yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Pika007:
it's not always enough to just offer replacement.

I, for example, ordered my device from the UK, but i live far ways from there.

In case of a needed replacement, i will have to send it to the uk, wait for a new one to be sent here, and pay customs again.

That's a LOT of money.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
Yeah I understand my friend, I ordered mine from the UK also and I live as far away as possible (NZ). Even though Clove in the UK asked me to return mine I haven't just because of the hassle and the time I will be without one - let alone the money aspect..

Sometimes it sucks living on a little island of 4 million, we tend to be forgotten in phone launches :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] PsiIion:
I don't know where you live, but I know that in the UK or Sweden you should not have to pay customs twice if an item is sent for replacement or repair. I guess it's the same everywhere.

But...they have to label it correctly, and the customs have to spot the labeling. I had to pay customs a couple of times on items sent back from repair because customs missed the labeling, but in theory you should not have to.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dragunov:
UNLESS you live in Greece, where there are no customs rules, and all they want to do is rip you off!! :)

Lets hope that my SGS stands its ground, I wouldnt want to get in that mess, sending the phone back to the UK for repair... :/
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Although nothing been added to confirm this story it could still be true, but has nothing to do with suggesting HW issues. It's likely due to the fact that the vast majority of consumer products never get firmware updates by their owners, so if the firmware is almost signed off for release it makes Samsung's life easier to ship the next batch with the working driver.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] FITRS:
The phones are made in South Korea. It's already the first week in August.

If there really is a delay.. then the old phones sitting in the warehouse are all getting reflashed and new ones off the production line are getting new the fixed GPS/lag roms.. yeah if they are efficient they could do it in 2 months. Then you factor in sea freight, it could be even more than 2 months before the new flashed phones arrive from Korea to foreign shores.

They could also provide the tools to the carriers to reflash themselves when the boxes arrive.

Still a major undertaking.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
If this vapourware fix is actually just a matter of flashing, I can understand they would delay delivery of current units in stock. Perhaps it would end up cheaper than dealing with the tech support / returns / overall press *****ing costs, both in money and reputation.

What I find strange is that if it is *only* firmware to flash, then why not release the update right now to the units already on the market so you'd stfu picky customers and avoid possible new shrapnel on tech blogs and foruns?

This alone makes me think that perhaps those "changes at the warehouse and production line" might also mean hardware changes.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
As per my post above, the less phones that go out with the bug, the cheaper it is for Samsung. Those of us on XDA making a noise are a tiny minority compared to the average user who'll just return the phone if they cant get GPS to work. As soon as Samsung & Broadcom sign off on the changes, and they change the shipping ROM I'm sure they'll also issue it over Kies.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] FITRS:
And that's a whole new kettle of fish yet to be fixed.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Im feeling good things from you Trav.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Pika007:
Ditto for Israel.

Custom rules book says specifically- you pay customs again if your device gets replaced.

For repair, you must fill a form with the serial number etc. of the device, and ONLY if you get the same actual unit, you don't pay customs again.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
on the subject of double importation taxes, i might suggest something - i used to import/export as a business, and while i'm in the US, the logic should be applicable

on warranty items, when we would ship a replacement unit back to an overseas customer, on the invoice accompanying the item (all export items require an "invoice" whether there is a charge or not), but back to point - on the invoice we would state "no charge, warranty repair/replacement" . If you do return something to an overseas vendor, ask them to make sure there is a statement to that effect on the return "invoice" and that it is declared on the shipping documentation as well.

on the other end, ie the receiving end, customs might ask to see evidence that one was shipped out for warranty repair, so i would save shipping tickets, hopefully that have tracking numbers, ie UPS, Fedex or DHL and in fact, use them for the return shipping as their in house customs brokers can more easily determine this was a returning phone

having the vendor that is returning the item, having them include a copy of the original shipping ticket or at least the tracking number, should help confirm to your customs broker and your customs office that import tax had already been paid

just a suggestion
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
I agree with that like I said.

What I meant was that I'd just like to have someone from Samsung give us credible information stating that the so called "fix" is not hardware-dependent and will not require recalls/factory servicing for models that were already purchased.

Or, putting it other way, if I walk out today and buy the SGS on the store, will it be the same basic hardware revision as the future ones? (excluding software)

If it is a matter of just waiting for software fixes, I can buy it now and wait for a future flash.

See my point? That's what I hope someone out there could tell us.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
in Canada you only pay for custom on items with a dollar value, replacement and warranty items are not taxable anything under $40 and stuff mark as Gift
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
I understand your point all too clearly. I work for Broadcom, a company that manufactures, among other things, GPS chips, and as such I have to be careful what I say. It's often very difficult to find someone in a company that has a complete understanding of the issues AND the authorization to make a public statement about it.

