Related
The SDK is out, now port it to the TAB!
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/01/android-30-platform-preview-and-updated.html
+1 This would be freaking great!
Sent from Overclocked Galaxy Tab.
It took how long for this request? Lol.
Done we need the source code first?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
mafiaboy01 said:
Done we need the source code first?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
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It is possible to do a largely broken version based on the system image in the emulator folder.
TheGrammarFreak said:
It is possible to do a largely broken version based on the system image in the emulator folder.
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Click to collapse
there is no system image as this is only a platform PREVIEW!
some people CANT read!
Landroid said:
there is no system image as this is only a platform PREVIEW!
some people CANT read!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess by "some people" you meant yourself
The Preview SDK includes:
An early Android 3.0 system image for use in the Android emulator <------- *********
An Android 3.0 library with non-final APIs
A new WXGA emulator skin for an extra large Android Virtual Device
New documentation for Android 3.0, including a complete API reference, new developer guides, and an API differences report between Android 3.0 and 2.3.
From here : http://developer.android.com/sdk/preview/index.html
CPG
Yeap, there is a system image and I already pulled some apps ^^
Edit: The AVD is extremely slow... meeeh..
could someone at least get the browser working on the tab http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=930352
Source still needs to drop!
Same case with gingerbread. It was **** but ran. Once source dropped the magic began.
The launcher won't run with anything but the standard Xoom resolution
sts_fin said:
The SDK is out, now port it to the TAB!
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/01/android-30-platform-preview-and-updated.html
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SIR!!
YES SIR!!
How about a please? Or wait until there's at least some semi-useful AOSP source available, the SDK build is not complete enough to be very useful. If you need to have a play with it, try using the VM in the SDK install.
From the 3.0 Platform highlights taken 'Android 3.0 is the first version of the platform designed to run on either single or multicore processor architectures.'
So I guess no need to leave the Tab behind !!! So I hope samsung will go ahead and deliver us this update!
Just one small story about Samsung, Tab, and Honeycomb...
About Samsung:
I hope that Samsung will port it for me so. Usually this is not normal in the real world, but Samsung will drop 2.3 for Galaxy S what is nowadays and old device, Galaxy Tab is newer and almost the first real, high quality Android tablet. This is clearly a tablet, what Honeycomb made for. The most sold Android phone is the Galaxy S and the most sold Android tablet the Galaxy Tab (with the totally agreements of problems about Samsung made this device before Google made the correct platform for it...), so nowadays the Samsung brand itself is very very strong and not just about the last years productions but these 2 products (real!)! So I think Samsung could make a 'small suicide' step if they forgot this device and forgot their users. They promised nothing, but could be a very negative echo about Samsung if they leave this device in the past, without any development.
About Honeycomb:
That is really not need hardcore hardware. The only real hw requirement is the strong video performance, but this is almost just for the new stock homescreen application. The lot full OpenGL handled screens and effects really need strong graphic performance, but Galaxy Tab in this case is not weak! For such situations the GFX performane is enought I think. The dual core CPU is just one very good addon, to make faster everything and make the device as one real device from the future, but for normal works the current hardware is enought. If Samsung dont want to overload the Tab then just need to leave out the new 'home'. For tabbed browsing the current RAM capacity is need to be enought. The device will not as fast as Xoom, but who care? Just leave out the needless plus features and give to the user the Honeycomb base with new browser, new gmail client, new settings, etc, etc... these are not power hungry things. One brand new device will better that Tab, but anyway we could use almost enything, and Samsung could make their brand more strong with hype and satisfied users of Tab as they do with Galaxy S.
Conclusions:
New Samsung devices? no problem, they will better, people will buy them, cause the new OLED screen, some new features, faster and harder hardware... but Tab could use Honeycomb as from this aspect it need nothing extra, and as a real tablet it need the OS what handle it in such way without any over glitches.
I hope Samsung will make a right decision, because there is no any real problem (nor technical nor business like) behind it!
Hi,
And please Samsung! Read my previous post!!!
eboIa said:
About Samsung:
*snip*
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You are completely true about this Samsung will push out the Tab2 in 16 days at the MWC2011 press event. If the tab is going to get the 3.0 its going to be the last update for the device. Also the Galaxy S is going to get its killing blow in 16days since the Galaxy S 2 is also comming out there.
Yes as you wrote, Samsung will drop the 2 new device to make new strong apperiance in the global market with the new devices, developments, etc... new user will buy them of course, some old user will sell the old products, and buy a new one but far from all. 2.3 for SGS will the latest as your wrote, and I hope that 3.0 will also the latest for SGT, its not bad, this is the only needed. With it Samsung will get strong user satisfactions, old users could boost the global brand loyality. I dont want Android 7.0 on these devices... theses versions is more then enought for this products, and this not sign that I will never buy a new Android device... more over... I will buy just not now (if Samsung leave me alone, I will never buy Samsung 'mobile' again, and this is true for lot of people), and if Samsung will go on this way I will buy one Samsung again... 6 month ago I hate Samsung with their software developments for SGS, now, currently, I like them, because they have enought power on software development to make themself one of the best. There are problems? where not? If Samsung could reach user satisfactions, with the current sw, hw developments they could be the largest company in this busines. The target is it, I think.
Just drop the new devices what will shine, if I were in situatuions to buy a new device, without hesitate I could buy them. There are lot of people in the word who just wait to these products... and there are some others as me, who bought the first device to simply satisfy, and we were those user who make stronger the reputation of Samsung. Is it problem to make me available Honeycomb? Don't thing so. But of course Samsung could use a wrong receipt, hope that will not!
YES I can taste the honeycomb anytime soon...
I found this device. It is a full PC with an ARM Brodcome 700MHz CPU, 128 or 256 MB of ram and it is going to cost 25/35$. It is designed to run Linux (Debia,Arch,Fedora and more)
I was just wondering if it is possible to run Android on it. The possibilities are endless.
raspberrypi.org
I saw your post and i am quite amazed why none of the guys said anything about Raspberry Pi .I am waiting the time to buy a few of them ,maybe 2 or 3 .If you search the ebay you can see they sell the beta raspberry boards and the price now is too high from the bids..Official site http://www.raspberrypi.org/
This is the third thread I have seen about Raspberry Pi.
You should search before spamming.
I'd love to team this up with a touch screen and see what we could build. Seems like for ~$60 you could have a dedicated android appliance for all types of things!
killall said:
This is the third thread I have seen about Raspberry Pi.
You should search before spamming.
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Click to collapse
Not when I opened this thread. I used the search several times to be shoure that my question haven't answered before. I have seen pi mentioned in some threads.
crhylove said:
I'd love to team this up with a touch screen and see what we could build. Seems like for ~$60 you could have a dedicated android appliance for all types of things!
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Yes this is one way to go an inexpensive hand made tablet although it would cost more then 60$
If you give 35$ for the Pi and then another 15-20$ for the sd card you allready have 50-55$ and unfortunately the touch screen without multi touch costs over 80$ .If you know anywhere to buy cheaper please inform me .
Will it run Crysis?
DirkGently said:
Will it run Crysis?
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Does your phone?
I just ordered a replacement screen for my Dell streak that was $35. It's a great little screen with responsive touch. Not sure how to connect it to VGA or hdmi or whatever though...
Been following this for a long time, and looks like a great idea! Nice idea about putting android on it, but linux would be cool too!
seems like cool product to buy. If it runs linux its fine by me and the interesting point of installing android on it is also nice
hey
This thread is the longest, so i will post here.
manufacturing of the first 10 000 units has begun....
[linkie]
i'm mightygoose on the boards over there too.
Super cheap Google TV implementation?
I'm going to start trying to get this running as a Google TV as soon as I get one. This is a perfect platform for it.
