[Q] Flash ROMs from one device to another topic

Is it possible to flash a stock ROM of device (a) using only another device (b) ?

Device (a) being the one that needs a stock ROM
Device (b) has an OTG support

Connect one device to the other using an OTG USB cable, and flash ROMs from one device to the other
I got this idea when I was tinkering with Mobile ODIN. If a device can "flash itself" shouldn't it be able to flash others?

is it possible? or am I drifting to the crazy side now? :p

Android IS a Linux distro, so it should be able to get drivers and flash other devices through USB, right? we would just need the apps.

and if it is possible, and already out there, any links, please?

Thanks in advance! (: Cheers!

ANOTHER Samsung Update (BOB7) topic

So apparently, Samsung agrees with the masses who HATE the new Sound & Notification system Google has pushed with Lollipop. Samsung is rolling out an update bringing back the good old way of things (Sound/Vibrate/Mute). YAY!

http://www.gsmarena.com/new_galaxy_s...news-11291.php

Cube Talk 8X OCTA hands-on review – Another cost-efficient 3G tablet topic

Cube loves to make tablets with phone functions, and pumps them out in sizes and price points to suit almost anyone.

The all new mid-size model, the Talk 8X OCTA, sports a power-efficient octa-core processor paired with an 8-inch display and a moderate suggested retail price. How does it stack up against similarly-sized rivals? We will take a look.

Before we begin, a note: Cube, unfortunately, has a habit of re-using the names of its tablets, just as a lot of China-based manufacturers do these days. That makes it easy for customers to accidentally buy an older model while thinking they’re getting a good deal on the latest and greatest. The Cube Talk 8X OCTA we’re discussing today is an upgraded version of the Talk 8, and its model name is U27GT C8, rather than U27GT-3G, which is the model name of the older Talk 8. Before you make a purchase, please make sure to check that that’s the one you’re getting.

Cube Talk 8X main specs:

OS: Android 4.4.4
Display: 8-inch IPS, 5-point multi-touch, P+G
Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 (16:10)
CPU: MediaTek MT8392 Octa-core CPU
CPU Frequency: 1.66 GHz
GPU: ARM Mali-450MP4
RAM / Storage: 1GB / 8GB
Functions: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 3G, Phone, GPS, A-GPS, OTG, Miracast, FM Radio
GSM: band2, band3, band5, band8
WCDMA: band1, band5
WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
Camera: 2MP back camera, VGA front camera
Battery: 4,900mAh
Ports: SIM Card Slot, Micro SD Card Slot, Micro USB Port, 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Size: 213.3*128.8*9.2mm


Design and build



If you've used either the Talk 7X or the older Talk 8, the basic layouts of the Talk 8X should be very recognizable. And that's mostly a good thing. With rounded edges and a plastic rear, the slate is pretty easy to hold.



You'll find a Micro USB port and a headphone jack on the top, a Micro SD card slot on and a Micro SIM card slot on the back towards the top side. Cube has changed the positions of the hardware controls, the power/standby key and the volume rocker, which used to be put on the right side, are now hosted on the top edge. I personally hate this new arrangement, as it becomes more difficult for our fingers to reach those buttons while we’re using the slate in portrait mode.





There's little on the front bezel besides the VGA front-facing camera, as well as an earpiece. On the back, you'll spot a 2MP rear camera above, and a speaker below (portrait mode).





The slate measures 9.2mm thick, and is obviously much porkier than the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, which measures 7.2mm in terms of body depth. Fortunately, although the Talk 8X OCTA has a bigger bezel, it still keeps the overall footprint smaller than the Tab Pro 8.4, thanks to the relatively smaller screen size.



For me, Cube is simply recycling its hardware when it comes to Talk 8X OCTA’s design. There’s nothing we haven’t seen before besides the new button layout, and the Talk 8X is a cheap tablet which also looks cheap.


Display and sound



The Talk 8X OCTA sports an 8-inch IPS LCD panel at the resolution of 1280*800px. The display isn’t particularly sharp or crisp, but it is reasonably attractive for the price you're paying. It delivers rich colors that aren't overdone, and you only really lose brightness when you look at them from sharp angles.



The brightness of the display is also quite good, as it is easily visible outdoors, as long as you don’t face the display to direct mid-day sunlight.





It isn’t as vivid, clear, bright or glare-proof as the Super PLS panel used on the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, but it is a pretty decent offering for an entry-level tablet which costs less than 0.



