Related
Now we have some what of a stable build running on our HTC HD2's. I would say it's great enough for everyday use.
What are the apps that we must need/have?
List them here! I'm new to Android so I don't know the apps like that. I would love to know what you guys have or can't go without.
Thanks!
HeavyComponent said:
Now we have some what of a stable build running on our HTC HD2's. I would say it's great enough for everyday use.
What are the apps that we must need/have?
List them here! I'm new to Android so I don't know the apps like that. I would love to know what you guys have or can't go without.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Advanced Task Killer -> Task manager, must have.
Any Cut -> Add any shortcut/action to homescreen
Launcher Pro -> Advanced homescreen options and smoother interface (a few of the Andriod build the devs are putting together already have this cooked in)
Sense Analog Clock Widget -> HTC Sense style homescreen clock (if you're not running sense already, obviously)
XDA-Developers -> Complete forum app, must have!!!
Lots more great ones depending on your needs/interests, these are some apps that pretty much everyone should have, IMO.
Enjoy!
ColorNotes - A colour coded notepad app. Can place individual notes on the home screen.
3 (pronounced "cubed") - nice player, can scroll through music or jump by letter. So far I seem to like it better than the other ones out there.
HistoryEraser - Erases Android Marketplace search history among other things. Great if you don't have a rooted rom or don't feel like mucking about with a file mananger/adb.
Taskpanel - task killer with ignore lists and auto kills when low on memory also has a widget. Not sure how it compares to advanced task killer. I think ATK is more automated/simpler so probably the one to go with.
MailDroid - Email app for hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc. Couldn't get hotmail added to the default mail app.
Tricorder- Hand-held thing from Star Trek. Displays compass/GPS, microphone sound input, 3g/wifi connectivity data.
Frozen Bubble - fun puzzle-ish game from linux.
I'll second Launcher Pro, although I don't think I've ever been able to install it onto a rom that didn't have it built in (using the eclair desire v5 rom). Theres also Linda file manager (installed by default), not sure how it compares to the ASTRO? one.
EDIT: For a file explorer try Open Mananger instead of Linda. Its open source and free, available from the marketplace. It's pretty good.
Dropbox - for storage off your phones memory and can be used on your pc.
XDA Forums App - A Must have.
Setcpu - CPU overclocking or downclocking(saves some battery)
i have a few of the above, i also like
mp3 downloader(download songs)
ringdroid(make ringtones out of any music on your device)
mobile banking
craigspro
ebay
Advanced task killer
XDA Forums App
Sense, could not find any other way to use contact groups. Can anyone give me alternative, Just sense does not make any sense to use
Mobile Banking? To bad that's only for BoA. Is there one for Chase?
BTW: XDA app is great! Not going to the web anymore unless I need to download something.
Sent from HTC HD2 using XDA app.
Game:
Armored Strike Online
Its a tight game, like Worms, and you can play online using Wi-Fi or your mobile network.
Sent from my HTC HD2 running DarkStone HD2Froyo v1
Do most of the games work well on android on hd2, or is it a bit hit and miss at the moment?
Great android market!
Droidbox for dropbox
Goggles
Layar 3d browser
Network monitor
Officesuite
Post it desk
Shazam
Whereismoney (finance)
System panel (great for task manager, backup, sys monitor)
Google translator
Battery status widget
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
HeavyComponent said:
Mobile Banking? To bad that's only for BoA. Is there one for Chase?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't found a chase app.
Page Once personal Assistant is awesome! Consolidates bank accounts, credit cards, bills and more in one app and it has push notifications. Must have for financial!
Just Downloaded this free game called Replica Island. I have to say, i'm very impressed. It's like a pseudo-action/RPG type game. You control a little android around.
My must have apps are:
Handcent - SMS
StarContact
SetCPU
Euchre
Cribbage
Wish there was a WobbleHD app...
tgtoys said:
Haven't found a chase app.
Page Once personal Assistant is awesome! Consolidates bank accounts, credit cards, bills and more in one app and it has push notifications. Must have for financial!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I downloaded that earlier today. Yes It's a great app.
Sent from HTC HD2 using XDA app.
All the apps I need.
