Database Users

TouchWhiz 3: What do you think

So after having spent quite a bit of time browsing through all the stock touchwhiz apps, I have to say, for the most part I'm really enjoying TouchWhiz. The launcher can be replaced so even if it REALLY bugged me, it is an easy fix. The apps have really impressed me, though. The social integration is quite extensive.
I've gotta say my one beef with it is that there is really a lack of options I would expect in a non-standard app. If TouchWhiz apps had the extensive options seen in replacement apps like Handcent SMS, ADW.Launcher, I don't think I would have anything to complain about. It would be really nice to be able to disable certain tabs and options..
Anyways, what do you guys think? Do you like it overall or just assume get rid of it all? Which things do you love most about it and which do you hate?
I can honestly say that any custom roms without TouchWhiz will have to have something pretty amazing to draw me away from the stock rooted rom or another TouchWhiz based rom.

I agree completely. I am really enjoying touchwiz, but am missing some of the customization i have come to love with Android.
I am hopefull that future updates will address some of this.

So far I am really impressed with TouchWiz3. The contacts app should be ported over for everyone to use. I have the filters to only include contacts with phone numbers, having the ability to jump to a specific letter in the address book and sliding across a name to make a call.

Wish I could select a default calendar to post to instead of the phones My Calendar. I have to keep selecting my google calendar every time I create an appointment. It's a bit annoying.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I'm loving TouchWhiz. Being a long time CMmod and ADW launcher user and having tried the old TouchWhiz version w/ the obnoxious sidebar, I was ready for CM6 before even laying my hands on this phone. Now I seriously doubt I'll switch even when CM6 becomes available.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I have to disagree I'm not happy with TouchWiz and really wish I could get the AOSP contacts and calendar back that's all I really care about...
Calendar most importantly

I really like TouchWiz. I don't like the App Drawer though. I still prefer LauncherPro, so i'll be using that instead.

TouchWiz 3 is particularly ugly. Ugly colors, ugly icons. Just tacky as they come.
I would have returned the phone if it wasn't for LauncherPro.

I miss the flexibility of the vanilla Android 2.1. I've been using CM5 on my G1 prior to buying the Vibrant. Can't wait for CM6 for the Vibrant.

I so so on TW, I'm using LauncherPro at the moment but I wish I could use my samsung widgets

Could've been a 9.5 phone but some small but major annoyances
The touchwiz calendar app is nice, but you are unable to create a new event that defaults to you google calendar...its defaults to the phone's default calendar ("My Calendar"). Also, the default alarm time before an event is set to "none" and can't be changed to the typical 5,10,15..min before event. Why? How can this be useful...The beauty of android is in the cloud. I guess they are trying to appease to folks that don't use google services, but this is a damn Android, so im calling this a dumb and stupid decision. The same logic is somewhat applied when adding a new contact, but a pop up gives you a choice to save to sim, phone or google, so it is definitely better implemented in the add contact option, but I must ask...Who is buying this phone and saving contacts to the sim card? It's a damn Android!
The other issue which I initially didn't use much on my G1 (CM 5.08), but later fell in love with is custom ring tones for a specific caller. The only way to do this with the Samsung Vibrant is to actually save the contact on the phone vs with google. I just don't get this....once again This is an Android phone. Why did they create these additional profiles and not default them to the standard Android behavior. This is why fragmentation of the Android OS can be bad.
These are really my only major gripes after having the phone for less than a week, well besides that annoying shutdown tmobile jingle and the power/unlock button on the side...oh and I wish this phone had hdmi out. The video out is really a neat feature, but its not a good experience using the standard def audio/video out jack.
I know these may seem like minor annoyances, particulalry the calendar and custom ring tone, but getting the basics right is what I think counts the most. Leave well enough alone!
With all that said it is a great phone and once you go superamoled there is no going back.
I forgot to add that I running ADW and there is no way I could run this phone with that awful iphone look alike launcher. I'm also rooted and tethering (wired or wifi) does not seem to work.
I'm hoping Cyanogen works his magic with this device...it will be a beast!

I hate touch wiz and the fact that it looks like an iphone. Don't really like the icons and the accu weather click is hideous. I use beautiful widgets and adw for my launcher. I think adw us the best launcher because of it's ability to customize extensively.
Feeling Vibrant on xda-app

Anyone else having problems with ADW Launcher Notifications bar?
I've got "Hide Status Bar" unchecked and yet it just keeps disappearing, I tried with it checked and got the same result, it'll be there for a while and disappears, even when I pull down the notifications drawer it's still not there just a blank line of wallpaper at the top.
I've actually gone back to the TouchWiz becuase I can't reliably see my batter meter or signal strength.
Anyone get this?

I think a lot of you are missing the fact that the Launcher is not "TouchWiz 3.0". The skin goes much deeper than just the launcher.
Copying contacts to the phone is also very easy. Export them and then Import them. They're on the phone now... not sure if this would work because they're still linked through Google, but they are on the phone now too so you could unlink them from Google.
If you want ugly just look at a stock Android phone. Ugly, tacky.. since when is black and blue tacky? The icon backgrounds in the app menu might not be to everyone's liking but it's still WAY Better than the stock app drawer with it's hideous background and yellow coloring throughout

I agree. I don't mind touchwiz at all. I'd like the option to switch to default Android look though. My main gripe with touchwiz is the calendar and the fact that the applications menu is a cheesy rip of the iPhone menu, come on Samsung. Also, I quite enjoy the AccuWeather clock.

jaxrunner said:
...I know these may seem like minor annoyances, particulalry the calendar and custom ring tone, but getting the basics right is what I think counts the most. Leave well enough alone!
With all that said it is a great phone and once you go superamoled there is no going back...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm totally with you on the touchwiz calendar and contacts apps having some serious issues. Though I really like the color scheme, love the subtle grey in notifications, the black task-bar, and the blue menu headings, it looks clean to me.
Anyway, I have found a temporary solueion for the Calendar, for myself at least. Should work for anyone who's rooted.
Grab the Calendar.apk and CalendarProvider.apk from the thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6472313&postcount=674
then use a shell to backup TouchWizCalendar.apk/.odex and TouchWizCalendarProvider.apk/.odex
then remove all 4 files
and install the Calendar.apk and CalendarProvider.apk from the link
and grant permissions to let the new calendar & provider access your data when it asks.
I'm stoked because this brought back the default calendar widget too, which I was seriously missing
Add in the GenieWidget.apk from the nexus one here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600959
And I'm one step closer to having all the default apps and widgets that I like =)
Now if only I can do the same with the Cyanogen Dialer, Alarm and contacts app... not sure I'm feeling that reckless tonight though, lol.
cheers!

