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My findings and fixes on the Desire HD ROM by IncredibleDoes with fixes maintained as they're collected from the community to help those with issues as well as provide those with information whom might be interested and are "on the fence".
After having run v0.2.1 but unable to get MMS working I decided to wait. While v0.3.0 or v0.3.1 does not fix MMS, there is a procedure that does fix the issue (listed below). I did not have my sdcard formated with an A2SD sd-ext partition and was awaiting IncredibleDroid's completion of v0.3.1 which does not require an sd-ext partition. However, after it was completed, many reported that they had no signal and a few other major issues. I had already backed up my sdcard and created an sd-ext partition but was hoping I could use the non-sd-ext v0.3.1 but with the issues posted regarding the v0.3.1 build, I decided to stick with the original v0.3.1 build that required the sd-ext partitioned sdcard and suggest you do too at this point.
First let me start with a big thanks to IncredibleDoes and a link to his main thread for you to get the latest updates and other information: IncDoes Sense "Desire HD"
Remember, a FULL wipe of data & cache is required.
So if you've skipped this process...start over rather than post any issues you may have.
Device Setup
My device info:
HBOOT v0.92
Radio 2.15.00.07.28
First, some have asked if having their sdcard formatted FAT32 was sd-ext - the answer is no.
Second, if you get the following error message:
Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 (file exists) 3 times, then
Can't mount SDEXT:
Failure at line 12:
copy_dir PACKAGE:ext SDEXT:
Installation aborted
Then you need to create an sd-ext partition.
Creating a sd-ext partition:
I tried to use the SD Partition option in ROM Manager but it did not work. It was suggested by ID to use Amon_RA's recovery image which was actually a very simple process.
NOTE: Unlike many downloads, you will actually need to read & follow the instructions properly. This is an actual .zip archive that you will need to extract the PB31IMG.ZIP image and place on the root of your sdcard, not simply rename it.
Once you boot into the Amon_RA recovery you should create a 512MB sd-ext partition and a 32MB swap file. You will need to select the SD:ext2 to ext3 option, then SD:ext3 to ext4 option to create the properly formatted sd-ext partition.
There is a link posted to an Android and Me article that shows how to do it via a command line but that's by far taking a more difficult approach.
The Amon_RA recovery is quite nice but if you have neen using the ClockworkMod recovery and want to flash back to the ClockworkMod recovery, the PB31IMG.ZIP ClockworkMod image can be found here "http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/forever" near the very bottom.
My Review
Three second boot:
I find this has been highly over rated. Since the phone is not completely shut down, it is not actually booting up. A restart or battery pull will provide you with the same boot speed that you are used to seeing.
Since the Shutdown option does not actually shut the phone down, people are complaining about having to do battery pulls to get back into HBOOT. While ROM Manager will reboot into Recovery, HBOOT is a different story. The way I have found to do this is to long press on the power button and select Restart. Once the lighted buttons below your screen goes out, press and hold the volume down button to boot into HBOOT.
MMS fix:
Use the provided files by es0tericcha0s but after installing APN Backup & Restore you need to delete the APN settings from the ROM before you restore the provided backup .xml file. This will fix the MMS issue in v0.3.0 (and possibly other build versions if broken).
Credit to es0tericcha0s for the post & files and to pd240 whom pointed out that the APN settings needed to be deleted before you restore the .xml file. Thanks!
Battery life:
In originally writing this yesterday (before the digital gremlins hit XDA), I had made a 1.5hr phone call using BT, downloaded just under 500MB of data over Wi-Fi for the Locations app (more info on that below), sent/received about 30 SMS messages, received about a half dozen e-mails, browsed the Web for awhile, watched a couple YouTube videos, streamed music over Y! Music & Slacker to test (but not for very long) and had GPS on for a bit. While I've seen several people complain of battery use, I did not see poor battery issues and was quite surprised since the 500MB download itself took well over an hour.
Call screen & Phone:
While broken in v0.2.1, as stated in the ROM's OP, these work 100% as expected in v0.3.0. Tone sounds for voicemail etc. work properly...all issues in this area are fixed. I believe that I read there were some issues with v0.3.1 however but I am not sure as I don't recommend that version anyway.
Camera & Camcorder:
Still broken as ID's OP states however it is different in v0.3.0 than it was in v0.2.1. In v0.2.1 the app would launch then quit back to Sense. In v0.3.0 it launches to a black screen and does not quit back to Sense and the back button does nothing. After pressing the Home button I used Astro's Tools to kill the Camera process and have since not futzed with the camera.
