardware issue IMO. Get it fixed.
For your ATT question i do not know, sorry.

41LY45 said:
Probably a hardware issue IMO. Get it fixed.
For your ATT question i do not know, sorry.
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Click to collapse
I'm just very scared to attempt to get another replacement that has the random shutdown issue. This is my second phone; my first one had the problem, this one does NOT have the random shutdown issue, but the GPS is borked(?).
There are just so many problems with this phone, it's almost like I'm playing the lottery in trying to get a functioning one.

ajm786 said:
I'm just very scared to attempt to get another replacement that has the random shutdown issue. This is my second phone; my first one had the problem, this one does NOT have the random shutdown issue, but the GPS is borked(?).
There are just so many problems with this phone, it's almost like I'm playing the lottery in trying to get a functioning one.
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Lol, refurbished phones.
I guess it's just up to one's luck.

41LY45 said:
Lol, refurbished phones.
I guess it's just up to one's luck.
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Click to collapse
Well, to be completely honest, the first 2 phones I got were NOT refurbished. There were brand new (got them exchanged retail at the store).

My GPS works fine it didnt before on stock rom but does now... software issue
sent with Captivate w/ Gingerbread 2.3.3

maxjivi05 said:
My GPS works fine it didnt before on stock rom but does now... software issue
sent with Captivate w/ Gingerbread 2.3.3
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Click to collapse
To be fair, I'm not saying that the GPS is not working at all with the Captivate. I'm saying that the HTC (and pretty much any other hardware) demolishes the Craptivate when it comes to that, and, pretty much everything else. I'm not interested in tweaking my phone forever to do what it should have done to start with. I mean, tweaking is fun, but to an extent. I don't want to be doing this forever. It has to come to an end somewhere, and that probably means for me different hardware.
This is the first and last huge mistake that I will have made with Samsung. I swear I will NEVER buy anything from them, and will do my utmost best to return this POS.

maxjivi05 said:
My GPS works fine it didnt before on stock rom but does now... software issue
sent with Captivate w/ Gingerbread 2.3.3
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Click to collapse
Notice you'r running Gingerbread 2.3.3; therefore, I would guess that the ROM was loaded very recently. Most Captivates' GPS works great right out of the box, or right after loading a new ROM. Post back how your GPS is working after the ROM has been installed for a month and you have been using it a lot.

Wow, very clever twist on the phone's name.
And thanks for the heads-up on the GPS issue. Never saw any other threads on it.
If you want to know if ATT will do something about it, ummm, why don't you ask them?

mfw my gps works perfectly and tracks my every move on pheonix 6.0

comdei said:
mfw my gps works perfectly and tracks my every move on pheonix 6.0
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Click to collapse
Hmmm. Working GPS vs. bleeding retinas. Nah, not worth it.

rbtconsultants said:
Wow, very clever twist on the phone's name.
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Very fitting.
rbtconsultants said:
And thanks for the heads-up on the GPS issue. Never saw any other threads on it.
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Click to collapse
All the ROM and GPS fixes get the GPS barely usable compared to other phones that get GPS right. After using the Inspire for a few minutes, it's clear that the CRaptivate is highly flawed, even in its "fixed" state. Thanks so much to all the ROM chefs and devs working so hard on it; I can only imagine the pain they have to go through because Shamsung doesn't know how write software for shi*.
rbtconsultants said:
If you want to know if ATT will do something about it, ummm, why don't you ask them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will. I just wanted to get some input from someone who might have gotten them to successfully swap phones for them.

