yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] motionmonk:
Apex Launcher Pro install question

Blk_Jack,

Again, congrats on a GREAT ROM! I am so loving having rooted my G2. All the options and potential!

LOL, I've ended up rooting 2x more G2s and a Samsung Galaxy 2 at this point :good:

This is fun, and I'm learning alot in the process!

I am liking the Apex Launcher functions, and am very tempted to upgrade to the Pro Version.

I tried searching in this thread, but am not sure if anyone has talked about this yet; if I missed a thread, I'm sorry for the repeated question.

What is the best way to do this?

re-flash to Trebuchet or Nova launcher, and then buy Apex Pro from the Google store?

or delete the system app for Apex, and then upgrade to Apex Pro?

It seems that Apex Pro (from it's description in the store) is a full apk install, instead of a license file like Launcher Pro was. Is this correct?

If anyone else has purchased the full Apex Launcher Pro and remembers the details, I'd love any suggestions that you have.

thanks!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] J-Hop2o6:
I love Apex! Better than Nova, and especially Trebuchet. But I haven't bought the Pro version yet (not sure what the added extras are, but its perfect in its free for so far). But if its a full install than just a simple license install, then I guess just uninstall Apex (via TB since its a [converted] system app) and download the Pro version (then convert it as a system app for the widgets transfer).
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
When installing paid versions of Nova or Apex, you just install it from AROMA and buy the paid license/version off the Play Store. For instance I let the Mimicry installer install Nova for me and have Nova Launcher Prime installed from play store.

If you also install the launcher itself from the play store it will use that version in /data/ instead without conflict though.

Anyway regardless always choose the launcher you use from AROMA and it will work :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] motionmonk:
Thanks J-Hop2o6 & blk_jack,

I'll go ahead and purchase Apex tonite then : )

much appreciated!

-motionmonk
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] kbeezie:
^ This, generally speaking the market version simply gets installed to the /data region, and is used over to the /system/app installed version. Tools like Titanium Backup can also intergrate the 'newer' data version over your system installed version (just remember though next time you update mimicry you may have to restore the app again over it, though the 'data' and settings should remain intact.)

I also have the paid version of the Apex Launcher, the biggest thing would be the gestures options. But the tiny (but nice) feature I like is the notification icons. For example if you have phone, messaging, gmail, etc on your dock or home screen (ie: by itself, not in a folder), you'll actually get a small number notification over the icon showing you notification counts ala iOS style.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] chan1628:
just wanted to say thx for improving the stock camera ....

in the past, posting pictures online was always more grainy and blurry than the average cell phone pic quality

in v1.3.1, i've noticed much better picture quality... and the autofocus have been much better

at least now my pictures on f/b doesn't look like i took it with a 2MP camera from 2005 :laugh: (remember those??)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] kbeezie:
PS: I had a 1.3MP in 2001, and a 2MP around 2002. So um... 2005 wasn't *That* horrible (I get the point though :D)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] motionmonk:
Hi kbeezie,

Just to make sure I understand, when you say it "is used over to the /system/app installed version", are you saying that the OS will read the Market version versus the ROM version when it starts up?

Also, will there be any benefit to removing the system app version? or is more a user geek thing to do?

I am using MyBackup Pro, and there is Toolbox area where I can remove system apps... but how do I install apps into the system? Use ADB?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] kbeezie:
I don't know about MyBackup Pro, but it's generally considered useless to remove the /system/app version, as the system partition is typically read-only and won't improve much at all being removed.

But yes that's correct, for example if your rom came with Facebook installed on /system/app, and the market has an updated version, when you update that apk is in /data/app (or /sd-ext/app if using SD-Ext enabled) and will be used over the system one. Tools like Titanium Backup can migrate the new upgraded one to the /system/app, but the annoyance you run into, is the next time you update your rom you may have to re-update the app as it got replaced on /system/app , as a result best to leave /system alone.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] motionmonk:
Ok cool, I understand things better now. To be honest, haven't tried Titanium Backup yet (since I didn't have root before), but it sounds like I should give it a try!

many thanks, have a great week :)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] kbeezie:
Personally I love it, makes it so easy to quickly backup/restore (or even freeze) app-by-app basis, can restore original Android ID (which some apps go by), and if you ever wanted to install a rom freshly, you can just restore each of your apps + full settings/data to it, so you don't have to reinstall everything or lose your game saves for example. Well worth the 6$, so nandroid for a full OS backup and TiB for all the little stuff.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Careless_:
anyone know where to disable the call connection beep? two people have said my phone makes a quack sound as soon as they are connected to the phone during a call. it's the "beep" that i hear from the speaker resonating in the phone.

