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Jellybean versus KitKat.

phillyundead

phillyundead

Well-Known Member
I have my original Note 3 that still has jellybean on it. KitKat severely messed up my girlfriends Note 3 and her G2. My Note 3 is getting pretty worn out. Buttons are getting unstable and such so I decided to file an insurance claim.

Well T-Mobile said it was covered under the warranty and would be a free replacement. So I agreed.

I finally get the replacement and, go figure, it has KitKat installed. I already ran into the SD crap. That is just about a deal breaker for me and I'm not sure what to do.

Does anyone know if there is any way around it? I heavily rely on write access on my SD card. It is the primary reason I moved to Samsung. A lot of the flagships started removing SD slots at the time.

Does anyone know if there is a safe way to root? I don't care if I trip Knox.
 
Towelroot by Geohot. I did it in about 5 minutes during a break at work.
Towelroot.com and follow the instructions, can be done all on the phone. I haven't gotten all the ROM stuff Goin on yet, but others have. Check the all things root for T-MOBILE.
And I did not trip Knox.
 
Towelroot is the only way to root on 4.4.2 at the moment.

I have heard mixed reviews on whether it works or not, sounds like for the most part that it's a crapshoot on if it works or not, unfortunately.

If you need any help with it just let us know :)
 
I just rooted it in about 60 seconds with cf auto root and have no issues at all. Kit Kat is a little faster and opens up space, but I'm not digging this SD card crap. Anyone know how to fix the block on SD write abilities?
 
What problems exactly are you experiencing with your SD card?

I have stock 4.4.2 on Verizon, and I'm able to read-write to my SD card without any issues.
 
Kit Kat is better in every way, except allowing any and every app to write to the SD Card, which is a platform change and any device that gets updated now or comes with a newer version of Android will have that limitation moving forward unless Google completely changes course and reverts it (which I do not see them doing, they're finally going back to SD Cards in Android One after doing what they did).
 
TrueFangz said:
What problems exactly are you experiencing with your SD card?

I have stock 4.4.2 on Verizon, and I'm able to read-write to my SD card without any issues.
Click to expand...
Stock apps should work, but third party apps do not. This is a big problem if you are used to using an sd card for different app content and media.
 
My music, movies and the documents not fixed to one app only are ok so I'm ok. From apps a few let you move them too. It was a security thing. so sys app folders are no longer open to any app.
Docs on the Sdcard have word, excel, text or whatever. Docs on the internal card is empty.
 
The freedom Android gave us is now slowly fading. That was what made me use Android in the first place. I can't edit my music tags with JetAudio anymore either, or use identify song on Mixzing. I might be looking into a Windows Phone soon. Or cyannagenmod
 
rushmore said:
Google yearns to be Gapple. L gets them even closer.
Click to expand...
I'll bite - how so




phillyundead said:
The freedom Android gave us is now slowly fading. That was what made me use Android in the first place. I can't edit my music tags with JetAudio anymore either, or use identify song on Mixzing. I might be looking into a Windows Phone soon. Or cyannagenmod
Click to expand...

I just bought that to test on my nexus 5 and I have no issue editing tags. This is an issue with Samsung's implementation of KitKat, and not KitKat itself.
 
Rxpert83 said:
I just bought that to test on my nexus 5 and I have no issue editing tags. This is an issue with Samsung's implementation of KitKat, and not KitKat itself.
Click to expand...

Completely true. Samsung is the one that is pulling the strings behind limiting the users capabilities.

Rooting/ROMing helps in increasing our capabilities once more. If you are interested in it I can definitely assist you :)
 
phillyundead said:
The freedom Android gave us is now slowly fading. That was what made me use Android in the first place. I can't edit my music tags with JetAudio anymore either, or use identify song on Mixzing. I might be looking into a Windows Phone soon. Or cyannagenmod
Click to expand...

What made a lot of others use it was the lack of an iPhone on their carrier. That is not a factor now, but it was in 2010-2012 when many people were buying smartphones, and they just stuck to what they bought into.

Freedom is not something these people care about. At least that's the impression I get when I look at their phones with one weather widget and five icons across 4 home screens, and nothing else (sometimes done even have a Google account on their phone).

The freedom has been a sticking point for developers as well, and is part of the reason Android users now pay higher prices for some apps than others, and are dependent on IAP while it's users can just buy the full app cheaper and move on. Developers still complain about piracy, and still tend to develop on iOS first. There are apps that needed $15-20 worth of Google Play IAP to be on feature parity with the $5.99 app from App Store. It's that extreme in a number of cases (you may never use those apps so it may not affect you at all, to be fair).

