Here is a great photosphere picture taken in France:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11419...65561338905602

panorama:


and tiny planet:



Pretty much perfect in low light. Impressive.

 

This is the reason why I didn't go for the S3 or even wait for the S4. It sucked being on the Galaxy S when I had it because of what you mentioned. There were half assed ROMs where 911 emergency call wouldn't work and GPS would not lock. Even Cyanogen gave up on that crap and moved on to something better.

 

didnt know that... well the TW Roms aren't that bad

so far.... I mean I'm not missing out on anything other ROMS have right now I think. But that will of course change as soon as key limpe pie comes out...

 

I was mainly speaking in regards with my experience with the Galaxy S. The S3 has a much bigger community so I'm sure it is better than the Galaxy S community.

 

^Pretty nice Photosphere. I wonder why the Nexus 4 photospheres look better than the Galaxy Nexus photospheres. It seems like every time I upload a photosphere from my phone, it gets compressed and its a lot more pixelated than what it looks like from the raw file on my phone.



The T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy S had a different hardware compared to all the other GSM based Galaxy S variants which made it difficult to port certain things to it. I forget exactly what it was but it caused the 911 bug. The GPS was always crappy on the Galaxy S although they did fix it in later revisions so that wasn't really CM related. The Galaxy S actually had the largest group of users outside of the Motorola Droid and the dev community is/was pretty great on the device. If you look at the CM stats, the Galaxy S models still make up one of the largest groups on there because Samsung sold a lot of them. I have the international version and it works flawlessly with CM 10.1 sans the Photosphere because the phone lacks a gyroscope. Also, the battery is not as good as it was on stock TouchWiz Gingerbread but that's probably because they're using a modified RIL to get it to work properly.

The reason they were able to port the latest Android updates to it was because of the Nexus S using almost the same hardware as the GSM Galaxy S variants. I believe the Camera and the storage partition was where they differed. Otherwise, they were pretty much the same phone. Outside of 4.2, I don't think they'll have an easy time porting the later updates since the Nexus S probably isn't going to get Key Lime Pie so that means no sources for the Hummingbird processor amongst the other things. Its okay though, the phone is old especially in Android terms so its time to move on from that phone. Still use mine though once in a while just to play with it.


Samsung phones are as good as the software that's released by Samsung. Like you said, once Key Lime Pie gets released, they'll take their time again in updating and releasing their sources which would mean you're looking at a couple months after Key Lime Pie to get the newest features again. Its not necessarily a bad thing as TouchWiz serves its own purpose but for the people wanting the latest Android builds, then Samsung is not the best choice at the moment until they figure out whether or not they want to help or hurt the community that built them.

tl;dr If you want the latest and greatest Android update, stick to the Nexus. Otherwise, get a device that closely resembles the Nexus line: Droid DNA, Xperia Z. Also, manufacturers that are openly allowing customization will help as well like Sony.

 

For those that haven't seen it, here's a demo of the Dragontail screen on the Xperia Z against water and sand:

 

LMT Launcher got updated to include the PIE gestures from Paranoid Android:


So no more need to install Paranoid Android! Get it from XDA:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1330150

You will need to be ROOTED to use this.

 

well i would have got a nexus if it wasnt sold out when it was first released...

and if my dad didnt get the note 2 and hand me his gs3....

but i'm happy with my purchase for now

 

Has it been confirmed by Sony that it is Dragontail?

------

So....... I have been offered a writing position at a tech/Android-related website..... I'm wondering if I should accept since I would love to write about stuff I love, but the only downside is that pay is almost nonexistent and I pretty much have to put my current career on pause.

 

I believe their guy demoing it at CES kept mentioning it was Dragontail. I forget which video it was but it was from their YouTube channel. Also, Gorilla glass would get destroyed in that sand. A quick Google search also brought this up:

http://www.4g.co.uk/news/sony-xperia..._10000049.html



If your career isn't related to it then I'd probably skip it especially if you're not getting paid well. I saw a post on r/Android a few weeks ago that offered something similar and thought about doing it as well. It was for a website based in Santa Monica and you had to write articles on how to troubleshoot common Android questions kinda like what was going on in this thread. Pay was supposedly part time and you could write the articles at home but I passed on it cause I wasn't sure if you needed to know how to code.

 

Anyone here playing on Ingress? Started messing around with it on my lunch breaks. Pretty fun around here in Pomona cause there's a bunch of portals around where I eat. The portals seem to be historic landmarks and libraries. Haven't really gone in too depth with it yet but the area I'm at is pretty much covered by the Resistance group which is what I chose to join. It seems more balanced out in LA where there's a bunch of Enlightened and Resistance taking over each other's portals. Keeps changing over there every time I look at the maps.

 

Yeah I played it. Did a lot in the beginning, but not so much lately. Just be careful not to go to any portals around police stations unless you enjoy an entire day of interrogation. Enlightened rules!

I managed to negotiate with that tech site and looks like I'll be able to continue my career while working for that site at the same time. We'll see if I collapse from lack of free time

 

Cool. Maybe you could give us the inside scoop in the future.

Yeah I joined the Resistance because when I got my invite there were more Enlightened. Now its the opposite. There was an Enlightened portal here yesterday but the guy claiming all the portals around here took over it. Kinda saw it in real time. Lol. Maybe I'll run into the guy maintaining his portals. I just happen to recharge his resonators which now give you 10 AP for doing so where before you got nothing.

