Hey guys,
I broought a desire z nam (Bell mobility branded) over the holidays. This is my first android device, so after a month of using it, I finally feel like I have my bearings for the platform (I'm coming from symbian). However, I have a few questions:
When I brought the phone, it came unlocked (I'm using it on AT&T's network in the US. Does this mean the phone has already been rooted? Is there an easy way I can check on this?
Since I am using the phone on at&t network, how will updates work for me? Is it possible for me to get any OTA updates? Or am I restricted to custom roms for updates? I am a little hesitant to use custom roms, as I need this phone to be reliable above all else, and I keep hearing about how unstable some of those roms can be.
What exactly is Cyberon Voice Commander? I always see it hogging a huge amount of memory in my running apps, and I'm wondering if its one of the base apps included with android. Searching around, it seems that it is used for speech to text, so if I remove it, will voice seach and voice actions no longer work?
Speaking of running apps, is it normal to have 50+ apps running at the same time? This phone boots with a ton of apps already running, and a lot of them seem like system processes. The phone does feel sluggish at time; however, this being my first and only android device, I don't really have a good reference to whether this is normal or not.
The touchscreen seems off. It always tends to register touches slighty above or below where my finger hits (super annoying when you're trying to select something on a list) is there any way to calibrate the screen?
On the subject of screens, is there a way to activate the screen other than pressing the power button? That button is a bit hard to reach for me, especially with 1 hhand operation
Htcsense.com doesn't seem to be working for me. It can't locate my phone, making the phone ring doesn't do anything, and I don't see the menu bar up top. Anyone know what's up with it?
And finally, I'm trying to find a good chinese handwriting input method; the phone comes with pinyin and wubihua input methods on the default htc keyboard, but no handwriting reconginition. The only app I found on the market for it is terrrible at picking up my strokes (HanWriting IME), can anyone recommend anything for it?
Thanks a bunch
I have the same device running on ATT as well.
The phone does not come 'rooted' even if it is an unlocked version. Root allows you to write to the 'OS Partition' on the phone memory in addition to other things. To check if you have root, you need to boot into the recovery mode of the phone. The first line in recovery will read either S-OFF (root obtained) or S-ON (no root). I suggest reading up on 'GFREE' and using that method to obtain root. Visionary is also an option, but doesn't appear to be as 'safe' as GFREE.
As far as I know, we are on our own for OTA updates. I have been using Custom ROMs on my device since about day 3 of owning it and it was the best decision I have made. I currently run CyanogenMod 6.1 and it runs great. Much better than stock. It is VERY stable and I haven't had any issues, everything is working. They are currently developing CyanogenMod 7 (Android 2.3) but it not officially released as stable version yet.
I am not familiar with that Voice Commander app. Check Google.
I don't have 50+ apps running but do have quite a few. Froyo 2.2 (shipped on phone with HTC Sense Skin) is designed to automatically shut down applications that are not being used so they do not eat up system resources. I didn't use stock for long, so I can't say how it performs but I have no lag issues with Cyanogen.
I do recall a 'calibration' option on Stock, but again I didn't use it for long and can't remember where it was.
In Cyanogen mod you can wake up the screen by pressing the track pad. Search in the Themes and Apps section of the Desire Z/G2 forum and there is an application you can install that does the same thing. I think its called Trackpad Wake.
Sorry never used HTCsense.com or any chinese writing apps. For the writing app, you can check the Android Themes/Applications thread from the main forum page. There are lots of other apps discussed there that are no in the Desire Z forum.
Welcome to Android!
Some good answer in the post above. Just to add some additional info:
The Vision Wiki describes how to verify root
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision
But your phone is likely not rooted. When you buy a phone unlocked, that usually means SIM unlocked, so you can use other SIM cards besides Bell. Cell phone dealers usually just have ways to get the SIM unlock codes for phones, same as the paid SIM unlock services you find on eBay and other places.
All ROMs have bugs, including the "official" ones. In my experience, the custom ROMs usually are more stable and less bugs than the official ones they are based on. In any case, I wouldn't worry too much about OTA updates. If you want to flash an official ROM, they get posted on here faster then you would get them OTA.
I just checked, and I have exactly 50 apps running on my Bell Desire Z (running on AT&T like you). I wouldn't worry about it. As mentioned in the previous reply, Android is designed to keep processes open in the background until the memory is needed, then it kills idle processes as needed.
I've never used a Symbian phone. But the Desire Z is one of the fastest Android phones currently on the market. It gets bogged down a bit by the Sense UI in some conditions (especially if you have lots of widgets loaded). But this is minor, and I have found the performance to be very good overall. If you want some more speed, you can root and overclock the CPU. Overclocking to 1 GHz does not even increase voltage to the CPU, so the effect on battery life and risk is minimal.
HTCSense.com is still a work in progress, unfortunately. The features not working is normal, its not just you.
