By 
The Samsung Galaxy S will not receive a “Value Pack” update with added features, a spokesperson speaking to The Next Web has confirmed. The software upgrade was initially discussed as an alternative to Android 4.0, adding some of the operating system’s new features within the framework of Android 2.3. Samsung stated last month that the hardware of the Galaxy S can not support the new Ice Cream Sandwich build of Android along with their TouchWiz user interface. Hardware is again being pointed to as the reason why a so-called “Value Pack” will not be delivered. The news will certainly frustrate owners of the highly popular smartphone further, but at this point it looks like Samsung can or will do little to remedy the issue.
[via The Next Web]
stupid TouchWiz.
If it can’t use ICS WITH TouchWiz, how about just sending out stock ICS, I’m sure the hardware will support that, and the users probably wouldn’t care at all…
They could make stock ICS a USB download available through Kies as a pure option for those who can’t live without Touchwiz. Boom, controversy solved.
While people who read Android blogs would love that, how would average customers react? Many SGS users are used to the TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz has many great apps/widgets that are superior to that of stock Android (for example, the dialer on stock Android is absolutely terrible).
Regular people probably wouldn’t care..so send our stock for those who do and reestablish faith for Samsung in the minds of the tech savvy for Samsung.
Fragmentation? How about they just omit TouchWiz altogether and give a stock ICS. I guess that’s what rooting is for.
They can’t just omit TouchWiz. People’s purchasing decisions may have been based on the fact the Galaxy S had TouchWiz. They might freak out if it’s removed. The way I see it, Samsung won’t alienate the majority of their user base to appease a fairly small, but vocal minority.
Not saying I support Samsung. Just my reasoning on why they can’t/won’t remove TouchWiz and prove stock ICS.
True, I understand why manufacturers have their own UI. Buy they should still give the option. But that’s wishful thinking and we all know that will never happen. As I said earlier, that’s what rooting is for.
Yep, thank the Lord for rooting!
Take a peak at the Vibrant’s ICS Passion ROM over at XDA. It contains enough of the Touchwiz framework, whist running a totally functonal and fast 4.0.3.
um, no actually. It’s a Cyanogenmod based rom, it doesn’t have any of the Touchwiz framework.
Are we talking about the one by neobuddy? If so, it is AOSP based, which is different than being cm based… Cm9 isnt out yet. But, correct on the fact that it’s not tw based.
Yeah, you’re right. I just read the credits at the bottom and I saw Cyanogenmod, they must be using CM Sources then. My bad.
Are you sure it’s CM9 based? I haven’t read that anywhere, and I certainly didn’t have to reformat my system to get there from a TW-based ROM (Malice v5) Also, until a recent conflict with Voodoo, it supported 911 in every iteration, which CM couldn’t do.
I’m more or less referring to things such as the power widgets in the notification bar, tv out/display settings, etc. I know that Touchwiz hasn’t been officially released for ICS, so of course there wouldn’t be ACTUAL framework. I shouldn’t have used a term with so specific a meaning. But between the SGS specific settings and Voodoo controls that have been incorporated into the ROM, there is enough there to make it appear a little more Touchwiz-ish than some other stock ICS ROMs I’ve looked into. There is certainly no TW Launcher (although Trebuchet borrows a little from TW), messaging, or various other TW widgets.
Bottom Line: Between the improvements in ICS and the other tweaks for the SGS, it’s altogether awesome visually and functionally, with enhancements made specifically for the Vibrant.
They could offer an official but optional update for people who decide to leave touchwiz behind.
i guess your nextweb source forgot to check the correct translation of that statement good job haha
Why does anyone care ?? install CyanogenMod or one of the other roms when they become available , they will be much more open and probably run a lot better without all the TouchWiz stuff.
The big problem is ensuring a 3.0.x kernel gets created, and not getting ICS can make it less likely.
it is not about get ICS on the phone it is about Samsung as company doesn’t care about its customers… why guys on CM or XDA have to think about samsung customers while company doesn’t care…..
the phone is 1,5 year old but they still selling these phones…. for the customers it is two-three month phone not 1,5 year and they denied for support…
I consider myself pretty tech savvy but even so I’ve never rooted an android device. Unlike on the iPhone or with webOS there is no going back if you change your mind or mess up. At least with the other two platforms you could just restore and refresh everything back to normal.
Most phones have ways to easily flash stock firmware.
Yea but how do find them? How do you know they’re legit? How stable is the flashing process? These are problems that android does not have an answer to.
——————————
That is all completely wrong. If you were someone who actually does root and flash custom roms and kernels, you would know you can go back to stock or to 100 different setups within minutes. Also, how would that even be a minus when compared to iOS…there is no modding to go back from….
Did you read my response?
——————————
jbrandonf: “Did you read my response?”
Yes? You mean the post I clicked reply to?
