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I've used this kernel with slimrom.net.

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

Currently using this ROM which comes with the previously mentioned kernel, either way works great.

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

If you get trickster from the playstore you can change all kinds of settings with the custom kernel, but the stock settings work great.

I've done a lot of custom ROM installations, and many of them to support AppOps to expose these granular permissions. Cyanogen has actually expanded upon this functionality.

Google have chosen to remove user access to AppOps from recent Android releases and while CM's Privacy Guard is a slightly improved and much easier to use approach on those system calls it requires a custom ROM and even those are still limited to a minority of devices. (Hint: consider only buying devices that will be supported by custom ROMs!)

There is something that is more comprehensive and granular, although more complicated to use as a result. XPrivacy is built upon the well-known Xposed framework (requires root) and it lets the user to control essentially all permissions individually.

Here's a brief and useful recap by xda-developers about the main options.

Actually, somebody posted it below: http://repo.xposed.info/module...

Then load the XPrivacy module. The thread is here: http://forum.xda-developers.co...

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

What I posted there on my initial investigation...

It's the shutdownIfOverTempLocked() routine that is firing and shutting down the phone.
I changed the call to require a user acknowledge so it would not actually shut the phone down and I added a log to see which one was causing it..

dj@androidbuild:~$ grep shutdownIf logcat.txt
I/BatteryService( 723): shutdownIfOverTempLocked() Firing
I/BatteryService( 723): shutdownIfOverTempLocked() Firing
I/BatteryService( 723): shutdownIfOverTempLocked() Firing
(repeated many times)

So the temporary fix is to change 'false' to 'true' in line 339 of BatteryService.java and recompile android, or just BatteryService.java if you know how to do that in isolation.

I presume it's a sensor problem. I'm going to dig in and see what is causing it to fire on this condition and see if there isn't a software mitigation that can be put in place.

Later on, after ploughing through android source code.

thermald looks at a number of temperature sensors, including the battery sensor and the configuration file tells it to shut down on several of the sensors when they hit a max. However thermald does not issue shutdowns for the battery thermal sensor limit. It implements the clock throttling at different temperature points, the idea being that the battery will never get to the max temp.

So when the thermal sensor erroneously reports a max temp, thermald raises all sorts of alarms that you see in the logs and slows your clocks, but it does not shut off the phone.

The code that shuts off the phone is in BatteryService.java and BatteryService.java gives you no logs whatsoever when in does what it does. The logs above are what I added and it happens once for each time the phone erroneously tries to shut down.

So it's easy to see the alarms in the log, see the shutdown happen and conclude that thermald is doing it, but it isn't. BatteryService.java is doing it and is being stealthy while it does it.

The ultimate point being that the battery thermal sensor died after a period and the response is what is described in the link.

There are several projects based on mapping cell towers.

There are also projects looking to use network diagnostic info from the phone itself. Everything is still very alpha at this stage, but hopefully that will change.

The most well known is probably this one;

https://opensource.srlabs.de/p...

There is also a project on XDA that has attracted some attention;

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

Unfortunately I don't think it is as easy as the parent suggests.

Closed systems that go out of date quickly and are incompatible with anything newer.

Want an Example? BMW 525 Iphone cradle system. doesn't work with the iPhone 5, 5c or 5s.

Is this an argument against the parent? It seems like an argument for open I/O standards to me. All phones should be able to output HDMI video. All car entertainment systems should show up as input devices, and have sound I/O. These various I/O should be combined into 1 open standard wireless or wired connection. For wired connections, a standard input interface could be matched with a phone-specific dongle.

The problem historically has been that car stereo manufacturers have pandered to Apple, who can change their standards at any time, or have made up their own standards which they change at a whim. If a powerful group puts out an open standard with low or no licensing costs, this problem would be solved.

Personally, I'd really love to have one of chinese android head units but I can't justify spending $500 on purchasing and installing a car stereo right now.

