[HTC Desire S] Bewinxed:
Hello, I've put this guide together to explain most of the tweaks that i see on each ROM's page, as i needed someone/something to explain those so i think most people would want what the heck all of those tweaks mean,cuz i was all like so they may look at the tweaks list like this.

1 - tweak 1

2 - tweak 2

3 - tweak 3

NOT like this:

1 - herp

2 - derp

3 - i have many tweaks, just flash the goddamn thing already =_=

UGH

This guide will include memes, and funny stuff because i can't go through a convo without using them, and hopefull they'll make this read a little less boring.

So here goes:

Optimized .9.png Images

basically put, a .9.png is an image with guides that tells Android where the image can be stretched and where the content will be placed inside the image. An easy example is a button, some fit only one word and others stretch across the whole screen and Android will put the text in the middle of the button. Optimized 9pngs mean less visual artifacts and more stability, as many people mess up when editing those and this can lead to android armageddon.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=21267311#post21267311

And5 2.3.durp - HTC Blabla.hurrdurr.herpderp - Runnymede

Runnymede is the codename for the HTC Sensation XE, basically when you see this it means that the ROM was based on the latest ROM of that phone, as HTC,logically, will deliver the fastest/latest updates to their latest phone, when a ROM is based on the latest, it is less likely to have bugs, and more likely to perform better (you're basically stealing the pamper HTC is giving to it's latest hugearse phone), the downside to this imo is that because the Base ROM wasn't designed for our device (HTC Desire S) then it's less likely to be battery/performance efficient as the ones specifically made for our phone, i could be wrong, It's like Taking windows se7en and dumping it on a vista-ready machine, if the analogy makes sense.

Rooted (Unsecured boot.img)

Rooting is the process by which you regain administrative access to your phone. Even though Android is an open source operating system you still don’t have full “root access” to do what you please. Back when the iPhone launched in 2007 the hardcore techies quickly realized the true potential of the device, and the cruel software limitations that Apple had sealed it with. What became ‘Jailbreaking’ on iPhone was quickly translated to other platforms as well, and when the world saw the first Android back in 2008, the term “Rooting” was born.

From my understanding an unsecured boot.img allows you to do adb remounts,which is necessary for some patches/derps to the phone

BusyBox 1.19.3

Busybox allows you or programs to perform actions on your phone using Linux (copied from Unix) commands. Android is basically a specialized Linux OS with a Java compatible (Dalvik) machine for running programs. The Android kernel is a modified version of the Linux kernel (that is why the Android kernel must always be open source). Busybox gives functionality to your phone that it does not have without it. Many programs, especially root programs such as Titanium Backup, require busybox to perform the functions of the program. Without busybox installed your phone is much more limited in what it can do.

Disable bootsound

See the....erm...Hear the music that plays when you boot up your phone? this tweak disables it, useful when you're turning on your phone in lectures or in exams.

Zipaligned, De-Odexed & Optimized

When devs say they optimized there rom or framework etc... It means they ran a tool such as apk manager (what I use) to compress all the images in an apk to be the smallest size they can get them without losing quality. This will speed up the build for maximum performance and less ram usage.

Other people say there apks are Reengineered. This means that there apks have all unused lanuages removed for even better performance.

Odexing means Apk files have respective odexes that devs use to supposedly save space. Deodexing means you convert it back to a .dex file and put it back inside the apk. This allows you to easily replace files (not having to worry about odexes). Odexed builds such as stock roms cannot be themed for the most part.

Zipalign is an archive alignment tool introduced first time with 1.6 Android SDK (software development kit). It optimizes the way an Android application package (APK) is packaged. Doing so enables the Android operating system to interact with the application more efficiently, and hence has the potential to make the application and overall the whole system much faster. Execution time is minimized for zipaligned applications, resulting is lesser amount of RAM consumption when running the APK.

