In light of the fact that you are monitoring this forum, I have a question for you. You can see the incredible progress that the developers have achieved thus far with the various ROMs. While I have not tested all of them, it would appear that most of the custom ROMs run much faster, making better use of the hardware than the stock configuration, even with the recent updates. What I want to know is for the owner who chooses to keep his tablet stock, will Viewsonic release an update down the road that matches or exceeds the quality of the custom ROMs? If so, when?
Most of the custom ROMs have some operational glitches, and it seems to me as the manufacturer Viewsonic is really the one in the best position to put forth optimized software.
I see where Viewsonic says that the kernel will be released soon, but that does not absolve Viewsonic from it's obligation to turn out the best possible software for it's hardware, right?
I look forward to your response! Thanks again for participating here on the forum.
Related
Any XDA devs going to take on the challenge of making the Transformer even better with Custom ROM's?
I will take on the challenge of some theming once Root is confirmed for the US version and I get my hands on one.
I was going to get a XOOM but after I heard the Transformer was better and was coming out by the end of April, I held off, its better, cheaper and turns into a laptop, a great replacement for my Dell Inspiron I only use for the web since its so slow.
I plan to dabble in roms, kernel, and any custom apps to support development. Sold my gtablet in preparation.
I think roebeet from the gtab world will also be joining.
I plan on buying (a working) one, which means I won't be able to keep my hands off it for modding, I'm sure. My only concerns are the ones I have with the Xoom, which is the Google HC lockdown -- could make mods more difficult at first.
I wonder if the gpl'd code for hc included the code that does the odexing. Having a deodexed system would be a start. I'm assuming not having insight into the odexing process for honeycomb is the limiting factor.
oooo to have CyanogenMod on this device would be awesome
Hey people,
I just want to say something that is bugging me about android updates. It is depended on what manufacturer you have for getting system updates(eclair, froyo...) and most of them don't release updates for some reason about google or their own policies(for selling new devices, maybe incompatible(!) or else). But we see some groups release custom roms for popular models. that means they are compatible and it can be done. and some devices don't get any or get not fully functional roms because of their developers are not so talented, they have small developer group or other reasons. So this device owners never gets new apps or functionalities they may have. So my question is will we have to toss that devices to trash or is it possible to make system updates device independent?
Thanks.
It is not possible to make a universal update, because all devices have their own specific hardware builds that need to be compensated with specific drivers to make use of what that Device can do. Even custom roms only work with one device or another similar product. Also every company wants to make their software unique to the rest of the crowd such as motorolas motoblur and samsungs touchwiz. So no, there never will be one update that works for all because of hardware.
I'm just curious but since ICS is coming, what does that mean for us? All I've heard is another UI overhaul for phones to give them more honeycomb, but what do we get? If Hardware Acceleration is in then I would be happy, but there doesn't seem to be anything in it for us tablet users.
Unless I'm missing something.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393797,00.asp#fbid=eHhpmAndRdICant really say kinda early..heres something I found but still unsure
I hope it means an update and AOSP!!
Not sure what the link was for...... Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Sorry. But I'm just not sure if I would be excited about ics on my Xoom.
Imma say that it will be on the original Xoom's without a doubt. I read in an article that ICS will be able to run on older devices, thus it's almost a guarantee the Xoom will see it officially. Annnnd for some reason it does not... have no fear, as the devs will be here to solve that problem! The OG Droid was left out of the update loop awhile back because newer models replaced it, but we still have the most current updates on it thanks to the brilliant devs. Just gotta have some faith in your XDA community, and they will figure something out.
But again, I think the OP wants to know (...like I also do) what's the big improvement gonna be?
As I stated on another recent post, the big deal for me as I see it is that (presumably) the SC for HC will be released and then the ROM goodness will follow. But if it's anything like what happened with Froyo, etc, the Honeycomb custom ROMs will kick the stock Icecream Sandwichs' ass.
-No?
Psychokitty said:
But again, I think the OP wants to know (...like I also do) what's the big improvement gonna be?
As I stated on another recent post, the big deal for me as I see it is that (presumably) the SC for HC will be released and then the ROM goodness will follow. But if it's anything like what happened with Froyo, etc, the Honeycomb custom ROMs will kick the stock Icecream Sandwichs' ass.
