Hi,
I have little knowledge of android and Roms development, but I understand it was very difficult to develop for aftv given amazon restrictions.
Now, given the accomplishments in unlocking the boot loader, what prevents from a bunch of new Roms to appear? I live outside the us, so amazon ROM is quite useless, very slow, prevents me from having a decent UI (I know I could use xposed modules, but I don't think they solve the issue of the system being quite overloaded by useless stuff).
I was wondering why don't we get at least some clean aosp images to play with. TechVendetta is making a very nice experiment with cm12 on lollipop, but he also runs in the issues of this system being quite new. Can't we get anything based on 4.4.4? That's mature and stable now I guess. Is the issue just in having a decent TV UI?
Sorry, I know I could start studying and do this myself, I am not blaming anybody, just trying to understand better
Thanks!
i agree with you. TV UI is nice, but also having a clean decent 4.4.4 rom or even 4.2.2 would be very helpfull.
Quite a lot launcher can be controlled (after setting up with mice) via remote. I'm also in the beginning of ripping useless Amazon Stuff off my aftv (do a backup of recent System Apk's via titanbackup and then afterwards uninstall them). If we might get a Clean 4.4.4 than even a cool launcher might be usefull
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theatreinabox.android.codered
So if there are any other dev's outside, or someone knew one he might ask them in jump on AFTV
Related
Wipe -> Flash -> Test... Wipe -> Flash -> Test ... The Neverending Story!!!
I took some time to return back to pure stock Android to see what I was missing from the great custom roms. From the minute your first boot completes, two things happen: You feel comforted as you know that everything works as expected. You feel the stability and safety as your phone probably won't play any weird tricks to you. But as you go through your settings, pulling down your notification panel or pressing the power menu (and probably a million other things!) you see that all the extra things you were used to are not there. Confusion is the next thing to occur as you may indeed like the polished look and safe playing - ahhh, the original firmware on your device -, but you would definately like your phone to do more things.
Most of us, like to make the most of our devices. So we try custom roms, kernels, radios, themes...the list is endless...to find the golden rule in order for our phone to look and perform the best possible. Developers come up with new and innovative ideas most of the time and testers try their mods in order to provide feedback for things to get better. This is a nice thing and I guess this is called evolution or progress, name it what you like. It's an addictive process for both ends, especially for devs as the joy of making something work the way they pictured it to be, is the most rewarding thing in the world and for the end user the joy of helping devs out and by having the latest and the greatest is a reason to make their day.
But let's get focused on the end user. Wiping and flashing...wiping and flashing...it's a vicious circle man! Everybody's searching for the holy grail, the ultimate rom for their device. But guess what...YOU'LL NEVER GONNA GET IT! Why? Concerning custom roms and as the updates are very frequent, even if you have flashed a version with the minimum bugs possible, the next one will probably have an annoying or critical bug. So either you wait for an update or you start searching for a rom similar to the one you use in order to avoid a certain issue. So as you guess, this is a neverending road trip! And the truth is that after a year or two flashing a million of things on your phone, your device gets old and you probably thinking of upgrading to a newer model. Which of course you need to try it's true potentials, so you will start testing things again... What you realise is you as the end user, you never trully enjoy your phone as it has become a "lab rat", constantly under testing.
So what's the "cure" for you? You can spend some time flashing all different kinds of roms and kernels. When it comes to roms, look for the features that you think suits your needs the most and will be used on a daily basis more or less. I know that a million other features might seem cool to you but if you are not gonna use them they are useless to you. The truth is that we are living in a world were more is better but you need to focus on what is really useful to you. Do not forget that the more the features on a rom, probably the more the possibility of issues to occur or the more the battery consumption. So look for something that is not extremely overloaded with all mods available outhere. Look more for stabiltiy and a little less for performance.
To end this...by doing the above, you already provided feedback on devs the time you were trying things, so you helped them improve their work, and by settling down to a specific rom, you will start enjoying your phone and you'll have a device that suits your daily needs. In the end, even if you still haven't got that, you will need to settle down on something. Otherwise you are doomed to play a role in the "Neverending Story" movie!!!
I got my GN on Oct 16th, played with it on stock ROM for a couple of weeks, then 4.1.2 came out so decided to root it and install Paranoid Android 2.54 on Nov 8th...
Running/loving it since.
No theme, just tablet mode.
Of course I've also customized things more to my likings:
Flash player
4.2 swipe keyboard
S4 gallery/camera
Nova launcher
Pie pro
Easy eyes
Llama
Lag fix
For me it's just Flash -> Test -> Flash -> Test, haven't done any wiping since the last few months and I can run a multitude of different ROMs (MIUI excluded) fine. If there are something that FCs constantly, I just clear its data.
I only test out different ROMs when I'm in the mood. When it's just the usual daily routine I use CM 10.1 nightlies since, in my opinion, they are one of the more reliable ROMs. CyanDelta also makes the whole process a lot easier. If I'm going somewhere without internet access for more than a few days, I slap CM 10.1.2 on my GNex and it's ready to go.
