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Hi all,
I am just looking for some advise!!!
I have been playing with xdandroid on my Verizon TP2 for a long time, and have decided its time to switch from win mo to android. Although on the TP2 alot doesnt work, I love android!
Some I'm wondering what is the Best Hackable android phone for Verizon???
Thanks for any thoughts.
Chris Seeley
Many would argue that the droid one is best
For Verizon? Your best bet is probably the Fascinate... maybe the Incredible. From what I've read, the Incredible is more usefully-hacked today, but I believe the Fascinate is likely to have the brightest long-term hacking future.
The big difference between the two: HTC violates the GPL and builds a monolithic kernel with proprietary drivers compiled directly into it, then unceremoniously hacks them out and $hits the hollowed-out carcass on the curb. HTC's kernel source is a half step short of completely useless, and building custom kernels for HTC phones that fully support its hardware (camera, bluetooth, etc) is a never-ending challenge that begins anew with every upgrade. Put another way, HTC's kernel source isn't buildable at all (it has dependencies on files they didn't include and broken references), let alone buildable into a kernel that can be used in the phone. Samsung, in contrast, releases nice kernel source that actually builds, and neatly bundles its proprietary drivers into proper loadable kernel modules.
Put another way, more progress has been made on the Incredible since it's been out for almost 6 months now (vs ~6 weeks for the Fascinate), but the Fascinate today is roughly where the Incredible was 3-4 months after its release. The Epic4G had custom kernels built from the ground up less than a month after its release. Most month-old HTC phones are lucky to have slightly-hacked and tweaked kernels that don't break one or more major peripherals. In fact, the biggest delay for the Epic (and presumably Fascinate) wasn't building a kernel... it was building the replacement bootloader and ripping backup copies of the ROM before blowing it away (the bundled apps from Samsung, Sprint, and Google can't legally be redistributed, so the only way to get them in a new ROM is to rip them from your stock ROM and save a backup copy to restore after reflashing)
Forget Motorola phones even exist. The likelihood of ever being able to truly reflash a Droid2 or Droid X is slim. They've both been rooted, and are hackable to some extent, but with both, you're always going to have to worry about Motorola or Verizon changing the metaphorical locks on the door while you're not paying attention and seriously compromising your satisfaction with your phone.
Thanks.... It just so happened that the fascinate is FREE at bestbuy today. Had to order it online, but I can deal with that.
Free phone Friday I guess....
So it is on order.
Thanks,
Chris
bitbang3r said:
For Verizon? Your best bet is probably the Fascinate... maybe the Incredible. From what I've read, the Incredible is more usefully-hacked today, but I believe the Fascinate is likely to have the brightest long-term hacking future.
--snip--
Samsung, in contrast, releases nice kernel source that actually builds, and neatly bundles its proprietary drivers into proper loadable kernel modules.
--snip--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think n1 being a developer phone
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
OP said they're on vzw...hence no N1 option
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Too bad u'r on verizon...otherwise it's the Nexsus One
The incredible is just as hackable as the first droid but twice the speed and way sleeker I've had both and I much prefer the Incredible.
Congrats on the Fascinate!
One other benefit of the Fascinate over the Incredible. The Incredible shares much of its design with the Desire, but the only other Desire that's CDMA is US Cellular's. Verizon has never really promoted the Incredible heavily (first they ran out of them for months, then the Droid2/DroidX came along to take Verizon's top spots), and US Cellular is kind of like Alltel was... not exactly a small company, but not exactly T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint, either.
In contrast, the Fascinate shares much of its architecture (including the GPU) with the entire Galaxy S family, and shares the most proprietary parts of its architecture with the Epic4G, which IS Sprint's flagship (or at least reigning co-champion) phone right now. So, in the long run, there won't be any shortage of AOSP-based ROMs that combine the CDMA-specific stuff from the Epic with the family-wide stuff from the rest of the Galaxy S line. Even if the Fascinate never really gets heavily promoted by Verizon or attracts a huge number of developers, the fact that it can more or less benefit directly from so many other family members is IMHO a huge plus. Oh, also... US Cellular has the Mesmerize, which IS pretty much identical to the Fascinate.