Cyberon Voice Commander is bloatware pre-installed by Bell. Its supposed to allow you to command the phone (with your voice, obviously) without having to touch the screen to perform certain functions (call or find a contact, play a song, etc.). But its pretty useless, and pure crap, IMO. Even when it recognizes your command, it will often still require touch input to make the selection, which completely defeats the purpose! Its faster to just access the functions the normal way.
Bloatware is part of the ROM, and therefore not completely straightforward to remove. All methods require the phone be rooted, AFAIK. The following thread has a method (using Titanium Backup) to remove most of the bloat.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=831584
I've also found a paid app ($1.99) on the market called Absolute System Root Tool removes the bloatware successfully
As mentioned, there is a hack to make the trackpad button wake the phone. But I couldn't tell if the feature could be removed or turned off, so I haven't tried it yet, personally.
Aha, a fellow Symbian convert! Welcome to the greatest phone ever - like an N97 that doesn't suck. I used to run Symbian-Guru.com - please feel free to PM me with *any* questions, I still love to help folks.
I would *highly* suggest you root your phone, if for no other reason than to dump the bloatware that comes with it and be able to take screenshots and that sort of thing. You may also want to look at the Virtuous ROM - it's a port of the Desire Z ROM that has some extras built-in. I've been using it on my G2 pretty much since I got it and it's fan-freakin-tastic. I easily get 12-15hrs of battery life, and that's with normal usage. It also has trackpad wake built right in - it's awesome.
Most of your other questions were answered above. In any case, welcome to XDA, and to Android.
Thanks for the replies. I'm loving the phone so far; just there's a lot of quirks in android that I'm not used to. That's to be expected with any transition to a different os, so I'm sure ill adapt.
you mentioned offical roms are also posted there as well; will flashing those roms require S-OFF? I might be in the minority, but I actually like senseUI. The only thing I wish I could change would be replacing the customization button on the dock with a browser shortcut. I've tried adw and launcherpro, but everytime I end up missing the htc widgets and going back to sense.
Ill probably start looking into some custom roms. I'm really holding out for the offical 2.3 update though. Ill also have to find a way to revert to the original rom should I not like the new one. I can't seem to find a copy of the original rom from bell to download anywhere; so is titanium backup my only option? Finally if I flash in a new rom, (offical or custom) will I lose my carrier unlock?
Thanks
Before you flash any different ROM you should do what is called a "nandroid" backup of your current ROM via Clockwork Recovery/ROM Manager (which you can install once you have root and S-OFF).
No, flashing a different ROM will not lose your SIM unlock.
If you have SuperCID from gfree, then you will be able to flash different official ROMs, not just the Bell one.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z
makken85 said:
Thanks for the replies.
Thanks
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Please hit the "thanks" button on the responses that were helpful to you. So those of use that took the time to answer can increase their thanks meters!
You're not completely alone. I like Sense also! FYI, the Virtuous ROM recommended by orange bandit is a custom one built on the Sense UI. Although I'm probably going to wait until a Gingerbread Sense ROM myself.
makken85 said:
Thanks for the replies. I'm loving the phone so far; just there's a lot of quirks in android that I'm not used to. That's to be expected with any transition to a different os, so I'm sure ill adapt.
you mentioned offical roms are also posted there as well; will flashing those roms require S-OFF? I might be in the minority, but I actually like senseUI. The only thing I wish I could change would be replacing the customization button on the dock with a browser shortcut. I've tried adw and launcherpro, but everytime I end up missing the htc widgets and going back to sense.
Ill probably start looking into some custom roms. I'm really holding out for the offical 2.3 update though. Ill also have to find a way to revert to the original rom should I not like the new one. I can't seem to find a copy of the original rom from bell to download anywhere; so is titanium backup my only option? Finally if I flash in a new rom, (offical or custom) will I lose my carrier unlock?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Virtuous ROM is basically the same as what you're running now, but fully rooted with some improvements here and there (trackpad wake, a bit of overclocking, etc).
There is a Rosie hack to be able to replace the right dock button with whatever you want, here's the link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=876464
I did it on my Virtuous ROM, works great, though I couldn't stand the simplicity of Sense and went back to LauncherPro, myself.
Anyone here already tried this new firmware?
what is the changes on this firmware?
thanks
i am sure there won't be any changes
the version for the middle east JPKE1 doesn't have any changes so why will be there any difference for Europe
there is difference my friend, europe was the first with bada 1.2 JL2 the other earth parts got it in late january.
This version has webkit improvements, as the new firmware for wave II and also preperations for bada 2.0, also the pop bug should be solved^^
memory management improved with dolfin.
pao9195 said:
Anyone here already tried this new firmware?
what is the changes on this firmware?
thanks
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I installed this firmware with the csc from JL2 (OXC) yesterday.
Today, I uninstalled it and reverted back to old XXJL2.
Why?
No noticeable difference. Design, speed, apps, etc are exactly the same.
No bug fix (GPS is as slow as ever, most apps don't launch e.g Thumpies, AccuWeather.com application, etc).
