Google is being sued by Plaintiff Nathan Nabors of Florida. Part of the lawsuit is a breach of contract from failure to maintain 3G connectivity and violated the Communications Act. The class action lawsuit will cover anyone from Florida and California that purchased the Nexus One through Google since January. At this time HTC (the manufacturer), and T-Mobile (the network), are not listed as being involved in the case.

TechCrunch said, “The suit says Google basically failed to warn customers they would not receive faster 3G connectivity, even in areas where T-Mobile USA said such coverage was available. In addition, customer support from Google, to which T-Mobile referred customers with 3G connectivity issues, came up short. Breach of warranty claims aside, the suit also says Google violated the Communications Act by making false and misleading claims about the Nexus One.”

Google has been reached by TechCrunch, who first relayed the story, but at this time no further information is available at this time.

On a personal note, I’m wondering If HTC and T-Mobile will get hit with this lawsuit.

Source

Apple held an event yesterday that introduced new iPods and the new Apple TV. While Steve Jobs was on stage showing of his new products he didn’t hesitate to compare Apple’s iPhone to Google’s Android. Steve Jobs mentioned  Apple was activating 230,000 devices a day while Google’s Eric Schmidt, last month, said that Google was activating over 200,000 devices a day.

In Apple’s spirit, Steve Jobs can not believe those numbers are legit. So he told the event audience, “We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers”

Google responded back to Steve’s comment with “The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services.”

Along with this Steve Jobs took a few more shots at Google and a few other companies. Personally I’m wondering when Steve Jobs will admit another company then his own has a good product.

Source

So when we’re not helping people root their phones, flashing ROMs like a crack fiend (ROM junkies?), or drooling over new devices coming out, there is something else we love to do… EAT!

So for our first app, we decided to do an Android app involving finding good food (something I figured other people could appreciate). The app is actually an extension of our little food site we just put up called ChowSpots.com and the app allows you to bring the maps from ChowSpots.com with you on your Android phone. There are three maps of food in the app and on the site:

• “The Best Thing I Ever Ate Map” – If you watch Food Network, I’m sure you are familiar with “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” show where the Food Network chefs tell you about the best foods they’ve ever eaten (and they have eaten a lot of food) and where you can get it! Well, this map takes all of the foods they have ever nominated on that show and puts them on the map so you can easily find them yourself!
• “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives Map” – Again fans of the Food Network will know this show as well. This is the show where Chef Guy Fieri goes around the US looking for the greatest, greasiest, places to chow down at. This map puts all those places on an easy to use map so you can find them and try them for yourself. (Work in progress by the way, there are a ton of episodes to add to this map. Going as fast as we can)
• And finally the “Reader Submitted ChowSpots Map” – This map is really what I like about the site/app. Readers can submit their favorite foods from their favorite restaurants around the country for us to put on the map. Then you can view that map on your phone to find the best places to eat submitted by other foodies like you. There has been plenty of times my friends and I have been like, “Where should we go out to eat tonight?” and instead of scratching our heads, we can check the map and see what places people have submitted to guarantee we go somewhere with some awesome food.

So the Android app can be found in the Market and is completely free, just search for ChowSpots (give us a 5 star rating please!). It is very much a beta (or more of a proof of concept to see if anyone would actually use it) so please comment either in the Market or on this post and let me know what you guys think? How can we improve it? Would you even use it? What about the site, what do you think?
If we get a good response we’ll make the app for iPhone, and we’ll improve the Android app to do some cooler things!

Also, we are doing a contest on the site for $100 and $50 gift cards, so please head over and submit your favorite foods @ your favorite restaraunts or be a food critic and write your own food review for us to put up on the site! All the details for the contest etc. are here.
The more people that put stuff up on the map/site, the more useful it will be for everyone! We aren’t ever going to charge money for the app, so it will always be free for everyone to enjoy!

We also have to thank Persource for helping us build the app! They were great, inexpensive, and had a quick turnaround time! Check them out to get a quote for them to make your app idea into a reality!

So one of the major pains with Google AppInventor is that fact that (at the moment) you cannot create multiple screens. Well, there is a little trick to get around that flaw without too much trouble. The concept here is to create screen arrangements then make ones visible when we need them to show up and invisible when we want to show another “screen”, this create the illusion that the app changed to a different screen. Let’s get started.

I. Before You Begin

1. You need to have AppInventor installed, of course.

2. You need to be able to connect to your phone with the blocks editor so we can see the screen changes on the phone and make sure they function the way we want (as we can’t see the screen changes in the AppInventor very well).

3. Have done a few of the Google Tutorials from getting started with AppInventor to get familiar with the Palette, Components, Designer, and Blocks Editor.

II. Create a MultiScreen App – Designer

1. Have AppInventor and the Blocks Editor open and have your phone connected and showing the app demo on it’s screen.

2. Open a New Project and name it whatever you like (we will use MultiScreenTest for ours).

Make Our First “Screen” -

3. In the Designer window, take a Screen Arrangement (Table Arrangement works best, but you can use any depending on your needs) and drag it to the screen window. It will now show up in the window and in the Components section of the Designer.

4. In the Components section of the Designer, click on the new ScreenArrangement that showed up and click Rename. Name it to something that will help you identify what “screen” this is going to be.

*Tip – It’s always a smart idea to name components with what they are first then the name (I.e ScreenSplash, ScreenLogin, ScreenThankYou or ButtonLogin, ButtonLogin2, etc. ). This is good to do because it will keep all of the components organized in the Blocks editor and you won’t have to second guess what kind of component you are working on.

5. In the Properties window for the Screen Arrangement, we are going to setup how ever many columns and rows we need.

6. Then in the Properties window for the Screen Arrangement, change the width and height to both be Fill Parent (this way the screen arrangement takes up the whole screen on the phone).

