Database Info

Why custom?

Hi,
Firstly, I have read many of the threads on here, so I've done my searching but want a bit of advice:
Can anybody give any real reasons why I'd want to go custom? From what I can see there is no advantage at the moment (Considering that all new features, eg, Cupcake) will be released officially at some point. Also worth considering is that if something good on the custom scene arrives in the future by then I'm sure many devs/hackers will know how to root the phone again.
For the moment, is there any advantage for a casual user to make the switch to custom?
My new G1 arrives soon, and after taking part in the PSP custom scene I'm keen to see any reasons why I should go custom on the G1... I don't want to do it for the sake of it (If it offers little to no advantage, but risk) but likewise I want to make sure I'm not misunderstood and perhaps there really is some reason?
Thanks.

Big reason I went with a custom image was to allow tethering on my phone using iptables.
That and the fact I get a little glow deep down knowing my phone is free!

Thanks for the reply.
With those in mind, any other reasons I should grab custom rather than the OTA update?
Cheers.

freedom, plain and simple. There is a lot of stuff that cannot be done without a modded system. For example, the themes. If you are happy with what you have, there is no problem in keeping it.

I wouldn't customize my new phone right away. It's always a good idea to wait it out and get familiar with the phone and all it's capable of doing first. Perhaps later you can get into customizing it and all the other mods.

Imyman said:
I wouldn't customize my new phone right away. It's always a good idea to wait it out and get familiar with the phone and all it's capable of doing first. Perhaps later you can get into customizing it and all the other mods.
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I would - who knows when T-Mobile will issue an OTA update to block downgrading?

didnt think about that...
thats true, I'll bet dimes to dollars the next update stops downgrading
if history is a predictor of the future, the Tmob will not allow the this fun to continue unchecked.
I say do it while you can, it wont last forever.
They said an update would come out "after the american holidays" and I say the downgrading will stop then, look how fast the lockdown came, the first update(RC28) was slow to come out, but once the exploit was in the wild, RC30 was out in a few days...
look on the brightside it may just get us an update sooner
bhang

...and since both tmo and google know the keys that the "rooters" around here are using, what's to stop them from sending out separate, test-key-signed OTAs to stop what's already been going on?
I wouldn't expect it from Google (if they did, I'd call Android "tango uniform") but from tmo, I'd expect anything.

Ok rooting gives you freedom. To do what you want with your property??

beartard said:
...and since both tmo and google know the keys that the "rooters" around here are using, what's to stop them from sending out separate, test-key-signed OTAs to stop what's already been going on?
I wouldn't expect it from Google (if they did, I'd call Android "tango uniform") but from tmo, I'd expect anything.
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your a negative person i feel. I dont think Tmo can force an update on my phone when the keys are renamed as told????

beartard said:
...and since both tmo and google know the keys that the "rooters" around here are using, what's to stop them from sending out separate, test-key-signed OTAs to stop what's already been going on?
I wouldn't expect it from Google (if they did, I'd call Android "tango uniform") but from tmo, I'd expect anything.
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the lack of otacerts.zip prevents it. no otacerts.zip -> no ota will pass sig check.
note: the ADP1 version still has otacerts.zip. it contains the test-key. I didn't delete it from ADP1 because it might still be useful to receive OTAs from google for the ADP1.

JesusFreke said:
the lack of otacerts.zip prevents it. no otacerts.zip -> no ota will pass sig check.
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Hence once android source is completely public you wont need you could in theory have JFoid but that would be a lot of work. I could sit on rc30 with overlay mods until someone beside google by tmobiles hand forces what we want on our Devices. Contract or not they are ours to do with what we want. especially if you paid full price for your device...

Thanks for so many replies.
I'm sorry if I'm being stupid here, but alot of people say to go custom just because I should be able to have full access to my own device. Sounds great and I can understand that viewpoint... I'm just curious though - Say I "have" full access... At this time what exactly does that let me do? This is the thing, I'm surely not understanding everything correctly for all that I can see (Mainly) that it allows you to do is put your own firmware on, add a new boot image and tether. I can see people are fond of doing this "because they can do" but to the average user is there anything that I cannot do with the original that custom can do?
Cheers!

