New changes with Verizon GS7 with Oreo - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 Guides, News, & Discussi

I was looking for a list of changes and discussing the changes with the Verizon GS7 on Oreo. I have yet to find youtube videos reviewing the Verizon version. One website talks about how to use the new features but the Verizon version has a different setup menu then the others. As a matter of fact I was lost looking for the Bluetooth settings at first. It's combined with the Wifi and connection settings. I also noticed when using bluetooth on my car stereo the volume is way louder now. Is the volume louder on the phone with Oreo? Another change I'm happy about is being able to download more AOD's in the Samsung Theme store. I downloaded one with a Siamese cat. I love cats.

anyone else notice changes with Oreo on GS7?

https://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review-two-years-oreo
The author has the Verizon variant.

I've noticed a bunch of bluetooth settings added in developer options (seems only picking some of them make a difference though and might reset on reboot?) and I personally really hated the picture in picture so have disabled that. A great way to do so if anyone else feels the need is to go to Applications, click cog in upper right and go to Special Access, pick Picture-in-Picture and enable/disable per app as you desire. My other gripe right now is figuring out how to disable the ugly rounded rectangle effect icons get. I understand I can theme them but I just want the normal ones without rounded edges For now I'm just theming all of them to circular in Nova. There are also some new always on display and lockscreen clocks/widgets. That's all that stood out to me

djh816 said:
I've noticed a bunch of bluetooth settings added in developer options (seems only picking some of them make a difference though and might reset on reboot?) and I personally really hated the picture in picture so have disabled that. A great way to do so if anyone else feels the need is to go to Applications, click cog in upper right and go to Special Access, pick Picture-in-Picture and enable/disable per app as you desire. My other gripe right now is figuring out how to disable the ugly rounded rectangle effect icons get. I understand I can theme them but I just want the normal ones without rounded edges For now I'm just theming all of them to circular in Nova. There are also some new always on display and lockscreen clocks/widgets. That's all that stood out to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To remove the white background frame, go to display > Icon frames.... But!
Samsung updated a lot (not all) Google's apps icon to fit their icon frame design at system level. So they will be there permanently.

I noticed since the Oreo update whenever my phone reconnects to my cars bluetooth adapter the volume is reset and i have to turn it back up. doesn't do it on my bluetooth speakers or headphones. Not sure if it's the alpha version of the Poweramp that's the problem or Oreo. But it's sure annoying. and another issue i discovered when at the Lonestar concert is i can't turn the ringtone and notification volume to silent with the volume controls. i have to bring up the full controls and adjust each slider the hard way. I had several notifications throughout a song and couldn't silence my phone in between taking pictures and videos.

Upgrading GS7 from Nougat to Oreo
Guys I spent 5 days working on my Edge S7, after an upgrade to Oreo that went wrong. Most videos tell you to upload only the AP file and for me it didn't work. I then saw a video about Odin and learned the meaning of it's buttons. If you are using a Verizon S7 Edge with Nougat and you want to upgrade it, you need to upload 3 of the 4 files, the BL, AP & CP. On my first attempt I uploaded the 4 files, including the CSW one and the Verizon setup would not allow me to ADD AN ACCESS POINT, so I could use data with another carrier. The I decided to root(in a different way suggested on the below video and went wrong. My phone went into boot loop. I tried resetting but nothing happened. I then remembered that the file to be uploaded on the button CSW was for the carrier. I then uploaded the other 3 files this time and VOILÁ!!! The option Mobile Networks was detached from CONNECTIONS and when I clicked on Mobile Networks it asked for the SIM. After putting the SIM card I could add a CARRIER and do the rest of the settings

