Develop Bugs

[Q] Using volume button as camera shutter?

I was wondering if there is a way to use either volume button as a shutter while in the camera app. I've been looking around in the forums but I've only seen threads about using those buttons as power buttons.
Thanks

Retro camera in the market can do it.

this was fixed with style before the evo came out
Dude fx camera zoom is a beast I have been using it it let's you remap any keys or even take it via audio command but in full quality 8mp plus it wouldn't be " fx camera" without some sick fx... UI is great got the volume keys on mine doing zoom with voice activated timer so I could still take the pics really just a whole lot of options bought it 2 years ago on the g1 and a hidden gem of an app

This is already available via the Camera Zoom FX app on the market. Not free, but is there. However I have found that it is buggy as hell.
Bugs I have noticed:
1. Pictures won't save. It's like they are stored in the cache. You take a picture, go to gallery to view it and it won't be there. If you reboot the phone it will be.
2. The "FX" don't always work. There are several effects that come stock with the app. They frequently don't do what they are supposed to or won't load at all. I have found that you can exit the program via the back buttons and then start it again to get the FX to load, but even that has stopped working.
3. It actually asks you to download Task Killer the first time you open the app. Going on about camera apps using memory and all. So in other words it has a memory leak and instead of fixing it they want you to manually kill the task.
It does what some in this thread are asking for. However I wouldn't suggest you buy it.
And can I get a mod to verify my account so I can post faster than every 5 minutes... getting this message:
To prevent spam to the forums, new users must wait five minutes between posts. All new user accounts will be verified by moderators before this restriction is removed.

Wish granted!
I was bored this morning. So i decided to make one... for free! (Also no ads!)
It's called: "Simple Cam" made by Insanity Systems on the android market. (unfortunately i can't post the link because i'm a new user it seems... if anybody's kind enough to do so in a reply i would appreciate it!)
it's 15k in size (and i think most of that is the PNG icon to be fair).
Super simple to use: Volume up to take a snap; Volume down to set the flash.
Saves pictures to sd card in folder "cameraPictures".
ENJOY!
P.S. Have a go at the other apps as well maybe you'll find something you like.

taranasus said:
I was bored this morning. So i decided to make one... for free! (Also no ads!)
It's called: "Simple Cam" made by Insanity Systems on the android market. (unfortunately i can't post the link because i'm a new user it seems... if anybody's kind enough to do so in a reply i would appreciate it!)
it's 15k in size (and i think most of that is the PNG icon to be fair).
Super simple to use: Volume up to take a snap; Volume down to set the flash.
Saves pictures to sd card in folder "cameraPictures".
ENJOY!
P.S. Have a go at the other apps as well maybe you'll find something you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Market link
http://market.android.com/details?id=simplecam.insanitysystems.com
also, this feature is a part of cm7 already

Honest review from a critical nerd (me)