I don’t see what you mean. What I said stands, it is easy to go back to stock. If you were ever to try and install any custom roms or root your device, you would obviously already know where to go to get stock back or anything else.
I also don’t see how this is a minus too Android compared to the others…there is no comparison to safely going back to stock when Android is the only one being flashed with custom roms anyways…
I guess I’ll ask the questions again…How do you find them? How do you know they’re legit? How stable is the flashing process? The stock Tom isn’t provided by the manufacturer is the issue I have. ——————————
I’m sorry, I thought you were asking ritorical questions due to the last sentence about them being questions Android doesn’t have an answer to. If you are looking to actually try out some custom roms and such. The only place you need is XDA Developers, that is where you will find all the roms, kernels, themes, etc that you could ever need for your phone/tablet. They have all the necessary guides and walkthroughs for beginners and experts. They will provide links to any stock firmware or other programs you may need such as Odin for flashing and rooting. It is an extremely helpful community and extremely talented, truly makes you love Android and it’s open source. Especially companies like Samsung and HTC who embrace the developing community instead of trying to hinder it. Try out Cyanogen7 first off as it is the most widely used and supported rom available, it also has stability more so than any of their ICS based stuff. Once you play around with some Gingerbread based stuff, move on to ICS, it is awesome! I am running ICS on my Galaxy S and my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and loving it!
CM9.
So glad my iPhone (no matter which one) always gets the latest version of iOS. Even the 3Gs is supported 2.5 years later!
Did Siri help you post this? Oh wait, it isn’t supported on the 3GS. So much for still getting support for the latest and greatest 2.5 yrs later…
Uh…. #1… Siri doesn’t make comments on enthusiast tech blogs. #2. I have Siri… on my 4S. #3. I do expect a year old device get 1 MAJOR update to the latest version OS. An X.0 release. But I do realize that newer hardware releases take priority when designing the OS, so I don’t expect every feature to make it into the update on older hardware. While my daughter didn’t get Siri, She did appreciate all of the other features like Notification Center, Reminders, etc. that were added. But at least the 3GS GOT the newest OS. Lets see. 3GS releases with 3.0. And in 2 years… got 4.0, 5.0 and every minor update in between.
So, I guess the Galaxy S shipping with Froyo, and getting the major update to Gingerbread doesn’t count? That was a major OS upgrade, despite not having a huge version change.
Also, version numbers are irrelevant in software, as they can be set to whatever the developer(s) want them to be. There are set “standards” that tend to be followed, but there is no set ruling on what constitutes a x.0 upgrade compared to a 0.x upgrade. If Google/Apple/anyone else wanted to, they could release 1.0 and the next release could be 10.0.
I know that. But Apple’s history shows that “X.0” is the “major revision” to the OS. Hell… they even hold a special press conference/keynote for it every year. THAT is my point.
No they TELL you it’s a big update…
I disagree about Gingerbread being a “major OS upgrade”. It’s some under-the-hood changes. All the major development work was going into Honeycomb at the time I think.
Didn’t the Galaxy S ship with Eclair? Froyo was definitely a big update, so it was updated at least twice.
Having the newest OS for the sake of having it means very little. Android 2.2 can do pretty much everything 2.3 and above can. The differences are UI / performance tweaks / minor bug fixes and app improvements a lot of which aren’t totally necessary and can be had via rooting. Plus each version of Android gets minor updates when needed.
Contrast that with IOS, where in order to get the notification bar feature for example, you had NO CHOICE but to wait for Apple to release IOS5. Folder and multitasking support came with IOS4. How long did your daughter have to wait? What? YEARS? LOL. Those minor updates she got in between were bug fixes.
Get serious. Even with IOS5 your daughter is still behind the curve. IOS is an OS in the a making and Apple users are just along for the ride. The full-featured version has yet to be released. Next they’ll steal widgets and call it IOS7.
Contrast that to Android, which had all the fundamental features from 1.6. So it’s not quite the same. With Apple you either upgrade right away or wait a year or 2 for some features to be added. Trust me, Apple wants you to buy the latest and greatest too.
Saying the iCrap gets all the updates is like saying u added a hyphen to the end of your name. Plus calling it a “major” update is ridiculous, its minor tweaks to the exact same OS that has been in use since 2007. Apple adds a slight tweak to existing software and calls it an “update”, they borrow a feature on a competing OS and call it a new IPHONE and expect people to buy a brand new device every year…and people like you with an apple avatar dish out the money…like dumbasses. Go post on Apple blogs loser.
Yeah right! I had an ipod touch 2nd gen gifted to me, brand new, for christmas. It didn’t last until the next christmas before they stopped supporting it.
AND THERE WASN’T ANY CM9 FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ICS is the first android OS optimized for dual core. Dual core hasnt been out long in phones. So the update would only cripple the UI of lesser phones. Certain specs must be met and then they must be able to handle the manufactores skin on top of it. iOS doesn’t really change much through its updates. Slight tweaks but nothing really major in the OS.
