As reported from BGR, their sources have confirmed to them that Sprint is now preparing to release Froyo for the Epic 4G, starting on February 21st, and that the build number for the update will be EB13.

The last we heard from Sprint regarding this update was at the end of January, when they informed everyone via Twitter that the delayed update was still a part of their plans. BGR’s source also confirms that this update on the 21st will happen OTA and that the rollout process will last four days.

It does seem a bit odd that we’re still talking about Froyo updates for old handsets, especially when new handsets are shipping with 2.3 Gingerbread, with further rumors suggesting that Honeycomb 3.0 may even land on smartphones before the end of the year.

Still though, if you’re a handset owner who isn’t really too bothered about having the latest gear, this Froyo update means everything to you. Until we hear otherwise, it’s coming on the 21st February – let us know your thoughts on this.

As we told you last month, the official Froyo update was due to land on December 26th, as a leaked document appeared to suggest that this was set in stone and that it would include a notable number of new additions, such as Adobe Flash 10.1 Player and GPS enhancements.

But the update didnt arrive on that date, and as Phandroid reports, Sprint are still reassuring customers that the update is still due very soon – just check out the following message on Twitter below:

”Sprint & Samsung are working to release Froyo for Epic ASAP, but only after it meets rigorous testing criteria to ensure quality experience.”

Sadly though, we don’t see any new dates floating around, so ‘ASAP’ could actually mean anything – don’t forget that this is a Samsung update we’re talking about too. You should be well aware of their poor track record when it comes to official software updates.

Still, it’s good to see Sprint giving customers an update on the situation. If you have a Epic 4G on Sprint, let us know your thoughts on the delay.

As reported from BGR, the guys over at Phone Arena have managed to get their hands on an official document, which reveals that the Samsung Epic 4G will be receiving Froyo on Sunday 26th December.

The update will be tagged as ‘DL11′ and it’s said to include a number of significant features, such as Flash 10.1 Player, improved Bluetooth device support, GPS enhancements and arguably the best – the ability to store applications to an external device, which some of you may find very useful.

According to Sprint, the update will take around 7-8 minutes to download and the rollout process will last four days – so if you haven’t received Froyo by the 30th, that’s when you should start getting worried.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming software download? Have you already installed Froyo via ‘other means’?

As reported from Engadget, the new update has been labelled as the ‘Froyo DJ29′ build, and has already been pre-rooted thanks to the guys over at the XDA Developers Forums.

However, those of you who browse the internet regularly on your Epic 4G may want to hold off from updating to Froyo DJ29 for a while, as one of the known problems detailed on the XDA Forums is slower browsing speed. Hopefully this will be fixed up though with a swift patch.

Judging by the feedback on the XDA Forums, this looks like a perfectly good, and working Froyo update for the Epic 4G. If you’re interested in downloading this, head to the links above to get it. As always, let us know your feedback afterwards so others can try it out.

According to an article on WSJ, Sprint has gained another 644,000 wireless subscribers in the third-quarter. The carrier has also increased its prepaid customers by 471,000; the total amount of customers for Sprint now stands at 48.8 million.

One would have assumed that with 4G wireless speeds it would have been able to help its postpaid subscribership, but that is too big of an issue for even this new technology to repair. The company posted a loss of $911 million, but this is much better than analysts had predicted.

Although Sprint had the EVO and the Epic, the likes of Verizon has been releasing smartphones at an alarming rate, and AT&T are about to do the same with the launch of a range of handsets running Windows Phone 7.

Were you shocked by Sprint’s losses?

Before you jump in with both feet just remember that this latest handset from Sprint is a mid-range device, Sean Hollister’s review on Engadget states that it is nothing more than an evolution of a Moment and Intercept. However, just remember that this handset costs $50 more than those two handsets, for that you get a front-facing camera, LED flash and a few other features, but nothing to increase performance.

The design of the Transform is hard to fault, this shows that Samsung are on top of their game when it comes to handset design – you only need look at the Galaxy S range to see that. However, the Transform is slightly thicker and has a cheaper looking finish – just remember this is not a high-end phone.

Sprint wants $150 for the Samsung Transform, Hollister believes that this is $50 to $100 too much, and that alone will stop it being a great addition to the Android lineup. The problem is, the current price tag will confuse those into thinking that the handset is high-end – when in fact it is not.

Have you been fooled by the Samsung Transform?

Engadget has written a report detailing some of these problems and they include things like GPS issues, slow 3G connection speeds, install problems in the app market and also complaints about battery life.

Sprint has acknowledged the problem to do with the 3G speeds, and has now stated that a patch update will be available soon to address this issue specifically – you can read more on this here. But what about the other problems? The Samsung Epic 4G is now considered to be their new flagship handset after the HTC EVO 4G, so it isn’t particularly good that complaints keep pouring.

Firstly, can any of you confirm the problems listed above? Or maybe you have encountered another problem on your Epic 4G. Leave us a comment.

The flow chart has been drawn up by the guys over at Gizmodo, and by looking at the chart we can see that the choices are fairly simple ones depending on what network you want to go with and if you want a keyboard or not. The decision is that simple.

As you can see from the above screenshot, it is just a few simple decisions that need to be thought over before making a bee line for your chosen Android phone. If you can’t see the image above properly, just click on it to get the full view.

In the meantime, you could always check out our reviews for the Motorola Droid 2, The Samsung Sprint Epic 4G, Samsung Captivate, or the Motorola Droid X to help make your decision.

You can also check out our thoughts on the top 5 Android phones available on the market today, or even a previous article that touched on the top 10.

Source: Gizmodo

If you are unaware of the problem then let me just recap what exactly has been going down.

Owners of the Samsung Epic 4G were mysteriously finding out that their 3G uploading speeds were being unfairly capped at around 150kbps, which then proceeded into a huge thread over on Sprints forums. Put it this way, 4G owners were not happy. Not one bit.

But that news will hopefully now be put to rest as ‘dshoem01′ came forward with this announcement:

“Good news – an update will be released tomorrow 9/30. It will be rolled out over a 4 day period so not everyone will get it on day 1. I will have the standard MR information (fixes included, rollout schedule, etc) available tomorrow morning and will post it in a new featured thread.”

Although the statement does not actually touch on the 3G issues, the actual post was posted in the very thread where owners vented their anger at the 3G upload cap.

If this was not a fix for the problem, then why post it in the thread? I guess the only way to find out for sure is that if you download this update yourself and see if it fixes it for you.

Report back here to let us know that everything is running smoothly again, if any other problems arise, or if it does not fix the issue at all (which im hoping does not happen).

Source: Engadget

As reported from Phandroid, the Samsung Epic 4G follows other Galaxy S phones with a straight forward and easy to install root method.

Credit goes to SDX for achieving the root, you can head to their forum here for a full set of download links and installation guide.

What does this mean for the Epic 4G? Well, just like the Droid X, it means that a custom ROM may become available in the future, once developers have had time to play around with the device. The Droid X custom ROM took a while, but it’s finally out – we wonder how long it will take for the Epic 4G to follow suit.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you planning to root your device or not?