And lastly, "this device cannot be updated" message in kies (possibly due to use of XXJL2 csc file).
i am quiet confusing about this firmware, lariteo says that there are some improvemets on this firmware but accdg to spacks, there is no changes on this from S8500XXJL2.
it is recommendable to upgrade to this firmware or not?
@spacks excuse me but it seems that you dont even have tested it as you should, you are simple lying the people here. You should sell your device and not harm other peoples intuisazm here. One day for testing wow, that was realy long^^^in one day you cant even test dolfin itself, or not?
@pao9195 http://www.badanation.de/topic.php?t=4770&page=last#last_post
yes german users seems to be very happy with this firmware
as i read and know it from the wave firmware
- POP E-Mail Client don't download deleted Apps anymore
- Dolfin is faster
- Dolfins memory usage is now clean, after closing the app, no more fragmentation
@all if someone test a firmware he should not look at the look of the os, if the verision is the same, than there are only bugfixes and no features, it is still a 1.2 with some bugfixes.
Old apps that dont work they must the developer fix and not samsung, if they dont do that than you can throw them away, i think if i release a app than i am also responsible to update it that it works on feature os versions.
People like you are killing the devs intuisazm and i hate this, leave this section and let here only people talk that are interested in such things, as you read
NO NOOOOOOOOOBS are here allowed. And this is not a joke.
@larioteo
please I was only expressing my observations from the use of the new firmware.
My opinion is not binding on anyone. I may be right or wrong.
I don't need to test the new firmware for a year before I can find out it's pros and cons. I have been with my WAVE for a good time now to detect any slightest change from any firmware on it.
The so-called improvements in the new firmware are already existing in XXJL2.
Anyone is free to test. If you like it, keep it. If not, revert back to XXJL2 like me.
Finally, I still maintain my stand that the new firmware is no better than XXJL2. It appears to me like a mere change of name (version number).
Also facebook and twitter server problems seems to be solved^^
i think this firmware is flashable for everyone.
You should test more than a day every known bug and not only your oppiniouns, than others see if it is for they usable, ok? To say JL2 is better, according to the german forum is false^^
And for your information i got a other similar update for the wave II before two weeks, and i also had a firmware downloader and know a little bit more than you in this way, you should sometimes hear advices of others that are in this section longer and not think that you can know everything about it, how long has you tested it 2 hours?
Man you are killng my time, i have said what is improved, cause i tested it long as it should be. the users can rate who they can more trust
2 weeks against 1 day^^
thanks for that info sir lariteo, i believe in you sir, i will flash my phone to this firmware.
thanks
The most users say there that this firmware can compare to XI5 that was the best until this one.
- Surfing with 5 Tabs and 6 widget pages was possible with this firmware
a user reported that he has opened 5 youtube sites and that he has 6 widget site, and that there is no memory message, as on JL2 before.
as i said before the memory management of dolfin is much better than every firmware before.
hmm it seems that this firmware is recommended to flash.
but i think, nobody are interested on Bada 1.2 updates, instead we are all waiting for the Bada 2.0.1 update right?
a stupid question, why we update to this firmware with some bug fixes if Bada 2.0.1 is coming?
wherein we can directly upgrade our firmware to Bada 2.0.1 without going back to this firmware?
this is one of a practical reason, it is depend on the users if he want this firmware or not.
yes very interestung people cried for an bugfix of jl2 before 2.0 justin hong comfirmed it and promised it, now it is here and some says no important before 2.0, very interesting things.
They have done what many users wanted and know there are bugfixes and a never version and this should not be good?
This is the very wrong way, for they that want to use only bada this update is more than neccessary for the android porters it is nothing but not everyone wants android sone buyed the device to not have android on it think about it. and new versions should be for such people and not for bada haters, easy.
a small bugfix version is a big recommendation and not an unusual flash. if i wiuld be a samsung worker i would disable updates for all hacked devices bada should only be available for evangelist and not for haters like apple it does with new ios.
im successfully upgrade my phone to this firmware and ive noticed some changes from my old firmware S8500XXJK1:
- allow to send blank sms
- facebook have a log out option
- facebook have notification upon opening the application shown at the notification bar.
- when we long pressed some wall post on facebook, we got 3 options; like/comment/cancel or just press the "+" button, this 3 options appear.
- have a brightness settings on Dolfin Browser
I will post again if there is some changes aside from this and please note that this is based from S8500XXJK1 only, i am no longer flashed my phone to S8500XXJL2.
I see some people saying that they want ics on their phone way more and they are fine with honeycomb, and I just can't undersrand them.
I am waiting for the ics eagerly so the following bugs will be gone and more:
Portrait lag (choppiness). Its not just the home screen, but the whole system is not smooth when in portrait orientation.
Keyboard typing lag in the web browser. I know everyones aware of it, and very annoyed by it. But you want to keep honeycomb?? Dolphin doesn't fix the issue btw, at least for my case.
