Re: [luv-talk] android tablet + phone recommendations?
On Fri, Jun 02, 2017 at 04:12:19PM +1000, russell@coker.com.au wrote:
On Thursday, 1 June 2017 7:40:40 PM AEST Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
Both my phone (~2010 HTC Desire HD) and my tablet (2012 Nexus 7) are ancient so it's about time to upgrade one or both of them. looking for some recommendations...
What exactly do you want from a new phone given your stated plan to use no apps other than a simple calculator?
4G is about the only good reason I have to upgrade the phone and even that's not essential. other than 4G, the main motivation for replacing it is that it's ~ 7 years old now, and won't last forever. Also, i've already replaced the battery on it once, doing that again (probably necessary in the next year or so) seems like a waste of money that could be put towards a newer phone. The CPUs and other componenets have improved a lot in those 7 years.
- ARM CPU fast enough that I won't have to consider upgrading for another 5+ years - 1920x1080 resolution absolute minimum. more is better. - 8" minimum, 10" or larger preferred. something that can fit a full A4 or US Letter PDF page and still be readable without having to squint.
Maybe a larger phone would be an option. A Nexus 6P meets most of those criteria, it's screen at 5.7" isn't that much smaller than your stated minimum and may allow you to only carry one device.
not as a tablet replacement. i want something with a larger, higher resolution screen than my nexus 7. i mostly want it for more of what i'm currently using it for plus i've recently re-discovered qpython and want to write my own custom apps for it (mostly simple database things without the spyware and excessive permissions demanded by the garbage in google's play store). Also Termux and command line sh, awk, perl etc scripts - with a bluetooth keyboard and Termux I can use it as a tiny laptop substitute. i do some of that now with the 7" nexus, but the screen's a little too small and squinty for that to be comfortable. Tablet size and weight does not bother me. i never go anywhere without at least my roughly A4-sized satchel and often a small backpack too.
One last thing - if I get a tablet that has 4G capability, does anyone know if it's possible or easy to put my SIM card in the tablet and use my existing HTC phone as a handset via bluetooth or wifi?
That might be difficult as phones aren't designed for it. But most (maybe all) tablets that will take a SIM can make and receive calls. As they support bluetooth they should work with a bluetooth headset in the same way as a phone, or you could use wired headphones with a built-in microphone for calls.
i'll stick to separate devices for phone and tablet then. which means i'll probably only upgrade the tablet. the phone can wait until either the HTC dies or 4G becomes essential. i remember seeing a brand of phone & tablet a few years ago that could do this, was one of its selling-point features. might have been one of the LG models, maybe not. but it seemed like it was a brand-specific bit of software...i was hoping that there was a generic app to do it. searching for anything on google's play store that you don't already know the exact name of is beyond pointless - there's so many worthless spammy and/or spyware and/or malware shit apps there(*) that you can't find anything, millions of turds hiding the rare useful thing. fdroid's better, but they didn't have anything like that when i searched. (*) hooray for the "free market". hooray for "consumer choice".
(*) Why purge the youtube app? because every time i enable wifi on the tablet, it becomes completely unusable for at least 10-20 minutes while youtube, hangouts, and the rest of the thundering herd of unwanted apps that can't be removed go apeshit trying to connect to google spyware HQ.
You can configure recent versions of Android to not allow those apps to talk to the Internet in the background. There's a "network restrictions" page that allows you to set which Wifi APs are running on 3G/4G (or otherwise pay for data) and which are unlimited and
my nexus 7 runs Android 5. there doesn't seem to be any such option. i made the mistake of NOT rooting it and installing cyanogenmod as soon as i got it and now i've got too much stuff on it that i don't want to lose (rooting it will erase it) or have to backup and then sort through and manually copy/reinstall. laziness, i know...it would only take a day or so to backup, root, re-flash, and then restore my data. cyanognmod/lineage may have more recent versions, but this tablet is barely capable of running v5.x. When I get another tablet, I'll wipe this one and install an AOSP-based Android 4 ROM on it.
