Does anyone get news about TouchXperience?
somatom said:
Does anyone get news about TouchXperience?
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umm sorry, it's 1:30 am here, but what does his web site say?? if i remember correctly he kinda left xda because people were hounding him about this and talking crap
Yep Joshkoss you're right.
He had some work issues and beta testing appears to have discovered some major bugs, he has to rewrite a whole bunch of the code to make it work properly. (hence the private beta testing, I don't know how people would have reacted if they discovered that bug while on public beta...)
He's trying to make his project finish befor christmas
source: his own site/forum
The Schaps ROMs have always been my favorite. Hasnt it been months since his last ROM?
yep... i pm'd him asking him if i can continue his work somehow but he hasnt logged in a while
People disrespected him and demoted his work; called it a hoax which was really uncalled for and rude for what he was doing. Doing such a task takes months if not more and people were so impatient wanting to try it out and when they didn't see anything, they just wanted to call him out.
Anyhow, this doesn't have much do to with Hermes Mobile 6 (i know he made some ROMs) so i'll move it to a more suitable forum.
It's such bull**** how people are rude to Schaps for what he is trying to do for this technology by bringing it *free* to the rest of us. I hope he doesn't release it out of spite.
new info on his website for all those impatient fellows out here
Touchxperience.com said:
Happy New Year from TouchXperience!
TouchXperience website has not been updated since a long time but it was for a good reason, I was actively working on the project, solving issues and finalizing the different features to release TouchXperience as soon as possible, and I would not announce a release date until I’m sure of it. I’m working on the project since more than a year and release has been delayed several times, due to lack of free time and various difficulties beyond my control. Hopefully it comes to the end! All donators should have got an invitation for the private beta testing, and the public beta will be released on February 1st! Due to the huge demand for private beta participation, I decided to make a unique TouchXperience build working on all devices (TyTN, TyTN II, Touch Diamond, Pro, HD), and the different ROMs will be released at the time, I will need few more days to accomplish it, so don’t worry if you didn’t get the beta yet.
I wish everybody all the best for this new year, 2009 will be the Year of TouchXperience, the upcoming beta will come with a lot of nice stuffs but that will be a preview of what’s to come during the year! I didn’t tell yet about all the features which will be included in the first version, but I will give you some interesting details in the following days.
I will start immediately by introducing a cool feature that will interest some of you. Many people asked for a Windows Mobile application to display Xbox Live gamertags, so I’ve got the idea to develop a gamertag plugin for TouchMenu (see screenshot).
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That xbox app looks cool! I just heard but looking forward/checking out TouchXperience.
So... I'm winding down from my day, drinking a couple beers and checking XDA for anything I've missed throughout the day. Keep in mind this is my first Android, coming from crapberry... I know it hasn't been out long and there are issues with ril(which I don't know anything about)... I feel like some of the things I have found here I really like have slowed down, if not stopped. Before I get flamed, I understand there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into every Rom and theme we see. I just hope to see that at some point, this phone gets to the point we all hope it will. I'm trying to learn as much as I can and help anyone with questions my limited Android knowledge can accomplish. Feel free to use this thread to vent and rant... Let's get it all out here. Many thanks to the devs still holding strong... I'm just looking for thoughts on how far the development will go with this phoned compared to the EVO's I'm compared to everyday at work.
3 things to keep in mind:
1) CM7 is damn near stable and they're working hard on it. That said, [nearly] everybody who isn't working on CM7 is essentially waiting on the CM7 team to finish since [nearly] everybody wants an AOSP-based ROM. So why would they keep pouring tons of time into their current ROMs since they'll very soon be thrown away?
2) Google I/O. Quite a few of our favorite devs are being distracted by either attending or closely following this event.
3) End of the school year. A lot of our favorite devs are either high school or college students. And many of those who aren't have children. As such, this is a rough time of year for them.
Look at all of this and you shouldn't be all that surprised that things have slowed down for a bit. But I promise you, the TBolt will be one of the main platforms that people will be hacking for a while. We'll have CM7, we'll have MIUI, and we'll have many other custom ROMs and kernels. Just be patient while they get the RIL stable. This is the FIRST phone that has supported LTE and this is also the first phone (that I'm aware of) that has supported eHRPD - there are definitely some lessons that need to be learned, and that takes time.
bking_soda said:
So... I'm winding down from my day, drinking a couple beers and checking XDA for anything I've missed throughout the day. Keep in mind this is my first Android, coming from crapberry... I know it hasn't been out long and there are issues with ril(which I don't know anything about)... I feel like some of the things I have found here I really like have slowed down, if not stopped. Before I get flamed, I understand there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into every Rom and theme we see. I just hope to see that at some point, this phone gets to the point we all hope it will. I'm trying to learn as much as I can and help anyone with questions my limited Android knowledge can accomplish. Feel free to use this thread to vent and rant... Let's get it all out here. Many thanks to the devs still holding strong... I'm just looking for thoughts on how far the development will go with this phoned compared to the EVO's I'm compared to everyday at work.
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A good amount of stuff has came out with the RIL still not completed, once the RIL is completed, the flood gates will open and you will see a large amount of ROMs made.
bking_soda said:
I'm just looking for thoughts on how far the development will go with this phoned compared to the EVO's I'm compared to everyday at work.
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... so this is about getting compared to the EVO? You guys have pork sword fights at work too?
Hey now... Pork sword fights are saved for after work. Haha. Not comparing to the EVO, just stating that its been out much longer and had more dev time.
In addition, once 2.3 leaks, the floodgates will open again.
Hey B Soda,
I'm in the same boat as you. I loved my BB Bold dearly. So easy to pimp them girls on it. Just the simplicity of the keyboard, being able to connect with other people.
However now being on my first android, i felt that I made the switch at the right time.
With BlackBerry I felt i could write a good email and msg friends all day, but I could never ever use the browser or attempt to download anything because it really was useless.