The way I would like to use pi
I would like to see android for this little board, who needs touch if you plan to use it on a tv or larg format display. Just give me an android build that can use a mouse with, like android x68. I have seen a youtube vid of android x86 used on netbooks. I just think that would be great; too bad we cant get them retail yet but we will have it soon, then i hope to see lots of development for this great toy.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
looks like they have a release date of February 20th.
Reading on the Raspberry Pi website it has been revealed that in can be run on 4 X AA Batteries, not really sure how long it would last though.
Also with regards to the small touchscreen, they're not as exspensive as you would imagine, I have already purched a controller for an LCD Screen I salvaged from an old P4 Prescott Laptop, encased them both in a Pine frame and have a very cheap 15.6" LCD PC Monitor.
Take a look here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/njytouch/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
And finally on the original topic of porting Android onto the raspberry Pi you can't use Android-x86 as the Broadcomm chip doesn't support the X86 Architecture - help is at hand though as they have released a datasheet to help people port software onto the Pi.
Copied from RaspberryPi.org = "There’s another big piece of news today. We’ve been leaning (gently and charmingly) on Broadcom, who make BCM2835, the SoC at the heart of the Raspberry Pi, to produce an abbreviated datasheet describing the ARM peripherals in the chip. If you’re a casual user, this won’t be of much interest to you, but if you’re wanting to port your own operating system or just want to understand our Linux kernel sources, this is the document for you. You can download a PDF here. Huge thanks to Gert, JamesH, Gray and Dom for, once again, going above and beyond for us. We really appreciate it."
Download Link for the PDF: http://dmkenr5gtnd8f.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/BCM2835-ARM-Peripherals.pdf
Best Regards.
leba837 said:
And finally on the original topic of porting Android onto the raspberry Pi you can't use Android-x86 as the Broadcomm chip doesn't support the X86 Architecture - help is at hand though as they have released a datasheet to help people port software onto the Pi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't Android already running on ARM Cortex Ax or am I missing something?
Me likes very much
This should be awesome, as I'm interested in getting one too
Sent from my U8800 using xda premium
Raspberry PI officially released
After looking at Android's fragmentation, the pain that one has to go through for every damn update is really getting to me! Google has really screwed this one up big time...its funny to even see the number of different screen sizes, hardware configurations android is being used. No standardization makes it a nightmare for developers to write applications that are consistent. Its hard to imagine that google has been so short sighted!
Asus is surely a brilliant company to have come out with a great tablet (and their newer tabs are kick ass too at great price points). But its really bothersome if I'm always in some sort of dependence on the manufacturer to release OS updates - this is just plain crazy! If Google's aim of ICS was to converge all devices to use the same OS, then why aren't they supporting manufacturers or insisting on all manufacturers to push out an update?
To start things, Google has really messed up their long term roadmap with fragmentation issues...and I would expect a company of that scale to atleast put in some sort of contractual commitments with all its manufacturing partners to roll out updates to its customers within a given timeline.
Here is what I would expect Google to have implemented yesterday, if they really need to retain popularity towards Android and keep it growing -
1. No more fragmentation moving forward. Standardization of screen resolutions, minimum performance requirements, ram, storage requirements etc.
2. Device manufacturers must commit to issuing software updates within some timeline from when google has an update.
3. Manufacturers dont decide if the update can run on their device or not - it must be google who decides this, and should be decided based on hardware specs
Now with Windows 8 on the horizon, I would definitely wait it out and move over to a Windows 8 based tablet. Knowing Microsoft, they're perhaps the only company who invests a lot of time and thinking in getting things right. It shows clearly from their development tools/platform, their emulators, clean implementation rather than an iterative approach etc.
Last android tablet for sure! And I'm hoping windows phone 7 will mature too, and its windows 8 variant should be a lot more promising. Thats when I would phase out my Galaxy S and head back to MS
What are your thoughts people?
cheers,
San
dreamtheater39 said:
Knowing Microsoft, they're perhaps the only company who invests a lot of time and thinking in getting things right.
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Click to collapse
haha, you made my day XD ...btw. throwing the word "vista" into the ring ^^
coming to win8. i just read an article today that the arm version of windows is most likely not able to run desktop programs. asuming that: WOOOOOW, Windows 8
If you prefer a monolithic OS to the liberty you get with Android that's your choice.
Personally, I do not. I do not like being locked into one vendor who gets to decide how I use my device.
I like having a choice between a smartphone, a 7", 8.9", 10.1" or even 11.5" tablet, or even a laptop that I can run the same OS (Android) on.
I love the Transformer. I have one device that is truly a tablet and, with root, also serves the full functionality of a laptop. What can Windows offer me that does this? What can iOS offer me that can replace my Transformer?
And that's besides the fact that with a Windows device I'm stuck with an OS that I am familiar with the shortcomings of, and unable to do anything about. Or with iOS that, again, no one can fix but the manufacturer (if they feel like it).
Yes, fragmentation of the Android platform is a bit of a problem. The Market addresses this, somewhat, by only showing software you can install on your device. Most Android devs are sensitive to their customer's needs and a polite email is frequently responded to positively, and usually with a fix in short order.
Frankly, I consider the fragmented markets (GetJar, Market, Amazon App Store, etc) to be a far larger problem than fragmentation of the OS, and I don't consider that to be anywhere close to a large problem.
Hmmm my thoughts
1. They have set an agreement with there partners. A new timeline that they must update devices within a set life span for a device think it was around a year and a half have a google on it. (p.s year and a half aint bad considering how fast mobile tech is moving)
2. It should not be a problem for devs to write apps for ics and the differences in hardware are accounted for
3. ms well thought out vista ms dos longhorn??? ms dos was not future thinking and very short sighted especially in terms of ram!!!!!! if anyone remembers vista was a plain mess!! and longhorn didnt even meet the public. Not to mention the many other flaws or screw ups (anyone remember xp early days it was hackers heaven)
4. At its roots android is linux google the track record for updates and security between ms and linux then whie you're at it google how many servers in the world run linux compared to ms
5. The biggest flaw of all ms was a single user platform a pc the first pc they now want to make it multi user and move toward cloud computing etc etc linux has been doing this for years so inherantly android can do the same ms on the other hand is having to kick there own ass so hard bills teeth have been replaced with hes toe nails
6. I like win 8 and 7 for one reason gamming and a couple programs i just cant get otherwise but as soon as i can do these things elsewhere or linux based i will.
You do have good points but i just wanted to step in as the other side of the coin.
Sent from my tf Enigmatic V2 beta 1.65Ghz Panda.test cust kernel settings
If you really want to be assured you can run everything on every device I suggest you look at Apple. The iPad will continue to be the dominate tablet for years to come and then you can be assured that everything will be packaged nicely and controlled in the manner decreed in Cupertino.
Open source means a trading a messier support structure for more innovation, and is not for everyone.
blestsol said:
Just leave please and get your ipad.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Enough said, whining isn't usefull here.
Seriously what do you want us to say? Good writting nice information, thanks for the info!!
I mean wtf?
Reported the thread.
Klau you do relise where XDA stands for and what the DEVELOPERS word means behind it?
XDA is for developing and helping people when they want to use costum roms or other non officeal related subjects
If you are unsatisfied with a device use the offical forum of ASUS, thats the right place!
Are any of the responses written by a mod?
So since when did everyone get appointed the responsibility to decide what is allowed to be discussed on this board, which isn't even the developer forum, it's on the general forum.
If you don't think the topic is relevant to you, just don't enter it. Let the mod do their job.
---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 AM ----------
blestsol said:
Ooc, you don't agree of disagree... Why you responding? People use words wrong so much... Fan boy? Man you reaching. Foh. You sick of something ignore it and take your own advice. Dip from the thread. Simple ass that for your simple ass.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn to read, I said if you disagree, state your reason.