Turn off background data on youtube, hangouts, play services (play store), maps, and Chrome and you'll achieve your stated aim.
no, i won't. i want these apps not to run at all. i want them to not even be installed. there's no reason for them to be running in the background, and there's no reason for them to be even installed. I *never* use them so there's no excuse for them to be running, ever. this is not an exaggeration or me just forgetting that i sometimes use them, it is the literal truth - i NEVER use them and NEVER want to use them. I looked at youtube once on this tablet years ago and decided "nope, too slow, too annoying. and no adblock", but apart from that I have never once chosen to run them, ever....but they always start up when wifi is enabled. this is an anti-feature - i have no idea what, if anything, they are reporting to google, or why all these apps are trying to connect, and it certainly does not benefit me at all for the tablet to become unusable for 10 minutes if i enable wifi to quickly (ha!) check something on the internet or fetch something from my network. when i want to watch something on youtube, i have a perfectly good desktop machine with a choice of browsers and a nice 27" 1440p monitor for that. by "unusable", i mean that the tablet can take a minute or more to respond to any touch event. per touch. after 10 or 20 minutes or so it settles down and becomes usable again, but is noticably noticably slower than when wifi is disabled even if i'm not actively using the network. i usually run the tablet in airplane mode to maximise battery life.
PS: i am in no great hurry to upgrade, so if there's a new generation of cpus/screens etc just about to be released, i'm happy to wait for that.
Maybe there is. Google has no tablet offering at this time and the range of tablets that Kogan is offering is very small.
The Samsung Tab A is one of the models I'm considering. I've seen some reasonable prices (around $330-$380) for 2016 models, but that's with only 16GB storage which is not quite enough. My nexus 7 has 32GB and with a faster tablet i'm likely to use it for more things and thus use more storage space. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
On Friday, 2 June 2017 6:25:31 PM AEST Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
What exactly do you want from a new phone given your stated plan to use no apps other than a simple calculator?
4G is about the only good reason I have to upgrade the phone and even that's not essential.
Well, I know someone who was happily using a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on Amaysim (the Optus network) when it suddenly stopped working. It seems that either Optus or the service Amaysim rents from Optus stopped providing the 3G frequencies used by that phone in the areas of relevance. So while you might not have a need for 4G, you might not get a choice given that GSM is already gone and 3G is apparently not a priority.
other than 4G, the main motivation for replacing it is that it's ~ 7 years old now, and won't last forever. Also, i've already replaced the battery on it once, doing that again (probably necessary in the next year or so) seems like a waste of money that could be put towards a newer phone. The CPUs and other componenets have improved a lot in those 7 years.
True. You can probably still buy batteries for that but they may be old stock with some shelf-life issues nowadays. I'd think about an external battery and duct tape, but a new phone is probably due.
- ARM CPU fast enough that I won't have to consider upgrading for
another 5+ years
- 1920x1080 resolution absolute minimum. more is better. - 8" minimum, 10" or larger preferred. something that can fit a
full A4 or US Letter PDF page and still be readable without having to squint.
Maybe a larger phone would be an option. A Nexus 6P meets most of those criteria, it's screen at 5.7" isn't that much smaller than your stated minimum and may allow you to only carry one device.
not as a tablet replacement. i want something with a larger, higher resolution screen than my nexus 7.
The 2012 Nexus 7 has a 1280*800 display which is less than any phone you might desire nowadays. The Nexus 6P has a higher resolution than the 2013 Nexus 7. Not that this matters if you want a physically large screen.
i remember seeing a brand of phone & tablet a few years ago that could do this, was one of its selling-point features. might have been one of the LG models, maybe not. but it seemed like it was a brand-specific bit of software...i was hoping that there was a generic app to do it.
There was one that had a phone that plugged in to a tablet to run the same apps and data on the bigger screen. It apparently wasn't that popular and disappeared from the market.
