Samsung GalaxyS : Android made comfortable

Even if i did not get the time play with my new phone, a Samsung Galaxy S, i must say i feel quite excited to plan some hacky stuff with it and Android OS that it runs. Android is a really cool platform that lets advanced users play with modified firmwares to extends its features. Officials and beta firmware for the Galaxy S can be found here, this page could save your life if something goes wrong with the following hacks. Consider having a look on the new Samsung Flash wiki page and on the i9000 official flashing guide. If your are not familiar with flashing devices or running tools that could brick your phone, please, do not even try.

Here is my first impression for this device :

• Effortless root ;
• Multitask ;
• Android has many useful apps that just works for a professional use (excellent email app, SIP, tethering that actually works for no money ...) ;
• Android makes your phone highly hackable, and some apps like Touiteur a very good surprise.

Issues :

• No SSHd by default, I just recommend QuickSSHd, an inexpensive but useful app ;
• A strange behavior with GPS, Samsung USA recently admitted an issue and was planning to fix it in september. Did not see such a (official) fix yet;
• Memory acces may sometimes be slow which is a software issue but a lag fix can be applied once the phone rooted. The 1Ghz CPU should be fast enough.
• Last point that is not related to the phone itself, but to operators that filter http requests from a tethered computer browser, but should I need more than a ssh term ? Well, a browser might be useful so you will easily find a way to cheat them by modify the user agent parameter of your browser, using this plugin for Chrome or this one for Firefox.

What could be improved

• The default factory firmware with the GPS bug but I recently moved to Froyo, not an official firmware, but the GPS works perfectly on this one.
• There are not as much great 3D games on Android. If you're a gamer, excepting being an absolute fan of Asphalt 5 you should consider using an iPhone. I hope some companies like Gameloft or Electronic Arts will launch more 3D games on Android.