I don't like it in general, but a few additions really ought to get disseminated to every ROM.
I'm using ADW launcher.
You can tell TW is glued on top. It doesn't feel integrated. It actually seems to hamper the nice Google integration I've had. It's great that Tmo wants to offer something, but not letting me change my voicemail number manually (but leaving it in there) is forcing it on me. Makes me bristle.
As far as changing ringtones, I haven't gotten that far. Working on rooting and getting my adb going with it (to get the calendar back to vanilla, frankly). I imagine aContacts might solve that. Thanks for pointing it out.
The blues would be fine (although I'm not a fan since it's much like WM 6.0), except they don't match very well. It almost looks like a corporate argument, or a cheap contracted graphic artist, or both, and someone worked on the WinMo 6 team. And much of the blue-tinted gray text fields don't go with the fully gray Android button color. I'm not a fan of trying to do browns & ambers as accent colors, as a slice of the wheel, fine, but I've tried, and it just doesn't work. Maybe it's the shiny black tube. It just looks 2006 to me.
I love the control bar in notifications. I was doing it with BarControl, then BarTender, but it's so, so much nicer now. Add a "Fastbright" or better yet, replace the silent with it, since I can do that with one of the two hardware keys. The "just took off my rose-colored glasses" tint could definitely go.
I do like the phone app. A lot. Especially in-call. It's clean. The BT took too long to connect if it wasn't enabled first, but I can see this being streamlined, which would be slick. The calculator & dialer ain't as pretty, but being old I like the big, no, HUGE numerals. I like the "0" long-press to vibrate (wish it were customizeable).
I love using a gesture to call or sms. The sideways stuff has been wasted "space" so far. I hate the redundancy of using a line that could show a contact and a space in the menu to add a contact. It's also weird not having a way to go from contacts to favorites. I was having trouble on the CM ROMs, so I guess it's just nice that it works without a bug, too.
I guess I like the updates tab in the contacts app, it's a great way to check what's up before making a call, but I've already got my methods, so if I really feel like I need to know, I'll check first. My guess is it won't take off, not like it is, but it got me thinkin' how nice it would be to pull all those social networking sites together and list them under a contact. Total agregation. So I suppose it's a step in the right direction.
I doubt it qualifies as TouchWiz, but I adore the camera app. That action shot mode could prove useful. And the continuous shooting while holding the "button" is excellent. I don't get the "beauty " mode. Didn't help. (Maybe it's only set up for darker skin as an obscure FU to HP.) What I don't love is that it won't post to Picasa or Facebook by default, a few other third party photo hosting places, but not either of the ones I use... since I got on board with Android. Huh. I smell something here.
Music app is nice & simple. I haven't looked, but I'm guessing it's pretty lightweight. It carries my biggest gripes about the interface, tho, the empty space above and below each line mean less data for me to see on each screen, and it's on a big black, ultra-shiny tube.

regarding the OP: you CAN change the volume of the tmo startuip & shutdown jingle by going to settings-->sound&display-->system volume
the one thing i noticed when i pick my own ringtones that are either in the internal sd OR external sd storage, is that if i set them, then mount sd card, then unmount, then my f**king ringtones and notifications all change back to the annoying as F**K default. !! i would LOVE to be able to mount JUST the external sd OR the internal sd ONE AT A TIME OR both IF i wanted to.
but no... someone at samsung or tmobile didnt think of this. too me a lot of the little things we as smartphone users really care about were entirely overshadowed by the concern for aesthetic beauty of touchwiz 3 by samsung. tmobile or someone needs to push and update that will edify the smartphone features as they should be...

Good find
s0niqu3 said:
Anyway, I have found a temporary solueion for the Calendar, for myself at least. Should work for anyone who's rooted.
Grab the Calendar.apk and CalendarProvider.apk from the thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6472313&postcount=674
then use a shell to backup TouchWizCalendar.apk/.odex and TouchWizCalendarProvider.apk/.odex
then remove all 4 files
and install the Calendar.apk and CalendarProvider.apk from the link
and grant permissions to let the new calendar & provider access your data when it asks.
I'm stoked because this brought back the default calendar widget too, which I was seriously missing
Add in the GenieWidget.apk from the nexus one here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600959
And I'm one step closer to having all the default apps and widgets that I like =)
Now if only I can do the same with the Cyanogen Dialer, Alarm and contacts app... not sure I'm feeling that reckless tonight though, lol.
cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may just try this...Thanks

New Android User Questions

Hi everyone. I just purchased my Droid X last week, and I'm having some migrating pains coming from Windows Mobile 6.5 (HTC Touch Pro 2, Mighty ROM) over to Android. I'm wondering if the fine folks here at XDA can help me ease into the Android OS a little easier.
Here are the things I miss most about WinMo, maybe you can tell me some viable alternatives.
1) The Dialer. - Skip the next 3 paragraphs if you're familiar with HTC Sense on WinMo.
The dialer absolutely sucks compared to the TP2. Having to click different tabs juts annoys me. In the TP2, the dialer and recent calls were displayed in a single window, so if I wanted to dial Steve, I had 2 ways of doing it.
The first way was to dial 7(S), 8(T). The phone would recognize I am spelling out Steve, and list everyone who fits the ST criteria sorted by most recently called. The more I spelled out his name, the narrower the results got.
The second method was to dial his number. Pretend Steve's number is (123) 456-7890. If I dialed 123, it would sort all contacts with numbers who matched the area code, and it would narrow the results as I typed more of his phone number.
I really hate having to tap between Contacts (there is a contacts soft button next to the dialer anyway), I would just click that if I wanted to from the beginning.
Are there any dialers out there closer to the HTC Dialer?
2) Contacts.
There has to be a better contact manager. Not being able to quickly tap a letter to get to contacts is really dumb.
3) Ninja Applications.
Why do I keep seeing applications running that I never started when I load Advance Task Killer. It's really annoying when I load up an App, and go to close it, and see Skype and CityID running when I never launched either of them. I'm almost afraid to set up AIM on my phone at this point.
4) GPS.
If I keep my GPS on, my battery gets killed. With my TP2, it would only use the GPS when it needed it, so for weather updates, and Google Maps, otherwise it stayed off (or was in a suspend state). I turned the GPS on my first day and had 0 battery by around 2 (left the house at 8). Is there any way to set the GPS to only be used, as needed?
5) APPLICATIONS EVERYWHERE.
Is there anyway to sort these into folders? Also, is there anyway to add an X to the application so I can close it when I'm done with it rather than having to launch an App just to close the App I just used?
I really liked the Sense way of doing it, where I had an X in the Application, and a drop down on the home screen that would list the open Apps so I could close them 1 at a time.
6) MotoBlur.
Ugh, I really hate this UI. Has anyone had any experience with SenseX?
7) Custom Roms.
I've seen a handful of Custom ROMs, and I'm planning on putting one on when I have some time next week. I need a good way to backup contacts, after I just spent an hour linking everyone, but I'd like to know if there is a decent Apples to Apples comparison of the ROMs. They don't seem to be outlines as detailed as I'm used to.
On this topic, are there any problems setting up things like MMS once you install a Custom ROM? It was a nightmare on the TP2, but those ROMs were also made for multiple carriers, which isn't a problem with this phone, so I imagine it shouldn't be an issue.
----------------------------------
Thank you for taking the time to read this wall of text.
Other than the 7 things listed, I love the phone. Finding MortPlayer for Droid made my day. I'm looking forward to unlocking it's true potential, and I hope my list isn't a bunch of things I'm just going to have to adjust to.
Thank you again, have a great day.
EDIT:
Also, it's really annoying that every time I connect my phone to my PC, it launches a Verizon web site. Is there anyway to disable this?

