Today, we will discuss how to upgrade your current Android version to Android MarshMallow in Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9500.
Why Android MarshMallow?
The reason I like Android Operating System are the increasing customizability options in the Android updates. It is also the reason I and many other users have to find some ways to get Android update when our device’s vendors are not in likely mood to do so.
Today, I am focussing light on a way to get Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 in Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9500. I’m showcasing this article because of many different reasons. Foremost of which is, I myself own this device, and I would love to use MarshMallow on my Galaxy S4.
About Custom ROM (CM 13)
First of all, I would like to specify that Custom ROM and Custom firmware are one of the same thing. Also I may refer Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9500 as i9500.
Android MarshMallow 6.0.1 is now available to install on Samsung Galaxy s4 GT-i9500 via the CyanogenMod 13, Custom ROM. This CyanogenMod 13 custom firmware is an unofficial release which is based on Android 6.0.1 and comes with various new and different features and customization tools that resemble Android Open Source Project (AOSP) ROM. But as this update/firmware has been developed by third-party developers, and not officially released by Samsung, it is still in beta and there may be quite some bugs, and it is possible that maybe a feature or 2 may be buggy or even not work at all.
About the Developer
The developer behind this project goes by the alias of Alberto96 and belongs to Italy. So far they have been able to get the video, audio, RIL and many other things working perfectly fine. Sadly, the stock camera app is not working; which means some users (not all) might face a problem. As the developer has been working on the build and is fixing bugs every now and then, I wouldn’t be surprised if those broken/buggy issues have been fixed by the time you finish reading and sharing this post.
Bugs and Workarounds
As the stock camera app is still buggy, just download any other camera app from the Google Play Store to use the camera, for e.g. Google Camera.
How to Update GT-i9500 to Android 6.0.1 MarshMallow via CyanogenMod 13 Custom Firmware
You need to have these files on a computer. So, download the ROM (279.6MB) from this link
Now, you also need to download the Google Apps Package (called GApps) from the site OpenGApps.org. Choose options –
Platform : ARM
Android : 6.0
Variant : micro
Download the package with the circular red download button below the form.
Save both files on your desktop. Don’t unzip them.
Connect your i9500 with your computer with the help of a USB cable.
Copy those zipped files to your phone’s SD card.
When the transfer is completed, unplug the USB cable, switch off your i9500 by holding the power button for a few seconds.
After switching it off, wait for a few seconds. *think about the pollution and plan on planting a tree*
Now, press the Home button, Power button, and Volume Up button simultaneously to boot the device in Recovery mode.
Once in recovery mode, use the Volume up/Volume Down buttons to scroll up/down and Power button to select an option.
First choose “wipe data factory reset” followed by “wipe cache partition” and “wipe dalvik cache”.
Then, from the same, main menu of recovery select “install zip from SD card” and “choose zip from SD card”.
Pick the Marshmallow firmware file and install CM13 Custom ROM in your Samsung Galaxy S4. Now CM13, is flashed in your device.
Repeat the same steps to flash the GApps package too.
After installation, reboot device, it may take up to 10 minutes to boot. There’s nothing to worry about.
It will boot up with CyanogenMod 13, which is based on MarshMallow 6.0.1.
Screenshot Gallery
That’s all folks.
Image source – Swapnil’s photography (Samsung Galaxy S4 image) and cdn03.androidauthority.net (Featured image).
Author – Siddhant Baranwal.
Bummer – “Siddhant doesn’t really knows how to click screenshots without assistance. Those will be uploaded when Swapnil will meet him personally, which is not going to happen anytime soon.” – Inside sources.
Today, we will discuss how to upgrade your current Android version to Android Lollipop in Micromax Canvas 2 Colours.
Why Android Lollipop?
The reason I like Android Operating System are the increasing customizability options in the Android updates. It is also the reason I and many other users have to find some ways to get Android update when our device’s vendors are not in likely mood to do so.
