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Hi guys,
I thought i share my thoughts and experience with people who have not decided which phone to buy. Maybe my input will make the decision easier (or maybe it will confuse you even more hehe).
Also I am hoping people with Android experience maybe can assist me with some of my negative bullets. I'm very new to Android so i apologies for my mistakes in my so called review/comparison.
And lastly i dont want to start any fanboy android vs iOS. This is just my personal view of the two phones/OS'es. Its maybe a bit unfair since i been using iPhone for the last 3 years and Android for only a week but still some of the bullets are independent of that. Any how lets dig into it, First i take the negative side of SGII and next the positive sides.
(maybe my topic is a bit misleading but below some of the items are compared against iPhone but i wont write all the plus/negative for iPhone since the SGII list is already pretty big and i want to focus on SGII which i hope can replace my iPhone)
- When i exit USB mode (where i can access the SD card) i cant find a way to reconnect it without cable unplug->plug. Is there a way i missed?
- Browser doesnt word wrap the text/column so good on table tab. I had a side by side comparison with my iPhone4. On iphone the whole article including images are resized and the text is fully readable. On Galaxy S2 images are not resized and text is readable but just barely. So the whole screen real-state is not fully utilized with the lower resolution and bad browser formatting.I have tested Opera also but the whole word wrapping experience left a very bad taste in my mouth. It was the worst experience ever, the article jump up and down every 5 sec or so, i think the browser got confused for some reason and couldnt decide how to format the page (this was when double tapping).
- Default browser crashes (go to qj.net where i usually visit to read about games).
- Text selection is a pain sometimes. First problem is that in every app it behaves differently. Second problem is that the process to select a text isnt so smooth.
- Confused about task and background proceses that start magically! When using taskmanager i can see mostly 2-3 tasks there and this makes sense. Now using other task killers suddenly they show 10-15 tasks. I understand these are background task but its beyond me why some of them suddenly are there. Like Kies, this should never be started unless i am using Kies. I can see now why my battery goes dows so fast (well compared to iPhone again). Why is there so many tasks started and why cant i control them from vanila Android. This should be a must. I dont want to root my phone to do the basic settings.
- Pretty much all application is downloaded can only be installed on phone memory. Why doesnt Google enforce developers to adapt to new versions of Android is beyond me.
- I havent found a way to backup everything on the phone (including applications and their save data) to my pc/mac. Without this i dont like to experiment rooting and other shizzles.
- Apps are not as smooth and functional on GS2 compared to iPhone4. Ex: Tunein Radio, i cant skip to next song. Ex2: ign app (iphone) allow for daily videos while the Android version is very poorly done and dont have any videos. Feels like Everything works just a little better on iPhone compared to Android phones.This is something most people cant understand if they havent had iPhone for a long time i think.
- Slow battery charging. I usually start charing at around 20% battery left. In one hour GS2 reaches around 40-50% while iPhone goes to 80%
- Headset lacks volume + next/back track when playing music.
- Creating folder through Kies Air not possible. for ex in media make a folder called movies.
- Drag&Drop in Kies air missing.
- When uploading a file through Kies Air there should be a progress bar, now it just looks busy and you dont know if its uploading or it hangs.
Ok now to some good sides on the Galaxy S2:
+ Brilliant screen (even if i think resolution could be better)
+ Flexibility and open market for every sort of application. Much like windows here you can add more functionality and make the phone very personal.
+ Excellent codec support. It plays pretty much everything i through at it. Well done Samsung.
+ Very good camera (even better then iPhone i admit)
+ Very good video recording (also better then iPhone)
+ Very light
+ Feels pretty good in your hand (even though i’m afraid one day the backvocer will break, i had a Nokia N95 and one day the smal plastic edges broke when i was opening the cover. Same thing will happen ti GS2 i’m sure)
+ Expandibale uSD.
+ Very cool fearure called Kies Air where i can access most studd through browser. (this can also be added to minus since it doenst work perfectly everytime i tested but the potential is there)
+ Nice features like pinch effect for desktop + many nice widgets.
+ I think you can make proper call recording on SGII (CallRecorder) but havent confirmed myself yet.
Lastly i like to say SGII is a wonderful phone and i really really want to use it as my primary phone. The one thing i hope Samsung fixes that will make me more loyal to Android is the default browser. The text wrapping must be improved and the browser more stable. I like the smoothness of the default browser and this is the most used part of the phone and so far my iPhone is better but i hope 2.3.4 update maybe can improve this.
Any input, tips, tricks are welcome. I really appreciate your help.
Hopefully this will help you, at least in some areas (i numbered them in the order that you have used):
1) using developer mode at least (i prefer it as its faster and more compatible than samsung's stuff) you can mount/umount at will the card on the pc via the phone without unplugging
2) You may want to try Opera Mobile, it seems to do a very good job at this. I'd like to see this in the stock browser too, but hey, this is Android, you have the choice to change the browser if you like ;-)
3) Well, same thing I guess. 2.3.4 may improve stability but the rest, I don't know, I wouldn't bet on it. I like Firefox quite a bit as well, but text wrapping is odd on it.
4) Android issue =/
5) I wouldn't use any task killer. Check the active apps and uninstall any app that doesn't behave (keep only the ones you REALLY need that still do stuff in the background, like email etc, but not too many). Seems to work a zillion time better for battery life. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a decent way to enforce such a policy.
Regular background tasks are not necessarily ever active. It just means they're frozen in the background and do nothing. As long as they do nothing it's fine, it's just faster to start them again (instant, in fact). The issue is really when they're activating every XX minutes while in the background.
6)Doesn't matter, the recent samsung phones such as the SGS2 have a HUGE internal memory compared to other phones, you'll never have space issues for that imo.
7)Install a kernel with CWM and then, boot in recovery and run a nandroid backup. It will create the backups on your sdcard. Copy them to your PC. Also, copy /efs using tools or manually..
You can restore using a CWM kernel later on and nandroid restore.
You can also use stuff like TitaniumBackup, but it's not nearly as thorough as nandroid backup (which is doing basically disk images, while Titanium and other such apps just copy app/settings)
8)Trollish subject. Some apps are superior on Android, some are superior on iOS. Heh SGS2's browser speed eats my IP4 for breakfast for example. If the same Android app doesnt have the feature of the iOS app, complain to the dev or find another app.
9) it's true it's like that, nothing you can do about it (technically, something could be done but that's probably not wise at all)
10) Use another music player, such as PowerAmp if you like. There's (many, many) other possibilities as well. It also let you boost the volume higher than the stock max volume (although I find stock to be loud enough)
11) Don't use KIES air to do that then ;-)
12) Likewise. There are apps like KIES air, you might want to try them btw. Make a little search, I dont have the name in mind, but they do exist, others will probably point them out
13) I do get a progress bar that moves, maybe a browser issue. Anyway, see point 12)
Cheers for the answers and help. I write the comments inline below.
bilboa1 said:
Hopefully this will help you, at least in some areas (i numbered them in the order that you have used):
1) using developer mode at least (i prefer it as its faster and more compatible than samsung's stuff) you can mount/umount at will the card on the pc via the phone without unplugging
A: i did test this mode but it asked me to unplug the cable also, same thing for MTP. Dont you get that?
2) You may want to try Opera Mobile, it seems to do a very good job at this. I'd like to see this in the stock browser too, but hey, this is Android, you have the choice to change the browser if you like ;-)
A: As mentioned i already tested this. Opera does some things better and some things worse. For instance visiting one of my favorite sites like Engadget.com the whole page jump up and down when i zoom in a little. To be honest the stock + Opera feel very bad compared to iPhones browser. I hope Opera or Samsung improve on this area. This is the most used feature for me.
