A new found love
I just switched to using an HTC HD2 running Android. First of all the fact that I am able to do this is amazing. I am running the entire Android OS off of my SD card. Wow! Next I am running a version of Cyanogenmod 6 made to run on the HD2. I have fallen in love with Android all over again.
For the last couple of months I have been using a Samsung Vibrant and was really getting tired of it. I just wasn't a fan of TouchWiz. I couldn't stand how bad the lag was, the way the app drawer was, and just a ton of small things. I have learned over time how to use Craigslist. I have got my hands in a lot of phones because of it. I put my Vibrant on there to sell. Two days later this guy text me and says he has an HD2 with a fully working Android rom on it. I got excited. I wanted it. So after about twenty minutes of text we came to an agreement and met later that day. It is no secret that I am a huge fan of the HTC Evo 4g and this is the closest I can get to it.
The first twenty-four hours were kinda frustrating. I couldn't get Android to load the right way. Thanks to @_alex_smith_ on twitter he explained to me what to do. We chatted on gtalk about it and emailed for like six hours. Not once did he get angry at any of the noob questions I was asking. So thank you for the help!
Fifteen hours later I am running a rom called Hyperdroid and love every minute of it. It is a fully working port of Cyanogenmod. There are a few bugs but honestly nothing that is a deal beaker for me. It runs better then some of the high end phones on the market right now in my opinion. It is quick! The HD2 makes the Samsung Vibrant feel cheap. Now I guess I do have to say the SAMOLED is much better but I'll can live with the little bit bigger screen.
So what is your take about the HD2 running android? Let me know by leaving a comment or get me on twitter @androidbrian. Thank you!
My Favorite Cyanogenmod Features
Cyanogenmod is arguably the best known rom for android phones out there, and has been my main rom of choice since I rooted my MyTouch 3g back in December of 2009. Now I will admit that I haven’t tried many other roms besides Cyanogen, but Cyanogen fits my needs pretty darn well, and a good number of the roms out there don’t offer the little things I’ve grown accustomed to from Cyanogenmod. And that is what I’m here to talk about, the features that keep me glued to Cyanogenmod.
The first, and most important reason, that I stick with Cyanogenmod is that it is based on plain old, wonderful, stock vanilla Android. Sure sense may look “nicer” or have better widgets, but I personally do not care for sense, or any of the other manufacturer skins at all. In my opinion the skins just help to fragment android, as with a new update to the os, the manufacturers have to review the new code and update their skin which usually takes a few months in addition to the carrier rolling out the OTA update. (Which is why I love my Nexus One, no waiting for any of that.) Another perk of Cyanogenmod is that it is built from the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code which means that it is on the cutting edge of Android. Google builds its new OS updates from the AOSP code, so you can bet that if there is an update to stock android, Cyanogenmod will be hot on the heels of the update with their own update to the Nexus one and other supported devices.
Speaking of supported devices, Cyanogenmod now supports a plethora of devices including, but not limited to, Nexus One, Evo, Incredible, G1, MyTouch 3g, Droid, and will soon be coming to the Samsung Galaxy S phones. Talk about awesome eh?
Now, on to the actual features of the rom, which are way too many to list, so I’m going to keep it to my top 5. My most favorite feature of the rom is the ability to set custom LED colors for many different programs. Now this function may not work on your device, but at least for the Nexus One, it works beautifully. In the CyanogenMod Settings tab of the normal phone settings, under user interface, you will find the LED Notification tab. There you can customize the color and blinking frequency for a variety of programs, along with having the colors mix or display one after the other if there are multiple notifications. I love the ability to see what notifications I have just by glancing at my phone and not having to turn it on. This is exactly what LED notifications are for.
Another great feature of Cyanogenmod, and the second on my list, is the Music Player! With the release recent of CM 6, TeamDouche has implemented Eliot Stocker’s Music Mod into Cyanogenmod. While most of the player’s interface seems the same, the changes are instantly apparent when you hit the now playing tab. Now you can use gestures to play, pause, skip, shuffle, and repeat your music. In addition, your wallpaper is visible behind the redesigned now playing window. Music Mod also adds 4 new widgets of various sizes. The larger widgets have play/pause, skip forward and back, repeat, shuffle, and a bar showing how far into the song you are, as well as the album art. Every single one of these widgets are beautiful and I have the large 4x4 one sitting on my left most home screen. If you are scared of flashing a rom and are on froyo, fret not! Look up music mod in the Market, it’s a separate, standalone version of Eliot Stocker’s mod. Also, if you like the mod, give Eliot a follow on twitter: @eliotstocker.
