Develop Bugs

[R] Modifications to .apks

I know enough to root/fix my phone when I inevitably break it due to tweaking but little to nothing (mostly nothing) about theming or writing/editing apps.
So I'd like someone with such knowledge to help me out with something. In Handcent and some other messaging apps have the option to vibrate only when the phone is on silent as an option. I'd like this option written into the default mms.apk or some instructions/tutorial or something else I can monkey around with to do it myself.
In addition though not really a high priority, I'd like a way to possibly change the Desk Clock.apk so it will instead open Winamp instead of the default music player app. Or again, some kind of tutorial that I can end up figuring it out myself. Not important at all but I like to leave Desk Clock on while at work and it would just eliminate some extra clicks for me.
Thank you in advance for your time and all the work everyone has done on these themes and developing <3
EDIT: Also is it possible to update the BIOS animation .zips to be flashable in CWM3, I knew some people were asking about it but I'm not sure what ended up happening to that.

Bumping after a day.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Wishlist / can this be fixed without days/weeks of research or will I have to switch?

Okay, so I made the jump from iPhone 4S to SGS3 T-999 at the beginning of September this year and my experience has been less than fun. Disregarding all the hardware issues, as far as software is concerned, I've been spending hours every day trying to find software that works reliably. Here's my rant of the biggest problems right now, if you have any ideas, I'd really appreciate hearing back! I was looking forward to digging into mods/hacks, etc on Android later down the road but with these basic functions that I depend on daily in my phone not there yet, I'm starting to wonder if I need to just switch back to iOS until Android is more developed. I actually used be on Android in the days of the S2 for about 2 months, but had to ultimately switch back to iOS because I simply didn't always have the time to download 20-30 clock apps to find one that works decently or test out mods and hacks for basic functions. Sure, it's fun to test try out mods and such but when your phone feels like it's broken, that's no good.
>Stock camera app doesn't allow taking pictures/video/flash at a certain level of battery. wtf, why samsung?! I have yet to find a camera app that does video/photo as well as the stock camera app.
>Image compression & resize tool for when e-mailing photos/images quickly...like in iOS would be great, or even something that actually works would be better. Note to Samsung--most people don't want or need to get an e-mail of your 8mp picture taken on your cell phone.
>Audiobook player that saves my spot
>Least buggy PDF reader with search, annotations and highlighting
>Tethering that works (no luck so far with fox fi and a few others, I'm using T-mobile MyMonthly 4G)
>File transfer over USB on my Mac (Latest version of lion, macbook pro 2.4ghz c2d pre-unibody)
>Find my iPhone equivalent with a web interface as opposed to just text message operation
>iOS clock app equivalent. I have downloaded probably more than 2 dozen timer/clock/alarm apps and none of them do it all while staying on in the background and not randomly closing. Also would be great if I didn't lose my timer if the app or phone has to be restarted/killed.
>Make a complete backup on my Mac instead of backing it up to my SD card and then having to copy that to my computer.
This list used be a lot longer...but with much sweat I have found some solutions or learned to cope, but not for everything that is vital^...

