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I recently bought a g tab but it's still in the mail. In anticipation of its arrival, I was wondering what the experience of people who recently purchased their g tab (within the last few weeks) has been. Specifically,
Did you play with the stock rom? What did you like/not like about it?
Did you install a custom rom? If so, which one? If not, did you do anything to make your stock rom experience more enjoyable?
I plan to play with the stock rom for a few days before deciding to mod.
HackaMathecian said:
I recently bought a g tab but it's still in the mail. In anticipation of its arrival, I was wondering what the experience of people who recently purchased their g tab (within the last few weeks) has been. Specifically,
Did you play with the stock rom? What did you like/not like about it?
Did you install a custom rom? If so, which one? If not, did you do anything to make your stock rom experience more enjoyable?
I plan to play with the stock rom for a few days before deciding to mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got mine before the recent rush...
Play with stock ROM? Yes... Hated nearly everything but appreciated the concept.
Install Custom? Yes... about two hours in. Knowing I would never have to deal with the initial stock load again made the experience very enjoyable ;-) Tried several settled on TnT Lite. Eventually upgraded to TwoTapsX but I rarely leave a ROM installed for more than a few days before I start playing again.
Oh... "Soft" bricked on day three or four... and several times since then. The devs here have supplied some great information and the community is happy to share it. Makes it a little easier to deal with that inevitable feeling of panic...
Welcome aboard and enjoy.
I got mine a few days ago from woot . I am sticking with stock for right now. I do not think switching over a ROM is necessary for me at this point. Since I am new to the android system, I want to learn how it works before i go in and switch stuff up. Also, with the rumors of an update in the 'near' future, I thought i might wait to see what happens. Of course, near could mean 3 months.
stock was a little annoying at first (maybe cause I didn't know what I was doing), but I enjoy it. Maybe it is because I have not experienced TnT Lite or played with any other tablets, but stock seems to run just fine for me. the stock app store is sub par, but it gets the job done. I downloaded the amazon marketplace app and got a few apps from there.
I am not the main user on it, my wife is, so mostly angry birds is being run haven't pushed its limits much.
Got mine yesterday. The stock ROM lasted the 10 minutes it took me to root the thing and install vegantab. This thing is blazingly fast. Nice bump up from the Archos 101 I previously had. I'm missing the kickstand and HDMI port the Archos had. Other than that the gtab is better. The screen angle viewing is pretty much a wash. Great buy from woot.
Got mine last night. I see what many are saying about the viewing angles, but I also don't find it that distracting. I can see how a glare reducing screen saver might help and will probably buy one. Charged it and updated to 3588 (while coaching my sons soccer team). Played with tapntap for about a minute and knew I hated it (I'm on my 3rd Android phone, an Evo and all have been rooted and heavily modded). Installed clockworkmod, partitioned storage and installed VEGAn. Much better. Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot of time to play further. I did notice that the market is missing a ton of apps like all browsers, es file manager (was installed in stock rom) and a bunch more. I'll look into resolving that this evening. One issue I have with the capacitive buttons beyond no back light is the placement. When using the tablet in landscape (most of the time?) I found myself accidentally hitting the back button repeatedly.
I recieved mine on Tuesday afternoon. I have not had a lot of time to fool with it yet. So far I have kept the stock ROM (as suggested by roebeet and others) until I get used to it. This is my first Android device, so I'm at a low point on the learning curve.
First impressions: the interface is fairly intuitive. I found most everything I was looking for.
The viewing angle is also a non-issue to me so far. I don't plan to watch videos or play games with a lot of animation, so I don't care about that. I may change my mind later when I try to read documents and/or books, we'll see.
Went to the app store and downloaded a couple of free games. I had no problems or issues with downloading or gameplay (very simple games). One game screen was distorted a bit from stretching to the larger screen, but it was a non-issue to me.
I did some web browsing, and had the same issue as jp8tr: kept accidentally brushing the "back" button in the middle of reading something. Watched a short youtube video and the playback was just fine. I noticed some pages loaded slowly and occasionally it would hang.
Overall, I'm happy with it and think it will suit my purposes nicely. I think I probably will change the ROM at some point, but I need to be a little more savvy before I launch off into that.
So I got mine in, and on first boot up, I liked the TnT UI, but the more I played with it the less I liked it. It’s a great design concept, but I feel it’s more of an alpha build of the UI then something that should be in production. Give it a few more rev and it may be good. Today I plan on putting on CM7 RC3 and see how it likes like. I have been using CM for a while now on my different phones so I expect it to work well on the gtablet.
As far as the viewing angle, in landscape it works well, but in portrait mode not so well on the dark spots. but not a deal breaker for me.
Kept getting errors with the stock ROM
I got 2 of these in on Monday from Woot. 1 for the fiancee and 1 for myself (it was her B-day present but I couldn't resist not getting one too). I had also researched and figured modding it would be immanent so I felt it was a good idea to have one to "test" things on and then her's to keep running as smoothly as possible (she doesn't have patients..)
So we charged them and booted them up and after about 30 minutes of constant errors I decided to install TNT lite on mine, and after a few minutes of playing with that, installed the same on hers. It runs a lot faster and doesn't give me the constant errors. (Weird that not everyone seems to get constant errors like we were getting with stock)... Since then we have installed the free ADW launcher and I'm loving it with the exception of the top bar (the one that has the clock, wifi status, battery, etc.....) seems to want to hide (even when I have it set not to). Its actually like I can slide the screen left and right (to change to different home screens, like is expected), and can scroll up and down (but just the amount that that top bar takes up (I think this is called the Status Bar?). Curious if anyone has seen this, so far searches are not finding anything.