There are a few more music related features that TeamDouche added to CM 6, so I’m considering this paragraph as an addendum to my last. You can toggle play/pause and skip forward and back controls on the home screen, and also skip forward and back using the volume buttons. While I use and prefer the volume rocker option, both are quick ways to find your favorite songs without having to unlock your phone. Another great music related feature is the ability to play .flac (Free Losless Audio Codec) media files. While they tend to be on the large file size, they are the clearest forms of audio your ears can experience.
One last great feature of Cyanogenmod, and one that you’ll be using quite a lot (unless you don’t like it) is ADW by Anderwebs. ADW is a fully customizable launcher (homescreen) replacement. With it you can customize many aspects of your home screens, such as the number, the main home screen, the size of widgets, the number of icons displayed on one page etc. One thing I really like is the option to modify the widget size because with it I can have one home screen with a 4x4 picture, or one with 16 little 1x1 widgets. It also allows for high res backgrounds and scrollable widgets such as the agenda widget. As with Music Mod, ADW is in the market for your downloading pleasure. If you like it, give @anderwebs a follow on Twitter.
There are many more awesome features in Cyanogenmod so to experience them, you’ll just have to flash the rom to find out. If you guys want some help flashing it, check out cyanogenmod.com, click on wiki and click on your device, or hit me @grayfox814 up on twitter and I’ll try to help you as best you can. Happy flashing!
P.S. If you guys have any thing you want me to review or write a post on, shoot me an email at quatregsandrock@gmail.com or send me a tweet! Thanks!
When I met Android
Well, it all started 2 years ago, October 2008, in San Antonio, Texas. I was attending a Christian Young Adults conference there and the group I was with was staying at friend of our teacher’s house. I remember speaking with the husband and noticed he had an iphone running on T-Mobile. Now I was never into technology, I didn’t even own a computer, but I was fascinated with it. I decided that I wanted an iphone….yes, you heard me right….I wanted an iphone. I figured since he had one on T-Mobile so could I. This all took place on a Saturday so when I got to work on Monday the first thing I did was go to T-Mobile.com just to see if they offered anything similar to the iphone. At the time I was rocking a Blackberry Pearl….I know….lame. I was a radio DJ and I had a few hours before my show to prep so obviously I used the time to go to t-moble.com and take a look. When the site finally loaded, I saw it….the T- Mobile G1! Excitement rushed over my body. What is it?! What does it do?! When can I get it?! What does this meeeaan?! You get the point. Soon right after I was able to find the press conference that Google and T-Mobile had announcing the G1. I saw the entire thing and loved every minute of it. I then took my search to Youtube. It was there that I saw my very first unboxing video courtesy of Noah Kravitz from Phonedog.com. He unboxed the G1, brown version, and proceeded to go in depth about it. I believe he had 3 or 4 videos on the G1 and I saw them all. Noah talked about the G1′s hardware, OS and functionality among other things. I remember him calling it a game changer and boy was he right. I then went back to T-Mobile.com and realized it was up for pre-order!! I thought this was a sign! Surely God himself must be revealing this device to me, having me fall in love and showing me a way to have this phone….ok maybe not but I had to have it so I went ahead and pre-ordered, I even sprang for the 2 day delivery. I remember when my G1 arrived. I had it shipped to the station. I was thrilled. I opened it up, I can even remember the smell of the box. I talked about my new phone on my show and it sure wouldn’t be the last time. I played with it for hours, texting on the slide out keyboard, opening the market, downloading pac-man, swiping across the 3 home screens…etc. It was the best phone I had ever had. Now here we are, 2 years later and Android is blowing up! It is on numerous devices around the world, it comes in different versions which may or may not be a good thing. Android is faster, has over 80,000 applications in the market and counting. It is now going to be implemented in tablets and with Gingerbread and Honeycomb around the corner I can only imagine where Android will be in the year to come. Here we go.
I want to thank droidmessenger for this. You can check output some more of his stuff at www.droidmessenger.wordpress.com
Or you can get him on twitter @droidmessenger
The iPhone on Verizon
This seems to be something that no matter what platform you are into seems to make news. A big worry right now seems to be if the iPhone goes to Verizon Android growth is going to slow down. Which in a way I think is true but Android development isn't. Not yet anyway. People only know what Android is now. None of us know what it is going to be in the next six months. I don't think Google is going to just sit back and say well we will catch back up. I really believe that the next version of Android is going to be way beyond anything we can even think of at this point. Google is going to give people a reason to look at the iPhone on Verizon and say which one do I really want? Something that in the last two years has continued to evolve at a very rapid rate or something that has been just a refresh most years. With the exception of the iPhone 4 I don't think Apple has done anything that makes me say wow. Both Apple and Verizon both have a very deep following but I think so does Google. I see a lot more people with an Android phone then I do an iPhone. The best part is when I talk to them they have no interest in an iPhone on any network. This is just what I think. Please I would love to hear what anyone has to say. I am open to everyone. Please leave a comment or get me on twitter @androidbrian Thank You!
