Database Info

The underestimated Power of collective intelligence

Hey guys,
I have to admit that without all the custom ROMs that you offer here for free I would have sold my Touch HD long long time ago. I see this website as big driver for HTC/ MS to sell their products. (Maybe some people of HTC/MS dont) Once again thanks for your great work and time that your spending on this webside.
Currently I am writing my bachelor thesis about "Social Commerce". One point is about "the lack of firms understanding that collective intelligence and wisdom of crowds is an opportunity rather than a threat".
To show practical examples I also chose this webside. I appreciate if you could help me with some open questions that I have:
1. From which source does the rom cookers get all their ROMs/ builts?
2. Does this site has any special contacts to HTC/ Microsoft?
3. Do you get support in any-form (money, software, acknowledgement) from htc/ ms?
4. Do you send knowledge in any way back to help MS or HTC to improve their devices/ software?
4. What was the purpose for the operators of this side to built up a webside that is mostly concerned about HTC-Devices?
5. In this threat their is a dispute between ms and xda-developers. Does ms attitude have changed, yet? How did the story ended http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?threadid=294142
Thanks in advance for your answers. This forum and some others changed my life and engaged me to buy products. I hope I can contribute with my thesis to support forums like this and to show firms that community like this are a big opportunity rather than a threat

A great way to say thanks to all free stuff you grab here is to make a donation to XDA!!

You are right why not. 10€ for all the fun is nothing.

Great to see your star!!

Hi nobody has any information to me? Or did I post in the wrong section? thanks

A community is comprised of social participants, participants who work to build an environment that is beneficial to its participants. The phenomenon would very likely take place regardless of specific participants; only the quality of the results benefiting all those that participate would decline.

When looking for a good customer satisfaction experience, what do you want?

I posted this in the forums general category but got one response. I'm looking for more detailed responses, so I figured I would ask my Inspire owning piers. I am trying to collect data from a wide variety of places, not just here. Furthermore, if anyone (or mod) feels this is inappropriate please let me know and I will PM a moderater requesting they remove this thread.
I've been informed, via work, that I must put together a report of what would improve customer satisfaction and the customer experience.
Obviously I have my own ideas, none of which upper management really enjoys. But I would love to get opinions form other users.
Now, I realize that XDA may not be the best place to ask. Most of us know how to resolve our own issues, and when having to visit a device support center just want the phone exchanged, quick and clean. With that being said, try and make your suggestions geared towards if you didn't know your device, or if it was for an electronic gadget you didn't know, or what your friends and family have expressed.
Please be as detailed as possible. It would be nice to see specific requests and what consumers specifically want to see. Do you want in depth answer? Do you just want your problems solved? What nuances would make the experiences better, ex- coffee in the lobby, types of magazines, interactions, children's play areas, etc...
How much time would you be willing for a transaction, keeping in mind we have to troubleshoot the issue. What would be acceptable and what wouldn't be. Do you prefer someone that jokes around, or someone that doesn't.
Any very specific details as to what YOU would want to see, how you want people to act, what information you want to be given and what you don't. If you want, go ahead and write a novel for your preferred customer service interaction experience with in depth details.
Any help would be appreciated.

Well I might be speaking for myself, but some one reading a script and telling me to do things I have already done is quite annoying and tends to anger me more then help the problem. Transferring someone to a higher echelon of support quicker would be nice.
Also if the customer is unhappy with a phone, I don't think you should have to report the same problem 3 times, I would easily just by out my contract and go to another company.
Just my 2 cents.

I thank you for the feedback. Getting aspect at this point is slow moving across every avenue of research.
Your exact reasoning is why I try my hardest to keep users away from call lines. They frustrate me to no end.

[Q] How does one go about having an app designed?

OK I know there are two obvious and immediate answers to this question. First design it yourself, second try your luck on the app development forums.
Unfortunately my design and programming skills are non existent and as I am doing a full time biophysics PHD, my time is severely limited. Second I had a look through the app development forum and that place is so deserted you can practically hear the tumbleweed blowing through it.
I know every man and his dog probably thinks they have a great app idea, but my idea truly is great and I believe it may have vast commercial potential. It should be relatively easy to persuade a commercial company - or several large commercial companies to adopt it, because it fulfils a genuine need that currently isn't being met and it offers the potential to save businesses extremely large sums of money. Moreover there are a large number of areas within commerce to which the technology could be adapted.
At the very least there's no harm in an experienced app developer hearing me out. I know I might get some silly responses here, like tell us your idea and we'll tell you if its good or not. But clearly that isn't going to happen. Everything would be above board and strictly legal and would require anyone taking part to sign a full IPP confidentiality contract and/or an NDA.
So, by chance that there might be someone out there with significant proven experience in both programming for mobile devices and app design and if maybe someone might be interested in making a few million please feel free to contact George on [email protected]
PS
For logistical and practical reasons I would be most interested in speaking to anyone from the UK, although dependant on experience I may be willing to consider someone from further afield.