I've stated my reason of disagreement regarding the unfriendly atmosphere of this board.
You're grasping at straws that don't exist look who's reaching lol
klau1 said:
Are any of the responses written by a mod?
So since when did everyone get appointed the responsibility to decide what is allowed to be discussed on this board, which isn't even the developer forum, it's on the general forum.
If you don't think the topic is relevant to you, just don't enter it. Let the mod do their job.
---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 AM ----------
Learn to read, I said if you disagree, state your reason.
I've stated my reason of disagreement regarding the unfriendly atmosphere of this board.
You're grasping at straws that don't exist look who's reaching lol
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Click to collapse
I didn't disagree. My post said what I meant. What he was describing is what ios can give him. Please show where my fan boy thoughts are though. In my short sentence.
I'll wait for that though.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
silversx80 said:
Oh, the irony :
Here's the thing, the OP is an open-ended criticism on things the android community praises about the android platform. Praising those things does not make one a fanboy, nor does calling one a fanboy render an ages-old demotivational poster anything less than a sophomoric response in the hopes that a chuckle will sway the reader over to your point of view.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, face palm has always been my actual sentiment about the responses here, and pictures help prevents a large post from getting ignored.
silversx80 said:
Someone criticizes the platform as a whole, one which others really enjoy (including myself), and makes the declaration that they're moving over to another, which is much better. Their assessment is based only on opinionated observations from their point of view, which is hardly an inconvenience to anyone else. Of course they're going to get a "get the f*ck out" response, and deserve nothing less. It's like when the Christians invaded the Turks and tried to convert the entire group of people.
It brings up the ages-old motherly line of wisdom: If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.
There is nothing wrong with desiring something that is better for your uses, but use that as a premise. Don't start by lambasting the opposition, especially when you know what the system is about and you know the offerings of the competition. Some people may actually enjoy the things you don't.
In my opinion, ALL of the devises and software are AMAZING when you consider what the all do.
Instead, we get a bunch of non-contributing, product-zero, whiny little girls. You know what, that's fine; next time you think of complaining, go make your own. As soon as yours is better, then you can complain about other offerings.
Until then, STFU and GTFO.
P.S. If android will be more successful as a standardized platform, we'll see it move that way. I write that with reservation, as android is currently the #1 mobile platform in the world, so they must be doing something right... much to the chagrin of the OP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look, every reasonably intelligent person understands trade-off exist. Simply one comes to mind:
can a "God be powerful enough to create a rock so heavy that even it can't lift it?"
Usability comes at the expense of functionality, everyone should understand that.
But people forget that sometimes, not a big deal, just explain it to them instead of acting like an internet bully. That doesn't help your point across.
silversx80 said:
It brings up the ages-old motherly line of wisdom: If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.
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Click to collapse
Just because you disagree with the OP doesn't mean it was not "nice" or offensive
lol's were had reading this thread.
klau1 said:
Just because you disagree with the OP doesn't mean it was not "nice" or offensive
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Click to collapse
Dude, basically what he did was akin to going over to VW Vortex, complaining about all the reasons why his little 2.5 Golf was not like the current offerings from Toyota, and said that when the new Hondas come out, he's getting one of those.
There is no purpose in his post other than to demean and criticize. There is nothing productive, nor contributory about it. No, I didn't have to read, nor post, but I felt compelled.
If someone want's to leave for a better personal option, that's fine. If they want to make a scene and flip the table on the way out, then they shouldn't expect a positive reception to their announcement.
As much as I hate Apple, I do think that progress requires contrast. What do I mean? We need a solidified company like Apple that keeps pushing the same standard but slightly better (that's like peer-reviewed science). We need a looser society of innovators like Google's associates who play around at the edges of what we expect at the moment (who are like fringe scientists, some contribute great genius ideas, and some who completely **** it up). For me, I like the fringe scientist; I understand the need for peer-review, but I think I'll stick with Android for at least the next tablet too.
A WARNING FROM THE MODERATOR
A WARNING FROM THE MODERATOR
Play nice..........
talk nice ........
Or you will be banned.......
And I will close the thread
To those who reported this bad behavior, thank you
Keep it civil, Folks
Thanks ~ oka1 Moderator
Did they demo a Windows 8 ARM device at CES? I am very curious as to how Windows 8 will perform.
This is a very interesting project that could either excel if developers jump onboard, or crash horribly if developers reject the idea of Windows on ARM.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Interesting feedback from all you guys!
Just to clear things out, from where i come from -
-I've always loved android for the flexibility it gives me. I've always made custom roms, modded the hell out of every device i've ever had, starting way back from the Pocket PC days! Android - seemed like the most perfect option for me.
-I've always stayed away from Apple, for a myriad of reasons - they dictate everything, and i hate that. And also, i hate being in the bucket of half wit fanboys who bought one just to be "cool"
-I work for one of the biggest game companies, and i'm responsible for technology direction for smartphones, tablets. So, let me tell you what this looks like from a developer's view point -
A game is always written for iOS first - reason being, the platform is standardized in terms of display resolutions, hardware capabilities. Testing effort is extremely low in comparison (you dont have to test on a 100 devices!)
You have only 2 aspect ratios to deal with - phone & tablet. And you know that your game will run on all the iphones and ipads floating in the world. So this makes it easy from development & testing points of view. And this is the reason why games are "always" developed for iOS first.
Now the fun begins - once the game is done and is out on iTunes, there are large conversion teams which takes care of getting it to run on android phones and tablets. You have to see the hardware inventory we have here - so manyyyy android phones and tablets - and all of these have to be tested to give it a QA greenlight. Even when devices have the same hardware specs, each device behaves differently at times because the manufacturers have written different drivers specific to the device!
And then now, we have honeycomb and ICS - the screen has a static status bar in the bottom which takes away 48 pixels from your screen! Suddenly, your game needs to factor odd resolutions of 1280x752, 1232x800, 1024x552, etc etc. This means - redesigning all your game menus, UI, dialogs so that they dont leak out of the screen - crazy load of work! And then - you can have ONLY ONE APK to support ALL THESE resolutions and hardware configurations!
And then finally to top it all, you have several different market places, custom roms to test on, devices that the developer blacklists because of incompatibility - bypasses blacklisting on the market place because of a custom rom/hack...and he ends up playing the game giving us bad ratings!
The list is endless! I really feel this should not be the case for such a huge platform coming from a really big ass company! Honestly, i feel android made it big because it came in at the right time when the hardware side of things was at a great level - allowing them to give super slick graphics. And they had no other competition (windows mobile was too old, and the other was just iOS). They just got lucky, went without a clear plan - and iteratively refined and fixed things.
Atleast now, I feel Google should really accelerate its efforts towards some form of convergence. Look at the variance that a developer needs to take care of - different hardware configs/specs (ram, storage, processor!) - performance wise, different screen resolutions (a 100 different combinations! literally!), custom roms/modding, different manufacturer driven hardware/software customization, a zillion different OS versions, and so on. All this has to be factored, and we can have only 1 apk! And then finally, the provided android emulator that they provide - is soooo damn sorry, its not even funny. The emulator is literally like a slide show on my really powerful desktop - forget trying to use the built in emulator for developing games!
At the end, the platform lives because of the number of developers who support it. If customers dont have newer and better experiences coming - they would shift boats - its as simple. Making it harder for developers is just shooting yourself in the foot!
-San
dreamtheater39 said:
At the end, the platform lives because of the number of developers who support it. If customers dont have newer and better experiences coming - they would shift boats - its as simple. Making it harder for developers is just shooting yourself in the foot!
-San
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Click to collapse
I have a huge problem with this statement, and pretty much the rest of your post. They are not a valid presumptions.
