Cyanogenmod apps?

[htrannn]

I want to root my phone and flash Cyanogenmod 10 to get a newer version of Android running but want to know what will happen to my apps? I heard it is stock Android so will the phone, messaging, contacts and other stock apps change in appearance? Not the icons but the apps themselves. Also what else do I lose/gain?

 

[tetsuo]

I just picked up my s3 this weekend and I flashed cm10.1 4 hours later. Personally I don't care for any skins whether touchwiz or sense so I prefer the fact that the apps are all returned to stock Android. Performance-wise everything feels smoother and faster. If you root beforehand you can use something like carbon or titanium backup to save your installed apps.

 

[mssca]

As far as I know, if you buy an app from the Google Play store, it can be downloaded back to your phone with the modified rooted OS. I don't think rooting and running custom ROMs will have any issues.

 

[htrannn]

I just picked up my s3 this weekend and I flashed cm10.1 4 hours later. Personally I don't care for any skins whether touchwiz or sense so I prefer the fact that the apps are all returned to stock Android. Performance-wise everything feels smoother and faster. If you root beforehand you can use something like carbon or titanium backup to save your installed apps.

The stock experience sounds amazing the only thing for me is I've had my phone for a few months and have grown accustomed to the look and feel of some of the apps and some of the gestures (screenshot and calling). I also heard the Samsung camera app is much better than the stock one so I'm kind of unsure. Do you find that you get a lot more speed/battery life with CM 10.1?

 

[tetsuo]

The stock experience sounds amazing the only thing for me is I've had my phone for a few months and have grown accustomed to the look and feel of some of the apps and some of the gestures (screenshot and calling). I also heard the Samsung camera app is much better than the stock one so I'm kind of unsure. Do you find that you get a lot more speed/battery life with CM 10.1?

Not sure on the battery life in this phone as I didn't even let the initial charge die before flashing, but it feels much faster when opening apps and switching between them. Part of it is there is less overhead running in the system, part of it is some of the performance portions of CM10.1 are optimized for the S4 chip over the Samsung software.

Some of the software is more minimalistic than the Samsung versions (which also helps with some of the speed) but I came from a Galaxy Nexus with CM9, CM10, and then CM10.1 and before that was a HTC Inspire with CM7 and I personally prefer the stock Android or the CM upgrades to stock over Touchwiz. The nice thing is you can always take a Nandroid backup of the stock setup and always go back if you find CM isn't for you.

 

[htrannn]

Not sure on the battery life in this phone as I didn't even let the initial charge die before flashing, but it feels much faster when opening apps and switching between them. Part of it is there is less overhead running in the system, part of it is some of the performance portions of CM10.1 are optimized for the S4 chip over the Samsung software.

Some of the software is more minimalistic than the Samsung versions (which also helps with some of the speed) but I came from a Galaxy Nexus with CM9, CM10, and then CM10.1 and before that was a HTC Inspire with CM7 and I personally prefer the stock Android or the CM upgrades to stock over Touchwiz. The nice thing is you can always take a Nandroid backup of the stock setup and always go back if you find CM isn't for you.

With root alone is it possible to remove bloatware?

 

[tetsuo]

With root alone is it possible to remove bloatware?

I didn't bother to try, but I am sure some can be removed. Some of what I considered bloat was built into Touchwiz and a big part of why i wanted it gone.

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

With root alone is it possible to remove bloatware?

You will lose your carrier branded apps, like sprint and other crap apps

Sent from my Google Nexus 7 running aokp 4.1.2, because cyanogenmod is the rom for noobs