salils said:
Okay, so I made the jump from iPhone 4S to SGS3 T-999 at the beginning of September this year and my experience has been less than fun. Disregarding all the hardware issues, as far as software is concerned, I've been spending hours every day trying to find software that works reliably. Here's my rant of the biggest problems right now, if you have any ideas, I'd really appreciate hearing back! I was looking forward to digging into mods/hacks, etc on Android later down the road but with these basic functions that I depend on daily in my phone not there yet, I'm starting to wonder if I need to just switch back to iOS until Android is more developed. I actually used be on Android in the days of the S2 for about 2 months, but had to ultimately switch back to iOS because I simply didn't always have the time to download 20-30 clock apps to find one that works decently or test out mods and hacks for basic functions. Sure, it's fun to test try out mods and such but when your phone feels like it's broken, that's no good.
>Stock camera app doesn't allow taking pictures/video/flash at a certain level of battery. wtf, why samsung?! I have yet to find a camera app that does video/photo as well as the stock camera app.
>Image compression & resize tool for when e-mailing photos/images quickly...like in iOS would be great, or even something that actually works would be better. Note to Samsung--most people don't want or need to get an e-mail of your 8mp picture taken on your cell phone.
>Audiobook player that saves my spot
>Least buggy PDF reader with search, annotations and highlighting
>Tethering that works (no luck so far with fox fi and a few others, I'm using T-mobile MyMonthly 4G)
>File transfer over USB on my Mac (Latest version of lion, macbook pro 2.4ghz c2d pre-unibody)
>Find my iPhone equivalent with a web interface as opposed to just text message operation
>iOS clock app equivalent. I have downloaded probably more than 2 dozen timer/clock/alarm apps and none of them do it all while staying on in the background and not randomly closing. Also would be great if I didn't lose my timer if the app or phone has to be restarted/killed.
>Make a complete backup on my Mac instead of backing it up to my SD card and then having to copy that to my computer.
This list used be a lot longer...but with much sweat I have found some solutions or learned to cope, but not for everything that is vital^...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand what "basic" functions you are having issues with? Other than the camera not working after a certain %, it's not like a PDF reader with annotations and highlighting is a "basic" function.. nor are rely any of the other things on your list except maybe image compression.
That being said, I don't know a camera solution for Touchwiz but on AOSP there are no restrictions to when you can take a picture with regards to battery.
Repligo Reader is a great PDF reader. I don't know about search but I can highlight and annotate.
You need to download the app Android File Transfer to transfer via USB on your Mac.
If you're in Monthly4G, tethering is not included. This is an issue with your plan. If you want to tether, root your phone.
There are plenty of "find my android" apps out there, that work exceptionally well. I use Avast!.
AOSP also has a timer and stopwatch built in, so maybe you should try that.
You cannot backup your phone directly to your computer.
I am more than happy to help you, as I am sure most people here are, but I think you need to lower your expectations on "basic" features..
Sent from my SGH-T999

joshnichols189 said:
You need to download the app Android File Transfer to transfer via USB on your Mac.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't be so sure. I spent an hour trying to get that to work when I first got my phone, gave up and used Airdroid but for the big stuff I have to use my PC.

psykhotic said:
Don't be so sure. I spent an hour trying to get that to work when I first got my phone, gave up and used Airdroid but for the big stuff I have to use my PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well he didn't mention anything about it, so I figured he might not know about it.
Sent from my SGH-T999

psykhotic said:
Don't be so sure. I spent an hour trying to get that to work when I first got my phone, gave up and used Airdroid but for the big stuff I have to use my PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I spent several hours trying to trouble shoot this and just decided it would be easier to use vmware and try to dig up a copy of windows xp i had lying around...ugh..
joshnichols189: Thank you for your help!
By basic, I guess I wasn't necessarily referring to all stock functions...but on the iPhone I found many apps on the App store that accomplished this task competently. Primarily I used Good reader, but there were others so it seemed like something that wouldn't be difficult to come across. I have found a few apps that provide such a function but end up missing others or are too buggy to use. I will have to check which apps specifically I tried with no success if that will help...will look into Repligo Reader, thanks!
As for tethering: I was able to get it to work on an S2 (i9100) running gingerbread using my MyMonthly4G plan using the native tethering feature. I've rooted my phone sucessfully but haven't gotten around looking into custom roms and such..still using stock (but rooted). If you or anyone here knows any especially good tethering solutions for rooted t-999 users running stock it'd be super helpful to hear.
I will have to do research on AOSP.

salils said:
Yeah, I spent several hours trying to trouble shoot this and just decided it would be easier to use vmware and try to dig up a copy of windows xp i had lying around...ugh..
joshnichols189: Thank you for your help!
By basic, I guess I wasn't necessarily referring to all stock functions...but on the iPhone I found many apps on the App store that accomplished this task competently. Primarily I used Good reader, but there were others so it seemed like something that wouldn't be difficult to come across. I have found a few apps that provide such a function but end up missing others or are too buggy to use. I will have to check which apps specifically I tried with no success if that will help...will look into Repligo Reader, thanks!
As for tethering: I was able to get it to work on an S2 (i9100) running gingerbread using my MyMonthly4G plan using the native tethering feature. I've rooted my phone sucessfully but haven't gotten around looking into custom roms and such..still using stock (but rooted). If you or anyone here knows any especially good tethering solutions for rooted t-999 users running stock it'd be super helpful to hear.
I will have to do research on AOSP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be sure to try Repligo, I believe they have a free/lite version! I wasn't able to tether when I was on Monthly4G so maybe it is different now. If you are rooted you should look at the WiFi Tether for Root app. I believe you can find it easily with a Google search. Also be sure to look into AOSP, you might like it more but if not you can always revert!
Sent from my SGH-T999

