Database Info

[Q] Switching from iPhone to Android. Great, but...

Hi all,
New to Android here. Just got a AT&T Galaxy S II Skyrocket after 4 frustrating years with iPhones.
So far I really like Android, especially that it lets you change what you don't like. I do feel that both devices are unacceptably tethered to their respective corporate landlords - and google is not necessarily better than apple in that respect - but Android lets you change that more readily. For instance myphoneexplorer lets you sync with outlook pretty flawlessly if you don't care to upload your info to google's "cloud", etc.
OK, I'm done ranting now but I do have 2 specific questions:
1. My particular SIISR does not display a visual reminder nor sounds a loud enough alarm when (a) I get a text, or (b) a calendar event comes due. It just makes a ridiculously soft noise that I miss every time I'm not standing in an empty recording studio, and even worse when I pull the phone the screen is dark so I have no idea what the feeble alarm was about. I expect the same level of alert as when I get a call, i.e. the lock screen lights up and I can read / snooze / dismiss as the case may be. This is really pretty amazing that such dirt-basic functionality is not included in the software, at the very least easily enabled in Settings. Am I really expected to turn on the phone and pull down the Notifications curtain to find out what is going on? If there is no workaround this will be a showstopper for me and I'll have no choice but to return the phone.
2. I like the idea of upgrading to a rom like cyanogen when it becomes available for the SIISR, but I am concerned about how at&t cottons up to having rooted and OS-reflashed devices on its network and what they might do about it, and more specifically what happens when updates are pushed down the pipe. What is you guys' real world experience with that?
Thank you for your feedback! I'd really like to stick with my new Android phone!

you go into setting and the sound option. click on volume and make sure it maxed out, then click notification ringtone and you can change the sound.
As for visual reminder its at the top left of the screen. Text shows an envelope and calender alert a different icon.. I use handcent for sms and it works way better than stock program.
Not sure if BLN works on the this model but try it. it will leave your softkeys lit when you have a text.
you can try different lock screens via golocker so that you dont have to unlock your phone to see what the alert was but to actually read the alert or know more than if it was a message or email or phone call you have to unlock it for security reasons as perhaps you get confidential material that not just ANYONE should see.
as for rooted and custom firmware its safe, and prevents stock updates from your provider. as android is opensource you are allowed to customize it.

As to #1, you can change the notification sound both in your email settings and in the phones settings/sounds area. As to it being a dark screen when you go to check it.. thats one of the downsides to this particular model, no notification LED.. there is an app on the android market called NoLED that will put a little picture on the black screen to make up for it. BUT I cannot vouch for whether or not it drains battery (my chief concern), just have to try it out.
#2 I've been on AT&T with a rooted/flashed phone of various models since 2008 and I've never had them notice/say anything. It does void your warranty flashing, but there are ways of getting it back to stock if you do end up needing that. At the moment on this phone I believe you can't get it *perfectly* back to stock, but just have to give the devs here time and it will be available eventually.
*NoLED is on my list of apps to check battery usage, I'll get on it and post again tomorrow

while the forums are a great resource for things, you will get answers faster if you just google (or youtube) things like 'how to change android sms sound'

jacobharasimo said:
Not sure if BLN works on the this model but try it. it will leave your softkeys lit when you have a text.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds even better than NoLED.. givin that a try too

sulpher said:
Sounds even better than NoLED.. givin that a try too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BLN requires a kernel that supports BLN, its only a matter of time when one of these great devs on here creates one.
Handcent SMS (free in the market) has the option to have your message pop up and remain on your screen until you cancel it. Almost like the iPhone.
As what Jacob said, when you are running a rooted device, you are most likely running a custom Recovery like CWM. Its actually the custom recovery that prevents you from getting the updates Over The Air. HOWEVER, the way the devs work... those new updates will generally be available for you way before your carrier sends it to your device. So rooted or not, you're gonna wanna root it anyway cause you'll end up being one of the few who wont have ICS, or whatever.

cue_32 said:
BLN requires a kernel that supports BLN, its only a matter of time when one of these great devs on here creates one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Da_G supports it - look in the dev forum.