7. Now, we drag whatever elements we want from the Palette section into those columns and rows on the screen.

We now have our first “screen”

8. Next, we will pretty much do the same thing for the next “screen”.

Make Our Second “Screen” -

1. In the Designer window, take a Screen Arrangement (Table Arrangement works best, but you can use any depending on your needs) and drag it to the screen window. It will now show up in the window and in the Components section of the Designer.

2. In the Components section of the Designer, click on the new ScreenArrangement that showed up and click Rename. Name it to something that will help you identify what “screen” this is going to be.

*Tip – It’s always a smart idea to name components with what they are first then the name. I.e. all of the screen arrangements I’m going to name them Screen and then whatever I want to call them (ScreenSplash, ScreenLogin, ScreenThankYou or ButtonLogin, ButtonLogin2, etc. ). This is good to do because it will keep all of the components organized in the Blocks editor and you won’t have to second guess what kind of component you are working on.

3. In the Properties window for the Screen Arrangement, we are going to setup how ever many columns and rows we need.

4. Then in the Properties window for the Screen Arrangement, change the width and height to both be Fill Parent (this way the screen arrangement takes up the whole screen on the phone).

5. Now, we drag whatever elements we want from the Palette section into those columns and rows on the screen.

We now have our second “screen”

6. Next, we will pretty much do the same thing for the next “screen”.

Make Our Third “Screen” -

1. In the Designer window, take a Screen Arrangement (Table Arrangement works best, but you can use any depending on your needs) and drag it to the screen window. It will now show up in the window and in the Components section of the Designer.

2. In the Components section of the Designer, click on the new ScreenArrangement that showed up and click Rename. Name it to something that will help you identify what “screen” this is going to be (I’m using this Screen Arrangement as a splash screen so I named it ScreenSplash).

*Tip – It’s always a smart idea to name components with what they are first then the name. I.e. all of the screen arrangements I’m going to name them Screen and then whatever I want to call them (ScreenSplash, ScreenLogin, ScreenThankYou or ButtonLogin, ButtonLogin2, etc. ). This is good to do because it will keep all of the components organized in the Blocks editor and you won’t have to second guess what kind of component you are working on.

3. In the Properties window for the Screen Arrangement, we are going to setup how ever many columns and rows we need.

4. Then in the Properties window for the Screen Arrangement, change the width and height to both be Fill Parent (this way the screen arrangement takes up the whole screen on the phone).

5. Now, we drag whatever elements we want from the Palette section into those columns and rows on the screen.

We now have our third and last “screen” for this example.

6. You can do this as many times as you need to add as many “screens” as you need to your app.

III. Create a MultiScreen App – Blocks Editor

ClearScreen Procedure –

1. Now comes the fun part. We have to use the Blocks Editor to tell the app to display our “screens” at the appropriate time. Open the Blocks Editor and let’s begin.

2. First thing we are going to make is a Procedure called ClearScreen. This will basically make all the Screen Arrangements we have in our app invisible whenever the Procedure is called. This is a time saver so we don’t have to make each individual Screen Arrangement invisible every time we want to change screens.

3. In the Blocks Editor, click on Built-In at the top left, then click Definition and pull a Procedure block out onto the Block Editor screen (not to be confused with the ProcedureWithResult block). Rename it to ClearScreen.

4. Click on My Blocks at the top left and look for your first Screen Arrangement (if you named them Screen— then they will be easier to find) and click on it.

5. Look for the the Set Nameofthescreenarrangement.Visible To block, drag it out and click it inside the Procedure block.

6. Once it clicks in and is still highlighted, begin typing False on your keyboard until you see false come up on the screen. Once it does select it to add the False to the end of the Nameofthescreenarrangement.Visible block.

7. Next, repeat steps 4 through 6 for all the other Screen Arrangements you’ve created.

8. Now, whenever you call the ClearScreen procedure later on in the code it will automatically make all the screens invisible, allowing us to then make whatever screen we want visible afterwards.

Changing Screens -

Now, whenever you want to change screens just set the button (or whatever action you want to initiate the next screen to come up) to call the Procedure and then set the Screen Arrangement you want to show up to visible. Here’s an example of how to do that:

1. In the Blocks Editor, select My Blocks at the top left, then click on the Button you want to initiate the screen change.

2. Find the block that says “Nameofthebutton”.Click and drag it out into the Block Editor screen.

3. Click on My Definitions and select the call ClearScreen procedure we created earlier, drag it out and click it into the “Nameofthebutton”.Click block so it is the first thing called when someone clicks the button.

4. Next, find the Screen Arrangement under My Blocks you want to make visible after clicking that button and click on it.

5. Look for the the Set “Nameofthescreenarrangement”.Visible To block and drag it out and click it inside the “Nameofthebutton”.Click block (Important: Make sure it is AFTER the ClearScreen Procedure, otherwise it won’t work properly).

6. Repeat this in all the buttons or actions that you want to initiate a screen change. Done!

It should look like this when done:

Hope that helps everyone make some more complex apps!

If you guys would like a video example for this procedure, let me know in the comments

iPhoneAndroid.com and Persouce.com have teamed up to create a fun little contest that could potentially change the winner’s life (Have you seen how much money the developer of Advanced Task Manager is making?).

How it works:

• Simply, think of a unique app idea for iPhone or Android and submit it a their site, iPhoneAndroid.com
• Get the most votes from your peers before September 26, 2010
• Persource.com then builds your app for free
• They give you your app and you publish it yourself in the Market (All revenue, ad related or otherwise, is entirely yours to keep. No revenue sharing necessary!).
• You do a happy dance.