Just download wifi tether from play store and that will definitely tether anything you want.
Sent from my SGH-T999

The camera would need to be modded. Someone will likely do this at some point.
Theres a full office suite on sale for .25 that may take care of your pdfs and then some. OfficeSuite pro.
For file transfers, you can use SGS3 Easy UMS. It only works for external sdcard though. Many people have been trying to do the same for internal but no luck yet as far as I know. Search for it on xda.
Also on file transfering, have you looked at a wireless transfer solution? I use SwiFTP and love it. Gives me access to the entire file system on my phone, including /system.
There are quite a few find my phone types like youre looking for that get good reviews. Check cerebrus. Haven't used it on this phone but liked it in the past.
My favorite alarm clock app is Alarm Clock Plus. Been using it for a few years now. No stopwatch or timer but hoping the dev adds em in the future.
For the backup, are you talking about a nandroid type backup or apps and data? Nandroid, no backing up straight to computer. Im pretty sure there are apps thatll backup your data and apps like that though. Never used any though. (And theres always adb!)
Tip: when people see a thread with this many questions and youre not experiencing a critical problem, it can look a bit overwhelming and seems like you may be demanding answers without really looking for them yourself. (Not saying thats your case and not trying to be an ass). Additionally at first read/glance it looks like it could be a lot of work to help you for what many might consider to be simple problems. In the future dont wait so long and ask everything at once. Ask your questions as they come and you cant find the answers yourself.
I saw your thread when it was first posted but didnt reply because I knew it would take much longer than I could spend at that moment.
One last thing, if people perceive you to be threatening to leave for the iphone if you dont get what you want, you are much less likely to find help now or in the future.
Like I said, im not trying to be an ass or belittle or anything like that. Just telling you what some (many?) people may think when they just glance over your thread.
Sorry for the little rant, but I am trying to help you.
Btw, if you're having such bad hw issues you may have a defective device. Majority of people have no problems.
Good luck!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

What is your deal breaker?

What are the thing(s) you have to have working before you download a new Rom. I know we all want it to make and receive phonecalls and access the web. As I have read some of the rom threads we seem to have different deal breakers.
Mine is it has to have a working GPS ( I tend to go off the beaten path and need to find my way home).
So please let me know what makes or brakes a rom for you?

Data and WiFi for me. I build ROMs though so if something doesn't work, it's usually my fault lol.

Makes: no cruff. I'm not a fan of excess. Having a ROM that tries to include everything for everybody isn't my cup o tea. For example, stock cm9 and 10 seem to provide you just a basic experience with a few enhancements.
Breaks: colors. Give me the code changes. If you want to muck with the colors, do it via an add on.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

GPS and Bluetooth audio. Also a decent camera app should be added on the list.

I hate single color themes has to be og software look and app drawer has to be alphabetical
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

After trying out a few different versions, I quickly came to the conclusion that I don't like the aosp based ROMs. Beyond that, my files (ringtones, wallpapers, pics, etc) have to be visible. One ROM I tried several versions of couldn't see any of my files that existed before the install. The files were still there, but I could only access them thru Astro. That got old fast.
Otherwise, I'm willing to jump thru a few hoops as long as the basics work.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

Missing app icons

Has anyone else experienced app icons disappearing from folders? The icon remains visible in the app drawer but isn't visible in the home screen folder.
The real strange thing is the folder treats it as though it's still there. (There's a gap where it would be) If I try to add it to the folder again, then both show up.
I'm having the problem with one app (wifi analyzer) but had experienced it before with other apps.
Any ideas or feedback is appreciated.
I'm running stock and unrooted latest update for what it's worth.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

Are you using the hide icons feature in the app drawer ??
I miss a few on occasion too. ..
Try this. ..
Enable all icons again. ..then wipe cache in the recovery. ..
Then reboot and hide apps again. .
It appears to be a stock bug. ...g

This is one of those bugs that sparked my curiosity to try different ROMs.
Is there any place to read up on known issues with i317? Samsung has really dropped the ball in regards to support on their website. This seems to be the main place to ask questions but I feel like I have quite a few, some are general and others are more android specific.
I think I may be having buyers remorse now. I'm reading and trying to figure out as much as I can but it feels like I've read every book in an encyclopedia set and while I've learned new things the general things still remain unanswered or unfound. I'm not sure if it's device specific, android specific, or an app gone awry.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