Ok... I will take a stab at this.
FIRST, You DO NOT have to settle for the apps that come preinstalled on your phone! Just had to clear that up... Ok, here we go:
Check an app called "Dialer One" and see if that fits your needs... I haven't used it in a while... but heard it still a great replacement for the stock dialer.
Searching for a better Contact Manager is on my To-Do list.. hope someone comes in and help out a little more with that one
Don't worry about the "ninja" apps TOO much. Android Froyo has an amazing task manager and even though you SEE the apps as "running applications", they are not really RUNNING. They are more like... in a queue.. so they are ready for whenever you come back to them....but you still have to watch what the apps are doing. Some do not play nicely and hog memory. I'll link a good post here in a minute explaining that a little better.
There is a widget that can help you out here.. it's called "Power Control" put that bad boy on your homescreen and the option to turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, gps, etc is at your fingertips (for even more controls... check out "Extended Controls" in the market. It cost like $1 and some change)
I'm... not really following this one. For one.. you CAN use folders on your homescreen and put whatever your heart desires in them.. and label it accordingly. I'm not sure what you mean by the "X" in the app
SenseX?? What is that?? Anyway.. as you will find out soon, 99% of the Droid X community despise MotoBlur!! You can use a different Home Launcher and not use Blur. Two of the major Home Launcher replacements are Adw.launcher & LauncherPro... which one is better is a whole different story. They are both great and only YOU can choose which one is best. There many threads comparing them and they run neck to neck mostly. I'm on LauncherPro personally
Custom Roms?? Eh.. I personally do my own developments and theming on my phone and do not use them... there not really all what they cracked up to be because whatever they have on them... I can do myself. So I'm not much of an help on that one... Somebody else maybe will chime in.
P.S-To fix the Verizon thing, go to the "M" in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen by the clock on your PC and right click it.. there should be an option saying to tell it to NOT send you to the Verizon site when you connect your phone. I don't know the EXACT wording of the option menu.. I'm on a mac

Thank you for your reply.
I will check out the Dialer. Thank you very much.
Darn!
A friend of mine told me that, but it's hard for me to not be a bit OCD about background Applications. I've been a Windows user most of my life, and coming from WinMo, background apps really kill performance.
More than anything, my issue is with things like Skype loading when I do not want to be signed in. I want auto-login when I launch the Application, but I don't want the application loading when it feels like it, and me getting a random IM or call from someone when I didn't even tell it to log in.
It also bothers me that Amazon MP3, something I've never even loaded, has turned itself on. It makes me feel like I don't have control over my phone.
I do have a widget that lets me turn these things on and off, I was just hoping for a way to set it up so that the GPS is "pinged" and only used as needed, and turned back off. My TP2 did this, and was a great battery saver. Having to turn the GPS on and off just to get a weather update based on location is a bit annoying.
I didn't mean on the home-screen, I meant in the application list. So when I hit the application list, I can sort them by "Games", "Google", etc.
For the "X", what I mean is in reference to closing an App. In WinMo, the top right of the screen had an X, and if I touched that X, the app would close. Now, once I exit the App, I need to use an application killer to close said App.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764840
Looks like Sense for the Droid X. In Beta now, so I'm waiting for a stable release.
Really, it's just to get rid of bloatware and take advantage of some performance optimizations that have been made.
A couple of other things that have come up.
I need a better keyboard. One with arrows so I can navigate text. Touching isn't precise enough, and I don't have a stylus with this phone. Today I voiced a text message, and I went to correct an error, but I couldn't get the curse to go in the exact spot I needed it to go into. My old OSK had arrow soft-keys I could tap to navigate with.
Also, I notice when I pull my phone out of the leather pouch I have, when I hit the power button it comes up in landscape, and the accelerometer doesn't pick up on the turn. I need to turn the screen off and turn it back on.
Finally, I'm having extender issues, but I think I need to call VZW for that. When leaving my house, I can't reconnect to Data without a power-cycle.
Thank you for the reply.

my .02
3. Break yourself from the taskiller need. If you have programs allways running that you dont need, ie skype or city id. Root and delete those SOB's. you can look around and there are plenty of articles of why not to use them. Android is a linux based os. Linux is far supirior to Win in memeory management. You dont need task killers.
4. if your gps is turned on its not always running. It only runs when needed. Is by chance your wifi on? that will run all the time by searching for access points. if not you might have maps running, make sure to always back out of maps and not just hit home. That way it closes and doesnt just run in background. (actually goes for most apps)
5 organization- you cant sort the app drawer, you can hide apps (just the icons) using launcher pro, not sure if ADW has that option. Useing folders or the app "app manager" is your best bet
extra. swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.

I came from winmo- so I know all about your "X" pains. But I say forget about a task killer or even killing tasks (except maybe maps and navigation). I did a little reading about pros and cons and decided to try the "no task killer" approach. I haven't had any problems. the task killer is a pain anyways. you can kill apps all day long and there are a bunch of them that are just going to repopulate themselves in like 5 minutes. I just said, "fegetaboutit". My phone runs great.
if you open the dialer and are on the contacts tab just long press the menu button (the physical button) and your keyboard will pop up. start typing and contacts will appear.
I like "Zeam Launcher". There is a thread here on XDA. I have Launcher Pro+ -but actually liked Zeam so much I use it. Just different preferences though.
that's all i got for now.