First, the developer and platform support each other. The platform does not live because the developer supports it... I'd argue that it's the other way around, but still a 2-way street. Without the platform, the developer cannot develop.
Second, games from the big developers may be released on iOS first, and some may be released on Android first. Without references, your statement in invalid. If you're only referring to your company, then specify that.
Third, screen resolution (and other oddities) may be a contributing factor in some app developers not bringing iOS apps to Android, but the vetting process of the Apple App Store discourages other developers from even trying to release anything onto iOS. Some devs don't even want to program things for iOS based on principle (and visa versa).
Fourth, the whole reason big mobile-platform app developer companies exist is to make money. Why alienate more than 50% of the market because of screen resolution? That would be lazy and counter-productive to profits.
Fifth, one could argue that it's not the big-time devs who got each platform off the ground, but the small-time devs, who released their apps for free. It wasn't the gaming capabilities that sold Android and iOS early on; that's a very narrow perspective.
Sixth, Android isn't being shot in the proverbial foot by different market places, those particular devices may be. The Nook and Kindle Fire come to mind, but keep in mind that those were sold on the premise that they're electronic readers first, that happen to run a modified version of Android.
I feel that you're upset over Android making it harder for you to earn a paycheck. I understand the challenges involved, but I think you're not looking at the big picture.
I moved to Windows Mobile phones from Palm devices because I wanted better synching with my computer, use of the .Net framework, and ease of customization ability. Turned out that WM was not intuitive on my early phones.
I moved from WM to webOS. Loved it. It was intuitive, smooth and reliable. Customization wasn't very easy, but I didn't care. Also, it had support of the big app developers and had some pretty good games too. Unfortunately, it didn't have support of the small-time app devs because of the difficulty writing apps for it. Where is it now?
From there, I knew that webOS was going to be short-lived, so I moved to Android. No, it's not as stable as iOS or webOS, but it is still a great OS. Small devs can get a chance in the app market, along with big-time devs who write cross-platform.
Windows 8 may be a great platform, but the big picture is that there is no cult-following for Microsoft as there is for Apple. What they need to do is give potential-customers options. Those options need to range from inexpensive, to top of the line. Different hardware, in other words (a nightmare for devs). If they don't, and since they don't have a die-hard following, I suspect it wont gain as much ground as Android did, or even webOS.
Apple has a good customer base, and knows what that customer wants. It's an easy sell. Windows customers are far too diverse and can't accept a blanket-type device range to cover all the wants and needs like Apple customers can. Android addresses those customers by providing options because it's an open architecture. Fragmentation sucks for the devs, but the user doesn't care because the typical user only has one device. Those users are why the devs exist at all.
To sum up, I think three things:
1. Your assessment of Android's shortcomings are somewhat short-sighted and not applicable to the big picture. The user wants the experience of the phone, not the apps. Apps are just noise now, with hundreds doing the same thing.
2. Your arguments are falling on deaf ears, or ears that cannot do anything about your complaints (i.e. I don't think Android's authors are reading this thread with much merit).
3. Your arguments would be better suited in the iOS, or Windows 8 sub-forums.
I was thinking about the horror of all the different Android devices when looking at them from a Dev's point of view (which I am NOT) so I appreciate your openness and insight.
The main reason why I will stay away from an iOS tablet for a long time is simply that the interface on a tablet needs to be more flexible than simply arranging icons to start apps. In other words, as long as iOS does not support widgets there's no appeal to me to buy an Apple tablet. Very narrow-minded, I know. Having an iPh*one (3GS) is not optimal but I am still waiting for an Android phone that intrigues me and is NOT linked to VZW.
dreamtheater39 said:
Interesting feedback from all you guys!
Just to clear things out, from where i come from -
-I've always loved android for the flexibility it gives me. I've always made custom roms, modded the hell out of every device i've ever had, starting way back from the Pocket PC days! Android - seemed like the most perfect option for me.
-I've always stayed away from Apple, for a myriad of reasons - they dictate everything, and i hate that. And also, i hate being in the bucket of half wit fanboys who bought one just to be "cool"
-I work for one of the biggest game companies, and i'm responsible for technology direction for smartphones, tablets. So, let me tell you what this looks like from a developer's view point -
A game is always written for iOS first - reason being, the platform is standardized in terms of display resolutions, hardware capabilities. Testing effort is extremely low in comparison (you dont have to test on a 100 devices!)
You have only 2 aspect ratios to deal with - phone & tablet. And you know that your game will run on all the iphones and ipads floating in the world. So this makes it easy from development & testing points of view. And this is the reason why games are "always" developed for iOS first.
Now the fun begins - once the game is done and is out on iTunes, there are large conversion teams which takes care of getting it to run on android phones and tablets. You have to see the hardware inventory we have here - so manyyyy android phones and tablets - and all of these have to be tested to give it a QA greenlight. Even when devices have the same hardware specs, each device behaves differently at times because the manufacturers have written different drivers specific to the device!
And then now, we have honeycomb and ICS - the screen has a static status bar in the bottom which takes away 48 pixels from your screen! Suddenly, your game needs to factor odd resolutions of 1280x752, 1232x800, 1024x552, etc etc. This means - redesigning all your game menus, UI, dialogs so that they dont leak out of the screen - crazy load of work! And then - you can have ONLY ONE APK to support ALL THESE resolutions and hardware configurations!
And then finally to top it all, you have several different market places, custom roms to test on, devices that the developer blacklists because of incompatibility - bypasses blacklisting on the market place because of a custom rom/hack...and he ends up playing the game giving us bad ratings!
The list is endless! I really feel this should not be the case for such a huge platform coming from a really big ass company! Honestly, i feel android made it big because it came in at the right time when the hardware side of things was at a great level - allowing them to give super slick graphics. And they had no other competition (windows mobile was too old, and the other was just iOS). They just got lucky, went without a clear plan - and iteratively refined and fixed things.
Atleast now, I feel Google should really accelerate its efforts towards some form of convergence. Look at the variance that a developer needs to take care of - different hardware configs/specs (ram, storage, processor!) - performance wise, different screen resolutions (a 100 different combinations! literally!), custom roms/modding, different manufacturer driven hardware/software customization, a zillion different OS versions, and so on. All this has to be factored, and we can have only 1 apk! And then finally, the provided android emulator that they provide - is soooo damn sorry, its not even funny. The emulator is literally like a slide show on my really powerful desktop - forget trying to use the built in emulator for developing games!
At the end, the platform lives because of the number of developers who support it. If customers dont have newer and better experiences coming - they would shift boats - its as simple. Making it harder for developers is just shooting yourself in the foot!
-San
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the name of the game was resolution independence, designing your UI's without depending on absolute values but rather relative values and taking into account resolution size, using DP measurement units instead of PX. The last time I worked on an app was a while ago but even then the app scaled fine from something as small as a Droid 2 to something as large (was large at the time) as a Nook Color or a Galaxy Tab.
So are you saying Apple has it better because they only have two screen sizes? Who cares if there are fifty different screen sizes and fifty different resolutions? If you design your UI and your app correctly with resolution independence in mind it should scale well to most if not every resolution and every aspect ratio shouldn't it?
Even when devices have the same hardware specs, each device behaves differently at times because the manufacturers have written different drivers specific to the device!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you referring to certain things like how device GPU's vary and therefore certain texture compression methods in OpenGL for example only work with ATI GPU's and not PowerVR GPU's and vice versa?