Every device and OS has bugs,,,it's just part of the game...
The note 2 is a solid and good running device with great support (here on XDA)...and the Rom offering is excellent as well.
If you purchased the device new, and it has any type of severe glitch...you may want to consider a warranty replacement.
Mine has always performed very well on the stock firmware, and although the TW 4.1.2 version is a bit buggy, it still performs beyond my expectations when compared to the note 1...
No regrets here at all.....g

It's been pretty solid. I just get a bit reluctant to try anything beyond stock right now because there are those little things that seem to occur. I occasionally get a blue outlined box around app icons which has left me baffled because it's a rare thing but has happened a few times.
I'm not knocking the phone or its OS. It just seems tedious to find answers to questions. I am not comparing anything with my iphone experience, because it took years for me to become a go to guy with any issues with iOS or even the hardware. I just am finding it a bit more of a challenge to locate a good sgh-i317 based sort of a knowledge base. Do you by any chance know of any good information banks? Or perhaps I should ask where's a good place to start learning more in depth about it?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

The best reference for all things android is here. ..XDA
Do a search for XDA university. .
You'll find every topic, ranging from the beginning of Android. ..all the way up to full blown coding from source.
No better resource exists anywhere on the planet. ..g

Perfect! Seems like exactly what I have been digging around for. Thanks a million.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

Always welcome. ...g

I thought it was just me getting random blue borders on widgets. It only started within the last 2 months, and the only possible change would be having adding perseus kernel.
Small enough to not care, frequent enough to make me say "wtf"
-----
I would love to help you, but help yourself first: ask a better question
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

The missing app icons is more of a problem for me. The blue border thing just makes me scratch my head.
Sadly if you anything aside from flipping through home screens it disappears. I've tried getting a screen capture of it and it disappears. It's almost like when you only single click something on a windows desktop. It's a rare occasional thing but drives me nuts wondering what it is or why it happens.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