Tbolt on the other hand, I was able to do everything that i couldn't do on my blackberry, Msging still sucks on the Tbolt, But it is way way better then trying to browse on a blackberry.
With that said, there is still something i miss about the blackberry, but honestly i couldn't be happier.
One more thing, When i first got into android i was completely loss. I have no idea what to do. It was hours and hours of mindless surfing on many different android websites. Hours of reading on root and roms.
Anyhow Android is the future. Long live Google!!!
I see it like this: the Thunderbolt is still an infant--it eats, sleeps, cries, pukes, and poops. When it gets more mature, it can crawl, walk, talk, and more! It just needs some TLC and patience!
It hasn't even been 2 months. It took a whole month if not more I believe to root the Incredible if I remember correctly. Learn some patience people.
You can't compare this phone to the EVO, the EVO has been out for almost a year now.
I gotta agree with the OP.
Development seems to be at a stand still. I understand most developers are waiting for the ril to be completed. But, while we're waiting other phones will be released and developers will start to look towards that phone for development support. I think we'll be left behind. And it really does seem like only 2 developers are working on getting the ril, but when the G2 was rooted it seemed like all of team douche was working to get the ASOP ROM up and running. With the Thunderbolt it's more like team Slayer. Progress was made quickly with the G2 and other devices. Quickly even with team douche building for all devices at once.
I'm not slapping other developers in the face. I'm currently running adrynalyne build, and I like. Great battery life. But I want the speed and stability other devices have with CM7. I really do appreciate the having the support we currently have. And I've donated to the developers of my choice in support of their work.
Coming from the OG Droid, I noticed that many ROMs are based on CM. So we WILL see many more roms.
I can assure you we will get 2.3.4 sometime in the future especially since HTC "promised" that we'll get some kind of 2.3 version. 3.1 was announced at Google I/O, but that probably won't happen until mid next year for us (if we are lucky).
This is the first Verizon 4g phone. The ril is brand new to all. The phone will take off when the ril is polished and released.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
I would pay money just to get a virus rom update
i can't wait til they send me my sim card for the tbolt
While I don't have a Thunderbolt and I'm still rocking an OG Droid, I do believe I can say something about this.
I suspect that a lot of people share in these sentiments, myself included. But I believe the reason why is because so many people were amazed at the community that developed after the Droid 1 was released. The Motorola Droid really revolutionized the Android ecosystem. With Android 2.0, Android changed big-time. The Droid (and Android 2.0) was leaps and bounds over anything that had predated it in the Android world, and there was all sorts of development options that opened up with the creation of that new phone.
Unfortunately, I believe that the days of new findings and developments like in the days and weeks in November and December '09 are gone for good, and won't be matched by anything in the near future in the Android world. New phones will come and go, the Thunderbolt included. There will be big-time phones (again, like the Thunderbolt) that people will naturally be attracted to, and those will be the centers of development for the community for a good period of time. But I don't believe you will ever again see a surge in development like you saw for the Motorola Droid.
There is definitely still plenty of development going on in a community like this. It just doesn't seem like as much as there was in the Android community in the past, and it definitely wasn't as much. But I don't think we can ever match those numbers again, so don't let that comparison get you down.
Smok3d said:
A good amount of stuff has came out with the RIL still not completed, once the RIL is completed, the flood gates will open and you will see a large amount of ROMs made.
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I fully agree with what you said. So far there has been some really good to great stuff but I feel personally this is only the beginning of what potential lies within what could be done with ROMs on the Thunderbolt. I can't wait for the RIL to be finished.
I got my OG Droid in Nov. 09 and I personally do not think ROM development was the golden age like you are so fondly remembering. Verizon's first android phone brought a lot of new people to android. It still took quite awhile for community to evolve.
People seem spoiled now ... TB is new tech, we need to give it time. The Devs are bringing out some very Nice sense based ROMs and AOSP will follow... give it time.
"Is dinner ready yet?!" No. "Is it ready yet?!" No. "How about now?!" No. *shoe to the head* "Ow! What the hell was that for?!"
You get the picture. This is exactly what you guys are doing here but it won't be a shoe that you'll get to the side of your head, you'll have pushed a good developer or two away and then you'll really be crying.
Btw, first paragraph is a true story. Actually happened to me a few times.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
jab476 said:
I would pay money just to get a virus rom update
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Cheers, I'm thinking the same thing...
ddgarcia05 said:
I gotta agree with the OP.
Development seems to be at a stand still. I understand most developers are waiting for the ril to be completed. But, while we're waiting other phones will be released and developers will start to look towards that phone for development support. I think we'll be left behind.
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So how, exactly, do you expect other LTE devices to leave us left behind? EVERY SINGLE Verizon LTE device will build upon what is done for the RIL with the Thunderbolt. If anything, add'l LTE devices coming will actually HELP the Thunderbolt community! At some point, yeah, we'll move past the Thunderbolt. But that won't be until multi-core phones blow single-core phones away. And we're not close to there yet. Perhaps Ice Cream Sandwich will make that a reality (we hope) and that's still 7(?) months away!
I sent a request to HTC regarding their timeframe for releasing the kernel source code for the ATT/Rogers One X. This is,what they said:
"I love customizing my device and I will be glad to advise you regarding the source code for the One X. HTC will typically publish on http://developer.htc.com or htcdev.com the Kernel open source code for recently released devices as soon as possible. HTC will normally publish this within 90 to 120 days. This time frame is within the requirements of the open source community."
Looks like we have a while to go gang! Fortunately we some resourceful folks here that make magic happen with available information!
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
90-120 days - is "as soon as possible"??? HTC, you do realize that time frame is 1/4 - 1/3 of the year, right?
IMO the strategy here is by that time a new device will be born and people would forget about old one...
This may be a stretch, but it could also be that they want to give users a time to use the device as is in order to discover any bugs that may be present and would need to be patched in a future update. No one is more adept at finding bugs than users...thousands of them.
Tell them that is a complete lie.