I've has my Galaxy Nexus for a couple of days now, on the Three network in the UK.
I hate how most people in reviews rave about phones when they have just forked out for them, and fail to mention any real negatives - presumably because they refuse to accept that something they've spent £500 on might be less than perfect. When you buy one and it's missing features or isn't quite what you expected, it's very annoying.
Here are my thoughts so far. I consider myself a power-user, and have tested almost everything. Overall, people are right. This is the best phone I've touched. I think once devs start optimising their apps to work properly on ICS it'll be even better. Fingers crossed that Cyanogen will address lots of the annoyances below.
I hope this is useful for someone
The Good:
Feels much more complete and unified.
It's lightening fast.
Most of the best bits of Android have transferred.
Screen looks great.
Face unlock works much better than I thought. Even in low light.
I've only had one crash despite installing a tonne of apps and testing every feature. [EDIT: a few FCs today. Mainly from the pre-installed Google Earth).
Radio seems to work fine on Three UK, unlike the SGS II which has data issues due to fast dormancy. Data speeds are great.
Browser generally much better.
Text input much better, but editing is a little confusing and seems to vary depending on app. [EDIT: This is actually phenomenal. I've always had a hardware keyboard or Swype before so no practice on these keyboards. After only 48 hours, I can literally type without looking. It is very good at correcting mistakes.]
Screen size is great for me, as I use my phones as mini-tablets. Doesn't feel bulky in my pocket at all.
BLUETOOTH STEREO FINALLY DOESN'T DISTORT - I can hear hi-hats again instead of just distortion. There is a bit of constant crackling though.
Screen remains responsive when charging. I have had an issue where it wasn't registering touch properly when charging on my Milestone, Desire and SGSII so this is really nice.
The Bad:
EVEN THOUGH I'M SUPPOSEDLY IN AN UNAFFECTED BAND, IF MY PHONE DROPS TO 2G, AND SOMEONE WALKS NEAR ME MAKING A PHONECALL IT PUTS MY PHONE ON SILENT.
The 'menu' button is unpredictable. For example, in most apps it appears at the bottom with the softkeys. In Market it's up at the top, near the search button. In some apps, it has gone. Seems to vary and is confusing.
You're stuck with the Google search box on you home screen. I hate this.
Now the button has gone, if an app doesn't have a search icon, you've lost the ability to search.
Also means no long press search, so you have to go back to the home screen for voice commands. This also means that regardless of what launcher you use, if you want voice search, you NEED to have the Google search widget on your home screen.
No USB Mass Storage – they've opted for media device profile instead. My Xbox recognises it but can't play any content. It doesn't work with my car stereo. It doesn't work with my TV. My laptop will see it, but I can't see certain hidden folders. This has just removed a huge aspect of flexibility from Android. It's no longer universal, and more like an iPhone now in that respect.
Icons are as ugly in real life as everyone expected.
Blue theme clashes with everything except blue. Blue icons on blue background feels very bland.
There is a huge problem with speech to text, whereby it is very slow, and seems to just write a list of names out of my contacts directory rather than writing what I say! Video here: http://youtu.be/qHVptz2EtMk
No longer accepts certain file formats over Bluetooth.
Camera seems buggy when reviewing photos. It works confusingly.
Gallery is not very intuitive at all.
Browser doesn't display Javascript animations properly.
Dropped a few calls.
Wifi range isn't as good as my other Androids
Front facing camera doesn't aim inwards towards your face. It points straight forward at 90 degrees, but it's positioned on the right of the device, so your face isn't central unless you hold the phone at a bit of an angle facing away from you. [EDIT - this is getting very annoying now. You have to have the phone screen pointing almost away from you to video call]
Bluetooth calls don't seem to work. Caller can't hear what I'm saying. [EDIT - I'm told it works on newer kits. Mine is a Jabra stereo receiver]
Bluetooth music has a constant crackling behind it, but it's barely noticeable in loud music.
All albumart appears in the phone gallery.
Google Talk seems to sign out after a while. It's showing all of my contacts as away even though I know they're online. Signing out and in again fixes this temporarily, but I'm guessing I would miss video calls whilst offline.
Phone has gone to permanent sleep about 3 times in 2 and a half days now. Requires a battery pull to get it back on.
Apps - If you can't live without these, I'd recommend waiting to buy until they're fixed
No menu button is shown on Facebook, so there's no way to set it up to sync contacts or notifications. This means no contact photos for now.
Twitter on the other hand syncs all my contacts, despite me telling it not to.
Doesn't support Swype as yet.
Doesn't support MX Video Player.
iPlayer not available in the Market.
Grooveshark app doesn't work due to lack of flash player. You can use Dood's music streamer for a functional but unattractive alternative.

Thanks for the review and honesty. It would be nice if you kept this updated as either your opinion changes or things are fixed from either Google or app developers.

Is web browser as smooth (scrolling, pinch to zoom) as one on the galaxy s2?

I really beginning to wonder if Verizon is going to put these out there in two weeks without some fixes/improvements in place. I mean, if December 8 is real, these phones have got be in sealed boxes already. People will be returning them faster than they sell them.

hrcro said:
Is web browser as smooth (scrolling, pinch to zoom) as one on the galaxy s2?
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It feels a lot smoother than my Galaxy S II did.
I'm about to test the bluetooth quality, as crackling audio was my biggest pet hate from previous Android versions.