According to these links, The Z Ultra supports bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 20, which means it works on Tmobile for 4g in the US, which uses band 4. It also supports all UK 4g bands. The Z Ultra is also currently the best phone due to its 6.4" screen. People say that it's "too big" until they put it in their pocket. It first in almost all pockets. Even better for girls since they put them in their purses. Everyone asks about it because it is way better looking than other phones. http://forum.xda-developers.co... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

I recently popped Cyanogenmod 11 (KitKat ROM) on my Nook Color and use it as a remote control for my Chromecast. It's amazing the utility in a device that isn't locked down with hardware that isn't black boxed. I must say when it was originally announced that KitKat was optimized to make slower systems perform better I was skeptical but it is noticeably faster and consumes less battery than any version I have ever used.

I've been doing this on my Galaxy S3 for over 9 months now using an NFC tag glued to my watch band. All you need is a rooted phone running Android 4.0.3 and above and a willingness to install an XPosed plugin or two. This link has all the details:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/mod-nfc-unlocking-based-t2478163

TL;DR Steps:

• ROOT YOUR PHONE (You'll have to Google this one yourself)
• Install XPosed Framework
• Install NFC Lock Screen Off Enabler module (you can find it in the Modules section of the XPosed Installer app)
• Turn on NFC in lockscreen or screen off modes as desired
• Register your NFC Tags to unlock your phone

Much easier (and safer, IMO) than installing a modified system apk, and this method can also survive system upgrades provided that you maintain root. It will launch whatever action is set for that NFC tag (link, text, app, whatever), but you can use another XPosed module to supress the "Empty Tag" message on empty tags, if you so desire.

The Adafruit link from TFA has some interesting ideas on how to squeeze your NFC tag into some interesting places, and you can also buy some pretty small NFC tags on your own. I bought 20 Midas nTag NFC tags on Amazon for $13 with Prime shipping, and they measure 19mm x 12mm. You can shave another 2mm off of either dimension if you're very careful with the trimming. That was more than small enough to fit on the clasp of my watch, or on the back of a plastic watch band.

Oh please, you are *completely* full of shit. WP8 has Pocket File Manager, and WP8.1 has added even more support for file access (I don't know if anybody has yet published an app that uses it to make a general-purpose file browser).

Yeah, the apps can't *see* much because they run with excruciatingly low privileges - PFM has a special capability that gives full access to some locations most apps can't access at all - but the SD card and public folders are accessible.

There's also homebrew, like https://wp8webserver.codeplex.... or http://forum.xda-developers.co...

You didn't say directly which OS you're programming on but I'm going to infer it's Linux (common I think with python/open source types). Since one thing I did recently was root my galaxy nexus with the windows-only Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit I would suggest creating something similar to this for Linux. It always seemed strange to me that so many Android rooting tools were windows-exclusive. Doesn't have to be for a galaxy or nexus device obviously, any/all models of android/I'll leave that up to you. This particular root toolkit seems like it would be relatively straight forward to re-create/I don't think it would even take that long and it is actually needed...

I should mention I'm kind of new to android rooting and I have no idea if the equivalent drivers for the various phones exist for Linux as they do for Windows.

I tried to install flashlight app but the top 5 or 10 all wanted egregious access to my phonecalls, instant messages, or full network access. I gave up.

Permissions Manager LBE is the kind of thing Apple would never allow on iOS. You can fine-tune any app's permissions *after* install, and even autoblock bundled spyware.

If you're rooted, you can install XPrivacy. It doesn't try to block these apps, it just spoofs the data. So if I haven't given Swype permission to access location data, it will just get fed random locations all over the world every time it thinks it's getting my location.

> Samsung is planning a 2560*1440 cell phone.

The Oppo Find 7 already *has* one :-)

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

For those who've never heard of it, it's the phone everyone at XDA-developers.com has been having wet dreams about for months -- a top-shelf, best-of-breed Android phone that makes no hardware compromises & ships unlocked with Cyanogenmod. There have been officially "open" phones in the past, but they were always last year's hardware or lacked important features like microSD (when you reflash a lot, microSD makes your life several orders of magnitude easier & more convenient) and/or LTE.

