Starting our daily news round-up and spotlight of the mobile phone industry is Verizon’s news that the Galaxy Nexus communications lag, compared with other Galaxy smartphones, is about to be fixed—or explained. Then Samsung takes the stage.
Nexus News
The Nexus communications hole seems to stem from the Nexus showing lesser signal strength than other network handsets in the same area.
Verizon said it’s not a signal strength issue but a display issue: The Nexus shows signal strength differently than other LTE network models. Some of the confusion, they say, is borne from people erroneously comparing the LTE network signal strength with 1x/EVDO signal strength.
Because the LTE and the EVDO networks are not the same, they are not comparable or compatible. Someone on a different network and a different mobile phone sitting at the same cafe will show a different signal strength, but that doesn’t mean that the Verizon LTE is weaker there or stronger there. Other LTE network handsets show the EVDO strength and not the LTE network strength.
“It’s just different.”
The programming in phones is different: The actual, “physical” strength may be identical if one looks in the Settings area of each phone. One phone may display that strength in one fashion; another model may display that identical “physical” strength with more bars or stars, indication a smaller per-bar strength portion.
“It takes five four-ounce cups to fill a 20-ounce container. But it takes only four five-ounce cups to fill the same 20-ounce container. If one smartphone has a four-cup or four-bar system, it fills that same-strength maximum that a five-cup system fills. It just shows the capacity or strength differently.”
Verizon is issuing a Nexus update that will align the display similarly to others, although there will be no difference in the strength in the actual signal received.
Samsung ICS News
Samsung explained that the Galaxy S and the Tab 7.0 won’t be getting the Ice Cream Sandwich OS upgrade.
They stated that the older devices have hardware that cannot support the newer software packages and that an attempt to upgrade the OS might cause the devices to lock up, and it might invalidate warranties.