Chrome to Phone:
With many ROM's I have had trouble getting this to work and this was no exception. I figured out last nigh that even though I had played the Disconnect, uninstall, reinstall C2P game over & over without any success as well as logging out and back in with the extension in Chrome (Mac version) I had finally found the issue. Once I uninstalled the Chrome C2P extension, restarted Chrome and reinstalled the C2P extension and logged back in via Chrome, my phone was flooded with link notifications! All along I thought it was a device issue.
Date format:
I've seen people asking if the Calendar app states the actual day in the Agenda & Day views rather than just the date. The answer reported was no. This is not entirely correct. The date format set in the System Settings is a global setting. Whatever you choose is used for the lock screen, notification bar, clock widget as well as the Calendar app. Kind of odd but there you go!
Notifications:
With all of the ROM's I've run, none (even the 2.2 OTA) provided proper SMS, FeedR etc. "unread" counts. This new version of Sense does which is nice.
Also, for those not aware, recen apps are now listed along the top of the notifications panel in a sliding ribbon once dropped down. Could be useful if you remember that they're there.
Connected Media:
This is a cool central hub for the media (music, photos & videos) on you device as well as that which is "connected" to your device (e.g., via your Wi-Fi connection). In v0.2.1 this worked very well and was the only media app I used since it launches the required Gallery, Music & Video's apps as needed. Something cool I noticed is that it saw my DirecTV HD receiver. Now, there was nothing it was able to play on it but it makes me wonder if one had Hulu or Netflix setup through an Xbox 360 or Windows box, could it possibly stream that content? I don't have any of that setup to test but kind of looks promising.
UPDATE 9/26
via dgourd
Just to help clarify:
This is a DLNA addition to the phone, so it can basically communicate with any other DLNA device. I can confirm that it works since I have a Windows Home Server in my house which supports DLNA. My Incredible can find all my music and videos. It will only display files it supports though. For example, it can play all my mp3 songs and mp4 videos, put my mkv videos are unplayable since it is not natively supported.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, there are some things that work differently in v0.3.0 with the Connected Media app. The photos aren't able to view full screen without first looking at a photo that was in a linked Facebook album. Once a photo was looked at in a Facebook album, photos on my device would display when the thumbnail was tapped. However, quitting the app would force you to go through the same steps again (this applied to videos too).
In addition, if there wasn't an sdcard installed, the app cannot see any media even if it's stored within the device itself. I do not know if this applies to the individual apps themselves (too lazy to bother at this point).
HTC Hub:
This is a cool idea from HTC that with an HTCSense.com account allows you to preview and download many items for your device. Everything from Skins (themes), Widgets, single Sounds and even full Sound Sets that you can listen to before you bother to download them. Pretty nice.
HTC Likes:
Access to apps that other HTCSense.com users can comment as well as "Like" (think of Facebook's "Like" button). There are recommended apps as well and this should rally take off once HTCSense.com launches!
Locations:
While I have no use for it, people were asking about this app so I gave it a shot. As I launched the app it wanted to download maps before it would work. The maps it wanted were just under 500MB (as stated above). After downloading the maps, there were several categories displayed as one would expect (gas stations, restaurants etc.) but selecting these provided a "no locations found" message then prompted to tell me that I needed to download updated maps (WTF?). The maps for the Western U.S. were over 800MB and I did not bother so I cannot go any further with how this app works...sorry.
Market:
I think it was a CM6 ROM I had installed that asked if I wanted Google to keep track of my data & settings that I answered yes to. This new ROM does the same and something nice was that after installing the ROM, all of my apps were automatically downloaded for me. Very nice! Now, since I had installed v0.2.1, I had already setup my System Settings, these too were restored during the v0.3.0 ROM install (but not any app settings).
The Verizon tab is replaced with a "Downloads" tab and many Verizon apps are not available for download (NFL couldn't be found, nor Skype, My Verizon etc.). Kind of a bummer for some.
Quick Lookup:
This is a cool app that will lookup what you've typed in the search box. Sure, sounds boring but, you select from where it searches from the ribbon at the bottom. Your choices are: Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, Translate and Google Dictionary.
Quadrant:
For those interested in Quadrant scores...first run 1108 second run 1168.
