Well I got my galaxy s2 on release day and being a former crackberry addict I have no idea what to do with android. I understand that there are endless possibilities but I have no idea where to begin. Anyone know some stuff I can do to make my android experience simply better?
in same boat
i am not only new to andriod, i am new to smart phones. that said, i have had my andriod for a month. i have done a lot to it just by reading posts here and in andriod central. andriod central seems easier to navigate by phone choise than xda.
my wife is still a blackberry adict. after gettting my phone she wined about how much i could do. she still likes the blackberry and has found ways around the issue or boasted about something she could do that i cant.
this is just from reading about backberry so feel free to correct me if i am wronge. the PC device manager allows you to modify your phone. ie change theme, apps, ect.
the biggest issue most andriod owners have is that they cant get rid of the carriers apps(bloatware). most of these apps take up space, run when not in use, use up your ram. as far as i am aware the only way is to root(gain administrator acess) the phone. then you can get an app that will freeze the unused, unwanted apps(titanium backup,pay for version).you can also delete them, but i read it could be hazardes. recomend reading manual. i wont do it any justice, so info on rooting is everywere, i do suggest andriod central.
if you dont care about the apps then dont root. you cant get multiple home launchers,ie go launcher, launcher pro, adw launcher, theres more. i prefer go launcher, it lets you customize the most, ie change icons, the way the app drawer functions, the way icons function, different functions for the direction you slid your finger on the desktop.
with a rooted phone you can get custom roms to change the look and feel of the phone. what i understand flashing a rom to be is installing a new operating system, its like someone took andriod OS striped it down to just the OS and then added what they feel should be there for apps. generaly they just get rid of the bloatware, optimize the system, and a few usefull tools.
i have rooted my phone. sadly no custom roms yet. freezed most of my bloatware, freed up a lot of space. changed my desktop. got a wifi tether app so i can hotspot my phone with out having to pay for the data plan. any way i hope this helps. if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
to expand on the topic about rooting (assuming that you take this route), here are some rooting methods (android version-specific):
z4root (2.2/2.2.1)
SuperOneClick (2.2/2.2.1)
Gingerbreak (2.2.2)
everything you can possibly discover about your phone (roms, kernels, themes, etc) can be found in the sgsII's forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1055
WP7 im curious about a few things
the GUI:
What changes it? Roms or Themes? i see some WP7 phones on here that dont use tiles, but use a theme or a rom, which is it? how does it work?
Roms and Themes:
what does each do? From the android world, Roms did mostly everything... and themes changed like colors.. how about WP7?
unlocking:
unlocking from what i read allows non market apps, how about carrier unlocking? on some android phones (that have bootloaders unlocked) they can do some changing to the registry and do a carrier unlock, how about with WP7 phone?
Gorship said:
WP7 im curious about a few things
the GUI:
What changes it? Roms or Themes? i see some WP7 phones on here that dont use tiles, but use a theme or a rom, which is it? how does it work?
Roms and Themes:
what does each do? From the android world, Roms did mostly everything... and themes changed like colors.. how about WP7?
unlocking:
unlocking from what i read allows non market apps, how about carrier unlocking? on some android phones (that have bootloaders unlocked) they can do some changing to the registry and do a carrier unlock, how about with WP7 phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Themes are color changes. Blue tiles, Green Tiles ect.
There are a few roms that will unlock your phone if loaded, but they still don't give you much customization control. The GUI in Windows Phone really can't be modded much.... but that also makes it secure.
I was a rom flasher in the older windows mobile days... i loved customizing the crap out of my phone (you'll find posts by me in the wizard, Tilt, and Pure forums). I really never used my phone though till i had windows phone. i just tinkered.
With Windows phone and live tiles, all the information is there immediatly or within 3 clicks. I check facebook without an app. i post pictures to facebook right from the camera. Things are so much quicker when they are integrated. I actually use the phone as it was ment to be. I don't have to worry about roms fixing one thing and breaking another as i did back in those days.
Pick one up, you'll have 30 days to return it. Use it at least 20. At 1st it's a system shock and you feel limited until you really get to dig into it and get how everything flows. Don't give up on it in the 1st week. It's completely different from android or iphone and change always seems frustrating at 1st.