Thank you for your replies.
I will try to be a bit less OCD regarding my tasks. I did kill a couple of services of applications that kept starting, like Skype.
I'll check out those launchers and see if I like them better.
Any good stock widgets?
EDIT:
So I just tried to check my location on Google Maps with GPS turned off, and it says I need to turn it on.
How do I set it up to use the GPS as needed?

I leave location services on (GPS)
My theory is that applications will only enable GPS when they need them, so if you have a application running that wants GPS, it will use it.
The GPS icon appears in the notification bar when I'm using something that is using GPS, so I assume its only actually on when this icon is present. Leave it on in settings just makes is available.
Any widget or application that has a setting for manual location (Weather, IMDB) I use it, and disable GPS location, to keep GPS from running all of the time.
To exit an app you are using, either hit the back button or the home button.
If you are worried about "ninja" apps using cpu and memory, you can try a minfree adjustment application such as AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. It fine tunes android's inner memory manager to be a bit more aggressive in closing applications.
I use another Rom (rubiX, link in sig) that already has minfree adjusted (according to the author) and it does help in keeping the X smooth. It also removes all (well most) of Blur and default installed apps as well, so you start with a very clean X.
The default home screen (blur) is crap. I would also suggest replacing it with LauncherPro or ADW
For removing the pre-installed applications. Follow this guide
http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/d...ta-3-ways-super-easy-safe-safe-easy-free.html
Some apps in /system/app/ are not named what they are
(IE. mynet.apk = 3g Hotspot)
For a keyboard anywhere, you can hold the menu button, and it will pop up.
Swype is really a few keyboards. Swype from the icon to the SYM button, it will give you the edit panel (arrows, home, end, copy, paste, etc...) press the ABC button to go back.
Swype from the icon to the f key, it will turn into a number pad. Press the ABC button to go back to the normal keyboard.
Run the tutorial on Swype too, it will give you some very nice pointers on it's use. I used Swype on windows mobile and I found out a few things about Swype I never knew.
Also, as for touching where your cursor is in a text field, if you press and hold, and magnifying bubble will pop up. This makes moving the cursor easier

Did you find a dialer yet? I saw these posted and thought about this thread...
http://www.appbrain.com/app/kz.mek.DialerOne
http://www.appbrain.com/app/acontacts/kz.mek.aContacts
Haven't had a chance to try them yet.

bad4u6669 said:
.... swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG. thanks. been loving swype but that has been driving me nuts. Thanks for the info.

Thank you for the replies.
One of the things I liked about my TP2, is I could leave location services on, and it used very little battery.
I guess Weather Bug just SUCKS battery out like crazy. I turned on the GPS last night for something, and decided to see how well it did with battery today. It turns out that some grocery shopping app I wanted to try was sucking my GPS dry (no idea why)... yet another "ninja app" that just started up because it felt like it (this kind of **** really makes me , programs should only start up when I tell them to, not when a component of my phone turns on).
I live in an apartment that has really bad signal (I actually have a Network Extender), so that might be my GPS constantly trying to update when I'm at home killing my battery.
WeatherBug is set to update every hour, so I'm going to see what happens tomorrow with the GPS turned on. It would be nice if I could just set it and forget it, not need to turn it off every time I come home.
Thank you for the contact program, I might check it out. I've been pretty content since I got DialerOne and found out I can get the keyboard up by holding the options.
I tried LauncherPro, and I LOVED it at first, and my phones performance was fantastic!
Then I found out it charges me to resize widgets... WTF is that crap?
I'm going to try some other launchers and see what happens. I'm getting the hang of it, but I still do not like things starting up on their own. Regardless of memory management, my phone should not just decide to boot up programs on it's own.

the phone only does what the app or the user tells it to do. If theirs an app that you don't like, delete it.
And complaining that launcher pro charges for every thing it offers is ridiculous. Every thing it offers for free already ( 7 home screens, 10 rows and columns, unreal speed improvement, etc. ) then to get the extras its less than most people throw away on a daily basis. Where as this three dollars its money that pays off on a daily basis
Adw and lp should be paid apps from the start for all they offer.
You have 3 options, write your own program, use the stock launcher, find a free one.
-end rant
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I usually leave my location setting on "Use Wireless Networks" and don't bother with GPS other than for maps and navigation. Works fine for all of my other apps that need a location (e.g., weather).
There are apps out there that can turn GPS on and off automatically when you run a particular app, such as Tasker (which can do a whole host of things, but that is one one of them). Tasker is a paid app, but there might be something free out there that does something similar.
Also, I agree with the previous poster re: Launcher Pro. It's really a fantastic home launcher and well worth a few bucks to support the developer. The LP Plus widgets are also a lot better than any of the Blur widgets.

In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.

EtherBoo said:
In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to look into RockPlayer. That's the only one I found so far that decodes ALMOST anything on the spot.

The "Ninja Applications" are running because Android is a true multi tasking OS.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

I hope necromancy isn't frowned upon on this board, so my apologies if it is.
I found a new problem because I had the nerve to attempt to update a contact photo after Facebook had saved it's picture to it.
This is especially frustrating because I'm going to want to override a lot of these photos very soon.
Apparently, updating the photo updates the Google Contact photo, but the phone only displays the Facebook photo. This is a bug confirmed by Moto that will be fixed in a future update.
This leaves me with 2 options.
De-Sync FB, which I'm not thrilled about only because I like getting the most recent status update prior to receiving a call, and There is a lot of info that FB fills in for me.
Copy down all the FB info, and fill it in manually. With Google Contacts not being the best contact manager (I'm very OCD about uniformity in the way things are formatted), I really don't want to do this.
So I figure I need a new contact manager. I tried AContacts, and it crashed every time I tried to edit a contact.
I would love something like the HTC one that comes with WinMo, or maybe even the iPhone one.
I would be willing to pay for this.
P.S.
I'm now rooted and running a custom ROM (zapX I think it's called). I'm loving my phone much more now. My battery life has skyrocketed, and my performance is amazing now. Very iPhone smooth (one thing I was always jealous of, and I hate the iPhone).