Installing themes for one thing. That seems to be quite popular with average users

You can also use droidsans to get the autorotate feature. And soon, who knows what will happen in a mo or 2.

802.1X support via wpa_supplicant is one reason to get root. Some of us are on university campuses where the only wifi is WPA Enterprise. Though G1 hardware supports this, there is no UI for it and root is needed.

My favorites so far (and I've only had root for a day)...
1. Tethering.
2. Installing the new autorotate browser, if you don't feel like waiting for an update.
3. Busybox (thanks to Jesus Freke.)
4. You might want to theme it, I like it the way it is though with the Ibex background to match my computer.

Did anyone ever figure out a good fix for the the 'download pending' bug

After the whole unlock and January update scare i've been pretty cautious to stay at 8.1, and download all my aps from APkPure and places like that. But man it's just a quality of life thing at this point. What makes this more complicating is that Titanium Backup stopped working a month ago. So i'd like to do this without a system wipe. Though that would probably be my best option. I dunno. What's my best plan of action here?

D3RP_ said:
After the whole unlock and January update scare i've been pretty cautious to stay at 8.1, and download all my aps from APkPure and places like that. But man it's just a quality of life thing at this point. What makes this more complicating is that Titanium Backup stopped working a month ago. So i'd like to do this without a system wipe. Though that would probably be my best option. I dunno. What's my best plan of action here?
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It's not really clear what you're after here. Are you wanting to update to the March update? Are you on Verizon and worried about your bootloader getting locked if you update? If so, updating won't lock your bootloader. In any event, you need to be a bit more clear about what you're wanting to do. At least for me. You didn't really explain what the download pending bug is. You can't download from the playstore? Maybe something to do with downloading an update for the OS? You never did say. Can you clear these things up for us?

robocuff said:
It's not really clear what you're after here. Are you wanting to update to the March update? Are you on Verizon and worried about your bootloader getting locked if you update? If so, updating won't lock your bootloader. In any event, you need to be a bit more clear about what you're wanting to do. At least for me. You didn't really explain what the download pending bug is. You can't download from the playstore? Maybe something to do with downloading an update for the OS? You never did say. Can you clear these things up for us?
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Oh sorry. Yes I'd like to update to March, would not like to wipe for whatever reason. I had a pretty widespread bug where Google Play would say it's finalizing install, in my case 2/3 but would never progress. I seem to have fixed it by booting stock and updating to the latest Play Services. I still can't install anything from the play store, but at least that's not in any bar anymore.

My Experience With Anti-Rollback Feature

Xiaomi implemented anti-rollback feature ( more like a headache) with miui 8.7.6. In this thread I will tell you my experience:
So, I was just browsing through mi community and this post about anti-rollback caught my attention. I wasn't much concerned about it and thought why would someone want to downgrade their phone, I didn't read it completely and that was my mistake. So, you see I had flashed miui 8.7.5 from twrp and did ota update of 8.7.12 to save data as ota is smaller. Now I don't know why but I thought of installing Xposed on my phone. I flashed it and my phone entered bootloop. As this was not knew I calmly booted to twrp and flashed the file of 8.7.5 and pressed reboot.... 1 sec nothing, 2 sec nothing, 3 second nothing and in the 4th second I realised what I had done. I had become a victim of the outrageously implemented anti roll back feature. I left my phone and the next day I found it was alarmingly warm. It stayed warm for like 36 hours and then the battery died. I didn't have time so my phone was a paperweight for 1 week. Then on Saturday( this incident happened three weeks earlier on Sunday) I took it to the middle service centre. Actually around the same time as me a YouTuber named "tech star shahrukh" had bricked his device and posted a video telling how he got his motherboard change. I was sure that service center guys would ask me to pay if I told them the actual reason, so I told them my phone got dead when updating to miui 10. The guy told me with great confidence that they will repair it in two hours, I said ok. Here comes the interesting part. Now I being one of the more stupid personality had actually washed my phone under a tap a long time ago and that had lead to water in my charging board. He told me that I will need to pay 800 INR for the repair, thankfully the motherboard had not got water( they have these little white stickers that turn red on water contact). So I paid an advance 500 and waited. After about 3 days I got a call saying my sub board( charging board) was replaced and any further repairs would come under warranty. I was happy. So after exactly one week of submitting my phone and almost 2 weeks after bricking it, I got it back. Motherboard changed and with miui 9.2.4. So, that was my experience with anti roll back. Thankfully I replaced INR 8000 motherboard by paying 800.
Now it is showing 9.2.13 update, but I won't update. I have had enough of xiaomi. 2 weeks without my phone is just not worth a feeble security feature. So, what are your thoughts on this?are you happy with the current implementation (absolutely not). Suggest how do you think this feature should be implemented.

