mikejeep

Thanks for the kind words! Yes, news has been slow on the public front; I have been spending a LOT of time working on the app, but it's mostly fixes and testing behind-the-scenes that hasn't resulted in any updates yet. The freezing/crashing issues that started with the last update or two is driving me nuts, and I am trying not to release any updates until that is fixed. It's affecting too many people (including myself!). The Maps issue just started popping up; it is related to the latest update from Google. I'm aware of it (happening to me too) and hope to figure out a way around it. -Mike

Android's telephony structure doesn't deal with the "fallback from LTE to CDMA 1X for calls" concept very well yet. If you put your N5 in LTE-only mode and check your notification pulldown, you will see it shows "Searching for Service" instead of "Sprint", even though you are on Sprint's network. A lot of the CDMA code in place now essentially assumes a 1X connection is always present. I'm sure the false roaming indicator appearing is because of something along those lines; I have also seen it. -Mike

Yeah I noticed that immediately too, <facepalm>.. -Mike

If you're suffering from lousy call quality, that isn't specifically because you are connected on 1900 MHz. Something else is wrong. Absent all other factors, 1900 and 800 calls should sound the same. Sprint has not once indicated that 800 service is expected to be of a higher call quality. -Mike

The recent 4.3 update is not a public release, it is only a beta accessible to specific users (i.e. those who contact Mo directly and ask to participate). It wouldn't make any sense to be an OTA, because that would be pushed out to everyone. -Mike

Because it doesn't "need" it. If there is a reason, it's because the Nexus 5 is such a strong RF performer, and happens to find more usable 1900 MHz signals than the Note 3 has so far. I feel like a lot of people are starting to believe that being connected to 800 is "better" than being connected to 1900, and I do not feel that is correct. The general benefit of 800 is better signal penetration. If you are already connected to a usable 1900 signal, there is no need to switch to 800. It's not any faster. You're not missing anything. -Mike

From a technical standpoint, that field can probably only be populated with integers. Of course they could handle it much better than just showing 0, but like AJ said, we're talking Samsung enginerrs here. -Mike

Are you actually not connecting, or is SignalCheck reporting it wrong? If you're not sure, I can take a look if you click About > Send Diagnostics. A screenshot wouldn't hurt either. -Mike

I personally don't have it, but one of HTC's execs is sharing it with individuals who are interested: https://twitter.com/moversi/status/431271246521978881 -Mike

Jeez that took way longer than I expected, I was wondering if you were paying attention! -Mike

Umm.. they started sharing the beta version of it with users within the past week, so I'm guessing they are going to want to test that for a bit before pushing it out to everyone. The fact that they are even updating this phone is awesome. -Mike

Old news.. this rumor has popped up several times over the past couple of years. Several sites "confirmed" that the Nexus 4 would be the final one, including the same Russian blogger that this article is sourcing. Guess they pulled a TV weatherman on that one.. -Mike

That's probably it, so you're good there.. It does not turn the radios off, it just doesn't route data through the mobile connection (and yours doesn't work anyway). But I don't think I need a report from you; this is an issue you need to contact Ting about. SignalCheck seems to be working fine. I don't recall you mentioning that before. That would be key to mention to Ting; your phone must not be provisioned properly, or is not allowed on the LTE network. eHRPD is used for handoff from LTE. Putting your phone's radio in a mode that does not enable LTE will also disable eHRPD. -Mike

Virtualbot already jumped on this (thanks!); see here for more info: http://www.bluelinepc.com/signalcheck/help/#rootreset -Mike

I couldn't find any reports from you; if you didn't have a data connection, it would not have been able to send anyway. I don't have my EVO LTE handy at the moment, but I know there is a "Use Mobile Data" toggle in the settings somewhere.. make sure that is enabled. Otherwise, it seems like your phone is not fully activated or programmed for data, and you should contact Ting. I'm not sure what needs to be changed to make it work on Ting instead of Sprint, but it sounds like it's not authenticating on EV-DO. Seems like the app is accurately reporting your situation; when I take my EVO off my account, it will show accurate signal strength but "Unregistered", and no data will flow. -Mike

