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Kies 2.0 Beta available – Good Job Samsung! [Update]

Kies 2 Beta Splashlogo

Today the blog SamsungHub.com (not run by Samsung) just provided beta version 2.0 of Samsung’s desktop software for phone synchronization ‘Kies’. My first expression is: Samsung finally did something right!

Samsung decided to abandon their initial concept for Kies v1. The first version was an attempt to incorporate a pseudo-cool wannabe-OS feeling into the software – aka ‘a total usability disaster’.

Kies v1

Samsung thought it pretty cool to create a software that looks and actually behaves like a real Operating System (pretty tight eh? ..)

Kies v1 Homescreen
The bottom icon navigation has a striking resemblance with a well-known OS...
Kies v1 - No Response
No Response - Not seldomly Kies doesn't want to go any further with you

Apart from the weird icon navigation, user experience with Kies v1 was prominently scarred by choppy meant-to-be fancy swoosh! Effects and serious phone connection issues. All that adds up to extremely laggy program behaviour and not seldomly ends in one or another bricked phone with a very annoyed user, who, after all, only wanted to upgrade his firmware.

In summary, Kies v1 tries to provide “modern” software with emphasis on visual effects, but fails with horrible implementation of those unproductive unnecessities.

Samsung’s User Survey..

Apparently Samsung got wind of the disgruntled mood of countless Kies users, which might be the reason they launched an online survey, which is now closed. – Needless to say I was surprised by Samsung’s attempt to include the consumer into  product development. – The survey dealt with the user’s opinion and expectation about various Samsung Appstore related questions, including the Kies software. And it seems like enough people joined forces and spoke up how flawed Kies was designed.

..got us Kies 2.0 Beta!

Samsung seems to learn from their mistakes and finally starts listening to their customer base – an ability seldomly seen nowadays. Their tremendous answer is Kies Two Point Zero!

The current Beta stars with an intriguingly clear and solidly structured UI. No more sloppy visual effects and unnecessary eye candy that lets your CPU sweat. A slick monochrome design in brown hues, quick startup and pleasing responsiveness complete the picture. You might fetch a scent of iTunes inspiration here (and some Adobe resemblance in Kies’ splash logo*cough*), but that shouldn’t matter as long as the user experience is just right. Kies user don’t get to be picky anyway.

Kies v1 - No Response

Proper Syncing awaits

In regards to functionality, Kies experenienced some serious improvements as well. Many new options are integrated focusing on the software’s original purpose: data synchronization between PC and phone. Tabs and Checkboxes concerning sync are far more accessible and clearer. The user is now able to actually customize and setup a 1click sync and at the same time knows what he is doing.

Kies v1 - No Response
Full Control with clear Syncing Options

Also integrated is a thorough contact manager and editor, to backup or import your contacts and even edit contacts’ information on the go.

Kies v1 - No Response
Complete Contact Management on your PC

Only downside of the new beta is that for now device firmware updates are not supported yet – but those ain’t just flocking in anyway either. And as it’s still just a Beta one should still expect a sometimes rough behaviour and occasional errors. I haven’t experienced any crash yet though – Bravo!

You might also encounter some problems with App installation through Kies 2, as it seems to through several errors and won’t continue the process. The problems be best smoothened in the final release, Samsung, and Kies will look quite good.

Radical Innovation

Overall I need to say: Hats off to you, Samsung. You have done well at creating something worthwhile out of utter rubbish. Respects for taking the leap for progressive product innovation and having the guts to abandon (fubar) Kies v1! Let your ear grow on your customers and this will not stay the only praise you will earn.

[Update]  TR/Ransom.Hexzone.joe found!

One important note to add for all who decide to try out the new Kies. Some virus scanners (including Avira Antivir) will identify a trojan malware at the installation of Kies 2.0: “Trojan.Ransom.Hexzone.joe”. I ran some researches and came to the conclusion that this is probably a false positive. A user on the Avira forum discussed a similar case with a possible Ransom.Hexzone Trojan as well.

For the Kies case, I uploaded the  allegedly malicious file to VirusTotal.com, an online service that runs submitted files through a multitude of virus scanners. The Result is quite reassuring: only 3 out of 43 gave a positive on a malware found of “Trojan.Generic.5226217”.

Connecting all given evidence, my personal judgement would be, that the malware warnings for Kies files are false positive. As I’m no virus expert, though, I cannot give any guarantee on this. After all Kies works ok for me even when I delete the identified file. Hard to tell which error message might be caused by this or that. – A merry Christmas to all of you!

Source & Download: SamsungHub.com Article

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