Samsung releases Galaxy Note II source code

Besides being proud of owning a slick new phone with the latest version of the Android operating system onboard, the few owners of the brand new Samsung Galaxy Note II now have another reason to be happy: Samsung has gone ahead and released the source code for the international version of the Galaxy Note II, the GT-N7100. This means that open source developers will soon be able to liberate you from the Note II’s TouchWiz UI with root privileges and custom ROMs. This news was first reported by Sammobile.

Samsung has been one of the more active supporters of the open source community and has periodically been releasing their source code for its handsets soon after they’re available. Custom modding groups like CyanogenMod have thus been able to release custom ROMs for new Samsung devices pretty quickly, much to the envy of the owners of smartphones made by other OEMs.

The Galaxy Note II will soon get custom ROMs.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II was made available late last month in India at a price of Rs 39,900. Officially announced at IFA 2012, the Note II runs on the Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS out of the box and is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core processor. The major talking point about the Galaxy Note II is that it features Air View, a feature that enables users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery or video to preview content without opening it. Air View enables users to quickly search and see more information in one view, without making screen transitions.

Samsung has stated that it has redesigned the S Pen, which is now longer, thicker and ergonomically designed for good grip. Therefore, it provides a more precise, comfortable and natural writing and drawing experience. Interestingly, as soon as you pull out the S Pen, there's a Popup Note that opens up. A feature, we're guessing would be especially useful when you're on a call and have to quickly note down numbers.

Another expression feature called Idea Visualizer provides illustration images that match the handwritten keywords on the S Note. It’s an illustration match function that enables users to express, organise and visualise ideas. Users can even customise and add their own illustrations library.

Other highlighted features of the Note II include Pop-up Note, Quick Command, Screen Recorder, and a host of other features that raise the bar over the Galaxy Note. For those concerned about major battery drain, Samsung has added a 3,100 mAh battery.

Here are the highlighted features of the Samsung Galaxy Note II:

• 5.5-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels.
• 4G LTE, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HT40, NFC.
• GPS with GLONASS and A-GPS support.
• Bluetooth v4.0 with USB 2.0 Host.
• 8 megapixel AF/ Touchfocus camera, 1.9MP VT Camera, BSI front-facing camera.
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, all with expandable support up to 64GB.
• 2GB RAM.
• MHL for AV out.