Dad's not happy

Hi there,
my dad sold his iPhone 3GS for a Samsung Galaxy S i9000. Coming from an iPhone, I first had to show him the amazing richness of possibilities you have on Android compared to an iPhone and after he overcame his old knowledge of "one button, one app", he was quite pleased with some of Androids merits. However, all in all, he's missing some important features he used to have on his iPhone and he has some problems:
A) Most important of all, pretty much a deal breaker if he can't get it fixed soon: SIP. We tried several different clients, and for example we even tried the latest (non-market) version of csipsimple and we found bug reports for the Galaxy S and adjusted the mic/speaker volumes accordingly but it's still really bad: For local calls the quality is reasonable. It's a bit stuttery at times but people can talk. It's much worse than on his iPhone though. But what's really annoying him is the fact that calls to foreign countries are a no-go. The added quality drop to long distance calls make it very hard for the other party to hear him (All over wifi btw). Please, does anyone know a sure-fix, exact-settings-listing for some SIP app for Android?
B) Also a very important thing to him is a calendar. But both the Samsung calendar as well as the original Android one don't have a good week-view. The original one doesn't have one, the Samsung one doesn't show titles on tasks. I find it ludicrous, it's just boxes without titles... Ideally, he wishes to have a week view similar to what I have on my N900:
Sorry, can't embed the image because I'm a new user:
h t t p ://login.icu.uzh.ch/~archer/Screenshot-20101116-182459.png
There's more but especially the SIP is really bugging him. He absolutely needs it to work reliably or he'll need to sell the device.
Thanks.

TB2 said:
Hi there,
B) Also a very important thing to him is a calendar. But both the Samsung calendar as well as the original Android one don't have a good week-view.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Try Calendar Pad from the market in week view

What exactly is SIP? According to wiki, it's just a voice over internet protocol. Can you not use skype?

my wifi signal on 2.1 and 2.2 are the same. cellphones are not the same as laptop that has higher power to transmit data far away and and large space for antennas for receiving signal. if you look at wifi routers they got huge antennas. i don't think you can fit that in a phone.
i read a few months ago that iphone has problems on signal bcause of bad design : )
if you want software you've got a lot of choices in the market.

Try Sipdroid.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/sipdroid-voip-video-calling/org.sipdroid.sipua

all off topic comments trashed
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=9283203

Um... Poor daddy? Sorry cheeky I know but sgs is for people who like to tinker and find cool mods even simple apps like the plethora of gre calendar apps he could use right now. Seasoned iphone users especially of the older generation often don't get, the nerdy thrill that we do with the customisations and work necessary to fully realise the potential of sgs and andriod in general
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

TB2 said:
Hi there,
...................
A) Most important of all, pretty much a deal breaker if he can't get it fixed soon: SIP. We tried several different clients, and for example we even tried the latest (non-market) version of csipsimple and we found bug reports for the Galaxy S and adjusted the mic/speaker volumes accordingly but it's still really bad: For local calls the quality is reasonable. It's a bit stuttery at times but people can talk. It's much worse than on his iPhone though. But what's really annoying him is the fact that calls to foreign countries are a no-go. The added quality drop to long distance calls make it very hard for the other party to hear him (All over wifi btw). Please, does anyone know a sure-fix, exact-settings-listing for some SIP app for Android?
......................
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Sipdroid and VYKE as SIP provider. No echo, no cutting and only 30 seconds to set up. Can use WiFi or 3G. I do not use any PBXes.

the latest custom ROMs are really showing Pro
and performances are very quick
I'll recomend installing the DOC's ROM for SGS and use SipDroid for the voice chat
there are tons of Calendar options in the market, just take your time to review which one you like best

TB2 said:
Hi there,
..................
B) Also a very important thing to him is a calendar. But both the Samsung calendar as well as the original Android one don't have a good week-view. The original one doesn't have one, the Samsung one doesn't show titles on tasks. I find it ludicrous, it's just boxes without titles...
..............
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Egg 'n stone CalWidget. You can customice as You like. Size the Widget 4x1, 4x2, 4x3, 4x4......, choose a calander to view (MyCalendar, Google Calender.....), how long time ahead, layout and colors as You like, transparancy, and it's free.
I guess if Your father is a former iPhone user, he does not know how a widget work, try to explain to him.

Allright thanks everyone for the suggestions!
Dad's pleased with CalendarPad. Nice overview and the widget does a good job as well.
We installed sipdroid today and for local calls it seems to work well. Will check soon if we have the same problems as with csipsimple regarding long distance calls.
By the way... What is it with the "want an iphone, get an iphone" attitude in this forum. I clearly mentioned that he likes some of Android's merits and I asked two specific questions which I think I can expect from any modern smartphone, not just the iphone (working SIP and flexible calendar), the second of which btw is a downside of the iPhone because of all the sandboxing going on on an iphone. Anyway, you seem to be pretty quick on the "it's an iphone-loser" button.
Anyway, I've got a third and fourth question:
C) Is it normal that the battery lasts about 1.5 days with no IM or SIP services running? Only a calendar and the shipped-with weather widget. Is there some hack to improve battery life beyond just turning all the features off?
D) He's having serious stability issues at times. It happens that the device freezes when plugging it into USB or at different random times. At those times, the button lights would stay on with the screen being black. Long-pressing the power button fixes it. At different times it's a bit jerky. For example you would unlock the screen (gesture code) but then the screen would remain black for a few seconds and maybe the lock screen would show up again. Is this normal on android in general or has it to do with what Samsung pushed into its distro? Btw his mobile is branded by Orange and ships with some additional crap. Could this cause the problem? What's the easiest way of getting a fresh and simple Samsung or pure Android distro on it? I see there are lots of "mods", but I think we don't need any sort of mod, just a plain and stable OS.
Thanks.

To improve battery life, try turning off "Wireless location" in settings. However the battery life, even with various optimizations, is nowhere as good as iPhone 4.
The delays and stuttering you are experiencing is probably due to file system lag. Samsung uses RFS which is their own version of file system based on FAT32. Unfortunately that causes the phone to lag from time to time, usually when opening new applications or performing multiple I/O tasks. This can be fixed by installing one of the many lag fixes available. I use "One click lag fix" which you can download from the Market, but you will need to root the phone to apply it. There are several other alternatives which you can find in the "Development" forum.

Jamm59 said:
Try Egg 'n stone CalWidget. You can customice as You like. Size the Widget 4x1, 4x2, 4x3, 4x4......, choose a calander to view (MyCalendar, Google Calender.....), how long time ahead, layout and colors as You like, transparancy, and it's free.
I guess if Your father is a former iPhone user, he does not know how a widget work, try to explain to him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly is google calendar, cant find it in the market. It would be great to have a calendar sync with my google account like my contacts as I've missed a couple of appointments when switching to a new phone and having no backup on calendar...