 

Ingress... finally got the invite and download, but I live in the middle of nowhere so I haven't even tried. I don't even know which side I'm on.

Off-topic: Does anyone think the Galaxy S4 will be out before August 2013?

 

You get to pick a side after you finish the tutorial. You can check out what portals are around on their map:

http://www.ingress.com/intel

You can also submit portals to them but approval time seems to vary.


As for the S4, it'll probably be out in Europe by late May early June. The US variants will probably come out around late summer basing it on their previous launches.

 

lol sure. You guys could give me ideas on articles to write too.

 

I can't remember who has what phone here, but did anyone go from Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 4? And if so, is it worth it?

 

hmm maybe i should play the game... i dunno i'll download it and check it out. If theres anything on my way to class on campus, it will make it easy to go too...

 

The biggest problem about that game aside from lack of effort, is that most of the times, you don't remember to "play" the game until you have to use your phone later.

 

If the area you're in has a lot of historic landmarks, libraries, or statues then it gets a lot more interesting. Next to my house there's not much but where I'm at during the day in Pomona there's a bunch. As I was leaving today, someone from the Enlightened group took over the Resistance portals. My level was too low to do any damage on their resonators though. Lol.

 

I got the invite a couple weeks ago, and am still trying to figure it out... I should probably read up on it. But when I come across a portal, I don't even know if it's a Resistance's or Enlightened group's

 

The tutorial at the beginning does a pretty good job at explaining things. Green = Enlightened. Blue = Resistance. I just follow some of the communities on G+. They sometimes uncover codes which you could put in on the Ingress website that gives you extra AP and XM which help you level up faster.

https://plus.google.com/communities/...67875500436831


r/Ingress also has a pretty good FAQ that explains how things work:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...EtgTbkTGQ/view

The main premise really is a turf war between the Enlightened and the Resistance. You claim portals and you have to maintain them or hack them depending on which side you're on. And you have to collect XM to do any action which are spread all over the place.

 

just asked for an invite

i'm at usc, i'm guessing there should be a few on campus???

 

Oh definitely. LA has a bunch. Its pretty active too because there's a lot of people there.

 

People with the S3, i wanna know what battery life youre getting. Mainly you civic.


14h43m -2%

3h28m screen on time

 

I returned the phone so I couldnt give you any accurate numbers

 

wow dude!!!!

You need to upgrade!!

NS is too slow haha

 

Nothing worth upgrading to for me. The S3 has great hardware, but I wasn't really feeling the development side of it. I can't deal with bloated roms (TW), and making it look like stock with a different launcher wasn't doing it for me either. I couldnt get the camera on any vanilla rom to work, even when I played with the SlimISP_ZH.bin file.

I may play with the N4, but I dont like the non-replaceable battery. I work 10-18hr shifts and don't have any time to charge my phone throughout the work day. Having a battery that lasts a solid 20hrs is very important to me. I wish the Razr Maxx HD wasnt Verizon only

Whats sad is the Seidio 3500mah battery and holster came in yesterday. That wouldve been a great combo if I could get a vanilla rom on running properly. Its pathetic that a 2 year old phone can run vanilla 4.2 better then one of the better phones on the market today.

 

do you use your phone a lot in those hours?? The good thing about the TW ROMs though is that the battery life is really good.

Ehh i'm fine with this phone. I dont miss the unreliability haha

this will change eventually but for the short term i really think this is one of the best phones

 

I typically spend about 3hrs on the phone, when Im not on the phone Im listening to music. Screen on time is about 2hrs throughout the day. My 3500mah battery on the NS lasts about 21hrs on a charge with my usage. Battery life is imperative. I can't easily stop what Im doing and charge it. The NS just....works.

 

http://www.amazon.com/MOTOROLA-3300m.../dp/B0081CXN5I

Might want to verify the LTE bands though if they exist. HSPA+ seem to be quadband it looks like. Missing the 1700 band for T-Mobile so you won't get HSPA+ on T-Mobile where they use AWS. They have been moving towards the 1900 band in more dense areas though.

 

IIRC the HSPA+ bands are 1700/2100 on TMO.

 

Yeah although they're refarming to 1900 in more dense areas now which is why the AT&T iPhone's are able to get HSPA+ in certain areas. Otherwise you get 2G/EDGE in AWS areas.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/13/3...ago-sacramento

 

I bought this "GripGo" thingy for my car and it works great! The sticky surface is actually a bit too sticky, when I pull my Galaxy Nexus off, the battery cover gets pull off the phone lol...

 

^I thought of getting that a while back before I got the CD Slot Mount. I wonder how it works on hot days.

 

there's a note that actually said something about cold weather, and didn't mention anything about hot days

 

nifty. i just bought this recently

 

Anyone using SF Launcher?


Looks pretty nice. It looks like its based on the Google Now motif. Similar to that one UCCW setup on Mycolorscreen that I can't find right now.

 

Haven't had the chance to test this out, but it was just released today and its free. No root required (except if you're gonna use certain controllers):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ZXRyb2FyY2giXQ..


Its called RetroArch and it plays games on the following systems:

The app is also available on other platforms:

http://www.libretro.org/

 

This is a pretty nice setup:


http://mycolorscreen.com/2013/01/20/...ards-by-thand/

Maybe if I had some time I'd customize mine like that. For now, the CM 10 themes will do. Lol.