Streaming Audio:
As mentioned above, both Y! Music and Slacker streamed just fine through the external speaker. I was told that Slacker sounded tinny using headsets but I did not confirm this.
Web Browser:
Looks a bit more polished. Using Wi-Fi YouTube videos played smoothly (unlike the YouTube app below). There's a new checkbox setting for animated .gif files which is unchecked (off) by default. I did notice in the 2.2 OTA that animated .gif's do play now, I guess this simply lets you choose to turn them on or off for speed. If you pinch the window down, it gets displayed just as though you selected Windows from the Menu button which is handy if you're in the habit of using multiple windows (which I'm not).
YouTube:
The YouTube app is broken in so far as you cannot log into your account. When you try, after selecting your account from the popup, the app just sits there and you're unable to do anything without hitting the back button. I tried this both over 3G and Wi-Fi with the same results. Also, when choosing an HQ video from my YouTube Favorites from the main site it was very choppy & not worth watching (unlike in the browser above but that was at 360 not HD). None the less, the Gymkhana THREE Part 2 video that's at the top of the YouTube app currently plays just fine in HD so other than the inability to login, I'm confused why some HD plays and others do not (but do on the 2.2 OTA).
Well, there you have it. After a second write-up (now over 8 hours of time spent) I hope this is of some use to the community. Since it was suggested I create a thread for this so that the information did not get lost in the main ROM thread I think it will be useful. If there's something other than trying different kernels or over-clocking that you would like me to try & add, please let me know. I will keep this updated as best as possible.
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Useful Links
[ROM] IncDoes Sense "Desire HD"
ROM Thread
IncredibleDoes Twitter account
http://twitter.com/IncredibleDoes
Tested Kernels
KiNgxKernel [2.6.32.15] [HAVS] [BATTFIX] [BFS] [OC] [UV] #5
Hydra Kernels - Stock Undervolted used by ID but that doesn't meant you can't run an overclocked kernel
Skins
via touchpro247
Donate to IncredibleDoes
i had a weird issue, one specific to this rom, and it ended up being the deal breaker for me
i have a california phone number, but recently moved to the midwest. on EVERY other rom ive used, across two different phones, this hasnt caused an issue, my messages and clls all read the right time. however on this one, my recieved texts messages were reading as california time. since the messaging app uses conversation style messaging, i would have to scroll up through two hours of my texts to find a text that i just recieved.
it was insanely annoying. that coupled with the camera killed it for me. i dont use the camera much, but the two in conjunction were just too much.
i tried pushing the old htc messaging app and using that, but no cigar.
the verizon tab issue can be fixed easily with some build.prop mods btw. im not familiar enough with the INC yet to give you the changes off the top of my head, but with the eris, the issue was solved by editing the ro.product.name and ro.product.device i believe
Just need camera to work and it will be perfect! Already is the best Rom for me
Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk
Thank you all for helping!!
ID
es0tericcha0s said:
i had a weird issue, one specific to this rom, and it ended up being the deal breaker for me
i have a california phone number, but recently moved to the midwest. on EVERY other rom ive used, across two different phones, this hasnt caused an issue, my messages and clls all read the right time. however on this one, my recieved texts messages were reading as california time. since the messaging app uses conversation style messaging, i would have to scroll up through two hours of my texts to find a text that i just recieved.
it was insanely annoying. that coupled with the camera killed it for me. i dont use the camera much, but the two in conjunction were just too much.
i tried pushing the old htc messaging app and using that, but no cigar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if doing a *228 option 2 would help by setting the proper local tower info for your phone? Have you tried this? I know ID said this was a GSM ROM which confuses me that it works at all (at least from my BB days) but I guess it's quite an apples & oranges comparison for Android OS to BB OS.
X
xwera43 said:
I wonder if doing a *228 option 2 would help by setting the proper local tower info for your phone? Have you tried this? I know ID said this was a GSM ROM which confuses me that it works at all (at least from my BB days) but I guess it's quite an apples & oranges comparison for Android OS to BB OS.
X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i didnt even think to try that, it may work. ill have to give it a shot later. thanks
I just wanted to say thank you for writing this review. It is a process to go create a EXT4 partition on an SDCard so I have been hesitant. This is well written and I really hope you take it upon yourself to write more reviews about new roms in the future. I think I might have to check out the next version of this Desire HD rom when he releases it. I can't wait for this to officially show up on our Incredibles in the future and get optimized to our liking by some of these guys.
