Database Develop

[Q] Anything being done?

I have a galaxy s5 from AT&T that I got with a new two year contract. It has version 5.0 on it and came that way. I know that it's not rootable atm but just curious if there's anywhere with progress.

morgan5814 said:
I have a galaxy s5 from AT&T that I got with a new two year contract. It has version 5.0 on it and came that way. I know that it's not rootable atm but just curious if there's anywhere with progress.
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Please review the history of the site. Root is not root until it is root...meaning you cannot ask "are we there yet?" When full root is achieved it will be posted. Work is often done by developers off of XDA because it is the only way they can work uninterrupted. Any progress to get system access like some root methods that were lost upon reboot..cannot be determined whether or not you are close...until it is fully working and tested. The security of Lollipop, AT&T locked bootloaders and knox are a lot of hurdles to leap over.

Yes, however I think a better wording, with the s6 will there even be people bothering with it?

morgan5814 said:
Yes, however I think a better wording, with the s6 will there even be people bothering with it?
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I hope so. I'm in the same crowd of people that do not have to have the latest and greatest. The S6, while its an impressive device...without a replaceable battery....I just dont think it will have the staying power (pun intended) or durability for a device that a user might keep for a year or 2. The characteristics of the S6 itself (unfortunately) lends itself more to a throw-away device after its new and shiny wears out and the next iteration of the Galaxy line becomes available. There are ALOT of GS5s out there....and quite literally...ATT is giving them away.
Thats JMHO...YMMV.

morgan5814 said:
Yes, however I think a better wording, with the s6 will there even be people bothering with it?
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I think so. There are some things improved on the S6, but there are also some steps backward from what we have on the S5. I'm sure educated buyers will weigh those pros and cons very carefully and some buyers will decide that the S5 is better suited for their needs and tastes.
I personally know only one person who upgraded from an S5 to an S6 and he wants to go back to his S5.

Rooted S6 Edge better or worse?

Hello all,
I just got a new Verizon S6 Edge by extending my contract but most likely I am going to keep my S5 and sell the S6 (don't like the lack of microSD slot and fixed battery). It came with a ROM version (OE2) that would allow me to root it easily with PingPong (have not activated it yet so no OTAs pending).
Do you think it would be more attractive to a buyer if I rooted it (or kept it at OE2) prior to selling it?
What are the negatives of freezing at OE2? Someone mentioned about a serious security hole but that was on Reddit, so you never know what is true.
Thanks for any input.
Frank in Michigan

By rooting it, you're limiting your target audience to those who want root. A "novice" smartphone user, is going to not care, and more than likely will be more turned off by the uncertainty of it in their eyes, with the fear of something going wrong vs a stock phone (even though most of the time it's just fine). It'd be better to leave it stock, and just let potential buyers know that it CAN be rooted easily if they want to. Let the buyer make the choice, and keep your pool of buyers larger. Just my opinion.

CharlzO_2000 said:
By rooting it, you're limiting your target audience to those who want root. A "novice" smartphone user, is going to not care, and more than likely will be more turned off by the uncertainty of it in their eyes, with the fear of something going wrong vs a stock phone (even though most of the time it's just fine). It'd be better to leave it stock, and just let potential buyers know that it CAN be rooted easily if they want to. Let the buyer make the choice, and keep your pool of buyers larger. Just my opinion.
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Good point. I was going to try it for a week or so to make sure it worked OK and in case I changed my mind, but I am sure it would do an OTA during that time. And it would be used, so worth less I guess.
Thanks for the input. Will leave it as is and sell it with info about current ROM status.
Frank in Michigan

FMinMI said:
Good point. I was going to try it for a week or so to make sure it worked OK and in case I changed my mind, but I am sure it would do an OTA during that time. And it would be used, so worth less I guess.
Thanks for the input. Will leave it as is and sell it with info about current ROM status.
Frank in Michigan
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Hey man. Was trying to get a hold of you over on howard forums, but their approval process takes ages.
When you're ready to sell let me know. I am trying very hard to find one that can be rooted. I'll trade, buy, or whatever. Have this stupid s6 edge
that my wife graciously updated for me before I could root it, thus making me hate the phone.

altyrnate said:
Hey man. Was trying to get a hold of you over on howard forums, but their approval process takes ages.
When you're ready to sell let me know. I am trying very hard to find one that can be rooted. I'll trade, buy, or whatever. Have this stupid s6 edge
that my wife graciously updated for me before I could root it, thus making me hate the phone.
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Sorry about that. I have it on Swappa right now. You can see the ROM info there to confirm that is what you are looking for - I made a screen shot of it. PingPong is supposed to work fine but I wasn't going to do it since I wanted to sell it new/unused, in case a person wanted it as a gift for Christmas. Not looking to trade; just selling it because I like my S5 (now rooted with LP).
LMK.
Frank in Michigan (central).

