All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

so my HTC Desire just reboots and reboots. it was also very sluggish since i updated it to Gingerbread a while ago. i don't use it anymore, but it would be a nice back-up phone for my iPhone 4S. so i'm thinking of rooting it and hope that it solves the problem.

on searching, I CyanogenMod 7.1 to be the best option. is that right? I don't need a whole lot of features, but just the stability that everything would work fine. should i go for it? or is there a better ROM available?

thanks.

 

That's what I would go for if you are just looking for something basic and works when you need it to. (Official builds)

 

does it have HTC Sense? rhough with the utter simplistic UI of the iPhone 4S that i have gotten used to, i don't think i'd need it anymore.

 

No Cyanogen Mod roms have Sense, it's built from stock Android (2.3 in this case).

 

can i just get gingerbread like it is on google's own phones? without any skin or anything? i just tried to install the official HTC gingerbread file on my phone, and it's still restarting like hell.

 

2.3 is Gingerbread, and Cyanogen Mod is pretty much "Google's own phones" in terms of software; at least visually. (Improvements under the hood.)

 

i know 2.3 is gingerbread, but HTC released 2.3.3, while the latest is 2.3.7. cyanogenmod 7.1 also uses 2.3.7 but it has lots of bugs so i want to know if i can use the official google's release instead of cyanogenmod.

 

What kinda bugs are we talking about?

 

CM7.1 literally has no bugs. Plus, 2.3.7 is the latest, so it's quite clean. How can you know it has bugs if you never tried it...?

Just a tiny "guide" :

CM = Stock Google with tweaks like RAM optimizations and such.

Google releases the source code, then manufacturers adapt it. You can't just use Google's straight code because it usually is released to the Nexus S first.

 

The HTC Desire does have "stock" to a certain extent. Since the hardware is largely identical to the Nexus One. Better off with CM of course.

 

Indeed. I can't comment on its software since the only HTC device I've touched was an HD mini. But, HTC is HTC, it'll never have the Nexus S's stockness

 

from reading their forums.

 

Question remains, what are those problems? Link?

 

*sigh*

Experiences are different from phone to phone, person to person. I'm a living proof of that. Many people were saying that the leak I'm using, XXLPB 4.0.3 is full of bugs and unusuable (while others, like me, say it's a perfect daily ROM) I have been using it since release, and I experienced NONE of the bugs people were saying. Bugs like Home button not working, random reboots, pressing the lock key rebooted the phone after 2 secs, fcs and such.

Also, which forums?

 

I used a Galaxy Note today.

Holy...crap! that thing is huge. But very nice

 

can anyone link me to a nice and simple tutorial as to how to go about installing cyanogemnod 7.1 on my HTC Desire, please? or maybe post here itself?

thanks.

 

HTC Desire GSM Stable Mod - CyanogenMod Forum

 

​

That's a heck of a lot of data for an app I never use.
I didn't even realise I was signed in to it.

 

which phone do you have?

 

Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

 

As you can see, people have different issues. My experience was quite flawless, so can be yours, but can aswell be the complete opposite...

 

Yeah, the same version of CM7 can have different, some, or no bugs on every different phone.

CM9 is in development for my phone Cant wait till some more bugs are fixed though, still in Alpha.

 

Except the HTC Desire is I_can't_remember_how_old (2yrs?) and CM should have no reason to be unstable. And being very similar to the Nexus One, it should be rock solid. Tbh, half of those "threads" that was linked from the CM forum is just people messing up..."omg phone won't boot!" We both know how often we see people have "issues" with roms on XDA.

 

That.

There is no reason for there to be *any* bug on a Desire build. Desire HD build? Maybe. But not the original Desire. It's a Nexus One in a different shell.

TBH, there were some hardware issues with the Desire/Incredible that would cause issues. Mainly the NAND would fail prematurely and corrupt the OS making the phone not boot. But that's about it. And that's not CM's fault... that was HTC's for using cheaper NAND.

 

NYT: Google to sell Android-based heads-up display glasses this year -- Engadget​

Ever since functional AR and translucent displays became a reality, I knew this was the eventual outcome.

I'd buy a pair...

 

Ubuntu for Android; best bet at unifying the smartphone and desktop experience (Update: Video) | Android and Me

pretty cool stuff

 

I demand Xfce.

 

Question about upgrades for you guys: everyone has different needs but being tech nerds maybe I can get some more opinions from heavy users.

My friend wants to buy my current phone off me (Nexus S) because he is sick of BB and is impressed with the things I do with the NS (yay conversions!). So I'm looking for something to upgrade to. It MUST work on the AWS (T-Mo) band, ideally it would have a pentaband antenna.

