Good OS to override Chromecast with Google TV for tactile efficiency (pretty as well) - General Questions and Answers

If I go ahead and root Chromecast with Google TV with a different OS - what should I use? Kodi?, Odin?, Linux Distro? I am unhappy with the default setup after using my network dongle to find out how slow the apps load downloaded onto my SD drive in the dongle - I would be waiting 5 years or so for the Kernel to develop. The organization of the apps is okay but I would like a system I can customize for ease of use as well as being able to challenge myself to open apps that I downloaded but never use even though I wanted them as legit (sort of go to) main apps in the first place. So I am looking for ease of use and to challenge myself to run different apps as an organizational exercise all in one menu screen. I like pretty. Beauty, ease of use, aesthetics and layout are all to be considered.
Where are links to some resources about Kodi and what people did with them including layout and features? I am doing this purely for audio and and video apps so I don't need bloat or other unnecessary features.
Is Odin a way to go for design for the same principles (audio being as well as good looking layout with ease of use). Is Kodi better in this feature?
What about Linux OS systems? I don't need all the full OS features so they are basically bloatware with the fact that Lite Systems will provide the basic functionality only needing to serve audio and video with the necessary Android OS abilities for the piece of hardware.

Related

Android apps on windows phone

Hi guys,
I'm currently using an iPhone as my primary phone and android as a secondary one. I want to shift to windows phone (mango) but there are a few apps on the android not available on winmo which I can't live without. Is there any way to run android apps on the windows mobile the same way(or ANY way) its done on the blackberry play book?
Thanks
I don't think there's any. But there are alternate apps.
Android apps on WP7 would be incredibly difficult, though theoretically it could be done with enough effort.
Most Android apps use Dalvik (a dialect of Java). This is totally incompatible with the Silverlight/C# that WP7 apps use, but there are enough similarities between them that it might be possible to build a tool that either translates the Dalvik instructions to MSIL (the binary that compiling C# produces) at launch, or dynamically interprets it (the latter would be very slow, though).
However, even with purely Dalvik apps, there are other problems. WP7 apps are limited to a very restrictive sandbox, with no access to the vast majority of the filesystem (for example). Android apps, by comparison, have a great deal of access to the device they run on, so even a very simple app may expect to have permissions that wouldn't be available on WP7. Instead, attempts to access restricted parts of the filesystem would have to be "virtually" redirected within the sandbox. This is possible in many cases, but a *lot* of work to code and has all kinds of weird edge cases.
Additionally, Android apps have a very different runtime model from WP7 apps. The biggest change is in how they handle leaving the foreground; WP7 apps are either suspended or dehydrated, while Android apps often just keep running (they can elect to suspend, but aren't required to). WP7 does support background tasks (with strict limitations, at least if you stick to the official APIs), but moving the Android app runtime into those background tasks would be quite difficult.
Finally, there's the issue of hybrid apps (apps that use native code in addition to managed runtimes like Sliverlight or Dalvik). These are much more common on Android than on WP7 (at least, than on WP7 outside this webite). Android runs on a Linux kernel, using POSIX system calls and APIs. WP7 runs on a CE kernel, using win32 system calls and APIs. There's a very loose mapping from one to the other (see the Wine project for running Win32 apps on desktop Linux) but it adds a lot of overhead and would be another layer, at least as tricky as the managed part, to the difficulty of this project.
Short version: nope, sorry.
GoodDayToDie said:
Android apps on WP7 would be incredibly difficult, though theoretically it could be done with enough effort.
Most Android apps use Dalvik (a dialect of Java). This is totally incompatible with the Silverlight/C# that WP7 apps use, but there are enough similarities between them that it might be possible to build a tool that either translates the Dalvik instructions to MSIL (the binary that compiling C# produces) at launch, or dynamically interprets it (the latter would be very slow, though).
However, even with purely Dalvik apps, there are other problems. WP7 apps are limited to a very restrictive sandbox, with no access to the vast majority of the filesystem (for example). Android apps, by comparison, have a great deal of access to the device they run on, so even a very simple app may expect to have permissions that wouldn't be available on WP7. Instead, attempts to access restricted parts of the filesystem would have to be "virtually" redirected within the sandbox. This is possible in many cases, but a *lot* of work to code and has all kinds of weird edge cases.
Additionally, Android apps have a very different runtime model from WP7 apps. The biggest change is in how they handle leaving the foreground; WP7 apps are either suspended or dehydrated, while Android apps often just keep running (they can elect to suspend, but aren't required to). WP7 does support background tasks (with strict limitations, at least if you stick to the official APIs), but moving the Android app runtime into those background tasks would be quite difficult.
Finally, there's the issue of hybrid apps (apps that use native code in addition to managed runtimes like Sliverlight or Dalvik). These are much more common on Android than on WP7 (at least, than on WP7 outside this webite). Android runs on a Linux kernel, using POSIX system calls and APIs. WP7 runs on a CE kernel, using win32 system calls and APIs. There's a very loose mapping from one to the other (see the Wine project for running Win32 apps on desktop Linux) but it adds a lot of overhead and would be another layer, at least as tricky as the managed part, to the difficulty of this project.
Short version: nope, sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was quite disheartening for the OP
But I liked the thorough explanation.
for curiosity, which apps are you looking for?
Thanks a million for the detailed reply. I can give up on this now otherwise would have gone crazy searching. As for the apps I wanted to use Rako which basically controls the lighting in my house and creston media which controls my theatre. These I can't live without.
Additional ones would be anonymous email and sms bomb.( to bug my friends)
as for the lighting you got me..
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
buffalosolja42 said:
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crestron controls my theater as a whole i.e lights, projector, blu ray etc. I just need to press 1 button and lights dim, screen comes down, blurry starts playing and so on. For the xbox controller its only for the xbox
buffalosolja42 said:
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
drupad2drupad said:
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay im a noob and i have noooo idea what that is
drupad2drupad said:
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is just for developers who want to port their app.
jessenic said:
That is just for developers who want to port their app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! So yes, Android app can come to WP, only if developers are hard working to port it.
However, I haven't done more than making ROMs for WM, Themes for Android, but I am currently porting 2 apps from Android to WP. Honestly, all porting is made so dead easy that a little bit of English and Bing at hand, and you are off to a great start! It's slow process but anyone can port if they want to.

