I agree stock Android is pretty hideous but you can use Nova on stock Android?
Does anyone actually use their N5 without something like Nova/Apex?
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Android |OT4| I/O Silver
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I agree stock Android is pretty hideous but you can use Nova on stock Android?
Does anyone actually use their N5 without something like Nova/Apex?
John Anderton?
brotkasten
Member
I don't have anything installed on my Nexus 5, it's not even rooted. The icons need to be better and the dark holo theme needs to disappear completely. But other than that, I'm happy with the way Stock Android looks. I really like it. The change from blue to white was a big improvement. Styling of 3rd party apps is a bigger issue, imo.
w1ck3dn1nj4
Member
Well here’s one, as I was just catching up on thread :-D
Edit: LOL talk of the culprit
I think I'm one of the lone few on GAF who has never had a problem with Samsung's devices. I've had a Galaxy S3 for two years and it works just as well now as it did when I first got it. I've also been using a Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition) since late last year and it's been one of the most cooperative pieces of tech I've used in a long time. I suppose it helps I switched to Nova Launcher righ from the get-go on both devices.
Aside from the aesthetics of their devices (which always comes down to personal taste anyway) I haven't seen or experienced any glaring issues with Samsung's flagship devices to echo the shear amount of vitriol they receive.
Aside from the aesthetics of their devices (which always comes down to personal taste anyway) I haven't seen or experienced any glaring issues with Samsung's flagship devices to echo the shear amount of vitriol they receive.
OriginalThinking
Member
BoboBrazil
Member
Same here. They make a great phone. Seems like most of the hate is for Touchwiz, which doesn't matter if you root your phone and put a aosp rom on it. There seems to be an inordinate amount of HTC fans on this forum though for some reason. Replaceable battery is still a huge feature if you plan on keeping your phone for more than 2 years. Love my Galaxy S4 with google edition rom.
OriginalThinking
Member
If you think HTC traditionally got a lot of love in this forum you can't have been around here for long.
Samsung get shit for a number of reasons, mostly due to their uninspired hardware design, software performance, software bloat, terrible adverts/conferences and it's mostly deserved. You shouldn't have to root to fix basic software performance. Besides they are a corporation, not a person so I'm sure they can take it whilst they cry over their oodles of cash. The thing is Samsung are the no1 so our expectations are high. And the criticism is in the hope they can do better. I don't think anyone seriously wants Sammy out of the Android game. They still push the specs envelope, they popularised the Phablet, pushed Amoled to new heights and still have some of the best camera performance of any OEM. A healthy Android ecosystem needs a Sammy on top of their game and I think there's a bunch of us who think they've stalled since the S3. If Sammy was a high school student the report card would be "can do better".
soundahfekz
Member
Started feeling the phone itch, so I finally rooted my M7 with a CM11 android L theme and a volume mod. Running so smooth vs sense. I think I'm good for another 6 months at least
hitsugi
Member
Yup. Started using Nova with my N4 and that carried on to N5. You just can't match the level of customization and ease of use that Nova provides vs the stock launcher.
Has anyone tried the smartisan launcher? (AndroidGAF pardon my lack of proper terminology, por favor)
http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/22/smartisan-t1-smartphone-impressions/
Why all the hate for the Note 4? It hasn't launched yet. We can all pre-emptively hate on the next iPhone.
That Sharp phone looks great. It gives me hope for future phones with less intrusive bezels. Where do you see OEMs going in future directions as far as selling points for smartphones? We reached that point where it's touching upon diminishing returns, in my opinion.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/22/smartisan-t1-smartphone-impressions/
Why all the hate for the Note 4? It hasn't launched yet. We can all pre-emptively hate on the next iPhone.
However, as a member of RDFGAF I just want to point out that it better have at least 2012 android flagship specs or I'm hating with everyone else.
That Sharp phone looks great. It gives me hope for future phones with less intrusive bezels. Where do you see OEMs going in future directions as far as selling points for smartphones? We reached that point where it's touching upon diminishing returns, in my opinion.
I love the Google Now Launcher. N4/N5/N7 all have it for me.
Google released that with every Android phone recently.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.launcher&hl=en
Yeah, that's actually how you have to get it on the N4/N7; officially at least. I was referring to the devices I own (which are the N4/N5/N7).
I just may branch out to a non-Nexus device next though. We'll see what Google has to offer first.
I would totally use Nova. But it doesn't support the Tap to Start feature from the LGG2
Do you mean Knock On or Knock Off? The first one doesn't have anything to do with launchers, it has more to do with the lockscreen. The second can be made to work with Nova, there is an apo on the store called Screen Off. Works perfectly.
thats awesome ! thanks
Found it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.katecca.screenofflock
After installing it you go to Nova settings--->Gestures---->Double tap and choose Screen Off.
Unknown Soldier
Member
The latest leaked images suggest the rumor that the Note 4 will have a metal frame is real. I guess the haters will still have Touchwiz to shit on though.
It's great from what I've seen and a step in the right direction. I do wish I could try the preview out but no longer own a Nexus device. I wanna check out the new color schemes, buttons, menus, notification shade, and mostly the little things to see how they improved upon them. Every non-Nexus device will probably get a bastardized version of it.
Unknown Soldier said:
Samsung will surely find a way to mess that up as well. It's not only their materials, their hardware design is pretty terrible along with that godawful Touchwiz. Isn't it still a fake leather back?