Running CM hasn't caused me any issues so far (like not being able to make a call, or GPS suddenly fails to work). I prefer the constant flashing rather than staying on the same firmware for weeks.
True. Personally I've settled with stock Google image since 4.1.1 came out and I use my spare time elsewhere then OCD'ing over "omg new nightly". Using the phone can be more fun.
Just wanted to say, thanks for getting The Neverending Story theme song in my head. lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FM-ZkTTLMA
I've been an AOSB user for a long time now, it's a great kitkat rom and does almost everything I've wanted it to do with no issues at all. I just recently wanted to use my phone to watch movies on my HDTV but apparently AOSP roms won't let me do that, at least not with the hdmi cable I already own. Since I didn't want to spend any money on new equipment that may or may not work I decided to try out touchwiz again, I haven't used it since 4.1.2. Some things I'd completely forgotten about, so I thought I'd put my opinions here while they are still fresh in my mind. This might help somebody who is afraid of trying something new, in either direction.
AOSP/CM - 1. Fast. Just opening and switching apps it is noticeably faster than TW.
2. light weight - the roms are generally only maybe 200 mb's and backups generally are quicker.
3. themes - for roms with theme engine you have hundreds of themes at your finger tips, and it only takes a few seconds to switch themes. If you get bored easily looking at the same thing this is a major plus.
4. Depending on the rom you have options, tons and tons of options.
5. again, depending on the rom, you have HALO, multiwindow, active notifications, omniswitch, etc.
BUT...negatives include no wifi calling, signals seem a little worse, and some things (like HDMI out to tv) don't work as well or as easily as TW.
TW - 1. It works. Well. I haven't found any issues in daily use with it.
2. Many of the modifications and options found in AOSP can be added to TW using xposed, plus some TW roms have these options built in.
3. Battery life seems better, with or without custom kernels. At least in standby. With cm I'd lose about 5-6% in 8 or 9 hours overnight, with TW and the same apps and options I lose maybe 3%.
BUT...TW is slower. Not much and not in everything but when it does lag its easy to get annoyed after having used AOSP for months. Maybe the annoyance will go away once I get used to it?
Also, this is just personal opinion but I feel like the settings in TW is just a mess. The "google" way of arranging settings needs a little work but overall I think it's easier to use than samsungs version.
I know this isnt' anything new for most of you but hopefully for somebody who is on the fence and not brave enough to switch from one to the other this will help.
Also, if any aosp/cm users have any help for how I can hook the phone to the tv I'd love to hear it.
Wow,you summed that up nicely. I prefer AOSP for day to day use, but always keep a TW nandroid on hand for those things that only TW will do. Have you tried the chromecast for your TV? They are cheap and work on AOSP and TW.
I don't think Chromecast would work for what I wasn't. I'm not streaming online movies like Netflix, just playing movies that are physically loaded to the SD card. I'm liking tw and I'll keep it for now but if I do figure out how to play movies to the TV I'll probably go back to aosp.
You could use Multiboot TWRP recovery and get the best of both worlds. Use AOSP as your daily driver and switch to TW when you need to.
Besides getting a new phone lol!
I'm currently running CM11 by ggow (who is a genuine Android god! Awesome work! You rock!) and to be honest it's the most stable experience I have EVER had with CM across tens of devices I've used it for.
However recently I've had to sell quite a few of my devices to help pay bills during a career transition. Now the Fire Phone has became my daily driver solely because of how cheap the hardware is (resell value isn't that high, it has fantastic hardware, plus I got mine for free when I used to work for at&t), and although CM11 is so damn stable with phenomenal battery life; I have began to notice how often I use apps that utilize the stock camera... Like Snapchat & depositing checks through my bank app.
I have a backup of my rooted 3.5.1 installation, but before I go back I just had a few questions that maybe someone else here has ran into or has had experience with.
What's the most optimal way of running snapchat to your experience?
Should I upgrade my Fire OS or keep it at 3.5.1? I want permanent root, and I plan on tweaking it w/ xposed to manipulate the interface to be as close to a stock Android/AOSP experience as possible. However it is quite outdated. Is battery life better on newer releases? Is permanent root possible on newer releases? Or is 3.5.1 the best version to stay on for tweaking/flashaholic purposes? Would restoring my 3.5.1 backup break my Safestrap recovery at all?
Do Google Play Services break all the time still for those of you using Fire OS?
I've read many threads and different boards/reddit trying to find answers and what other users are doing, but I wanted to get a little dialog going about this and maybe hear from users with experiences.
Sent from my Fire Phone using Tapatalk
Unfortunately, no custom ROM for the Fire Phone can use those apps (i.e. snapchat, some scanner apps). The problem is not the ROM itself, there is no source code available for the custom HAL(Heuristic ALgorithmic), so the cause for all those apps not working properly is located "deeper". You may have to go back to stock Fire OS. Sorry. You should have Fire OS 4.6.6 for best experience.
