Droid Hype

Although the Nexus S has been available on the market now for over a year, it’s actually a bit confusing for first time users to unlock and root the device. Give it a try, do a search and try and find the right adb and fastboot drivers for Windows 7 64-bit. I’m willing to bet it’s not as easy as everyone claims it to be. For some reason, fastboot drivers give 64-bit users a world of trouble in terms of acquiring and installing.

Since I went back to using my Nexus S on T-Mobile, I decided to post a quick how-to on getting this done.

Download the following zips before beginning:

  Android ADB and Fastboot tools (13.2 MiB, 80 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

  Nexus S 9020T Drivers and Touch Recovery (15.1 MiB, 14 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

Since I have the I-9020T model for T-Mobile, this guide will support only that version. This most likely will not work for the I-9023 LCD version or the D720 (Sprint 4g version), however, it should work for the I-9020A (ATT version).

Let’s begin…

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One of my favorite roms on the Sensation 4G is Bulletproof 1.4, based on Sense 3.0. It has the right mix of tweaks and mods to make it smooth and quick in the heavily populated world of S4G roms. However, one thing that was missing from the rom is the ability to wake the phone via the volume buttons. The version based on Sense 3.5 has it, but not on this Sense 3.0 version. So like any rom junkie, I ended up messing around with the android.policy.jar file and manage to smali/baksmali edit the file needed to make this happen.

For your enjoyment, download the zip below (log in first) and flash it via your recovery. Cache wipe isn’t necessary but it won’t hurt.

There is no guarantee that this will work with any other rom. It’s also highly suggested that you back up your /system/framework/android.policy.jar file or just run a nandroid on your existing rom. This was done entirely on a stock BP 1.4 environment and has been tested on this rom specifically.

  Volume Wake for Bulletproof 1.4 Rom (284.9 KiB, 3 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.

PS: If you have another rom you’d like this mod done on, I can run the edit for you. Just let me know what rom and what Sense version etc.

The official LG Gingerbread update is finally out for the LG/T-Mobile G2x! You will need to grab the LG Mobile Software updater. Please note that this will break any root access you already have.

So in typical DroidHype fashion, here is a link to grab a ClockworkMod flashable pre-rooted zip of the new 2.3.3 update.

Good job LG and T-Mobile for finally pushing this out!

Via [XDA]

*Update* – this appears to be LG’s release and not an official T-Mobile release. Once T-Mobile finalizes their testing, this will get signed and the over-the-air (OTA) will be sent out. Either way, this is good in LG’s eyes which means it should be good for most!

*Update* – LG’s release is indeed the same as the T-Mobile release. Flash away folks!

The wait is over, Gingerbread is available for all the Droid X and Droid 2 users out there. My Droid World just released (early) the official updates for these two handsets. Have at ‘em folks, download links at MDW.

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.

There are a few new custom kernels available now for the Droid Incredible that will enable multi-touch. If you are into gaming and emulators, multi-touch can be enabled to allow 2-5 simultaneous presses.

My current favorite is chad0989′s Incredikernel. You can also try HeyItsLou’s version or invisiblek’s version. Just keep in mind that some are for Sense roms and some are for AOSP  based roms. They’re all in the update.zip format for easy flashing, just clear cache beforehand in your recovery and you are good to go.

Viewsonic recently released the Gtablet to the masses at the $399 pricepoint. With a dual core Tegra cpu, 512MB of ram and 10″ of screen real estate, this tablet has a lot going for it. However, right out of the box it is probably by far the worse OS and/or UI I have ever used. If this tablet was given to me as a gift with no option to change the stock OS, I would try and re-gift it. It is just that bad and then some.

So what’s so great about this tablet then? Custom roms. There’s nothing locking this system down, so there are already a few roms available that really improve the functionality of this tablet. Trust me, the difference is night and day and all kudos go to the folks on XDA Developers for really pushing this tablet forward.

Let’s get started shall we?