Beautiful widgets (gets you sense clock and some other handy widgets)
SetCPU (saves tons of battery by underclocking the processor when screen is off (create profile))
juiceplotter (shows you a graph of everything your battery does)
Mabilo Wallpaper (amazing, it changes your wallpaper every X minutes and it lets you go through 10000s of wallpapers and download them straight from the app)
eBuddy (best messenger for msn facebook chat and everythign in one)
Action Potato (quality game. )
SMSPopUp (when you recieve a text it pops up ontop of what youre doing for you to delete or answer it quickly, a-la iphone)
Mario Block (a widget that does nothign but spit mushrooms coins and fireflowers.)
Lovin android lately, been using it as a daily build for a couple days.
Seeing all of you with a smile on your face, testing so many great apps running perfectly on our Hd2 ... It wasn't imaginable 3 mouths ago.
- Men, We opened the pandora box !!!
There is no way we go back to windows mobile now
Ps : All my apps are mentioned here so i bring a tip :
- Did you know that it is so easy to uninstall an app ? - Just drag and drop the icon into the dustbin but wait 2 seconds before release it.
AdvanceTaskKiller
SetCpu
FotMob
ToggleSwiches
FancyWidget
DolphinBrowserHD
LauncherPro
PeopleWidget
Games:Asphalt5(brilliant stuff),SpeedX
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Not really an app, but massive online flash games for our beloved [email protected]:
www.kongregate.com -> starts with a mobile optimized page when opened from within Android browser and shows games especcially designed or great working on small screens and touch input.
My apps list
BatteryLife - widget
FBReader/Kindle?Ereader - ebook readers
xda-developers -of course
Evernote
rock player - plays most video formats
BeyondPod - podcsts
google earth
Swype http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=687056
MoreLocale 2 - coz New Zealand is not in the locale list
Nexus 1 torch - can add a torch widget onto the home page
Dolphin browser
Barcode scanner
IMDB
Logmein Ignition
twitter
xkcd
die_Leuchte said:
Not really an app, but massive online flash games for our beloved [email protected]:
www.kongregate.com -> starts with a mobile optimized page when opened from within Android browser and shows games especcially designed or great working on small screens and touch input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So does 10.1 run on the browser now? I hit the search and nothing popped up. I would think that would be the main app everyone wanted. Adobe flash 10.1.
I know a lot of people totally hate Blur. I just want to know what exactly do you guys like and don't like about it? I really don't like Blur too much, but it does have a lot of features I like. I personally like a little Blur in my ROMs.
The only thing I really liked about Blur was the change in appearance to the text message conversations. They were little bubbles, which I personally thought looked cleaner than the current text message style.
That, and also for some reason with the stock Blur on my phone, my D2 never made a noise when connecting to USB charging. Now that I have Fission ROM, it makes a notification noise every time.
Small things, and I'm much happier without any Blur.
These are the droids you are looking for
I love the dialer and the email client
I like the rich text in the email client. Unfortunately, the rest of the email client is awful. Unless I just didn't dig deep enough to find it, I couldn't find settings for update and notification for individual email accounts. So, I was stuck with the same polling schedule and notification scheme for all of my accounts. Also, I didn't like having text messages in the same interface as email. I understand that people may like that, and there are plenty of apps out there to do that. I don't want that to be the default behavior on my phone.
I really do like the text select. It's pretty smooth. From what I've seen, Gingerbread is using a pretty similar text-selection style. This is probably Blur's biggest (only?) real positive.
I despise the Facebook app. Or maybe it's the Accounts app. I only want to sync Facebook contacts that have a contact in one of my other accounts (gmail, corporate, etc.). So, I was stuck with all Facebook contacts even though I really only cared about 50 of 'em (Hey, I know I'm not the only one).
I do not like the accounts app. When attempting to set up an Exchange account, upon failure, I had no options. Under stock Android I have the option to modify some params - like the login domain (an essential change with my company's Exchange setup). With blur, I can't use my company email/calendar without some other app (like Touchdown). With stock android, it only takes a few seconds to update a connection param to something non-standard to get it working.
The worst thing about Blur is the set of services running on the device for the blur apps. They take up processor time and memory even when you're not using any blur widgets or blur applications.
The onscreen keyboard is slightly better than standard, but I've got a physical keyboard so I really don't use the onscreen one except for the most simple of inputs.
I don't like the image gallery. Lots of people seem to like this and I suppose I can understand. It's a good app, overall. I'm just used to the stock gallery.
And of course there's the bloat. Devices with Motublur come with a helluva lot of apps that I really have no desire to ever use, but there they are taking up space. In some cases, they run in the background sucking up memory. At the very least, they take up a MB or two that I could user for an app that I actually want.
