Database Develop

[Q] What will i miss out switching to WP8?

Hi guys, this is probably my first post on my next OS-to-be after using android since 2.2
I've been playing with WP8 for quite sometime now, i love it so much that it's gonna be my next OS to go - Nokia probably.
But today was kinda threating my WP8 dream having come across words of several limitation of WP8 over android.
Below is a list of most important features that i feel are important for me that i find in Android:
1. File Manager / Explorer
2. Sideloading app
3. Root access to do Titanium Backup, Freeze Bloatwares, insert app (or adb push) to root directly
4. Car mode / Car home
5. 3rd party music player with Direct Leveling Control (somethng like PowerAMP)
6. Simple customisation of ringtone, fonts, other UI / notificaton stuffs
7. NFC Task Launchers (programming tasks to a NFC tag like turning off WiFI, on GPS, enter Car Mode, launch navigation software)
+8. Possibility of USB OTG
I know WP8 is a different OS and works differently, but are there any way that my list is still available, if not any similar feature? Or is WP8 giving me even better deals?
I really love WP8 i hope the switch will be a good choice for me to pick. I need some advices for now.
Thanks in advance

L2Deliver said:
Hi guys, this is probably my first post on my next OS-to-be after using android since 2.2
I've been playing with WP8 for quite sometime now, i love it so much that it's gonna be my next OS to go - Nokia probably.
But today was kinda threating my WP8 dream having come across words of several limitation of WP8 over android.
Below is a list of most important features that i feel are important for me that i find in Android:
1. File Manager / Explorer
2. Sideloading app
3. Root access to do Titanium Backup, Freeze Bloatwares, insert app (or adb push) to root directly
4. Car mode / Car home
5. 3rd party music player with Direct Leveling Control (somethng like PowerAMP)
6. Simple customisation of ringtone, fonts, other UI / notificaton stuffs
7. NFC Task Launchers (programming tasks to a NFC tag like turning off WiFI, on GPS, enter Car Mode, launch navigation software)
+8. Possibility of USB OTG
I know WP8 is a different OS and works differently, but are there any way that my list is still available, if not any similar feature? Or is WP8 giving me even better deals?
I really love WP8 i hope the switch will be a good choice for me to pick. I need some advices for now.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
File manager/exploere is possible but only if you connect your phone to your PC but no access to system files, Side Loading is only possible if you have a deve account You can sideload apps you download from the store off of your SD card but that's about it for now. Forget about root access, MS has blocked root access methods and one hasn't been found yet.
As far as customisations, on the start screen you can only change the tile size and the tile colors to pre-installed ones and from a black background to a white one (Lame). There is no home or start screen wallpaper you can only use a pic on the lock screen. As far as ringtones you can.
Not sure on the NFC stuff.

Sinister answered some, here are some more for you.
1. File Manager / Explorer To four predesignated folders only.
2. Sideloading app Developer can
3. Root access to do Titanium Backup, Freeze Bloatwares, insert app (or adb push) to root directly No.
4. Car mode / Car home Sort of? See your NFC ? below.
5. 3rd party music player with Direct Leveling Control (somethng like PowerAMP) Let me know if you find one.
6. Simple customisation of ringtone, fonts, other UI / notificaton stuffs Ringtones yes.
7. NFC Task Launchers (programming tasks to a NFC tag like turning off WiFI, on GPS, enter Car Mode, launch navigation software) Yes, here is a link I found on it http://www.wpcentral.com/program-nfc-tags-your-windows-phone-nfc-launchit
+8. Possibility of USB OTG No.
9. No HiD devices via Bluetooth, controllers, gamepads, keyboards.

Since I'm also familiar with android and looking into WP8 for my wife, I'm curious how does google sync work? Does it work as good as on android? Gmail notifications w/o delay? Calendar sync? Thanks!

issak42 said:
Since I'm also familiar with android and looking into WP8 for my wife, I'm curious how does google sync work? Does it work as good as on android? Gmail notifications w/o delay? Calendar sync? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a regular gmail account with exchange and setup the push notifications to actually only check once an hour as battery life seemed to be impacted a bit but as for calendar, email and contacts...all of those sync nearly instantly and work well.
I know that people also use Google Sync and the email setup wizard for Gmail without a problem as well. I have always just used the 'Exchange' setup option with Gmails server etc. TMI?

