yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus One General] psylink:
i do agree with you, but those not wanting to void warranty are alittle more limited, i very much want to root but don't want to void warranty to find a month from now something is wrong and theres still no bootloader relock option. i think theres a lot more customization for rooted vs nonrooted and that's where people feel limited and have the "this should have been added" attitude
[Nexus One General] MonkySlap:
You have to keep in mind, Google is just providing a basic operating system. They leave it up the the developers to customize it. You can kinda compair it to what microsoft does, loosly. You can build your own computer, buy windows and customise it to your liking. Or you can buy one from Dell that comes pre-loaded with windows and various other applications. Google just really provides the base level OS.

@psylink you dont need root for most widgets. With exception to like the overclock widget and such, or if you are trying to run a widget that was part of a different rom.
[Nexus One General] diversificationied:
That's a fantastic stance to take when you're providing just an OS.

However, when you release a branded phone under your own name, you need to provide substantial content to that brand.

As it stands the only thing setting the nexus apart from other phones is hardware. In a few months when numerous phones have the same hardware whats putting the nexus ahead of the pact? They same way motorola has motoblur, htc has sense, etc., Google needs their own "style" for their own handsets.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
There are a few home screen redesigns on the market that (AFAIK since I've never tried any of them) don't require rooting and significantly change the "look" of the standard phone. Most of them are heavily theme-able as well. On the Behold II forums a lot of people were touting these apps as ways to get rid of the Touchwiz interface that they didn't like (Samsung pouts).

Also, Google created this OS as a platform both for developers to fill with apps, but also for manufacturers to customize to differentiate themselves. If they didn't leave room for manufacturers to customize then the platform would be far less attractive to them and they'd have more adoption problems. If they create too strong of a core UI then they might either be in the position of competing against the manufacturers on that "differentiation" ground, or they might remove any need/desire to customize and the manufacturers would have to consider producing another "me too" phone which they may not like as much, or Google might spend a lot of time on work that will be discarded by the manufacturers during their differentiation. Most of these manufacturers are members of the "alliance" that collaborated on the platform so I'm sure these points were hashed out during that planning phase.

If they don't promote adoption then they lose the win for developers in having a widely adopted platform. Note that even though HTC heavily customizes with Sense and Motorola heavily customizes with Blur and Samsung with Touchwiz, a developer can still write an app that runs on all of those and so everyone is happy.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
True, they could do that, but I don't think they are putting the Nexus One out so much to enter the brand market heavily as they are to put out the canonical reference version of the phone, at least initially. In my mind, the N1 was never to compete with the manufacturers head to head, it was more to have a phone out there that was as open and pluggable as their vision has always been so that if all the manufacturers/carriers decide they are going to take the base OS, lock it down, make people buy ringtones through a carrier market and cripple the browsing so you can't download anything - customers would have an alternative open solution to turn to. In the past there have been classic examples of a given model/brand of phone available from some carriers where you could download any customization file to it that you wanted and then on other carriers it was crippled and locked you in. In those cases you had to buy the crippled versions because there was no independently available canonical "open" version. The N1 fights that tendency not by force or contract, but by simply being. It doesn't have to be the coolest, hippest incarnation, it just has to be pretty and usable and so open that everyone will start to get a distaste for anything closed.

What we are seeing so far with Android isn't so much of this "carrier locking" as it is "carriers customizing so heavily that they threaten the upgrade paths for their customers". I don't think they are doing it intentionally, they just aren't familiar with working on a platform that evolves so quickly. Without the N1 being a bare bones example of the platform they would only be competing with other manufacturers that are similarly locked in by their own lack of upgrade foresight and so the drive to release upgrades wouldn't be so compelling. But, if there are alternatives available that will be keeping up on a much more aggressive pace, like the N1, then they are more likely to fix their differentiating software so that it can move to newer OS versions in a more timely manner. Imagine in a year or two when we can all own Blur or Sense phones and get our OS updates within a month or two of a new OS release.