The HTC Sensation received the ICS source code within 15 days of its release. They got the ICS update on the 16th and they received the source code not long after.
Read what I wrote to them
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1679112
Hey Guys, we are working on the same issue in the Desire C community. I see you have plenty of custom ROMs, but let me ask if HTC has released the full source for you, and if yes how did happen, what was the process?
Thanks a lot in advance, I'm really curious about your case. Click on my signature if you want to see our email thread
And actually, we are currently sending organised emails to HTC, if you have a couple of minutes free it would be a huge help if you sent some of our templates to them.
Here are the details:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40051652
Thank you and see you later!
neoyoli said:
Hey Guys, we are working on the same issue in the Desire C community. I see you have plenty of custom ROMs, but let me ask if HTC has released the full source for you, and if yes how did happen, what was the process?
Thanks a lot in advance, I'm really curious about your case. Click on my signature if you want to see our email thread
And actually, we are currently sending organised emails to HTC, if you have a couple of minutes free it would be a huge help if you sent some of our templates to them.
Here are the details:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40051652
Thank you and see you later!
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I believe we have source for all Jelly Bean bases except AT&T.
My guess is that HTC pays no attention to these petitions and letter-writing campaigns.
It's a bit more complicated in our case, since we don't have very experienced devs, and did not even know what was going on with our kernel, and we started to roll the issue up only recently, partly due to the info we got from HTC through our emails. They are more communicative now and the case got escalated, thanks to the community effort
HTC sometimes wait up to 90days(or slightly over) to release source code.
It would be an extremely rare case that after 90 days source is not released.
HTC appear to prioritize source releases based on the sales volume of the device. The more a device sells, the faster its source tends to arrive.
Also similarities in hardware to existing devices also seems to help. The newer never before seen platforms tend to take longer.
High end phones always tend to get more love.
You have source for 4.0(2.xx ROM's), what source are you waiting on?
Has you device received 4.1? If so when? Has it been 90 days yet?
Last I head Desire C will not receive Jelly Bean from HTC due to 512mb RAM. I just checked numerous of the carriers and none show updates for 2.00 ROM's, the 2.00 have source released.
You are right, we ruled out the possibility of the official JB. Although some say it would be even faster, but I'm not expert on this. What I understood so far is even if it is so, they are not doing it because it is an entry-level device. Fair enough (well, given the conditions), we can do it for ourselves.
The problem is the WiFi driver "ath6kl_sdio.ko", it fails to compile with any other ROMs then a Sense-based. It creates the folder but will be empty. However we are trying to patch it atm, and some more experienced devs joined recently.
What we still don't know is, that there might be a problem with the source of which HTC might not even aware of, since they did not test it with custom ROMs, and atm they say (in a credible, non-brush-off manner) the source is full, but escalated the case further. So we are waiting for that as well.
So things just started to cook lately. Actually if you have an experienced kernel dev, it would be a huge help if he could look into our source and tell what is going on with it:good: So that we can communicate it effectively to HTC or maybe even solve the issue directly.
Over the past year, I've seen many people making mention of how XDA has helped them make advancements in their careers/lives.
This thread is dedicated to all people and their stories. Please invite others, to tell their story.
Please ponder, then offer some insight to the following:
Who was your biggest influence, in the way of Android?
What are you doing now, since XDA-Developers and Android have opened your eyes to new opportunities?
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Where do you feel Android can take you?
For the "die hard" in the crowd Can you recall a time without XDA? (must put thinking cap on)
TonyStark said:
Over the past year, I've seen many people making mention of how XDA has helped them make advancements in their careers.
This thread is dedicated to those people and their stories.
What progression have you made since you joined XDA.
Please anser with the following:
Who was your biggest influence
What have you done, since your influence has been clarified
When did you decide, "it's time to make a career of this"s
Where do you feel this can take you
Why this one is up to you because I say, why ask why
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Click to collapse
Honestly, Mr. Stark, you were my biggest influence. When I first joined XDA I was a raging nOOb. I created posts that were way out of place and not thought out. You were my first contact with a moderator. You gave me guidance and pointed me in the proper direction. Thank you.
Since going in that direction, I developed a love for this community and the talented people within. I had such admiration for the developers, the recognized contributors, the themers, the modders and all of the administration. I have grown as a user and now I am working to give back to the community that has given me so much knowledge. I am working towards becoming a recognized contributor as we speak.
I realized it was time to make a career out of this when 1) an excellent opportunity arose. And 2) when I realized how much joy and satisfaction I get out of helping people. Also, how much passion and enthusiasm I have for technology.
I feel that I have an excellent opportunity now, to possibly be a manager or maybe someday an owner of a repair facility, dedicated to mobile technologies.
Again, I have so much passion for everything about technology, especially Android. I am still working to learn how to develop applications, and now I have the opportunity to learn how to fix the hardware as well. XDA, in my opinion, is the sole reason why my passion sprouted, grew, and blossomed. This community is so unique and diverse. There have been many other people here that have inspired me, @Magnum_Enforcer @Captain_Throwback @BD619 @rootSU @simms22 are just a few of the many, many wonderful and talented people within this community. Many thanks to them and the rest of you.
[No message]
@jcase thank you so much for sharing that story! Without the work you've done, nothing I've ever done, in my time here, would have been possible. So many thanks to you!
Who is IAmTheOneTheyCallNeo?
Where to begin? ... I'm going to take all your questions and combine them into a really, long, TL/DR worthy post mmmk? thnx.
I certainly haven't advanced into a career from my experience and participation with XDA. However, I have definitely made a hobby and place for myself here and it all started back in the day (which was a Wednesday by the way).
I had finally upgraded my and the wife's devices to a "smart" phone. We were no longer part of the dumb phone crowd anymore so it was time to grow up.
She had a Droid Eris, and I the amazing Droid Incredible. Although the phone was cool and visually appealing, I felt it was lacking something.. It wasn't as fast as I wanted. In my mind, you should be able to press a button and BAM, you're there. So I began looking on-line for ways to make the device faster.