Not TMI at all, I was curious because of all those articles about Google cutting support for WP, and no one really wrote what's then situation now, they just listed a bunch of protocols that aren't supported anymore.
So everything works seamlessly? I don't want to open a hotmail account and deal with forwarding emails and all that.
Thanks for answering.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Google anounced that they would cut support for new connections using Exchange ActiveSync at the end of January. Devices set up to sync with GMail before then will continue to work like before. In Mid-January that date got pushed back to July. So until July you can setup ActiveSync and keep using it after that.
It is likely that Microsoft will issue an update for WP8 before then enabling CalDAV and CardDAV-support although there are no guarantees. We also don't know wether they will add IMAP-idle to allow for GMail-Push-Mail or if you will be limited to mail checking in set intervals (this is currently already possible as an alternative to Exchange ActiveSync).
We'll have to wait how that plays out but for now nothing has changed yet.

Android Auto - How it works?

Hi,
I have searched on the internet but I can't find any good info about android auto.
First I don't understand how it works. I have seen that you need android auto on your phone in order to communicate with your car device but what is running on the car device? Is a different type of operating system?
Can I add an application developed for Android on Android Auto?

adrian94a said:
Hi,
I have searched on the internet but I can't find any good info about android auto.
First I don't understand how it works. I have seen that you need android auto on your phone in order to communicate with your car device but what is running on the car device? Is a different type of operating system?
Can I add an application developed for Android on Android Auto?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AA consists of 2 parts -
AA application running on the phone
AA client on say a car headunit (could also be another android phone or an android tablet) that mirrors the AA phone display
AA can be run self hosted on a phone, then you don't need the second part.
If you want to have a fixed display (client/server setup) in the car & you don't already have a car headunit supporting AA, you can install an app such as HUR- https://forum.xda-developers.com/ge...ndroid-4-1-headunit-reloaded-android-t3432348 on the headunit/tablet. There's a trial version that you can download to try.

Hi kk131
Thank you for your replay.
So if is running on my phone this means that all my phone application will be available on my car console?

adrian94a said:
Hi kk131
Thank you for your replay.
So if is running on my phone this means that all my phone application will be available on my car console?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the purpose of AA is to enable phone use during driving, it provides limited access with a simplified display :
Google assistant - so you can have voice interaction
Phone
Navigation - waze/google maps
Music apps - google play music, spotify (depends what you have installed on your phone)

Great info.
I am asking this because I have an application of podcast on google play and I would like to be available on AA and I am trying to find out how can I do that.
Do you know any relevant info on the web that can clarify me? I am guessing that there are some constraints if we speak of automotive

Install AA on your phone., run it, see if the app is shown in the menu. If it isn't you can go into AA developer mode and enable 'unknown sources' and test again. The thread I referenced above covers getting in AA developer mode.
If that test is successful, then go further and install the client on your car console.

Great, I will try it and come back with some answers.
Thank you for your time

Hello again,
I manage to complete all my tests and all was ok. I have installed a few applications and one custom application and all worked ok.
I have one more question for you if you can help me of course.
Do you know a tutorial or something from where I can start with Android auto? I have seen that there are not tow application (one for Android and one for Android auto ) is the same app but for Auto version are fewer scenes.
If you can give me a hint here it will be just great.
Thank you.

adrian94a said:
Hello again,
I manage to complete all my tests and all was ok. I have installed a few applications and one custom application and all worked ok.
I have one more question for you if you can help me of course.
Do you know a tutorial or something from where I can start with Android auto? I have seen that there are not tow application (one for Android and one for Android auto ) is the same app but for Auto version are fewer scenes.
If you can give me a hint here it will be just great.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be helpful to know what hardware you have in your car.
I'm not an expert, I use a Nexus 7 tablet for the car display with headunit reload (HUR).

AA Rom for motorbike user

Hi guys!
I m new here and i ve been searching for it mostly here and in web researches, but cannot find a clear answer.
Does anyone know a ROM suitable for a tablet (i have a xiaomi clover that i could use for it) that i could mount on my motorbike for gpx navigation, maybe weather and music also ( getting real time machine data via the ECU, as speed, revs, temperature etc would be awesome too! )
It ll be great if a tablet could actually (replace, or) complete the dashboard informations,
Does anyone has a clue about which way i should dig around ?
thanks you all

I have a nexus 5x always in car, for android auto. I have rooted the phone and Uninstall most of android. Including phone app, sms, etc. I have only keep the core of android and gaps so to run android auto and evey app i wanted. This is the way..

I guess you are not looking for a ROM but for some apps to be installed in your tablet or phone.
You can test some Car Launchers you can find in the Store.
To get real-time parameters you will need an ODB connected to your bike and for the software, with any ODB you buy there will be a basic app to obtain real-time data. Specifically for motorbikes you have MOTOSCAN.