So you washed your phone and what it has to do with ARB?
Or if I do not understand you right, correcr me.
Arb was implemented for people to stay on latest firmware, as any manufacturer wants to owners be, I totally agree with that, except it was introduced silently which lead to many troubles. Personally I think there was major security bug in previous rom, thats why they changed arb to 4 in that firmware.

d1g1m4n said:
So you washed your phone and what it has to do with ARB?
Or if I do not understand you right, correcr me.
Arb was implemented for people to stay on latest firmware, as any manufacturer wants to owners be, I totally agree with that, except it was introduced silently which lead to many troubles. Personally I think there was major security bug in previous rom, thats why they changed arb to 4 in that firmware.
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Look, actually I had washed my phone a long time ago. So there was no damage but the sticker above the sub board had turned red indicating water damage. My phone was working perfectly even after washing. I bricked it due to anti-rollback when I tried to flash 8.7.5 over 8.7.12. xiaomi has a policy under which if there is liquid damage to a part you need to pay for it to get replaced. There were two stickers in the phone, one over the sub board and another over the motherboard. Only the sub board one had turned red, meaning I had to pay for the sub board replacement(INR 800), So the service centre people first replaced my sub board and then they realised that the phone's motherboard was also messed up, so they replaced it under warranty. I hope you understand now. Washing had nothing to do with arb, just that it made me pay 800 RS.

Okay great, congratulations. But before every flash better be sure what you are doing. And in case of Xiaomi better get full permissions account before any flashing

d1g1m4n said:
Okay great, congratulations. But before every flash better be sure what you are doing. And in case of Xiaomi better get full permissions account before any flashing
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Right man.
But I still think it wasn't implemented properly. Don't you think that wrecking the motherboard just for a little mistake of flashing a lower version too much? They should at least allow us to disable it. Not everyone is lucky enough to get a motherboard replacement for free...

Same for me. After bricking the device, board was needed to be changed and got it changed under warranty. Something strange happened after change of board, Internal memory got reduced by 4GB and RAM by 40MB. Xiaomi will push update 9.5.19 with ARB V4 even if auto update is off. Check internal storage for downlaod_rom folder. It will get automatically updated during sleep time. Replace the downloaded update file with a text file with same name to stop the updater from triggering it.

I dont understand whats the problem.. In my eyes only mistake by xiaomi was introducing ARB, and only after first bricks releasing official statement.. apart from that its a good feature. Normal users will never face any problems, as they are using official builds, and never go downgrade route.. Users like you, who unlock bootloader, flash beta roms, dev roms, god knows what other roms, should be skilled enough to not break their phone. I mean if you cant follow simple instructions of NOT downgrading bootloader, maybe this whole thing is not for you... By unlocking bootloader you agree with possible damage, no one else is responsible but you. Btw you dont have to change motherboard, all you need is account with permission to flash rom. In the end, all roms gonna be ARB 4, and this whole thing gonna be forgotten. Oh i also was ARB 3 and aware of this whole situation, but updated to .19 ARB 4 rom without fear, because as i said earlier, if you know what you are doing, this brings you no trouble at all..

I unlocked my bootloader and flashed redwolf twrp at 9.5.19.0 stable and after I flashed miui 10 8.6 beta my device is bricked I went to service centre they changed my motherboard

Anutha02 said:
Xiaomi implemented anti-rollback feature ( more like a headache) with miui 8.7.6. In this thread I will tell you my experience:
So, I was just browsing through mi community and this post about anti-rollback caught my attention. I wasn't much concerned about it and thought why would someone want to downgrade their phone, I didn't read it completely and that was my mistake. So, you see I had flashed miui 8.7.5 from twrp and did ota update of 8.7.12 to save data as ota is smaller. Now I don't know why but I thought of installing Xposed on my phone. .
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Did you flashed xposed through Magisk or twrp?

