# Getting a Strat Next Week + News?



## RoyJ

Let me start by saying I spent hours and hours talking to technical support to get my Motorola Droid X2 replaced. My carrier is Verizion Wireless USA. I almost got offered an Incredible 2 but got disconnected from that agent. Wasn't able to talk to him again. Anyways the verizion rep I got ahold of after that is the one who told me the only model I was able to get as a replacement was the Stratosphere. I had a lot of previous drama with VZW and Asurion screwing me over, so I think that's why they let me get a 4G phone without upgrading.

Anyways I was looking around on the forums and I see that some people are upset that there's no ICS for it and they're not sure if it's coming. She "believes it's set to receive Ice Cream Sandwich" and I asked her "You believe? Can you check into that for me?" She replied "Let me check my list of phones that are going to get Ice Cream Sandwich, do you mind if I put you on hold for a minute?" So she did and about a minute and a half later she came back and told me that Yes the Strat is definitly going to get the ICS update, but it's not out yet...but it is coming. She pretty much just confirmed it to me. I was wondering if someone else would call Verizion and see if they are willing to tell you the same thing?

This is on the Samsung.com site when you look up this phone;



Code:


Android 2.3 Gingerbread			Android™ 2.3, Gingerbread keeps everything running smoothly,<br />
and gives you access to over 250,000 Google Play™ apps.<br />
It's the perfect system to help organize your life while you're on the go,<br />
and stay entertained while you're going. You have multiple apps such as IM, Messaging, Calendar<br />
and many more at your fingertips to help you to stay connected and on schedule.<br />

Currently on the Samsung support page the only devices getting ICS for Verizion are the galaxy tab 10.1 and 7.7, so take this with a grain of salt if you will, but she told me that the phone is getting it. She seemed pretty sure and confident about it too. "Let me check our list of phones that are going to get the Ice Cream Sandwich Update" and when she came back it was "Yes the Stratosphere is getting Ice Cream Sandwich. It isn't available yet, but it is getting released eventually." Sorry guys, I didn't think to ask if she knew when or had any sort of ETA. I was just drooling myself looking at this phone while talking to her.

Well the verizion rep told me these things about 5 hours ago, and that's if you're reading this at 1:55am 6/27/2012. So hopefully we see it soon....How cool would it be if they released it the day I get mine in the mail??









Well that's about it. Look forward to seeing what this phone is really like. I had to put up with the X2 for months and finally got off, so I probably won't be jumping ship any time soon. Hopefully we get that RIL thing worked out sooner or later! Glad to be here and can't wait for the 4G phone to get here!!!









Edit: Like I said earlier. I was shafted pretty hard by Asurion and Verizion a while back, and when I called Asurion back again today I got the same thing. Really screwed me over and well I could tell the rep sympathized with my situation... Thinking about it now she really went out of her way to help me. Several times she stated that her supervisor was standing literally right in front of her while she was on the call. She even said that she never personally helped anyone get a 4G replacement of a 3G device, and she never heard of anyone she worked with doing it. Then I actually heard her manager standing right there make a comment about it, but was inaudible. That's how I know it was the manager, when she made the comment, my rep said "OK" and I said "What?" thinking she was talking to me and she said no sorry I'm talking to my supervisor. As soon as I asked her to check into whether it's getting ICS or not I actually heard her start flipping throught a binder or something right before she put me on hold.

Sorry for the long annoying post full of mostly useless crapola, lol, usually when you are vague people ask the questions that that post answers so I figured I'd save myself the trouble of trying to think back a few days and remember exactly what happened on the phone

*TL;DR = Verizion rep told me on 6/26/2012 at approximately 9:20pm that the phone is getting Ice Cream Sandwich. No release date or ETA sorry. Oh and I'm new here, hi. *


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## acejavelin

I don't want to burst your bubble, but Verizon has been pretty upfront and unwaivering about which devices will receive ICS... and the Stratosphere isn't one of them, in fact, no Samsung PHONE that didn't ship with ICS will be getting it. http://news.verizonw...2012-03-06.html I don't think that list will grow, VZW would rather you go buy a new phone, and add 2 years to your contract, then mess with an existing phone. I hope I am wrong and you got some information that no one else has been able to get and we will be getting ICS, but I am not going to hold my breath.