Other than that, it running pretty good, speed wise it blows away my original Droid phone. I see that Robeet posted a new version of TNT lite that will take care of the sleep issue and will upgrade to that in a few days once more people have posted on it. I'm new at modding phones/tablets and prefer not to be a guinea pig
I got mine about a week before the wooters, I went with vegan 7. I love this thing, it is fast and does everything I want it to do. Flash plays without a hiccup, pages scroll smoothly. Market Place has nearly everything I need, and if you can't find it there, you can find it elsewhere. Only issues I have are the viewing angles (won't pretend its not an issue), capacitive buttons being unlit and accidently pushed, the sleep issue, and an issue where my internal storage doesn't sync back after disconnecting from a of sometimes. It's an awesome tablet though, glad I skipped the archos 101.
Got my Woot gTab last night.
Played with the stock ROM for all of 15 minutes. It kept dropping my wireless and various other oddities. I let it do it's update to stock and messed with it some more. I really wanted the market and all of my apps I had stored in AppBrain.
Loaded Clockworkmod and then went to VeganTab 7 with Clemsyn's 7 kernel. This thing flies and I am slowly getting it to where I want it with my widgets and apps.
I also use Kindle quite-a-bit and reading on this is great. The viewing angles have not been an issue for me AT ALL. If anything, I love the viewing angle and heres why. When in portrait mode and reading a book, no one can see or read over my shoulder! When in landscape mode and surfing the web, I never had an issue with viewing angle (sitting in bed with the gTab on my lap). Viewing angle is non-issue for me and in all honesty I prefer that someone next to me on a plane or otherwise cannot see the screen. Call me paranoid.
My only complaint so far is that it powers off after going to sleep. Not sure if there is a fix for that, I have yet to find a setting. Not a huge deal as it boots fast, but I would still like to hit the power button and come up to the unlock slider and then home screen.
I got mine yesterday. Unfortunately after charging for over an hour, I wasn't able to boot it up. It was stuck in a boot loop. I am guessing that whoever installed the kindle app/Flash/Angry Birds janked it up. With help from roebeet I was able to recover it and then flash it to 3558. After that I installed tnt lite 4.4 and it is running like a champ.
The viewing angle is a security/privacy feature.
Great impressions everyone.!
Got mine yesterday. After playing with the Stock ROM for a couple hours put on TNT Lite. Got the boot loop so went back to stock ROM and tried TNT again and worked with no issues.
Works great so far!
The viewing angles hasn't been that much of a problem so far. I do feel I need to get a screen protector though.
I played with stock for about an hour and then put TNT Lite on it and Clemsyns v7.
I don't mind the screen angles too much, its not as bad as some people make it seem.
I am finding it to be sluggish. Not so slow its unusable, but not what I would consider responsive or snappy as some people have described it.
For example, when I was entering my google account information, after entering my password it took pressing the 'next' button thrree times before it started loading the next screen. I'm not sure if its busy, or if it is not registering my touch.
I've noticed it also when launching items, for example pressing the browser button 2 or 3 times to get it started.
I initially thought it was just me, but then when I was watching some of the review youtube videos, I noticed that sometimes when launching an app or a game the reviewer had to touch the icon twice to get it started.
This isnt a troll, the pros of it outweight the negatives, its just something I'm going to have to get used to dealing with. Maybe I'll look for some kind of load or busy indicator so I'll just know to be patient and wait rather than keep pressing. The problem is im not sure if my touch was actually registered or if its just busy.
Did you run the calibration app: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=934500 ? Helped for my touch issues.
Got my Gtab yesterday. have problem to update the first time, keep fC. Turn off and reboot, then the update went fine. I find the stock is still very slow even with the update. Follow the instruction, installed CWM 0.8, then installed Calkulin V1.1, then updated the kernel, install hacked flash player 10.1. The market works but don't know if I get the real "gmarket", I saw word "sprint" gmarket screen. How do I just select "free" apps? I dont' seem to find the option. The gtab is very responsive and fast with this rom. However, the rom still has the "sleep to death" problem" like the others. Flash works. Viewing angle does kinda bad, however, someone on forum suggest that if you turn the gtab upside down, the view angle get approve, which I tried and I think it's much better. I wondering if I can take out the screen myself and installed the other way. I use rockplayer for video, it plays very good. Problem, when playing video, the screen will not rotate, so I can use the "better" side of the view angel, that also apply to play angry bird, rotating not work. Web and home screen are rotated as I turn the tablet. If the video and games rotate, then it's good for me. When you need privacy, you use hold the table regular way, to share, turn upside down. ooh, Hulu works. Anyone has the rotation on video and angry bird problem like me? Also, does anyone has any instruction on how to set up home screen with widget? I am so new to android, I kinda loss with play the widget last night.
Mine should come today or tomorrow and I'm planning on playing with the stock rom for couple days before I move on to something else. This will be my first tablet and I'm looking forward to the experience.
I initially had my eyes on the Xoom wifi but I couldn't pass on the WOOT deal and saved me some $$$
Got mine last night. Played with the stock ROM. The interface had it's pro's and cons. The biggest con was that I was getting quite a few force close dialogs for even the pre-installed apps.
Since then I have installed a custom ROM, TNT Lite 4.4.0, along with using LauncerPro. After doing this, I haven't had nearly the number of force close dialogs appearing. I am however still having issues finding apps that I want through Android Market, so I'll see if going to an older version of TNT Lite will help, else I will have to find the APK files and install them manually. However, even with how it is, it is still much better then the APP store that came with the stock ROM.
