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Android Software Thread - Tasty Desserts, Tastier Apps

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so i just got a G2 from amazon wireless (with that awesome $50 deal)

only issue so far: all these stupid extra bloatware apps...had to root it and disable a bunch, which has more than doubled my battery life with everyday use (from a little over 24h to more than 50h). ended up disabling the photobucket, google finance, facebook, and twitter apps, plus a few proprietary t-mobile and htc apps.

it's pretty stupid that anybody would sell a phone that comes preloaded with software that basically cripples it.

everything else about the phone is great, but that probably belongs in the hardware thread :P
 
Whatsapp was updated with emoticons (no more empty squares while chatting with iPhone users!), bubble view and extra smoothness, fuck yeah!
 
Ok one & all I think next payday I'm going for a droid phone. This thread has really been informative but any other reads I should glance before diving in?
 
Urban Scholar said:
Ok one & all I think next payday I'm going for a droid phone. This thread has really been informative but any other reads I should glance before diving in?
Click to expand...

Android Hardware thread for deciding which phone.
Android Customization thread for seeing how awesome everything is.
 
bggrthnjsus said:
so i just got a G2 from amazon wireless (with that awesome $50 deal)

only issue so far: all these stupid extra bloatware apps...had to root it and disable a bunch, which has more than doubled my battery life with everyday use (from a little over 24h to more than 50h). ended up disabling the photobucket, google finance, facebook, and twitter apps, plus a few proprietary t-mobile and htc apps.

it's pretty stupid that anybody would sell a phone that comes preloaded with software that basically cripples it.

everything else about the phone is great, but that probably belongs in the hardware thread :P
Click to expand...


What did you disable?
 
I feel kind of dumb, but I just installed Google Street View and I don't know where it is? Does it just become a component of Maps or should it have it's own app icon?
 
Futureman said:
I feel kind of dumb, but I just installed Google Street View and I don't know where it is? Does it just become a component of Maps or should it have it's own app icon?
Click to expand...
I believe it is just a component of maps
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
What did you disable?
Click to expand...
photobucket, google finance, twitter, facebook, tts, t-mobile account apps, and a couple htc things. seems to run fine still. i want to disable the picasa gallery app too, because every now and then i will catch that running in the bg too, and i want nothing to do with it. still think it's nuts that i could get 2.5x the battery life by disabling a bunch of bloatware.
 
I finally finished up my game screen. It took about 2 days wolrth of work.

snap20101126_181308.png


When clicking on any of the box arts it goes straight to the game title screen. The widgets are scrollable. I had to download each individual cover. Once I had them dl'ed I noticed the images looked a little funky and raw so I had to add borders around all of them. The apps I used were, Folder Organizer(full),Desktop visualizer, launcher pro plus, PhotoShop mobile.
 
thespot84 said:
very nice work. Does it slow down launcher pro at all, especially when the launcher decides to re-draw?
Click to expand...

I turned off landscape mode so there is no need to redraw the widgets. Going in and out of landscape is the number 1 why launcher pro force closes.
 
Gingerbread looks nice but it isn't a big enough clean up, the dial pad is still ugly.

The other night my aunt forgot to change the T-Mobile restrictions and navigated and unblocked it on the flash site on my Droid. I didn't expect it to work when I saw the site was in flash but all the menus and buttons worked perfectly. I don't love Flash but I love having it on my phone, from embedded media on blogs to Tiny Shark and other random times it seems to always come in handy.
 
So, I'm considering rooting because I want 2.3 for my Droid X as soon as possible.

How does this work though? Will there not be a 2.3 root for Droid X until the Motorola official pushes out 2.3 for the X? Or will someone be able to take 2.3 that is meant for the Nexus One and port it to Droid X?
 
So opening up Maps now automatically turns my GPS on.

I could have sworn you always had to manually turn it on. Was this in a recent update to Maps, or did I somehow set it that way?
 
Futureman said:
So, I'm considering rooting because I want 2.3 for my Droid X as soon as possible.

How does this work though? Will there not be a 2.3 root for Droid X until the Motorola official pushes out 2.3 for the X? Or will someone be able to take 2.3 that is meant for the Nexus One and port it to Droid X?
Click to expand...

Not sure how the DX works since I don't have one, but with the D1 its a bit of both.

Updates for the D1 are usually leaked or someone ports a rom over from another phone.
 