Locations:
While I have no use for it, people were asking about this app so I gave it a shot. As I launched the app it wanted to download maps before it would work. The maps it wanted were just under 500MB (as stated above). After downloading the maps, there were several categories displayed as one would expect (gas stations, restaurants etc.) but selecting these provided a "no locations found" message then prompted to tell me that I needed to download updated maps (WTF?). The maps for the Western U.S. were over 800MB and I did not bother so I cannot go any further with how this app works...sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a hypothesis...I'm downloading a premium navigation map update right now.
es0tericcha0s said:
i didnt even think to try that, it may work. ill have to give it a shot later. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It kind of makes sense to me...Sure hope it works!
X
tdavis42 said:
I just wanted to say thank you for writing this review. It is a process to go create a EXT4 partition on an SDCard so I have been hesitant. This is well written and I really hope you take it upon yourself to write more reviews about new roms in the future. I think I might have to check out the next version of this Desire HD rom when he releases it. I can't wait for this to officially show up on our Incredibles in the future and get optimized to our liking by some of these guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
The partitioning after reading the command line process was a no go for me. While I would have no trouble doing it, it was just too much work. The fact that ROM Manager was failing was a bummer too but the steps I took were very simple. Being that I had 10GB on my 32GB sdcard was the most time consuming portion (about 20 minutes to back it up from an adapter & an hour to re-write the data). Partitioning was/is pretty easy.
Also, now that the ROM is in ROM Manager, that should be helpful too (even though it's a tad under 200MB).
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douger1957 said:
I have a hypothesis...I'm downloading a premium navigation map update right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't taken to a premium option, just a simple menu selection of map locations (World wide). Being basically homebound, an additional 800MB+ was just kind of silly.
X
Great write-up. ID has done a very nice job porting this rom.
Thanks!
Shutting down is fixed now!!
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"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I know this is a review about the Rom itself, but what about including reviews of optional kernels that work the best. Such as Kings #5 or Hydra etc
xwera43 said:
I wasn't taken to a premium option, just a simple menu selection of map locations (World wide). Being basically homebound, an additional 800MB+ was just kind of silly.
X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not obvious how to do it. I asked about it in the other Desire HD thread.
Cached maps!
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
littleguevara said:
I know this is a review about the Rom itself, but what about including reviews of optional kernels that work the best. Such as Kings #5 or Hydra etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm planning on adding those to the second post. Links based on user input whom have tried kernels. If you have some input on kernels you've used, please post it and I'll update the second post with link info.
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IncredibleDoes said:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice ID!
X
I'm facing a rather strange problem across both Jelly Blast and Ace Cream. All the apps I use seem to work fine except "Google Currents".
Currents opens normally and shows articles but the formatting is unreadable. On the stock ROM and on other devices, currents formats the RSS content into multiple pages which you can swipe through. But on the custom ROM, currents formats each article in a "shrink to fit" mode on a single page. Hence, the text becomes so small that its unreadable. Unfortunately currents doesnt have a pinch to zoom feature and hence the app becomes unusable.
I have no idea why this happens except to guess that it may have something to with how the default font is used. Anyone with similar issues / possible solutions?
arun_d said:
I'm facing a rather strange problem across both Jelly Blast and Ace Cream. All the apps I use seem to work fine except "Google Currents".
Currents opens normally and shows articles but the formatting is unreadable. On the stock ROM and on other devices, currents formats the RSS content into multiple pages which you can swipe through. But on the custom ROM, currents formats each article in a "shrink to fit" mode on a single page. Hence, the text becomes so small that its unreadable. Unfortunately currents doesnt have a pinch to zoom feature and hence the app becomes unusable.
I have no idea why this happens except to guess that it may have something to with how the default font is used. Anyone with similar issues / possible solutions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
view 12th post
magmini said:
view 12th post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried counting but I'm unable to get to the thread you refer to....could you link it here or just tell me the thread title so I can find it...I've tried searching for keywords like fonts/currents etc. but to no avail.
Has anyone else this problem, where only part of an image is shown because it's loaded in full resolution? For me it's happening in Tumblr, several twitter clients, and Facebook in Chrome.