3) Well, same thing I guess. 2.3.4 may improve stability but the rest, I don't know, I wouldn't bet on it. I like Firefox quite a bit as well, but text wrapping is odd on it.
A: Lets hope so
4) Android issue =/
A:
5) I wouldn't use any task killer. Check the active apps and uninstall any app that doesn't behave (keep only the ones you REALLY need that still do stuff in the background, like email etc, but not too many). Seems to work a zillion time better for battery life. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a decent way to enforce such a policy.
Regular background tasks are not necessarily ever active. It just means they're frozen in the background and do nothing. As long as they do nothing it's fine, it's just faster to start them again (instant, in fact). The issue is really when they're activating every XX minutes while in the background.
A: Yes true, i think Android just shows to much info for regular user. I have to see past the background tasks perhaps. Also some appz you can not remove like the hubs and such. Sure i can root and hack but i'm not so interested to do so just yet. Maybe when i'm a bit more user and understand Android better
6)Doesn't matter, the recent samsung phones such as the SGS2 have a HUGE internal memory compared to other phones, you'll never have space issues for that imo.
A: Actually i got over 12Gig of Appz on my iPhone so 16Gig (or actually 12Gig which is free) isnt all to much when you have navigator (3,5Gig) and games and blogs and such. But sure its enought for a time to come. The bottom line is Google must be tougher with the market otherwise the fragmentation will just grow.
7)Install a kernel with CWM and then, boot in recovery and run a nandroid backup. It will create the backups on your sdcard. Copy them to your PC. Also, copy /efs using tools or manually..
You can restore using a CWM kernel later on and nandroid restore.
You can also use stuff like TitaniumBackup, but it's not nearly as thorough as nandroid backup (which is doing basically disk images, while Titanium and other such apps just copy app/settings)
A: Thanks for the tips, i will write it down. As said i dont dare yet to mess with hacking but soon i was actually considering using the TitaniumB , hear its easy to use.
8)Trollish subject. Some apps are superior on Android, some are superior on iOS. Heh SGS2's browser speed eats my IP4 for breakfast for example. If the same Android app doesnt have the feature of the iOS app, complain to the dev or find another app.
A: I'm noob on what is there on the market so i'm sure there are many awesome apps on Android but when comparing the same app on Android vs iOS the Android was inferior. That was what i was comparing.
Another thing i dont really experience is the speed. To be honest i dont see such a huge speed difference when using my Wlan at home. But maybe you are right
9) it's true it's like that, nothing you can do about it (technically, something could be done but that's probably not wise at all)
A: I guess your right. On the other hand it could be possible a fw update could adjust some values for the current input, this could be a software limitation also i think. Lets hope
10) Use another music player, such as PowerAmp if you like. There's (many, many) other possibilities as well. It also let you boost the volume higher than the stock max volume (although I find stock to be loud enough)
A:Thanks for the tips will test this. Actually this is same thing as the copy/paste issue. I expect the behaviour to be the same no matter application (coming from iOS) but here it seems its application to application. This offer more freedom to developers for sure but it will also generate crapy software and result in a bad user experience. It would be so much better if there were a set of rules that all developers should follow on certain areas (this one is one such area).
11) Don't use KIES air to do that then ;-)
A: hehe true but this is the official way so i thought it should have been well tested and all
12) Likewise. There are apps like KIES air, you might want to try them btw.
Make a little search, I dont have the name in mind, but they do exist, others will probably point them out
A: Will do.
13) I do get a progress bar that moves, maybe a browser issue. Anyway, see point 12)
A: Strange, have to test again on IE which i hate, i use Firefox only. Also tested Safari on my mac.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for your input mate. Back to play more with my GSII
Applications can also be installed on the external sd card.
Applications and I also believe their user data are backed up on google server. So if you factory reset the phone and sync with google, it will download all previous apps.
About the slow charging - are you on old firmware version or do you charge over USB?
Creating a folder through kies air is not possible, that is correct. To be honest I am happy that there is even an app which allows to copy media etc. over wifi, you know there are phones which don't have that, for example the iPhone.
All apps I am using are working fine. If an app is not stable it's developer's fault, not the phone.
Ios is from 2007.. android 09.. 1-2 years between them. just think how far android have gone the last year.. give it 2 years and then compare it to iphone 4 in it current state.. well yes i know android is older.. but the initial realse was around 08-09 and IOS june - 07.
and yes.. so far iphone fits those who just want it to work better.. that means ppl not that used to computers etc.
and currently i dont own an iphone but i got a first generation ipod touch.. and yes even that stoneage IOS thing does alot of things better then my S2..
bah but this iphone vs android is getting old its a subject that can go on forever and ever..
well ill stick with my laggy android.. well i've been told by my iphony friends that its laggy.. i just dont see it
vampyren said:
Hi guys,
Any input, tips, tricks are welcome. I really appreciate your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice overview.
IMO S2 is the best phone on the market now. But due to appl's hype, n matter what hardware specs they release, the iphone will always be superior to ANY phone. They could release an iphone with 1st gen hardware, and it will still make more sales than sgs2.
But, slowly more and more ppl are moving towards androi, and apple are losing sales. they even copied bb and android in ios 5..
Also coming from an iPhone 4 to the GS2 I can safely say that I don't miss the iPhone at all which I thought I would.
Having owned a Nexus S in the past and feeling a bit bewildered as there was a lot of stuff within the OS which felt unpolished and unfinished and now 2.3.3 is like night and day for that and it feels much more like a complete OS to me.
@OP give it time there will be a lot of things you can do with your new phone which would require rooting on your iPhone 4
The world of apps and widgets and customization is at your finger tips so jump right in and enjoy
My phone is running ADW Launcher EX with 90% icon dock size, 5x5 grid for homescreen, transparent drawer and miui weather
The only thing you might miss is the app store and iTunes integration (if you use it), other than that the Galaxy S II has it beaten quite comfortably.
@zxz0O0:
OOH that is cool , i think some option about it but didnt think it was what i thought it was nice to have it confirmed. Then this is pretty much what Apple is adding into iOS now with the cloud thing. Pretty cool Android has it already. By the way why do people use program like TitaniumBackup when there is google sync ? is there any limitation to the cloud backup? will all games data, programs data, settings be backed up or just Android OS stuff?
About FW i use the latest i think KE7 i think its called but i read there is a new one coming out next week so hoping for better battery life.
And your last point is something we can debate about for a long time but my view is that if you dont have strict rules developers do what ever they want and can let their app go without update. On the other hand if Google enforce some guideline like having option to install to SD card developers must go by that or their application is removed from market. In the end users will benefit and the platform will grow. But this is my view alone.
@olyloh6696:
I dont think its just hype really. I mean we are comparing a year old phone to SGII here and they are pretty much head to head in most scenarios i tested. But i see your point and i do agree that Android has a charm about it. I love the moving background, i love the whole flexibility to do what you want with the interface. Specially SGII's support for codecs so i dont have to spend 2 day re-encoding all my movies etc. So there are definatley benefits with Android but iOS has the benefit to be easy and working perfectly with the functions it offers from the get go. I think its a matter of preference and more advanced users will move to Android (a bit like me).
@daleski75:
Yupp i think i just need to play with it more and get used to the eco system
I think i will harass Opera developers to fix the formatting thing on the webpages now
Thanks for your input guys, gonna go out and take a walk now, later.