Related

Smartwatches: Think Tank (Attn: SONY SMARTWATCH, WIMM, PEBBLE, METAWATCH,MOTO

Having extensive experience with both phone watches and BT-enabled watches, I want to make an important remark to firmware/software developers for these devices, more so after having recently acquired a SONY Smartwatch.
It is simple: NOTIFICATIONS NEED TO BE PUSHED ALL THE WAY. ALL GOODS NEED TO BE DELIVERED.
In the Sony Smartwatch, a vibration accompanied by a Gmail logo is useless. Having me awake the watch, click on ‘Events’, click again on the message and only then being able to see the email message defeats the purpose of immediateness. Probably easier for me to reach out to the phone and see what the notification is about.
The right way to go is simple: everything the phone has in terms of message info needs to be pushed to the watch notification:
“Email from John Doe
To [email protected]
Subject: Dinner on Tue
->And the entire body”
Same with SMS, IM notifications, or anything. Having only the SMS or Gmail or Whatsapp logos and have to hunt down for the message in the watch is absurd.
The way the MBW-150 worked offered way more info at a glance; Sony is moving backward with this minimalistic notification approach. More is needed.
Secondly: let me disable BT on the watch (say when batt is low or overnight) without forcing me to shut down the device -> no time telling anymore.
Third: watch brightness needs to be adjustable from the watch itself (let me manage battery life myself, I’m a grown up).
Fourth: an audio beep won’t kill anyone. When I’m driving, for instance, I cannot feel the phone vibration. A CASIO-style ‘beep-beep’ cannot hurt. While I understand this may involve additional hardware and pose operational complexities, this is a nice-to-have feature.
First two remarks are KEY, and I’d appreciate not only Sony but everybody involved in such development to think a bit smart before pouring a fortune into development.
Anyone has anything else worth highlighting?
Thanks
Sure dude. But first things first... I would scream that let these things display the clock at all times. Failure to do so defeats the whole watch disguise!
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Which app are you using to get Gmail notifications?
jairmoreno said:
Which app are you using to get Gmail notifications?
Click to expand...
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I am messing with Customnotifier, GMail notifier (not 2), and RSS (which works best but drains the battery on the phone if set to frequent checks).
In any event, on the watch I only get an icon on the screen, no further info.
Rgds
Well they are moving in the right direction. With the updated firmware, that was released today, you are able to do a couple more things. You now have an option of leaving new watch faces on at all times. Also with notifications, you can now single tap the new notification icon and it will take you straight to the notification!
gtdRR said:
Well they are moving in the right direction. With the updated firmware, that was released today, you are able to do a couple more things. You now have an option of leaving new watch faces on at all times. Also with notifications, you can now single tap the new notification icon and it will take you straight to the notification!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes indeed. Touchscreen seems a tad more responsive now also, more polished.
Still, notifications need to appear spontaneously -no need to tap- and bightness should be adjustable -too much backlight for me; always staying indoors.
But it's a good step fwd and the app in the phone is more efficient.
Hi, I'm Considering buying this watch simply cos I'm a geek I guess, but, if it is possible for sony to update the firmware/create new apps, and others also to create new apps etc, isn't it almost inevitable that more detailed notifications will be developed eventually? Or am I wrong, is it up to just sony to develope new apps etc, meaning we'll have to wait for just them to decide, taking ages etc? (Unlinke the wimm one for example)..
It does look great, but I agree, notifications really MUST include details, and if this is a future possibility, then I'll get one. (Mainly due to the wimm one not being on sale over here yet! Arrghh!)
jmpcrx said:
Hi, I'm Considering buying this watch simply cos I'm a geek I guess, but, if it is possible for sony to update the firmware/create new apps, and others also to create new apps etc, isn't it almost inevitable that more detailed notifications will be developed eventually? Or am I wrong, is it up to just sony to develope new apps etc, meaning we'll have to wait for just them to decide, taking ages etc? (Unlinke the wimm one for example)..
It does look great, but I agree, notifications really MUST include details, and if this is a future possibility, then I'll get one. (Mainly due to the wimm one not being on sale over here yet! Arrghh!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The notifications seem detailed to me I mean you see the icon if you want to read the message tap the icon once. I like the screen always on update but I won't use it often since I rather have the battery last through the week.
I've checked back ever so often and there new apps popping up so I think development will only improve. Its honestly one of my favorite phone accessories I would recommend trying it out.
general forceps said:
Yes indeed. Touchscreen seems a tad more responsive now also, more polished.
Still, notifications need to appear spontaneously -no need to tap- and bightness should be adjustable -too much backlight for me; always staying indoors.
But it's a good step fwd and the app in the phone is more efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree I can't wait til they update to allow adjustment of of the backlight. The notifications I find using the MMS notifier over Sony's I get no delay in the notifications. The Gmail notifier app I use for Gmail sends me the notice without delay also.
Have you looked at the Metawatch at all? That ended up being my choice. Waiting for delivery.
RedRamage said:
Have you looked at the Metawatch at all? That ended up being my choice. Waiting for delivery.
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Good choice RedRamage. I have the analog Metawatch and expect the new iOS digital version any day. Latest phone console release and functions here
OP - fullly agree with the "at a glance" concept. Metawatch provided this for me and I have the Sony, WIMM, original Liveview and MotoACTV also.
Only very recently I was able to stop using MetaWatch and switch to the Sony only for this. See my blog @ augmentedtraffic.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/finally-true-real-time-at-a-glance-notifications-on-sony-smart-watch (you need to cut & paste into a browser since I have < 10 posts).
I use Tasker/K-9 combined with my app to get "at a glance' on a SonyWatch!
I am still testing battery life, but it seems OK. I haven't put the app on the market as yet as it is very customized to my use cases and it may be a bit too much for others to use. The only thing I am currently missing from the MetaWatch is the next upcoming appointment. I have everything else I was using (notifications at a glance, phone battery life, location, weather). I even added my last Withings scale weigh-in
Ok, I've got both of the 1st Gen MetaWatch models (The bt2 Analog and Digital ones), and maintain a popular fork of the Android MW software (see link in my sig), so I'll try and answer your points in relation to that watch.
1) Yes, MW will display your notifications as soon as the phone does - gmail is a little tricky as google keeps changing/modifying/revoking permissions with the official gmail app, so the information available to the watch manager app can be a little sketchy. If you use k-9 mail, you'll see the sender and subject. It doesn't display body text yet, but that is doable. Gmail would also be fixable by just making the app go to the gmail server directly and pull the message text when the new mail notification comes in.
The fork I maintain has an "Other notifications" Option, that lets you selectively display any android notification, although the OS limits how much information we can actually pull. If anyone has requests for additional notification support, then I'm happy to try adding it, assuming the developer of the app has provided intents or an api to access that information.
Currently notifications will stay on screen for a few seconds, then disappear (except for the SMS notifications, which, on the digital watch can be set to stay on screen until dismissed, as you can see the full body, and scroll) - On the digital watch you can configure a button to redisplay the last notification again if you missed it, and there's an on watch menu of all the previous notifications which is only a few button presses away.
2) Yes, all the MW models have a menu option (on the watch) that let you disable BT without turning off the watch, so you can still tell the time
3) Yes, the Analog MW model has menu options to configure the OLED brightness. There's nothing to configure on the Digital model, as it has an always on LCD screen (though there's an option in my fork of the app to automatically turn on its light when a notification comes in)
4) The MWs don't have a speaker, but they do have a powerful vibrator inside - it's pretty hard to miss it when it does vibrate, and the app lets you configure different vibration patterns for different notifications, so you can know what sort of message it was without even looking.
Let me know if you've got any other questions!
MW has some very good stuff, I'm quite familiar with it.
Pity -both for MW and SW- is the poor pixel density. I believe MOTO has a much better display.
B/W displays appear sub-optimal to me and definitely not the direction the market wants to move toward.
Also, beyond the immediate 'at-a-glance' notification, can you read within the watch the full email or notification in MW? This is also a key element.
One more topic I missed on SW is that once connection is lost we need not only vibration but some on-screen display, like a warning sign or something. This feature prevented me from leaving behind a SGSII in a bar when I was using my ancient MBW-150. Vibration won't typically suffice.
I survive 2.5 full days with heavy notification traffic with my SW. How long you stay unplugged with MW under heavy traffic?
Thanks for the good discussion.
general forceps said:
Also, beyond the immediate 'at-a-glance' notification, can you read within the watch the full email or notification in MW? This is also a key element.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, the current software doesn't support that, but it's something I'm planning on adding.
SMS messages currently support this - you can page through a long message, then dismiss it when you're done, so I just need to add the code to pull out (and strip html from) the body text - I know for certain that it's easily possible using k-9 mail, gmail will probably need work to talk to google's mail server directly to get the message text.
general forceps said:
One more topic I missed on SW is that once connection is lost we need not only vibration but some on-screen display, like a warning sign or something. This feature prevented me from leaving behind a SGSII in a bar when I was using my ancient MBW-150. Vibration won't typically suffice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it'll display a "No watch connection" icon in the top right of the time display, which is pretty hard to miss!
general forceps said:
I survive 2.5 full days with heavy notification traffic with my SW. How long you stay unplugged with MW under heavy traffic?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to get 2 or 3 days, depending on what I'm doing - 3 days for medium traffic, 2 for heavy traffic (usually when I'm developing features, so pushing lots of data to the watch)
3 days = Taken off the charger on Monday morning, needs to go back on the charger Wednesday evening before I go to bed.
I could probably get much longer battery life if I manually turned bt off each night, and back in the morning, but I like having my watch vibrate in the morning when the alarm goes off! Perhaps adding a "bt sleep" mode to the firmware would be a good addition.
How long does your battery last on the Sony Smartwatch if you keep the small digital clock on at all times?
I've had my watch a little over a week and haven't been able to make it through the day yet even with minimal notifications. The battery life has been very disappointing.
@benjymous:
I forgot to note that I shut it down when I go to sleep. In the morning I turn it on with no pairing issues, so we'd be looking at 18h/day actual uptime, for a total of say 45h per charge. Not stellar by any means.
@tjrhine:
It didn't even cross my mind to have the screen on full-time. It is obvious you won't make it tremendously far (I think the bat has a capacity below 130). No way. I push the button to get the time, I can live with this.
I also need to report that the glass is far from scratchproof. That's something that really pisses people off. Next HW release should DEFINITELY include at least Gorilla Glass and certainly a bigger battery. The thickness of the plastic clip and the strap can be each reduced by about half a millimeter that combined gives you 1mm that they should invest in a bigger capacity batt.
And obviously, a standard usb port.
Please keep ideas coming folks, thanks.
And this is how the notification queue should look like:
http://www.slashphone.com/media/data/767/inPulse_SmartWatch-2.jpg
I'm having exact same problem - Battery lasts barely 8-10 hrs. Do we need replacement watches?
general forceps said:
And this is how the notification queue should look like:
w ww.slashphone. com/media/data/767/inPulse_SmartWatch-2.jpg
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Looks like chinese product

Initial thoughts...possible BUGs.

