![Android Android](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/android_64.png)
![Google Google](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/google_64.png)
![Open Source Open Source](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/opensource_64.png)
Google Releases Android 4.1 Source Code 211
Unlike previous releases, where months passed between Google announcing a new version and the code being released, Google has made good on their promise to release the source code to Jelly Bean in record time. Unfortunately, the gitweb instance on kernel.org is still down so you'll have to download the entire thing to take a peek. Hopefully the Cyanogenmod team will find time to start on a community enhanced version soon.
Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:5, Interesting)
Thanks! That's good to know. I haven't actually experimented much with Cyanogen yet because i've never felt to need to install it on my Nexus One. (I'm trying to hold out until the rumored five new Nexus phones this fall.) But i'm definitely going to be looking into it once i get my Nexus 7.
You're missing out. Using vanilla android is THAT much better than most skinned versions, and using Cyanogen is THAT much better than vanilla. It's essentially ALL the options and customization you didn't realize you needed, but once you've got it, you'll never go back to vanilla.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:5, Insightful)
It's essentially ALL the options and customization you didn't realize you needed, but once you've got it, you'll never go back to vanilla.
But will my camera work?
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In previous versions I would agree. I had to install Cyanogenmod 7 on my Optimus V to make it half useable. However with ICS on my ASUS TF300 I haven't felt the desire, ASUS has done a very good job of customizing ICS for their tablet and everything I could think I want is there. Including being able to root it without any voodoo. I think it depends entirely on the OEM.
Re: (Score:2)
Just use one of the many available widgets.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:5, Insightful)
MOD THIS GUY TO THE 'N TOP.
TO.THE.TOP!
I've been ranting about this for months, it's difficult to put into words my thoughts on this without sounding like a raving lunatic or a badly broken record.
I am _sick_ of companies making stupid decisions with their user interfaces.
Why on EARTH would we want a nice, consistent location for a button to now become a random location on the screen? and what makes them think three odd little dots represents 'settings' or 'menu' clearly? WHAT?
I do not exaggerate when I say one of the PRIMARY reasons I switched from Apple to Android was the complete and utter logic of having nice, consistent buttons for routine functions. Back, menu, home seem logical to me. I also NEVER, EVER use the multi-task button, why would I? The OS handles it all perfectly for me, when I hit home it minimises the application (so to speak) and when I re-open the application, it's where I wanted it. Furthermore, holding down the home key (Samsung) seems logical to multi-tasking to me, not a dedicated button.
I am extremely, extremely baffled and pissed off at this completely and utterly idiotic move and it's also one of the primary reasons I got the Galaxy S3, possibly one of the last Android phones with a logical button scheme.
Sadly, I'm only one person whining about this but by god does the Google engineering group who decided on this change need a mighty fucking slap with the logic bat.
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not just companies. Even FOSS projects are doing it.
I ran GIMP 2.8 for a whole 20 minutes before I uninstalled and put 2.6 back.
It's like there's some sort of computer programmer virus that makes you make idiotic un-usability decisions going around (pretty sure Ubuntu was patient zero)
Re: (Score:3)
Could you be more specific? Is it because of the (optional) single-window mode in 2.8? The only reason I can stand to use GIMP now is BECAUSE of the single-window mode, but there's no reason to flame given it's still optional, and not even the default.
Apart from that 2.8 seems to only have improvements and greater functionality from what I've seen, but I'd be interested to read what it has which got under your skin so I can either sympathize or deride you. :)
P.S. Agreed with Ubuntu - Mint is the current dis
Re: (Score:2)
Could you be more specific? Is it because of the (optional) single-window mode in 2.8? The only reason I can stand to use GIMP now is BECAUSE of the single-window mode, but there's no reason to flame given it's still optional, and not even the default.
Whereas I think that was the best feature they added the recent version. I think the single window mode is Gimp trying to make a grab for Photoshops market.
When it comes to usability these things are very subjective, what one person thinks is an improvement another thinks is an annoyance. But then you also have some people who just whine whenever anything changes without giving the changes a chance but these people will always deny that is the case and rationalise their hatred somehow anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
The save garbage was one of the two things that got on my nerves very quickly.