Sent from my Nexus 6
Happens
Happens to me sometimes in Chrome. I think it's something that only occurs when the pic is set like a pop up or new tab image. It does not happen everywhere which leads me to believe its an html glitch on the page that is outdated and needs revision. Have you asked other's at the site you are visiting if they are seeing this as well on their mobile? device?
happens to me on the mobile facebook page (i refuse to install facebooks crappy app that no longer lets me sort by most recent as a default). if i reload the page, it works fine, but it's a little annoyance.
app+facebook manager
Lucke said:
happens to me on the mobile facebook page (i refuse to install facebooks crappy app that no longer lets me sort by most recent as a default). if i reload the page, it works fine, but it's a little annoyance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facebook's page manager along with their app should let you have that functionality. Try it.
still means i'm supporting their horrible business model.
Edit: Sorry, I had to remove this app when it was brought to my attention recently and I found it was NOT the appI had thought it was :-( It does NOT display properly on the NST/G. Still looking for the one I remember and if I find it I will update this post.
I stumbled across a brief reference to this app buried in another thread from long ago and thought I'd bring it back into the light. Market apps for crossword puzzles seldom work well on the NST, many of them having issues with partially disappearing keyboards.
The app attached below is actually from the Nook Color! It installs and runs just fine on the NST (probably NSTG as well). It has a nice, clean UI--with a custom keyboard that doesn't disappear. Puzzles can be selected by difficulty level.
The drawback: there seems to be no way to get more puzzles. But for casual use, it's great--and the price is right
This app appears to work on the Glowlight Plus also. However, it seems to be pixel mapped, so it appears very small on the higher resolution screen.
are there any services that generate hints?
Great idea! I will gladly support any effort to port/fork/customize/make such app better.
On my Glow3...
Renate said:
On my Glow3...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've actually learned a few things since my original post (shocking!). Just a cursory inspection of the apk file reveals the stored puzzles in res/raw. There appear to be 100 of them and they are actually in a known format (.puz)!
I've not tried adding anything yet (it's probably not that simple), but here is a site with lots of information about obtaining .puz files for use in Across Lite (a puzzle creating and solving platform): https://communicrossings.com/crosswords-sources-web-sites
Maybe I'll pursue this. I do actually have a very old Crossword app that works well across all my devices and can download new puzzles daily from a variety of sources. I don't even recall where I got it but it has clearly been "modified" in some fashion by someone. Most features work on the NST except for updating the list of puzzle sources. For some reason this fails on the NST although it works on other devices. Probably an SSL issue. But as there are quite a few sources in the "old" list, it's fine for the NST where I don't generally spend a lot of time doing puzzles. But it's there when I need a break from reading or just idle entertainment waiting in a doctor's office, etc.
Edit: I lied. There are actually 189 puzzles (easy, medium, hard, themeless).
nmyshkin said:
I've actually learned a few things since my original post (shocking!). Just a cursory inspection of the apk file reveals the stored puzzles in res/raw. There appear to be 100 of them and they are actually in a known format (.puz)!
I've not tried adding anything yet (it's probably not that simple), but here is a site with lots of information about obtaining .puz files for use in Across Lite (a puzzle creating and solving platform): https://communicrossings.com/crosswords-sources-web-sites
Maybe I'll pursue this. I do actually have a very old Crossword app that works well across all my devices and can download new puzzles daily from a variety of sources. I don't even recall where I got it but it has clearly been "modified" in some fashion by someone. Most features work on the NST except for updating the list of puzzle sources. For some reason this fails on the NST although it works on other devices. Probably an SSL issue. But as there are quite a few sources in the "old" list, it's fine for the NST where I don't generally spend a lot of time doing puzzles. But it's there when I need a break from reading or just idle entertainment waiting in a doctor's office, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the crossword app that works across all of your devices same as the one attached to the first post of this thread? You have my support in doing this man. We think similar in approaching the problem. I would also have started from the file type and then go further. I need to look up that platform and attached link. Say if you need any help with this. I need to check crosswords in my language and is there any available site to download them. It might be futile effort for NST without keyboard change. As for SSL problem it starts to be such pain in the a$$ that someone is going to lose patience and find the way to solve it by programming or find the way to obfuscate it through NST as dashboard and any newer phone as server for example. That was also one of the approaches I proposed for missing GPS. Now I rarely need GPS on NST however making it better in terms of book and newspaper device I am all for it.
SJT75 said:
Is the crossword app that works across all of your devices same as the one attached to the first post of this thread?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, that app of questionable origin is different.