The Incredible is a very nice phone. If Verizon released it with the same form factor as US Cellular's Desire (specifically, the real hardkeys) and managed to keep them in stock long enough to tempt me, it might have been the phone that got me to leave Sprint. But knowing what I know now (6 months later) about the kernel architectures and cross-family compatibility of both HTC's phones and Samsung's, I do think the Samsungs are going to have a long, fertile life as phones for hacking.
bitbang3r said:
Forget Motorola phones even exist. The likelihood of ever being able to truly reflash a Droid2 or Droid X is slim. They've both been rooted, and are hackable to some extent, but with both, you're always going to have to worry about Motorola or Verizon changing the metaphorical locks on the door while you're not paying attention and seriously compromising your satisfaction with your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a droid2, fully flashed to cricket and hacked all to he**.. idk if verizon has something in there system that makes changes to the phone whenever they want, but I have not had any problems with the phone doing whatever I want it to do. custom roms/rooting/etc.. all work great
Droid is the best for hacking other vize try out the Nexsus one....
HTC HD2
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk
Thanks to all that contributed. Is the consesus here that the best developer support for future android builds, irrespective of carrier, is The Nexus S ?
Hey there folks!
I'm a MotoMan myself (mostly by fate, not choice). I had a Droid 1 which I loved dearly, and now I'm rocking a Droid X that feels like a new phone every day thanks to CyanogenMod nightlies.
Now, thanks to Motorola's dickery, the Droid X only recently received CyanogenMod (bootloaders are awful). But as I said now that it's around, things are like night and day. Not quite as awesome as my Droid 1 since there are still no custom kernels, however I'm still a happy camper.
A few days ago however my sister bought herself a Droid Charge to lock in a 2-yr contract of $30/month LTE. Naturally, I immediately snatched it and began ROM'ing the sucker into oblivion. It's great! I love how easy it is to flash this puppy. You either use Odin, which is relatively painless... CWR, which I already spend most of my time in on my DX/Nook Color.... or the Samsung utility, which is no different than RSDlite for Motorola phones! All familiar, painless territory. And it seems like you can get some pretty customized ROMs rockin'!
So, uh... why no CyanogenMod? It seems like a lot of Samsung phones are lacking the CyanogenModz. Is there a piece of the puzzle I'm missing? Has Samsung installed something devious like a bootloader preventing it? What's going on here?
thank!
Cyanogen mods are mostly RUU mods. HTC in fact. I coming from TMO have used dozens and release a few Cyanogen custom roms. Realistically, the team releases code for phones that they can easily acquire. HTC phones are GSM phones and can be bought anywhere for about 100 bucks. VZW and Sprint phones are CDMA phones that are a lil harder to obtain and need a contract with the company. Easier to get GSM phones because you can unlock them for whatever global service you want to use them on.
The team is easy to get in touch with, but you will probably need to get a fan base together on a certain device and send to them, to get them to be able to write the code for. Hope this makes sense.
Barny Style.
GSM = Easy to get, easy to sale, no company crap to deal with
CDMA = Company needs to turn on, hard for resale since you need a clean esn. Harder to acquire.
I'm not a dev, but I think CyanogenMod uses AOSP as a base, not RUUs. It certainly looks a lot more like stock Android on my HTC Incredible than it does Sense.
That said, the point about CDMA phones being less widely available and used than GSM phones is probably a valid one, as CDMA is primarily a US thing. There is a CM port for a few Samsung Galaxy S phones.
The issue is that Samsung uses stuff that is not compatible with most of the stock CM code, and a lot of hacking needs to be done to get anything simple working. I know that there are a few Samsung phones in the pipeline for CM7 support now, but it took months of work, and there are still several bugs that need worked out. The biggest issue is primarily just that Samsung releases as little source as they have to, and trying to reverse engineer their binary files that are needed is difficult to do as well. However, I do think that there will be AOSP based ROMs for the Charge after r2doesinc starts working on it.
As far as I know they could be working on a Droid Charge port:
http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?631-WIP-CM7-for-Droid-Charge
Plus there's more than a few posts in that thread of people saying they'd send in phones for them to dev on. I've never used CM (just got my charge after a first-generation iPhone), but it looks slick as all getout. GummyCHARGED is the closest rom to it as far as I can tell.