Keep em rolling!
Oh-some responses folks, keep them rolling. I'm still waiting for mine
to come in the mail. It should get here today or tomorrow .
I saw something about 'wiping data/cache' before modding on a bunch of the
threads. Is this necessary for brand new devices, once you get the OTA update?
Also, do you need CWM to do the data/cache wiping, or can this be done with
stock tools?
I've had my gtab now for over a month and I just installed my first ROM last week. I went with the Calkulin+Clemsyn V6 for the 1.2 BL. So far I have to say I love it but I don't know what it really excels at. Therefore, I thought maybe you guys could help a noob out and at the same time be able to do a bit of bragging about how bad a$$ your tablet is. What I would like to know is:
1. Share with the community about your bad a$$ setup. What do you have? What can it do? What makes it so bad a$$? And what are its cons?
2. What are some of the must have apps? What makes them a must have?
3. Can someone tell me what my ROM really excels at doing? Every ROM is especially good for something? What can mine do other than just being really fast and stable?
Just thought this would be fun for everyone to see what each of us have done with such a powerful blank slate and at the same time maybe get some ideas from each other on how to improve our own setups. Not to mention maybe a bit of bragging, which we all like to do, especially when you have an audience that can appreciate it. I try to brag to my gf about how bad a$$ the gtab is but since she knows nothing about tech toys, it is lost on her. So everyone whip out there metaphorical "you know what" and let's start measuring lol.
Well, speed and stability really is a universal need for you to do anything. I use mine for presentations, showing people autocad sketches, and reading and writing stuff at work. It really is a cheap and light weight way for me to achieve most of the things I'd normally do with a laptop.
My "girlfriend" just finished her graduate degree in something medical (trying to keep a level of anonymity here). She's a tech dummy, so I got her a transformer with a docking station for her to deal daily with her patients.
I use mine for research and school. I use adobe PDF to review lecture notes, I use Droidiris to search the web for pictures of medical $hit I have to learn (and just searching images too, searching "lazers" gave me an hour of solid lolz)
My gtab is badazz because I'm running the latest compile of cm7, I have used system app remover to cut all bloatware out of the os. This has resulted in an average 5% drain per hour in active use and a 2% per hour drain in stasis and a quadrant of 3450.
I'm running a red&black theme with a red glowing Keyboard, black&white background and black and white app icons. Its a simple mix of black,white,and red that to me is sassy as hell.
I use wiimote controller app to play snes and GBA games with a wiimote through Bluetooth. (Which blows people away when they see it)
I got Netflix, I got hulu and I got xda access, I am in love with this 2lb piece of plastic almost as much
as I am my wife. Luckily my wife has the specific ports needed to mount my other tab and transfer
data to internal SD.
Yes... we have a kid...
That's why that last part is funny.... not just because I said "mount" in a non technical refference but that I referenced her lady bits as internal SD and my genes as data.
Sounds pretty sweet
Mantara said:
I use mine for research and school. I use adobe PDF to review lecture notes, I use Droidiris to search the web for pictures of medical $hit I have to learn (and just searching images too, searching "lazers" gave me an hour of solid lolz)
My gtab is badazz because I'm running the latest compile of cm7, I have used system app remover to cut all bloatware out of the os. This has resulted in an average 5% drain per hour in active use and a 2% per hour drain in stasis and a quadrant of 3450.
I'm running a red&black theme with a red glowing Keyboard, black&white background and black and white app icons. Its a simple mix of black,white,and red that to me is sassy as hell.
I use wiimote controller app to play snes and GBA games with a wiimote through Bluetooth. (Which blows people away when they see it)
I got Netflix, I got hulu and I got xda access, I am in love with this 2lb piece of plastic almost as much
as I am my wife. Luckily my wife has the specific ports needed to mount my other tab and transfer
data to internal SD.
Yes... we have a kid...
That's why that last part is funny.... not just because I said "mount" in a non technical refference but that I referenced her lady bits as internal SD and my genes as data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your gtab sounds pretty sweet. The Netflix and Hulu are a couple of the things that I would like for mine to do. It may do those things now, but I haven't tried them yet. I like the customization with the colors that you did. It sounds like you have taken yours in a direction similar to where I would like to see mine at some point. I'm trying to learn which ROM does what, and what makes one better than another. Once I get that all figured out, I'll make my customization a bit more permanant. This is awesome. You guys keep posting your own bada$$ gtablet setups and customizations. I look forward to reading about them.
Mantara said:
My gtab is badazz because I'm running the latest compile of cm7, I have used system app remover to cut all bloatware out of the os. This has resulted in an average 5% drain per hour in active use and a 2% per hour drain in stasis and a quadrant of 3450.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a list/remember what you removed?
diablokicks said:
Do you have a list/remember what you removed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use this as a guide,
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Barebones
It tells you what's safe to remove and what's not from cyanogen mods. It also tells you the free way to remove apps using terminal. I personally use system app uninstaller, it was a buck and is a worthwhile investment. Sets up a slick UI for deleting both system apps and normal apps.
In most cases if you have a favorite browser(I use dolphin 5.1) you can delete stock. Same with keyboard(I use better keyboard 8), launcher(I use VTL), video player(I use FLV player), music player (I use power amp).
Other things like private virtual network or stock live wallpapers that most don't use can go in the bin as well.
Hope that helps
As far as customization goes cm7 has a good theming app stock and free themes in the market. Vegan 5.1 has some sweet themes made by GTO777 in the apps and themes thread.