Why people downgrade the miui rom? Answer is simple. In each and every new update, new bug is being introduced. When I was on 9.2.4 only issue was with audio over headphone. After each new update and now on 9.5.17 the issues I face are heating during youtube through firefox, When Connected to pc through mtp, folder access is limited. I use ADM do download files and it will be inside adm folder. if i need to access the files, First it should be copied to download folder from adm folder using file manager. ChromeCast gets disconnected often during 9.5.17. Screen mirroring gives artifacts. Audio over Bluetooth is low. Now after anti v4 anyone who wants to go back to much stable version such as 9.2.4 will be bricked. Once in anti v4, there is no way to get back to anti v 3. even to work simple fast boot commands of anti 4 , first dummy file is needed to be flashed which is rather annoying. Last miui version with anti v 3 is 9.5.17.

Incogn said:
I dont understand whats the problem.. In my eyes only mistake by xiaomi was introducing ARB, and only after first bricks releasing official statement.. apart from that its a good feature. Normal users will never face any problems, as they are using official builds, and never go downgrade route.. Users like you, who unlock bootloader, flash beta roms, dev roms, god knows what other roms, should be skilled enough to not break their phone. I mean if you cant follow simple instructions of NOT downgrading bootloader, maybe this whole thing is not for you... By unlocking bootloader you agree with possible damage, no one else is responsible but you. Btw you dont have to change motherboard, all you need is account with permission to flash rom. In the end, all roms gonna be ARB 4, and this whole thing gonna be forgotten. Oh i also was ARB 3 and aware of this whole situation, but updated to .19 ARB 4 rom without fear, because as i said earlier, if you know what you are doing, this brings you no trouble at all..
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I have no problem with arb, I have a problem with the way it is implemented. Agreed that we should be careful while flashing roms but hard bricking the device does not make sense. What if even xiaomi accidentally releases an update with anti lower than 4 or we get a buggy update and want to revert. They should at least allow us to disable it or provide us an easy way to restore our device(using our mi id in some tool like mi flash). I understand that it is a security feature, but it has not been implemented correctly. They should have gone the Google way...

Guys, seriously, let me throw in my two bits for you all to chew on: why would you trust _any_ OEM (Samsung, LG, Sony, Xiaomi, etc.) to build a ROM with the users' best interest at heart? Doesn't make sense. That's why we buy devices that we can unlock, and break free. We should be supporting community ROMs and developers and help them to port features we need. There are lots of open source options out there (LOS, RR, etc.) that don't compromise your data or lock you in under the guise of "stability and security".
Thanks for reading.

temporarium said:
Guys, seriously, let me throw in my two bits for you all to chew on: why would you trust _any_ OEM (Samsung, LG, Sony, Xiaomi, etc.) to build a ROM with the users' best interest at heart? Doesn't make sense. That's why we buy devices that we can unlock, and break free. We should be supporting community ROMs and developers and help them to port features we need. There are lots of open source options out there (LOS, RR, etc.) that don't compromise your data or lock you in under the guise of "stability and security".
Thanks for reading.
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Because OEMs are strictly regulated by various institutions, unlike developers. And even tho i love LOS, RR or any other custom rom, in 10years of flashing custom roms, i never had one that was more stable and bugfree than original OS that came with phone..

Incogn said:
Because OEMs are strictly regulated by various institutions, unlike developers. And even tho i love LOS, RR or any other custom rom, in 10years of flashing custom roms, i never had one that was more stable and bugfree than original OS that came with phone..
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"Stable" is a relative term. My current custom ROM (Bootleggers) is very solid and probably has more features/options than MIUI ever will, I'm sure. More importantly, I know it doesn't do things behind my back and will not turn on me (eg. anti-rollback, etc.) down the road. Above all, quite often, custom ROMs get security patches long after the OEM has dropped support for the device. My $0.02.

