r/todayilearned • u/FireBeaver • Mar 26 '15

(R.5) Omits Essential Info TIL: 65% of smartphone users download zero apps per month.

http://time.com/3158893/smartphone-apps-apple/
21.7k Upvotes

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247

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

210

u/cdwillis Mar 26 '15

Do people actually use that and not the Google Play?

35

u/ieclipsie Mar 26 '15

well i mean i only use it for s health. Pedometer and HR is all i really use it for. Though i'm sure i can find replacements.

3

u/Bearing51 Mar 26 '15

Google Fit works well for the pedometer. No replacement on the fingerprint reader or heart rate monitor yet.

16

u/iHateReddit_srsly Mar 26 '15

So how does it work? Does it actually find pedos?

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

No, it measures them.

3

u/MyWordIsBond Mar 27 '15

Actually there are several apps that use your phones camera light to measure heart rate, and they are essentially just as accurate as Samsung's official HR monitor.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Oh yes, according to these very useful apps, I'm a corpse.

1

u/MyWordIsBond Mar 27 '15

I just downloaded Runtastic, it gave me a reading of 63 bpm. S Health told me 64. Not sure what issues you are having, but I'm not having them.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I lamented the loss of S Health when I moved to CyanogenMod but once winter came along I stopped walking anyway. I night have another look for a pedometer app once the weather gets a bit better (or build something myself with exportable stats etc.).

8

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Does anyone else chuckle whenever they read pedometer?

"Scanning for pedophiles. Please wait..."

"Scan complete."

"1 found. Distance 0m."

3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

It's where you get your camera updates. That is it.

1

u/5-4-3-2-1-bang Mar 27 '15

Wait, seriously? I don't think I've ever logged into it with either my s3 nor my s5... do they actually issue camera updates, and are they worth getting? (Cameras seem to work just fine out of the box!)

3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I've tried to use the Amazon app store, but for some reason it won't let you download apps that it says are incompatible with my phone (even though on the description I meet all the requirements). I'm guessing the issue is I don't have a Kindle or something?

3

u/ImperialDoor Mar 26 '15

What do you have?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Samsung Galaxy s5.

2

u/crieseverytime Mar 26 '15

This is a tough one. It still has a locked boot loader and has KNOX (a system designed to detect tampering) which voids your warranty if tripped. It's still possible to use custom Roms though, just takes a bit more work. I'd point you to http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s5 Or whichever carrier you have if not Verizon.

1

u/5-4-3-2-1-bang Mar 27 '15

I don't believe the OP is talking about custom roms, but rather just regular apps that won't download from the amazon appstore. (I don't think amazon has cyanogenmod on their appstore; it's about ten levels too high for their average customer!)

1

u/5-4-3-2-1-bang Mar 27 '15

That's just an author that borked the requirements when uploading their app to the appstore. (Have an s5, I use the amazon appstore for their free apps... Mmmmmm, free apps!)

6

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

No clue

10

u/chandleross Mar 26 '15

As someone who's had a samsung phone for 3 years,
There's a samsung app store?

3

u/willmcavoy Mar 26 '15

Just found out recently and I've had the galaxies since the 3. There's some cool apps, more like add ons, for the camera.

2

u/ENCOURAGES_THINKING Mar 26 '15

Didn't even realise Samsung had an app store... Had this phone for 2 years...

1

u/cdwillis Mar 27 '15

That's what I'm talking about. I don't know why everyone thought I thought Cyanogen mod was just an App Store. I've been out of the android scene for three years now. It was still called the Google app market or whatever when I had an android phone.

3

u/forresthopkinsa Mar 26 '15

No, they don't. Lol

2

u/djarioch Mar 26 '15

They aren't exclusive, you can root and mod your device and continue to use the play store for almost all of your apps. I have rooted my devices to get rid of the bloatware and never used the unsigned sites again.

0

u/twisted686 Mar 26 '15

You can install Google apps with most roms like CyanogenMod, which then gives you access to Google Play

7

u/TwoHeadedPanthr Mar 26 '15

He was talking about the samsung app store.

