Database Users

Honeycomb 3.1 Initial Impressions

If Honeycomb gives every users a mind-blowing experience from Froyo and Gingerbread, Honeycomb 3.1 is quite a update in terms of user experiences.
It improves over quite a number of areas to fix the glitches from here and there due to a first generation OS release.
One phrase to describe it is
Smoothness and responsiveness.
I had a head-to-head comparison with iPad 2 (my friend's) and my Xoom last weekend.
While apps I can find almost what I need from both iOS and Android (tablet compatible), one observable issue is the screen and apps responsiveness. Even my Xoom at that time was overclocked to 1.5G thanks to Tiamat's kernel, it barely matched iPad 2's screen by screen browsing, web page browsing and speed of apps opening etc.
With this 3.1 update, I thought Google hit home run on this front.
Other improvements includes previous mentioned by other folks
1. Recovery boot option appears (from folks who updated "naturally")
2. Under system update , there is a button to hit "check now" , so that we don't need to change system time to force a check everytime.
3. Resizable widgets (Gmail widget tested) is very handy
4. other publicly announced improvements.
Still exploring features now, rooted with instructions from this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1073884
Thanks stachre!
Will post a quick review with more screenshots on website. =)
Happy xooming folks!!!

Along with your points, I like that the recent apps bar now scrolls as well.

The YouTube app looks awesome in HD.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Bluetooth sucks. My keyboard keeps dropping when the mouse is connected. Other than that this thing seems great. Just waiting for some new kernels to drop now!

The new Quick Controls in the browser are fantastic. Overall the browser is much more responsive.
I've also noticed the keyboard lag seems to be gone.
Other differences are minor....
- the selection carrot when typing is more green
- the keyboard clicks as you type
- the Wi-Fi icon shows when you are uploading, downloading
I'm sure I will find more but its only been an hour since I flashed.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

I'm wondering if you guys could test and see if the portrait lag is still there?
When you are in portrait mode, does sliding left or right in the home screen still lag? Thanks!

Windstep said:
I'm wondering if you guys could test and see if the portrait lag is still there?
When you are in portrait mode, does sliding left or right in the home screen still lag? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. yes. I think it is considered lag.
2. no, not at all.

flippingout said:
The new Quick Controls in the browser are fantastic. Overall the browser is much more responsive.
I've also noticed the keyboard lag seems to be gone.
Other differences are minor....
- the selection carrot when typing is more green
- the keyboard clicks as you type
- the Wi-Fi icon shows when you are uploading, downloading
I'm sure I will find more but its only been an hour since I flashed.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also in Market, you can choose "app content filter". Damn I can't select "High Maturity" alone.

Thanks jiwengan for the quick reply. Not exactly sure how I should interpret your answer though? Are you saying that there is no lag when in portrait mode anymore? Thanks again!

Can you actually rate apps in the market on Honeycomb yet?

What quick controls in the browser? Mine looks the exact same

DroidHam said:
What quick controls in the browser? Mine looks the exact same
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick controls look just like the ones that were already present in labs.

do you still have to be rooted to use a screenshot app?

I'm liking the performance enhancements.
For the browser quick controls, just to go settings in the browser, advanced and google labs.
I don't see any addition to leave comments yet in the market though.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

jblalock said:
Quick controls look just like the ones that were already present in labs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in labs? So what exactly changed in 3.1? People keep saying they love the new browser but i dont see it any diff?

Labs is a section in the browser options where you have a few options to alternate your UI for example. One of which are the quick controls.
And they changed a bit so they got even better. Just try them...

Windstep said:
Thanks jiwengan for the quick reply. Not exactly sure how I should interpret your answer though? Are you saying that there is no lag when in portrait mode anymore? Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He got confused on your questions.
his answer number 1 which was no, meant that when you actually turn it from horizontal to portrait, it still lags slightly before changing the screen orientation..
and his number 2 was to answer your actual question, which according to him is yes, it runs smoother than before.....
I'd like to see this for myself, but I'M STILL WAITING!

