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I am confused about these android os's. I realize my G2 came with the 2.2 Froyo. This obviously is a no brainer. But, since I just got my phone setup the way I like it (for now anyway) with CyanogenMod 6.4, am I supposed to expect T-Mobile to update my phone automatically with the new Gingerbread? (I doubt that the G2 will ever see it as a T-Mobile OTA) From my reading and researching it seems the Gingerbread has some new tweaks, more game related tweaks. I guess they decided to update the software with new graphics tweaks by implementing a new graphics software (OTA) similar to my NVIDIA GeForce 130M with independent-stand-alone 1g memory (Yea, Right!).
What I want to get clear is; the Cyanogen Mod 6.4 is based on the 2.2 Froyo isn't it? Will the Cyanoge ROM work in conjunction with the 2.3 Gingerbread, if it does update to all are phones? Or, is the 2.3 the same as th Cyanogen ROM, (and/or) is it going to be suggested that we let the 2.3 update (if we do get that option to download in the future) load and have to go through the whole re-rooting process again to install another ROM on top of it; like the Cyanogen.
And last, Is there another ROM on board here that anyone might want to suggest or if the Cyanogen pretty much the best upgrade? I do actually like all the features, now that I have my Launcher Pro working on top of it.
Thanks for any information,
Paul Holmes
chevy383surfing
afar as an OTA from TMO, don't hold your breath. we may get something sometime Q1 2011, but in my opinion and experience with TMO, this will never happen. They tend to to bother upgrading OS' if there is no known bug or issues that hinders the basic use of the device....you most likely will have to look for leaks on your own.
Af for CyanogenMOD, I'm pretty sure that him and his team will be proting 2.3 into his ROM. I would wait maybe a moth or so and we should have full Gingerbread ROMS in our G2's.
As for ROMs, and which is best.....I'm very new to this, but the one name I have always heard off as great ROMs are the CM's. There are many out there, I guess you could play around until you find one that suits you. Also if you prefer Sense over vanilla look...just look around. What I found (works for me) is the CM6.1 stable ROM....I have no issues with it, it allows me to control what I need to control, and then some. Many of the other ROMS out there may be missing conponents that I find here that work for ie FM Radio....
Hope this rambling helps...
Yes! This did help. I think I understand the nature of google's android systems in conjunction with CM. CM just takes their os and does exactly what their name says. They mod it. Your rambling is very much appreciated!
Thanks!
Paul
chevy383surfing
Well honestly, considering this is tmobiles first huge flagship phone, other than the g1 which did get upgraded...I believe that tmobile will in fact do it. I mean within the first month the phone had an update to fix some bugs.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 with Virtuous Sense.
PatrickHuey said:
Well honestly, considering this is tmobiles first huge flagship phone, other than the g1 which did get upgraded...I believe that tmobile will in fact do it. I mean within the first month the phone had an update to fix some bugs.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 with Virtuous Sense.
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True....but that had more to do with incredible amount of issues this phone had upon launch, and precisly being the flagship phone they had to react rather quick. I also think that it had to do with the amount of rturns they had to deal with during that period.
As for the flagship comment, I think the my touch 4g has taken over that role.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
chevy383surfing said:
But, since I just got my phone setup the way I like it (for now anyway) with CyanogenMod 6.4, am I supposed to expect T-Mobile to update my phone automatically with the new Gingerbread?
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Click to collapse
Once you've flashed a custom ROM, you won't automatically get an OTAs from your carrier. You'd have to flash back to stock to get an official OTA. But Cyanogen will have a Gingerbread version before your carrier comes out with a 2.3 OTA anyway.
To give a general answer to the OP:
1) CM 6.1 is based on Froyo. There is no 6.4.
2) What Cyanogen and his team do is take the current available source code and redesign it to make it better. This means that the stock (shipping) ROM is not using its full capacity for speed, stability, and functionality, so CM pushes that envelope.
3) CM 6.1 will never be a Gingerbread ROM, but it is almost certain that CM X.X (probably CM 7) will be Gingerbread based, and point #2 will apply to that as well.
4) We'll see a CM 7 shortly after the Gingerbread source code (not the SDK, which is already available) is made public.
5) There will also be other Gingerbread-based ROMs available when the source code is leaked, which may have already happened, or will happen within the next few days. CM, as far as I know, does not use leaked source codes, but waits until it is officially released.