Can you resize the search widget? If we are stuck with it maybe something smaller will help minimize that particular drawback.

have you got an otg usb cable? can you hook up a thumb drive?
Sent from my Google Nexus S using Tapatalk

suomaf said:
have you got an otg usb cable? can you hook up a thumb drive?
Sent from my Google Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, please test it. whole forum with owners GN but nobody had test this opportunity yet

I hope yopu don't mind but I am going to hijack this thread and also post a quick review from a similar nerd is maybe over critical. Saves starting a new thread.
The Good
ICS is very polished, much more so than any other version of android, it tries to stay consistent through the whole phone where as in previous versions it was one of my main annoyances.
The device looks fantastic.
The speed is very good, I wouldn't say it is any faster than a SGS2 with a custom rom IMO but it is a lot smother in animation etc. so it feels a lot faster.
The screen is very nice, playing videos when the screen is set up to an acceptable brightness are amazing with colours a lot more natural than the SGS2 or the yellow tint of the iphone 4.
Radio is very good also, getting full signal in my house where as before i would only receive 2-3 bars.
Text input is a lot better although i have found it is unable to keep up with my typing, although it is putting the letters down it almost seems like there is a little delay in the animation of them magnifying.
Notification light is back and I am glad, as I missed that feature on my SGS2.
Has everything, NFC, noise cancelling mic, 720p display and ICS. Its pretty much future proof (in terms of the next few years)
Zero shutter lag is a very good feature
Bad Points
The screen although very nice on full or half brightness is not very good on auto brightness. It is so much lower compared to all my other smart phones it is almost unusable I find so I have had to manually set the brightness.
Auto rotate as I have mentioned in another thread is very inconsistent, very fast in some apps nearly non existent in others.
Sound quality is quiet, not poor quality but very quiet. My SGS2 and iPhone 4 over power it when playing videos.
The browser is fast but it is not as fast as my SGS2 running Check Rom Revolution HD. It is deffo faster than the iPhone 4.
The camera is not great, its not bad but the quality feels like it is from a year old device. Quite grainy, not as good as the SGS2 or the iphone 4s unfortunately.
And lastly a few quirks which I am sure will be sorted out with an over the air update, occasional stutter when opening app draw, gallery doesn't seem terribly smooth when going through photos and the auto rotate is just annoying me.
Other than the above I don't want people to read this and think it is doom and gloom because it isn't. This is a very very good device, I am glad I purchased it because it is still the best phone on the market in my opinion.
Every phone has its niggles but that is why this forum is so great, I am looking forward to the community baked roms which always make a device go from very good to just awesome.
To answer some question, you can't resize the search bar. Its not really a widget its sort of like the controls at the bottom, permanently there.

when typing does it type well, what I mean is it off when typing and you keep getting bad letters up, I had that problem with the SGS2 someone mentioned it was a screen problem that it kept jumping
thanks

bmstrong said:
Can you resize the search widget? If we are stuck with it maybe something smaller will help minimize that particular drawback.
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Click to collapse
Nope, can't resize it. It's there permanently. You'd have to install another launcher.
Added a few more to the list, mainly to do with Bluetooth.

Is FM radio working with Spirit FM Radio app?

justabrake said:
when typing does it type well, what I mean is it off when typing and you keep getting bad letters up, I had that problem with the SGS2 someone mentioned it was a screen problem that it kept jumping
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it types really well, I don't think I have mistyped once on there and I type real fast.

Good lord. That's a lot of negatives. Thanks for the honest review for undecided minds like me. Just two questions. If you use a 3rd party launcher (for example adw) will the google search bar still be present? Secondly, how does the GPS perform in terms of fix time and accuracy? Does barometer really help GPS fix time? Thanks

luffyp said:
Secondly, how does the GPS perform in terms of fix time and accuracy? Does barometer really help GPS fix time? Thanks
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Click to collapse
The GPS fix for me is very fast, easily within a second or so. Much faster than my Desire was, that's for sure.