Music stop playibg when screen is off. I want to use the stock music player as its the original, and its easy to use also. And it looks good too. However, I just can't use it because of this issue. Why should I have to buy another music player app when there is already an app for that? I really hope this issue is gone in ics.
Horrible Lag when going back to the home screen after running heavy tasks. This is the most annoying problem for me with honeycomb, or maybe android itself (its been a while I had a froyo tabket, so I don't really remember).
With all these issues, which competing products with other OS don't have, do you still think honeycombs is fine? I certainly can't wait for ICS to be delivered to our Iconia.
EDIT: I forgot to mention about tge "more" part.
Ics is mostly update for unite between tablet and apps mostly for developing more apps for tablets and phones at the same time. If you are still stuck on honeycomb, we will be stuck with very few amount of apps that present for honeycomb right now. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, I know that its confirmed that we are getting ICS, but just wanted to say my opinion on honeycomb, ics, and people who are fine with honeycomb on their iconia tab.
Thanks for listening to my rant
sw6lee said:
I see some people saying that they want ics on their phone way more and they are fine with honeycomb, and I just can't undersrand them.
I am waiting for the ics eagerly so the following bugs will be gone and more:
Portrait lag (choppiness). Its not just the home screen, but the whole system is not smooth when in portrait orientation.
Keyboard typing lag in the web browser. I know everyones aware of it, and very annoyed by it. But you want to keep honeycomb?? Dolphin doesn't fix the issue btw, at least for my case.
Music stop playibg when screen is off. I want to use the stock music player as its the original, and its easy to use also. And it looks good too. However, I just can't use it because of this issue. Why should I have to buy another music player app when there is already an app for that? I really hope this issue is gone in ics.
Horrible Lag when going back to the home screen after running heavy tasks. This is the most annoying problem for me with honeycomb, or maybe android itself (its been a while I had a froyo tabket, so I don't really remember).
With all these issues, which competing products with other OS don't have, do you still think honeycombs is fine? I certainly can't wait for ICS to be delivered to our Iconia.
EDIT: I forgot to mention about tge "more" part.
Ics is mostly update for unite between tablet and apps mostly for developing more apps for tablets and phones at the same time. If you are still stuck on honeycomb, we will be stuck with very few amount of apps that present for honeycomb right now. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, I know that its confirmed that we are getting ICS, but just wanted to say my opinion on honeycomb, ics, and people who are fine with honeycomb on their iconia tab.
Thanks for listening to my rant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont have any of these issues. im running taboony 2.2 with richards 3.7 kernel (oc'd 1.5) and i use opera and maxthon browser.
Im guessing youre stock. But dont get your hopes up ics wont necessarily fix your bugs. it may just bring new more annoying ones along.
I don't have most of these issues myself and I'm running Kekinash's rather stock 3.2 ROM with the HoneyVillain 3.4 kernel. I'm not doing any over-clocking with the kernel either.
The only isssue i was having was the Music app problem, but resolved it by using the Music Player for Pad app, which is just night and day superior to the stock app. I would be using MPP whether I had a problem with the stock app or not.
Other than that, I'm still loving the A500 (with Honeycomb). Of course I'm interested in ICS, too, but I expect it to cause more problems than it will solve.
Can't say I've had any of these issues with mine (portrait doesn't seem as smooth, but I very very rarely use it in portrait mode anyway [only when an app forces me to] so can't really comment there..). Running latest lightspeed rom + thor's kernel, oc'd to ~1.4ghz.
Personally I'm loving honeycomb so far..
-Dave
Same here all works well.Op there is a chance you could have some rogue apps lurking in background on you
sw6lee said:
Keyboard typing lag in the web browser. I know everyones aware of it, and very annoyed by it
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Click to collapse
Nope, not everyone: I ain't noticing such.
Anyway, I know that its confirmed that we are getting ICS, but just wanted to say my opinion on honeycomb, ics, and people who are fine with honeycomb on their iconia tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one really cares, so yeah... I too just replied because I'm bored and can't sleep.
ICS is basically Honeycomb for phones, not much more man..
jon-.- said:
i dont have any of these issues. im running taboony 2.2 with richards 3.7 kernel (oc'd 1.5) and i use opera and maxthon browser.
Im guessing youre stock. But dont get your hopes up ics wont necessarily fix your bugs. it may just bring new more annoying ones along.
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Click to collapse
Opera and maxthon aren't as smooth when scrolling as stock or dolphin for pad. I tried them both. Opera is laggy especially when zooming in and out, and maxthos is just so annoying to use because of its choppiness when scrolling.
autom8r said:
ICS is basically Honeycomb for phones, not much more man..
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Click to collapse
So you guys are saying that google will just keep the bugs as it is? I can't guarantee of course, but if google will do that, then I certainly have no faith in google anymore. Why would people buy an android device? What the hell. To root it and void warranty to use it properly or dig through the market to make the device finally usable where there are original apps wasted, or can't even get issues solved, like portrait lag, and just live with it?? Don't tell me to buy an ipad, because I already purchased this, and I don't want to sell it cheaper, and buy another device.