6) All of the above is based on my observations, and I have no inside knowledge, so it could be partially, or fully, false.
That is one of the most informative posts I've seen on the xda website! Little explanations like that help clear up confusion. Even over something this small.
Thanks,
Paul
I can't think of any other way to ask the question so forgive me for that convoluted topic, but I'm honestly curious. I just got a G2 yesterday, spent hours getting it figured out, read a few hundred posts and dozens of threads, finally got CloudyG3 running great on it and now I figured I'd pose the question.
Because the Nexus 5 preview of Android 5.0 has been out for a while, and there are quite a few ROMs based on that, and because the LG G2 and the Nexus 5 share basically the same hardware across the board, I'm really wondering why there doesn't seem to be any interest whatosever (or from what I can tell) in potentially porting that over to the LG G2? Is this device really that far out of bounds at this point in time - I say that because I know the "crowds" flock to the most popular devices for ROM development by nature, and that's fine.
I'm not knocking the amazing work of each and every dev here at XDA Developers - it is after all a forum for them, not casual users like myself, so I'm happy to be able to partake of the products and ROMs they create for so many of us to actually put to use.
It just seems a bit odd to me I suppose that the G2 and the N5 are basically the same devices when you really dig into the hardware specs (with some differences, obviously, but they share far more in common than they don't). I mean, I remember when the Nexus 4 and the Optimus G came out and there was a ton of stuff you could do between them since again they were basically the same devices in different packaging much like the N5 and the G2 happen to be also.
Is there something I'm missing here, something that flat out makes porting over any version of that Nexus 5 Android 5.0 preview code to the G2 impossible? Or is it just not worth the time for whoever to do it - I'm not a dev at all, don't have nearly the talent for this kind of stuff that so many others do so, I'm a dead end myself.
This CloudyG3 port of the G3 stock ROM is damned nice, it really is, it's like a totally different device in many respects with enhanced features the G2 has always been capable of anyway (the 4K video recording, etc) and this ROM brings that out.
I'm just wondering now what LG has in mind for their initial G2 Android 5.0 release after the first of the year.
Anyway, just thought I'd toss the question out there as I can't find a single thing related to this here or at the LG G2 subforum either. If it's absolutely not possible, I can comprehend that - it's just that the hardware is so similar I have to wonder why nobody has put forth any effort at all, I guess.
Comments and discussion are always welcome...
We don't need or want to port the preview lollipop version from the nexus. The g2 is going to have have an update to lollipop 5.0 either Jan or Feb. The lg g3 will be getting 5.0 before us so a dev may port that rom before our official update. Also cm12 should be coming out this month so we will have a 5.0 lollipop very soon. Hope that answers your question
Sent from my LG-LS980 using XDA Free mobile app
It's a start I suppose, just seemed weird that the preview code has been available for quite some time and apparently nobody considered it worthy of a porting attempt.
And yes, I realize that when Lollipop drops for the G3 someone (Cloudyfa, hopefully, because of his excellent CloudyG3 for the G2) will most likely do their best to port it over fast, probably before we even see the official G2 build appear which will be pretty cool.
Fun times ahead...
I also think it is due to it being just a preview. No developers feel it is solid enough to work with.
I also agree that it is strange that the g2 and nexus 5 are almost completely alike except camera of course. But no real change of Roms.
Look into the non sprint development. And you will find many support the ls980. You just have to look hard. Being that every carrier and international worldwide have this phone.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I've had my M8 for about 3 months now... As of a month and a half ago I decided that this Sense crap was getting on my nerves. I logged on here only to discover there's almost no discussion, development or anything else going on here. What happened with this device that nobody is doing a 4.4.4 KitKat update or a 5.0 Lollipop AOSP build for it? Did I miss something big that happened here? I don't recall XDA ever being this barron. Especially on an unlockable HTC device.