Got me a Z5p E6853 over a year ago.
Stock rom is ok, a bit laggy but runs well enough. over time it gets stale and I looked around for Custom roms.
Tried a few, mainly the AOSP roms on this Forum and the Z5 fourm. found some bug or another that didn't sit well with me. custom stock roms causes a display failure on my device for some reason at random times, sometimes more than once a day, others will run for weeks without a problem. happens at the oddest times too so no way to pin down the cause. (plus all the devs from those roms have moved on so little point in requesting help for them)
So my main question is. other than going back to full stock. (with the possibility of xposed in the future) - What are the current best roms for function and Camera.
Stock roms take advantange of the DRM keys saved on your device. AOSP roms don't from what I can understand. is there a Lineage or AOSP type rom that has a better camera than stock?
what have the users here experienced to be their best combination of rom, with long term stability / Camera quality being top priority.
I don't normally ask Questions here, I usually lurk and help people with problems with flashing and such. but my current experiece with the Z5p has been a bit poor. and I would like to use this phone to its full potential. I just don't see that yet with whats currently available. I may have missed an old rom, or some patch fix that someone mentioned somewhere, but i've been reading the threads for the past few months looking for something that stands out.
I feel like I've bought into a dud of a phone. and my only real option is to just go back to normal stock and pass the phone onto a relative and buy a better phone.
Hey there. I used to have an HTC One M9 (I now have the Z5 Premium (E6853))and the best decision I've ever made with that phone is to keep the stock rom, but root it (preferably with magisk). For me this had the best stability with all the perks of rooting it as you could still flash kernels, and use the millions of root apps that boost your phone and clean out bloatware. Maybe just do some exploring into apps that'll completely change the behaviour of your phone, rather than the OS. What I have found in my rom flashing addict days is that the ROMs themselves really only change a couple of things and device performance is never one of them. If you're looking for massive customisation options a custom rom can help, but you should also check out Substratum. I hope it all goes well!
P.S. - I find Lineage OS is probably the most stable custom rom out there but who knows every custom rom can be a real hit and/or miss.
bump
Hello all,
I may get teased a little bit for this one - but I am a bit of a traditionalist. Even as an IT guy, I tend to shy away from custom, enhanced or otherwise modified ISOs of windows. Not because I am afraid of them... I just like the "stock" look. I would like to stick to the same thing on my phone.
I am still running the stock version of my ATT firmware, 4.x.x. I like it just fine, and it suits my needs for the most part - (Other than the ATT bloatware that crashes constantly for several minutes upon reboot)
However, my device is beginning to slow down and I find myself using Chrome more and more because the older stock browser does not seem to want to render some sites very well. I expect it is only a matter of time before I start running into "sorry, you cannot run this app" type of issues.
So on to my questions....
1. Will upgrading to 6.x or 7.x improve the performance on my device?
2. If so, I see there are a ton of apps to choose from. Is there one specifically that is "less modified" or at least enables some sort of "gotta-have-it" functionality?
3. Can you elaborate on why you chose to move from the stock rom? I understand there are alot of "testers" on this forum who like to play with things. However, my phone is used heavily for work purposes. Simplicity and Stability remain key drivers for me.
Changing to a custom ROM may improve some areas of performance while decreasing in others such as battery life, camera, and stability.
By apps, I assume you mean roms. I can't make any recommendations as I have not had a note 2 for a few years but I have found that custom ROMs based off a stock rom are pretty stable. I always like to start with a very bare-bones ROM and add functionality via apps as needed.
I have moved to custom ROMs in the past when apps won't run on the phone's stock rom.
I've run my note 2 on DN3 for a number of years. You can still find a link to the thread in this forum and you will need to root your n2.
Not hard. 1 advantage is you can remove the bloat and it's still a rom that runs well on our device since it was built for our device in it's prime.
If you have any questions send a PM. Happy to help.
wisem2540 said:
Hello all,
I may get teased a little bit for this one - but I am a bit of a traditionalist. Even as an IT guy, I tend to shy away from custom, enhanced or otherwise modified ISOs of windows. Not because I am afraid of them... I just like the "stock" look. I would like to stick to the same thing on my phone.
I am still running the stock version of my ATT firmware, 4.x.x. I like it just fine, and it suits my needs for the most part - (Other than the ATT bloatware that crashes constantly for several minutes upon reboot)
However, my device is beginning to slow down and I find myself using Chrome more and more because the older stock browser does not seem to want to render some sites very well. I expect it is only a matter of time before I start running into "sorry, you cannot run this app" type of issues.
So on to my questions....
1. Will upgrading to 6.x or 7.x improve the performance on my device?
2. If so, I see there are a ton of apps to choose from. Is there one specifically that is "less modified" or at least enables some sort of "gotta-have-it" functionality?
3. Can you elaborate on why you chose to move from the stock rom? I understand there are alot of "testers" on this forum who like to play with things. However, my phone is used heavily for work purposes. Simplicity and Stability remain key drivers for me.
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