I just saw your report, but it was only a bunch of junk that LG fills the log with, pushing the useful information out of the buffer. I will email you later this week to figure out a way to get what I need. Unfortunately most of these security measures are not able to be bypassed by an app like mine--which makes sense, because that would make these measures worthless. I will try to explain my interpretation of the process for those who may be interested.. grab some popcorn and have a seat: Android permissions are used to secure certain functions. Users are able to see the permissions an app requests at install time to make sure it's not going to do something unexpected/sneaky/dirty. Once a user reviews the permissions and proceeds with the installation, then the system does some checks. If the app is not signed as a system app, any permissions that are restricted to system-level apps are stripped out of the app before it is installed. The user cannot control this; it is handled by the system in whatever manner the ROM developer chose. The only way to make an app a system-level app is to sign it with the same key the ROM was signed with. (Because I believe these permissions are stripped at install time, I don't even think converting SignalCheck into a system app with a utility like Titanium Backup would do the trick. I have not tested this theory, so I could be wrong.) Some manufacturers have started requiring new permissions to execute some functions, like launching engineering screens or accessing internal signal data. It is fairly easy to find these functions, so as I learn what is required, I add the new permissions into SignalCheck. However, some of these permissions are starting to be flagged system-only; therefore, as described above, they are stripped out of the app. So when the app tries to execute one of these privileged functions, it does not have the proper permissions and is denied. The best example of this in SignalCheck is the loss of the Reset function in Android 4.2+. The ability to control Airplane Mode was moved behind a system-level permission, so access to it is prohibited. I did develop a workaround that uses root commands to force airplane mode in a different manner. It's a bit of a hack, but it works as long as the device is rooted. Airplane mode just happens to have an alternate method to control it that is not (yet) protected by a system permission. The same cannot be said for any of the other blocked features, at least not that I have been able to find. -Mike

PCI and TAC are new, that's great! The display isn't perfect, but at least the data is there. I have an EVO LTE so I should be able to grab the beta update and get that cleaned up at some point. Pleasantly surprised that HTC is putting effort into updating a relatively old device (by technology standards). -Mike

The "Unregistered" means that the device is reporting that it isn't registered on the network.. i.e. the phone is not activated. If it is actually activated, and it's working fine, there is probably a bug in the device's radio software causing that to be displayed. Is that an EVO LTE? If you hit About > Send Diagnostics, perhaps it will give me some insight as to what the issue might be. You can also try making sure that mobile location services are enabled in the device's Settings menu; disabling that causes weird bugs that vary by device and ROM. The "Click for map.." instead of an address is either due to no data connection to translate the location into a street address, or an Android bug which causes the geocoding background service to stop working. Rebooting your phone will fix that. (see here for details: http://www.bluelinepc.com/signalcheck/help/#bslstuck) -Mike

A lot of the newer devices are blocking access to launch the system screens from third-party apps like mine, so I might not be able to do much.. try going to About > Send Diagnostics after you try them, it will send me the error details. Or if you prefer, logcat output would work if you have that set up also. Thanks, -Mike

Either one is fine unless you sometimes use non-CDMA providers. "LTE" is the equivalent of changing your radio to LTE/CDMA mode and "Global" is LTE/GSM/CDMA mode. It won't negatively affect anything if you have it set to Global on Sprint. -Mike

Just to be clear.. you were not connecting to WiMAX with your Nexus 5. It isn't capable of doing so. -Mike

Can you provide an example of a GCI that does this? I have been testing CSV exports for my own app and have not come across this yet. -Mike

I went into a local corporate store before my N5 arrived in November; they knew what I needed, but weren't too certain about how they were supposed to give it to me.. a tech eventually came out from the back room with one he folded up in a little piece of paper and just sent me on my way. I believe that now the procedure is they are supposed to "sell" it to you for free through their system, so they probably need the phone activated so the SIM sale can be properly recorded on your account. I don't think it has anything to do with where you bought it, they just need to keep track of their inventory if a SIM is going out the door. Plus, it prevents those who are less savvy from generating a support call to Customer Care later blaming the store for not helping them get their phone working. -Mike

It definitely varies by market, but I haven't seen any evidence pointing to a consistent pattern where you can positively say that one vendor's sites do or do not broadcast offset coordinates, regardless of NV status. If there is a pattern, it is more market- or contactor-specific. There are certainly many examples likes yours though, where the exact locations have started broadcasting once the NV equipment went online. I've wondered if this was intentional or not, but it certainly makes things a bit easier for those who go tower hunting. -Mike

Welcome! Unlock the bootloader first; it forces a factory reset after you do that, so anything you do before it will just end up being a waste of time. Rooting and flashing a custom recovery can be done whenever you want after that. It doesn't matter if you put the SIM in before unlocking it or not, so you could unlock it now and then start using the phone on Wi-Fi until your SIM arrives. You should be able to activate it on Sprint (or Ting) without a SIM, but you will not be able to connect to LTE. Once you have the SIM, you will need to provide them with the serial number to activate that. I'm not sure if installing a custom recovery will stop OTAs, but even if it does, they are often uploaded to sites like xda-developers.com very quickly, so you will not be missing out on anything. In fact, I usually get them from XDA before my phone receives anything automatically. The only issue with an OTA on a rooted device is that it requires the /system folder to be stock, so if you made changes in there, you will need to undo them (or flash the stock system image) before applying a regular OTA. It is rather simple to do this stuff on the N5, but if you are concerned, you can play it safe and only unlock your bootloader now and hold off on anything else until after the Spark update rolls out. Unlocking the bootloader does not change anything except for allowing access to root and/or install a custom recovery. -Mike