Open source Android ROM project dies, developers launch fork.
Source: Cyanogen Inc. shuts down CyanogenMod in Christmas bloodbath | Ars Technica
So, CM is dead, but like with most things in the open source world, things will be forked, especially if there’s a disagreement between the two. In this case, rather than compete, it’s a desire to keep the project going.
So I updated my S5 to Android 6.0.1 using Cyanogenmod, and I’ve noticed some slight lagging. Apps tend to close themselves randomly, normally when less apps are running than on Android 5.1.1. Also, when using the tethered connection, there’s some lag there too, causing my online games to judder. Though that part is only hypothetical, I’m going to test this by downgrading my phone back to 5.1 and verifying whether there’s lag on my connection there. If there isn’t, I’ll report this as a bug.
Ran into a few problems with my Android phone recently that caused my phone to see -3000MB storage (e.g. 3GB less than zero space). Weird, but true.
So, I eventually tried a few solutions, none of which worked., eventually, I flashed up to Android Lollipop and things seem okay now. Some strange interface changes but nice features.
As you’re probably aware, I love to tinker with phones, especially Android ones, having been able to root several:
However, when trying to tinker with my dad’s S5, some really weird behaviour occurred. I first unlocked it using a SIM unlock code, and it started to randomly reboot. Regardless of whether or not you use an EE SIM or not (we tried EE, Virgin and Three SIMs — all were subject to the rebooting behaviour). So, I decided to take a change and rooted it and flashed Bobcat ROM (a ROM which I was running successfully on my own S5, which is the same model as my dad’s with the only difference being the network provider — I’m on Three, he’s on EE.)
The phone still randomly rebooted, so I turned on Logcat and tried to see if it recorded anything. No such luck.
So I tried a few different ROMs — Stock Samsung (Lollipop), Bobcat ROM, and Phoenix ROM. All still rebooted. So I took it to Samsung for their opinion. They said they couldn’t flash it because Knox was void (Knox is a warranty flag on Samsung devices which indicates whether you have custom flashed the device or not — I obviously have.) But they were nice enough to tell me that the behaviour described usually indicates the Firmware is wrong (which is something I didn’t flash).
So, since this behaviour started before I even did a deep-level tinker with the device (before I flashed anything), I can only assume EE either flashed an incorrect firmware, or did not flash the correct firmware – or maybe did not flash the firmware properly. I now need to find an S5 firmware to flash onto the device. Since my own S5 is working, I can check that firmware and try to find the same one.
..it seems that Jelly Bean devices are simply too old to support — supporting old software versions is fairly unusual, after all. But in this case, he asks Google to reconsider, due to the wider consequences this security flaw could potentially unravel. Until then, however, it might be a good idea to upgrade to Android 4.4, or perhaps get a new phone altogether.
Google won’t fix a security bug that’s in almost a billion Android phones.
With my new laptop up and running, I am happily playing several Steam-based games:
Dust (I am pretty impressed by this. It is a platformer, side-scrolling game with really nice visuals, voice-acting and insane combo options)
Dungeon Defenders (yet to start this under Steam, but played it extensively under Android)
Dota (downloading)
Wakfu (played on my old 32-bit box, but Steam refuses to start the game if you are running 32-bit arch. With a 64-bit arch, it will start)
I also have some extra games that I’m not playing or stopped playing:
Bastion (tried it and it is interesting, but I’m finding it really difficult to get into
Dungeon Hearts (slow and laggy)
Ravensword: Shadowlands (an interesting 3D, but very little customisation options)
Toribash (Appeal wore off very quickly)
I am also playing two non-Steam-based games
World of Warcraft
League of Legends
Although, I have them tied into the Steam framework so I can start them up via Steam and grab screenshots, etc.
I have also looked at Fraps and Kazam — two screen recorders (Fraps for Windows, Kazam for Linux) and both perform pretty well. Fraps performs great, I got smooth high-quality video out of WoW. Kazam, I am tweaking settings. It also generates good-quality video, but I need to play with the framerate and encoding settings. Look out for some uploads at some point in the future.
It can get pretty busy on the field during a battle….
Gotten into a new freemium game called Legion of Heroes. It’s a cross between a 3D MMORPG with a Final Fantasy Tactics style battle. There’s gorgeous graphics, decent cutscenes, and voice-acting that isn’t too cringe-worthy. Yes, it is freemium, and it does push selling items at you repeatedly, which is damn frustrating, but my only gripe so far.
It is a demanding game, and it shows by its lack of compatibility with older devices. Both my asus Transformer TF101 and my HTC Sensation Std are not compatible with this game,
You can have several heroes on your team, with one your main character. I picked the magic user, because I have a thing for magic users and Elves, and she was both. Surprising, it was a good choice – she’s a decent damage dealer, and doubles up as a healer, with her healing also giving a ATK+ bonus). Unfortunately, we can be either a damage dealer or a healer, and not both, as her mode is dictated by the weapon she wields (staff for damage, or tome for healing – she was wielding a staff in the picture below). Fortunately, as I progressed into the story, I met two healers (both on the back row of my team). One heals an entire row by a certain amount, and the other heals only one, but gives a regeneration bonus on that person so they auto-heal for two turns.
When a character performs a special move, such as healing, or casting a spell, you get a short cut like this. It is possible, when in auto-battle, to have several characters perform special moves one after the other. It’s quite amusing to watch four specials all targetted at one boss.
Specials are paid for by Fury, which is gathered during attacks by your characters, and by being attacked by opponent monsters. So it is possible to throw many specials during the course of a battle. Some moves are low-cost such as the single-person heal. Others, such as my main character’s special costs more, because it deals damage to more enemies.
After several months, I have upgraded my phone from an HTC Sensation to a Samsung Galaxy S5 and the first thing I did was root my G5, which surprisingly was VERY easy, just use ODIN and the ODIN tool. My HTC Wildfire S was super hard to root (had to use the XTC hardware tool), and now I have Titanium Back restoring my apps. I am considering flashing CFW, but I want to make sure I have a Nandroid-compatible recovery installed first.
Zombies, Run now supports (albeit at an experimental level) external media players (somewhat obsoleting my Google Music tutorial), but I haven’t tried this feature and it does note that by enabling this mode, ZR will not allow you to select music lists internally. Not that it matters to me right now, since I have loads of music stored locally on my device.
After a lot of fighting, I got my first Rainbowmon loot. This monster is unique in that it is not designed to be used to fight with, it is meant to be sacrificed to give EXP to other monsters. Find these monsters, and you can fast-track the levels on your team.
Blender Fox 
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