Got mine at 08:58 or something on the 8th, FedEx overnight, preordered on the 25th.
Not rooted, not activated yet either (going to, this weekend)...just testing what I got so far.
My AT&T build has a kernel date of 4 Oct.
3.0.31-215287 kernel version
Some initial things that I quickly noticed...also, I had a major crash when using video recording...
As with the AT&T tester's unboxing on youtube (PhoneDog, I think?)...NO HEADPHONES/EARPHONES!! I need these for calls, especially LONG calls. This is not good. Other carriers must have contracted for them, since they had them. AT&T reboxed this as well.
I've seen my friends' Note2 Sprint model since the 25th, so some things I also noted as a difference so far:
- The AT&T model has the extended notification screen toggle options like the S3 has...Airplane mode, sound, etc. Sprint just got this with it's OTA -to arrive soon. I am not sure if T-Mobile had it (I forget).
- Cannot remove the AT&T bloatware, it seems. I am new to android (not computing, so yes, I know you can root it and remove it) but I think what is on here initially cannot be removed, and some can be disabled. Nuts when I have 11GB left of the 16GB and games like NOVA3 are 2GB! No app install on my nice 64GB SD card (unless I root) either. Anyone know if you can offload dormant apps or something? I may root this one in the future, but was just wondering for now (and for others asking).
- My Sprint friend noted that the S-Pen seemed slightly heavier/different...hard to say, I don't see why. If so, it's SLIGHTLY...very slightly. I also noted that I had no issue thus far with the pen making marks while hovering over the note, but that may be because it's a new pen. Will keep on that 'bug' and still looking around for a way to toggle sensitivity.
- Also, how do I know if my bootloader is unlocked/locked? (not trying to get too off-topic)
- DLNA is VERY choppy with the 8 second HD video my friend S-Beamed me. I am at home, using my Samsung 58" plasma C8000 model connected direct to my router (ethernet). VUDU, on my TV, requires 4Mbps for 1080p (it claims, but seems that is a floor min number)...havent tried wireless with my MBP, since i usually have it connected direct as well when doing DLNA that way. Not sure if this is just how it is with wifi and this device, but really...how could that be useful at all? My upload speed is fine on my 5GHz n-band. Speedtest on the device shows 6.36Mbps upload and 21.44Mbps download wifi from my Note 2.
Ahh, but now for the real BUG...here is my post on AC forums/ATT Note2 thread --->
Found a bug... My screen is all pink/purple hue after messing with the video recorder.
It is not restarting and not able to power off with long press of side key. Totally stuck!!!
I can't power it off hard (is that possible by the way, I haven't looked and I am new to Samsung devices).
Stuck. Purple/pink hue . See the image I took. Also took a video to show it in 'motion'. Kinda like a weird camera effect app, from hell! Not fun
The 'images' are tiled copies of what the camera sees in real time. It's stuck in messed up this camera/video mode.
Tried video recording and saw 'slo-mo' feature, and then a way to change from 1/2 to 1/4 and 1/8. Somehow, around then I hit record by accident. Then this just weird state of 'freeze' frame video started happening a few seconds later. I don't recall what details happened in between, if anything. Was going to leave camera app, that's about all i recall.
Opened it up and removed the battery. Popped back in. Restart, all is fine now. I'll test that again...er...later. Damn that was annoying as hell.
Took a pic and video with the iPhone. I think I attached the photo ok. The video is mov...what format can I send that in? I can email it if you want...short MOV to depict trying to shut off/restart and how it goes frame by frame in this 'pink tile' mode.
Pic looks blue...but it's purple/pink, not that that matters much.
I would maybe try a hard reset if you havent already...
yeah, thanks. If it happens again, I'll do that.
Do you mean 'master reset'? Or is there another way to reset, aside from taking out the battery.
You can disable bloatware in the built in app manager. Settings>Application Manager> Click the "ALL" tab.