too many devices
it really has more to do with the fact that there are WAAAAY too many android devices out there. i'm all for the success of android and the phone companies that make them. A few years ago when android was finally getting popular, there were a handful of devices, most developers had the same devices: htc incredible, incredible 2, galaxy, galaxy 2, etc. with everyone having the same phone, mass development took place...now there are so many rootable phones out there it is difficult to get all the devs on one device. if you have 20 developers and 4 phones to choose from you get a lot of development on each phone....if you have 20 devs and 20 phones to choose from....well, you get it. best advice is when a new device comes out DO NOT run out and buy it the first minute you can slam the money down on the counter and walk away with it. wait a few days...a week...maybe 2....check back on XDA and see what device starts getting the most development. go buy that phone. =]
on a side note, there is a fair amount of development that goes on in the world wide m8 forum area that this forum stems off of. if you read the posts it is easy to adapt your US m8 to use any of those roms. also, viper rom has a decent amount of constant development as well. i have been using this rom for quite awhile and to be honest...it rocks. if youre not using it give it a try. there are tons of customizations to keep you happy =)
go check out the M8 section http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8
After rooting and flashing your recovery you can install pretty much any M8 ROM. Sure the T-mo has WiFi calling but I'm not sure what else it has.
OR you can run your own launcher, get the xposed architecture and start tweaking your stock ROM to do what you want it to do. That was the best method for me as it still runs incredibly stable and I was able to get the majority of the features I wanted like loosing most of sense.
Theoriginalgiga said:
go check out the M8 section http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8
After rooting and flashing your recovery you can install pretty much any M8 ROM. Sure the T-mo has WiFi calling but I'm not sure what else it has.
OR you can run your own launcher, get the xposed architecture and start tweaking your stock ROM to do what you want it to do. That was the best method for me as it still runs incredibly stable and I was able to get the majority of the features I wanted like loosing most of sense.
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That's it right there. All gsm M8 development is over on there. Also I few sense roms have wifi calling in them.
Has development slowed down for our device? Since lollipop got released, there hasn't been many new updates for existing roms or new roms. I know, if I want it, I should develop a rom myself. But, I've never been good at program languages so, I depend on the fine folks here on XDA. I appreciate all their efforts. But, again I ask, has development slowed?
The device is aging, M9 is supposed to be revealed tomorrow. I'm not even sure if they will make the 5.1 Android for M8, and that is much needed, seeing how buggy Lollipop is. I seriously regret updating, I wish I had enough sense to stay wit KitKat, that worked great on my phone.
PresidentCupcake said:
Has development slowed down for our device? Since lollipop got released, there hasn't been many new updates for existing roms or new roms. I know, if I want it, I should develop a rom myself. But, I've never been good at program languages so, I depend on the fine folks here on XDA. I appreciate all their efforts. But, again I ask, has development slowed?
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ViperOneM8 has been updated three times in the last two weeks, with another update to come out in the next few days. Although two of them mostly addressed bug fixes, there were also new features added.
There has been a couple of lollipop nightly builds for this device. To be honest, I don't really notice a slowdown of development.
PresidentCupcake said:
Has development slowed down for our device? Since lollipop got released, there hasn't been many new updates for existing roms or new roms. I know, if I want it, I should develop a rom myself. But, I've never been good at program languages so, I depend on the fine folks here on XDA. I appreciate all their efforts. But, again I ask, has development slowed?
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No i do not share the feeling development slowed down, then again why should a developer spend so much time on these builds when sense 7 is around the corner. I think they pick the most valuable tweaks and parts of optimization.
My 2 cents
Mr Hofs said:
No i do not share the feeling development slowed down, then again why should a developer spend so much time on these builds when sense 7 is around the corner. I think they pick the most valuable tweaks and parts of optimization.
My 2 cents
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Do you think Sense 7 and Android 5.1 are actually coming to the M8?
unifex_ said:
Do you think Sense 7 and Android 5.1 are actually coming to the M8?
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I don't think.....know for sure it will
Hello guys!
I had experiences with several brands. I gave up Samsung due to the Knox Counter and Sony due to the DRM keys. The best experience so far I had with my late Nexus 5! How easy is to customize the HTC 10? I never had HTC's before. Regarding ease of customization, bootloader unlock and warranty how does it go? I am about to return an Axon 7 and maybe exchange it with a 10.
Thanks in advance!
gibawatts said:
Hello guys!
I had experiences with several brands. I gave up Samsung due to the Knox Counter and Sony due to the DRM keys. The best experience so far I had with my late Nexus 5! How easy is to customize the HTC 10? I never had HTC's before. Regarding ease of customization, bootloader unlock and warranty how does it go? I am about to return an Axon 7 and maybe exchange it with a 10.
Thanks in advance!