fedupey1 said:
2. I like the idea of upgrading to a rom like cyanogen when it becomes available for the SIISR, but I am concerned about how at&t cottons up to having rooted and OS-reflashed devices on its network and what they might do about it, and more specifically what happens when updates are pushed down the pipe. What is you guys' real world experience with that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like it was said, you won't get updates from AT&T, but why would you want AT&T updates to overwrite your Cyanogen ROM?? When you flash Cyanogen (or any ROM), you follow that ROM and reflash when updates are available. So instead of relying on AT&T for updates, you'll rely on the developer of the ROM for updates. Also, as long as you're not trying to exchange the phone or anything like that, AT&T has no right to tell you how to use your phone. Root it, flash it...throw it against the wall...it's yours. Do what you want. Now, when you try to warranty your wall smashed phone, you better hope you have a stock AT&T ROM on there if it powers up. Every time I've warrantied a phone, it's been dead, so it didn't matter. If it won't turn on, they can't tell what ROM you have, and really, most of those "techs" just want to give you a new phone and get you on your way. Personally, I've never had a problem getting a new phone.

#1 go into sms press settings in there change your SMS ringtone. If you want an iPhone SMS type of visual reminder (bubble alert) download SMS popup from the market tinker the settings to your liking.
I'll suggest every new iPhone to android user to read the phones manual or Google your questions before jumping to conclusion that android doesn't have this and that. Most likely it does. You can customize android how ever You want.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

Has anyone had experience with the Chinese GO Launcher and the widgets that come with it? They look pretty cool, and it seems they have the functionality I'm missing.
btw I can understand the "read the manual first" comments; I did read the manual and, not unpredictably, it said nothing about functionality that doesn't exit.
Thanks for all the input so far everyone!

I recently upgraded from the iphone to the Skyrocket, and am loving it. I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it the first few days, but now when I pick up my husband's iphone it seems like a toy compared to the Skyrocket.
I just started using Go Launcher Ex two days ago. It has a lot of slick and useful features. I haven't finished exploring all of the options available, but so far I'm enjoying the themes, locker options, and SMS pro. It's easy to try Go, and you always can uninstall it if you don't like it. I did have to redo my widgets after installing it, but that was actually kind of fun with the new theme I installed.

Not a huge deal but something to keep in mind with GO launcher.. recently noticed with system panel that GO launcher drains battery excessively when the phone is idle (device on but screen off), so i switched to launcher pro which drains FAR less with the screen off. The app is nearly the same as far as functionality, with one or two exceptions that can be added by purchasing the the pro version if you really need them (resizing widgets). I decided it was worth it to use less battery.
*note, im a battery stickler.. I can't stand any extra drain

more then happy to help you out.
fedupey1 said:
Has anyone had experience with the Chinese GO Launcher and the widgets that come with it? They look pretty cool, and it seems they have the functionality I'm missing.
btw I can understand the "read the manual first" comments; I did read the manual and, not unpredictably, it said nothing about functionality that doesn't exit.
Thanks for all the input so far everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know switching from the Iphone to Android is a big change. I was so confused for about a week. Anyways, if you want I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about your phone. I use the Go Launcher and Go SMS , I know a lot about them. Anyway just PM me if you'd like.

it has been my experience, because all returned/exchanged phones are sent out for reconditioning, att nor does the manufacturer care what OS modification has been performed on the phone. I returned my cappy at the atrix launch and asked specifically about the issue of "stock" or not, then I handed my serendipity cappy right over. Never heard back from att since and I'm still upgrading phones today without any heat. no worries.

sulpher said:
Not a huge deal but something to keep in mind with GO launcher.. recently noticed with system panel that GO launcher drains battery excessively when the phone is idle (device on but screen off), so i switched to launcher pro which drains FAR less with the screen off. The app is nearly the same as far as functionality, with one or two exceptions that can be added by purchasing the the pro version if you really need them (resizing widgets). I decided it was worth it to use less battery.
*note, im a battery stickler.. I can't stand any extra drain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know, thanks for the info. I'm really happy with Go launcher, and in fact have noticed much better battery performance than I had previously with a live wallpaper. But I'll look into launcher pro if the battery performance is a problem in the future.

i can confirm that Go Launcher DRAINS battery very much.....but i still use it i like to functions.
just letting you know