My 2yr upgrade is coming up in April. I'm looking to continue running with Android OS (sorry Apple, you'll have to wait a few more years to get my hard earned cash). I'm curious to know what phones are currently out which developers are highly supporting at the moment? Also, what phones is everyone anticipating to get in the months to come. I'm coming from an EVO 4G where deveopement was very high (currently running w/MIUI Swiper version) So, I'm hoping I can get a new phone with similiar Dev support. Curious what everyone's thoughts are on this. Thanks in advance!
Depends on your criteria.
I bought Photon 4G because of specs. The build quality is better than HTC and Samsung. It is also a world phone (GSM locked in US) and has a good display screen. The camera is also very decent. No big complains yet. I have it rooted and it worked absolutely great for me. However, I have noticed that Sprint is a smaller carrier than ATT and Verizon and so, dev support is similar across the board. Moto on Sprint probably has less dev support than Samsung Galaxy series, since it is popular and specs are similar across varients on other carriers -- making it easier to port/share development across different carriers.
End of the day, Samsung, HTC and Moto, all run Android and you can customize it whatever way you like and will look the same on all phones. Lots of choice, but it might be a simple hardware comparison that will help you choose one.
I have owned HTC, Samsung, Nokia and Moto in the past. I believe that Nokia and Moto has the best build quality and it shows.
I know only a handful of people have a device in their hands and it's probably not the production firmware, but browsing around the GS3 forums is kind of depressing. I've been watching these One X forums closely, hoping to see great feedback on the stock AT&T One X experience, progress on root/ROMs, or both. With the exception of root I'm sad to see AT&T preventing bootloader unlocks, AT&T/HTC messing with the US software, and a number of problems with Sense (though some of the latter is probably par for the course with a brand new firmware version from HTC). Browsing around on the Galaxy S 3 forums they seem to ship with bootloaders unlocked, there was a full firmware leak, and there's already an early root. At this early stage it seems like that device might end up being a lot easier to develop for.
I know it's probably too early to make any calls on a device that hasn't officially shipped yet, and who knows what kind of delays the North American LTE version will have - or what bastardization AT&T will manage with the GS3. But still, it looks promising over in GS3 land if only from a pure dev perspective.
Then there's the rumor of google selling multiple "Nexus" devices with multiple hardware vendors. Imagine if we had dev-friendly devices at the level of the One X or GS3 in the $400 price range!
well as far as I know it's AT&T that's preventing the boot loader unlock, not HTC, so when the GS3 comes to AT&T, they could very well do the same thing.
lucidlyseen said:
well as far as I know it's AT&T that's preventing the boot loader unlock, not HTC, so when the GS3 comes to AT&T, they could very well do the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also read an article last night, that will annoy people on at&t who are waiting for the GS3. Apparentley verizon is getting the phone first and will have exlusivety over the other carriers for a time, don't know how long though.
Still undecided if I'm keeping the One X. May go for the S3. The only thing I do despise, other than pentile screens, about the S3 is the forums here at XDA. It's worse than an iPhone forum. Samsung could poop a turd and these people would tell you why a turd is now better than anything else any manufacturer has ever produced. It's a tad ridiculous.
lucidlyseen said:
well as far as I know it's AT&T that's preventing the boot loader unlock, not HTC, so when the GS3 comes to AT&T, they could very well do the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's what I was saying in the OP. Agreed 100%.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
You can't compare any brand's unlocked retail devices to those sold through the U.S. carriers. The SGS3 section you're reading is for the international device and each of the U.S. variants will end up with their own forum. Look at the development in the international One X forum; based on the number sold (2MM so far) it too should always stay pretty active.
The i9100 forum is the most active forum on XDA as you'd expect based on the number of phones sold. Most of the lead developers are in the EU as you'd expect for a device sold globally. I'm sure the i9300 (SGS3) forum will be just as active.
