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KitKat tips/tricks/tutorial?

MrsJennyK

MrsJennyK

Member
My last phone was on gingerbread, and I've just gotten a Moto G, which is the most updated version of KitKat.

It seems a lot has changed since v2.3!! I'm feeling my way around and trying to learn what's what. I'd love some learn some tips/tricks/fun stuff for this version! I tried looking around on Google but everything I see just talks about the fact that KitKat has arrived and mentions one or two technical things.

My phone is rooted - I wasn't thrilled about that, but I had it rooted and flashed to work on Page Plus. I have no idea how that makes things different.

Jenny
 
Tbh i cant think of many user-facing new features in kitkat. A lot of the improvements are behind the scenes.
One thing you can try is the new experimental run time called ART, Android Run Time. This basically speeds things up. I dont know how much of a noticeable difference it makes on the Moto G.
If you wana try it, you first have to activate Developer Options.
To do that, go to phone settings, open "about phone", tap "build number" 7 times until it says youre a developer, back out of that and you should have a new setting called "developer options", turn jhat on and find "select run time", change that from Dalvik to ART.
the first boot will take a LONG time but dont worry, it only does that once.
See if you can feel the difference.
The chances are ART will be default in the next android version. It really speeds up my phone which has similar specs to yours :thumbup:
 
Visually I love the white on black look :)
And yeah I think the moto's software is pretty close to a nexus :thumbup:
 
@Funkylogik - The ART thing sounds very interesting. I'll have to look into that. I do already have dev options activated. I needed to do that to have the phone rooted and flashed.

@kman9637 - ah thank you for the link! It was really helpful!
 
Cool give it a try then. Just remember the first boot takes forever lol.
The ART run time is in "beta" right now but everything points to it being the default run time in the next big android update :)
Some apps wont work with it but in my experience the only one that doesnt is Xposed Framework. Most good app devs have made their apps compatible
 
funkylogik said:
Tbh i cant think of many user-facing new features in kitkat. A lot of the improvements are behind the scenes.
One thing you can try is the new experimental run time called ART, Android Run Time. This basically speeds things up. I dont know how much of a noticeable difference it makes on the Moto G.
If you wana try it, you first have to activate Developer Options.
To do that, go to phone settings, open "about phone", tap "build number" 7 times until it says youre a developer, back out of that and you should have a new setting called "developer options", turn jhat on and find "select run time", change that from Dalvik to ART.
the first boot will take a LONG time but dont worry, it only does that once.
See if you can feel the difference.
The chances are ART will be default in the next android version. It really speeds up my phone which has similar specs to yours
Click to expand...


I tried ART on my Droid Maxx and it was throwing errors. I had to remove it.

When you said long time on the first load ... as I recall it was 20-30 minutes with a Maxx with 250 apps.

... Thom
 
Thom said:
I tried ART on my Droid Maxx and it was throwing errors. I had to remove it.

When you said long time on the first load ... as I recall it was 20-30 minutes with a Maxx with 250 apps.

... Thom
Click to expand...

That sounds really long mate. I have around 300 apps and it takes about 15mins to boot.
What kind of errors were you getting? Id guess it was caused by user apps that arent optimised to run in ART. all the core android apps work fine for me.
Even on my 2012 nexus 7, for some reason Google didnt give that the option of ART in the stock kitkat update but with it running a custom rom with the option, ART turns it into a whole new improved device imo.
I think people's experience of ART is device dependant tbh. On my s3 and more so on my n7 its great :thumbup:
 
It's been a while since I was on Gingerbread. Obviously the UI is sleeker now since ICS. Widgets can be resized by long pressing them. Scrollable widgets are supported. There are quick toggles in the notification menu (either pull down the notification bar and hit the icon in the top right, or, from the home screen, pull down the notification bar from the far right edge). There is monitoring for data usage built in to the OS now (similar to 3G watchdog) that can be set to disable data when you've hit your limit. I'm not sure how well it worked with Gingerbread, but Google Now has become a fairly integral part of Android since 4.1. Apps can be uninstalled directly from the launcher. There are a few 3rd party launchers that only run on ICS and above, namely Apex Pro and Nova Launcher Prime, that allow you to add additional tabs to the app launcher.
 
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