Hi everyone,
I'm a writer for LockerGnome.com and currently putting together an article exploring Google's new Android strategy. I'm looking for some opinions, particularly from developers, about what Google's new strategy portends for ROM development.
In a nutshell, here's Google's new strategy for Android: It will be giving multiple mobile-device makers early access to new releases of Android and to sell those devices directly to consumers. (Search "site:wsj.com google" for the Wall Street Journal's report. Hopefully you'll be able to access the link I've provided, but if not: Essentially, Google will be offering consumers more phones to purchase with a "vanilla Android" experience; they will then be able to take these phones to the cellular carrier of their choice. A researcher quoted in the article believes that Google is moving toward a more iOS-like experience, with less variance among devices.
What I'd like to know is what those in this community feel will result due to this new strategy. Since they're may be less variances among future Android devices, will there be less of a demand for "vanilla-ized" Android ROMs? My understanding of CyanogenMod is that one of its main appeals is that it allows for users to experience a plain, "vanilla" Android on devices -- with enough new devices already offering a pure, bloatware-less Android, will the CyanogenMod scene begin to fade in relevance?
Please let me know if I can use any of your comments in my article, and let me also know how you would like to be attributed if I use your comment(s). (Private message me, if you'd like, with a link to one of your online profiles or a website that you run, or some such thing.)
Thanks!
I'm a writer for LockerGnome and
well i dont think its gonna be an iOS-like experience at all, its all gonna be pretty much the same cept we'll have 5 nexuses, manufacturers are still gonna be making their devices with their 'OEM skins' just the like theyre doing it now. i also can feel like manufacturers are gonna release same device theyll have as nexus with their skin on top (picture the One X with the option to choose if you want it with sense or with vanilla/stock android) kinda like the Desire Z and the T Mobile G2, its gonna be even better for us flashaholics cause well be able to flash more ROMs
also Cyanogenmod its gonna keep growing cause even if its AOSP based they add their own optimizations making the experience even better, every more and more people are flashing that particular ROM even if their device has vanilla android already in it
nonione said:
well i dont think its gonna be an iOS-like experience at all, its all gonna be pretty much the same cept we'll have 5 nexuses, manufacturers are still gonna be making their devices with their 'OEM skins' just the like theyre doing it now. i also can feel like manufacturers are gonna release same device theyll have as nexus with their skin on top (picture the One X with the option to choose if you want it with sense or with vanilla/stock android) kinda like the Desire Z and the T Mobile G2, its gonna be even better for us flashaholics cause well be able to flash more ROMs
also Cyanogenmod its gonna keep growing cause even if its AOSP based they add their own optimizations making the experience even better, every more and more people are flashing that particular ROM even if their device has vanilla android already in it
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Thanks for your comments. So with the introduction of more "Vanilla" Android devices, you believe the "flashaholic" community will continue to grow? Won't the majority of consumers who purchase the unlocked Android devices no longer have a reason to flash their devices? It's obvious that "flashaholics" enjoy optimizing and overclocking their phones (even at the expense of other things, such as battery life) -- but don't you think most consumers would prefer not to void their warranty (and would generally opt for better battery duration rather than a speed boost)?
You can use anything. Please attribute me as "lalop".
Note: An important distinction to make (not having the article at hand, I'm not sure if the researcher made it himself): Google is attempting to reduce the variance in the software of Android phones. In terms of hardware, it is the complete opposite. Encouraging competition between multiple Nexii will ensure that only the most cutting-edge designs are sent in. Without any OEM differentiation on the software, the contest truly becomes that of the best manufacturing. (This means no more half-assed Nexus specs/accessories *cough Samsung cough*.)
charssun said:
What I'd like to know is what those in this community feel will result due to this new strategy. Since they're may be less variances among future Android devices, will there be less of a demand for "vanilla-ized" Android ROMs? My understanding of CyanogenMod is that one of its main appeals is that it allows for users to experience a plain, "vanilla" Android on devices -- with enough new devices already offering a pure, bloatware-less Android, will the CyanogenMod scene begin to fade in relevance?
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Click to collapse
CyanogenMod turns OEM skins into AOSP, that is true, but the result can hardly be called "vanilla". The "Mod" itself adds so much customization and speed that, as I noticed firsthand from using the Galaxy Nexus, the stock ROM and CM9 aren't really comparable at all.
Now, you talk about "vanilla-ized" ROMs, but I would suggest this is a misnomer. Yes, anyone can compile AOSP if they just want a "vanilla" ROM, but there's almost no point to just stopping there and going no further. The ROM and/or kernel are just begging for your tweaks, your mild improvements, and this is precisely what drives the homebrew developer.
As such, it turns out that almost every custom ROM has something differentiating it from the original; even the so-called "vanilla experiences" are generally designed to be smoother and have better battery life. No number of stock phones from Google could possibly reduce the demand for (nor the incentive to create) such things. So I would say that the answer is "no" on all accounts.