I installed GO Launcher EX, it looks very cool; polished and very usable UI is a massive improvement. I recommend it. Ditto GO Dialer / contacts, a huge improvement over stock. GO calendar widget is OK but not fabulous; it looks good though with the Transparency theme. GO locker was pretty but rather useless, I uninstalled it.
Installed SMS popup, works excellent. I'm happy with it. Who knew I'd get excited over functionality that used to be standard 6 years ago.
Then for my calendar I looked for an iPhone type of visual reminder (bubble alert) that wakes up the phone and displays even when the screen is locked. I only found two:
- Calendar Snooze, of which I am currently running the free version. It does the job, but it's sort of aesthetically challenged.
- The pathetic Nudnik, which I uninstalled immediately. It looks like it was designed by a pre-schooler.
Now I need to resolve my lock screen issue, then I'll be content (it locks up immediately whenever I press Power although I set the delay to 10 mins in Settings).
I think I'll give Cyanogen a whirl if it becomes available for Skyrocket.

Try iPhone Notification.

My not so good review

Went from a G2 to this One S yesterday. I'm not too impressed.
No dedicated menu button
There is enough room for one on the bottom but they only put 3.
What happens now is that Android (or Sense or something) detects when there are menu options and puts a button on the screen for it taking away real estate from the application.
No trackball
I used this a lot on my G2 especially on web pages with small links that I didn't want to missclick. I already miss it. I also used the trackball wake feature in CM on my G2. Now there is only one way to turn the screen on and its a little hard to do one handed. The trackball was in a very natural position to turn on with your thumb. Now without it, it is very awkward to power on with your thumb, you have to hold it very high and I'm affraid of dropping it. Alternatively I could turn it on with my index finger but it spreads my hand way out and still feels weird.
No folders
I'm not sure if this is an ICS thing or a Sense thing (because this phone is an unholy bastardization), but I can't figure out a way to create folders on my home screens. I'm not talking about the Sense folders for applications either. In normal Android builds you can add shortcuts, widgets, folders. The Pandora application shipped with a folder called "My Stations" or something like that. I used this because it only took up 1x1 on a homescreen and let me choose which station was opened. Without it, you need to open the application and it immediately starts playing the last radio station. This is annoying.
Resolution
The DPI isn't any better than my G2, its just a bigger screen. This is pretty disappointing. I would like a crisper display in a flagship device.
Bloat
Its pretty bad. I know most users want Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, etc... but how about you let us select what we want during the phone setup.
Misc
This is my first Sense device and my first ICS device so again, not sure where this crap is coming from.... When you install an application it creates a shortcut for it on one of your home screens. Putting a shortcut is the simplist thing you can do in Android, why not leave it for the use to do if they want to do it.
On my way to work I was listening to I Heart Radio and while the live streams were okay when I went to the "pandora"-like functionality it would only play one song and then stop. This never happened on my G2. Don't know whats going on here.
I don't care for the browser (which they stupidly call "internet").
I don't care for all of the account options. I went to share a page in the browser, I wanted to email it to myself. So when I went to share page it let me select how to share it. I got "Facebook for HTC Sense", "Mail", "Twitter for HTC Sense", and "Dropbox". I did set up Facebook, but I did not set up mail, twitter, or dropbox. What I wanted was GMail which I had to select "See all..." Then I saw a plethora of garbage bloat that they bundle with the phone and had to scroll down to get to GMail. After I went though this experience I went to share another page to see if GMail showed up at the top... it didn't.
I'm sure I'll have more complaints the more I use it. I used my fiance's upgrade for this one but I get an upgrade in 3 months. If CM9 isn't out by then she'll be using this phone and I'll upgrade to a SGSIII or that yet to be named quad-core LG phone.
Summary
CM9 can't come fast enough.
EDIT
I'll add some good things here.
Good things
Again, this is coming from a G2 so in 2 years things should be better anyways....
It is very thin, and very light.
It has a front facing camera which my G2 did not.
The flashlight, though not as bright as the "High Brightness" Cyanogenmod setting on the G2, is still pretty bright.
The speaker seems to put out a lot of sound. Can't attest to the quality yet but the volume is there.
EDIT #2
Some more good and bad....
Skype Useless
... probably related to Wifi crackling. One of the things I was looking forward to with this phone was the ability to make video calls via Skype. My fiance has an iPad2, my in-laws each have a G2X, and my brother has a SGSII. Skype is useless on this device. There is echoing / cracking and video lag even when on Wifi. I called my brother with this One S and it was useless. I then called him on an iPad2 and it was great. I'm wondering if the problem has to do with Beats Audio. We'll have to wait for an AOSP ROM without Beats to find out.
So I unlocked/rooted/ROM'd ...
I am now running Black Dragon 4.0. I LOVE the menu hack to get rid of the stupid 3 dot menu on all the screens. I like that they kept the ability to longpress home to get the default behavior as well. The launcher seems nice though I haven't played with it too much (which is a good thing, means they have good defaults).
Can't wait for the kernel sources to be released so we can make some more CM9 progress. I really miss the buttons in the dropdown for wifi, brightness, bluetooth, etc. Now I have to dropdown, click settings, scroll down and find brighness.