Today, I am focussing light on a way to get Android 5.1.1 Lollipop in a Micromax Canvas 2 Colours. I’m showcasing this article on the request a lot of my readers who own Micromax C2C. Frankly speaking, the list of people who wanted to get Android 5.1.1 on their C2Cs included me too.
How to Update Micromax C2C to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop via CyanogenMod 12.1 Custom Firmware
About Custom ROM (CM 12.1)
First of all, I would like to specify that Custom ROM and Custom firmware are one of the same thing. Also I may refer Micromax Canvas 2 Colours as C2C.
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop is now available to install on Micromax C2C via the CyanogenMod 12.1, Custom ROM. This CyanogenMod 12.1 custom firmware is an unofficial release which is based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and comes with various new and different features and customization tools that resemble Android Open Source Project (AOSP) ROM. But as this update/firmware has been developed by third-party developers, and not officially released by Micromax, it is still in beta and there may be quite some bugs, and it is possible that maybe a feature or 2 will not work completely.
About the Developer
The developer behind this project goes by the name moonrotation and belongs to Spain. So far they have been able to get the video, audio, WiFi, and SIM slots, camera and many other things working perfectly fine. Sadly, the USSD for some networks, GPS is not working; which means some users (not all) will go through a problem with calling or using any location-based service. As the developer has been working on the build and is fixing bugs every now and then, I wouldn’t be surprised if those broken/buggy issues have been fixed by the time you are reading this.
How to Flash the ROM
Material Required –
A working PC.
SmartPhone Flash Tools (SP Flash Tools).
SP Flash Tools is created by MediaTek Inc. and is a trusted software.
The following link will download the latest version of SP Flash Tools as on date 21 May 2015. Download it!
Android USB Drivers
These are needed to operate the Android device via your PC.
The following link will help you download the latest version of ADB Drivers as on date 21 May 2015. Download it!
A ROM.
A ROM will be required to flash and bring back to device to life. But remember flashing a Stock ROM (that originally came with the phone) will also help in getting your phone’s guarantee back; whereas flashing a Custom ROM (any other ROM) has a lesser chance of getting your phone un-bricked and has nothing to do with its guarantee.
You’ll need to Flash Wiko Rainbow SP Flashable ROM, download it from this link.
Follow these steps to install the ROM –
SP Flash Tools
Charge your smart phone to approximately 50 percent or above battery level.
Switch it off and remove its battery, if possible.
Install SP Flash Tools and Android USB Drivers. Download them from above download links.
Extract the Flash Wiko Rainbow SP Flashable ROM from .zip file. Place the extracted folder to the desktop for ease of access. Download link is given above.
Open the Device manager in PC. Go to Start > Run > devmgmt.msc.
Connect your phone to PC through data cable.
In the device manager, a yellow line would have appeared after the phone got connected. MT65xx preloader.
Right click on it and click Update. Browse to Desktop and click Next. A red box will appear, press Continue Installation.
Open SP Flash tool folder and click on Flash_Tool.exe.
Browse to the scatter File MT65xx_Android_scatter_emmc_PMT.txt in the folder of that ROM, which was earlier placed on Desktop.
Make sure all the boxes are checked. Then press the Download button.
Then re – connect your mobile phone. You will notice some progress on the CPU screen in the form of blue and red colour.
After a while, you’ll get a Green circle.
Disconnect your phone. Plug in the battery and switch it on.
Now follow these steps –
Download CyanogenMod 12.1 from the given download link.
Place that downloaded zip in your SD card.
Switch off your phone.
Press Power button + Volume up button + Volume Down button simultaneously to enter recovery mode.
Wait for the buzz (vibration) and release those buttons.
Then press Volume Up button, you will see an interface after that click on “install zip”.
Then select “choose zip from SD card ” if your downloaded zip is in internal SD or “choose zip from SD card if your downloaded zip is in external SD.
Browse to your cyanogenmod-unofficial***.zip click on it then click Yes.
You’ll see “installing update”, wait till it completes.
After installation, reboot device, it may take up to 10 minutes to boot. There’s nothing to panic.
It will boot up with CyanogenMod 12.1, which is based on Lollipop 5.1.1.
