Database Develop

Occasional Lag

Has anyone else had an occasional scrolling lag in situations? It's happened to be on the Program List where the Program icons don't load immediately. Also, most noticeably in apps such as Beezz the scrolling is laggy... Is it just me, or are others experiencing the same...?

Early bump as I'm trying to decide whether a Hard Reset is in order, maybe I installed something that didn't fare too well. Thanks guys.

80% (if not more) of the 3rd apps are NOT optimized (or rushed diplomatically saying) for Windows Phone 7 OS. HTC Hub for example wasn't as fast as the new update for it.
I can make a slight lag (more of a chopping than lag) ONLY IF I visit WPCentral page which chops on my browser than after 4-5 minutes it disappears. So I am pretty sure it's not optimised well rather than a lag because let's face it , the hardware is there and the OS is damn fast.

Have you also experienced start menu icons taking their sweet times to show up?

I've seen some choppiness on 3rd party apps. Agreed that it is a developer issue as they learn how to make apps for wp7. beezz is better than it was, but for best results, m.twitter.com is your best option.

FiyaFleye said:
Have you also experienced start menu icons taking their sweet times to show up?
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In almost 1 month of use, never I have. To continue my initial post, that is one of the reason why I haven't installed many 3rd apps. Personally I hate having a sleek OS and then enter an app and feel like Android.. In fact besides YouTube and Adobe Reader I have only 4 other apps installed.

Same here. I can repeatedly reproduce the program list icon thing by scrolling to the bottom of the list, then hitting the home key, it'll fly to the top of the list and you'll see "white stars" before it switches to the home screen instead of the icons. Happens in random situations too, this is just a consistent occurrence..

I'd like to point out that as a developer, the choppy scrolling is a platform issue with the way Microsoft have design listbox scrolling - Silverlight defaults to virtualising the list box and recycling the listbox items - and this works fine of the PC where there is enough processing power to recycle and virtualise whilst you scroll. However, with Windows Phone 7's limited processing power, and Microsoft's very unoptimised seeming implementation, listboxes can't virtualise data fast enough. Ergo, voodoo is needed to get it working to scroll smoothly You could turn off virtualisation, but then that greatly increases RAM usage, which in Silverlight is already and lot, and then you get comparatively long load & draw & render times, and blargh. There's no one good way to do it yet for long lists - not until Microsoft go and optimise the Silverlight platform better.
I'm assuming the program list icon thing is to save RAM - you can also get it with the Home screen tiles if you have a lot of tiles on it - and saving RAM is something Windows Phone is going to like to do, seeing as the apps and the Silverlight platform use up so much RAM

i had my hd7 for almost a month now and experienced lag on it. there was also an instance that icons of the apps i installed via market place took a few seconds to load up. theres also this occasional slow response time of the unlock screen. i still have 9gb of space though

[Q] What should I know before buying a Nook Color?

Is there anything I should know about how a rooted Nook Color acts compared to something that's meant to be a tablet (e.g. the Galaxy Tab) that could influence whether I want one? For example,
This thread has workarounds for a bunch of quirks and problems with the NC. Is it common to need to workaround these and other B&N ROM issues?
I've seem mention of 'porting' apps to the Nook Color. Does this mean I have to do more work to get apps from the market than just hitting 'install'? Do some apps not work on the Nook Color?
It looks like B&N pushes over-the-air software updates to the NC that return it to a stock ROM. Is this easy to prevent? When they push their Q1 update, will it (probably) be easy to apply the update and then get all of my data/settings back, or are updates a pain that I have to put off applying until I have time to reconfigure everything?
Is there anything else I should know?

Well I am not hijacking this forum I just ordered a Nook Color I would cetrainly love to see these questions answered but could I also add a few of my own ?
I am in Europe what kind of usability can I expect from the device, will I be able to register it and what about books.
Also I 've heard there are some touch issues, whats up with that ..? is it true .. any solutions..?
I am following the BT thread and all looks great but what about the USB would we be able at some point to connect ext HDDrives or Webcams ..
Lastly I understand it will only play .mp4 movies anyway around that .......?