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ChevyNo1 has released Simply Stunning 4.7 with a bag full of goodies.

1. Screen lag on any of the launchers should be improved! That being said – I really do recomment another launcher. I’m partial to ADW – ADW.Launcher v1.0.1 standalone Application for Android | Productivity, VERY small memory footprint. It is also now an option in RM, which also installs an ‘mvadw’ script. If you DO use another launcher, use my tools to DELETE the stock Launcher2 (it will back up to SD). Otherwise, it will still take resources even though you don’t run it.

2. You can now control your tunes (Media Player, Pandora tested) while the screen is off! Longpress volume up/down to skip tracks. Camera focus (lightpress) to pause/play. Camera shutter (hardpress) to toggle the extended media controls on/off (not permanent like Tools UI which sticks beyond a reboot). I did NOT add graphical controls to the lockscreen. To me it seems pointless.

3. Google fix for Pandora (all streaming AAC) included – this is NOT the hack that disabled stagefright; this has FIXED stagefright

4. Ability to change the carrier text to whatever you want! Should not affect any other apps.

5. Now when you ‘delete’ system apps, they are backed up to SD. So just in case you want it back .. you can get it back

6. rstapps has had a few fixes – you should see no FC’s while restoring, or much less than the past. Also, there is a fix to prevent future market update errors (ie. insufficient storage).

7. Extra low dimness now available. Check out Settings -> Display

8. OTA patch capability – yet to be tested (on YOU )! I can now push out updates to all phones running my ROM. Everything EXCEPT a full ROM update. That is better left to you or Rom Manager. But any other updates, including patching APK’s, I can now do automagically

9. Chrome To Phone now included

10. Bypass lockscreen option added in Tools

11. MORE things to hide in the statusbar – alarm clock, cell signal, 3g signal, battery, adb, usb. I have heard you all ask for being able to customize images themselves. I will get there

12. All options (ie scripts) selected in Tools are remembered, at least until a reboot.

13. I’m told I don’t promote this enough – you can change pretty much ALL colors in the statusbar, ON THE FLY. No reboot, no xml hacking.

I just loaded this over SS4.6 and everything is working like it should. The audio controls mapped to the volume rocker and camera button are top notch. I also really like the menu key as unlock option. This was in CyanogenMod, which I sorely missed.

Download the rom and load via recovery or find it Rom Manager!

After having ran Bugless Beast 0.4 for nearly 2 weeks on and off, I decided to try CyanogenMod’s latest Froyo (from source) rom, 6.0.0 RC1.

My steps on swapping roms:

1. Titanium Backup all apps
2. Nandroid backup current rom
3. Download CyanogenMod via Rom Manager app

There’s a pre-requisite that you have to be rooted to perform the above. I’ll run through the root process in another update later on. Contrary to what everyone else suggests, I did not wipe data. I simply loaded CM over my previous BB rom. The process took roughly 15 minutes before I was back on my lock screen.

First impression is that its snappy and everything settled in quickly. CM comes with its own tweaking/settings section. My favorite by far is the ability to hide the clock in the status bar. I run Beautiful Widgets, so having two clocks looked weird.

Two tweaks I did was disabling dithering and changing VM size to 32MB. This seems to increase performance just so slightly without sacrificing the look and feel of the rom. I loaded up my current kernel of choice, ChevyNo1′s ultra low voltage 1.25Ghz 7 slot. Currently I’m running ondemand via SetCPU at 250/800Mhz.

I’m currently on hour 12 of running CM, I’ll need to update once I put this rom thru it’s paces over the week. So far, everything looks pretty good in CM land.

Update: so far so good, battery life with heavy 3G data and voice yeilded about 13 hours before needing a charge. One other neat setting is the ability to unlock the phone with just the menu key – VERY convenient.

Update: jdlfg has some updated kernels for CM6RC1 specifically. They’re at version 32.2.2, grab them here via his twitter feed. Supposedly these are battery life saving in nature.