Droid Hype

Since getting my Nexus 7, I’ve been using it daily for just about everything. I’ve gotten to the point where I stopped opening my laptop after getting home from work. It really is that useful of a device at this point.

Although the size and performance is great, there are some glaring quality control issues that Asus has let slip thru their factories. Aside from the very prominent speaker crackling issue that plagues both the 8GB and 16GB models, there’s also the dreaded screen lifting problem. This lifting problem is pretty much what it sounds like — the screen is lifted slightly above the bezel. This usually occurs on the left side of the screen, so the glass will be just that slightly higher than the other side.

There have been homebrew fixes all over the net, but the best I’ve seen is the removal of two screws. The reason I say it’s one of the best is because Asus may have adopted this as their fix. Small hardware spiel to follow.

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There’s pretty much zero options at the moment if you are looking for an extended battery for your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy SII (SGS2 T989). You can of course grab a cheapie fake 3500mAh battery on ebay, but are you really getting 3500mAh? Is that battery safe to use? And of course, does it come with NFC within the battery?

The last question may be important to some since Google Wallet and other apps are bringing out NFC options. The stock SGS2 battery carries 1850mAh of power, which in most instances is a decent amount and should last you all day. Of course, usage patterns will affect the hours of battery time so if you see anyone mentioning they are getting days on on charge, take it with a grain of salt.

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If you are in the market for a 32MB MicroSDHC, then you are in luck with these two sales happening right now. Over at Newegg, you can grab a class 10 PNY for $55 shipped by using the coupon EMCJKJJ45.

Or you can grab the slower speed class 4 Sandisk  32MB variety at DailySteals for $35 shipped.

You better hurry, these deals won’t last long.

I just started developing this odd creaking noise near the bottom and sides of my S4G. Even with a Seidio Active case wrapped around it, the creaking can be felt and heard when hitting the bottom buttons.

The fix is pretty easy. You just need to decrease the amount of movement the back cover has.

I had some .010 mil fiber (fish) paper laying around so I cut a small square that covers the sim card and microsd card area. You can probably use something else, but hey, why not use some insulated paper if you have it.

Lay the paper on top of the area and then slowly place the back cover back on. No holes are in that area above the sim and microsd, so no worries there. You should see an immediate improvement.

The Seidio guys have been making quality cases and accessories for many phones in recent years, but it seems something isn’t right with their current Surface case for the LG G2x.

As you can see from the above picture, that corner mark was made by the inner edge of the Seidio Surface case. The case either needs to have it’s inner edges shaved slightly to prevent this from happening. This is just one corner, the other three corners have similar cosmetic blemishes now.

Is this a repeat of what happened with Evo users from last year? For the time being, I’m back to using my softer TPU case. A note has been sent into Seidio technical support, I’ll see what they have to say about this.

It looks like all the freezes, lock ups, reboots and hot batteries on the T-mobile G2x are caused by a bad batch of batteries? From this forum post on the T-mobile customer forums, many are reporting that getting a newer replacement battery has pretty much eliminated all the above mentioned issues. If you have swapped the entire phone numerous times, try swapping just the battery instead.

Droid-Life is reporting that the Droid Incredible 2 is launching on the 28th of this month. The specs for this 3G phone are not too bad with the standard 1Ghz CPU (second gen Snapdragon) and Super LCD screen. If you’re still stuck in non-4G land or in an area that will never get it, this might be what you are looking for. It also has global capabilities if you are traveling.

Personally, there’s no reason to get this otherwise since it’s not really an upgrade to anything that’s not already out there now for VZW.

If you are looking for the Tmobile G2x before it drops in about a week or so, head to eBay. Apparently this seller has a G2x in hand to sell at a discount of $1000. If you absolutely need it right now, here’s your chance. As for me, I’m just going to wait for it to hit the Tmobile store around the corner.

[Update] – It looks like it sold for $900, wow.

The Droid Incredible (Dinc) and the Tmobile HTC G2 share the same type of battery. However, in the Dinc battery’s stock form it will not fit without a quick 30 second hack. If you take a look at the battery, you will notice that the charging leads are flipped backwards compared to the G2. The only thing preventing you from flipping it around and inserting the battery are two notches on the left and right of the battery.

Take a small pair of cutters and simply snip off the little tabs. Then flip the battery around and you got yourself another battery that fits in the G2. Try a test fit before cutting and you will see exactly where to snip the tabs.

So why bother doing this when the G2 has batteries readily available?

I’ve grown to really like the 1800mAh battery from HTCExpress. Although it states that it’s for the Evo, it will fit the Incredible and now with this hack, the G2. Keep in mind your battery door will not fit right because of the size. Some people have suggested that you can remove the label that is wrapped around the battery to make the battery door fit. I didn’t bother trying this since I am using the Otterbox Commuter case. I just left the door off and the Otterbox slipped right over it without a problem. This keeps the size as close to stock as possible, but with a larger battery.

With this setup, I am able to get roughly 15hrs of heavy use with sync on. Give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.

If you are in need of pushing, pulling, or performing some other Android Device Bridge (adb) duties on your T-mobile G2, here’s how to make your PC recognize your device. By plugging in your USB cable to your PC, you’ll most likely see the following when issuing the “adb devices” command.

C:\Users\Andy\adb\tools>adb devices
List of devices attached

The problem is that your PC does not have the correct drivers loaded. This just means your Windows based computer doesn’t know what to do with that phone of yours when connected. If you opened up your device manager, you’ll see an adb device with an exclamation point indicating failure to load drivers.

Assuming you already have adb tools downloaded, grab the usb drivers. This will appear under your “tools” directory. Now open up “android_winusb.inf” with notepad (or something equivalent) and add the following.

Right below “[Google.NTx86]” and “[Google.NTamd64]” add:

;T-Mobile G2
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C91
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C91&MI_01
;

Now go back into device manager and perform the driver update option on that mysterious adb device we spoke about earlier. This will allow both 32bit and 64bit Windows PCs to see your G2 after it has been installed.  These drivers were tested on Windows 7 Pro 64bit and confirmed to be working.