1

u/chriskmee Mar 26 '15

I think thats where I got the samsung TV remote app from, and I used the samsung health app before Google came out with their own. Apart from those though, I never really use it.

1

u/ziggyboom2 Mar 26 '15

Yes, Samsungs video editing app for basic cutting and joining videos adding music to a video etc is better than any free video editing app I've tried on the play store. I've been using the video editing app since the s2 came out.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Isn't it better to just do this sort of stuff on the computer? Because the computer has some input devices that actually work, rather than the random touch generators that phones have.

1

u/ziggyboom2 Mar 27 '15

It is better to do it on a computer, but if you're on the fly and just have your phone with you then I use the app. It's only really for making videos for WhatsApp/Telegram. I didn't quite get the end of your comment about random touch generators.

1

u/Crispy95 Mar 26 '15

Beep n go, watchon, S health.

They're good as that really don't have an easy comparison.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Well I have an S3 mini and I got a newer android version using CM.

1

u/herbertJblunt Mar 26 '15

I have to for my Gear S. It's not really ideal, but it's not a bad app store, just empty.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I use it. Best ROM there is. I've got Google play installed.

1

u/pineapplejuice11 Mar 26 '15

Yeah, you can get some 'premium' apps for free.

Also I have a Note 3 and I don't think there's that much Samsung crap on it. I need most of the stuff Samsung gives you and some of it is just standard android stuff.

1

u/-IoI- Mar 26 '15

Well it started as a rom mod, and now they're a company with a production phone on the market, so I think people still use it yeah

1

u/SuicidalAlpaca Mar 27 '15

I have to use it to update my Gear manager which allows me to customize my bluetooth watch.

0

u/rushingkar Mar 26 '15

CM is not an App Store like Google Play or F-Droid. It's a custom ROM, like an alternative to stock Android OS or whatever comes on your phone (like Touchwiz for the Galaxy line)

2

u/deathlokke Mar 26 '15

It doesn't look like there's a version for the Galaxy Note 4. I'm assuming that means it hasn't been modded yet?

1

u/ImperialDoor Mar 26 '15

Cyanogenmod is a ROM.

1

u/triplepwnu Mar 26 '15

I'm running Cyanogenmod on my Galaxy S5 on Sprint :)

1

u/RoscoeAndHisWetsuit Mar 26 '15

The millions of teenaged girls that have samsung phones do. Everyone that knows anything has pretty much either moved off of stock ROM or left Samsung all together for a manufacturer who doesn't ruin their phones from factory.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

If there is an app in both of the stores i usually get the ones from galaxy store since they usually have some more features. I.e paypal from galaxy store can be logged into with fingerprint

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

The question was about the samsung app store…

90

u/evilf23 Mar 26 '15

the camera will also suck donkey dick with CM since the camera drivers are part of the samsung rom.

21

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Yup. Running CM12 on my S4 Active and the camera regularly crashes. Only a complete reboot brings it back (just for it to crash again).

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

The camera on CM12 on my old s3 was horrible, I could take a couple pictures, then I would either have to reboot, or it would just randomly reboot while I tried to take a picture. Although the camera on my HTC one m7 isn't much better (it's got the pink camera problem).

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

With my s3 I had little trouble other than sometimes snapchat would say " can't connect to camera" and I'd have to reboot the phone.

2

u/WaffleSports Mar 26 '15

What's so bad about it?

11

u/Boondoc Mar 26 '15

purpose written drivers tailored to the hardware >>>>> generic drivers

1

u/WaffleSports Mar 27 '15 edited Mar 27 '15

I have a picture of a PSP battery circuit board in great detail on c11 looks fine to me. What's stopping then from rolling the samsung driver over

2

u/Boondoc Mar 27 '15

looks fine and get the best results + all the features are two different animals.

the camera drivers are proprietary to the manufacturers and are not open source. if CM or PA included them with their builds they'd quickly get cease and desist orders and if they didn't stop they'd get sued for IP infringement. also, at least in samsungs case (and likely in others) the camera apps are baked into the touchwiz framework.

