so for several months now, my mother has been using the LG Vortex, a small Android phone with a 3.2 inch touchscreen. It originally ran Android 2.2, but I've since given it a good old custom ROM, Quattrimus ICS, bumping the OS to, you guessed it, ICS, specifically, CyanogenMod 9. She's used to the OS and the size, but as it is, there are few phones being made to accommodate those people, and as ICS is now legacy by Google, and the microphone appears to be choking on this device, we need a new one.
I have no problem modifying a device to run a newer version of Android if need be, but I'm looking for specific details.
It can not be anything above 4 inches.
It must work on Verizon or Page Plus, or can work with the bands and be flashed.
It must run Android 4.x, or be able to run such versions in a stable way through use of custom ROMs.
That's all that needs to be dealt with. If anyone can help in this case, I would love to see some.
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Hi,
first of all i want to say that this thread is in no way meant to offend or me being impatient about anything. I am just asking the question to know the answer.
I noticed, that many dev´s for the SGS2 (such as codeworkx and others) have big/giant trouble to bring a new Version to our Phones.
The problems seem to be that big that they have to wait for a Kernel from Samsung to make it even work a bit.
From my other/previous Phone, the HTC Dream i know that there weren´t such big problems.
It got 4 perfectly stable main iterations (2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3) of Android after its updates were discontinued and it already has a 4.0 version that has only 2 issues left to fix. All that without a kernel beeing released from HTC for the specific OS version. (i remember that the Camera drivers for 2.x were completely created from scratch to make it work [or so] )
My question is:
Why is it so much easier/less complicated to make a total new version run on the HTC Dream than on the SGS2? without the help of the manufactor
I'm not sure but I think its because other phones get source code releases for all the hardware or at least most of it to make porting/dev easier. Whereas Samsung hasn't released source for all the hardware in the sgs2 because of contractual obligations/restrictions from other hardware vendors that provide some the chips inside...
I also believe Samsung has modified Android quite heavily and badly in their quest to have the touchwiz interface, which also makes things difficult to reverse engineer etc...
I don't its anything actually difficult about the actual hardware itself
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
This is sort of a technical question regarding the architecture of the Android OS and possibly its licensing, etc... For most Windows computers, you can simply download, or buy a copy of Windows directly from Microsoft, install it on any x86 hardware and it will be fully optimized (speed, battery life, etc...). Why can't Google make a build of Android like this so I can simply buy a copy from them and install it on my phone with OEM hardware overtop of their bloated and skinned version of Android? For example, why can I not buy, say a Galaxy SII, and then buy a copy of 'Vanilla Android' from Google and install it legitimately and have it work? I realize that I can flash a copy of CM7 or some other custom ROM from open source developers but I would like to be able to just simply buy a copy of stock android, directly from Google, install it on my device, and have it work, just like with a Windows computer. Is the reason Google does not do this due to licensing issues? Or is there some other reason for this seemingly obvious solution to all the annoying OEM and Carrier bloatware that most Android phones are subject to?
Note: I realize this question has already been asked but I was hoping for a reason for why Google can't (or won't) provide an alternate build of android that works on all devices in addition to the stock builds that come with phones. As well, why do device manufacturers insist on being total d'bags and not just simply release all the drivers for their phones so we can choose the best phone for the reasons you want to (i.e. speed, build quality, price, specs etc...) and not because of the stupid bloatware or lack thereof?!?
Because, stock Android means absolutely NO drivers installed for a specific device so your phone WILL NOT function (No Touchscreen, No signal, etc). Samsung releases their own firmware after compiling their own Baseband, Kernel and ROM. This contains their touchscreen drivers, wireless drivers, etc. When you change the ROM, you essentially void the warranty, so manufacturers do not encourage it, but they do allow you to combine their components together for you to make your own custom ROM (using their baseband, kernel and/or Samsung official rom as their base roms)
They build their own ROMs so that they know what they are managing, and what they need to fix and update. Also there's also a USP for every product released, let's say, Sony Ericsson's UI with Timescape, Samsung's Touch-Wiz UI, Motorola's Blur, etc. If you want a stock phone then I suggest you go for the Galaxy Nexus, or one of those Nexus phones that Google themselves maintain.