Anyway, someone mentioned music player for pad. I am using it also, but it has a lot of other bugs as well. The stock music player stops playing when screen is off. This app? It just stops suddenly while playing. Not often, but sometimes. And sometimes after I stop the music and later start it again, the sound doesnt come out, so I have to find my earphone, plug it it, and out again, to let the sound work. This is the apps problem. And its pretty glictchy when keep using. I don't want to buy Hive player, which is the only other alternate honeycomb music player, as far as I know, and Don't want to pay for apps (I just don't spend money on apps, and don't have too many apps either).
And I dont have that many apps that may cause the system to make my tablet lag after going to home scren after running heavy task. And I know its not just my problem. I have seen other people talking about it too.
If they still didn't fix these issues, google should just quit the android business. Yea I know, they won't quit, cause they are making tons of money out of it. But they can't even make it right. They dont have experience? Then they should recruit senior employees from apple or microsoft to make a better OS.
I'm never going to recommend android to any of my friends any more, because now i realize that there is nothing to recommend about it. Open source? Better working closed OS is much better in my opinion. Anyway, I have no reason to write this to people here but I hope google guys see this post somehow.
sw6lee said:
I'm never going to recommend android to any of my friends any more, because now i realize that there is nothing to recommend about it. Open source? Better working closed OS is much better in my opinion.
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Dang. Perhaps a different rom, I dig my stock 3.2 rooted by ezterry. I do have a little lag, but I have no less than 9 widgets. If they're running maybe kill a widget or 3. Same for the live wallpapers. I'm certain that there are quite a few other things that you can do to improve performance.
I don't have an iAnything. Never will. And I have to say that you're right about the smoothness. Those suckers are pretty sweet. But I'll take my widgets, customization, live wallpapers, usb, hdmi, Flash, sdcard, and so on/so forth over that any day. And if I change my mind I'll remove those things that are slowing things down. I've tried it and the tab is like butter.
Sooo...
I wish you the very best on your (possible) upcoming iAdventure. Hate to see anyone go, and holler when you get back!
sw6lee said:
I am waiting for the ics eagerly so the following bugs will be gone and more:
Portrait lag (choppiness). Its not just the home screen, but the whole system is not smooth when in portrait orientation.
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Click to collapse
Cant say about others here. But personally i am very seldom in portrait mode. Reading manga probably the only time i am in that mode, feel pretty smooth on stock browser. The only time i see any lag, is when system is switching mode. But that is to be expected, given the processor/ram and the resolution; it will take time to adjust but its barely a second.
I have dual 24" IPS monitor form dell with very high resolution, on a system running at 4Ghz/12gig ram with high end dual GFX. When i switch those monitor in portrait, even they take few sec to adjust and populate the icon on screen.
sw6lee said:
Keyboard typing lag in the web browser. I know everyones aware of it, and very annoyed by it. But you want to keep honeycomb?? Dolphin doesn't fix the issue btw, at least for my case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been a while i used stock keyboard. I am using Thumb Keyboard 4, it has a little lag, but only because its show possible suggestion of what you typing. And usually its just a few words behind my speed of typing. I use Dolphin browser, but i have had no problem. Also use Stock browser too. I leave link and multiple tab open on dolphin browser so i can get to them later when i have time, never had any issue so far.
sw6lee said:
Music stop playibg when screen is off. I want to use the stock music player as its the original, and its easy to use also. And it looks good too. However, I just can't use it because of this issue. Why should I have to buy another music player app when there is already an app for that? I really hope this issue is gone in ics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had the same problem. Got the Music Folder Player (free), problem solved. And since i use headphone to listen to music, i dont really care if i can see album art and stuff. Other wise i would use stock player since the screen be on because i wanted to see album art and stuff LOL. Also got the Donate version of Folder Player, since i wanted to support the DEV.
sw6lee said:
Horrible Lag when going back to the home screen after running heavy tasks. This is the most annoying problem for me with honeycomb, or maybe android itself (its been a while I had a froyo tabket, so I don't really remember).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what kind of heavy task you referring to. But i can run CF-bench, then switch to home when its done and have no lag at all... Or you can give some example of Heavy task you running, so i can test it on my system too.
I am running Stock 3.2 just modified for Root (Kekinash), with Thor's 3.7 Kernel. OC set to interactive 1504Max/608min. I didnt write the reply to prove OP issue wrong, just simply suggesting that there are answer to most of the problems just take time to find them, and the best part, you learn alot of new things as you try to find the solution of a particular problem.
That's one of the best part of Android you can make the OS work for you (some time and experience), compare to other Tablet OS that go out of there way to try to restrict you from manipulating OS to your advantage.