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Now, the effect of multiple Nexii on homebrewing that would worry me is "fragmentation" (though not in the usual sense of the word). Having five Nexuses would effectively detrone each one from its former pedestal as the (no pun intended) Nexus of development. Since most homebrew developers would probably not purchase all five (and would have a harder time maintaining all versions even if they did), this could end up having an adverse effect on their development. Although having a fleet of Nexus is practically a dream come true, I fear that five may be too many, and may unintentionally compromise their development as a whole.
Now, as pointed out by lazaro here, this would not affect ROM development per se, only low level stuff like kernels. The obvious way I can think of to avoid the issue is to mandate similar hardware for all the Nexus - and yet I feel this is undesirable. After all, competition is key here, and I'm sure we're also all waiting for our Nexus Note™, of course! *hint hint*
http://t.co/9rTNXkvM
Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
I am more excited about this than I have been for any other Android news ever! I am ready to get out of the continuous contacts and upgrade dates, especially the high prices for service.
As far as development goes, some of the best development has been done on Nexus devices, except of course the hd2... What will be good for manufacturers is that they will receive earlier updates for android allowing them to tweak their proprietary versions sooner allowing quicker updates!
For custom rom's you will see a lot of activity.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
thebobp said:
You can use anything. Please attribute me as "lalop".
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Thank you for taking the time to post your comments; my own response to yours is below.
thebobp said:
Note: An important distinction to make (not having the article at hand, I'm not sure if the researcher made it himself): Google is attempting to reduce the variance in the software of Android phones. In terms of hardware, it is the complete opposite. Encouraging competition between multiple Nexii will ensure that only the most cutting-edge designs are sent in. Without any OEM differentiation on the software, the contest truly becomes that of the best manufacturing. (This means no more half-assed Nexus specs/accessories *cough Samsung cough*.)
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I was vague in my description of what was mentioned about device variance in the article. Here's exactly what the writer of the article stated:
Rajeev Chand, head of research at Rutberg & Co., said Android has become a kind of "Wild West" in which app developers have struggled to make sure apps are compatible with hundreds of different Android-powered devices. Both device makers and carriers have left their imprint on devices, meaning the "customer experience is highly variant", he said.
Mr. Chand said Google's shift appears to be a move "to create a more standardized experience for consumers and app developers," similar to that of Apple.
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Does that fit what you're asserting?
thebobp said:
CyanogenMod turns OEM skins into AOSP, that is true, but the result can hardly be called "vanilla". The "Mod" itself adds so much customization and speed that, as I noticed firsthand from using the Galaxy Nexus, the stock ROM and CM9 aren't really comparable at all.
Now, you talk about "vanilla-ized" ROMs, but I would suggest this is a misnomer. Yes, anyone can compile AOSP if they just want a "vanilla" ROM, but there's almost no point to just stopping there and going no further. The ROM and/or kernel are just begging for your tweaks, your mild improvements, and this is precisely what drives the homebrew developer.
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The term Vanilla is how the CyanogenMod "look" is described at http://www.cyanogenmod.com/about. I should have recognized that there is a world of difference between aesthetics and performance. Thanks for pointing that out.
thebobp said:
As such, it turns out that almost every custom ROM has something differentiating it from the original; even the so-called "vanilla experiences" are generally designed to be smoother and have better battery life. No number of stock phones from Google could possibly reduce the demand for (nor the incentive to create) such things. So I would say that the answer is "no" on all accounts.
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I don't have any experience with iOS devices; is there a similar incentive to modify iPhones and iPads purchased directly from Apple?
thebobp said:
Now, the effect of multiple Nexii on homebrewing that would worry me is "fragmentation" (though not in the usual sense of the word). Having five Nexuses would effectively detrone each one from its former pedestal as the (no pun intended) Nexus of development. Since most homebrew developers would probably not purchase all five (and would have a harder time maintaining all versions even if they did), this could end up having an adverse effect on their development.
Although having a fleet of Nexus is practically a dream come true, I fear that five may be too many, and may unintentionally compromise their development as a whole.
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One thing to note: Google will be working with "as many as five manufacturers at a time to create a portfolio of 'Nexus' lead devices that include smartphones and tablets." To me, this doesn't necessarily imply just give devices -- there could be a few devices from each manufacturer.
thebobp said:
Now, as pointed out by lazaro here, this would not affect ROM development per se, only low level stuff like kernels. The obvious way I can think of to avoid the issue is to mandate similar hardware for all the Nexus - and yet I feel this is undesirable. After all, competition is key here, and I'm sure we're also all waiting for our Nexus Note™, of course! *hint hint*
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Thanks again for your views. If I use your comments I'll be sure to attribute them to "lalop"; is there also a URL you are associated with that I may link to? If you prefer privacy, that's perfectly understandable. Also: Are you a developer?