You can configure recent versions of Android to not allow those apps to talk to the Internet in the background. There's a "network restrictions" page that allows you to set which Wifi APs are running on 3G/4G (or otherwise pay for data) and which are unlimited and
my nexus 7 runs Android 5. there doesn't seem to be any such option.
i made the mistake of NOT rooting it and installing cyanogenmod as soon as i got it and now i've got too much stuff on it that i don't want to lose (rooting it will erase it) or have to backup and then sort through and manually copy/reinstall. laziness, i know...it would only take a day or so to backup, root, re-flash, and then restore my data.
You can't properly back it up without either OS support (not available in the default build) or rooting the device.
cyanognmod/lineage may have more recent versions, but this tablet is barely capable of running v5.x. When I get another tablet, I'll wipe this one and install an AOSP-based Android 4 ROM on it.
Later doesn't necessarily mean worse. Newer versions of Android have some better optimisations, sometimes a newer version runs faster.
Turn off background data on youtube, hangouts, play services (play store), maps, and Chrome and you'll achieve your stated aim.
no, i won't.
i want these apps not to run at all. i want them to not even be installed. there's no reason for them to be running in the background, and there's no reason for them to be even installed. I *never* use them so there's no excuse for them to be running, ever. this is not an exaggeration or me just forgetting that i sometimes use them, it is the literal truth - i NEVER use them and NEVER want to use them.
In recent versions of Android you can disable them and have them not run. I think you can do it with Android 5 but there is a tendency for some Google apps to get enabled again - this isn't a problem in more recent versions.
PS: i am in no great hurry to upgrade, so if there's a new generation of cpus/screens etc just about to be released, i'm happy to wait for that.
Maybe there is. Google has no tablet offering at this time and the range of tablets that Kogan is offering is very small.
The Samsung Tab A is one of the models I'm considering. I've seen some reasonable prices (around $330-$380) for 2016 models, but that's with only 16GB storage which is not quite enough. My nexus 7 has 32GB and with a faster tablet i'm likely to use it for more things and thus use more storage space.
A higher resolution screen also drives more storage space... -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On Fri, Jun 02, 2017 at 07:43:42PM +1000, russell@coker.com.au wrote:
On Friday, 2 June 2017 6:25:31 PM AEST Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
4G is about the only good reason I have to upgrade the phone and even that's not essential.
Well, I know someone who was happily using a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on Amaysim (the Optus network) when it suddenly stopped working. It seems that either
my phone is on iinet (also an optus reseller). 3G still works fine, but i'm aware of the fact that one day it will vanish and i'll have to switch to 4G or newer. at that time, almost any cheap current model unlocked android phone will do as a replacement (and iinet will send me a new 4G sim within a day or two). i really don't need a fancy high-end phone.
not as a tablet replacement. i want something with a larger, higher resolution screen than my nexus 7.
The 2012 Nexus 7 has a 1280*800 display which is less than any phone you might desire nowadays. The Nexus 6P has a higher resolution than the 2013 Nexus 7. Not that this matters if you want a physically large screen.
I have considered getting a newer, bigger ~6" phone and just having one device but i really want a bigger screen for my ebook reader. and battery life will be longer with wifi disabled and no SIM. The Kogan Agora 6+ looks pretty good at a decent price. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much activity on XDA or other android sites regarding alternative ROMs for them. And I have a horrible suspicion that ordering anything from Kogan will get me added to their spam lists (in fact, their T&C pretty much guarantee that - i have my own domain so i can create a kogan@taz address to use, but i'm not keen to buy from a company i'm certain to boycott as soon as they inevitably spam me).
You can't properly back it up without either OS support (not available in the default build) or rooting the device.
yep. catch-22. can't root without erasing. can't backup fully without rooting.
cyanognmod/lineage may have more recent versions, but this tablet is barely capable of running v5.x. When I get another tablet, I'll wipe this one and install an AOSP-based Android 4 ROM on it.
Later doesn't necessarily mean worse. Newer versions of Android have some better optimisations, sometimes a newer version runs faster.
that was a bit of an exaggeration anyway. it actually runs fine for what I use it for with WIFI off, then unusable for 10-20 mins when i turn WIFI on, then OK but a bit sluggish after that. Turning WIFI off again, returns it to reasonable speed.