I will try to give you a couple answers based on my own experiences, though im no expert when it comes to rooting.
Yes there are some quirks with the NC that you wouldn't have to deal with on a regular android tablet. The biggest one is the lack of hardware buttons. There are several software solutions for this, the most effective and stable of which has been "button savior" which you can get in the market.
Some apps font render correctly because of the screen resolution/dpi of the NC. Some of that can be fixed by using an LCD density changing app or altering the setting manually.
You shouldn't have to port apps to run on the NC, but don't be surprised if some apps don't show up in the market. Most stuff works fine though.
As far as i can tell you wont get BN ota updates unless you're on a BN store wifi network. I've been rooted for weeks and i've never seen the 1.01 update pop up. I figure im waiting for the bigger update before i bother reverting to stock and restoring all my apps.
Ill post more stuff as it comes to mind!
posted from my nook color using the official xda app

There are certainly quirks, such as the hardware buttons issue mentioned above. And some apps don't work now, but I imagine other tablets would have similar issues. as android tablets grow in popularity we can expect more compatible apps

spiffytech said:
Is there anything I should know about how a rooted Nook Color acts compared to something that's meant to be a tablet (e.g. the Galaxy Tab) that could influence whether I want one? For example,
This thread has workarounds for a bunch of quirks and problems with the NC. Is it common to need to workaround these and other B&N ROM issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The B&N ROM does not contain some things that were completely not needed for the device as it was designed, so yes there are workarounds in that thread and on the wiki here: http://nookdevs.com/NookColor_Issues
spiffytech said:
I've seem mention of 'porting' apps to the Nook Color. Does this mean I have to do more work to get apps from the market than just hitting 'install'? Do some apps not work on the Nook Color?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never heard anything of "porting" apps, only reason would be screen resolution of tablets vs phones. Some apps don't behave nicely on the higher res, either they are in the center of the screen, stretched out and ugly, or simply draw really badly. Most fall into the first two categories.
spiffytech said:
It looks like B&N pushes over-the-air software updates to the NC that return it to a stock ROM. Is this easy to prevent? When they push their Q1 update, will it (probably) be easy to apply the update and then get all of my data/settings back, or are updates a pain that I have to put off applying until I have time to reconfigure everything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, your device will query for OTAs and so far nobody has figured out how to safely disable them. Update to 1.0.1 first, then noot it. And when a 1.0.2 or 1.1.0 comes out, expect to do it again. Until someone comes out with a real way to disable the OTAs or a full custom ROM is made.
pavlos46 said:
Also I 've heard there are some touch issues, whats up with that ..? is it true .. any solutions..?
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It generally happens only when plugged in, and almost always unplugging it and turning off the screen and turning it back on the problem goes away. Some folks say it happens more if the screen is dirty, although in my experience with capacitive screens this is not the case.
pavlos46 said:
I am following the BT thread and all looks great but what about the USB would we be able at some point to connect ext HDDrives or Webcams ..
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Click to collapse
Highly unlikely, but there are ways to do USB Host drivers on Android phones, so it's possible in the future.
pavlos46 said:
Lastly I understand it will only play .mp4 movies anyway around that .......?
[/LIST]
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Sure, use something like RockPlayer.

Other things to note...
Games run fairly well on Nook Color. I've been using Dungeon Defenders (framerate not the best), Antigen, Angry Birds, Fuzzies and Nesoid. They all work pretty well except for poor framerates with Dungeon Defenders.
You'll definately need Button Savior. The LCDDensity app is also good to have and tinker with. You'll want to get NookColor Tools on there as well to change keyboards. Root Explorer also.
It runs pretty much any app that I can run on my Droid.
Dolphin-Mini works great on the Nook Color.
There are some issues with buttons at the screen edges, like the Android Marketplace search icon or tab switching in Dolphin. Adjusting LCD Density with the LCDDensity app will cure that problem. Otherwise you will have to figure out how to tap on the edges for it to register. Mine only does this at the top edge and not on the sides or bottom.
Overall, a great device. Clockwork is well on it's way to being finished. And there are now a few folks jumping on the bandwagon to create custom roms.