Windstep said:
Thanks jiwengan for the quick reply. Not exactly sure how I should interpret your answer though? Are you saying that there is no lag when in portrait mode anymore? Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Portrait is smoother, but still not as smooth as landscape on mine. The update is fantastic though. Overall performance is better. The quick controls redefine tabbed browsing to me. No complaints.

The quick controls are two "rows" thick now instead of 1 and there are a few more controls. It is more definitely different from before as I used the quick controls heavily and noticed the change instantly. Overall a much nicer experience.

Has media playback improved? I'm mostly interested in how HC 3.1 does with scene HD TV show MKVs (720p with H264/AC3).
Thanks.

Feature requests for the Q

Question- What additional features would you like to see on the Q? So far I have additional features added;
Dual Mode
Browser
Clock
LinuxonAndroid support
Email
FTP/HTTP Server
Limited but functional Play Store
G+ services like Messenger and Stream
NTFS support when combined with StickMount
Zumocast
WiiMote as remote works with the proper app installed
Some things like are problematic as the kernel (no source) lacks needed services but I will work to find a solution.

I replied to you on RootzWiki as well (great work on the rom), but had one more thing: enable wallpaper support for the launcher! I have my home screen all set up, but it would be much cooler with a wallpaper.

soccerwuedo5 said:
I replied to you on RootzWiki as well (great work on the rom), but had one more thing: enable wallpaper support for the launcher! I have my home screen all set up, but it would be much cooler with a wallpaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed, wallpaper for sure. Navbar, statusbar would be amazing, in order to make it a fully functional device

I'd be happy stock if i could kill the afterglow, my whole bedroom pulses after music at night unless i crank the brightness down.

animal24 said:
I'd be happy stock if i could kill the afterglow, my whole bedroom pulses after music at night unless i crank the brightness down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like control of that glow through an app. There was someone who made the lights show a clock but he never released anything. I believe it was called qclock.

Any way to use a playstation controller or getting a phone app created to control it?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

I think people have forgotten about the obvious -- a working media center that supports Miracast.

[Request] Is it possible to port ics to i9505 and variants

would it be possible to do this as am sure we would all like a fully functioning flash player and other apps.
the main reason i ask is because if you log on to some sites that have a hd button on their content and ask you to download some *.exe that doesnt work on droid anyway, can be bypassed by opening mobile page and clicking on classic view on their page. veetle.com is one example. altho since jb this hasnt been possibe as flash only works over desktop view.
if you have an ics device aswell give this a try on veetle.com,
open in mobile view
click something to watch
click classic below whats on
click on the explore button
click on catagories (shows, entertainment etc)
click on something to watch
then you will be able to view in hd
then try it with your jellybean device it doesnt work.

Is Flash the only reason you want to use ICS? I'm using the AOSP browser on touchwiz, and it works perfectly fine with Flash.

Sure, anything can be done, as long as you don't mind sacrificing features and breaking other functionality. I suspect that you won't find many devs that would want to waste their time on such an endeavor, though.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

thanks for the tip with aosp browser ill give it a shot but im using nova launcher and flash player is not the only reason i just like the ui and its mod capabilities

Good things that were removed in Sense 5.5

Ok, so I got my 4.3 and Sense 5.5 update and, altough there a re a lot of improvements, I'm more pissed off because of some stuff they removed or... ahem... added...
- Why did they remove the lock screens? I know the lock screen widgets are accessible through a right to left swipe in the lock screen, but why remove them altogether? For example, I just want to be able to have a different wallpaper for my lock screen than my home screen...
- Why did they remove the old video highlights themes?I very much welcome the added new settings and permissions for the highlights... Honestly, they're a very big deal. But, for the love of God, why remove the old themes? My favorite (and judging from what I've seen on the internet - youtube, Facebook or HTC Share - "Islandia" is gone... Why?
- Why is the NFC logo pinned in the status bar? Why do I have to see that? I have NFC turned on all the time... :
These are the few things that got me upset about the new Sense 5.5 update. I know that the update has a lot of good new features (and I welcome them all)... But why remove other good features that have been on Sense since I can remember?
Are there other features that have been removed/altered in a bad way?
Please share...
And an UPDATE: I know that they've added a s*it load of new emoticons in the stock SMS app, BUT they made it so that the we cannot see the old ones.
For example, when someone sends me an SMS with an emoticon from HTC One X with Sense 5.0, I just see it as text and they cannot see the new emoticons that I send them... Great thinking HTC (_|_)

Yes. Why the he'll did they removed the medialink hd api?
No more movies on the tv and browsing on the phone at the same time. Really makes the hd medialink useless.