In recent versions of Android you can disable them and have them not run. I think you can do it with Android 5 but there is a tendency for some Google apps to get enabled again - this isn't a problem in more recent versions.
in a rooted Android I could just delete the damn things. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
On Friday, 2 June 2017 8:31:47 PM AEST Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
Well, I know someone who was happily using a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on Amaysim (the Optus network) when it suddenly stopped working. It seems that either my phone is on iinet (also an optus reseller). 3G still works fine, but i'm aware of the fact that one day it will vanish and i'll have to switch to 4G or newer.
There's lots of variables. Where you live is one thing. Which subset of 3G frequencies your phone supports is another. During the time that your current phone was new both Optus and Telstra (and their resellers) were selling phones that wouldn't work well on the other network. Now that GSM has gone away that causes some serious problems for some use cases.
at that time, almost any cheap current model unlocked android phone will do as a replacement (and iinet will send me a new 4G sim within a day or two). i really don't need a fancy high-end phone.
Sure.
not as a tablet replacement. i want something with a larger, higher resolution screen than my nexus 7.
The 2012 Nexus 7 has a 1280*800 display which is less than any phone you might desire nowadays. The Nexus 6P has a higher resolution than the 2013 Nexus 7. Not that this matters if you want a physically large screen.
I have considered getting a newer, bigger ~6" phone and just having one device but i really want a bigger screen for my ebook reader. and battery life will be longer with wifi disabled and no SIM.
True. Tablets tend to have much bigger batteries than phones.
The Kogan Agora 6+ looks pretty good at a decent price. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much activity on XDA or other android sites regarding alternative ROMs for them. And I have a horrible suspicion that ordering anything from Kogan will get me added to their spam lists (in fact, their T&C pretty much guarantee that - i have my own domain so i can create a kogan@taz address to use, but i'm not keen to buy from a company i'm certain to boycott as soon as they inevitably spam me).
I don't know what they are like in that regard as I WANT promotional email from them. The Agora series tend to have QC issues. A friend has a history of owning them and has got used to having a phone with a feature missing. If you return it then you tend to get a replacement that has something else broken. Keep doing it until the thing that's wrong is a thing you don't use. If you like using the Melways then you may end up happily using an Agora with broken GPS like my friend did... But who knows, maybe they started making quality phones under the same name. You didn't buy a cheap phone last time and you seem to have got value for money out of it. Buying something that's designed as a high end product is probably a good strategy for you.
In recent versions of Android you can disable them and have them not run. I think you can do it with Android 5 but there is a tendency for some Google apps to get enabled again - this isn't a problem in more recent versions.
in a rooted Android I could just delete the damn things.
I've just done a quick test of my Note 10.1, and Android 4.4.2 supports none of the features you want for restricting data usage. Fortunately it's still as fast as newer Android devices like my Nexus 6P (and noticably faster than newer devices like the S5 Mini) so this hasn't been a problem. I think you would be really happy with a Note 10.1 2014 edition. It also makes a nice ssh client as well as all the other features. https://www.koganmobile.com.au/medium-prepaid-plans/ Kogan has deals like the above so restricting data usage isn't such a problem nowadays. Kogan is on the Vodafone network which is the worst of the networks in Australia. But I have a phone I use for Ingress on it and it's working well. I keep a spare SIM active for when a client cancels "that phone line that no-one ever makes calls on". -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On Sat, Jun 03, 2017 at 01:49:50AM +1000, russell@coker.com.au wrote:
I don't know what they are like in that regard as I WANT promotional email from them.