Check out the full contest rules here for more details.

So what are you waiting for, click the link above and head over to submit your app idea or just go and browse the other submissions and vote on your favorite!

iPhoneAndroid.com

It seems that more and more people are gaining access to the Google AppInventor tool, so I figured I’d do a series on the AppInventor starting with an introduction, setup, and also get rid of some misconceptions about the program…

I. What is Google AppInventor (and what isn’t it)?

Basically it is a web-based tool that you can use to create apps using a visual editor and simplified “blocks” of code to create a basic app. At the moment, this program is in it’s beta testing and you must request access to it and wait for Google to accept you. It is a great tool for learning how programming for Android works, it’s a quick way to make simple apps for yourself and friends, or even make a quick app to then use as a prototype for a more complex version.

What is it not? Well, it is not a way to make an app that you can then put into the Market and become independently wealthy. There seems to be a misconception that you can use this to create an app and submit it to the Market (and this also seems to have cause an uproar from people as to how horrible it is to give your average joe a way to make apps that they can submit, thus flooding the Market with homemade, low-quality apps). Simply put, any app you make in the App Inventor, can NOT be submitted to the Market. When you try, you get an error message.

Google employees have commented on this saying basically that at the moment they do not want to allow apps from AppInventor into the market and that it is more of a learning tool than a shortcut for making quality apps. They also say that they are still trying to investigate a way to incorporate these apps into the Market in some way in the future.

II. How Can I Get AppInventor?

Simply go to https://services.google.com/fb/forms/appinventorinterest/ and fill out the form. Google will send you an email to the email you provide (must be a GMail email account) when you are granted access to the program.

III. How Do I Setup the AppInventor?

1. Once, you receive your email from Google saying that you now have access to the AppInventor, simply click on the “Getting Started” link in the email to be brought to the AppInventor site.

2. Once on that page, click on the Setup link and follow the instructions to download Java 6 (if you don’t already have it) and the AppInventor Extras Software and install it to your computer.

3. On your phone, go to Settings > Applications > Development and make sure USB Debugging and Stay awake are checked on.

4. Plug in your phone to the computer.

5. Now, click on My Projects at the top right of the page to be brought to the actual AppInventor.

6. Click on Open the Blocks Editor button at the top right and it will download the java file. Once done, open it.

7. Once the Blocks Editor is open, click on the button Connect to Phone and wait for it to find and connect to your phone. Once it is done, you will see a white screen on your phone.

IV. All Setup, Now What?

Well, we are putting together a series of tutorials (including video walk-throughs for the tutorials Google has up on the site) that will hopefully help you get familiar with App Inventor and programming for Android as a whole.

All of our Tutorials will be listed here in the future (feel free to bookmark that page as new tutorials will appear there automatically).

On this site I get a ton of questions (most of which couldn’t be answered unless I was literally standing over you while you were doing a procedure, like, “What did I do wrong?”). But occasionally I get some questions that I can answer, like, “What is rooting?” and “What are the benefits of rooting?” So today, I decided to put together a sort of FAQ on just that subject.

If there is anything else you would like to add please feel free to send me an email.

I. What is the Difference Between Rooting and Jailbreaking?

First off, let’s explain that rooting and jailbreaking are essentially the same thing. The only difference is what device you are referring to and which term is generally associated with that device. Jailbreaking is generally used to describe Apple products like the iPhone, while rooting is used to describe most other Linux based devices like Android.

*My guess for the difference, besides just having those terms coined with their respective operating systems, is that rooting/jailbreaking an Apple product is a much harder process. Only reason really is that Apple is the only phone manufacturer so opposed to jailbreaking that they have devoted resources to resolve jailbreaking exploits whenever they arise. Because of this it might seem more “liberating” when rooting an iPhone and as such deserve a more suitable name perhaps.

II. What is Rooting/Jailbreaking?

Now that you know the difference between jailbreaking and rooting (or lack thereof), we’ll answer the next obvious question; what is rooting?

In a nutshell, when we root a phone we are actually trying to gain root access (you’ll sometimes here people say Superuser access, which is essentially the same thing). You can basically think of it in the same terms you think of a tree’s roots. The roots of a tree are the very bottom of the tree just as root access is giving us access to the very bottom or most basic files, systems, and commands on our phone. In Linux/Android, the root user is the user with all permissions to change and alter any files on the system/phone.

Why would we want access to these most basic folders and systems on our phone? Well, because these are where things like our phone’s operating systems files are contained and once we have access to them, we can change them to our liking (or we can have someone with some developing experience change them to our liking by flashing a ROM, but we’ll get to that in a sec).

Besides changing our phone’s operating system files, we can also load apps that need root access to run, by that I mean they need access to some of those most basic files and systems to do what they do. A popular example of this, would be the WiFi tethering app, which can turn the phone into a WiFi hotspot so that you can share your 3G/4G connection with other devices in the area. This app needs to access certain features in the phone that are normally not accessible unless we root the phone and then tell it that WiFi tethering has permission to use that root access (yes, even though we have root access, there are measures in place for us to determine what apps can use that privilege and what apps cannot).

III. Benefits of Rooting

An app asking for root permissions (often called superuser permissions)

So now that you know the basic gist of what rooting is, I’m sure you want to know; what are the benefits?

