All Things Android - Apps, Phones, Tablets - Discussion

What kind of hardware are the upcoming Tablets going to have under the hood? While at Best Buy I couldn't find any info on what the 7" Galaxy Tab 2 had or maybe it did but I was too embarrassed to look after I picked up the device and set off the alarm.

 

Whilst I agree that the Galaxy S3 seems mediocre, even in it's mediocrity, it's the best phone around.

It's only mediocre because Samsung a) are capable of more and b) raised expectations too much.
But if you removes those factors from the equation and just compare the Galaxy S3 to the competition, it bests them in pretty much every measure.

 

Lol bandwagon? I can't have a negative opinion on something purely subjective? I didn't like the GS1's design (Captivate the exception), or the GS2's (I dislike all those damn plastic chrome parts). I just couldn't quite believe how Samsung went backwards with the GS3 in terms of aesthetics. That's why I don't own, or plan on spending money on any of these devices.

And no, I don't intent on buying either device. The EVO 4G LTE only exists in the US.

Yes you are right, in terms of the overall device. But I should have quoted HAL9000, as I was purely referring to the physical appearance.

 

PHP:

I guess I mis-used the bandwagon term... By bandwagon I mean if you also thought that the design was crap. I like it, but dislike it at the same time... >.>

 

Allowing full use of htcsense.com (when its back up and running) and the bootloader decryption tool should have been One branding requirements, just like not being able to radically change the hardware design and name are now.

Having a device with a encrypted bootloader is frustrating. But I do like how I'm able to dual boot between android versions if something goes wrong so maybe that's a very weak positive? (At least for motorola devices...)

This might sound bad, and I guess its the beauty of android, but since much of the unique features on the Galaxy S III are in its software, wouldn't installing a "stock" rom like CM lose all of that functionality?

Its like people clamoring for CM for the Note, um....you lost all the unique preinstalled pen apps now, good to go.

 

That's a mis-use of the word 'stock' but yeah, your underlying point is sound.
Though it depends on the individual features and how they're integrated into the software - they could potentially be transferred across to non-stock ROMs like CyanogenMod.

That's one of the few examples where I think I'd just put up with the stock ROM.
But it's hard to say.

 

Yeah. That's what I've been doing. I hate trying any ROMs on my note other than stock because they exclude many features that make this phone- even if I don't use them daily. So as Step said, I am just putting up with the stock ROM til ICS releases. Whenever that may be. And a question. What launcher is everyone using here? I tried searching here and trying to find what you all had recommended earlier but couldn't find it. I love how smooth touchwiz is, but it just isn't as feature rich as I'd like. I like goLauncher but for me, it isn't as smooth as I'd like. Any ideas?

 

I know, hence the quotes.

But yeah, I mean, on my D3 there wasn't really any hardware uniqueness that takes advantage of the software so swapping the default ROM was (after an evaluation period) a no brainer.

 

What I find adds insult to injury, in the case of Motorola, is that trying to update your phone by other means WITHOUT even trying to unlock your phone can mean a perma-brick. It never ceases to amaze me at how easy Motorola makes it to permanently brick their devices. Also, you can NEVER EVER downgrade bootloaders with RSD, you can never go BACK OS releases, etc.

Samsung devices, OTOH, are nearly impossible to brick. You can move back and forward bootloader versions, you can easily flash kernels, you can basically do anything you want and if something goes wrong just come back to Download Mode.

Yes, it should be. I can imagine quite a few people that are very angry at AT&T/HTC right now because they've preordered the One X.

Yes, but even though you can dual-boot like that, in essence you're not. That same buggy Motorola kernel is running the show on both of your OS builds... CM/Moto. Having a Motorola phone that's running CyanogenMod from the kernel to the OS makes the Atrix what it should have been when it shipped. It's 10x smoother, snappier, no more crashes, no more freeze ups where the device goes to sleep and bakes... and much more.

But yea, I agree with you there. Like I said below... the GS3 wouldn't be a Note-like device to me. I wouldn't have any issue wiping all the Samsung software off it, especially since to get the true sound quality from the Wolfson DAC you'll need a source built kernel and CM9's DSP.

See, but that's on the Note. The Note is quite the unique phone and the software supplied with it won't work right with anything else. That's partially the reason I don't own a Note. I weighed the chances of me using the Note's unique features on a routine basis... and I just didn't like the result. Then when those features were taken out of the equation, and CM7/CM9 put on the phone... it loses all it's appeal and it's just a mega-massive-huge phone slab.

 

Apex Pro - the only launcher worth considering for ICS IMO.

 

I agree, but in this case, you'll have to choose : GSIII software goodies or true ICS

I don't think so. Samsung apps always require a Samsung stock ROM. The apps are too embedded in the samsung framework, and they won't work on AOSP frameworks without heavy work, which I don't see the devs spending most of their time porting the apps instead of working in the ROM itself.

What about Trebuchet? I feel it's more stable, but it's less customizeable.

 

Well, no-one said it would be easy and you're right, generally Devs just won't feel it's worth the effort.
Again, the Note is probably the exception - the only example where it probably would be worth the effort of porting of functionality/apps from the stock ROMs to CM etc.

Can't get any more stable than 100% and as you say, there's no competition when it comes to functionality/features.

 

Indeed! But I have tried Trebuchet, Apex and Nova, and from all 3, I found Trebuchet the most reliable, followed by Apex and Nova. But Apex's customization has quite some advantage.

Yeah, namely S Memo of the Note. If they ported it to the GSII, it'd amazing. I would love to have those features.