temporarium said:
"Stable" is a relative term. My current custom ROM (Bootleggers) is very solid and probably has more features/options than MIUI ever will, I'm sure. More importantly, I know it doesn't do things behind my back and will not turn on me (eg. anti-rollback, etc.) down the road. Above all, quite often, custom ROMs get security patches long after the OEM has dropped support for the device. My $0.02.
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Stable is not a relative term. Stable is stable, with all functions working, not crashing, and not having bugs. Features is different topic, stability and features are different thing. Most often the more features, the more trouble you have. You say its very solid, but if you go to thread and read comments, there are many different bugs and problems. You will never find that many different problems in official miui

Incogn said:
Stable is not a relative term. Stable is stable, with all functions working, not crashing, and not having bugs. Features is different topic, stability and features are different thing. Most often the more features, the more trouble you have. You say its very solid, but if you go to thread and read comments, there are many different bugs and problems. You will never find that many different problems in official miui
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I have had zero FCs/crashes on my ROM. It's as stable as they get. And I trust it.

temporarium said:
I have had zero FCs/crashes on my ROM. It's as stable as they get. And I trust it.
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Good for you then Sad about that bug you reported 2 days ago lol. Same for me with official firmware, which was created by same people who designed the phone and chose hardware . I mean i dont understand whats your point. Custom rom is better? If thats it, then 95% of owners will disagree, because they have no idea what custom rom, root, or unlocked bootloader is. Official roms are for casual users, who want phone to be reliable, simple, and functioning. They happen to be the vast majority of buyers. Custom roms are either for tech junkies, or people who like playing around with their tech and dont rely on their phone daily. If you discourage trusting companies like samsung, xiaomi, etc., why are you thrusting google? Its their OS after all, they wrote it. Sure, its based on open source linux, but its still googles code. You use google apps, that have all the permissions in the world. What can OEMs possibly take from you that google already didnt lol?

Incogn said:
Good for you then Sad about that bug you reported 2 days ago lol. Same for me with official firmware, which was created by same people who designed the phone and chose hardware . I mean i dont understand whats your point. Custom rom is better? If thats it, then 95% of owners will disagree, because they have no idea what custom rom, root, or unlocked bootloader is. Official roms are for casual users, who want phone to be reliable, simple, and functioning. They happen to be the vast majority of buyers. Custom roms are either for tech junkies, or people who like playing around with their tech and dont rely on their phone daily. If you discourage trusting companies like samsung, xiaomi, etc., why are you thrusting google? Its their OS after all, they wrote it. Sure, its based on open source linux, but its still googles code. You use google apps, that have all the permissions in the world. What can OEMs possibly take from you that google already didnt lol?
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Thanks for contributing.
The "bug" was actually a misconfiguration on my part, not the ROM. I rely on my phone and use it daily with no issues.
XDA is geared towards the 5% that know what a custom ROM is and can make the choice.
I don't trust Google. I don't use Google apps. What I use is open. I've got microG installed so I don't leak my info all over the place. Custom ROMs allow you to do that. Official ROMs don't.

temporarium said:
Thanks for contributing.
The "bug" was actually a misconfiguration on my part, not the ROM. I rely on my phone and use it daily with no issues.
XDA is geared towards the 5% that know what a custom ROM is and can make the choice.
I don't trust Google. I don't use Google apps. What I use is open. I've got microG installed so I don't leak my info all over the place. Custom ROMs allow you to do that. Official ROMs don't.
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Oh i agree to that, but still dont understand what your point was then..? And what does it have to do this topic?

Incogn said:
Oh i agree to that, but still dont understand what your point was then..? And what does it have to do this topic?
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This is not the first device, nor the first OEM, that does things in an underhanded way, where you can never be sure if the next upgrade is going to take your device to a point of no return. My point being that the experience with ARB will (hopefully) alert other MIUI users to what may lie ahead and show Xiaomi that they don't approve. Just an opinion. ?

When will Google start posting the factory images?

Does anyone know when Google will start to actually post the images? This is the first phone I can remember having in my hand without any factory images posted.