Not had any of these issues either with Stock 3.1, 3.2, Taboonay 2.2 or the latest Thor. Have had a little lag in the stock browser only in Facebook, but that's the page because it does it in every mobile browser except Opera.
sw6lee said:
Anyway, someone mentioned music player for pad. I am using it also, but it has a lot of other bugs as well. The stock music player stops playing when screen is off. This app? It just stops suddenly while playing. Not often, but sometimes. And sometimes after I stop the music and later start it again, the sound doesnt come out, so I have to find my earphone, plug it it, and out again, to let the sound work. This is the apps problem. And its pretty glictchy when keep using. I don't want to buy Hive player, which is the only other alternate honeycomb music player, as far as I know, and Don't want to pay for apps (I just don't spend money on apps, and don't have too many apps either).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you kidding me? You have looked at market, and Hive is the *ONLY* music player you can find? I reckon I could find dozens in a matter of minutes.. Personally, I'm using MixZing and it's working well for me.. I don't recall having any issues with the stock music app shutting off when the screen goes off either so I'm guessing that's a setting you've tinkered with somewhere (funny how when you change settings, the behaviour of things changes hey?)
Also, who cares if the stock app isn't exactly what you want? I'm pretty sure you select what programs suit *YOUR* needs to play music/movies/edit documents/browse the web/scratch yourself etc on your PC, and if you had an iPad I'm sure you would select the apps that suit *YOU* on there too - so what difference does it make? NO manufacturer is going to ship a device with exactly the applications you want, thats the whole reason that we are able to go out and buy/download those which suit our needs!
If they still didn't fix these issues, google should just quit the android business. Yea I know, they won't quit, cause they are making tons of money out of it. But they can't even make it right. They dont have experience? Then they should recruit senior employees from apple or microsoft to make a better OS.
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What exactly isn't right about it? I have a Motorola Atrix, I love the android implementation (because let's remember, thats what each of these devices ships with - another company's implementation of the android OS, not the bog stock "android os" from google) on there - straight out of the box without any modification it worked perfectly well.. And then I started tinkering and WOW! I could change damned near anything I wanted! FANTASTIC! But if that didn't interest me? NO problem, it shipped with a perfectly acceptable functioning system which well exceeded the performance of my wife's iPhone 4...
Almost every "bug" i read about, is nothing to do with android - it's do with someone's rom, or an error within an application - Windows applications crash, iOS applications crash, hell - even my old linux box used to crash from time to time when I started messing with things or running other people's software..
I'm never going to recommend android to any of my friends any more, because now i realize that there is nothing to recommend about it. Open source? Better working closed OS is much better in my opinion. Anyway, I have no reason to write this to people here but I hope google guys see this post somehow.
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Click to collapse
What is it that you and your friends ARE looking for in an OS? Because honestly, if what you want is something that *never* crashes, regardless of what you try to mess with, or that doesn't have *any* applications that are buggy or poorly implemented.. then I don't know, perhaps you'd best start looking for someone to port you a rom based on my old Nokia 5110?
/rant!
I found a solution to the OP's problems Here!
Guaranteed to fix his problems!
sw6lee said:
So you guys are saying that google will just keep the bugs as it is? I can't guarantee of course, but if google will do that, then I certainly have no faith in google anymore. Why would people buy an android device? What the hell. To root it and void warranty to use it properly or dig through the market to make the device finally usable where there are original apps wasted, or can't even get issues solved, like portrait lag, and just live with it?? Don't tell me to buy an ipad, because I already purchased this, and I don't want to sell it cheaper, and buy another device.
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An Android device is no different than any other electronic device or computer -- it's going to behave differently with different people. This is because of how each individual configures it, what apps they run, how they use it, even the environment (hot, cold, dusty, etc.) they use it in. No one here can say that you're not encountering the problems you say you are, but I can guarantee you that I won't be the last to tell you that I haven't encountered those problems.
I know you don't want to hear it, but if you want a turnkey system that minimizes the chance of encountering ANY problems, then you're going to have to go Apple. BUT keep in mind that you're going to have to accept some consolations with that decision, because Apple OS'es are very locked down so don't expect to be able to do much tweaking, personalizing, or customizing.
sw6lee said:
Anyway, someone mentioned music player for pad. I am using it also, but it has a lot of other bugs as well. The stock music player stops playing when screen is off. This app? It just stops suddenly while playing. Not often, but sometimes. And sometimes after I stop the music and later start it again, the sound doesnt come out, so I have to find my earphone, plug it it, and out again, to let the sound work. This is the apps problem. And its pretty glictchy when keep using. I don't want to buy Hive player, which is the only other alternate honeycomb music player, as far as I know, and Don't want to pay for apps (I just don't spend money on apps, and don't have too many apps either).