How About Android for Desktops...

Another discussion where I posted a version of this led me to thinking that this might make for an interesting topic all on its own.
How would you envision a port of android made specifically for Desktop/Laptop environments, and do you think such an OS would be appealing to the average user?
_______________________________
As I envision it, ChromeOS should be folded into Android 4.0 and Google should build a version of the combined OS for Desktops.
The idea would be to create a common ecosystem of apps and usage environment accross multiple device categories, ad have it all interconnected through Google products and other apps running in the background.
I envision something that boots instantly right into ChromeOS while the rest of the Android system boots up in the background, thus allowing you virtually immediate cloud based functionality on the desktop. You could even choose to ONLY boot into chrome, say if you needed to look up something quickly online and didn't want to fully turn on a computer that has been turned off.
The chrome side of things would be very similar to ICS for tablets and would be deeply linked to all things google as well as relying on versions of the same Google apps that run on mobile, but optimized for ICS and taking advantage of larger screen dimensions. I envision touch interface to be retained for those who have touch sensitive screens, but also better keyboard and touchpad/mouse controls than currently exist. Lastly I would bundle a Google fork of Libre office specifically designed to have deep automatic integration with Google docs and Google+, but allowing users to have local editing control.
I would love to have such a system and have a common ecosystem between my phone, tablet and desktop/laptop, much how Apple currently does with IOs devices and MacOS and how Microsoft is planning to do with Windows 8 and WP8. unlike those ecosystems, this would run variants of the same OS, as opposed to different OSs made to work together, thus being able to take advantage of current built up knowledge and the existing android market.
Imagine if Google did the entire thing open sourced and released it to desktop and laptop OEMs.
A guy can dream right? If only there was a way to have a bunch of people pitch it to Google.
What do you guys think and how would you envision such an OS?
Android is already going to be merged with the Linux kernel in version 3.3 (with improved power management in 3.4)
nejc121 said:
Android is already going to be merged with the Linux kernel in version 3.3 (with improved power management in 3.4)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sure about that? From what I've read Android is going to provide it's drivers and both Android and linux are going to provide patches to each other's kernels (with Power management being addressed in later versions of the linux kernel (3.4?). The Android kernel will remain (at least for now) a fork of the linux kernel.
Still that doesn't really address the subject of this thread.
Santeno said:
As I envision it, ChromeOS should be folded into Android 4.0 and Google should build a version of the combined OS for Desktops.
I envision something that boots instantly right into ChromeOS while the rest of the Android system boots up in the background, thus allowing you virtually immediate cloud based functionality on the desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i too dream of Google using all the OS & games tech experience they have gained from Android to bootstrap a full desktop OS.
My personal fantasy is that the under no circumstances include any of the Chrome Cloud based nonsense. But focus quite heavily on games and multimedia, offer an OS that delivers content & gaming rather than try going head to head on productivity (where they would get owned).
Am not going to go into my objections to the cloud concept, lots of geeks my age & older well remember the mainframe model from the 70's and the cloud suffers many of the same inherent flaws IMHO.
I addition my fantasy involves ARM leveraging the experience with the multi-cores they have developed to produce an ARM desktop CPU arrays, as am a big fan or clusters and arrays, render farms etc.
I have to confess being serious i don't see either happening since both would be attempting to breaking into markets they are inexperienced in and where entrenched competitors already have a tough obstacle course laid out, plus pretty deep war chests.
But the main issue with a Google desktop OS, IMHO to succeed, i think it would have to be capable of some kind of half decent x86 emulation ........... But hey we are talking 'The Brothers Grimms Tales of Silicone Valley' here anyways.
Its possible to do so now, albeit not the same experince you get on your phone or tablet due to lack of driver support Its how i checked out 4.0 before I got it on my Asus Transformer Prime. Worth a try!
(Im new to XDA so I cannot post links, however google "android x86 download" and its the first link.)
There are ready is a port of android that works on desktops that these guys are working on over at http://www.android-x86.org/.