Related
i tink that LG was waiting for cooking a stock rom based on android 2.4 (instead of the 2.3 promised) because of their similarities, in fact the gpu accelerations for 2D, rumored for the 2.4, can only help our P500 performance.
i hope this, and you?
Ps: i tink that a P500 at 150$ with 2.4 in the very next month can bring android for many doubtful people..
I'm not really keeping my hopes up. I bet the last official update we'll receive is Gingerbread. Most companies focus on their flagship phones, and despite the O1's popularity, I don't think it'll receive much.
Also, IMHO, Google is going too fast. Manufacturers are having a hard time catching up and stuff.
But if you ask me, I'm contented with Froyo. Unless, of course, there's a really badass killer feature available only to future releases.
And I think this should be in the General category
kpbotbot- It's more like manufacturers use the differente Android os'es for marketing uses . Look at samsung , they're waiting to release the native 2.3 devices and bearly then will they release gingerbread for their current flagship : Galaxy S . It's a dirty world .
Yeah. Here's a super thank-able screenshot I took weeks ago
LG and Samsung seem like very different companies. The Optimus line is a very good buy for most carriers. It will convert a lot of users to the Android world like me. LG seems to catter to their users too.
The manufacturers should understand Android devices should follow Googles releases. It seems like most manufacturers just barely make the software and communities like xda do the actual bug fixing and create a more robust system with the custom kernel & ROM releases.
Sent from my VM670 using XDA App
why would companies spend money and time in the software when
communities like xda do the actual bug fixing and create a more robust system with the custom kernel & ROM releases.
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@orlox - Imagine buying a phone that doesn't come with an operating system.
I prefer if companies release only the lifeless phone, and xda would give life to it.
So androids will be much cheaper
ccdreadcc said:
I prefer if companies release only the lifeless phone, and xda would give life to it.
So androids will be much cheaper
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I like the idea!
Post delivered via piece of paper tied to a brick... sorry 'bout the window! XD
The reason I chose this phone is because, for me, it's a small portable computer. If only every bit of hardware of this phone had a corresponding device driver (that we can get hold of), I think there's nothing stopping us from using a full Linux desktop, or other operating systems capable of running on the ARM architecture.
Not so relevant note: Some say the bootloader is locked. True?
kpbotbot said:
The reason I chose this phone is because, for me, it's a small portable computer.
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So true!
I am very satisfied with my first Android experience, in spite of all the bugs and hardware limitations of this cheap phone. Almost anything I needed but couldn't do before on my "dumb" phone became possible with this micro computer. So I don't really care if it's running Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Ice Cream or Milk & Toast & Honey.
You would care if it was running Cupcake.
P.S There really is a possibility for us to get 2.4 on our phones. It is still called Gingerbread but it will support Honeycomb apps.
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App
there are some questions to answer, why people buy a smartphone in general. We must see the differences between users who "use" the mobile as a daily instrument, users who use the mobile to play 3D games, users who read in the internet and communicate with it and users who are tweaking/hacking (not so sad as i write here). Most of users are using their device for communication, and so the manufacturers can say "why we should develop so fast as google? Our users doesn't need the new features like NFC or other". When communities like XDA, Cyanogen,CodeAurora,androidcentral or others develop their ROMs to their needs, they should do that - they are users who "want" the features. So, manufacturers can invest more time and money in new devices for more experience and for advanced users (like technical freaks). We (users who are lucky for while) can buy the "new" device at a later time, so we can save some money. Nothing other does LG,Samsung or HTC - they are developing for the feature. The money and time to invest in updates or bugfixes are too much for the most - this could be one reason for hold back updates or dont develop. As a developer i can say, the time to spend for Gingerbread development is not small - i have needed 3 monthes to develop a rom, that have just some bugs, and i've do that for fun. for a manufacturer this is not fun
kpbotbot said:
Yeah. Here's a super thank-able screenshot I took weeks ago
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This makes perfect sense from the carrier's perspective. If people had to pay to upgrade to the next version the carriers might have more incentive; as it is now they aren't seeing any more money so why bother investing time on something that could blow up in their face.
andy572 said:
there are some questions to answer, why people buy a smartphone in general. We must see the differences between users who "use" the mobile as a daily instrument, users who use the mobile to play 3D games, users who read in the internet and communicate with it and users who are tweaking/hacking (not so sad as i write here). Most of users are using their device for communication, and so the manufacturers can say "why we should develop so fast as google? Our users doesn't need the new features like NFC or other". When communities like XDA, Cyanogen,CodeAurora,androidcentral or others develop their ROMs to their needs, they should do that - they are users who "want" the features. So, manufacturers can invest more time and money in new devices for more experience and for advanced users (like technical freaks). We (users who are lucky for while) can buy the "new" device at a later time, so we can save some money. Nothing other does LG,Samsung or HTC - they are developing for the feature. The money and time to invest in updates or bugfixes are too much for the most - this could be one reason for hold back updates or dont develop. As a developer i can say, the time to spend for Gingerbread development is not small - i have needed 3 monthes to develop a rom, that have just some bugs, and i've do that for fun. for a manufacturer this is not fun
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Yeah , bro , but you're one man fighting against the tides . It's bound that LG has at least a reminder of 5 man cell team working on getting gingerbread out . And besides they have other ways of getting info and ironing out bugs faster then you can .