Cube’s tablets are known for the great built-in AAC speakers, unfortunately, the Talk 8X OCTA is an exception. The rear-facing speaker on the 8X OCTA is pretty bad, even the speaker of the Cube U25GT produces louder, fuller output.



I was eager to plug in my Monster headphone whenever the Talk 8X OCTA’s built-in speaker made a sound. With the external audio system connected, the 8X OCTA’s audio performance is pretty acceptable, pretty much in the same class of the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, although not as great as my Hi-Fi enabled LG G2 smartphone.



Software



If you've ever used a Cube tablet or read our review of the Cube tablets, you'll know what to expect software-wise. The Talk 8X is running the stock Android interface -- it's simple, smooth and responsive.

There isn't an avalanche of preloaded software, either. You will have a whole set of Google apps, and some of the applications every Chinese needs to use, fortunately, you can easily uninstall those Chinese apps without the need to root your device beforehand.



Another thing worth a note is that the Talk 8X OCTA, like the more premium T7 and T9, supports OTA firmware upgrade.


Performance



Don't expect to see a performance which will beat high-end offerings such as the T7 and Nexus 9. But it's not shocking that they can outpace Cube' own Talk 8, a one-year-old device using an even older processor. It also fares well against the Google Nexus 7, and even the premium Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 – which is labored by its own 2560*1600 number of pixels.



The numbers translate well to the real world. The MediaTek chip doesn't break a sweat while navigating through the interface, and it's equally adept at both web browsing and video playback.



The Mali T450MP4 GPU is a capable if unimpressive chip for gaming. Crazy Cars ran at a very playable frame rate, but never came anywhere near the 60fps smoothness I look for and have only seen rarely in tablets. Other less demanding games like Riptide and Zombie Wood, however, look beautiful thanks to the screen's large color palette.


Connectivity



The Talk 8X OCTA belongs to Cube’s most popular Talk series, which means it is another tablet with full phone functionalities. Cellular network support, SMS, voice call functions, Bluetooth and GPS are all onboard to make the slate a capable substitute if your smartphone runs out of juice.

Things are working as designed here. The tablet can establish a pretty stable cellular connection for phone calls and short messages. Unlike the T7, the Talk 8X OCTA only supports GSM/WCDMA networks, so you will have to find out what kind of mobile service you have subscribed before you make a purchase. Bluetooth and GPS work well, too.



The 8GB built-in storage is clearly too small for the majority of users, luckily a Micro SD card slot which supports cards up to 32GB is on board. If that’s still not enough, the tablet also supports USB on the go.


Battery Life



You’ll find a 4,900mAh embedded Lithium-Ion battery inside the Cube Talk 8X OCTA, which is more capacity than the battery inside of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4. According to Cube, this battery will provide more than 21 hours’ music play time, or over 5 hours’ video play time.



In an attempt to quantitatively measure the 8X OCTA's battery life in a controlled benchmark environment, we ran the AnTuTu Battery Test which is available from the Google Play Store. For this test, we set the slate's display to 100% brightness, which is still plenty bright and easy on the eyes. The Talk 8X OCTA scored 5013, which is average among Android devices.

And in our standard cngadget video looping battery test, the 8X OCTA’s 6 hours and 23 minutes test result also ranks in the middle of the mid-sized tablets.

During our real-world testing, the Talk 8X OCTA had no problem making it through a few days while checking emails, surfing the web, taking pictures, leaving the screen on for 30+ minutes while the tablet sits idle, and playing a few games. We would expect an average user should have no problem making it through an entire day with moderate use as well. Of course, battery life will vary depending on how the tablet is used.



Cameras



I would have been pleased if Cube had just skipped the rear camera instead of giving us what they did. The 2MP camera on the back of the Talk 8X OCTA is a fixed focus lens on a tiny sensor that can't seem to take a good picture under any circumstances. I can't scan receipts into Expensify, I can't read barcodes without multiple tries, and any pictures will turn out soft, grainy and poorly. The front facing camera is fine for a low-bandwidth hangout, but it's not the camera you'll want to use to try and catch a mate with a selfie. It's exactly what you would expect from a budget device when it comes to camera hardware.



Surprisingly, the software includes shooting modes like Panorama and HDR, but this is likely because it was easier to leave it in the stock Android camera app than to spend time and money to take it out.

If you've an emergency where you have to take a picture and all you have is the Talk 8X OCTA, it would probably be good enough for traffic court or blurry-cam paranormal shots, but don't buy the Talk 8X OCTA for its camera.