JY-UL128N2 now available

I emailed Joying again yesterday to ask about UL128N2, and they responded by adding the unit to their webpages and accepting orders.
Canada website (Canadian $):
http://www.joying.ca/best-joying-ne...t-pip-sleep-model-bluetooth-4-0-dab-obd2.html
Global website (US $):
https://www.carjoying.com/new-andro...h-4-0-gps-navigation-professional-head-u.html
and the website is down. As usual.
If the website isn't down, it's their forum. Sigh.
morgish said:
and the website is down. As usual.
If the website isn't down, it's their forum. Sigh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well its back up now. Or at least its working for me.
Sometimes international routing through the great firewall can be a bit.... spotty.
Has anyone bought already?
Is it better than the ones with bezel and volume knob?
KamaL said:
Has anyone bought already?
Is it better than the ones with bezel and volume knob?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My two units arrived. Played with one of them on the kitchen table late last night.
The row of capacitive buttons are thoroughly pointless -- touches to them don't register at all if your finger doesn't touch it absolutely perfectly.
Having said that, I like them better than the one with the knobs, for the reason I've already mentioned to you -- the lack of deep bezels.
Better? It is definitely a matter of preference. I don't need the capacitive button row, so that doesn't bother me at all.
Note: they have this weird dot thing stuck in the UI as configured by default. Touching the dot brings up a set of buttons -- back, home, menu, etc. So.... CHINA. Obviously, unless you have AT LEAST three copies (SystemUI header bar, row of buttons, the weird dot thing, steering wheel controls) of every button, somebody is going to miss it. Fortunately, there is a control application in the application menu that allows you to disable the stupid dot.
doitright said:
My two units arrived. Played with one of them on the kitchen table late last night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sitting on the fence with this purchase, any-chance you could do a video review with these units?
doitright said:
My two units arrived. Played with one of them on the kitchen table late last night.
The row of capacitive buttons are thoroughly pointless -- touches to them don't register at all if your finger doesn't touch it absolutely perfectly.
Having said that, I like them better than the one with the knobs, for the reason I've already mentioned to you -- the lack of deep bezels.
Better? It is definitely a matter of preference. I don't need the capacitive button row, so that doesn't bother me at all.
Note: they have this weird dot thing stuck in the UI as configured by default. Touching the dot brings up a set of buttons -- back, home, menu, etc. So.... CHINA. Obviously, unless you have AT LEAST three copies (SystemUI header bar, row of buttons, the weird dot thing, steering wheel controls) of every button, somebody is going to miss it. Fortunately, there is a control application in the application menu that allows you to disable the stupid dot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That dot was terrible. I also disabled it immediately, thankfully they gave an easy option to turn it off, unlike many of the other things that are obfuscated(such as disclosing to owners the hardware keycombo to boot into recovery).
Upon receiving my unit the capacitive buttons weren't always responding even when pressed perfectly, but after holding down RST till reboot they haven't had the issue again.
When inquiring about a larger touch area for the capacitive buttons I got "Hi friend, Nice day Yes, you can choose the bigger or small touch area in below settings:" with this picture attached.
Increasing the delta values in Settings of the Key Study app doesn't seem to do a whole lot but I think the trigger area is a bit bigger. Unfortunately the border values are for the entire touch screen not per button area.
tally3tally said:
I am sitting on the fence with this purchase, any-chance you could do a video review with these units?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I don't do video.
rcll said:
That dot was terrible. I also disabled it immediately, thankfully they gave an easy option to turn it off, unlike many of the other things that are obfuscated(such as disclosing to owners the hardware keycombo to boot into recovery).
Upon receiving my unit the capacitive buttons weren't always responding even when pressed perfectly, but after holding down RST till reboot they haven't had the issue again.
When inquiring about a larger touch area for the capacitive buttons I got "Hi friend, Nice day Yes, you can choose the bigger or small touch area in below settings:" with this picture attached.
Increasing the delta values in Settings of the Key Study app doesn't seem to do a whole lot but I think the trigger area is a bit bigger. Unfortunately the border values are for the entire touch screen not per button area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That one looks like the buttons (and their corresponding areas) are considerably larger than with the 7". They are surprisingly small on this! I might see if I can disable them altogether, since I suspect that it would likely interfere with "slide finger in from left" gestures.
Ok, so got the thing installed last night.
Well, sortof.
Seems that China can't make up its mind regarding how far the front of the radio sticks forward relative to the mounting holes. So my first attempt to mount it resulted in the radio's face sticking so far forward that my DDIN face plate wouldn't have been able to make it down to the dashboard.... assuming that the holes fit. More on that later.
Second attempt, I moved the radio back to the next set of holes on the mounting bracket, which are a bit more than 1/2" behind the holes that I had the UL135 mounted with. Ok, well depth is *better*, but now a bit too far back. Middle of the night, so as long as I can use the thing to route my way to work in the morning, I'm ok with that. Maybe on the weekend, I'll drill another set of holes about half way between the two sets I tried so far. That should line it up OK.
So the DDIN sizing. Another thing that China can't make up its mind on. The UL135 fit in the Toyota Tacoma Metra dash kit... very snugly in horizontal direction, roughly 1mm clearance in the vertical direction. This UL128N2 is about 2-3 mm too big to fit in that dash kit in BOTH directions. They *claimed* the UL135 to be 100mm x 178mm. They *claim* the UL128N2 to be 102mm x 178mm. I will tell you that the UL128N2 is WIDER than the UL135, despite the claimed equal width. And given the 2mm (actually more) increase in height and that I had at least 1mm of available vertical space, I *should* have been able to force it in. NOPE. The difference is much greater than that, and in both directions. If the UL135 really is 100mm x 178mm, then the UL128N2 is probably 104mm x 180mm. WHY? Oh, the reason is absolutely HILARIOUS, it is because they have a thin plastic ring around the glass digitizer. They ordered the GLASS to have dimensions matching the DDIN target, but didn't compensate for the thin (~1mm) plastic ring around it! Very typical of the way that China manufacturing works. Ok, so I was able to grab a file and open up the dash kit a little bit to make it fit, and now its ok.
So next up... actual functionality.
First observation; the AM radio frequency standard is set to something that is most decidedly NOT North American standard. The closest frequency I could get to my preferred station was off by 2 kHz. While it was adequate to get the station and understand, without TYPICALLY an overabundance of noise or added sound from the next station over, it definitely sounds bad. Thanks so much China, for giving me a well working AM radio tuner! With any luck, I'll be able to hack the program to tune the proper frequencies.
On the physical utility of the unit, when you look past the "size" issue, its not bad. As expected, the screen is much more convenient without the deep bezel around it as the UL135 had. In order to achieve this, they replaced the physical control buttons with a row of capacitive buttons. Those buttons are pretty well useless, you can't reliably press them without focusing carefully on them. That is what is often called "distracted driving". I would go so far as to say that this row of buttons is DANGEROUS to try to use. Not only that, but the row of buttons is ***COMPLETELY REDUNDANT***. After all, they are just duplicates of the home/back/volume buttons that are already present on the SystemUI upper panel anyway, and, of course, the STEERING WHEEL BUTTONS (for those who have them hooked up). Why did they even bother to include that row of buttons? Because.... CHINA! Oh well.
Next up; there are some serious bugs when it comes to AUDIO ROUTING. If the radio is playing, and GPS voice comes on; radio mutes. Oh, it STAYS muted until you go BACK into the radio application, which seems to trigger a reset of the audio routing. This improved once I set google maps as the default nav application, now it just volumes down the radio to "pretend" to play the GPS sounds, and volumes it back up after.
