[Q] Android phone for devlopement - General Questions and Answers

Hi,
I am at point where I would be buying a new mobile phone. I don't have budget problem, but I am looking from the point where I'll be able to use my phone as development device.
I have shortlisted some options:
Nexus S: This seems to me an idle device for development. It also has NFC. You have early access to the android flavors. But with dual core processor phone in the market, I not sure if this a good choice.
Samsung Galaxy s 2: The phone is expensive, but has many feature(except for NFC ). Do you think this can be a good device considering future versions of android might be out by November-December(speculating)
Wait for another device: Wait for a device. But then everything can't be obtained in a single device. How long will I wait?
HTC Sensation: Not much info about it.
Any other device
I seem to prefer device with NFC and dual core(may be because it a future ready).
Really confused. Just looking for a device that can be used for development on current and future flavors of Android.
Also I have read about rooting a device. Not sure if this is a proper question, but if someone roots a device can the person explore the full capabilities of the device(provided the rooting is proper).
I prefer not to wait for another device and I am confused between Nexus S and Galaxy S 2.
Please give you opinion about my choice or some other device that I should consider.
Thanks
Prerak Desai

if you need a phone for development, first choose your target audience.
i dont think a vast majority of the people will be upgrading too soon to dual core...
now if u wanna push boundaries with your programming, go ahead with the latest...
but its good to have a phone that a greater percentage of the people have...
also, do consider the major portion of people are on android 2.2 and 2.1 (more than 85% as on google site)...
think from a developer pov, not a user...

Thanks HyprGeek for the reply. Seems to give me a point or two to think about.
But don't you think if I buy what majority are buying today, then in about a month time something new will come up and the crowd will start moving towards it. Then i'll be stuck with old device.
I personally feel you need have something(especially electronics device) that arefuture ready so that you don't regret your decision in a short time.
What do you think from a general point of view, which device I should consider?
Thanks,
Prerak Desai

well, u need to detemine how big the "crowd" is...
http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html
and i dont think computers/mobiles can ever be future ready...