Samsung's never locked their bootloaders and their devices are the easiest to mod. It's always been that way so shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. HTC's taking a firmer stand on unlocked devices. In the EU they're no longer covering h/w repairs on devices that have had third party ROMs installed on them (just unlocking the bootloader is OK). This is new since the introduction of the One's. Considering that 95% of people that buy an Android phone don't even know what a bootloader is their obviously putting the financials (savings on warranty repairs) over the needs of what they refer to as the "enthusiast" community. Just something else to consider when comparing devices.
Like Barry said, and once it's released it will be plagued by complaints on XDA, just like the HOX has been, just the nature of the environment.
What hasn't helped HOX progress in the US is the hold at customs, but that is rumored to clear up soon, then we'll be cooking.
vioalas said:
Like Barry said, and once it's released it will be plagued by complaints on XDA, just like the HOX has been, just the nature of the environment.
What hasn't helped HOX progress in the US is the hold at customs, but that is rumored to clear up soon, then we'll be cooking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I was thinking too. Bootloader lock? Seen that before and seen phones still be well supported. HOX will be one of the top phones of 2012, so whether devs hack the bootloader or we get direct support from HTC, it will still get done eventually.
The customs hold is more concerning...
jnichols959 said:
I know only a handful of people have a device in their hands and it's probably not the production firmware, but browsing around the GS3 forums is kind of depressing. I've been watching these One X forums closely, hoping to see great feedback on the stock AT&T One X experience, progress on root/ROMs, or both. With the exception of root I'm sad to see AT&T preventing bootloader unlocks, AT&T/HTC messing with the US software, and a number of problems with Sense (though some of the latter is probably par for the course with a brand new firmware version from HTC). Browsing around on the Galaxy S 3 forums they seem to ship with bootloaders unlocked, there was a full firmware leak, and there's already an early root. At this early stage it seems like that device might end up being a lot easier to develop for.
I know it's probably too early to make any calls on a device that hasn't officially shipped yet, and who knows what kind of delays the North American LTE version will have - or what bastardization AT&T will manage with the GS3. But still, it looks promising over in GS3 land if only from a pure dev perspective.
Then there's the rumor of google selling multiple "Nexus" devices with multiple hardware vendors. Imagine if we had dev-friendly devices at the level of the One X or GS3 in the $400 price range!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I read here is the GS3 is no further along in development than the ATT HOX?
Leaked ROM: Check
Root: Check
What else do they have?
beaups said:
What I read here is the GS3 is no further along in development than the ATT HOX?
Leaked ROM: Check
Root: Check
What else do they have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They ship with an unlocked bootloader. That's a pretty big deal imho. Yes, the amazing devs here tend to unlock all the big phones one way or another - but shipping unlocked sure makes the first month or two a lot more fun for folks that like to tweak their android device.
jnichols959 said:
They ship with an unlocked bootloader. That's a pretty big deal imho. Yes, the amazing devs here tend to unlock all the big phones one way or another - but shipping unlocked sure makes the first month or two a lot more fun for folks that like to tweak their android device.
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Click to collapse
You can pretty much say the internatiional One X was bootloader unlocked.. I mean all you had to do was go to htcdev.. It wasnt like you had to do anything special cept plug your phone in and goto a website. Not really a big deal there either..
jnichols959 said:
They ship with an unlocked bootloader. That's a pretty big deal imho. Yes, the amazing devs here tend to unlock all the big phones one way or another - but shipping unlocked sure makes the first month or two a lot more fun for folks that like to tweak their android device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although Samsung's bootloaders are typically not locked, starting with GS2, Samsung's bootloader tracks and displays on boot up how many times you flashed non-Samsung ROM.
As others have pointed out, comparing an unbranded international version of GS3 to a AT&T branded HOX is pretty rediculus. When it finally hits AT&T (which is unknown at this time), its firmware will be modified to AT&T's demand which is pretty in line with what you get with AT&T's HOX.
nugzo said:
You can pretty much say the internatiional One X was bootloader unlocked.. I mean all you had to do was go to htcdev.. It wasnt like you had to do anything special cept plug your phone in and goto a website. Not really a big deal there either..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I keep hoping I can get a cutting edge, quality android device on a US LTE provider with good dev support but it seems the carriers (and to a lesser extent the patent disputes) are the ones making that difficult.