How's the battery life? My G2 has some HORRENDOUS battery... like it can drain 20% an hour... I go to school for like 6/7 hours and I can leave with like a <20% battery life. Currently using MIUI because that seems to be the best battery life.
Edit: As for a menu button, Google is trying to get rid of that. I read a post about it a couple of months ago. They say it was useless. I completely disagree because I use it quite a lot. I use it way more than the search button which I have literally probably used less than 30 times and I've been on an Android device since the G1 came out.

For everything you just said mostly there are workarounds.
The deidcated menu button now exists through roms...the three button thing on screen is removed. Change of dpi works fine on no sense roms I'm set on 195 on sense not as good. Play market you can stop adding apps onto screens
Bloat just remove yourself root explorer..
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

Battery lifes good also...
As I said workarounds exist
Also get a different launcher and ditch sense or just get Nova or apex
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

Love this. G2 FOORRREEEVVVAAAAHHHH

.ili.music.ili. said:
How's the battery life? My G2 has some HORRENDOUS battery... like it can drain 20% an hour... I go to school for like 6/7 hours and I can leave with like a <20% battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm the wrong person to ask about battery life (at least during the week). I work in one of these new fancy energy efficient "Green" buildings. We have coating on our windows that block UV with the side effect of also blocking cellular signals. Everyone that works here puts their phones on airplane mode to save battery because we have 0 signal and the phone search all day.
I'll know better this weekend about battery life.

arknailed7754 said:
For everything you just said mostly there are workarounds.
The deidcated menu button now exists through roms...the three button thing on screen is removed. Change of dpi works fine on no sense roms I'm set on 195 on sense not as good. Play market you can stop adding apps onto screens
Bloat just remove yourself root explorer..
Battery lifes good also...
As I said workarounds exist
Also get a different launcher and ditch sense or just get Nova or apex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did they implement the dedicated menu button?
How do I ditch Sense?... what is Nova / apex?
Do I need root to install another launcher?

--
FunkyELF said:
How did they implement the dedicated menu button?
How do I ditch Sense?... what is Nova / apex?
Do I need root to install another launcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no you can install launchers without root..from market just look for them
to ditch sense though you will need root..and to change dpi you will need root..my advice root lol
by ditching sense i mean install a non sense rom like black dragon or untouchables that strip sense away so the majority is ice cream sandwich without the bloatfest. some apps will be kept in but just use root explorer to rid the rom of it.
the dedicated menu button and ridding the screen of the three dots at the bottom is also because its been taken away and remapped by devs..so again..you need root
most of all..development will kick in soon..so better to root..or if not just use a different launcher but you dont really accomplish what your setting out to do
leedroid should be here soon with a rom,and will do away with most of the bloat anyway...so youll keep sense and most things you complained about will be sorted..
the main thing here is..root..worth it..yes..without..pointless and youll be stuck with htcs crap stock rom..pretty poor for me..but coming from another phone with loads of development..probably biased of how it should be

No Folders?
Just long-tap on the icon and drag it to another icon. THe folder will creat automaticly.

