[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
What say Casper! Nice day in Saldanha Bay huh? Well, like you got a camera in your phone. Take a shot of the Tiki Bar, zoo, dancing girls, the water, ...something, and show us! :D

What rom build, how do I like it, and how do I use Google Maps?

I am using Michael's latest rom for XT912, 04/12 or cm-11-20150412-UNOFFICIAL-spyder.zip. I have been using it for the past several days and like it a LOT. I liked the last one too, 04/05 but Mr. Chen, [MENTION=3313632]ChungHung.Chen[/MENTION] did say he had some issues where he would tap power, hard buttons light, but screen took too long at times to light up. He rated it lower than the build before it, 03/29. Mr. Chen is to be taken seriously. He is one of our most dilligent and active testers. So I had to admit that yes, I had these issues too, but did not feel they were severe enough to warrant a bad build. This 04/12 build is really, really nice and I am not seeing the black screen like I did in 04/05. (Black screen, buttons lit were more of an annoyance for me rather than a deal breaker in 04/05 and were not consistent. The screen would light up, but it did not always do so as fast as it should have for me.)

Google Maps and Navigation are "da bomb", man! I use them all the time. On a good build like this, I start out with streaming audio Bluetooth to Car Audio. Since I will be using my car stereo for navigation instructions, I cannot use the car radio, so I use streaming music or news to keep me company while I drive with spoken directions. A Razr is not exactly a "killer hardware phone" but it can do maps, navigation, and streaming Bluetooth on a good rom. Add to that make or take a call or text messages and that is as far as I dare push multitasking on this device. But on a good rom, it is not a problem. I can do all this stuff.

How come Maps and Navigation work good for me and not for you? AFAIK, the XT910 & XT912 phones are identical but for the radio. For one, you must have a good build running. I recommend the latest UNOFFICIAL rom, 04/12. I sort of "cheated" when installing this update. I just put the rom in the /sdcard/cmupdater/ folder, went to OTA updates, and tapped the rom to install it, OTA style without having to install gapps. This is really like any other OTA update. But because it is UNOFFICIAL, it will not show in the OTA menu unless you put it there. My gapps are up to date so I really do not need to flash any gapps, just the update.

After I get a good build installed, I do like I say in the Guide and freeze all the junk from the rom I will never use like Exchange services and Email, Apollo, Google Play anything (E.g.: news, books, movies, etc. but I keep Music and use it.), and the built in My SMS app. I use Facebook Lite and Greenify that. I actually use the app analyzer in Greenify and put suggested things to sleep. Not Dropbox because it does not use much memory and like having pictures instantly delivered to my PC. Not my desktop clock widgets either. Greenify is pretty good at telling you what will slow down your system and what won't affect it as much. I use the Donation Pack with Xposed module because it does a LOT of stuff the free version does not. I run mine in Boost mode and check every box in the Experimental menu.

Hmmm, Greenify has a new Experimental feature. "Deep Hibernation". I might try that. It stops apps from opening other apps unless they are really needed and this is something I see all the time. Going to turn that on now. Once you do all that stuff, you should have a pretty good, fast, sleek phone that runs very well. Save that setup in Safe Strap. Maps and Navigation should work well now, unless the coverage by Google is not very good in your area. Most of my maps to navigation is done by tapping the dialer or People app, then tapping the contact's address. This will give me the option to open in Maps. I do and then have the option to use Navigation and I do use that.

I really liked and used the old Navigation blue triangle app but Google took that away. I do use the Nav Launcher to bring that feature back so that I can go directly to navigation from history or program in some favorite destinations.

I will tell you that I love and use maps and navigation all the time and many, many, times both have crashed on me, several times. That is why a good rom is really important. When you get just the right build and app combo, this will run smooth as silk. Back up that rom in Safe Strap when you reach this state of Nirvana. I say this because not all Google Maps updates are "good". Some of them just "ruin" Maps and they will not "get good again" until Maps updates again. In those situations where a Google Maps update causes my maps and navigation to run poorly, I restore the previous version with Titanium Backup and wait for another Maps update that does not suck. "Maps are Maps" so all of these Google Maps updates are hardly necessary. Used to be you could add a Maps destination directly to Contacts. Excellent for say, adding a new doctor to your contact list. But for whatever reason, this is nearly impossible to do anymore. :(

That should pretty much answer your maps and build questions, Daniel. No? Take care buddy and let us know how you made out. The Q&A in this thread is still very much active. I will answer questions or perform tests to help others. And other guys like [MENTION=3313632]ChungHung.Chen[/MENTION] or [MENTION=5057697]welder73[/MENTION] will also usually help. :D

---------- Post added at 12:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 PM ----------

Wow, great to see you buddy! Razr is doing "good" now. Michael has made some new UNOFFICIAL roms for us so that we are not stuck with junk as far as cm11 goes. Myself and some others like Casper are sticking it out with CM11 because it really is a great rom, completely mature, is final and stable, and is a great daily driver.

Lots of guys like Welder and Bobcus Leper have installed cm12.1 as their daily driver and are very pleased with it. I cannot take the chance because for right now, this Razr phone is all I have and I don't want to chance missing work or appointments because the rom is still in development. From what I hear, just not everything works and you know how the Nightlies are, some good, some bad, and some, ...who knows?

Wow, you got root on a Turbo now! AWESOME! I felt so bad for guys like you and my2cents that took the deal and then lost root. I for the life of me cannot even imagine you sitting in the bleachers while everyone else is romming. Heh, can you imagine that bro? :D

Glad you stopped by. Please, visit anytime. We could always use and appreciate the company! :laugh: