14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been quite a short ride for Bada fans, as Samsung announced last year that support for this mobile operating system would not be prolonged further into 2014.
The first Bada-powered smartphones were launched back in 2010, as an alternative to Android handsets that were already among the most popular on the market.
Developed by Samsung, the Bada platform did not seem to appeal to many users, which in turn meant that it wasn’t a fit competitor to the almighty Android OS.
This was probably the main reason Samsung decided to kill Bada OS and focus on another project, namely Tizen. The new OS that is still in development has been delayed a few times because carriers did not think it would be a worthy competitor to Android and iOS.
It looks like Samsung is meant to fail once again with another in-house developed OS, even if Tizen is the result of the collaboration with many other companies in the smartphone business.
Anyway, those who still own Bada smartphones have been left without support starting 2013, so they can either switch to another operating system or keep using their devices knowing they will never receive software updates.
However, there’s one other option, but that will imply to stop using Bada, while keeping the smartphone. The folks over at XDA Developers have been working hard for about two years now to bring Android OS on Bada smartphones.
The project proved to be extremely challenging on the whole, but the last 10% was the most challenging which makes the achievement even more important.
The new customized Android ROM is ready for daily use
The recently launched OmniROM Android build for Bada smartphones was put together by XDA Recognized Developer volk204 and is only compatible with two smartphones: Samsung Wave and Samsung Wave II.
Those who still own one of the most popular Bada smartphones, Wave and Wave II, will be able to flash Android operating system on their devices if they wish to do so.
The new release is not bug-free yet, but the issues that may affect the Bada smartphones running OmniROM are minor and allow owners to use them on a daily basis without major problems.
The only problems mentioned by developers would be the fact that conference calls do not work and audio codec settings are “a bit flaky.” Also, there may be some issues with the 2G connectivity, though 3G support works flawless.
Another downside could be the fact that battery life is shorter than on Bada OS, but you will still be able to get one day of full use with moderate usage.