That's nice, you want it. I don't. I don't ever want contact from any business that isn't about fulfilling a specific order or a direct response to an enquiry initiated by me or that I haven't asked for/signed-up for. Anything else is spam. I boycott spammers. I've boycotted so many spamming online shops now that I am extremely reluctant to order anything online any more because they all inevitably have the "brilliant" marketing idea of spamming everyone who ever ordered anything from them, regardless of whether the customer unticked the "spam me" checkboxes on the order form and regardless of the paragraphs of "DO NOT SPAM ME OR I WILL BOYCOTT YOU" notes left in the order instructions text field. i much prefer buying stuff from a shop where I don't have to give my name or street address or email address. You can't avoid giving this info to online retailers - it's essential for delivery. In my experience, they will ALL misuse that information at some point (either with ads about new products or sales or bullshit solicitation of testimonials and reviews or "customer satisfaction surverys") and so will their subcontractors like Australia Post and couriers. Worse, most will respond to any complaint about being spammed with a flat refusal to stop sending that shit with things like "tough, you're in our system now" (sometimes literally that. more often "nicer", more polite variatians of same, or blaming their "system" and that it can't make exceptions), or "it's not spam, it's a survey" (or a "review opportunity"), or "who doesn't love a sale?". Fortunately, I use a different email alias for every business I ever contact so can just disable that alias.
The Agora series tend to have QC issues.
that's good to know. I won't bother then.
You didn't buy a cheap phone last time and you seem to have got value for money out of it. Buying something that's designed as a high end product is probably a good strategy for you.
my usual strategy for computers is high-end, one or two generations behind - bug tested and cheaper. Phones and tablets disappear from the market too quickly for that to work as well (and are designed to be disposable fad gear for the fashion-conscious), so "mid-range, new models of last year's tech" is probably the best strategy for me here.
in a rooted Android I could just delete the damn things.
I've just done a quick test of my Note 10.1, and Android 4.4.2 supports none of the features you want for restricting data usage.
I don't care about data usage. It's WIFI, and only ever enabled at home where I have far more download quota on my ADSL every month than i ever use. I care about a dozen or more unwanted and un-used apps running in the background using up CPU power and battery life and reporting unknown information to google. I'd care about that if it was even 1 app using a tiny, un-noticable amount of CPU "phoning home", the fact that the tablet becomes unusable for a time after enabling WIFI just makes it worse. what's so hard to understand about "I don't use this shit, I don't want it running, and I don't want it spying on me"? BTW, this shit doesn't happen on my phone (which is running cyanogenmod CM7 - Android 4.x IIRC). It only happens on the tablet, running stock google android (5.1.x, whatever was the last released issued by google before they stopped issuing firmware updates for nexus 7). That's because I have control over what is installed and what runs on it.
Fortunately it's still as fast as newer Android devices like my Nexus 6P (and noticably faster than
like I already said, I don't want to just hide the problem by getting a faster device where the symptoms aren't noticable, I want to eliminate them by deleting the unwanted apps. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
On Saturday, 3 June 2017 9:24:02 AM AEST Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
You didn't buy a cheap phone last time and you seem to have got value for money out of it. Buying something that's designed as a high end product is probably a good strategy for you.
my usual strategy for computers is high-end, one or two generations behind - bug tested and cheaper. Phones and tablets disappear from the market too quickly for that to work as well (and are designed to be disposable fad gear for the fashion-conscious), so "mid-range, new models of last year's tech" is probably the best strategy for me here.
I have a similar strategy. For PCs it was always cheaper to buy stuff that's not cutting edge and if you time it right you will on average have a more powerful system than you would if you bought really high end gear less frequently. Nowadays I get PCs from corporate rubbish piles. I prefer HP, they design things well and a lot of them get thrown out. Lenovo is nice too. But sometimes there's a white-box system that's too nice to refuse (like the i7 on my desktop right now). The LUV Beginners' SIG is a good place to get PCs. There are usually old PCs there on an e-waste pile and people to help refurbish them for anyone who needs such help. For phones after about 9 months they drop in price as a release of a new model each year is expected. Older models are sometimes still on sale for years at an only slightly lower price point and they are almost as good as the latest ones. There isn't a lot of scope for improvements in modern phones. 64G of storage is nice but for most uses 32G is enough. 3G of RAM is enough for most things and you can do with a lot less if you don't play Pokemon Go. FullHD was always pretty good on a desktop monitor, you don't really need more than that in a phone. Even in a tablet you can survive OK with FullHD.
in a rooted Android I could just delete the damn things.