Screenshots Gallery
If you really liked my post, you can buy me a pint of beer, here, along with other good stuff.
That’s all folks.
Original Thread – xda-developers.com.
Image source – xda-developers.com (Featured image) and Siddhant’s forgotten Micromax Canvas 2 Colours (Screesnshots).
Author – Siddhant Baranwal.
Editor – Abdul Rehman.
Co – Editor – Swapnil Jha.
The design of YU Yuphoria is quite impressive and it does manages to give a premium feel. The rear cover is made up of plastic & rubber and is removable. The rounded frame gives a good grip on the phone, complemented by the matte finish on the rear. It is available in 2 variants Buffed Steel with black cover and Champagne Gold with white cover. I bought the Buffed Steel version.
The front comes with a 5 inch display with thick bezels on the top and bottom, and YU Logo at the top which further contributes to premium design and feel.
On the top, there’s a 3.5 mm audio jack and at the base there’s a micro USB port, which can be used for charging or data transfer.
There are 3 buttons, all on the right side of the phone. The power button is in between the volume rocker. Although it’s an unconventional arrangement, but it’s quite handy.
At the back side of the Phone, the camera is situated in the mid position, with a metallic ring surrounding it, which can confuse you for a ringed flash but the flash is only a small portion.
Speakers
At the base, there is a grill which have the speakers under them. There’s also a YU branding on top of the speaker grill.
Display
The 3 buttons are on-screen and are thus customizable, that is, you can add, edit or remove those buttons, which I feel is great. The display is protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The display sports a pixel density of about 294 ppi, although every benchmark results shows a ppi at about 320, which could be an error on the sensor’s part. The phone also have great viewing angles and no distortion of colour is visible.
As per my experience, watching movies on Yuphoria was a pleasant experience.
Hardware
Processor
The YU Yuphoria houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 MSM8916 system on chip which has 64-bit1.2GHzQuad Core processor Cortex A53 with Adreno 306 GPU, along with a 2GB RAM.
It also offers 16GB storage, out of which 10.56GB is available to users to store data. Usually in a 16 GB Internal memory, 11.8 GB is available, but it seems like the customizations provided by Cyanogenmod have eaten about a gig of space more in Yuphoria.
But as opposed to many other flagship phones, Yuphoria does support micro SD of up to 32 GB, which can give you a total of 48 GB of storage.
Sensors
Here is a screenshot showcasing a number of sensors. This screenshot was taken from CPU-Z App.
It supports Multi touch up to 5 fingers, although the majority of apps don’t require more than 2 fingers.
Dimensions
It measures 8.2 mm thick and weighs about 142 grams. It is 142 mm long and 73 mm wide. It have ~66.3% screen-to-body ratio.
Calling and Network
Yuphoria is a dual SIM phone, in which both the slots support 4G LTE SIM card. But it supports Micro SIM only.
It seems it is a future proof phone regarding 4G networks.
The Phone App supports TrueCaller and TrueDialer integration. There are also dual mics for noise cancellation.
Camera
An 8 MegaPixel Camera, graces the rear side with an f/2.2 aperture and an LED flash unit whereas the front-facing camera is a 5 MegaPixel camera.
The 8 MP camera comes with a OmniVision OV8865 sensor and with an 86 degree wide-angle lens. It can easily capture high quality videos at 1080p.
The Cyanogen OS offers various customizable camera controls like size, quality, shutter speed, focus duration, focus mode, and ISO, among others. Vertical swipe changes scene mode and horizontal swipe lets you browser pictures and videos previously shot.
The app offers Slow motion video recording (Time Lapse), Panorama, Burst and HDR modes.
The video camera also includes a pause button, which pleased me a lot. Many high-end phones don’t have this small feature.
I suggest get the Google Camera app from Play Store, which allows to take Photo Spheres as well. If you are not aware of Photo Sphere have to capability to take 360 degree photograph which you can show anyone on your phone itself. Scroll to the bottom of the post to check out the Yuphoria’s Camera’s photography.
