man^ when i jump to android ship i will contact you for guidance, @kangal,

I'm flattered.

Since these phones sell in the millions, and there's at least hundreds of "hackers" there is undoubtedly support. Reading what the reputable mods say is how I absorb all the info.... and this would be true for other phones/platforms.

As long as there is traction, there will be people willing to help you maximize your experience with it. For instance the first Bada device, Samsung Wave, even got an ICS update.

I'm also impressed by your posts. Most people here just think they are/know better than you, just complaining of devices, software and oses, vendors and then moving on with **** posts with out adding a better way or solutions.

You also adding some background and possible solutions in a very informative way. Well done.

Very nice posts.

Samsung galaxy note users, does your phone become hot so often?even when on moderate usage?
My galaxy note becomes hot even when on moderate use (such as when opening only one internet page). Is this a normal behavior of the Samsung galaxy note?

Btw, could any one provide me a link for downloading odin pro to my pc. I found odin pro on Google play but I don't want the mobile version. Besides, if I flashed the kernel using odin pro , will I loose the Ics and go back to gingerbread and will I loose the premium suit?

Concerning the super brick bug also, what things should I avoid to prevent the brick to occur? Is updating to another android version a risk (well if a newer version was released)?

Thanks,

Phone gets warmer at times, but not hot in my experience. Especially when only opening one page, this doesn't seem normal to me.

I don't think there exists anything like Odin Pro. You can get Mobile Odin Pro as an Android app, but Odin is a Windows application and has no Pro version. You can get it in various places on the big 'Net. For recent versions you might google like this

When you flash a kernel, you flash kernel only. When you are adviced to flash a gingerbread kernel over an ics rom, it is because only gingerbread kernels (and maybe some ics kernels from third-party developers) are safe for wiping (i.e. formatting) partitions. Follow Kangal's guide in detail and you'll be A-OK.

You can have Premium Suite only on Touchwiz-containing firmwares, like stock and derivatives. Cyanogen Mod firmwares and other AOSP firmwares don't have Premium Suite applications because lack Samsung bits and pieces (most likely closed sw).

In order to avoid the superbrick bug, which is a corruption of your internal mmc so severe you can't correct it so far, you either have a safe kernel (gingerbread kernels and - most likely - third party ics kernels like SpeedMod, Franco's or ChainFire's ones) or, if you have a stock Samsung ics kernel, you must NEVER wipe a partition. Wiping partitions activates the autodestruction.
It has been said also that under very heavy I/O your internal flash memory can be equally destroyed - but I have yet to read a report of it happening.

Clearly, given that third-party kernels are likely to have circumvented the bug (inactivating the offending function) and show better performance or more functions than stock, imho that is the way to follow.
I am presently using SpeedMod and have wiped my cache and dalvik partitions 2 or 3 times without visible damage.

just a note

chainfire's kernals are not always safe against emmc bug - stick to speedmod k3 and franco r3+

i like my pen so i cant give up tw, but sigh...

i hope we get jb - although my rocket rom v7 on speedmod is already so damn smooth.

i never had my galaxy note super hot, and not from opening 1 webpage.

Just an update on my situation where I couldn't get passed the Samsung logo. I finally got to use a new computer and Odin recognised it straight away.so I just flashed the Samsung stock ics ROM on there and it worked.just happy to have a working phone at the moment.will try rootingit in a few days when ive had a chance to back up pics and stuff.might give a stock ROM a go.one of the"safe"ones.

So anyway.was typing that in a rush earlier.I guess if you are having trouble flashing then an up to date PC might be all you need to try.

On another "note" ha ha, the battery on ics seems to be draining about twice a fast as before. Anyone got any tips for correcting that in the men time before I get all flash happy?

1st thing to do is get cpu spy free from google play and better battery stats (small fee from google play or a free d/l from xda forum). They may well reveal that there is some process preventing deep sleep. If so, check xda for solutions/workarounds.

Specifically there is a bug which is affecting many notes on ICS whereby if you disconnect the charger without first turning on the screen and unlocking, then the CPU gets stuck at 200Mhz due to a wait_lock.

More of a long shot but also worth checking your 3G and wifi signal strength relative to how it was in same places on GB - lots of reports of stock ICS giving poor reception (hence faster battery drain as more power gets drawn by the radio). You can flash alternative modems in place of the default to address 3G issues, and/or flash an alternative kernel to address wifi issues. Best to do some reading on XDA forum first though if you suspect this may be the case.

ICS is less efficient than Gingerbread, I've noticed.
-There is equal "warming" of the device on both, something which should've been patched with ICS. Its a kernel issue, AOSP roms don't suffer as much.
-GB goes into Deep Sleep nearly instantly. There's so many things interacting with the ICS kernel and keeps it "sleeping but running background tasks". Issues are only now getting sorted.
-Battery life is great with GB, not so much with ICS: deep sleep issue, possible memory leakage.
-Stability ofcourse is near perfect on GB, though quite a few annoying little quirks with ICS ROMs

... is it still worth upgrading?
I'd say yes. The little issues are nearly all kernel issues (Samsung rushed ics for the note, while they concentrated hard on ICSgS3). They are getting identified and fixed, and these issues don't affect all users.

Anyways if you are coming from stock ICS (samsung) here's the files and guides:
-Download a TouchWizz-based kernel that is SAFE. It must be for Odin (tar file).
Franco r5, SpeedMod K3-5, or GL_NOTECORE (New!).
-Download Odin v3.185
-Download and Install Kies on your PC, or find the "USB Drivers for Samsung Devices".
Back-Up Phase #1:
-- Back up all your media to your PC (movies, videos, photos, pictures, documents, music, voice recordings, etc etc)
-- Back up contacts (Sync to Google Services, or use the App), Back up sms (install to phone), Back up Call logs(install to phone), Back up APN-optional-(install on phone).
-- Copy the files created by the Back Up Apps to your external sdcard/pc

- Now you put phone to Download Mode (Hold Home, Vol Dwn and Power)
- Quit Kies, Run Odin from PC
- Insert cable phone<>pc
- Odin should identify your phone (Com something comes up, first box lights up Yellow)
- Click on "PDA" and select your .TAR file (which is your safe ics kernel)
- Hit Start, and let Odin do its magic.
- Your phone will automatically reboot (takes 2 mins), if it hangs on bootloop remove the battery and turn phone on normally
- Everything should work and you should NOT have lost your Media, Apps, Personal Files (contacts, logs, sms, apn).
- You should have "Superuser" or "SU" App installed
- You may have "CWM" App installed too, otherwise you should have custom recovery without the app
- Install Titanium Back up (Allow "Superuser" rights)
- Backup your Apps with Data with Titanium Backup
- Keep a copy of this Titanium Backup folder, the Back up files (calls etc) in your PC/external sdcard
- Back up your EFS by downloading the "EFS PRO v1.8.3" and running it on your PC
- Finally you want to enter your custom recovery (Hold Home, Vol Up, Power)
- Then make a Nandroid Backup
- Keep all these files safe in your sdcard and PC (nandroid backup folder, EFS file, Titanium backup folder, files from Backup Apps for call, contacts, sms, apn, any other personal/media files you treasure)

First time, total process might take you upto 30min hour (reading, understanding, following step by step, double checking etc etc). Afterwards, whole process would take you 5mins tops.

And after that, if you want to experiment further etc etc revisit this "To Do List" I posted previously, starting from Step D.