I've just done a quick test of my Note 10.1, and Android 4.4.2 supports none of the features you want for restricting data usage.
I don't care about data usage. It's WIFI, and only ever enabled at home where I have far more download quota on my ADSL every month than i ever use.
The same features can be used for restricting Wifi. But not in Android 4.4.2.
I care about a dozen or more unwanted and un-used apps running in the background using up CPU power and battery life and reporting unknown information to google. I'd care about that if it was even 1 app using a tiny, un-noticable amount of CPU "phoning home", the fact that the tablet becomes unusable for a time after enabling WIFI just makes it worse.
what's so hard to understand about "I don't use this shit, I don't want it running, and I don't want it spying on me"?
Not hard to understand. But my Note 10.1 2014 edition is working quite well in spite of it. As a matter of principle it sucks. As a practical issue of getting stuff done it's not a problem.
Fortunately it's still as fast as newer Android devices like my Nexus 6P (and noticably faster than
like I already said, I don't want to just hide the problem by getting a faster device where the symptoms aren't noticable, I want to eliminate them by deleting the unwanted apps.
The problem is that it's so much work to update Android devices. The development of Linux is largely credited to the availability of common hardware (the IBM PC clone market). But one thing that's often forgotten is the ease of fixing problems. When Linux first came out IDE disks were just starting to take over from ST-506 and also dropping in price. It was practical to take a DOS system, buy a second hard drive, and use that for Linux. If you decided to stop using Linux you could just plug the DOS hard drive in. If installing Linux on a PC in 1993 was as hard as installing CyanogenMod now then the user base (and developer base) would have been much smaller. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Russell Coker via luv-talk <luv-talk@luv.asn.au> wrote:
For phones after about 9 months they drop in price as a release of a new model each year is expected. Older models are sometimes still on sale for years at an only slightly lower price point and they are almost as good as the latest ones. There isn't a lot of scope for improvements in modern phones.
I agree. The only reason why I'll need to upgrade mine at some point is to obtain more LTE frequency bands. Obviously, this can't be achieved with software updates alone. Also, this is less relevant for people who don't travel internationally, although the use of former analogue television spectrum by mobile networks provides another motivation if your carrier purchased an allocation.
Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
On Sat, Jun 03, 2017 at 01:49:50AM +1000, russell@coker.com.au wrote: BTW, this shit doesn't happen on my phone (which is running cyanogenmod CM7 - Android 4.x IIRC). It only happens on the tablet, running stock google android (5.1.x, whatever was the last released issued by google before they stopped issuing firmware updates for nexus 7). That's because I have control over what is installed and what runs on it.
Fortunately it's still as fast as newer Android devices like my Nexus 6P (and noticably faster than like I already said, I don't want to just hide the problem by getting a faster device where the symptoms aren't noticable, I want to eliminate them by deleting the unwanted apps.
Can I ask either Craig or Russell; as extremely knowledgable Linux users; their opinion of things like Kingroot https://kingroot.net/; as an alturnative to replacing the supplied version of Android ? regards Rohan Mcleod
On Saturday, 3 June 2017 2:39:58 PM AEST Rohan McLeod via luv-talk wrote:
Can I ask either Craig or Russell; as extremely knowledgable Linux users; their opinion of things like Kingroot https://kingroot.net/; as an alturnative to replacing the supplied version of Android ?
That looks to be one of those services that exploits a security flaw in some versions of Android to get root access and then replace critical files in the Android installation to allow continued root access. Running that gives the people who run that site root access to your phone. Do you trust them for that? That's the same issue as whether you trust Google/ Samsung/etc to make an image without backdoors or Debian/Ubuntu/Red Hat to do the same with your PC installation. Except that kingroot is a small organisation that is little known. Next if you run that then an update to Android on your device might undo the root access either by accident or design. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On Sat, Jun 03, 2017 at 02:39:58PM +1000, Rohan McLeod wrote:
opinion of things like Kingroot https://kingroot.net/; as an alturnative to replacing the supplied version of Android ?