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Again, I don't have extensive problems with the stock Music app, but I have had ZERO problems with Music Player for Pad -- whether I'm running things from the widget or the full app. It's been flawless. Not disputing that you're encountering problems -- just saying that I am not and looking at the market rating for that app it doesn't appear that a large percentage of the app's users are encountering problems.
sw6lee said:
And I dont have that many apps that may cause the system to make my tablet lag after going to home scren after running heavy task. And I know its not just my problem. I have seen other people talking about it too.
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I'm sure, but what percentage? You have to understand, people aren't going to come to technical forums like this and others and post,
"Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm having a perfect experience with my Android tablet and Android in general! LOVE IT! Thanks, Google!"
People come here to post about problems they're having. Even if 30 people post to a thread having the same problems you are, that doesn't address the millions of other users who are apparently not having this issue.
sw6lee said:
If they still didn't fix these issues, google should just quit the android business. Yea I know, they won't quit, cause they are making tons of money out of it. But they can't even make it right. They dont have experience? Then they should recruit senior employees from apple or microsoft to make a better OS.
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Okay, first of all, the way to a better operating system is not through Apple and definitely not through Microsoft. Both of those companies have had their share of stinker OS'es in the past (and present). I know it's difficult to look beyond your own experiences and needs, but the reason why Android isn't going to "quit the business" is because they are extremely successful and they are extremely successful because the vast majority of their users are very happy with the OS. Android is currently the most popular phone OS -- why do you think that should translate to them that they should "quit the business"?
sw6lee said:
I'm never going to recommend android to any of my friends any more, because now i realize that there is nothing to recommend about it. Open source? Better working closed OS is much better in my opinion. Anyway, I have no reason to write this to people here but I hope google guys see this post somehow.
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Again, I know you said that you didn't want to hear it, but I think you've suggested your own best solution -- you need to go iOS. And if you're using a Windows based desktop or notebook PC, I would recommend getting rid of that and going with Apple, too. That's not meant to be an insult in any way -- you just don't seem happy using Android, and what most of us consider to be a huge benefit of the OS (open source, tweakable, customizable, etc.), you consider to be negative or undesirable. Why keep a device that makes you so unhappy? Take a loss, and buy a device you can be happy using. Life's too short.
shin lucifer said:
Cant say about others here. But personally i am very seldom in portrait mode. Reading manga probably the only time i am in that mode, feel pretty smooth on stock browser. The only time i see any lag, is when system is switching mode. But that is to be expected, given the processor/ram and the resolution; it will take time to adjust but its barely a second.
I have dual 24" IPS monitor form dell with very high resolution, on a system running at 4Ghz/12gig ram with high end dual GFX. When i switch those monitor in portrait, even they take few sec to adjust and populate the icon on screen.
Been a while i used stock keyboard. I am using Thumb Keyboard 4, it has a little lag, but only because its show possible suggestion of what you typing. And usually its just a few words behind my speed of typing. I use Dolphin browser, but i have had no problem. Also use Stock browser too. I leave link and multiple tab open on dolphin browser so i can get to them later when i have time, never had any issue so far.
Had the same problem. Got the Music Folder Player (free), problem solved. And since i use headphone to listen to music, i dont really care if i can see album art and stuff. Other wise i would use stock player since the screen be on because i wanted to see album art and stuff LOL. Also got the Donate version of Folder Player, since i wanted to support the DEV.
Not sure what kind of heavy task you referring to. But i can run CF-bench, then switch to home when its done and have no lag at all... Or you can give some example of Heavy task you running, so i can test it on my system too.
I am running Stock 3.2 just modified for Root (Kekinash), with Thor's 3.7 Kernel. OC set to interactive 1504Max/608min. I didnt write the reply to prove OP issue wrong, just simply suggesting that there are answer to most of the problems just take time to find them, and the best part, you learn alot of new things as you try to find the solution of a particular problem.
That's one of the best part of Android you can make the OS work for you (some time and experience), compare to other Tablet OS that go out of there way to try to restrict you from manipulating OS to your advantage.
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I meant heavy task, say web browsing for a few hours, and when I go to home screen, it reloads the widgets, icons and everything again for maybe 3 seconds, and when I try to do something then, like open app drawer or scroll desktop or open another app, it is insanely laggy. Of course, it's only for 3-4 seconds, but it happens often, and it's very annoying.
WarbyD said:
Are you kidding me? You have looked at market, and Hive is the *ONLY* music player you can find? I reckon I could find dozens in a matter of minutes.. Personally, I'm using MixZing and it's working well for me.. I don't recall having any issues with the stock music app shutting off when the screen goes off either so I'm guessing that's a setting you've tinkered with somewhere (funny how when you change settings, the behaviour of things changes hey?)
Also, who cares if the stock app isn't exactly what you want? I'm pretty sure you select what programs suit *YOUR* needs to play music/movies/edit documents/browse the web/scratch yourself etc on your PC, and if you had an iPad I'm sure you would select the apps that suit *YOU* on there too - so what difference does it make? NO manufacturer is going to ship a device with exactly the applications you want, thats the whole reason that we are able to go out and buy/download those which suit our needs!