Hello? More tumbleweed it seems ...

[Q] Research Survey: App Developers and App Company Managers Needed To Share Opinion

[Q] Research Survey: App Developers and App Company Managers needed to share opinion
Hi,
Currently, i am conducting my Master thesis research at the University of Technology Eindhoven about quality analysis services of mobile apps. According to literature it appears that the quality of apps is often based on user experience and functionality of apps. Only very basic and few research has been done about technical quality of apps and it is mainly unclear how app developers and app owners (i.e. managers of app companies or individual developer of their own app) think about the technical quality.
Therefore, i am looking for app developers and app owners to help me by taking a 5 - 10 minute survey. For every completed survey I will donate a euro to a charity of your own choice.
The survey is anonymous and only used for academic purposes. All data will be removed after finalizing the project.
The survey is available at survey.sogosurvey. com/k/RQsUYPUSsQsPsPsP (please remove space)
I appreciate your help in this and hope that you take the survey as all app developers and owners opinions count.
Thank you.
Mike Loeffen
Graduating student at University of Technology Eindhoven
P.S. unfortunately, I noticed too late that the survey tool does not provide an optimal format for smartphones, so I recommend to use a computer or tablet.
I hope this will not be a reason to decide not taking the survey.

Hmmm,...
I would have selected "Keep the Euro" but there was no such option, so MSF...
Then I saw this:
6) Price: How much you are willing to pay per month in dollars. The price can be:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and the next few pages had money questions.
So I felt I was filling out a marketing survey, and I aborted and posted this.
Please feel free to explain.

mikereidis said:
Hmmm,...
I would have selected "Keep the Euro" but there was no such option, so MSF...
Then I saw this:
and the next few pages had money questions.
So I felt I was filling out a marketing survey, and I aborted and posted this.
Please feel free to explain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you comment.
To answer your first comment, I chose to make that particular question about charities not mandatory. So, if you did not want to let me donate, you could keep that question open. But I wanted to do something in return for every participation, and as a student I don't have many resources. Therefore, the decision to donate something.
You have a good point with your second comment. As I explained on the first page is that I study Innovation Management at a Technical University. This study combines the technical aspect, like IT business, with economy aspects, like marketing, sales, and management. The goal of my research for my Master thesis is to analyze if technical quality (i.e. the quality of the source code) of apps is just as important as the technical quality of large software systems and to analyze what opinions app developers and app owners have regarding the technical quality.
In my research I use the so-called conjoint analysis, which is indeed an analysis method often used in marketing scenarios, but additionally it is also a very good method to analyze different perspections of a product or service which is what I try to do in my research. Price is often excluded because it could influence the perception of respondents (and appears so now). But I chose to include it, because I assume that a technical quality analysis could always be useful in different ways (help developers in a good direction or decrease costs. This is already proved for computer and enterprise software, but it has a gap in literature in the case of mobile app software). Therefore, I try to analyze how important and how interesting app developers and owners find the technical quality by including different price levels. If someone chooses a higher price for better services, I assume that a technical quality analysis might indeed provide value from the perception of developers and owners.
Overall, it is an academic research about consumer behavior and perceptions about a relative new service (therefore the link to Innovation Management) because very few research is done about software quality of apps from a developers or owners perspective. That's why marketing aspects are included too. In the end, academic researches will always be public accessible, and I try to close some of the gap of the technical quality services about the software of apps. I cannot close the whole gap because due to the fact I am no software developer I can not include all aspects unfortunately, so in this case mainly 'human technology interaction' aspects).
I hope this will make myself and my survey more clear. If you have still some questions, feel free to ask them.
Thank you for your comment and I appreciate it if you are still willing to participate