When I was shopping for ROMs GoodIntentions suggested that I might like Calkulin/Clemsym 1.5 V6. He was right. I like it for what I've been able to do with it. I didn't want to start customizing my tab just willy nilly without knowing what my ROM's capability was. Maybe you guys could point me in the right direction if I tell you what I want to do. Then you could tell me if it's even possible to do it with this ROM. I would like to be able to run the dolphin browser but was unable to find it in the market. I would aso like to be able to watch Netflix, Hulu, and various formats of video (Xvid, Avi, Mp4, etc.). The swype keyboard found on my cell phone would also be awesome. I'd like to be able to connect to my cell via bluetooth so that I could put the pictures and video from it on my gtab. This blows my mind why this simply doesn't work out of the box. Finally I would like to tether to my cell via USB. The reason I want it USB is because my phone gets really hot when tethering with wifi, which will cause the phone to shut down. Not to mention it can't be good for it. Please help me out guys and keep posting your setups too. Mantara has some great ideas he used in making his tab personal and it gets me thinking of stuff to do to mine.
Have you used barnacle to tether? Using barnacle to tether through wifi on my OG mytouch 3G never overheated and battery drain was reasonable. It was the only one that worked for extended periods of time.
Netflix only works on cm7 with some slight modifications and vegan 5.1 with a patch that breaks YouTube to get Netflix.
Hulu is available by using a modified flash apk. You can find the most recent modified apk on this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1077914
you just need to turn flash to always on and user agent to desktop in your browser.
Here is dolphin 4.6, not the newest but its stable and plays well with hulu. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7828279/Dolphin Browser HD_4.6.1.apk
I heard there is a swype designed for tablets. Haven't used it yet but I know there is a thread in apps and themes all about getting swype to work.
That's all I can think of now, I wil edit if I think of anything more
Using Easytether
Mantara said:
Have you used barnacle to tether? Using barnacle to tether through wifi on my OG mytouch 3G never overheated and battery drain was reasonable. It was the only one that worked for extended periods of time.
I've been able to tether my laptop to my phone using Easytether. It works really well eventhough it's a free version. The thing is that requires software to be loaded on both the phone and the laptop. That software on the phone is for Windows so I haven't figured out how to make it work in the gTablet. Is Barnacle different in how it functions? Is there software for both the phone and the tablet? Explain how it works if you don't mind. I would love to figure this out.
As a side note, I would love to see a picture of your tablet homepage and keyboard. Could you get a screen shot? I gotta check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DarkHorse281 said:
Mantara said:
Have you used barnacle to tether? Using barnacle to tether through wifi on my OG mytouch 3G never overheated and battery drain was reasonable. It was the only one that worked for extended periods of time.
I've been able to tether my laptop to my phone using Easytether. It works really well eventhough it's a free version. The thing is that requires software to be loaded on both the phone and the laptop. That software on the phone is for Windows so I haven't figured out how to make it work in the gTablet. Is Barnacle different in how it functions? Is there software for both the phone and the tablet? Explain how it works if you don't mind. I would love to figure this out.
As a side note, I would love to see a picture of your tablet homepage and keyboard. Could you get a screen shot? I gotta check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's some quick shots. Color Is odd because the crap free screen shot app is crap and couldn't get shots of red browser theme or the red and black Google Widgets and powerstrip because said crappy app only allows 3 free screen shots. But you can get the point from the pics I did get.
I see,your phone is win mob, barnacle is for android phones. No software on recipient end, only on parent phone. Works good though, I used to play Xbox 360 online through my barnacle adhoc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I went back and reread my previous post. I made no sense. I have a Samsung Galaxy Indulge a la MetroPCS. So it is an Android phone. The problem is the software that I suppose I would need to load on the tablet to tether it to the phone. I had to do it to the laptop so it would connect to the phone, so it only make ssense that I should have to do it to the tablet as well. I have Easytether on my phone, no problem. What about software for the tablet? The laptop software is for windows so I can't load it on the tablet, and the software on the phone isn't what I need for the tablet even though they are both android. Seems really confusing, but it's really quite simple. Maybe it would be easier if you told me how you were able to make this connection using a barnacle USB connection. No wifi. Make sense lol?
Nice looking tablet by the way. I looked for some themes or skins for mine but I'm using VTL launcher and everything in the market says it's for ADW launcher. My name must have been Murphy ina previous life lol. Thanks for your help and input.
Most adw themes work in vtl. Vtl is built around adw source.
Barnicle makes a wifi connection available for your gtab to use. It links to your phones wifi and passes on its 3g signal. Only need to have barnacle on the phone. I have never actually "physically" tethered an android so I can't offer any advice on that.
I'm kinda screwed there I guess. I haven't rooted my phone yet, so it won't act like a wifi hot spot. Power control plus will do it but no one can break the wp2 encryption. Therefore I'm limited to the usb tether but those that have rooted their phones report extreme heat coming from it while in wifi tether mode. Not sure what to do about an internet connection since there appears to be no usb software at this moment. Thanks for the help though.
Are there no more cool gtabs out there that you guys would like to share. I can't believe that you guys aren't more proud of your work and that you aren't will ing to share your efforts with the Android community.
I replaced the viewsonic 3 birds logo with a united federation of planets in star trek logo. And for the boot animation, I made my own star trek computer console look-alike animation that says establishing link to main federation database.
