Database Users

[OS] Google Chrome

Last night Google announced the Google Chrome open source OS.
This OS will be available for small ARM based devices up to full scale desktop/laptop x86 based devices. Google aims to create a nearly instant on OS with a high reliabilty and the ability to use the applications for Chrome in any (HTML5 Compatible?) browser on any other platform.
ANY WAY... ARM compatibility is nice
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Possible for it to run on the xperia?

dadeadman said:
Possible for it to run on the xperia?
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Click to collapse
Nobody knows. For now, it's just an initial announcement with no further details. We'll have to wait for them to release before we see, but it's basically just another window shell on top of a Linux kernel.

Which is fine with me. If google can release an OS that can be flexible enough for ARM to x86, and it WORKS, I'll be happy. I'd love to see a proper Linux ROM on our HTC devices.. it's a shame to be limited to a haret 'side boot' instead of a native ROM

l3it3r said:
Which is fine with me. If google can release an OS that can be flexible enough for ARM to x86, and it WORKS, I'll be happy. I'd love to see a proper Linux ROM on our HTC devices.. it's a shame to be limited to a haret 'side boot' instead of a native ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering WM devices have a REALLY bad habit of booting quite differently from maker to maker, I wouldn't be holding your breath for anything other than a haret based solution for quite some time...

I am done with Sense

Sense UI is slow on first-generation Android phones, and all the attempts to make it fast only result in a flaky, weird experience.
The framework and everything else is closed-source, what do you expect?
All we can do is extract the APKs and modify images and maybe tweak the AndroidManifest.xml or other xml files. Even if we can extract the bytecode (if that's what it's called for the DalvikVM), it still isn't as open as an AOSP build.
The only reason I flashed Rosie/Sense UI ROMs were to get a nice homescreen (which was slow) with nice widgets and a browser with Flash (that was slow and incompatible but still useful for simple stuff).
I would have fun with the ROM for a while, but when I needed to be productive, like Google something quickly or add a note in AK Notepad, it was painfully slow.
Android 2.2 Froyo is amazing. It has many features, the most important IMO being a reliable JIT compiler for the DalvikVM, and Flash 10.1 coming to the browser OFFICIALLY!
When the source for Android 2.2 is released and Cyanogen makes a release for the G1/Dream, I'm stuck on that until I get a super Android phone with a full QWERTY like the G1

Sense is also UGLY.
As for this flash thing... its not going to work on your phone. Compiled for a different CPU.
Nothing lost there though, flash is terrible trash that the world would be MUCH better off withOUT.

lbcoder said:
Sense is also UGLY.
As for this flash thing... its not going to work on your phone. Compiled for a different CPU.
Nothing lost there though, flash is terrible trash that the world would be MUCH better off withOUT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did Flash murder you in a previous life?
It seems 50% of your posts here are about how Flash is the end of civilization?

Flash is a dreadful battery/CPU hog, and I suspect the 'net, as Apple claim, would be better off without it.
That said, given the propensity of web designers to use nonstandard, bloated, un-necessary flash widgets that break navigation everywhere in their pages, making them utterly useless to those with old machines, accessibility needs/disabilities, etc I guess it's probably better to have it than not. Flash 10.1 under FroYo is only marginally quirky on my Desire. Getting there!
Sense, OTOH, I miss... LauncherPro just isn't as pretty. But I think on older hardware like the G1, I'd agree with the OP. It's not necessary to get the most out of Android and if it's causing slowdowns, it's a bit counter-intuitive to the actual purpose of a mobile phone.

Azurael said:
That said, given the propensity of web designers to use nonstandard, bloated, un-necessary flash widgets that break navigation everywhere in their pages, making them utterly useless to those with old machines, accessibility needs/disabilities, etc I guess it's probably better to have it than not. Flash 10.1 under FroYo is only marginally quirky on my Desire. Getting there!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about just not visiting those websites? Most even halfway marginal websites will provide "if (no flash) then show these links instead", of the rest, you can certainly get the information somewhere else, or failing that, you probably don't want it anyway (the developer is obviously retarded...)
The big important thing to note is that the web is changing. There is MUCH MUCH MUCH less flash around than there was 10 years ago. In fact, I can't think of a single site that actually still *requires* it (except maybe a few sites hosting videos of retards doing stupid crap). I can think of a few that have flash ads -- in these cases, NOT having flash dramatically improves your experience.