Sad that they didn't place on the internet a god damn ETA by now .... thus I guess may or june might a realistic launch date
Oh and to be on-topic with the thread , I guess we'll see 2.4 by CM7 if any of the legendary devs still take interest in this phone ofc
+1 i second that...plus i heard that not all the code used is even OPEN..I mean mik somewhere mentioned that some libraries had no corresponding code in the source code archive....thats gotta stink plus porting of android is different than developiing Linux Distro..I mean no mailing lists and not such a big community of "porters"....but tahts just my take..
sarfaraz1989 said:
+1 i second that...plus i heard that not all the code used is even OPEN..I mean mik somewhere mentioned that some libraries had no corresponding code in the source code archive....thats gotta stink plus porting of android is different than developiing Linux Distro..I mean no mailing lists and not such a big community of "porters"....but tahts just my take..
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you're right:
many libraries are closed source, it's like a driver from nvidia for Linux X.org.
The only way to port it to a new android version is to test if it works - if not, we have a problem. manufacturer does not support communities, so we have to build many workarounds or rewrite the code so that it works. i would wish, the manufacturers opens their drivers and codecs for playing audio and video - so we can develop faster, more stable and uncomplicated:/
back to topic:
i've readed the last days that gingerbread 2.4 is the internal 2.3.3 - let's check, if apps for honeycomb work on this version: in 2.4 there should be compatibility for the honeycomb apps^^
andy572 said:
you're right:
many libraries are closed source, it's like a driver from nvidia for Linux X.org.
The only way to port it to a new android version is to test if it works - if not, we have a problem. manufacturer does not support communities, so we have to build many workarounds or rewrite the code so that it works. i would wish, the manufacturers opens their drivers and codecs for playing audio and video - so we can develop faster, more stable and uncomplicated:/
back to topic:
i've readed the last days that gingerbread 2.4 is the internal 2.3.3 - let's check, if apps for honeycomb work on this version: in 2.4 there should be compatibility for the honeycomb apps^^
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if everything's open then it is unlikely they make money. Then they close down and there won't be any phone.
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App
@yanuk... seems to be like u have not used linux before...Let me tell you how it works...Theres tons of companies (apart from thousands of enthusiasts) that write OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS for their hardware and submit it to the LINUX KERNEL maintainers(Linus torvalds included) example INTEL..If i m buying an ANDROID phone, i only want to pay for the hardware and not software..All drivers developed by the manufacturer shud be open source ..BUt instead its more like an abuse of the OPEN SOURCE community ..HOw CAn devs go ahead and hack the crap out of their phones, when they have trouble even porting newer OSes because of "some f****** proprietary driver" ...Screw the manufacturers ..I wish OPENMOKO had taken off when it had the chance..OPENMOKO = OPEN SOURCE OS +OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE with all datasheets, spec, circuit diagrams available..RUn whatever u possible can run on an it !!! My dream of having a completely Open (gtk runnin) geek device is still very distant..
sarfaraz1989 said:
@yanuk... seems to be like u have not used linux before...Let me tell you how it works...Theres tons of companies (apart from thousands of enthusiasts) that write OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS for their hardware and submit it to the LINUX KERNEL maintainers(Linus torvalds included) example INTEL..If i m buying an ANDROID phone, i only want to pay for the hardware and not software..All drivers developed by the manufacturer shud be open source ..BUt instead its more like an abuse of the OPEN SOURCE community ..HOw CAn devs go ahead and hack the crap out of their phones, when they have trouble even porting newer OSes because of "some f****** proprietary driver" ...Screw the manufacturers ..I wish OPENMOKO had taken off when it had the chance..OPENMOKO = OPEN SOURCE OS +OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE with all datasheets, spec, circuit diagrams available..RUn whatever u possible can run on an it !!! My dream of having a completely Open (gtk runnin) geek device is still very distant..
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Seems like you have not worked in and managed any technology firms before.
I'm sincerely hoping your dream come true where you will own a successful openmoko company develop cutting edge technology with over 100 staff and offer your sw and hw for free with no claims to patent rights. All the best!
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App
I have with all three OSs but somehow iOS and WP7 feel much more stable. They never crashed yet, iOS can't even crash I think, while Andoid crashed many times. It it because of the linux based kernel?
Your question doesn't really make sense. Android is not unstable. It just depends on your rom and hardware capabilities. If they are good, your device will be fine, if not, then of course it's not going to be the smoothest thing in the world. So blame your device (even if it's a good device, you still need to make the best out of it), not Android.