DarkHorse281 said:
Are there no more cool gtabs out there that you guys would like to share. I can't believe that you guys aren't more proud of your work and that you aren't will ing to share your efforts with the Android community.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to be a thread crapper, but there are tons of threads here on these forums with apps, etc. For example, there's one which has peoples' home screens. Perhaps you should check those out.
read that thread...not what I'm looking for
TarheelGrad1998 said:
Not to be a thread crapper, but there are tons of threads here on these forums with apps, etc. For example, there's one which has peoples' home screens. Perhaps you should check those out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read through that thread and it only focuses on themes and home page screen shots. I want to know what people have been able to make their tablets do as well as seeing some of the visual stuf they've come up with. An example of what I'm talking about is some have synced their SMS with google voice and are able to use their tables to text. Some are making phone calls, using skype, watching hulu and netflix, and some have even turned their tabs into mobile nostalgia gaming devices. There are tutorials on how to do some of this stuff, but not all of it. I am interested in meeting these people and seeing how well these operations function, and how they did it. The other thread doesn't share this information and rreally doesn't go beyond the visual aspect of the homescreen. I hav noticed one thing for sure in these forum and that is that people love to brag about what they can do with thier tablets. I was merely offering them an opportunity to do so. What can yours do?
I was just wondering if anyone is running SPB Shell 3D on their phone and how they like it. Does it make the phone laggy? Is it a battery hog? I was thinking of getting it for my wife. She loves the phone but the UI is a little dull in her opinion and I wanted to kinda spice it up for her a bit. She was very discouraged when I told her the MoPho has almost zero dev support and she is now wondering if she made a mistake buying one. I am trying to explain to her that it's still an amazing phone but giving her a little "visual enhancement" with the 3D shell would go a long way I think.
Thanks in advance!
Ive had it for a few days and I love it. imo I noticed an improvement with the UI over the stock one.
my sister runs it on her photon. shes a pretty big user when it comes to Facebook and texting... blah blah blah. shes runs a stock photon rooted and has no issues. when i have used her phone just a few times, its memory is always around 320ish free where im not running 3dshell and have around 400ish. so it uses up a little more RAM, but i havent seen any big battery issues. she makes it through a whole work day with heavy use.
I would get it for myself, but its 15 bucks!!! im more interested in giving that money to developers within my phone to have other stuff.
but for your wife, i think she will greatly enjoy it. MY sister loves it and she runs it on her Samsung tab also that her 2 year old uses.
When you think about it... its probably a really good thing she has the same on both, allows the kids to be familiar with how moms phone works in case there is an emergency and they have to use their mammas phone. they will know how to navigate since its the same.
I like it alot. Don't notice any difference in battery life. I have had it restart a couple times. I think its the best. I have used it on every rom I've installed, homebase, alien, magnifier, jokers stock and skinny, even put it on cm7. Don't regret the $15 purchase at all.
sent from a cm7 totin mopho.
Just buy it and try it out. If she doesn't like it, get a refund.
R2DeeTard said:
Just buy it and try it out. If she doesn't like it, get a refund.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google market doesn't give you enough time to properly try most apps, especially a launcher.
Buy it. I bought the SPB Shell when I had the HTC Evo. The launcher is really slick. The animations are awesome, and the SPB Widgets are pretty cool as well. Very little customization - meaning changing themes or colors (like a Go Launcher, or Launcher Pro), however it is one of the most responsive launchers that I have used. Definitely worth the $15. Your wife wil not complain!
Thanks guys
I bought it, but I don't use it... It just sits in my apps taunting me... Seriously though, if you use the webtop on the phone then you will end up hating it, it uses WAY to much memory. I am a very heavy webtop user and had to give it up, I couldn't have more than 2 tabs open in the browser without getting a low memory issue.
That said if you don't sport the webtop then you will not have any issues. The GUI is fast and when I did use it I noticed no impact on the battery. If it wasn't for webtop I would be all over it... But I do so love my webtop.
I have been using it for moths and love the smooth functional interface. Seems way more responsive than stock
I've been using it for quite a while. Runs smooth on the Photon and battery life is good. Just use home switcher from the Market and switch over to the stock UI before activating Webtop. Then just switch back when done.
Honestly, if all she wants is a UI change put LP or ADW on there with some themes and see what she says. Then use apps such as Beautiful Widgets, Folder Organizer, etc to customize the screens even more. All for little to no money spent.
BTW....SPB will give a refund past the 15min trial the Market gives if you send them an email request. Also, SPB can be had for $9.99 off Handster if you do the phone purchase and don't mind dl the updates manually.
I just don't see that there is 14 or even 10 dollars worth of software there.
I understand that this is why big names took and are still taking for ever with mobile developments (users won't pay a ton of cash for software any more), but really your paying for a bunch of ActionScript animations and that's about it, yeah its nifty and kind of cool to look at - but ADW EX has tons of animations as well, not to the level SPB does, but for 90% less than what SPB charges.
I purchased it last night and she seems to enjoy it but she said this morning she is having an issue with Handcent where she keeps getting the same 2 messages from her sister over and over again for the past hour. I wonder if the 2 progs don't play nice together. That would really suck since she probably wouldn't give up Handcent.
_-Jay-_ said:
I purchased it last night and she seems to enjoy it but she said this morning she is having an issue with Handcent where she keeps getting the same 2 messages from her sister over and over again for the past hour. I wonder if the 2 progs don't play nice together. That would really suck since she probably wouldn't give up Handcent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Handcent is widely used enough that I would assume it would work with everything.
I would try clearing App Data of Handcent.