If you want a stock copy of Android OS on the Galaxy S II, try CyanogenMod, it is a custom ROM which is very stock and runs on every device, BUT each device, you need to download a DIFFERENT rom, because their different drivers. If you expect Google to release drivers for each phone for their stock OS'es, they will go insane as their are an uncountable amount of Android devices released on a weekly basis
Great answer Nicholas I read this about an hour ago & spent 10 minutes trying to come up with a detailed answer that would make sense to a user of any experience level. Then I gave up
I'm referring to all smartphones not only SGS2 here.
Ad part 1 - It could be difficult. Every device is different and going this way Google would have to prepare/upgrade it's OS for every device on the market. This is hell of a job, so it's up to device manufacturer or community to do this. I think smartphones differ to much (much more than PCs), so it's not possible to create one system for all. Besides, warranty issues - manufacturer of the device could not be responsible for problems caused by someone else's OS (this is understandable). It's also worth to notice that flashing a smartphone is a process completly different than installing OS on PC as PC cannot be bricked in this process. Give users easy way to flash anything on their phones and you have another gate to problems as they will surely flash everything including windows dlls on their phones. You say that on PC any OS can be installed, I say FOR NOW. In a few years You will have a choice - cheaper PC, windows only, OS only from manufacturer or more expensive one and you install anything You want. Why do you think UEFI was created? It will happen unless PC market collapses, because according to some market analytics we are entering post-PC era and mobile devices will became our main devices.
Ad part 2 - It's just business model. Manufacturer/carrier does not sell You the device (that's how they see it), they sell You some bunch of features and have no interest in You adding more of them to Your device. SGS2 is a flagship phone and it's kernel sources are released. It has unlocked bootloader also. You payed accordingly - so you free to do much more things, and use full hardware potential. With lower-end devices - manufacturers prefer that You buy another device instead of upgrading current one. Market insist on lower prices, but with every device unlocked/released drivers etc. prices would be much higher and smartphones much less affordable. Devices like SGS2 are created for very specific users - power users/devs/businessmans/enthusiasts.
I think that You want impossible. IMHO it's almost miracle that Samsung released some smartphones with unlocked bootloader so You can flash everything You want. (btw. it was the reason for me to choose sgs2). And about that "bloatware obsession" - I just don't understand why some people are sooo obsessive. I don't find some app usefull - I don't use it, period. But TBH I must say that Samsung put some serious s**t preinstalled on SGS2. Sometimes it outranks even worst market junk.
Please help me to understand this..........
If android runs on top of lunix
and all android versions eclair gb, ics etc start off as basically aosp then get maufacturer specific things like blur and sense.
Why is it so hard for CM9 and 10 to fully work on the E3D when CM7 worked perfectly on the Evo4g which are both htc phones?
Its a random question and even though I just recently became a member here, ive been with XDA since i hade the original moto click which was 2 yrs ago.
Also,
What do I need to do to create themes? Ive been wanting to for a while.
Thx in advance
Deep breath. It basically comes down to the huge variety of hardware. Linux has to support hardware in it's kernel (basically a software layer that tells the operating system how to use that hardware) and each new variant of the kernel is supposed to be backward compatible (though support for very old hardware is dropped so the kernel doesn't get out of control). Now Android is a completely different branch of linux (at the moment), and each manufacturer further branches aosp and creates a different kernel for every mobile phone with different hardware. The manufacturers have to release the kernel back to the community after they upgrade but this is slow and even when they do the kernel only supports the variant of android (in this case sense). Finally if they don't release an OS upgrade at all then the kernel becomes outdated and won't support features in the new OS.
Devs feel free to correct me...