 

This may be a stupid question but I couldn't find apex launcher in the market. Also note I don't have ics if that makes a difference in this case. And if so, what is the best launcher for gingerbread?

I definitely understand. I got this phone though mainly for Internet browsing. I use that way more than any other feature. So I love it for that.

 

For internet browsing, there's nothing else like it... aside from real tablets. 5.3" 720p display makes for a brilliant browsing device.

 

Agreed.

 

Yeah, it does.
Nova and Apex are ICS-only launchers, they look a lot like the stock ICS launcher but have far more in the way of features.

 

Anyone else seen this?

Xamarin's XobotOS opens prospect of Android port to C#, can of worms -- Engadget​

 

The comments on that page are almost the reasons I still visit Engadget sometimes. Really good stuff...

But yea, I saw that in The Verge forums the other day.

 

Yeah but how about creating the game from scratch? Also I don't know if you played persona but 3/4 of the game is spend looking at dialogs and watching cut scenes so it's really doesn't need rework of UI (a d pad and two button will work just fine).. No offense to hard core persona fans but the game is pretty much a dating sims - Asian style...

It's an alright game. The character are really likable and their development is definitely the focus but it's just not my type of game, it feels too much like a dating sims...I mean it IS a dating sim with a fantasy story behind it.

Also congrats on the purchase

 

You're on AOKP right? Did you just uninstall the updates for Nova then install Apex?

 

I installed Apex then removed both Nova and the other pre-installed launcher.
But all you have to do is install Apex and set it as default.

 

Does Android allow you to create folders and organize apps inside of them? I just discovered that in iOS and think that's a useful feature to clear up the clutter.

Yeah I see what you mean but I don't play the Persona games for the dating part. I love the combat mechanics and creating NEW personas. My favorite attack in Persona 3 was Armeggedon.

 

Yep. Made easier in ICS and in other launchers.

 

I don't have ICS but hopefully Samsung will release it for my Galaxy Tablet 10.1 which I purchased last year.

 

OK I redacted my previous statment, the system for creating new persona is just awesome! In fact it's my favor part of the game. I only played persona 4 but I assume it's the same thing in persona 3

 

The story in Persona 3 is pretty cool too sans the dating part. I remember the first time I was dungeon crawling and I heard "I sense Death".

After I leveled up and acquired Armeggedon, I said here Death I'm waiting.

 

wow, I just watched armeggedon on youtube and that skill is so cheap! I don't think there's anything like that in persona 4. The closest skill I can think of is Chie's special which she basically kick the monster out of play haha! but she only does it when there's only one monster left on the field and it's by chance

 

There should be an app that lets you do that but I can't recall the name ATM.

 

Kies.

10char

 

At first I thought you said Lies!

Btw your avatar is win.

 

LOL. Kies might as well be Lies. It's a horrible little piece of software. Hardly ever works right... but it's the easiest way for a consumer to update their device, aside from doing it on the tablet itself.

IKR?!

 

It's actually the best software to hard-brick your device too! In my Recovery thread, most of the people that can't recover their phones was due to Kies poorly flashing the phone (when going from GB to ICS). ODIN FTW!

But some of those people, miraculously and with my help, managed to get their phones revived...

Being a Recognised Contributor brings another level of awesome

 

Whatever happened to good 'ol "flashing your ROM through ClockworkMod Recovery"?

 

In 99.99% of my cases, recovery is broken, the only thing that actually boots is download mode

 

Pfft, the Mods-only sections are the best bit of XDA



A couple of unrelated points.

Firstly, CM9 builds for the Note include S-Pen support, so I was right

Secondly, anyone recommend a nice theme for AOKP?

 

I'll enjoy my title of Recognised Contributor for the moment, then I'll see what I can do about applying for mod

Yep! You were right about the GSIII stuff coming to CM9 too! xda-developers - View Single Post - [PLEDGE] Give CyanogenMod / TeamHacksung a Galaxy S3!

 

I thought Samsung hired the CM team?

 

They hired the one guy at the top whose name is plastered on it but CM is still entirely separate from Samsung's stock ROMs.

The CM team is pretty huge now, with quite a lot of members only working on a subset of devices.
There's one guy involved called pershoot who makes the kernel for the Galaxy tab 10.1 and maybe a couple of other devices but that's it - just the kernel and not even for everything.

 

Who's the guy that Samsung hired btw?

Steve Kondik is still in the CM team... So is TeamHacksung.

 

Just because Samsung hired him doesn't mean he has to quit developing for CM...

He still approves most of the things in the CM gerrit. But he DOES work for Samsung.

 

Oh he was hired? From the amount of the things he approved on Gerrit, I thought he was still the leader of CM...

 

Yep, he was. And yes, he still is. Him and Koushik Dutta, I believe.

 

Koushik is also from the CM team? I thought he's the head of CWM...

Anywho, latest nightlies support lockscreen customization And how awesome is this? [DEV] Reloaded ICS 1.9b4-050712 | CyanogenMod 9 UI Enhancements | All phones - xda-developers

 

Got any screenshots?

 

Haven't flashed it yet, waiting for 75% battery charge, then I'll do a clean flash of the new 0507 nightly. Then I'll flash it. I'll put some screens in around an hour, hour and a half.

 

Thanks.

It's the lockscreen customisation that I'm particularly interested in.

 

Anytime

Phone's at 52%, perhaps going to be sooner than I expect.

EDIT : Flashed CM9 update & 0429 GApps. going through the first time setup, the I'll flash the ReloadedICS customization. Expect the screens in around 20 mins.

 

Spoiler

As promised

 

That looks pretty similar to the sort of things AOKP and other ROMs have been allowing people to do with the lockscreen for quite a while now.