Where do you fit?
I think everyone of us in the Android community have a role. We all contribute in some way. The great thing is that we all have something different to bring. People like Team Douche bring one of the fastest and most stable ROMS around. Then we have people who really bring the community together through different kinds of podcast.
Personally I find my self on twitter a lot talking about Android. I like to share the information that I have to anyone who wants to know it. I may not be able to answer every question but I try very hard. I don't have a problem with going into different forums for people to help them solve a problem. On the flip side I learn a ton everyday from just reading different links that people post. I have been to so many different websites my bookmarks look like the Android Market at times.
In the end I think I contribute in a small way but I know I have been a help to some people. There have been a lot of things that I didn't know but learned something in the process. In the end all I want to do is help the Android community grow in a better way.
Please tell me what you think. Leave a comment or get me on twitter @androidbrian Thank you!
Carriers
If you have been following my tweets over the last few weeks you know I have started a personal war with T-Mobile. I have been having a lot of problems with my Samsung Vibrant. I have been a fan boy for T-Mobile for almost two years. Before now they have never done anything to me that would make say I'm sick of you. The last few weeks tho they haven't done or said a thing that has made me want to even continue to use their network. Now you wonder what could they have done? Well first I have had a to of issues with my phone. At first I was ok with what they were doing because they were being was more then enough. Now four phones later they are just out of answers. Instead of giving me a different phone they say we have nothing comparable. How do you not have a single phone that can compare. I even told them I would be willing to take a Mytouch 3g Slide. Which if you know Android its not a bad phone but it is not a high end phone by any means. They could not even do that. The idea of the only thing they can do for me is give me a fifth Vibrant was unacceptable. Why would I want another phone. The last time I called the phone was rebooting itself and it was less then 24 hours old. Really? I should have to put up with that? I don't think I should. I guess my next option is going to another carrier. That isn't something I really want to do but I expect more then what they are doing for me right now.
What would you do If you were in my shoes? Please let me know by leaving a comment or get me on twitter @androidbrian
Thank you guys.
On a small note androidftw.com WILL be going all out from this point on. You can expect at least one post a day. We have a lot of goals and CAN NOT make them with out the help of the community. Once again thank you to everyone.
Hello There…
Greetings, salutations and all of that good stuff. I'm Kamil. I also go by Digital Jedi. I'm the new guy around here. I'll be posting here as often as I can to talk about that OS we all know and love... Android. I'll be giving my opinions on Android news, devices, and how Android is crushing the competition. I'm also the new Editor on the site so I'll be helping out with other things to. Let me tell you a little about myself. My love affair with Android(much to my wife's dismay), began with the G1. What looked liked an updated sidekick which is, incidentally, the device that started me on my smart phone loving path(yes, I know, the sidekick isn't a smart phone, but it almost is), turned out to be this wonderfully fantastic device that was so much better than anything else out at the time. Feature phones just weren't doing it for me and Blackberry's were too "stuffy suit and tie" for my tastes, but the G1 and Android... Now this was a true Geeks dream. And yes, I am a geek, and proud of it! After that, while I have dabbled in every other OS out there, Android kept luring me back in. I was, and still am, hooked! And here we are today. I'm packing the Evo4g now and couldn't be happier! Android has a bright future ahead of it and I'm proud to be a part of it! But enough of my ramblings. Please feel free to ask me anything. I'm here to help! You can reach me via Twitter: @DigitalJedi01 or @JustUsGeeks(my other account along with my brother).
To Root or Not to Root A Noob’s Adventure
I can not tell you how long I had struggled with this question. I wanted to root, had no idea what it was, thought it was just a cool way to get free apps, and did not realize all that was involved with actually doing the actual root. Like you can "brick" your phone. Which means that all it is good for is an expencive paper weight. I can not tell you how many HOURS I spent trying to get my phone to root. I have a Droid 2. Something that is very easy, became a difficult task. The first to try to help me was @Perez_Chris he was great. Needless to say no matter how great he was, I was not able to root. Then there was @TeamSilence23 this guy spent at least 13 hours trying to help me get my phone rooted. There was something wrong. We just could not figure out what it was. I was tired of not having a rooted phone, being in the Droid Community, and being a "Noob". It just felt like everything was working against me. Even though the community was wonderful. they welcomed me with open arms. I was really welcomed by @BodyMarks, @AndroidBrian, @TeamSilence, @android713, @LaurieStar, @tiffyfone, the list will go on and on. The community is wonderful. They have taught me a lot about my phone that I did not know. Before I met @BodyMarks all I knew how to do was make calls on my phone. I have him to thank for introducing me to this wonderful community. Back to the rooting of my phone. I finally decided that I was just going to do it by myself, and if I brick my phone then I just brick my phone. I was talking to @AndroidBrian about it off and on, and I am sure he was tired of me talking about it and not doing anything about it. So I decided to bite the bullet and just do it. I studied a lot of sites. There were ones that did not make since to me. Finally I found one that made since. I saved the files the way it told me to save them. Extracted it the way ot told me to, then attached my phone, and then the computer did the rest. Finally!!! My phone had root. First thing I did was text @AndroidBrian. This guy has really stuck by me, and listened to me complain and moan about not having root on my phone. So of course he was going to be the first that I was going to tell.