Battery
The device is powered by a removable Lithium Ion 2230 mAh battery.
It takes about only 2 hours to fully charge the phone using its AC adapter. The battery life is nice, I wouldn’t say too good. On a full charge, the battery lasted about a bit more than a day, with moderate to heavy usage. I left location services and cellular data switched on for the whole time, occasionally using WiFi as well. I used a number of different apps like WhatsApp, Telegram etc. Also did gaming like, Leo’s Fortune for an hour and a couple of races in Asphalt 8. But I expected it to last more as earlier I used an iPhone 4S with only 1432 mAh battery which on full charge lasted about 20 hours. So, the battery life is nice but not too good.
Software & UI
Yuphoria comes with an Android 5.0.2 Lollipop in the form of CyanogenMod 12 ROM. The USP or the best part of this phone is its customizability, and thanks to Cyanogen, which offers multiple ways to customize it.
Pre-installed Apps
It comes with some pre-installed apps, in which some of the apps can be removed. Following are the apps –
AudioFX
AudioFX lets you customize the audio output. It can’t be removed.
ScreenCast
ScreenCast lets you record your on-screen navigations with the recording. It also registers where you’ve touched the screen as well. It can’t be removed as well.
YUniverse
YUniverse is the phone’s own browser which is basically a customized version of Opera browser. It can be permanently removed. In case you have uninstalled it and want to use it again, download YUniverse from here.
Baton
Baton is an app which helps you share apps between different Android devices. I prefer SHAREit app for this purpose. It is removable. In case you have uninstalled it and want to use it again, download Baton from here.
TrueCaller
TrueDialler integration is available if you use TrueCaller. It is removable. In case you have uninstalled it and want to use it again, download TrueCaller from here.
GApps or Google Apps
Some Google Apps are obviously pre-installed, which are Google Calender, Google Chrome, Google Drive, GMail, Google, Google Settings, Google Plus, Google Hangouts, Google Maps, Google News & Weather, Google Photos, Google Play Books, Google Play Games, Google Play Movies & TV Shows, Google Play Music, Google Play Newsstand, Google Play Store, Google Voice Search, YouTube. None of which are removable.
Other native Apps
Other native apps include a Calculator, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Downloads, Cyanogen Email, File Manager, FM Radio, Gallery, Messaging, Phone, SIM Toolkit, Sound recorder.
Themer
Yuphoria sports a new Themer feature, which lets you customize the fonts and wallpapers from different themes and make your own custom theme. You can use this to customize almost any app.
To use it, go to Settings > Themes > App Themer. You will get a floating widget with a paintbrush icon. Open any app like Settings, tap on the widget, and choose a theme. The theme will be applied. See screenshots Gallery for Themer.
Customizations
The software offers a high level of customization and lets you tweak the lock screen, status bar and notifications panel as per your liking. You can choose to enable direct access to the quick settings panel by pulling the right edge.
You can also choose program navigation buttons to perform different actions. For instance, you can make the volume rocker keys wake up the device.
This is just the tip of the iceberg and the phone offers customization at every level thanks to the OS. It’s also one of the cheapest phones to offer double tap to wake and tap to sleep screen gesture.
Privacy Guard
Privacy Guard is a built-in privacy management tool available in CyanogenMod, which aims to help you control the privacy and security of apps installed on your device. You can set preferences for each and every app installed.
To enable Privacy Guard, go to Settings > Privacy > Privacy Guard. Enable it if it is not enabled by default.
You can also select specific apps to be Guarded from, by tapping the lock icon beside that app.
iDevice users must be familiar with these permissions.
Performance
For a budget phone like Yuphoria, 2GB of RAM is more than sufficient. In terms of benchmarks, the numbers were quite good. The phone didn’t lag a single time in usage of over 5 days.
Origin
Unlike what we expected, the Phone is assembled in China and not in India.
Root
The phone is not pre-rooted as many were expecting but supports rooting.That is, you would not void its warranty if you root your YU Yuphoria.