I hate to say anything that could be misconstrued as something negative to the devs, but it does suck to see that our device isn't getting much love. It's a matter of circumstance and I'm sure the devs out there would love to work on this device, given the opportunity.
Just gave my Galaxy Nexus to the wife... was cleaning it up and putting the latest CM9 nightly on there and it was just beastly. I think if the camera was better I would have stuck with it. The camera on the HOX is absolutely stunning though. I have no idea how any idiots could complain about it. The pictures I take look absolutely beautiful.
Might consider selling this device in favor for a GSIII. We'll see.
look how beastly the international HOX roms are. Our phone will hopefully get that kind of love. This phone will be the next HD2 if we can get the BL unlocked.
Sent from my Calculator
americasteam said:
Still undecided if I'm keeping the One X. May go for the S3. The only thing I do despise, other than pentile screens, about the S3 is the forums here at XDA. It's worse than an iPhone forum. Samsung could poop a turd and these people would tell you why a turd is now better than anything else any manufacturer has ever produced. It's a tad ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really wish that someday there would be a different forum address for each manufacturer so I dont have to deal w those Samsuck fan boys. Came across one in another forum and my gosh what a fking ****. If you take notice they're all over Youtube trashing anything non-Samsuck. I hate Samsuck just because of them.
louis.b said:
I really wish that someday there would be a different forum address for each manufacturer so I dont have to deal w those Samsuck fan boys. Came across one in another forum and my gosh what a fking ****. If you take notice they're all over Youtube trashing anything non-Samsuck. I hate Samsuck just because of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a captivate. Development was slow, at first, with all the ATT restrictions..but we got through it. I am 100% Positive we will have our devices unlocked and loaded to the fullest potential.
It might take some time, but so far the stock experience has not been to painful with my HOX, Once Rooted, you can De-brand your device, Replace the missing apps, Remove Bloatware.
Yes we don't have a custom Recovery, and no easy Kernel Tweaks, but they are coming....
louis.b said:
I really wish that someday there would be a different forum address for each manufacturer so I dont have to deal w those Samsuck fan boys. Came across one in another forum and my gosh what a fking ****. If you take notice they're all over Youtube trashing anything non-Samsuck. I hate Samsuck just because of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung has come up with very good devices you have agree with that. Galaxy S1 then S2, Note (Probably S3 also). Samsung is competing with Apple, all other android manufacturers are competing with Samsung (in my personal opinion).
I also have captivate which has many hardware issues and as above poster said dev was slow at first but see now, we were among the first ones to get CM9 (alpha) and its very stable now....The development is crazy there still.....
I am sure ATT variant of SG3 will be awesome, as in no locked BL and easy to hack as usual.
warri said:
I had a captivate. Development was slow, at first, with all the ATT restrictions..but we got through it. I am 100% Positive we will have our devices unlocked and loaded to the fullest potential.
It might take some time, but so far the stock experience has not been to painful with my HOX, Once Rooted, you can De-brand your device, Replace the missing apps, Remove Bloatware.
Yes we don't have a custom Recovery, and no easy Kernel Tweaks, but they are coming....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm as excited as the next person to see what an unlocked bootloader will eventually do for the dev of the HOX, but I think you hit an interesting point; the quality of Sense 4.0. I know everyone ultimately would like to see the unlock, but do you think there may just be less overall development as some people are satisfied with the Sense 4.0 experience? Not to discredit the hard work that many folks are putting into dev, but I wonder if there is just a smaller quantity of dev's out there actually trying, leading to less eyes on the device, leading to a smaller likelihood/pace of new barriers being broken in the process.
fitchpuckman said:
I'm as excited as the next person to see what an unlocked bootloader will eventually do for the dev of the HOX, but I think you hit an interesting point; the quality of Sense 4.0. I know everyone ultimately would like to see the unlock, but do you think there may just be less overall development as some people are satisfied with the Sense 4.0 experience? Not to discredit the hard work that many folks are putting into dev, but I wonder if there is just a smaller quantity of dev's out there actually trying, leading to less eyes on the device, leading to a smaller likelihood/pace of new barriers being broken in the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope. i want AOSP. period. i've never ever been a fan of Sense or any overlay for that matter. i love what google has done with stock ICS. i've had my eye on the eXoDIZED ROM by JDR0iD in the international HOX threads. that's exactly what i'd like to see. or even better, MIUI.