I fully understand your caution, and I suspect many more are in the same position. If I were in your position I'd probably be holding off too. Here's hoping its all cleared up soon so we can all move on.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Rawat:
What the OP said is that they are not stopping production full stop, however they are stopping shipping for smaller independant retailers.

If they were going to do a hardware redesign, they'd stop shipment to the carriers too, and that's not the case.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sionyboy:
If the story is true then it isn't necessarily a confirmation that there is a hardware problem. It could just be that Samsung are well aware that consumer reaction to the SGS is not overwhelmingly positive at this moment (at least, not on teh interwebz forums) due to performance issues on the phone, and rather than release more handsets into the wild that risk alienating quite a lot of new customers, they can simply hold back until they are ready to ship with a brand new firmware in the box.

If it is a hardware issue then.... well, let's not go there! :D

Shame Samsung can't be a little more open with their customers. We've heard about GPS fixes but not about general performance of the phone.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
well Bell just did a massive launch yesterday for the Galaxy S

http://mobilesyrup.com/2010/08/05/s...nt-unboxed-rocked-during-free-metric-concert/

most stores branches are getting it tomorrow for sale, but all stores has a working demo for you to play with.

so they are definitely not slowing down.

it seems more like, they don't have enough stock to supply to big carriers, and are holding back on the smaller guys.

because i went to several stores up town, they said they wont have stock for sale until next week, yet only a handful of stores in downtown will have them on the release date (tomorrow)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
expansys (counts as one of these independant retailers, right?) says they are not going to be having any stock shortages.

Soo... sounds like this is made up?

Definitely need more proof before anybody can believe this.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
not quite expansys is multinational, ... that's not small no matther how you look at it.

my source only runs a dozen stores in the country, you'll find it in a few well known malls
[Galaxy S I9000 General] RyanZA:
Sounds more like the Galaxy S is selling so well that Samsung can't keep up with demand from all the little local stores? ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Yep.. And they tend to be the ones who say stuff like this, to ensure that customers return..
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Benjamin Dobell:
Ugh, that sucks. What country do you live in?

In Australia customs only charge you if the value of the item being shipped is greater than $1000 AUD.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ghosty_uk:
for travuk,

i understand your diificulties in the way you answer as working for a company and posting on an open source forum could get you sacked if you say the wrong thing.

to all,

i have been following this and the other thread about gps, for those of you wanting to get a SGS i would say do so, but only from a big company (carfone warehouse, phones 4 u etc) as they have a 28 day returns policy, which i have used.

my first SGS would not get a lock at all no matter how hard i tried, bar rooting and firmware updates. i took this back and while in the shop i asked them to get a fresh still factory sealed one as my prevoius one had been removed from the shrink wrap, they did this just to appease me and prove that noone had handled the phone from the factory. i took both new and old phone, and ran the lnb test menu, and sure enought the old one took about 2 mins to find 3 sats and lock one, the new one within 12 secs had found 11 and locked 9, when i walked back into the shop to show them my findings, the old one lost all signal, the new one remained fixed and locked to 4 sats. so they wanted to see if i had changed so varible, and did a factory reset on it, and nope it still only picked up 3 sats, so there is definatly something different about the 2 differnt ones i have had, and for the moment my new one (the factory sealed one), is working fine. ok so on my tracks its abit off, and gpstest sometimes only picks up 7 sats and locks to 4, but google navi works, it directs me to where i want to go. sometimes it does jump to a different road, if this one fails i shall excersie my rights to another replacement.

so the fact that it is out abit should not put you off getting one, unless samsung do make an obmission that is is hardware related, in which case i would imagine they would issue replacements or a re-call of existing units to get them fixed.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] larryccf:
curious how long you've had the new phone?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Im sure it didn't.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ghosty_uk:
i have had it exactly 1 week and 2 days.

and im sure it did see 11 and lock 9, in the lbs test menu i was in a town center, with clear blue sunny day, unless the lbs test menu is reporting wrong info. in which case this fone is buggered as well, on the up side at least it gets a gps lock where as the other one didnt.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] djglenn1337:
comment really adds value to the thread....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
don't worry, there are still people that are skeptical, that stock SGS ROM works properly with the GPS

i've always found the GPS in the black berries were more accurate than the GPS on the HTC devices, and on the Blackberries it locks faster.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] alferret:
Had my phone 3 weeks, JM2. Found and locked on to 7 in around 15-20 seconds, SNR high 30's low 40's accuracy 16.4ft.

Never had a problem with mine, be it stock, JG5 or JM2.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Pfff.

Anybody who knows anything and has been following this knows that the galaxy s in the uk at least is incapable of locking onto more than eight satellites.