There are also many other good browsers, xscope, miren and dolphin hd to name a few, they all have their own way to format the page and all are pretty good many have different options too for formatting and text wrapping (I believe the default samsung browser also has some options)
also I believe google sync doesnt save all app data (eg angry birds progress is not saved)
That is correct...Google Sync doesn't backup app data (like your Angry Birds scores). This is where Titanium Backup (commonly abbreviated to as TiBu) comes in. It "sort of" does cloud backup (via Dropbox), but its strength really shows when you start installing/changing/updating custom ROMs. Typically, it's used to backup your apps and their data to a folder on your SD card. I can also do some pretty advanced stuff that you probably wouldn't use much (if at all). In my view, the strength is it's ability to deal with batch jobs. For example, before installing a new ROM, I backup all user installed applications (non-protected ones, anyway) with only a couple clicks. Restoring is just as easy, provided you have the paid version (it allows for hands-off batch restore of your apps). Another cool feature it has is "freezing" apps. Say you root your phone and may want to clean some carrier crapware off of it, but aren't *totally* sure. You can freeze those apps...they stay installed and can be defrosted at any time, but they won't be available for use until you do.
Also, I agree with you that a lot of iOS apps are much better than their Android counterparts. I believe this is the case for one main reason: there are tons of people using Android and tons of people on iPhones...you can essentially count on one hand the number of iOS phones Apple has to support, and they are all sold by Apple. Now, look at the number of Android phones and devices and their individual specifications...that makes developing apps for Android pretty complicated. Devs have to take into account different CPUs, memory limitations, and the biggie--SCREEN DIFFERENCES! However, I like being able to run an app developed for a phone on my Honeycomb tablet. Yeah, it may be ugly (not necessarily), but it almost always works! I have a network tool I use that only shows up on about 1/6th the screen of my tab, but I don't care...it still does the job.
Don't forget another important aspect of the Android vs. Apple thing...Apple has control of their devices and their operating systems, and the cell phone carriers don't have control over when Apple releases an update. On the Android side, you have some manufacturers that are prompt with getting an update ready, and those who abandon their devices after they leave the store shelf. Not only that, but those who do release updates, and most do, have to deal with the likes of AT&T and Verizon and everyone else here in the US. Each company wants a ROM customized only for them, and sometimes the manufacturers actually have to pay the cell companies to push out updates. This is what causes the splintering of Android, but openness is what gives it its strengths.
As a general rule, I find that the more "techy" people like the Android OS, since you can customize it and tweak it like crazy. Those who aren't quite as savvy will probably like iOS more (there's less to screw up and they all look the same). Please don't flame me for saying that...it's just a general observation that has many exceptions.
Well that's my two cents. Maybe it will be helpful in some way? <*schrugs*>
Brad
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
There is no practical comparison possible between the mentioned phones.
Appreciate the explanation brad, TB is a nice tool indeed
Just one point, In regard to customization i can pretty do anything also when i jailbreak the iphone which is even simpler then rooting Android and what all techies do anyway with their Android phones
But i agree Android has its charm with the more open eco system.
The 2 area i wish to have before it gets perfect is the browsing and more resolution for the big ass screen (4.3)
After some poking and prodding at my A7+, I was surprised by some of it's short comings. A couple in particular are easily rectified. The following changes require root access and some means of editing your /system/build.prop file (Root Explorer is real nice).
The first problem was that the screen was not as sharp and crisp as I would have expected for a 7 inch tablet running at 1024x600. As someone on these forums pointed out the LCD density is set incorrectly for the display, and that causes some problems with position/size of things in various apps. To fix this you need to change a line in /system/build.prop.
Code:
Default: ro.sf.lcd_density=200
Correct: ro.sf.lcd_density=160
The next problem is that the device reports OpenGL ES 1.1 when queried through the Android APIs, but when queried through the OpenGL APIs it reports OpenGL ES 2.0. This is a kinda big problem if you like playing indie games because few programmers will bother with low level calls when there is a decent framework to take care of that for them (let's them focus on their product instead of the boilerplate under it). To change this so that it reports correctly in the Android APIs you must add the following to the bottom of /system/build.prop.
Code:
ro.opengles.version=131072
The last problem I've not found an elegant solution for. The tablet doesn't seem to want to engage the second processing core unless a program explicitly demands it. The workaround for this is to install System Tuner, go to CPU, and slide the second CPU (left slider) all the way up, it will not keep this setting upon reset, it does keep it through sleep though. It is much more battery intensive with the CPU full engaged like that, so you'll want to kick it back down when you don't need it. One example where this made a huge difference: I was trying to watch a video encoded in x264 hi10p, without the second CPU engaged the video played slowly while the audio played full speed, with the second CPU engaged it played full speed without so much as a stutter.
I'm going to dig into the tablet a bit more now that I have a terminal emulator and ssh server set up on it. If there are power profiles like the stuff I've had to tweak on my laptop, can likely squeeze out a lot more performance with some fine tuning.
eideticex said:
After some poking and prodding at my A7+, I was surprised by some of it's short comings. A couple in particular are easily rectified. The following changes require root access and some means of editing your /system/build.prop file (Root Explorer is real nice).
The first problem was that the screen was not as sharp and crisp as I would have expected for a 7 inch tablet running at 1024x600. As someone on these forums pointed out the LCD density is set incorrectly for the display, and that causes some problems with position/size of things in various apps. To fix this you need to change a line in /system/build.prop.
Code:
Default: ro.sf.lcd_density=200
Correct: ro.sf.lcd_density=160
The next problem is that the device reports OpenGL ES 1.1 when queried through the Android APIs, but when queried through the OpenGL APIs it reports OpenGL ES 2.0. This is a kinda big problem if you like playing indie games because few programmers will bother with low level calls when there is a decent framework to take care of that for them (let's them focus on their product instead of the boilerplate under it). To change this so that it reports correctly in the Android APIs you must add the following to the bottom of /system/build.prop.
Code:
ro.opengles.version=131072
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. The lcd change is really nice- everything is much smaller but fits and looks sharper and cleaner. I saw that same post awhile ago but didn't pay much attention to it. Videos also look better.
I'm going to dig into the tablet a bit more now that I have a terminal emulator and ssh server set up on it. If there are power profiles like the stuff I've had to tweak on my laptop, can likely squeeze out a lot more performance with some fine tuning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really hope you continue to work on this tablet- it definatly needs some work. You should talk to Jam4 over at TR about this. He is making a HC ROM, and I bet he could bake the CPU changes right into the ROM.
I'm new to this stuff but where does the density come from? when I did my own math it seemed closer to 170.
Naidosh said:
I'm new to this stuff but where does the density come from? when I did my own math it seemed closer to 170.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry been busy with my coding projects, so haven't popped into the forums in awhile. If I'm right in assuming you calculated that based on the visible screen space and resolution, you have to consider that screens have a metal trim around the edge which covers a few pixels of width and height on each border. If you dig through the source code that eLocity released, there are padding values in place to compensate for those when rendering to the screen. Almost every display out there does this, LCDs are pretty good about minimal over size, but old CRTs would have as much as 20% of the screen tucked behind the bezel for a nice border.
Unfortunately Niantic contacted me to abort this mod. More info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=42027875#post42027875
TL;DR version: I have created an Ingress app mod, it is awesome and will make you coffee. You can download it below.
OVERVIEW
Hi,
after more than a 2 years of inactivity in the modding field I'm back with a new mod. This time it's Ingress app. I think and hope it'll be much greater and more advanced than Google Maps mod. There are a lot of things to improve and I think some of them won't be ever added by Niantic, so it's a good idea to mod this app.
First I want to clarify I will never add any kind of cheating to this mod. My goal is to make Ingress game more enjoyable, not less. Questions about location faking, items cloning, etc. are not welcome here. I'm serious. Still if you think this mod is a bad thing and/or if you're from Niantic then please read a section about my motivations below and feel free to ask, suggest or criticize. I make it for Ingress players and I'm very interested in their opinions.
DOWNLOAD
First: you do this at your own risk! I'm sure it won't brick your phone, but remember you may be banned by Niantic. My mod doesn't do any kind of cheating behavior, it doesn't do anything that original app doesn't do, but there is always the risk.