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Click to collapse
Assuming you have the Verizon model....Once you use Sunshine to S-Off this phone the world is your oyster. Great/robust dev community and help/support/guides to assist you through anything you want to do with your phone.
The combination of the above and that HTC makes what I think are the most gorgeous looking and well built phones...it's been a win win for me since my Thunderbolt lol
gibawatts said:
Hello guys!
I had experiences with several brands. I gave up Samsung due to the Knox Counter and Sony due to the DRM keys. The best experience so far I had with my late Nexus 5! How easy is to customize the HTC 10? I never had HTC's before. Regarding ease of customization, bootloader unlock and warranty how does it go? I am about to return an Axon 7 and maybe exchange it with a 10.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had a huge amount of devices, ( look at my sig and you'll see) and I've always come back to HTC, reason being is that they offer something a little different, but what's more they always have the most talented developers and the oldest serving, on XDA, Villain rom, etc, they always come up with the goods.
Not to mention that the root, unlocking of the bootloader and s-off (if you s-off) is reversible. Samsung is not, as it has an efuse chip as does the nexus too AFAIK.
There literally isn't anything you can't change on this device and with pretty much any other htc device, if you've had a htc before and gone on to something else, Sony or Sammy are good examples, you'll always be looking back over the fence, and when a new HTC comes out you'll just hate your current device, eg: I got rid of a six month old nexus 6P for this 10
Just unlock the bootloader, s-off if you must or want to, I believe that you can flash firmwares easier with it switched off, it's £20 so not great but it always works, install a custom recovery and flash away.
In terms of roms, Venom probably offers the most comprehensive list of tweaks and mods but LeeDroid is equally as good and as customizable, perhaps not with the length of venom tweaks but still great. Other roms I can guess are similar and when CM is completely fixed, well start seeing CM, AOSP and similar roms heading for us too.
In short, the answer to your question is a huge yes, I don't think I'll ever get another Samsung or Sony again, nothing wrong with them, they're just not for me and I'll miss HTC if I do.
Stripped, themed, ghostpeppered, and running like a bat out of hell....
.
bakemcbride21 said:
Great/robust dev community and help/support/guides to assist you through anything you want to do with your phone.
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I hope I can piggy-back off of this thread just a bit.
When you refer to the developer community for HTC, are you referring particularly to here on XDA-Developers, or in general everywhere? I'm thinking of getting an HTC 10, but I'm wondering the best/simplest way to keep it going with Android updates well past HTC's stated support period. I haven't done anything with my HTC Incredible S, but I'm looking to be a bit more proactive with my next phone. What are some of the more stable ROMs that you--or anyone else, for that matter--would recommend to keep this phone continually updated for years to come? Longevity is important to me.
SlowRain said:
I hope I can piggy-back off of this thread just a bit.
When you refer to the developer community for HTC, are you referring particularly to here on XDA-Developers, or in general everywhere? I'm thinking of getting an HTC 10, but I'm wondering the best/simplest way to keep it going with Android updates well past HTC's stated support period. I haven't done anything with my HTC Incredible S, but I'm looking to be a bit more proactive with my next phone. What are some of the more stable ROMs that you--or anyone else, for that matter--would recommend to keep this phone continually updated for years to come? Longevity is important to me.
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Long time Samsung user here. I got my US unlocked HTC 10 a few months ago. Best phone I ever had. Would not even consider an S7 in comparison.
The two primary Sense-based Roms for the 10 are Viper and LeeDroid. I've tried both and prefer Viper. I think that would be your long-term solution. Get an unlocked 10 if you can afford to for maximum flexibility and choice of service providers. Unlock the bootloader, S-Off, and flash Viper. You can't go wrong in my opinion.
BTW, this is just a general discussion thread. Each Rom, Kernel, recovery, etc etc have their own dedicated threads where you'll find in-depth info.
Aurelius99 said:
The two primary Sense-based Roms for the 10 are Viper and LeeDroid.
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Are there any inherent advantages of a Sense-based ROM in terms of stability or ease of installation? Sorry for such a pedestrian question, but is there anything as simple as good ol' Nexus-style vanilla Android, or is that something that's even too easy to be asking about?