I was wondering the same thing. Since no factory images are up, I tried the Android Flash Tool, which correctly identified the phone as a 4a, but said it was "unsupported". I've never tried the Flash Tool before, fairly easy to use, but I do wonder how fast the downloads will be. But, yeah, factory images should be up. I never completely trust a phone out of the box, prefer to do a wipe and flash before setup and use. I mean, it was probably built in China, right? I don't need any Chinese spies looking at my porn.

Well, today (Aug 20) was supposed to be the official debut, even though many of us have had these phones at least a couple of days now. If they dont have the images posted by tomorrow, then someone at Google is asleep at the wheel!

Maybe Android 11 is coming so soon they'll wait to post that?

Pig Vomit said:
I mean, it was probably built in China, right? I don't need any Chinese spies looking at my porn.
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I think I read somewhere that, as Google is moving away from China, they've been producing more in Viet Nam. The Pixel 4a is supposed to be the first phone to be fully produced outside of China. That's cool, right?

i started tweeting at @madebygoogle & @googledevs asking them to upload factory images & kernel source lol maybe itll get someones attention but not counting on it

I emailed google support to ask if unlocking the bootloader and rooting the pixel 4a with magisk would void the warranty. The response was that it would not void the warranty. That convinced me to buy a second Pixel 4A to replace my other moto x4 as well.
I need to root only becaasue I need telephone call recording with bluetooth. I have paid versions of both Call Recorder (skvalex) and BoldBeast, but neither work with bluetooth if the phone is not rooted, so it is good to know I can root as soon as an image is available. Here is the response I got:
" I understand you'd like to know if unlocking the bootloader and rooting the device would void the warranty. Let me help you with the details. Warranty of your device is still covered regardless of whether a device was rooted or unlocked. However, if you are experiencing any issue after rooting the device, we might suggest you to unroot the same in order to get the issue resolved. Android is not against rooting, but we can't guarantee functionality if the source code for the Android OS has been modified hence we might ask you to unroot the device before helping you with the warranty options."

Reacon said:
I think I read somewhere that, as Google is moving away from China, they've been producing more in Viet Nam. The Pixel 4a is supposed to be the first phone to be fully produced outside of China. That's cool, right?
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Box says phone made in Vietnam, accessories made in China. My problem with China is with human rights more than a concern about spying. My original post was meant to be funny. That having been said, Vietnam's human rights record isn't so great, either.
xenokc said:
Maybe Android 11 is coming so soon they'll wait to post that?
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I'm kinda thinking this as well. I've got the final/release candidate Android 11 beta on my Pixel 2XL right now. It's pretty good, but there are a few problems I've noticed that should be cleaned up before it goes final. It wouldn't surprise me if they release another beta/Release Candidate #2. Google probably was shooting for a simultaneous launch, but couldn't get 11 finalized in time. I also assume there's a beta version of 11 for the 4a, because there has to be if it's about to be upgraded to 11, right? At least post those images up.

Pig Vomit said:
Box says phone made in Vietnam, accessories made in China. My problem with China is with human rights more than a concern about spying. My original post was meant to be funny. That having been said, Vietnam's human rights record isn't so great, either.
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China has been throwing its economic weight around to effectively undercut any and all competition. It's just a reality if you want to have a manufacturing-based economy in 2020 that you'll have to make an incentive to drive business your direction. Unfortunately, many companies were in a catch-22 where if they report the rampant IP-theft in connection with the CCP they would either lose their competitive margin or potentially lose the ability to manufacture their product at all, because China also has hoarded the best tooling tech.
If there's one thing that the US' current administration has done correctly, it's to bare China's fangs. Hopefully, with commerce forcefully directed elsewhere, the dire need for profit margin will ease a bit in the poorer countries of the region, giving way for better human rights adherence. At least, that's my wishful thinking.

nogods said:
I emailed google support to ask if unlocking the bootloader and rooting the pixel 4a with magisk would void the warranty. The response was that it would not void the warranty. That convinced me to buy a second Pixel 4A to replace my other moto x4 as well.
" I understand you'd like to know if unlocking the bootloader and rooting the device would void the warranty. Let me help you with the details. Warranty of your device is still covered regardless of whether a device was rooted or unlocked. However, if you are experiencing any issue after rooting the device, we might suggest you to unroot the same in order to get the issue resolved. Android is not against rooting, but we can't guarantee functionality if the source code for the Android OS has been modified hence we might ask you to unroot the device before helping you with the warranty options."
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Save that e-mail! While that rep said it won't, that doesn't mean it is true as a company policy. But the fact that you have it in writing from a Google rep gives you some ammunition in case they do try and say your warranty is void.