mtclo said:
Overall, it is an academic research about consumer behavior and perceptions about a relative new service (therefore the link to Innovation Management) because very few research is done about software quality of apps from a developers or owners perspective.
...
I am no software developer
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to learn what software development is REALLY like, this is THE BEST site I have ever seen: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
IMO there are no effective methods of objectively evaluating software quality and I think this is a widely held opinion by those with SW dev experience*. Many attempts have been made, with bug tracking systems for example, and pretty much all have failed to objectively evaluate quality. Very good QA people can find many more bugs than average QA people. QA team size matters. Defining a single bug precisely is difficult.
(*At least in the common real world. Things may be somewhat different in the military and super-super reliable part of the industry that uses at least 10 times more developers for projects than the apps and other common development areas.)
Maybe the closest we could get to measuring quality would be MTBF, but even in other engineering areas, this is pretty difficult to accurately calculate, and it's value is questionable. And software is SO different than other areas. Eg. If hackers (who can make serious money finding a zero day bug) or others never find a specific bug that exists, nobody will ever know about it. OTOH, if a hard disk or bridge fails, somebody will likely know about it.
I've been doing SW dev professionally for 25 years, and personal/hobbyist for 15 years before that, dating back to becoming a teen in the mid 1970's when microprocessors were first arriving.
My education was in electronics however, and I'm a practical "get it done" dev who has never pondered sort algorithms academically.
I LOVE coming up with wonderful software designs that are elegant, minimizes bugs and easy to extend and accommodate future features. In my case, I created an Android FM App named Spirit2 that I took care in designing to have good characteristics.
OTOH, my Spirit1 FM app was never designed, it was quickly thrown together with hack after hack added for years. The code is a mess and it's now almost impossible to add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. Spirit1 served a good purpose, getting an app out quickly, but I had to solve the goal of getting a better quality app out by designing a new one: Spirit2.
IMO, a surprising amount of real code out there in the world today was, at least initially (with reverb for decades), quickly hacked together, not really designed well, or otherwise "very suboptimal". This includes large enterprise systems, monstrosities like the ObamaCare system, and the systems running our banks.
And most consumer apps are so full of bugs it's not funny. Big deal, the app crashes and needs to be restarted. Most people would never know if it's the fault of the app, the hardware or the operating system.
I'd like to think that my opinions above could be more important than just filling out a survey, especially if it makes you reconsider your ideas going into this.
Again, I'll HIGHLY recommend reading this site for an hour or 2, to you or anyone involved or interested in the REAL world of software development: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
I have no connection with Joel, and haven't been on his site in many months at least. But I have spend at LEAST dozens of hours gleaning new insights and even entertainment there over the last 10+ years. Most of the time I end up back on his site when someone posts a link from slashdot or similar tech discussion sites.
ETA: Oh, and Joel's company does bug tracking software, so I'm sure he has well formed opinions on software quality: http://www.fogcreek.com/ Tracking (and fixing) bugs is still useful of course, even if there are no good objective quality measurements. But I'll be happy to step aside and reconsider if his opinions on that differ from mine,

mikereidis said:
If you want to learn what software development is REALLY like, this is THE BEST site I have ever seen:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
IMO there are no effective methods of objectively evaluating software quality and I think this is a widely held opinion by those with SW dev experience*. Many attempts have been made, with bug tracking systems for example, and pretty much all have failed to objectively evaluate quality. Very good QA people can find many more bugs than average QA people. QA team size matters. Defining a single bug precisely is difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
OTOH, my Spirit1 FM app was never designed, it was quickly thrown together with hack after hack added for years. The code is a mess and it's now almost impossible to add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. Spirit1 served a good purpose, getting an app out quickly, but I had to solve the goal of getting a better quality app out by designing a new one: Spirit2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
And most consumer apps are so full of bugs it's not funny. Big deal, the app crashes and needs to be restarted. Most people would never know if it's the fault of the app, the hardware or the operating system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank your for your tip. I could definitely use it for my literature review. Though, as I mentioned before, I am not capable to cover all software development aspects because I had to narrow the scope according to the guidelines of the Master thesis and according to my knowledge field (I hope this is the right description).
Furthermore, I think I had to define my definition of technical quality of software better. I am aware of the fact that the word 'quality' has a lot of meanings and definitions. In my thesis I have defined technical quality as the maintainability of the source code of software. I narrowed my scope in the research to tools that inspect code quality by reporting on duplicated codes, code complexity, code design, et cetera. Think about tools as SonarQube or VeraCode. However, these tools focus mainly on large enterprise software systems or general computer software. Therefore, my research is focused on code quality of app software for Android, iOS or Windows for mobile devices.
And finally to make my intentions of my research fully clear, is that I won't develop such a tool but I want to analyze if such tools for mobile apps would have any potential on the market and would some features like a quality label or the level of reporting detail have any influence. You already acknowledge that consumers would not be aware what causes bugs or other problems. In some cases, these problems might be caused by faults in the source code. Consumers would have no influence in that case, but app developers do. Code analyses might improve the source code or decrease costs by decreasing development time. Therefore, my target group are app developers or app owners (like managers of companies that develop apps) and I want to analyze if these people would be interested in such tools if it could, for example, improve the maintainability of an app and/or decreasing costs. Eventually, as my research results will become public and it appears that such tools might provide value to app developers and/or app owners, than it can be a motivation to develop such tools. Each individual will be free in deciding what to do with my results.
Hope it is clear now
I appreciate your additional thinking and it could indeed provide value and ideas for my research.