Ghosty is the first person i heard of whos had nine.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Yeah, I'd really like to see a photo of that :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Bizarrely however, it appears the Vibrant in the US, has a reverse situation. It seems to have a problem locking onto more than 3 satellites, but gives an 18ft accuracy, and locks onto a signal strength < 20. Additionally, the returned GPS time appears to be 8 hours out!

Plus, GPS Test shows 12 satellites, including two zeroes!

I've even seen a screen shot showing that the Galaxy was locked onto two zero strength satellites!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mike.sw:
sounds like bs to me.

production problems never stopped toyota making more cars, or apple making more iphone 4 even though the reports of bad breaks or antana problems.

money is always first.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ghosty_uk:
ok i did a test tonight, just outside my house sat in my car with the roof up, it found 11 sats and locked 8, however now im trying it and getting nothing.

the phone is cold, so could it be i have found the hardware/software glitch

edit: ok so just rebooted the phone and it now sees 8 and locks 6, and that is on my desk in my room, is there anyway i can get a screen cap as i just tried to take a pic and everything is blurred.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] MOJO783010:
I am a happy camper

Just got the phone today after doing a lot of research and took a giant leap of fate buying it. Apparently lag or gps issues are not the case for me. Tested the phone, got gps lock in aprox. 20 sec. with 3g data turned on and 1 min 30 sec with no data what so ever (didn't had time to install gps status, will post gps status details tomorrow after a more thorough test) . I detected no lag problems either. I started to open a lot of apps (didn't use any task killer what so ever) and didn't experience lag at all right till the phone shut down due to lack of battery ( and i'm not being delusional, didn't pay much for the phone so no reason to lie). Will probably ditch the Smart Life/Touchwizz UI (hate it, launcher pro here i come). As an overall impression i think the product is good in terms of OS implementation ( certainly can do better) , good build quality , did detect an issue with wi-fi , but can't be certain because the wi fi router was a few flats above (kept disconnecting). In terms of 2g/3g data testing used Orange Romania network, an 230 kbps down and 152 kbps up speed on 2g and a healthy 820 kbps down and 560 kbps up on 3g (used speedtest app with server "Bucharest").

I work for a major carrier here in Romania so the phone i bought from work, didn't pay much as i mentioned. I have a bit of experience with Android, as this is my third Android based phone. Had a I5700 Galaxy spica, which was pretty nice, then a Desire which was very good , but the galaxy is definitely better. I will talk to the guys over at Admin/Retail to see if any of the phones sold had any issues and trie to verify the info about samsung holding on stock, but i find it pretty hard to believe it true.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
I just bought the SGS today, 16 GB version and only because the store assured me that they would take it back until after 30 days, if I didn't trash it/scratch it.

The guy at the store didn't seem surprised by my GPS comments and said he heard about it but also heard that a fix would be coming out. Sounds like the usual comments people are hearing around but have no factual data at all.

Tomorrow I'll take some tracks and see how it behaves. There is also the plug for the GPS antenna, which I might try later. Not sure if I'll bother with any upgrades at this time... I'll leave that for Froyo final or any fixes that might come before.... if it is too rotten it will go back anyway as I want decent GPS performance.

I did not install many apps just to keep it clean... only Compass, GPS Test, My Tracks and an update to Google Navigation. Also installed the NDrive trial, just in case.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
Did you buy one Beowulf? :eek: Congratulations. Let's hope the Froyo update comes before your testperiod is over.

Can't wait to read a review from you.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
I've had 9 in JG1. Between 7 and 9 though, there might not be much difference in performance (maybe the lock might be more reliable, and a bit more accurate). This is in Australia, and this was with JG1. And yes, this was inside my house near the window. I'd imagine that 7 should be fine for 5m accuracy (but might be wrong). In JG5, I can't even lock one. The overheating theory is probably wrong too, because it's winter here..

The reason why there are so few people though who have seen so many locks, is that few people sit around staring at their total GPS satellites. Seriously, who bothers?

6 is enough for pilots. Perhaps things will get better if they add RAIM and FDE support. But for my needs, I have a fitness GPS already (a forerunner 305), and that is designed with optimal antenna placement for jogging. So I just need enough accuracy for car.

Anyway, I don't believe we need 12 satelites locked for things to work well (i'll check how many i get locked on my forerunner 305 when it is returned to me in a few days, but i doubt it is more than 9). There are other factors than the total locked satelites which determines accuracy anyway..
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
I believe you when you only get upto eight locks :-)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Dude, it is true! They are delaying delivery to fix the problem and save costs. I believe that. The problem is now identified and will be solved in subsequent units leaving the production line starting next Monday.