I wonder how long HTC will take to actually understand how things work.
They removed all weather animations in sense 5. And what they provided in that version is now removed in the latest version.
Are they confused?
Sent From My HTC One

swiftgs said:
Yes. Why the he'll did they removed the medialink hd api?
No more movies on the tv and browsing on the phone at the same time. Really makes the hd medialink useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got that working before? For me when I pressed home the clip stopped too. Even on Sense 5. I have not tested on sense 5.5 yet.

Evilus said:
You got that working before? For me when I pressed home the clip stopped too. Even on Sense 5. I have not tested on sense 5.5 yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here it just closed and didnt do anythig, is there any way of getting this to work

Can't get my head around removing the old themes. I suppose now that there's custom music available you can use the old music easily enough I would imagine but you can't get the old visual effects back. I love Islandia.
Ridiculous decision, I only went to 4.2.2 and got the six new themes in July, three months and they've removed them?!

VictorCozmei said:
- Why is the NFC logo pinned in the status bar? Why do I have to see that? I have NFC turned on all the time... :
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's indeed annoying. I "fixed" this issues with changing NFC on and off via notification toggles or EQS. Thats not a perfect solution but it just takes 2 sec to de-/activate...

Wullie32 said:
Can't get my head around removing the old themes. I suppose now that there's custom music available you can use the old music easily enough I would imagine but you can't get the old visual effects back. I love Islandia.
Ridiculous decision, I only went to 4.2.2 and got the six new themes in July, three months and they've removed them?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom music is cool but try to upload your video and have all these warning about copyrighted music etc.
The new themes aren't good or aren't there any themes anymore?
Also, did I read that now the duration of the clip is changeable or am I wrong?

The duration of the clip is variabile, but cannot exceed 30 seconds. Maybe on HTC One Max you can make videos longer than 30 seconds.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

VictorCozmei said:
And an UPDATE: I know that they've added a s*it load of new emoticons in the stock SMS app, BUT they made it so that the we cannot see the old ones.
For example, when someone sends me an SMS with an emoticon from HTC One X with Sense 5.0, I just see it as text and they cannot see the new emoticons that I send them... Great thinking HTC (_|_)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because the old emoticons were just three-character strings that the messaging app interpreted as a smiley. For example (-: turned into . This caused tons of problems if you were trying to send a more technical text message with tons of parentheses and colons. Now, in Sense 5.5, the emoticons are standard Unicode emoji glyphs that are supposed to be universally compatible with every phone supporting the updated unicode standard. For example, in Android 4.3 (and probably 4.2.2) emojis are partially-implemented. The latest iPhones have a full implementation, as does Google Hangouts (one of the reasons to be excited about Hangouts SMS integration IMO), and now Sense 5.5 has a full implementation of emojis.
The reason your old phone cannot see your new emoticons is because it's either not running a recent enough version of Android or HTC's software on the One X simply does not render the emojis right. Some messaging apps also can strip excess unicode information -- older phones are notorious for this. A simple fix would be to use an alternative SMS/MMS app on the One X, one that fully supports emoji input such as Sliding Messaging Pro, or Textra (don't know if Textra supports ALL of the emoji glyphs, but it has some functionality).
One more note, CM10.x's MMS app also has support for this built-in, so it isn't just some fad that little girls and iPhone users are aware of, it is legitimately an evolving communication standard.

all what you need to do is wait, wait for viper tweaks.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

fanbogo said:
all what you need to do is wait, wait for viper tweaks.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yes, I want to disable the lock screen appearing everytime I turn off the screen, so annoying

The removal of old video themes may be a deal breaker for me. I love some of them absolutely.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

VictorCozmei said:
- Why did they remove the old video highlights themes?I very much welcome the added new settings and permissions for the highlights... Honestly, they're a very big deal. But, for the love of God, why remove the old themes? My favorite (and judging from what I've seen on the internet - youtube, Facebook or HTC Share - "Islandia" is gone... Why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Islandia was one of the only reasons i bought this phone... **** !
please tell me if you find a way to either downgrade or restore the themes

Also really miss the the ability to disable lockscreens natively. This https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jraf.android.nolock&hl=en is somewhat of a workaround for those of you in the same boat, doesn't always work perfectly but I haven't found a better solution yet.