I started out by visiting the different threads for my device and gained an understanding for what rooting a phone means and how one goes about doing it and what SuperUser is for, etc.
After a few scared posts to test the public forum waters, I through bit lip achieed my first root. I thenk joined the rom flashing community jumping from rom to rom trying to find the best one for myself. This carried on for a bit.
At some point, I decided that I wanted to take the stock rom, and cater it to my specific needs and desires instead of flashing other people's roms. I started using titanium backup to freeze or remove apps because I wanted my rooted stock rom to be debloated. Through a grueling process of trial and error on every file, I found what breaks when what is removed and documented it on paper.
Once I was comfortable and familiar with what each apk file did (or didn't do if removed) I moved on to modifying them directly through the rom zip file on my computer with 7zip. This opened up a new world of hurt because now I was exposed to libs, drivers, audio files, xmls, docs, etc. So that took a long time opening things up and trying to understand what they did. At one point it was a brain overload and I almost gave up interest because it was just too much.
One day, I learned how to change lock screen unlock rings and how changing the pngs can change the image and I began learning what images were called on when what gets pressed or moved on the screen. I was fairly decent with photoshop and offered my services in a thread talking about lock rings. Another XDA member requested I modify a TRON disc to be his lock ring which was coincidental as that was the exact thing I wanted to do to mine! I soon became friends with XDA member (My first buddy on XDA) @synisterwolf and we teamed up in our own HTC Incredible thread (or Rezound.. I actually forget which device we started all this on) making built to order lockscreen rings for people. That was a big hit and we started moving into some other theme type elements like changing the blue navigation chevron in maps to spaceships or tron cycles, etc.
Taking a step into the theme world however meant that I would need to learn how to decompile and recompile apks so I began my learning process in that. To my dismay, a decompiled apk (down to smalli) is incredibly full of stuff I had not even imagined and to this day I still have issues understanding most of it. I did however manage to change smalli in my code, line for line, from a different device to my Rezound which succeeded in giving me the first 5-point AOSP lock system which at the time, wasn't available to the device.
Learning later to make changes in the res and res/values folder taught me how to theme system level elements to the apks and what they did in rom.
I also did a lot of internet searching on how to make roms faster and came up with all kinds of build.prop edits or files you can add into the rom and I experimented a lot.
At one point, I took notice of a talented individual name @chad0989, who together with another talented member @tiny4579 worked on advancements to roms and a kernel which included a voltage modifying app titled Incredikernel. This app (if kernel permitted) allowed you to undervolt each frequency voltage value in an effort to improve rom performance, or save on battery. Now, Chad had his own custom flashable voltage presets that ranged from certain levels to most extreme but I felt the extreme could go a little further. So what I did was Lock my phone at each possible frequency (both min and max) and under as much heavy load as I could put it under, modified down the voltage value just 1 step above what would cause the phone to lock. I spent hours forcing my phone to ride just 1 frequency at a time and placing it under major load just so I can get the lowest possible minimum values. When I was done, it was completely stable and far below what I had imagined. I shared the modified values with Chad and everyone else interested.
I finally came to a point in my android fun where I wanted to share with the public a stock sense rom that I'd personally modified for myself to what I felt was best suited for performance and battery with as little bloat as possible.
I soon came to find out however that I would have to come up with my own files without using files from other individuals so I couldn't just go out and ask somebody for their stock base to use...
Thus, I was lead by someone to the DSIXDA Kitchen by XDA Developer @dsixda. I found out through some friends that you could take the Official RUU for your device and run it through this "kitchen". The kitchen would then decrypt it, deodex it, generate a manifest, and an updater script for you! It was amazing. For such a noob like myself, this was gold.
The learning curve with the kitchen if you've never used it takes time. It forced me to have to fully understand adb which also required me to learn about having the have the latest android tools and sdk. I also inevitably found out that I needed the appropriate java on my pc to make everything work (this includes decompiling and recompiling stuff too). Trying to get the kitchen set up and learning how to use it was frustrating for me at first, but I eventually got there.
After I had what I felt was officially mine to distribute, I used all those small skills I'd acquired to date and with the help of questions being answered by others who'd released roms, I released my first Sense rom (for the HTC Rezound) and called it NeoMAX.
At this time however, I wasn't too confident about myself and was afraid I'd remove stuff people need so I left a lot of things in to keep people happy. The rom however was a big hit for the device.
Over time I gained some guts about me and "took it to the next level" and modified NeoMAX in a way that I personally felt a rom should be for best performance and battery life and released ADRENALINE which was completely debloated and became the smallest sense rom available (which was apparently a big deal for a device with little memory). People loved it.
I then had a moment where I went crazy with it all and released two more roms similar to ADRENALINE only this time they were "De-Sensed" roms in which I tried to make them as close to AOSP as possible. "Simplistic" was the sense-free version of NeoMAX and Injection was the sense-free version of ADRENALINE.
So now I had 4 roms and felt everyone was waiting for the next big thing.
Chad at one point however, broke the ice and got a working AOSP rom for the HTC Rezound which I'd never run on any device before. I'm not sure if any of you have ever had the Rezound before but even running my fastest rom at the time, it was nothing in comparison to AOSP.
I ran AOSP for the first time and was blown away at home fast it was in comparison to Sense and I soon became a strict AOSP follower after that.
I wanted to release my own AOSP rom but learned that I would have to learn how to compile code from source in order to have my own and at the time, I knew absolutely nothing about linux. I was a born Windows user and had never touched linux.
So I had a crash course with my buddy PonsAsinorem and he mentored me for some time in hopes that I would take over and maintain his CyanogenMod project but it was too much for me to handle at the time. I literally had headaches trying to understand any of what he was trying to teach me. Kinda like when you get a new job and the first day, you're blown away by all the stuff you need to learn.
Some time later another friend of mine @mbobino helped me to figure out how to set up a build environment with java and toolchains and walked me through to my first rom compile of CyanogenMod.