I do agree that fragmentation exists but only between Android versions such as those running 1.5, 1.6, 2.2, 3.0, 4.0, etcetera but you can deal with this. I doubt they'll standardize hardware. Maybe screen sizes, maybe screen resolutions but manufacturers are there to make money, not play equal to every other manufacturer. If HTC wants to release a better phone with a better resolution to make more money Google isn't going to tell them to do otherwise. The only reason this is different with Apple is because Apple is the only one making hardware for their iOS so there are no companies fighting over each other for profits. They can control the whole platform. Obviously with Android you have multiple hardware manufacturers and they're not all part of the same company, they're looking to make profits over each other and that means devices have varying features. That's just how Android is unless Google makes their own devices and restricts Android to Google devices.
I think I would like the idea of uniformity better too, not as strict as Apple but certain things being the same across all vendors. We're heading that way in a sense since Google is requiring all ICS devices to support the Holo theme. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future we get more restrictions from Google but as for forcing manufacturers to make certain hardware? That I truly doubt. Google has made it possible to work with different devices by allowing you to query for different device features such as checking for a keyboard or a trackball or an accelerometer, use resolution independent practices such as DP measurements and relative positioning, it's not as bad as it seems IMO.
different hardware configs/specs (ram, storage, processor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So? What developer hasn't had to deal with this on virtually every system developed on since the origin of computing? Because Apple managed to create an illusion that this is irrelevant by making a handful of devices with fixed hardware and therefore only having to achieve acceptable performance on those devices? Make the decision to alienate those who don't fit the requirements. Alienating a certain group from support isn't going to be the end of the world. Games are sure to use Tegra 3 and those without Tegra 3 devices might be assed out if the game can't scale down. The world continues...
Tubular said:
I thought the name of the game was resolution independence, designing your UI's without depending on absolute values but rather relative values and taking into account resolution size, using DP measurement units instead of PX. The last time I worked on an app was a while ago but even then the app scaled fine from something as small as a Droid 2 to something as large (was large at the time) as a Nook Color or a Galaxy Tab.
So are you saying Apple has it better because they only have two screen sizes? Who cares if there are fifty different screen sizes and fifty different resolutions? If you design your UI and your app correctly with resolution independence in mind it should scale well to most if not every resolution and every aspect ratio shouldn't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, a lot of work is done to make things resolution independent. But this is not always easy when you want to have some really complex games designed which is heavy on 2D UI. Full screen dialog boxes, Floating UI options etc. are all part of many big game titles developed and ends up being incredibly hard to port across multiple resolutions/aspect ratios. Try looking at some of the user reviews on games - people complain about the smallest of things and randomly throw in a 1 star rating. For a development company, ratings are everything. If your app gets low ratings, it goes unnoticed and thereby killing your chances of earning decent revenues for breaking even - let alone profitability! The cost of development goes up due to higher requirements for development & testing (multiple devices and other fragmentation issues).
Are you referring to certain things like how device GPU's vary and therefore certain texture compression methods in OpenGL for example only work with ATI GPU's and not PowerVR GPU's and vice versa?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Several things here - PVR textures, many open gl calls behave differently on certain devices - for instance the filtering doesnt work as expected on the samsung line of devices because they have their own driver tweaks applied, some devices crash out on a minor opengl warning, while the other devices ignore and continue to run etc. The point here is, you cant see it running on 1 "TYPE" of device which represents a family (same res, performance specs) and assume it will run on the rest. You can release and iteratively respond to user feedback - but you risk getting low ratings and then your game gets buried under.
So? What developer hasn't had to deal with this on virtually every system developed on since the origin of computing? Because Apple managed to create an illusion that this is irrelevant by making a handful of devices with fixed hardware and therefore only having to achieve acceptable performance on those devices? Make the decision to alienate those who don't fit the requirements. Alienating a certain group from support isn't going to be the end of the world. Games are sure to use Tegra 3 and those without Tegra 3 devices might be assed out if the game can't scale down. The world continues...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[/QUOTE]
When you build games, the objective is to provide the best graphics to the end user with excellent gameplay. Now, if i have to support several hardware configurations i either have a fallback mechanism to have lower quality on lower device (more dev effort, more costs, more testing), or reduce overall quality of graphics all across (bad quality game - low ratings, low revenues), blacklist lower specced devices (killing potential market share - cutting total revenues, risking break even). This becomes extremely critical especially because the games and apps are sold for a measly $1 and every sale is important!
silversx80 said:
Second, games from the big developers may be released on iOS first, and some may be released on Android first. Without references, your statement in invalid. If you're only referring to your company, then specify that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all developers need to follow this. But any large sized company will invariably follow this approach - mainly from the point of view of monetization. Right now, the fact is, Android is yet not a platform where the big bucks come from. Its still unfortunately the damn fruit company. And the sheer fact about the difficulty in have a game run on android is a deterrent to release on android first. Its much easier to finish a game for ios, throw it on the marketplace, and quickly see how the game did. If people like it, and you made decent revenues, then you could expand to android - which would take a lot more time, money, effort.
Fourth, the whole reason big mobile-platform app developer companies exist is to make money. Why alienate more than 50% of the market because of screen resolution? That would be lazy and counter-productive to profits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
true, and thats what i mean by the effort it takes on testing and development makes it a costlier bet! Imagine the capital investment - to house all the phones to test on!
I feel that you're upset over Android making it harder for you to earn a paycheck. I understand the challenges involved, but I think you're not looking at the big picture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I barely find it hard to earn my paycheck Its my company which has to invest the $$$ to get every game out of the door to hit android markets! And just seeing all the chaos involved in shipping an android title, just makes me wonder why google has made this so complicated! If i have to think from the perspective of having my own startup company making android games - it would give me shivers! Not all companies have the lucky streak of Rovio and those few company that i could handcount.
-San
I want to source an Android smart watch from China for a project am working on. I want to change the menu interface it comes with and replace with a custom interface specific for my purpose (means no custom control to intended audience).
Thoughts Needed
Does anyone here have a similar experience?
Are they good at customizing ROMs and interfaces according to requirements?
If not, how easy is it to hire somebody to build a custom ROM with custom interface (for say MTK6572)?
Any recommended suppliers you know?
Phase 1 MUST HAVE Minimum Requirements - 100 Units Order
Android OS
GSM/GPS
Touch screen
Mic/Speaker
Charging points on the back side (no micro-usb slot on the side)
Shortlisted AK-S5 or AK-S7
Phase 2 MUST HAVE Minimum Requirements
All from Phase 1
IP67 or IP68
Magnetic based charger point on the backside
Heart rate sensor at the backside
Shortlisted - None available yet
abuduri said:
I want to source an Android smart watch from China for a project am working on. I want to change the menu interface it comes with and replace with a custom interface specific for my purpose (means no custom control to intended audience).
Thoughts Needed
Does anyone here have a similar experience?
Are they good at customizing ROMs and interfaces according to requirements?
If not, how easy is it to hire somebody to build a custom ROM with custom interface (for say MTK6572)?
Any recommended suppliers you know?
Phase 1 MUST HAVE Minimum Requirements - 100 Units Order
Android OS
GSM/GPS
Touch screen
Mic/Speaker
Charging points on the back side (no micro-usb slot on the side)
Shortlisted AK-S5 or AK-S7
Phase 2 MUST HAVE Minimum Requirements
All from Phase 1
IP67 or IP68
Magnetic based charger point on the backside
Heart rate sensor at the backside
Shortlisted - None available yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please note: to date no Chinese Android watches are IP67, even the ones that provide proof of IP certification, I've learned that the hard way
AK-55 is the Z01
The AK-S7 is or looks like ZGPAX S7
I'm sure you have experience dealing with Chinese sellers, but if you don't . .. . be extremely careful, even using Paypal, trust no one!
simple1i said:
Please note: to date no Chinese Android watches are IP67, even the ones that provide proof of IP certification, I've learned that the hard way
AK-55 is the Z01
The AK-S7 is or looks like ZGPAX S7
I'm sure you have experience dealing with Chinese sellers, but if you don't . .. . be extremely careful, even using Paypal, trust no one!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot @simple1i.