Anonymoos said:
Also really miss the the ability to disable lockscreens natively. This https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jraf.android.nolock&hl=en is somewhat of a workaround for those of you in the same boat, doesn't always work perfectly but I haven't found a better solution yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, will have to wait for ViperOne team to do their magic. I'm sure they'll have an option to disable the lockscreen whilst retaining pin lock

housewave said:
The duration of the clip is variabile, but cannot exceed 30 seconds. Maybe on HTC One Max you can make videos longer than 30 seconds.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you talking about video highlights? I can make videos as long as I want depending on how I clip the song I choose. using ARHD 31.0

ranova said:
are you talking about video highlights? I can make videos as long as I want depending on how I clip the song I choose. using ARHD 31.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, I was choosing a song that had 26 seconds in my tests and I wasn't paying attention that I cut that song a few months ago to use it as a ringtone. Now I have chosen a song that was 4 minutes and didn't encounter any restrictions.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

I don't like new Gallery and Music apps. Before update i can change track with swiping albumcover left or right. With this update i can not.

Did you notice that the zoom bar disappeared from the camera interface?
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

Always on display with a music player control?

Is there any music app that can take advantage of the always on display?

mikeyaj said:
Is there any music app that can take advantage of the always on display?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No

I have wondered about this, too. In fact, it seems to me that Samsung's always on display (AOD) feature is quite severely limited, to the point that I question it has value that exceeds its cost in battery life.
I like my S7 Edge device very much, but I also own a Droid Turbo 2 (basically the same device as the Motorola Moto X Force), and having become accustomed to the exceptionally useful features of its version of an AOD (called Moto Display), I can scarcely believe Samsung's engineers weren't embarrassed to release their flagship's analogous feature, having surely seen their competitor's version.
On the Motorola device, the Moto Display screen only comes on when you look at it or it detects activity in front of the screen.
Unlike Samsung's implementation, Moto Display reacts fully to touch, allowing the following interactions:
* initiate a screen unlock
* view icons of apps that have unseen notifications
* touch an icon to see a preview of the app's notifications
* drag an icon to a notification to initiate an interaction with the notification
It may not seem clear how this works, so here is an example of a frequent use case for me:
We frequently binge-watch various Netflix series on TV via a Chromecast, using my phone as the Netflix controller. When credits roll on an episode, I reach for the device and the Moto Display comes on. One of the icons will be a black and white version of the Netflix icon. I touch the icon, and a Netflix play-control appears at the top of the screen. I drag the Netflix icon to the forward-arrow ("next episode") on the Netflix control. The next episode instantly queues and begins to play on the TV. I move my hand away from the phone and its screen returns to the off state.
This whole process takes about 3 seconds, and is accomplished in a single smooth motion from start to finish. The first time I did it, I instantly appreciated how well thought out this particular user interface design was.
Another way in which the Moto feature excels is that third party app support is pretty much indistinguishable from first party apps, unlike Samsung, where some of the AOD and Edge features are limited to Samsung and affiliate apps.
I really hope Samsung doesn't rest on their laurels here, and continues to improve the Touchwiz AOD experience. They have a long way to go to match their competitor's similar feature, in my opinion.
Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

You guys are expecting to interact with a feature that was solely meant to show the time and notifications... If you want to change music, turn the damn devices on.
Sent from my Blackberry Bold back in 2009