Rockplayer will play other video types, but wont use hw acceleration and will be choppy. Best to convert to mp4 instead.
In the end i think this tablet is for those who actually enjoy tinkering and tweaking.
Sent from my Nookcolor

Seems like I say this constantly, but in my opinion you do not need Button Savior, Softkeys included in the Auto Nooter script for 1.0.0 or 1.0.1 works great.

markiejones said:
In the end i think this tablet is for those who actually enjoy tinkering and tweaking.
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Exactly. I've enjoyed "fixing" the Nook. But this process could be annoying to many people. Those people would be much happier with an ipad.

khaytsus said:
Seems like I say this constantly, but in my opinion you do not need Button Savior, Softkeys included in the Auto Nooter script for 1.0.0 or 1.0.1 works great.
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I agree. When you set softkeys "just so", it's a near-ideal key replacement. The default setup is what throws people off, with the little arrow-guy getting in the way and some confusion regarding the "n" key.
Mine is invisible except when I single tap the "n" key -a double tap gets me "home". That's perfect, and not at all in the way.

[Q] Confirmation needed about strange scrollbars and scrolling (default browser)

I need confirmation from few Samsung Galaxy S owners that they have experienced following kind of strangeness while using the default browser with Android OS 2.3.3.
- vertical scrollbar has non-rounded ends (rectangular shaped, colored as pure transparent dark grey)
- webpages scroll only for a certain amount of milliseconds; scrolling will end smoothly only if scrolling lasted less than a second, otherwise scrolling just stops.
These issues came up after finally upgrading the Android of a smartphone (GT-I9000, non-rooted) from 2.2.x to 2.3.3. However, I'm recalling that browser worked just fine after the upgrade and mentioned changes appeared in some short time range after that, but these two possibly different events were so close to each other that I'm not quite sure.
These issues seem quite unique and I haven't found any mention about such anywhere. They would also be easily detectable, which make them a bit more strange. There doesn't seem to be any scrollbar-related problems in any other installed application. Also, scrollbars and scrolling seem to work just fine in apps that act as a wrapper for a website, meaning this issue affect only the default browser. I haven't had such issues with earlier version of the Android OS.

I took a liberty to watch some YouTube-videos in purpose of finding some evidence that the issues I mentioned are to be expected and thus kind of normal behavior of the browser.
According to this video (youtube.com / watch?v=lsyGjeKDHeo) showcasing Gingerbread 2.3.2 on a Samsung Galaxy S those scrolling related issues aren't so rare after all as now there's atleast all 2 different cases. Maybe I just have to accept a fact that between Froyo and Gingerbread something changed in the browser. For future reference, there's a video (youtube.com / watch?v=hn6VQdOhaic) that shows those rounded ends of the scrollbars (in Froyo), which I originally ment.
However, I find it quite annoying that I now have to use multiple swipes to scroll from top to bottom (or vice versa) - and only when using the default browser. That is an interface design flaw, atleast.
I'm not sure about what version of Android OS that HTC-looking smartphone (in the first mentioned video) is using, but it has third type of scrollbars and scrolling is smooth.
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(at the moment of writing I didn't have enough post count to add links in their usual form)

Cursor Off in Apps

Hey everyone,
Anyone having issues where the cursor is slightly off from where you actually have to click? I found in a few apps and games that I have to click slightly below where I want to click to actually get it to work. This is especially problematic in games where you have to click slightly away from where you logically would. I can't tell if this is a resolution/scaling thing as I had to do some scaling in Remix OS and scaling with the monitor directly which is connected via VGA.

I think you can solve this by switching app to run in full screen mode. Just go to settings, applications, find your app.