EDIT: nevermind, it's call recorders "vibrate on call/end" feature.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] costipl:
Could this be used to get a transparent statusbar: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1773930 ?

Apparently my google-fu sucks, because I can't find any CM9 theme with the transparent bar.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
Mimicry 1.3.2

Andromadus Mimicry v1.3.2 - August 6, 2012

= Changelog =

Merged up to CM9/Andromadus repo head

Fix ring/notification volume not restoring correctly on headset (dis)connect

Merged in patch to fix a crash on audio initialize

Added zram to initrc

New Feature! Added AOKP Circle Battery icons

New Feature! Added Percentage-in-Icon Battery icons

Fixed transparency on notification shortcut backgrounds

Fixed Aroma bug where installer would silently abort without flashing the kernel

Fixed Sense 4 Style Recent Apps squashed preview bug

Updated Aroma to 2.5

Updated ApexLauncher to v1.3.0beta1

This will be one of the final revisions before Mimicry is migrated to JB. Added battery icons (see OP for previews), proper zram support, plenty of fixes and all the newest upstream CM9 patches.

Download v1.3.2 [link]

Upgrade/Flash instructions are in the OP. Installer FAQ/Known Issues are in the OP. Please consult these posts and understand the type of thread I'd like to maintain here before posting either Issues/bugs and before asking questions answered in the FAQ.

Thanks everyone for your continued co-operation & help with finding and fixing issues.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] J-Hop2o6:
Even tho I wont flash this one, I still 1+'d you for this great rom. Its hard to go back to an old Android version when you used to the newest one as a DD. Can't wait for your JB Mimicry next! Currently on the Andromadus JB test builds.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
I can see where you're coming from, but as someone who runs Jelly Bean on his Nexus 7, I don't really see the difference. With Google Now/Voice Search for JB working almost flawlessly in ICS, the only advantage I can see are the notifications. Over and above how much more fluid JB is than ICS (it's not [for the vision], currently, and likely won't ever be -- though it will probably match it), the only real changes are in the Notifications. While I love the new notifications, having a stable system with good battery life is more important for me than having a slightly higher version number in Android :)

I realize not everybody needs their phone for critical or important things, but I work in IT and there are days where a crash or a missed email/notification can totally bone me. Mimicry will transition to CM10/JB once things have stabilized and there aren't a billion merges upstream every day. It's hard maintaining a code fork when your upstream is changing so frequently.

Plus I get to run JB on my N7. However, I don't see it even being THAT much more smooth on my Nexus 7 than on the Vision (seriously). Obviously apps load & switch between eachother much faster, but in terms of UI responsiveness JB on the N7 isn't that much better than what we currently have with ICS.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] amogil:
I was wondering as well is there a way to make the desktop or home screen float , kinda like a live wallpaper and a launcher... I hope I got that thought out right... any way to not show keyboard selection in notifications
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] ibemad1:
Thanks for the awesome rom! You should get a vacation sometime though ;)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] GinoAMelone:
If it's any help, I know tethering works on Flinny build 97. I just used it a couple days ago.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
Thanks, I'll look into it. Though I believe both roms would have the framework patches affecting the tethering.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
I was under the impression swiping apps away killed them. I opened my task killer to view running processes, hit Recent Apps and swiped away the XDA app. Then I just hit refresh to get the updated task list and xda was no longer there.

Where did you get information that swiping away apps doesn't close them?

Float? There are launchers that let you have static wallpapers, if that's what you mean.

As for keyboard selection notifications, turn them off in Settings -> Language & input -> Selector Notification. (previously in the Andromadus menu but we removed it when CM9 officially integrated the patch)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] David Dee:
Okay, late to the game here, don't know how I missed this but downloaded tonight and am in business. Great work!! Thanks @blackjack for all of your efforts! I finally get what you have been saying over the last 6 months on supercharger, this thing is fast and buttery smooth, wow! Flashed without wipe (except for installer wipe of cache/dalvik) from 97 and no problems at all yet. So far my fiddling has not produced one graphical glitch....was getting one/hour on 97. Lockscreen, CM boot animation and one touch recent apps on search button are all amazing additions, but for me the greatest is the speed and fluidity of this rom. No joke, it is as smooth on ICS as my quad core Asus Transformer Pad 300.

Will be sure to report any issues right away. @blackjack: Make sure to enjoy some quality outdoor time up north and not too much time on the computer supporting this, although I get the recreational aspect of this very well, I just wish my wife did :D.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Careless_:
I came back to this thread tonight to voice the same concern.

swiping apps away doesn't kill them.

superwipe ex4

full install

wiped dalvik/cache

I have the Go Task Manager widget that still shows the apps there.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jspina:
OK I have a feature request but I am not too sure whether or not it is possible. I would like to have the ability to kill all apps from the multitasking menu. For an example it is what the galaxy s III has.