• Ability to use apps that require root access like:
  Wifi Tethering – turns your phone into a WiFi hotspot without you having to pay extra to your carrier for that feature
  Nandroid and other backup apps –  allows you to make backups that can literally put your phone back to the exact state it was when you backed up
  File Managers – some root required file managers allow you to access system files like icons etc and change them
  Overclocking apps – these apps allow you to overclock your phone’s processor, taking a 600mhz processor to 1ghz for example.
• Ability to change your phone’s icons, status bar, and overall look through themes/ROMs
• Ability to increase performance through optimizations (usually through flashing ROMs)
• Ability to upgrade your operating system version without having to wait for an OTA (like going from Android 1.6 to Android 2.2)
• Ability to add Flash support and JIT compiler (which makes your phone faster) through going to Android 2.2
• Ability to flash ROMs (and easily get all of the benefits above in one shot)

IV. What is a Recovery Image?

What a custom recovery image may look like on your phone.

A recovery image is basically a part that is built in to Android that can be booted into without having to load the actual operating system (this allows you to get into it even if something has gone wrong with your phone, hence “recovery” image).

Now, normally, the recovery image on your phone has two main functions; factory reseting the phone if you can’t get into the operating system, and flashing an update to either fix any issues the phone is having or upgrade it to a new version of software. In addition to these functions there are locks and limitations set by the manufacturer in the recovery image like the fact that even though it can flash new versions of software, that software must be digitally signed by the manufacturer or the phone won’t flash the software (this is important later).

Now, since we have root access we can generally flash our own custom recovery image on to the phone. Why? Well, a custom recovery image has same added features including:

• Ability to use Nandroid backup (and save the entire memory of the phone to the sdcard so you can restore the phone with ease if anything goes wrong)
• Ability to use certain tools like partitioning the memory card (used for saving apps to the sdcard, adding more virtual swap memory to phones that are low on RAM, etc).
• Ability to flash updates that are not digitally signed by the manufacturer.

The last one is probably the most beneficial. Once we have a custom recovery image that allows us to flash updates that are not digitally signed that means we can load custom ROMs.

V. What are Custom ROMs?

Some custom ROM screenshots.

So if you are looking into rooting your phone, you have probably seen the term ROM somewhere and are curious as to what is all the fuss about ROMs.

ROM literally stands for Read Only Memory and in a nutshell it is the portion of the phone’s memory that contains the operating system, apps, and software that come preloaded on the phone. This memory can (normally) not be altered and is what the manufacturer or carrier wants you to have on your device when you first turn it on. If you factory reset your phone it would simply erase all of the changes you made and reload the ROM to get you back to how the phone was when you first opened it.

Now, when we talk about loading or flashing ROMs onto our phones, we are referring to custom ROMs that developers in the Android community have made either for themselves and decided to share, or made with the intention of sharing for others’ enjoyment.

Basically, these developers created their own ROM with their own operating system (say Android 2.2 vs Android 1.6), their own preloaded apps that they think should be included (including ones that replace the original apps on the phone, like the dialer, camera app, gallery, etc)., and their own performance or appearance tweaks.

For most people rooting their phone, flashing a custom ROM is the ultimate goal. It is the easiest way for them to get all the benefits of rooting mentioned above on to their phone without having to alter the code in their phone manually.

V. Cons of Rooting

Average person reaction when speaking about rooting/jailbreaking.

Now, with all those benefits, I’m sure you’re saying, “What’s the catch?”

1. Rooting and flashing ROMs technically voids your warranty – This is kind of the big issue with it all. Manufacturer’s have a pretty strict stance on rooting your phone (some more so than others) and they will generally not honor the warranty on any phones that come back to them with root access enabled. Now, this isn’t the manufacturers just being evil (in most cases) and there is some reasoning behind this concept. For example, let’s say that you flashed a ROM that didn’t have Bluetooth support working properly (the developer just hasn’t gotten it to work right yet) and then you try to send it in for warranty claiming that Bluetooth doesn’t work and you want a new phone. Well, that wouldn’t make much sense, right? Why should the manufacturer honor the warranty when the fact that you changing the software on the phone is what caused the issue?

Now, where manufacturers go wrong here is that they sometimes won’t honor the warranty when a rooted phone comes in for something that has nothing to do with the software. An example of this would be say the trackball fell out of your phone and you sent it in for warranty and the manufacturer said they won’t honor it because you rooted the phone. That’s not right because you changing the software of the device has nothing to do with the faulty trackball falling out.

Regardless though, since we are just altering software, it is relatively easy to “unroot” most phones and get them back to factory spec without it showing any trace of it ever being rooted in the first place and therefore “reinstate” our warranty (which makes sense because if we bring the software back to factory spec and the issue still persists, then it has nothing to do with the software changes we made and should be the manufacturer’s responsibility, right?)

2. You can harm your device – Now, while it is true that rooting your phone and changing things and potentially stop your phone from working (anyone that tried to flash the wrong ROM on their phone can tell you about getting stuck in a boot loop). But the truth of the matter is that Linux (what Android is running on top of) is pretty hard to mess up. This is because it has fail safes in place for just such an occasion. Two of these fail safes are the recovery image, and bootloader (aka Hboot mode). Even if you flash the wrong ROM on your phone, the recovery and hboot partitions of your device are untouched and so long as you can boot into one of those two modes, you can flash a different ROM and get the phone working again.

I would like to point out, that in all my time doing this,  I have yet to see a completely unrecoverable phone.

VI. Difference between Unlocking, Rooting, and Jailbreaking

Another big question I get, is, “If I root my phone, can I use it on another carrier?” The short answer is no but I’ll explain.

Rooting and unlocking are two completely different procedures. Rooting your phone does NOT unlock it. In order to unlock your phone and use it on a different carrier, you must either purchase an unlock code (if you have GSM phone), flash a new carrier’s firmware manually through a cable (if you have a CDMA device), or you have to alter the phone’s baseband (as with the iPhone unlocking software).
Now, this seems to become a very confusing thing for people because of the iPhone I think. Sometimes people get confused with jailbreaking and unlocking by thinking they are one in the same (understandably with a name like jailbreaking you might think you are “setting it free”). But this is not the case. The iPhone has software to unlock it but that software is not automatically installed if you jailbreak your iPhone. The reason for the confusion, I think, is the fact that in order to use the unlocking software for the iPhone, you must have jailbroken it first (as the unlocking app needs root permissions to change the baseband, etc).