Not wanting to release a stock AOSP rom though, I soon learned that, like smalli in Sense, you could modify the source code to add or change things in the rom. Not being a code pioneer, I learned of a huge pool of "cherry-picks" by others more knowledgeable than I that you could look through and drop into your work. All I had to do was walk the custom code isles and cherry pick all the cool features I wanted!
So I had a huge page of cherry-picks and learned how to pull them. Unfortunately, I soon found out that you couldn't just simply pull everything in and expect them all to play nicely... Especially if one pick modifies the same files of another and that second pick assumes the file being changed was unmodified.. This forced me to have to understand how the changes work and I had to learn what needed to be "fixed" in order for all my changes to work together.
I did a lot of growing up with aosp fixing merge/cherry pick errors and trying to fix compiler errors as well. It was no quick process and took me nearly a year to gain a full understanding of how to do it with minimal effort.
I stayed in the AOSP game for the duration of my influence on the Rezound device. I released roms based off of CM, PAC, and AOKP and made many more friends like @apophis9283, @brenuga, @bunchies, @dmeadows013, @Flyhalf205, @Hanger84, @kkozma, @localceleb, @Miss Dragon, @red3razor, @REV3NT3CH, @shrike1978, @Sirknifealot, @Snuzzo, @TheBr0ken, @usagi-pire, @wildstang83, and @XRaptor29. I was even the first at one point to get either PAC or AOKP working on one of the new android platforms for the device.
At some point I was nominated for Recognized Contributor, which made me more proud to be a member of XDA. I can't remember who it was who nominated me at the time, but thank you again.
I soon found out that you could modify build flags for rom opimization on system level and read through a fat GNU page listing all the possible build flags you could use. I did my best to learn (or understand for that matter) what flags I'd want to use and how to add them in and what they broke if used (like using a compiler flag for thumb flags at -O3 broke Camera Viewfinder on screen for the Rezound).
After learning compiler flags I began learning toolchains and got into the whole Linaro and SaberMod chains game. At one point, not knowing any better, I forked SaberMod toolchains over to my github and renamed them Linaro
I was approached later that night through hangouts by the creator of the chains @sparksco which was something like "Hey.. You forked my toolchain and called it Linaro.. It's not Linaro dude" lol. I got to know this developer over time and he helped me a lot with understanding how toolchains worked and the compiler flags I was new at. People who knew of him referred to him as the "toolchain god" so it was good for me to learn from him (even if he didn't want to be a teacher at the time ).
At some point I got frustrated with having to modify a ton of things every time you wanted to change a chain though. I found that a certain tolchain may work best for kernel but another worked best for rom so I wanted to use two separate chains. Following a similar example by another dev, I created what's known as the GCC FREEDOM initiative (which I'm proud to say many rom teams use and still use today). As a matter of fact, sparksco has continued to improve on the initiative and continues to improve and update it.
I soon noticed that people began writing articles about my work on other Android Forums and I seized that opportunity to apply for Recognized Developer and got it.
I then spent my time mentoring other potentials (many of whom are now XDA Developers or Recognized Contributors) teaching them how to build and diagnose problems, theme stuff, etc. This kept me sharp and I also learned a few things from each of them as well as they learned things along the way that I had missed. I gained rapport with many of them and the android community and we all helped each other out when there were issues. This, in my opinion, is what android should be about.
To this day I'm still learning from others who have been in longer and are more knowledgeable than I. Github was no walk in the park to learn and I still struggle with it from time to time. In fact, there was a time Chad had mentioned that Github was harder to learn than android.. I still agree with that statement.
For a few months, my friends wildstang and tonystark kept nudging me to apply for Forum Moderator. They told me I had what it takes to be a mod for XDA, so finally I applied (not really expecting anything and half interested). However, once I received word several months later that I'd made "The Final Cut", I yearned for the position lol. I soon after became mod, and have built up friendships with many of them over time. It truly is like a family and we work together to ensure that XDA remains a peaceful place where Android Enthusiasts can come and enjoy sharing their works, ideas, and conversations with Android.
One day I finally purchased my HTC One Max (at the constant heckling of my close friend Flyhalf205 with promises of ruling the galaxy and stuff), I fell back in love with HTC Sense. He told me he would win me back over to Sense and although I told him it wasn't possible, it happened. I realized that my love for AOSP was strictly due to the fact that it made the device fast and now it no longer mattered.
I finished out the Rezound with my signature rom "TACHYON" which I could boast was the fastest rom for the device to date, and left (might still be).
Once on the Max, I realized a freedom I hadn't felt since the HTC Incredible days.. I was just a device owner. Very few people knew who I was on the Max. I was no longer stressed about pushing roms to the public or fixing aosp builds or helping others with their problems. It was then that I found out that I was completely burnt out and almost left android development for good.
One day, for myself only, I took it back to the beginning and went with Adrenaline again only this time, I applied all my accumulated knowledge to that point to make it something much more special. I learned through a friend @[email protected] how to theme the SystemUI and create my own themes in the built in theme chooser which I surprisingly liked more than doing roms I liked it so much that I did 33 themes which may seem excessive to many, however I like options. After Flyhalf hounded me for months to release the rom, I finally did.
I stayed on the Max for maybe 6 months and my friend @dottat was generous enough to gift me with a htc m8.
I have been on the M8 now for maybe half a year and it's been fabulous. I had intentions of releasing so many roms and cool things but in the end, I only released a single ADRENALINE rom, which I'm ok with.
I actually had every intention to stay on the M8 through the middle of 2016 as my contract wouldn't be eligible for an upgrade until that time. However, through the generous efforts of my very own HTC USA Moderator team, I came to own a HTC One m9 as of today Thank you guys for that :good::highfive:
Long story short, there is not just 1 person who has made an influence on me here. It is through the efforts of several people, whether intentional or not, that I am where I am today..
I came here as a troll, looking for fun, and found a home.