It's the "reference fully open Android example" and, as such, is less in need of customization as it is to simply stand as an option to keep the others honest. It's meant to be as "close to the raw OS source" as it can be.
[Nexus One General] MonkySlap:
When have widgets been the only way to add content to the phone? I mean there are plenty of replacement widgets already on the market if you dont like the stock ones. Me I would rather they provide more features then pretty widgets. They have provided plenty of content for the phone. Live wallpapers, google goggles, factory bootloader unlock, sim unlocked, mutible exchange account management, updated gallery, multi touch maps, ect
[Nexus One General] diversificationied:
Those are all implementations for the OS, something that would happen regardless of a "Google's phone", and things that get rolled out to other devices.

They have to walk a fine line because they are Google, and having exclusivity for one thing almost goes against their entire paradigm.

Maybe the "advantage" is getting stuff first? If so, that's kinda meh.
[Nexus One General] MonkySlap:
but its still content non the less, correct? Doesnt need to be exclusive to be considered content. Me personally I really didnt buy it for stock os or content. I bought mine to tweak, mod, and play with, and it is more then fulfiling that for me :D. Love the desire rom running so smooth so early in the port.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
Or maybe their philosophy is that any and all "enhancements" should be optional add-ons available to all phones of the breed. As it stands you can only get Sense or Blur if you buy a phone from those manufacturers (or if you root and someone scavenges a semi-compatible ROM from one of them for you). I don't think they want to be in the game of "you have to get your phone from us to get XYZ" and so they provide a reasonably attractive basic package, they set it up so that others can come in and provide openly available enhancements (see the various replacement "home screens" on the market for example) and then the customer gets the benefit of both choice and of an open environment.

I think they view branding as more of an obstacle than as a sales/owner satisfaction tactic.
[Nexus One General] DMaverick50:
All good points. Now that I think about it I bought this phone for stock google stuff, which in hindsight may have been a mistake. With the g1 and mytouch 3g the google software was often the closest thing to stable available and I've grown to trust mainly them and reputable companies. Its kind of embarrassing to look thru the market and have to sift through countless apps that serve virtually no purpose, have terrible icons, and aren't even close to stable, but perhaps this is a product of androids relative immaturity, though I'm unfamiliar with winmo, palm, and apple. I just haven't been impressed with many third party apps or Widgets, save a select few very impressive ones. 90% of the apps look and feel very amateur. I stick to apps and Widgets produced by real companies because those have the best chance of being usuable. That was quite a gamble by google to go largely hands off and let all software be driven by development. Xda has spotlighted many excellent devs as far as rooting goes but for the average user the options are unimpressive. Maybe google will give in and start developing more usuable/stable/useful apps/widgets
[Nexus One General] wolfman87:
I think that there are two schools of thought on this, yet we are all agreeing on the same concept.

While Google did create Android to be a stock type OS that they could distribute to multiple handset makers (in order to increase their ability to produce smartphones with only minor increases in developmental costs aside from those related to hardware - ultimately getting more people using the mobile web resulting in more ad revenue -whew! :P ), they also have in a sense slightly abandoned those of us who took the direct to consumers path. This is why they didn't put much into the release of the phone (look up the launch stats - or lack of accessories). While they don't have the responsibility to create widgets, programs, animations, etc. for us (the D2C crowd). I believe that they should have worked out a deal with HTC where we are allowed to unlock the bootloader and tinker/mod/play with/customize, etc as much as we want to without penalty or breaking the warranty. We don't have the funding to purchase a few hundred phones in case we brick them testing out various configs., nor do most of us have the expertise to repair the device if it gets bricked. The only other possibility is that a contract clause is created whereby we are allowed to download ROMs from Android manufacturers (or at least just HTC) and put them on our phones - doesn't that give us the MOST number of options to customize our phones? And isn't the ability to customize an Android phone the original intent of the OS?