FunkyELF said:
Went from a G2 to this One S yesterday. I'm not too impressed.
No dedicated menu button
Root and ROM it. People are remapping the multitask key as the menu button, and hold-home now does the multitask. You're on XDA, so I assume you're enthused enough to root and ROM it.
No trackball
Seriously. Please find me an Android device with a trackball nowadays. It's gone...you're just gonna have to deal with it.
Resolution
This display seems pretty crisp. We're working with phones with relatively small displays. There's only so many pixels you can pack into until it doesn't even matter. 720p is about as far as we need to go on phone screens. The qHD screen on this phone has vivid colors and all the qualities of Super AMOLED. The resolution seems plenty high to me. Are you starting 1inch away from the phone and observing pixels?
Bloat
Welcome to flagship carrier devices. Again, you're on XDA, and fully capable of rooting it and removing all that crap. The G2 was a 1-off device that had pretty much stock Android. Consider it a Nexus device, more or less. With a flagship phone, you're going to get bloatware.
Misc
This is my first Sense device and my first ICS device so again, not sure where this crap is coming from.... When you install an application it creates a shortcut for it on one of your home screens. Putting a shortcut is the simplist thing you can do in Android, why not leave it for the use to do if they want to do it.
Sense has nothing to do with this. The new Google Play Store now by default places new apps' icons on the homescreen. It's as easy as going to the prefs in Play Store and disabling. Blame Google if you're going to blame someone.
On my way to work I was listening to I Heart Radio and while the live streams were okay when I went to the "pandora"-like functionality it would only play one song and then stop. This never happened on my G2. Don't know whats going on here.
Don't know what to tell you, but it's obvious that you're describing some sort of software issue, not a hardware issue. If it worked fine on the live streams, then your data connection worked. Talk to iHeartRadio.
I don't care for the browser (which they stupidly call "internet").
So install a new one! ICS Browser+ is exactly like the stock browser. There's also Chrome and Opera. Cmon...
I don't care for all of the account options. I went to share a page in the browser, I wanted to email it to myself. So when I went to share page it let me select how to share it. I got "Facebook for HTC Sense", "Mail", "Twitter for HTC Sense", and "Dropbox". I did set up Facebook, but I did not set up mail, twitter, or dropbox. What I wanted was GMail which I had to select "See all..." Then I saw a plethora of garbage bloat that they bundle with the phone and had to scroll down to get to GMail. After I went though this experience I went to share another page to see if GMail showed up at the top... it didn't.
This is the one thing I disliked and will agree with you on, although once again, rooting and ROMing can take care of it. That or removing bloatware.
I'm sure I'll have more complaints the more I use it. I used my fiance's upgrade for this one but I get an upgrade in 3 months. If CM9 isn't out by then she'll be using this phone and I'll upgrade to a SGSIII or that yet to be named quad-core LG phone.
Suit yourself. 4.7 inches is just too big, and at these speeds, you're at the mercy of your data connection, not the processor.
Summary
CM9 can't come fast enough.
AMEN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think nearly all of your points are moot. A lot of your review seems to be based on your lack of willingness to change some preferences and MANAGE your device. If you were on a G2, then you never had to manage stuff like this. Consider it a new experience. If you wanted stock Android, you should've gotten a Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.

nickmv said:
I think nearly all of your points are moot. A lot of your review seems to be based on your lack of willingness to change some preferences and MANAGE your device. If you were on a G2, then you never had to manage stuff like this. Consider it a new experience. If you wanted stock Android, you should've gotten a Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree with you there,its all about learning curves..no sense roms are fairly close to stock..its just the settings that are different now..he_stheone has already added certain elements of stock android..so its fairly close..just the settings..that are the main difference now.

jacakowal said:
No Folders?
Just long-tap on the icon and drag it to another icon. THe folder will creat automaticly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those aren't the folders I'm talking about. I think what I'm talking about are called live folders. In AOSP builds of Android when you long press on an empty space on one of your screens you can choose widgets, folders, shortcuts, contacts, and other things I can't remember.
With Sense you only get widgets and shortcuts.... no folders, no contacts, etc... just widgets and shortcuts.

Isn't that minor thing?
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

nickmv said:
I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't see this one listed in the ALL ROMS post here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1584163
Where is the info on that ROM?