I hope that this helps some people who are new to rooting/jailbreaking their devices. For instructions on how to root and/or load a custom ROM on your phone, feel free to check out our How To section of our site and choose your device. Good luck and happy rooting!

So over in China, someone managed to get some pictures of a new Nokia device being called the N9. The interesting thing to us is that it could be running MeeGo

So the device seems to be almost entirely aluminum besides the keys, usb cover, and a few other small parts which are plastic. Under the battery cover there seems to be “Property of Nokia” and “Prototype Build B2″ labels, lending a little more credibility to the device’s authenticity. Engadget even says that a mole of theirs has checked the device’s serial in a Nokia system and it came back as a real prototype, so again more credibility.

As for the OS running on the device, it is an OS people haven’t seen yet. Most are guessing MeeGo or some new version of Symbian. Our guess is an early MeeGo build based on how similar it looks to the MeeGo handset edition (take a look at the status bar icons at the top and the grey bar along the bottom):

So what do you think? New MeeGo handset coming out of Finland? Anyone slightly interested?

Check out the source for more pics.

Source

*Specifications from GSMArena.com

So one of the new key features for Windows Phone 7 (that also happens to be one of it’s major differentiators from other OSes) is Xbox Live integration. Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t shown more than the Home Tile and a quick demo of a non-functional Xbox Live Avatar screen.

Well, apparently that has changed. Engadget got their hands on a device with Xbox Live Integration all up and running and some extra info on what games will launch with the new OS as well. Here’s the jist:

• Avatars are fully integrated; clothing/accessories available, interactive and animated, and they even appear in some other apps like Flashlight and Level apps.
• Gamerscore and achievements are all there. You can see your Xbox friends and even compare achievements as well.
• You can see what your friends are doing on Xbox Live (whether they are online, what game they are playing, etc. and it works whether they are on their console or phone).
• You can send messages through Xbox Live on your phone (which can be accessed on either the console or phone).
• Games all have try before you buy.
• You can use your Xbox Live Gamertag and profile in Windows Phone 7 and use it to play against friends just like on the Xbox console.
• There will be multiplayer games, but at launch they will only be turned-based. There is a good chance that Microsoft will have head to head multiplayer in the future.

Here is the Microsoft Demo video:

And here are Engadget’s quick video snippets of some of the features:

Check out Engadget’s full review at the source.

Have to admit, if they get that head to head gaming thing up and running, this could be a nice selling point for Windows Phone 7. Now, to see if the rest of the OS, hardware, and other apps can meet expectations…

What do you guys think?

Source

I. Before You Begin

1. This should work on all MyTouch Slides, even after the latest OTA.

2. THIS WILL GIVE YUOU THE ABILITY TO FLASH THE ENG BUILD AND THEN FLASH A CUSTOM ROM!

3. IN ORDER TO GET FULL ROOT ACCESS (LIKE ACCESS FOR ROOT REQUIRED APPS ETC) YOU NEED TO GO TO THE NEXT PROCEDURE LINKED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AND FLASH THE ENG BUILD THEN A CUSTOM ROM!

II. Getting the Drivers to Work

1. Uninstall HTC Sync from your computer if you have it installed. Go to Start > Control Panel > Programs > Find HTC Sync and Uninstall it.

2. Download USBDeview to your computer.

USBDeview

3. Right click the USBDeview program and select Run As Administrator (if on Windows XP you can just double click it)

4. In the USB Deview program, click on Description at the top to sort by description. Search for all the T-Mobile MyTouch Slide drivers and right click each one (if there is more than one) and select Uninstall Device on each one. There should be no MyTouch Slide drivers left in the list when your done.

5. Download PDANet for Android

PDANet

6. Install it with the phone NOT plugged in at first. Follow the PDANet Installation prompt and it will ask you what manufacturer (choose HTC) and then it will tell you to go on your phone to Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure USB Debugging is checked ON. Then plug in the phone and it should automatically install the drivers (including our hard to install ABD driver).

III. Setup the Android SDK

1. Follow our How To Setup ADB procedure and once you can see your phone’s serial number come back to this procedure and continue.

IV. Load the Exploit to Root the Phone

1. Plug your phone into your computer via USB cable and select Charge Only for connection type.

2. Download the Rooting Files

Exploid Rooting Files

3. Unzip the file and then copy all of the files into the tools folder of the Androidsdk (so they are inside the same folder as the adb.exe folder).

4. Open a command prompt by typing cmd and hitting enter in the Start menu search bar on your computer.

5. In the command prompt, type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line:

cd\
cd c:\AndroidSDK\tools
adb push exploid /sqlite_stmt_journals
adb shell
cd /sqlite_stmt_journals
chmod 0755 exploid
./exploid

6. After that last command, on your phone, turn on (or off if it is already on) the Wifi.

7. After that, focus back on the command prompt on your computer and type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line:

./exploid

8. It should prompt you for a password, enter “secretlol” (without the quotes). If it does NOT ask you for a password start from the beginning of Section IV and redo.

9. So long as it asked for the password and you entered it, you should be all set you MUST now go to the next procedure to flash custom ROMs in order to get full root access:

How To Load a Custom ROM on the HTC MyTouch Slide

Thanks to NBetcher!
Thanks to ChiefzReloaded!

Sick of waiting for Dell to give you your Android 2.1 update? Well, here’s how to install it manually

THIS WORKS ON ALL DELL STREAKS, INCLUDING THE US ONE!

