So the Verizon 4.0.4 upgrade is currently sitting on my phone but not sure I want to install it. I am worried Verizon will have come up with a way to block the free Wifi tether you can do right now using a control widget and I don't want to lose that.

 

Unless you're running a custom recovery (in which the update will fail and won't ever bother you about the update again), I think eventually the phone will be forced to update after a couple of reboots.

 

Verizon Galaxy Nexus going for a penny for new users and $149 for upgraders at Amazon Wireless right now:

http://wireless.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-Android-Wireless/dp/B0061R2A1S/?tag=androidpolice-20&ref_=tsm_1_tw_s_aw_m55kpu&ie=UTF8&transaction=INDIVIDUAL_NEW&sr=2-1-entd&qid=1338911872556

 

Microsoft just released a Tasker like app in the Play Store called on{x}:


https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...rosoft.onx.app

https://dev.onx.ms/blog

https://www.onx.ms/#!landingPage


Its basically Tasker for noobs. Helps them create an "If Then" kind of processing. Right now it requires a Facebook account to use and lots of the reviews are negative for that reason. lol. Haven't tried it out yet but it looks like it works pretty well. Here are the other alternatives that let you do the same function but not as user friendly:


Tasker:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...C50YXNrZXJtIl0.


Llama:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...JhYi5MbGFtYSJd

 

MattedBlues for CM9 is now out in the market:

CUdRa.png rtS1M.png

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...RibHVlc2ljcyJd


Loved this theme in CM7 and its just as good on CM9. The boss theme came a close second but it only works on HDPI devices:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1678999

 

ASUS Padfone Review:


http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/6/306...padfone-review


I like the design of the phone and I like how ASUS didn't skin ICS too much. Looks pretty nice overall.

 

Forgot to add this video:


The original TF101 Keyboard dock works with the PadFone.

 

 

So I finally can compare the Sammy G3 to the Sammy G2 Skyrocket, which is more advanced than the regular Sammy G2. To a degree, I think the Skyrocket was a proto-type for the G3.

The G3 has about 100 more ppl, so the screen is probably gorgeous. It's got some cool software and is running ICS. Battery life is a bit better. I also have mixed feeling about a physical home button.

Besides that, the Skyrocket has a slightly faster processor than the American G3. (why couldn't they put the quad core in the American version?)

I think unless ATT does something crazy like a $99 upgrade, I'm skipping to the G4.

 

Excellent comparison of the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X both international versions:

 

While they're both Dual Core and made by Qualcomm, they're different generations. The SkyRocket has a Qualcomm S3 (45 nm) while the recent Android phones are using Qualcomm S4 (28 nm) dual cores. That extra generation brings in some improvements such as better battery life due to the die shrink, a little bit faster overall CPU wise and most notably memory wise, better GPU capability and a few other things over the previous gen.

Also, don't forget that the SIII will have 2 GB of RAM something that no other Android phone has at the moment and will be a great factor when you're multitasking. Is it an upgrade from a SkyRocket? Depends on what you need. If you want a 720p phone that'll be futureproof for a while with great XDA support, then yeah the GS III is the phone to get or the HTC One X which uses the same chip in the US. I doubt the SkyRocket will be getting the same amount of dev support or Samsung support that the GSIII will because the GS III is a flagship phone while the SkyRocket was more a push for a first LTE phone for AT&T than anything.

Finally, the reason why the US variants aren't getting the quad cores is due to LTE. The Exynos and Tegra 3s currently don't support the proper LTE radios required by the US carriers. Those variants will come later this year though some time in the fall. So for now they have to use the Qualcomm S4s which do a decent job performance wise compared to the quads.