The new brushes were the second. Since I had opened it up to do something with the smear tool, I ran into it headlong from the get-go.
Re: (Score:3)
It's not just companies. Even FOSS projects are doing it.
Doing what, experimenting with changes in new major versions that may give them a boost in popularity as they introduce changes to usability which make the product easier to use?
You've stated your opinion, now here's mine. GIMP 2.8 is usable, previous versions were a window management nightmare. Especially on dual monitors with tool palates disappearing and generally not acting like any other single application on my system. I like it. I like it a lot. Others seem to like it too. This is also the first vers
Re: (Score:2)
Doing what, experimenting with changes in new major versions that may give them a boost in popularity as they introduce changes to usability which make the product easier to use?
No. Experimenting and then responding to users who say that the changes do NOT make it easier to use as if they were all GNOME developers.
i.e. "Shut up, we know better than you do, and we don't care if you've been using it for 14 years, you should be using something else. Our target market are the people too dumb to pay attention to what they're doing." (Paraphrased from the actual response to criticism of the new Save/Export/Overwrite mess, but only slightly).
I'm glad you like the new windowing. C
Re: (Score:2)
Considering I never mentioned it or even got the chance to mess with it, I'm not sure why you bring it up as if it's a counter to anything I said.
Given you're using GIMP as an example in a thread almost entirely focused on GUI elements, saying you don't like something about GIMP, and the most controversial feature of the new GIMP is it's GUI changes, maybe you should clarify next time ;-)
But the point is still the same. Programmers don't intentionally try to drive use of their programs into the ground. If they are targeting dumb users there's a good chance that there's more potential to expand use in the dumb users category than the 14 years of exper
Re: (Score:2)
Change has to have advantages that outweigh the inconvenience of the change. The ribbon doesn't have those advantages for existing users who have had to completely relearn a large part of their workflow for no improvement in productivity and with the loss of screen space.
Re: (Score:2)
Given you're using GIMP as an example in a thread almost entirely focused on GUI elements, saying you don't like something about GIMP, and the most controversial feature of the new GIMP is it's GUI changes, maybe you should clarify next time ;-)
I did, two posts further down the subthread. :)
Programmers don't intentionally try to drive use of their programs into the ground. If they are targeting dumb users there's a good chance that there's more potential to expand use in the dumb users category than the 14 years of experience category
Actually, in their own words (or, more accurately, Alexandre Prokoudine's)
I've been monitoring teh interwebz closely regading v2.8 and the save/export change, and what I see is a consistently positive reaction from folks we are targeting: professional web designers, 3D artists
etc. They don't even need the explanation why this change is useful: they already know it, it's how they expect things to work, and they welcome this change. So within our product vision apparently we are doing it right.
The biggest bullshit of that is that everyone already knows what "professional web designers, 3D artists, etc." want.
They want Photoshop. They use Photoshop. They're going to continue to use Photoshop so long as Adobe keeps putting out Photoshop.
So they're crapping on their ACTUAL users for some delusional fancy that they're going to attract people away from the actual, professional packa
Re: (Score:2)
So what you're doing is loading a whole heap of bullshit by trying to claim you know better than they do what their users want.
If that's true, then why don't you fork the project and do it better than them?
Re: (Score:2)
MOD THIS GUY TO THE 'N TOP. TO.THE.TOP!
I've been ranting about this for months, it's difficult to put into words my thoughts on this without sounding like a raving lunatic or a badly broken record. I am _sick_ of companies making stupid decisions with their user interfaces.
Why on EARTH would we want a nice, consistent location for a button to now become a random location on the screen? and what makes them think three odd little dots represents 'settings' or 'menu' clearly? WHAT?
I do not exaggerate when I say one of the PRIMARY reasons I switched from Apple to Android was the complete and utter logic of having nice, consistent buttons for routine functions. Back, menu, home seem logical to me. I also NEVER, EVER use the multi-task button, why would I? The OS handles it all perfectly for me, when I hit home it minimises the application (so to speak) and when I re-open the application, it's where I wanted it. Furthermore, holding down the home key (Samsung) seems logical to multi-tasking to me, not a dedicated button.
