Samsung Instinct firmware changes confirmed: it's the browser
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Oct 6th 2008 4:55AM
posted Oct 6th 2008 4:55AM
We've been holding off on running this until we got confirmation from Samsung on just what was going on, and now we have it; it's official, folks -- the Instinct's latest firmware update is all about the browser. To quote Sammy, "most of the traits of this upgrade focus on improving the Web browser experience," and the word on the street seems to be in line with that with faster page loading and generally fewer crashes being reported across the board. As best we can tell, it doesn't solve every last issue in the book, but it's awesome to see that Sprint and Samsung seem to be staying on top of this stuff. Have an Instinct? Sound off on comments with your update experiences.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
what a first comment! lol.
Aww, it got deleted. good thing I read it, it was hi-larious
Have you tried to get yourself a Samsung Instinct?
Awesome. thank you. try being a nice, dick, that works well too.
get some friends
oh babyyy tonight we're gonna get drunk and go party at engadget :)
The first comment is sad. It only takes one bottle of Merlot?
Anyway, the Instinct is starting to really catch up. The latest update does address the browser, but we want apps! If the following are released soon, this will be a killer phone:
1.Aapps!
2.Slide to unlock
3. Tethering
You can tether the Instinct. Search around, best part is you won't have to pay ;)
I'd take a physical lock/unlock slider (like on the samsung upstage) over a screen based one any day. It's just more secure that way.
Why would anyone want "hold down a button, then slide to unlock" over "hold down a button"?
Just because iPhone does it doesn't mean it's the best way. The sliding is unnecessary, in my opinion.
Having a mental breakdown on a gadget blog? HAHA! ^_^
About time, the browser crashes every few minutes. Now if i could just sync it with my Mac. That'd be something.
Everyone come for a ride on my lolocoptor. A mental breakdown on Engadget, who would of thought.
hahahahahha whoaaaa!
Engadget is probably the last place im at while drunk.
Dude i dont think your gunna find a girl here at engadget. Try e-dating while hammed. Maybe you'll have better luck.
Well, if that comment doesn't get you laid, i don't know what will.
Lol, try wankering that merlot in a nightclub, your pulling chances are vastly improved that way.
Don't worry, my advice is free.
Im in Canada and im on telus with an Instinct.
will i get this firmware update?
the funniest part is his profile picture. I thought this crap happened in our 30's-40's.
That was the best comment evarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Good. But NOW LETS GET SOME APPS. Seriously. Whenever I go to the app page from my phone, all they have are nascar apps or some niche ethnic dating service app.
Other than that. I should've never gotten this phone. Whoever said this was an iPhone killer/alternative was a dumbass.
rumkin.com/tools/sprint has a bunch of apps and games for the instinct free. I wish ppl would upload and post more non-instinct stuff, though, as i don't own one
Acceptance is the first step... You're well on your way to a great phone.
Actually Sprint (and maybe Samsung) said that. Go to the official Instinct website and it literally says that it's an iPhone killer. Sprint and Samsung should be sued for false advertising. Seriously, I hope they do.
When has Engadget ever waited for confirmation on something? Oh wait, that's only with iPhone stuff...
I thought for sure a breakdown post would come first on some iPhone post, not this one..
Its not only the browser, the whole software needs to be changed !! Not a good platform such a good piece of hardware !!
The software is awesome, just the lack of anything to install other than games and 3 apps is what bothers me. Don't see any problem with it's ui.
The UI is averafe, compared to the interfaces coming up.... And the platform is not much developed (like Windows Mobile or Mac Mobile - iPhone)......
To fiendster and all you who think he's cute: Please go to some other site to embarrass yourselves.
To Engadget: Please monitor your site a little bit more. It is not curbing freedom of speech to remove such disgusting comments. It keeps comments on topic which is why some of us come here.
To the above idjit:
Go get a sense of humour, you bureaucratic fool.
Lmao this comment is beautiful. Drunken comments on Engadget. I think he ment to post a bulletin on Myspace but its all the same. Why are you drinking Merllot get some beer, classy sassy with wine alone aww.. Anyway, I agree get yourself an Instinct. jk G1.
The browser is much improved. It was pretty much unusable before. It is actually quite pleasant to use now. Also, various app upgrades are coming. The TV/Video app was upgraded last week and appears to have improved streaming performance. More are supposedly coming this week.
Sprint has promised the following in the next firmware upgrade. If they deliver, this phone will be infinitely more useful.
Java refit to better enable 4-way/OK and text input to LCDUI widget-based applications
- This would allow the Instinct to run the countless apps already available for JAVA phones. The most desired of these has been Opera Mini. However, the recent browser fixes make Opera Mini less critical. Still, text input in JAVA apps would be nice.
Support for native document viewing for many popular office document types including .doc, .pdf, .ppt and others
- I think this speaks for itself.
It's nice to see that Samsung and Sprint are not leaving this phone as they originally under-delivered it. They appear to actually be listening to their rather vocal users and fixing the bugs and filling in the holes.
If you think this is how a company follows up on a product and keeps it relative you REALLY need to try a Mac product... Samsung's follow up on the Instinct can be described as nothing more short of pathetic.