ROM Building: The Basics Part I

Ever wanted to customize your own rom?
I mean really customize it the way you wanted?
I came across this question as I got my phone, well technically before I even had it my hands, I wanted my phone to be set to a certain expectation. I got it and I was impressed that the Sprint S3 I had was faster than my previous Photon 4g. But did it do what I wanted exactly?
Boot Sounds: how can I restart my phone and try a new rom with such nonsense?
Boot Animation: pathetic
Touch Sounds: Ploink sounded like a stall at a restroom
Touch unlock: An Okay button seriously get over it Android
The list can go on forever. The point is there are many things you can do. I mean have you seen the amazing developers here. I was inspired to try it myself after watching these guys just chug along and keep making their roms better and better. To be honest, we wouldnt be here if we were curious and wanted to contribute(without expecting anything). I find the general forums to have so much information and so many questions that could be answered by making a tutorial of the basics for the Sprint S3. I mention this phone specific because well as you start diving into it, some of the code we may enter on this tutorial will in fact not work for other phones or vice versa. I suppose this is a teach a man to fish situation(as opposed to giving fishes)
Lets begin and by all means if this is in the wrong forum please let me know, I will get it over to the correct area asap.
So you want a starting point, a place to start. well you can do article after article forum search and so forth but lets start fresh:
We will need a rom to begin with, grab those from this amazing guy's thread. Freeza is boss, a great contributor, he is very knowlegable and I havent even talked to the guy. But we are for information so I digress no more.
You got the link open do you? The choice now comes what do you download? Odexed, Deodexed, kernel, firmware AHHHH so much info, start slow and break down what in the world you want to do. Do you want to theme your rom and make it look Wicked like our badass team Team Wicked's rom of blue goodness? seriously its sexy. Do you want to just take out bloatware and keep it clean stock without junk and some mods guess what, this is the best place to choose those options.
Odexed rom: Think of it as android caching a program so it can load up faster, its supposed to serve as a time boost during first boot and "supposed" to be faster than DeOdex but I have found they are about the same. Odex is a little trick as the way Android makes the cache file is with, you guessed it, an additional .ODEX file. This file is like a sneak peak into the file so Android can load it "faster". This is also a problem when you want to make major modifications to your phone's color and the sort. This where we get to DeOdex
DeOdexed rom: This is the best choice for working with a rom. It removes the .ODEX file from the rom and keeps your files editable with much more ease. Seriously I tried both and OMG was it easier to use DeOdexed after a while I realized theming any of this SUCKED. I mean here I did all this artwork change and I see this ODEX file. And crash when I loaded. It becomes a simple goal if you need to perform tasks like modifying pictures and themes, any apk in the rom and even the java files.
Kernel: I am not a professor on this topic, I know this much, the kernel is basically a really smart piece of software that tells how your hardware how to act. It is critical to make sure the kernel you select goes with what you need to do. Wrong kernel can tell the hardware to something funky. I have from experience chosen the MD4(4/24/13) Kernel optimized that will be used for the sake of this tutorial but by all means master the easy stuff I am going through before you want to launch Satellites into space to save Black Mesa.
The firmware: A common misconception is that the firmare/modem/baseband should be always modified to the latest one from the manufacturer. This might not necessarily be true. Remember, a new update to this might enhance your signal or ruin it. And with Sprint have spotty network in 99 percent of America (cough cough oops too harsh?) Remember the MD4 is the latest release for official sprint software, the MD4 does represent the date of the release. It is coded ingeniously of course.
So as we modify the software from now on, you must settle on the best option for your needs.
Of course, as I mentioned, I am going to use the DeOdex version of the official software. Of course DeOdexed and then some stuff was added by our awesome Developer Freeza means that it has some good stuff we will need later like rooted automatically with some busybox and Super user installed already.
So you downloaded the zip file. This zip file is just a container for this rom. Like a bucket that holds all the software for your rom.
I would say the best way to get started is to get the tools of the trade.
Notepad++: I mean seriously, who even uses windows notepad anymore( me before I started modifying roms ). This software will make it much easier to work with the various code. I am SHOCKED that it is still free. Mad props to them.
The Android SDK: This lumpy software contains many tools we will need for advanced users. I think the modifications we will need to do here can go without this but remember it is a software development kit that contains critical tools for our android phones. And its free
BakSmali and Smali: I call them the brothers. I also remember that BakSmali will decompile software while Smali will recompile software more on that later. This software is free but very complex, we will have to break it down like a fraction to fully utilize customization and true development.
APKTOOL: sure there is a bunch of "tools" we can get, you dont need that stuff or even a kitchen but you can use this and get a way with it.
7-Zip and WinRar, alright you can use either but I love both, one is free and one is "free", of course use 7-zip for its free of use terms. I got Winrar after the trial kept nagging me to call me a sellout I don't care MOM!
And surprisingly that's all you need to edit the files.
Of course, you will also need things like Photoshop, Sound Forge, Firefox because IE is just wrong,
But these are not necessary to really get the modifications of sounds and pictures and research going: You can use:
Paint.net: This tool is free to use image editing software. It can do wonders on the fly and for free but remember Photoshop is better come on it's not even a debate but for free, I am not arguing.
Audacity: Okay its not Soundforge, Cooledit 2000 for those that remember it, or even Sound recorder for windows but it will get the job done and is free.
Notice the theme here, you can make a rom customize it for free. This is truly amazing for a platform that is Android. While you get this software post some comments below to show me whether or not this is too basic for the majority of help seekers or if I should keep going. After all I learned so much from XDA and the infamous "Google" whatever that is....I am sure we can learn together and make this thread something we can have everyone refer to the basics while letting them be creative.
of course by law, this is education purposes only, dont brick your phone use it as an expensive paperweight and then blame anyone but yourself. Everyone in the threads do them to reduce liability, i guess we are all here to help, but getting sued over shenanagins is not what any of these hard working developers want especially since, like most of the software mentioned here, do it for free. Donate to all you care for and see fit, we have some modding to do team, and I think this will be fun and we can definately burden the forums with more intelligent questions by simply reading through this tutorial and part II

Very good info. Thank you for providing this.
------------------------
Sprint Galaxy S3
Need Help? PM
Hit the "Thanks" button if I helped!

Please keep going, Thank you.

Ahhh...Pt1 was too easy..LOL. Just J/K yes! Part2 please:thumbup:
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Great stuff! Let's keep it going!
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

I would love to learn how to make roms! Keep it going please!
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

Thanks
Thanks Guys,
As long as this helps/inspires someone than at least I can give the same chance that this place gave me, always a great community. Except for the...the flame wars but those were so 2005.

Great post... I've often wondered where to start on a ROM and just surfing the Web for info can be conflicting and confusing. I like the straight forward how to approach. Now on to part 2, I may actually give this a shot eventually.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

This is a great idea/post. I have been curious where to begin on creating and customizing roms. Having a definitive source will be excellent. Keep it coming!!
Sent from space.