Different architectures
I remember a while back that there was a bug in Sense on the Hero where the package name (com.google.maps) would be displayed instead of the actual application name (Maps).
HTC acknowledged the problem and fixed it, but that's the problem with Sense; if it were open-source, someone (probably on xda) would release a tiny patch to fix the problem. Like if Google made the same mistake in the default Launcher, it would be fixed by the devs online quickly.
And now about Flash: What!? Wasn't it built for ARM? Or do the N1 and other superphones use a slightly different architecture? This is weird...
Another problem is that there are netbooks and all sorts of smartphones with Android.
Most netbooks will have x86 processors (Intel, AMD) and though most smartphones are expected to use ARM, some might use a different architecture like MIPS, or even x86 in the future.
Normal Android applications that are made with Java are fine, but how about all the apps with native binaries built with the Android NDK?
What Google should do is implement a way to compile the same program to all popular architectures, and keep the different binaries in the APK.
Apple did something similar in Mac OS X when they switched from PowerPC to Intel... application files in Mac OS X are basically a package that holds basic information, icons, and the binaries, which make this file format similar to Android APKs, except that when someone compiles their program for OS X, both PowerPC and Intel binaries are compiled and stored in the application.
If Google does this for Android, there will be no problem with different architectures (like with Flash not being able to run on the G1)

PSP_Hacker said:
I remember a while back that there was a bug in Sense on the Hero where the package name (com.google.maps) would be displayed instead of the actual application name (Maps).
HTC acknowledged the problem and fixed it, but that's the problem with Sense; if it were open-source, someone (probably on xda) would release a tiny patch to fix the problem. Like if Google made the same mistake in the default Launcher, it would be fixed by the devs online quickly.
And now about Flash: What!? Wasn't it built for ARM? Or do the N1 and other superphones use a slightly different architecture? This is weird...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like i686 binaries won't run on an i486 CPU, ARM7 binaries won't run on an ARM5 CPU. There are architectural changes that break compatibility of new binaries on old hardware.
Another problem is that there are netbooks and all sorts of smartphones with Android.
Most netbooks will have x86 processors (Intel, AMD) and though most smartphones are expected to use ARM, some might use a different architecture like MIPS, or even x86 in the future.
Normal Android applications that are made with Java are fine, but how about all the apps with native binaries built with the Android NDK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all native applications are built with the NDK. Flash is a big example -- it has a lot of HAND WRITTEN ASSEMBLY CODE. There is NO automatic way to generate hand written assembly code. Each additional platform you support MUST have its own manually written code.
What Google should do is implement a way to compile the same program to all popular architectures, and keep the different binaries in the APK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html
Might not be a bad idea to read up on the ndk.
The applicable line is "You can also build for both architectures at the same time and have everything stored in the final .apk". Seems that they already thought of this
*** but it isn't applicable to flash since flash is partially hand-written. They could easily include the various binaries within a single APK file, but that won't happen unless they actually build the arm5 binary, which is extremely unlikely.
If Google does this for Android, there will be no problem with different architectures (like with Flash not being able to run on the G1)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For reasons mentioned above, this doesn't help.

ICS - what's the biggy?

When I bought the Xoom last year I installed the latest Tiamat rom (now Nandroid' at 2.2.2) and it ran really well, although the limitations of the hardware occasionally reared it's ugly head; I guess tablets can't come close to laptops at the mo now matter what mega ROM is installed.
I'm running Miui on an HTC DHD and it is an AWESOME Rom and nothing at all like vanilla Honeycomb, just on another level. I was hoping that when ICS came out there would be something similar for the Xoom. So I waited like a hungry dog for ICS to land and a stable(ish) build to come out and have now tried both EOS and Kang CM9 and both run well but how are they so vastly different from Vanilla ICS? I do really appreciate all the effort that's gone into getting these roms to us but if they're the same (or similar) in terms of looks, performance, usability etc what's the advantage with ICS over Honeycomb apart from a pretty small performance upgrade? Sure ICS does look a little different but only a bit, nothing drastic.....so can someone who knows more about these things tell me, what's the biggy with ICS?
Perhaps I'm expecting too much here but it seems a lot like the forums just got crazy giddy waiting for ICS to come out so then whipped themselves up into a lather (for maybe no valid reason) and that now the insanely mad push to get ICS working efficiently across the Android universe is more of a case of why man went to the Moon?.....because it's there, not because we needed to.