The last time I checked, Oppo's plan for the Find 7 is to make it directly available in the US as a retail product with US warranty by June, but AFAIK if you're dying to get one now, the GSM international model is hardware-identical to what you'll be able to get from stores like Newegg, Amazon, and Tiger Direct. If 1700MHz AWS HSPA+ is important to you (ie, T-mo in a market that hasn't been refarmed yet), you might want to double-check support for AWS.

The Kindle is jailbreakable,

Aside from misapplying the term "jailbreak" (which is not particularly applicable to Android devices-- do you mean the bootloader is unlocked? Root is available? You can replace the OS? Sideloading is possible? etc. "jailbreak" is a catch-all term used for iOS.), it is not true that the Kindle allows alternative version of Android to be installed.

You may be aware that the Kindle, Kindle 2, and Kindle HDs do run cyanogenmod and other third party OSes, but that is only due to exploits of the locked bootloader. The original Kindle tablet did not have a locked bootloader, but the 2, and HDs did.

For those that may be confused by the term "locked bootloader" -- it basically means that upon being turned on, the hardware will only start with a bootloader that has been digitally signed by Amazon. The bootloader then begins a multi-stage boot (loading the kernel, ramdisk, and operating system), where each step in the chain checks the digital signature of the next step to make sure it is signed by Amazon as well.

Note that a locked bootloader is not the same as "rooting" (ie, gaining root/admin access), which allows you to do privileged stuff within the OS without replacing it.). Also, there is also a way to hook into the boot process when it's still running at root-level to load extra desired stuff (aka "safestrap"), but this is not the same unfortunately as booting your own OS from scratch as suggested in the OP.

The Kindle HDX has a heavy beefed-up locked bootloader that is unlikely to be overcome, though you are welcome to try.

I hope they continue to make it easy for us nerds to opt out.

They have never made it easy, except in that first unlocked Kindle. The others had the locked bootloaders opened due to flaws in their implementation. That is unlikely to be possible in the future.

XBMC's Gotham release already runs on this device and XDA members are sideloading apps already. It's early days for the FireTV, but it looks promising.

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthre...

Android

There is an android equivalent: http://forum.xda-developers.co...

... so that you can buy or try any app just like you would download apps for linux distros, without having to register or give an app access to all my stored info? Why does a calculator app need to access my contact list or location data? Will the results vary based on my contacts or location?

And while you're at it an open source version of Android. I'm happy to pay for apps that I really want but lets at least have a layer of security between applications and stored data, location, call history etc etc

You could always install xPrivacy, which can be set up to selectively feed false info to apps.

You're welcome

There is XPrivacy, which uses the XPosed framework. That doesn't disable permissions, but rather sends fake data to the app.

There is XPrivacy, which uses the XPosed framework. That doesn't disable permissions, but rather sends fake data to the app.

It looks like it could be carrier/sim locked, you can take a look at this thread it looks promising

Not trying to flamebait here, but genuinely puzzled - what is possibly so great about the N900 versus something like a rooted Nexus 5? I see comments about cyanogenmod, etc. being a bit unstable - but comparing it to the N900, where very few people actually cared about building the OS ? The next version of the VM - ART - is nothing to sneeze at as well.
I'm not sure if you know, but when you install cyanogenmod (or one of the hundred different ROMS that people are actively developing on xda-developers), you get a Google free operating system. There is NO integration with Google. It is only if you install the "gapps" package, that you get the whole google shebang - play store, services, etc.
As a hacker friendly phone, I can develop on the N5 using Python, Golang, Scala, C#/Mono, QT, etc. - is there a usecase at which the N900 blows this out of the water ?
The only valid point I can think about is the keyboard - yes, it is a paradigm shift. But for daily use, smart keyboards like Swiftkey, Touchpal (pure open source) will serve you very well. For your developer needs, connect a monitor through HDMI/MHL and use a microusb adapter .
You have a first grade terminal emulator, IRC, low power bluetooth, built-in VPN + tethering - I would argue much more suitable for the developer than the venerable N900. Did I mention quad core processor, GPU and 2 GB of RAM with a brilliant display ?
If you want, you can install other OSes on the phone.