So, overall, I really don't like Motoblur.
I really wish manufacturers/service providers would stick to base Android. If they really want to differentiate themselves via software I think they should have an installation package that would add their own apps (and/or replace default apps).
The hardware is great, but I really don't want those damned motoblur modifications. So, I'm glad that there are devs creating vanilla roms for moto devices.
I like the dialer and contacts apps a lot with blur. That's about it though. The bloatware and extra useless processes on it slows the phone down noticeable. Switching home screens is laggy and choppy with the blur launcher. I honestly don't need 50 widgets to see what everyone on facebook is doing seeing as how I'm not 14 years old.
And THANK GOD this phone doesn't have full blur or it would be so slow it would be unusable...
Sent from my Motorola Droid 2 with Fission 2.4.1
i like the social networking status widget. thats about it. lol
I love the resizable Blur widgets a lot, and I love the idea of linking different source of contacts. But I still have a lot to complain about the contact app:
* It mix social network with my contacts without clear visual clue, like colored tags, for me to distinguish them easily; (I withdraw this point now)
* It does not offer necessary filters like 'sort by family name' and 'hide contacts w/o phone number' ;
* It does not support non-english names as well as the stock app: for example, Chinese names are totally unordered;
* When sms is deleted, it's still in the contact's history, WTF!
If moto would fix theses small but fraustrating issues, I would love to use Blur-enhanced phone.
Sent from my MotoA953 using XDA App
Where are you guys getting that you can't hid fb contacts? Hit menu->show/hide->and the click your fb account and uncheck all contacts. It will hide any fb contact not linked to an already existing contact
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App
Likes: None
Dislikes: Everything
@Botnryan
Thanks, but I was trying to mean that tags should be used to give user a better clue when showing all contacts. Anyway I agree that's too picky, and I would withdraw that point.
botnryan said:
Where are you guys getting that you can't hid fb contacts? Hit menu->show/hide->and the click your fb account and uncheck all contacts. It will hide any fb contact not linked to an already existing contact
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is that option? It was certainly not on the Facebook app on the D2G before I rooted and installed a vanilla rom.
I came from stock android on the original Droid to Motoblur on the D2G. Within the stock facebook app, under options, there's a simple selection about what you want to sync: all, only existing contacts, none. I assure you that these options do not exist in Motoblur. Now that I'm on the Fission 2.4.2 rom, I see the same old options and can sync contacts the way I want.
The biggest reason I removed it was battery life. My battery life is almost twice as good after removing blur. Although I did kinda like the launcher and the contacts, it wasn't worth my phone dying halfway through the day.
Oh and I almost forgot about the alarm! Oh how I miss how the alarm slowly got louder. It was awesome! I need to look for a new alarm app....
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
Putting blur on the phone is like putting a 500 pound man in a Ferrari.
You are not going anywhere with any sort of speed whatsoever.
zse45tgb said:
Where is that option? It was certainly not on the Facebook app on the D2G before I rooted and installed a vanilla rom.
I came from stock android on the original Droid to Motoblur on the D2G. Within the stock facebook app, under options, there's a simple selection about what you want to sync: all, only existing contacts, none. I assure you that these options do not exist in Motoblur. Now that I'm on the Fission 2.4.2 rom, I see the same old options and can sync contacts the way I want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not in fb app. In the contacts app..hit the menu soft key and then show/hide
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App
blur is not so bad as features, but slows the phone down and uses a lot of cpu
ive not really had anything to compare it to but i dont have a problem with blur at the moment. ive dragged all the blur social widgets off of my homescreens as i dont use them. from the screenshots ive seen i actually prefer the green call button and blue contacts button over the standard android ones. the contacts app is nicely laid out, but dont know if thats motorola or just how it is anyway on android.
dont have a problem with the messaging app since ive got Handcent sms installed instead which is awesome and i cant recommend it high enough.
for peace of mind i would of liked to be able to uninstall the stock music player and other stuff i dont use.
also, if you dont want to use motoblur you dont have to sign up for the account. just hit the squares button and select Skip setup when you first set up your phone...
milestone 2.
I like the SMS app alot except no notifications when receiving MMS. Checked my settings and they are setup right so I just see it as one small flaw. Other than that blur can go away
If you've never experienced the phone without blur you wouldn't know you were missing anything. I mean they didn't put out an incomplete thing it's just not that efficient. That's why the Developers have made their stuff so that we can experience new software on the phones. I really like the speed of everything besides stock and the themes and animations make it all just click.