-No?
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Thanks for being the only reply actually related to my post, but Google had stated a long time ago that the SC for hc will never be released as the SC for ics will be released instead. But since phones will get more hc goodness, what do we get?(which is the main question in the topic)
I think at this point, it's a wait-and-see kind of thing.
But I think finally having the source code is the biggest news here. I think it will be the dawning of a golden age for the XOOM, so to speak.
Also, one advantage to the phone side getting lumped in to the same OS is that we will see a boost in apps that are tablet optimized since the devs will be able to work all of it into one .apk instead of focusing on two separate projects.
These are the two things I'm personally looking forward to the most as far as the tablet side goes.
Of course, it would be nice to be surprised, too.
kenfly said:
Thanks for being the only reply actually related to my post, but Google had stated a long time ago that the SC for hc will never be released as the SC for ics will be released instead. But since phones will get more hc goodness, what do we get?(which is the main question in the topic)
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Well, I think, since ICS will be open source, we will get additional development for the Xoom, beyond the wonderful feature additions and enhancements we have gotten with the limited HC.
Don't you think so?
From my understanding, Ice Cream Sandwich is an over haul for phones to bring out an honeycomb interface while allowing for tablet support as well and it will be more controlled by the king them self, Google.
What this means? All android devices will now be updated at the same time as it'll be more tightly integrated which means developers will need to start just making widgets for there own devices instead of a completely different interfaces like they do today. In a way, it'll be exactly what Honeycomb tablets are today (if you look at all the honeycomb tablets that's out, the interface is the same, only differences is that others will have widgets and/or wallpapers designed just for there tablets (i.e., samsung has the touchwiz) but can be upgraded all the same).
This is supposed to be more more uniform support and faster updates.
Will this go into effect right away? Probably not since the manufacturers will still need to make to update go through but we should also expect to see faster updates as well (there's still a lot of users out there still waiting on Gingerbread releases for there devices so with this making it more uniformed should allow for faster releases).
This is only from what I've heard, though.
This is from a PC World article this morning:
Although Google has kept its cards close to its vest about ICS, a number of things have been reported about it.
Widgets will be richer and resizable, as they are in the tablet version of Android.
More multitasking will be added to the system and the OS will be open source.
The system will be tailored to take advantage of devices that use the Texas Instrument's OMAP chip.
As with any Android upgrade, what Android devices will be eligible for the new system will remain with the manufacturers, but two good bets for the upgraded OS are the Samsung Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom.
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I think it is important to understand one thing about ICS. It is intended to reunify the OS on all device types (like iOS). What this means for tablet (and conversely smartphone) users is that app development will improve and we will get better apps. These apps will make it easier to share functions between your tablet and your smartphone.
We would have found out more next Tuesday, but the announcements for ICS have been postponed. The postponement was for a good reason though. We still don't know what the reschedule date will be, other than sometime this month.
Link to article is below.
"Amid the mad rush to buy new iPhones this week, Android was still in the headlines. Perhaps the biggest news was in regards to CyanogenMod (CM): The group behind the custom Android software is now an official company and may have its first hardware partner.
Not familiar with CM? Most mainstream Android device owners probably aren’t and they’re missing out. CM has long been a great software option for those that want what may be an even better version of Android than Android itself. The small group of developers behind CM have made their custom software available for at least four years. So why isn’t CM software on mainstream phones? Users need to have root access to their handset; something that most people have no idea how to gain, or even know about.
Still, in the overall market — particularly with Android enthusiasts — CM has a solid base: It’s estimated that more than 7.5 million Android phones run the software with its custom improvements over native Android. And why not when CM offers features such as performance boosts due to CPU overclocking, better custom theme options and support for FLAC audio files, to name a few.
CM raised $7 million in venture capital this week and one of the easiest ways it can boost usage of its software is to make it easier to install. That’s exactly what the new company plans to do. Instead of a multi-step process that requires a computer to install CM, the company is working on an app for the Google Play store that will do all of the hard work.