Droid4 ROM Reviews - SlimKat

SlimKat is a V4 (KitKat) ROM by SlimRoms. It's based on AOSP 4.4.4. Its latest release, build 9.0, was Dec-22 2014 with a 3.0.8 kernel.
Its disadvanatges are that it is no longer supported by the Slim dev team; no custom overclock kernels exist for it; no hand-wave for notifications lockscreen feature of the later 5.0+ versions; and there's no support for altpart Safestrap.
But that's where its downsides end and its upsides begin. With nearly any 3rd-party ROM it's a series of tradeoffs. What works and what doesn't, what do you need and what can you do without. Not so with SlimKat. Everything, and I mean everything, just... works. Flawlessly. Even HDMI. This ROM is feature-rich, yet still so lean you can run it with Slim's normal Gapps package on the stock slot. At 180MB, Slim's normal Gapps package is 15MB smaller than the OpenGapps nano package for 7.1.2. I've been running this as a daily driver for over a month and not a single thing has gone wrong with it. No force-closes. No hangs. No jitters. No crashes. No random reboots. This is as close to a stock ROM's stability and performance as anything I've ever used. It's fast and responsive and handles whatever you throw at it. All that and great battery life too - I typically get about 36-44 hours from a full charge.
Support for 4.4.4 is extensive throughout the app community and I have yet to find an app that doesn't work with it. Custom fonts are easily installed with iFont and there are extensive interface and navigation customizations available in the SlimCenter. Cyanogenmod/LineageOS 11 themes are available for it on the Play Store.
The stock SlimLauncher is extensively configurable, and supports gestures, desktop folders, grid size configuration, icon size configuration, hidden apps, hidden icon labels and much more. I prefer a horizontally paged interface for my app drawer, and this one works exactly as this should work, where you swipe left or right and each page of app icons disappears behind the next, rather than a continuous side-scroll. This is especially important on the Droid 4 because of its TFT screen's limitations that make things difficult to read when continuously scrolling against a dark background.
While most ROMs will let you disable some system apps, SlimKat has a SlimSizer app in the SlimCenter settings that lets you save or fully remove any included system app from a simple checklist. SU is integrated and the ROM is rooted out-of-the-box. Google Voice works seamlessly with it. Voice Search starts up quickly and doesn't hang or crash, and interactions with it are predictable. The built-in WiFi hotspot works flawlessly. It natively supports Face Unlock.
Its sole quirks are that the keyboard doesn't illuminate when you slide it open until you press a key, and direct reboot to recovery doesn't work (just do a standard reboot and activate SafeStrap recovery at startup).
Verdict: Hands down, the overall best 3rd party ROM I've tested for the Droid 4. Rock-solid, OEM-level reliability and performance in a compact yet feature-rich package with outstanding battery life. If you don't require a newer version of Android (5+) for app compatibility or features, and don't want the code-bloat of the later versions, you simply can't do better than SlimKat on the Droid 4.

Thank you for this!
I was hoping there were some posts like this, but it being 2018 I wasn't optimistic...
just picked up a droid 4 to have a backup phone and for a bit of nostalgia - I had an OG droid that I kind of miss using

Update: After six months with SlimKat, I'm moving on. There's only one real problem I've had with it, but it's been really annoying. Frequently it just won't wake up the screen - the soft buttons light up, but the screen stays blank. It can often take several attempts before it works, if at all - usually after the third try I just give up and wait it out until the next time I want to check it. This is especially frustrating when receiving a call, as I've often missed calls just waiting for it to wake up the screen so I can answer it. Never been able to track down the cause or figure out a solution.
There's also a strange problem in the file system that there are "ghost" files throughout. Blanks show up randomly throughout my gallery, and duplicates of music and videos also work their way in, confusing the database and making it difficult and sometimes impossible to play back these files. I tried clearing app data for the Gallery and rescanning, even moving files to new folders, but it would only fix it temporarily and eventually these would come back. My gallery would show I had 1200 pictures when I had at most 350, and my music library would also show five copies of the same song, only one of which would actually play. I thought maybe these were ghosts of deleted files, but could never be sure. I used an alternate gallery app, QuickPic, and it worked normally without the blanks.
The hotspot feature had issues as well. It would pass the traffic for the connected devices, but after a while it would stop working for the apps on the phone itself, until I shut it off.
I'm not sure if it's a possible problem in my phone either, so I'm trying something different.