Also if you downloaded apk from different site then check sha1 of this file to make sure it's ok. Unfortunately such mods create good opportunity to inject some malware, because users search for an application in the internet and anyone can redistribute it. I sign this app with my own keys, so if you have installed my mod earlier, now you have downloaded newer version from the internet and Android says it has different certificates then don't install it!
"Mute" variant has all sounds removed, so apk is ~2.5 times smaller and most likely it uses less memory.
ingress-1.26.1-broot-0.2.0-mute.apk
SHA1: 976342081c963998f8a6e56b735fe97581ab335f
ingress-1.26.1-broot-0.2.0.apk
SHA1: dce5399802c8f11287a7cf399c1bb5265f8251e2
Older versions:
ingress-1.26.0-broot-0.1.0.apk
SHA1: ea95d8e36324c6c4a175e0cf254cd65a4797049f
If you have original Ingress app installed then you have to uninstall it first. Same if you want to install original app over a modded one.
FEATURES / TODO LIST
I know simplifying and automation of too many things may be considered cheating, so I have divided all features into several categories: from the most "innocent" ones to some smart assistants. As I stated above, if you think some of them are just too much then feel free to write about it. For me features up to 3. category are ok. Category 4. may be controversial and I'm not sure if I want to implement it. I'm glad for your opinions. Some features (e.g. 2.11., 3.7.) aren't actually related to category descriptions, but I "feel" them as category 2., 3., etc.
I don't want to force people to use every modification, I'll try to make them all opt-in, so modded app will work exactly as the original one until you change this in the mod menu. If you see e.g. "Fullscreen" feature below then read it as "An option to enable fullscreen mode".
Below is just a list of features to make it clear. Descriptions, notes, statuses, implementation proposals, etc. are here.
Legend:
green - completed
orange - not sure about it
red - rejected
black - waiting / todo
1. Changes strictly technical and/or 4fun - they don't affect gameplay at all:
UI for small screens, but this is never ending task
Disable some graphics effects to make it less GPU consuming:
portal particles
xm particles
Fullscreen.
Remove globe intro.
Change colors of factions.
Exit confirmation dialog - it's good for low memory devices.
Keep sceen on.
Disable vibrator.
2. UI changes: new screens, shortcuts, etc. - it makes things easier, but it won't do anything for you:
New screen with mod settings, credits, etc.
New inventory screen with items presented as a clear table.
Number of all items in the inventory - it's very important because of items limit.
New portal keys screen.
Remove original items screen.
Shortcuts to various actions from the main screen.
Modify chat to make it easier to read and harder to accidentally send private message to public channel.
Link to portals from system messages in the chat.
Real-time distance to portal on details and upgrade screen - its necessity is obvious to anyone who played Ingress
Additional info about the portals directly on the map screen.
Logging and statistics.
Circles around the player similar to one at 40m - just for better feeling of the distance.
Number of keys on portal info, upgrade and linking screens.
Config: update interval.
Config: maximum scanner zoom out.
Deploy button uses highest available resonator, not lowest.
3. Automation of some more complicated or repetitive tasks - it delegates multi-clicking to the squad of highly trained monkeys, but it won't think for you:
Dropping/recycling multiple items of the same type at once.
Firing multiple XMP
Picking up all items in the range - with above it's very easy to give items to other agents.
Hacking all portals in range - not very useful because of timers
Auto deploy resonators using a template.
Templates specific to a portal.
Other agents presence detector.
4. Smart assistants:
Hacking timers for each portal: both 5m and 4h ones.
Auto hacking portals in range while moving (using timers).
Smart auto-deploy.
XMP damage assistant.
Linking assistant for optimum CFs in a specific area.
Continuous linking assistant.
Bugs:
The maps are gray when submitting new portals or reporting bad ones.
NEWS
v1.26.1-broot-0.2.0 has been released!
2013.05.26
Updated Ingress to 1.26.1.
Added layouts for small screens: Eugene's 1.26.0.20130526
Added mute version - for smaller size and likely smaller memory usage.
Added fullscreen mode.
Added option to disable portal particles and xm particles.
Added restart button - it's useful for reloading UI changes (fullscreen mode, layouts, etc.).
Fixed gray maps problem.
v1.26.0-broot-0.1.0 has been released!
2013.05.22
Initial version.
New screen with mod settings, credits, etc.
New inventory screen with items presented as a clear table.
Number of all items in the inventory.
CREDITS
Eugene Kartashov - layouts for small screens.
Of course Niantic Project for this awesome game!
Thanks!
FEATURES DESCRIPTION AND NOTES
1.5. Change colors of factions.
I did this before and it's kind of cool: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106080343103638200670/posts/a9krpWApjz5
2.4. New portal keys screen.
I have some ideas, e.g.:
keys grouping/tagging
group/tag keys manually or automatically by their location, name, etc.
filters and sorting by: name, distance, level, owner, etc.
, but I think Niantic want to improve keys management, so I wait for their move.
2.5. Remove original items screen.
For now even if you prefer new items screen the original one is still needed to access portal keys. We can wait for 2.4. or at least add an option to limit original items screen to portal keys and rename it accordingly.
2.6. Shortcuts to various actions from the main screen.
I think it's one of the most important additions, so it has to be well designed. I see it as a HUD-like buttons similar to "FIRE XMP" when you long-press on a map, but much smaller, probably square with icons. Things to consider:
toolbar at the top or the bottom of the screen - I think it's better than left/right
fixed with 5-6 icons (4" screen) or scrolling horizontally
fixed icons or customize them and their positions
an option to open a full semi-transparent menu with all available actions
Actions could be:
fire last XMP
fire highest/lowest XMP
fire XMP of specific level
same for power cubes
hack portal - click button then click portal. This way you don't have to enter portal details screen which is faster and you don't lose the map.
link portal - same as above
set target? It's in a long-press menu already, but we can add it here for consistency and maybe to remove long-press menu.
actions from other mod additions
2.7. Modify chat to make it easier to read and harder to accidentally send private message to the public channel.
Current problems are:
is there anyone who has never sent a private message to the public channel? Is there anyone who did this only once or twice?
it's hard to read conversations between agents, especially public ones, because they're mixed up with system messages
I was considering adding some kind of filters to select which types of messages you want to see, but it doesn't fix first problem. Now I think of something else - 4 tabs/channels:
faction - as normal
public - public conversation only, so system messages won't disturb you and you don't accidentally respond [secure] messages
system - you can't send a message here
all - all above, so it's similar to current "All", but you can't send a message here - you have to choose proper channel intentionally. It can have additional filters to select messages to show.
This feature may be hard to do or even impossible, because most probably Ingress server doesn't have API to filter messages as above. Of course I can read "All" channel and filter it on the app side, but it may not be that good.
Also I won't be surprised if Niantic itself will redesign chat in the near future, because it's definitely wrong.
2.10. Additional info about the portals directly on the map screen.
E.g.: level, if you have a key (how many?), etc. It could be customizable and there could be a shortcut to toggle showing this info.
2.11. Logging and statistics.
I love this one I can log all kind of actions like: hacking, attacking, dropping and picking up items and XM, deploying resonators and portal mods, adding custom "snapshot points" to organize above, etc. and then create a lot of various statistics:
how many hacks did you do (faction, enemy, neutral) today, in last week or month?
how many items did you get from these hacks?
what were the levels of hacked portals and items?
how many XM did you get?
how did you spend this XM?
how many resonators did you deploy and what were their levels?
how many resonators did you destroy, how many portals did you capture?
how many links and CFs did you create/destroy, what were their MU values?
which portals do you hack/attack/build most often?
how much time you was playing?
what items did you spend to build up a farm and what items did you get from it?