Sent from my Evo 3D GSM using xda app-developers app
CM7 is by now quite old, meaning developers have had A LOT of time to test, modify, run and perfect it, even several years ago a lot of phones had perfect CM7 ports/builds.
Both CM9 and CM10 are still quite new, and thus developers have not had that much time to modify it to run as well as CM7, but in time it'll get there, no doubt about it.
And it also depends on which developers are actively working on developing for a specific phone. As for example we now have Agrabren working on a CM10 build (GSM side) doing amazing work, while other phones do not have such developers, thus it will take longer time for those phones to get perfected.
As for the themes, it depends on what ROM you're using. There are several different ways to theme something, and they're very different if you're running either Sense 3, Sense 3.6, Sense 4, CM7, CM9, CM10 or MIUI 2.3 or MIUI 4 (etc.), so you'll have to be more specific. But it would be a good start to look in the "Themes and Apps" sub forum.
grrratt said:
Deep breath. It basically comes down to the huge variety of hardware. Linux has to support hardware in it's kernel (basically a software layer that tells the operating system how to use that hardware) and each new variant of the kernel is supposed to be backward compatible (though support for very old hardware is dropped so the kernel doesn't get out of control). Now Android is a completely different branch of linux (at the moment), and each manufacturer further branches aosp and creates a different kernel for every mobile phone with different hardware. The manufacturers have to release the kernel back to the community after they upgrade but this is slow and even when they do the kernel only supports the variant of android (in this case sense). Finally if they don't release an OS upgrade at all then the kernel becomes outdated and won't support features in the new OS.
Devs feel free to correct me...
Sent from my Evo 3D GSM using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Moonbloom said:
CM7 is by now quite old, meaning developers have had A LOT of time to test, modify, run and perfect it, even several years ago a lot of phones had perfect CM7 ports/builds.
Both CM9 and CM10 are still quite new, and thus developers have not had that much time to modify it to run as well as CM7, but in time it'll get there, no doubt about it.
And it also depends on which developers are actively working on developing for a specific phone. As for example we now have Agrabren working on a CM10 build (GSM side) doing amazing work, while other phones do not have such developers, thus it will take longer time for those phones to get perfected.
As for the themes, it depends on what ROM you're using. There are several different ways to theme something, and they're very different if you're running either Sense 3, Sense 3.6, Sense 4, CM7, CM9, CM10 or MIUI 2.3 or MIUI 4 (etc.), so you'll have to be more specific. But it would be a good start to look in the "Themes and Apps" sub forum.
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Click to collapse
Hey thx guys, I got a better understanding now. I appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me.
As far as themes, i will look into that thread.
BTW this site is awesome. You guys have done a great job making all of this accessible for people who refuse to hampered by the limits of a locked s-on phone.
Hi, this question may sound weird. I believe I made a general post about but got lost.
I have the XT1650-03 and also XT1543 (may sound off topic but is not).
Both of them are running custom roms, the Z running Android 9, and the G3 2015 running Android 7.
My question is, how do you know which is the "optimal" version for a phone? I'm not talking about features, or security updates. Is like having a PC running Windows 7, and then upgrading (doing a clean install of course) to Windows 10 and you see that the computer works but has a hard time with it. The same could be said with Linux versions; maybe.
I'm debating myself between staying where I'm or going back to stock on both phones, then rooting them, as not much modification was done and both of them are my daily drivers; so I care more for stability and optimal resource use during the day than anything else.
I remember once @ lost101 made some optimized roms for the Moto G, basically stock roms but without bloatware and some optimizations, but haven't seen anyhing for the G3 or even the Z. I remember my Moto G lasted quite a long time before I gave it to my mom a few years ago, today she has a Moto E, but still has my old Moto G working, she has it as a backup phone; still with the improved Moto G stock rom.
Edit: I also wanted to thank @squid2, @sd_shadow, their files have also kept in shape my trusty Moto G3
Sorry, I'm getting old for this.
XDADoog said:
Hi, this question may sound weird. I believe I made a general post about but got lost.
