I really like WP7, I recognise that it has some missing features but I am confident the se will be addressed with time. My concern is that anybody considering WP7 who reads this forum (or a plethora of other websites) could be easily put off by the negativity displayed by:-
1) Android/ IOS trolls
2) Disenchanted WM6.5 users who still want to spend their lives tweaking and cooking
Roms
3) People with an irrational fear of "the cloud".
4) Journalists who are desperate for MS to fail (because they are not Apple or Google
and thus not trendy!)
My question is, what can those of us who have faith in the platform do to balance the arguments a bit? I'm not talking about fanboism, I'm talking about expounding the positive features of WP7 like one note, like cloud sync, like the people hub, like the fast browser, like XBox integration for gamers (even though I do not use that much), like the easy access camera, like Zune and Zune Pass, like the fluid interface, like 25Gb of FREE Skydrive etc.
For example, I have a 16Gb HD7 with 25Gb skydrive means that to me I have a 41Gb device - more than my Ipad (see, I am platform agnostic).
If those of us who like WP7 do not actively support it, it will go the way of WebOS no matter how much Microsoft spend on their marketing budget.
WP7 is a revolution, let's get revolutionary about it!!!!
adesonic said:
I really like WP7, I recognise that it has some missing features but I am confident the se will be addressed with time. My concern is that anybody considering WP7 who reads this forum (or a plethora of other websites) could be easily put off by the negativity displayed by:-
1) Android/ IOS trolls
2) Disenchanted WM6.5 users who still want to spend their lives tweaking and cooking
Roms
3) People with an irrational fear of "the cloud".
4) Journalists who are desperate for MS to fail (because they are not Apple or Google
and thus not trendy!)
My question is, what can those of us who have faith in the platform do to balance the arguments a bit? I'm not talking about fanboism, I'm talking about expounding the positive features of WP7 like one note, like cloud sync, like the people hub, like the fast browser, like XBox integration for gamers (even though I do not use that much), like the easy access camera, like Zune and Zune Pass, like the fluid interface, like 25Gb of FREE Skydrive etc.
For example, I have a 16Gb HD7 with 25Gb skydrive means that to me I have a 41Gb device - more than my Ipad (see, I am platform agnostic).
If those of us who like WP7 do not actively support it, it will go the way of WebOS no matter how much Microsoft spend on their marketing budget.
WP7 is a revolution, let's get revolutionary about it!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with ya, WP7 brother. I try to do my part by telling it like it is, being the highest quality mobile OS yet released, but who knows if it is having fruitful effect.
I'm with you too
It may be missing some features but just by looking at it, you can see that once Microsoft does implement the missing features it will look a lot better than Android's.
It's the first OS that's actually impressed me ever since iPhone came out.
I liked Android but it felt unfinished and I felt that buying one was not a good investment, since by the next year they would stop handing out updates for it and they would release a device frequently.
Hell yeah! Let's do this thing!
you want to know the best way to promote windows phone? allow people to use it. i've shown my phone to virtually all my friends, and they all really like it. though they didn't use it for very long, they liked the capabilities of the OS in terms of smoothness, visual appearance, and functionality (well with what they played with).
i think we really just need to see MS continue to better the platform both on the phone side, but also on the developer side. they need to get the SDKs for all the hardware out asap, and then work on more SDKs that will bring features not yet on the market by any other maker. what could this be? who knows... but MS has enough in their coffers to find out, as well as enough R&D going on.
The Gate Keeper said:
you want to know the best way to promote windows phone? allow people to use it. i've shown my phone to virtually all my friends, and they all really like it. though they didn't use it for very long, they liked the capabilities of the OS in terms of smoothness, visual appearance, and functionality (well with what they played with).
i think we really just need to see MS continue to better the platform both on the phone side, but also on the developer side. they need to get the SDKs for all the hardware out asap, and then work on more SDKs that will bring features not yet on the market by any other maker. what could this be? who knows... but MS has enough in their coffers to find out, as well as enough R&D going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^this! I've already had one person wish they hadn't got a desire - let's keep this up!
You know what Microsoft need though right? A huge pr stunt in the US, UK, France, Germany etc. Just to catch the headlines and make sure that good things are said
+1. I'm very glad to have gotten this phone and once the first update is out I'll be even happier. All my friends who have been on the fence about a new phone have heard from me!
