Samsung apparently decided it's made Epic 4G owners wait long enough and beat Sprint's planned OTA release schedule to the punch by a few hours, posting the EB13 build that will update their phones to Froyo on its support website. Click the source link for a .exe to run from a connected PC and upgrade over USB (for rooted and unrooted devices alike, running any earlier software build) or select the Mac link for an update.zip file that can be run directly from the phone's SD card (stock devices running the most recent DI18 build only.) You'll be restoring the device to a blank slate with the former so make sure you've backed up any important SMS's beforehand. So far impressions from early upgraders on XDA-Developers suggest a noticeable performance boost, but other forum posts indicate some pesky bugs like Time Without Service battery drain are still hanging around, peep the full release notes after the break.
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Android Froyo 2.2 Information For The Epic 4G Release
Please see below for a list of changes found on the Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade for the SPH-d700 (Epic 4G) Also, you may click here to additional information for specific 2.2 information.
Home Screen:
New Home screen tips widget assists users on how to configure the home screen with shortcuts and widgets and how to make use of multiple home screens.
If you zoom in with two fingers in the home screen, all panels are shown in one screen and the end user can remove the panel and/or add. The max panel number is 7.
The Phone, applications launcher, contacts and messaging now have dedicated shortcuts on the Home screen, making it easy to access them from any of the 7 home screen panels.
Exchange Support
Improved security with the addition of numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options to unlock device. Exchange administrators can enforce password policy across devices.
Remote wipe: Exchange administrators can remotely reset the device to factory defaults to secure data in case device is lost or stolen.
Auto-discovery: you just need to know your user-name and password to easily set up and sync an Exchange account (available for Exchange 2007 and higher).
Global Address Lists look-up is now available in the Email application, enabling users to auto-complete recipient names from the directory.
Improved Performance
Performance of the browser has been enhanced using the V8 engine, which enables faster loading of JavaScript-heavy pages.
Dalvik Performance Boost: 2x-5x performance speedup for CPU-heavy code over Android 2.1 with Dalvik JIT.
The graph to the right shows the performance speedup from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 using various benchmark tests. For example, LinPack is now more than 5 times faster.
Kernel Memory Management Boost: Improved memory reclaim by up to 20x, which results in faster app switching and smoother performance on memory-constrained devices.
Device Policy Manager
New device policy management APIs allow developers to write "device administrator" applications that can control security features on the device, such as the minimum password strength, data wipe, and so on. Users can select the administrators that are enabled on their devices..
Data Backup
Apps can participate in data backup and restore, to ensure that users maintain their data after performing a factory reset or when switching devices.
Flash Player
Device supports Flash Player 10.1
Lock Screen
New lock screen mode for entering a numeric pin or alphanumeric password
Application On External Storage
Ability to store and run non-forward locked apps on the SD card
Media Framework
New media framework (Stagefright) that supports local file playback and HTTP progressive streaming
Kernel Upgrade
SDIO scheduling and BT improvements
Release Notes Information For EB13
Improvements:
Email: Now able to download & open attachment from RTF formatted email. Also, default email size changed
Qik: 90 degree rotation is now supported.
Hotspot: Added timeout setting (Menu>Advanced>Power Mode). Furthermore, added more authentication methods.
Calendar: A dialer can now be launched to call phone numbers within a calendar event when a number is selected. In addition, action is now able to be taken on received meeting invites
Modifications:
Default Email Sig: Changed default email signature to "Sent from Samsung Mobile"
Data Roaming: Data Roaming is now set On by default.
Browser: Zoom button now appears. In addition, Autofit is defaulted
Alarm: Snooze option defaulted when alarm is created
Trash: Changed veribage as there is no Trash folder on server
Fixes:
Media Hub: Application doesn't work at times. New application release corrected problem.
EAS OOO: Meeting responses were not working.
Lock-up During Gmail: When syncing (sending a picture through Gmail, would cause phone to lock up.
Dialer SK: Sometime during in-call state, softkey wouldn't respond.
Bluetooth: Corrected a couple of Bluetooth related problems regarding volume & pairing.
Barcode Apps: Barcode applications would crash frequently.
Unsolicited Power-Off: Device would power off due to low battery.
Force Close: Resolved several force close problems relating to creating email folders, moving through fields, etc...
Document Saved: When attempting to edit a saved doc, shift and function would not work. The Viewer has been updated.