Dude its in development section
Black dragon 4.0
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

nickmv said:
I think nearly all of your points are moot. A lot of your review seems to be based on your lack of willingness to change some preferences and MANAGE your device. If you were on a G2, then you never had to manage stuff like this. Consider it a new experience. If you wanted stock Android, you should've gotten a Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going to have to side with you on this one. This phone is definitly a great device, give it some time, dig in a little bit. Much better than my Tmo-SGS2.

most of things you mentioned isnt a "bad thing" just you dont know how to operate the phone, or its just different (opinion at that point).
Also you didnt like things which are for all devices, not just one S

FunkyELF said:
Those aren't the folders I'm talking about. I think what I'm talking about are called live folders. In AOSP builds of Android when you long press on an empty space on one of your screens you can choose widgets, folders, shortcuts, contacts, and other things I can't remember.
With Sense you only get widgets and shortcuts.... no folders, no contacts, etc... just widgets and shortcuts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The long press, dragging and combining of icons together is AOSP folders in Ice Cream Sandwich. The long press on the desktop to add folder is long gone and is not coming back.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

arknailed7754 said:
Dude its in development section
Black dragon 4.0
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry... you said Black Magic, not Black dragon.
I'll give it a try in a couple weeks. I like to use my phone a bit before rooting to make sure I didn't get a lemon.
Does the camera work on this one?

Just got the phone and here are my negatives:
1. With lowest brightness setting the screen is horrible (but if you increase it a bit, its ok)
2. No switches in pulldown menu ? I though Sense always had that.....
3. Bottom plastic is not 100% flush at one corner (maybe will exchange, maybe not)
4. In navigation I just couldnt find "setting" button anywhere.....whats up with that ?
gonna go to Verizon and compare to Nexus....I still need Tmo SIM and stores are in same place anyway....I am not a phone freak not wasting time here
Its also very true that until you have 2 devices in hand you cant really compare screen quality...I though my G2x IPS panel for super great, but compared to One S its very warm colored and whites have red tint. Its also hard to use in lowest brightness even in dark room....but with G2x case its because screen is simply too dark, with One S its bright but disgusting to look at due to some "noise"

What kind of custom features do you want for your Galaxy S4?

Well considering we have a good month to actually play with our phones before any real custom development begins, we could use this time to come up with ideas that would be great to have on custom ROM's specifically for the Galaxy S4. I myself believe the next two years are gonna be insane and month is nothing compared to the fun we are all about to have!
So let's hear, what do you want your GS4 to do that it can't do right now. I personally would like to see someone make use of air wave more effectively and air view.

I just want some SlimBean love.

4.2.2. Stock. That's all I want.

I want to be able to change themes on my phone with EASE!

Mass delete of the 14.7 million crapware apps that come pre-installed....

just to be able to mod the hell out of it battery,clock,wifi,themes etc.....have kick ass kernal with kick ass battery life...

Cyanogen.

a lag reduction of 290%

I'm going to be developing a slimmed down Touchwiz rom with an AOSP feel but keep the TW framework for camera and other misc features. Samsung does add quite a few software enhancements that are nice to have that AOSP will break.

akira02rex said:
I'm going to be developing a slimmed down Touchwiz rom with an AOSP feel but keep the TW framework for camera and other misc features. Samsung does add quite a few software enhancements that are nice to have that AOSP will break.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I can't wait for

Ongoing Wifi Notification removed and change the Phone dialer from the playskool looking white to dark theme. Other than that I am happy with TW till we get AOSP...:highfive:

akira02rex said:
I'm going to be developing a slimmed down Touchwiz rom with an AOSP feel but keep the TW framework for camera and other misc features. Samsung does add quite a few software enhancements that are nice to have that AOSP will break.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly what I was hoping for. There's no point in buying a phone with so many "exclusive features" and immediately flashing CM and having the exact same user experience you had on your last phone. I mean, do I love AOSP? Of course I do. But why not try to get the best of both worlds? Can't wait for it, akira!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Keep stock touchwiz with aosp speed, also in the notification switches, the ability for flashlight, and play and next media buttons, also thumbs up/down button if possible
Sent from my PC36100 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

I am generally happy with my S4. Screen is great, the features I am interested in, Navigation, Translation (sTranslate), tethering ( I am on the plan), Bluetooth, and many others working. I am waiting until my 2 week return period is over before rooting and then debloating. I am using Nova launcher and have had no problems with lag. I did find that the home button with the smaller lower bezel than my SIII sometimes causes me to hit one of the dock icons; will require getting used to. Here is what I don't like and would like to see change:
1.The phone dialer. the white is awful
2. Contacts. Also in white, awful
3. Battery icon. Would love to be able to change it.
4. I personally like the 4.1 lockscreen with weather and time. I installed dashclock and used that a one of my Lockscreen widgets but still am not happy. I would love to see the opportunity to change the lockscreen style and type.
I am sure that I will find others, but that is it for now.