Well, starting with the "included" ancient version of google maps... while it does make sound, it gets clipped by about 3 seconds at the start of the sound. So you miss about the first 3 seconds of the instruction. Update google maps to the latest version, and no sound comes out at all. Ok, what is happening with the newer one is that it is trying to use an audio pathway that is obviously BROKEN on these units. So that means that there isn't going to be any voice nav from google maps until either (a) THEY fix the audio routing problems, or (b) WE fix the audio routing problems. I'm not sure yet if there is an audio routing policy file that we can configure, or if this is something hard baked in somewhere. That's very annoying, but something I can live with for now. I prefer the newer google maps enough to live with the lack of voice guidance, rather than to try to use the ancient version.
DPI: Obviously, Android believes that the screen is as large as a TELEVISION. The fonts are all incredibly small, even if you set it to HUGE font. Ok, so right angle triangle has H = root(1024*1024+600*600)=1186.83 pseudopixels. Divide that by 7, makes 170 DPI. Its set to 160 DPI, so Android thinks that the screen is 7.4 inches. Ok, that's not really too far off from reality, but it IS in the wrong direction, to make everything look SMALLER than it should be. The problem is that the screen is roughly 3 feet away from your face. Take a tablet and how far do you hold it away? Roughly 1.5 foot. So lets figure out how big Android should *THINK* the screen is, in order to blow things up to the same scale as a 7" tablet at 1.5 foot.
We're dealing with right triangles again, 7:3 = x:1.5, x = 3.5. Android should think that the screen is 3.5 inches. That puts it up at 338 DPI. Ok, so these numbers are pretty rough, since I'm just guessing the viewing distances, but you get the idea. Crank that DPI WAAAAAAAY UP! Only problem I see, however, is regarding how they coded the SystemUI. If they followed the Android design guidelines, then they coded it with DP's (density independent pixels), which means that when you crank the DPI far enough to make applications look proper, it will make the CHINA look HUGE. Think about it -- they designed their SystemUI panels to show at a "normal" size when the DPI is set way too low. I can see bad things happening.
I wonder if it would be practical to just SWAP OUT the chinese SystemUI for one built from source? That might actually be a practical way of repairing the UI. Might also be nice to rebuild the System Settings application from source. I'll have to go over it again, but I don't recall there being anything special about System Settings -- they just colorized it, broke the bluetooth part, and added a password to developer options. WHY???!?!
Like the American proverb says... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" That ESPECIALLY goes for China, since if it ain't broke, they're GOING to break it.
And now, to BLUETOOTH.
Well, knew going into it that they futzed up the bluetooth settings as badly as they possibly could. Why? Because... CHINA. The good news is that they tried so hard to break it as badly as they could, that it was EASY to fix.
In fact, I had written up the most important fix WELL before I even had these head units. I will refer to my fix thread HERE: http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...elopment/bluetooth-settings-launcher-t3504526
There are two obvious problems with bluetooth on these units;
1) They deleted the System Settings button that brought up the Bluetooth settings. That is what I fixed in above thread.
2) They BROKE the bluetooth pairing pin prompt. On a normal Android device, when you try to pair with something from it, it will first try one or two "standard" pairing pins, and they don't work, then it will pop up a dialog requesting that you enter the device's pin. This one does NOT do that. It JUST tries to pair using whatever pin is hardcoded in the CHINESE bluetooth application. So while I haven't "fixed" this, there is at least a reasonably easy (if not particularly convenient) workaround. When it doesn't pair, you go into the chinese bluetooth application, change the pin there, and try again.
So the good news is this; the REAL MEAT of the bluetooth stack, is the product of INTEL. Not China. That means that once you work around the severely broken UI (again, WHY BREAK it when you can just leave it be and have it ACTUALLY WORK?), it actually works WONDERFULLY! That means you can connect to AND USE multiple devices at the same time. I.e., torque + **ANY** OBD device, while simultaneously a voice call AND bluetooth data tethering.
Hmm, what else....
Bootup.... this is a very dramatic change from the UL135.
A full bootup takes about 20 seconds.
So when you get into your car in the morning to go to work, after it has been sitting all day, you turn the key, and it is IMMEDIATELY UP. Wait, what? Its wired correctly -- if the +12 and IGN were reversed, then it would lose power with the ignition switch off, which means that it would have to do a full bootup. If the IGN wasn't connected at all, then the screen will never turn on -- when the IGN turns off, the screen goes off, radio stops playing, and another thing I observe, is that bluetooth connections are lost. So, either the thing is only doing a partial shutdown and proceeding to "drain the battery" mode, or they have actually made it sleep *correctly*, switch off all the parts that suck down the power, put the CPU into deep sleep (clock off), and sit there draining negligible power until it receives a wakeup interrupt (IGN line powers up). If that is so, then I am VERY pleased, at least with this element.
On performance and stability;
Its better than the UL135 across the board here. This thing is no rocket, the CPU is actually quite a TURD, though definitely better than RK3188 (despite lower benchmarks). The increased RAM helps with keeping things in memory and responsive. The stability is a night and day improvement over the UL135, which I believe to be attributable to the INTEL element. eMMC performance is abysmal.
Summary so far;
1) The front panel is bigger than DDIN.
2) The front panel sticks out a different amount than UL135.
3) The audio routing policy is BORKED.
4) The UI is ALL CHINA.
5) The Bluetooth stack is INTEL
6) Performance is "OK". Nothing special.
7) Wakeup after sitting all night is INSTANTANEOUS.
More on the GMaps audio routing.
While I haven't yet tried out the latest system update, I HAVE found a way to make GMaps actually speak.
Unfortunately, the "way" is by being on a PHONE CALL.
Yep. When you're on a PHONE call, google maps is HAPPY to speak to you. In fact, the damned thing will NEVER SHUT UP. Obviously. When better to harass you then when you're trying to listen to someone else? Or when you're trying to speak, since it shuts off the microphone in order not to echo back the nav prompts.
(fortunately, there is a setting to tell it not to issue nav sounds during call).
Oh yeah, gmaps also speaks LOUDER than the phone call.
EDIT: people on the joying forum are indicating that the newest update will fix the gmaps voice.
Ok, on to the December 8th UPDATE.
First off, I have NOT really run the update yet. Supposedly, it fixes the GMaps sound problem.
I can confirm that they have NOT (yet) caught on to Blueballs.apk that I wrote (and shared) to regain access to the System Settings --> Bluetooth activity, so bluetooth functionality has not been degraded.
First the install process;
Take their install archive and EXTRACT it to a uSD or USB disk. Either is fine. I used USB.
msdos type partition table, ONE partition, formatted as fat32.
Power on the vehicle, stick in the card or USB, and wait until it prompts you to install the update.
Now is where things get scary....
Starts by updating the MCU, fine, then proceeds to update the Android image. The progress bar moves about a 3rd of the way across, and STOPS. And it just sits there. For about 10 minutes. The only indication that the device isn't completely crashed out is that the little websphere thing is still spinning in the little robot's hands. Ok, eventually it goes, then it says to yank out the disk and it will reboot itself. OK, no problem.
You do it. And it reboots. It plays the boot animation, right up to the last frame... and stops. It just sits there saying "ANDROID" across the screen. Now you're thinking to yourself that THIS THING IS JAMMED UP AND YET WE HAVE NO WAY TO GET INTO RECOVERY!!!!! Crap. Ok, lets just let it be. It sits, and it sits, and about 15 minutes later, the panel lights go out. Ok, at least something changed. Wait another minute and it finally boots. So WHAT THE BLOODY HELL CHINA? Obviously, it must have been optimizing application number 27 of 258, so WHY DID YOU DELETE THE PROGRESS DIALOG, CHINA? WHY?????
So it boots back up, and you notice something funny right off the bat. It has returned to the china launcher. Ok, that's minor. Keep on moving, we can reset it to google launcher momentarily. So now you go into something like k9mail, and it asks you to sign in.
