Smartphone advice

[Deef]

towelroot.com - Root Samsung Kitkat phones without hitting Knox.

This came just in time for me... I still haven't rooted simply because I didn't have to time learn what I needed. The Hong Kong models are a bit more finicky apparently. Then I see towelroot has just been released, and finally with today's version 3, I'm now rooted with 4.4.2 and Knox 0x0. Finally I can start trying those Dreamcast games.

Samsung are actually pretty annoying when it comes to unlocking your phone. Not just Knox, but the weird backups only Samsung phones need, plus their dickery with being able to shut down 3rd party accessories. There's still no way to un-Knox a phone, and rejecting warranty claims based on that is much more shenanigans than protection. Knox especially could put me off getting a Note 4/5... depending on the competition. I imagine soon enough devs just won't be able to find an exploit around it.

[Cletus]

My Note 3 is running a rom that doesn't have Knox.

[Deef]

Oh, I mean Knox the bootloader flag, ie the way they hold your warranty hostage. Knox the security app I don't really care about either way; if I was that about about my data I wouldn't be relying on something like Knox security to begin with.

[Cletus]

Yup...well it's good for you that they released a work around. It was either that or be brave. Being brave can be costly though.

[lestat]

Android is dead to me, been using a nokia 630 for the last few weeks. Loving WP 8.1, basically brings all the features I used from android over to a buttery smooth interface, consistent UI and I don't have to deal with google beta testing spyware anymore.

Today my Nokia 1520 arrived in the mail, can't wait to play with it tonight.

I like the balance that windows phone strikes, I've used IOS/Android and windows phone sits in the middle of these too imo, closed enough to provide consistency/support/updates but open enough to use stuff like sdcards and file managers, mkv video players etc, plus I find outlook/onedrive/skype services work everywhere no strings attached.

[jizzlobber]

I'm very happy with WP 8.1, still could do with more games... Seems like things have slowed up a fair bit

[lestat]

I think it has something to do with dismantling of xbox games for WP, I believe also the introduction of directx12 will make porting much easier, they're unifying the stores now looking to make games work across desktop/tablet/phone a lot easier.

Also I think the fact smaller devs don't have the resources to port opengl to directx is an issue. But this is where I feel unified stores will give developers a larger audience to justify the work.

I saw today that HTC are doing a M8 with 8.1 on it. WP hardware from oems has been pretty quiet since WP8 launch, 8.1 allows OEMS to reuse android designs and effectively just flash W8.1 on it, making it royalty free helps too.

MS finally have a really good platform to really build on now, a lot of complaints I had with windows phone way back are gone now.

[itch]

I fully want the Moto 360 smart watch.

[mech]

Shame about the black bar on the bottom of the screen. What's up with that?

[Cletus]

It looks like a "drawn highlight/shadow" to me. That isn't an actual photo is it? It isn't even straight. Might be an error in the drawing or something shopped out.

[mech]

Nope. It's just like that.

[Cletus]

Then yes, looks shitty...what is up with that?

[Madmya]

Bezel

[Cletus]

no need to get personal

[mech]

It actually looks worse in real life. I don't get it. It would look stunning if they fixed that.

[unfnknblvbl]

I read somewhere it's the display driver

[AgOnNy]

Yeah, something to do with the display.

[lestat]

Setup my 1520 last night, it's a beast of a phone, I can one hand it though but it's more comfortable with 2.

Screen is gorgeous, I had a 1080p 5inch phone before but I never felt I got any benefit in sharpness over a 720p res phone just because the screen wasn't big enough. At 6 inches the screen is larger but I feel I can take advantage of the extra res making text smaller and it still be very easy to read. The PPI is still very high(300+) so you don't notice pixel structure, great viewing angles which are much better than my old xperia.

The only downer with the phone currently is I'm stuck on 8.0, having used 8.1 for the last few weeks dropping back to 8.0 is very noticeable, all those clunky annoyances are back, I'll have to limp along for a few days, cyan release is imminent!

Phone is so fast and smooth, snapdragon 800 for windows phone is overkill but I love the feeling of owning a device that won't feel obsolete, a feeling I've gotten many times owning an android once it starts to lag or google decide to change shit for no reason again slowing things down because they don't optimize properly.

[Mavy]

I've had my 1520 for a few months now. It's a great phone. A few things still annoy me. Apps (the ugly ones not really the lack of apps), the occasional website that is borked in IE. The occasional screen issues (brightness set low after wake up, registers tap instead of scroll). Music and Video apps are not as feature rich as those on Android. Get a bit sick of the samey texty interface of WP.

Otherwise I love it. Especially love having a big screen phone. Makes me wonder why I put up with smaller screens for so long. WP really has a lot of potential. Impatience really hurts my perception of the OS though.

I'm on the 8.1 preview. I'm hoping they fix their bug so I don't have to downgrade to upgrade to cyan. Things were going so smoothly with the preview up until that happened.

[lestat]

I've come across that IE issue, I suspect its just down to the lower userbase and sites are more optimised for iphone/android mobile javascript. It's gotten better with IE11, I hope they do more regular updates of the browser. I see one of the big changes in 8.1 is decoupling apps from the system image, google did this with android and it allows them to add more features to apps without having to recert a whole new rom.

Interesting enough I find IE11 on desktop/tablet to be excellent, I've ditched chrome for it, more work is required on the mobile version though.

I have experienced that touch/tap issue, I find it occurs if I'm dragging ever so lightly on the screen.

Moliplayer for me has been excellent, worth the 3 bucks and it's played everything I throw at it without problem, I can't say the same for various android players I've used, best android player is xbmc but most won't know since it's not the store, even VLC is still a bit flakey.

I hear VLC is coming to windows phone, another universal app port.

Mavy the backup feature in 8.1 works much better, I debranded the 630 i was using and it basically restored all the settings/apps exactly how it was before wipe, there are a few apps I had to relogin into but it's a pretty painless process. Where as I restored a backup on the 1520 from my old 820, lots of issues, reading up backup on 8.0 is just broken and of course 8.1 backups can't be imaged onto 8.0 handsets.

[jizzlobber]

8.1 is a pretty big improvement, Cortana and the alert Centre thingo are pretty much essentials now..but there's cool shit like the new live lock screen app which makes things look pretty awesome.

I'd love to see WP well supported so it can really take off... can't see it happening though.

[GreyWizzard]

Everyone said that about Android...

[Ambrose Burnside]

Any idea when 8.1 is coming to the HTC 8X?

[itch]

Maybe they put that black line on the watch so they can take it away and everyone will buy it again?

[mech]

hahahaha