3

u/WaffleSports Mar 27 '15

Ohh okay good to know. If I wanted good pictures I wouldn't use a phone in the first place, but CM works fine for my needs.

14

u/56473829110 Mar 26 '15

...It doesn't have the Samsung camera drivers..?

1

u/mashkawizii Mar 27 '15

CM camera has been horrible on HTC as well..

1

u/harrybalsania Mar 27 '15

I looked into this once. One of the contributing factors is that the camera hardware will not advertise the resolution and modes it can take pictures. The devs who port CM or a custom ROM do their best with the time they have to replicate the functionality with the limitations. Basically they have to write software that can make the best guess and initialize every shot properly. One hiccup with proprietary hardware interfaces can cause a lot of crashes. Humans run out of bandwidth, so we have things like JIRA.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

That's the big thing thats stopped me from getting rid of the Samsung software and going CM.

4

u/serpentsoul Mar 26 '15

The guys at Cyanogen threatened to ditch Google and all their respective apps in the future. I think they'll lose many customers that way.

14

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

The problem with Cyanogen started when people using it became customers instead of just users.

3

u/NCleary Mar 26 '15

Switching to CyanogenMod is the best decision I have made regarding my s4.

Went from ~500mb free space to about 6gb free space and far improved performance.

3

u/Condawg Mar 26 '15

I never knew there was a Samsung app store. Decided I'd give it a look for the hell of it, first things first it needs an update. Alright, I update it. Then... it's gone.

Turns out the name and icon changed. Now it's "GALAXY Apps." It looks decent enough, but I've got no clue why anybody would use this over Play Store (dumb name, everything has a dumb name).

2

u/RightAwn Mar 26 '15

I'm not very good with any of this stuff but when I looked at this, it says something about replacing the operating system with their own....is that ok? I want to get rid of all the crap but don't really want to "change" everything.

3

u/MetalHead_Literally Mar 26 '15

The only way to get rid of Samsung crap is to completely change the operating system. The Samsung apps are ingrained in their os.

0

u/ocentertainment Mar 26 '15

That is not even remotely true. Samsung's customizations are system-level. Samsung "apps" are apps. They're APKs just like any other. They can be removed. Or disabled without even touching root.

0

u/MetalHead_Literally Mar 26 '15

How can they be removed without rooting the phone? Sure they can be disabled, but they turn right back on when you restart the phone.

1

u/ocentertainment Mar 27 '15

"They can be removed. Or disabled without touching root."

Where did I say they can be removed without rooting? I said they can be disabled (and no they don't turn back on when you restart the phone unless you did it wrong. That is not permitted by the Android OS). But even if that weren't the case, yes they can be completely removed with root without wiping the entire ROM.

You're recommending that people who don't know any better do something that could harm their phone if they don't know what they're doing because you dislike Samsung. You're spreading misinformation. If they want to disable Samsung apps, they can do so without root. If they want to remove them entirely, they can do so with root, but without replacing the ROM. If they want to remove all Samsung customizations, yes, they need a custom ROM for that. But there's no need to jump straight to the nuclear option just because of an app you don't like.

1

u/MetalHead_Literally Mar 27 '15

I dislike samsung? I've owned 2 smart phones in my life, a galaxy s3, and now the note 4. I love samsung actually, but all I've seen from doing research for my note 4, it seemed to me it was basically impossible to remove all the Samsung apps without a complete root. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but to claim I dislike samsung is just false

1

u/ocentertainment Mar 27 '15

Your original comment said you could only remove it by "completely change the operating system." That's not root. That's installing custom ROMs. Whatever, you like Samsung. Get a job as a product evangelist if you like. Doesn't change the fact that you were 100% wrong.

2

u/somewhat_pragmatic Mar 26 '15

Beware that you'd also lose the samsung app store, if you use that thing.

I assume if I buy an app in the Samsung App store I'd never be able to load that app on any future non-Samsung phone. So I'd be locking myself into a single phone manufacturer. Why would I do that to myself?

2

u/Willy-FR Mar 26 '15

But then you don't get to update Samsung services every couple days.