I. Root the Phone

1. Do our How To Root the Dell Streak procedure then come back to this one.

II. Flash a Custom Recovery and Modaco’s Custom ROM

1. Do our How To Load a Custom ROM on the Dell Streak procedure and make sure to FLASH MODACO’s CUSTOM ROM from our Dell Streak’s ROM section then return to this procedure.

III. Flash the Stock Recovery Back to Your Phone

1. Download the stock recovery image and SAVE IT INSIDE the folder you extracted for installing the custom recovery image in the How To Load a Custom ROM procedure (the folder with fastboot.exe and all the other files directly inside of it).

Dell Stock Recovery Image

2. Turn off your phone, take out the battery, then put the battery back in.

3. Turn on the phone by holding down the Camera button and Power, keep holding them until the bootloader screen comes up.

4. Select Fastboot at the top right and then wait 10 seconds.

5. After the 10 seconds, plug the phone into the computer via the USB cable.

6. On your computer, navigate to the folder you extracted for installing the custom recovery image in the How To Load a Custom ROM procedure and hold Shift on your keyboard and then right click the folder (the folder with fastboot.exe and all the other files directly inside of it) then choose “Open a command window here”.

7. Now, in the command prompt window type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line:

fastboot-windows.exe -i 0x413c flash recovery recovery.stock.img          (that is a zero, not an oh)

8. Once the phone says Recovery Done, take out the battery and put it back in.

9. Turn the phone on by holding down Volume Down, Volume Up and Power at the same time. Keep holding the three buttons until the menu comes up.

10. On the menu, select the second option to update the phone via Update.pkg and wait for it to update. Once done, it will reboot.

IV. Flash the Update Package

1. Download the Dell 2.1 Update Package

Dell 2.1 Beta Update

2. Plug the phone in via usb cable and mount the sd card so we can transfer files to it.

3. Copy the file to the root of the sd card (not in any folders, just on the sdcard itself), and make sure it is name Update.pkg (yes it needs to be a capital U).

4. Turn off the phone.

5. Turn the phone back on by holding down both Volume Up, Volume Down, and Power until the menu comes up.

6. Select “Software Upgrade via Update.pkg on SD card” to apply the update. Click the Camera button to confirm. Once it is done it should reboot, enjoy!

I. Before You Begin

1. You must have done our How To Root the Dell Streak procedure. Once done, you can come to this procedure to continue.

II. Flash a Custom Recovery Image

1. Download the Custom Recovery Image flashing script.

Recovery Flashing Script

Recovery Flashing Script (Alternative version if the first gets you stuck at a black screen when you select “Software Upgrade via Update.pkg on SD card”)

2. Turn off your phone, take out the battery, then put the battery back in.

3. Turn on the phone by holding down the Camera button and Power, keep holding them until the bootloader screen comes up.

4. Select Fastboot at the top right and then wait 10 seconds.

5. After the 10 seconds, plug the phone into the computer via the USB cable.

6. Unzip the Recovery Flashing files you downloaded earlier and open the folder.

7. Double click “install-recovery-windows.bat” and wait for it to finish. The phone should automatically reboot and you now have a custom recovery image!

III. Load a Custom ROM

1. Head to our Dell Streak ROMs section and choose a ROM you want, then download it to your computer.

2. Plug your phone in via USB cable and mount the sd card so we can transfer files to it.

3. Copy the ROM .zip file (do not extract it, leave it as a .zip) to the root of the SD card (not in any folders, just on the sd card itself).

4. Unplug the phone and turn it off.

5. Turn it back on by holding down Volume Down, Volume Up and Power and keep holding all three buttons until the recovery screen appears.

6. Select “Software Upgrade via Update.pkg on SD card” to open the custom recovery.

7. Navigate with the volume keys and select using the camera button, and select Nandroid Backup to perform a backup.

8. Once it is done, go back and select Wipe Data.

9. Now, go back and select Apply .zip from SD card and choose the ROM you saved to the sd card. Wait for it to finish flashing.

10. Once done, go back and select Reboot System Now. Once the phone reboots, you are on a custom ROM, enjoy!

Thanks Modaco!

Reported Issues

Issue: I get stuck at a black screen after I select “Software Upgrade via Update.pkg on SD card”.

Solution: Redo this procedure from the beginning and use the alternative Recovery Flashing Script and try it again.

I. Before You Begin

1. This should work on all Dell Streaks (including the US version)

II. Root the Phone.

1. On your phone go to Settings > About Phone and look at your Build Number at the bottom.

2. Choose the appropriate Superboot files to download based on that number.

Build 4399 or 6601 – Superboot Files

Build 3883 – Superboot Files

3. Turn off your phone, take out the battery, then put the battery back in.

4. Turn on the phone by holding down the Camera button and Power, keep holding them until the bootloader screen comes up.

5. Select Fastboot at the top right and then wait 10 seconds.

6. After the 10 seconds, plug the phone into the computer via the USB cable.

7. Unzip the Superboot files you downloaded earlier and open the folder.

8. Double click “install-superboot-windows.bat” and wait for it to finish. The phone should automatically reboot and you are all done!

III. (Optional) Load a Custom ROM

1. Head to our How To Load a Custom ROM on the Dell Streak procedure to load custom ROMs.

Thanks to Modaco!

Apparently a few people who attended the T-Mobile regional meeting are talking to some sites. T-MoNews, AndroidandMe, and AndroidSpin are all reporting similar stories that they say they are getting from different individuals who attended the meeting (lending a bit more credibility to the stories). The HTC Vision/Blaze is going to be released on T-Mobile as the G2, as a successor to the original G1.