I have a chicken-egg question ... Which came first - AK-S5 or Z01? Which of these (or among numerous others on Alibaba) is "original" (designed first)? If there is no traceback and everyone is using the same reference design, as long as it works as intended, does it matter? I did get this supplier to show me the watch on skype video (though it doesn't prove anything).
My main question is - if the supplier really has a "fully working version" of S5 or Z01, and is ready to supply - they also say they will do ODM - any experience on their skills to make a custom ROM and change the menu interface to my needs? If not, anyone here willing to build the ROM and interface (paid)?
x201 model
abuduri said:
Thanks a lot @simple1i.
I have a chicken-egg question ... Which came first - AK-S5 or Z01? Which of these (or among numerous others on Alibaba) is "original" (designed first)? If there is no traceback and everyone is using the same reference design, as long as it works as intended, does it matter? I did get this supplier to show me the watch on skype video (though it doesn't prove anything).
My main question is - if the supplier really has a "fully working version" of S5 or Z01, and is ready to supply - they also say they will do ODM - any experience on their skills to make a custom ROM and change the menu interface to my needs? If not, anyone here willing to build the ROM and interface (paid)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started looking into smartwatches on XDA from Mar 2014, so my history before then is limited. For me it started with the Omate TrueSmart, their Kickstarter campaign that promised it all and delivered a lie. I could be wrong, but Omate made the watch first (x201) and the rest copied (or someShenzhen firm made it first and Omate copied ) @pizzaman77 - knows the full history of Omate clones x201. But yes, now it does not matter as long as it works.
As for the development, you might get lucky and find that someone is already doing what you want or similar on the Omate forum - search on the Android development threads. I'm not a dev, so I don't if the Chineses sellers have the skills, doubt it. But the Devs on XDA will have. Look at this Omate thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/oma...rom-omate-truesmart-ironman-firmware-t2998434 - lots of dev going on on the Omate and its clones.
@kuronosan - is a key dev, still active, he might be able to help with paid work. You should start with making a new thread in the Omate Dev forum with your request.
@Lokifish Marz - knows a loooot but is not too actives these days
Please keep me informed on your dev plans (if its not top secret ) - i really really want to also buy a bulk order (maybe only 5 to start with) from China and sell them in the UK, but i need to join someone who is ordering in bulk so that i CAN only buy 5 units to start with. The other issue is i would need to fix any software issues first then sell them and if they sell then buy more. Can PM me if you wish. Thanks.
simple1i said:
I started looking into smartwatches on XDA from Mar 2014, so my history before then is limited. For me it started with the Omate TrueSmart, their Kickstarter campaign that promised it all and delivered a lie. I could be wrong, but Omate made the watch first (x201) and the rest copied (or someShenzhen firm made it first and Omate copied ) @pizzaman77 - knows the full history of Omate clones x201. But yes, now it does not matter as long as it works.
As for the development, you might get lucky and find that someone is already doing what you want or similar on the Omate forum - search on the Android development threads. I'm not a dev, so I don't if the Chineses sellers have the skills, doubt it. But the Devs on XDA will have. Look at this Omate thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/oma...rom-omate-truesmart-ironman-firmware-t2998434 - lots of dev going on on the Omate and its clones.
@kuronosan - is a key dev, still active, he might be able to help with paid work. You should start with making a new thread in the Omate Dev forum with your request.
@Lokifish Marz - knows a loooot but is not too actives these days
Please keep me informed on your dev plans (if its not top secret ) - i really really want to also buy a bulk order (maybe only 5 to start with) from China and sell them in the UK, but i need to join someone who is ordering in bulk so that i CAN only buy 5 units to start with. The other issue is i would need to fix any software issues first then sell them and if they sell then buy more. Can PM me if you wish. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a ton @simple1i. I will start a thread there.
Do you know any Android watches that fit my Phase 2 requirements (couldn't find any on Alibaba or similar sites)?
I did find a few watches fitting my spec without Android (either Nucleus or similar). Is it advisable to build on those platforms given that Android is now into wearables Reason I chose Android is because I want to be able to easily change supplier and/or watch hardware (looks) later easily and just port the code/functionality rather than getting locked. Else it will become an EXPENSIVE affair later. Am I right in thinking so?
abuduri said:
Thanks a ton @simple1i. I will start a thread there.
Do you know any Android watches that fit my Phase 2 requirements (couldn't find any on Alibaba or similar sites)?
I did find a few watches fitting my spec without Android (either Nucleus or similar). Is it advisable to build on those platforms given that Android is now into wearables Reason I chose Android is because I want to be able to easily change supplier and/or watch hardware (looks) later easily and just port the code/functionality rather than getting locked. Else it will become an EXPENSIVE affair later. Am I right in thinking so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And yes @simple1i, I will definitely keep you in the loop on the bulk ordering.
abuduri said:
Thanks a ton @simple1i. I will start a thread there.
Do you know any Android watches that fit my Phase 2 requirements (couldn't find any on Alibaba or similar sites)?
I did find a few watches fitting my spec without Android (either Nucleus or similar). Is it advisable to build on those platforms given that Android is now into wearables Reason I chose Android is because I want to be able to easily change supplier and/or watch hardware (looks) later easily and just port the code/functionality rather than getting locked. Else it will become an EXPENSIVE affair later. Am I right in thinking so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I'd stick with Android, lots of resources available, gives more flexibility. I don't think Nucleus OS is a viable option yet, it would be too expensive.
I take it SIM is a requirement too? I'll look around, the IP67 is not available yet, maybe the Ironman 3rd generation might be IP67, but the company (Unova) is full of liars, I was ripped off with the 2nd generation, I proved it's not IP67. Other then the IP67 the rest might be available, you'll need to search for it on AliExpress.
What country are you from?
simple1i said:
Yes I'd stick with Android, lots of resources available, gives more flexibility. I don't think Nucleus OS is a viable option yet, it would be too expensive.
I take it SIM is a requirement too? I'll look around, the IP67 is not available yet, maybe the Ironman 3rd generation might be IP67, but the company (Unova) is full of liars, I was ripped off with the 2nd generation, I proved it's not IP67. Other then the IP67 the rest might be available, you'll need to search for it on AliExpress.
What country are you from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, with 2G. 3G really not needed but if it comes with it, cool. Couldn't find any with android and heart rate on back side, keeping IP67 on the side.
Am currently in Boston (originally from India).
simple1i said:
Yes I'd stick with Android, lots of resources available, gives more flexibility. I don't think Nucleus OS is a viable option yet, it would be too expensive.
I take it SIM is a requirement too? I'll look around, the IP67 is not available yet, maybe the Ironman 3rd generation might be IP67, but the company (Unova) is full of liars, I was ripped off with the 2nd generation, I proved it's not IP67. Other then the IP67 the rest might be available, you'll need to search for it on AliExpress.
What country are you from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@simple1i ... is Android Wear OS same as Android 4.4 etc running on Z01 (and others) etc?
abuduri said:
@simple1i ... is Android Wear OS same as Android 4.4 etc running on Z01 (and others) etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found the answer ... http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-operating-systems-do-wearable-devices-run-on/
Looks like Android Wear needs a compatible Android phone for it to work.
So, I'll stick with just Android.