To get more info about the differences between the two dual cores you can read up on the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdra...#Snapdragon_S3

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5559/q...5-benchmarks/3

 

So not sure how many of you saw the news about Linaro optimizing Android 4.0.4 twice as fast as stock:


Benchmark demo of speed improvements on a Panda Board:



Explanation of what they're doing to optimize Android:



Tech lead's vision on the future of Linaro and Android:



More info:

http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/06/...oard-omap4430/


http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/20...-galaxy-nexus/


So it seems that Linaro is optimizing the Android 4.0.4 code and cleaning up the code allowing it to be compiled on the latest toolchain which brings performance increases all around. The good news is that all of these changes are being pushed back to AOSP so they can possibly be incorporated into future Android builds! CyanogenMod is also reviewing some of these changes as we speak and hopefully they get merged into future nightlies.

http://review.cyanogenmod.com/#/c/17380/

http://review.cyanogenmod.com/#/c/17388/


If you want to try out a Linaro Android build for the Nexus, someone at XDA compiled one:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1700442

^Only for the GSM and Verizon CDMA Nexus. Other devices will have to check their appropriate threads as people try to incorporate the tweaks Linaro made to Android. I haven't had the time to try it out but I think I'll wait until CyanogenMod incorporates it into their builds.

 

Traded in my Samsung Galaxy 7 plus for the Plus 2 with ICS on it and much better.

 

So just flashed the latest CM9 nightly for the Galaxy Nexus cause I can't sleep right now. lol. Any way, some of the Linaro changes have been merged into the latest CM9 Nightlies. Also, the new Cid Boot Animation is in the newest nightlies. The other devices are being built right now but they should be up within the next few hours at the usual place:

http://get.cm

As far as I can tell, the transition animation is just a tad bid faster and launching apps seems faster. Multitasking seems smoother as well but nothing major overall. Then again my device was already smooth to begin with. My Galaxy Nexus with Franco's 181 Wheatley Governor flies as it is already so the Linaro stuff is just extras at this point. Maybe I'll see some differences with my Galaxy S which should be up in a few.

 

Okay I can definitely say scrolling is a lot smoother than before. Very noticeable difference compared to previous builds.

 

those of you with cm9 in the performance setting, do you check mark the "allow purging of assets" and "kernel samepage merging"

 

I leave them as is (unchecked). I think those options were made for the devices with smaller amounts of RAM. Also, more Linaro code merged in today's nightly. Seems there's a few more incoming but scrolling is definitely a lot smoother than before.

 

Anyone seen this app, Super Video, Floating & PopUp:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...9wdXBWaWRlbyJd


Its similar to the Galaxy S III's floating video player.


Someone is also making an app similar to their Smart Stay which does facial recognition to keep the screen on for you as long as it sees your face, ISeeYou:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1701363

 

I have a question...

I am trying to mirror my Galaxy Note to a screen with a Video RCA input....i tried the MHL adapter but it wudnt display as the screen does not have the HDMI input and the HDMI to RGB converter didnt work as it was supposed to....

any idea ?

PS: am still running GB....ATT has not released the ICS upgrade...

 

Have you tried the MHL adapter to an HDMI monitor by itself? The MHL adapter needs to be plugged in to an A/C source while it is outputting a display. If it works on a monitor with HDMI, then it could be possible your HDMI to RCA converter isn't working? Unless you've used it before for something else.

 

How so? From what I've been reading the 7+ is better hardware wise, the plus 2 just comes with ICS from the factory. Samsung has promised the 7+ will eventually get ICS, but we're stuck with honeycomb for the time being.

 

I'm on sundays nightly for CM9, and i def do see improvements. I did also check mark those, didnt notice anything yet. Havent been stressing my phone too much though

 

It seems more patches are being merged each nightly so its definitely not done or even working properly yet. JBQ from Google already mentioned they've also started merging some of the codes so we should be seeing these optimizations in future Android builds.

 

T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II ICS now out for download. Everything you need to know at T-Mobile's site:

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-3029

Note that there won't be an OTA for this. Not sure why T-Mobile never does OTA for their Samsung phones. Kies is crap.

 

whats JBQ? And damn even google is gonna use their code? Google is probalby gonna hire them lol

 

He's the guy that pushes the latest Google images to developer.android.com

https://plus.google.com/112218872649456413744/posts

https://twitter.com/#!/jbqueru


If you search Google+ for "Linaro Jean-Baptiste Queru" and skim through his twitter feed, you can see him answering questions about Linaro. But yes, this whole Linaro thing is what happens when open source is done properly. Anyone can contribute and make changes if they wanted to the system and on the fly.