And just like a successor to the G1, it will be a “Google Experience” device and will run Android 2.2 without any custom UI. They report that the G2 is running a Snapdragon processor clocked to 800mhz but that it may be bumped up to 1ghz by launch. The reported launch date by the sites is “September”.

Got to say, I’m a little confused as to why T-Mobile would launch a MyTouch Slide with a qwerty keyboard made by HTC and then another almost identical phone right after sans HTC Sense being the only difference. But weirder things have happened.

What do you guys think? MyTouch Slide owners going to be mad if this thing is identical to yours plus adding HSPA+, a newer OS, and maybe a front facing VGA camera? I’d be pissed…

Source

According to their sources;

The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a “long touch pad” for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we’re told might not be final, and it’ll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color. Apparently it’s currently branded as a Xperia device, but it looks like it will carry PlayStationbranding as well. Those who’ve seen the phone say it looks “pretty damn sexy.”

Now the extra exciting part about this to me is the fact that this isn’t just about said device, but its about Sony creating a gaming platform (and maybe a multiplayer Playstation network for their Android games?) which would give Google the gaming push it needs. This kind of makes sense for Sony as well. Think about it… Microsoft is pushing their XBox Live platform on their Windows Phone 7 devices, so just like Xbox vs PS3 it makes sense for Sony to push a cell phone gaming platform in response. And since Sony doesn’t have their own UI in the market, why not use one that is already growing at an amazing rate like Android?

Engadget goes on to talk about how the games “will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is headed to Android. Titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap, and future plans for titles which incorporate augmented reality features.”

Exciting stuff for a cell phone, right?

They also say that there will be a separate section of the Android Market for these games (which bring further conviction to the fact that Google is working with Sony and might allow this to become their premiere gaming platform), and that this section will probably only be available to the initial Sony device but that it may open up to other devices as well.

Anyone else think an Android Playstation Network would be kinda cool?

Source

Google introduced a new feature for Android 2.2 devices today; Voice Actions. Voice actions allow you to use the voice search feature to now say commands to use certain features on your phone. For example, instead of just doing voice search to automatically search your phone and Google for things you say, it can also send a text message by saying the following command:

send text to [contact] [message]

Pretty neat, huh? Well, there are a whole bunch of other commands you can now use as well, including:

• send text to [contact] [message]
• listen to [artist/song/album]
• call [business]
• call [contact]
• send email to [contact] [message]
• go to [website]
• note to self [note]
• navigate to [location/business name]
• directions to [location/business name]
• map of [location]

So long as you have Android 2.2, you can go to the Market and search for Voice Search and download the one from Google, Inc. Once installed, you’ll have your new command features. Enjoy! Let us know what you think!

I. Before You Begin

1. You must have done our How To Root the Motorola XT701 procedure. After you finish it, you can come to this procedure to continue.

II. Flash OpenRecovery

1. Download the OpenRecovery Files

OpenRecovery

2. Plug in your phone and mount the sd card so we can transfer files to it.

3. Unzip the OpenRecovery zip file and then open the “to_sdcard_root_folder” folder. Copy and past everything INSIDE the folder (not the folder itself) and paste it to the root of your sdcard in your phone (no in any folders on the sd card, just on the sd card itself).

4. Now, unmount the sdcard by pulling down the notifcation bar and select turn off usb storage.

5. Turn the phone off while it is plugged in.

6. Turn on the phone by holding down Power and Volume Down and Camera at the same time on the phone.

7. Open the RSDLite program by right clicking it and selecting Run As Administrator.

8. Click on the “…” button next to the filename box and select the .sbf file that was inside the rooting files zip folder you extracted earlier.

9. Once it is selected, hit Start and wait for it to finish flashing the phone.

10. Now turn off the phone and then turn it back on by holding down the Media Button (small button next to the Camera button) and Power and keep holding them until you get to the recovery screen.

11. Using volume up and down to navigate and the camera button to select items, choose Nandroid Backup and wait for it to backup your phone.

12. Once that is done, select Reboot System and wait for it to reboot.

III. Flash a Custom ROM

1. Head to our Motorola XT701 ROMs section of our site and choose a ROM you want to flash and download it.

2. Plug in the phone via USB cable and mount the sd card so we can transfer files to it.

3. If the ROM you downloaded is in Nandroid Backup format, then unzip it and take the files inside and copy and past them into the nandroid > adbrecovery folder.

4. Unplug the phone from the computer.

5. Turn off the phone and then turn it back on by holding down the Media Button (small button next to the Camera button) and Power and keep holding them until you get to the recovery screen.

6. Click on Nandroid Restore and then choose the rom file you just saved to the adbrecovery folder on your sdcard and wait for it to finish.

7. Once done, select Reboot System and enjoy!

Thanks to Skrillax_CZ!
Thanks to JBoogie3!

I. Before You Begin

1. This only works on the XT701 NOT the XT720 (as far as we know).

II. Install the Drivers and Setup ADB

1. Download and install the drivers for your system.

Motorola Drivers (for 32 bit Computers) OR Motorola Drivers (for 64 bit Computers)

Unzip the drivers folder you downloaded (32 bit OR 64 bit), then double click the Motorola Consumer Driver Installer application and install the drivers.

2. Follow our How To Setup ADB Procedure until you get the serial number to pop up then return to this procedure.

III. Flash the Rooted Kernel with RSDLite

1. Download RSD Lite and the rooting files.

RSD Lite
XT701 Rooting Files

2. Unzip the rooting files and copy the su and superuser.apk files to the AndroidSDK\tools folder on your computer (that you setup using our ADB procedure).