Love you guys,
-Neo
ΠΣΘ said:
Some time later another friend of mine @mbobino helped me to figure out how to set up a build environment with java and toolchains and walked me through to my first rom compile of CyanogenMod.
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You mean I get my own line in your autobiography?!?!? Wow... makes me miss this place. Maybe I should come back and start down this rabbit hole again.
What a tough thread. How can you put so much influence into a single post? Maybe I should just take the next 3 posts and put Reserved in them for later use.
It is really hard to say who is/was my biggest influence on the site, as I have interacted with so many people over the past 4.5 years. I would have to say that I have a freakish memory and if I have ever talked or interacted with you and you have not changed your UserName, I will remember who you are and most of the time what we talked about. This is what makes it so hard to pinpoint anyone person or even people. I'm not a Developer, Themer or even a hacker that some of the above and I am sure below posters are. I can hold my own in all of those realms, but anyone of you can code circles around me. What I do consider myself is that I am a person who is cut from the same cloth as most of the Users on this site. With that being said, I do have a soft spot for the Users on this site. We have all been in Panic Mode when we got into a bootloop and didn't know how to get out. Or flashed some Mod and forgot to Nand beforehand. There is no denying it, that sucks.
When I first came to XDA, I was looking for a simple function called Root. Back then, when you searched for Root, most of the things that came up in le Goog's page were relevant to Jailbreaks and iOS. Android was a baby and I was tasting the sweet flavor of Éclair at the time. This was before Froyo and the Apps2SD, so we had 128mb of /system and 128mb of /data which filled up really, really fast. I needed to be able to install some more apps at the time (that were mostly junk apps, but I didn't know any better then) and the phone just couldn't hold it. I still remember the beads of sweat as the pooled up on my neck when I ran my first -sh command. It almost worked, but failed and I had to restore back to a stock.sbf (it was a Motorola XT720). You live and you learn, I guess. Looking around, trying to figure out how to do all this I came across the OT section (specifically the Off-Topic: Image Thread). This was where I first came in contact with a few Mods and some really cool Users. To this day, I still interact with many of them and look to some of them as true friends.
That phone borked and I got a SGS1/Vibrant and started to learn the Samsung eco-system. I met a group of Devs and testers in there and started contributing where I could. This went on for about a year, which is like an eon in internet time. There was a kerfuffle where AOKP had left the site and moved to Rootz and many of those guys who came to be my friends, left XDA. I stayed and blended my posts between both sites. Some of them came back and some didn't, but I am still in contact with many of them daily, even so much as a few minutes ago. We have seen births, deaths, marriages starting and ending, good times and bad, but we always know where we met and keep that as a foundation of our friendships.
I've met several people from the site IRL, talked to some on the phone, sent devices/products to their home addresses and have even had to Infract one. This bodes to what I do on this site and I take it very seriously. Many Users and FSMs alike know that I am brutally honest and I always will be. When I am wrong, I admit it. When I am right, I don't pound it in your face. This isn't something that I generally state in public on-site, so if you have every interacted with me, then you'd know that I speak the truth. It isn't because I have some power trip, it's because that was the way I was raised and the way I raise my own kids.
Honesty and Integrity first. As long as you have those, your word is your oath.
With that being said, I don't work in Android or tech, but I have applied many of the attributes that I have gained on-site into my everyday dealings with personnel and management. I employ the same honesty on-site that I do off-site and if anything, that is what XDA's biggest influence is for me. I only hope that the way that I interact with Devs and Users on-site will transfer to the ways that they help/post/work/...with others.
Who was your biggest influence
Every person that I interact with or even simply read their posts.
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
Living the dream
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Join Date: 17th November 2010
Where do you feel this can take you
To the moon, Alice. To the moon.
Perhaps I have no business posting here, as I'm no developer, but I feel my career has certainly been improved/inspired by XDA.
I was first promoted at work and had a basic cell phone on my company's business account. I then asked my boss if I could purchase my own smartphone, if I could activate it on our business account, which he approved.
I went with a Blackberry 7130E that I purchased used. I moved to Curve, then the Storm and Storm 2 phones and liked the touchscreens vs. the "hard" keyboards. I was soured on iPhones due to my dislike for Apple. (I have worked in IT for the better part of 18 years, and most of that was Microsoft and Linux stuff, so I had to be anti-Apple, lol) so naturally the choice was either Windows Mobile (at the time) or Android... Android had more choices and was sort of just up-and-coming at the time, so I decided on a Motorola Droid X... Slowly but surely, more people at my company started getting Smartphones, and I became the resident "expert" on tech support for them. As a result, I was given account management access for our VZW Business account. I transitioned roles within my company (less direct IT work, more "business operations" work), and I was made a SPOC for our VZW account.
I was never much of a programmer, and my Linux knowledge has waned, so I wasn't going to be much help as a Dev. I was able to offer support and help to the Devs though... file hosting, offering to lend my devices (since it didn't matter if my phone was bricked--I'd just get a new one!), or just being a glorified cheerleader.
TonyStark said:
Who was your biggest influence
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Starting out, I worked a lot with @dhemke17 as he did Dev work on the Incredible 2 (I believe)... He tried to incorporate some of my suggestions on his ROM and I also gave him File Hosting for mirroring of his files. Almost all of the people I've communicated with on XDA have been overwhelmingly awesome, both in public threads and PMs. @jcase and his team have impressed/inspired me with their ability to get things done on HTC devices, @ΠΣΘ reached out to me not so long ago and we've hit it off pretty well (if I say so myself)--yet another "grassroots" guy that just loves interacting with fellow smartphone enthusiasts. I know I'm probably missing a lot of others, but honestly it's tough to differentiate with all of the acquaintances I've made over the years.
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
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I'm managing my company's Cell phone plan(s). I help out co-workers if they are having issues with their phones (yes, even iPhones). I feel like I've been given a lot more responsibility and been able to influence my boss and co-workers, fueled by my thirst for knowledge of all things smartphones.