All I can say is this. If you are thinking about rooting your phone, do it. There are a lot of great sites out there to help you. My boggest problem that I had, there is not enough sites for Windows 7. Yes they are out there, but you really have to dig. Once I found it, took my time, read the directions, it took about 3 hours. It really should only take about 45 minutes to an hour. But I a such a spaz when it comes to my phone, I just want to make sure that it is perfect.
So now that my phone has root, I am enjoying lots of wonderful apps that I would not have been able to without it. It definatly has it's advantages. So I would say do it! Root.
Thank you. Follow me on twitter @mischiefsmommy
Censorship
Ok I'm am going to start right in. I'm pissed off about what T-Mobile USA is doing right now. They are blocking text messages from a site that gives you information on the nearest legal marijuana store you. This site only gives you information on a legal business. Now you might ask, well why are you so angry? Here's why: The fact that T-Mobile just can decide to block a service because it thinks that it is something illegal with absolutely no proof is crazy! This site gives legal services to people who have to have their doctors recommendation before using their services. I am going to speak about California because that is the state I know the most about. In California marijuana is legal WITH a DOCTORS recommendation. You have to go see this doctor and get a prescription. Then you get a card from California state granting you permission to legally use these services. Now to even get into these marijuana store you have to have the card and a state ID. Oh, all of these stores have high security because of the nature of the business, so there isn't the likely hood of any illegal shenanigans. Now why is it ok for T-Mobile to block this service? If someone can think of a reason why I would really love to hear it. The other thing that bothers me is why is T-Mobile looking at their customers text messages?! Am I wrong in thinking that it's not ok for T-Mobile to read customers messages?? If they are monitoring text messages, what else are they looking at? These are all questions that I, myself, don't have the answers for but would very much like to. Do you think T-Mobile is right in monitoring its customers messages? I would love to hear what you guys think. Leave a comment here at the site or get me on twitter @androidbrian. Thank you!
Howdy!
Well hello there AndroidFTW readers! My name is Matt Shoop. Some of you may know me better as @GrayFox814 from twitter (follow me!). Regardless, I’m going to be posting here regularly so I thought I might as well introduce myself and give my background with Android.
So I first came to Android about 9 months ago after becoming frustrated with Apple and my first gen iPhone running on T-mobile. I decided that it was time to just go legit and buy a phone that was actually supported by my carrier, so I got the MyTouch 3g. You have no idea how excited I was to get this phone. I spent a week watching unboxing videos and demos of the MyTouch in anticipation. When I finally got it, it was like a breath of fresh, non-polluted, air. Shortly thereafter I hacked my phone and slapped Cyanogen Mod on it and fell more in love with it.
Flash forward to February. At this point, I was more than a little pissed at T-mobile and myself because of the two new versions of the MyTouch coming out and the Nexus one, so I ended up getting a Nexus and fell in love with android all over again. Again, shortly thereafter I hacked my beautiful Nexus and threw Cyanogen Mod on it. Since then, I’ve played around with a sense rom or two, and stayed on stock 2.2 till finally the first Cyan 6 RC came out, and I’ve been rocking that ever since.
Now, in regards to my views, I absolutely love Android. I love the freedom it gives me, the customizability, and most importantly the options I have, such as which rom I want to run, what music player I want to use, what keyboard I want, etc. I really dislike Apple, for a number of reasons, mainly because of their business tactics, walled garden, treat customer like child, etc. However, I don’t hate them. I can agree that without Apple, many tech markets would be very different right now. They’ve done some great things in the past, but now I think they are just scraping by on the skin of their teeth.
You may be wondering what exactly I’ll be doing here at AndroidFTW. Well, I am about to put your worried mind to rest. While I’m not necessarily limited to one specific field, most of my posts will deal with the hacking side of Android, as I fell it is the side I know best. So expect to see reviews of roms, and new hacks that increase the functionality of your phone among other things. However, I do reserve the right to rant every once in a while as I happen to be a very opinionated person, at least when it comes to android.
And that’s pretty much it! Look forward to my first official article in the next few days. Also feel free to follow me on twitter (@GrayFox814), I promise I won’t spam you TOO much with non-android related tweets. Adios!