A lot of those negatives either will be resolved soon by Google or they won't be a problem for the majority of people
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

OP > when typing does it type well, what I mean is it off when typing and you keep getting bad letters up, I had that problem with the SGS2 someone mentioned it was a screen problem that it kept jumping
thanks

mike freegan said:
You're stuck with the Google search box on you home screen. I hate this.
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Ugh.
This is going to be problematic with my live clock wallpaper that is displayed at the top of the screen. Anyone else use WP Clock?
Here's an example of the live wallpaper I'm talking about:

luffyp said:
Good lord. That's a lot of negatives. Thanks for the honest review for undecided minds like me. Just two questions. If you use a 3rd party launcher (for example adw) will the google search bar still be present? Secondly, how does the GPS perform in terms of fix time and accuracy? Does barometer really help GPS fix time? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you have to bare in mind that ICS is a big over haul, so if we were to list all the positives it would be a pretty big list. I am just venting my negatives of the device, but when you compare them to how good the device is they really are small and I would rather have this handset than any other. I forked out for both my SGS2 and the Galaxy Nexus sim free and i am not dissapointed with either. If you are undecided on whether to upgrade you have to look at the fact that this phone does have everything, is a developer phone and has ICS written specifically for it. I would say go for it.
If you use a 3rd party launcher the Google search will not be present, my GPS has been excellent, I have used it for a few car journeys and it is just as good as my SGS2 which was superb.

jms.flynn said:
Well you have to bare in mind that ICS is a big over haul, so if we were to list all the positives it would be a pretty big list. I am just venting my negatives of the device, but when you compare them to how good the device is they really are small and I would rather have this handset than any other. I forked out for both my SGS2 and the Galaxy Nexus sim free and i am not dissapointed with either. If you are undecided on whether to upgrade you have to look at the fact that this phone does have everything, is a developer phone and has ICS written specifically for it. I would say go for it.
If you use a 3rd party launcher the Google search will not be present, my GPS has been excellent, I have used it for a few car journeys and it is just as good as my SGS2 which was superb.
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Yep I know, ICS seems to be the biggest change among the previous Android versions. Together with Google & developers' support, it's why I want to jump ship to the Nexus line. At the moment I'm leaning towards it, just wanna read more reviews. Although the volume adjusting problem that many people are having is a bit of a concern. Hopefully it will be fixed by a software update.

Poor photo quality and inability to save photos to destination of choice.

I have had my Xperia Z1 Compact for a few weeks now and for the most part I am very happy with it. The thing that lets the phone down for me is the camera.
1st issue is the photos themselves. The quality of the photos seems very poor and noisy which was extremly disappointing for me as one of the main reasons I chose this phone was for the 20 Mega pixel camera. I have heard that this problem is due to the ISO being ramped up when using auto and can be solved with 3rd party camera apps (an example given was "Perfectly Clear") that clean up the images nicely. I haven't tested this myself but if anyone can recommend any app or tips to getting cleaner images I would be most greatful.
2nd issue is how the camera saves pictures. I have the camera setting set to "burst with long press" which mean every time I take a couple of snaps it creates a new folder for that "burst" which more often than not is a single photo or two. This is annoying enough without the fact that with each new folder it starts repetitively naming the photos "DSC_000001" onward meaning I have 10 separate folders all with about 1-2 pictures in each and most of those pictures are named "DSC_000001" so when it comes to moving these pictures in to a folder on my P.C. I have to rename them manually to keep them in order. What I would like is to have all of my photos saved to one folder with a filename that resembles the date that I took them. For example if I took 3 photos today they would be named "02.05.14-00001" "02.05.14-00002" "02.05.14-00003" respectively. Not only would this make creating albums a lot easier it would help us keep track of when the photos were actually taken.
Please tell me there is a way of doing this! It is so simple. (Also side note on why the multi folder burst thing is terrible. I delete the photos from that burst - empty folder remains.)
3rd issue. This has happened to me a few times now and it is the most frustrating. When I press the 2 stage camera button in sleep mode to bring up the camera and an error comes up saying something along the lines of "Camera could not be found"... The only way I have found to fix this issue is to power down the phone and restart. When the main reason for this function is to get a quick shot off like when your best mate is crossing the finish line of a big race, this error is the last thing you want to see. Trust me I know. (Sorry Ryan I really did try to get a photo of it.)
Any who, if any of you lovely people have a fix or work around for these issues it would be most appreciated. Thank you.