Yea that’s why Siri is on all the iphones other than iphone 4s… Oh wait, no it isnt!
You are so fake glad that you have to tell it to everyone on an Android site so you start to believe it yourself!
Na if you where really glad you don’t need to brag about it like a 5 year old…
So glad my Android phone has even more options than iOS, even if it doesn’t get updated.
Have you used a 3GS on the latest version of the OS? So what if it gets an update which makes it almost unusable?
I guess i won’t be buying another Samsung. Had the galaxy s for almost year and half and only one update, so far behind all other phones but supposed to be a flag ship phone i don’t think so.
It WAS a flagship phone in March 2010, Its now January 2012.
CM9
As far as I know, all SGS phones have received at least 2 updates from the original software, and most of them have received several more. Unless you’re talking about OS update, in which case, you should be glad you got the one, as prior to Android, most phones rarely saw an OS upgrade.
Well that’s the point, you have had it for a year and a half. You are eligible for an upgrade soon, so stop bitching.
Also FYI, Samsung has the best upgrade record for its devices. The US carrir system is messed up. My sisters galaxy s is running 2.3.6 and my gsII is 2.3.6 both carrier handsets.
It’s not Samsung’s fault that AT&T, VERIZON etc f up your update system.
Even Canada has all their phones updated.
Um what? Samsung has one of the worst records when it comes to updating their android phones. HTC is so far the OEM to beat when it comes to updates. Nice try though.
Just give it stock
It’s 2 year old hardware not optimized for ICS
Sig.com
Not true, the Nexus S (nearly the same phone) is optimized for it.
“nearly”
Not all Galaxy S phones are built the same. The Fascinate, for example, has extremely limited RAM…
personally, i think the least the manufacturers could do at the end-of-product-life is to just come out with a downloadable and DIY rom that is based on the latest OS. it dun need to OTA since they can’t include the customary UI (like TouchWiz).
it’s a win-win situation. customers know they can expect this at the end of their product’s life. manufacturers (Samsung, pay attention) get happy customers. happy customers usually recommend their friends and family and also buy back from the same brand.
I think the hardware limitations excuse is an outright lie.
Touchwiz is just a bunch of custom apps that work on Samsungs framework and replace stock apps, with a few minor tweaks to Android’s framework. Real reason is they want you to buy new phones. Even though the Galaxy S is still sold as new.
That’s just Bullshit i have Samsung’s ICS on my SGS2 and its really big and would never fit on SGS with half the ROM space of the SGS2…
Thats interesting as I’m running ICS 4.0.3 on my GT-I9000 (Galaxy S) right now.. Supersmooth and can’t see why Samsung could not arrange it even with touchwiz upon it.
yeah right.. They want you to buy new phones.
ICS runs great on the SGS, I’m playing with it right now :)
I totally get why they wouldn’t update a 1.5 years old phone. But why do they have to openly lie about it? I really thought Samsung learned something about the Android community in the last two years… guess I was wrong.
The joke is my SGS is already runnign ICS and I’m pretty sure I could get the TW launcher running on it too…
This is exactly why I’ll never own another Samsung device. I owned the Samsung Moment, and the og Epic 4g. Both disappointed the hell out of me.
Can’t satisfy people. Honestly im ok with not getting it, thats what xda is for. (already good progress on a ics rom) I understand that its because of touchwiz, causing the limitation. Thats what sets it apart from other mobiles, otherwise it would be the same as other android phones, only difference would be manufacturer. Want the stock experience, buy a nexus. Im at the point where I’m ready to upgrade anyway, so the SGS 3 is perfect timing for me. Most people ive spoken to with the original sgs don’t even update, either sitting on 2.1 or 2.2. I never bought an australian release sgs, bought mine from online store Mobicity, so I wasnt restricted to carrier releases in regards to updates, rather getting updates when samsung made them available. So since ive had it, ive gone from, 2.1 to 2.2 to 2.3. Gotta be happy with that. I feel sorry for US sgs owners, all I seem to see is constant complaints about not getting updates/still stuck on 2.2. Don’t blame Samsung, blame your carriers. Amazing that there are so many variants in USA!
All the carriers do is test the firmware…Samsung’s not even bothering to build an update.
I also have went from the Moment to the Epic and i loved both of them. Of course, ROM support was tough because of the keyboard but thats ok.
Look guys, we might not like it, but we are supposed to change phones every 2 years or so! Manufacturers stop supporting phones for that very reason. Its just good business, can’t make money if everyone keeps their phones.