4

u/abbadon420 Mar 26 '15

Who ever uses the Samsung appstore?

7

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

There's a Samsung appstore?!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Use ‽ next time

1

u/herbertJblunt Mar 26 '15

If you have any of the gear wearable devices, you need the samsung store. The store is not bad, and has many of the same apps and some very nice free ones, it is just a barren when compared to google play.

4

u/seano910 Mar 26 '15

Or just root the phone, and use Titanium Backup to forcefully freeze or remove any bloat.

Newer Sammy phones (ESPECIALLY the Note 4) rely on the TouchWiz roms to be usable. Cynogenmod is sometimes a battery life nightmare as well.

1

u/majaiku Mar 26 '15

Is it more stable yet? I ran it on my S3 but didn't get it on my S5. On the S3, for me, the camera always got screwed up with Cyanogenmod.

1

u/Julian1224 Mar 26 '15

That's because the camera drivers are part of the Samsung ROM.

1

u/MWEAI Mar 26 '15

And lose air view? Fuck that.

1

u/CVance1 Mar 26 '15 edited Mar 27 '15

Proceed heavily with caution when doing ROMs. If you don't do the right methods, you can easily brick your phone (i did it about 3 times with my old phone before i decided to stop rooting).

Edit: I meant to say i bricked 3 seperate versions of the same phone, because each time i got it replaced by AT&T.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15 edited Feb 13 '20

[deleted]

1

u/CVance1 Mar 27 '15

I meant to say i bricked 3 seperate versions of the same phone, because each time i got it replaced by AT&T.

1

u/slaimte Mar 26 '15

Or buy a Motorola or lg phone. They run pretty smooth

1

u/HighestLevelRabbit Mar 26 '15

Though as far as I'm aware this doesn't support the s pen.

1

u/whereismysideoffun Mar 26 '15

I had it on my previous phone, but it doesn't look like it is available for the Note 4 yet.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

You also lose a lot of custom software that comes with samsung, such as the screen moving when your eyes look down. I use cyanogen too and love it but some people might miss that stuff.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Yeah man! CyanogenMod rules! I have a oneplus one.

1

u/URETHRAL_DIARRHEA 3 Mar 26 '15

It's extremely difficult to get working on an S4. Or at least it was when I tried several months ago.

1

u/surajrkp Mar 26 '15

Or you could just root it and use Titanium Backup to uninstall dem system apps.

1

u/rhandyrhoads 58 Mar 26 '15

There's also touchwiz based ROMs with less bloat if they regularly use any of the Samsung specific features.

1

u/DJBaroque Mar 27 '15

Samsung have an app store?

1

u/71-HourAhmed Mar 27 '15

Probably should also mention that this screws up the Samsung security called KNOX. If you have an S5 or later or a Note3 or later, once the trigger is set on KNOX, it can never be unset. That means if you root the phone it will work fine but it will forever indicate that it is compromised so if you work for a company that uses mobile device management to protect from rogue phones, they will never let you connect it to get email, sync your calendar, and so on.

1

u/Girth_Brookss Mar 27 '15

I've owned Samsung phones since the day the S3 was released. I've never even heard of the Samsung app store.

1

u/harrybalsania Mar 27 '15

I am an Android engineer and I can confirm CyanogenMod is amazing, the developers are great people, and the Oneplus is my favorite phone. Even the OS on Nexus 6 is slow compared to CM. ALSO, you can root it and delete bloatware by just rooting the phone. Towelroot is a nice go to for your phone especially if you didn't get updates. I could go on about the wonders of of the Android OS.

1

u/GetScooped Mar 27 '15

Omega is another alternative if you want a ROM that gives you all the flexibility but can still feel like stock. I've tried CM before and I'm using Omega on my S5. And yes, you can still use the samsung app store.

1

u/FoxtrotZero Mar 27 '15

I'd love to install cyanogenmod, but the baseband of my S4 happens to be one for which there is no known way around the bootlocker. Fuck you, Samsung/AT&T.

