« first day (1194 days earlier)      last day (4037 days later) » 

10:26
Rough guess, OP has one of those Chinese knock-off imitation phones that looks like an iPhone but actually runs Android android.stackexchange.com/questions/62707 still no idea what an IMEI problem would be though!
Assuming its even android
might be that java OS they came with pre-android
10:43
and then there's the legal issues around doing anything with an IMEI
hmm. So it could be a dodgy phone with a cloned IMEI that happened to have been blocked?
It could well be. Or he could be looking to change the IMEI to get it to work, or for other purposes
Not to be implying anything but IMEI is one of those areas it's worth being very cautious with.
11:05
Next question will be "Police helicoptor overhead, how do I spoof GPS location?"
"I have an arduino bom... ehh device that I need to deton... link to an Android device"
0
Q: HTC One Google Play install problem

DaveI've got an HTC One that I've rooted and flashed with GPE 4.4. A couple of apps now won't install, eg Beautiful Widgets and Swiftkey. They fail with "Couldn't install to USB or SD card". An extensive search of the web suggests that you should either unmount the SD card (not possible on HTC One) ...

I hate questions like this one. The guy is obviously knowledable, and I can only say... reinstall everything.
Custom ROMs are very hard to deal with.
yeah, they are
as is finding one that totally works ><
11:08
Yeah you're not wrong
(unless you run something the cool people use)
@RossC: running a HTC One V with a custom rom, mostly works other than the camera app ;p
Kinda hoping someone ports kitkat to it.
I've a variety of devices and I always root and run ROMS. then I use someone running stock's device and I always, always end up thinking "ooo that's much nicer"
lol
@RossC: my 'daily driver' now is a Moto G.
And... It is much nicer ;p
Some of the HTC devices are getting a KitKat release, not just the fancy pats One
I'm using an S4 as daily
Rooted and Kitkat on it
@RossC: the one V is kind of a red headed stepchild ;p
11:10
I think Xposed is killing the need for a good few ROMs
>_< I have red hari!
hari?
You get the point! :P
@RossC: heh, the reason I rooted my phone and replaced the rom/kernel on my old one was ... it froze when I was picking up the phone a few times, and randomly had DNS issues.
I kinda got fed up ;p
(on the other hand, rooted, its a glorious pmp)
I'd really wish they'd have a rom with nearly no additional software, throw on google play, a random assortment of APKs, and you have exactly the phone you need
Yep, that would suit me. There is now a 'debloater' app for one of the S4 ROMs and this might be a way to go. Increasingly the system apps are being moved to /data too so you can at least get rid of them. I'd prefer the old fashioned choose what you want as you install (AROMA installer style). Mind you the stock ROM for the S4 is 1.6 GB... I have no idea how they managed that.
I see google are in talks with Samsung as they're not happy how much Samsung's new UI will change Android
Thats supposedly the reason they sold moto
(and heh, I thought google didn't really push moto hard enough outside the US, even if their phones were brilliant)
I wonder who's getting the next nexus phone
(assuming there is one)
11:41
Lenovo
Lol I better not guess. Last time I made predictions about Android (about 60% were wrong afaik) I got an email asking why I was releasing company secrets!
I got 'it's not called Key Lime Pie' and 'there will be a new runtime' and 'Google Play will take over the OS to help fragmentation' correct
and a whole bunch of stuff wrong! I do NOT work for Google. They turned me down years ago, very unpleasantly
oh and they sent me the internal email about my application by mistake!
I love Nokia's new thing: The functionality of Android, with the UX of Windows 8
shudder
That's like "the loyalty of a cat and the hygeine of a dog!"
Dogs are pretty hygienic >_>
lol
Nokia's hardware tends to be solid so...
Someone will likely throw CM on it ;p
or jolla, which would be hillarious.
@RossC: actually lenovo might make sense
If they don't replace the nexus program with GPE as rumours have been going around
and the normandy really sounds like what they should have done years ago
you'd be suprised how many 20 dollar dumbphones nokia sells.
12:08
@RossC Same argument as with the current playstore design: If I want to see tiles, I prefer my bathroom.
lol
I don't entirely mind tiles
but I hardly installl software on my phones.
and usually through the website
@JourneymanGeek They might make sense on a smartphone, yeah. But please, I have no 4" monitor on my computer, no?
@Izzy: I got used to them. I do run windows 8 on my desktop ;p
Things which work on small screens shouldn't simply be "upscaled". Google made this experience already with "apps for tablets". Did they stop thinking at 10"? Hey, I neither have a 10" display at my PC...
@JourneymanGeek It's the website I'm talking about. I no longer use it since the relaunch, it's hardly usable.
@JourneymanGeek shudder Last Windows I used was labled "for playgroups" (or something like that). That was back in the early 1990s.
@Izzy: unfortunately a lot of the software I use in my field of study is windows only
I have linux boxen, but mostly headless
12:13
I think there will be a nexus 6 as the 5 has been a big seller
No I'm proud to have a completely MS free zone for over 10 years :)
the 'GPE' idea will roll in, but it is still very flawed as each OEM still changes the underlying OS
I'm platform agnostic ;p
Samsung add Touchwiz to enable S-Cover and HTC do the same to add Beats Audio (for those who want to remove all the music except the bass)
I'm the same, windows does what I want and I'm grand using it
@JourneymanGeek Yeah, sometimes it needs a devil to get rid of the belzebub – ahem, sorry: Yeah, there are areas where it's hard to avoid...
12:14
@RossC: Don't forget GPE also stops carriers from keeping back updates
There's no such thing as "THE best OS". Just "the best OS FOR X".
It does yeah that's true, but the fact google allowed the carriers get involved is a total farse IMHO
@Izzy: the best os is the one you have in front of you, assuming you can use it.
And it still allows the OEM control which isn't right
@RossC: nature of the industry.
and its mostly in the US
12:15
Yeah that's true, there's no carrier bloatware in Ireland for my network anyway
@JourneymanGeek Ack.
HTC had all the bloatware
nature of the industry for google, I don't see apple messing around
for carriers who I didn't use locally, and carriers that don't even operate here
12:16
You want to sell an iPhone? Then here it is, don't mess with it.
@RossC: for now, apple has a 'special' position
Google kowtowed and it's.... a little weak of them IMHO
They've managed to make a good OS then make terrible, terrible decisions around its release, control and updates
Just so I don't have to keep saying it: it's only MY opinion.
(and heh, I dare say I like my moto G better than a iphone 5 ;p)
oh, a lot of this is true
As a user who spends 600+ euro PER DEVICE I want updates, and I want it to run smoothly
12:17
I do NOT get this on most devices wiithout rooting, messing around and risking my money
is still waiting on kitkat.
For some reason the dual sim Moto Gs haven't been updated yet
Dual Sim seem to be tricky for some reason
@RossC: its also likely to be the more common version
(and heh, as you can tell, I love it. Especially since I'm sticking to a old grandfathered 3g plan with more bandwidth than I can usually use)
:)
12:26
It's relatively new that I can rate apps in the Play Store without writing a review, correct?
speaking of bandwidth, my usage dropped dramatically in the past month
(I wonder what my brother's in laws were using. It went down by half, and I download lots of livecds)
 