HUH?
But the program remained installed.
THE BLOODY MORONS..... THEY DELETED EVERYTHING FROM /data/data/. They kept /data/app/, but they deleted /data/data/. So everything you've set up now has to be reset. GEE, THANKS SO BLOODY MUCH, CHINA.
So my suggestion... if you're going to update to the Dec8 system image, the sooner you do it, the less of your settings you will lose, because the less of your settings you will have actually SET.
Quick observations;
1) They have NOT fixed the frequency selection on the AM radio. I'm still stuck 2 kHz away from my target frequency.
2) There were THREE phases to the system install; MCU, Android, and "Allapp.pkg".
3) Allapp.pkg contains Settings.apk. Yet there was a Settings.apk in the Android update. Hmmmmm..... wonder if we could just force back the REAL Settings.apk and have a proper functioning system?
4) Allapp.pkg *also* has a SystemUI.apk. Could it be? Could the one in the Android update actually be... no, it couldn't. There's no way that they would actually *include* an AOSP SystemUI, is there?
This is the list of all of the apk files in Allapp.pkg:
Code:
EasyConnectedFY07.apk
assets/CarMan.apk
assets/CarManNotChinese.apk
assets/EasyConnServer.apk
Gmail2.apk
JY-1-C9-BT-V1.0.apk
JY-1-C9-Guide-V1.0.apk
JY-1-C9-Launcher-V1.0.apk
JY-1-C9-MUSIC-V1.0.apk
JY-1-C9-Radio-V1.0.apk
JY-1-C9-Video-V1.0.apk
JY-2-C9-Launcher-V1.0.apk
Maps.apk
PlatformServerSofia.apk
Settings.apk
SFY-1-C9-Steer-V1.0.apk
Sofia-1-C9-Aux-V1.0.apk
sofia-1-C9-CarMark-V1.0.apk
Sofia-1-C9-FileManager-V1.0.apk
Sofia-1-C9-Gallery-V1.0.apk
Sofia-1-C9-RightCamera-V1.0.apk
Sofia-1-C9-Server-V1.0.apk
Sofia-1-C9-TV-V1.0.apk
SystemUI.apk
SYU-1-5009-FloatBtn-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Calculator-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Caliration-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Canbus-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-CarRadio-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-CarUi-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Graphics-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Navi-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-SubServer-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-UIServer-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Update-V1.0.apk
SYU-1-C9-Widget-V1.0.apk
SYU-2-C9-CMSettings-V1.0.apk
SYU-2-C9-EQ-V1.0.apk
Notice... CarMan.apk and CarManNotChinese.apk, LOL.
Oh, and "SYU-1-C9-Caliration-V1.0.apk" is also pretty cool.... ***CALIRATION***
doitright said:
My two units arrived. Played with one of them on the kitchen table late last night.
The row of capacitive buttons are thoroughly pointless -- touches to them don't register at all if your finger doesn't touch it absolutely perfectly.
Having said that, I like them better than the one with the knobs, for the reason I've already mentioned to you -- the lack of deep bezels.
Better? It is definitely a matter of preference. I don't need the capacitive button row, so that doesn't bother me at all.
Note: they have this weird dot thing stuck in the UI as configured by default. Touching the dot brings up a set of buttons -- back, home, menu, etc. So.... CHINA. Obviously, unless you have AT LEAST three copies (SystemUI header bar, row of buttons, the weird dot thing, steering wheel controls) of every button, somebody is going to miss it. Fortunately, there is a control application in the application menu that allows you to disable the stupid dot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 10" version and I got the buttons to work 100% after relearning the touch keys. Open "carmediasettings" then click on Panel keys assignment. Hope that helps =)
xlinkx said:
I have the 10" version and I got the buttons to work 100% after relearning the touch keys. Open "carmediasettings" then click on Panel keys assignment. Hope that helps =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue on the 7" isn't the button calibration, just the physical size of the touch areas.
Doesn't matter anyway, since the buttons are all available in other places -- systemui bar and steering wheel.
So today installed the second UL128N2 into the wife's Subaru Forester.
Popped out a parrot asteroid smart (obsolete). The dimensions of the parrot are about a full quarter of an inch in both horizontal and vertical directions. Really had to do a job on the ddin dash adapter on that one, but fortunately was able to avoid having to cut up the actual dashboard.
doitright said:
Summary so far;
1) The front panel is bigger than DDIN.
2) The front panel sticks out a different amount than UL135.
3) The audio routing policy is BORKED.
4) The UI is ALL CHINA.
5) The Bluetooth stack is INTEL
6) Performance is "OK". Nothing special.
7) Wakeup after sitting all night is INSTANTANEOUS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any news on the instantaneous wake up after a full night? No car battery issues after several nights? I would be very interested in measurements of power consumption when the car is switched off.
Regarding the small font settings, would you suggest to buy the 8" unit if it fits in the car? I guess that the UL138N2 has the same hardware as the UL128N2 only with an 8" screen? And I hope that it has also the instantaneous wake up?
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA-Developers mobile app
nomailing said:
Any news on the instantaneous wake up after a full night? No car battery issues after several nights? I would be very interested in measurements of power consumption when the car is switched off.
Regarding the small font settings, would you suggest to buy the 8" unit if it fits in the car? I guess that the UL138N2 has the same hardware as the UL128N2 only with an 8" screen? And I hope that it has also the instantaneous wake up?
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I wouldn't suggest that. I would just suggest changing the DPI setting on the 7" to something more suitable.
The UL138N2 WILL NOT fit in a DDIN dash adapter. Its basically a DDIN *box*, with a TABLET bolted out in front of it. Unless your car is an ugly beater, you probably won't want to install something that ugly into it.
As far as overnight power consumption, I have not had any opportunity to test more than a 24 hour stretch. No issues, nor, frankly, do I expect any. They appear to be sleeping the unit correctly, so all of the wireless signals are turned off, and CPU is in clock stopped mode, so like a good quality tablet with the wifi turned off, it'll go for months like that. On a battery as big as a car has, possibly years (assuming that the car battery didn't self discharge in that time, which it will).
doitright,
With your help I was able to get full system menu. Thank you! I was wondering if you were able to get "Ok Google" to work on any screen. It only works on the home screen for my 10" head unit.
xlinkx said:
doitright,
With your help I was able to get full system menu. Thank you! I was wondering if you were able to get "Ok Google" to work on any screen. It only works on the home screen for my 10" head unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no interest in retard mode, so no. I have not.
doitright said:
DPI: Obviously, Android believes that the screen is as large as a TELEVISION. The fonts are all incredibly small, even if you set it to HUGE font. Ok, so right angle triangle has H = root(1024*1024+600*600)=1186.83 pseudopixels. Divide that by 7, makes 170 DPI. Its set to 160 DPI, so Android thinks that the screen is 7.4 inches. Ok, that's not really too far off from reality, but it IS in the wrong direction, to make everything look SMALLER than it should be. The problem is that the screen is roughly 3 feet away from your face. Take a tablet and how far do you hold it away? Roughly 1.5 foot. So lets figure out how big Android should *THINK* the screen is, in order to blow things up to the same scale as a 7" tablet at 1.5 foot.
We're dealing with right triangles again, 7:3 = x:1.5, x = 3.5. Android should think that the screen is 3.5 inches. That puts it up at 338 DPI. Ok, so these numbers are pretty rough, since I'm just guessing the viewing distances, but you get the idea. Crank that DPI WAAAAAAAY UP! Only problem I see, however, is regarding how they coded the SystemUI. If they followed the Android design guidelines, then they coded it with DP's (density independent pixels), which means that when you crank the DPI far enough to make applications look proper, it will make the CHINA look HUGE. Think about it -- they designed their SystemUI panels to show at a "normal" size when the DPI is set way too low. I can see bad things happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried some changes to the dpi in build.prop. I went up to 180 and the ui looks alright still. Then I decided what the heck and went to 300 since my galaxy s5 is at 480...bad idea. The screen gets stuck on the kill apps screen and you can't open anything. Luckily I was able to open es file explorer using adb and edit the build.prop. After rebooting, all os well again.
Moral of the story, don't try anything over...maybe 200?