This S4 boot loader debacle has turned me against U.S. carrier based phones. I can't giving $600+ for something as they please without our permission. I'll have to investigate/research which International version I want to buy.
I was aware of it. The seller I bought it from does care about these matters. I bought as it as a learning experience. I sure aren't trying to start any arguments or fights. I was just hoping it could be discussed normally.
scott14719 said:
How do you interpret that as smugness? Did you not see the emoticons in my post?
Actually this is the kind of thread people start that are only looking for arguments. It adds nothing to the community. However, I understand your frustration with Samsung and I am sure others feel the same way. But don't think it's OK to post your opinion about a subject and it isn't OK for others to do the same. Not everyone's opinion is going to be the same as yours and creating a thread like this invites ALL opinions on the matter. That is why it's better to not make them in the first place.
Personally (again, my opinion), I knew the phone had a locked boot loader when I bought it. So I am sorry you were lied to about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I didn't see the emoticons. I guess I wasn't expecting your response. Sorry!
Your best bet is to stop buying AT&T contracts, as it's they who request for the lock and it's not like Samsung is gonna turn down millions of dollars because a couple thousand modders disagree :/
sholsten said:
This S4 boot loader debacle has turned me against U.S. carrier based phones. I can't giving $600+ for something as they please without our permission. I'll have to investigate/research which International version I want to buy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wait for the lg optimus g2 or the moto x. those phones look amazing. they might come with an unlocked bootloader. i was just pondering this the other day. ive only purchased two new phones that were not samsung in my smartphone history. that was the iphone 4s (which i traded for a skyrocket) and the htc surround (wanted to give wp7 a shot). ive had other htcs and one sony. but they were craigslist deals. my next phone is most likely going to be the g2 or moto x. i think its about time for me to give someone else a fair shot.
Thermalwolf said:
Your best bet is to stop buying AT&T contracts, as it's they who request for the lock and it's not like Samsung is gonna turn down millions of dollars because a couple thousand modders disagree :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have an AT&T contract. ST is cheaper per month.
sholsten said:
This S4 boot loader debacle has turned me against U.S. carrier based phones. I can't giving $600+ for something as they please without our permission. I'll have to investigate/research which International version I want to buy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the S4 has made me a heretic in XDA's eyes. The stock experience, especially after this update, has been marvelous. I've had a bunch of Android devices since 2010 and this is the first time that I think futzing around with custom ROMs is mostly useless. Sure, it's locked down, but it works great. I just shake my head seeing bug reports on the dev threads and wonder why an end user would want to cripple functionality on one of the best phones yet.
Anyway, maybe I got most of the flashing out of my system with my Nexus One and then later with the hooptie Viewsonic gTab 10.1. I think now that the platform is maturing and devices become even more complex, flashing homebrew ROMs will start to fall out of style.
Just my BTC .02, though. I'd like to see amateur/recreactional custom Android development to continue to thrive, though--perhaps on the next to wave of wearable computing and the like. I just want my bling phone to work as advertised.
Er, sorry for droning on.
burhanistan said:
I think that the S4 has made me a heretic in XDA's eyes. The stock experience, especially after this update, has been marvelous. I've had a bunch of Android devices since 2010 and this is the first time that I think futzing around with custom ROMs is mostly useless. Sure, it's locked down, but it works great. I just shake my head seeing bug reports on the dev threads and wonder why an end user would want to cripple functionality on one of the best phones yet.
Anyway, maybe I got most of the flashing out of my system with my Nexus One and then later with the hooptie Viewsonic gTab 10.1. I think now that the platform is maturing and devices become even more complex, flashing homebrew ROMs will start to fall out of style.
Just my BTC .02, though. I'd like to see amateur/recreactional custom Android development to continue to thrive, though--perhaps on the next to wave of wearable computing and the like. I just want my bling phone to work as advertised.