ajm786 said:
Very fitting.
All the ROM and GPS fixes get the GPS barely usable compared to other phones that get GPS right. After using the Inspire for a few minutes, it's clear that the CRaptivate is highly flawed, even in its "fixed" state. Thanks so much to all the ROM chefs and devs working so hard on it; I can only imagine the pain they have to go through because Shamsung doesn't know how write software for shi*.
I will. I just wanted to get some input from someone who might have gotten them to successfully swap phones for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They probably won't do much unless you're a super valuable customer to them. We all like to think we are, but lets face it, some customer are worth a LOT more than others, this is true for every business. Plus there's a reason they give you 30 days to try the phone, one month of use should be more than enough to know whether the phone suits your needs or not. Unless you're consistently spending like $400+ on your phone bill every month and haven't had issues in the past, I doubt they will do much other than warranty exchange, especially since you've had the phone for 5 months now. I must've been one of the lucky ones, never really had any GPS issues, recent flash to Cog 4.1.1 actually screwed it up for me for some reason (I blame the solar flares) and the GPS wouldn't increase it's accuracy from 4900 meters, but this was easily remedied by applying the GPS fix in SGS Tools.

@ 6months you can do an early upgrade but you will extend the contract and pay a lot more for the new phone than the advertised contract price, that's probably the best you can do to get out of the captivate. or you can buy a phone outright.
sorry guy, my gps is as good as any phone i have ever owned but i do admit that the better htc phones are a bit better in that area. really my gps can lock with the same speed and accuracy as a droid x in the verizon store which has a metal roof, but the incredible does lock to 7meters while my phone and the motorola only lock to 30 meters. generally the hardware can get the job done as well as other phones. infact my iphone could not lock under a metal roof, or any kind of roof for that matter, it was incapable of navigation. the gps signal on the iphone 3g was bad for many of my friends as well so im not crazy. my friends also complain about there blackberry gps and other android phones.
my phone never had gps that couldn't lock but it also never tracked well and got a strong signal at the same time untill somewhat recently after a lot of finding what didn't work. it either tracked but lost signal under cloud cover and bridges or it locked but the positioning was all over the place. futzing around in lbs test mode never really helped untill i realized that it needed to agree with secgps.conf and jupiter.xml
the real issues with the galaxy s seems to be sensitivity to noise and every phone is a bit different. it can take a lot of experimentation to get it working, or it might never work.

Buy a TomTom... Case closed
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Crap, topic starter! you say that it locked INSIDE building? bull****! GPS ain't capable of working indoors. Oh, yeah - also count how much battery GPS is using on Inspire and on Cappy

ajm786 said:
Very fitting.
I will. I just wanted to get some input from someone who might have gotten them to successfully swap phones for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just depends if you have a reasonably justifiable hardware / software issue, and how assertive you are. Demand a phone that has that basic capabilities advertised, and get it warrantied.
Meanwhile, ask for an adjustment on your bill. Go up 2 or 3 levels of Customer Service with your complaint, and tell them how many phones - how many times this has occurred.
I've done it at least 4 times in 6 mos - had them let me demo a Windows 7 phone for free for a week - had 200+ USD credited to my account - gave the Win 7 phone back no charge - Replaced my Refurb Captivate with a Brand New one with 12 Mos. Factory Warranty. Replaced it again. Free.
Some days you get the Bear - Some Days the Bear gets you... When it comes to Customer Service - YOU PAY THEM. Get the Bear.

Yuna said:
Crap, topic starter! you say that it locked INSIDE building? bull****! GPS ain't capable of working indoors. Oh, yeah - also count how much battery GPS is using on Inspire and on Cappy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
speak for yourself
i am inside a solid cinder block office building and i can get consistent locks on 8-11 satellites.
Outdoors is 10-12 with usually all or occasionally all but 1 locking.

opcow said:
Hmmm. Working GPS vs. bleeding retinas. Nah, not worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats an easy solution.
Flash firefly or supernova then flash blackfroyorogers thems over it. Both have GPS as good as or better than phoenix and blackrogersfroyo theme tones down the colors to very neutral black and grays.

I have an old Captivate....it works perfectly.
Other than the original 2.1 software that came with it, every ROM I have used has excellent GPS performance.
I have no random reboots on any ROM, not even with CM7. I suppose this means there is some type of hardware issue. All directions have been followed to a tee when reflashing.
I am a huge Samsung fan in general, and I love the Captivate hardware...but to be honest I wouldn't look to them first for a phone. HTC has the better track record for updates. Thankfully the xda and dev community rocks.
I couldn't imagine being on a stock 2.1 for all those months...

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