I don't mind Moto Blur. It doesn't have to be visible and some of the widgets are clean looking and ok well.
Count yourselves lucky you weren't a Xperia x10 owner like I was. You'd have a stupid timescape app that was poitnless compared to an app and it would automatically start up from time to time and your android version would be mutalated to the point where you expect features to be missing rather than included.
Moto Blur just need to suck less power that's all.
"Most truths were once deemed Blasphemy"
Blur eats resourses which drains the battery and it's laggy. You really need to try a Blur-free ROM just to see for yourself the difference in performance.
<insert plug for Fission here>
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
I have deleted these apps with Titanium Backup (phone works fine for now):
- Android Live Wallpapers
- Live Wallpapers Catalogue
- Chinese keyboard
- The Sims
- FIFA
- Star Battalion
- News and Weather
- Street View
- Office Suite
- Crash Bandicoot (playing Playstation games using FPSE)
- Media Server
- Event Thread Block
- Timescape legacy extension wrapper
- Twitter module
- Anonymous usage stats
- Distributed demo version
- Sony Ericsson sync
- Sync
- Sony Ericsson Sync master client
- Timescape
- Postcard
Please post apps you uninstalled without breaking phone.
UPD: Noticed differences:
- Boot time now is less than a minute (it took 3+ minutes before)
- Battery life is much better!
- ~250Mb of free memory
- Phone works faster (At least feels like. Didn't test)
HeadShooter1979 said:
I have deleted these apps with Titanium Backup (phone works fine for now):
- Android Live Wallpapers
- Live Wallpapers Catalogue
- Chinese keyboard
- The Sims
- FIFA
- Star Battalion
- News and Weather
- Street View
- Office Suite
- Crash Bandicoot (playing Playstation games using FPSE)
- Media Server
- Event Thread Block
- Timescape legacy extension wrapper
- Twitter module
- Anonymous usage stats
- Distributed demo version
- Sony Ericsson sync
- Sync
- Sony Ericsson Sync master client
- Timescape
- Postcard
Please post apps you uninstalled without breaking phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for this hope others follow suite, so we know what to get rid of.
-Anonymous usage stats
--2 digital clock things that where eating up around 20MB ram (and I didn't even use those widgets...)
-facebook
-facebook extensions
-get games 1.5.1
-live wallpaper picker
-magicsmoke
-playstation pocket
-retail demo
-support (got the xda app )
-talk
-twitter (extension)
-voice dialer
-iplayer (that came with root)
-chinese keyboard
-bruce lee
-pws
-setup guide
- Sony Ericsson sync client wizard
-sony ericson home
and some things you listed already
Did make backups of most of it with titanium backup though.
Don't delete sony ericson home , it's the standard launcher fixed this by holding the search button, voice searche for android market, entered the android market from the browser and instaleld launcherpro. anyone got a backup of the standard SE launcher for me?
Got 110MB ram used after start-up now. Seems nice to me (used to be around 170-180 if I recall correctly).
PS I advice against removing office suite as it is used for viewing documents (like word documents, pdf files and those things), unless you got some replacement offcourse.
HeadShooter1979 said:
I have deleted these apps with Titanium Backup (phone works fine for now):
- Android Live Wallpapers
- Live Wallpapers Catalogue
- Chinese keyboard
- The Sims
- FIFA
- Star Battalion
- News and Weather
- Street View
- Office Suite
- Crash Bandicoot (playing Playstation games using FPSE)
- Media Server
- Event Thread Block
- Timescape legacy extension wrapper
- Twitter module
- Anonymous usage stats
- Distributed demo version
- Sony Ericsson sync
- Sync
- Sony Ericsson Sync master client
- Timescape
- Postcard
Please post apps you uninstalled without breaking phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which version of titanium did you use the free version or the pro and is it easy to get to the apps to be uninstalled.
I used the free version of titanium. It's quite easy. You got a list of all apps that are installed, they are color coded (red=standard phone files, green=standard files with cache you can clear and white is user installed files). Just tab the app and select uninstall. Selecting back-up will only back-up data like preferences and saves I think.