ZTE Cymbal-T LTE (TFW/CDMA) First Impressions

I wanted to throw this one out here because XDA likely hasn't looked into this one yet. Best Buy is offering the Tracfone Wireless ZTE Cymbal Android FlipPhone for $50 (on Tracfone's website, it's $100). I had it shipped to my house and it arrived today, so I wanted to give my thoughts.
It ships with similar specs to the LG K3/K4 models. Snapdragon 210 CPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM, expandable microSD (32GB) slot. Touchscreen is 3.5 inches (low resolution), it has two speakers AND two microphones, a physical keypad (FLIP PHONE), a headphone jack, and a modest battery for its size. The OS is Stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. There's also an external display for clock. Because it's a CDMA phone, it has an MEID for 3G and an LTE SIM for 4G. It MUST be activated through Tracfone or used with some kind of Mobile Hotspot.
The device features physical Android keys (Home, Back, Recent), a camera key, mute key, messaging key, favorite app key, D-Pad with center button, and a backspace/C key. I swapped the launcher with NOVA Prime and mapped the home key to the app drawer. Because of the small screen, I made it so desktop is 4x5, but app drawer is 3x4. Arrow keys can then be used to navigate, or you can touch the screen directly.
The internal antenna is wicked powerful. Most phones do not get signal at my house, yet this phone can occasionally detect VZW's 3G network while inside. More crazy is that the internal GPS includes something called IZat and gets a lock-on while indoors. I have rarely seen a phone do that. This phone does have a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor, though the latter isn't the best. I disabled Auto-brightness because the phone was changing brightness to often for my liking. That said, the backlight is really bright even at low settings.
That said, there are a few things I am not liking. The messaging key does not map to your default messaging app. It goes to the stock messaging app, no exceptions, even if you select a different app like Hangouts as the default. Additionally, the physical keyboard modes aren't exactly the best laid-out. You have your legacy modes, but instead of using the 1 key for symbols, you use the * key and navigate a small menu on the screen. There's also a "T12" mode which is similar to T9 though requires you to select the word using the center button every time before hitting space. I'm still trying to figure out if that can be modified.
Thankfully, you can also install touchscreen keypads like Google Keyboard or use the included TouchPal keyboard. Its layout is not too bad for a 3.5 inch screen, but it kind of defeats the purpose of using a physical keypad. I would say the only advantage of having it is being able to dial a number without having to open the dialer app. Plus, if you press the Green (call) key from the home screen, it takes you to your contacts list.
All in all, it was a great way to implement Android flip phones into the North American market, but I don't know if I would use this as a daily driver just yet. I still have my Moto G4 Play running Lineage 14.1, and I need that for work anyway (certain apps would not do well on the ZTE). But for $50, this phone gives my Moto a serious run for its money.
I picked this device up on discount as well.
It's far more phone than I expected for the money, that is for sure. It would be great to see a software update to at least 6.0, but I doubt it will happen.
I think the only thing missing from the device is a convertible style hinge. being able to flip the screen around and close the clamshell would be really amazing.
All in all, punching above its $50 weight class.
I was looking at this online today. I'm on AT&T though so while there are some "unlocked" offered online, I'm not sure it would work with my sim card. This is really the kind of thing I am hoping for though, a blast from the past that can slip into my pocket and still do Android. I wonder if you can play Pokemon Go on it...
To bump up this thread, I bought mine at local K-Mart recently for $49.99, had been hoping to run across one of these. It's a great little phone for the money I paid, considering it's features and appearance. I could see this type of phone being tweaked into a great daily driver. The speaker is pretty clear and surprisingly loud. My eyes aren't what they used to be, but the screen is clear and bright. It's a budget phone, but it's a great one. I currently use it with my Safelink account (via Tracfone) and it seems to get good cellular reception (verizon 4g LTE towers), as I stay in my underground basement most of the time, working on Computers and such. I want to get another just to experiment on with a custom launcher and some other apps. I'm curious if it can be rooted, and if it would even be worth it if it can. It's a pretty cool phone, hope to see more phones similar to it soon here in the US...
Unlock zte cymbal t tracfone ,it's not prompting for unlock code with diff sim triedd
Phone Fan said:
To bump up this thread, I bought mine at local K-Mart recently for $49.99, had been hoping to run across one of these. It's a great little phone for the money I paid, considering it's features and appearance. I could see this type of phone being tweaked into a great daily driver. The speaker is pretty clear and surprisingly loud. My eyes aren't what they used to be, but the screen is clear and bright. It's a budget phone, but it's a great one. I currently use it with my Safelink account (via Tracfone) and it seems to get good cellular reception (verizon 4g LTE towers), as I stay in my underground basement most of the time, working on Computers and such. I want to get another just to experiment on with a custom launcher and some other apps. I'm curious if it can be rooted, and if it would even be worth it if it can. It's a pretty cool phone, hope to see more phones similar to it soon here in the US...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can anyone help plz
Hi,
FYI, in case anyone is interested, QVC has these for sale for like $49.98 incl 1 year and 1200 mins on Tracfone.
I found that while I was searching for a backup battery for the one I bought my wife (from bestbuy - I messed up and paid more for that one !).
Anyway, beware though. It does not seem possible to buy just the battery anywhere nowadays (as of Aug 2017 anyway).
Jim
Zte Cymbal T Root and Battery
jimcpl said:
Hi,
FYI, in case anyone is interested, QVC has these for sale for like $49.98 incl 1 year and 1200 mins on Tracfone.
I found that while I was searching for a backup battery for the one I bought my wife (from bestbuy - I messed up and paid more for that one !).
Anyway, beware though. It does not seem possible to buy just the battery anywhere nowadays (as of Aug 2017 anyway).
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeh anyone know if a tracphone can be rooted? I also looking for batteries.
unlock help
anyone know how to unlock this tracphone
mkollersms said:
I wanted to throw this one out here because XDA likely hasn't looked into this one yet. Best Buy is offering the Tracfone Wireless ZTE Cymbal Android FlipPhone for $50 (on Tracfone's website, it's $100). I had it shipped to my house and it arrived today, so I wanted to give my thoughts.
It ships with similar specs to the LG K3/K4 models. Snapdragon 210 CPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM, expandable microSD (32GB) slot. Touchscreen is 3.5 inches (low resolution), it has two speakers AND two microphones, a physical keypad (FLIP PHONE), a headphone jack, and a modest battery for its size. The OS is Stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. There's also an external display for clock. Because it's a CDMA phone, it has an MEID for 3G and an LTE SIM for 4G. It MUST be activated through Tracfone or used with some kind of Mobile Hotspot.
The device features physical Android keys (Home, Back, Recent), a camera key, mute key, messaging key, favorite app key, D-Pad with center button, and a backspace/C key. I swapped the launcher with NOVA Prime and mapped the home key to the app drawer. Because of the small screen, I made it so desktop is 4x5, but app drawer is 3x4. Arrow keys can then be used to navigate, or you can touch the screen directly.
The internal antenna is wicked powerful. Most phones do not get signal at my house, yet this phone can occasionally detect VZW's 3G network while inside. More crazy is that the internal GPS includes something called IZat and gets a lock-on while indoors. I have rarely seen a phone do that. This phone does have a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor, though the latter isn't the best. I disabled Auto-brightness because the phone was changing brightness to often for my liking. That said, the backlight is really bright even at low settings.
That said, there are a few things I am not liking. The messaging key does not map to your default messaging app. It goes to the stock messaging app, no exceptions, even if you select a different app like Hangouts as the default. Additionally, the physical keyboard modes aren't exactly the best laid-out. You have your legacy modes, but instead of using the 1 key for symbols, you use the * key and navigate a small menu on the screen. There's also a "T12" mode which is similar to T9 though requires you to select the word using the center button every time before hitting space. I'm still trying to figure out if that can be modified.
Thankfully, you can also install touchscreen keypads like Google Keyboard or use the included TouchPal keyboard. Its layout is not too bad for a 3.5 inch screen, but it kind of defeats the purpose of using a physical keypad. I would say the only advantage of having it is being able to dial a number without having to open the dialer app. Plus, if you press the Green (call) key from the home screen, it takes you to your contacts list.
All in all, it was a great way to implement Android flip phones into the North American market, but I don't know if I would use this as a daily driver just yet. I still have my Moto G4 Play running Lineage 14.1, and I need that for work anyway (certain apps would not do well on the ZTE). But for $50, this phone gives my Moto a serious run for its money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, you mentioned that you installed hangouts and the NOVA prime launcher, i've been trying to install apps on this phone and wasnt able too, i tried via apk files and via ADB and wasnt succesfull,
if you can please advise
Thanks!
lazer7598 said:
Hi, you mentioned that you installed hangouts and the NOVA prime launcher, i've been trying to install apps on this phone and wasnt able too, i tried via apk files and via ADB and wasnt succesfull,
if you can please advise
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried rooting it and wasn't successful either