I do not intent to root this device right now since primary reason for rooting is to add a Custom ROM, but Yuphoria comes with the Cyanogenmod out of the box. Though I do intend to root when necessary.
“I’m already using latest Android with a nice Custom ROM, what else do I need… …for a few days.”
– says Swapnil, a happy Yuphoria owner.
Known Problems
Software bugs
Even after removing the plug, it may show charging for a small time.
When I checked the battery usage for the first time, all I could see was a vague graph with no usage and time was in negative. LOL
When I tried to run a movie, the phone rebooted. Later, I realized that the movie file was corrupted, but still, a reboot is too much.
Hardware Issues
The back cover is hard to use, and it takes a considerable time in properly opening or closing the cover.
Known Limitations
There is no Notification LED, which may arouse some criticism. There is no OTG support as well. These 2 could have been valuable additions to the phone’s already overwhelming assets.
Heating issues
Yes, it does get heated sometimes, but don’t follow the rumors, The rubberized back and the insulated metallic frame don’t allow the heat to burn you or something like that.
User’s verdict
If you want a good Android smart phone in low-budget then its one of the best phones to get. Though you won’t be able to boast in front of your friends, since no phone comes under 7k, which you can boast of.
“The Yuphoria makes for a good first smart phone, a good built premium feel smart phone, a good gift, a great new Android phone if you are replacing something in this price bracket, or even a second phone to already have a special device. The Yuphoria will not impress the true geeks, the power-hungry or even the benchmark crazy. The Camera is good, the battery is good and phone call capabilities are excellent. Cyanogen makes for the best experience of “Raw Android,” and the Yuphoria gives it at a mighty impressive price tag.
Just like any other domain, you do have alternatives from Lenovo and Xiaomi. But none of them run Cyanogen, and none of them are made of metal.”
YU Yuphoria was released in the May of 2015 as a to the YU Yureka which was released earlier in January 2015 by YU, a subsidiary of Micromax. YU Yureka was the first phone released under the YU tag. At the price point of Rs 9k, Yureka provided many specs which were only to be found in flag-ship phones. Yuphoria, released after a few months is kind of a down scaled version of the Yureka but have its own strengths to boast on.
Without any further words, enjoy the video.
Stay tuned for YU Yuphoria: Review. Give your views in comments below or on YouTube.
Today we are gonna discuss about a common Benchmarking tool which is widely used to benchmark phones and devices based on the ARM architecture, known as the Antutu Benchmark.
What is Benchmark?
With such rapid development in world of mobile devices, it is getting complicated for users to choose a dream device of theirs. Here comes, a Benchmarking app in vision, it will help a user to benchmark his or her device and get a specific score which one can use to compare his device to a variety of different devices in spite of many differences in both the devices, like different software, hardware, operating device etc.
Why is Antutu Benchmark better?
Antutu 5The benchmark applications Antutu Benchmark gives a device a very precise and accurate score on the basis of its performance in a variety of tests. It gives it score in every test. And adds the sum total of all tests to give the device its final score.
Unlike other benchmarks, it provides the user to choice to customize the number of test to run.
Did we mentioned, it’s free to use…
It tests the device by testing the following –
UX (Multitask, Runtime)
UX means the test of User Experience of the Device.
CPU
CPU means the tests of Central Processing Unit of the device.
GPU
GPU means the test of Graphics Processing Unit of the device. The graphics like screen resolution and gaming graphics (both 2D and 3D Graphics) are tested.
RAM
RAM means the test of Random Access Memory of the device. This memory is allocated to different applications to run in realtime.
IO (Storage I/O, Database I/O)
IO means the tests of Input and Output of the device. This test the storage speeds and database accessing speeds of the device. In simple words, it is the data transfer speeds of the device.
How to get it?
Antutu Benchmark is easily available for a wide range of devices. It can be downloaded for any Android device (Play Store), iOS Device (App Store), as well as Windows Phone (Windows Store). It is free to download on all the listed devices.
How to use?
Antutu Test
You can download for your device from the above download links.
Install Antutu Benchmark on your device.
Launch the app.