Wornining, don't freeze or un-install SE Home, because it is your home screen and your phone will never unlock the screen. I had to go to titaniam backup and defrost it.
ok just a few questions before I jump in, what does the freezing option actually do?. And also if I was to backup an application first then unistall it, can I then restore it.?
marvi0 said:
which version of titanium did you use the free version or the pro and is it easy to get to the apps to be uninstalled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used free version. Downloaded from Market.
marvi0 said:
ok just a few questions before I jump in, what does the freezing option actually do?. And also if I was to backup an application first then unistall it, can I then restore it.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure but I think it's like a uninstall that you can put back. You freeze it, rest of the system think it's gone, you unfreeze, and it's back as it was before. Could be used as a test before uninstalling.
OK so by freezing it this actually creates more memory?
marvi0 said:
OK so by freezing it this actually creates more memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think more ram but not more storage space, uninstalling should safe storage space.
ok froze a couple of apps, but no difference on ram, so do i actually have to unistall the app, after backup, ?so that i can restore it should i want to use it?
if you un-installed any stock apps and you want them back, you propebly can get them here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1036249
My device survived around 60 hours, including 1.5 hours of gaming (super mario kart to be ecaxt), the occasional whatsapp/skype/texting, around 20MB of downloads and some surfing + playing music on my earplugs for a few hours. Still got 15% left (dimmed the screen brightnes when I was around 50%). Deleting bloatware really seems to help.
Hey all,
I have also uninstalled a pile of bloatware, mostly covered by what has been mentioned already. Some of the names I don't remember but I will write what is on my list via Titanium:
iPlayer, magicsmoke, protips, stk, touchpal, thesims3, facebook, twitter, geniewidget, talk, music, timescape, support, digitalclock, owstore, retaildemo, setupwizard, touchnote, vodafoneshop, vodafoneupdates, whatsapp.
From the earlier list, I don't recommend anyone remove the Get Games unless they are sure they don't want any from the "more games" when you slide open your phone. I had thought I could still get the full list of games via market, but games like Backstab aren't. You can't get these games via emulators either.
My phone has went from booting in around 5 minutes to less than 1 minute & I had initially freed RAM up to the point where I was >200Mb.
The phone flies now, you can really see the difference. I'm also keeping widgets to a minimum & I highly recommend no-one puts on the useless task managers to kill processes (which themselves drain the battery). Simply use Running Services within settings. Oh, and I now only have 13 running services
My battery life I haven't noticed yet because the phone is stuck to my hand
Good luck all,
Rixter
Battery life is much better! Charged my phone 5 days ago. Made some calls, played games and it is still 50% charged
Rixter757 said:
Hey all,
I have also uninstalled a pile of bloatware, mostly covered by what has been mentioned already. Some of the names I don't remember but I will write what is on my list via Titanium:
iPlayer, magicsmoke, protips, stk, touchpal, thesims3, facebook, twitter, geniewidget, talk, music, timescape, support, digitalclock, owstore, retaildemo, setupwizard, touchnote, vodafoneshop, vodafoneupdates, whatsapp.
From the earlier list, I don't recommend anyone remove the Get Games unless they are sure they don't want any from the "more games" when you slide open your phone. I had thought I could still get the full list of games via market, but games like Backstab aren't. You can't get these games via emulators either.
My phone has went from booting in around 5 minutes to less than 1 minute & I had initially freed RAM up to the point where I was >200Mb.
The phone flies now, you can really see the difference. I'm also keeping widgets to a minimum & I highly recommend no-one puts on the useless task managers to kill processes (which themselves drain the battery). Simply use Running Services within settings. Oh, and I now only have 13 running services
My battery life I haven't noticed yet because the phone is stuck to my
Good luck all,
Rixter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the safe removal list but oh boy their goes the whole "chicken and egg argument ", task killer or no task killer and to be honest will never know.!
marvi0 said:
Thanks for the safe removal list but oh boy their goes the whole "chicken and egg argument ", task killer or no task killer and to be honest will never know.!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, I hear ya. I'm only starting out with Android so the curve is still upward. From what I read from other sources, task killers are only useful if you have them set to automatically kill because the offending services continually restart. Then it's a looping killing field, as you say chicken & egg time. The way forward is to root & remove the apps
I'm trying to be good by using the inbuilt OS to find out status rather than add more hoggers such as battery widgets, task killers etc. Gotta stretch that battery to it's max.
I still haven't had time to play many games yet!!
Rixter
Rixter757 said:
Lol, I hear ya. I'm only starting out with Android so the curve is still upward. From what I read from other sources, task killers are only useful if you have them set to automatically kill because the offending services continually restart. Then it's a looping killing field, as you say chicken & egg time. The way forward is to root & remove the apps
I'm trying to be good by using the inbuilt OS to find out status rather than add more hoggers such as battery widgets, task killers etc. Gotta stretch that battery to it's max.