What are disadvantages of live demo unit SM-T810

Accidentally bought LDU SM-T810 16Gb WiFi, looks fine, but with "Not for sale" on back cover. The reason was - it's cheaper, but seller didn't tell me this is LDU, I only understand it later on.
So I have like 3-4 hours to decide, either I will return it and buyretail version (it'll cost additional $115 to the price of LDU), or I will stay pretty fine with this one.
Could anyone please tell what could be wrong in LDU? Sim and GSM module are not expected in both retail and LDU, memory is only 16GB instead of 32. Is that all?

This link is about a S6 LDU. It looks like the main issue with that S6 is the lack of GSM. It's worth reading about it and decide for yourself I suppose.

Rm4n said:
This link is about a S6 LDU. It looks like the main issue with that S6 is the lack of GSM. It's worth reading about it and decide for yourself I suppose.
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thanks, I did read it before posting. my one comes with almost normal android 5.1.1 (sellers flashed it). I say almost, because factory reset is grayed and unavailable, I will install TWRP and make a clean stock rom install then, hopefully this will solve factory reset availability, as I read somethere else in this forum.

Oh I see. I'm not an expert but from what I've read, flashing a normal rom was one of the issues people faced with their demo units. If you already have a normal rom on it, I guess your tablet is a keeper! At least that's what I'd do if I were you.

If it has ANY of the preinstalled Samsung demo software on it, I would return it asap. It hogs a lot of ram and slows down the device in general. I have worked with Samsung LDU's and they are a pain to deal with.

There are a number of people here that have turned demo devices into normal devices.
It's not that difficult.

ashyx said:
There are a number of people here that have turned demo devices into normal devices.
It's not that difficult.
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works fine for almost 5 days.
it is actually model "sm-t810x", with 16gb of flash, and x is a differentiator for LDU.
all other is same, as I can understand, and it works with rom from sm-t810 (32gb) just fine.
thanks all.

Glad you got a nice deal then!

I ordered an N950F/DS and got an N9500 -- should I be upset?

I live in the US and the phone works - but it's a Snapdragon, not an Exynos ( so ... better?) and I'm not really sure what to think now that I see the hardware model of it.
The only noticeable differences I could find are that handwriting defaulted to Chinese and the Chinese calendar seems burned into the Samsung Calendar app.
Anything I should look out for? Should I pursue a return through Amazon?

Samsung pay?
Try hard reset then immediately sideloading Samsung Pay 2.7.03 (apk from apkmirror) and Framework 2.7.51 see if spay will work.

If you have problems with language options in general, you can factory reset and set up your languages defaults from the very beginning (on the very first page, you will have a language selector, possibly showing Korean as a default choice, type the Korean writing and choose your favorite localization; this happens on any model by Samsung). This is highly recommended if you do not trust the vendor.
As far as I can tell, the main limitation of N9500 is localization of hardware-secured features: if you plan to use the (awesome) Samsung Pay, apparently you can do so only in Hong Kong so far (with N9500). As I understand, Samsung uses/experiments a more advanced system in Hong Kong, which you will not be able to use elsewhere. I have a N9500 and I want to try to spoof the model number in build.prop to see if one can cheat the phone to have Samsung Pay work everywhere.
Snapdragon vs Exynos is a mixed bag, depending on your workload. Exynos performs slightly better, Snapdragon will offer a faster web experience. In my opinion, no noticeable difference at all. However if you:
-Have a 64GB model
-Have a write heavy workload (quite rare, for instance you do some video-editing on phone or backup GB of data TO the phone every day)
exynos will perform noticeably better in these tasks since Samsung uses different NAND on the two models. For reading workload, again the difference is not noticeable.
Also, my guess is that you got N9500 for a better price: these are usually imported models from Hong Kong or UAE, with no official support. Importers likely got a much better price than the local Samsung offer, or maybe they avoided some import taxes via shady practices. If you paid the same as the official listing in your country, you may want to ask for a replacement regardless of the hardware.
---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:23 AM ----------
Just to clear out, in the message before I meant that both the conditions (64GB AND write heavy) need to be satisfied to have an Exynos preference.