I am extremely, extremely baffled and pissed off at this completely and utterly idiotic move and it's also one of the primary reasons I got the Galaxy S3, possibly one of the last Android phones with a logical button scheme. Sadly, I'm only one person whining about this but by god does the Google engineering group who decided on this change need a mighty fucking slap with the logic bat.
... or install CyanogenMod and customize your settings yourself, and stop whining.
Re: (Score:2)
And even so, if you honestly feel that Google is going in the wrong direction with some aspect of the UI there's nothing wrong with speaking up about it instead of just saying "Well i've got what i want thanks to CyanogenMod and all the less technical users who are stuck with whatever Google decides can go suck it."
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Why the (more expletives) should I damn well have to move to a non stock ROM just because of a foolish decision by Google?
This move is going to frustrate 'normal' users who don't know how to mod and regardless if there's a way round it with Cyanogen, it's still a completely illogical decision.
Ridiculous.
FYI, the official rationale: (Score:3, Informative)
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/01/say-goodbye-to-menu-button.html
Re: (Score:2)
Is this rationale by the same idiot how thinks it's a good idea not to have a way to exit a program?
Today a button on my G2 got bumped, result, a sound player playing a sound over and over again. So obviously I should just exit and it stops? Noooooooo. Instead my choices are: 1) force close 2) figure out the braindamaged UI on the sound player to pause the playback. And then... the app which I don't want running is just sitting there all ready to annoy me again. Force close. Sheesh. What drugs do they put i
Re: (Score:3)
Press the recent applications button, and slide the tile off the screen.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, you already got the knee-jerk Android reaction - just uninstall the app.
If I followed this advice anytime an app annoyed me in some way I wouldn't be running any apps.
You know what the response on Windows 3.1 used to be when an app hung the entire system due to a lack of strong process separation and pre-emptive multitasking? Uninstall it... And yet who considers a lack of those two characteristics to be a "feature" of a modern operating system (even android has those).
I've said it elsewhere. Googl
Re: (Score:2)
Well, you already got the knee-jerk Android reaction - just uninstall the app.
If you're referring to the "slide the tile" comment, that doesn't uninstall it. It just removes it from your "recently used" application list. And stops the application from running, apparently. It does NOT uninstall it.
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:4, Interesting)
Your points are valid from your perspective...
My perspective, on the other hand:
The multitasking button has become probably my most used, and I'm happy they made a dedicated button for it. Next most used is Home, and that's increased with Jelly Bean making long-press home bring up Google Now with a swipe up (which actually makes more sense to me than that being multitasking). Back is used enough as well, of course. I almost never use the menu button on the bottom any more, though. The only apps that I find any use for that is... well... Facebook, but I've given up on even dealing with the Facebook app... and... honestly, I'm perfectly happy without the menu or the search buttons dedicated on the bottom. It took a little getting used to, but I don't miss those buttons at all any more...
Essentially, the new button configuration works better for me than the old button configurations ever did. I can understand it being more of a hassle for some people. That's essentially Google's thing though: the phone manufacturers can put whatever buttons they want on there and leave whatever buttons they don't off (hence CM9 allows you to fill the damn thing up with all 5 if you really want). The manufacturers are probably going to go to the ones that seem the most logical based on potential sales to put on there. Samsung thought it made sense to keep the menu button that people like yourself are so used to, so they did. And there you have it, you proved them right and bought the S3 for that reason. Maybe they'll do that with the S4 and beyond, and you can still keep your menu button and "logical button scheme". I'll stick to the new scheme that makes more sense to me. We'll both be happy (and I understand that's a big "if they go that way...").
Re: (Score:2)
Agree about the menu button, disagree about the multi tasking button. It's absolutely necessary if you want to move from one app to another _without_ going to your home screen, opening the app drawer and then scrolling to the other app. If you need to switch back and forth a few times, you'll be pulling your hair out by the time you're done...