Unfortunately, the Linaro changes won't ever be 100% because the Graphics companies refuse to open source their stuff and create proprietary blobs that only they can decipher and tweak. They say its mainly to keep their companies at a competitive advantage but I'd rather see them open source it so people can optimize their crap. I'm sure there are other reasons too but the advent of Github really pushed open source fairly well.


Oh just flashed the latest nightly again just now 6/12. Even smoother than the previous nightly. Not sure how to put it in words but its more of a feel than anything.

 

Ahem....I know. I tested the 7 2 and even with weaker hardware (so they say) the 2 was much smoother then the +. I got tired of waiting for the ICS update.

 

CM RC builds coming soon?

https://twitter.com/#!/cyanogen


Looks like a code freeze coming up. For the people that don't like flashing Nightlies like me. lol.

 

Yes...the MHL to HDMI works but its sporadic....and looses connectivity multiple times....

and this is my setup now...dont laugh LOL

MHL --> HDMI to RGB --> RGC to svideo --> svideo to RCA video

another thing i noticed....if you connect the MHL adapter directly to your phone it works as a charm....the minute you use a micro usb extender cable, no bueno....

yes the microusb extender cable works, i use it for charging my phone and it works just fine....

 

Anyone else here have the new Evo? I replaced my Epic a week or two ago and I love the phone. The only gripe is that HTC really f'ed up the multitasking, it worked perfectly in naked ICS but is really agressive with killing background apps with Sense 4.0.

 

Yeah your setup sounds crazy. lol. I think when you use the micro extender its not picking up the extra pins from the MHL to tell the device its an MHL adapter. At least that's my theory.

Yeah I read about that. You should be able to change it with Root access:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1669074

^The method above requires a kernel with init.d support so it automatically applies the script after every reboot. You could manually input the commands every time you reboot though or use something like script manager from the play store.

 

Fair enough. I'm hoping they do eventually release ICS for the 7+ as promised. There's promising work on a CM9 port for it, but they're having problems with WiFi at the moment. Oh well, guess I'll wait and see. Can't really justify buying another tablet at the moment.

 

I just got tired of waiting. I was also pissed that Samsung released the 2 to begin with.

 

Damn that is bad news that you can't use a microUSB extender. There is a device coming out to mirror android phone onto factory navigation screen and I was looking at right angled micro usb cables so I could make the wiring as neat as possible to my phone dock. I don't want to see that stupid adapter out in plain sight.

 

yeah thats what i thought....i might try to use it to transfer data between my laptop and phone to see if all the pins exist and not just the power pin....

but before the MHL adapter existed, how did you guys mirror the screen on your "say" Galaxy S or other android devices ?

 

dude i have so many cables sitting at home and this shit wont work LOL....i spend like $50 on cables on Amazon and the worst thing is a return on Amazon....its sucks !!! takes 2 weeks to get your money back !!! after restocking fee and you pay for return shipping

 

I don't really use it to tell you the truth except on my tablet every now and then. On my Nexus I use the MHL adapter. On my Transformer I use the micro-HDMI --> HDMI adapter. On my Galaxy S, I used a Nokia Video Cable that I had from my N95. If you want to do it wirelessly, then you can do it using some apps from the Play Store.


https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ViYmxldXBucCJd

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...LmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..


There's plenty more just depends on what set up you have available. Stock TouchWiz and maybe Sense ROMs have AllPlay built in which will allow you to connect your phone to any device that is AllPlay compatible.

 

An app similar to WiFi Kill I posted a few months back:



More info:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...XRzcG9vZmVyIl0.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1692921

http://digitalsquid.co.uk/2012/01/ho...spoofer-works/


You need root. It won't work if the router is blocking ARP as always.

 

am trying to connect it to a 7" screen in my car....all it has is a video input....

no wifi no BT no nothing....what you got for me

 

I just downloaded a rom for the EVO 4G which has HTC Sense 4.0 in it. It's bugless and is still on trials. I'll be using it until my contract is up for renewal in Nov. to get the new EVO 4G LTE. This is the next best thing until that day comes.

Here are some screen shots...