I think your sort of neglecting the big picture. Your looking at it from the perspective of someone who is already running Honeycomb on your Xoom. I think if you were running a HP Touchpad (for example) with Gingerbread you would be warming up a lot closer to ICS. Not every tablet has honeycomb on it so lets face it you are spoiled by the Xooms OS.
Oh and ICS has some nice features for example I can remove app from the recent app list by dragging it out of the list.

HC was a beta; ICS is a stable release
GrandMasterPlank said:
what's the advantage with ICS over Honeycomb apart from a pretty small performance upgrade?
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Click to collapse
Its not small by any means. The performance increase is night and day.
A lot of the hype in general for ICS is for previous gingerbread users. Its a huge change for them in terms of UI. For honeycomb users, ICS is more like finally getting a stable release of the OS; honeycomb was IMO a beta test. Limited to tablets (which was a pretty small portion of Android users) and very buggy with quite a bit of work that needed to be done. Now we have a full release with some nice new features, proper performance and support for tablets and phones.
As for the custom roms, I'm pretty certain stock ICS Xooms don't have face unlock. The EOS settings are nice as well as built-in overclocking. I'm sure somewhere down the line the ad-hoc support will be sorted out and I remember reading a post by one of the EOS devs that they haven't even begun to work on performance optimization so this ROM could get even faster/smoother/better on battery.

The biggest reason to move is that ICS actually takes advantage of your second (or more) cores more efficiently than HC 3.x ever did.
Gingerbread for the most part, will not utilize a 2nd core at all even if you had one. That 2nd core would sit there idle. AFAIK.
So, ICS on Xoom is a huge boost in performance. You can see this as you use the device. Lag is completely removed from almost all tasks. With EOS Wingray/Stingray, you can even over clock to get even more performance out of the old Tegra 2.

Stability, smoothness in the UI, and overall polish. The browser is also WORLDS better.

+1 on previous comments RE: smoothness, performance. I was able to start playing with official ICS a couple of Thursdays ago when it rolled onto my Xoom as I was introducing myself to my nursing students.
AFAIK, and have tested, read/write to "external" SD card issue is partially fixed from the standpoint of apps directing r/w to the actual name Xoom gives the ext SD... with HC, the only way I could get it working was by using the File Manager for Honeycomb (can't recall the dev's name off the top of my head). Now, as more devs are updating their apps for ICS tablet compatibility, some are making the change and some aren't.
~ BereanPK

anyone knows when the 3g version in europe will get ics?

Well for one thing we won't really see all the benefits of ICS for awhile.
Remember ICS is the attempt to standardize App compatability between Phone and Tablets.
Until more phones get ICS we won't truly see the entire benefit of it.
And it's still relatively new and not fully fleshed out by the community yet.
They are still struggling with getting it up and running on devices (like ours which Team EOS is doing a great job with!)
HC was specifically written for Dual Proc units.
ICS' main goal is to support ANY number of internal procs which is a boon to Single proc devices and future multicore devices.
It also allows consistency of OS so that cheaper android tablets can be made. I can see single proc bargain Tablets on the way soon now that ICS doesn't care how many cores you have!
And the fact that it runs on phones and tablets just means easier coding for App developers because they can write one set of code to work on EVERY android device and have better compatability.
ICS was a very smart move by Google and provided the Manufacturers don't mess it up with bloatware creating problems we are all better off having it!
I don't think ICS has even scratched the surface of what it can do!
HC may be a bit more mature and stable but thats only because it's been in development longer...ICS will get there and more!