ROMs are only available for HTC devices up to now
but some developers are working for the first Samsung custom ROM.
in the GUI you can change tiles colors.
all devices are unlockable, except lumias!
I hope to have been exhaustive
ROCOAFZ said:
I was a rom flasher in the older windows mobile days... i loved customizing the crap out of my phone (you'll find posts by me in the wizard, Tilt, and Pure forums). I really never used my phone though till i had windows phone. i just tinkered.
With Windows phone and live tiles, all the information is there immediatly or within 3 clicks. I check facebook without an app. i post pictures to facebook right from the camera. Things are so much quicker when they are integrated. I actually use the phone as it was ment to be. I don't have to worry about roms fixing one thing and breaking another as i did back in those days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more. I've probably already said it a half-dozen times on these forums, but Windows Phone gave me my life back. The mantras "glance and go," "get in, get out, get on with your life," and "seriously?" are all VERY accurate.
My wife was 5 or 6 months pregnant and I was just launching a side business when I upgraded from a Tilt to a Samsung Focus (on a Titan now), and it was PERFECT timing to make the switch. I can't imagine juggling two jobs and a baby and still spending a few hours a week hunting for the perfect ROM. It may not do as much as an Android (or even some later WinMo phones), but there's not ONE thing that I feel that I'm missing personally, and for every feature it lacks there are a hundred features that it does SO WELL.
I think my favorite thing, apart from the beauty of Metro itself, is contact management and social integration. Being able to link my wife's Live contact/FB profile/Twitter handle and have one updating tile is amazing. Being able to change my status across several networks from the "Me" tile is awesome. I feel like my digital life (especially contacts and calendar) is finally unified and under control.
Maybe my searching skills aren't adequate, maybe my understanding is lacklustre.
Greetings, XDA browser, I've come for your help.
I've been playing with all sorts of different ICS ROMs for my Nexus S for the past few days. I've finally settled on one that seems stable and fast.
HOWEVER!!! (Dunn, dunn, dunn!)
I miss the octo-launch provided by some mods such as CyberGR and Codename Android.
You could set 3 or 4 custom apps, which was great for Google Authenticator and my TI-83 emulator.
Is there some flash-able (via CWM) .zip floating out there that I could flash to add this feature to my settings? I've noticed quite a few ROMs add it. And indeed, in Pixel ROM if you upgrade from 'Lite Touch' to 'Fully Touched', your lockscreen changes from a standard unlock/camera to a quad lockscreen. (Without custom apps, much to my ever growing dismay.)
Unfortunately (for me), the world is certainly far from revolving around Sacrosaint. Alas, as I act to alleviate this annoyance (alliteration!) by simply asking, I'm sure there's someone out there who actually knows what they're talking about.
So, am I crazy or is this possible? If it is possible (regardless of my sanity), would it be possible to receive guidance?
Thank you for your time,
Sacrosaint
EDIT: No one ever replied, but I did find that the best ROM for an Octo layout is AOKP. Just in case anyone is interested.
Hi, I've been a Blackberry user for many years, but the time had come to move on.
So I have a P8 Max coming from WondaMobile in Hong Kong to me in the UK.
I've been reading and learning about Android/P8 Max, but I thought I'd just ask for some 'Get Me Started' help please.
I'm not 100% sure about rooting yet from what I've been reading. That will be next step I expect once I'm used to it all.
So what I'd like to know is what are the initial things you'd all do with a P8? Ie, remove apps, recommended apps to install etc.
Thanks in advance. Even though I'm pretty savy with tech I feel like a newbie all over again!
I came from BB too and the first i did was Update to the latest Version (right now its B028) then i rooted and removed all the Bloatware and installed the minimal Google Apps/Services.
Is the bloatware obvious?
Yes somehow if u dont know the app or its a chinese service delete/freeze it!
Saw you posted a rooting guide. Thanks for that. Looks very useful.
Would it not be easier for me to use RootGenius?
I am not sure if it work, i know that the method in my guide Works cause i did i a few times!