Ironically, the fix is actually quite simple - it involves changing just the cute black matte stylish box where the SGS ships in. The lines "GPS/Geo-Tagging and Layar" are in error and will be removed from future versions of the packaging. That solves the so called "gps problem" slander that is being spread by resentful iStevephone fans.

Even sjdean's well intentioned - yet misguided - investigations were therefore quite off track (no pun intended) from the path to the final solution and should not be considered.

Finally, for all you SSNGY and BRCM shareholders: Worry not; this is also good news as my sources have told me that the fix should have minimal impact on costs and our profits will not suffer as if we, say, had to give away bumpers, cases, paper maps and €3 compasses or even - Yahweh forbid - actually have had to rewrite code and test it formally before release - like less mature companies would do.... ahahhaha.. sorry, just got carried away thinking on such ridiculous approach - actually testing before rtfm.

Anyway...this, my friends, is true first-class engineering; Solving a problem. For everyone. For so little.

So do like I do, be patient and wait for your fix, keep enjoying your Samsung Galaxy S - aka "this month's iPhone killer with the pretty screen". We can hold it any way we want and it can still make calls, even while you're asking someone for directions. This is the best smartphone in the market and I would drop it for no other.

I just love science when everything works out right for everybody.

PS: Thanks for the PMs - It has been brought to my attention by current owners like myself that the fix on future batches will not solve our problems. I have reflected on this and after a few phone calls was assured that we too will have a solution. Samsung respects us, a bit like their competitors would - so everyone will get a new, corrected box for their Galaxy S. They might be unable to make enough boxes for everyone so in some cases you might just get a sticker with the correct "Features". Just peel it off and stick it over the rear on your current SGS box. The gps problem will be gone.

PPS: I cannot reveal my sources at this time. Please don't PM me and be patient. Everyone will get a sticker after requesting it from the - now available - reverse RMA Widget available in the latest Kies. Be sure that our Galaxy S is a fine product and you can use no better terminal at this time. Thumbs up! Cheers all.

---

Sent from my iPhone
[Galaxy S I9000 General] FITRS:
^

Is the above a troll or just satire?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
TravUK, I know you have some substantial knowledge about this. Could it be that the maximum lock to 8 sats and the fact that GPS chip never sees more than 10 sats be one of the features with which the BCM4751 chip accomplish its (advertised) powersaving features? I mean, couldn't this be a intended design issue? Could it be that the designers made up a balance and thought, well locking to at most 8 still should generate a great accuracy while it would save a lot of power on the other hand.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] karakake:
According to Korean Galaxy S owners, there have been some changes done to SGS in latest batch of production. It is law to print the date of production on the phone in Korea so people know when their phones were assembled. One of most noticeble change is that the leds in front buttons got much brighter than early production and some reported that the board inside SGS is also slightly changed (they didn't actually open the device but they looked the part through USB connector). Although this could be done more likely for efficiency reason, rather than for known SGS problems, I thought you guys better aware of it :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Superroach:
Sareen, if you go by reading above, there is no point in waiting to get it, seeing as there will be the firmware update for it soon.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] netdudeuk:
No, don't say that. I'd love to live on an island with only 4 million people, instead of this island here that's being stuffed to breaking point by unwanted people.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wavemechanic:
No gps problems here in melbourne on my 3-week old i9000, I get gps lock in 8 seconds from a cold start when outdoors. Just as good as my old G1. Sorry to hear others are having problems.

Oh and the update released for optus phones yesterday has fixed the lag problem. Completely. Very happy now.

Optus stores are out of stock though, and don't expect any for a couple of weeks. Interesting- I wonder if the new stock will have the update applied, and if that's what the holdup is.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Nope. You haven't been keeping up. NMEA data at times clearly shows that the internal chip locks onto more than 8 satellites and uses satellites < 20 SnR for a fix.

But the Samsung software inbetween libgps.so I don't think reports this information correctly to Android, so apps only ever see upto 8 satellites used for fix.

I'll post the NMEA data again to prove this.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
I can confirm that with my own Vibrants, and that seems to be consistent with the consensus on the Vibrant forums. (I have mentioned before that our symptoms related to the reported satellite locks are very different from yours.)

On my Vibrant, GPS Test usually shows several satellites with SNR above 20, but they are always grayed out. The only "in use" satellites, as shown in GPS Test and GPS Status, are those with signals below that threshold. The Android's GPS lock icon shows a non-pulsing lock when GPS test starts using only 1 satellite, which I thought was impossible. I don't think I have ever seen more than 2 birds in use at once.

But our symptoms with the actual tracking performance is quite similar. Recall that the detail of the satellite fixes comes from one listener in the Android API, and the coordinates from another. So I suspect that our firmware is handling the satellite data differently. Maybe both firmware versions are wrong.