Support devs. They help keep our old phones running shiny new for much longer than originally intended. Hug a dev and buy him/her a rootbeer.
samsung screwed Canadians… i have the captivate and we got it here end of 2010 i am not eligible upgrade till November guess i am getting a nexus next right after i root this bitch
SAMSUCK strikes again !!!! But someone will praise their love of all things sucky. Lets explore Samsungs history….glitchy softwate, continuous problems with updates(this is even more proof) boring hardware. Its proof, its documented, stop loving it just because they made a NEXUS, please, stop clinging to one phone. they suck, plain and simple.
Yes, Kies sucks. However just because the updates didn’t come to the US isn’t Samsung’s fault I’d be looking to your carrier. Australia received fairly prompt updates as did, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong), Europe and Asia.
Having said that I’m not a fan of TouchWiz and have tried a couple of custom ROMs that had enough issues for me to abandon them (like the alarm clock only working sporadically [CM] and MIUI not supporting time being set from the network). If I could get vanilla ICS on my Galaxy S I’d be all over it.
CM9 for now then moto. When I upgrade…simple you don’t support me I don’t support you Sammy. Doesn’t matter who makes your phone as long as you have good hardware someone smarter than I am will bring the upgrades…as long as we keep supporting our devs we are golden.
Moto aint much better sadly.
Samsung needs to put together this “value pack” to validate the purchase decisions of the millions and millions of SGS owners, not to mention influence the purchase decisions of millions of new buyers. Samsung is on a roll with Android right now, and can barely afford to throw water on their current hotness.
Even if they release the value pack, people will still complain about lack of ICS. Why waste time/money on this when it probably won’t really fix anything.
I still don’t understand why they don’t get rid of the touchwiz considering everybody hates it.
Because only us geeks hate it. My mom loves it.
Show her the stock ICS launcher and apps, she will hate it soon :)
There is phone line for geeks … Nexus. My Nexus S received Official ICS.. with the same spec as Galaxy S… no touchwiz.. and always getting updates first…
“considering everybody hates it.”
…and that is where you’d be wrong.
As a Samsung Galaxy S owner, I will have to seriously think about my next Android phone. Will definitely not be a Samsung phone.
Why don’t they just skip touchwiz then and update to stock ics? Is it because it would lose its Samsung feel or what? Stock ics is better than gingerbread with touchwiz. I mean, they could do it since there are ics custom roms that works. Or am I wrong?
Now here’s what I don’t understand…. They say that the gs1 had no room for ICS but, at least on Tmobile the gs 4g will get the update. From quasar I understand the only difference between the two devices is the 4g radio and the 4g actually has less storage space than the vibrant (gs1) WTF SAMSUNG
Booo to Samsung!!
Upgraded my wife’s Galaxy S I9000 to ICS thanks to XDA. Now battery life is better & it doesn’t have any issues she’s found. She’s extremely happy & feels she’s got a new phone. ICS is only a root away :-)
They sure know how too rip off their consumers without updating their phone. Just glad i didnt buy the GS and not wast my money
This is the exact reason I stay away from Samsung devices. With every device they release there’s an issue. Every time there’s an update their supposed SUPER phone before the update can’t or won’t support the update . Why do people continue to by those bs phones . Samsung is full of it. They just want people to keep buying their latest device . I really hope other companies don’t follow this business motto! Samsung you SUCK !
*buy … *business model
Mother fuckers samsungs
People keep saying we got two major upgrades…….really? Cause my Vibrant sure looks like it says 2.2. Also we’ve lost CM support now also!
Things are looking great for the vibrant huh?
What about the flippin’ Stratosphere!?!? They JUST came out with that phone!
Yes, it’s sad that a 1.5 year old phone doesn’t have the hardware to run a touchwiz’d version of ICS.
That said, I will continue to buy their products so long as they continue to offer the best hardware. The Hummingbird was an absolute class leader when it was new, with a GPU that’s still being found in many higher end phones and a headphone amp that still beats anything I’ve heard yet on a phone. The Exynos is an absolute beast. SAMOLED’s are absolutely amazing with their perfect blacks and bright, dazzling colors.
Are they perfect with their upgrades? No, but who is (other then Google)? Are they as bad as many people here would like to believe they are? Not by a long shot. Anyone complaining about an OG SGS still running Froyo should look at their carrier, and not Samsung. The international models have had GB for a while, and even in the USA, Verizon and US Cellular both have GB on their SGS’s (though Verizon’s upgrade didn’t show up till very recently).
I don’t buy a phone for it’s software, I buy it for it’s hardware and the ability to change the software myself. How many phones these days ship with an unlocked, non-encrypted bootloader? How many phone manufacturers have specifically vowed not to lock down their phones unless either Google or the carriers force them to? I don’t want to ask the manufacturer for a stupid code to flash my phone, I just want to flash it.
So long as Samsung continues to make phones with class leading SOC’s, unbeatable displays, and fully unlocked bootloaders, I will continue to buy them. I go to Samsung for the hardware, and XDA and RootzWiki for the software.