Akirah 3.02 ROM

Akirah 3.02a Android build

Problems:

Browser menu does not open fast enough in the event to stop a page from loading. Making the menu pull up slower by giving it an iphone wanna be bounce is making the menu functionality even slower on an already slow HTC G1 phone. If this "type" of functionality so entertains some to write, at least give an option to disable, as with all eye candy. I didn't buy a bigger battery for my G1 to turn it into an iPhone.

Once in the browser, and I start typing a new url to go to, in almost all cases, the url entry drops the first few letters typel. Apparently, the G1's processor gets hit pretty hard upon entering a url. Perhaps creating a minimum letter count of 4 before regex of url matching gets queued. This sort of functionality cannot be used for the visually impaired, even if the android os could offer audible control feedback and grale like interface.

The browser still does not know top level .me urls and sends fully qualified urls to google search. For example, on your G1, go to the above URL without typing "http://".. Type in "jordanpeterson.me". It goes to Google Search.

The Akirah 3.02a rom has rebooted itself once so far while in the browser.

In the browser, if you touch a link close to the upper url bar, the bar gets activated. On several occasions the link was maybe a quarter inch away and the bar gets the attention before the link..

Also, in the browser, if you are scrolling down a page and lift your finger, and if the phone is at 100% cpu usage at any time while tracking finger position, the scrolling function turns into a paging function. I believe it is due to slow or unoptimized code, slow HTC G1 processing power, or both.

No reboot option when holding end call key. CyanogenMod had this option. I don't have any use for "power off" if there is a "reboot phone".

On the Akirah Rom at least, the desktop comes configured with a google search widget, containing a text input as well as speech recognition. Cool concept, and the recognition has gotten good.. However, I have absolutely no indication of when the widget is loading or recording! As I mentioned something along these lines prior, for the visually disabled, I can't say it enough: the phone needs to be predictable or its just not a tool.

The stock mms app should not allow messages to take keyboard focus away from the input field. On several occasions I was typing a text only to find that none of the keystrokes went into the mms input field.. annoying as HELL!!! rather the darn text field somehow gets focus by the slightest trackball movement. In theory, if a field can't be typed in, it shouldn't steal keyboard focus. The android OS development team needs to remember that simpler is faster.. the iphone is rocking the pants off the android os in my opinion because its optimized for a simple set of instructions. The android os is trying to do everything before polishing on one thing.

Resources:

Android ROM's

2009-11-16: noticed that holding shift and using trackball to copy from a web page is completely flawed. The mouse or cursor disappears. If you can see it long enough to move around your selection to copy, the highlighted sections move out of alignment with the cursor, making the copy function in the browser absolutely useless.

Email app returns "connection error" when attempting to read IMAP email when forwarded with attachment to several recipients from a gmail email account. I can read the same email fine on my Mac Book Pro using the Mail program, likewise with a browser and using Squirrel Web Mail.

Textarea slow interaction with Android browser. While I type this paragraph, I can get out maybe half a word a second, but the text I type and see in the textarea lags by a few words. Don't hit backspace repeatedly or your face will grow long as the cursor slowly eats away a whole paragraph. Instead, hold down the backspace key and at the most, maybe 2 or 3 extra characters will disappear. It took 15 seconds for the android os to get my text into this textarea. And they say this phone is fast for what it is.. I can't help but say this reminds me of the bbs days and 1200 modems where good typing was essential as you couldn't see what you were typing.

Dialing people is a pain because the phone requires me to tap one more time before the dialer actually does it. I can't tell you how many times I was waiting for a ring sound with the phone on my ear and nothing would happen. The extra step isn't necessary as we can long press the entry for the sub menu instead. By default, clicking a name should dial, not ask more useless questions.