TB2 said:
Allright thanks everyone for the suggestions!
By the way... What is it with the "want an iphone, get an iphone" attitude in this forum.
C) Is it normal that the battery lasts about 1.5 days with no IM or SIP services running? Only a calendar and the shipped-with weather widget. Is there some hack to improve battery life beyond just turning all the features off?
D) He's having serious stability issues at times.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, glad CalenderPad worked out for your dad.
At times, android lovers seem to suffer from the Calimero effect
Your battery life could be a bit better, but not much. 1,5 days is considered normal, most of us have the goal to get through a full working day (and tinkering evening...) with one charge.
The stability issues are 90% Samsungs fault, because they did a less than perfect job on the software. HTC does a better job out of the box software wise. Indeed, a lagfix will most probably cure the symptoms, i have good experience with the Voodoo Lagfix. Instructions are easy, and can be found at project-voodoo.org.
To get rid of the Orange branding, you could flash an unbranded stock Samsung Rom from samfirmware.com (Link, you need to create an account for the link to work). The first time i flashed a ROM, it was nerving. But as long as you know how to get into recovery mode (and checked that Recovery Mode is available!) you should be fine. Just remember to disable/revert any lagfixes before flashing another ROM or Kernel to be safe.

My impressions and a few questions.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out in my (now closed) "Any former iPhone users using a Nexus 4?" thread.
First, my impressions:
I am very, very lucky to have my Nexus 4 right now. I ordered it on Friday, December 7th and received it on Monday, December 10th. I had watched a lot of YouTube videos about the phone up until that point, but nothing really prepared me for how great this phone actually felt in my hand. I work for a major cell phone retailer, so I've felt all of the latest flagship phones from the top 4 carriers and nothing before has rivaled my in-hand experience with the iPhone. The Nexus 4 actually feels better. I love it.
The screen on this phone is remarkable. Everything is so crisp. In comparison, the Nexus 4 screen seems to outshine my iPhone 4s screen. It all seems to look like a movie to me. So fluid and well put together. I actually watched the Man of Steel trailer on both of my devices and it just felt and looked so much better on my Nexus 4.
So far, everything leads me to the Nexus 4 as my new primary phone, however it isn't without flaw to me. It's not necessarily the Nexus 4, more so the developers of certain applications for Android. I am a huge Twitter and Instagram user. I don't like using third-party applications for either. (i.e. TweetDeck, Plume, etc.) Both apps are so much better on my iOS device. There are certain things that make my experience in both apps enjoyable on my iPhone and frustrating on my Android. I'm not sure why the Android counterparts are missing some of the features that are key to my iOS experience, but it really bothers me. I won't say which features because I don't want to seem nitpicky and be dismissed as an "apple fanboy."
Now my questions:
1. How do I select which artist I want to be seen in the Google Music app on my phone? I realize that it is cloud based, but geez, I don't listen to Bow Wow or care to have him cluttering up my phone music app. I am lightweight OCD about the organization of my music. I don't mind being exposed to new things, but these artists are far from what I listen to. Is there anyway I can get rid of them?
2. Can I select a contact to use as my "me" profile on the Nexus? I've used the same contact for years on my iOS device. It has all of my business information, my email addresses, twitter accounts, and much more. I use it as a business card of sorts when I am out of them. Is there any way I can use that as "me" in my contacts now? The contact is still there, but it's asking me to create a profile. Can I somehow merge it?
3. How do I make my phone notify me of new tweets and other things that are happening in my phone other than an icon in the menu bar? I have yet to see my notification light flash and the only way that I know there is something new happening in my phone is to actually turn it on to see. My screen doesn't light up, there is no vibration, no light show or anything. I can't seem to figure out how to enable those notifications. They are VERY important to me. My clients often me via twitter and so do my friends.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. I know that I can be (more than) a bit longwinded. I really appreciate this community.

morejaylesswar said:
3. How do I make my phone notify me of new tweets and other things that are happening in my phone other than an icon in the menu bar? I have yet to see my notification light flash and the only way that I know there is something new happening in my phone is to actually turn it on to see. My screen doesn't light up, there is no vibration, no light show or anything. I can't seem to figure out how to enable those notifications. They are VERY important to me. My clients often me via twitter and so do my friends.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Light Flow from the Play Store. You can configure not only the notification LED on the front of the phone but things like the pattern of vibration, the sound that is played for a notification, whether/how long/how often it repeats, etc. You can set all of those differently for each app's notifications. Very handy (and the author hangs out in the "Themes and Apps" sub-forum here).

wmm said:
Use Light Flow from the Play Store. You can configure not only the notification LED on the front of the phone but things like the pattern of vibration, the sound that is played for a notification, whether/how long/how often it repeats, etc. You can set all of those differently for each app's notifications. Very handy (and the author hangs out in the "Themes and Apps" sub-forum here).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
I'm going to mess around with this today when I get a little down time. I already see that I will have the purchase the app because some of my main things are only supported in the full version. Doesn't bother me none. LOL, there are like 2 free apps in iOS. And there it is already, a notification light. Ah, I'm relieved.
(This beats having my camera flash go off when things happen in my phone!)

OpenKirin AOSP for Honor 8 on Mate 9

I've been running OldDroid's OpenKirin for Honor 8 on my US (C567) Mate 9 for a few days and I'm very happy with it. It fixed the main bugs I've experienced with EMUI 8 since the Oreo upgrade. Those bugs include widgets not updating after a half hour even when exempted from battery optimization, some apps not working (e.g. US Topo, a GPS hiking app, that was battery-optimized to stop even when exempted from battery optimization), and EMUI's favoring its own launcher over third party launchers like Nova, sometimes to the point of crashing. Then there were irritants like apps that I don't use that couldn't be removed, EMUI lockscreen wallpaper whose magazine no longer updates. If I wanted to be tightly controlled, I'd buy an iphone.
So with Wirmpolter's patient help, I took the plunge and installed AOSP, specifically OldDroid's OpenKirin for the Honor 8. This is a treble-based OS, with some specialization for the Kirin processor. I've written an installation guide aimed at a relatively inexperienced installer:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=76231795&postcount=23
All of my major and minor frustrations with EMUI have been resolved. All my apps work. All the hardware works (although I have to turn off the equalizer to get music to play through the headphones). The camera and video work great. Battery life is good. You can install without replacing the stock recovery, which is good because if you don't touch the stock recovery, it is pretty much always possible to unbrick your phone.
If you are eyeing a new phone or thinking about rolling back to Nougat because of your dissatisfaction with Oreo/EMUI 8 on the Mate 9, then I'd suggest trying OpenKirin. It worked for me.