For me the WP7 is perfect in the sense that I am done with the whole power user/modding thing. I used to have a TP2 and tried a lot of ROMs but in the end I just wanted a phone that did two things i.e fluid and give me exactly the information I needed at a glance so I could get on with my life rather than tinker with it all the damn time. And this is where the WP7 serves me very well.
I see a lot of 6.5 users whining here but I truly wish they had done a bit of reading on the WP7 platform so they would know that the WP7 is going to be nothing like the 6.5 and I truly hope it never will be because MS will permanently lose me to android. I'm glad I gave WP7 a chance after reading up on it even though I had washed my hands off the WM platform after the 6.5 nightmare.
Probably the biggest reason I'm enjoying the WP7 is because I knew fully well before buying the phone what features to expect and what it won't have out of the box so that saved me the headache of buying first and then whining about it in these forums. I mean what part of 1.0 don't you understand? Personally I think the 6.5 fan boys are even worse than android fan boys. For me the 6.5 offers quantity over quality and I guess some people are fine with that but not me and that's why I chose WP7.
f1restarter said:
I see a lot of 6.5 users whining here but I truly wish they had done a bit of reading on the WP7 platform so they would know that the WP7 is going to be nothing like the 6.5 and I truly hope it never will be because MS will permanently lose me to android. I'm glad I gave WP7 a chance after reading up on it even though I had washed my hands off the WM platform after the 6.5 nightmare.
Probably the biggest reason I'm enjoying the WP7 is because I knew fully well before buying the phone what features to expect and what it won't have out of the box so that saved me the headache of buying first and then whining about it in these forums. I mean what part of 1.0 don't you understand? Personally I think the 6.5 fan boys are even worse than android fan boys. For me the 6.5 offers quantity over quality and I guess some people are fine with that but not me and that's why I chose WP7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mm, the 6.5 people are really starting to piss me off. They seem to think that WP7 is a sequel to WM6.5 - which it quite obviously isn't. Microsoft are quite obviously trying to forget WM, as it was, and still is, total rubbish. At least the Android guys actually have a semi-decent OS to whine about :/
It Will Get Better.
adesonic you have my support ,just wait for the updates and be happy.
I agree with everything said. Winmo users hate it because they can't tweak it (though it doesn't need tweaks so you can actually use the phone instead of always trying to fix it).
Android users are complaining about how "closed" it is. I think android is the one that needs to worry. Android has climbed quickly due to it's "open" nature, which means its on more devices than any other OS. The problem being is that most of those devices are pure crap. There is definitely not an across the board experience on android. Hell, some devices are still on 1.5/1.6 of android. Fragmentation has exploded at a much higher rate than on winmo, which has started to lead to developer frustration because their apps don't run smoothly on all phones.
I see the really dedicated tweakers heading over to android, and people that only tweaked to make their phone run properly to switch to wp7. It will be a better overall OS in the next year than android.
f1restarter said:
For me the WP7 is perfect in the sense that I am done with the whole power user/modding thing. I used to have a TP2 and tried a lot of ROMs but in the end I just wanted a phone that did two things i.e fluid and give me exactly the information I needed at a glance so I could get on with my life rather than tinker with it all the damn time. And this is where the WP7 serves me very well..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to see some people still face the reality. Thumbs up
I love my Omnia 7 as unlike 6.5 I have not yet reset the phone since I have purchased it and it's still running silky fast. And thank god for not having a task manager and just hitting the back button. I never want to go back to fiddling with my phone to try and get it running properly.
I had a G1 when it was first released and upgraded to a Desire. In my opinion, this is why WP7 will do better than Android has...
Peoples Reactions:
Desire: "Oh you have a HTC?"
HD7: "Oh you have one of them new Windows Phones?"
The point? People know what Windows Phone 7 is. The only reason why Android has been successful up to now (in the UK at least) is because people want a smartphone with apps. 90% of the people I know who have an Android device had no idea what Android was before they bought the phone (and some still don't really understand). Google do little to no marketing.
Soon people will walk into a shop looking for a HTC AND be further persuaded by Windows Phone.
brummiesteven said:
I had a G1 when it was first released and upgraded to a Desire. In my opinion, this is why WP7 will do better than Android has...