All Samsung features with the look & customization of AOKP, PA, Rootbox or Xylon.

idea of the year right here
and i can't believe it wasn't implemented by samsung and shown off at all the demos..
almost every website on the net today incorporates hovering the mouse to expand menus, show list options, features, toggle content, etc
this i would argue is THE biggest shortcoming of not just android, but all mobility today. there's no solid solution to imitate this on a mobile phone.
the galaxy s4 is the first phone which can overcome this shortcoming with its ability to support scree hovering. but what did Samsung choose to implement instead? a zoom in option baked into their stock browser .. which they removed flash support for, crippling one of the biggest breakthroughs in mobile innovation we've seen yet.
any developer who implements this will make front page of xda for sure
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Extended desktop mode, the status bar takes up to much screen real estate. Pie controls love them on my nexus 4!

Id love to be able to re-map the double-click of the home button. More options to edit toggles. No need to have that many toggles Im never going to use. Dark themes throughout UI. More apps that can be utilized in Multi window. Using the calculator with the browser or banking apps for example. Swipe the status bar for brightness control, no need to have the slider taking up space in the notification drawer. Swipe between tabs on phone app, same in any other tabbed touchwiz apps. Let me use Wallet dammit!
Love the idea of AOSP/touchwiz mashup. There actually are some features Id like to keep. Too bad Samsung's design team is still stuck on Gingerbread aesthetics...

Remote
A cool feature would be a timed t.v. remote to go off say at 6:30 to wake me up for school

Some PA love would be ideal! DPI changes are necessary with this awesome screen! Plus PIE and Halo would be awesome to have! Oh and remapping of hw buttons is a must for me.

[Q] Getting widgets to agree with launchers (Nova Prime & S-planner)

I was wondering if there was a way to get all widgets to be availible on an non-stock launcher. I am using the Nova Prime launcher, and widgets for Samsung's S-Planner are not showing up in the list of available widgets. Anybody know a way to get full access to all my widgets, on this launcher (I don't have any plans to switch to another launcher)?
(The device is unrooted, if that's relevant.)

If you figure anything out please feel free to share, I've been trying to get my ****ing swidgets to work with now for a long time
Sent from my GT-N8010 using xda app-developers app

I believe they only work on the touchwiz launcher, even if you have touchwiz installed.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I guess our best bet, is for all of us to keep messaging Samsung, until they recognize that enough people want this capability, that they should work at getting it to happen. Another, that comes to mind, is to seek out a ROM, that could allow that compatibility.
For immediate purposes, I imagine that some app developer(s) have discovered this royal pain of incompatibility, and was smart enough to realize that:
A) Very few people actually keep the launcher on their devices as stock
B) Samsung is undisputed as the current most popular Android-device manufacturer, with the highest number of users & sales,
So they released what would pretty much be a clone of these Samsung apps, but with more universal compatibility to other apps. I will browse the market when I have the time. I will, and ask that other users do as well, post the best/most similar/user-friendly/useful/blah of these finding.
otherwise, we may have to set the stupid touchwiz as our default (if we prefer and wish to regularly utilize Samsung's S-planner & other launcher-picky S-widgets) and have the touchwiz default homepages remain relatively uncluttered, except for these widgets, obviously. Then put in an app icon to switch to the launcher you actually prefer most.
OR
I just did a search in the google app market for "launcher switcher". There seems to be a semi-decent number of apps to help make it easy to toggle between the use of 2+ different launchers. Again, no time for me to test them out at the moment. Will also try to report back with anything promising... this is getting to be an annoying obstacle. lol.
If, like me, you mostly just want to be able to be able to keep on top of your S-planner to-do's, & don't have a great need for that apps menu that pops out of the side when you take out your S-pen, then change the s-pen settings, so that S-planner appears whenever the pen is detached.
I just remembered I could change it. for me this is GREAT because I never used that pen-apps popup. Also, I have really bad A.D.D., alongside O.C.D. . The result is that I constantly do ocd things, like put a lot of time into making detailed lists of things to do for the day, and set a stopwatch counter to track how long a task takes me to finish, but then I Always get distracted to the point, that All the time i put into countless overboard ocd attempts to keep on top of things, become completely worthless, because I have great difficulty keeping up any platform consistently. I feel like Sisyphus, rolling the giant bolder up the hill, and having it always roll back down. Anyways, on my Note tablet, I use the S-Pen more often than I use my finger, so for me, This works well.