Run the latest iOS on the original iPhone. Tell me its stable
ugothakd said:
Run the latest iOS on the original iPhone. Tell me its stable
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Classic .
Android seems pretty stable to me, I've never had any crashes on my SGS2, I've had a couple force closes but I'd imagine that's down to apps being bad rather than the actual OS.
This sounds like it was started as a troll thread by the OP to me
Given the right conditions, any piece of software can crash and do so hard
http://cdn2.iphone4jailbreak.org/forum/wp-content/uploads/mobile-substrate-crash-iphone-4.jpg
http://gradly.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/20110215_ibook_crash.png
iOS is a very modified verison of unix/bsd (well unix serves somewhere under it as the base), which is what linux is modeled after. Take that as what you will.
Neither iOS or wp7 allow users the chance to screw up your phone nearly as much as android does as well (well unless you have one of those android phones with a locked bootloader).
Another thing you need to take into account is the hardware restrictions used by WP7 and IOS. With WP7 you have to meet the minimum requirements set by Microsoft. IOS hardware is only built and created by Apple and each model is now only being supported for so many years before they won't allow it to be updated to the most recent IOS version.
With Android, you have multiple manufacturers creating a variety of devices where there is almost no hardware restrictions except whether the phone will run the ROM or not. Android phone hardware can vary by huge amounts of memory, CPU speeds, and GPUs.
if there are problems it has to do with the manufacturer of the phone and the rom they developed, not android. Get a nexus phone, stable, fast, smooth, and it has the vanilla version of android. After I removed all the bloatware off my phone and installed cm7, my captivates been a different phone. Makes me remember why I went with android over IOS or wp7.
Everyone seems eager to fork over their hard earn money to be Google's beta tester. But I'm more surprised at how people take pride in how "stable" android is, while they have to hack the beck out of it for it to be a decent phone.
otnos said:
Everyone seems eager to fork over their hard earn money to be Google's beta tester. But I'm more surprised at how people take pride in how "stable" android is, while they have to hack the beck out of it for it to be a decent phone.
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Look at the nexus line, Pure Vanilla android. I don't hear too many crashes from the stock users.(if any at all)
otnos said:
Everyone seems eager to fork over their hard earn money to be Google's beta tester. But I'm more surprised at how people take pride in how "stable" android is, while they have to hack the beck out of it for it to be a decent phone.
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Did you expect everyone to say android sucks on an android subforum? I think you would want to head to the apple subforum if you want to hear that.
People use android because it works for them. However, it may not work for everyone and those that it does not, are more than welcome to use a different phone
With my old tablet the custom roms always meant a performance increase too, but:
I've tried pretty much well every single custom rom available for this tablet by now and i still havent managed to find one that actually increases the performance of the tablet. When im running the stock firmware i get about 7500-7600 on quadrant and my browser is really responsive and stuff. There's not been a single custon rom out there that has even performed better then 5600 on quadrant. Is it just me, or are the custom roms not hat good performance wise?
EDIT: By better performance i mean how snappy the tablet feels, using benchmarks as a secondary frame of reference.
Not sure if quadrant is doing a good job. I also am getting same results as you with 7xxx for stock and 5xxx for all CM based ones. Although the CM roms feel smoother here.
Sent from my SGP311 using XDA Premium HD app
I abstained the vote cause the question does not bear a black and white / yes or no answer anymore these days.
In my humble opinion, and I picked up the smartphone / PDA / mobile device modding bug back about when this site catered to the the original HTC XDA almost exclusively, and Steve Jobs was merely having wet dreams about his iPhone (*1)... nodded RIMs have gotten to a state where they are overvalued. Saying a custom ROM is always way ahead of stock is like saying "one device with a fixed featureless fits everyone perfectly".
Custom ROMs had their deserved heyday when the industry loaded up near every carrier distributed smartphone with scrappy bloatware that made you weep. Depending on the mobile OS at any given time it was nigh impossible to get rid of that stuff, unless you flashed the whole shebang. From there on the custom ROM scene kinda exploded along with the market distribution of smartphones and later on tablets, certainly owed to the introduction of Android over older generation closed source systems, which enabled much more in-depth possibilities of adding novel features, fixing stuff that was basically broken out of the box and integrating all of this nicely.
(For a frame of reference: I tossed my PalmPilot and Nokia phone when the HTC Wallaby (Telekom MDA or so)hit the shelves... Early adopter by nature and I thought combining cellphones and PDAs, bother which I used avidly was the most revolutionary idea since the combustion engine. This was generation Windows Pocket PC, basically a PDA with cellphone feature thrown in as an afterthought (the antenna actually doubles a stylus compartment). Phone integration was a PITA on good days. On bad, long work days it might just happen that your moody battery would jump from 35% to flat out dead within a mere six minute phone call. Yet, no biggie right? Well, it was, the devices had no non volatile storage. Dead battery means go home, pray your last phone backup is recent enough and restore the entire thing. I spent a lot of time fixing this device (windows style - shoehorning in binary OS components from newer PocketPC versions and prodding the registry on the phone (!)...) to a point where it was almost usable as PDA only device, supplementing telephonly with a Nokia.