Re: (Score:2)
I'm fine with both but very confused that multi-tasking got a dedicated button but menu didn't - it seems so completely and utterly backwards to me.
Re:Number one thing i want from Cyanogen (Score:5, Informative)
If I remember correctly, the issue was that app developers were hiding vital functions behind the menu button, and there was no way to know whether the menu button actually worked on certain screens. Take the Android WiFi settings as a prime example - to enter the advanced WiFi settings, you had to press Menu and then Advanced, even though there was no indication to the user, and there is no menu as such (i.e. the menu button does nothing) in any of the other Android settings dialogs - how is the user supposed to know that he can access a whole other dialog by pressing Menu and hitting "Advanced"? The only way to find out (unless someone tells you) is to go through every single screen of a new app and press the menu button on each one, to see if a different menu pops up somewhere - and this really was the case on MANY Android apps... you'd get access to an entirely different menu from screen A than from screen B, and certain settings would only be available by pressing menu when already in the settings dialog - very confusing for end users.
I do agree that they should have kept the menu button in the same place though. Maybe just make the backlight (on devices where applicable) only light up when there's actually a menu available... and a better icon would have been nice... but tbh - I don't think I could have thought up a better one...
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, it's exactly for that reason. The fact that the dots appear to wander randomly around the screen is irritating for sure, but is more a transitional period. They appear in the bottom bar if the app is not set to "target" the latest OS version. They appear in the top bar if the app has been ported to use the ICS/Honeycomb UI classes, and irritatingly, they can appear in BOTH places if the app is using a backport of the ActionBar class and has not set their API target version correctly. I've been told tha
Re: (Score:2)
Task switcher != Recently opened apps
They are fundamentally different, and recently opened apps was broken in that some apps (like GMail) didn't show up unless they were opened directly from the home screen - if you opened GMail by clicking on a new mail notification, it wouldn't show up in recently opened apps. This was fixed when they switched to the task switcher...
No matter which method you prefer though - don't you think the function is important enough to deserve a dedicated button? I know I do...
Re: (Score:2)
They are not fundamentally different at all. They both serve the exact same function. The fact that some apps didn't show up correctly under recently opened apps is not a fundamental difference, it's a bug. There are apps under ICS that don't show up under the task switcher too, so it's not even a bug that's entirely gone..
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, there's a big difference. One shows running tasks and allows you to open or close ("dismiss") them. The other just shows you which apps you've most recently launched... makes a big difference for the way I use Android.
Which apps don't show up in the ICS task switcher? I haven't noticed any so far :)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't disagree that the task switcher is a big improvement over the recent apps list, it's way, way better. But it's certainly an evolutionary change.
The app I have problems with is a Chinese dictionary called Hanping. I believe the problem is supposed to be fixed in the next version. I hope so at least, because it's super annoying having to go back to the home screen all the time :-/
Re: (Score:2)
I am _sick_ of companies making stupid decisions with their user interfaces. Why on EARTH would we want a nice, consistent location for a button to now become a random location on the screen?
Apple probably has a patent for "buttons in a consistent location on a device with round corners" so Android had to remove that feature to avoid spending years in court.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If by "random location", you mean up in the top right corner, as part of the Action Bar, sure.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, Poe's law.
Re: (Score:3)
Number one thing i want in CM. Is for them to stop overlooking legacy devices like the nexus one.
If that's the G1, the base code is too bloaty and slow to run nicely on the hardware now. The G1 has limited RAM and flash space, sadly and there's a limit to how much you can optimise someone else's code like that.
Re: (Score:2)
Part of it might be the fact that the first-gen phones had Qualcomm GPUs, but (AFAIK) Qualcomm only grudgingly and recently released their programming info, and few devs are really interested in dedicating months of their lives to reimplementing the graphics subsystem of a phone that was resoundingly obsoleted by the Nexus One (and has very real resource constraints compared to pretty much any phone that shipped with 2.1+).
There are plenty of good things a first-gen Android phone can be repurposed for inste
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> I don't know why everyone goes on about CM as if they're the greatest thing in the ROM creation world.