Hi! Does the headphone jack work with 3rd party music players and video players like say VLC? I have a lot of music on my SD so will the app be able to read it? Also, compared to stock EMUI how would you rate battery life?

Thanks, looking forward to this.
Although, not willing to be a guinea pig at the moment. Hoping some others will try this out and give some feedback. Definitely, need a fully functioning camera, including video.

Works with VLC
Vankata1 said:
Hi! Does the headphone jack work with 3rd party music players and video players like say VLC? I have a lot of music on my SD so will the app be able to read it? Also, compared to stock EMUI how would you rate battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VLC works with headphones -- I use VLC, though my main music player is Music Folder Player Full, which also works with headphones. (If you carry a lot of music organized into folders, check it out.) Neither app can see the SD card, so you would have to move music to the main storage with the Files program in order to access it with VLC. I carry about 10GB of music, so I copy all of it onto main storage. Again, to make the headphones work, I use Simple Tiny Equalizer to turn off the equalizer. You can do this in app, too.
I'm finding battery life about the same, possibly a bit worse. I used to end a day with about 30% remaining, and now I end it with 20%. Small sample. I might be using it more intensely, though, or EMUI's aggressive battery management that disables widgets and apps may have saved some battery.
As an aside, VLC can see my local network, like a Windows PC. I can play music and videos at home from my NAS. I didn't know Android could do this.

Guinea pig
vijer said:
Thanks, looking forward to this.
Although, not willing to be a guinea pig at the moment. Hoping some others will try this out and give some feedback. Definitely, need a fully functioning camera, including video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My willingness to be a guinea pig was very much influenced by (1) having a pretty great backup phone (ZTE Axon), which I set up first and used during the process and (2) the time I was spending looking at new phone announcements and reviews, gearing up to ditch my phone. But I like the Mate 9 -- fast, big battery, big screen, fantastic camera, headphone jack -- and I don't really want to start carrying a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle around. There was nothing wrong with the phone except EMUI 8.

prestonmcafee said:
My willingness to be a guinea pig was very much influenced by (1) having a pretty great backup phone (ZTE Axon), which I set up first and used during the process and (2) the time I was spending looking at new phone announcements and reviews, gearing up to ditch my phone. But I like the Mate 9 -- fast, big battery, big screen, fantastic camera, headphone jack -- and I don't really want to start carrying a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle around. There was nothing wrong with the phone except EMUI 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Mate 9 is the best phone I have owned so far and I am considering the Mate 10. I hate the pro version, don't like those long skinny screens.
EMUI 8 is okay (I don't access settings often and I don't have any issues using Nova Launcher), but I would like to get rid of some of the locked in software (Duo, Facebook App Manager, Email, Gboard, Google, Google Play Movies/Music, Hi Care, HiSuite, Huawei Home, Huawei Mobile, Music, Notepad - a lot can be disabled but why not just allow deletion?) and I would really like to use OpenGapps Pico. But I really need to access my ExtSd from PowerAmp and Moon+Reader, so that is the real deal breaker.
Are you able to use OpenGapps? Does the vanilla Oreo come with Google's bloatware too?

OpenGapps
vijer said:
The Mate 9 is the best phone I have owned so far and I am considering the Mate 10. I hate the pro version, don't like those long skinny screens.
EMUI 8 is okay (I don't access settings often and I don't have any issues using Nova Launcher), but I would like to get rid of some of the locked in software (Duo, Facebook App Manager, Email, Gboard, Google, Google Play Movies/Music, Hi Care, HiSuite, Huawei Home, Huawei Mobile, Music, Notepad - a lot can be disabled but why not just allow deletion?) and I would really like to use OpenGapps Pico. But I really need to access my ExtSd from PowerAmp and Moon+Reader, so that is the real deal breaker.
Are you able to use OpenGapps? Does the vanilla Oreo come with Googles bloatware too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you on the long, skinny screens. I carry my phone in my shirt pocket most of the time, and it just barely has its center of gravity below the top edge of my pocket. Any taller and it will fall out even more frequently.
EMUI occasionally asked to replace Nova, and would crash if I added a EMUI widget to the homescreen. I hadn't realized how many apps couldn't be removed. For me, Facebook App manager is especially awful as I'm not on FB and FB track non-users, e.g. through the Like button on third party websites.
Not all the Gapps were embedded but some were. I think I had to add Gmail but Play, Google (search app), Chrome etc were present. It appears I can't uninstall the Google search app. (Of course, with the phone rooted, I can.) OpenKirin is not a vanilla AOSP in that way.

Did you try/can you try viper4android? ive been trying to get it working on emui8 and have had no luck.
really wanting to switch to aosp

viper4android
KitsuneUK said:
Did you try/can you try viper4android? ive been trying to get it working on emui8 and have had no luck.
really wanting to switch to aosp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reviews are too negative, especially claiming popups, for me to try this. I'm not saying that the reviews are accurate as they often are not. But I've had to hard reset sometimes to remove a pernicious app, and this one isn't worth the risk. Sorry.
A cleaner version of android is more likely to run any app that didn't come from the phone manufacturer.

prestonmcafee said:
I'm with you on the long, skinny screens. I carry my phone in my shirt pocket most of the time, and it just barely has its center of gravity below the top edge of my pocket. Any taller and it will fall out even more frequently.
EMUI occasionally asked to replace Nova, and would crash if I added a EMUI widget to the homescreen. I hadn't realized how many apps couldn't be removed. For me, Facebook App manager is especially awful as I'm not on FB and FB track non-users, e.g. through the Like button on third party websites.
Not all the Gapps were embedded but some were. I think I had to add Gmail but Play, Google (search app), Chrome etc were present. It appears I can't uninstall the Google search app. (Of course, with the phone rooted, I can.) OpenKirin is not a vanilla AOSP in that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, I remember having an issues with one or two widgets, but then I decided I didn't want all that stuff and just made three widgets using KWGT widget maker and I haven't had any issues since, except occasionally the music pause/start doesn't respond.
I was able to remove many apps, but those I listed, and most of those can be disabled. Still, would rather have a clean ROM.
Some of these app issues are Google changes. I used to use ROM Toolbox Pro to remove apps but Google made them remove the feature. I think Google is trying to force more apps like Chrome and Search on us. I don't use the Gmail app, instead I use AquaMail which is a superior interface and I have 7 email accounts that it manages.
Did you try installing OpenGapps? I did on the Huawei Oreo and it installs but then the phone boot loops. I used the pico version which has the bare minimum Gapps. Don't know if the issue is the way Huawei made the ROM or if this is a Google change.
Anyway, the biggest issue is the limited support for the external SD card. Maybe a future update will resolve that issue.