What exactly isn't right about it? I have a Motorola Atrix, I love the android implementation (because let's remember, thats what each of these devices ships with - another company's implementation of the android OS, not the bog stock "android os" from google) on there - straight out of the box without any modification it worked perfectly well.. And then I started tinkering and WOW! I could change damned near anything I wanted! FANTASTIC! But if that didn't interest me? NO problem, it shipped with a perfectly acceptable functioning system which well exceeded the performance of my wife's iPhone 4...
Almost every "bug" i read about, is nothing to do with android - it's do with someone's rom, or an error within an application - Windows applications crash, iOS applications crash, hell - even my old linux box used to crash from time to time when I started messing with things or running other people's software..
What is it that you and your friends ARE looking for in an OS? Because honestly, if what you want is something that *never* crashes, regardless of what you try to mess with, or that doesn't have *any* applications that are buggy or poorly implemented.. then I don't know, perhaps you'd best start looking for someone to port you a rom based on my old Nokia 5110?
/rant!
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I meant music player for honeycomb. These have controls in the notification bar, but other phone optimized music players don't have that, and while in an app, and you want to turn music off, you need to GO to the music app and pause it, and go back to the previous app you were in. This is why I don't use phone optimized music app on my iconia.
And the bugs I listed in my first post is all over the internet, so don't deny it. Maybe some few people don't have problem with it because they are running a custom rom, or using alternative apps.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17353
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/t...ic-will-not-continuously-play-sleep-mode.html
-Also, read description of Music Player for Pad and Hive Player on Market. They mention that their music player don't stop playing even when screen is off. They say that they changed a code or something.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=15958
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jbm8QAS3DI
The bugs are all over the internet. You are saying that only very few people are having the problems I mentioned or any problems, and it's probably because of what they have done to the tablet. If you can't believe me, see the links I posted.
sw6lee said:
And the bugs I listed in my first post is all over the internet, so don't deny it. Maybe some few people don't have problem with it because they are running a custom rom, or using alternative apps.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17353
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/t...ic-will-not-continuously-play-sleep-mode.html
-Also, read description of Music Player for Pad and Hive Player on Market. They mention that their music player don't stop playing even when screen is off. They say that they changed a code or something.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=15958
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jbm8QAS3DI
The bugs are all over the internet. You are saying that only very few people are having the problems I mentioned or any problems, and it's probably because of what they have done to the tablet. If you can't believe me, see the links I posted.
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180 complaints across two threads = "all over the internet"?
Even if you count all 180 as being definite problems with Honeycomb, when you consider the number of Honeycombs devices out there and in use, 180 problems is statistically insignificant. As of October 19, a total of 3.8 million Honeycomb tablets have been sold. That's not even a percentage figure I can post here without using scientific notation. Statistically, it's WAY below 0.00%.
In skimming through the posts that you linked to, I did notice that most of the posts are about Honeycomb 3.0 and 3.1, with only a few posts at the bottom of each thread being recent and/or about 3.2. How many of the problems reported with 3.0 and 3.1 were fixed with the subsequent updates?
You also need to realize that Google is not responsible for the hardware -- it's the hardware manufacturer's job to make sure their hardware works with Honeycomb. It's like blaming Microsoft for your Dell PC running slow. That's not Microsoft's fault.
And you basically say that most people reporting no issues have likely solved the problems themselves by what they've done to the tablet? Well...do that as well and then you and the whopping 180 people won't have any problems, no?
I'm not saying that you're not encountering any problems with Honeycomb -- I'm sure you are. However, you're an insignificant statistic to Google, and there are soooooooo many people running the same hardware/OS who are not seeing any problems that it is highly likely that your problems are
1. A configuration issue.
2. Caused by a 3rd-party app.
3. Easily fixable by way of tweaking the configuration and/or using an alternate app.
Again, not saying that you're not encountering problems, but these problems are FAR from being as common as you claim. I would advise trying to figure out tweaks to solve your (apparently rare) problems, or you should resell the tablet and move on, and just consider Honeycomb to not be the OS for you.
sw6lee said:
I meant heavy task, say web browsing for a few hours, and when I go to home screen, it reloads the widgets, icons and everything again for maybe 3 seconds, and when I try to do something then, like open app drawer or scroll desktop or open another app, it is insanely laggy. Of course, it's only for 3-4 seconds, but it happens often, and it's very annoying.
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I can completely understand few seconds here and there over time can lead to frustration, especially now that our tech are so fast and we not so use to waiting on every commands.
My only suggestion will be, and i dont know if you have already tried this. Try to get Rooted Stock 3.2 with diff Kernels. Personally i was surprise how much smoother thing ran compare to 3.1. I mean i didnt have any problems with 3.1, but after Rooted Stock 3.2 i started to see difference in response time on small thing and it was fast.
I am one of the silent millions, One hundred % happy with stock Three.two. No problems except sleep, but that will fixed. I just turn off. Hope you get working.