My rooting story

10 steps of my rooting road:

1. I've started my rooting road as I am still using the limited internal storage N7000 (was top model 4-5 years ago?!).
2. Many ways could be found online, but I've found a simple way with an app: Kingroot. 
3. It's an app that you can download on their website and install directly with the phone alone.
4. It also able to root my other phone (Redmi 1S) which it's a bit complicated
5. My own limitation is: Just root but NO Change in ROM (because I am using a company smart phone).
6. It was an interesting experience as you can use most of the root apps after. 
7. For a phone with limited internal storage, you wish to use some apps like app2sd to save some space for more apps. Another apps you think of would be speeding it up by twisting ram with tune up or freezing unused system app etc. 
8. Beware of moving too much thing to SD especially system app as it might cause something irreversible (this time, I lost my factory video player and never able to install it again)
9. Things happen when I've found bootloop appeared frequently (phone reboot itself all of a sudden and stay in the brand logo screen forever). It's something that drain your battery and causing lots of frustrations. My method to get the phone back to normal: (1) remove the battery, (2) restart the thing in recovery mode (press volume up + home button and switch on the phone) (3) wipe cache partition (4) reboot the phone. Sometimes you might need to leave the battery out of the phone over an hour in order to work.
10. Finally, I have to unroot the phone with Kingroot itself and no more bootloop till now (almost 1 month).

Maybe because I didn't install a new rom after rooting to cause this problem... But the ultimate solution to get some internal memory is to do a factory restore! Of course you have to backup all your information before doing it. The worst backup at the moment is whatsapp as I still found there's much problem with google drive. All I can say good luck to you with whatsapp (maybe that's why a few whatsapp backup app appear in play store).

Feel free to share your story below. :)

Data saving: Opera max, Neopard, Onavo extend

I am trying to test all these apps and see how easy and how save they are...

1. Opera Max
2. Onavo Extend
3. Neopard


 1. Opera Max
pro:
- easy interface
- block app option

 con:
- work at the background after disconnection (eating up battery?) -> solution: stop it in app manager and greenify it (abruptly!)

 2. Onavo Extend
pro:
- easy to use as 1

 con:
- 2 background process after disconnection
- block contents of my comic app (not able to load/ display)

 3. Neopard
pro:
 - takes time to load
- auto switch off when switching off the app that using network
- showing clearly how much data save, significantly..(?)

 con:
 - slow or blocking loading of my comic app
- Final verdict: use Opera Max as it can load my comic app (one of the main use of my phone)

 welcome for any sharing

 ps. someone has done similar review already:
https://aprotip.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/how-to-get-double-of-your-mobile-data-plan-extend-data-plan-using-data-saving-cloud-compression-technology/

大陸手機裝 google play

参考了很多網上方法:

 a. http://www.moonlit.me/%E5%A4%A7%E9%99%B8%E6%B0%B4%E8%B2%A8%E6%89%8B%E6%A9%9F%E5%AE%89%E8%A3%9Dgoogle-play-store%E6%9C%8D%E5%8B%99%E5%95%86%E5%BA%97-5439.html


 b. http://rogerkungpublic.blogspot.hk/2014/04/androidgoogle-googlegoogleservicesframe.html


 c. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2547054


 不太成功。

最後用以下方式:

 1. 先裝豌豆夾 (https://www.wandoujia.com/)

 2. 在裡頭找 "谷歌安装器" (http://www.wandoujia.com/apps/com.muzhiwan.gsfinstaller)

 3. 裝上並打開運行

 4. 完成

 問題:手機要 root嗎?

 答: 我裝的時候已 root 了(因之前試不同方法)


 希望幫到大家!