3. Install RSDLite by double clicking the RSD Lite.msi file you just downloaded.

4. Once RSDLite is installed, plug in your phone to the computer via USB cable.

5. Turn the phone off while it is plugged in.

6. Turn on the phone by holding down Power and Volume Down and Camera at the same time on the phone.

7. Open the RSDLite program by right clicking it and selecting Run As Administrator.

8. Click on the “…” button next to the filename box and select the .sbf file that was inside the rooting files zip folder you extracted earlier.

9. Once it is selected, hit Start and wait for it to finish flashing the phone.

IV. Finish Rooting the Phone

1. With the phone on and plugged in via usb cable, open the command prompt on your computer by going to Start then typing in cmd and hitting enter in the search box.

2. Now, in the command prompt type the following with hitting enter at the end of each lin:

cd\
cd c:\androidsdk\tools\
adb remount
adb push su /system/xbin
adb push Superuser.apk /system/app
adb shell
chown 0:0 /system/xbin/su
chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su

chown 0:0 /system/app/Superuser.apk
chmod 644 /system/app/Superuser.apk

reboot

3. After the phone should reboot and you should see the superuser permissions app in your application drawer. If you do, you have root access!

V. (Optional) Load a Custom ROM

1. Head over to our How To Load a Custom ROM on the Motorola XT701 procedure.

Thanks to Skrillax_CZ!
Thanks to JBoogie3!

So Dell and AT&T finally made it official. The Dell Streak for AT&T will be launching on August 13th (Friday the 13th by the way for you superstitious folks). You can get it on a 2 year contract with AT&T for $299.99 or buy it without a contract for $550.

We have to assume that the no contract version is still locked to AT&T and that even if it wasn’t it’ll only have AT&T’s 3G frequencies built in (so even if it’s unlocked for T-Mobile you’ll only get EDGE speeds, which is obviously a bummer). It also seems that Dell is going the way of Google with the Nexus One as the device is only available online at Dell.com and there is no mention of the device on AT&T’s website at all (but perhaps that will change after release?).

Here is the specs of the phone in case you need a reminder:

Soon as they come out, I plan to grab one and put it through it’s paces (as well as root it and load some custom ROMs to show it’s potential as well as what it can do out of the box). Stay tuned for that next week.

So you might remember the name HTC Shubert from somewhere. That place would be the T-Mobile roadmap that leaked not too long ago. It was one of the few devices on the list (scheduled for November-ish) that didn’t have an Android symbol next to it. I guess now we know why, it’s running Windows Phone 7.

Well, someone at 247WindowsPhone got their hands on it long enough to do a quick video showing off it’s styling:

Not going to lie, I’m liking the interesting styling on the back of the device, plus the Xenon flash it looks like on the back there as well. Anyone else liking it too?

Also on a quick side note, the rumor is that this and the HTC Mozart are the same device and I just want to point out that both names could imply that to be true. Mozart = famous Austrian composer and Schubert = famous Austrian composer, coincidence?

Source

Verizon has finally confirmed the Motorola Droid 2 exists, and as a bonus they confirmed the R2D2 version in the same press release, how kind of them. Here are the specs they have confirmed for the Motorola Droid 2:

The phone is confirmed to be due out in stores this Thursday with a $199.99 on contract price. The R2D2 edition, which was also confirmed in the same press release, will be due out in September for purchase online only. The R2D2 version will have the same specs as the Droid 2, but will

“feature exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga.”

The only thing I don’t understand is how this is a sequel. I mean, the better keyboard layout and 8GBs of internal are nice additions (and even though they didn’t confirm it we are all suspecting a 1ghz processor upgrade from the 600mhz processor in the original Droid), but is that enough to warrant a “2″? Anyone with an original Droid think that’s enough for you to lose your original Droid for a Droid 2?

Source

So this has to be the first time I have seen a device come out in Europe, then come out with an unlocked version with AT&T 3G frequencies built in (and a T-Mobile 3G as well), and THEN, months later, get picked up by a US carrier.

The Sony X10 has been available with AT&T frequencies since March, but apparently it took Sony and AT&T this long to come to an agreement on selling it with a contract through AT&T stores nationwide. Sadly, in that time, the phone has not gotten an upgrade to it’s OS and is still running Android 1.6 that it launched with originally.

The idea is that most Americans don’t consider a phone launched here in the US unless it comes available with a contract on a major carrier. So I’m sure Sony is hoping that now that they have done that, that their US sales of the device will skyrocket. Not too mention with the subsidized contact price of $149.99 (or so) compared to it’s much higher unlocked phone price, it’ll be more in the price range Americans are comfortable with for a cell phone.

Now, the phone is a pretty nice device (check out our quick overview from April) with it’s up to par specs (4″ screen, 1ghz processor, 8MP camera, etc) and it’s a bit unique due to it’s MediaScape and TimeScape interfaces covering Android. But with an outdated version of Android, a custom UI (that we’re noticing more and more users would rather trade for vanilla Android 2.2), and the fact that it’s been out already for quite some time, will US users pick one up? Well, would you?

The phone is scheduled for release around August 15th.

Source

Worried all your precious data on your Android phone might fall in to the wrong hands? Well, an app called Biolock is due out by the end of August and it might help you secure your data from evil-doers.

The app can protect your phone by replacing the unlock screen with three different methods of protection (use one or all if you feel like it); a PIN code, iris scan, or facial recognition. The last two using either a front or rear facing camera to decide if you are who you say you are. It also has the ability to protect individual apps, contacts, or data (in case you forget to lock your phone).

Now, the app is due out by the end of this month but a private beta is launching a bit sooner. We’ll wait and see how the reviews go before we invest the $2.99 for this app (how fast can it scan, is it reliable, etc.?)

But maybe you can rest a little easier now, knowing this kind of security tech is coming to Android phones. Only thing now is to protect your eye balls….

Source