Thanks guys, still considering the 10. Now I am between the 10, 6P and Pixel XL. The painful fact is that I am currently with no phone. When I went to return the Axon, there were no 10s in stock at the store. The wait for the Pixel is just killing me! And to worsen things a bit, I just ran into a 128 GB Nexus 6P. I am a real sucker for OLED screens you, know? That is why I still didn't buy the 10.
SlowRain said:
Are there any inherent advantages of a Sense-based ROM in terms of stability or ease of installation? Sorry for such a pedestrian question, but is there anything as simple as good ol' Nexus-style vanilla Android, or is that something that's even too easy to be asking about?
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Gawd, I could never go back to stock. Most people want a custom Rom firstly to get rid of all the bloatware installed by their service providers. Apps you'll never use, sitting there taking up space and even running in the background. Then there is the customizing you can do to set up your phone just how you want it. However, HTC has promised us that they will be providing us with a Rom upgrade to Android 7 in a couple of months and that Rom may be nice as-is. Bottom line - if you want maximum control over your 10, go custom. If stock meets your needs stay with that.
Aurelius99 said:
Gawd, I could never go back to stock. Most people want a custom Rom firstly to get rid of all the bloatware installed by their service providers. Apps you'll never use, sitting there taking up space and even running in the background. Then there is the customizing you can do to set up your phone just how you want it. However, HTC has promised us that they will be providing us with a Rom upgrade to Android 7 in a couple of months and that Rom may be nice as-is. Bottom line - if you want maximum control over your 10, go custom. If stock meets your needs stay with that.
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I'm sorry, I may not have been clear. I was asking about a Sense-based ROM vs. stock Android (not stock Sense). I'd like it as simple, stripped down, and Nexus-like as possible, but I don't know how much tinkering each modder does with their various ROMs. I also want a ROM from a modder who will support it down the road for several Android versions, but I seem to have an answer to that question already. What I don't understand yet is the likelihood of stock/vanilla Android running smoothly on the HTC 10. Is that what's being called AOSP, or is that something else entirely?
(For what it's worth, I'd be getting the international version, called the M10h, I believe.)
SlowRain said:
I'm sorry, I may not have been clear. I was asking about a Sense-based ROM vs. stock Android (not stock Sense). I'd like it as simple, stripped down, and Nexus-like as possible, but I don't know how much tinkering each modder does with their various ROMs. I also want a ROM from a modder who will support it down the road for several Android versions, but I seem to have an answer to that question already. What I don't understand yet is the likelihood of stock/vanilla Android running smoothly on the HTC 10. Is that what's being called AOSP, or is that something else entirely?
(For what it's worth, I'd be getting the international version, called the M10h, I believe.)
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Click to collapse
AOSP is the Android Open Source Project. Yes, this is sometimes referred to as the "stock" Rom. Google provides the code base for the stock Rom. Various developers use this code base and then add their own code enhancements to produce an extended version of the stock Rom. Most custom Roms are Cyanogenmod-based. This is the company that has put their particular twist on the stock Rom. A Sense-based Rom is yet another enhanced version of the stock Rom. Both use the same AOSP code base and customize it in various ways and for various phones.
Some people actually do prefer the more standard stock Rom for various reasons. It is simpler and typically more robust for dealing with the limited and specific tasks it was designed for. A good custom Rom can be just as robust as stock in every way, but also allows the user to do much more with the phone. It can be overclocked to run much faster, have better audio, a highly customizable user interface, and so on.
Viper, on the Sense-based side, and Resurrection Remix on the Cyanogenmod-based side are both better than the stock Rom in my view and people using those Roms get many more updates to their Roms via the developers than stock Rom users do. Some developers are still producing custom Roms for the Samsung SII -- a very old phone that Samsung dropped support for years ago.
Check this out for the HTC 10:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-10/development/rom-21-02-viper10-1-0-0-tweaks-hub-t3379151
Aurelius99 said:
A Sense-based Rom is yet another enhanced version of the stock Rom. Both use the same AOSP code base and customize it in various ways and for various phones.
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Click to collapse
Can I assume a Sense-based ROM will have a better chance of everything working properly (ie. camera, NFC, audio, etc.) since it's starting off with something further down the fork in AOSP designed specifically for the HTC 10? Or am I misunderstanding how ROMs work?
SlowRain said:
Can I assume a Sense-based ROM will have a better chance of everything working properly (ie. camera, NFC, audio, etc.) since it's starting off with something further down the fork in AOSP designed specifically for the HTC 10? Or am I misunderstanding how ROMs work?