So I sent an email to SPB Tech Support regarding the SMS problem and they basically said that it can't be their product doing it. That's bull**** since it didn't do it until I installed the shell on her phone. Their solution was to download home launcher from the market and use it to switch back to Moto-Blur. Wow, thanks for nothing.
_-Jay-_ said:
I purchased it last night and she seems to enjoy it but she said this morning she is having an issue with Handcent where she keeps getting the same 2 messages from her sister over and over again for the past hour. I wonder if the 2 progs don't play nice together. That would really suck since she probably wouldn't give up Handcent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This might not be an issue with Handcent. I have been having issues with text messages for about a week. They are all coming in 3-4 days late, and some of them keep getting pushed back to me no matter how many times I delete them. And, I am using the stock messaging app.
_-Jay-_ said:
So I sent an email to SPB Tech Support regarding the SMS problem and they basically said that it can't be their product doing it. That's bull**** since it didn't do it until I installed the shell on her phone. Their solution was to download home launcher from the market and use it to switch back to Moto-Blur. Wow, thanks for nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They might be right. Could just be a coincidence. I haven't figured out why the text issues are happening yet. My guess is it is Sprint because my configuration hasn't changed and SPB hasn't updated since Oct. 12th.
But how can it be sprint if it wasn't doing it 2 days ago before I installed SPB? Also, I am not having any issues on my 3VO with SMS either. It's definitely a phone issue.
_-Jay-_ said:
But how can it be sprint if it wasn't doing it 2 days ago before I installed SPB? Also, I am not having any issues on my 3VO with SMS either. It's definitely a phone issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a common problem when using multiple msgr apps. Turn off notifications on one of them, or just uninstall handcent
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
Bandage said:
Its a common problem when using multiple msgr apps. Turn off notifications on one of them, or just uninstall handcent
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have already uninstalled handset and am just using the stock messaging app. Still does it.
_-Jay-_ said:
I have already uninstalled handset and am just using the stock messaging app. Still does it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just don't see how it can be SPB since I have had it installed for a long time with the same setup. The last update to SPB was on Oct. 12th and I never experienced a problem until a week or so ago.
When time allows I will do some testing and see if I can figure out what is going on. There is a good chance another product might be causing the issue but will no more soon.
**Edit.....Forgot I did a battery pull last night and haven't had the issue occur yet. Will check it over the next few days and see what happens.
How many of you are still using a Rezound?
I still am and it's my first and only smartphone I've ever owned. Still working great! Of course I wish some things were better (like the battery and lag) or that I had a better phone, but the Rezound has been good for me. I may get an S5 or might wait it out a little longer until the 64-bit chips come.
Still rockin' the Rezzy
I'm in about the same boat. The Rezound is my third smartphone. I had a Touch Diamond and an Ozone before, both HTC. I really like the build quality of HTC, but I'm hesitant to get another one because of the update timing questionability and the nonremovable battery trend. I am happy they added the external SD card option back with the M8, though. I don't want to risk my unlimited data and I can't afford to buy a new phone at full price right now, so I'll be sticking with the Rezound for a good time (probably at least until the end of the year) longer. Mine i is working fine still, so no worries here.
I just retired mine after a 2 1/2 year run, picked up a G2 on swappa to keep my unlimited. My Rezound was still working fine, just got tired of the poor battery life on it.
Still using my rezound, can afford to replace it but don't want to, so long as it's still usable.
Sent from my Rezound on Tachyon using xda app-developers app
mjones73 said:
I just retired mine after a 2 1/2 year run, picked up a G2 on swappa to keep my unlimited. My Rezound was still working fine, just got tired of the poor battery life on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought an extended battery for my Rez and running a custom build of LiquidSmooth 3.0, I'm quite happy with it for now. Yes, there's more capable hardware out there. But this still meets my needs for now.
We have two Rezounds that are about 2 years old and we still love them. These are our first smartphones and with the developer community doing such fine work to keep them up-to-date I can see no reason to change. The battery life has been decent enough and switching to larger screen phones isn't something we want to do. I like the extra screen real estate, but don't want the larger form factor when lugging it around.
Bill
Still using the rezound here. I too is trying to stick with this phone as long as I could with my unlimited data. But at the same time I'm long over due for a new phone.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk
I still use the Rezound. Not for calling+texting+data-ing like I did for a while not so long ago, but just as my game phone for games that are too laggy on my Rugby Smart (my current actual phone for calling, texting, etc.). On a good day I can get about 1.5 hrs of battery in game play, but It's plugged into either the wall or the computer most of the time anyway so that doesn't really bother me. If my Rugby were to ever break (HIGHLY UNLIKELY, it was designed to do QUITE THE OPPOSITE), the Rezound would be my next option for a backup until I would either fix the Rugby or replace it with a device that has better battery life compared to the Rez (everyone else has nicknames for it, this is mine).
I could just get an extended battery for it, but that's like 10 whole dollars. That is 2/3 of what I paid for this phone, so it's not even worth it to me to replace anything that still works (the camera glass was a different story, i just HAD to replace that). I originally got the thing as a see-if-I-can-fix-it phone from a friend who thought it was broken forever and was able to fix the darn thing with the help of XDA. And of course, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out GSM was a hidden feature on it. Anyway, if I got an extended battery my rubber case I got with it would be too small and I'd hate to see such a nice case go to waste.
Still using the rezound and hoping to get an xperia z2 soon. Might switch carriers to T-mobile, anyone have opinions on t-mobile?