Most non-CM AOSP-based ROM distros seem to be created by devs with a fetish for ascetic minimalism. CM goes in the other direction, and gives you the kitchen sink in a nicely-presented package with sensible defaults. In a real sense, CM9 is the fully-featured "carrier ROM" we wish our carrier had actually given us. It lets you have your cake and eat it too. You can have pretty eye candy (like users of
Samsung Galaxy S III (Score:3)
This is already a really fast phone with ICS, and the Samsung touches are actually pretty nice, but I want to remove the ChatOn service (I'm getting spam messages) and I want Jelly Bean. I'm assuming Cynaogen will give me that option before Samsung/Sprint goes.
Re: (Score:3)
There's a CM9/Jelly Bean ROM out already. It's not suitable for real use, but I don't think it'll take long.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1737449 [xda-developers.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Before Samsung? I'd say certainly. I'm still waiting for ICS on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and JB is already out. I wouldn't be overly surprised if Cyanogenmod supported JB for the Galaxy Tab before Samsung roll out ICS.
I know there are rumours of ICS being released for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 over July/August but I'm not holding my breath until I have it.
But really Samsung why are you playing games with releasing ICS for us? I like your products, but your lack of willingness to provide timely updates makes me question
Re:Samsung Galaxy S III (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the heads-up.
Re: (Score:2)
I like your products, but your lack of willingness to provide timely updates makes me question if I will buy from you again. /rant
I've always been of the belief that it was Samsung's incompetence more than anything that prevents timely updates to a phone. For the most part there's not a single bit of Samsung software that I've looked forward to. About the best thing you can do is hope for Cyanogenmod support. The Galaxy S runs CM9 faster than any Samsung firmware ever did, and their official reason for not supporting ICS on the Galaxy S is that the device is too slow to run it ... riiiiiiiight.
Samsung do make fantastic hardware though
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Samsung Galaxy S III (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes that's why I referred to them 'playing games'.
But it may not work in their favour, instead of me buying a new device from them I'm actually less likely to every buy their devices.
What's more (and supports your assertion) is their current replacement offering (Galaxy Tab 2 10.1) has little to offer over the previous version other than the OS version - so there's no way I'm forking out for a new device just for an OS upgrade. Yes there are other differences, but not enough to warrant another purchase.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm with you. I still haven't forgiven them for the POS that was the Moment.
It did prompt me to give HTC another try though. Picked up an Evo on eBay. First smartphone I've had in five years that didn't completely suck (I apparently have bad luck in choosing)
No kidding (Score:5, Interesting)
CM9 just took sooo long. In fact the final release isn't out yet.
I just couldn't resist and put Jellybean on my Galaxy Nexus. But CyanogenMod still has a few features that are not incorporated into plain Android, nor are there apps for them. Not that I could find anyway. For example I want the battery in the status bar to show a percent number (there are apps that add that, but IN ADDITION to the regular battery), and I /love/ the Volume-Button-Long-Press-Skips-Tracks. Very very very useful while jogging. Oh and the power widgets in the pull-down, way better than the Power Control Widget.
CM9 took so long because they had to start from scratch. They are saying that CM10 should not be NEARLY as big a deal, so here's hoping!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have Elixir2, never looked into most of what it can do though - I will check that out, thanks.
Re: (Score:2)
I've not seen any indication that the original Galaxy S will get a version above 2.2 Froyo which will have working 911. I will never buy a phone I cannot get complete source code for all drivers. I might as well have bought an iphone.
Re:No kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why I always buy Nexus phones. Unlocked. Costs more but I keep 'em going for a few years.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm grandfathered in with t-mobile's actual unlimited everything plan. They keep trying to get me to switch to their new plans which are limited, but I don't plan on doing that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Kill The Beast (Score:2)
Slashdot, why is there no way to mark other users as spammers? It's really frustrating to have people like this pollute the message stream.
Re: (Score:3)
Unless slashdot's doing something weird (never!) with your theming, or you have javascript turned off/NoScripted (who can blame you?), you should be able to use the little flag at the bottom right of the post.