How difficult is it to install another version of Android on devices like this? I would love to use something like this as a console-on-the-go, but would hate to deal with advertising crap while I'm trying to do work.

http://www.xda-developers.com/

Your answer should be contained within.

If you're rooted, you can install the XPosed Framework and the XPrivacy module for it, which will allow you to lie to an app about the permissions it requests. CyanogenMod 10.1 also has such a feature, although the UI is rather clumsy if you ask me.

i second this was coming here to suggest it.

If you're rooted, you can install the XPosed Framework and the XPrivacy module for it, which will allow you to lie to an app about the permissions it requests. CyanogenMod 10.1 also has such a feature, although the UI is rather clumsy if you ask me.

i second this was coming here to suggest it.

One of Android's selling points has always been it's open nature, and the fact that it's not as locked down as iOS. This seems like it's taking a step in the direction of locking down the OS for the user, and unlocking it for everyone else...

Fortunately, thanks to that open nature, you can get third party apps (like LBE Security Master) that can do the same thing as the now-withdrawn system (only better, because it gives you finer control).

Android has had a good permission manager for years: LBE.

You can do blanket bans, whitelists, etc or drill down into granular permissions for each app. It can also block abusive texts, etc. You do need root.

If you're rooted, you can install the XPosed Framework and the XPrivacy module for it, which will allow you to lie to an app about the permissions it requests. CyanogenMod 10.1 also has such a feature, although the UI is rather clumsy if you ask me.

If you're rooted, you can install the XPosed Framework and the XPrivacy module for it, which will allow you to lie to an app about the permissions it requests. CyanogenMod 10.1 also has such a feature, although the UI is rather clumsy if you ask me.

What changed in 4.4, other than Android Browser dropping plug-in support?

Apparently, Google removed some deprecated APIs; I'm not sure of the details. There is someone who released a modified version of Flash yesterday that will work in the Dolphin Jetpack browser (link), so saying that you "can't" use flash on a newer device is no longer strictly true. Saying that it's completely "unsupported" (both by Google and Adobe) seems to be accurate, though.

So how should hobbyist game development continue in the era of...

"Hobbyist" development never meant "free" development. You've always had to buy the computer, keep it fairly up-to-date, buy your development environment (unless you worked in something with a free compiler/interpreter), etc. A hobbyist is more likely to work with what they have (since, yes, they're more likely to want to minimize costs). For instance, someone without a cellphone (or uninterested in mobile development) might start playing with WebGL and HTML5 for a desktop's browser (or work in a compiled language, like I do).
Android has the lowest barrier to entry to develop at the hobby level, with free, multi-platform tools, including a system emulator and non-cell devices of various descriptions and price points.
Apple provides free development tools, as long as you're not planning on releasing to the App Store. A hobbyist can develop on their own device. Of course, that requires either a Mac or the knowhow (and disregard of EULAs) to set up an OSX VM.
For Windows Phone, Microsoft offers AT&T and T-Mobile phones with no contract. Microsoft also provides a phone emulator in the development kit. Of course, you'd need a copy of Windows in the first place, and apparently Microsoft wants you to pay a subscription to even be able to transfer the app to a physical device. Then again, Adobe software has always needed a Windows or MacOS system to run on, anyhow.

So, Android seems like the cheapest solution. If I were a wannabe mobile app developer starting with nothing, I'd buy a cheap PC, a cheap Android tablet or personal video device (OK, so just the cheapest that should be able to run what I want to write), and work from there.