It would also help CM if phones were launched with its software and it appears that may happen next week. Oppo’s N1 could be the first handset partner for the young company. An announcement is planned for September 23 and based on a teaser video, it appears a version of the N1 will ship with CM pre-installed."
http://gigaom.com/2013/09/21/android-this-week-cyanogenmod-is-a-new-company-while-ol-hp-has-new-slates/
Looks like it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
https://plus.google.com/106978520009932034644/posts/L8FJkrcahPs
Yeah, I read about the corp thing a few days ago on Facebook.
Not sure how I feel about it.
What will it mean to all the awesome AOSP ROM's produced around here that are based off CM's code.
But, I do hope it means I'll eventually get to use an AOSP ROM with the APT-X bluetooth codec. It's the only thing CM doesn't have, that I really, really want.
Anyways, anytime a new company is formed, there will be moral mistakes made and also some pretty awesome things should happen. So give CM time to make and fix mistakes, and then get settled in as a company.
Hi All,
While I was searching for a new device to purchase, this question popped into my head: how do ROM developers decide which devices to support? Admittedly, this question arose because I wanted to find a phone that would be compatible with the most ROMs and is currently still under active development. But I also am genuinely curious as well.
I'm new to the custom ROM scene and just started researching but from what I can understand, most, if not all, developers are doing this on their own free time without any sort of payment. In that case, I would assume, they would only support devices that they have access to, in other words, devices that are currently using and have used. Additionally, developers are probably tech-savvy so I am also assuming that most developers will choose a phone that they think is best. Although what is best is subjective, I believe that there are a common set of desired features which will lead to a couple of devices being more popular than others. As a result, some phones will see support from a wide variety of ROMs while others will see a few or none at all.
I went through a couple of the ROMs I was interested in from this list (https://www.xda-developers.com/the-most-popular-custom-roms-on-xda/), and found that Nexus 5x was common between them all. I can't recall what phone was popular during 2015 but was this phone really so popular/desired that all ROM developers seems to have one lying around in 2019/2020? Its been past 4 years since its launch and I assume that its specs are very outdated compared to what we have now but it is still being supported by many ROMs. What lead to this phone to become such a commonly supported phone by ROM developers?
The Nexus line was at a good price point, good hardware for the time and fully supported factory images from Google with regular updates, next to impossible to hard brick, worked across multiple carriers worldwide, easy to unlock bootloader, custom recoveries available, and popular following. I'm sure I've missed something [emoji846]
Device's that are only available in a limited market, or are unable to be bootloader unlocked, don't have factory images are difficult to support and have a limited following reduces the likelihood that a person interested in developing will buy that phone.
ktmom said:
The Nexus line was at a good price point, good hardware for the time and fully supported factory images from Google with regular updates, next to impossible to hard brick, worked across multiple carriers worldwide, easy to unlock bootloader, custom recoveries available, and popular following. I'm sure I've missed something [emoji846]
Device's that are only available in a limited market, or are unable to be bootloader unlocked, don't have factory images are difficult to support and have a limited following reduces the likelihood that a person interested in developing will buy that phone.
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If you don't mind, could I have your opinion on Moto G5 Plus in regards to ROM support? It appears to be supported by Pixel Experience, AOSP Extended, and ResurrectionRemix so it looks like it has a fair amount of support. However, when I view the top devices page on XDA (https://forum.xda-developers.com/top) I don't see the Moto G5 Plus. Would there be any relationship between the top devices on XDA and devices supported by the most ROMs?
No, there really is not a correlation between the top devices on XDA and ROM support.
The top devices reflects basically the activity within the forum. So new device releases will trigger people's curiosity so even though there may be zero ROM support, the device has activity.
A device like the Moto G5 plus that has been out for awhile, just doesn't have loads of activity in the forums. There is still activity on ROM threads, but it's more sporadic.
Got it, thanks for your help. Looks like I'll just have to keep digging through the forums and rom websites and try to make an educated guess about what device has and will continue having the most rom support.
The lineageOS support for the Nexus 6 is ongoing and that phone was released in 2014. There was a lot of passion surrounding that device, but as developers had their device fail (battery died, screen broken, ect), they moved onto other devices.
My point is, the best you can do is find a popular phone in your price range and hope. The OnePlus series may be worth looking at.