I am happy with tmobile. I got the unlimited everything plan for 45/month and coverage is great. They even let you tether to other devices! Tmobile says you only get like 500mb of tether data, but if you root your phone and use an app like Barnacle Wifi Tether you can get around that limit.
Sent from my Rugby Smart SGH-I847 on the official XDA app!
Still using my Rezound, kind of fed up with it but nothing seems worth committing to yet. The M8 is close to perfect but I'm still hesitant.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
I just upgraded to the S5 (keeping unlimited plan). I'm not holding my breath on getting a root for it - seems like the guys over there are panicking already.
I just really feel like my ReZound is still up and running because I was able to swap out the battery - the original isn't lasting much more than 8 hours on minimal use today. I feel the next phone I get needed to have a battery I could swap out as well - and the only one that currently meets that need is Samsung (unfortunately). Here's hoping that in two years, when I'm eligible for upgrade again - that HTC brings back a phone with an interchangeable battery and expandable memory or maybe even whatever Google ARA comes out as.
I am still using my rezound and plan to for a little longer right now I cant decide between htc m8 and the galaxy s5 Im trying to figure out how to keep my unlimited data. I just went to best buy and they said I cannot do the line swap to keep it so I am exploring other options. I might have to upgrade sooner than I thought though because my screen just died on my phone. I took it apart and looks like I missed some corrosion from when I dropped it in a lake 6 months ago. I ordered a replacement screen so I hope that will fix it.
it was a great short run
moved on from the rezound after only 5 months of owning it (just died in my pocket no bump on over clock normal cm11 )
great phone doe other wise in every way thank you neo and suzzo for all your works and sun dream .Got me the g pro and i am pleased with it in all areas except camera picture saturation fixed by fv5 anyway
I'm still on mine and went to Sun Dream's Rom running sense 4+4.1+5 and it is super snappy,solid and beautiful...I tried AOSP ROMs that were running 4.3+ but they were too buggy for me.
I have a hairline crack across my phone but I'm trying not to be anal and replace it...thinking about upgrading but see no good options for data plans...
Huachipato said:
I just upgraded to the S5 (keeping unlimited plan). I'm not holding my breath on getting a root for it - seems like the guys over there are panicking already.
I just really feel like my ReZound is still up and running because I was able to swap out the battery - the original isn't lasting much more than 8 hours on minimal use today. I feel the next phone I get needed to have a battery I could swap out as well - and the only one that currently meets that need is Samsung (unfortunately). Here's hoping that in two years, when I'm eligible for upgrade again - that HTC brings back a phone with an interchangeable battery and expandable memory or maybe even whatever Google ARA comes out as.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you like the S5 compared to the ReZound?
It is different - but I like it. The screen is beautiful. The interface is different - not bad or good - just not what I'm used to. I do like the home button though - long press to get Google Now and double press to get S-Voice. There are quite a bit of Samsung apps that I'm enjoying. S-Health is nice, but there is a widget that shows how many steps you have taken in the day - and for some reason it motivates me to walk more. The Smart Remote is very complete - including remote codes for my WD-Live box and drop down for every room I have in the house. There is another app call BeepNGo - where you can put all your club/membership cards on (Tom Thumb, AutoZone, etc...). The screen will show the bar code and it can be scanned at the register. There are coupons in that app as well.
NFC actually works. Verizon activates ISIS - which is like Google Wallet. There are deals on it and where it can be used. Google Wallet works as well - which is nice. I've heard in the past that Verizon locked it down - so it is nice to see it up and running.
Camera is absolutely amazing IMO. It struggles a bit in low light, but it really is a champ everywhere else. The software allows you to download more picture taking options - including now the sphere mode. The effects sometimes take a little time to correct - but at least the camera works to it's fullest (yes - taking a little jab at ReZound camera issues in Kit-Kat)...
Everything I wanted in a phone - it has it. I managed to drain the battery one day of really heavy use - but otherwise the battery does a great job. I'll be getting a spare at some point.
The root is still not found - and as a result I'm missing the native WiFi Tether - which was really cool to have on the ReZound. There is a way to get the connection using the USB cable and PDA+Net software - but it really is a backwards hack to get it up and running.
A lot of people complain about the look & feel of the phone. Quite honestly - I don't care for - the first thing I did was buy a case for it. If I had the M8 - I'd do the same thing. I will always want a cover to keep the phone from getting scuffed and better protect the screen and camera lens.
Bottom line - I like the phone a lot. I'm not going to trade the replaceable battery for the ability to root (which I feel is the current trade off at the moment).
Huachipato said:
It is different - but I like it. The screen is beautiful. The interface is different - not bad or good - just not what I'm used to. I do like the home button though - long press to get Google Now and double press to get S-Voice. There are quite a bit of Samsung apps that I'm enjoying. S-Health is nice, but there is a widget that shows how many steps you have taken in the day - and for some reason it motivates me to walk more. The Smart Remote is very complete - including remote codes for my WD-Live box and drop down for every room I have in the house. There is another app call BeepNGo - where you can put all your club/membership cards on (Tom Thumb, AutoZone, etc...). The screen will show the bar code and it can be scanned at the register. There are coupons in that app as well.
NFC actually works. Verizon activates ISIS - which is like Google Wallet. There are deals on it and where it can be used. Google Wallet works as well - which is nice. I've heard in the past that Verizon locked it down - so it is nice to see it up and running.
Camera is absolutely amazing IMO. It struggles a bit in low light, but it really is a champ everywhere else. The software allows you to download more picture taking options - including now the sphere mode. The effects sometimes take a little time to correct - but at least the camera works to it's fullest (yes - taking a little jab at ReZound camera issues in Kit-Kat)...