Futureman said:
So opening up Maps now automatically turns my GPS on.

I could have sworn you always had to manually turn it on. Was this in a recent update to Maps, or did I somehow set it that way?
Click to expand...

Do you mean that when you open maps the GPS indicator shows up at the top? It's always been that way. On my phone GPS is awlays enabled but only active or running when an app that uses it is open.
 
I need a podcast app that doesn't suck balls (Listen) and doesn't have ridiculous limits (myPod)

I listen to maybe a dozen podcasts and would like an app that downloads them when they become available and lets me listen to them easily. Willing to pay a few bucks if I have to, provided it works as well as say iTunes does for podcasts.
 
So I just got my dx a few days ago and have been looking into rooting my phone. Only thing is is that I want to do a test run where I am able to go back to stock if I want to easily. I tried doing the temporary root with z4 but every time I try to run titanium backup or busy box both say my phone isn't rooted. I really only want to root to remove the bloat apps so if anyone has a simple way to do so that would be great
 
Visualante said:
I need a podcast app that doesn't suck balls (Listen) and doesn't have ridiculous limits (myPod)

I listen to maybe a dozen podcasts and would like an app that downloads them when they become available and lets me listen to them easily. Willing to pay a few bucks if I have to, provided it works as well as say iTunes does for podcasts.
Click to expand...
Doggcatcher is your best bet.
 
Anyone recommend some good games for the ZTE Blade?

I've currently got Angry Birds, Fruit Frenzy, Robo Defence, Scrabble, Gem Miner, Doodle Jump, Peggy.

Any other good free/paid games that are must haves?
 
Just wanted to say for anyone who is rooted, I have been rocking the MIUI rom for the last two days on my Evo and it is fucking great. I like it more than any other ROM I've tried. Miui-dev.com support is great and they're still growing, and many people on XDA are theming and shit for it.

Try it out if you're looking for something new.
 
IcebergSlim3000 said:
I finally finished up my game screen. It took about 2 days wolrth of work.

snap20101126_181308.png


When clicking on any of the box arts it goes straight to the game title screen. The widgets are scrollable. I had to download each individual cover. Once I had them dl'ed I noticed the images looked a little funky and raw so I had to add borders around all of them. The apps I used were, Folder Organizer(full),Desktop visualizer, launcher pro plus, PhotoShop mobile.
Click to expand...

This is awesome. I'm a total android newb and just picked up a Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) phone yesterday. It's basically my first smart phone. I would love to customize my setup to be something like that, but don't really know how this is done. Do you do it on your PC then upload the layout to your phone?

Also are you using the emulators that are on the app market?

Does anyone have any "must-have" apps for it? I've been googling various "top 25 apps" and such and have gotten some good stuff, but I figure gaf probably will know all of the obscure gems.

Edit: A few more questions... is 2.2 firmware available on Galaxy S yet? If not does anyone know when it will be? I'd really like those SD management features among the other benefits. Edit 2: Nevermind about the folder question, figured it out.
 
Speedymanic said:
Anyone recommend some good games for the ZTE Blade?

I've currently got Angry Birds, Fruit Frenzy, Robo Defence, Scrabble, Gem Miner, Doodle Jump, Peggy.

Any other good free/paid games that are must haves?
Click to expand...

Slice It! is pretty good.
 
Finally started development. Been putting it off for ages but I got a brilliant idea for a game and I need to step up my ante.

Still messing around with Layouts and shit to get used to the whole thing. Any tips from developists?
 
Speedymanic said:
Anyone recommend some good games for the ZTE Blade?

I've currently got Angry Birds, Fruit Frenzy, Robo Defence, Scrabble, Gem Miner, Doodle Jump, Peggy.

Any other good free/paid games that are must haves?
Click to expand...
Imo SpeedX 3d is a must (fast tunnel accelerometer game). So is Squibble, a polished and different platformer. Other than that I recommend Orange Pixel games (Jumpy is a casual, high score platformer. Mini Army is a nice take on classic Snake, they also have some other cool games like a Lemmings-inspired platformer) as well as Com2us games.

Also MiniSquadron, Fruit Ninja, Super Jump and Beats if you're looking for a music game. I don't really follow the gaming scene anymore but some new cool games have popped up like Slice It.
 
I really wish a version of Phase" (from ipod classic) would come out for Android. It's still my favorite mobile game.
 
