Database Users

[Q] Should I get a Kindle Fire?

I'm trying to decide between a kindle fire or a nook tablet. To be honest, the biggest selling point for me is, which will be more like a regular android tablet once rooted and flashed with a new rom eventually. I'm as interested in performance as functionality. I would primarily use it for light gaming, movie watching movies & Netflix, and Playing with apps and live wallpaper lol. Sorry, I'm relatively new to Android but i used to be big in windows mobile and flashing a different Rom every other day. I'm really looking for some personal opinions on this. Thanks a lot guys.

supposedly nook tablet has a locked down boot loader so custom roms and what not
wouldn't be made easily the kindle fire.

The Kindle Fire is easily rootable unlike the nook . You may then make it function more like an android tablet with all the apps you like. Read some of the KF threads and you will see the versatility of the KF.

The Nook Tablet is also easily rootable and can function like a normal android tablet. There is a script on the XDA Nook Tablet section that performs a root and then loads the standard Android Market app. From there you can load a launcher from the market (such as GO Launcher) and you are in business.

I too am wondering about this.
I'm mostly wondering if I'd need the extra storage of the nook, because the ram doesn't concern me very much. Google is getting ICS to work on the Nexus S which has the same GPU as the Fire as well as the same amount of ram. I'm confident that ICS builds for the fire based off of Nexus S AOSP will run just as well as Google makes it run on that device.
Locked boot loaders concern me more than ram. I'm thinking fire right now.
Sent from my Droid Incredible using the XDA app.

[Q] Apps

New to the site, but just purchased a Nexus 7 to go with my GNex. I am curious to how the existing apps will play with the new 7. Since the resolution is pretty close, will most if not all apps that are compatible with the GNex be available for the Nexus 7? Or, since this is a new OS, do the developers need to tweak the apps to play nice with the new tablet?
Thanks! Cant wait to get the 7.

TeeDub23 said:
New to the site, but just purchased a Nexus 7 to go with my GNex. I am curious to how the existing apps will play with the new 7. Since the resolution is pretty close, will most if not all apps that are compatible with the GNex be available for the Nexus 7? Or, since this is a new OS, do the developers need to tweak the apps to play nice with the new tablet?
Thanks! Cant wait to get the 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All apps will run just fine, they will only need tweaking if they want to take advantage of new JB features. They might also need to be tweaked to take advantage of the screen size but either way they will work just might look a bit odd

I had a question regarding this. Many pointed out that the Nexus 7 opts for a phone based UI rather than the tablet UI we've seen sported on other Honeycomb or ICS tablets.
Seeing as how there are some apps specific to phone and specific to tablets, which apps will work with this? Will the "HD" tablet apps work with this?

antwan* said:
I had a question regarding this. Many pointed out that the Nexus 7 opts for a phone based UI rather than the tablet UI we've seen sported on other Honeycomb or ICS tablets.
Seeing as how there are some apps specific to phone and specific to tablets, which apps will work with this? Will the "HD" tablet apps work with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most should do yes, how android works out which UI to show or which apps the device supports comes down to its dpi which I believe for the nexus is a 'tablet' dpi, there for it should display tablet versions of the apps (it would seem pointless for them to release a tablet that only supported phone apps).
Also the UI is not strictly the Phone UI as there are 6 buttons along the bottom of the launcher instead of the 4 normally, its more of a hybrid layout

it uses a new small tablet UI that uses the tablet versions of apps (if they work for displays lower than 10") but the phone version of the system.

Interesting! Thank you for the replies. I was actually hoping for a tablet ui style throughout (like that of Honeycomb), I'm guessing this problem will be solved with custom roms? I'd like to be reassured before jumping on board.

[Q] Galaxy gear with Android wear?

I am wondering since the original galaxy gear runs a custom skin of android 4.2.2 it leads me to believe that android wear maybe compatible. will custom roms be made for the gear using this rom?

tenizpr0 said:
I am wondering since the original galaxy gear runs a custom skin of android 4.2.2 it leads me to believe that android wear maybe compatible. will custom roms be made for the gear using this rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you could just install the Wear launcher/host apk yourself, Although you may loose functionality of camera and other apps as there is no home screen to put icons on.

Doesn't work
frap129 said:
Or you could just install the Wear launcher/host apk yourself, Although you may loose functionality of camera and other apps as there is no home screen to put icons on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Wear launcher/host apk only works on nexus devices ive seen it does not work on the galaxy gear

tenizpr0 said:
The Wear launcher/host apk only works on nexus devices ive seen it does not work on the galaxy gear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive never tried it on the Gear as i dont have one, but ive tried the launcher apk on all of my android devices that are 4.1+ and it works just fine.

frap129 said:
Ive never tried it on the Gear as i dont have one, but ive tried the launcher apk on all of my android devices that are 4.1+ and it works just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you are talking about is the GEL which does work on android, but the thing with the gear it is not fully android, so Google search doesn't work and that was why GEL didn't work either. I'm talking about the watch emulator that is in developers hands being ported to the gear

[Q] Should we adhere holo design or material design for app in Android below 5

Previously, I had an Android app, which built on the top of ActionBarSherlock. The app runs well on Android 2.3 till Android 5.0
Currently, I'm in the process, of migrating my app, from ActionBarSherlock to Google AppCompat.
For the app running on Android 5.0, I'm targeting to use Material design.
However, if the app is running on Android 2.3 till Android 4, should I make the app having Holo look, or Material look? Does Google provide any official guideline on this?

yccheok said:
Previously, I had an Android app, which built on the top of ActionBarSherlock. The app runs well on Android 2.3 till Android 5.0
Currently, I'm in the process, of migrating my app, from ActionBarSherlock to Google AppCompat.
For the app running on Android 5.0, I'm targeting to use Material design.
However, if the app is running on Android 2.3 till Android 4, should I make the app having Holo look, or Material look? Does Google provide any official guideline on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an interesting question, and one I think there is more to it then it first seems. I don't think there is an official, clear statement from Google that you explicitely hav to use ABC with Material in Android 4.x, but the material design webpage says they wanted to "Develop a single underlying system that allows for a unified experience across platforms and device sizes". I would consider across platforms meaning across Android, iOS, etc., as well as different and old versions of the OS. But on the other hand, if we take a look at the design principles they want us to follow, all the screenshots are from 4.x and there is no mention of MD (there is one on the landing page though). Feels all a bit clumsy and unfinsished to me, as if they didn't really know what to do with the old guidelines...
And as hard as Material tries to promote consistency, doesn't it break consistency inside older versions of Android where all system apps are still using holo? Well yeah, they certainly do, but we've had the same problem with holo on 2.x devices... And as far as Google themselves, they are in the process of bringing all their apps to material on all devices and all versions of Android. I guess we can gladly follow them and use the Material theme everywhere, since it is more important that your app stays (almost) consistent with itself between Android versions than supporting outdated design languages and devices (which should have been updated to Lollipop anyway). Imagine someone having a KitKat Sony phone and a Nexus 7. You really want them to see two different apps everytime they switch from phone to tablet?
tl;dr use MD whenever possible, but if it's too much work fall back to holo

Converting app

Hi, can i convert app which is made for wear os 2.0 to wear 1.5?

No way.
Better update your watch