By giving us either an allowance to unlock the bootloader or the allowance to download (and maybe play with other manufacturer customized ROMs) or preferably both I think that it would be a win-win situation.
[General Questions and Answers] fitra68:
I need arabic font for WM 6.1, anybody help me?

my OMNIA does'nt support Arabic font properly,

thanks
[General Questions and Answers] SinawY:
Hi,

Will if you mean the Arabizer (change the language of menus, names and messages from English to arabic) here you are:

http://www.zshare.net/download/547009597a258852/

But if you mean that you need to change the arabic fonts.

Sorry, don'y know how to do that.
[Off-topic] BlackHawk6:
I have an ipod that i bought a couple months back, im not sure what version it is i dont use it much. I think it is the new 3gs model, it has the volume rocker and the side and has the voice control. Does anyone one know if the newer one can be jailbroken? Thanks
[Off-topic] rorytmeadows:
This site does not condone warez nor illegal activity (Apple considers it against their policies and against the law). Please read the rules before posting.

I do not want my beloved XDA going because of such garbage!

CLOSE
[Off-topic] BlackHawk6:
Its in off-topic calm down buddy. Im just asking if it can be jailbroken and im pretty sure that is not illegal.
[Off-topic] rorytmeadows:
I'm calm, I just don't want to see a fellow XDA member banned.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal
[Off-topic] BlackHawk6:
Thanks but im pretty sure jailbreaking is not illegal regardless of what apple says. Im just trying to find out if i can jailbreak my ipod or not.
[Off-topic] rorytmeadows:
Well, honestly, you can, but you're probably not going to find out here. This site is full of HTC users and people that hate Apple.
[Off-topic] BlackHawk6:
Yeah, im not a fan of apple either i just won the ipod online and wanted to make some use out of it and the only way to do that is to jailbreak it lol
[Off-topic] denco7:
It can be jailbroken and despite what Apple says, as we all know , modifying software for our own benefit is a gray area of the law. Don.t even start that discussion here.

Apple makes great products that are even better after jailbreaking. I use Blackra1n to jailbreak my iPhone and iPod. Unfortunately the new iPods can only by tethered jailbroken right now, which means you have to run the jailbreaking app again if the iPod is reset or the battery is allowed to run out.

There ought to be a special forum for the Apple haters here, they are taking over off topic.
[Touch Diamond2, Pure General] crypted:
Okay so apparently MS has not made a CAB file that will let Live Mesh operate on a HTC Pure right out of the box.

When I open the exe, Live Mesh opens up. I see the Starting up message at the bottom of its white screen and the spinning Mesh symbol. But, within 3 seconds the application terminates and I get the Error Report screen wanting it to be sent to MS.

I've seen TechNet reports from other Pure users but no responses or solutions offered.

Does anyone out there have a solution??? I love Mesh and would love to be able to use it on my phone.

Thanks!
[Touch Diamond2, Pure General] cmstackar:
maybe it needs .net cf3.5, I've gotten that error a few times, and its usually because .net isn't installed(well thats always been my case)
[Touch Diamond2, Pure General] crypted:
Just tested that. Unfortunately, that did not resolve the problem. Same situation almost. It gets to the "signing in" screen rather than "starting up"
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General] ZombieJesus:
Is there a way to remove the weather from the today screen?
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General] zelendel:
Flash a rom without it is about the only way
[HD2 General] malinda_02678:
hello all,

I need to migrate all of my contacts from my exchange account to Microsoft My Phone service. If i want to use My Phone for contacts i have to stop using exchange, but when i do that all of my contacts are deleted so there are no contacts to sync with My Phone service. :(

it would be great if all you gurus can help me out with this!!

thanks in advance!
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
Lately, I've seen more linux questions come up and people seem to want know what version of Linux they should use. So, I thought a poll would give people a good idea what others here are running and what they have to say about it. Please vote and comment if you'd like.:D

Currently, I'm running Ubuntu -- but will make the switch over the weekend to either Fedora or OpenSUSE, pending on the feedback that comes from this thread.:rolleyes:;)
[Hero CDMA General] bmxrider4444:
Ubuntu here
[Hero CDMA General] linkinx64:
Ubuntu 10.04 :) on my EEEpc and android in my blood :P
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
I was already expecting Ubuntu to be the clear winner -- but I'm hoping that it doesn't become a huge land slide win, lol.;)

I want to install something other than Ubuntu; so people's comment/feedback are very much welcome. Please, do share your opinions and experiences.
[Hero CDMA General] TheBiles:
I have Ubuntu installed in VMWare Fusion, but that is for a class. I try to never touch the stuff. :P
[Hero CDMA General] darchstar:
If you want to move from ubuntu, but are in love with it's binary packaging manager, you will love arch linux.