Most stable ROM for Blade

I know such topics probably aren't appreciated here but please bear with me.
My P500 just crapped out on me, so I'm using a Dell XCD35 (Blade) till I buy a replacement. The problem is, it has a stock ROM, which is very sluggish.
Can someone recommend a ROM to me which is:
1. Smooth and stable
2. Has no 3G/Data issues
3. GPS works well
I have no other requirements, can be any flavor of Android, preferably 2.3+
Thank you so much guys

You can't go wrong with CM7 http://get.cm/get/3bO
Sent from my Blade using Tapatalk 2

Swedish Snow.
Sent from my MT15i using Tapatalk 2

Mokee OS

Stop saying X or Y is the more stable, all 2.3 roms are stable ! Ics roms are +- stable, if you dont watch video its good.
Envoyé depuis mon Blade avec Tapatalk

Almost all GB 2.3.x roms are pretty the same. CM7 and Swedish Snow are the most used, the second has slighty better 3D/2D performance, but CyanogenMod is more customizable and has a better look (imho).
ICS has (and, unless a miracle happen, will have) some bugs:
- No Hardware decoding acceleration (so no H.264 video / Youtube HQ can be played at full speed. Still you can play XviD/DivvX without so much issues) and stock video app won't play video that you record with onboard camera (they works with third party app like MXPlayer)
- No Panorama mode and camera effects in stock camera app
- No FM Radio
- No Native wifi tethering (but it works with WiFi Tether for Root app from the market (it's free))
If you don't mind the bugs, i suggest you to join the ICS experience and flash KonstaKANG (since it's the only still active ICS rom that has updates (last one was uploaded 3 days ago)), otherwise choose between CM7 (if you choose this, use targetbsp's builds that has some extra libs that increase 3D perfomance: http://blade.windows98.co.uk/ ) or Swedish Snow.
If you need some more info about all Blade roms, take a look at QuantumFoam thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1702636

Blade ICS Rom issues
CTRL+ALT+DEL said:
ICS has (and, unless a miracle happen, will have) some bugs:
- No Hardware decoding acceleration (so no H.264 video / Youtube HQ can be played at full speed. Still you can play XviD/DivvX without so much issues) and stock video app won't play video that you record with onboard camera (they works with third party app like MXPlayer)
- No Panorama mode and camera effects in stock camera app
- No FM Radio
- No Native wifi tethering (but it works with WiFi Tether for Root app from the market (it's free))
If you don't mind the bugs, i suggest you to join the ICS experience and flash KonstaKANG (since it's the only still active ICS rom that has updates (last one was uploaded 3 days ago)),.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed the ICS ROM, Eco_Blade_Stable_20120701 on my Idea Blade (ZTE Blade Gen2) phone. The ROM installation and the Gapps installation went smoothly and the phone booted normally. I synced my gmail id with the phone too. However, I've noticed that the phone has slowed down considerably post the ICS upgrade (I was using Swedish Snow earlier). The menus appear after a considerable amount of time, the home screen buttons take a lot of time to respond, the app drawer takes ages to open. Scrolling is very smooth though.
The reason I posted my problem is that the speed is not even usable. I waited 10 minutes for the SMS inbox to open (even though it is empty).
I later tried the update-cm-9-20120529-SNAPSHOT-blade-ColdFusionX-tilal6991-signed and even the Pre-CM9-AOKP-REMIX-RC6.6.9-BLADE-full-signed and all of them are running the same sluggish way.
A bit slower is fine but this is beyond usable. I saw the poll in the ICS roms for the Blade thread and people are using these ROMS for everyday use.
I checked and there is around 40MB RAM free at almost all times which is the same amount as that when running the gingerbread Swedish Snow (which runs smooth BTW).
What can be done about the slow down? Did I do anything wrong?
Should I just forget about using ICS on my phone?

pavanchirmade said:
I installed the ICS ROM, Eco_Blade_Stable_20120701 on my Idea Blade (ZTE Blade Gen2) phone. The ROM installation and the Gapps installation went smoothly and the phone booted normally. I synced my gmail id with the phone too. However, I've noticed that the phone has slowed down considerably post the ICS upgrade (I was using Swedish Snow earlier). The menus appear after a considerable amount of time, the home screen buttons take a lot of time to respond, the app drawer takes ages to open. Scrolling is very smooth though.
The reason I posted my problem is that the speed is not even usable. I waited 10 minutes for the SMS inbox to open (even though it is empty).
I later tried the update-cm-9-20120529-SNAPSHOT-blade-ColdFusionX-tilal6991-signed and even the Pre-CM9-AOKP-REMIX-RC6.6.9-BLADE-full-signed and all of them are running the same sluggish way.
A bit slower is fine but this is beyond usable. I saw the poll in the ICS roms for the Blade thread and people are using these ROMS for everyday use.
I checked and there is around 40MB RAM free at almost all times.
What can be done about the slow down? Did I do anything wrong?
Should I just forget about using ICS on my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try freezing non essential apps with Titanium backup or similar.
Sent from my Blade using Tapatalk 2

