Covering the Sprint HTC One M9 shortly, updates from Paul
Assuming all goes well, the HTC One M9 will be in my hands on Tuesday, at which point we’ll start keeping up with miscellaneous software updates for the M8 and M9. I’ll also start covering rooting and ROM flashing on the M9, root tools, etc. Feel free to point me to anything interesting.
We’ve reached the point in basic Android development and root development where there’s not a large amount of new stuff, and what there is becomes increasingly difficult to find, as it’s spread out across the largest mobile operating system forum across the planet.
In other words, I could use your help finding some of these new root things. Trawling through forums isn’t cutting it these days for me and half of what’s out there root and offered are device specific (such as making a hidden LED on a Samsung device flash).
It’s amazed me in five years of writing about Android how few root developers actually put themselves forward to promote their product. I’d like to rectify that in the root world.
Also, as I’ve been asked a few times this month on this why we stopped covering ROM development as much, it goes like this: I post a piece about a ROM I like and some features of it I like, I get emails and posts from another ROM developer showing proof (or more often not,) that feature was kanged. I then get spammed about it. There’re kanging groups set up just to attack other developers. It’s some weird game that evidently is bringing financial gains to the kangers. I don’t want us to be part of that cycle.
Alternately I write something up and offer a critique of something and the next thing I know I’ve got fans of the ROM defacing Pocketables and I have to write a novella explaining what I meant because everyone thinks I’m screaming on the internet. I’m not. I’ve got 1.68 babies at the moment, I don’t have time to write a novella.
There’s also the time involved these days. In ye olden days of Root, backing up, flashing a ROM, playing around with it was a 70 minute endeavor. ROMs were small, made of ornate Amish wood carvings, and within a couple of hours I could give an honest impression of a ROM.
Now a Sense ROM is nearing two gigabytes. A developer will have tweaked 80 pieces of the UI, there’ll be a branded settings app, a branded menu somewhere, and a series of controls for everything. It’ll run beautifully on the Sprint ROM distro but horribly on the AT&T, etc. If I talk about the tweak app I’ll get posts from a developer who claims it was stolen work (really, you can go back and look).
The ROM will also start running like garbage two days after I write about it running extremely well.
Or it’ll be yanked, which has happened several times now. Pocketables is littered with ROMs that were removed for one reason or another. I probably have two solid days of lost work into those. Ah well, c’est la root vie.
The other Pocketables writers are not dead. I think they have been distracted by nice weather. There’re also only three of us now and no ability to pay new writers anything. If you want to work for free you should really contact us.
I’ve been writing a little bit about some of the goings on in the forums, you can check it out should you care to visit them.
You may have also noticed a lot of physical product reviews from me. There are. There are about 12 more to come. After that it should die down to somewhat normal levels. I got backed up when I was sick, further backed up when I was working three jobs, and finally I am about one month behind on everything.
I’ve gotten requests from VPN companies to do some reviews on them. I’m trying to evaluate if I even have anything to say beyond what VPN review sites have.
That’s about it at the moment. I’d love to hear what you’re interested in seeing on Pocketables in the future, and if you have any thoughts share ’em.