A while later better devices came out, PocketPc was scrapped for Windows Mobile and in high hopes I got a HTC Charmer. This looked like a more solid platform and indeed proper custom ROMa emerged, adding real functionality and allowing to get rid of carrier branded crap, later even RIMs emerged with Windows Mobile version updates never intended for that phone, some even taking the recent cutting edge HTC front-end, the first incarnation of Sense (I think it was called vanilla). I figured the really bad conceptual problems were fixed and merrily went along. But, as god hates my guts, I drained the battery accidentally, only to find that the phone would still go dead, deaf, dumb and wiped despite a good three or four years of technological progress. I was so confident that I neglected backups with that model and basically lost the majority of my stuff again. The Nokia dumbphone was back in the game, the HTC left a dent in the wall that required plaster and a patch of new wallpaper.
TL;DR: The first gen smartphones (PDA with cell module afterthought were such flawed concepts, badly integrated, that keeping recent backups and maintaining it operational took quite an effort on user side, on that sort of negated the higher productivity of using one altogether. But bear with me now, I am still circling around the point or two I want t. Make.
Because a few months after I abandoned smartphones for good (or so I thought) Apple coughed up their iPhone prototype and a few months later pumped it to market. I was amazed (not because of the technological feat, they were more or less throwing R&D money bricks at existing tech and concepts, however they exactly figured out what went wrong in the early generations, fixed that stuff, added fingerdriven multi-touch in favor of stylus driven displays and, this is the real kicker, in a time and age when the cool cell to have was a Nokia 8 Series or a decent, very small flipphone or clamshell they managed to brainwash their customers into what PDA and smartphone adopters at that time already knew - it's totally worth to dump the train of ever smaller telephony only cells for a much larger, more fragile device because of all the freedom and power those things offer you.
I kept my guard and obviously went for Android devices once I got back on the horse. HTC Desire, a backup Wildfire, Desire HD, Sensation, One S and a few tablets along the way. Now, here is the kicker. The Desire ran much better with a custom. The Wildfire could only be updated to a recent Android version with a custom ROM due to HTCs sometimes appalling quick update discontinuation. The Desire HD ran a basically stock custom ROM! But with lots of lovely icon eyecandy, so I stuck with that too. The Sensation benchmarked equally (give or take 5%) but the ROM added novel features, properly implemented, which I decided to stick with. But frankly, it was because I could. I would not have recommended a newbie to Android flashing to take the plunge. My current HTC One S has a recovery downloader and is rooted cause some essential apps I can't live without need it. Full custom ROM switch. I see no point. Android has come a long way. If today I have bloatware I can go to App Manager and disable them. Icon gone, runtime resource hogging gone. Many features that were the selling points for a custom ROM a while back are now natively incorporated.
This is just how I feel about my Sony SGP311 now. It runs 4.2.2 rooted, no recovery yet. This is planned, maybe at some point a stable, close to stock custom kernel to allow some overclocking on a per app basis for XBMC. But other than that it just Danny works. The Sony skin put over stock Androi. Is not that bad, and more to the point it never gave me the impression of hogging the system. Turn off what is useless to you, Office suite, walkway, etc and be on your merry way. It just comes down to what you do with the device, but as a custom ROM junkie who has just gotten off the habit, for me it makes no sense anymore.
Now, if you made it all the way here, I ran two benchmarks on my 4.2.2 root but stock. Maybe they aid you in your decision.
EDIT: the attachments are garbage. Here are proper links:
http://i.imgur.com/vMFEX1p.png
http://i.imgur.com/IEPVvMS.png
http://i.imgur.com/mB5MKSH.png
Also, none of the above is supposed to rain on the developers parade or something. I admire your skills and dedication over all those years, and there isn't a single custom ROM that went onto my devices withour a PayPal "crate of beer" donation ever. However, the fiddling, time spent reading up on custom ROM choice, issues and unlocking process etc is just not in relation for me anymore. Those thoughts are yours to reject, spindle, mutilate, adopt, oppose or plainly ignore... Just speaking for myself here.
Thanks for this! I was also trying to decide if I should be flashing a custom rom on my XTZ. I am itching to flash but couldn't come up with any strong reason to do so, probably for battery life and stock look?
Will be interesting to hear from another person who is a strong believer of flashing custom rom on XTZ.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk
i got slightly better score using a custom rom. Plus i get themes, expanded desktop and pie control which is a must for this tablet. I hope more xda developers develop for this tablet. Will reward with donations
By "better performance" do mean higher benchmark scores? Because any of the 4.3 ROMs I've tried are generally smoother than Sony's 4.2.2.
Spartoi said:
By "better performance" do mean higher benchmark scores? Because any of the 4.3 ROMs I've tried are generally smoother than Sony's 4.2.2.