Peoples Reactions:
Desire: "Oh you have a HTC?"
HD7: "Oh you have one of them new Windows Phones?"
The point? People know what Windows Phone 7 is. The only reason why Android has been successful up to now (in the UK at least) is because people want a smartphone with apps. 90% of the people I know who have an Android device had no idea what Android was before they bought the phone (and some still don't really understand). Google do little to no marketing.
Soon people will walk into a shop looking for a HTC AND be further persuaded by Windows Phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought this was supposed to be a positive thread, specifically for wp7 ? it seems like just another comparison thread, or a "but we're doing good stuff now too!" thread.
anyway, i like the OP's idea of being a positive promoter. you may find it easiest to just start a youtube channel with your mission stated, and provide good tips, avoiding buzzwords, all while filtering the negative. people relate to a video demonstration of capabilities so very well.
good luck
brummiesteven said:
I had a G1 when it was first released and upgraded to a Desire. In my opinion, this is why WP7 will do better than Android has...
Peoples Reactions:
Desire: "Oh you have a HTC?"
HD7: "Oh you have one of them new Windows Phones?"
The point? People know what Windows Phone 7 is. The only reason why Android has been successful up to now (in the UK at least) is because people want a smartphone with apps. 90% of the people I know who have an Android device had no idea what Android was before they bought the phone (and some still don't really understand). Google do little to no marketing.
Soon people will walk into a shop looking for a HTC AND be further persuaded by Windows Phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've not seen a 'you have htc' comment, once.
here, in the southeastern US, people ask "Is that a google phone ?". associating google + phone = awesome; is what it seems to be. at family/friend gatherings, i have yet to see a wp7 device. the wp6.x holdouts that i've personally known have changed to iphone or more commonly, android. phone envy ? i dunno, possibly. it seems more than anything the young folks i run into -know- the iphone from 30 feet away, know the android devices from 10 feet away, and know wp7 is still beta ware. i'm sorry, but that's the impression the young folks have here.
that being said, the older (than me) folks tend to gravitate to iphones. the large, easily read/understood apps and icons seem to attract them, along with the ease of use with their newish apple desktops. at physical therapy a few weeks ago, one gentleman was commenting about a recipe his aunt emailed him. on his phone. then he facetime'd her, and showed her the exercises that were going on. gimmicky ? i think not. i questioned him about android, wp7, and who made his phone. he didn't care, he just wanted "something that works very well, and doesn't require calling his nephew to fix."
that kind of attitude is what i'm seeing, here. people really don't -care- what the device is, what it runs, or who makes the software. all they want is a device that is mature, easily used, and easily maintained.
word-of-mouth is definitely in my neck o the woods(order of popularity/importance):
iphone
android (google phone more commonly known)
other
wp7 isn't on the radar. at all. it needs a ton of marketing, the current 'really' ads are funny, sharp, and true to life. what they -don't- do is show the phone. iphone ads on the other hand, show the phone (speeded up of course) doing what it does. android phones, show what they do. the wp7 commercials (which i love) point out the flaws of people, not the positives of the phone. we -all know- that people text and drive, are distracted everywhere in life by their phones. what we don't know is how the windows idea is going to solve this. SHOW IT !
hopefully this can be read, understood and not taken as fanboy bashing. it's very difficult for people to read a comment that isn't complete praise for a product and agree usually.
brummiesteven said:
Desire: "Oh you have a HTC?"
HD7: "Oh you have one of them new Windows Phones?"
The point? People know what Windows Phone 7 is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting-- guess MS has done a much better job marketing WP7 in the UK than the US. The WP7 ads are on TV, but in NY I haven't come across anyone outside of techie circles who's aware of WP7 (awareness seems on par with Windows Mobile -- which is basically none -- whereas Android (which, as ohgood mentioned, is often known as "the Google phone") is almost approaching iPhone mindshare now). I'm the only WP7 owner I know of (and now the only WM owner as well-- everyone else switched to iPhones or Android handsets).