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
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Well, in regard to my becoming a SPOC, it was a natural progression. I was helping out so many people with their phone issues, my superiors recognized it was a natural fit. The silver lining was that I was getting burnt out in my previous role and welcomed the change--I am now relatively stress-free and loving my job.
Where do you feel this can take you
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In talking to @ΠΣΘ and others, I may find it interesting to learn more about being a Dev. I know I love flashing custom ROMs and gain knowledge from this community each and every day. If I do decide to make a go of it, if nothing else I have something that I could do if my current career path leads me astray.
WorldOfJohnboy said:
Perhaps I have no business posting here, as I'm no developer, but I feel my career has certainly been improved/inspired by XDA.
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On the contrary, this is what we all want to see mate:good:
You and everyone that shares their story, are the core of what makes XDA great
We all are, what makes XDA Family:good:
Thank you all for sharing these stories. The amount of inspiration I feel, is overwhelming. It's comforting to know that these "strange" desires I have, in regards to all things Android, are echoed so loudly amongst this community. I truly feel like I'm at home here.
Wow, reading these impressive story`s here definately proves that passion and perseverense does make a difference and can change someones life.
I`am by all means not a developer or even working as a phone/pc/it professsional but just a enthousiast who likes to tinker with phones. Started as a `noob` and as i steadily gained knowledge by reading and trying i assisted other users to solve their problems regarding rooting, flashing, mods etc etc. I enjoy it very much andhelping with other users issues also makes me better too imo.
Who was your biggest influence
My biggest influence are all the motivated and willing users that like to help others without beeing/becoming sarcastic or condescending. One person specificaly i`d like to mention is @malybru for his help and beeing an inspiration, but there are so many good people here and i can`t mention them all but i owe you all of you my gratitude.
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
Still the same proffesion which i love.
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Joined XDA in 2010
Where do you feel this can take you
To the poorhouse as i frequently sell my phone and buy a newer device
This is a wonderful forum and has potential for anyone. It might not always connect to a career, but the fact we are here reading shows our interest. I love that almost any issue is solvable if you search the boards. I have been helped so much here and hope I have helped others. My wife just got a LG G2 and I had no clue how that worked, a quick hop over to the forum and all was answered (only a few questions I had). A nice guy over there even shared his rom with me, which was great. I have done a little building, but I am still a novice. I do know all I need to get better is readily available here. Having a baby, studying a post grad cert, and working have kind of got in the way.
Who was your biggest influence?
The people who said, "Read more. Use the search function." or said, "."
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities?
Use mobile tech in my daily life. Use it to solve problems, be more efficient and it's a great hobby.
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"?
Just after I learned how to flash my Blackjack SCH-M450. God, I just found my first post as koe1974 from 2007!
Where do you feel this can take you?
To infinity and beyond!
Oh this is gonna take me a while, been on here since 2008 but joined 2009. So many influences and friends made....
I'll be back lol
Been here since 2011.
Learned how to root my n7000 banger, install Linux, compile and not ask idiotic questions (Google is your friend).
Learned it's best to stick to G+ and stay away from XDA because reasons.
In comparison to others, my story is boring as hell, but prepare for TL/DR.
I got my first phone in 1999? where the cell phones in Poland actually started to appear. I was using random feature phones until 2011, when my best friend @Anomalious got the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. He was so amazed by Android, that I decided to pick the only smartphone I could afford - the Xperia X8. I made a call to my carrier, placed an order and got my shiny little beauty couple of days later.
I never actually thought that I will become a moderator. For over 20 years I lived in a small village (200 people) in one of the poorest regions in Poland. Needless to say that we earn only $3/h, which is a silly amount for a country in the heart of Europe and a member of European Union. Oh well, we have to live with that. When I joined the XDA, I could barely speak English (well, I still do). I was looking for a custom ROM that is faster than SE stock firmware. I joined the community, became the part of it and realized that Android is my hobby and I would love to know it more.
I started with translations, as I hated that my favorite custom ROM was partially translated to Polish. I downloaded the source and wanted to see how this thing work. I started my first build and failed miserably after 10 seconds. At this point XDA wasn't full of guides of almost everything, so I had to look for answers on my own. After a week or two I managed to compile a part of the ROM with my own translations. That was fun, so I joined the dev team, where I could talk with amazing people.
Who was your biggest influence
@doixanh. This chap is not only one of the Asian magicians that do wonders with code, but also a great pal to hang out with. His wisdom, enthusiasm and sense of humor are absolutely amazing!
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
I write about tech. Over 10 years ago I made a mistake of my life and didn't chose the computer science as my studies subject. I went for journalism instead and I partially regret it. It's fun, but creating own apps and games would be much more fun. Maybe I will learn to code properly in the future. I need a motivation though :silly:
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Almost instantly when I got my X8. It was almost unusable with the 2.1 firmware prepared by Sony Ericsson. Luckily Sony is so much different and makes better ROMs.
Where do you feel this can take you
Hopefully XDA will help me to find some good and interesting job. Right now I feel that reality hits me hard (bro) and I can't fulfill my ambitions. Nobody wants to give me a chance, which is sad and I have to live with it.
ΠΣΘ said:
One day, I learned how to change lock screen unlock rings and how changing the pngs can change the image and I began learning what images were called on when what gets pressed or moved on the screen. I was fairly decent with photoshop and offered my services in a thread talking about lock rings. Another XDA member requested I modify a TRON disc to be his lock ring which was coincidental as that was the exact thing I wanted to do to mine! I soon became friends with XDA member (My first buddy on XDA) @synisterwolf and we teamed up in our own HTC Incredible thread (or Rezound.. I actually forget which device we started all this on) making built to order lockscreen rings for people. That was a big hit and we started moving into some other theme type elements like changing the blue navigation chevron in maps to spaceships or tron cycles, etc.
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the feels. <3 it was, in fact, the HTC Incredible that we started with. stuck together for the rezound. I still have the USS Enterprise Google MAPS apk somewhere.
@TonyStark pinged me to add my story..