/etc/init.d script support

Adds init.d support to the kernel, so you can run custom scripts at bootup, those are used for many stuff, including (but not limited to) auto-zipaligning, Almost ALL of the tweaks included in most Roms run here, they run on boot and do stuff.

add Nano editor

When getting used to the command-line, Linux novices are often put off by other, more advanced text editors such as vim and emacs. While they are excellent programs, they do have a bit of a learning curve. Enter Nano, an easy-to-use text editor that proves itself versatile and simple. Nano is installed by default in Ubuntu and many other Linux distros and works well in conjunction with sudo, which is why we love it so much.

This means that this editor has been recompiled (Ported) to work on android

add Bash (command shell)

basically, it's a shell used in terminal emulator that makes it easier to write scripts and commands and stuff. this would mainly be used by developers.

Extended Quicksettings

This means that the developer modded the systemUI.apk to add Moar options to the page here, Moar toggles, MOAR (because you can never have too much settings, solution? MOAR!)

Rosie/Notification Tweaks

These are tweaks for Rosie A.K.A Sense Launcher and sense's notif......Oh ok screw this , What the hell is this again?

Beats Audio Mod

"People aren't hearing all the music.

Artists and producers work hard in the studio perfecting their sound. But people can't really hear it with normal headphones. Most headphones can't handle the bass, the detail, the dynamics. Bottom line, the music doesn't move you.

With Beats, people are going to hear what the artists hear, and listen to the music the way they should: the way I do."

Beats audio gives the beat to the music, this is an attempt to port the effect to other devices than the Sensation XE, Will sound best with an official Dr.Dre Beats Audio Headphone, but who can afford those? not me. it gives a nice effect though.

seriously though.

SuperUser

Its the program that requires you to give a program permission to run root functions. the thingy that pops up whenever a program asks for permission and prompts your highness if thou shalt allow thine app to aquire Root permissions.

I.e. keeps programs from messing up your phone without your permission

Ultra Smooth Rosie mod applied!

All sense 3.x ROM's have a smoothness problem during page scroll, its always eratic and never locked in smoothness, this is caused by HTC's 3D widgets taking their toll on the GPU especially when populated with data

However if you press home and scroll back to the default screen you notice all the widgets gets frozen/flattened and scrolls back at liquid locked 60fps smooth, You will also notice that the 3D carousel home screens are seen in the background, this mode is called QuickScroll

What these mods will do is invoke QuickScroll during normal page scroll and eliminate frame rate issues caused by the 3D widgets, its available in two flavors:

Super Smooth Rosie:

This will keep the 3D widgets in the intial screen you begin scrolling from and freeze/flattens all the other pages until you stop scrolling

It will satisfy those who don't want to completely lose the 3D widgets

There might still be a very slight frame rate drop during the initial 3D flip depending on the complexity of the widgets.

This mod hacks the FxWorkspace.smali file

Ultra Smooth Rosie:

This mod goes even further by completely disabling 3D layered widgets by flattening and freezing all homescreens during scroll

The homescreens will still rotate in 3D space, only flattened

Liquid smooth locked 60FPS!

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1302914

RCmix Tweaks

This app has tweaks mostly related to the UI on sense, you can switch themes and stuff, far as i know >o>

GPU rendered UI

Much of the discontent around UI responsiveness and animation smoothness in Android versions before ICS has revolved around the fact the OS does a lot of its rendering through software — meaning that the processor, instead of a dedicated GPU, is handling the visuals. That's an inefficient way to do things and takes away CPU cycles that could be used elsewhere, but the point here is that it's not in itself the cause for sluggish performance. If you have a fast enough CPU, you can deal with some software rendering without a hitch.

This fixes the problem by making the gpu go like this:

Which should make stuff quicker, this tweak is arguable though.

more : http://www.extremetech.com/computing/107995-the-truth-about-hardware-acceleration-on-android

Hope this has been helpful, there are tons of mistakes and misconceptions, and lots of stuff to be added, Thanks for reading.

and seriously, just don't x'D i'm only doing this 4 gr8 Justice

Keep the thread clean, if you want to use the thanks button just do it so you won't spam the thread with "thank you" comments, those take up space.