Lawro.Woods said:
I have had my Xperia Z1 Compact for a few weeks now and for the most part I am very happy with it. The thing that lets the phone down for me is the camera.
1st issue is the photos themselves. The quality of the photos seems very poor and noisy which was extremly disappointing for me as one of the main reasons I chose this phone was for the 20 Mega pixel camera. I have heard that this problem is due to the ISO being ramped up when using auto and can be solved with 3rd party camera apps (an example given was "Perfectly Clear") that clean up the images nicely. I haven't tested this myself but if anyone can recommend any app or tips to getting cleaner images I would be most greatful.
2nd issue is how the camera saves pictures. I have the camera setting set to "burst with long press" which mean every time I take a couple of snaps it creates a new folder for that "burst" which more often than not is a single photo or two. This is annoying enough without the fact that with each new folder it starts repetitively naming the photos "DSC_000001" onward meaning I have 10 separate folders all with about 1-2 pictures in each and most of those pictures are named "DSC_000001" so when it comes to moving these pictures in to a folder on my P.C. I have to rename them manually to keep them in order. What I would like is to have all of my photos saved to one folder with a filename that resembles the date that I took them. For example if I took 3 photos today they would be named "02.05.14-00001" "02.05.14-00002" "02.05.14-00003" respectively. Not only would this make creating albums a lot easier it would help us keep track of when the photos were actually taken.
Please tell me there is a way of doing this! It is so simple. (Also side note on why the multi folder burst thing is terrible. I delete the photos from that burst - empty folder remains.)
3rd issue. This has happened to me a few times now and it is the most frustrating. When I press the 2 stage camera button in sleep mode to bring up the camera and an error comes up saying something along the lines of "Camera could not be found"... The only way I have found to fix this issue is to power down the phone and restart. When the main reason for this function is to get a quick shot off like when your best mate is crossing the finish line of a big race, this error is the last thing you want to see. Trust me I know. (Sorry Ryan I really did try to get a photo of it.)
Any who, if any of you lovely people have a fix or work around for these issues it would be most appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate, I'll tackle issue 1 as not sure about the others. Forgive me if I at any point sound patronising/condescending but obviously I don't know how well-versed you are in photography or not, so don't want to suggest something insulting if you actually know your stuff!!
Yeah, the auto modes (esp. superior auto) aren't great. Especially in low light. But as far as I am concerned, you don't get a phone with a camera this good (f2.0 aperture, 20meg/8meg downsampling) to use the auto modes. Unlike an iPhone, which is designed specifically to be a one-button job, these android phones (the best ones) have decent manual modes as every photographer knows that's how you get the very best results.
I always use manual as you have to for best results (ESPECIALLY in low light). You're correct, the auto mode does ramp up the iso too much. Actually quite a lot of phones do this too much....iphones indoors are a good example.
Tip 1: Stay with the stock camera. It will be purpose built for the sensor and will get you the best results
Tip 2: Always shoot manual
Tip 3: With every shot you take, you want the lowest ISO you can get away with. So practice a bit with different environments and you will soon get a sixth sense about roughly what you'll need. If you're in a restaurant or indoors for example, do a quick experimentation with changing the iso's and see what the scene looks like in real-time (make sure you're phone brightness is high). That's usually a good indicator of how the photo will come out.
Tip 4: Tap to focus on what you want focused, THEN hit capture. Don't just hit capture alone.
Tip 5: Phone camera flashes are TERRIBLE. It's the thermonuclear option when you HAVE to capture whatever is in front of you. Never use one unless you absolutely have to. If I have to use the flash....I don't take the picture. I also don't take any pictures higher than iso 800 as the noise is awful (for all phones). For indoor/lowlight you want 200/400 or worst case scenario 800 if you absolutely have to get that shot.
Tip 6: In manual, you will actually get superior photos if you shoot in the 8megapixel mode. Only ever choose 20megapixel if you are going to be doing some extreme cropping with the photo or are going to be blowing it up to huge sizes somewhere.
Hope that helps?