Er, sorry for droning on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Thanks for your input. I have a whole another perspective now.
burhanistan said:
I think that the S4 has made me a heretic in XDA's eyes. The stock experience, especially after this update, has been marvelous. I've had a bunch of Android devices since 2010 and this is the first time that I think futzing around with custom ROMs is mostly useless. Sure, it's locked down, but it works great. I just shake my head seeing bug reports on the dev threads and wonder why an end user would want to cripple functionality on one of the best phones yet.
Anyway, maybe I got most of the flashing out of my system with my Nexus One and then later with the hooptie Viewsonic gTab 10.1. I think now that the platform is maturing and devices become even more complex, flashing homebrew ROMs will start to fall out of style.
Just my BTC .02, though. I'd like to see amateur/recreactional custom Android development to continue to thrive, though--perhaps on the next to wave of wearable computing and the like. I just want my bling phone to work as advertised.
Er, sorry for droning on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know to be honest I hope your right. Custom roms and XDA were never really ment for the normal person. Only for those that wished to learn to do development and programing. With Android flashing a device became the cool thing to do. Now we see less real development then ever. So I really hope your right.
Wayne Tech Nexus
zelendel said:
You know to be honest I hope your right. Custom roms and XDA were never really ment for the normal person. Only for those that wished to learn to do development and programing. With Android flashing a device became the cool thing to do. Now we see less real development then ever. So I really hope your right.
Wayne Tech Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't have said it any better. It won't be long til we see roms named "swag" or "#yolo" or even named "freelilwayne". Everyone just expects everything to work 100% with no development. All I see are now spammers for apps and themes or someone asking why something doesn't work even though there are 48 other threads about it. I miss the old XDA.
Sent from my SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
toxicpaulution said:
I couldn't have said it any better. It won't be long til we see roms named "swag" or "#yolo" or even named "freelilwayne". Everyone just expects everything to work 100% with no development. All I see are now spammers for apps and themes or someone asking why something doesn't work even though there are 48 other threads about it. I miss the old XDA.
Sent from my SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
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The Q & A section in this forum is nearly unusable. There are a few legitimate threads, but almost exclusively it is filled with the same (sometimes noob) crap over and over again all because they are too lazy to do a little searching and reading. And like you said, several of the same questions (that have already been answered) all on the first page or two. Sometimes it's not even the noobs doing it. And that's not taking into consideration the multitudes of the same types of posts (needless questions) being posted in the General section. So I agree, there should be some type of test(s) that people need to pass before they can even enter XDA at this point.
sholsten said:
I don't have an AT&T contract. ST is cheaper per month.
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I mean don't buy anything branded from AT&T or Verizon or any carrier whose device is locked. If you went with the T-Mobile model you wouldn't have been locked down.
Honestly I felt the same way initially. Then I asked myself what Android company am I going to buy then?
HTC - they typically have locked boot loaders (though the One does not)
Moto - Nope always locked and they don't make any cool phones right now.
LG - locked typically
Sony - wouldn't know since they have like No US phones.
So would I rather pay $600 for a phone with boot loader unlocked or $200 for a locked one, I pick the $200. I am assuming must people would also.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
My take; I have had AT&T locked phones in the past and usually someone finds a way to either hack the bootloader or make a bypass, it just takes a lot more time. Still fun to have the phone and customize. Then I've also paid the big dollars and bought the international version unlocked phone. It was great because of lots of customizing, and support however if you run into a warranty issue you are screwed. Unless you know someone in the country your phone came from. I have an international SGS3 but a couple small glitches in the graphics and the worry of the bad system board that causes the instant black screen of death (or whatever it was) I started looking at the S4. I was ready to buy another international phone but it came down to features and actual function. I wanted 4G LTE. Well back when I bought the S3 there were 2 international SGS3 phones. I bought the one with LTE first (9305) turns out the frequencies the phone runs for 3G+ did not work with AT&T in the US. I had to sell it on eBay, forget having LTE, lose a gig of Ram and get the 9300. Then I decided about going back to AT&T and get S4 because I would be covered under warranty and I get all the features that are going to work where I live. Cool thing is its the same hardware as the 9505 so there's still quite a bit of customizing with the SGH-I337. For me it will come down to the features and what works for me in my area. I learned the hard way with the SGS3. Frequencies and no warranty.
