[Q] official ICS update for unlocked i717 + ROM with S pen apps - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717

Hi all,
I'm thinking about whether or not to root my phone and get ICS. Having answers to these two questions would really help me make my decision:
1. My phone is an unlocked G-Note i717 from the Bell network. I'm currently using it on Fido. Is there any way for me to get the 'official' ICS update? For example, will the update get pushed to my phone even if I'm not with the original carrier?
2. Which ICS custom ROMs have the S Pen (and S memo) fully working?
Looking forward to your 2 cents. Thanks very much!

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I am not a developer but here is my opinion based on years of rooting and flashing roms on android devices:
1. As long as you are running stock Bell firmware and stock recovery, you should still get the official OTA from Bell, even if it's unlocked and running on Fido. You will lose root, though. Or you can wait for a dev to post a rooted stock ROM.
2. Presumably all ICS ROMs that are posted after the official build is released will support s-pen apps, unless the dev makes a conscious choice to not include them.
Hope this helps. Like I said, I'm not a developer by any means, just an experienced user.
I would say, go ahead and root and play around with some ICS roms in the meantime. You can always go back to stock. Just make sure you read, read, read to avoid any problems. The members of this forum provide alot of great guidance.

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I got a question for you, I bought my note at Rogers and I'm on Fido. I didn't had to unlock the phone, is the Canadian Note sim-unlocked by default or it is just because I bought it from the same company?
Oh and also, don't worry about getting the ICS update, usualy there's a rom running on the new leaks that appears in the next day right after the official update.
Also, I tried DaGr8 Hybrid ROM on ICS and The Official ROM, both have a fully working s-pen and can be a daily rom.

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Because Fido uses the rogers network. Its not unlocked.
Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2

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adv1sory said:
Because Fido uses the rogers network. Its not unlocked.
Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wanna know something funny? I had a Nokia 2720 sim-locked on Fido that wouldn't reconize a Rogers sim-card. I can tell you that I've been very happy when the Note just worked on first boot with my fido sim card.
Now I'm waiting for LTE :/

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jt15 said:
Hi all,
I'm thinking about whether or not to root my phone and get ICS. Having answers to these two questions would really help me make my decision:
1. My phone is an unlocked G-Note i717 from the Bell network. I'm currently using it on Fido. Is there any way for me to get the 'official' ICS update? For example, will the update get pushed to my phone even if I'm not with the original carrier?
2. Which ICS custom ROMs have the S Pen (and S memo) fully working?
Looking forward to your 2 cents. Thanks very much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes the update will get pushed to your phone irrespective of the carrier, as long as you haven't rooted it.
2. There hasn't been an official upgrade to ICS from Samsung for G-Note. However, there are wonderful ICS Custom ROMs that have been developed built on the chinese ICS that was leaked in April.
If you haven't had any experience with rooting and flashing of roms and kernels, and are apprehensive of doing so, I suggest you wait for some more time as an official upgrade is round the corner.
Nevertheless, if you are even moderately experienced, you can flash one of these ROMs. My personal favorite is the ICS Stunner by Team Passion (only for the International version)
They have listed wonderfully clear guides on how to carry out the process on the official threads. And you can always go back to the stock ROMs if required.
Hope this helps. Press Thank You if it does.
---------- Post added at 04:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:29 PM ----------
tmcquake said:
I am not a developer but here is my opinion based on years of rooting and flashing roms on android devices:
1. As long as you are running stock Bell firmware and stock recovery, you should still get the official OTA from Bell, even if it's unlocked and running on Fido. You will lose root, though. Or you can wait for a dev to post a rooted stock ROM.
2. Presumably all ICS ROMs that are posted after the official build is released will support s-pen apps, unless the dev makes a conscious choice to not include them.
Hope this helps. Like I said, I'm not a developer by any means, just an experienced user.
I would say, go ahead and root and play around with some ICS roms in the meantime. You can always go back to stock. Just make sure you read, read, read to avoid any problems. The members of this forum provide alot of great guidance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, @tmcquake is right.
However, the S-Pen features being a part of Samsung's propriety TouchWiz interface, you won't get the active-pen technology related features in these custom roms.

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mark1s said:
Also, I tried DaGr8 Hybrid ROM on ICS and The Official ROM, both have a fully working s-pen and can be a daily rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oooooh, interesting... I was under the impression that the only ICS ROMs were for the N7000 and the AT&T I717 specifically, not the variant sold by Bell, TELUS or Rogers in Canada. So the Hybrid ICS will work on a TELUS SGH-I717D Note? I've rooted mine, but was going to wait patiently for the official ICS update from Samsung, but now I'm itching to try a third-party ROM...

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The current roms are built on top of the touchwiz framework. Some run custom launchers, however they still keep s pen features due to them being coded into the most basic structures of the rom. When the official release comes the developers will ask Samsung for the source. After that devs can make "vanilla" versions of android. In these we will loose the s pen button functionality but it can still be used like your finger..
sent from me TouchPad. ICS of course.

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taob said:
Oooooh, interesting... I was under the impression that the only ICS ROMs were for the N7000 and the AT&T I717 specifically, not the variant sold by Bell, TELUS or Rogers in Canada. So the Hybrid ICS will work on a TELUS SGH-I717D Note? I've rooted mine, but was going to wait patiently for the official ICS update from Samsung, but now I'm itching to try a third-party ROM...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The leak is based on the i717 (AT&T) without any doubt but I'm running it on my i717R without any issue so it should be the same for the Telus Note.
As you saw a new leaks have been release today, give our good devs just a fews days and we'll be able to flash it via cmw instead of via odin.
And I'll tell you, once you taste ICS you won't wanna downgrade to Gingerbread so do it as soon as you can!

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mark1s said:
And I'll tell you, once you taste ICS you won't wanna downgrade to Gingerbread so do it as soon as you can!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in no particular rush to reflash my Note, since it is pretty awesome as it is. I've had CM9 on my Touchpad since January, so I'm more interested in seeing how well an AOSP ROM will run. I am seeing some UI lag on the Note compared to CM9 on the Touchpad and CM7 on the Desire Z, and the Note should beat both of those. If I can also get ICS on the Note, even better.

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taob said:
I'm in no particular rush to reflash my Note, since it is pretty awesome as it is. I've had CM9 on my Touchpad since January, so I'm more interested in seeing how well an AOSP ROM will run. I am seeing some UI lag on the Note compared to CM9 on the Touchpad and CM7 on the Desire Z, and the Note should beat both of those. If I can also get ICS on the Note, even better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I had a GNex before the Note, no lag at all on the small 1.2 Gh/z then I bought the Note with the 1.5 Gh/h and noticed lot of lag with adw launcher. Now with ICS everything is just as smooth as the GNex. still need more tweaks hehe

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mark1s said:
The leak is based on the i717 (AT&T) without any doubt but I'm running it on my i717R without any issue so it should be the same for the Telus Note.
As you saw a new leaks have been release today, give our good devs just a fews days and we'll be able to flash it via cmw instead of via odin.
And I'll tell you, once you taste ICS you won't wanna downgrade to Gingerbread so do it as soon as you can!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you flash it on your i717R? I have the same as you and i've never been able to flash the leaked ics rom... I tought it was only for att.

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Flash cmw via odin then download the rom in zip forma (ex : the Hybrid) then flash it via recovery mode. Follow the devs instructions before a flash!