One issue with this (and many other power meters) is - What is the burden voltage of the ammeter? e.g. how much voltage does it drop.

Meters can often have a burden voltage of 0.1-0.2 volts when measuring currents on the order of an ampere. This might not seem like much, but considering that the original (2012) Nexus 7 drops charge current by approximately 200 mA for every 0.1 volt drop below 5.0 volts - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2065404 - 0.2 volts can drop your power by 400 mA (around 2 watts) - Many initial characterizations of Nexus 7 charging severely underreported charging current because the meter's burden voltage caused the device to reduce charging current.

Also, most devices now charge well in excess of 5 watts - so a meter that only shows that you're in the 5-10W range but not where in that range you are isn't very useful.

Last but not least - Forcing a device to pull more than 500 mA from a laptop can damage the laptop. That's a blatent violation of the USB charging standard. Yes, some hosts now support higher charging currents AND the method for reporting this is standardized as part of the USB charging standard - but making a device assume it is always connected to a wall charger could do damage if you connect it to an SDP (Standard Downstream Port) instead of a CDP (Charging Downstream Port).

(Unfortunately, only the very latest devices can successfully detect a CDP...)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2183526

.nomedia herp derp. They only ever delete the videos, probably because of size. Pics stay forever afaik. Totally haxor proof. Now we just need someone to publish a "Snapchat girls gone wild" video. That should make the producer lots of cash and drive a stake through the heart of snapchat at the same time. Then I don't have to hear stories about VCs masturbating themselves over snapchat.

Apparently Dianne Hackborn thought it was too useful.

Does anyone know about what apps come with Cyanogenmod (my google fu is lacking. Mostly it talks about getting the google apps).

So, forgive my ignorance, but does CM provide an array of quality OSS apps for actually running the phone in addition to the base windowing system and kernel?

Looking for a place to post my, ... well this:

I've used their mods for almost two years on my tablet. It was upgraded by to 4.12, CyanogenMod has taken it to 4.2.
The tweaks they provide are better than Google/Motorola supplies. I can play with the Dual CPUs if I wanted to
but happy to leave those alone, graphics, just a lot they've opened up to customization.

Also the goodies they include are great, I'd of never known about them if not for CyanogenMod
Apollo music player
http://lifehacker.com/5962086/apollo-brings-cyanogenmods-official-music-player-to-all-android-devices

DSPManger equalizer, inadvertently to control my speaker docking station
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=795233

and MX Player, a very configurable, play any movie player, it's what I use instead of a TV in the bedroom

All the above have a non pay version or free for use.

Though another mod I found Hacker Keyboard, very nice, a full keyboard and the keys where you expect them
(If the program your using accepts them)
http://lifehacker.com/5804952/the-hackers-keyboard-gives-android-devices-real-keyboard-functionality

Not sure how they work on a phone, but a tablet they work very well.

On my Verizon Galaxy S3 I rooted and installed BoneStock ROM. I chose this over Cyanogenmod, because it is mostly the stock ROM with lots of tweaks. Since it is basically the stock ROM, you don't lose any features and have less chance of bugs. (For example: No losing your camera.) However, it allows you to pick pretty much everything you want to install on the device and re-enables base features disabled by Verizon. (Wifi tethering for example.) I unselected most of the Verizon bloat along with many Samsung features I did not need. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside not having all that bloatware. The features list is huge too. Check out the link below to find all you can do with the ROM.

The BoneStock ROM can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2275376

The xda-developers forum has all sorts of ROMs and root methods, so be sure to navigate to your correct subforum and see all the different ROMs and root methods you can use.

I take it you have only looked at the official CM roms. You should be looking here

That's how CM roms come about for devices and eventually end up on the official site.

No! Just recompile open source ones and run .Net apps without any change.

See a list of ported software here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2092348

I'm using xPrivacy.