Statistics could be tabular, graph, pie and very flexible. I'm also considering two things:
sending some of above statistics to my server to create global statistics for all users. It would let us do some research, e.g.: what is the probability to get L7 item from L6 portal, etc. Of course sending these statistics would be fully optional, you would have to enable it by yourself.
optional paid application to read these statistics - in addition to the free one. It could let you remove ads or just say "thank you" (i.e. it would be the same as free one), but I don't want to piss off someone in Niantic. I think it would be fair, because statistics app would be quite complicated and time consuming and there will be free version, but you never know what's the opinion of other people.
What do you guys think about above two things?
3.5. Auto deploy resonators using a template.
Agent can configure multiple templates and choose one of them when doing an auto-deploy. Template could be defined by:
its name
minimum and maximum level for each resonator
prefer lower/higher level for each resonator
Examples:
"Lowest portal" - each resonator set to L1-L8 and prefer lower for all - it's the same as clicking "deploy" 8 times.
"Highest portal" - L1-L8 and prefer higher for all
"Highest <L7" - L1-L6, prefer higher for all
"Standard L4" - L1-L6, L1-L4, L1-L5, L1-L4, L1-L6, L1-L4, L1-L5, L1-L4, prefer higher for all - it's standard 4xL4 2xL5 2xL6 and it'll use lower resonators if you don't have all of them
another "Standard L4" - same as above, but L6-L6, L5-L5 and L4-L4 - it won't automatically downgrade resonators, but warn you about the lack of resonators
Also some templates could be predefined by default.
It won't work well with existing resonators, it won't choose optimal way to upgrade them, but this is how it should be - it's just: "do it using a template", not: "Calculate optimal situation".
3.6. Templates specific to a portal.
Extension to above: sometimes you know that e.g. NE resonator of some portal is harder to destroy, so you want to place highest resonator there. You can create a template specific to a portal, so it won't mess up main list of templates and it will be auto selected when doing auto deploy for this portal.
3.7. Other agents presence detector.
It read system messages log to find the last actions and positions of other agents (actually positions of portals they've built/attacked). This information could be used to e.g.:
show last position and action of specific agent
show a list of nearby agents: allied or enemy
alert if some other agent will show up below specific distance from you
4.3. Smart auto-deploy.
E.g.:
calculate max level of a portal that you can build alone - depending on your inventory and already deployed resonators
deploy minimum number and optimum resonators to get to specific portal level
prioritize excess resonators and save scarce ones
deploy high and low resonators evenly to make attacking a little harder
if upgrading existent resonators, prefer to upgrade ones with low XM
4.4. XMP damage assistant.
E.g.:
approximate damage dealt using specific XMP in current position
calculate the best spot to fire XMP of some level
4.5. Linking assistant for optimum CFs in a specific area.
You select a group of nearby portals, assistant build links and guide you through place to get as many CFs and AP as possible.
4.6. Continuous linking assistant.
You see an icon near the portal if it's possible to create a link(s) from it to create a CF. It let you create this CF with few clicks.
It may be not possible to do, because it would have to scan big area to know if there are a link between remote portals.
MOTIVATIONS AND FEW WORDS TO NIANTIC
As I stated above my goal is to make Ingress game better and more enjoyable for people. If you think it's evil then please read my motivations and explanation below:
There aren't and never will be features for cheating: location faking, sending same action several times, automatic passcode submitter, etc.
As I said above I have divided mod features into categories of different "dirtness level". I focus on "clean" features and I'm open to suggestions or criticism from players or even from Niantic itself.
I don't share my code and I obfuscate it to not make Ingress easier to hack by other people.
A whole game and world of Ingress is about hacking and reading between lines. I think my mod fits this world perfectly. There are some people who leak Ingress app from NIA and there is some guy somewhere in the internet who tries to get even more from it. It makes perfect sense
I think there are many good features that will be never added by Niantic. I see several reasons: statistics won't be added because it doesn't make much sense for storyline. Why NIA would add such feature? Intro skipping or new items screen won't be added because these features prioritize quick access over a nice look. Niantic can't do the same because Ingress would look like a game for nerds. But there are many people who don't care about the look because... they're nerds ;-P
And finally: I won't fight Niantic, so if they don't like my mod and decide to react then there will be no mod anymore.
If you're from Niantic then please think what is the best for Ingress users. If you don't like one or two of my features then I'll remove them and keep the valuable ones. If you still think this mod isn't good and it's a matter of time before you react then please do it sooner, not later. Mod won't be very popular yet, Ingress players won't be disappointed so much and I won't lose a lot of my time
FINAL NOTES FOR USERS
Once more: feel free to suggest new features or changes to existent ones. You can also criticize a whole mod idea. I want to know what do you guys think about it.
If you get a force close then post a logcat and mod version here.
If something doesn't look ok then post a screenshot. I have a 320x480 and 480x800 devices, but I can't test it on 240x320 and >480x800 resolutions.
You can also report language faults in the app or even here. English isn't my native and I often write something that doesn't seem natural even to me. I would be happy if someone would suggest better names or descriptions for configuration options, etc.
Of course you can redistribute this mod, but please don't do that if you don't have a good reason. I just want to know how popular it is. Also if you redistribute it then please add a link to this thread to give users a full context.
If you want to make a donation then link is in my signature, but remember that this mod may be killed by Niantic at any time.
[RESERVED]
[RESERVED2]
Very amazing
I'm gonna try it out on a new account just to be safe, but I love the work and holy cow you did a lot and I can't believe it.
Niantic better sit down and learn some must needed features and options. The globe one for sure
Sent from my MI 2 using Tapatalk 2
Keep up outstanding work. I just installed this mod and I confirm that it works flawless.
I'm looking forward to future updates.
iBotPeaches: I did a lot? But you have noticed that above features list is mostly a TODO and for now there are just new items screen and intro skipping? I'm not sure if this is clear from above posts.
I wanted to release it early to get some ideas from people.... or be banned
What about a nosound version? It reduces the app size and removes the annoying sounds for people that are tired of hearing those squeaks
Please find attached a nosound version prototype.
it will be possible to have screen: "exit. are you sure?" when accidentally using back button?
Brut.all said:
iBotPeaches: I did a lot? But you have noticed that above features list is mostly a TODO and for now there are just new items screen and intro skipping? I'm not sure if this is clear from above posts.
I wanted to release it early to get some ideas from people.... or be banned
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, I thought you did all that stuff that was bolded in the features list Guess I didn't read it well enough.
Hi, on mine HTC Desire it crash suddnly..
EDIT: Reinstalled, work like a charm..
One thing possibly worth pointing out: I think this version will not handle the new push messages, as I believe those are restricted by the certificate used to sign the app. Are you able to confirm this?
Otherwise, very cool work
phyreskull said:
One thing possibly worth pointing out: I think this version will not handle the new push messages, as I believe those are restricted by the certificate used to sign the app. Are you able to confirm this?
Otherwise, very cool work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They do work for me, at least the "@" notifications
Needs further testing.
Jackos said:
What about a nosound version? It reduces the app size and removes the annoying sounds for people that are tired of hearing those squeaks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Usually more variants = more problems, but I think mute version may be worth it. It's almost 3 times smaller and space is crucial on many devices. It might also use less RAM and start up faster, because sfx are usually preloaded into memory. I'll do some benchmarks.
ataru said:
it will be possible to have screen: "exit. are you sure?" when accidentally using back button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, but what for? If you accidentally exit application, you can return to it in no time.
phyreskull said:
One thing possibly worth pointing out: I think this version will not handle the new push messages, as I believe those are restricted by the certificate used to sign the app. Are you able to confirm this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about it. I got comm notification today, but I was using Ingress just moments earlier, so it might be background service, not push. We'll see.