1 hour later…
14:00
@Flow It would be (good) news if I could actually rate an app there without a G+ account (which I don't have and won't create). As that's not the case, I cannot tell.
@Izzy: o0
I thought G+ accounts were automatic ?
@JourneymanGeek Thank G*d, no! Though I'm always asked to create one, whatever Google service I visit.
lol
I do use it anyway but meh
thats good to know
Maybe it's because I'm still using the very same Google account I had from the beginning, when G+ was not yet born (or even "conceived").
14:12
They changed that about a year ago, that you can only leave comments in Playstore using your G+ account. Before that, you could use the normal Google account. Since then, I never left a single comment there.
Same for me, but I've got a g+ account pretty early on
I don't want a SuperProfile.
I don't want "all things Google".
@Izzy: I'm a bit of a fan of google in some ways
I draw a distinct line between "Android" on the one, and "Google" on the other site.
(course, I only got a smartphone a year and half ago)
14:15
@JourneymanGeek "In some ways" I am, too. They have great services. But they give a shit on privacy, sorry for being that direct. I prefer "privacy by default", and decide actively what I want to share. Not "Opt-Out", it should be "Opt-In".
And lately, everything gets "Opt-Out".
You have to find your way to the menus and settings to tick the box with "I don't want this".
yeah, there's that
Like with the latest "we are using your G+ +1 etc. for advertisements. But of course, you can opt-out".
Opt-Out creates mistrust.
Especially when the place to opt-out is that well hidden, and spread across multiple locations.
Give users an Opt-In instead, and I'm pretty sure they freely share even more data :)
Because they get the feeling it's something they want. Not something forced upon them.
</rant> :)
Oh, PS: App-Ops belong to the same category. Something Android should have had years ago already.
"Making root obsolete" is not "making it impossible to use", but giving the exact same features in a different way – so nobody would feel the need to root a device.
da
also, most folk seem confused
amazon thinks I live in california
DESPITE shipping things to a portland OR address
and google thinks I want bad erotica and books on sex
Or all the great "security features". Like an app no longer can switch Airplane mode on/off. You're only able to use location data when sharing your own, "to improve service quality" (we all know about that: the guy next door having moved here from 500 miles away with his WiFi router still makes Google think I'm 500 miles away)...
@JourneymanGeek Don't tell me they're wrong? Isn't Google right per definitionem? #D
nope.
At the very least, they should recommend me the good stuff.
actually, whatchaknow
they fixed that
14:36
@Izzy Could you try to rate an app without an G+ account?
@Izzy I don't see the difference between reviewing with a non G+ account and a G+ account. The only visible difference is that the realname is displayed. And the direction google is heading with play store reviews is clear: Reviews from you G+ circles have a higher impact for you as the ones from other people
14:52
@Flow I can try, but I doubt it will work. Remember that this can be done using a G+ account only, as this was enforced about a year ago? I never rated since then.
But maybe they took back that enforcement? I recently wondered about the "From a Google User" comments which were made quite recently.
@Izzy Yep, that's why I am curious if you could rate now
@Flow Obviously not.
15:10
You can't no. I had to reactivate my Google+ account for this reason (and youtube and so on)
I really resent this tbh, the whole Youtube 'copyright' malarky on top of it is a mess.
Well as of a week ago when I last tried to review an app this was true anyway
If I update an old review it is still from "A Google User"
@GAThrawn cheers for the comment there, totally wrong wording on my part! Someone behind me in office talking about some buyout or other! Must have slipped in to my answer! Good thing I wasnt' arguing with girlfriend when writing the post I guess! :)
"Bluestacks is sorry dear, sorry, it was all my fault"
I've edited the bejesus out of it now.
@RossC Ahh, that explains the newer "From a google user" reviews
Yeah I was confused myself, figured people were changing their account to "A Google User" at one stage
@RossC no problem thought it might be something like that. have deleted my comment to make the post a bity tidier
@GAThrawn Likewise! Hopefully a bit clearer now!
Mind you he could have just googled AMD AppZone and found about 100000 articles on it
But if I get a few upvotes, why not answer it!
0
Q: Kerning issue in user card on questions