That being said, the Stratosphere is very solid phone and as long as you don't expect it to act like a high-end phone, because it isn't and it will be a little slow or laggy at times, it will work well. In my experience, unlike most Samsung devices, the voice quality on this device is actually pretty good, better than my Inc2 but not near as clear and loud as my Rezound (Which has the best audio of any phone I have ever used!), and battery life is actually pretty good... I use mine with the Tweaked ROM and rhcp kernel and without Activesync Exchange integration, WiFi off except when at home and or the office, and locked in 3G and have usually 65%-70% battery remaining at the end of the day and can easily go two days without recharging, when I was using Activesync (Exchange email) my battery life was cut in half though, down to about 40% each day, and I had to charge daily or I wouldn't make it through the next day.


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## RoyJ

Thanks for the reply. On both the Samsung and Verizion pages it does state that the list is subject to change as more details become available. When we had this chat on the phone I did ask her a few times if she was positive and she kept assuring me it was going to get it eventually. I told her if it wasn' getting ICS I wasn't interested.

Not sure if she was serious or just feeding me crap to get me off the phone, but I did tell her purchasing a device from 3rd party that already had ics would be okay, but she kept assuring me it was going to get it. Like I said she did seem honest and sincere over the phone, but who knows for sure. I'll call them later and see if I can get another rep to tell me that on the record. I'll record that call. I really hope it gets ICS, but hey I got a free 4g model for a 3g device warranty replacement w/o having to upgrade. Either way I wouldn't have official ICS (x2 didn't get it and never will) so it's a better device than I have now. Even on this dual core phone I get some lag so I am used to it lol. It lags when enough resources are consumed as the second core kicks in. So I have no expectations for this phone really. I am just happy to leave Motorola.  I hope you are right and I just called at the right time and got information that wasn't readily available yet.

Sorry for any typos in advance, was running cm7rc1 but had to go back to stock to talk yo VZW....this keyboard is killing me.....

Edit: No where on the site you linked me to does it state that no samsung phone that didn't ship with it isn't getting it. Just that people are eager to try it and again, the list may change as more details are available. So hopefully that was just an assumption on your part because it isn't already listed. Hopefully


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## acejavelin

RoyJ said:


> Edit: No where on the site you linked me to does it state that no samsung phone that didn't ship with it isn't getting it. Just that people are eager to try it and again, the list may change as more details are available. So hopefully that was just an assumption on your part because it isn't already listed. Hopefully


True, but there are no Samsung phones listed in the list, thus by process of elimination...


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## RoyJ

So basically, yes, it was an assumption.  Good lol you scared me for a minute there. I wanted to let everyone enjoy their morning coffee and wake up a bit before I called back. I will post what they say to me normally and upload the recorded audio at a later time, especially if they confirm what I was told last night.
And if the update.zip would get us the RIL, I would be one happy camper.  Calling in the next few minutes. Will keep you updated!


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## RoyJ

UPDATE: Verizion rep told me there's no listed update for ICS or plans for it. Then again she ACTUALLY told me she checked droidforums.net for that info. I have it on tape. That's why I hate Verizion lmao. My rep yesterday worked evenings so she isn't in yet. She is going to get back in touch with me when she gets into work.

& then I called Samsung. I got a run around but here is the jist of the call;

Rep- "Currently there is no update for ICS. If there ever is one you will be notified on your device. "
Me- "I know that but I know Samsung makes the update and sends it to Verizion for approval at which point it gets released if approved. I wondered if there are developers at Samsung currently working on an update for the Stratosphere to get ICS to be sent to Verizion?"
Rep- "Okay, Roy let's put it this way, at this time there are no details available to answer that right now, however the phones specs are capable of getting the update."
Me- "So you're telling me that even if developers were right now working on an update and you knew about it, you couldn't tell me due to legal reasons?"
Rep- "Exactly, that it what I am telling you, and the phone is capable of running Ice Cream Sandwich."
Me- "So if Samsung was planning on adding phones to get ICS the Stratosphere would be one of those phones?"
Rep- "Yes sir, exactly."

I don't know, man. I'm going to stay optimistic about it, at least until my other rep gets back to me...at which point I will update this again.