Thank you for the tips. They are useful and when I have time to mess with manual settings to take a photo I will certainly use them. But the things that originally attracted me to this phone were the quick launch 2 stage button and the burst mode. I wanted to use this phone as a quick point and click camera for capturing fleeting moments. Unfortunately the quick launch immediately opens in auto mode (with that ****ing annoying sound effect I might add) and by the time I've switched to manual and messed around with the settings (which could use a better layout) that fleeting moment might have passed me by.
Good news is I have come up with a backward way of getting the photos to save by date. Dropbox automatically backs up my pictures with a file name done via date and time. Although this isn't a true fix since I still have to delete the burst folders from my phone every now and then this will do for now.
Thanks again for the tips paddy. Hopefully I will work something out.

Lawro.Woods said:
Thank you for the tips. They are useful and when I have time to mess with manual settings to take a photo I will certainly use them. But the things that originally attracted me to this phone were the quick launch 2 stage button and the burst mode. I wanted to use this phone as a quick point and click camera for capturing fleeting moments. Unfortunately the quick launch immediately opens in auto mode (with that ****ing annoying sound effect I might add) and by the time I've switched to manual and messed around with the settings (which could use a better layout) that fleeting moment might have passed me by.
Good news is I have come up with a backward way of getting the photos to save by date. Dropbox automatically backs up my pictures with a file name done via date and time. Although this isn't a true fix since I still have to delete the burst folders from my phone every now and then this will do for now.
Thanks again for the tips paddy. Hopefully I will work something out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries.
Yeah admittedly if you take a lot of sudden/spontaneous shots that you don't have time to adjust for, the results might be less than ideal. To be honest on my xperia and my gs4 before that, after a while you become so quick at changing the manual options it becomes second nature and you can do it fast enough to catch spontaneous moments with the ideal settings.
Phone cameras are much simpler than normal cameras as the aperture (which is EXCELLENT for low light on the xperia - f2.0) is fixed, so really when it comes to mobile photography it's all about ISO, ISO and more ISO. Therefore when I say 'use manual mode' you can get away with JUST altering the iso to your needs and leaving all the other manual settings on auto. Like white balance for example, which the computer is MUCH better at detecting correctly.
Unless you're shooting outdoors on a sunny day, you must learn to assume that 99 times out of 100, your xperia in auto will select an ISO that is far higher than what you can actually get away with using. So it's good practice not to trust it.

[Q] Looking for data on stability of major ROMS

Is there any good data on which of the major ROMs are most trouble free?
I am a pretty simple guy. All I really want is to be able to use my phone as a hotspot, take pictures without the camera app crashing and easy access to turn the torch on and off. Seems like a lot of the reviews spend a lot of time focusing on how many colors you can change and relatively little on the actually reliability of the ROM. This sort of leaves us asking eachother and it seems like everyone and their brother has an opinion on how stable any given ROM is and all swear by different ones.
At any rate, this just leaves me wondering if there is actually any good reviews or sources that summarize what the weeknesses of each ROM are. I know it is a tricky thing to ask, because they are always changing with each nightly build, but I have been pulling my hair out for the last couple years trying to find a properly stable ROM for my T999.

They cant really review stability and functionality on some roms, such as CM for example. Its going to be different for every model device, and even between 2 identical model devices you will still find one has issues while another does not. Thats why they usually stick to reviewing features and options. But also, what works best will vary from person to person even more so than from one device to the next. As is stated in all the "what's the best rom" threads, only you can determine what suits your needs best.
But for what its worth, imo, if its stability you're after, stick to whatever the manufacturer included on any given device.

DocHoliday77 said:
They cant really review stability and functionality on some roms, such as CM for example. Its going to be different for every model device, and even between 2 identical model devices you will still find one has issues while another does not. Thats why they usually stick to reviewing features and options. But also, what works best will vary from person to person even more so than from one device to the next. As is stated in all the "what's the best rom" threads, only you can determine what suits your needs best.
But for what its worth, imo, if its stability you're after, stick to whatever the manufacturer included on any given device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would stick with the stock rom, but I just really don't like it. I have also gotten very used to using a more stock version of Android and don't want to have to adjust back to using the stock rom, even if there are ways to get tethering to work.

aviphysics said:
I would stick with the stock rom, but I just really don't like it. I have also gotten very used to using a more stock version of Android and don't want to have to adjust back to using the stock rom, even if there are ways to get tethering to work.
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Click to collapse
What don't you like about the stock ROM? You say you want simple and don't care about changing anything, but you're not happy with stock either. What do you really want? lol. Also note, than any other ROM is not going to have the Samsung camera app, they are all going to be a lot more basic camera's, no wifi calling if you use that t-mo feature.
Torch on and off can be accessed with a shortcut on stock ROM, any third party app that lets you add a widget, or if you install xposed framework, you can add torch to the volume up button, so you can turn the torch on without even waking the phone. I'm with Doc, I'm a Touchwiz kind of guy too. I don't get the hate for it.