Sent from my GT-I9505 converted SGH-I337
sholsten said:
This S4 boot loader debacle has turned me against U.S. carrier based phones. I can't giving $600+ for something as they please without our permission. I'll have to investigate/research which International version I want to buy.
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just buy a canadian version, they have identical hardware and you will know will have full compatibility with american wireless networks
I feel cheated. I paid $650 out of contract to AT&T for this phone coming from a iPhone, a locked platform I was getting tired of, especially with Jailbreaking becoming harder on it, for the reason to "play" with my phone. With a locked bootloader, and a carrier locked, I cannot do that.
In the world of DRM losing ground you would think they would learn? Moto dropping their locked boot loaders... DRM being removed from Google Play Music and iTunes... people are sick of it adding complication to their lives. I had a P3113 Galaxy Tab 2 7" WiFi only and loved it because of how open it was. Currently running CM10.1.2 on it. Yet their phones are so locked down.
It's not entirely Samsung's fault. AT&T requests a locked bootloader. Samsung provides. A bug around it is found, Samsung has to patch it from a security standpoint. Not their fault. However with the popularity of this phone they could have easily said "No locked bootloaders" and shoved it down AT&T and other carriers throats if they had the balls to do it.
WoodburyMan said:
I feel cheated. I paid $650 out of contract to AT&T for this phone coming from a iPhone, a locked platform I was getting tired of, especially with Jailbreaking becoming harder on it, for the reason to "play" with my phone. With a locked bootloader, and a carrier locked, I cannot do that.
In the world of DRM losing ground you would think they would learn? Moto dropping their locked boot loaders... DRM being removed from Google Play Music and iTunes... people are sick of it adding complication to their lives. I had a P3113 Galaxy Tab 2 7" WiFi only and loved it because of how open it was. Currently running CM10.1.2 on it. Yet their phones are so locked down.
It's not entirely Samsung's fault. AT&T requests a locked bootloader. Samsung provides. A bug around it is found, Samsung has to patch it from a security standpoint. Not their fault. However with the popularity of this phone they could have easily said "No locked bootloaders" and shoved it down AT&T and other carriers throats if they had the balls to do it.
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They were not gonna miss out on the millions of devices sold just for the .1% of people that mode the device. That is why they came out with the GE versions.
Wayne Tech Nexus
zelendel said:
They were not gonna miss out on the millions of devices sold just for the .1% of people that mode the device. That is why they came out with the GE versions.
Wayne Tech Nexus
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True enough. Had I known about the Google Edition I would have waited a bit. If I really wanted I could buy it and sell my current SGH-I337 for a little less than I bought it for. However I kinda wanted to retain the ability to run full Touchwiz / Stock based roms easily.
I'm still happy as I am now running CM10.1 on my phone, and running Goldeneye ROM if I want a stock full Touchwiz ROM. Flash AMF3 model.. and keeping my AMDL Odin package safe. Just had I bought the phone with AMF3 on it I would be totally turned off and be unusable for me because of patched Loki.
personally, i mod or mess with everything. camera rigs i do myself, computers i build myself. cars i mod (and have rebuilt one with help) myself. my house i work on or change.
it is a fundamental hallmark of humanity that we change our environment and create or modify tools around us to suit our needs. so flashing ROMs or trying to customize or even just tinker with these devices is, in my opinion, simply an extension of what it means to be human, to create, express, and change. anything that limits that creativity is a bad thing IMO.
this is where locked bootloaders, fragmentation, and endless carrier variants become bad things, and where i do like apples' approach; one nearly universal product (hardware wise other than LTE/GSM/CDMA or storage size). However, apple is horrible for locked down software.
i will always root/unlock my phones as long as that is possible, because i can. i will always build my own computers, because i can. and i will always drive stick and for sure it wont be stock either; because i can.
Thermalwolf said:
I mean don't buy anything branded from AT&T or Verizon or any carrier whose device is locked. If you went with the T-Mobile model you wouldn't have been locked down.
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Thanks. I didn't realize T-mobile wasn't locked. I wish I'd known when I bought mine.
I wonder if things will stay the same on near new models like the Note 3.