P.S. Not sure if anyone here plays video games, but if you know what the Mass Effect trilogy is and own a PS3 something with similar circumstances took place. It's bad business to reveal information that two parites are working out before anything has been finalized. With "Mass Effect 3", the game held weekend events that would unlock you new weapons and characters in the game. Playstation owners were excluded from these events because Sony and BioWare/EA were in talks with each other about working it out on PS3. As far as the consumers were involded, we were completely brick walled. No updates ever, they just said if details become available we will let you know. People got pissed, but the whole time they actually were working on it and eventually were able to include PS3 in the events. It just looks like the exact same situation here, especially after my talk with a Samsung rep. Hopefully that is the case. I will be watching both of those support pages like a hawk after today.

P.P.S - Pulled directly from the Support FAQ's on samsung.com/us;

"_*Samsung is in close communication with both Google and our carrier partners to upgrade to Android 4.0*_ Ice Cream Sandwich as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Specific models that will receive the ICS update include the following devices. *Other specifics for the ICS update in the U.S. have not been announced. This list may be altered as updates are confirmed or released." *

Honestly I am just waiting for it to be confirmed officially. The guy at Samsung practically told me it's going to happen without actually saying it and if the supervisor knew about it and allowed the rep to pass along that information that means that VZW already has the update and it is in the approval stages, no? I mean correct me if I am wrong but it looks like they are going to release it eventually. I have no problem waiting lol. Hell, my phone won't even be here for a week from today.


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## p_025

Wait, so all we need to bust open the RIL is an update.zip which includes it? Of course, there hasn't been a single OTA update for this phone since it came out in October... That would be great, then we could get Cyanogen or AOSP on this phone and actually run Jelly Bean eventually.

Still, it's kind of odd. If the ROM is in the approval stages, why haven't Samsung OR Verizon said anything about it? Because at that point, they'd just need to tweak it to satisfy Verizon, do some final QA (which Verizon's QA failed miserably on the Motorola Devour) and roll it out. No shit the hardware is _capable_ of running it, that's not the problem.

Anywho, welcome to the Stratosphere family. Hopefully your (and my) wish comes true and we get ICS. Maybe I'll hassle Samsung and Verizon about it a bit too. Even if we don't, this is a non-Motorola phone with a physical keyboard and 4GLTE. Good combination.


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## lecapitan

RoyJ said:


> ...it looks like they are going to release it eventually. I have no problem waiting lol. Hell, my phone won't even be here for a week from today.


I really hope you are right but I will not be holding my breath. Samsung is one of the worst companies as far as OTA updates are concerned.


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## lecapitan

p_025 said:


> Wait, so all we need to bust open the RIL is an update.zip which includes it? Of course, there hasn't been a single OTA update for this phone since it came out in October... That would be great, then we could get Cyanogen or AOSP on this phone and actually run Jelly Bean eventually.
> 
> Still, it's kind of odd. If the ROM is in the approval stages, why haven't Samsung OR Verizon said anything about it? Because at that point, they'd just need to tweak it to satisfy Verizon, do some final QA (which Verizon's QA failed miserably on the Motorola Devour) and roll it out. No shit the hardware is _capable_ of running it, that's not the problem.
> 
> Anywho, welcome to the Stratosphere family. Hopefully your (and my) wish comes true and we get ICS. Maybe I'll hassle Samsung and Verizon about it a bit too. Even if we don't, this is a non-Motorola phone with a physical keyboard and 4GLTE. Good combination.


I have been tweeting to Samsung the past couple days for them to give us the RIL source. If you are bored maybe you could join in: @SamsungMobile, @Samsungtweets, @SamsungMobileUS. If enough of us bug them maybe they will do something


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## p_025

Lol, I've been posting disgruntled messages on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobile I keep hoping that it's the right page for it. I don't use Twitter very much, but if I can remember my login I'd be pleased to join.


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## acejavelin

p_025 said:


> Wait, so all we need to bust open the RIL is an update.zip which includes it? Of course, there hasn't been a single OTA update for this phone since it came out in October... That would be great, then we could get Cyanogen or AOSP on this phone and actually run Jelly Bean eventually


That is what we were told in a thread on XDA, if there was an official Update.Zip out there from VZW/Samsung then they could make a complete build of Cyanogenmod 9 or MIUI! But until that happens, there is no way to unlock RIL "legally" without it... Here is a link to the post where one of the ROM builders says that the Update.Zip is needed: http://forum.xda-dev...&postcount=100. That thread is also the "official" thread for Stratosphere Development on XDA.


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## lecapitan

p_025 said:


> Lol, I've been posting disgruntled messages on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobile I keep hoping that it's the right page for it. I don't use Twitter very much, but if I can remember my login I'd be pleased to join.