Related

[Q] Kids Rom

I have seen some threads for kids apps. I am interested in finding/building a kids ROM.
My child has a prepaid SIM card and RAZR to be used for certain situations. I would want to be able to let my child carry the phone all the time but restrict what numbers could be called.
So my idea, which can't be an original one, is leverage Android power to install a rooted ROM but run in user mode when I give it to my child. User mode could restrict calling to the phone book only or restrict wi-fi/data access; basically anything that you wanted to restrict or remove. Maybe there could be a ROM builder.
I have many scenarios in mind but maybe they could all be solved by software apps instead of getting into a custom ROM? I'm tech savvy, but haven't ever done a ROM. If the answer is to develop a custom ROM, what device should I choose that would get the most community support? I figure it would be a low end phone, since the point is to make a children's rom.
May I ask how old is your child?
[Sig] dId you know? If you Insert a Coin on your Desire, then it levels up to HD, Z or S :[/Sig]
i was thinking of my son when you mentioned this, it is a great i dea, and i also thought if the original att kid's phone that was out a few years back. it was revamped and it sucked. but good luck on either building one or have some one make one ( put a bounty on it?)
Phones and ROMs
My child is 8 years old. I figure in a few years that it would be fine, but it seems like there would be more of a market for this.
I would put up a bounty for it but I'd prefer to make this a community effort too.
So I will change tack here and ask what the best ROM might be for me to start with and what phones might be recommended? I'm figuring that CM would be easiest to start with, generically?
Thoughts?
I think that is a very good idea.
A good part of that could be accoimplished with a kids theme on an existing ROM.
im sorry but the RAZR is a dumb-phone! it doesnt support 3rd party modding. im afraid you are mistaking the word 'ROM' and actually don't know what it means! You will have no luck finding such ROM for the RAZR... A bootloader of any sort does not exist!
You need a smartphone if you want such a job done, but it requires a investment into a smartphone which are generally more expensive and not intended for 'kids'
I understand...
@olyloh6696: Thanks for looking in on the thread!
You misunderstood what I was explaining. She _currently_ has a RAZR. I want to figure out what the best GSM _android_ phone would be to do the project I'm describing would be. I would of course have to get the new phone; I do understand that the RAZR does not support android (dumbphone).
Any thoughts on phone model or something out there like this already?
rykerwilliams said:
@olyloh6696: Thanks for looking in on the thread!
You misunderstood what I was explaining. She _currently_ has a RAZR. I want to figure out what the best GSM _android_ phone would be to do the project I'm describing would be. I would of course have to get the new phone; I do understand that the RAZR does not support android (dumbphone).
Any thoughts on phone model or something out there like this already?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
well i guess the best option for a relatively cheap phone (that has android) is the zte blade (in my sig) it is a british phone, but gsm, so i think it should work in the us. if you read reviews for it, it has specs of the desire, nexus one, etc in a cheap budget range. read some revies on it! it also cost £100. Not sure what your budget is though. before you set out to buy the phone, you may need to look up a rom that supports the requirements you want, or you could request one/build your own.
good luck
Unrelated, but the RAZR does support modding lol. Back in the day, pre-Android, I used to hack the hell out of my Razr. There's even a hidden feature called Club Lights that uses the phone's microphone to detect music and make the lights on the phone go with the beat. Youtube it.
That's a great idea... it would be great on a tablet too.
I'm always worried that my son is going to click around in the market and download tons of apps without know it.
Remove Dialer.app, replace with custom Dialer.app
Is the source for the Dialer.app known, i.e. part of the main trunk of the Android sources? I was just thinking that it might not be too hard to just modify that original source to limit it only to the "contacts" tab, that way you can only call the contacts tab.
Another feature I thought of is using some kind of Dynamic DNS client to be able to dial in to the phone.
I was thinking that there could be a "phone home" app that would call home and report the currently used minutes and GPS coordinates, or similar.
Just trying to get the features set worked out and find out if there is existing apps that do this stuff.
2018, quick google search for Kids Custom ROM.... dead thread no progress. There is definitely a market for this, since it's easy to shove a phone into an OtterBox like case and let them have at it with safe guards. My kid has had an Ipad since age 2 without issue. Now she asks for my phone on occasion (years later). It would be easier to just take a custom ROM shove it on a cheap device and give it to her.
Sure, I am a minority, definitely but I can't consider myself the only person who would want to do this.
This is what I'm looking for my child. I'm a software engeneer but I've never works on Android. I think it's not a great works for an Android developer.
I'll follow this post for news.
digging this one up again. anyway to take something like at Nexux 5x and put a totally stripped down version of android on it to achieve something like the lightphone?
nvrpunk said:
2018, quick google search for Kids Custom ROM.... dead thread no progress. There is definitely a market for this, since it's easy to shove a phone into an OtterBox like case and let them have at it with safe guards. My kid has had an Ipad since age 2 without issue. Now she asks for my phone on occasion (years later). It would be easier to just take a custom ROM shove it on a cheap device and give it to her.
Sure, I am a minority, definitely but I can't consider myself the only person who would want to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Per capita, there are very few people that actually root or flash custom ROMs, the number of kids that could/would use such a ROM is even less than that, this means it is not worth a developers time and hard work to build a ROM for this purpose, especially considering the plethora of different devices out there in the world. There would not be enough kids using "this" or "that" device with "this" or "that" custom ROM. To be as convenient for kids as what you are asking about, there would have to be a "kids ROM" for a large number of devices. This is not a reasonable expectation by any standard.
Add to that, the fact that rooting devices and flashing ROMs can quickly go bad if the user is not familiar with certain aspects of using a device that is rooted or flashed with a custom ROM, this makes for some rather difficult issues to solve due to user error, ignorance and inexperience of the user.
If you want a "safe" or "basic" ROM for a device, you'll have to learn how to build it yourself because I can promise you that no developer is willing to put that much time and effort into building ROMs that will only be used by a small number of users.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

[Q] Motorola Admiral

Just wanting to see when/if xda-developers plans on creating a sub-forum for the Motorola Admiral. I know the phone isn't immensely popular (it should be though; this is a sweet device!), but I know several people who would love some custom ROMs for it as well as a place besides the Motorola support forums to get bug fixes and whatnot.
If the mediocre Droid Pro gets its own sub-forum, why no love for us Admiral folks?
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
I'll second this. I'm glad that it's been rooted, but I'd love to see a custom ROM or two.
The Admiral is a nice device, but it is going to suffer in the marketplace as it is targeting a much smaller and (presumably) less mod-happy crowd. If you are buying this, you are most likely looking for a Blackberry-ish device or you want Direct Connect. Those two demographic groups aren't necessarily going to have as much desire as most.
Present company EXCLUDED. I rooted mine withing two hours of activation and am considering an attempt at building CWMR and replacing the built-in recovery.
Maybe move this to Android General?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1424
Best regards,
-boggsie
boggsie said:
The Admiral is a nice device, but it is going to suffer in the marketplace as it is targeting a much smaller and (presumably) less mod-happy crowd. If you are buying this, you are most likely looking for a Blackberry-ish device or you want Direct Connect. Those two demographic groups aren't necessarily going to have as much desire as most.
Present company EXCLUDED. I rooted mine withing two hours of activation and am considering an attempt at building CWMR and replacing the built-in recovery.
Maybe move this to Android General?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1424
Best regards,
-boggsie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the Admiral rooted and I got "trigger" happy when deleting some of the stock apps from my phone and now I cannot add, edit, or view my contacts. Could someone help me get all the necessary stock apps in order to have it fully functional again?

[Q] Rooting/Flashing Chinese Android phones. ups downs do's dont's ?