Yeah, I fired off a few tweets to @google asking them about the factory images. I think the more people who ask, more of a problem it will be for them,,,maybe.
renzyyy said:
i started tweeting at @madebygoogle & [URL="https://twitter.com/googledevs" @googledevs[/URL] asking them to upload factory images & kernel source lol maybe itll get someones attention but not counting on it
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Does make for a September update a big question. Could G just start it on 11? Device rollout was delayed. Maybe a thought. I am hoping for a 10 release of at least our current as released build QD4A.200805.003. Especially if 11 bootloader has issues with . . . .
A nice comparison to my 3a, 3 is side by side the case of a 3 in size and a display more than 3a. Surprised hole punch (which would not think) goes away in most use...

reached out to google support team after making a fuss & finally got a pretty good answer...
In regards to Factory image availability on our developer page, the image would be updated post security patch of Sept. As it's a new device we are shipping the devices with August update, once the device specific builds are released it will reflect on Developer images.
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kkjb said:
I am hoping for a 10 release of at least our current as released build QD4A.200805.003.
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Click to collapse
This is the build that it was released with. I was surprised, because I had read so many articles saying the phones had been assembled months ago and were in a warehouse waiting for release. I doubt they re-flashed all the phones, so I suspect they were manufactured more recently. I had expected a very old security release to be on them, but it's the August release.

Build # convention for .003 was carrier specific builds on rest of Pixel line...is a wonder.
Since I have a audience I get no Sprint dial code switching on Google Fi Network.
So TMobile here now...no chat messenger!
US Cellular is my other provider same thing. Call screen is working.
Radio sensitivity is better than 3a nice to have in the boonies here.

Yeah I kinda figured they would wait til the Sept patch is out to provide the factory images. Sucks a little that is over two weeks from now.
renzyyy said:
reached out to google support team after making a fuss & finally got a pretty good answer...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I'm usually a happy silent observer because the factory images are usually out when the phone comes out, but I am a little annoyed because I have my new phone and I don't want to set it up again in two weeks.
Is there any reliable way to dump the ROM and get the boot image without root?

SexySOnic23 said:
I'm usually a happy silent observer because the factory images are usually out when the phone comes out, but I am a little annoyed because I have my new phone and I don't want to set it up again in two weeks.
Is there any reliable way to dump the ROM and get the boot image without root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you have to set it up again? You can unlock the bootloader now.

digger16309 said:
Why would you have to set it up again? You can unlock the bootloader now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because I want to flash Magisk, I can't do that without the boot image. Once I went TitaniumBackup, I never went back. But ya know, I need root for that

SexySOnic23 said:
Just because I want to flash Magisk, I can't do that without the boot image. Once I went TitaniumBackup, I never went back. But ya know, I need root for that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I do, too. But I roughed it out setting up the phone without it. Most of my apps had data in the cloud or their own backup file. I transferred other files manually. I'll root, but I don't need to setup my phone twice because I unlocked the bootloader first.

what is the point in rooting fones

rooting android fones have become so useless and tiresome. Iv always had to have an encrypted fone for work purposes but root for fun. Nowadays its become rediculour to root. Bl unlockin, custom binaries. For years iv always had to spend weeks searching for guides to root and encrypt but recently these samsung phones with the locked bl is a pis take. No amount of security will take over someone who has pysical access to your fone but the data can be reset which is what im trying to do wo allow me to encrypt my fone. Fuk it no one on xd bothers replyin anyway

Is that a question, a statement, or both?
I run stock Samsung's that are heavily optimized.
They run very well and even though the one is still running on Pie security is not an issue.
I spend very little time with maintenance and troubleshooting. The current OS load will be 2 yo in June, still fast, stable and fulfilling its mission.
What's not to like?