Thanks for this. I will be messaging their facebook persona as well. You could always make a new throwaway twitter account to bug them.


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## lecapitan

acejavelin said:


> That is what we were told in a thread on XDA, if there was an official Update.Zip out there from VZW/Samsung then they could make a complete build of Cyanogenmod 9 or MIUI! But until that happens, there is no way to unlock RIL "legally" without it... Here is a link to the post where one of the ROM builders says that the Update.Zip is needed: http://forum.xda-dev...&postcount=100. That thread is also the "official" thread for Stratosphere Development on XDA.


I did not realize it was a legality issue. One thing I still do not understand is why we cannot just use Samsung's RIL binary and make calls to that.


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## p_025

acejavelin said:


> there is no way to unlock RIL "legally" without it...


I didn't realize it was illegal to unlock software components of my own phone. That's totally an Apple move.

Seriously, what the hell is the legality argument here?


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## acejavelin

Well, don't quote me on this, since I am not a ROM builder and most of this is second hand so take it with a grain of salt, but I think to change the kernel version from 2.6.35.7 you need to rebuild the entire kernel and modules and I think that is the hold up, they have the basic kernel source code but without the source code for the RIL kernel modules the kernel version can't be changed and the v2.6.35.7 source that they have is insufficient for other complete ROM builds. How the Update.Zip unlocks this is beyond me, but apparently without the actual RIL source code they can't recompile these modules.

It is my understanding though that CyanogenMod can be made to work with even stock kernels, although a few features are lost, basically they just build a ROM that includes all the applications (/system directory) and uses the current kernel... I can't tell you why no one has done that on CM yet, there is a thread with dozens of requests in it (http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/33686-samsung-stratosphere-sch-i405/), guess there just isn't a developer with the phone willing to put in the work... You will also notice if you go through the "Unofficial Ports" forum on CM, that the most requested builds are for Samsung devices almost 5 to 1 over other manufacturers, so we are not alone in this struggle with our Strat.

As far as the legality goes (again, all info is second hand so take this with a grain of salt as well), I think the issue the source code is not freely distributed and it is copyrighted by Samsung, only binaries distributed with the system are available, so you can't recompile them for a different kernel and reverse engineering them is illegal... And the people at CyanogenMod and MIUI are pretty serious about the legality thing...


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## acejavelin

Huh... so according to this thread if you read towards the end, there is a way to get around the RIL issue, and there are a few ROM developer/porters over at XDA that have this device in their radar to port a ROM to it... we just need to be patient and wait for them to get freed up from other projects to work on it. Of course, a little encouragement or something more might help get their attention quicker...


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## lecapitan

acejavelin said:


> Huh... so according to this thread if you read towards the end, there is a way to get around the RIL issue, and there are a few ROM developer/porters over at XDA that have this device in their radar to port a ROM to it... we just need to be patient and wait for them to get freed up from other projects to work on it. Of course, a little encouragement or something more might help get their attention quicker...


Well this is a start. I think I'll try to get up to speed on compiling our Kernel and see if I can tip toe my way around these changes to figure them out (oh my, goto statements ;_; lol I wonder if the modder added those or if it is similar in Samsung's source code). I'm still pretty green to all this stuff but I did manage to recompile CWM for my HTC Incredible a long time ago when they changed it so the power button would not proceed through the menus (my trackpad button stopped working haha). Did KnightCrusader ever release any information about how he compiles the kernel? Nevermind I just found that KC released the source with setup information. Thanks a lot KC. I will see what I can manage to figure out.


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## acejavelin

lecapitan said:


> Well this is a start. I think I'll try to get up to speed on compiling our Kernel and see if I can tip toe my way around these changes to figure them out (oh my, goto statements ;_; lol I wonder if the modder added those or if it is similar in Samsung's source code). I'm still pretty green to all this stuff but I did manage to recompile CWM for my HTC Incredible a long time ago when they changed it so the power button would not proceed through the menus (my trackpad button stopped working haha). Did KnightCrusader ever release any information about how he compiles the kernel? Nevermind I just found that KC released the source with setup information. Thanks a lot KC. I will see what I can manage to figure out.