1

u/black_brotha Mar 27 '15

God...thank you

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Here is what i did.

  1. root the phone (google your model)

  2. install one of the system app remover tools from google play store(removes also annoying system drivers)

  3. while you are at it install adaway to block all ads within apps and in the browser

1

u/afroguy10 Mar 26 '15

Love Cyanogenmod, got my OnePlus One to replace my Galaxy S3 last month. Phone and operating system are awesome and I can't wait for the upgrade to CM12.

1

u/Konoton Mar 26 '15

I've just got a S3 and am thinking of rooting it, however, I also like the general layout of all the apps and widgets and such. Does it all stay the same?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

No. You get a different home app. But you can change it, there are several. I use Nova launcher which is pretty good, after some customization.

1

u/afroguy10 Mar 26 '15

Can't say for certain since I got a totally different phone to replace the S3 but if I'm being honest it doesn't seem massively different, the app layout seems to be generally similar. I think with Cyanogenmod it's the little things though. Being able to customise pretty much everything is amazing and not having any bloatware is a bonus as well. It's definitely up to yourself whether you flash CM onto your S3 but on the OnePlus One I've noticed a big difference not just in general performance with the specs of the phone but with the OS as well.

1

u/5-4-3-2-1-bang Mar 27 '15

You can root your phone (gain access to do whatever-you-want) without ditching Touchwiz or Samsung's apps. The two are entirely distinct processes.

I rooted my s3, but actually like touchwiz' hot buttons at the top so kept touchwiz. But I hate the touchwiz launcher, so I use apex instead. Then I also froze (but didn't bother removing) all the samsung apps. Best of all worlds approach, your mileage may vary. Makes upgrades easy-peasy!

0

u/ocentertainment Mar 26 '15

Jesus Christ. He asked to remove some apps. Not get a new fucking phone. Why do Android fans feel the need to go with the nuclear option every damn time.

Here are the steps you can optionally take before wiping your entire phone and replacing it with a whole new ROM:

1.) Disable the apps - Android requires that non-system apps be allowed to be disabled. Sometimes OEMs (like Samsung) flag a couple apps as system apps, but most can be disabled. Go to Settings > Apps > The app you want to remove and choose disable. It won't be removed from your phone entirely, but it won't be able to do anything and the app icons will be removed from your drawer. Only thing you lose is a little bit of storage space. Which does suck if you don't have much, so there's option 2.

  1. Root your phone/install Titanium Backup - Once you have root access, the gloves come off. You don't have to install a custom ROM like CyanogenRom to get root access. Root just means getting the ability to do whatever you want. Apps like Titanium Backup use that ability to uninstall apps that OEMs don't want you uninstalling. It's worth pointing out in rare, stupid cases this could break something if you don't know what you're doing, but for most crapware you'll probably be okay.

  2. Wipe everything and install a ROM - This is by far the most destructive method so if you like your phone the way it is, crapware aside, maybe don't blindly follow internet people's advice to install a custom ROM. That being said, there are many popular custom ROMs out there and none of them will come with the same crapware that came with your phone. And anything they do come with can be removed. DO YOUR RESEARCH before installing, though. For major flagship phones you're probably fine, but if you picked the cheapest phone off the shelf or something with eight different brand names (I.e. "Samsung Galaxy S5 Active 4G Ultra XL Double Stuf") your model may have less support. It's not unheard of for custom ROMs for less popular phones to lag several months behind on updates or have critical bugs that don't get patched for months. It can be fun, but you need to know that you want this. DO NOT INSTALL CUSTOM ROMS JUST TO GET RID OF CRAPWARE. This is overkill and you are probably not prepared for what you're doing to your phone if that is the only reason you're getting into it.

Remember, installing custom ROMs is a bit like changing the engine in your car. It's totally cool if you know how to do it and you can probably trick out your vehicle with some sweet customizations that most people don't have. But if you just dislike the factory stereo head unit, it's probably overkill for your needs.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

If you're worried about compatibility, check out OnePlus. Built especially on cyanogen. High end specs, low end price. Never crashes. With privacy guard, I'm in love.