Tutor
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4 Messages
Features missing from the Galaxy S 2 and huge stupid security hole. HELP :(
1. On the at&t website an FM radio is listed as available on the Galaxy S 2. I have read the other posts regarding this and would love to hear back from someone at at&t
The link to this information is here (look under the music section)
2. The Samsung account login has been removed (by at&t in their bake of the S2 firmware??) For those of you who do not know what this is, all Galaxy devices have the ability to be (by you the owner) tracked, pinged, locked and remote wiped by the user using your account at samsungdive.com. It is a super cool feature that is offered for free by Samsung to all Galaxy device users. I use it on my Tab 10.1 and it is awesome. Anyhow normally the option to activate the find my mobile feature is in Settings>Location and Security> Find My Mobile > Remote Controls IT IS MISSING!!!
**I lost my Galaxy Tab 10.1 (or thought I had) I logged onto my Samsungdive account and did a trace. Noticed the tab was in my house. I proceeded to use the ring my device feature and a few seconds later heard my tab ringing. Turns out it was just in my couch cushion.
The account setup for these features is normally found in Settings>Accounts and Sync> and when you add an account you have the options to add a Samsung account. This too is missing. at&t you have some explaining to do!!
3. Lastly is a huge and I just confirmed a stupid security HOLE I read about online. I have only confirmed this with the pattern pattern lock feature on my device. To replicate the hole, lock your phone > push power button to black out the screen > push power button to turn on screen and reveal the pattern lock > wait a few second and the screen will start to fade to black again. As soon as it fades to black, push your power button and look at the that, the lock screen is gone and the phone is unlocked without having to enter a pattern or password grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
4. Lastly a warning. Watch out for at&t preinstalled apps. A number of them are subscription based even though you may not have to pay to use them on your other devices. Read the fine print very carefully before you use at&t preinstalled apps!!!
Overall the S 2 is a solid phone. The only problems I am finding are with the faulty advertising and the at&t modifications. It would be nice if they would just leave the stock firmware alone and give us a good product rather than an at&t baked product.
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
foxbat121
Master
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2.7K Messages
12 years ago
1. Yes, it has been discussed a lot in various forums as well as here. It looks like FM is indeed missing.
2. I've tried Samsung Dive on my wi-fi Galaxy Tab 10.1 and it is not working (i.e. can't find it). Sounds like a good feature but implementation of it is sketch. I wish Google will put such feature into ICS as standard. iPhones have it. WP7 phones also have it. Android phones are the ones left out.
3. Samsung/ATT has responded to this issue and are fixing it. They also give you a temporary work around to set the unlock timeout to 'Immediately' to disable the bug. This bug only affects regular pattern lock or PIN lock. I have an Exchange account with security policy that requires PIN. I have verified that exchange PIN does not suffer from this bug.
4. The bloat where are amazingly less than the previous phone I owned, Captivate. And most of them can be uninstalled without the need of root. The only thing I can't uninstall is AT&T Navigator.
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optidigix
Tutor
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4 Messages
12 years ago
As a side note, I justpicked mine up today in Chicago, IL at my local Best Buy. They have them in stock.
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optidigix
Tutor
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4 Messages
12 years ago
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optidigix
Tutor
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4 Messages
12 years ago
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foxbat121
Master
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2.7K Messages
12 years ago
That's why I connect my phone to my workplace Exchange server. Not only it does not suffer from the same pattern lock bug but also I can remote wipe my phone from my desktop PC.
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CincinnatiDan
Mentor
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57 Messages
12 years ago
Thanks foxbat121 for the solution to the lock screen problem. It seems to have fixed this security issue.
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foxbat121
Master
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2.7K Messages
12 years ago
To be honest, it is really not an security issue. There is a timeout setting so that you don't have to always use pattern or pin to unlock the screen. It is for convenience. When you wake up the screen before timeout, you're not suppose to see the pattern or pin screen at all, you should just see the normal screen that you can swipe it to unlock the phone. The bug is that screen showed up where it is not suppose to. Setting the timeout to 'Immediately' basically returns it to the behavior of previous versions of Android.
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Entropy512
Guru
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725 Messages
12 years ago
I think I was wrong about FM being missing completely. I've found some new evidence that the hardware is there but the driver is broken/has issues.
I do kernel development over on XDA and I've been compiling custom kernels for the phone.
1) The stock kernel has the FM driver disabled and no module for it
2) If you enable the kernel module for the FM driver in a custom kernel, it will fail to initialize
3) If you disable the kernel module for the FM driver when compiling a kernel, but leave a previously compiled driver lying around - it loads and initializes properly!
FM support is also completely missing from the Android framework on this device.
So the hardware may be there but firmware work is needed for it to function.
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spidertech
Scholar
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162 Messages
12 years ago
I'm not surprised here. My last phone was the Sony Ericsson x10 and AT&T removed the "Untrusted sources" option, SE Backup & Restore app, PlayNow Arena shop, and Sony Ericsson Sync. Then they added their own bloat.
At least with the GS2 they left in the Untrusted Sources option and let you remove some of the bloat without needing root. There are some apps they've loaded which I've never used before so I'll at least take a look. If they don't use the subscription model I may try them out. I'm at least going to use the $25 media hub credit to download a video or two.
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