Can't install anything on Android nowdays. Each app wants permissions to make phone calls, take pictures with your camera (without your knowledge, not just while it is used) or read address book and current phone state. No good reason for the app to want this, but no way to install without allowing everything the app asks for.

There are several ways to install Android applications without allowing everything the app asks for. The best one is called openpdroid.

Google is also well positioned with existing products that allow you to run Google Apps on x86 windows tablets. Intel is also investing a lot of money to port Android over to x86 natively for their phone x86 chips. So while a little behind Microsoft in porting their OS to a desktop environment between Intel's efforts and the Transformer book (which is very much like a desktop/laptop experience) Android could very easily cross over.

I installed Android 4.3 x86 this week (using Android x86 Easy Installer ) and although there's random reboots, choppy sound and an obvious lack of a proper video driver, I was surprised at how natural it felt using it on a desktop.

If the mentioned issues were taken care of, I wouldn't hesitate to make it the main OS for some of my technically challenged (older) friends.

I agree, it is a good idea, and I did.

Serious criminals will have disabled their car systems, or patched it to look like it's there, but then not do anything it's told to do. Relevant example: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14577188

I also ordered an OTG cable and I attached a 64 gig usb flash drive for extra storage

also if you download ES File Explorer a free file manager you gain access to all shared computers on the LAN. And you can stream movies across the network with a single touch.

for MKV streaming get MX Player then go to the XDA website to download the single file you have to put anywhere to enable DTS audio playback, they offered the file seperately since the codec is copyrighted and they couldn't put dts dolby in the app natively without being taken down or sued.

but they offer the single file on the forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2156254

that file plus MX Player will enable MKV with audio support in the Nexus or android for that matter.

that added with ES Filemanager lets you stream your movies over the lan, or you can stream movies over google drive/dropbox, it also has built in ftp client in the app to stream movies over ftp :P

im totally loving my new nexus, i picked up the 32 gig model and with the OTG cable + 64 gig flash thumb drive it's amazing

download Nexus Media Importer for even more fun with the OTG cable and usb devices, you can use usb keyboards, usb hard drives, usb DAC's, usb mic's, etc.

No ROM possible.

What does that mean? Are you talking about Qualcomm? Because ROMs are certainly technically possible and in fact do exist

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1764526

Just some from the first Nokia quality information out of Google.

That's more than a year old, and the calibration issue was fixed long ago.

Recalls (e.g. T-mobile)

Source?

Now to be honest, these kinds of problems and complaints are pretty standard levels for second rank manufacturers. You need the high volume of Samsung or Apple to be able to get the manufacturing fully tuned.

Oh yeah, such things never happen with Samsung. "If you don't know about them then it's for you to Google", good advice, you should use it too.

In the old days, Nokia could use their own factories to build and optimize quality.

Those old days were a long way ago... Please, it's the company that gave me an N81 with brittle nonsensical buttons at the top and fastened the USB/power port to the N900's system board with a bit of dried out snot. The quality of Lumias feels like a huge improvement.

Just some from the first Nokia quality information out of Google.

That's more than a year old, and the calibration issue was fixed long ago.

Recalls (e.g. T-mobile)

Source?

Now to be honest, these kinds of problems and complaints are pretty standard levels for second rank manufacturers. You need the high volume of Samsung or Apple to be able to get the manufacturing fully tuned.

Oh yeah, such things never happen with Samsung. "If you don't know about them then it's for you to Google", good advice, you should use it too.

In the old days, Nokia could use their own factories to build and optimize quality.

Those old days were a long way ago... Please, it's the company that gave me an N81 with brittle nonsensical buttons at the top and fastened the USB/power port to the N900's system board with a bit of dried out snot. The quality of Lumias feels like a huge improvement.

Check out XPrivacy. Of course, it requires the Xposed Framework to be installed. Which requires root.
Or, of course, the Privacy Guard on the new CyanogenMod 10.1 builds, but which requires CyanogenMod.
Or OpenPDroid, but that requires patching your rom.