Thanks , but of coarse it is just a small request as I am VERY greatful for what you have built. It is perfect for me and great addons to the already great andromadus rom!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] astriaos:
/\/\/\ Why are you killing applications in android? The only time that should ever be done is if you have a wakelock. Android manages memory better than you can. Please staple this article to your monitor or tattoo it on your arm or something. Perpetuating the myth that app killers are a good idea is detrimental to the end user and your own user experience. Interestingly, this would explain the design decisions related to the app switcher that you folks are confused about.

So yeah, the app switcher doesn't really do much other than provide the illusion that you're kicking apps because the end user is generally to dumb/ignorant (or conditioned by how application memory works in older desktop operating environments) to realize this is a bad idea for many technical reasons. As time goes on and phones get more and more physical hardware, the need for app managers becomes even less valid. Especially since, like, you can go to settings>applications>manage applications>running apps and stop a process if there is an actual valid reason for doing so.

\/\/\/ Yeah I've heard generally the same thing, but forgive me for being wildly skeptical. I've seen some talk outside of your standard XDA/AndroidPolice/RootzWiki in specific relation to the G2/DZ - ICS roms concerning slowdown after a few days. I suppose the month and some change since that particular commentary could have had fixes for this issue. I guess I'll find out when I actually do some testing of my own.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
As stated in the OP, this rom is Andromadus. This ROM was also in alpha testing for 2 months. There's no reason things would get "bogged down" any more than any other AOSP-based ICS rom would.

I've been running versions of Mimic since Andromadus Audacity B3 and while I was often rebooting a lot to flash and test new builds, I did once hit 10 days uptime without any ill effects.

Maybe sense 3 suffers from degradation over time but AOSP has never had that issue.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
I've actually considered this before and looked at the multitasking code to see how I would do it. I'd likely bind the trackpad to a kill-all of sorts rather than modifying the UI and having to take up realestate.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
Try some real world tests. I just loaded the XDA app, hit home, selected the XDA shortcut and it went right back to this thread as expected. I then hit home again -> Recent Apps -> swiped away XDA and when I went to the shortcut the app completely restarted and I was back to the default startup screen.

I also see when I refresh my task killer after swiping away apps the freed up memory reflected there.

You're sure your widget is reloading the task list appropriately and that the app isn't a service, right?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jspina:
Yes I know that it runs thing beautifully BUT sometimes it is nice to make sure that everything is killed just in case you phone is being slow for that reason. I also kill an app if it is acting up and I usually kill all of them just because I am there. I know that maybe three or four and maybe less than that are actually running BUT it is a good thing if you can kill everything that is running no matter if it is in there because of cache. You would just be killing a non running app.

Just think of it like this, yes it running isn't the only reason for an app to be in that list, but nor is it just from cache. :D

EDIT: just so I don't have to make another post I am just editing this one.

I believe that everything comes down to personal preference and how we each use our phone. So if you want to try supercharger or don't try it. It is up to YOU and I hope that we can leave it at that and get back on subject. I will always keep it as a recommendation to anyone though.

And while i am posting, Thanks blk_jack for considering the suggestion!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] J-Hop2o6:
You are correct Blk. And it sounds like his app/widget is reloading like services normally do unless you FORCE CLOSE it in settings. I have/had a shortcut on my homescreen to open Running apps so I could force close certain apps that reload (512MB of RAM is TOO low for many services and cached/background apps).

And to the other guy saying closing apps is bad, its really not. My phone starts to slow down once im low on RAM (under ~60MB), so I have to close cached/background apps. After that my phone feels lighter again. I really hate that "unused ram is wasted ram" analogy. But I do exclude certain apps I don't want closed after I hit the "Close All" button in the System Task Manager app.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] astriaos:
Ugh you know what I'm not going to bother trying to convince you people otherwise since that argument isn't related to development and ignorance really is bliss.

Keep on truckin and if you ever decide to figure out why kicking apps from memory, even if they're frozen is an ineffective use of system resources well, there are innumerable resources out there on the internet. I'd be beating a dead horse built on the observer effect.

Certainly, I understand the need and desire for personal preference. However when it's based on engrained usage patterns from completely different styles of operating systems which handle memory management in completely different ways, then it becomes an issue of willful ignorance. If you look at the Google Android Development Blog there is an article which explains in great detail the difference between processes and services and how they're categorized by the OS.