Whether or not anyone does anything about it is another matter, entirely.
Can't wait for AOSP roms for Galaxy S III (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sense? I think you mean touchwiz. Sense is the HTC frontend.
The american version of the Galaxy S3 includes the bootloader locked verizon unit.
looking forward to it, and to the tablet (Score:2)
So if Google took over the "pole position" hardware release with the Nexus 7, and they also release the Jelly Bean source code, does that mean that they're going to be the cleanest, easiest platform to hack?
I'm a bit worried now that I see that some of the media features won't be available on non-US devices; not because I'm overseas, but because that usually means the MAFIAA has some control over the hardware. I really want the little tablet, to replace my aging Nook Color. If it turns out there are boo
Re: (Score:3)
stupid repo script is broken (Score:3)
It seems to make assumptions that are not valid, such as the host name being a valid RHS of email.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Google support of third party mods (Score:4, Interesting)
It is fairly clear that one of the greatest problems with Android is with version fragmentation
Is it really? As a mobile developer, I find that it's a simple problem to deal with by just coding to an older API. I haven't found any problem with it not being backwards compatible, and the older APIs are good enough for most things.
A much bigger problem I've had is with different hardware platforms being different, with sometimes bizarre issues like the Kyocera Milano having a clock that goes backwards from time to time. This is a problem on iPhone too, but since there are fewer iphone platforms, it's easier...
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
"As a mobile developer, I find that it's a simple problem to deal with by just coding to an older API."
That's exactly the problem. People having to code with older APIs due to platform fragmentation means that new features of the OS have far lower adoption rates even for the devices that can handle them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Google support of third party mods (Score:4, Interesting)
It's also worth mentioning that Google has done some work to help developers with compatability. There was a talk about it on IO this year as well: Google I/O 2012 - Multi-Versioning Android User Interfaces (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amZM8oZBgfk).
Re: (Score:2)
I am actually surprised that Google does not have a dedicated development team working in co-operation with an independent mod group such as Cyanogenmod.
It is fairly clear that one of the greatest problems with Android is with version fragmentation. Mobile carriers have been very sluggish or outright hostile regarding major firmware upgrades on their handsets. It would be preferable for Google to ensure that carriers are contractually obligated to support OS upgrades for at least four or five years. But until that happens, throwing resources at the issue through a back door would be a nice thing.
Every time you mention the word "carrier" in your post, I think you actually mean the company who produce the handset hardware. They are actually the people who neglect to release patches for old devices as they would much rather you went and bought a new device instead.
It would be very hard for Google to obligate anything of the carriers as they have no business relationship with them. Google do have a business relationship with HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc though so they could obligate them to release patc
Re:Google support of third party mods (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong. It's pretty clear that the carriers are the major blocker for updates.
For example, the Samsung Infuse 4G was originally released with Android 2.2. Canadian devices on Rogers received Gingerbread (Android 2.3) in late July/early August 2011. AT&T devices did not see Gingerbread until February 2012.
The Samsung Captivate was nearly identical to the original Samsung Galaxy S. The similarities were enough that community developers were able to have the I9000 Gingerbread release fully functional within weeks of Gingerbread for the I9000 becoming available. The Captivate did not receive an official upgrade through AT&T for NINE MONTHS.
The AT&T variant of the Samsung Galaxy S II (SGH-I777) is nearly identical to the international version (GT-I9100). As a result, there are only a handful of software differences required between the two handsets:
1) Change the digital I/O settings for the audio chip to a different sample rate - this was included in the GT-I9100 source code release
2) Change the keymap for the touchkeys - This was also included in the GT-I9100 source code release
3) Unmap the GPIO line for the HOME key which doesn't exist on the device - This was missing from the GT-I9100 source code release, but took less than a week to identify and fix
4) Swap the audio channels for the noise cancelling and main microphones - This took me a single Saturday to reverse engineer and fix
Despite these minor changes, the AT&T ICS release was delayed for more than three months, and was of worse quality than some of the early I9100 ICS leak builds. In addition to poor battery performance, frequent crashes, and other bugs not present in the initial I9100 ICS release, the SGH-I777 official release contains a severe bug that can permanently damage the device's eMMC storage if the user performs a factory reset.