I have the XT1650-03 and also XT1543 (may sound off topic but is not).
Both of them are running custom roms, the Z running Android 9, and the G3 2015 running Android 7.
My question is, how do you know which is the "optimal" version for a phone? I'm not talking about features, or security updates. Is like having a PC running Windows 7, and then upgrading (doing a clean install of course) to Windows 10 and you see that the computer works but has a hard time with it. The same could be said with Linux versions; maybe.
I'm debating myself between staying where I'm or going back to stock on both phones, then rooting them, as not much modification was done and both of them are my daily drivers; so I care more for stability and optimal resource use during the day than anything else.
I remember once @ lost101 made some optimized roms for the Moto G, basically stock roms but without bloatware and some optimizations, but haven't seen anyhing for the G3 or even the Z. I remember my Moto G lasted quite a long time before I gave it to my mom a few years ago, today she has a Moto E, but still has my old Moto G working, she has it as a backup phone; still with the improved Moto G stock rom.
Edit: I also wanted to thank @squid2, @sd_shadow, their files have also kept in shape my trusty Moto G3
Sorry, I'm getting old for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This may not help you as much as you would like The most optimized ROM is the one that works the best for you.
Most ROMs that are going beyond what the OEM provided are building that against the base firmware of the device. So a device that doesn't have A/B slots, won't get seamless updates, or treble support (ok, there are rare cases for Treble). The point is, custom ROMs are providing kernel and security updates. For some people, all of the bells and whistles in a custom ROM is not optimized for their use. For others, stock is never enough. I personally retire a device that no longer gets security updates, either from the OEM or at least from the custom development community.
Often a device performs badly due to an aging battery. Also, any ROM, over time can get bogged down and benefit from a factory reset fresh start.
You need to decide what serves you and your device best
@ktmom It does help, thank you.
The thing is that, I was debating myself thinking that the whole android world depended heavily on the phone's tech specs. I mean, I have read about a Moto G with Android 9 but... for a daily driver, that doesn't need all the bells and whistles... is it worth it? is it too much? That's what I was thinking.
Thank you for taking your time and answering me, I really appreciate it.
I think sometimes the new and improved specs are being chased because it's shiny. I tend to buy last season's model Google phone from swappa. I think the Nexus 6 is roughly equivalent to the Moto G. The N6 has several A9 ROMs still developed and at least one A10 ROM. I still have two N6 devices but they run as control devices in the house. Either could be pressed back into service as a daily driver if needed.
Hi all
I used AOKP on Samsung and LG some years ago, and it was incredible. I've tried many other ROMs (like 2 a month for a year), it was not the same. crDroid came close, but is still lacking. I want to buy a new phone that is known to have very stable AOKP support. I'm talking about someone who's used the device for 6-12 months at least with no known issues (or minor issues that legit don't bother them), and uses almost every aspect of the ROM's features (I've seen phones that don't support the ribbon, for example, which is a deal breaker).
My budget is anywhere from $300-$1000, I don't really care, so long as the device has at least 2GB RAM and an OK processor.
I don't care too much about the GPU because modern games block rooted devices anyway.
Phone size etc doesn't matter, though I'd prefer bigger rather than smaller.
At least 1920x1080 res, but larger is fine.
I'd prefer very good battery life. I don't want a second hand phone as people tend to ruin batteries, and replacements tend to have terrible shelf lives.
Getdroidtips dot com has some phones listed (I can't post the exact link to the list because too low rep ). The Google Pixel XL looks like a very good choice, but it seems you can't buy them new anymore.
Any suggestions from existing AOKP users? All advice will be much appreciated.
@aggregate1166877
I'm not an AOKP user.
The latest AOKP Custom ROM is based on Android 8.1. A Custom ROM such as TWRP is required to flash it, what presupposes that device's bootloader can get unlocked.
So your options are restricted to Android devices a TWRP exists for and its bootloader can get unlocked.