Some final thoughts



If you stumbled here from a Google search, and just want a good, cheap tablet with phone functions, the Talk 8X OCTA is probably a good buy. The screen is a little iffy for reading, the cameras are pretty poor, and the speaker is tinny and doesn't offer much in the volume department. For the most part, though, the slate works well and you'll like the price. The extremely solid way it's built — can you tell it impressed me? — is icing on the cake.

If you're an Android enthusiast with more budget, though, you have other options you should consider. The LG G Pad 8.3 or the Cube T7, for a bit more money you'll get a much better screen and a more future-proof set of internals.

Should you consider all things and still go with the Talk 8X OCTA, you'll have a solid, but middle-of-the-road device that's a perfect coffee-table tablet for a quick peek at the Internet while watching a movie, or for watching the movie itself.

[Q] Install 4.4.2 from another region topic

Purchased a Note 3 Neo in Hong Kong last year.

Model Number: SM-N7505
Android Version: 4.3
Baseband Version: N7505ZHUAND2
Currently running:
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/d...05ZZHAND2_TGY/

KNOX is already flipped, so I don't care.

Browsing http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SM-N7505/, I see that there are some 4.4.2 for various regions, but I need to have a 4.4.2 base in order to install a custom ROM correct?

I get a "Device has been modified. Software updates are not available" message when clicking "Check for Updates" - so my assumption is I'm going to have to do this manually? But do I just need to wait?

Edit:

This may answer my question: http://forum.xda-developers.com/note...an-sm-t3035794


Thanks for the help!

[Q] Install 4.4.2 on Note 3 Neo from another region topic

Purchased a Note 3 Neo in Hong Kong last year.

Model Number: SM-N7505
Android Version: 4.3
Baseband Version: N7505ZHUAND2
Currently running:
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/d...05ZZHAND2_TGY/

KNOX is already flipped, so I don't care.

Browsing http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SM-N7505/, I see that there are some 4.4.2 for various regions, but I need to have a 4.4.2 base in order to install a custom ROM correct?

I get a "Device has been modified. Software updates are not available" message when clicking "Check for Updates" - so my assumption is I'm going to have to do this manually? But do I just need to wait?

Thanks for the help!

at&t device in another carrier topic

I bought a at&t LG g3 unlocked in internet,
but i don't have updates on ota.
What can i do for update ti lollipop?
I'm not root user and i don't have At&t SIM.
Please help.

Get better pictures/videos on AOSP! (Not another lg camera port) topic

[[If you don't feel like listening to my shenanigans, just scroll down to the dashed line!]]

I love the look of AOSP. Unfortunately, LG does not release camera drivers so camera quality on AOSP is generally pretty terrible. Recently, I decided to forego my typical stock g3 port and try out CyanogenMod 12, and its actually really really good and stable (on vs980 anyways). The only problem was the horrendous camera quality. Lollipop was so good (especially with xposed support starting up) that I decoded I'd try to find a fix for my problem. First off, I noticed that Lollipop had a *bit better camera quality than kitkat AOSP. This was promising but nothing good. My og droid razer still took pictures just as good. I tried the typical apps... Cm11s camera (it had bugs...) AOSP camera was terrible, Google camera was a little better than AOSP but not much. Lenovo super camera.. Still not 100% stable. I didn't use those stock camera ports as none of them are stable and those aren't what this thread is about.
--------------------------------------------------
I tried some play store offerings and almost gave up... But then I found something in the play store. "Open camera". Its free, open source, ad free, and somehow... It takes really good pictures and videos on AOSP on our phones.

When you open it you're greeted with a not-so-beautiful ui, but it has a lot of great features. HDR works also.. Which is nice. Actually, everything works.

The main gripe with the AOSP camera quality was low light performance. In open camera there's a ISO setting. Set the ISO to 1600 and you'll get great low light photos with little noise. You can of course use auto or higher ISO but noise will be a problem. But it is a problem on stock too at those ISO levels. Another thing I'd like to point out is that video recording is surprisingly good. No 4k yet unless your ROM supports it. The app itself supports it. Hopefully this can help someone who needs better pictures/videos on AOSP! 😎

Note: I included a test shot. Keep in mind the room was illuminated by one nightstand light. It looks brighter in the picture than it does to the eyes. Even though there's noise in the picture, its multitudes better than other options
Attachment 3179390

Here's a Google camera shot for comparison. I drew a red "G" on the Google camera shot because I'm uploading this with tapatalk and I'm not sure if it will show the pics in order or not:
Attachment 3179393

