http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/battle-of-the-smartphones- iphone-4s-v-galaxy-s-iii-20120808-23sz9.html The above seems quite impressive. I've been waiting for someone to release a phone that can do video and still pictures at the same time and the ability to take 20 pictures automatically and then present the best 8 to the user seems to have a lot of potential if implemented properly. 4.8" is a decent size, but I'd rather have the Galaxy Note 2. Also it's nice to see Android phones kicking Apple's butt. Android isn't a great open platform, but it's a lot better than iOS. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Quoting Russell Coker (russell@coker.com.au):
Also it's nice to see Android phones kicking Apple's butt. Android isn't a great open platform, but it's a lot better than iOS.
CyanogenMod's a huge improvement on factory-loaded Android where openness is concerned. Were I buying a smartphone, I would make sure CyanogenMod fully supports the hardware and plan on reflashing it immediately. In fact, 'don't trust preloads' seems like a good policy with pretty much any computing device, where feasible. http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ The Samsung Galaxy S III is a bit too new for the CyanogenMod developers to put it on the 'Supported Devices' roster, but the Galaxy S II is there. That having been said, FWIW: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III:_Full_Update_Guide (Nightlies of CyanogenMod 8 started working on the Galaxy S III in mid-June.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQU0GNOEwwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsF02hBBK_I There are of course limits to CyanogenMod's openness, and not all of them are details of device drivers, e.g.: http://review.cyanogenmod.com/#/c/5677/ (Be sure to read the comments where the developers squirm over why they're rejecting a patch that gives users greater control over smartphone privacy.)
Correcting typo:
That having been said, FWIW: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III:_Full_Update_Guide (Nightlies of CyanogenMod 8 started working on the Galaxy S III in mid-June.) ^ 9
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
CyanogenMod's a huge improvement on factory-loaded Android where openness is concerned. Were I buying a smartphone, I would make sure CyanogenMod fully supports the hardware and plan on reflashing it immediately. In fact, 'don't trust preloads' seems like a good policy with pretty much any computing device, where feasible.
I agree. However one problem is that you often lose features when doing that. Last time I checked there was a replacement image for my Xperia X10 phones which had the down-side of lacking camera support! I expect that the nice camera features of the Galaxy S3 won't be available in CyanogenMod so there will be a real incentive to keep the Samsung image. http://f-droid.org/ Another thing to note is the F-Droid repository of free Android software. With F-Droid alone I could do everything I REALLY want to do on an Android phone. Sure there's lots of nice things that the Google Play Market gives you, but F-Droid covers all the basics and for the most geeky use covers them really well. An Android phone with a locked boot loader that's using F-Droid instead of Google Play will still be a lot more free than an iPhone. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Hi, On Wed, August 15, 2012 3:28 pm, Russell Coker wrote:
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
CyanogenMod's a huge improvement on factory-loaded Android where openness is concerned. Were I buying a smartphone, I would make sure CyanogenMod fully supports the hardware and plan on reflashing it immediately. In fact, 'don't trust preloads' seems like a good policy with pretty much any computing device, where feasible.
I agree.
Well.... been there, done that with the Galaxy S, I'm not going to root my S3 any time soon. Besides from what I've seen, I think CyanogenMod is "too close" to iOS in appearance; I would rather keep stock launcher or perhaps the Launcher Ex (which I ran on the Galaxy S).
However one problem is that you often lose features when doing that. Last time I checked there was a replacement image for my Xperia X10 phones which had the down-side of lacking camera support!
Yes, and there will be OTA updates to Jelly Bean soon too I expect. The main thing is to get AU stock phone with full manufacture warranty (2 yrs on the S3) and Samsung direct stock, not unlocked branded stock from Sloptus or Vodafail or any other "carrier" phone. Cheers -- Kind Regards AndrewM Andrew McGlashan Broadband Solutions now including VoIP Current Land Line No: 03 9012 2102 Mobile: 04 2574 1827 Fax: 03 9012 2178 National No: 1300 85 3804 Affinity Vision Australia Pty Ltd http://affinityvision.com.au http://securemywireless.com.au http://adsl2choice.net.au In Case of Emergency -- http://affinityvision.com.au/ice.html
On 15 August 2012 15:28, Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
Unfortunately F-Droid is rather lacking. There is a lot of free software not provided in F-Droid, and the apps I have tried are poor quality and/or are hopeless when displayed on anything bigger then a mobile phone (e.g. Tablets). I put in a request some time ago for Tram Hunter, no response. -- Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au>
Russell Coker wrote:
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
CyanogenMod's a huge improvement on factory-loaded Android where openness is concerned. Were I buying a smartphone, I would make sure CyanogenMod fully supports the hardware and plan on reflashing it immediately. In fact, 'don't trust preloads' seems like a good policy with pretty much any computing device, where feasible.
However one problem is that you often lose features when doing that. Last time I checked there was a replacement image for my Xperia X10 phones which had the down-side of lacking camera support!
That would be the "fully supports the hardware" that Rick mentioned :P
Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
Russell Coker wrote:
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
CyanogenMod's a huge improvement on factory-loaded Android where openness is concerned. Were I buying a smartphone, I would make sure CyanogenMod fully supports the hardware and plan on reflashing it immediately. In fact, 'don't trust preloads' seems like a good policy with pretty much any computing device, where feasible.
However one problem is that you often lose features when doing that. Last time I checked there was a replacement image for my Xperia X10 phones which had the down-side of lacking camera support!
That would be the "fully supports the hardware" that Rick mentioned :P
Quite. Back when I first bought a laptop for Linux use in 1999, I researched hardware support very carefully and ended up deliverately choosing (and buying used) the same couple-of-year-old model that a bunch of kernel hackers had recently been seen using. Avoiding the shiny and sticking to the well debugged seemed a really good idea.
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Rick Moen wrote:
That would be the "fully supports the hardware" that Rick mentioned :P
What the Anroid kernel coming with the device will usually do. I wonder how difficult it is to put a "standard" Linux userland (a Linux distribution) on top of it? The "Linuxulator" of FreeBSD works that way, it implements the Linux Kernel API and runs Linux binaries downloaded from Fedora on it, starting with a glibc. The Android kernel shouldn't be too far of from the Linux Kernel.. I finally got my ZaTab mentioned by Chris before, and I wonder what to do with it to get Linux running. I posted on http://zareason.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/the-tablet-challenge.html Cathy confirmed that there is a kernel on http://linux-sunxi.org, and that ZaRerason has KDE developers reachable under freenode.net#zareason I think there is no "standard" Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora etc. able to run on that tablet yet, and I feel quite insecure in ARM wonderland - it looks as the chips are varying a lot. Which ways do you see? On a side - I have seen a "sun4i" architecture before;-) Why "sun"? Regards Peter
participants (6)
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Andrew McGlashan -
Brian May -
Peter Ross -
Rick Moen -
Russell Coker -
Trent W. Buck