75: Chapter 75 Still Playing Games

Wang Tao clicked it open; it was a message from an ID called "Big-Mouthed Yu".

This user had been very active lately, posting quite a few technical insights and update methods on the forum, especially with a deep understanding of mobile systems.

Many details were things he understood even better than Wang Tao himself.

"Moderator, I have a beta version of a mobile system here, deeply customized based on "Android", but the smoothness is greatly improved. Interested in giving it a try?"

Wang Tao smiled dismissively.

He had seen plenty of similar "unofficial optimized systems"; most just deleted a few apps from the native Android, changed the theme, and the actual improvement in experience was limited.

But since it was indeed slightly smoother, he did become a little interested.

"What system? Is there a flashable package?"

"Emui, a system our team developed ourselves. I've sent the flashable package to your email. Currently, it supports the HTC G1 and Samsung i7500."

A team? Could this be a mobile phone company? Wang Tao was instantly interested. This was the real deal; the system should be a bit better than those created by unofficial experts.

Out of curiosity, Wang Tao downloaded the flashable package.

Following the usual steps, he backed up his data, unlocked the bootloader, and flashed it...

Half an hour later, his HTC G1 began to reboot.

The boot animation wasn't the native Android robot, but a sketch of a mountain peak and a chrysanthemum logo, with the artistic text "Taishan EM UI beta version" underneath.

The boot time took only 45 seconds; this absurd speed immediately made Wang Tao's eyes widen.

He knew that in the past, it took at least a minute to boot up; now it was a full 15 seconds faster. And that was just from flashing a system.

What was even more astonishing was that after entering the system, Wang Tao was stunned.

The interface was very simple, without any messy pre-installed apps. The icons were a unified rounded-rectangle style, with vibrant colors but not overly flashy.

He swiped the home screen. Smooth, incredibly smooth.

That feeling of responsiveness didn't even lose to an Apple iPhone, which made him doubt his own eyes.

"Is this really modified based on Android?" Wang Tao muttered to himself.

But past experience told him that this system was definitely not that simple; after all, it had lost the classic little Android robot and that distinct Android stutter...

He quickly opened settings and found About Phone.

System version: Taishan OS 1.5 (Emui Beta version). Kernel version: Linux 3.0.8 (modified). Compilation date: August 28, 2009.

This kernel could really be called the Android foundation, yet it also didn't seem like Android.

Wang Tao began testing. Opening the browser, the speed of loading web pages was significantly faster than native Android, and the search accuracy was also a bit higher.

Opening the camera, the focusing speed and other aspects had all seen a certain improvement.

The most impressive part had to be multitasking. In the past, opening three apps would make the phone lag terribly.

But now, he had opened at least five. He opened the background to confirm, and it was six.

Yet switching between them remained smooth, with no lag. That feeling of utter garbage had completely disappeared.

"This scheduling optimization... they didn't really modify the Android underlying layer, did they?" Wang Tao studied communications and understood a bit about systems.

He swiped around casually, and combined with that absurd boot time... he immediately realized: "Could this actually be a new system developed based on Linux?"

Once he had this thought, he couldn't shake it off. Excitement compelled him to quickly experience it for a while longer.

After in-depth testing, some of the issues Android had were still present, but at the very least, deep optimizations had been made in memory management and process scheduling.

But the surprises didn't end there.

He soon discovered two game icons in the application list: "fruit ninja" and "plants vs. zombies".

"These games..."

Wang Tao remembered that "fruit ninja" was a Transsion exclusive, and "plants vs. zombies" was still in closed beta, with the mobile version rumored to have launched on iOS first.

But now... Regardless, he didn't care about that much; he immediately clicked on fruit ninja.

The game launched, and the interface was identical to the Transsion S1 in Africa.

He tried swiping the screen; it was smooth. It didn't have the flashy special effects that the S1 was rumored to have online, but the reaction speed was decent; he guessed it was because the HTC hadn't been officially adapted yet.

After playing for over an hour, he finally remembered the main point.

This was a new system recommended by a forum user, so he immediately got to work.

[Shocking! Flashed Taishan OS, my HTC G1 instantly turns into an Apple iPhone]

"Brothers, I just flashed the Taishan OS beta version provided by a forum user. The smoothness crushes all customized Android systems, and it doesn't even lose to iOS.

Most importantly, it also has mobile versions of fruit ninja and plants vs. zombies built-in, with smooth controls and excellent graphics.

More importantly, this doesn't seem to be Android, but all APKs can still be installed."

Not long after the post was published, it attracted a bunch of replies from forum users.

"OP is bragging, right? Not Android? What year is it? Are there still idiots making their own systems?"

"To the guy above, are you talking about Nokia? [Dog Head]"

"Requesting the flashable package."

"Flashed it, it's indeed very smooth. And after flashing, my storage capacity increased by 200MB?"

Wang Tao replied: "Because it seems they modified some underlying files, so maybe there were also changes regarding storage. I didn't notice just now; maybe an expert can check."

"Can fruit ninja really be played? I remember quite a few people reposting videos earlier, and Android phones didn't seem to have been adapted yet."

Wang Tao wrote a very detailed flashing tutorial in the post and uploaded the flashable package (before this, he had obtained permission from Big-Mouthed Yu).

Overnight, this flashable package went viral across major digital forums.

The next day, Wang Tao's post already had over 3,000 replies.

This meant that at least 3,000 people had experienced the domestic version of Taishan OS.

"So good, I feel like my Samsung i7500 has been reborn."

"This system optimization is indeed quite good; the experience is really different on the same hardware. And this is just a beta; I wonder how powerful their new released phone will be?"

"Who exactly is this development company? I've found some saying it's Transsion, and others saying it's Huawei..."

Not long after, Taishan OS completely exploded in popularity across major digital forums.

The download count for the Taishan Emui beta version directly surpassed the 20,000 mark and was still continuously rising.

At the same time, there were new analysis files on other forums as well. Someone had carefully compared the systems of Taishan OS, HTC, and Samsung, and the result was undoubtedly that Taishan OS won completely.

Someone also posted a thread with explosive news: "This system was developed by Transsion."

"What brand is Transsion? Seems a bit familiar."

"Oh, I remember now, I think Xiaobai tested their knock-off phone before..."

"Are mobile phone manufacturers this awesome now? A knock-off manufacturer is this awesome. [Dog Head]"

"To the guy above, not everyone is that impressive.

But Transsion definitely deserves it, because they are absolutely playing a big game. If you said that last year, nobody would say anything to you, but now they are the overlords of Africa..."