My IT background goes something like this. I bought my first real PC in about 1998 and just sat it for hours trying to figure it out. I have never been on course or anything like that but it appears I am a pretty good problem finder / solver. If I cant find the answer google is always the way to go. I was once told I had to teach an IT class for one year (I am a maths teacher) because I was good with troubleshooting the departments PC. I got fed up of just telling the kids to google their problems because that all I would do... but that's another story.
So I upgraded to SE X10i back in about 2010 when I was playing a lot FB poker (I don't trust myself playing with real money, yet!) and I was so frustrated that I couldn't play poker on the phone. I really wondered what the point of having a smartphone that could browse the internet was if you couldn't browse the internet.
Anyway, I soon realised I needed to get Java installed on the phone and to do that I needed root. I have never heard of this before but after a LOT and a LOT of reading I was ready to try and root it. It was a really bad hack as I remember, you had to download an official FTF from Sony servers and then cancel it at exactly 98% complete so you could replace a file. I was so nervous that I would brick it....
Since then I have spent time learning about how to improve my phone. I am no serious coder at all, but I pick things up and am fairly good at helping new people to the scene and quite a good troublesooter of problems.
Who was your biggest influence.
@DooMLoRD helped me out when I started playing around with kernels
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
Currently I do not even have root on my Z3. I have some apps like sky sports that wont work with it, but I am still keen on keeping up with the latest stuff
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
XDA just gradually took over, I am on here most days and my laptop is always on with XDA open.
Where do you feel this can take you
Hopefully I can start an extracurricular class at school, helping young kids get into Android or just into coding anyway at all. I will still have to learn a lot myself, but the joy is in the journey
I want to play along and this is how i started this additional with XDA
My first "smartphone" was the BlackBerry Storm. This was the stepping stone to my adventure. I met @sk8erwitskil IRL and he introduced me to the world of Linux. Showing me his Samsung phone and how he was able to modify it and at that moment i wanted to do the same. (cool kid syndrome) This lead me to buy the HTC Incredible and a group of friends, that although i have never met, they would end up changing everything for me.
I first started using METAMorph to do low level png and color thememing of apps and CM. I was bad at photoshop and would only know how to replace pngs from ones i found online. that was until i met @ΠΣΘ (formally known as IAmTheOneTheyCallNeo) I had an idea to change the lock screen rings to something more fun. I started to send PM's like a mad man requesting everything i could think of and he delivered no problem. ( i think he told me to stop using XDA pms and gave me his gtalk) Now i know our parents told us to not trust strangers online but it felt right, and who can really say no to free candy??
With Neo and I working together we were like a T-Rex with arm extension grabber things.. UNSTOPPABLE. We quickly found out how demanding the work was and not once did it feel like a chore or a job but a hobby that would push us to do great things. Not to long after we started to theme apps. Changing out the chevrons in Google MAPS for iconic spaceships and tiny cars. Our personal cars at that. He was the man that did all the photoshop and i was the one figuring out how to not break the APKs. Fast forward a year. We started to crave more. Working with an app was fun but it was time to learn how to do it the correct way. Que APKTOOL. The learning curve that is modifying an APK from scratch instead of inserting a picture was like night and day. It was a struggle, this was a new challenge that we were determined to figure out. (7Zip warrior FTW)
Enter @fernando sor, @Stoney 666, and the rest of the BAD SEED CUSTOM family. I remember staying up late asking questions on how to theme a rom. With every question i asked them two, three more would come to mind. I was so sure they would have blocked all communications with me from all the questions i had. But like a champ they were on point and ready to help this noob. Every time something new showed up on XDA i had to get it to work on the device i was on at the time. Animations in the notification screen, taking the honeycomb lock screen animation and making it work on ICS, changing the whole OS to a two tone theme. i really liked the blue and black. this would be a start to my first CM theme for the themer system.
Not to long after i met @Pons and @wildstang83. They were the ones making cool roms for the incredible. Pons did some incredible patch work for CM and stang was all about the Sense roms. this inspired me to start making my own roms. But i could never find the time to get it all working and eventually put a stop to it all. At this time i was dealing with incredible amount of depression. My personal life took a dump and i thought i was down for the count. The thought of modifying anything in android was the last thought on my mind.
It was a bad time. I felt nothing was going right and that i didn't even want to live. having 90% of my paycheck go to bills, and rent. Having to skip a meal or two so my dog and cat would have food. burned out and had enough. i tried to take my own life. i was ready to go and meet my creator and that was that. These strangers i never met in real life fought harder for me than i did myself, they manage to track me down some how and get me the help i needed. People that i have never met or didn't even know where i lived were able to call police and services and find me and saved me when i needed it the most. During my stay at the hospital, little did i know i had a lot of people trying to make sure i was okay. My phone died due to the fact there were so many phone calls, notifications, Gtalk, twitter, XDA pms. It was through these wonderful people that i am still here today. We would talk via Gtalk, IRC, Chat rooms, phone calls, text, every electronic means of communications you can think of. They cared so much about me it was a different feeling. Like there was some Good out there in the world and i could finally see it.
Today, I am a lot better. I found help with my depression and anxiety, I'm doing a lot better for myself and i have some incredible friends I've made here on xda. I was able to work with some of the greatest developers of the incredible, rezound, Inc 4g, and now the M7. (im an htc whore?) Although i dont do much now i am always learning from the wonderful devs here. I was able to get my laptop to build CM from source. I learned how to use Linux, how to write in java and how to edit smali. i know how to set paths in windows(like a boss), how to decompile a jar, apk, how to split a ramdisk, how to test OTG all thanks to the wonderful "strangers" I've met online. Thank you XDA for this wonderful place that has made me who i am.
The crackflasher, tweaker (not meth), the themer, the modifier, the one with a million questions that i know where i can get my answers. The one that will help anyone in need, like so many others did for me.
thank you everyone,
SynisterWolf
Thanks for sharing the lovely stories. Neo.. I remember the good old time.