[Q][Discussion] What new feature should any next OS have in your opinion?

While Android provides many opportunities, I still feel it's quite limited. I'm interested in hearing what you'd like to see in any next operating system for mobile devices.
The thing I'd like to see with future operating systems (not exclusive to mobile OS's actually), is full integrating of app functions in the OS so that they can be shared between apps. Or rather, so you can actually perform every function from within the OS environment. An office app isn't a standalone app providing a new environment to work in, no, it provides its capabilities to the OS. Have a powerful calculator app? Have its functions integrate in the OS, available to you in any appropriate project you're working on with the office functions - all still from the OS. Games can still be standalone, I reckon, I'm not sure how these would add new functions.
A different way to look at it, is 'codecs': The OS is capable of handling everything there are codecs for. Want to edit an .mp3? An app provided you with the functions and code to have the OS create an appropriate 'app environment', with the style from the OS itself (which would provide truly universal theme support, too).
So, what ideas do you folks have?
Cusomization
I think more OSes need to be able to be modified without hacking. There should be more options to change colors, use custom pictures, or even be able to write your own "widgets", something like render script but even noobier. Quite a lot of people like to customize their devices, people like this devices to reflect themselves,we can see this from the large amount of jailbreak themes on iOS, or even theming on android.
Why DirectX is more powerful than OpenGL?...guys we need to see pretty graphics on ubuntu...why I can't use the full power of my geforce card on ubuntu OS? I think they should make some changes.
Also ubuntu drains battery too fast they should focus on this issue.
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better apps on Ubuntu! Gaming specifically.
For ubuntu os just app support
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definitely more ubuntu support