General rules with Chinese Android smartwatches
Broken firmware
Major security holes
Little to no official support (this includes the phone side app)
English (or any other language other than Chinese) for the phone app is very rare
Incomplete source code (when you can even get it) that is a generic build pulled from a phone
Inconsistent battery life due to broken firmware
IP67 is more like IP54 if lucky
Poor build quality and QC by western standards
Not Lokifish supported (I've walked away from the industry as a whole until they get their collective heads out of their butts)
kuronosan's time is limited so fixes may be slow
Depending on your needs and goals. Talk to Ingenic. The HW is a little slow on the Newton (SmartQ Z uses it), not sure about the Newton 2. Either way they have source (Linux, Android, etc). The package is small enough that you could design and build a smartwatch that's about the same size as a real watch, but the display will need a new "crystal" to pull it off nicely. Find a compatible round display, and you should be able to use off the shelf watch cases with minor modifications giving you a 200m diver's smartwatch if you do it right.
*Side note
Even with a 1/2 million buy in for 3000 units we designed ourselves, Umeox still would not have provided source code, and little to no support. That's what the Chinese ODM's are like. kuronosan can verify this.
@abuduri - I'm not sure if my reply to your PM went thru? I can't see it in my sent folder. Did you get it?
I'm still working on stuff for the Omate. I just haven't actually had any free time as of late. I can't just take off of work to put work into a device that's difficult to troubleshoot. If I can be of any help let me know.
I've just started working with smartwatches, but I'm happy to help however I can. I'll be attempting some work on the s8, and I know my way around Android pretty well.
kuronosan said:
I'm still working on stuff for the Omate. I just haven't actually had any free time as of late. I can't just take off of work to put work into a device that's difficult to troubleshoot. If I can be of any help let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@kuronosan @chainsol - thanks guys.
The thread for the new smartwatch is here, we have 5 people so far: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3115221 - including an electronic engineering. [emoji818]
firmware files of z01
abuduri said:
I want to source an Android smart watch from China for a project am working on. I want to change the menu interface it comes with and replace with a custom interface specific for my purpose (means no custom control to intended audience).
Thoughts Needed
Does anyone here have a similar experience?
Are they good at customizing ROMs and interfaces according to requirements?
If not, how easy is it to hire somebody to build a custom ROM with custom interface (for say MTK6572)?
Any recommended suppliers you know?
Phase 1 MUST HAVE Minimum Requirements - 100 Units Order
Android OS
GSM/GPS
Touch screen
Mic/Speaker
Charging points on the back side (no micro-usb slot on the side)
Shortlisted AK-S5 or AK-S7
Phase 2 MUST HAVE Minimum Requirements
All from Phase 1
IP67 or IP68
Magnetic based charger point on the backside
Heart rate sensor at the backside
Shortlisted - None available yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
need firmware files for z01 (android 5.1)
Hello,
I would like to know if anyone can test two apps, the only two really important to me.
Opera for android: apkpure.com/opera-with-free-vpn
ProtonMail: apkpure.com/protonmail-encrypte
I have not yet buy the phone, I would just like to know if the app works really well.
I do not want android phone or apple, I do not like the interface of these 2, too geek, not at all pro.
Can someone try to install these 2 app on his 950? And tell me if it works well?
Do you have tips for installing apk on Windows phone?
Can you please try to install those apps for us and make a small tutorial ?
The Lumia 950 and 950 XL are Windows powered phones. They don't run Android. Windows 10 Mobile has no notion of what an apk file is. It has it's own package.
Despite an excellent phone (if you don't care about apps, beside the select popular ones, and open to Microsoft ecosystem of the time), I would advice not getting it. The ecosystem is gone.
Support for the OS has been terminated from Microsoft (including security update end of last month). The phone got almost 4 years of support. It is a very old phone. Support of apps are being terminated if they are not already. In addition, the battery probably needs to be changed, and finding a good one (and not a cheap one or old production one), due to the very low popularity of the device, will be difficult. A poor or old battery results in fluctuating power delivery, mixed with the phone design flaw of not being able to manage this issue properly, leads to strange behaviors including random restarts and crashes.
The only web browser you have on this phone, are all using Edge web browser engine. And sadly, a growing number of sites are not fairing well, because the version of Edge on the phone is now old (much older than Edge on full Windows 10 on PCs), and already the web browser has a very small percentage of usage, and even that is being scrapped to be replaced with a new Edge that Microsoft is working on, which is based on Chromium engine. Keep in mind that "Windows 10 Mobile" is not "Windows 10". They are 2 different OSs. To be clear, the only similarities are some underground kernel level components, APIs, and the fact that they can run UWP apps, the name, but that is about it. It cannot run Windows executable files (*.exe). They are none with VPN. You can setup VPN on the phone if you want, which you'll need to toggle on/off when needed.
For Mail, your options is the Windows 10 Mail app which comes with it.
As for Maps, it is the same one as Windows 10, which hasn't been updated since Windows 10 Mobile was discontinued. It features old maps that are over 1 year old, possibly more depending on your region.
never buy apple or public star android
This is so bad, the 950xl have a better performance , a largely better screen quality and a largely better sound than the others Lumia or Google phones , for half price than a pixel 3 or a Lumia 8.1 ...
Microsoft was very good on hardware , specially the screen quality.
Google and Apple are billionnaires, who *insert at will* all users datas on their phones... Totally lose their minds about internet freedom place and give all datas to governement who *insert at will* people with stupid and non human laws and taxes.
You cant imagine what is it buying an Android or a Apple phone interface for me.
Hope Microsoft Will reborn and take advantage of all good skilled developers , instead of making some big browser without an well and easy dev console.
The last question is :
Is OPERA MINI old xapp file will be different than edge browser , and can it be Install with a tool ?
mayapi said:
This is so bad, the 950xl have a better performance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm no. That is not true (or I am not sure I follow you). In fact, a Snapdragon (and yes that has shocked me) 670 (the one in the Pixel 3a, as example) is actually a bit faster than the Snapdragon 810 in the Lumia 950 XL. Qualcomm managed to really push performance forward over the years (~4 years). And in addition, the newer Qualcomm chips are much harder to throttle than the 810, due to their much reduced power consumption under load. While Microsoft brought some PC innovation like heatpipes to the Lumia 950 XL making it the few phones on the market with the 810 that could actually record 4K continuously without skipping after 30sec or so (due to throttling), it is still can throttle if you can take a lot of pictures in a row with little pause (due to the post processing on images) and other extended demanding tasks. So yes, at the time of release it as great, today, it is really not, sadly.
a largely better screen quality and a largely better sound than the others Lumia or Google phones , for half price than a pixel 3 or a Lumia 8.1 ...
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At the time of release, sure. However, today and since a few years ago (and longer for some) many phone manufactures, add some color preference adjustment like the Lumia series has, so you can adjust things somewhat. I have to say, that one thing surprised is that both iPhones and Android powered phone still doesn't have automatic contrast adjustment to make the screen more visible to read under the sunlight. It only relies on the screen being able to be bright enough. That said, Microsoft doesn't make screens. OLED is made by 2 main manufactures in the world: LG and Samsung. For mass production product, these are essentially your only choices as a phone manufacture.
Microsoft was very good on hardware , specially the screen quality.
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Yes they were, same as Nokia. And we can see that skill continue today with the Surface line systems and the XBox One S and X model (which where made by the Surface team, contrary to the first release model of the XBox One).
Sadly, while they had amazing hardware, the software was lacking, and developer support was already dying when Windows Phone 7 was released.
Ballmer monkey'ing around and screening "developers developers developers" doesn't do **** to grow developer interest in Windows when you have nothing to deliver, not to mention (at least based on leaks and rumors) complete miss management on many aspect of the company at the time. Including but not limited to different teams discourage to help other teams, have teams re-invent the wheel for something that already exists in the company, missing out on huge market opportunities, ignoring competitors despite internal alerts being raised, upper management and CEO being disconnected from reality in their own bubble, treating the company like it is the 90's while we are well into the 2000's. making the Windows Phone team fight for survival internally since day 1, lacking resources and internal political power to do their job. Forcing Microsoft employees and developers to use their own frameworks and solutions which many are rushed out, and as a result poorly done and clunky to work with, just to have a "Microsoft solution" of something that already exists in the market and has been there for years being polished and took all its time to develop correctly and be optimized. Not to mention that Microsoft never put actual effort in selling Windows phones, with 0 advertisement, and 0 bonuses of any kind to cellphone store and providers while both Apple and pretty much all Android manufactures, gave substantial returns to sales staff and companies to promote and push their device. This has greatly helped Samsung and Apple, and look where they are now.... Anyway, I am going on a tangent.