SJT75 said:
You have my support in doing this man. We think similar in approaching the problem. I would also have started from the file type and then go further. I need to look up that platform and attached link. Say if you need any help with this. I need to check crosswords in my language and is there any available site to download them. It might be futile effort for NST without keyboard change. As for SSL problem it starts to be such pain in the a$$ that someone is going to lose patience and find the way to solve it by programming or find the way to obfuscate it through NST as dashboard and any newer phone as server for example. That was also one of the approaches I proposed for missing GPS. Now I rarely need GPS on NST however making it better in terms of book and newspaper device I am all for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started to look at this and got a couple of surprises. First, on initialization the app creates one binary file in the data folder. That's all. So any puzzle substitution/updating would have to be done by taking the app apart and then putting it back together with apktool. Not very convenient, but I suppose if you did a good number of puzzles at once it might be worthwhile.
However the real surprise was looking at the app running. It's nothing like I remember! So I'm not sure what I'm looking at now. Maybe I've got yet another crossword app among my files. Better download from the earlier post and see... Although the package does say com.encore.crossword. But the short of it is that the app I was looking at is a no-go on the NST. The puzzles are half-hidden behind the keyboard and no amount of persuasion in either word or gesture (rude or not) will convince the puzzle to scroll up.
Edit: nope, it's the same app I posted earlier in this thread so long ago. It seems impossible but there it is. I wouldn't have posted it if I had seen how it was bolluxed up on the NST. I have no explanation.
Huh. Your 15 x 15 looks better than mine.
I did a once over trying to fix the app.
I chopped down the keyboard a bunch.
Still, the whole layout is a mess.
Renate said:
Huh. Your 15 x 15 looks better than mine.
I did a once over trying to fix the app.
I chopped down the keyboard a bunch.
Still, the whole layout is a mess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I did a little fiddling but could not convince it to show the entire grid as accessible along with the keyboard. It really must be coded just for the Nook Color/Tablet display.
I am baffled as to its appearance. I am getting older, but its nothing at all like I remember. I never would have posted if it had looked that way when I first tried it. But its definitely an app from the Nook Color, that much is evident from the package name. Just a mystery.
From little bit I have read about this ancient version of Android what nmyshkin reported about behavior of the application led me to believe that is developed as NDK app. I believe it is easier to make new app starting from scratch if you gathered enough knowledge about that crosswords file type and if download sources are not behind paywall. I would start with calculating size of standard on screen keyboard and then put rest of the screen for use by the crossword. It might be little small that way although but if field input is letter sized from some regular NST font I believe it can be squeezed. Other option might be that you do not make keyboard input at all but select input square and then use gesture in input field resembling writing. You would also need erase button. Then you would have more space for crossword but had to program input interface for the app. IIRC Opera does support gestures so maybe you could get the idea how to make that interface there.
Since the thread contain nonworking app can we consider it as place for discussion about either rigging that one or finding or developing new one for NST?
You already mentioned modified keyboard so I guess changing crossword layout is not out of question too. I didn't check .puz file type so obviously I have no idea about it but I did skim little through the site nmyshkin posted here. There are also other options there so it might be good to consider them also. Firstly using browser with JS woodoo. I do not know much about that but I have gained an impression you have previously make some good stuff using similar approach. Second option is using .PDF file type for puzzles. It might work considering that NST have some limited PDF reflow ability. Maybe that can allow us to adjust crossword layout? Problem is that it seems like it is slightly abandoned file format for puzzles although it was possible to have even interactive ones in that format. Can"t say what the term interactive means. Hint, letter reveals or something else. If it means connection to a server on net that will most likely be to big bite for old NST in the future.
Just a stray thought inside puzzle letters shown are real letter font used on NST or pictures generated in app?
Looked little about crossword file format. It seems that .puz is albeit old and easier to view/change using tools as simple as Notepad somehow proprietary. On the other hand it is claimed that .jpz is more versatile but even if it is so it seems to be some hybrid between Java and XML.There is also third format .ipuz that is completely free but as I understand it is originally for Mac which I do not have. Now if I delve into this what is the opinion of others? Consider it as a poll. 1, 2 or 3?
The New York Times apparently uses .puz
I'd give that some weight.
NYT links to this download: https://www.litsoft.com/across/alite/download/index.html
That file format seems to be (mostly) documented here: https://code.google.com/archive/p/puz/wikis/FileFormat.wiki
It could be edited by hand but there are binary parts and checksums.