If you're a guy who loves to do everything from source, then gentoo is for you.

If you want a very stable system, and also all the tools needed for programming and making packages for yourself, slackware is for you.

If you are a total noob, ubuntu is the choice for you :D

I personally use gentoo most of the time.
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
Hahahaha, thanks for the answers. I'm not a newcomer to linux, been using it for a while now, but just thought I'd get an idea as to what people were using. Arch Linux sounds interesting, but so does gentoo and slackware -- looks like I'lll be testing heavily over the weekend!:D
[Hero CDMA General] Leukay:
Where's the Linux Mint love??? Haha that's my distro of choice, but its built from Ubuntu so I guess I should vote for that...
[Hero CDMA General] zippy-man:
Just loaded my first linux OS and so far it is great. I will be out of windows if everything keeps goes this smooth.

I have to get a couple windows programs to run under linux and if I can I will dump windows all together.

I am running Linux Mint and loving it so far.
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
You're in luck my friend, I shall point you in the right direction::D

WINE

2 votes for Linux Mint huh? Interesting.
[Hero CDMA General] intx:
Linux Mint is the best for me by far.

It's based off Ubuntu but made a lot nicer.

<3
[Hero CDMA General] kniteshift:
How easy is Slackware to use?

edit: If you like Ubuntu, you can check out Debian. Ubuntu is the dummy version of Debian.

Linux has really grown since the 90's, almost all the widely known distro's are loved, and supported when it comes to say programming.

Just their are certain perks, like Gentoo uses a BSD based package installer called portage, and other stuff. I think it really just depends on what you are looking for, I'm personally looking into Arch Linux and Mint, but if I'm not happy, there's always Ubuntu for me :D
[Hero CDMA General] linkinx64:
Backtrack !!! :P
[Hero CDMA General] darchstar:
It's easy to set up and install, becuz is follows the KISS standard, but everything after that, you really need to know linux well to do, such as getting 3rd party packages, though people have been trying to make that easier with slapt-get and other overlays to the default package manager.
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
Slackware was developed by Linus Torvalds (Linux creator). It's the oldest Linux distro around and its more "Unix-like" based. Slackware is considered one of the cleanest and least buggy distributions available today. For more information, you can go here -- it'll give you the Top 10 distro's.:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
[Hero CDMA General] kmartburrito:
Yay Backtrack and Auditor!!!

I have an Ubuntu box, but run LOTS of linux distros as live CD's when the need arises, such as Backtrack and Auditor. I also like PCLinuxOS and the Games for Linux live dvd's. Last time I checked, there were two of them.

But my favorite Linux-based OS has got to be Android :)
[Hero CDMA General] gbhil:
Guess who voted Slack pseudo lol.

There is only one.
[Hero CDMA General] zippy-man:
Thanks i loaded that up a couple days ago pretty cool.

Wine is emulating most of the windows programs i need but a couple will still crash etc. I am working on it trying to learn but so far it is going good
[Hero CDMA General] abcdfv:
+1 for Mint.
[Hero CDMA General] rockcrawler:
Dual boot Arch and Ubuntu, but have not booted Ubuntu in quite a while.
[Hero CDMA General] chadillac0000:
Wow great to see all the love for Mint. I too run Mint at home on my media center and Backtrack when on the road. :D
[Hero CDMA General] gu1dry:
Crunchbang Linux & Atrium Gamer (the Linux distro that I'm a team member of)
[Hero CDMA General] hempwallace:
Ubuntu on my main system, Kubuntu and Mint on two others.
[Hero CDMA General] Kcarpenter:
I am surprised to see so many Mint users. Also surprised by the 2 so far sadist Gentoo users. I didn't think any one liked torment that much. :D

I r running Ubuntu mostly but have VHDs somewhere for most the others.
[Hero CDMA General] giovannizero:
Ubuntu ftw

Ubuntu is really nice and easy to use, someone said it's for n00bs but that's fine. I don't get off on having my OS be difficult to wrangle. Ubuntu is great because it works for both new and old users. Want to build from source? Fine. Want to use the graphical package manager? Fine.