Hi everyone,
Hereby a reminder of the survey about the demand for mobile app quality analysis services. I hope you are willing to spend only 5 minutes of your time to help me with this research to graduate.
I have received feedback that the original survey was too vague and complicated. Therefore, I have improved the survey to make it more easy to fill in.
To access the improved version, please use the following link: survey.sogosurvey.com/k/SsUYPUSsWsPsPsP
I would appreciate it very much, if you are willing to complete this survey.
Thank you.

[Completed] Internet of Things (IoT) - General Assistance

I apologize in advance if I posted this thread in the wrong place... I appreciate all the contributors, forum admins, etc.... for all the hard work and expertise that is the backbone for the XDA community!!!
Here is my question: (for additional background info, etc... please see details below) I'm wanting to learn as much as possible about the IoT. So I have checked out starter kits for the Arduino and Rasberry Pi Platforms but not sure if 1 is better than the other or should I get both? I understand the difference in technology, specs, etc... for these 2 platforms but have no idea which 1 would best help me develop the skills necessary to find work in the IoT field. I do have some basic coding skills, expert on hardware of all types and basic soldering skills working with boards/electronics. I feel like the basic starter kits for either platform will be very boring and uninspiring... should I buy a certain starter kit and add a couple component kits? I don't mind running through the basic projects very quickly to get a quick overview on how it all works but I would prefer a greater challenge and more in depth projects. I cant find any intermediate or higher degree of experience type sets. Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated... or if you know of any forums where I might find XDA quality professionals to mingle with...
***** (the extended, long winded and probably way too much info version)*****
I am looking for a little basic assistance\guidance on the latest hot topic, the Internet of Things (IoT). I rely on XDA for all my mobile needs. The professionals that contribute content, apps, roms, root methods, etc... are the best in the biz, truly amazing people! I have spent 2 days searching the web for info on this topic but all the info I have come across is a little too generic so I thought I would try my luck here on XDA where the real brains and experts behind all things technical congregate.
My Question is very basic but I'm hoping to get some helpful feedback or pointed in the right direction. I have worked in IT field of the Telco industry for 20yrs. Mostly designing and building multi-million dollar data centers. As manager of IT, my staff and I supported 80+ MS Servers (Exchange, IIS, SQL, PDC"s, AD, SMS). I got my MCSE in Windows NT 4.0 (you can stop laughing now... haha). I actually started the IT Dept, for a small CLEC and it all went to **** when I was promoted to Mgr. of IT, then Director of IT. I helped many techs get the latest CCNA, MCSE licenses while I was sent to "executive training seminars/courses". Just wanted to provide my experience and background.
Now I'm 45yrs old, was laid off many years ago and lost my footing in the fast paced IT market. I will never take another mgmt. position because I enjoy being in the trenches. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates, MS software and OS bore me to tears so I figured the next big thing is gonna be IoT apps/solutions. So now to piss you guys off with a very basic question... I want to get a starter kit for the Arduino or Rasberry Pi platforms but not sure which 1 is best suited for IoT integration, apps, etc... or should I get both? I have seen all the starter kits but I'm not the type of person that enjoys making a light blink or any of the other basic projects. I'm pretty confident that I can take on more challenging tutorials/projects. I would have more fun building my own drone/quadchopper or integrating blu tooth devices, security cameras, etc... and eventually hope to find a not so common area to integrate IoT solutions, maybe agriculture in the medical marijuana industry. That would be lots of fun. hahaha
I'm an extremely fast learner (already have some experience soldering boards, etc... but far from an expert) so if there are any pros here with experience on these platforms in regards to IoT, I would greatly appreciate any help, technical or career advice. Again, I know this isn't the focus of XDA but I know where to find the experts... I would probably ask for marital advice on here if it involved any gadgets. lol...
PS. Sorry for the long read I just wanted to provide some background info hoping to avoid the "newbie" label and being referred to a basic beginner kit. There are so many variations in the available kits, an extensive list of projects, upgrades and components. What I hope to find is someone who has already been down this road and can help me avoid buying over priced gimmicky kits. I assume I will want to purchase a larger starter kit then add a few components, sensor, etc,.. type kits. Has anyone purchased any of this stuff off WISH? I wouldn't trust the boards off that site but small electrical components like resisters, etc... might be fine.
Thanks to all those who take the time to respond to my request and if I get nothing, I'm forever grateful for all the support on my SamSung devices.