I haven't run into any actual problems yet (4 hours of use?) and I'm trying to avoid any modifications while I decide how to handle this... The whole thing seems shady, there's a promotional coupon stuck over the model number on the box. I feel like it was done intentionally for some reason.

delugeofspam said:
I haven't run into any actual problems yet (4 hours of use?) and I'm trying to avoid any modifications while I decide how to handle this... The whole thing seems shady, there's a promotional coupon stuck over the model number on the box. I feel like it was done intentionally for some reason.
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Well if you were sold a model different than the listing description and you are worried/not happy about it, get your money back and make sure you don't lose even a penny (teaching seller a lesson in the process since a lot of this purposeful shadiness seems to be happening even when seller knows).

Don't be upset. You might have gotten the only Snapdragon variant with an unlockable bootloader out the box. If you don't mind double checking this, go to developer options and see if there's an OEM unlocking toggle. Then download Crom and run it, it should unlock your bootloader.

Paradoxumical said:
Don't be upset. You might have gotten the only Snapdragon variant with an unlockable bootloader out the box. If you don't mind double checking this, go to developer options and see if there's an OEM unlocking toggle. Then download Crom and run it, it should unlock your bootloader.
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Unfortunately, no such luck.

delugeofspam said:
Unfortunately, no such luck.
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Really? Damn, Samsung is seriously tightening things up, the HK and CN variants used to the only Snadragon models that came with an official bootloader unlock tool/method.

Paradoxumical said:
Really? Damn, Samsung is really tightening things up, the HK and CN variants used to the only Samsung models that came with an official bootloader unlock tool/method.
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Didn't people have to wait exactly a week after activation for that option to show up or something like that?

evangelionpunk said:
Didn't people have to wait exactly a week after activation for that option to show up or something like that?
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I don’t recall anything of the sort, but don’t hold that against me. My last Samsung device prior to the Note 8 was the S6 (which I despised). The S5 was Samsung’s last great and true user/developer/mod friendly device. Even though the design got a lot of hate, I quite liked it. It went to eight different countries with me, and never gave me grief even though I used it as an underwater camera countless times.

Paradoxumical said:
I don’t recall anything of the sort, but don’t hold that against me. My last Samsung device prior to the Note 8 was the S6 (which I despised). The S5 was Samsung’s last great and true user/developer/mod friendly device. Even though the design got a lot of hate, I quite liked it. It went to eight different countries with me, and never gave me grief even though I used it as an underwater camera countless times.
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Yep double checked and there is a 1 week wait post activation for OEM UNLOCK option to appear.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...-8-exynos-n950f-fd-oem-unlock-t3673140/page64
Not sure if applies to qualcomm variants too. Doesnt HK/CN by law require OEM UNLOCK? Read something along this line somewhere here.

evangelionpunk said:
Yep double checked and there is a 1 week wait post activation for OEM UNLOCK option to appear.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...-8-exynos-n950f-fd-oem-unlock-t3673140/page64
Not sure if applies to qualcomm variants too. Doesnt HK/CN by law require OEM UNLOCK? Read something along this line somewhere here.
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Hey! That’s amazing news for OP. I believe HK/CN does require that by law. I remember when the S7 was released there, it looked so sleek without the Samsung logos.

Paradoxumical said:
Hey! That’s amazing news for OP. I believe HK/CN does require that by law. I remember when the S7 was released there, it looked so sleek without the Samsung logos.
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Yep it would be if it applies to Qualcomm variants and if it does it may only apply to HK/CN variants.
Maybe someone that has already had this model for 7+ days can confirm it for him.

The company I purchased it from refuses to advance-replace this with the phone I ordered and seems to expect me to pay to ship it back to them. This is probably going to turn into a dispute with Amazon, so I'm out another $900+ as I have to get into a new phone ASAP, and leave this one with zero wear.
I'm pretty convinced that I want the N950FD/S Aus, Europe & Lat edition of this phone despite living in the U.S. I don't want to suffer heavily locked bootloaders even for a Snapdragon and it seems there is more development for Exynos.
Please, though, tell me I'm wrong and that I should keep this phone that I dumped hours into configuring before catching on to the damn Chinese calendar embedded in the Samsung Calendar app :|

Damn yeah I would return it and get the exynos model you want oem unlock for sure ! I love my deep sea blue 256gb N950N its a work horse things were a pain at first but most the issues have been sorted out and its the best 1200$ i spent.