I still haven't had time to play many games yet!!
Rixter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ye the task killer no//yes issue has been argued over and over. I played modern combat and was stuck on it at my son's football practice i was so engrossed its out of this world lol. Gone give backstab a short today.
HeadShooter1979 said:
UPD: Noticed differences:
- Boot time now is less than a minute (it took 3+ minutes before)
- Battery life is much better!
- ~250Mb of free memory
- Phone works faster (At least feels like. Didn't test)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
boot time is faster & phone overall is smoother.
but battery is the same.
4.5 hrs of usage (push mail, whatsapp, sms, a few phone calls) with only 55%.
Intro
I recently decided to do an experiment and see what (android) life would be like without google. I'll admit that I haven't completely ditched google altogether, and I'm not 100% sure I'll never go back to using google apps again in the future. I still use google search and gmail on my pc for example.
I welcome anyone who wants to add their experiences or comments.
I'll start by saying that my motivation to try android without google was more to do with increeasing battery life and reducing data consumption. Others may be more interested in privacy/security and this is another benefit in reducing your reliance on google. It is debatable how much privacy you will gain by not using google, but it depends on how far you go with the idea.
My experience with google play services is that it is a bit of a battery drainer and is occasionally unstable on some custom roms. What I've found so far is that without play services, the battery consumption(both SOT and with screen off) is much better. I do use greenify as well. The downside is that some apps(even mainstream apps you wouldn't expect) only run properly with google play services installed.
So, what I did is install a custom rom(in my case Slimsaber 4.4.4; you can use your preferred rom), without gapps. I'm using 1Mobile Market for my app store, HERE maps for maps/gps. You can download any music or books you have on Play and use 3rd party players/e-readers.
To sync my contacts and calendar, I have found Fruux is an excellent alternative to google sync.
I've found most of the apps I normally use are available on 1Mobile app store, but as I said some of them don't work without play services.
More to come......
App Store
One of the most obvious and hardest things to replace is the Google Play Store.
I've started with 1Mobile Market, which is a great alternative to Play. It boasts over 800,000 apps available and is free to install. The good thing about this one is they have a lot of the "mainstream" apps you would also find in the play store. Just download the apk and install with a file explorer(needs root permission), or adb. Others include F-Droid and Amazon app store. Here is a nice article on other app stores(with download links).
Search for "google play store alternatives" for other options
One thing you may need to do is allow apps from unknown sources, which is normally under Settings -> Security or Settings -> Developer options
Contacts and Calendar
Like a lot of users, I am using gmail and had my contacts and calendar events backed up with gmail as well. It's very convenient(especially if you test out new roms frequently) to be able to just flash gapps after a new rom and your contacts are all there. I have found Fruux is just as good for syncing contacts and calendar events. Or you can export the contacts from gmail as a .vcf file and import the file in your contacts app.
YouTube
You can use youtube without play services by using a modified version by Paraphron here on xda. The only down side is you won't be able to use your google account to sync(or add any account), so subscribing to channels etc is not possible(at least for me). The app is here. Make sure you thank Paraphron if you like his work.
Search bar widget
There are numerous search bar options. Different browsers have there own search bar, as well as 1Mobile app store to name a few. I've started using DuckDuckGo. It claims never to track you or your usage, so a big upside in privacy, but no personalized searches.
Maps
I read somewhere you can use google maps without play services, but I haven't tried. I'm using HERE maps, which so far has been just as good, maybe a little less smooth when scrolling the map
Conclusion
What I have found is the battery life is greatly improved without play services running on my i9100(at least 50% better SOT). For me the upsides outweigh the downsides.
Upsides
MUCH better battery life, both in deep sleep and screen on time
better stability, no more "google play services has stopped" or sudden/extreme battery drops
less data consumption(not measured)
Easy flashing a new rom. Just backup, wipe and flash the rom. Reboot
Downsides
Extra steps when installing a new rom(see next post)
Some non-google apps don't work without play services(so far I've found very good alternatives to ones I used)
Limited access to google apps
Extra steps when installing new rom
Manually install file manager(depends on the rom; you may not need to do this if the rom comes shipped with a good file manager with root access)
I use Es file explorer to install my backed up user apps.
https://f-droid.org/
Updated
Some screenshots of battery life on AOKP-6.0.1(stock kernel, default clock speed and gov/i/o scheduler)
I was easily able to get 5 hrs SOT on slimsaber 4.4.4(with dorimanx 10.50v005, default settings)
very interesting, I still have to learn how to setup cal/cardDAV to sync my contacts and calendars...
moly82 said:
very interesting, I still have to learn how to setup cal/cardDAV to sync my contacts and calendars...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for late reply, I've started using Fruux. It works similar to sync from google. Your contacts and calendar events are saved periodically, and synced every time you flash a new rom and you can choose how often you sync. I've found it works very well as an alternative to google(sync) without having to use google play services.