Good Luck!!! If there is anything I can do to help let me know, I haven't compiled or played with anything since I was using Slackware on an old laptop and the kernel was like version 1.2... I do know that the original Samsung source code is available on their website at http://opensource.samsung.com under Mobile - Mobile Phone section, look for "SCH-I405_VZW" and there is D/L link to all the open source code for this device!


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## lecapitan

I got everything set up and figured out how to compile. I looked at the make configs just because I was curious to see the differences between the default "aegis_usa_defconfig" and the "TWEAKSTOCK-CONFIG" and it looks like KC changed a lot more stuff that we were lead to believe. Granted, I do not know a whole lot about what all these configs do, but there are things in the aegis config that are missing in the tweakstock config that seem pretty important. Maybe these settings get picked up from another location that I do not know of...

Anyways my next step will be to see if I can manage getting the stock kernel compiled with root. I will try to make a complete list of the differences between the aegis defconfig and the tweakstock config so we can try to decifer what is going on.


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## stonent

lecapitan said:


> I have been tweeting to Samsung the past couple days for them to give us the RIL source. If you are bored maybe you could join in: @SamsungMobile, @Samsungtweets, @SamsungMobileUS. If enough of us bug them maybe they will do something


I just posted on facebook a request for the RIL code. http://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobileUSA If any of you are on, please chime in on my post!


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## stonent

Might be worth filling out the inquiry. If you pull up the source code there's an envelope on the right, click it and you can request more information.


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## stonent

Samsung deleted my facebook post...

Edit: Strange, it just reappeared



__ https://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobileUSA/posts/10150915986966786


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## RoyJ

FB does that sometimes lol.

I guess all galaxy s devices are supposed to get ics eventually, that's what they told me just with no solid dates.


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## p_025

That's funny, because they've specifically said that the Galaxy S devices would NOT be getting the upgrade. Though the Stratosphere is technically a Galaxy S, it is newer than most (all?) the others, and isn't advertized as a Galaxy device.


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## RoyJ

p_025 said:


> That's funny, because they've specifically said that the Galaxy S devices would NOT be getting the upgrade. Though the Stratosphere is technically a Galaxy S, it is newer than most (all?) the others, *and isn't advertized as a Galaxy device.*


Yes it is...........

"Samsung Stratosphere™ a Galaxy S phone (Black)"
*Tips & Tricks:
Stratosphere *
From organizing apps to syncing calendars to customizing home screens,* your Galaxy S phone* is loaded with useful features. Check out our and tricks.
Designed to maximize the Verizon 4G LTE network's speed,* Samsung Stratosphere™ a Galaxy S phone* delivers a faster response time and enough bandwidth to call and surf at the same time. Get the most out of your smartphone with these helpful hints

pulled directly from the stratosphere page on samsung.com when you're browsing cell phones. They told me the strat was the 1 and only phone they are currently considering for the ICS update, but can't get more specific than that


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## acejavelin

No matter what anyone says, the Official List on Samsung's website and the list on Verizon's Website do not include any indications that the Stratosphere or any other past or current Verizon Samsung Android device will ever get ICS unless it has it already, with the exception of the Galaxy Tabs...

There is ONE Galaxy S Phone that will officially get ICS, it is the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G on T-Mobile, but it's specs are way above ours with a dual-core 1.5Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM, and in reality it is more of S2 model than a regular Galaxy S. There is no other Galaxy S model that Samsung has said it will develop ICS for.

As much as I would love to see ICS on this device, reality needs to be accepted that this likely will not happen... if it does, awesome, and I will eat my words and some humble pie, but the chances of this device getting ICS are about 1000 to 1.

So if you are holding your breath for the awesome thing to come, better just start breathing or it's just gonna kill ya.

- ace <killjoy> javelin


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## Dalladubb

To add to that, I think people are confused about the RIL ownership. Samsung owns the RIL, but Verizon controls it because it contains proprietary information about Verizon's network. Samsung has no issues at all releasing RIL source, Verizon does. Providing an update.zip would essentially provide a separated (though obfuscated) RIL module (in theory) that can (again, in theory) be used to bake into a third party ROM. That's all dependent on the RIL needing an update, however.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Verizon recently caved and started supplying the proprietary software from their Gnex, including the RIL, to Google's in a vain attempt to get the device relisted as a viable developer's device. If this is shown as a positive to Verizon it might encourage them to start doing this more often with more devices.

Just thought I'd try to clear that up.


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## lecapitan

In other words, we should be pestering Verizon AND Samsung


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