blackhawk said:
Is that a question, a statement, or both?
I run stock Samsung's that are heavily optimized.
They run very well and even though the one is still running on Pie security is not an issue.
I spend very little time with maintenance and troubleshooting. The current OS load will be 2 yo in June, still fast, stable and fulfilling its mission.
What's not to like?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
put twrp, root device then if it gets stole see if u cant slp at nite. Twrp breaks encrypt on sam fones and after all these years still no way of encryp

nidowak653 said:
rooting android fones have become so useless and tiresome. Iv always had to have an encrypted fone for work purposes but root for fun. Nowadays its become rediculour to root. Bl unlockin, custom binaries. For years iv always had to spend weeks searching for guides to root and encrypt but recently these samsung phones with the locked bl is a pis take. No amount of security will take over someone who has pysical access to your fone but the data can be reset which is what im trying to do wo allow me to encrypt my fone. Fuk it no one on xd bothers replyin anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I root my phone to occasionally deal with discrepancies with just about any company that gives me problems. I do this via native call recording which as far as I am aware only works while rooted. Living in a one party consent state I don't even have to let the other party know I am doing so. To be honest though I can't really speak about root access on today's phones mine is a 2018. When I do choose my next phone I will definitely take the time to do my research and find an easy one that will do what I'm trying to do with it. Even if it is not going to the newest whatever phone. I find the benefit of having call recording far outways having the newest tech.

nidowak653 said:
put twrp, root device then if it gets stole see if u cant slp at nite. Twrp breaks encrypt on sam fones and after all these years still no way of encryp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Physical possession is the only real security.
Anyone trying to steal my phone will bleed.
If I was you I be more concerned with data lose due to encryption. You are the one most likely to get locked out... and then you're boned. Especially if it's your last backup data drive.

Linux4life2211 said:
I root my phone to occasionally deal with discrepancies with just about any company that gives me problems. I do this via native call recording which as far as I am aware only works while rooted. Living in a one party consent state I don't even have to let the other party know I am doing so. To be honest though I can't really speak about root access on today's phones mine is a 2018. When I do choose my next phone I will definitely take the time to do my research and find an easy one that will do what I'm trying to do with it. Even if it is not going to the newest whatever phone. I find the benefit of having call recording far outways having the newest tech.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i remember when call recording was slowly being tak
blackhawk said:
Physical possession is the only real security.
Anyone trying to steal my phone will bleed.
If I was you I be more concerned with data lose due to encryption. You are the one most likely to get locked out... and then you're boned. Especially if it's your last backup data drive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iv had a few phones that encrypt with root and have never got locked out, always kept backups. But this was years back. Now that every things moved on it seems securing the fone is getting much harder with the manufacters constantly ****in things up. Like samsung never had bootloader, now they do, no knox, know they do etc and it gets harder. But yea your so rite, nothing beats Physical possession, the only prob ? the theifs think like that about other ppls phones to haaaa

nidowak653 said:
rooting android fones have become so useless and tiresome. Iv always had to have an encrypted fone for work purposes but root for fun. Nowadays its become rediculour to root. Bl unlockin, custom binaries. For years iv always had to spend weeks searching for guides to root and encrypt but recently these samsung phones with the locked bl is a pis take. No amount of security will take over someone who has pysical access to your fone but the data can be reset which is what im trying to do wo allow me to encrypt my fone. Fuk it no one on xd bothers replyin anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the wrong question. The real quesion is: Why should anyone accept not being in full control of anything he paid a full price for?
Why leave the control to vendors who abuse it in their special interest, which mostly is against the user's favor?
The fact they are making it harder and harder is proof, that there's a lot to lose!

Elmarigo said:
That's the wrong question. The real quesion is: Why should anyone accept not being able to be in full control of any device that he paid a full price for?
Why leave the control to vendors who abuse it in their special interest, which mostly is against the user's favor?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly ! But manufacterers no longer bother about customers and what they want. Its the wallet, once you pay they dont care.

Rooting gives you a higher level of control over your phone's internals. Usually, vendors hide most of the advanced optimization settings. These are exposed when you root your phone. Even without rooting, have a look at the settings screen of custom ROM's like Lineage and compare it with the stock setting screens, and you will see a number of 'extras' that help tweak your phone in ways the stock does not allow.