Brut.all said:
Usually more variants = more problems, but I think mute version may be worth it. It's almost 3 times smaller and space is crucial on many devices. It might also use less RAM and start up faster, because sfx are usually preloaded into memory. I'll do some benchmarks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly my point of view
However it's a pity that the app uses this same amount of RAM. It might get better if you remove corresponding baksmali lines, I just removed the sound files.
Brut.all said:
Sure, but what for? If you accidentally exit application, you can return to it in no time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it's because on low ram devices the app gets closed instantly. So a back fail-safe button would save him the app loading time.
Impressions and suggestions
Nice mod!
I am an addicted Ingress player and I really appreciate your work!
The new item tab is awesome!!
I only want you to know that there is a G+ user that is modding Ingress too:
Have a look here.
He did a version even for 240x320 screen.
Maybe you can have a look at his work
I hope you can keep this up to date
Works perfectly!
I'll keep an eye on that, your features list sounds extremely promising!
ingress-1.26.1-broot-dev1.apk
It's muted and should work on all screen sizes. Layouts for 240x320 and 320x480 were created by Eugene Kartashov (thanks!), but I have integrated them into single universal apk. It's just ~0.5MB larger than Eugene's separate apks. I can't test it on 240x320 because I don't have such device. Please confirm if it's ok or not. I'll add fullscreen feature before 0.2.0 release, so upgrade button won't overflow on some devices.
Also I can confirm sounds are loaded on demand, they aren't preloaded, so muted version shouldn't boot up faster. It should take less memory though.
Is there anyone who miss these sounds? As I said I would like to avoid fragmentation and I think muted version is just better.
And if you have 240x320 device then please tell me if new items screen looks ok, especially if you have 100+ items of one type. 320x480 seems to be ok.
[redacted]
Some cool ideas there. A few comments (posted here because I don't see a way to leave feedback on the site):
1) I'd put the Charms bar on press-and-hold of a button, probably Search (which doesn't currently have any Hold action assigned). Double-tapping is an action that literally nothing else on the Windows Phone OS uses, and especially a button that is sometimes capacitive and sometimes physical (depending on phone model) it's not something I advocate adding now. I like the idea a lot, though, especially for its tie-in with Win8. One thing to add to the Charms bar though: as on Win8 (where it shows a bunch of status info when you open Charms), the Status Bar at the top of the screen should be always visible when showing Charms.
2) There's already a way to get to the task switcher; while it's OK to have multiple methods for achieving the same goal, it seems like there might be something more useful to do than duplicating functionality through a more round-about approach.
3) There should be a more visible cue about the notifications center. Either have something drop down from the top (perhaps a "you have <X> notifications" bar with an appbar-like pull indicator?) or add a button specifically for notifications (two-level Charms bar? Move it to the right edge of the screen? Not sure how best to handle that).
4) I know the whole "swipe down to close an app" thing is very commonly requested, and comes from WebOS, and vaguely resembles Win8, and... I still don't know if I want it. Closing an app is pretty close to literally never needed; backgrounded apps are not generally allowed to use any system resources (they may hold onto some RAM, but the system will take it from them if a foreground app needs it). Closing an app the "usual" way - by switching to it if needed, and then tapping Back until it goes away - also works, although it's more actions. My biggest concern would be that right now, it's not really possible to ever do the wrong thing on the task switcher view. Closing an app, though, is a destructive behavior - you lose the app's current state - and is something that would need to be carefully implemented to make sure it never happens by accident... or perhaps make it optional entirely.
5) The Xbox Music feature looks pretty good, although the drop-down switch between Albums/Songs/Artists/etc. might be a bit too... background. Also, the really basic problems of the new UI - things like songs getting duplicated when they exist both on the phone/SD card and on the "Music Cloud" - really need to be addressed. Highlighting the Search thing - I know you mentioned it earlier with global search, but it's good to have more focused search capabilities too - as the current lack of Search in the music app is a Problem.
6) "Windows and Windows Phone share the same store" is way, way more complex than anybody might be realizing. Leaving aside the fact that most Windows Store apps aren't written for the resolution or aspect ratio of Windows Phone and would therefore possibly look kind of crappy if they were usable at all, and the fact that app models of the two OSes are pretty different (for example, Windows Store apps are allowed to request filesystem access and are required to implement the Settings charm, while WP apps have neither of those things), the APIs are just different. WP8 can use a sort-of-subset of WinRT (the API for Win8 apps) but it's not the same thing (and Win8 can't run WP7 apps at all, not even close). Finally, there's the issue that even the most powerful WP8 are half as powerful as even the lowest-end WRT tablets, and that's going to make a lot of things that perform fine on things like Surface RT be unacceptably slow on a Lumia 920 and impossible to run on anything with lower specs.
7) IE11 is coming for sure. The sync feature would definitely be nice. I'd also like to see some version of (desktop) IE's feed reader (shared with desktop Outlook) get integrated into WP8.
8) Integration with photo services, in the same way as other parts of the phone are integrated with Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and so on... that is an excellent idea. Come to think of it, Facebook pictures are already integrated (a feature I never really use) so adding others should definitely be possible. It would be cool if apps could integrate that kind of stuff without explicit OS support, but that may be aiming too high.
Thanks for the good feedback!
Hmmm, concept by who?
that'd be me.
The sync of bookmarks from Desktop IE to WP IE has already been confirmed for a future version of WP. They didn't say which one exactlly so it might take until WP Blue.
I personally don't like the idea of having the icons in the settings - at least not at the end, just looks kinda weird. Perhaps it would work better if you put them in front and aligned them properly on a grid.
Camera settings actually return back to the defaults when you relaunch the Camera App (and didn't save your changes as defaults).
As for the charms bar - I like the idea of a universal sharing and search feature but I don't particularily like the implementation of it with the charms bar on Win8 and I really don't see it work well on WP.
I like it but MS always let's its users down and dismisses the best ideas and concepts. WP will go now where higher that where it currently is now because of MS's ignorance. The next 2 updates for Luminas that includes the Amber and the GR2 or whatever its called don't really bring much to WP at all; who cares about another clock on the screen or data sense? Or more camera tricks...? Really now!!
@sinister1: Does that post really help? Come on, there's no value in just being negative everywhere.
Also, you call Microsoft "ignorant", but I guarantee that they know far, far more about the smartphone market than you do. If you want to be persuasive, you need to come up with arguments that have more substance to them than effectively just calling MS names.
@KlausWidraw: I think I'm with StevieBallz on the suggestion to have the Settings icons be left-aligned; they do make the items easier to identify, but having a consistent horizontal position to look for them at would help. That said, the ability to re-order the options would be huge; I use some all the time (like Cellular, which is annoyingly just off the bottom of my screen) and others not at all (like "lock screen", "tap+send", or "theme") once I've set them up initially, and would like them out of the way to make room for the options that I care about.
GDR2/Amber as well as GDR1 before it and GDR3 after it are mere maintenance releases. No one expects an Update from Android 4.2.0 to 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 to bring major new functionality. No one expects updates from iOS 6.0 to 6.1 to bring major new features. Somehow everyone (contrary to all reporting on those topics) expects those maintenance releases in WP to do just that. Really new functionality will only arrive with WP8.1/Blue and this has been known pretty much since the WP Blue name first appeared in leaks.
GDRs mainly serve the purpose of fixing some bugs and enabling new hardware functionality that is required for device launches. It has been the same with WP7. There were updates like Tango that served to enable LTE. GDR2 now mainly serves to enable the new capabilities that Nokia required for their Lumia 925 and Eos Camera phones and to keep Google Mail usable. GDR1 was mainly bugfixes, GDR3 will enable new hardware like even higher resolution screens.
Amber then is bundled with the GDR2 update rollout but IS NOT a WP update. It is a device specific capability update like we have seen them by all OEMs in the past.