TeeShark said:
I apologize in advance if I posted this thread in the wrong place... I appreciate all the contributors, forum admins, etc.... for all the hard work and expertise that is the backbone for the XDA community!!!
Here is my question: (for additional background info, etc... please see details below) I'm wanting to learn as much as possible about the IoT. So I have checked out starter kits for the Arduino and Rasberry Pi Platforms but not sure if 1 is better than the other or should I get both? I understand the difference in technology, specs, etc... for these 2 platforms but have no idea which 1 would best help me develop the skills necessary to find work in the IoT field. I do have some basic coding skills, expert on hardware of all types and basic soldering skills working with boards/electronics. I feel like the basic starter kits for either platform will be very boring and uninspiring... should I buy a certain starter kit and add a couple component kits? I don't mind running through the basic projects very quickly to get a quick overview on how it all works but I would prefer a greater challenge and more in depth projects. I cant find any intermediate or higher degree of experience type sets. Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated... or if you know of any forums where I might find XDA quality professionals to mingle with...
***** (the extended, long winded and probably way too much info version)*****
I am looking for a little basic assistance\guidance on the latest hot topic, the Internet of Things (IoT). I rely on XDA for all my mobile needs. The professionals that contribute content, apps, roms, root methods, etc... are the best in the biz, truly amazing people! I have spent 2 days searching the web for info on this topic but all the info I have come across is a little too generic so I thought I would try my luck here on XDA where the real brains and experts behind all things technical congregate.
My Question is very basic but I'm hoping to get some helpful feedback or pointed in the right direction. I have worked in IT field of the Telco industry for 20yrs. Mostly designing and building multi-million dollar data centers. As manager of IT, my staff and I supported 80+ MS Servers (Exchange, IIS, SQL, PDC"s, AD, SMS). I got my MCSE in Windows NT 4.0 (you can stop laughing now... haha). I actually started the IT Dept, for a small CLEC and it all went to **** when I was promoted to Mgr. of IT, then Director of IT. I helped many techs get the latest CCNA, MCSE licenses while I was sent to "executive training seminars/courses". Just wanted to provide my experience and background.
Now I'm 45yrs old, was laid off many years ago and lost my footing in the fast paced IT market. I will never take another mgmt. position because I enjoy being in the trenches. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates, MS software and OS bore me to tears so I figured the next big thing is gonna be IoT apps/solutions. So now to piss you guys off with a very basic question... I want to get a starter kit for the Arduino or Rasberry Pi platforms but not sure which 1 is best suited for IoT integration, apps, etc... or should I get both? I have seen all the starter kits but I'm not the type of person that enjoys making a light blink or any of the other basic projects. I'm pretty confident that I can take on more challenging tutorials/projects. I would have more fun building my own drone/quadchopper or integrating blu tooth devices, security cameras, etc... and eventually hope to find a not so common area to integrate IoT solutions, maybe agriculture in the medical marijuana industry. That would be lots of fun. hahaha
I'm an extremely fast learner (already have some experience soldering boards, etc... but far from an expert) so if there are any pros here with experience on these platforms in regards to IoT, I would greatly appreciate any help, technical or career advice. Again, I know this isn't the focus of XDA but I know where to find the experts... I would probably ask for marital advice on here if it involved any gadgets. lol...
PS. Sorry for the long read I just wanted to provide some background info hoping to avoid the "newbie" label and being referred to a basic beginner kit. There are so many variations in the available kits, an extensive list of projects, upgrades and components. What I hope to find is someone who has already been down this road and can help me avoid buying over priced gimmicky kits. I assume I will want to purchase a larger starter kit then add a few components, sensor, etc,.. type kits. Has anyone purchased any of this stuff off WISH? I wouldn't trust the boards off that site but small electrical components like resisters, etc... might be fine.
Thanks to all those who take the time to respond to my request and if I get nothing, I'm forever grateful for all the support on my SamSung devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greetings and welcome to assist. This is not really our field of expertise unfortunately. I know very little about Arduino but have used the raspberry Pi. We have a dedicated forum for the Pi here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi
I think the experts ther will be able to assist you bettert than us
Good Luck
Sawdoctor