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Oct. 4

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Re: Oct. 4

#141

Post by abawany »

Abundnce10 wrote: post #137
abawany wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a phone that has an unlockable bootloader and install Cyanogenmod and Google Play (if you must :) ).

Is that possible to do on a Galaxy S7? I'm competent on the command line but never worked much with Android/ROMs/etc.

It looks like there are quite a few options for your device: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development . On further investigation, there is a wrinkle - if your device has the Exynos chip, then your options are pretty limited while Snapdragon devices are well supported: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development . Unfortunately it looks like it won't be a slam dunk for your particular device.

Re: Oct. 4

#142

Post by apatters »

I'm not sure if it's available in the US, but I bought a Samsung Galaxy A5 in Thailand for about $220 and with the level of quality it offers for such a low price, I have a very hard time understanding why anyone would pay 3-5x that for a "premium" phone: http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-a5-review

Re: Oct. 4

#143

Post by js8 »

Zhenya wrote: post #140
js8 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will it have a real, physical keyboard? That's why I bought the first Google phone and I still use it.

You still use the G1?!

Correct.

Re: Oct. 4

#144

Post by pritambaral »

js8 wrote: post #143
Zhenya wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still use the G1?!

Correct.

How's the battery life?

Genuinely curious. I'd like to use a phone with a hardware-keyboard as my daily driver too, but the only ones I can find are so old their batteries have worn down to the point of being functionally unacceptable.

Re: Oct. 4

#145

Post by js8 »

pritambaral wrote: post #144
js8 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct.

How's the battery life? Genuinely curious. I'd like to use a phone with a hardware-keyboard as my daily driver too, but the only ones I can find are so old their batteries have worn down to the point of being functionally unacceptable.

I have bought a new battery twice, and the last one I have lasts about 1.5 day or so and I bought it maybe a year ago. I am not a heavy user but you can still find the battery on the market - the one I have was made by "Cameron Sino", model CS-HDE160SL, it's Lion battery with 1150 mAh (as they claim). I bought the G1 pretty late, I think two years after it was introduced, so I have it maybe 8 years now?

Re: Oct. 4

#146

Post by Zhenya »

js8 wrote: post #145
pritambaral wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the battery life? Genuinely curious. I'd like to use a phone with a hardware-keyboard as my daily driver too, but the only ones I can find are so old their batteries have worn down to the point of being functionally unacceptable.

I have bought a new battery twice, and the last one I have lasts about 1.5 day or so and I bought it maybe a year ago. I am not a heavy user but you can still find the battery on the market - the one I have was made by "Cameron Sino", model CS-HDE160SL, it's Lion battery with 1150 mAh (as they claim). I bought the G1 pretty late, I think two years after it was introduced, so I have it maybe 8 years now?

What OS are you running? I do the Google services still work? Can webpages even really load due to heavy JS today?

Re: Oct. 4

#147

Post by js8 »

Zhenya wrote: post #146
js8 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have bought a new battery twice, and the last one I have lasts about 1.5 day or so and I bought it maybe a year ago. I am not a heavy user but you can still find the battery on the market - the one I have was made by "Cameron Sino", model CS-HDE160SL, it's Lion battery with 1150 mAh (as they claim). I bought the G1 pretty late, I think two years after it was introduced, so I have it maybe 8 years now?

What OS are you running? I do the Google services still work? Can webpages even really load due to heavy JS today?

I am still running Android 1.6. Google services - Gmail doesn't seem to work anymore (and I never used it very much), Maps I do use and they work, Talk I never used, Market I think worked OK till about a year ago. I cannot upgrade most apps I have on it, because the new version doesn't work on such old Android. I pretty much only use it today for calls and texting, and that works, and I guess most apps I have on it (including original Google Apps for things like Music, Calendar etc.) still works.

Regarding browsing, yeah, it's somewhat usable in emergency (the pages will load) but I never got very used to do it because the speed was always abysmal here (Czech Republic). The original Google browser still works.

So, I guess I cannot recommend buying one now (although perhaps with Cyanogenmod it would be better), but it works for me and I really wish I could replace it with something that has keyboard. :-(

Re: Oct. 4

#148

Post by Abundnce10 »

abawany wrote: post #141
Abundnce10 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that possible to do on a Galaxy S7? I'm competent on the command line but never worked much with Android/ROMs/etc.

It looks like there are quite a few options for your device: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development . On further investigation, there is a wrinkle - if your device has the Exynos chip, then your options are pretty limited while Snapdragon devices are well supported: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development . Unfortunately it looks like it won't be a slam dunk for your particular device.

Unfortunately it looks like it won't be a slam dunk for your particular device.

And this is why I won't attempt to it, since I really don't know what I'm doing. I'd love to use Cyanogenmod but probably won't until I buy a new phone that I feel more comfortable flashing a ROM onto. Looks like I'll just live with crapware for now :)

Re: Oct. 4

#149

Post by abawany »

Abundnce10 wrote: post #148
abawany wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like there are quite a few options for your device: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development . On further investigation, there is a wrinkle - if your device has the Exynos chip, then your options are pretty limited while Snapdragon devices are well supported: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development . Unfortunately it looks like it won't be a slam dunk for your particular device.

Unfortunately it looks like it won't be a slam dunk for your particular device. And this is why I won't attempt to it, since I really don't know what I'm doing. I'd love to use Cyanogenmod but probably won't until I buy a new phone that I feel more comfortable flashing a ROM onto. Looks like I'll just live with crapware for now :)

I understand. However, I do encourage you to read and at least consider rooting the phone (without triggering the flash counter if the phone is under warranty): this will enable you to remove/disable a lot of the 'system' apps that are fairly evil. The first link I included has options for your device for cleaned-up Samsung ROMs.

I have a Sony Xperia Z2 now and I chose the root option instead of the (available) Cyanogenmod install for it since Sony, while being very open to rooting etc., chooses to remove some image enhancement functionality on flashed devices. The root has enabled me to remove a lot of the junk and also install the Xposed framework along with XPrivacy. The latter enables fine-grained control of permissions by app.

Sure it is a bit of work but it depends on how you value your private data. I realize ultimately it might be futile but I am planning to put in as much effort as makes sense to protect my data as best as I know how.

Re: Oct. 4

#150

Post by JustUhThought »

daveloyall wrote: post #116
sigmar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 cameras aren't enough for an accurate depth map though, right? I thought you need infrared.

I've never heard of a single infrared camera being used for depth-finding... Are you thinking of some active scanning technology such as LIDAR? Or the infrared grid-of-dots projection that the kinect uses?

Infra-red cameras are used in the LeapMotion controllers. I don't think it is anything special about the spectrum however, coupled with Infra-red lights it's an easy way to cut down on the noise in the comtrollers field of view.
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