pavanchirmade said:
I installed the ICS ROM, Eco_Blade_Stable_20120701 on my Idea Blade (ZTE Blade Gen2) phone. The ROM installation and the Gapps installation went smoothly and the phone booted normally. I synced my gmail id with the phone too. However, I've noticed that the phone has slowed down considerably post the ICS upgrade (I was using Swedish Snow earlier). The menus appear after a considerable amount of time, the home screen buttons take a lot of time to respond, the app drawer takes ages to open. Scrolling is very smooth though.
The reason I posted my problem is that the speed is not even usable. I waited 10 minutes for the SMS inbox to open (even though it is empty).
I later tried the update-cm-9-20120529-SNAPSHOT-blade-ColdFusionX-tilal6991-signed and even the Pre-CM9-AOKP-REMIX-RC6.6.9-BLADE-full-signed and all of them are running the same sluggish way.
A bit slower is fine but this is beyond usable. I saw the poll in the ICS roms for the Blade thread and people are using these ROMS for everyday use.
I checked and there is around 40MB RAM free at almost all times which is the same amount as that when running the gingerbread Swedish Snow (which runs smooth BTW).
What can be done about the slow down? Did I do anything wrong?
Should I just forget about using ICS on my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Coldfusion build you tried is very old, IDK abount AOKP Remix build number system, since I've never tried it. Have you tried KonstaKANG? Last (and with full hw acceleration) build is from 22/07 and you can find links in QuantumFoam's sticky thread in the ZTE Blade Android Development section.
Anyway, if your phone has only 256mb of RAM, i suggest you to stick with GB (Swedish Snow/Mokee OS/CM7.2)

CTRL+ALT+DEL said:
The Coldfusion build you tried is very old, IDK abount AOKP Remix build number system, since I've never tried it. Have you tried KonstaKANG? Last (and with full hw acceleration) build is from 22/07 and you can find links in QuantumFoam's sticky thread in the ZTE Blade Android Development section.
Anyway, if your phone has only 256mb of RAM, i suggest you to stick with GB (Swedish Snow/Mokee OS/CM7.2)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for info - full hw accel. with latest KonstaKANG.
Also completely agree with you that with just 256 MB RAM it's better to stick to GB.
Even with CM 7.2 I am feeling 256 MB RAM is a little on low side.
I have enabled swap on my Idea ZTE Blade with m2sd and yes it's much better performance now.
Swap may not give same performance increase for ICS, well one can try.

I agree with most of the above. CM 7.2 has more features but if you only have 256 MB RAM then better to stick with Swedish Snow.

If in doubt, Swedish Snow.
http://www.modaco.com/topic/350875-romgen2-swedish-snow-rls7-android-235/

What is the most preferable software to create Android Application?

What is the most preferable software to develop aplication for androids? Just application for calculation with 3D or 2D graphics and not gaming. Coz i heard unity is good for developing gaming application, but mine is not gaming type.
And if i were to create the application with flash, can i combine with the part develop by unity later on?
Also, if i were to use 3D graphics in the application, what is the best software to create the graphics?
Thank you for any responses because im just a newbie and i have nowhere to seek advice.

Since this is Posted in IDEs, ... I will recommend Android Studio as IDE as it eases development & ADT will eventually become obsolete (if not already). For 3D unity is first choice for Android game devs, but if you just want to have a UI in 3D you can go for Cocos2d-x & LibGDX (if you can accept the render quality) to build yourself a scene for menu.

I saw applications built with Unity. The only advantage they have is they are multi-Platform, that is you write (well, in this case "design" is better) your application once and then it can be compiled with xCode as well as with Android or WP. I don't know details about Unity (and for what I saw I'm pretty sure I never won't LOL) but if you wanna entirely have the max control on your app you must learn Java first, Android then and finally WRITE code. Then you can choose whatever IDE you prefer (personally I'm still using Eclipse but since Android Studio has been greatly improved, I guess I'll shift to it soon).