Brava27 said:
You guys are expecting to interact with a feature that was solely meant to show the time and notifications... If you want to change music, turn the damn devices on.
Sent from my Blackberry Bold back in 2009
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's unreasonable to hope for a more robust implementation at some point. If people go online and post about what they like and don't like, hopefully it is helpful for manufacturers and developers to gauge the demand for things they may be working on or thinking about developing in the future.
And I'm not at all sure I share your opinion about what Samsung intends as the ultimate boundaries and limitations of their always on display feature. Maybe they just ran out of time and had to settle for something less than they would eventually like to offer.
Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

TJCacher said:
I don't think it's unreasonable to hope for a more robust implementation at some point. If people go online and post about what they like and don't like, hopefully it is helpful for manufacturers and developers to gauge the demand for things they may be working on or thinking about developing in the future.
And I'm not at all sure I share your opinion about what Samsung intends as the ultimate boundaries and limitations of their always on display feature. Maybe they just ran out of time and had to settle for something less than they would eventually like to offer.
Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a very logical idea to use ways on for this (with the option to disable it)
Suprised it's not implemented.

Any news?
It could be very useful to change music while driving.
Or is there maybe something like the OPO swiping gestures?

A long press on volume buttons with screen locked to skip or back tracks would help a lot, there's one xposed module to do this but I don't want to root..
Enviado de meu SM-G935F usando Tapatalk

leomagnani said:
A long press on volume buttons with screen locked to skip or back tracks would help a lot, there's one xposed module to do this but I don't want to root..
Enviado de meu SM-G935F usando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried a xposed module and it doesnt worked with spotify, only with the music player.
Also the default musicplayer shows up when playing a song and waking up the phone, not like spotify where u directly see the lockscreen. Is there at least a way to make this possible for spotify?

Xanger said:
I tried a xposed module and it doesnt worked with spotify, only with the music player.
Also the default musicplayer shows up when playing a song and waking up the phone, not like spotify where u directly see the lockscreen. Is there at least a way to make this possible for spotify?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try XTouchwiz or Physical Button Music Control.
The first should work in theory if you freeze stock music app, and the second used to allow (it's been a couple months since I used it) to select which app would the "next/prev" action be directed to.

joyousfrank said:
Try XTouchwiz or Physical Button Music Control.
The first should work in theory if you freeze stock music app, and the second used to allow (it's been a couple months since I used it) to select which app would the "next/prev" action be directed to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You, both moduls are working now :good:
Never though i have to freeze of select something

I know it's not the best nor ideal, but since I'm stock I'm currently using Samsung Music player and the latest update offered a new feature when not fully unlocking the device but just waking it up shows a full screen cover art with tags and the option to either Skip tracks and Play/pause, not much but better than unlocking the phone whilst driving lol.

daLareid said:
I know it's not the best nor ideal, but since I'm stock I'm currently using Samsung Music player and the latest update offered a new feature when not fully unlocking the device but just waking it up shows a full screen cover art with tags and the option to either Skip tracks and Play/pause, not much but better than unlocking the phone whilst driving lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what i want for Spotify...
With root and xposed u can use a module called xposed additions and use the capacitive buttons for next/previous Song on the lockscreen, thats the best solution for the car i found

mikeyaj said:
Is there any music app that can take advantage of the always on display?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When i was at the Samsung Note 7 Launch in NYC ? they told me the Note 7 international version had this and other cool things but the USA version could not because of infringement reasons. I wonder if anyone figured out how to put it in the USA version and the S7E.

note 7 has that option with samsung music, along with a much usefull AOD so i guess we will eventually get it as well once nougat arrives.

You can control any music player from AOD
mikeyaj said:
Is there any music app that can take advantage of the always on display?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can control any music player from always on display :good: .
My friend discovered this option.
you need to double tap.
this video posted by him shows the way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUpIitwYzlc
Please like the video if you find it helpful:angel:

^^^ You are on Nougat though. Many people aren't, and without Nougat and the updated AOD, you can't control the music player from the AOD screen. It is actually a Grace UI AOD thing, but Grace UI is not on the S7E unless you have Nougat of course. My N7 has Grace UI and it has the much better AOD options you just showed.

Using the device almost a year and never heard of it before. I wonder what else I haven't explored yet
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Just being able to play the next track would be and awesome feature in aod

Double Tap in Song title in Samsung Musical Player opens up a control Pad