If there are two things I would change about WP (from a user perspective) those are:
1) A clock tile that updates real time, like the HTC one (srsly want one).
2) Battery saver profiles that let me choose what i want to remain active (bluetooth, wifi, mobile data, background tasks)
That's about it.
From a developer point of view, things are very, very different xD
GoodDayToDie said:
@sinister1: Does that post really help? Come on, there's no value in just being negative everywhere.
Also, you call Microsoft "ignorant", but I guarantee that they know far, far more about the smartphone market than you do. If you want to be persuasive, you need to come up with arguments that have more substance to them than effectively just calling MS names.
@KlausWidraw: I think I'm with StevieBallz on the suggestion to have the Settings icons be left-aligned; they do make the items easier to identify, but having a consistent horizontal position to look for them at would help. That said, the ability to re-order the options would be huge; I use some all the time (like Cellular, which is annoyingly just off the bottom of my screen) and others not at all (like "lock screen", "tap+send", or "theme") once I've set them up initially, and would like them out of the way to make room for the options that I care about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for being so negative but this is really how I feel and what's wrong with that? I know that not everyone will agree with my views or me with views of others but my negative feed back is feed back just like positive feed back is also feed back. I'm pretty sure that you have your gripes with other things.
I'm just feed up that devs come up with some of the brightest ideas and MS simply ignores them. Tell me what is so hard for them to open the OS just a little more for people to be creative? Seriously? Now the truth is the best substance. And of course if you still don't agree with me that's okay; I won't hold it against you because those are your opinions and the way you feel. Please don't take any of my rants personal as all they are, my personal opinions.
sinister1 said:
I'm just feed up that devs come up with some of the brightest ideas and MS simply ignores them. Tell me what is so hard for them to open the OS just a little more for people to be creative? Seriously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with you on this one. There are some understandable things for security's sake, but its ridiculous how complicated it is to customize Windows Phone 8 or even WP7. With WP7, you could only have a static lockscreen (ignoring LockWidgets from WPH) and couldn't set a custom text notification sound (besides MS' and HTC's.) I could add a custom ringtone, but it was a pain to do, period. With WP8, its a tad easier. You can just copy and paste ringtones, lock screens are customizable, and alarm can be customized as well, as well as the battery percentage can be pinned to the lockscreen/start screen. But compared to the other 3 platforms (Andriod, iOS, and now discontinued Symbian) could virtually anything could be changed. I remember when the 7.8 Beta was out and there were swapped fonts in the roms. Its something that no one had even thought about modifying until it was an issue.
I do have to say the native apps ability is appreciated, but it seems that Interop is still an issue (except I have no idea how problematic it still is). I do have to say I don't know much of whats been going on, due to jumping ship getting Verizon's Trophy late in the game (like when I first signed up here) and then finally moved to WP8 with their 928. So I'm kinda in the dark as to what has been added from the GDR1, Nokia's supposed Amber update, whats in GDR2, future FM support, ect. I really just wish that MS would be a little more verbal about whats in WP8's updates. They were bad with WP7 and they aren't any better now.
Another feature that MS is completely missing is Xbox Video. Seems stupid for them to say their experience is coherent between all their devices when its clearly not.
Can u guys tell me ....which phones will get windows 8.1 update .????
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
Some people don't like customization.
Customization comes with the cost of performance. I had an android with "customization" and whenever i "customized it" it became really, really, really slow.
In order to even have customization working, the system has to waist a lot of CPU cycles on stuff like checking 1000000000000000 settings to figure out what it should render next, swap a gazillion artifacts from storage to memory etc etc.
I want my phone to do what I tell it to do. I don't give a damn about more customization than it already has, and so are 99% of all windows phone users, whom increase in numbers day by day.
If you are going to give feedback disguised as QQ, then you should head over to microsoft's site and make your voice actually count. You complaining here all day, on a freeking developer/hacker forums, will not help!
Windows 8.1 blue will probably loosen up the developers a bit, if they are going to implement all our suggestions. Which will come for all windows phone 8 phones.
@mcosmin: The conecpt the you trade performance for customization really isn't true. Yes, the phone could eke out a trivial amount of better performance by hardcoding its UI styles, but they don't do that. Things like accent colors, background colors, text styles, etc. are all stored in the registry; you don't have to modify a single line of system code to modify or create themes of your own, and they'll run just as fast. Other forms of customization, such as replacing some of the builtin libraries with custom ones, might be slower in certain circumstances, but only if the custom library either added new features (not just new customizations, but actual functionality that wasn't present before) or is simply very poorly coded. The first of those is a tradeoff, the second is easily fixed if people just share their source code.
@sinister1: It's not that I don't agree with you - I do, in fact, and frequently quite vociferously - I just don't see what value you're adding to this conversation by proclaiming it. This thread is to discuss mockups of UI changes to WP8, not to complain about OS lockdown in WP8 and Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to implement some requested changes.
GoodDayToDie said:
@mscosmin: The conecpt the you trade performance for customization really isn't true. Yes, the phone could eke out a trivial amount of better performance by hardcoding its UI styles, but they don't do that. Things like accent colors, background colors, text styles, etc. are all stored in the registry; you don't have to modify a single line of system code to modify or create themes of your own, and they'll run just as fast. Other forms of customization, such as replacing some of the builtin libraries with custom ones, might be slower in certain circumstances, but only if the custom library either added new features (not just new customizations, but actual functionality that wasn't present before) or is simply very poorly coded. The first of those is a tradeoff, the second is easily fixed if people just share their source code.
@sinister1: It's not that I don't agree with you - I do, in fact, and frequently quite vociferously - I just don't see what value you're adding to this conversation by proclaiming it. This thread is to discuss mockups of UI changes to WP8, not to complain about OS lockdown in WP8 and Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to implement some requested changes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And how many people do you think will be able to do proper customization? Windows Phone shouldn't be Android with squares instead of rounded edge widgets.
And solid colors like the ones WP uses will always be faster than a image on the background, or some sort of gradients or whatever they they propose to have around the phone.
How many people will do "proper" customization? As many as want to. Who are you to say what is or is not "proper" for how I want my phone to look?
Of all the things wrong with Android (the battery drain due to background services not exiting automatically, the more stuttery UI on all but the highest-end phones due to poorer optimization, the ability for malicious apps to send premium SMS completely invisibly to the user, etc.) you choose to pick on the customizations? Nobody is suggesting that we want Android with WP-like tiles; in that case we would have bought Android phones and installed one of the several Metro-style home screen customizations. On the other hand, if I want a Windows Phone with "rounded edge widgets" and am willing to put in the effort to develop them, I see no reason I shouldn't be allowed to.
WP uses the graphics processor for its UI. Those "solid colors" are just textures like any other. A gradient, an image, a partially translucent image... they're all the same to the GPU. The performance cost would be unmeasurably small.
GoodDayToDie said:
How many people will do "proper" customization? As many as want to. Who are you to say what is or is not "proper" for how I want my phone to look?
Of all the things wrong with Android (the battery drain due to background services not exiting automatically, the more stuttery UI on all but the highest-end phones due to poorer optimization, the ability for malicious apps to send premium SMS completely invisibly to the user, etc.) you choose to pick on the customizations? Nobody is suggesting that we want Android with WP-like tiles; in that case we would have bought Android phones and installed one of the several Metro-style home screen customizations. On the other hand, if I want a Windows Phone with "rounded edge widgets" and am willing to put in the effort to develop them, I see no reason I shouldn't be allowed to.
WP uses the graphics processor for its UI. Those "solid colors" are just textures like any other. A gradient, an image, a partially translucent image... they're all the same to the GPU. The performance cost would be unmeasurably small.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not about the GPU.
It's about the CPU. The more complex the image is, the bigger the size, the more time wasted for CPU to process it.
