There's a bunch of free games and apps on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=nav_sap_...de=10221878011

Nah, T-Mobile only allows tethering on the unlimited plan.

Yea this is my plan. Gonna try it tonight. Just gonna poke the beast, see how I feel about it. Can always move on to a custom ROM afterwards.

The chainfire thread should help make it as easy as possible. Here's the link again.


If you have any questions or concerns, you can pm me and/or post itt.

You're gonna love it!

Question actually... when Lollipop comes out, am I gonna be able to try that easily? What's the protocol for that like? Am I waiting on a custom ROM or Samsung/T-Mobile or something? Would I need to put the regular OS back on?

You should be fine, saw. You might have to root it again, but it shouldn't be a problem to update the phone.



You can remove root - grab update OTA - get rooted again

or

Stay rooted and find the flash firmware

There are probably a few other methods. You will have a way to do it.

Whatever your setup is, you will definitely be able to update.

I've been using inbox by gmail for a few days and apparently can invite people of they want to skip the queue, send me a pm with your gmail address if anyone wants an invite.

It's really really strong even as an early release, it's the only email app I use now, if it interfaced with Keep and not just Now it would be perfect but I love being able to snooze emails by location or time and folder sorting of newsletters and similar makes sense when you can selectively decide what type of email will get an alert notification and use pins to pull stuff out of the grouping if it's important.

Here is a quick overview of it:
http://lifehacker.com/how-googles-ne...roa-1652303148

That is incorrect. All post paid plans include tethering. The amount allowed varies.

Source: I work for T-Mobile.

oh well damn that would've come in handy when I didn't have internet

radio chips are highly proprietary. so any effort to make your own RIL is essentially reverse-engineering. aintnobodygottimeforthat.gif

back to reception problem, i did a bit more digging, and it is true that cm gets worse reception on samsung phones than oem firmware. however, this is caused by the samsung radio driver not ever being optimized for KK.

whenever you go from stock to 4.4.4 based frameworks on older devices, you are still using 4.4.2 blobs, and telephony is the first thing to suffer. http://www.gottabemobile.com/2014/08...kitkat-update/ looks like to get 4.4.4 drivers, you need to upgrade all the way to Alpha. it is also likely that S5 or Note 4 will almost immediately jump to L.

ultimately, it goes back to samsung not being supported as well as nexus devices, rather than a problem in the application framework. i wouldn't be surprised if CDMA is more vulnerable. it might as well be black magic.

So I rooted. Seems like everything still works mostly... Except I think Google play isn't downloading anything now? Basically the supersu app isn't updating (displays a constantly spinning loading icon) and apps in Google play are just sitting at the "downloading" phase without making progress on their status bars. Any thoughts?

Strike that. Rebooted. Fixed. Will be playing around with root allllll day tomorrow

You get xposed? Because it's awesome. Date in the top bar. Game changer.

Can I get it solely from my phone or will I need to use my computer (important because I'll have to do that before leaving for work tomorrow)?

Awesome! Enjoy the freedom to customize the heck outta your device, man.



Yeah, you shouldn't need your computer for that. Just download the xposed installer and follow the instructions/advice from credible sources.

This should help.

Awww man am I reading this right, Xposed doesn't work with ART, gotta go back to Dalvik? ART made such a GIGANTIC improvement in performance.

This is what I've read, too.

I've never used xposed, but it looks like you're on Davlik and have to uninstall xposed to use ART again.

Custom roms can use ART, though.

Aight. Yea I'm leaning towards just going all out and ROMing it up. YOLO right? Is there a good place that compares ROMs in your opinion, or just go dig through the XDA forums?

Also, sorry for noobing up this thread so hard. I can take my questions elsewhere if people would like - just say so.

I think generally researching roms for your device + going to the xda forums is the way to go. Find your device here. There's a unified GS5 thread and device-specific threads. Go for device-specific imo...

Actually, it looks like there are quite a few great roms in the unified development thread. I'd check there first since it's far more active. Just make sure it's compatible with your device. They'll let you know (usually in the first few posts). Make sure to go to the development section to find roms. I look for features + reviews + easy installation.

Make sure the links for the rom & Gapps are easy to find.

Solid dev teams I have used roms from = Slim, LiquidSmooth, AOKP, Cyanogen. I've used other great roms, but these guys are very active and create some amazing roms.

You can always pm me with any questions if you want, saw.

Last I read, the guy who wrote Xposed has neither the time nor the motivation to carry it on into development for ART.

He wasn't even going to consider trying until the final images for L were released.

Perhaps he will open source it or take on some help but apparently it is rather difficult stuff.

Ok, thanks a ton Aura!!!

One last question, since it's pretty fundamental and maybe others would like to read the answer too.

Can you/anyone explain the recovery software to me? From what I gather, it's separate from the Android OS that you can boot into and allow you to modify the OS, delete data, restore backups, etc. What exactly does a program like TWRP offer above and beyond the stock recovery? Can you do a backup with stock? Can you flash a ROM with the stock?

I installed the TWRP "app" but not the recovery software yet (I THINK...?). When I click the button to do a backup a message pops up that says "Do you want to reboot to recovery and complete the specified actions?" Does this mean that I DID install the TWRP recovery software and it will use that? Or does this mean it will tell the stock recovery program to do it?

Thanks again, and thanks in advance!!

the stock recovery do very few actions. usually they are used only to flash official rom with or without additional software and that s about it.
you need to flash your custom recovery , one app is not enought.

No it didn't. Placebo effect. I've read hundreds of posts in various ROM threads about it and that's been the across the board consensus.

I don't think this thread should devolve into a rooting/ROM flashing/recovery troubleshooting guide. That's what XDA is for. I think this thread is better suited for new devices, useful apps, home screen setup etc. Do people agree?

After reading a few threads, it looks like LiquidSmooth is running pretty well. There may be many others that are better... try a few!


saw- pm me. Apologies, thread.

I dont mind much reading about it and answering what i can.
The thing that bother me is encouraging people to root or rom some brand new phone with no knowledge, it s pretty risky and more often than not not that useful.
You can **** up your phone and should only do if you dont mind to spend way more hours than it s worth and if bricking your device wont be a financial burden for you.