The Faceless Master
Member
the faux stitching was one of my big complaints about the Note 3.
OriginalThinking
Member
Ladies love da wiz.
If you play your cards right I might let you Touch my wiz.
The Faceless Master
Member
i don't blame some people for hating Samsung. they want to believe in a phone that their favorite blogger can champion... a more apple-like mobile handset with apple-like decisions like sealed battery, gimmick 'premium' materials that work great with trophies and not so well with phones and other crap that disgusts me. at least LG is trying. need more details on the G3 Stylus.
Weren't the rumours that it'd be a watered down version? Sort of specced like the G3S/beat/whatever except huge.
OriginalThinking
Member
I've touched your Wiz. Turned out to be that pale imitation Optimus. Yuck.
Nah, whilst the materials are still for debate, the main reason they get shit now is the software, particularly how ugly the UI is and the fact that it doesn't run smoothly, or as smoothly as competitors handsets despite the top notch internals. Fix up Touchwiz and less people would be on their back. I don't see it happening any time soon though :-(
I personally have no issues with sealed batteries since I change my phone every 1-2 years but I can see it being an issue for others.
The premium design is just a bonus. The reason I really love Apple is because for better or worse, they put a lot of work and actual thought into their features and it shows. Samsung on the other hand, I feel as if they just bake features in just to do it or be the first one to. I do love their stylus implementation but at the same time its pretty half baked and only semi decent in S-Note. I also find it pretty useless on a phone. Great for their Note tablet series but for phones not so much. It also needs full Adobe suite support to make it truly useful in which I would just opt for the Surface instead.
Materials albeit important, arent a HUGE thing to me. There are plenty of well designed plastic Android/WP phones out there.
And I really don't care about the removable battery, sd card, and their little flaps to prevent water on their charging port.
Stuff like S-Voice, their half assed fingerprint reader, Milk, S-Calendar, S-This, S-That were just put in to counter Apple's efforts. When they start showing some originality, great hardware design, and get rid of Touchwiz and just makes their awful S-Apps optional on the Play Store, only then will I give them the light of day. But with the design team over there, I don't see that happening any time soon.
On top of Touchwiz being clunky, resource-intensive and downright ugly, it's also incredibly cluttered and unintuitive. There is no effort put into making it easy for users to use, hiding real features beneath their S-branded gimmicks making simple things seem very difficult.
And on a personal thing, just shitty support all round. Getting out of a warranty claim after the USB port busts because the logo on the back is scratched was bullshit. Might just be a UK thing though as they did outsource the support to fucking Capita. They seem to do it in other divisions as well as it took them forever to acknowledge that they used cheap capacitors in their TVs for a while which gave them an original 360 like life span and then finally offered repairs out of warranty.
II am counting down the months now to get away from Samsung. Want to stick with Android but will have to check my their warranty procedure of other manufacturers. Apple were golden. Water damage or out of warranty breakage? £70 replacement there and then in the Apple store.
Anyone here mountain bike and mount their phone to the handlebars? Trying to find a mount for my LG G3. This one looks pretty good, anyone used this brand before?
http://www.arkon.com/bike%20mounts/smartphone-large-bike-mount.html
http://www.arkon.com/bike%20mounts/smartphone-large-bike-mount.html
The Faceless Master
Member
but you can hide them! and they can do things like turn the back button into a down arrow when the software keyboard is visible.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
SirMossyBloke
Member
In an ironic twist of fate it looks like I'll be the new Samsung rep at my store. Not looking forward to having to use the S5 at work, however I'll be receiving the new Note 4 soon after launch which I'm actually looking forward to a lot. Loved the Note 3.
I actually had a great time trolling this Samsung rep at Best Buy a year or two ago. I just had to cause he kept telling me how amazing scrolling through webpages with your face was.
Baroquemantic
Member
Completion arrows are now back in Chrome Beta. At least they weren't gone for very long.
SirMossyBloke
Member
Haha, what a great imagine that is to think about.
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
I'm trying to lead a presentation on Adobe Connect with my bluetooth headset. I've used both my Galaxy S5 and my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition table with the bluetooth headset but its not working but the built in mics work fine but they invite all of the surrounding noise. Anyone any suggestions? Both devices are running 4.4.2
Unknown Soldier
Member
People shit on Nvidia here all the time too, so it should be interesting to see what happens if Project Denver is good and Tiny Kepler is good.
Well I'll admit I have no love for Nvidia, and have yet to see a reason to choose a nvidia based phone over any other hardware. Of course for me phone hardware already seems like its reached the point of me not needing more power as I don't play games on phones and my app uses for phones is pretty limited.
I'm still curious though.
brotkasten
Member
Wow. I love all the amazing innovation that can be done with software.
That's cool, but will it actually ship in relevant products or does Nvidia have to make their own hardware again to get rid of the chips?
$300 for a 5 inch HTC? If it wasn't for the Sense 6 I would totally buy the Desire 816
Sense 6 is awesome. Better than any other skinned Android out there. I actually prefer it over stock. Minus the homescreen which I just replace with Nova.
wsoxfan1214
Banned
How about instead of purging the goddamn hangout every time someone joins, we kick the person?
I never got an invite to the new one after you all left en masse because of some dude.
I never got an invite to the new one after you all left en masse because of some dude.
It happens because there is no kick/ban function. It's a necessary evil, but unfortunately sometimes people get left behind. Forgiveness, please.
wsoxfan1214
Banned
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