I would suggest get a launcher ether google launcher or nova or something else, i am for example using action 3 launcher pro that gives me the ability to have the BB option to swipe widget from icons as on the BB Priv. Maybe even get an icon pack or something, i am rocking Cryten icon pack, pretty cheap and cool usually all that goes on 50% off or free pretty oft. After that i dont believe there is anything else you need rather than apps
Thanks.
SO! I've escaped the blue bubble cult! And even though I really enjoyed jailbreak tweaks (what are even the equivalent of tweaks on android? lol) and theming on IOS, I don't really even know where to begin looking for info on doing similar things with android, and more specifically my oneplus 6, I'm excited but it's all a bit overwhelming. Any help? Any recommendations on where to begin?
Spectr7615 said:
SO! I've escaped the blue bubble cult! And even though I really enjoyed jailbreak tweaks (what are even the equivalent of tweaks on android? lol) and theming on IOS, I don't really even know where to begin looking for info on doing similar things with android, and more specifically my oneplus 6, I'm excited but it's all a bit overwhelming. Any help? Any recommendations on where to begin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, the first step for you is to figure out what exactly you want to do. Jumping headfirst to things on this OnePlus 6 without a gameplan sounds like a recipe for hard brick.
tabletalker7 said:
Honestly, the first step for you is to figure out what exactly you want to do. Jumping headfirst to things on this OnePlus 6 without a gameplan sounds like a recipe for hard brick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd just like to manipulate the UI, similar to some of the tweaks on IOS. I haven't used the phone enough to want to change much of its core functionality yet... So mostly surface level things for now. I also figure that would be a good place to start in terms of difficulty and knowledge as well.
Spectr7615 said:
I'd just like to manipulate the UI, similar to some of the tweaks on IOS. I haven't used the phone enough to want to change much of its core functionality yet... So mostly surface level things for now. I also figure that would be a good place to start in terms of difficulty and knowledge as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tweaking the UI is seriously as simple as going to the google play store and downloading a launcher. No need to do anything drastic yet buddy. If I may, I would recommend "Nova Launcher". The free version on the play store will give you plenty of options to change your UI and I have been using it for years on several different phones. Forgive me but I know nothing about IOS - a closed source operating system on an item I payed money and purchased to use for my own desires seems silly to me.
tabletalker7 said:
Tweaking the UI is seriously as simple as going to the google play store and downloading a launcher. No need to do anything drastic yet buddy. If I may, I would recommend "Nova Launcher". The free version on the play store will give you plenty of options to change your UI and I have been using it for years on several different phones. Forgive me but I know nothing about IOS - a closed source operating system on an item I payed money and purchased to use for my own desires seems silly to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's one of many reasons I left after years. They made it increasingly more difficult to even sustain a jailbreak, on a device I overpaid for.. but I digress lol. Thanks for that tip, I remember using nova launcher years ago on one of my old galaxy phones, so I'll start there.
Spectr7615 said:
Yeah, it's one of many reasons I left after years. They made it increasingly more difficult to even sustain a jailbreak, on a device I overpaid for.. but I digress lol. Thanks for that tip, I remember using nova launcher years ago on one of my old galaxy phones, so I'll start there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I will happily walk you through the whole unlock bootloader, install TWRP, and obtain root access process for this phone, if you have been away from android for a long time you will find it much more difficult than it was on your old galaxy phone, so why go there with no real reason behind it.
tabletalker7 said:
While I will happily walk you through the whole unlock bootloader, install TWRP, and obtain root access process for this phone, if you have been away from android for a long time you will find it much more difficult than it was on your old galaxy phone, so why go there with no real reason behind it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just decided to pretty much go through my jailbroken phone and see just what I'd like to carry from that setup over into my oneplus 6. Fortunately, most of system tweaks I had made on my iphone are baked into android already, so it's really coming down to theming as I look at it deeper. However some tweaks I used to use might require (please correct me if I'm wrong). For example, I used a tweak on my iphone that allowed me to create gestures. Plugging in headphones would open my music app, double pressing the power button turned on my flashlight, it was highly customizable, things like that.
