There’s a new opinion piece up over at Droid-Life about how Google’s Nexus phone on Verizon is awesome, but not really. Here’s the meat and potatoes of the article:

This year the Galaxy Nexus was released a day earlier than the Nexus S. As you know, the phone was released exclusively on Verizon Wireless after much delay. All evidence points to the fact that the Galaxy Nexus was ready to launch by the end of November, but Verizon waited to give the Rezoud and the RAZR more time to sell. To make matters worse, the Galaxy Nexus is the first Nexus device to have a carrier’s software preinstalled. Speaking of software, the Galaxy Nexus doesn’t have Google Wallet installed on it. Sure, it can be side-loaded, but it’s just more evidence that Google is not in control of this device. Unlike every other Nexus, the Galaxy Nexus does not have Google branding on the back; instead Verizon’s logo rests above their 4G LTE logo. If there was any doubt about whether or not this was Google’s phone, that should put the debate to rest.

Yup, the Galaxy Nexus isn’t a true Nexus in this writer’s eyes because, well, it has carrier software preinstalled and it doesn’t say Google on the back cover. I’m usually on the same wavelength with the dudes over at DL when it comes to opinions on handsets, but this piece is awful. Seriously? Your main gripe is that it has a few carrier apps and it doesn’t have the Google logo on the back? It’s a Galaxy Nexus, load a new rom, instant carrier-free app experience. Buy a case and cover your phone, who cares what it says on the back cover. Are people complaining just to complain? The Verizon users should be happy they got a totally unlockable phone on their network.

This opinion piece just sounds like it’s there to fill space on a slow pre-New Years day.

 

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.

 

Following yesterdays post about rooting the T-mobile G2x, here comes Clockworkmod (CWM) recovery. @ChrisSoyars just posted a version of CWM on XDA. His steps are done on Linux, but since a majority of us are Windows users here’s how you’ll do it. There are external links here because a lot of this will probably change.

  1. Download the  CWM Recovery version 3.1.0.1 with ext4 support. You can choose internal sdcard or external. The following steps are for external sdcard recovery.
  2. Grab the nvflash utility and drivers over at MoDaCo.
  3. Place the CWM recovery file from Step 1 into the same directory where you extracted nvflash to in step 2.
  4. Remove the battery and then hold down both volume buttons and connect your USB cable to your computer.
  5. Your computer will prompt you for drivers — navigate to the drivers you downloaded in step 2 and install them.
  6. Once the drivers are installed, unplug the USB cable from your phone only.
  7. Now once again, hold down both volume buttons but this time keep holding them down while plugging in your USB cable.
  8. Open a command prompt (Start->Run->cmd) and navigate to the directory you extracted nvflash to and copy/paste the following: nvflash.exe –bct E1108_Hynix_512MB_H8TBR00U0MLR-0DM_300MHz_final_emmc_x8.bct –bl fastboot.bin –download 5 p999-ext4-ums-external-recovery.img
  9. Your screen will show SW Upgrade and your command prompt will cycle through a bunch of nvflash operations. Once the flash is done, it will tell you so. Give it a few minutes after that and then unplug the USB cable.
  10. Hold volume down and power when booting up to gain access to the CWM recovery. You can let go once you get past the LG boot screen. If you let go prematurely, it will drop you into the SW Upgrade screen. Use the volume buttons to navigate and the power button to select your options.

Tip: If you issue a nvflash command, you will need to unplug your USB cable and replug it every time or else the next nvflash command will not take. I’m not sure why this happens, but repeating a nvflash command back to back doesn’t seem to work.

[Update 04/28/2011] – Update the steps with better instructions and with the latest release of CWM recovery.

Note: The difference between doing the above and flashing CWM recovery via Rom Manager is that the above steps will allow you to use the volume down and power combination when booting up. If you do this via Rom Manager at this point, you won’t be able to access the recovery in that manner. This is important because if you end up boot looping and can’t boot up correctly, having volume down and power to access recovery will be your life saver.

[Update 05/25/2011] – Krylon360 has released a customized version of CWM that supports ext4 as well as ext3. Go grab it and then load the Trinity kernel for some added performance.

 

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.

 

Amazon released their version of the “market” to the public a few days ago. Some may wonder why would people even bother going to another app market place when there’s one built in (Google’s). Well, if the current trend of giving away paid apps for free every day is an incentive, I’m all for it.

Today’s freebie is Swiftkey, the popular keyboard replacement. Save yourself $1.99 and grab it via the Amazon Appstore app. You have about 12 hours before it goes back to full price. Don’t forget to queue up Angry Bird Rio while you’re at it. That’s also free for a limited time.

 

The folks at My Droid World just got the Flash 10.2 apk that is supposed to be released on the 18th of March. This will work on the Xoom tablet and just about all popular Android phones. I’ve loaded it on my G2 running CM7 and it works as expected.

Download your local copy below.

Flash 10.2 apk (registered users only)

 

The latest Cyanogenmod (CM) 7 Nightlies have added a few notable updates to the latest builds. One of the more requested ones (at least for me) is the battery percentage in the status bar. This was available in CM6, but CM7 had some previous problems in getting this done, but that has been overcome with the latest builds.

The new battery percentage is slightly different in that the percentage isn’t inside the battery icon. The new style has the numbering to the left of a small battery bar.

To update to CM7, grab it from the CM site or if you are a premium Rom Manager user you can download it directly from the app.

image

 

If you are thinking about rooting your Droid Incredible, do not install the latest over the air (OTA) update. Reports are showing it stops the Unrevoked rooting method.

You can opt to root first, then install a custom rom that has the OTA update incorporated if you are itching to be updated.

 

This is not really Droid related by any means, but it’s a testament to the drive some of these developers have in making their devices, theirs. Some folks were worried that the T-mobile G2 would be locked forever preventing a permanent root. There was the Visionary app which had a semi-permanent root where it re-rooted on every reboot for you. However, this morning permanent root was achieved.

As always, here’s the specific forum post over at XDA with the IRC log. Expect a how-to shortly once they get this perfected for the masses. Did the HTC source release help move this along? Either way, G2 users rejoice.

 

Angry Birds for Android full version is available! It’s actually free, but just about everyone is having a tough time downloading. So, here are some mirrors ;)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OYL7Z16Y
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0LVRMX4A
http://bit.ly/dhZ1Xc

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