Edit: Well, I take that all back. NYT (just yesterday!) stated that they are dropping .puz format.
NYT Games No Longer Available on Across Lite as of Aug. 10 (Published 2021)
Starting next week, we will no longer provide downloadable .puz files.
www.nytimes.com
I understand that up until now adoption by influential publisher (which regularly paid to owner of file format for software and rights to use) kept .puz in game. Format is simple and already have been reverse engineered by others which irked rights owner to the point of threatening with lawsuits left and right. They should have invested more in development of format and software instead. Second format .jpz is supposedly better but had so far lagged in adoption on the market.
Ha, ha!
Cross words over New York Times puzzle change
The US-based publication is cutting third party support for its popular crossword puzzles.
www.bbc.com
Well I can anticipate two things. First its a good time to start torrent search for old crosswords files archives. Second is that I believe we can find alternative sources on the link nmyshkin posted earlier. Still that doesn't resolve dilemma which file type is a way to go. Based on previous statement Rennate made on other topic I presume she would like .ipuz as open and free standard.
Just a link to share. If someone need old crosswords it appears someone already had made a database. link
5-31-21 I've ceased development on this app because I think there is a better alternative. See post #7.
*updated to version 1.3, adding error trap for discontinued or blank feeds*
It's been awhile since the demise of the last working version of Genie Widget (aka Google News and Weather) but not so long since the big G retooled news.google.com so that our browsers can no longer deal with it and also put the kibosh on the Google News RSS feeds. Sigh.
I have a work-around
Google News 1.3 for the NST/G exploits the "alerts" that Google offers on news topics. These alerts can be optioned in the form of RSS feeds. My app downloads the HTML source for the feed, picks out all the good stuff and trashes all the rest, then builds up a local HTML document which is easily displayed by our browsers (I highly recommend Opera Mobile for ease of scrolling and general all-around function). You can build up your own topics, change your mind, mix them about, read that one more story you didn't get to the first time around, etc. I'm not saying that your browser will negotiate every target link. Some newspaper sites have just become too much. That was true even when Genie Widget was still working. But updating Opera Mobile for TLS 1.2 solves much of that. See this post for details.. The beauty of this app is in the simplicity. It's entirely browser-based once the feeds are downloaded, so you're not going back and forth between the app and your browser (like the current Google News app.......). Designed for both portrait and landscape.
Requirements
1. Android 2.1 has a security issue with opening local HTML files. In order for Google News to work properly you need to address that. Included in the zip below is a tiny app, android-open-in-browser-0.0.4-4-debug. Install that. It's not my app but I have used it for years and wish I could credit the originator.
2. This is a Tasker-generated app. If you already have one of my other Tasker-generated apps or have previously installed GApps, you don't need the two Google maps library files included in the zip and can delete them. If you do need them, copy the two files into the locations shown below:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the app will not install.
3. Create a folder in the root directory of your sdcard: Google News (exactly as shown)
4. Install the app itself, Google News.1.apk
How to use
Before you run the app you need to select some news categories, set up the feeds, get the URLs, blah-blah-blah. All of this is covered in the PDF included with the zip. It may seem a little annoying at the start, but it goes quickly once you get started and it's not like you have to do it every time you use the app. You're just setting up your news topics, just as if you were using the current Google News (either the app or the web version). Once you have your topics and URLs and have edited the included text file google_rss_feeds.txt, copy that into the Google News folder of your sdcard.
Note: recently (June 2019) the big G has not been very consistent with the RSS feeds. Some days they are "empty" but come back the next day with lots of stories. Some feed topics simply "die" and a minor change in the topic will resurrect them (change "World" to "World news", as an example). Version 1.3 includes a trap for these eventualities so that the app should not crash, even if your first feed comes up empty. To inspect/edit your feeds, point your browser (on your PC) to your Google Alerts page. If you are signed in this will be found among the options on the Google home page, in the upper right corner where the "apps" grid is shown.
Now you're good to go. Start the app, make sure you're connected to WiFi. There are only three buttons on the app screen. The first one, "Fetch the news" does just that. You will see a little toast that the first news category is being prepared. Once that is done, you will be taken to the browser and that page will open. Meanwhile the remaining pages are being downloaded and reconstructed in the background.