Returning back, all this has changed. Of course, it isn't a next day thing. Company culture, especially of the size of Microsoft, takes a long time to change, but results shows. When now, today, you have Windows 10 on ARM, not even officially launched, just soft lunched, with expensive, limited quantity, primarily US only, ARMed based systems, fraction of the current Windows 10 Mobile user base, has more developer excitement for then Windows Phone as a whole, shows how things turned. Heck, no one used to care about icons being changed in Windows 10 and Office, now it is all the rage. An extreme soft launch OS, already has big player interest without the company throwing any money at developers. Just on top of my head you have: Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, (and of course, the new Chromium Edge), and full VLC on Windows 10 on ARM or is in the active works.
Microsoft has changed, they are open, they actually listen, actually do serious actions to promote developers interest, knows where it can and can't compete and goes its own way, and let competition take its course, allow Microsoft employees to use whatever is available outside of the company to make great software and great experiences for the user.
So yes, I am sure that if they try again (not yet, however, later), things can be different. But there is still a lot of work to be done for the company. They still need to continue to work on their image, and shows that time have indeed changed for the company.
Google and Apple are billionnaires, who all users datas on their phones... Totally lose their minds about internet freedom place and give all datas to governement who people with stupid and non human laws and taxes.
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Hmmm... Do I go in Microsoft dark history? If I do, you'll probably hate the company as much as Google and Apple, if not more. Company direction have changed. If we go by today, Apple has been much more protective of user personal data than Microsoft (and of course Google). Their business model is selling services (and one can say accessories too, based on their financial reports). That is their focus. Microsoft is complicated, because they touch a multitude of products and services, and you have products and service that crosses each other. For example, Microsoft does sell your user data if you use Bing, and Microsoft/Bing advertisement platform (which Windows 8/10 made apps can use).
However, if it is a question of trust, or "least evil" from your perspective:
You can limit what Google get from you if you have an Android device. Nothing stops you from installing Microsoft excellent and well reviewed Launcher to replace the Google's launcher, if you use Pixel device, or don't like the manufacture of the device one. You can also use the many great apps from Microsoft on Android including Edge web browser. The only thing that will touch Google is if you use Google Pay feature (which I don't think it is actually a deal braker) and Google Play Store (you could use alternative stores technically, but let's assume you want the best security mixed with a large store where you are sure to find everything at their latest versions as they are released). Same for using Cortana instead of Google Assistance.
Mix that Android phone with Windows 10 "Your Phone" feature, and you are set with a similar/better experience that what Windows 10 Mobile users used to get (MS pulled the plug on this).
You cant imagine what is it buying an Android or Apple phone interface for me.
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First, let's stay professional, please.
Second, I can perfectly relate, (as I am looking at my Lumia 950 XL that I am actually using as main device), this is not helped that Windows Phone 7, 8 and Windows 10 Mobile had many features that was ahead of their time. But with Android Q on the way, and with "Your Phone" (at least if you are part of Windows 10 Insider program, not sure how it is on the official release version as of the moment of writing), feature parity with Windows 10 Mobile, and has it's own benefits and feature set that Windows 10 Mobile didn't have.
The last question is :
Is OPERA MINI old xapp file will be different than edge browser , and can it be Install with a tool ?
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Nope. Any web browser found in the MS Store had to comply with the fact that they had to use the OS built-in web browser engine. The same policy applies for iOS devices, but not Android.
---------- Post added at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------
Personally, I am getting Pixel 3 or 3a soon (haven't yet decided. Not interested in the Pixel 4 ugly design).
Why?
-> Yes, it is Google and I don't like it, but I know I'll stick to Microsoft ecosystem for the most part.
-> Unlike Apple, I can switch to Microsoft ecosystem for the most part.
-> Google did demonstrate to me, that yes they do provide 3 years of support in both security and sofware update. I expect to get not only Android Q with the Pixel 3a, if go with it, but also Android R and S, beside the security updates and firmware updates.
-> Android has custom ROMs powered by a large and active community, so if there is anything, I can switch separating myself more from Google, and have, in some ways, extended device support.
-> Pixel 3/3a series has genuinely a better camera than the Lumia 950 XL, justifying the upgrade for me. The Lumia 950 XL did have a camera that was, in my opinion, 3 years ahead of the competition. While these days are over, it is nice to actually get an updated camera and not one equivalent, or worst a downgrade.
Toilet Paper said:
(...) -> Pixel 3/3a series has genuinely a better camera than the Lumia 950 XL, justifying the upgrade for me. (...)
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Google Pixel 3a VS. Microsoft Lumia 950: Comparison
I would not be so sure that the equipment, ten times more expensive, is worth its price only because of the camera.
Lumia 950 is currently very cheap on the secondary market.
If someone does not have, I recommend that you buy this model for the pleasure of owning and using good equipment.
I am an enthusiast of the android, but I can also appreciate good solutions on a different platform.
ok google, please spy my apple
ze7zez said:
I would not be so sure that the equipment, ten times more expensive, is worth its price only because of the camera.
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Buying a phone at the price of UHD TV is not a good argument for justify the fresh tech inside.
For this reason, i will never buy a phone that display a half of a tv for double price.
I think essentialy to Apple who let users think its a good opportunity to be usefull in buying a 4k display smartphone for the triple price of the 4K Tv, assumong it is less ressources... Less ressources ok but less cost also mister Cook ! :laugh:
mayapi said:
Hello,
I would like to know if anyone can test two apps, the only two really important to me.
Opera for android: apkpure.com/opera-with-free-vpn
ProtonMail: apkpure.com/protonmail-encrypte
I have not yet buy the phone, I would just like to know if the app works really well.
I do not want android phone or apple, I do not like the interface of these 2, too geek, not at all pro.
Can someone try to install these 2 app on his 950? And tell me if it works well?
Do you have tips for installing apk on Windows phone?
Can you please try to install those apps for us and make a small tutorial ?
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BTW WIndows has a built-in VPN system. Android has it too, but I like Windows more.
MOD ACTION:
mayapi said:
ok google, please spy my apple
Buying a phone at the price of UHD TV is not a good argument for justify the fresh tech inside.
For this reason, i will never buy a phone that display a half of a tv for double price.
I think essentialy to Apple who let users think its a good opportunity to be usefull in buying a 4k display smartphone for the triple price of the 4K Tv, assumong it is less ressources... Less ressources ok but less cost also mister Cook ! :laugh:
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I have edited your post since it is in violation of our forum rules. As a friendly reminder, here is an excerpt of those mentioned rules:
2. Member conduct.
2.1 Language: XDA is a worldwide community. As a result, what may be OK to say in your part of the world, may not be OK elsewhere. Please don't direct profanity, sexually explicit language or other offensive content toward Members or their work. Conversely, while reading posts from other members, remember that the word you find offensive may not be offensive to the writer. Tolerance is a two-way street.
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2.5 All members are expected to read and adhere to the XDA rules.
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Please refrain from this kind of language and try to make a point in a reasonable and respectful manner.
As a new member I understand that you still have to adapt to this enviroment. I am sure you understand the point of my message.
Have a good time on XDA
Cheers,
mrjuniork (Forum Moderator)