I just don't like some of the extra junk Samsung adds on. I like a more stripped down vanilla Android. I originally switched yo get rid of sVoice in particular and just got used to it. Not needing extra apps for WiFi tethering is a nice bonus.
At any rate. Just totally wiped the phone back to stock with Odin and installed the latest AOKP. No problems yet.

You can strip the Samsung apps out, and there is mods to enable native tethering.. But aosp or the kind is a nice option as well, just depends on what you want and need

aviphysics said:
I just don't like some of the extra junk Samsung adds on. I like a more stripped down vanilla Android. I originally switched yo get rid of sVoice in particular and just got used to it. Not needing extra apps for WiFi tethering is a nice bonus.
At any rate. Just totally wiped the phone back to stock with Odin and installed the latest AOKP. No problems yet.
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Thinly veiled best ROM thread. SlimKat with Banks' minimal gapps.
I don't use my S3 anymore, but I have that ROM on it and my other two devices. It is filed under d2lte on their site, it's a unified build.
If you have kernel problems, use ktoonsez'. That one was always really solid.

Aerowinder said:
Thinly veiled best ROM thread.
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LOL. Totally not meant to be a best ROM thread. Just wanted to know if anyone was tracking reliability or issues common to the different ROMs in a way that was easy to sift through and not totally anecdotal.
SlimKat with Banks' minimal gapps.
I don't use my S3 anymore, but I have that ROM on it and my other two devices. It is filed under d2lte on their site, it's a unified build.
If you have kernel problems, use ktoonsez'. That one was always really solid.
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Click to collapse
I never figured out what was causing problems with my last ROM. TBH, I don't even recall what the kernel and ROM combination was. It was just something some random XDA forum member suggested. The biggest issue is that every time I opened the camera app, went away from it and came back, it would crash. Also happened when switching between camera and video. Sometimes it would require a system reset to get the camera back. I think it was something to do with the app itself, cause other apps that took pictures never had any problems. Super annoying. There were some other issues to. I stuck it out for a long time because the app fixed a BT audio issue I was having and I was too lazy to do more searching or reflashing my phone from scratch.
Right now I am just trying to make my phone last until the Sony Z3 launches. I am pretty sure that will be my next phone. Hopefully it won't cost a crazy amount to import it if t-mobile doesn't get it right away.

aviphysics said:
LOL. Totally not meant to be a best ROM thread. Just wanted to know if anyone was tracking reliability or issues common to the different ROMs in a way that was easy to sift through and not totally anecdotal.
I never figured out what was causing problems with my last ROM. TBH, I don't even recall what the kernel and ROM combination was. It was just something some random XDA forum member suggested. The biggest issue is that every time I opened the camera app, went away from it and came back, it would crash. Also happened when switching between camera and video. Sometimes it would require a system reset to get the camera back. I think it was something to do with the app itself, cause other apps that took pictures never had any problems. Super annoying. There were some other issues to. I stuck it out for a long time because the app fixed a BT audio issue I was having and I was too lazy to do more searching or reflashing my phone from scratch.
Right now I am just trying to make my phone last until the Sony Z3 launches. I am pretty sure that will be my next phone. Hopefully it won't cost a crazy amount to import it if t-mobile doesn't get it right away.
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Click to collapse
AOSP camera was always crap in general but especially so on the S3.
You can get an updated on in the play store now, so you can freeze the AOSP one.