The news page is very simple. I tried to aim for readability over all other considerations (this is the reason the news items are in bold black, even though they are the external links). I have my Opera Mobile set to 100% page zoom. It looks good to me, but you could probably get away with 75%. External websites are another matter. At the title bar left is a drop-down menu button that gives you access to your other news topics. Since no fixed navbar schemes work under Android 2.1, there is a duplicate drop-up menu bar at the end of the page. The use of NoRefresh, or to a lesser extent FastMode, is a plus.
Edit: you cannot use this app with Opera Mini. It lacks the ability to open local HTML files.
The second option on the opening screen, "Read old news" sounds a bit daft, but I just thought maybe someone might have been looking at the topic pages, saw something that interested them and then got interrupted. So this option opens the first local file in the browser again and you can navigate from there. Strictly speaking, WiFi is not needed to browse the local files once they have been created, but it is needed to pursue any stories.
The third option simply dismisses the app screen.
Whew! So this is new...and I think I exterminated all the bugs, but I did not try other browsers. I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate feedback.
Google alert change? No option for RSS alerts anymore...
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm away from home right now but my copy of the app is working so the RSS feeds must still exist. I'll have to sit down with my instructions in front of the computer and see what mischief they've done. Thanks for letting me know.
v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I've run through the instructions sitting at my PC. Everything is correct although Firefox no longer wants to open the RSS feed page as anything other than an xml "text" file. That just means the image on page 4 needs updating.
As far as page 3, everything is currently exactly as shown. Just to be sure, you have to be signed in to Google on your browser before you do any of this. Then when you get to the screen depicted on page 3 you need to change the "Deliver to" option to RSS feed. But even before that, it's important not to get sucked into the email alert business back on page 2. Do NOT click on "Create Alert" there, only on "Show options". That's how you get to the screen I show on page 3.
When you finally get to click on the little RSS symbol shown on the lower half of page 3, you (at least on Firefox) may end up at a page of xml code, or perhaps your browser may show a news feed page. Regardless, the URL shown for the page is the same and it's what you need to copy, just as described on page 4.
Let me know if you are still having issues with this.
v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So a few days after I wrote my last post, the app stopped working for me. It just hangs on "Preparing......News"
Google has apparently changed the format of their RSS xml file. Right in the middle of something else at the moment, but I will get it fixed.
Nope, nix that. After fooling around with the app and an xml file from the Big G, I find nothing out of place and it seems the app is now working again
They're just messing with us.
Edit: Indeed they are. Today I caught another malfunction but this time looked at the Tasker routines for an error. Google is sending out (at least today) RSS feeds with empty content fields. That messes up my app. So I wrote an error trap for that. Updated in first post. Have to watch the big G like a hawk....
v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whilst looking around for a solution to a different issue, I came across this: https://medium.com/@cassandragraft/...tion-not-appearing-heres-the-fix-bf842ca32b88
It appears to address the issue you describe. I never encountered the issue, but obviously some people have.
The Big G is making me very angry lately. Even version 1.2 with a new error trap is crashing. I'm finding that some of my feeds are "empty". The skeleton of the RSS file is there but there is no content populating the file. A category as ordinary as "world" is simply blank. This is new and very annoying. Just a change of topic to "world news" brings up a list of stories longer than your arm. I encountered this before with "science" and fixed it with a slight change in name, so I should have seen this coming. It's a nasty game Google seems to be playing....
Anyway, if the app crashes on the first topic it leaves an overlay artifact behind when you exit. To remove this, go to the App Manager and force stop the app. I will work on a fix which will alert you to the effect that the feed appears dead but allow the app to complete the download of whatever is still working and exit properly.
Grr....
Edit: App updated to v1.3 in first post. I hope that solves the problems. For now.
As I mentioned in my edit of the first post, I think my app is exhibiting creakiness already owing to Opera Mobile's increasing difficulty negotiating many websites.
I have an alternative to suggest, however, that is totally browser based. It seems to work "OK" with Opera Mobile although text display is a bit small with a default zoom of 100%. In Opera Mini, however, it shines, especially with NoRefresh.
Thanks to XDA member @SJT75 , I found out about a list of text-only news sites. One of them is a text version of Google News! The list is at: https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/
While the Google News option does not allow for custom categories (hey, there's an app for that!), it does cover all the usual suspects. Even better, all of the links lead to text-only versions of the sources. Occasionally you go to a page and find it could not be fetched by whatever mechanism the author is using, but pages (even those error ones) include a link to the original source
Also notable on the list are the NPR and CNN sites. Both work well.