Android phone powered Desktop

Android devices are so powerful today, and the hardware is becoming so powerful that I don't think that the software is utilising that.
We already have much of the technology in devices of today to enable a desktop environment to be streamed from our phones.
Display output: Chromecast (wireless display), MHL (Wired display & charger), etc.
Input methods: Bluetooth Keyboard & mouse, Accelerometer (to emulate mouse input), etc.
UI: Separate Launcher for the desktop UI.
With Microsoft bringing Windows 10 later this year as one OS for both the Phone & Desktop, surely that will allow them to work better in sync with one another, but that will still require a separate desktop computer and phone to create this kind of experience.
But Google now has the chance to simply output a separate UI from the same device that can display a phone UI all at the same time.
If we look at past launches of major Android builds then this coming Google I/O would be the perfect time to announce something like this, since they say that they usually deliver one major build that focuses on UI, and then one that focuses on major feature integration.
And not only would this allow for us to take our desktop with us everywhere in our pocket and connect wirelessly to any compatible display but also it could enable people in poorer economies to buy one device which could give them better access to the internet with a portable display integrated into the device, and also they could connect to the larger displays to browse the web or work on office documents with apps such as 'Google Docs'.
This could really be useful for people who wish to use their device in the work place too.
With Android mobile now offering multiple user profiles on their phones, surely they could create one profile for work, with all of their work apps available in both their phone and desktop UI's, but also a personal profile with all of their media applications & games available when out of work.
The desktop tower may still be useful for a few years to enable support for legacy applications whilst we are waiting for those applications to be ported over to Android/Android Desktop, but that shouldn't take too long considering how quickly we are see'ing apps becoming available to Android offering the kind of services that many of us desire, and if the developers only need to create one application back end for both the Desktop mode & phone mode, then it will be much quicker to bring apps to market with a small bit of time required to make a UI which can be scaled between the phone & desktop mode well.
There are multiple projects trying to create this very experience, but if it was a major part of the Android OS then finally people will get the experience that many people are waiting for, you only have to look at the comments on the developer pages of these projects to see that many people want this kind of experience.
With 64-bit now supported in Android too there is less of a reason to hold back this kind of experience.
I agree totally. Is this the only thread on this subject? Was going to setup Chromecast for video and Bluetooth for keyboard, mouse and audio. Doing this on a Jiayu S3A which is very powerful. Would like one place to discuss what works and what doesn't. Launcher options also need to be discussed.

Remaking Web OS inbuilt applications from scratch and replacing it with existing system Apps?

The new RootMyTV exploit brings a lot of ideas to my mind one of them being , replacing the inbuilt system apps with rebuilt versions that have much more control and maybe a better UI.(But still a similar UI otherwise it will become super hard for people to use it.)
The new Inbuilt app (Settings app in this case) can have (Not limited to):
Finer control over the options
Always upto date UI (Web OS 5.0 UI on older devices , Web OS 6.0 seems to be a fully non-multitasking OS)
Adding newer features from the newer devices as soon as possible.(Game optimizer comes to mind)
But there is a problem , the OS seems to be using Verified Boot so is this possible? Will we have to create some kind of Magisk but for Web OS?(Web Os is based on Linux)
If you do have any ideas please do share.
We probably will not be testing them immediately on the TV's (No one wants a 2000+ dollar paperweight) and instead using the emulator.
Since I have been changing the system a lot myself for quite a while now, I can say that at least the UI of the apps should be relatively easy to replace (most of them are based on web technologies). The easiest way to modify / replace webOS / default palm apps should be via overlayfs.
But I'm also always a little 'confused' (in a lack of a better friendly description) about the countless strange questions from several users, whether you can e.g. install webOS 6 on a device with webOS 4, if you can enable feature X of a newer generation on your TV or how you can use the root access to defeat copy protection mechanisms for obviously illegal purposes.
There's obviously a lack of a basic understanding how an operation system in general and especially on a TV works. The different generations have different hardware that require the corresponding proprietary drivers, kernel modules and system services written by LG (which are of course closed source).
Obviously, this means that it is virtually impossible for most features of newer devices to be made available on older devices.
For example, you can rebuild the UI of the Game Optimizer, but the functionalities of it are not easily backward portable. If a TV does not support VRR, for example, there is nothing you can activate in this regard.
There are a very few exceptions, like OLED Motion Pro, which can be enabled on 2019 models - but only because this feature is already supported by the TVs and was disabled at the last minute before release. OLED Motion Pro will never activate on a 2018 (or earlier) model!
I hope this helps a little better to understand what is possible and what is not. UI / UX yes, functionalities and features not or only to a very limited extent.
I do know about the feature enabling limitations etc.
By adding newer features I meant the UI/GUI of the newer features , we cant really do anything other than that.

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