Optimizing MIUI

Now I own a few phones with different specification and rom running on each one. The Lenovo A766, Xiomi Note and Xiomi 1S are running different version of MIUI, a highly customized Android.

Since 50% of my blog readers are from chinaphonearena, the chances of you, the readers are already or had or considering of flashing MIUI are very high. So, Im going to share one simple and fast method of improving the MIUI,which are known to be a little bit laggy (even with a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM).

Disclaimer - As usual, you are responsible if anything bad happened to your phone. I had tested this methods on all the three models stated above with success.

What you need

1. A rooted smartphone running a MIUI rom (in my case, the 1S, with JHCMIBF37 firmware).
2. Any backup software capable of freezing apps (especially system apps) such as the Titanium Backup Pro (TB). I would recommend you to freeze the apps first before deleting them. If your phone behave normally (and with better performance), go ahead and delete the apps, if necessary.

I was inform that the App Freeze can also get the job done for free but untested by me.

Steps

Lets freeze so apps!

1. Reboot into your custom recovery (CWM or Carliv or TWRP) and do a nandroid backup. Safety first. You can fall back on this backup if anything goes wrong.
2. Boot into MIUI and launch the TB app.
3. If you are connected to the Xiomi Cloud service, go ahead and log out of the Xiomi account.
4. Search for "Mi Cloud Framework" and press on it. A popup menu will be displayed with various options. Select the Freeze option.
5. Repeat the freezing process for "Sync with Mi Cloud" and "Xiomi Assistant".
6. Reboot your phone.

Find and freeze those apps

Optional apps to be frozen

1. All the live wallpapers & live wallpaper picker (if you dont use them).
2. Home screen tips.
3. System (MIUI) launcher - make sure you have other launcher such as the Nova/Apex Launcher installed and set the them as the default launcher first!
4. Other apps that you dont really use (such as Google Play Movie, in my case, at least)

Before freezing the apps - 17+++ mark

Good luck!

How to flash the cwm recovery and root the THL T6S

DISCLAIMER: DO this at your own risk. Using incorrect scatter file, or incorrect CWM/Carliv can brick your phone. I won’t be responsible or liable if anything bad happened to your android device.

What’s you need to have.

• USB Cable & PC
• SP Flash Tool software ver 3.1304
• ADB VCOM Drivers
• Scatter file for the THL T6S
• CWM recovery img for the THL T6S (rename it to recovery.img after you had download it)
• UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.99.zip or newer version of it (copy it to the phone's internal memory)

The SOP aka instructions

1. Download all files above and install the drivers.
2. Download, extract and run SP Flash Tool.
3. Click scatter loading on right side of SP Flash Tool and browse to where the scatter file is.
4. Uncheck all the boxes except for recovery.
5. Click the recovery line and browse to where the downloaded CWM is stored.
6. Click download at the top of SP Flash Tool.
7. A warning will pop up letting you know that not all items are selected. Click OK.
8. Remove the battery from the phone. If you attached the battery, SP Flash Tool will not be able to detect the THL T6S.
9. Connect the THL T6S to PC via USB – At this point, you will see the preloader  at the bottom of the SP Flash Tool is communicating with the PC. The bar at the bottom of SP Flash Tool will start to move indicating that the file is being transferred. At the end of the flash process, you will see a green circle indicating that the flash process had finished successfully.
10. Disconnect the USB cable from the phone and Put the battery back into the phone.
11. Boot into cwm recovery by holding vol up + power button for a few seconds. 
12. You will see a boot selection menu. Press the vol up button navigate to the Recovery Mode option.
13. Press the vol down button to enter the newly flashed cwm recovery. Take note that the cwm will be upside down. Navigate through the options by using the vol up & vol down button.
14. Select Install Zip From SD and then select the UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.99.zip.
15. Confirm the installation and then reboot the phone.

* For my friends from htcmania who are having problem streaming youtube videos, i would suggest for you to go to advance wifi setting and turn off WiFi optimization. See if that will help.

Getting the best out of you Android Device

Im currently easing down a level or two on my photography adventures. Its not because the lack of interest but the fact that Im a bit short of funding (to buy the new Canon 6D.. :P!

The Samsung Galaxy W and TSM U4 Merbau

I currently own two Android smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy W and also a china rebranded TSM U4 Merbau (what a creative selection of naming your device TSM). The W is currently running the SlimBean ROM, which had bring a welcomed improvement both in the interface and performance wise. The U4 on the other hand, is running ICS 4.0.3, not that I'm not interested to flash a custom ROM into it but the face that there is no custom ROM for it.. 

With that in mind, Im not going to tweak the W. Instead, I would like to squeeze out whatever juice that the U4 have to offer.

If you are interested to perform the same tweaking and benchmarking on your device, you need these

* Dont hold me responsible if you bricked your device while doing any of these. Do it on your own free will. Im assuming that you have the basic knowledge of changing the settings and have a logic state of mind.

SuperSU and Superuser standard app icon

1. A rooted android device. Required.
Yes, you need to root your device first. To some (even the person who sell me the TSM U4, rooted means upgrading the stock android ROM to a newer version. I tried my best not to laugh at him and just give him a big smile instead). How do you know if your device is rooted? Simple, look at your apps list. Do you see an app named Superuser or SuperSU? No, then your device is not rooted yet. Go and ask uncle Google on how to root your device ( type "root galaxy w" for an example).

BusyBox, Antutu, Pimy My Rom and RebootMenu

 2. Busybox installed and given root permission. Required.
After you had install the app, make sure run run it and give it the root permission. I used to installed it and thought that it will automatically get the root permission..

3. Antutu benchmark. Does not need root permission. Required.
 The standard testing application used to benchmark various electronic devices. Im not going to argue if its the best or the most accurate. We just need a reliable app to test our device. Im only testing the CPU, RAM and Database IO performance.

4.  Pimp My Rom. installed and given root permission. Required.
 The application used to change all the settings of the android device shown here. You may choose other similar apps.

5. RebootMenu and given root permission. Not required.
 Simplify the rebooting process of our device.

6. A good 2 to 3 hours of spare time. Required.

So, are you ready? Go ahead and benchmark your device. Below are the summary of settings used/changes and it's result. You may change the various options available in the Pimp My Rom apps and decide the best settings to be used on your android device.