delugeofspam said:
The company I purchased it from refuses to advance-replace this with the phone I ordered and seems to expect me to pay to ship it back to them. This is probably going to turn into a dispute with Amazon, so I'm out another $900+ as I have to get into a new phone ASAP, and leave this one with zero wear.
I'm pretty convinced that I want the N950FD/S Aus, Europe & Lat edition of this phone despite living in the U.S. I don't want to suffer heavily locked bootloaders even for a Snapdragon and it seems there is more development for Exynos.
Please, though, tell me I'm wrong and that I should keep this phone that I dumped hours into configuring before catching on to the damn Chinese calendar embedded in the Samsung Calendar app :|
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If I were you, I would keep it. I’m 92% sure TWRP will pop-up for your device in the upcoming weeks. I don’t know if Samsung has released the kernel source yet, but once they do, I’ll be more than happy to compile it for you. I remember the same thing happened with the HK/CN variant of the S7. Holding out a week to see if OEM Unlocking shows up will be worth if it does.

Dont want to start a new thread so hopefully someone can help on here.
I ordered a N950fd but have received a N9500. It's currently sat in dubai waiting for a friend to bring back to UK.
Should i stick with it or get the N950FD instead? I would like to use Samsung pay but it's not a deal breaker as dont use it that much now anyway. Is there anything else i should be worried about?
thanks

So you ordered the Big Mac and got a Cheeseburger...
If you were at Macca's would you complain and want the right order? I know I would...

ultramag69 said:
So you ordered the Big Mac and got a Cheeseburger...
If you were at Macca's would you complain and want the right order? I know I would...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol do you really think there's that much difference?

imy300 said:
Lol do you really think there's that much difference?
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Yes.....
Not only is there a difference, but I want what I ordered...

General [Australia] Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Discussion

Hi guys
The preorder is up early morning itself. Place my pre-order for S21 Ultra Phantom Navy (Custom Color) from Samsung Online. Noticed the special note that it will take 3-4 weeks for getting it ready. I hope they deliver sooner than 3-4 weeks.
Whats your choice guys? Model-Color etc.
Thanks.

Anyone from Australia got their phone yet?

Ordered mine on the 21st and in my hand on the 25th January (Vodafone).
Upgraded from an S9+ and very happy (so far).

raggamuffin said:
Ordered mine on the 21st and in my hand on the 25th January (Vodafone).
Upgraded from an S9+ and very happy (so far).
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How is it? It says Dual SIM on the website. Is it Dual Physical SIM or SIM + eSIM?

venki5star said:
How is it? It says Dual SIM on the website. Is it Dual Physical SIM or SIM + eSIM?
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My Phantom Silver 512GB model is single SIM. Was given an option to use eSIM but stayed with the physical SIM I had in my S9+.
Coming from the S9+ it's taken a while to retrain my brain to use the in-screen fingerprint scanner.
Other than that; the only annoying bug is the occasional switching back to the One UI 3.1 launcher (from Nova Prime).
Other than that, I'm very happy so far. I do miss having the option to use sdcard expansion. Transferred 3,500 odd photos and 5,000 odd MP3s from the S9 to the S21 and still have 75% free.
I tend to take far more still images than video so the physical storage limitation shouldn't cause me any issues but time will tell.

raggamuffin said:
My Phantom Silver 512GB model is single SIM. Was given an option to use eSIM but stayed with the physical SIM I had in my S9+.
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Thanks for clarifying
raggamuffin said:
Coming from the S9+ it's taken a while to retrain my brain to use the in-screen fingerprint scanner.
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You will be ok within a week.
raggamuffin said:
Other than that, I'm very happy so far. I do miss having the option to use sdcard expansion. Transferred 3,500 odd photos and 5,000 odd MP3s from the S9 to the S21 and still have 75% free.
I tend to take far more still images than video so the physical storage limitation shouldn't cause me any issues but time will tell.
Click to expand...
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Never been a problem. Always in cloud. I stopped using MP3s long time ago.

Got update that my Phantom Navy Ultra is shipped. Should be getting tomorrow

raggamuffin said:
My Phantom Silver 512GB model is single SIM. Was given an option to use eSIM but stayed with the physical SIM I had in my S9+.
Coming from the S9+ it's taken a while to retrain my brain to use the in-screen fingerprint scanner.
Other than that; the only annoying bug is the occasional switching back to the One UI 3.1 launcher (from Nova Prime).
Other than that, I'm very happy so far. I do miss having the option to use sdcard expansion. Transferred 3,500 odd photos and 5,000 odd MP3s from the S9 to the S21 and still have 75% free.
I tend to take far more still images than video so the physical storage limitation shouldn't cause me any issues but time will tell.
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I'm moving from Exynos S9+ too. How's battery life and general camera quality for you in comparison?