Add to that the fact it needs to purge/load from memory several times a day (in the case of a background wallpaper for startscreen), and the performance loss and battery drain is suddenly no longer unmeasurably small.
You're talking about a difference of microseconds. Not milliseconds, microseconds. Several times a day. And telling me that this is *not* below the noise threshold of any measurement system we have today, never mind human perception?!?
Also, consider people who use apps (with their own tiles, not just system tiles that are mostly blank and therefore rendered as mostly a solid color) on their lock screen. You know, the whole "meet <person>" advertising campaign Microsoft has been running for this OS? Those app tiles take just as long for the CPU to decode and send the texture to the GPU as the customized tiles we're talking about here...
Except, customized tiles aren't even the point. If you don't want to customize your tiles because saving a few millionths of a second per day - a saving which will never amount to a whole second over your entire lifetime, much less that of the phone - you don't have to. The rest of us want features; customization is merely one of those features. It gets a lot of discussion because:
A) It's an obvious feature to have. MS advertises personalization. People like being able to change how things look, be it their clothing or their front yard or their Windows background. For some reason, though, they can't change their Windows Phone background.
B) It's really, really simple to implement. I mean, there are tons of third party apps, some rather sophisticated, to do this. Microsoft doesn't have to jump through the crazy hoops that we did, and they have the documentation on how the OS works as well.
c) It really does not affect performance. There's no cost. Look at the custom themes and custom system tray icons and so forth on WP7, and try telling me with a straight face the percentage by which it impacts performance to use them.
GoodDayToDie said:
You're talking about a difference of microseconds. Not milliseconds, microseconds. Several times a day. And telling me that this is *not* below the noise threshold of any measurement system we have today, never mind human perception?!?
Also, consider people who use apps (with their own tiles, not just system tiles that are mostly blank and therefore rendered as mostly a solid color) on their lock screen. You know, the whole "meet <person>" advertising campaign Microsoft has been running for this OS? Those app tiles take just as long for the CPU to decode and send the texture to the GPU as the customized tiles we're talking about here...
Except, customized tiles aren't even the point. If you don't want to customize your tiles because saving a few millionths of a second per day - a saving which will never amount to a whole second over your entire lifetime, much less that of the phone - you don't have to. The rest of us want features; customization is merely one of those features. It gets a lot of discussion because:
A) It's an obvious feature to have. MS advertises personalization. People like being able to change how things look, be it their clothing or their front yard or their Windows background. For some reason, though, they can't change their Windows Phone background.
B) It's really, really simple to implement. I mean, there are tons of third party apps, some rather sophisticated, to do this. Microsoft doesn't have to jump through the crazy hoops that we did, and they have the documentation on how the OS works as well.
c) It really does not affect performance. There's no cost. Look at the custom themes and custom system tray icons and so forth on WP7, and try telling me with a straight face the percentage by which it impacts performance to use them.
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Click to collapse
Don't compare the WP7 theme mods and stuff like that which were made by hackers that knew what they were doing.
If Microsoft allows this officially on the marketplace, it will be flooded by poor apps.
Anyway, we seem to not be talking about the same thing. We should let it rest.
Can somebody pleasy help me out, I have just recieved my YP2 and I would really like to find a way to control the frequency of the flashing/full screen refresh on the e-ink display as you can do on most kindles. I would like to decrease this/make it as un-frequent as possible. I do understand it will cause ghosting issues.
All help will bbe greately appreciated
Help needed
there must be a simple way to disable the 'full screen refreash' on the EPD? I suffer from a very peculiar form of motion sickness when e-ink screens flash to black and thats why i couldnt use the early kindles.
If anybody can give me any guidance/advice in this regard it would be very helpfull.
Ive done al imited amount of playing about with linux based source codes and was able to fully disable the full screen refresh on my kindle when used as a vnc monitor. Can anybody tell me if this would be dont by playing around with the kernel source code for the yotaphone, or if there is an app that can do this function?
Regards
Things I can answer:
a - no such app exists yet (and given dev interest in this phone is minimal, by all appearances, it doesn't seem likely to be created. The phone is getting close to (if not already there) being low-spec comparatively, so further adoption of this phone by the masses seems unlikely. To me, that's a shame (I use a yp2 as a daily driver, but I keep other phones around as needed (for lte speed for video, proc intensive gaming, etc)))
b - while a sdk for the yp2 exists, it doesn't appear to address low-level epd function (which your request would seem to be). The kernel sources, at least of current date, have yet to be released; whether they ever will be is an open question. It's already difficult getting a large-scale manufacturer to release source, getting a small-scale shop like yota would be even harder for multiple reasons.
I'm sorry the epd in its current state isn't working for you; that's a shame.
(I was super excited by the project ara phone, since it seemed likely that someone would release an epd main screen at some point, so I could switch out between screens as the whim took me; the current plan for ara has dashed my hopes, c'est la vie. I still hold out hope for future epd-screened phones.)
staphoent said:
Can somebody pleasy help me out, I have just recieved my YP2 and I would really like to find a way to control the frequency of the flashing/full screen refresh on the e-ink display as you can do on most kindles. I would like to decrease this/make it as un-frequent as possible. I do understand it will cause ghosting issues.
All help will bbe greately appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no setting for modifying the full screen flash frequency. However, the older Kitkat flashed only when the content of the entire screen changed. The periodical screen flashing was introduced in the Lollipop update. So if you think that would be of any help, you could try downgrading to some older Kitkat.
a- that is a shame as i love the non reflective aspect of the e-ink screen, and it functions quite well for browsing/reading (apart form the refresh for me)
b- where can i find the sdk for this phone?
What is the 'ara phone' you are reffering to?
shogzilla said:
Things I can answer:
a - no such app exists yet (and given dev interest in this phone is minimal, by all appearances, it doesn't seem likely to be created. The phone is getting close to (if not already there) being low-spec comparatively, so further adoption of this phone by the masses seems unlikely. To me, that's a shame (I use a yp2 as a daily driver, but I keep other phones around as needed (for lte speed for video, proc intensive gaming, etc)))
b - while a sdk for the yp2 exists, it doesn't appear to address low-level epd function (which your request would seem to be). The kernel sources, at least of current date, have yet to be released; whether they ever will be is an open question. It's already difficult getting a large-scale manufacturer to release source, getting a small-scale shop like yota would be even harder for multiple reasons.
I'm sorry the epd in its current state isn't working for you; that's a shame.
(I was super excited by the project ara phone, since it seemed likely that someone would release an epd main screen at some point, so I could switch out between screens as the whim took me; the current plan for ara has dashed my hopes, c'est la vie. I still hold out hope for future epd-screened phones.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, was their a noticable difference between the frequency of the flash on kitkat and lollipop?
In order to change back to kitkat will it require me to root my YP2?
Regards
Jeopardy said:
There's no setting for modifying the full screen flash frequency. However, the older Kitkat flashed only when the content of the entire screen changed. The periodical screen flashing was introduced in the Lollipop update. So if you think that would be of any help, you could try downgrading to some older Kitkat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
staphoent said:
a- that is a shame as i love the non reflective aspect of the e-ink screen, and it functions quite well for browsing/reading (apart form the refresh for me)
b- where can i find the sdk for this phone?
What is the 'ara phone' you are reffering to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sdk: on yota's website, developer section (search term: 'yotaphone 2 sdk')
ara: google project, currently specced for release q4 this year, iirc. (search term: 'project ara')
EPD flashing frequency
Hi, I have a similar motion sickness problem. I just got a YP2 and was wondering if you ever figured out how to change the refresh/flashing of the EPD?
Alexey Zakharchenko might help he has produced several apps on the play store
yotaclock+ has a epd screen refresh
contact via play store or [email protected]
hope this helps