Everything I wanted in a phone - it has it. I managed to drain the battery one day of really heavy use - but otherwise the battery does a great job. I'll be getting a spare at some point.
The root is still not found - and as a result I'm missing the native WiFi Tether - which was really cool to have on the ReZound. There is a way to get the connection using the USB cable and PDA+Net software - but it really is a backwards hack to get it up and running.
A lot of people complain about the look & feel of the phone. Quite honestly - I don't care for - the first thing I did was buy a case for it. If I had the M8 - I'd do the same thing. I will always want a cover to keep the phone from getting scuffed and better protect the screen and camera lens.
Bottom line - I like the phone a lot. I'm not going to trade the replaceable battery for the ability to root (which I feel is the current trade off at the moment).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback.
How is the data and voice reception compared to the Rezound? I've been thinking about getting the S5, but I don't want reception issues, especially with data because where I work, the overall phone reception is less than other places, but my rezound does ok at work depending on where I place myself.
sdsubball23 said:
Thanks for your feedback.
How is the data and voice reception compared to the Rezound? I've been thinking about getting the S5, but I don't want reception issues, especially with data because where I work, the overall phone reception is less than other places, but my rezound does ok at work depending on where I place myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's about the same. Maybe slightly stronger, but not much of a difference.
Still using mine, hope it lasts until I get a OnePlus One.
I've got 2 Notes to play with as my gf and I both got new phones last week. One is going up for sale but the other is staying around as a backup device incase one of us (her) breaks our phone. I wanted to repurpose it to act as GPS and audio source in the work van. It currently runs Liquidsmooth 4.4 which I was happy with as a phone ROM.
Question is does anyone know of an even slimmer ROM since I do not need phone functions at all? Would it even make a difference if I was to strip it down to the functions I want to lighten it up?
Pretty much all I need is tablet functions, my S5 will provide wifi for streaming. Even the browser is extraneous, beyond Pandora and Play Music I won't need much besides Maps.
The device will work fine for me with full LS, but I was curious how light I could get the ROM. I've never tried such a thing.
Drew
delawaredrew said:
I've got 2 Notes to play with as my gf and I both got new phones last week. One is going up for sale but the other is staying around as a backup device incase one of us (her) breaks our phone. I wanted to repurpose it to act as GPS and audio source in the work van. It currently runs Liquidsmooth 4.4 which I was happy with as a phone ROM.
Question is does anyone know of an even slimmer ROM since I do not need phone functions at all? Would it even make a difference if I was to strip it down to the functions I want to lighten it up?
Pretty much all I need is tablet functions, my S5 will provide wifi for streaming. Even the browser is extraneous, beyond Pandora and Play Music I won't need much besides Maps.
The device will work fine for me with full LS, but I was curious how light I could get the ROM. I've never tried such a thing.
Drew
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have TiBu, you could freeze anything you dont use. Dont want to delete as you dont really know what itty bitty things you may need for functionality.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using xda app-developers app
captemo said:
If you have TiBu, you could freeze anything you dont use. Dont want to delete as you dont really know what itty bitty things you may need for functionality.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I was thinking the same. I was hoping someone had built a ROM off the media player Samsung made but no evidence of it. For the time being I'm just gonna run LS with no unnecessary apps added. I may reinstall it with the bare minimum of GApps to further clean it up but I kinda like the idea of having a mini tablet for the work day. Because the S5 and Nexus 7 I carry just aren't enough!
It might even be a good reason to try to learn to build a ROM myself although very few people would need it. I've always wanted to try it.
So my experiment in repurposing a Note as my GPS isn't going very well. It has a fresh 4.4 install with almost no unnecessary apps. I've disabled all the apps that I can.
I use the S5 as a hotspot to feed data, since although you can cache Google Maps apparently you can't search them without data. Other free GPS apps have not panned out well either. The open source maps they use are often missing street addresses and/or whole streets. I may spend a few $ on a prepaid SIM to to solve this.
1st - Battery Life is horrible, I can't figure out why. I'm running LiquidSmooth which gave me great battery life as a phone, even using GPS didn't drain like it does now. I even bought a new battery to try to rule that out. 1 hour of driving up to Seattle today killed 50% of the battery. Perhaps the lack of cell connection is a problem here but even wifi with airplane mode enabled (yes you can do this) this setup eats battery at a rate faster than the charger can supply. I can use a 2A charger but am low on outlets and work would dislike a hardwired charger.
2nd - Frequent reboots when using any music player while using GPS. I've tried Apollo, Play Music, PowerAmp and a few I don't recall. Players work OK; GPS works ok; but together... I rarely get more than 15 minutes with no reboots. If I can't have music and GPS it defeats the point of this.
3rd - The screen just isn't bright enough, in the few sunny days we've had it is difficult to see the maps in some lights. I dislike spoken directions (see #4) so this is a real problem and likely what will doom this plan since I can't change this.
4th - Spoken directions are the same volume as whatever media I am listening to, so they regularly blare out repetitive instructions at high volume.
5th - I need a better keyboard to operate the device at a distance since Google voice search is not good at understanding addresses.
Any ideas to mitigate these issues are welcome; I especially dislike the battery and reboot problems. Perhaps I'll install the mini or micro GApps package to dump some unneeded Google Apps?
It's only been a few days but if this stuff continues I will not keep using it as I already opt to not turn it on sometimes because it likes to reboot at crucial times. Unfortunately I modded my proper GPS cradle to hold the Note so a new GPS may be in order.