Aerowinder said:
AOSP camera was always crap in general but especially so on the S3.
You can get an updated on in the play store now, so you can freeze the AOSP one.
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Click to collapse
The camera in the latest AOKP was working fine, but I downloaded the Google Camera app just to check it out. Works fine taking normal pictures, but the blur mode causes it to crash when you try to take a picture and the panorama/photosphere modes won't take pictures. I found some other people with identical problems, but didn't see a clear solution.

aviphysics said:
The camera in the latest AOKP was working fine, but I downloaded the Google Camera app just to check it out. Works fine taking normal pictures, but the blur mode causes it to crash when you try to take a picture and the panorama/photosphere modes won't take pictures. I found some other people with identical problems, but didn't see a clear solution.
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Click to collapse
It was originally for the Nexus 5, then they put it on the play store for everyone. Clearly issues with non Google devices.
I'd suggest a third party camera app, like Camera ZOOM or something.

[Q] Front camera. Hardware component not working = CM10/CM11 Call UI crashes

Hello,
I’ll start with telling you that my front camera is broken (hardware problem). Since I almost never use it, I don’t miss it and I don’t want to go have it fixed yet if I don’t need to.
Due to what seems a very strange implementation of the stock camera app, it doesn’t work at all (I’m getting a force-close on launch with error message „Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped”). Gallery itself works. My suspicion is that when I launch the Camera app, it tries to get both cameras’ properties „in advance”, regardless of the fact that I only want to use the rear one (which is the default on app startup!) and it fails, because it’s broken.
Some other apps, like OpenCamera, only try to fetch the front camera’s data when I actually try to switch to it and therefore work nicely when using the rear camera (what’s more, the OpenCamera doesn’t CRASH, it handles the error gracefully by just displaying a nice message that the front camera might be in use by another app).
So, I didn’t bother at first. But then I’ve decided to become ninja and installed Cyanogen10 (10.2.1 maguro, stable version, then cm-11-20150209 nightly) and it turned out that… the call ui is not working!!! I attached to adb and saw at logcat the following stack trace:
02-13 14:25:21.061 2209-2233/com.android.camera2 E/AndroidRuntime﹕ FATAL EXCEPTION: Thread-200
Process: com.android.camera2, PID: 2209
java.lang.RuntimeException: Fail to get camera info
at android.hardware.Camera._getCameraInfo(Native Method)
at android.hardware.Camera.getCameraInfo(Camera.java:221)
at com.android.camera.CameraHolder.<init>(CameraHolder.java:169)
at com.android.camera.CameraHolder.instance(CameraHolder.java:123)
at com.android.camera.util.CameraUtil.openCamera(CameraUtil.java:468)
at com.android.camera.PhotoModule.openCamera(PhotoModule.java:1869)
at com.android.camera.PhotoModule.access$000(PhotoModule.java:96)
at com.android.camera.PhotoModule$OpenCameraThread.run(PhotoModule.java:234)
Even though I never ever use video calls, the call ui seems to need the camera info no matter what (I’ve tried to find something in the settings, but haven’t noticed anything related to disabling video calls). The effect: the logic is working (the call is initiated), but I do not have any UI to handle it, only force closes over and over again. The same with incoming calls - logic working, ringing, but no ui.
The camera bug was acceptable, but this is not. So, now, let’s think of possible solutions:
1) revert to stock Android (I don’t want to do that!)
2) get the sources of Cyanogen, change the system call app behaviour for my needs, build my own ROM and flash it (not really a good solution, since I would have to repeat the same fix with every update)
3) MAYBE there is a way to dig into system files and change some value that indicates whether front camera is available? MAYBE it’s possible without modifying some .so libs or other binaries or the kernel? Do you think it would help? (I would still have to do it after every update, but perhaps less problematic)
4) other ideas?
I’ve found only one similar topic, where the fix is hardware-related: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1745208
Anyway, I don't think that these errors (in stock camera and CM's call ui) HAVE to be there. Front-facing camera is not absolutely necessary for these apps, it's a feature, so why is its lacking practically disabling them? This should be implemented better. But that's my opinion.
Please help who can. I don’t have the necessary knowledge of Android system (yet ) to handle it all by myself.
EDIT:
I've tried replacing all instances of android.hardware.camera.front with android.hardware.camera or android.hardware.camera.any in system/etc/permissiong xml files (names of the xmls as well as inside the files). Didn't work.
EDIT2:
I've bought a new front camera and replaced it. Doesn't work. Seems the pins on the main board are poor. Changed to AOKP mod for now, at least calls work.. Still waiting for hints though.