Browser

1. Dolphin
- able to play flash
- fast
- problem with google sync add-in (dupplicate bookmarks appeared..!)

2. Dolphin zero
- privacy, no history without trace when leave
- light weight

3. Chrome
- multipage
- able to syn pc browser
- could be slow
- not able to play flash

5. Chrome beta
- similar to chrome with ore features
- regular updates
- could be slow
- not able to play flash

4. Opera mini
- light weight
- fast
- could not display mobile site in some of the webpage: e.g. taobao.com
- uninstall straight away.. :(

Overall: Currently using Chrome beta or Dolphin zero!

Camera Apps

Criteria:  faster than stock in launch, better control, easy to use

1. Camera FX ZOOM
- pro
- easy interface

2.  Fast camera lite
- auto silent
- no after shot view
- bit easy to focus

3. Google camera
- sphere photo
- touch spot menu
- wrong selection display in menu..(when choosing scene)

3. VSCO
- cool interface
- cool filter
- required resources

4. Carousel (for dropbox)
- good display
- not necessary
- use huge resource
- takes time to open app

5. Fluv
- good display of photos in timeline
- share whole day as album to others
- takes time to open app

6. Pixal Express
- good editing interface, add notes and words on photo easily

7. Open Camera
- light
- install in SD card
- lock-screen ok
- good adjustments

On-going:
currently testing VSCO, using PE for note adding, will see what it can do.. seems higher level class than instagram (need account)

Updates: now using Open camera mainly

Launcher

Criteria: smooth, less resources, less privacy

1) Miui
- Nice and neat look
- smooth interface
- widget compatible (mostly)
- long loading time when switch back from apps to home
- most privacy needed
- movable wallpaper

2. Go launcher
- versatile
- many themes

3. Atom launcher
- fast and responsive
- many themes, compatible to other launcher
- disappear apps periodically

4. Aviate launcher
- good design
- auto sorted
- need invitation code (need google around)
- fast response
- limited widget use

5. Buzz launcher
- highly customized
- downloaded themes fr others
- battery drained..?

6. Google home
- connect to google live
- good icon
- not regionalised in here
- use huge network resource and thus battery drain..

7. Home widget launcher
- simple and fashion design
- for phone user (people who use smartphone for communication) and not for app user
- light and fast response

8. Smart Launcher
- classify apps into gp
- simple home screen for fast assess
- no widget in free mode

9. Apus launcher
- light and fast..? (claim)
- get stuck in screen, not able to move

10 Launcher+
- light weight
- less rights to access
- no widget display in N7000...
- not much difference from Touchwiz?!

11. Solo launcher
- much like touchwiz
- highly customerized
- Solo store like play store
- gestures

12. Z launcher
- Big brand Nokia
- need too much personal info..?
- just script a word to search apps and contact.. (how about Chinese characters? not supported!)
- no widget (no shopping list, no calendar, no weather...etc)
- still developing.. (and I am testing my patient to switch back to google launcher..?!)
- if u don't mind without widget.. try it..!
- no landscape view
- only English display

13. Nano launcher
- very small size (2M)
- widget page ok (fix?), pull down
- neat and easy display frequent use apps
- little battery usage

14. Arrow (by Microsoft)
- very like Nano launcher above
- frequent app in front page
- built-in reminder, note list
- no landscape view
- widget page
- page editable

15 Vire Launcher
- looks cool
- freeze to black screen when changing theme

16. Action Launcher
- good design on side-bar, very handy
- takes time to reload from reboot or changing launcher

17. C-launcher
- similar to default launcher (touchwitz) but can change theme
- light and take less resources

On-going:
Was using Buzz, but found battery drained..?
currently using Aviate for quite a while, found suitable and neat easy. Only lack of full page calendar widget page which S Planner woun't help. Adapting with Widget Shade with Calendar widget as a sub.. looking for anything more interesting later..
Currently using Arrow, seems smooth

Feel free to suggest some! :)

Finding File Manager (Cloud Drive) Apps

Crteria:  easy use,  good display, multiple cloud drives handle

1. Astro
Link:
- good display, nice icon look
- not able to handle 2 accounts in a single cloud

2. Es
Link:
- similar to Astro
- can handle multiple accounts in single cloud

Choice:  2