Hey, I'm all for a real iPhone killer to come out and believe it would only help the consumers of both products BUT... this thing is far from it. This piece of shit needs to be called out for what it is, otherwise other phone makers might think they can get away with such mundane products as well.
The browser is way better now then before, and I agree with you all that we need more apps!!!
what a loser! one bottle of wine messed him up that bad???
This update was about a week or more ago from this post... but then again I am in Overland Park.... We do need more apps though...
ENgadget! put the drunken breakdown comment back up...I missed out!
I'm a little annoyed with it. Now the update itself but just the fact that my phone is telling me there's no software update available. Exactly what am I doing wrong here? Or maybe I do have the new update, which is still lacking, but I updated this like 3 weeks ago. What Browser version should I be seeing? Right now I have 1.1
The instinct is a "feature phone" and as such has a number of nice features and Sprint is working to improve the user
experience. It's biggest downer for me is that it was advertised as "MIDP 2.0" compatible , but due to some poor
decisions at Sprint/Samsung keyboard input for "standard midp" apps is disabled. This is a known issue that Sprint
is well aware and has been promising a fix for months. Currently no date is given other than "enter testing" about October
13, when it will be released and if it will really fix this problem is yet to be known.
I could care less about the browser...or apps...or much of anything else. I want the phone to stop slowing to a crawl when doing ANYTHING meaningful OTHER than talking on the phone. Text messaging on this phone, which should be a dream, is an absolute irritating experience. Half the time I have to wait for the phone to "catch up" to what Ive already typed because it is so slow. Other times is says the message was sent but it wasnt, although that may just be Sprint's network. Ive also had many freezing and lockup issues, none of which were fixed with the update. The phone is ungodly slow at most menial tasks. For the love of god work on the text messaging...if it wasnt so sloooooooooow, it would be better than the iPhone SMS.
Dude your so right on about this phone sucking at the most remedial tasks like txting, it makes me so angry that a stupid phone cant even take a user input faster than i can type.. its so annoying that the phone lags so badly, you think with any sort of processor at all in it it could take simple keyboard type user inputs with lightning speed. This issue alone makes me HATE this phone, it needs a heck of a lot of work to be anything close to good in other areas as well, email typing is even worse than sms texting with the lagging, the ringers section should be way more customizable as well as volume levels separating out alarm volumes and ringer volumes, the lock feature is awefull, it should be just like an iphone or the LG dare is awesome. other things like call waiting when a user hangs up the call should dissapear off the screen so that you cant switch between them and get a dial tone when your in mid sentence to the other caller. also the screen shouldnt be active while your on the phone so you cant accidently mute the phone or start txting with your cheek... the end call button should not be ontop of the redial button so that you end up trying to end the call and the other person hung up first and the screen switches to the redial screen and you end up hitting that instead of end call and calling the person back.. i mean did anyone at samsung even use this phone before they released it?????? such little things are so super annoying. if i didnt sign a 2 year contract i would go back to verizon and buy the dare in a heartbeat. ive found other issues with trying to assign pics to a contact and then updating the photo on the pc and reading it to the contact say if the persons head was cut off so you crop it on the sd card and remove the old photo from the profile and add the new one, the old photo is still there????????????????????????? cant they get anything correct? SOMEONE FIX THIS PHONE.
To Utahnkid:
Sprint and Samsung have released several updates over the space of 4 months. How long did it take Apple to release the first update for the iPhone?
How do you use special carracter like ( é ou â or è ) ?
You don't? :-
I have this phone and I must say it SUCKS!!! If this is an "iphone" killer based on ONLY 3g network speed, someone at Sprint needs to do their research. I am totally UNHAPPY with this piece of crap. Apple had everything ready to go from day one. Sure they had a few glitches but their app shop and itunes was good to go! The apps suck on this (or should I say WHAT APPS!!!)....basically EVERYTHING sucks on this phone. I am not impressed one bit! Problem is all of the Sprint phones suck right now. I had the 800w and the battery life on that phones sucks. So I exchanged it for the Instinct. This phone was dead the day they even thought about making it. You don't just make a phone and call it an iphone killer by slapping some shit together and spewing it out there. I don't have an iphone but I do have an ipod touch so I can compare on the smoothness and availabilty of apps. iphone/ipod beats the Instinct 100%! I like Sprint but the phones they have just aren't making the cut! I wish these companies STOPPED jumping on the immitation bandwaggon and instead of making immitation phones, if they focused on making something original or make the DAMN RIGHT DECISIONS and secure a cool phone contract. (SPRINT I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOU CHEAP BASTARDS!) Sprint has a history of not joining the others when something new comes out example: When the Razor came out Sprint was the ONLY carrier not to have it, but instead came out with the Samsung Blade. When everyone else had SMS Sprint was the only carrier that either didnt have it on their phones or had the WEB based messaging, when blue tooth was all the rage, Sprint was the ONLY provider that did not offer it. To tell you the truth I might just pay to get out of my contract and buy an iphone. I don't like ATT and their signal sucks here in San Diego (I had them before and thats why I dumped them) The 99 dollar plan is awesome but the phones are not enjoyable. Instict sucks and let me tell you why: NO instant messaging. NONE!!! Hardley ANY APPS, and the apps they do have SUCK. WHATEVER it just sucks!