2021.02.09
So far no search crawler discovered my site. It is because I didn’t spend much time for SEO, I’m not a publicist nor journalist, writing articles in various topics is just a hobby for me; however, they might help others. So, I just enabled the jekyll-sitemap plugin, what means, search engines will find my page. Woo-hoo!
Because I use the GitHub Pages, it could not be easier. Really. I had to edit the _config.yml file and append “jekyll-sitemap” in the plugins section. That’s it.
2021.02.05
Due to COVID, I’m working from home for about a year (and will remain home for another 8 months as it seems). I didn’t expect I must do it so long, and during this time a lot of things changed. For example, I don’t have the 2 hours commuting (walk, train, metro) every day. I tried to adjust to the new situation as much as I can, picking up new habits, moving sleeping schedule and so on.
Because I’m always at home and I receive a lot of messages, my phone was beeping continuously. Telegram (sonar sound), Facebook Messenger (the old MSN sound), Viber (tweeting birds), e-mails (Diablo 2 portal enter), SMSes, calls, etc, and there’s no feature to mute the phone for a set timeframe between two messages. My daughter (21 months old now) noticed them too: when somebody pinged me on Viber, she said “tweet-tweet, daddy”, for every other noises “oh, oh! Daddy!”. Their nerves are sensible for such things and I also wanted some peace, not to be distracted when I play with her or working on something. I know, I can turn on the do not disturb mode but then my phone vibrates for every notification and everything silenced, not only the chat platforms. So I did the followings:
in the system settings - Apps & notifications - Notifications I searched for those apps I wanted to be silent and one by one set the notification sound for “None”. However, there was one rebel, a tricky. Facebook Messenger.
Because if the “None” is placed for sound, it used the one what is configured in the application. When I checked if it’s possible to choose “None” there, I was surprised I couldn’t. Either I turn off everything and then I really don’t get anything, or I use something what isn’t disturbing. No, I want to mute that while having the sliding alert from the notification bar and displaying the message on the lock screen. I had an idea: if I create an empty “sound” file (for example nothing.ogg) I might be able to set that and then nothing is played. But it didn’t work; empty, 0 byte file cannot be chosen for such a purpose. Next idea: 1 sec long silence. There are a lot of such videos (?) on YouTube. Downloaded one with NewPipe, without the visual experience, set it and voilà, success. No more sound while having the messages on the lock screen and in the top bar.
Now, after a week I find it very good. No more beeps, distractions, annoyances (I want to keep the touch with others, but I don’t necessarily need alerts for messages). Only the calls, SMSes and e-mails aren’t muted.
2020.11.28
I try to use a phone as long as possible, the previous one kept up with me for 3 years. Then, I was looking for a new device for a long time, taking in account every aspect I consider important. One of them was support of the device. Support as time how long the phone receives new software updates, support as available community where I can discuss things and support as if I report a problem I face, somebody tries to help me. This is why I choose OnePlus.
I read their system supports VoWifi. When I received the phone I was looking for this option among the SIMs settings, but couldn’t find it. It isn’t a deal breaker, but if they state that’s available, I want to use. So I contacted them on June, 28.
Since then, there were a few system updates and I installed the (current) latest as well, Open Beta 19, where the VoWifi switch appeared, however, that has no effect. I configured to prefer Wi-Fi calls and VoLTE is only a fall-back option. Still, my phone cannot establish the connection and after a few minutes the VoLTE icon appears. I was curious if there is any limitation on the carrier side and I was told (multiple times) Telekom Hungary has no such a thing, if a device supports Wi-Fi calls then that can be used, no other requirements are set.
OnePlus called me on the 3rd of November, pushing the issue back to my carrier. When I explained that I already talked with my provider the service agent told me they’ll call me back soon. But since then, I didn’t receive anything from the team.
I checked if I place my SIM card into an other phone then I can use the mentioned feature and it works with Samsung Galaxy S20. It narrows down the issue to OxygenOS. OnePlus. I shared this finding with the support team but still no answer.
151 days since I first contacted them. 5 months. 23 days since I received the last message; so I thought I’ll follow up with them on chat. It was a good idea because Levi George was helpful and confirmed my problem is solved in the latest stable release of Oxygen OS, in 10.0.10 EU. Guess what I did the day before yesterday. Yes, I formatted my phone and flashed the new OOS version.
I’m happy to see the service is really available and if I place calls they go through Wi-Fi.
Thank you OnePlus.
2020.11.13
A few days ago I finished an other Magisk module, it aims to disable a few unnecessary packages on OnePlus devices. I’ll add more things as I ensure it won’t break the system, the device nor the service. You can download it from the OnePlus Battery Saver repository. The zip file can be installed wiht Magisk’s local installation (I’m pretty sure this module also won’t be accepted by anyone in the Magisk repository).
If you have ideas what else could be added or how to make this tool better, feel free to contribute and create pull requests.
2020.11.04
In medias res, OnePlus limits the steps of in call volumes to 7. So each step represents ~14.3% volume increase or decrease. Even on the lowest level everybody around me heard the person I had a discussion over the phone with. I searched for solutions and found I should edit the build.prop file, add 2 lines, restart the phone and done. But with Android 10 it doesn’t work that way. I can copy the mentioned file to my laptop, but can’t send it back. Internal protection mechanism. First, the system partition is read only, but even if I remounted it to have RW permissions, I got a “no space left on device” message when I tried to copy back to the original location. But there must be a way. And there is.
I found an old Magisk project, called Volume Steps Plus that is intended to do what I wanted. But it isn’t maintained anymore, the last commit was done on the 1st of January in 2019. So a few weeks ago I refurbished it and applied to be present in Magisk. Unfortunately it seems the only man who could accept it, topjohnwu, is unavailable.
In any case, if you want to add more media- or in-call volume steps on your Android device and your phone is rooted with Magisk, download Volume Steps+ and install it. Want more info? Head to README, it should tell you everything you want to know.