On the retail front, most WP7 displays I've seen at AT&T stores are hidden in the corner, and T-Mobile shops just have the HD7 on display along with the HD2 and a million Android phones, so it's pretty hidden (interestingly the HD7 is still in stock everywhere in retail, unlike even the HD2, which sold out almost immediately).
ohgood said:
i've not seen a 'you have htc' comment, once.
here, in the southeastern US, people ask "Is that a google phone ?". associating google + phone = awesome; is what it seems to be. at family/friend gatherings, i have yet to see a wp7 device. the wp6.x holdouts that i've personally known have changed to iphone or more commonly, android. phone envy ? i dunno, possibly. it seems more than anything the young folks i run into -know- the iphone from 30 feet away, know the android devices from 10 feet away, and know wp7 is still beta ware. i'm sorry, but that's the impression the young folks have here.
that being said, the older (than me) folks tend to gravitate to iphones. the large, easily read/understood apps and icons seem to attract them, along with the ease of use with their newish apple desktops. at physical therapy a few weeks ago, one gentleman was commenting about a recipe his aunt emailed him. on his phone. then he facetime'd her, and showed her the exercises that were going on. gimmicky ? i think not. i questioned him about android, wp7, and who made his phone. he didn't care, he just wanted "something that works very well, and doesn't require calling his nephew to fix."
that kind of attitude is what i'm seeing, here. people really don't -care- what the device is, what it runs, or who makes the software. all they want is a device that is mature, easily used, and easily maintained.
word-of-mouth is definitely in my neck o the woods(order of popularity/importance):
iphone
android (google phone more commonly known)
other
wp7 isn't on the radar. at all. it needs a ton of marketing, the current 'really' ads are funny, sharp, and true to life. what they -don't- do is show the phone. iphone ads on the other hand, show the phone (speeded up of course) doing what it does. android phones, show what they do. the wp7 commercials (which i love) point out the flaws of people, not the positives of the phone. we -all know- that people text and drive, are distracted everywhere in life by their phones. what we don't know is how the windows idea is going to solve this. SHOW IT !
hopefully this can be read, understood and not taken as fanboy bashing. it's very difficult for people to read a comment that isn't complete praise for a product and agree usually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There then seems to be a massive division between the US (and I assume) the Rest of the World (or at least the UK/Europe).
Over here hardly anybody knows what Android is. We have no little to no android advertisements.
The major problem with Google is they don't seem to want to advertise themselves, am I correct here? U.S. Advertisements are done by Verizon/Maunfacturers etc etc?
Manufacturers do advertise their phones over here but none of them mention that the phones have android. The samsung adverts have the android robot in them but they don't really explain them. HTC adverts don't mention android at all (they just have the "you" campain).
There are a few things. The CarphoneWarehouse (mobile phone store) has started advertising android instore but this doesn't extend to TV or billboards etc. The G1 had minor "With Google" stamps on it's adverts but most people I know assumed this just meant it came with Google Maps, Google Search etc and had nothing to do with the OS.
When Networks (Carriers) get android phones they may promote them instore but this will be for the phones themselves and nothing on them running Android.
Compare this to WP7:
- Adverts on TV All the time (They might not be the best, but they're there at least)
- Massive billboard adverts, showing the phones "This changes everything Gizmodo Quote".
- o2 promoting the HD7 specifically highlighting that it's a Windows Phone
- Orange doing the same with the Omnia and Mozart
- Product Placement (see http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...0089751101228_525696227_7296354_3969070_n.jpg)
Over here hardly anyone knows what Android is and it really used to piss me off how Google did no advertising whatsoever.
To the OP: Apologies that I took this post offtopic, I'm going to contact a Mod now and ask them if they will split the marketing discussion into a new topic.
Thumbs up here also. I've known about the differences between all the O/S and WP7, I actually came from 6.5. I brought one home, and the wife almost immediately said, go back and get me one too.
When I am using the phone in public places, sometimes I can feel people stretching to see what I am using. That usually generates a little conversation. About 70% say, "Oh, I've heard about those new Windows phones", or else they have seen the commercials and have not seen the phone. I tell them overall, this is a great system now, but not without its drawbacks (namely no custom ringtones.. and a few other things that will be addressed in the near future). Not the same old MS products. Go out and get one.
I am heartened to see so many positive comments, I may take up the earlier suggestion abou showing off some features of wp7 on YouTube
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
Click to expand...
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.