Though I doubt you'll read it, you can get an extremely technical explanation why kicking apps from memory is actually counterproductive to the end goal of "smoothness" and "reducing lag". But hey, I get the sense that you (and quite a few others) will blindly cling to your preconceived notions of what is right and wrong when it comes to Android memory management. It would take an act of god to change that and although it'd be swell if I had the power to change your mind, I don't.

I do indeed use Supercharger v9 with 512 Ledded (balanced) and it's extremely effective at memory management. I haven't had to kick anything out of memory in months but I also don't have 120+ applications installed of dubious code quality. If you or anyone else is having memory bloat issues you might consider uninstalling some of the apps that you don't use on a regular basis.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] demkantor:
just wanted to give my thanks for this rom and for all of the ongoing development our devices keep getting. @ astriaos, i 100% agree with you and im glad your not trying to force people to listen, this thread is for development and lets keep it this way, people will learn on their own i hope.

and blk_jack --- you deserve a vacation, let the public play around for a week and when you come back well all still be here... thanks for your awesome work across all the roms you develop in!
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jmaciak:
+1 for this one ... all reviews for ICS say you kill the apps by swiping them away and I'm tired of saying people that's wrong :)

Edit:

I +1'd this feature to kill apps by wiping them away. However, some here say it is contraproductive to kill apps on Android. I also share this feeling, as most of the time I do not use task killers or kill apps. Also I agree with opinion that from time to time it is necessary to kill app/all apps when phone starts to feel very slow and it usually helps. But having displayed running apps instead of recently used apps will probably kill multitasking, because there are some apps that are still running and some apps that exit as soon as they are put into background. Therefore when showing recent apps the rom could:

- display recent apps as it is now (but one don't know which are really running), wiping just clears app out of recent apps list

- display running apps (but this will criple multitasking because really _recent_ apps are those that matter), wiping kills the app

- display mix with some type of flag showing those running

Well but which one is better / more usefull?
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Careless_:
i really don't care to read the innumerable resources out there on the internet regarding killing apps.

IF android was better at managing apps than I was, then I wouldn't have to KILL APPS in the first place to make my phone respond better.

THAT is a REAL WORLD experience. I don't care if you read it somewhere else or know how it works more than I do, the fact of the matter is that I HAVE to go into the task killer to remove apps from memory in order to speed the phone back up.

Explain that one. Infact- don't bother. I don't want to hear it. You keep reading your resources, I'll keep killing apps when my phone slows down.

Thanks for your input.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] Baphometa:
Smoothest and fastest ics I've ran on my phone yet thanks really love this rom its my new DD for sure no problems besides the usual ics bugs
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] otariq:
Is the vibrate icon showing up for ppl when in vibrate mode? Both vibrate and silent shows the same silent icon and when switching to vibrate with the volume key the phone doesn't vibrate either
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] J-Hop2o6:
I get what your saying. I never said JB will be or is faster than ICS on our phone, but I like to be on the cutting edge, plus JB is what ICS SHOULD have been from the start, but I guess Google didn't have enough to implement all the stuff thats in JB now at the time ICS was released.

But yea, the improved notifications bar, the smoother/60fps UI aka Project Butter (you do notice it on our phone with the smoother transitions, but can stutter at times), Google Now, more refined/consistent OS UI, etc. So its hard to step down from the improvements in JB. And I have been using the JB test builds for the past week or two as a DD and its been getting better and better with every update. I also never get any issues with notifications. The only issue I have is it feels "heavier" than ICS. I'm sure it just needs more optimizations.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] jspina:
That is funny to hear because Jelly Bean is suppose to be the thing that makes everything as smooth as the other operating systems. But going from the test builds to mimicry is like night and day with how far you guys have come with ics. although I think that the gaming in jelly bean is much better IMHO. I could only imagine how it is on the nexus 7! :D

thanks for the update and I too cant wait for your tweaks to jb! ;)
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] BacchusFLT:
Feature request: Ignore 2G

One of the features that really bug me as missing, is the fact that the option to select network is much more limited than what I see in other Android devices. Given that I played around with more of the ones I have access to, I really don't know which functions that originate from the normal distribution and which as forks, but the only option I have in Minicry is to permanently set it to 2G in order to preserve battery. Normally I would prefer the other way around; perfere to set it to WCDMA/3G only in order to get rid of the damned flipping to 2G in areas of weak signal. I have much more trouble with RAN toggling, than weak signals as such.

The feature to set "WCDMA only" is in many other distributions but as said, I don't know where it originates from.
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] blk_jack:
Dial *#*#4636#*#*
[G2 and Desire Z Android Development] BacchusFLT:
That is SO kewl. THX a BUNCH for this trick!