Windows Phone is decent but the app situation is dire. They have most social networking apps and things like that, but beyond it the app store quickly becomes an issue. Some apps they do have, arent supported well. No TuneIn revamp on Windows Pjone yet. A njmber of other services are absent on the pkatform (and everything Google which you need if you dont want to switch everything over). I like Microsoft services and how they work across form factors without a browser, though. The Lumia Icon is a great phone but I can't see myself going there until developers actually start taking the platform seriously.

I don't do custom roms because I don't buy phones for hardware anymore (except camera), but for software features that makes it easier for me to do what I need to do on the device. A custom ROM goes counter to that, and I dislike stock Android's overly dark, depressing theme and don't have time to waste going through a bunch to find one I like.
 
OK, since I am still on JellyBean (rooted, running Hyperdrive RSL7), I not into the KitKat scene yet. So, KitKat does not allow writing to the SDCARD?
 
To be honest I like the direction L is going. A lot of features that used to only exist in TouchWiz are showing up but without the bloat. Hoping they don't omit those from the Nexus 7 and 10 because the lack of features in KitKat got under my skin.

Loving the always listening voice control too. Got my science fiction side on
 
I wish Google would standardize how they do updates.......
It's all one big cluster.
Maybe only release a new version (jellybean, kitkat, etc..) once a year then realms fixes every 3 months, then force the manufacturers and carriers to release on a certain date.
It's kind of a turnoff to buy a phone then you don't know who what where or when, and if your device will receive updates (or how many).......
 
MLSS said:
I wish Google would standardize how they do updates.......
It's all one big cluster.
Maybe only release a new version (jellybean, kitkat, etc..) once a year then realms fixes every 3 months, then force the manufacturers and carriers to release on a certain date.
It's kind of a turnoff to buy a phone then you don't know who what where or when, and if your device will receive updates (or how many).......
Click to expand...
Google has no control over when your device manufacturer and carrier pushes out an update. They can't force them to do anything.

If you want to ensure you will receive future updates promptly, plan ahead with your phone purchase. Obviously nexus devices get it first, but Motorola devices were almost as fast as the nexus line.

Take home point is the more the manufacturer changes the code from google, the longer it takes them to update it when a new version comes out.
 
my only gripe about Nexus is that they don't always get everything. KitKat on anything shy of a Nexus 5 got stripped of all the good stuff. if this is a trend Google continues on the Nexus line (even those well within their 18-month support period like the 10) i am fearing that this will become a bad way to force some folks to upgrade to the latest device. similar to how Siri wasn't added to the iPhone 4, just the 4S and up, despite no hardware limitation to justify the change.

At one point, having a Nexus meant you were the first to get every update, and any features from it. until KitKat they never stripped anything out. all Nexii getting Jelly Bean got all Jelly Bean offered. but after the KitKat disappointment, i'm no longer so sure. perhaps L can restore my faith.

However i do prefer my Samsung products. updates are really not that important and so far from what my experience has been, Android is reliable whether you're using 4.0 or 4.1 or so on. anything you miss out on, shy of root only things like the settings menu UI or status bar stuff, you can use with Nova Launcher or sideload. i got a pretty convincing Android L Dev Preview theme on my unrooted Note that is just a very fancy and well-done Nova Prime theme. They might be slow or nonexistant on OS updates, but they do offer things the Nexus line does not, and things Google refuses to add, such as the very useful Multi-window and Wacom stylus.

And while i am miffed by the omission of the new TouchWiz on the 4.4 update on the Note 3, the Note 10.1 got it, and Android L's screenshots online do resemble the S5 TouchWiz quite a bit. the white menu UI, toggle button style, icons, the works. lockscreen notifications have been part of Samsung devices since the S3, so it's not as if Google is adding in anything i never used before.
 
IMHO not having transparent notification bars - a strictly aesthetic thing - is hardly a comparison to apple restricting siri.
 
They omitted more than bars. The launcher, ART, etc. They made it exclusive to the Nexus 5, similar to how Apple made Siri (as well as other iOS 6 features) exclusive to the iPhone 4s and up
 
Any device running 4.4+ can install the GEL.

It may not have been that way at its launch, but Google tends to get a product/app out and then add to it as time goes on.

ART was an experimental developer preview - and any developer could have had a ROM with it
 
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