Getting root on an android device is not just useful as the first stage in installing alternative "ROM"s(*). Having root access to your own device is useful in its own right with the stock image, alternate ROMs are optional. I've never heard of this one before. my attitude is similar to russell's - who is behind this site, and can they be trusted with root on my phone or tablet? I can root my nexus 7 any time i want. it's a standard feature with most phones and tablets from google and some other manufacturers (and other manufacturers go out of their way to make it difficult). the price is that rooting it via the google-standard mechanism will cause it to be wiped. and i cant' do a complete backup of the entire device without root. If I were inclined to use their tool, I'd do a **LOT** of research on them first, treating both any negative reports AND a shortage or lack of positive reports about them from well-known and trustworthy names in the android dev community as a no-go danger sign. I'd prefer to backup what i can¸ root it myself and then restore than to trust some mystery app on an unknown site. BTW, it's also worth noting that some app developers don't allow their apps to be installed or run on rooted devices. Netflix is one of the more famous ones that recently announced they're doing this. DRM can be bypassed on a rooted device. DRM can also be bypassed in lots of other ways, but their investors and movie/tv production companies don't really understand the details of DRM snake oil, and some are just content with a reasonable delay between official release and first-crack. (I don't run Netflix so IDGAF) (*) Not really a "ROM", that's just what they are misleadingly called in android enthusiast communities - what they mean by it is "alternative boot image" or "alternative firmware image" (and even "firmware" isn't strictly accurate as it's installed on a flash disk or SSD, not a PROM/EPROM/EEPROM etc chip). The "ROM" terminolgy is entrenched, there's no point in quiblling about it. Just ignore the fact that it's wrong. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
Hello Rohan, On 6/3/17, Rohan McLeod via luv-talk <luv-talk@luv.asn.au> wrote:
Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
On Sat, Jun 03, 2017 at 01:49:50AM +1000, russell@coker.com.au wrote: BTW, this shit doesn't happen on my phone (which is running cyanogenmod CM7 - Android 4.x IIRC). It only happens on the tablet, running stock google android (5.1.x, whatever was the last released issued by google before they stopped issuing firmware updates for nexus 7). That's because I have control over what is installed and what runs on it.
Fortunately it's still as fast as newer Android devices like my Nexus 6P (and noticably faster than like I already said, I don't want to just hide the problem by getting a faster device where the symptoms aren't noticable, I want to eliminate them by deleting the unwanted apps.
Can I ask either Craig or Russell; as extremely knowledgable Linux users; their opinion of things like Kingroot https://kingroot.net/; as an alturnative to replacing the supplied version of Android ?
regards Rohan Mcleod
The only way I would go is with Cyanogenmod, but then I do not have a suitable handset, nor the experience. Like others said, it gives them root access to your phone, and I would not go there. Some of them may make it easy, but at what cost, and not directly in dollars. Remember that Android is a set of applications and user interface on top of the adapted Linux kernel. While the Linux kernel is GPL and such, not all the framework above that is, unless you go for Cyanogenmod. I have read reports of Cyanogenmod being factory installed and available for purchase, but I have not seen it, nor gone looking. Maybe some others could contribute in that regard. Regards, Mark Trickett
Hi, On 03/06/17 01:49, Russell Coker via luv-talk wrote:
Unfortunately, Vodaphone is still Vodafail as far as I am concerned. I get better data with Optus 4G Plus network. Vodaphone tried to rely upon ACMA or ACCC or whatever to get roaming happening for them on the cheap to use the other networks instead of build their own. But I agree that in AU, we should have ONE good network and everyone should get fair pricing; duplication of networks, advertising and well, you get the idea. All that doubling adds cost that is, at the end of the day, just wasted monies. My Exetel 50GB data only 4G plan costs $59.99 per month. My Exetel unlimited call plan with 3GB of data costs $29.99 per month. Both on Optus 4G Plus network. Kind Regards AndrewM
participants (6)
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Andrew McGlashan -
Craig Sanders -
Jason White -
Mark Trickett -
Rohan McLeod -
Russell Coker