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Haha, you're really doing your research.
Yes, a sense based ROM is less likely to have bugs, however bugs are usually listed in the OP of every rom thread. A matured AOSP ROM won't have anything broken, but things may not work as well or as intended by HTC.
I think sense based is the way to go with this device, lots of good features HTC has developed that work well with the phone like the camera application and blinkfeed. Not to mention the polished look of the phone in general and the underrated theme store, it just works well together. You'd lose all of that with AOSP, not so much key features not working.
BadUsername said:
Haha, you're really doing your research.
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Yes. It's my most annoying characteristic, according to my wife. Now I just have to find a developer who keeps things simple & stable, and who will support it until 2021.
Thanks for your replies. And I apologize to gibawatts for hijacking this thread a bit. I hope it was still useful for you, too.
Did you guys decide?
It's still $150 off, which assisted me in my decision to go from the Nexus 5 to the htc 10 (and a nice, even doubling for us OCD types).
My short answer: the htc 10 is ever-so-slightly less customisable than the Nexus 5; I've installed everything on it that I had on the Nexus (SuperSU, Xposed, Gravitybox, Xprivacy, AdAway, etc.). N-ify works on it.
My only "issue" so far is that GravityBox can't remove the Calculator and Extreme Power Saver quicktile htc put there..real fine points here. (I've only had the thing 2 days, so there may be more but no show-stoppers for a purist like me). Sense 8 is more like an alternative launcher than an overhaul like TouchWiz or old versions of Sense. Wife likes it (coming from her N5/NovaLauncher) and I'm giving it a whirl.
Manual firmware updates would be the only caveat AFAICT but that is still better than what I had with N5: OTAs broke and I just never installed them due to lack of interest...not a habit I want to carry with me, however. My point being that the Nexus 5 was actually more of a hassle to me to update than what this seems like it would be (though I've not tested it yet but there's much discussion on the procedure here).
Wife is attached to OLED (SIII had a wonderful display) but she likes the htc 10 display and did not like the N5 display.
I love the feedback you guys got/gave here. This here is a model XDA thread.
I would just like to add that HTC's Sense ROM is quite bare-boned compared to other non-Nexus OEMs. Compared to the Axon, it'll look almost like a Nexus device.
Everyone else pretty much covered the other important things. I'd like to point out that CM/AOSP/Vanilla ROMs for the HTC 10 are still a bit down the road and they still need quite a bit of work, so when you get it, expect to either stay with Sense, or Sense-based custom ROMs for at least the next few months. No complaints on that from my side. Even if you do eventually flash CM/AOSP/Vanilla ROMs, I'll wager that you'll end up downloading some of HTC's apps, like Camera, Gallery, and Music. They blow away vanilla Android apps and 3rd party alternatives.
samisax said:
Compared to the Axon,...
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ZTE being mod-hostile turned me off to them; they have to establish a solid history of unlock/mod-friendliness for me to even look at them. (No, a press release stating that they would, in the future, answer questions from CyanogenMod folks to develop their ROM doesn't win me over in any way whatsoever.)
I surmised that the OnePlus 3 was too customised to be considered a Nexus spiritual successor (it was the phone I wanted to like/buy). Really, they only need to make good hardware and just use already-made AOSP and spend dev time getting drivers and such primo to have a winner (and with lower overhead) rather than trying to reinvent the wheel that nobody will want. It's like they're trying to sorta be Nexus and sorta be Sense/TouchWiz/et al but is there really a market for that? Is there really no market for Nexus? (I dunno...the Pixel thing has me befuddled and the no-more-Nexus thing has me ferhoodled.)
So, yeah, I'm liking the htc 10, which, being both funny and sad, I didn't even look at. My wife mentioned it and the $150 off, so we took a look and got'em. (I was still soured by my Evo 3D experience that led me to use then-Best Buy's 30-day return policy)
One more tid-bit I neglected to mention earlier: I'm glad I got the unlocked/dev version...no issue getting official RUUs all official-like, officially. I don't ever want to deal with "carrier" stuff.
P.S. Good to know about the camera, gallery, and music apps. Those are important to my wife (I'm happy with those being "functional" but also happy to just have the same software between us..easier to maintain and to answer her questions).