Al E. Don't know if it's the font or what, but there's something not quite right with how the user card is displayed on questions. As you can see, there's no space between "asked" and the date. This doesn't happen with the user card on answers. Google Chrome 32.0.1700.102 m (release channel) on Win...

15:24
@RossC But now when people Google it they might get a nice clear answer, instead of a page covered in adverts that regurgitates an official press release!
Yeah fair point! I'd prefer to read a brief synopsis and follow a link if I want more info, rather than all the noisy advertising and corporate speak!
Some of the sites are just eybeall melting
*eyeball
15:55
I wish there was a way to FORCE people to make nandroid backups!
"Just restore a backup" "A what?" o_O
It's a damn expensive piece of kit to mess with, and the fact that people don't read up at all is a bit scary!
Actually, the stock rom on my other phone is un-restorable cause I didn't back up the original kernel ;p
And the feeling of bricking it is scary!
Owch!
I have backups of every ROM that successfully boots on my PC
lol. the rom is there
15:57
and one or two on the EXT SD just in case it all dies
Can you get the stock kernel from the OEM?
I can't get back into it without finding a kernel thats for the same version of android and that phone.
no idea, haven't checked yet
First time I bricked my S4 I felt physically sick. And it was about the 15th phone I'd rooted!
I paid full price for it, which didn't help
yeah, looks like I can
phew!
Always worth having, if things go a bit downhill it's reassuring to know you'll be back up and running in a few minutes!
I had to re-flash a ROM in my car one day to get GPS back
lol
the current rom MOSTLY works other than the preinstalled camera
and I'm kind of waiting on 4.4 for it
it was just a remarkably stupid thing to do ;p
16:28
lol ah once you brick a device and NEED those files you'll never do it again!
Nothing teaches me like the risk of wasting money!
;p
I'm reasonably cautious.
@RossC According to Murphy, a backup is something you either need when you don't have it, have when you don't need it, or have when you need it but its most important part got unreadable
Luckily, for me mostly the middle part applied #D
@Izzy: or worse. You THOUGHT you had, and then you realised it was corrupted
16:33
That's the 3rd part (have it, but the most important part (aka "Backup") got unusable)
lol
i'm obviously half asleep
17:10
0
Q: Transferring videos from Android to iOS Camera Roll

RandmTaskTrying to find the easiest method of getting home videos (up to 3 minutes long) taken on my Nexus 5 (Android) phone and sending it over the internet to the family to save to their iOS (iPhone/iPad) camera roll. Needs to be quite idiot proof on the receiving end (for the family) Ideally it will c...

To me this sounds like more of a problem on the receiving end, ie the question is really something like "How can someone send me a video that I can save to my iOS camera roll?" Once that's known you can work out how to use that method from Android. Or is that just my anti-iOS bias?
In other words, if doesn't really matter if the video is coming from Android/Windows/Blackberry it's the receiving end that has the problem?
It's annoying that OP has deleted this question, as he seems to be having a real problem that 2 step auth isn't working on his device, i's just a pity he posted it as a rant instead of posting his problem, as I've definitely used proper 2 step auth on all my 4.x devices android.stackexchange.com/questions/62727
 
2 hours later…
19:10
@GAThrawn I share your opinion.
But that might well be my anti-iOS bias ;)

« first day (1194 days earlier)      last day (4037 days later) »