Android Auto alternative

Hi,
I'm disappointed with AA. I think there is some space for an open source alternative to this system which is so closed.
Moreover the end of life of the standalone version makes me feel that Google doesn't care much about their customer experience.
I tried the Google Assistant driving mode and it's... a disaster for now.
I think it would be easy to create a great AA like launcher. But to make it succesfull there must be a community and an ecosystem around that. Apps are important even in automotive context.
Typically Waze is a key app that many drivers want.
At this time I'm wondering what is the best approach to start this kind of project. I see few show stoppers and I'm interested to get some thought from you about that.
1/ Head unit integration : long time ago I worked on the reverse engineering of the AA protocol. I discovered that the protocol is using SSL certificates. Head units holds a public key and mobile use a private key provided by Google Play Services. The problem is that these certificates have very short lifetime (about 6 months) and if I remember fine the root cerificate will expire in 2030 or something. I don't think that head unit s check the expiration date anyway (because many of them don't have system time). But for sure you need a Google private key in order to initiate communication with a head unit. The key could be captured decompiling code few years ago, don't know if it's still as simple as that.
If head unit really don't check the expiration date then it could be possible to replace the whole AA stack with an independent one.
But even if this work I'm not sure it's possible to disable the native AA protocol and take control of the USB port without rooting.
2/ Apps integration. There are 2 categories of Automotive apps : media apps and navigation apps. I think there are also a category for messaging apps.
Navigations apps are apps that provides an automotive friendly display. Waze does this for example.
Media apps are easy to integrate becaase they rely on the legacy mediabrowser APIs.
Integrating the navigation apps is tough. Because these apps are exposing a special AA service that only privileged apps can invoke (by default).
However apps dev can also allow a third party app to connect their dispkay service. This won't ever happen except if the car launcher become mainstream.
Good point is that would not require any change in implementations : it's just an access right problem.
I have seen a lot of car launchers in Play store. They all display the apps on native mode which is not what you want while driving.
Any comments to this ?

I would also like to see an alternative way...but unfortunately I did not find anything yet.
I'm also not happy with everything on Android Auto.
For example:
- I have apps (e.g. navigation) that are not compatible with Android Auto
- I can't accept Whatsapp calls on Android Auto
- The navgation of media apps is not the best way (if you want to change the playlists, there are way too many inputs necessary)
- I can't turn off Google Maps (GPS) to preserve battery and reduce heat on the phone
- I need internet (I live in a rural area...therefore sometimes I don't have internet and then in a lot of times, Android Auto just crashes...)
- I don't like Google's update policy (it's just good luck if a new version of Android Auto works stable). I want to have a working version and leave it on the phone.

From a user standpoint I definately would like to see an AA alternative. I don't need to watch videos or anything like that but there are a few necessary apps for me that AA doesn't allow.

SOFO888 said:
- I don't like Google's update policy (it's just good luck if a new version of Android Auto works stable). I want to have a working version and leave it on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can achieve that by disabling Android Auto automatic updates on Play Store app.

CaioTheBrain said:
You can achieve that by disabling Android Auto automatic updates on Play Store app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, unfortunately not. Every Google app has an expiration date, also Android Auto. This expiration date then forces you to update your app. Otherwise it will not start.

There are a few Android dongles that trick the car's headunit into thinking it is connected via Android Auto. However, most of the devices are CarPlay AI units that trick the headunit into thinking is is connected to a CarPlay device and then display the Android system through the headunit. But they are all buggy.
Perhaps something can be learned from how they do that. An app that mimics Android Auto but allows full user control would be great.

I am by no means an expert but I want to help do this! I liked using rooted devices for AA and having AA tweaker but I always felt like it was just the start of something not a finished product so I'm definitely down with this. What I feel like would be the simplest approach would be making an Android auto app that (it communicates with your phone and doesn't need data) runs on a cheap tablet that you put on your dash or wherever in the car and from there you have full control over the app and device. Just my thoughts

Did someone tried sreen2auto? Its mirroring your phone to your android auto. Search it on XDA forum.

drnightshadow said:
Did someone tried sreen2auto? Its mirroring your phone to your android auto. Search it on XDA forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to use Screen2Auto but it required too much upkeep every time Google made changes to Android Auto. The last time it broke I couldn't get it working again.

Android auto error 13

I have a toyota corolla. phone time car time is different. I want it to stay different. android auto does not connect due to time difference, can the clock issue be bypassed by modifying it?
car play connects smoothly, you know android was freedom

murattiy said:
I have a toyota corolla. phone time car time is different. I want it to stay different. android auto does not connect due to time difference, can the clock issue be bypassed by modifying it?
car play connects smoothly, you know android was freedom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but its gonna be problem with certification... It's hard but doable.
You'll need to do it by yourself.

Thanks, but i dont Iknow how to do it, how can android auto certification be manipulated

I have another idea: set up the correct time on your phone and use a clock widget with the time you want (see Playstore), e.g.:
Simple World Clock Widget - Apps on Google Play
Small, easy to read and highly customisable, Simple World Clock Widget.
play.google.com