On this device, my battery is still far better without gapps/play services, and is the primary reason(pretty much the only reason) I am continuing without them. I really don't miss google apps, but that's just my usage
hi. i used fruux in the past, but had to dismiss it because I occasionally had some problems when adding new contacts failing to add properly.. I am using another rom right now so I am trying it again as I write... let's see if it will work fine... hopefully.. as I hate all gservices! will report
moly82 said:
hi. i used fruux in the past, but had to dismiss it because I occasionally had some problems when adding new contacts failing to add properly.. I am using another rom right now so I am trying it again as I write... let's see if it will work fine... hopefully.. as I hate all gservices! will report
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed in the fruux settings you can choose how often to auto-sync. By default is once a day. Maybe you could make that more often.
I added a contact yesterday and checked on my pc(by logging in on their webpage) while I was working out how to import from my .vcf file, and it had synced successfully. Hope it works well for you this time.....
Edit: You probably know already, but you need to change the account to fruux from local at least in the aosp contacts app when you add a new contact otherwise it won't sync
noppy22 said:
I noticed in the fruux settings you can choose how often to auto-sync. By default is once a day. Maybe you could make that more often.
I added a contact yesterday and checked on my pc(by logging in on their webpage) while I was working out how to import from my .vcf file, and it had synced successfully. Hope it works well for you this time.....
Edit: You probably know already, but you need to change the account to fruux from local at least in the aosp contacts app when you add a new contact otherwise it won't sync
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i know that thanks. I have only fruux account enabled and visualized and of course I'm adding new contacts to fruux account. Nevertheless in the past new contacts sometimes simply could not be added properly in phone's address book... Let's see now how it goes with this second attempt in this almost 100% aosp rom I'm using.. Hope it works flawlessly as this is a very good solution and would be a great alternative for google sync... Will report!
Suscribed! Hi, there! What a great post! :highfive: I hate Google Play Services and the only reason I keep them is for contact and calendar sync. Currently, I have a Moto G 2014 and CM12.1. I REALLY want to get rid of GPS. Whenever I have the time, I'll clean flash and test :victory:. Keep up the good work! :good:
So far so good using fruux for my contacts, calendars and tasks sync
As play store replacement i use apkpure app
Don't miss gapps/services at all :good:
moly82 said:
So far so good using fruux for my contacts, calendars and tasks sync
As play store replacement i use apkpure app
Don't miss gapps/services at all :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! What about RAM consumption as a background service? I really think that's Google Play Service mayor problem. TIA!
You mean frrux?
Very low here, less than 10mb..
Hey @noppy22
I really envy your battery life.... Well though I'm not a battery kind of guy but your battery usage really got me to reconsider the potential of ROM without Gapps.......My battery is about 3.5 years old and has now puffed a little (I've been trying to find a replacement but in our country we get cheap chinese stuffs which are not good and I've asked refund after a couple of them did not work and yes Amazon and ebay are NOT here to offer us OEM and Anker Batteries.... )..... If I use it too much I probably have to charge at least twice a day.....On light usage (just xda labs, youtube, viber, etc. and NO FB) I can hardly get 1.5 hrs. of SOT and max of 8 hrs of overall backup....Well that's when I used GApps....The only reason I use it is to sync my contacts though I do back it up now and then with 3rd party softwares...... I'm trying fruux at the moment to see how much it can offer to me to sync my contact....What I wanted to know is how much apps do you install and do you use Xposed?
@ssanjy
I can honestly say that using gapps on MM roms on the i9100, I used to get maybe 1.5-2.5 hrs SOT max. I found even without wakelocks, the battery usage with google play services(gps) was a lot more when using normal(xda, youtube, news) apps. When I tried without gps I found that my battery usage was about 50% better. Thats just my experience. And yes, it definately helps to have a healthy battery.
I don't use xposed or any heavy apps/games. Just greenify. Some apps are more battery-friendly than others to use, but I haven't noticed the amount of apps installed making any difference in battery performance. I have about 30-40 apps
My procedure for flashing new roms now is using es file explorer to backup my user apps, then just flashing the new rom and selecting all the apps in the backup folder(in es file explorer) and installing. It's pretty much the same as other backup tools or play store, only you need to press install for each one.
The important points I would make is :-
Check you don't have any major wakelocks
It is almost entirely pointless comparing SOT or battery performance between two users/devices. It depends on apps used, battery integrity, and even network variables(I find sometimes a weak network signal drains more).
Edit: Interestingly I find on other devices like i9195, not using gapps doesn't give me the same dramatic improvement in battery life.......
Rom without Gapps is excellent..... Fluent and battery friendly....I got 2.5 hrs SOT with 13 hrs overall battery after a long time.... I'm on Skin Saber 4.4 by fusion jack..... Will try MM shortly...
Sent from my S II using XDA Labs
ssanjy said:
Rom without Gapps is excellent..... Fluent and battery friendly....I got 2.5 hrs SOT with 13 hrs overall battery after a long time.... I'm on Skin Saber 4.4 by fusion jack..... Will try MM shortly...
Sent from my S II using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy that you are getting better battery performance.
I found slimsaber to be perhaps the best custom rom out there for battery. Don't be surprised if MM roms are slightly worse for SOT
noppy22 said:
I'm happy that you are getting better battery performance.
I found slimsaber to be perhaps the best custom rom out there for battery. Don't be surprised if MM ROMs are slightly worse for SOT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup.... KitKat experience is also very good... Better than lollipop..... Last time i was on kk, it was with NeatROM and it was excellent too....I think I'll be sticking to it for while and test MM later....I was hoping to get doze advantage in MM and see how much it affects....
I remember that there was a time when I flashed ROM without Gapps but I had problem syncing contacts and wanted play store,. Play newsstand and YouTube badly.... So I flashed Gapps..... For now there periodic backup with Super Backup is getting things done for me... I'm using Aptoide for apps, Flipboard for news And using modded YouTube.... For the first time in years of flashing I'm without xposed and I'm not missing it too.... Will experiment with xposed soon to see how it affects....
Sent from my S II using XDA Labs
Hey, guys. This ROM is originally made by Shumxin, I am just sharing it because I recently started using it and I actually liked it a lot. It is based on Android Lollipop 5.1.1. The SCREENSHOTS are given in the attachments. (I am using UPPERCASE letters so that you don't ignore the important parts.)
Here are it's pros and the cons, followed by a conclusion;
PROS:
1) The system is VERY smooth and works lightning fast. Your phone won't lag a bit. (More than 2 GB of RAM stays free when idle, shown in screenshot)
2) FANTASTIC BATTERY LIFE. Battery usage is VERY LOW, this is what impressed me the most.
2) Even though the UI's default theme is very boring, you can spice it up with a theme, like the one I used. There are ABOVE hundreds of THEMES available.
3) Camera app has some nice features add.
CONS:
1) You'll probably run away after reading this; Gapps cannot be flashed while using this ROM. However, you can download it externally. But once everything has been installed (including the Play Services framework), the Play Store crashes in some cases, and in the other cases it won't connect to the servers. And here's a problem for Clash of Clans players; even if Google Play is installed, you won't be able to play COC and all other games that requires Google Play.
2) The market is very messed up, well, for who doesn't know Chinese language
CONCLUSION:
If you are a gamer, this ROM is a straight no. And if you were wondering about how can we download applications, we can always download the apk files from apkmirror.com and alternative website (Google up).
If you are a regular user seeking for fluid performance and good battery saving options, this ROM is a MUST. Trust me when I say this, you'll love it.
Visit this thread to download:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-x/general/rom-color-os-v2-1-oneplus-x-shumxin-t3320161
@meraj99 Does your WhatsApp receive notifications without locking it in the background
Adesh15 said:
@meraj99 Does your WhatsApp receive notifications without locking it in the background
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, it can be controlled though
Adesh15 said:
@meraj99 Does your WhatsApp receive notifications without locking it in the background
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK, there's a setting in COS, that let's background apps to be FCed that you need to enable for Whatsapp to run in background in COS. I used COS on my Oppo Find 7S, till I relinquished it to my wife....enough knowledge is enough...
Dead Cookies leave no trails...