I'm torn right now between the GNex and the t-mo/telus GS2X (aka t989/d). The GN is a Nexus so that is a huge positive, but it lacks a microsd slot and there are a few issues I'm aware of (mediocre camera for a new phone, quiet speakers that might get fixed with an OTA, pretty poor battery life, same gpu as my NS). The GS2X appears to have better hardware at face value (snapdragon cpu clocked higher, probably a tie with the TI) and more importantly has a microsd slot, something that I feel like I'd really appreciate having - but it doesn't have stock ICS (yet), is all touchwizzed, and has poor dev support (I don't see any CM9 alphas for it and haven't looked for a CM7).

At their price points $40 doesn't matter one way or another (the GS2 is cheaper slightly) so it's really about which is the better phone at face value, and which is better for someone like me. Much of the day my phone just sits there on the desk, but when I pick it up it gets hammered; in the car I typically have my NS running winamp, navigation, dailyroads and one or 2 other apps. Waiting around it's minecraft or a gba / n64 emulator, with a browser waiting in the recent apps for when I get stuck and need to wiki help. I keep a LOT of stuff on my NS, in fact since I've had it I have only ever had 1gb free sd space... it's mostly music and and an offline gps app that eat the space, both of which I don't want to be without. I would also like a little bit more free space as overhead for dailyroads to record in longer lengths.

Advice? Looking at you hal...

 

It's really a toss up, isn't it? That it has to have AWS is SO limiting. The Snapdragon SoC in the T989 won't impress even a Nexus S user. It was outdated when it debuted. It's asynchronous core clocking causes serious micro-stutters all over the place. Just like the Vibrant, T-Mobile gets the short end of the Galaxy S II stick.

I definitely know what you mean about the "not having a microSD" thing though. I couldn't do it. If you think you could tolerate not having one for a while longer, I'd go with the Galaxy Nexus... just for the fact that it's pure and it's got massive dev support with official Google Android. I know that may be frustrating, but the positives of the Galaxy Nexus outweigh the positives of the T989, IMO. Plus, the camera isn't that bad really. It's a lot better than I thought it would be.

Do you have ICS on your Nexus S now?

 

I do not; I was one of the first waves of people to report that google was revoking their OTA update for the NS because it happened right in front of me, and I never really got around to manually flashing it. Besides that I need tethering and I'd prefer a working MMS function so I chose to wait for the official updated OTA.

Wow, I had no idea that it was that bad. And yeah AWS is extremely limiting, although if I were on a standard 900/1900 band carrier I would still be weighing the GN vs the (normal) GS2. I'm pretty much restricted to phones that t-mo sells until about 2013 :/

I have dealt with SD limitations til now (about 8 months?) so I can probably deal with it a bit longer, I just can't help feeling a bit restricted. One day I'd like to be able to carry my entire music collection, a gps app with maps of the entire world, an ubuntu partition/installation and have more space than I need for taking vids/pics... but I digress, that day is not today or any day this year. Just like battery life, space is one of those things I will simply never have enough of.

I have a couple questions about the GN maybe you can clear up. I read it uses MTP storage which means you now share app and sd storage, but not /sys, so in my case I'd probably actually gain 400mb of space to play with - is this correct?

How is battery life directly compared to the NS? Try as I might I can't find direct comparisons between the 2. It doesn't necessarily need to be better than the NS (though I'd sure be happy if it was), it just needs to be able to get through the entire day with moderate usage. I tend to keep my NS at 20% screen brightness so it def helps the battery out there.

How is video quality taken with the GN? Especially at night (mostly for dailyroads night driving), I can only find a handful of night video examples and they are not in motion.

 

The successor to my phone has just been announced.



Dubbed the LG Optimus 4X HD it features a 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3, 4.7-inch IPS 1280x720 display, 2,150mAh battery, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Not to mention it comes preloaded with ICS and is only 8.9mm thick. Seems like it will use MHL instead of HDMI out this time around. Availability is expected to be Q2 for Europe.

Personally I don't think I'll upgrade this year, and if I did I would probably wait for a phone with a quad-core Krait processor.

 

Quad core processors are overkill in most computers, much less a phone. A quad core results in more heat, higher power draw, all around shorter life. I can't see that processor ever being fully utilized. The real test will be how that 2150mAh battery holds up throughout the day with a beastly 1.5ghz quad core and a 4.7" screen.

 

Not quite, the new quad cores are more efficient.

 

Google said to pick Dennis Woodside as Motorola Mobility CEO

Dun duuuuun duuuuuuuuun!

 

Tegra3 isn't quad-core though, it's 4-PLUS-1

More than simply being facetious though, that will actually make a difference to battery performance.