5 Issues with Lineage OS on Samsung Galaxy S6

Hi All
First time really contributing to this but I feel like some super-duper hacker (not that I know anything!). I'm smart and can play around with things. I actually trained as a lawyer, went into recruitment but am now considering moving into computing! This is fun and you can be involved in projects. However my eye has developed a nasty twitch... Recruitment is dead now anyway. (Any tips on how I can begin getting into programming/app development/ XDA work etc whatever it is would be appreciated, (I literally have no idea where to go but I'd like to!)).
Anyway, back on topic:-
So...I've been up for the past 24 hours with a new laptop and at first rescuing my Samsung Galaxy S6 which got caught in a bootloop with no recovery, (had to hard reset, lost all data), upgraded Android to Nougat. It all started when I went to do a recovery boot to get Magisk to work but it all went haywire. :crying:
Happy to give you a system specs - models - builds etc, if there's a good way of doing that let me know and I'll post so you techies can take a look and see what might be the reasons behind the issues. I'm running a 'bug report' through Developer Options at the moment and can post this if useful? I have a Bug Report that I've generated if this is useful to anyone in getting to the bottom of these issues, let me know and I can send...
Ok, so with no further waffling, the issues I've seen so far in the short time I've had this lineage-14.1-20170307-UNOFFICIAL-Nexus7420-zerofltexx-2 (this is the Zip file that I found for the Samsung Galaxy S6 which I understand is only developmental at the moment, it doesn't have its own one yet?)... (in descending order of importance):-
1. Fastcharging - this is very important to me. This seems to have stopped working. How can we get this back? Potentially a dealbreaker with the ROM if this can't be sorted quickly.
2. EE I should be receiving 4G++ super duper speeds on EE. This is really impressive and is very important again. However, since flashing the ROM etc, it's only connecting to T-Mobile (a connected network to EE but doesn't benefit from their 4G++ network, EE bought T-Mobile in the UK ages ago). I've contacted EE about this as I thought it may just be a settings issue. They sent me settings though it's still not working. Potentially a dealbreaker with the ROM if this can't be sorted quickly.
3. Whatsapp VoiceNotes - I use WhatsApp voicenotes all the time; it's a crucial part of my day. Since upgrading there are two issues I can see with this:- a) there is an interference noise that ruins the clarity of each recording sent, it's there the whole time; and b) the recording itself sounds like it's slowed down and doesn't sound normal or right. At the moment this is unusabule and it's massively important, I'd imagine to most people too. Potentially a dealbreaker with the ROM if this can't be sorted quickly.
4. Magisk - The reason for embarking on the entire debacle of the past 24 hours has been to be able to hide my root. That's why I wanted Magisk in the first place so I could use the apps like banking apps and SnapChat and Virgin TV that in draconian fashion refuse to let one use them when it sees it's a rooted device. Magisk to the rescue (in theory). So when I load up Magisk Manager now under SafetyNet Check Success, the basicIntegrity option is sometimes fine though now it's showing 'X'; and 'ctsProfile:false' is permanently showing. I've hidden Google Play Services and Google Play as I read this can cause issues. It does show #superuser in the dropdown and I'm not sure if this is a legacy from SuperSu I had before (don't think so as I did a complete reboot) or if this is part of the app?
5. Torch - torch option on settings panel doesn't seem to yield any torchlight at all. I wonder if other apps work or if there's anything the techies can do here?
Thanks so much for reading and I look forward to helping or assisting in solving in whatever way I can.
bestfootie said:
Hi All
1. Fastcharging - this is very important to me. This seems to have stopped working. How can we get this back? Potentially a dealbreaker with the ROM if this can't be sorted quickly.
2. EE I should be receiving 4G++ super duper speeds on EE. This is really impressive and is very important again. However, since flashing the ROM etc, it's only connecting to T-Mobile (a connected network to EE but doesn't benefit from their 4G++ network, EE bought T-Mobile in the UK ages ago). I've contacted EE about this as I thought it may just be a settings issue. They sent me settings though it's still not working. Potentially a dealbreaker with the ROM if this can't be sorted quickly.
3. Whatsapp VoiceNotes - I use WhatsApp voicenotes all the time; it's a crucial part of my day. Since upgrading there are two issues I can see with this:- a) there is an interference noise that ruins the clarity of each recording sent, it's there the whole time; and b) the recording itself sounds like it's slowed down and doesn't sound normal or right. At the moment this is unusabule and it's massively important, I'd imagine to most people too. Potentially a dealbreaker with the ROM if this can't be sorted quickly.
4. Magisk - The reason for embarking on the entire debacle of the past 24 hours has been to be able to hide my root. That's why I wanted Magisk in the first place so I could use the apps like banking apps and SnapChat and Virgin TV that in draconian fashion refuse to let one use them when it sees it's a rooted device. Magisk to the rescue (in theory). So when I load up Magisk Manager now under SafetyNet Check Success, the basicIntegrity option is sometimes fine though now it's showing 'X'; and 'ctsProfile:false' is permanently showing. I've hidden Google Play Services and Google Play as I read this can cause issues. It does show #superuser in the dropdown and I'm not sure if this is a legacy from SuperSu I had before (don't think so as I did a complete reboot) or if this is part of the app?
5. Torch - torch option on settings panel doesn't seem to yield any torchlight at all. I wonder if other apps work or if there's anything the techies can do here?
Thanks so much for reading and I look forward to helping or assisting in solving in whatever way I can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So in addition to these I've also discovered a further three issues:-
6. WhatsApp camera not working - you can take a photo within WhatsApp but it doesn't progress to the launch screen to the next screen to send the photo. Strangely, video clips do seem to work...
7. Bluetooth headset doesn't seem to be working anymore
8. Sky Sports App once you get past permissions and everything to watch the show it freezes on the loading step. I imagine this is something to do with the modified ROM/Kernel?
bestfootie said:
So in addition to these I've also discovered a further three issues:-
6. WhatsApp camera not working - you can take a photo within WhatsApp but it doesn't progress to the launch screen to the next screen to send the photo. Strangely, video clips do seem to work...
7. Bluetooth headset doesn't seem to be working anymore
8. Sky Sports App once you get past permissions and everything to watch the show it freezes on the loading step. I imagine this is something to do with the modified ROM/Kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
9. I'll also add in here that call volume and volume in general seem really low.
As a result of these nine bugs I'm going to have to revert back to an older version, quite possibly Stock Android, unfortunately... :crying:

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