The community is really huge with ubuntu too so anything you want to do you can google and usually find easy solutions.

I've tried lots and lots of distros and the current build of ubuntu is my fav.
[Hero CDMA General] abcdfv:
Im probably going to go back to Sabayon today
[Hero CDMA General] Vrekk:
Arch all the way man, sometimes it can be a little tricky to set up, but it's always worth it in the end
[Hero CDMA General] gthing:
Darwin.

Unix though, not Linux.
[Hero CDMA General] apc103:
Debian user here. Lenny for my servers and Testing for my other machines.
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
I added it just for you, lol. I knew sooner or later you'd come around and vote!:D
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
Sabayon looks awesome. Looks like that's another one for me to test over the weekend -- hell yea!
[Hero CDMA General] KBizzle:
I just have a quick question. I have been dancing around the idea of trying out linux as a windows replacement. Does anyone here actually use it as a replacement or is it just better to have a dual boot setup in case there is something that requires windows?
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
I dual boot -- but have found that 95% of the time I boot into Linux and NOT Windows. The speed of Linux vs Windows on my laptop is staggering and to be expected in a lot of ways.

Realistically, I probably don't need my Windows partition -- but for certain reasons I keep it anyway, just in case something does go wrong. I'm a server/sys admin and do a lot of testing with Microsoft products for my job, so I need Windows to test those products (Sharepoint, Groove, etc). Otherwise, Linux is something I'd definitely consider switching over to permanently.
[Hero CDMA General] abcdfv:
Sabayon is awesome, but imo they should have stuck with the 3.5rc2 theme
[Hero CDMA General] KBizzle:
Thanks. Yeah, I immediately high tailed it out to google to do a little research. Found linux forums with good resources. I think the only thing I do with my PC that I would probably need to keep windows for is gaming. I dont game alot but when something new comes out that I just have to try, I am all over my desktop for a few days. I just always feared that linux wouldnt support all of my programs but now days Im finding myself really only using my computer to do stuff to my phone. LOL. Seeing that I used to run a WM device, I needed Windows to do it. Now that I am running a linux based device, Im starting to lean towards an OS to match it. Ill just have to dive in tonight and try it out. Was considering trying linux Mint or Ubuntu.
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
Live CD's are the way to go -- try them all. I've going to try everyone's suggestions and burn Live CD's, and give them all a chance. However, I am learning towards a couple though (Arch, Mint, and Sabayon) at the moment.

Ubuntu drivers detected my hardware better than Windows 7 did... so that should tell you how far along Linux as really come.
[Hero CDMA General] KBizzle:
So Live CD's Im assuming allow you to try Linux OS without actually installing, is that correct?
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
Correct. They mount themselves and allow you to explore Linux without actually installing any of the OS files. You can install if you want through the disc. Usually, upon booting the Live CD and entering the desktop environment, there will be an icon that says "Install" or something along that line, which will walk you through how to install that particular distro onto your computer.
[Hero CDMA General] KBizzle:
Cool thanks. Yeah I have been building PCs for 6 years now and have dual booted many Windows versions just for the sake of trying them out. Im sure it will be fun trying something new. I appreciate the info.
[Hero CDMA General] pseudoremora:
In those 6 years, you never thought about Linux... ever?;) At the end of the day, it won't really matter which distro you run, everyone has preferences and favorites -- but by you learning and running Linux, you do help out the community in the long run, you'll be able to build a future kernal/ROM's/etc and troubleshoot any other technical problems that arise. Good luck!