I'll definitely update when OldDroid does, at least fairly quickly, and report if the next version improves the SD card. I'm doing all right with it just as a source of backup files.
I found another advantage of OpenKirin. I didn't get google maps directions over bluetooth in car (an Audi) since updating to Oreo/EMUI 8. I'm not sure why. I tried deleting and re-adding the connection, which didn't fix it, and music and telephone calls played fine over bluetooth, so it wasn't the bluetooth connection. Now bluetooth directions work perfectly, as well as music and calls (which did before).

I took the plunge and flashed OpenKirin - it's decent, limited bloat, but I just can't live with the external SD card access problem. Hopefully, OpenKirin developers will work on it.

vijer said:
I took the plunge and flashed OpenKirin - it's decent, limited bloat, but I just can't live with the external SD card access problem. Hopefully, OpenKirin developers will work on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How's the performance? I tried Phh-Treble, RROS and Lineage OS, this last two are for the Honor View 10, all of them work, can read external SDCard but all of them have performance issues, when you are heavy using the phone, switching from app to app, copypasting things, taking photos, etc., the phones lost all kinds of smoothness that seems to have when you just flash it.

IOmega666 said:
How's the performance? I tried Phh-Treble, RROS and Lineage OS, this last two are for the Honor View 10, all of them work, can read external SDCard but all of them have performance issues, when you are heavy using the phone, switching from app to app, copypasting things, taking photos, etc., the phones lost all kinds of smoothness that seems to have when you just flash it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I can't answer your question. I have too much on my external SD to live without it. 300 ebooks 2000 mp3s 400 videos several hundred images
Camera app can't see the storage
Root explorer can't see the storage
PowerAmp can
QuickPik can't
Moon+Reader cant
VLC can't
So after fiddling with it for a while I went back to MHA-L29 8.0.0.368

I haven't noticed any performance issues after about a week of uptime. I don't game, though, so may not stress the system like some do.

vijer said:
Sorry, I can't answer your question. I have too much on my external SD to live without it. 300 ebooks 2000 mp3s 400 videos several hundred images
Camera app can't see the storage
Root explorer can't see the storage
PowerAmp can
QuickPik can't
Moon+Reader cant
VLC can't
So after fiddling with it for a while I went back to MHA-L29 8.0.0.368
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know that bug, experienced it in Phh-Treble, hopefully is easy to fix and it was fixed on Phh-Treble, so it'll be soo fixed on this OpenKirik AOSP, what matters most to me is performance
prestonmcafee said:
I haven't noticed any performance issues after about a week of uptime. I don't game, though, so may not stress the system like some do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it deservers a try-

I finally took the dive and installed this on my primary device last night.
Ran into one issue: apparently, Huawei pulled the unlock request page offline. All of the available links to it that I could find went to a 404 page. (DC Unlocker to the rescue, I guess.)
In any case:
No issues with headphones. A few minor graphical glitches with the volume control panel and similar things but that's about it.
Magisk gets Google Pay and other SafetyNet demanding apps working, AdGuard doesn't mysteriously stop running because of overly aggressive memory management, dual SIM functionality seems fine.
45 minutes SOT, 92% remaining. No performance issues of note, aside from the minor graphical glitches feels smoother than EMUI did.
Update: I found something that gets rid of the graphical glitches, which (so far) seems to have a negligible effect on performance. Turn on GPU rendering profiling to be output to adb, all of the weird scrolling and clipping glitches go away...

GPU Rendering
irony_delerium said:
I finally took the dive and installed this on my primary device last night.
Ran into one issue: apparently, Huawei pulled the unlock request page offline. All of the available links to it that I could find went to a 404 page. (DC Unlocker to the rescue, I guess.)
In any case:
No issues with headphones. A few minor graphical glitches with the volume control panel and similar things but that's about it.
Magisk gets Google Pay and other SafetyNet demanding apps working, AdGuard doesn't mysteriously stop running because of overly aggressive memory management, dual SIM functionality seems fine.
45 minutes SOT, 92% remaining. No performance issues of note, aside from the minor graphical glitches feels smoother than EMUI did.
Update: I found something that gets rid of the graphical glitches, which (so far) seems to have a negligible effect on performance. Turn on GPU rendering profiling to be output to adb, all of the weird scrolling and clipping glitches go away...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a "Profile GPU rendering" under developer options, defaulted to Off, with two other options: On screen as bars, and "In adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo". Is the latter what you mean by output to adb, or am I missing something? I hadn't noticed glitches, other than occasionally missing half of the first line of text in some reading apps. With the in adb setting, I was unable to replicate that glitch, but it doesn't happen often, so could be unrelated.
When I choose "In adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo" and then restart, it returns to off.

prestonmcafee said:
I have a "Profile GPU rendering" under developer options, defaulted to Off, with two other options: On screen as bars, and "In adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo". Is the latter what you mean by output to adb, or am I missing something? I hadn't noticed glitches, other than occasionally missing half of the first line of text in some reading apps. With the in adb setting, I was unable to replicate that glitch, but it doesn't happen often, so could be unrelated.
When I choose "In adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo" and then restart, it returns to off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The latter is what I meant. The glitches I keep seeing are:
1) The volume panel, when it's opening and closing, seems to lose it's edges. As soon as the animation is complete, of course, it returns to normal.
2) In Chrome, at least, when scrolling through a select box, the edges of it seem to stick (top and sides).
I've seen a few others, mostly in the same vein. It usually looks to be as though a scrollable view isn't clipped correctly by the underlying driver, and turning on profiling causes it to render strictly.
I'm not surprised that it turns itself off at reboot, I haven't rebooted this since I got everything installed on it.

irony_delerium said:
The latter is what I meant. The glitches I keep seeing are:
1) The volume panel, when it's opening and closing, seems to lose it's edges. As soon as the animation is complete, of course, it returns to normal.
2) In Chrome, at least, when scrolling through a select box, the edges of it seem to stick (top and sides). .
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I replicated 1) and that your fix works. I had noticed some scrolling artifacts in Firefox, but don't seem to be able to replicate them at the moment. But then, I notice scrolling artifacts on laptops, too. I'll leave it set to adb.