Sent from my vs980 on CM12

Attached Thumbnails

 


 

Another unofficial CM12 rom topic

I found another unofficial port on moonlight's blog:
hxxp://roms.blog.163.com/blog/static/206853126201511294640563/ (replace "xx")

The thread is in Chinese, so I extracted download links:
Rom download(gapps excluded) hxxp://pan.baidu.com/s/1qWPYDxq
gapps hxxp://pan.baidu.com/s/1q8gkI
(replace "xx")

wipe data&cache first.
flash the rom
flash the gapps if needed
reboot

It works well on my MI4C.

[Q] Yet another dead screen... but I may know how to fix it. topic

My situation:

My device has a screen issue, meaning while I can touch the screen, I can't see anything on it. Due to the nature of this issue, and the fact that a previous repair to this device required only a reflash of the update, I believe it is a software issue.

I do not have ADB debugging enabled but since I have touch access I might be able to blindly enable it.

So, can I flash an OTA zip to Wear without being able to see screen content? I don't think I can get into ADB update mode seeing as I cannot see anything, but any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Here are pictures of my issue:
http://puu.sh/fPnyT.jpg
http://puu.sh/fPnV1.jpg

Sometimes it just displays static, at other times it displays a morphed version of what it's meant to, but frozen.

XT1028 (USA VZW PP) Flash to another carrier? topic

Okay so I bought a used XT1028 on Amazon, and was disappointed that I couldn't root it due to the eternally locked bootloader (thanks to stock 4.4.4).

So I decided to stick with stock until the Lollipop update comes. I talked to Motorola, who told me to contact VZW. I called VZW, and after a few forwards, found out my device is "PIB Locked" which means it needs to be scanned at a Verizon store so it can be activated.

I don't want to do that, nor do I think that'll help.

So after some research, found out that I might need to flash another carrier to be able to get the Lollipop update.

How true is that, and how do I do so? I'm no stranger to flashing a ROM, but a carrier might require some learning.

[Q] flash another firmware topic

I have samsung s3 I9300T.can I flash with I9300 firmware

Xiaomi Mi3 gets yet another update topic

Xiaomi Mi3 Developer ROM gets another big update which has tremendous bug fixes.
Update now to Miui latest version :thumbup:

another slow device question topic

I have read pretty much forums and other websites to find a solution for my problem, but did not find any so far.

I am happy with my Galaxy S2 for more than three years now.

The last 1,5 or 2 years I have installed and tried a lot of custom roms, Ice Creams Sandwiches, KitKats and now also Lollipop (Omni and CM).

The last half year I have the next problem.

After installing a new rom and installing the apps I would like to use, the phone is nice smooth and fast, with a nice fluid UI.
But after some time ( after 1 or 2 weeks), the phone realy becomes suddenly very, very slow....opening apps takes a lot of time, often 5 seconds or even much more :(

Clearing cache, restart, clearing dalvik, nothing helps....the only thing that works is a complete fresh install.
There is enough diskspace and free space. I could even install quit some extra apps if I would like to.

This is the way I install a new rom:

- factory reset
- clear dalvik, system, data
- sometimes I reformat the internal storage (which is best: fat32, EXfat?)
- flash kernel wipe
- install rom, gapps and mostly superuser
- reboot the phone, do the settings
- install all wished apps
- sometimes I do a dalvik wipe and reboot again.

The phone is now nice smooth and fast.
The strange thing is, after these steps, I do not install anymore apps or widgets anymore. But still, after about a week, the smoothness is over and all that left is a lot of lag......

Does anybody know what causes this and how this can be solved?

Is it possible, that the flasdrive has become corrupted or bad, after this three years and if yes, can this be tested?
Any ideas would be great!

Best Regards,
Branko

[Q] Is there another unlock method? topic

I have been trying to unlock my bootloader on my developer edition moto x for a few days now with no success. After several calls and online chats with Motorola customer support my device is still not eligible for unlock. I just got the device so I was wondering if there was some other method to unlock my bootlader that wouldn't require a code from motorola.

[Q] (Q) Doubt about changing rom to another. topic

Hello users,

Currently I am running CM12 with Lollipop 5.0.2 in my S3.
Can someone please explain how I can change my current ROM (CM12 with Lollipop 5.0.2) and install CyanogenMod 11 with KitKat 4.4.4 ?

Please, step by step, very thanks, regards.