It will probably show a Test Button.
And a lot of tests to choose from. You should choose all for a better overall result.
Wait a for a few minutes.
After a process is complete, you will see the final score of your device.
User’s verdict
Over 50 million (that is 50,000,000) downloads of Antutu Benchmark have been done from the Google Play Store only.
Today we are gonna discuss about how to port Custom recoveries in an Android device. So, let’s start.
What is a custom recovery?
A custom recovery is a third-party recovery tool environment. Flashing (aka installing) this recovery environment onto your device replaces the default stock recovery environment. This is a bit like flashing a Custom ROMs like CyanogenMod — but, instead of replacing your device’s Android operating system, it replaces the recovery environment.
Why to install a custom recovery?
A custom recovery environment will do the same things as the stock Android recovery. However, it will also have additional features. Custom recoveries also have the ability to create and restore device backups. Custom recoveries allow you to install Custom ROMs. ClockworkMod even offers a “ROM Manager” app that allows you to access many of these features from a running Android system — this app requires a custom recovery installed to function properly.
How to port custom recovery?
First of all your Android device should be rooted to do this. To know if your device is rooted or not, download Root Checker from the Google Play Store. To root your android device, you may prefer the Ways of Rooting post.
Download TWRP/COT/PhilZ or CWM on your PC from any Mediatek device with same screen resolutions.
Today, we are gonna discuss the second most coined term by Android users that is Cyanogen Mod, which is only less than the term Android itself. We will try to cover every aspect of CynaogenMod in the following article….
What is Cyanogen Mod?
CyanogenMod is an enhanced open source custom ROM for Android devices.
Features supported by CyanogenMod include native theming support, FLAC audio codec support (which means it can play a larger variety of media file formats), a large Access Point Name list (which means better and easily configurable IP Address settings), an OpenVPN client, an enhanced reboot menu, supportfor Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB tethering, CPU over-clocking and other performance enhancements, soft buttons and other “tablet tweaks“, toggles in the notification pull-down (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS), app permissions management, as well as other interface enhancements. In many cases, CyanogenMod may increase performance and reliability compared with official firmware releases.
Difference between Android vs. CyanogenMod?
CyanogenMod 12
Once or twice a year, the Vanilla Android Open Source Project (known as AOSP) is internally developed, then released to the public, by Google. They give the source code to anyone who wants to download it. The CyanogenMod community, consisted mostly of unpaid volunteers and enthusiasts from around the world, downloads this newest Android code and “ports” it to dozens of new or old leagcy devices. At the same time, other CyanogenMod developers start adding features, fixes, and improvements that Google didn’t include to the CyanogenMod code, which benefits all the devices. The CyanogenMod community has a whole infrastructure for people to build and test experimental versions, report bugs, and contribute back to the source code.
Sometimes features that started in CyanogenMod have appeared in newer version of “official” Android update. And every time Android does a new “code dump” of their latest version, CyanogenMod benefits from Google’s changes.
In this way, CyanogenMod is one (but not the only) community distribution of what started as Vanilla AOSP. The Android community is vibrant, with numerous “modders” and “themers” and “performance enhancers” taking the source code and doing incredible things to it. Generally, there is a spirit of sharing knowledge and empowering people to experiment with controlling their devices, often giving old phones new life, and hopefully having fun in the process.
Why should one care?
CM is an open-source alternate OS intended to replace the one pre-installed on your smart phones and tablets.
If you’ve got an older device that isn’t getting updates anymore, or if your device seems unusually slow, or maybe you’re sick of spyware, adware, and other unwanted garbage on your phone that cam pre-installed and you can’t remove…
Maybe your device is missing features or has been otherwise artificially limited in functionality. Perhaps you just could use a boost in performance…
Or maybe you’d like to be more confident that your operating system has included some of the latest bug fixes…
If so, CM might be for you.
Why is it important or better than other alternatives?
The core ideas are the same throughout CM releases:
Secure
Light footprint
Bloat-free
Customizable
Open
This translates into an abundance of features that let you truly own your phone.