 

Sorry to double-post, just wondering is anyone knows enough about NFC tags to offer any advice/recommendations...

 

Welp I bought a GN off a guy for $450 still sealed in the box, seems like a good price to me, guess it was meant to be?

Step you want to make your own nfc tags? I've seen a guy who setup a custom nfc tag on his car dock to make it autostart car mode and stuff. He used tagstand - Buy NFC tags, labels, and stickers here. to buy his stuff, it seemed a little expensive to me (gotta buy the card writer hardware plus the blank tags) but he said those guys were the best/cheapest choice.

 

Yeah, I think.
I basically just want some to experiment with.

Can the handset write to the tags or would I need to get a writer too?
And even if the handset can't write to them, I'm not sure I'd need blank tags/the ability to write to them - I mean, surely if the tags came with some sort of random/unique code written to them, that would be enough? It's just a matter of associating whatever's on the tag with an action on the handset...

Also, on the subject of actions on the handset, do I need some sort of app to read/interpret the tags?
Or is that built into the OS?


As you can see, it's something I'm really not familiar with...

 

I think the phone should be able to write the tags.

As for NFC tags, it depends on what's on the tag. Each tag has an identifier such that, if you have a proper app to handle it, Android should automatically launch that app. If you don't have an app to handle it, or you don't have the identifier coded in, it'll prompt you to choose a program to complete the action with. The OS itself however, has NFC reading built in. It scans for NFC tags whenever your screen is awake, and launches apps based on its content.

*Not 100% confident on the above. It's what I could kind of remember after reading the NFC dev guide on the Android website a few months back.

 

I don't get why everyone goes "OMG! A quad-core in a phone!? It's gonna melt and need a battery that's as big as an aeroplane.".

Tegra 3 is a pretty power effecient processor, largely due to its "ninja/companion core". Having powerful processors in phones can be pretty useful. It makes the overal feel of the OS snappier and allows the users to play both demanding games and videos.

 

Quadcores won't have worse battery life or heat because they will be made on smaller dies, you'll see the same heat/bat life as today's dualcores (or better since larger batteries will be default). The screen however will destroy the battery life, it takes a lot to power these 4.7" monsters.

@step, I *believe* you need to have the writer and blank tags in the kit I linked, or just order preformatted tags from them. The options currently are totally blank (you need a writer) or you have to ask them to write what you want/need on each tag. Current handset NFC chips are read only, they are incapable of writing anything. You shouldn't need an app or anything, that's the whole point of NFC tags - they are preformatted almost like mini-apps themselves.

I would go with this option to start, a web based custom tag creator for under $20.

 

Advanced NFC | Android Developers

Android seems to imply that you can write to tags. There are also apps on the Market that can write to NFC tags.

 

A lot of people were skeptical about Tegra 3 because Nvidia didn't wait for 28nm. But yeah, those screens are major power hogs.

 

The OS/software might be able to write NFC, but I don't think the actual hardware chip can. I know that my NS is a readonly NFC chip, I am not sure about my GN or other recent phones. It all depends on the phone I guess.

 

Are you sure?

Nexus S Able to Write NFC Tags (as well as read them) | Android Community

 

Yea. I'm still skeptical. It's a new process... same node. Still 40NM.

The Atrix I had would get exceptionally warm, sometimes shutting itself off... and that was just a dual-core design.

NVIDIA always takes the quickest way. Not the best. I have a feeling that the Tegra 3 will NOT be powering any Windows 8 tablets, because the fact that the Qualcomm A15-based reference spanks it in performance.

 

You mean the MSM8960?

I thought that was heavily-modified A9 cores as opposed to A15?

 

Nope. MSM8960 is A15 based. It doesn't have all the reference features, but Qualcomm edited in some stuff. Mainly more FP performance. MSM8960 is now a fully out-of-order execution architecture, with multi-issue FP precision. It's got dual-channel RAM interfaces, 2-issue wide 128-bit NEON, VFPv4, and a lot more.

A15: estimated 3.5 DMIPS/MHz
8960: 3.3 DMIPS/MHz

Qualcomm usually likes to upclock their designs to make them look more appealing to the consumer, so they kinda level out. Plus this reference will have probably 1.5-2x the FP performance of A15. JIT likes FP performance....

 

As mentioned previously I would wait for a quad-core Krait processor if I was going to upgrade. I have an Optimus 2X (Tegra 2) and I can't say I've had any shutdowns because of heat. Heck, my phone runs cool even at some load as long as I don't OC it too much.

 

The thing that was constantly killing my Atrix was when apps would get hung in the background causing CPU usage to hover around 100%. That 1930mAh battery lasts about 1.5 hours and the phone will literally bake.

But then Motorola can't make a kernel to save their lives...