Honestly if you are rocking OP6 just root with magisk, grab TWRP and that's it. Then explore your magisk module options, add adaway for systemwide ad blocker, download magisk youtube vanced that blocks ads and let you download directly , what else.... Substratum for theming ....
As others are getting at, take it one step at a time. Android gives you more flexibility than your old phone did, so you'll enjoy that. Rooting will give you further options.. I agree with the poster who said to try launchers. You can change the look of your phone in pretty dramatic ways with them. Different ones have different benefits. I use Action Launcher most of the time. There are lots of them and they can change the look and feel of your phone a lot without doing anything permanent or potentially damaging to your device. Change launchers and whatever you did with the last one is no longer visible. Go back to the stock Oxygen one at any time if you like.
If you like gestures, Oxygen gives you some. Other launchers, including the aforementioned Nova and Action do, too, albeit not necessarily the exact same ones. GMD Gestures takes it much further, but that requires root. It used to be one of the first things I installed on my phones and tablets. Navigation Gestures uses a different approach, more limited, but it doesn't require root.
Rooting requires unlocking your phone and flashing Magisk. This is not hard to do, but you need to connect your phone to your computer and use a command line to enable some of it. The procedure is simple enough, but if you haven't done it, it might seem daunting at first. But you've jailbroken, so you will probably be fine with all this. There are pitfalls with each device, which you can read about at length here in this phone's part of XDA.
Read up, take your time, and if you do root, make sure to read the guides carefully and do all the steps. Missing things or doing them out of order can cost you sometimes.
youre in for a surprise, enjoy the ride
I'm going to echo what some others have said and suggest you take it slow. I was jailbreaking from the 3G days so I know what you're thinking about doing. My wife still has an iPhone, and trust me, there are great many things you can do in terms of tweaks and theming without ever thinking about rooting. I'm a Nova Launcher loyalist as well, but there are dozens of great launchers out there. Try a bunch out, play around with themes, wallpapers, and icons to get a look you like, then start thinking about rooting.
Unlocking and rooting OP phones is much more straightforward than any other Android phones besides Pixels, so when you're ready to start, it's not that challenging. However – especially if you're coming from Samsung – forget everything you think you know and start reading the guides posted here. There is unfortunately a fair amount of bad and less-than-ideal information floating around about this phone. I'd recommend starting with these:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/guide-noobs-guide-to-b-partitions-op6-t3816123
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/guide-how-to-install-official-twrp-t3801558
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/oneplus-6-unlock-bootloader-flash-twrp-t3792643 [note that some of the info in this thread is obsolete/incorrect, so refer to the two above in any conflicts, but it's good for the very basics]
There are pre-rooted boot images you can use to gain root without getting custom recovery like twrp. But you will need to unlock your bootloader first. Like everyone else said, Android is much more flexible compared to iOS when it comes to customization.
The main reason why I rooted in the first place was to get Adaway which removes ads from your phone. Also YouTube Vanced like someone mentioned which removes ads from youtube videos.
Systemless root like Magisk which does not touch systemfiles is the way to go if you are gonna root your phone in the future.
It is very, very easy to brick your phone if you are not careful. Read the guides here on xda, check what OxygenOS version you are have and so on. Do not try to flash a older version, that will brick your phone.
A small tweak you can try right now is to first enable developer options by tapping your Build number under About phone in settings. From there, scroll down til you see something about animation (should be under Drawing). Set the three settings to either off or 0.5. That should speed things up.
Maybe you should NOT root your device and stick with stock save us all some headaches.
I come from an Jailbroken iPhone as well. I can do pretty much everything I could on my iPhone except see the amount of battery cycles and current wear.
Xposed has more modules than you'll know what to do with.
Combine that with all the customizations you can do without root like launchers, full UI and app theming with substratum, custom ROMs, magisk modules, TWRP flashable zips for some mods, etc.
There's SO much stuff you can tweak
Xposed has more modules than you'll know what to do with.
Combine that with all the customizations you can do without root like launchers, full UI and app theming with substratum, custom ROMs, magisk modules, TWRP flashable zips for some mods, etc.
There's SO much stuff you can tweak
Cydia -> Magisk and optionally Xposed
Winterboard -> Substratum