Hi,
So I want to dump my WP7 phone (i will say no more) and go back to the tinkering world of Android. I am a budget minded shopper who likes the look of all those super cheap Android phones that float around. But going to one of these phones would of course be pointless if I am as stuck with the basic software as I am with WP7.
There are already a few threads on weather it is possible to root these phones, as the general answer seems to be either buy one that is confirmed to work with one of the universal tools... or buy and hope.
There is a thread on the ability to flash but I cant seem to open it, just loads forever, so I hope this isn't too much of a dupe.
Anyway, I am aware roms depend on memory, cpu type, and other internals, but can you match the important specs to the closest western equivalent and then use these roms or is the danger of bricking your phone just too great?
If there is a reasonable chance based on the above thinking, I am thinking along the lines of investing in a sub £100 phone and swallowing the brick i create if it doesn't work out. But if the chances are stupidly small then it is obviously best worth avoiding.
Just looking for some sensible advice on the matter really? Putting the potential quality issues of chinese phones aside for a second is it worth a shot?
Nothing on this?
q+a forum the right place for this?

New Upcoming Smartphones?

Does anyone know a list of all the next generation high end smartphones that will come up in the next few months?
Im starting university in october and I want to buy a smartphone that will suit my studies (computer science) . I want it to have a high end camera, fast in terms of multitasking (switching between apps fast and get the job done quickly) and maybe with stock Android L .
My current samsung s3 is laggy now..especially all those apps coming from samsung like (gallery,camera,my files etc.) I dont know if they fixed it on the newer versions like the s4 or s5. But I think I want something different this time. Dont tell me about galaxy nexus I dont like it.
So yea I want the stock apps to be fast too..
Any phone recommendations?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Free mobile app
The Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3 are both old business now; you would probably have a very different experience with any flagship from 2013 or 2014, which for the most part all have more than sufficient hardware. However, if you want to wait for the latest and greatest, there will probably be word of the next Nexus sometime within the next couple months.
There are 3 threads already established that are devoted to discussions about devices, please read, and if necessary, repost your question in one of these threads: The what should I buy thread or the The Device Suggestion Thread or the The Device Comparison Thread.
There are also several other discussion threads that you probably should review to help you. They are What phone do you wish you had? or
The Worst Android Device That You've Ever Had & Why or even this place that talks about The best phone you ever owned.

Is this phone dead?

Hi, I know this things about dont ask about eta of new updates, etc. But I have a simple question. Does this device have active community? I see some roms, etc.. (still unusable becouse of softreboots caused by high-gps accuracy), but is there still something in development or is this device dead in this way?
I suppose at some point we'll get at the very least a custom Oreo, however seeing how custom Nougat is still not bugfree, I'd say it's pretty dead at this point.
Plus, for a couple months now there's been too much silence in this forum, which probably animated many people to jump ship.
Really sad to see since the hardware is so good even to this day considering the price. But softwarewise it's worse than anything I've experienced so far. Probably in large amounts thanks to Huawei,just to make that clear
I'm sure the devs around here did their best and I'm thankful there's at least a considerable amount of roms tp choose from.
The great job XDA is doing to advertise for Huawei is also a little annoying at times. I don't know much about software but whatever that "partnership" with Huawei did, it didn't do much for the consumer.
That's it for my rant, had to get it out No more Huawei!
Sent from my HUAWEI FRD-L09 using XDA Labs
The partnership has been good just for XDA itself. For user hasn't changed anything. Don't know if they released or not the source code of the device but if they did is strange that the actual existing rom have important issues. Btw i'm really greatful for developers who attempt to make a good rom for our device, but i prefer staying on stock and hoping for official Android Oreo. If this day won't come, i'll simply take in consideration the bad support from huawei/honor and the almost inexistent community here on xda when buying my next device.
P.s I'll tell this again. I'm very greatful to all the developers who attempt to give us good roms, this is just my tought and i don't meant to denigrate work of other people. Hope you understand
From what I read around the forum, they did release the source code, but partially. You can almost surely rule out development, as hard as they might try, the devs arent going to save a device with a dwindling number of users, especially when it seems that the company itself has abandoned the device. I just hope they are kind enough to just make good on their promise and provide Oreo. Its been less than an year that this device has been available in my country, it would be a shame to see a phone with hardware as good as this not supported less than an year after its launch.
Debopam.exe said:
From what I read around the forum, they did release the source code, but partially. You can almost surely rule out development, as hard as they might try, the devs arent going to save a device with a dwindling number of users, especially when it seems that the company itself has abandoned the device. I just hope they are kind enough to just make good on their promise and provide Oreo. Its been less than an year that this device has been available in my country, it would be a shame to see a phone with hardware as good as this not supported less than an year after its launch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree with you there. I just bought the honor 8 for the third time and this time I bought the 64g as I had planned on the honor 8 being my new long term device so yes honor better follow through with their promise to keep this phone updated or I just wanted my money and they will loose me as a heavy supporter of their brands. I'm a huge fan but if they aren't going to update their current honor flagship phone nor release anymore new models to take it's place in the US then what's the point of me remaining loyal to them.

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