Literally I have done nothing useful.
I've done research but not on my actual thesis that I'm supposed to be working on. Instead of scientific research I've done plenty of semi-scientific studies on 1) implementing BARF/RAW feeding with cats and 2) customizing my Android phone, the latter of which I'll discuss here now.
It started with a simple question which was "how do I get text menus and remove homescreen icon labels?*" (because I saw a nice theme on LINE Deco and wanted to do something like that). That led to endless hours of testing different launchers, downloading icon packs etc. I ended up with Apex Launcher, which was running smoothest on my not-so-powerful Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. It has no adds and it does everything I need completely free. There are some features that are tempting me to go premium, as well as simply to show support for something that's really great even if you don't pay for it (because I'm very sick of free apps full of ads & locked features that render it practically useless). Others that I tried were too bloated or simply not what I wanted, or had too limited free features + ads (how can I know whether I'll want to purchase the app if I can't actually test most of the features?).
Well that's where the customization started. *SimpleText allowed me to create text icons to replace default icons, so that's text menus for ya. It took some time before I realize how it can actually be utilized to its full advantage (i.e. just create a layout, save that, and then when you save icons you can just use the same layout and type different text and create all icons in one session like that - in the free version background color settings aren't saved so every time I closed and opened the app again, I had to set the transparency again to remove the border/background from sight). Also it would've saved time if I hadn't cursed the app for not saving my icons and re-doing them for 5 times because Gallery didn't show them, but it turned out that the Gallery doesn't always update correctly, and the icons do actually exist in their folder.
Somehow I ended up with a custom ROM. The thought behind was pretty much: I already dropped my phone and the screen cracked from the bottom corner (there's a crack that goes across the bottom of the visual screen, and some cracks where the 'back' touch button is) so warranty's pretty much void anyways. Also only about 6 months of warranty left anyways, and there's no official android 4.3 update coming in the near future, so why not? I installed CyanogenMod 10.2 something by maclaw. Oh dear god it took days to figure out what exactly is needed to first of all ROOT my phone (actually root isn't even needed for installing CM 10.2! but it was my first step before deciding on the custom ROM). Didn't want to strain my phone with Kitkat (4.4+) although CM-version of it is available for S3 mini. Maybe I'll try that next.
The main reason I wanted to try custom ROM was actually to avoid purchasing one app. HAH! I value my time at 2€/day. Ok ok, I like trying and learning things like that, so it wasn't just being cheap. Anyways, I read that android 4.3 enables lock screen widgets. Sounds so cool right? Who needs WidgetLocker? OH WAIT, someone decided that feature to be "you can add multiple pages with 1 widget/page to your lock screen". Ok, useful for some, but not for me, as I just wanted to make my lock screen match the overall theme. This I figured out after spending hours in reading everything I could about modifying my phone like that and having all the right kinds of backups to revert back to normal if something bad happened, and then actually installing the new ROM. (I was able to restore most of my temporary-promotion-code apps in their upgraded state, I think there was only one that didn't want to co-operate.) So in the end I had to purchase WidgetLocker anyways. And the next day "app of the day" offered C-Locker free, but I'm trying to convince myself that it's not as nice as WidgetLocker.
Anyways, I sort of like CM, but I'm not entirely convinced just yet. I don't know which parts of that is android 4.3 and which parts are CM, so it's a bit of a dilemma. I've had a couple of sudden reboots so that's a negative, also the button backlights light up randomly sometimes, but I have to go through all apps and their settings for how their notifications work. I might have had reboots with the stock ROM too, though, but I'm not 100 % sure about that. One serious disadvantage is that I can't get Samsung keyboard and none of the app keyboards feel right. Kii keyboard was nice in features, but it lacked the intelligence of suggesting the next word (before anything is typed). SwiftKey handles that, but lacks the customization. And of course it's just a matter of adjustment, but I just can't type correctly with either of those and it feels like their correction suggestions are just bad (probably because I've been using the Samsung keyboard for 1,5 years and it has learnt stuff). So go back to stock or learn another keyboard, or learn another keyboard & pay for it.
Another issue is that my battery gets drained in 4 hours (screen consumes like 80% of that) and I'm not sure whether that's the modifications I've made or that the battery is shit. It's a replacement battery since the stock one died after a year, but it's not that old yet... Also curiously there's no longer a mobile data toggle in the settings menu, so I have to use power toggles to do that (but also something I could automate with Tasker/Llama, have to experiment with that, I already have a profile for Llama that disables mobile data after I've connected to my home Wi-Fi for longer than 30 seconds).
So I don't know. It seems such a hassle to revert back or to try a new ROM. One good aspect is that I get rid of Samsung's and Google's bloatware. But I guess with root + Titanium Backup I could just freeze those apps?
So I'm trying to figure out which stuff I need android 4.3 for, and which can be done in stock (but rooted) 4.1.2. I need root at least for AdAway, MiXplorer, WidgetLocker and Titanium Backup (those have requested Superuser rights). I'm not sure if I need it for Tasker, Zooper Widget Pro (to do the things I'm doing with them). Rooting is quite necessary, and it's not really an issue. Just gives you permissions to do more stuff. I just can't remember what I can do with android 4.1.2 vs what I can do with 4.3.x. Some of these features I don't know if I can get in 4.1.2 are
- Taking screenshot natively by pressing power+home (I had an app for that in 4.1.2 but I'm not sure if I still could've done that without the app)
- Lock screen button actions (not REALLY needed, also doesn't work in the WidgetLocker screen)
- Quick unlock ("Unlock automatically when the correct PIN/password is entered")
- Expanded desktop (hides status bar from desktop, but Apex Launcher does that too)
- Quiet hours (Llama can do that)
- Set allowed screen rotation (e.g. 0 & 270 degrees only)
- Blacklist for calls (maybe I could import a blacklist from somewhere)
Here are screenshots of my phone's theme currently:
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