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4.3 too bugy for me
im using 4.2.2 cm rom FXP242-cm-10.1-20131021-UNOFFICIAL-pollux_windy.zip
i already sent team a donation hope to keep em motivated
Spartoi said:
By "better performance" do mean higher benchmark scores? Because any of the 4.3 ROMs I've tried are generally smoother than Sony's 4.2.2.
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Sorry, the post was incomplete. Changed it.
r1ntse said:
Sorry, the post was incomplete. Changed it.
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I prefer 4.2 ATM. I get close to 30 Mbps download speed on this ROM where on 4.3 roms only 2mbps download? Also video cam recording, screen is squashed on 4.3. Other than that they run great but I personally cant feel a performqnce boost from 4.3 to 4.2. I also installed crossbreader and Supercharger V6 script which addresses screen redraw lags, so if there is a slower issue with 4.2 i would have addressed it with these two mods and may not be able to tell.
Hi guys, I'm a jailbroken iPhone 6S+ user. I'm currently a slave to Apple's ecosystem (iPad, Apple TV, Watch but not a Mac) I apologize for the wall of text below, but I know you guys are always glad to give a helping hand.
I've been using iOS since the iPod Touch 2G, taking a break for a couple months only in the Galaxy S3 days, which was my first and only android experience. Many iOS users are in the same boat as me.
Android was a whole different thing back then. Nowadays, when I see the curved, bright and saturated screen of an S7 and how well it pairs with the material design, I feel like I'd love to give that a spin. My problem is that I've been fed constant complaints on behalf of android users, using different handsets and at different times. Here are my main concerns:
I've always heard that, after a "honeymoon" period, almost without fail, all android handsets start to experience stuttering, freezing, rebooting, framerate drops, etc. (maybe one of those at a time, sometimes all of those are common occurrences) does this happen? This is the most important one for me, because if there's something that none of my iPhones ever suffered from, was reduced performance.
Software glitches which are mostly hardware-specific. I've visited the 6P subreddit, only to find a plethora of people complaining about the camera app freezing or crashing, some focus issue I believe as well, or maybe just reduced performance in other parts of the OS (which is the purest form of android). I've also heard that Samsung's bloatware, although only a fraction of what it was back on the S3 days, still causes the phone to feel sluggish at times. Haven't heard about Huawei or HTC bloatware, but I have watched reviews which mentioned some lag here and there.
Software updates. The whole ordeal of having to choose a phone thinking about whether it will get updates in the future or not is pretty sad. I know that Nexus phones are guaranteed to get updates for two years I believe, but as I stated before, visiting the 6P subreddit, I've seen people complain about Google updating the OS but leaving bugs unresolved for several iterations of it. How do you handle this when choosing a phone?
Customization. If there's one area that I've been always convinced Android was leaps and bounds ahead of iOS was this. However, as a jailbroken iOS user, I find that I get most of what you guys can get out the box, but in a prettier package. As in, jb tweaks are very tightly integrated and always match the OS look and feel. In Android, you work with apps or, after rooting, with "modules" I think they're called. How do these differ from JB tweaks (stability-wise as well)? How different is the process of waiting for root vs waiting for a JB? Is rooting as necessary as jailbreaking?
Lastly:
Apps. I am aware of the differences in general app quality when comparing the App Store and the Play Store. Big names such as FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc are mostly the same. But when you start digging a little bit deeper, you find that there's a big difference in not only availability, but also variety and polish. At least, that's how my experience was and what I tend to hear from Android users. How's the Play Store these days? Has this changed a bit?
I apologize once again for the wall of text. If you could answer each point with one or two lines I'd be immensely grateful. Honestly, since these points are big question marks in my head right now, I wouldn't even know what handset to look into, because I don't want to be unpleasantly surprised later on. Android screens though... Damn. Most of them are sexy.
Anyway, thank you very much for your time. Any help is deeply appreciated.
Stuttering/Freezing. You might find this on some low-end devices but the "flagship" devices that I've used haven't suffered from this. This would generally be caused by lower end hardware (lower clocked CPU and lower RAM).
Software glitches. I own the 6P and have never had the camera crash or freeze, never had any software issues with this phone actually. Samsung phones are pretty well known to suffer from being sluggy, this is due to their Touchwiz UI which hogs quite a bit of RAM. The HTC devices I've owned haven't had this issue. Can't speak for Huawei's own UI. The Huawei 6P uses pure Android, I don't notice any real lag issues on this phone.
Updates. If you want guaranteed software updates your best bet is a Nexus. I've noticed no major bugs on the 6P apart from a 4G bug that was specific to an Australian carrier but that was patched pretty quickly. There have been things in Android that people label as bugs that haven't been patched immediately though. Even if you choose a device that may not be updated officially you will very often be able to update via a custom ROM, custom ROMs are often developed for devices long after official support has stopped.