If carriers didn't get in the way, the SGH-I777 would not exist - users would have received the GT-I9100 and would have received a high-quality ICS build in mid-March instead of an awful hackjob in late June.
Re: (Score:2)
If Google had the power to do that, then nobody would want Android.
Not for Nexus S and Xoom (Score:5, Informative)
The binaries for the Nexus S and Xoom are not available yet and won't be until the OTA update.
I tried compiling AOSP with android 4.1.1r1 checked out, adding the 4.0.4 vendor proprietary files, putting it on my phone, then flashing the ICS kernel, but it did not work.
Oh well. I'll be waiting.
Re: (Score:2)
Here are directions from someone on the Android team: http://twitter.com/arubin/status/27808662429 [twitter.com]
Kidding aside, I think Jobs was right on this one. Because phones are locked and drivers for the phone devices are difficult obtain, the closed vs open source OS is a moot point. Android might be open but there are real hurdles to updating the Android firmware on phones-- handset manufactures just don't want you to do it.
I have a Virgin Mobile LG phone running Android 2.2. I am still waiting for the 2.3 upgrade
Re: (Score:2)
I have to disagree with you. I'm trying to build an OS that wasn't released yet, with parts missing. It's my own damn fault if it's hard. If I had used the OTA (as I have done many times before), it would be a seamless process. Other manufacturers may make it hard but I don't buy from those manufacturers, period. I turned down a HTC Panache for a Nexus S because I knew what I was getting into. Average Joe might not know this, so I make it a point to tell it to people before they get a new phone.
So while you
Installation instructions? Where are they? (Score:3)
I tried to find the installation instructions but could not find any on the CyanogenMod website. I found them on other sites but would rather find them next to the source.
Anyone with a link?
Does call recording work yet? (Score:2)
Take a look at this: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.AudioSource.html [android.com]
There are VOICE_DOWNLINK & VOICE_UPLINK streams, but people accessing them get exceptions instead of working streams most of the time...
Has JB improved that at all? I'll need to go test if my current phone has these s
Legality issues (Score:2)
Answering machines also record calls all the time. Right now there is no possibility of implementing any of that on Android.
There might be an
Unlike previous releases? Jesus Christ (Score:3)
Months passed? WTF are you smoking? (Score:3)
ICS was announced on October 19, 2012.
ICS source was released on November 14, 2012. LESS THAN A MONTH.
In addition - the first device to actually RECEIVE ICS did not become available until NOVEMBER 17. Yes, that's right, source was released THREE DAYS BEFORE the first device to receive ICS became available.
Re: (Score:2)
and honeycomb never, that puts the average up quite a bit.
Re: (Score:2)
That was a special exception that has been explained time and time again - Google didn't want people shoehorning it into phones.
Re: (Score:2)
I want the ability to update my phone to the newest Android versions without rooting it.
Then buy a nexus device. That's really your only option.
Re:Yet (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yet (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The Invensense binary blobs (proprietary gyro/accelerometer) are now OK to distribute, but it's not clear how complete the new release really is.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The GSM Nexus S started OTA updating in December, then stopped with no explanation when the majority still haven't received an update, and finally restarted in March with the 4.0.4 update. The rumours were that the OTA update was suspended because of poor battery performance, which was only fixed in 4.0.4. Fair enough, but Google could have been more open about it.
Re: (Score:2)
As a Nexus S owner, I don't know what you're talking about. I believe the Galaxy Nexus was available mid-November, correct?
Well I updated to ICS in mid-December. A month's wait is honestly quite acceptable and was well worth it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Android is garbage designed "By Faggots, For Faggots" and it will never be as good as iOS"
Isn't it strange that iOS is included with hardware that is more designed than the OS... Go figure, wannabe.
Re: (Score:3)
If you are volunteering to help with the Nexus One project, I'm sure they'll be happy to have you on board.