Tablet_JF said:
Also, I have really bad A.D.D., alongside O.C.D. . ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess we all are to some extent or we wouldn't be on this forum reading things like this...

[Q] New Owner Setup Questions

Hi.
I pre-ordered my Note Pro (P905) and it will hopefully arrive next week because the store I bought them from sells them a lot cheaper and it's not a popular model. So anyway, here are my questions.
1. I've read conflicting reports about the on air updates. I've read that it makes the phone act worse (hangs and stuff) that's why it's apparently better to just block it and then use towelroot instead of c.f. root. Is this true? I kind of don't want to trip KNOX but I'd probably be willing to do so after a week since warranty is terrible after that period (Think that it would take months to replace the phone).
2. Since we can modify the DPI of all applications through Xposed modules, is it possible to adjust the grid size of Touchwiz to put more stuff on screen? I prefer using Touchwiz because of multi-window.
3. Tripping Knox is only bad if you need warranty right?
4. The basic things I need to check on the Note Pro are:
A. Try Injustice Gods Among Us to see if blue screen happens on stock rom
B. Stylus test
C. Camera test
D. Phone Test
Is this right? I'm only familiar with the blue screen of death issue on some models.
5. Freezing the magazine module in Titanium Backup effectively gets rid of it right?
6. What's a fun thing to do with my old Galaxy Note 10.1 (2012) 3G once I get this phone?
7. Does chromecast work on this device? I've some reports that say it doesn't.
8. Since there isn't really a custom rom for this device, is it easy to get into? I've coded applications for android and have flashed custom roms for other phones in the past. I'll probably just remove fluff from the system and update the kernel or something.
9. If I use Nova instead of touchwiz, are there applications that can sort of act like multi-windows like MX player being a small window and movable?

fvig2001 said:
2. Since we can modify the DPI of all applications through Xposed modules, is it possible to adjust the grid size of Touchwiz to put more stuff on screen? I prefer using Touchwiz because of multi-window.
9. If I use Nova instead of touchwiz, are there applications that can sort of act like multi-windows like MX player being a small window and movable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Multi window and pen window features got nothing to do with TouchWiz launcher. You can replace TouchWiz launcher with Nova, Apex or what ever launcher you want without losing those features.

1. Most of those issues are related to freezing or not freezing KNOX. (I can't remember which one of the two caused the issue, someone else may be able to fill that in). My DBT p905 is up to date and has no freezing issues. But it's not rooted.
2. MultiWindow (and penwindow) is an overlay app, not part of Touchwiz. The only think that doesn't work properly without Touchwiz is the S calendar widget and MyMagazine. The Spen and everything else isn't related to Touchwiz. You're always better off using Apex or Nova, as they're about 500MB RAM lighter than Touchwiz, and support themes and customisation.
3. Right. And if you want to use the secure KNOX container.
4. The BSOD issue affects the Exynos and AT&T variants, not the p905. You've got the rest covered, pretty much.
5. So does using a launcher other than Touchwiz. My Magazine is part of Touchwiz.
6. I use my old TF700T and Tab 2 as backup devices. The TF700T serves as a 'I can't risk damaging or loosing my NotePro so I'll take this', and my Tab 2 does its job as a navigational device.
7&8. No idea
9. See 1. Multi&penwindow are apps. I use Apex and install it before anything else (I haven't seen Touchwiz since I bought it) and Penwindow and Multiwindow work perfectly fine.

For #8 - I'm not sure about ROMs for the 905 but all I can add since Spere and Shadowlea pretty much have it all covered is that for me it took so long for ROM development that I did a ton of tweaking using Xposed modules and freezing of applications/services using Titanium that once a ROM that I wanted to try did roll around for the SM-P900 I didn't feel it necessary to switch to it. Early on the device was priced high and that delayed development quite a bit. I suspect that form factor is also a contributing factor to lack of development.
You can do quite a bit short of theming with Xposed on these things. Not everything in Wanam's module works (custom color themes for quick settings/notification panel especially) but if you're into rooting there's definitely a lot of potential for customization without ROMs.

7. Chromecast works fine!
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

Chromecast works very well.