Customization. Android is definitely far ahead in terms of customisation. Most people find customisation via a custom ROM (a customised version of the OS, sometimes based on the stock OS, sometimes based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project or "pure Android"), sometimes based on something like CyanogenMod). A ROM will almost always have extra features and tweaks, these features are usually very well implemented and tie in very nicely with the OS. When speaking about modules you'd be referring to Xposed Modules which are used with the Xposed Framework. Xposed basically opens up a lot of customisation ability, it requires root, it can be used on a stock ROM with root or with a custom ROM. There are a plethora of modules available, too many to even begin to list, the best way to see what they can achieve is to look in our Xposed Modules section. As for root in general, you don't generally need to wait for root like you would with jailbreaking. Having root access is also far more flexible than jailbreaking, you can pretty much do anything with your phone, you have full access to the otherwise blocked system partition. Root methods will vary from device to device but you'll usually need an unlocked bootloader. The easiest devices to root and modify are the Nexus devices, they're designed to be tinkered with, development phones first and foremost.
Apps. In the early days of Android, and even up until a few years ago, the Play Store really lacked in terms of availability and quality. The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in both areas though, there's a wide variety available and the quality has become top notch.
In summing up, it looks like the worries you have are misconceptions commonly held by Apple users.
As a former board level apple technician who used the first ever apple products in kindergarten nearly 30 years ago, I must say I can't even use an iPhone. With all respect, most of your thoughts are not accurate.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
Hi
I was figuring buying a Spark X. I see the Spark series have no entry here, so I wander I had a good idea. Although, following various links here I think I found the man Porridgek3 works on this X model from a somewhat old COS13.0.2 (comparing to COS13.1.4 for others, e.g. Swift series).
Not being a coder myself I can't read the code at github, so I'd like if this is not stupid question/request to read a thread about what are the changes from stock COS13 to the Porridge custom CM13.
Thank you and happy new year to everyboby at XDA.
The Spark devices are pretty poor. They all have Mediatek processors and updates are much slower than for other Wileyfox devices.
flibblesan said:
The Spark devices are pretty poor. They all have Mediatek processors and updates are much slower than for other Wileyfox devices.
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My aim is not to have a speed daemon. I search something with good and removable battery (Spark X has one and as about same hardware than Spark/Spark+, I guess the autonomy would be better), and I could easily remove the bloatware (stock CN13 would help, I believe, to switch to CMod if exists).
I currently have a Liquid-MT (my first smartphone) for which by chance there was a custom ROM available based on GB-2.3.6, and it was so difficult for me to jailbreak it that I decided to keep it as is until now when mechanical problems with the internal microphone make replacement nearly mandatory.
Also, I'm focused to keep as far away as possible from google and GAFAs I have no confidence in Samsung so I don't even try to know if their devices are easy to make free. That's why I was so happy to discover my target from a single European manufacturer (at least designer) that ships his own with CN, and I easily accept to have a poor camera inside, only 802.11bg and basic 4G. I also know that the Spark X has poor dpi compared to other Sparks because of larger screen, and accept this as a consequence of my decision on battery... an so on...
Not being very much aware in ROMs, I don't know by which tail to catch the beast. I don't really choose for a model, instead I exclude others: GAFA, big Broth, God keeps me away! High end... for tainted kids (or their backward parents), out! Chinese, let's them make phones for ... themselves. So what does remain? Here is my way.
SparkX continued
Hi, how did things go with the sparkx ? I have one here and after no updates for a long time the updates arrived and bumped to nougat and I began to feel like i was signing my life away.
A while back I found an old release of sailfish for my ZTE open C so ive been making steps towards porting sailfish to the sparkx. still in early stages but i am confident it is possible.
1stStep said:
My aim is not to have a speed daemon. I search something with good and removable battery (Spark X has one and as about same hardware than Spark/Spark+, I guess the autonomy would be better), and I could easily remove the bloatware (stock CN13 would help, I believe, to switch to CMod if exists).
I currently have a Liquid-MT (my first smartphone) for which by chance there was a custom ROM available based on GB-2.3.6, and it was so difficult for me to jailbreak it that I decided to keep it as is until now when mechanical problems with the internal microphone make replacement nearly mandatory.
Also, I'm focused to keep as far away as possible from google and GAFAs I have no confidence in Samsung so I don't even try to know if their devices are easy to make free. That's why I was so happy to discover my target from a single European manufacturer (at least designer) that ships his own with CN, and I easily accept to have a poor camera inside, only 802.11bg and basic 4G. I also know that the Spark X has poor dpi compared to other Sparks because of larger screen, and accept this as a consequence of my decision on battery... an so on...
Not being very much aware in ROMs, I don't know by which tail to catch the beast. I don't really choose for a model, instead I exclude others: GAFA, big Broth, God keeps me away! High end... for tainted kids (or their backward parents), out! Chinese, let's them make phones for ... themselves. So what does remain? Here is my way.
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Click to collapse