MisterAnderson said:
This is awesome. I'm a total android newb and just picked up a Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) phone yesterday. It's basically my first smart phone. I would love to customize my setup to be something like that, but don't really know how this is done. Do you do it on your PC then upload the layout to your phone?

Also are you using the emulators that are on the app market?
Click to expand...

Everything was done on the phone with apps I downloaded. The only nonmarket app I used was launcher pro plus to resize the widgets.
 
So is "rooting" android phones recommended? It sounds like the benefits (removing bloatware, etc.) would be worth it, but I'm worried that by doing so it would not allow me to update my Vibrant to 2.2 when it's released for it. Can anyone tell me if it's worth the trouble and if you know for a fact if updating firmware is not a problem after doing it?

Also, I noticed some emulators on the marketplace (SNES, NES, etc.) I'm assuming those are just the emulators, then you need to upload ROMs to the SD card and just browse for the ROM files using the emulator? Are the main emulators listed on the front page of the marketplace the best ones?
 
josephdebono said:
Finally started development. Been putting it off for ages but I got a brilliant idea for a game and I need to step up my ante.

Still messing around with Layouts and shit to get used to the whole thing. Any tips from developists?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much just starting out too, but I do have a simple app up on the market. No specific tips that I can think of, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to PM. :D
 
MisterAnderson said:
So is "rooting" android phones recommended? It sounds like the benefits (removing bloatware, etc.) would be worth it, but I'm worried that by doing so it would not allow me to update my Vibrant to 2.2 when it's released for it. Can anyone tell me if it's worth the trouble and if you know for a fact if updating firmware is not a problem after doing it?

Also, I noticed some emulators on the marketplace (SNES, NES, etc.) I'm assuming those are just the emulators, then you need to upload ROMs to the SD card and just browse for the ROM files using the emulator? Are the main emulators listed on the front page of the marketplace the best ones?
Click to expand...

rooting doesnt affect you being able to update. You will probably lose root after an update and would have to re-root (possibly with a different exploit if the old one was patched). Going to a different ROM would affect the update, but just rooting and use root apps doesnt. Its one of the things that if you have any a usb cable, you should do. There are some good beneficial apps available that require root and make it worthwhile. Titanium backup, setcpu, etc. You can also flash your recovery if you are so inclined that lets you do some full backups, etc. The new recovery's can also flash signed update.zip's so there is no drawback on that side
 
bggrthnjsus said:
photobucket, google finance, twitter, facebook, tts, t-mobile account apps, and a couple htc things. seems to run fine still. i want to disable the picasa gallery app too, because every now and then i will catch that running in the bg too, and i want nothing to do with it. still think it's nuts that i could get 2.5x the battery life by disabling a bunch of bloatware.
Click to expand...

Did you follow a specific set of directions to root your g2? Even though I rooted my G1, I still find this stuff confusing, especially the how to on xda forums.
 
Bit of a customization question...

I'm wanting to create a couple of folders of apps , and then i want to use desktop visualizer to link to these two separate folders with different icons that i made myself. Is there any way i can do this? I've tried some app organiser apps but it only seems to work with their own shortcuts?
 
Gps fix for samsung captivate out on market but it does not fix anything. Just resets the gps settings. Jesus I don't think I'll ever get gps working here.
 
Cindres said:
Bit of a customization question...

I'm wanting to create a couple of folders of apps , and then i want to use desktop visualizer to link to these two separate folders with different icons that i made myself. Is there any way i can do this? I've tried some app organiser apps but it only seems to work with their own shortcuts?
Click to expand...
Smart Shortcuts lets you pic icons from the image gallery, not sure if it supported folders though. It supports tags internally, so that migh work just as well.
 
kaching said:
Smart Shortcuts lets you pic icons from the image gallery, not sure if it supported folders though. It supports tags internally, so that migh work just as well.
Click to expand...

Figured it out in the end. In desktop visualizer select "other" as opposed to "Launch Application" under 'Select Action', and when you select smart icons it will then give you the option to choose which folder you'll be opening when you click it.
 
I purchased the SNesoid emulator app and am messing around with it now with DKC2. I'm having trouble reliably running and jumping accidentally engaging Dixie's hair spin/glide move when I don't mean to.

I'm guessing it has something to do with the "two button press" settings, can anyone recommend the best settings for this?

(Galaxy S, virtual key input)
 
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