Got my phone today morning. All setup done. Loving the camera details...

Curious to know if any other aussies have received the Feb update ? I'm still stuck on jan1....

Quazza said:
Curious to know if any other aussies have received the Feb update ? I'm still stuck on jan1....
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No update yet. Based on my experience, Australia is the last country to get any update from Samsung

Finally for the Feb update .....HUZZAH

Got it last night.
Meanwhile, March has started rolling out in some countries.

I've been refreshing Sammobile and Frija the last couple of days hoping that they'll push it out. Nothing yet

Quazza said:
Finally for the Feb update .....HUZZAH
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Interestingly! I posted a rant on Samsung Australia Twitter account that morning

venki5star said:
rant on Samsung Australia Twitter account
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Why? I still find it really baffling that people blame Samsung for the delays. It's the carriers that hold the updates until they've completed testing. It's been that way for as long as there have been galaxy phones. Ranting makes 0 difference, if you want to make a change, don't buy the product, hit Samsung where it actually hurts so they can push carriers to fall in line to an update cycle like apple.

jigna said:
Why? I still find it really baffling that people blame Samsung for the delays. It's the carriers that hold the updates until they've completed testing. It's been that way for as long as there have been galaxy phones. Ranting makes 0 difference, if you want to make a change, don't buy the product, hit Samsung where it actually hurts so they can push carriers to fall in line to an update cycle like apple.
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Not everyone buys from carrier. I have Tab S7+ LTE & S21 Ultra bought outright from Samsung online. I don't buy from carriers for the reason you explained above. Samsung completely ignores centain countries in their release cycle.
I want to mention that, both Tab and Mobile got update on the same day after the morning rant. Could be coincidence but I posted my thought to them.
Why I have switch when I am completely ok with Android phones? If I switch, I am one in millions. For Samsung, its nothing. Because I bought Samsung, I didn't sell my soul to them and why I to be quite. If Apple can do it, Google can do it, Samsung can also do it.

venki5star said:
Not everyone buys from carrier. I have Tab S7+ LTE & S21 Ultra bought outright from Samsung online. I don't buy from carriers for the reason you explained above. Samsung completely ignores centain countries in their release cycle.
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You don't understand how it works in Australia then. Regardless of where you bought your phone (samsung, voda, telstra, optus) the carriers test the firmware before it's released <== process takes weeks.
venki5star said:
Could be coincidence but I posted my thought to them.
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100% coincidence. 100% those types of comments (your rant) have no impact on their process
venki5star said:
If Apple can do it, Google can do it, Samsung can also do it.
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Exactly. But Samsung has no vested interest in doing it when it doesn't impact them selling phones. You just said it, it doesn't stop you from buying the phone, despite you knowing that Australia releases later in the month. If people want a company to change, the most effective way is through $$$ <== don't buy their products so they know things need to change.
I'll also flag that Australia DOES get regular updates out in a timely manner i.e. it's the generally the same time each month. The issue for 'techie' people is that they know it's released in other parts of the world weeks earlier, then get annoyed about it.
If you're bothered by it, use Frija and Odin to flash the latest update manually, it's an easy process and ensures you're on the latest firmware.

jigna said:
You don't understand how it works in Australia then. Regardless of where you bought your phone (samsung, voda, telstra, optus) the carriers test the firmware before it's released <== process takes weeks.
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Actually you don't understand how it works. All your theory is only true for carrier customised and sold phones. Rest has no relationship. If you look at CSC of unlocked Australia, it different than what sold by Telstra, Optus, etc. Please do some research before you talk about it.

venki5star said:
All your theory is only true for carrier customised and sold phones
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Nope. None of the builds are even touched anymore since multi-csc came into play. But Aussie carriers (as in the wholesalers of the networks not the badge/csc of phone) won't allow the firmware to be pushed until they've ALL tested it. That INCLUDES XSA.
EDIT: changed wording to clarify badge/csc not brand of phone
venki5star said:
Please do some research before you talk about it.
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It's pretty amusing how wrong you are, but given how defensive you're getting, I'll drop it. If you think your ranting and annoyance has any impact, go for it - you keep fighting the fight.