Comprehensive Android Phone/MODs/ROMs Thread

[Kurokikaze]

This thread is for talk about any news pertaining to Android smartphones and to discuss modifications and custom roms. Anything Android really.

Android Currently @ 2.3 Gingerbread. Honeycomb 3.0 is out for certain tablets.
-> Android Market <- Push Android applications from your computer's Chrome browser to your phone. Site is live but still in testing 06/29/10. Push requires Froyo.

Major Custom ROMs (these are well supported and updated often):
Cyanogen Mod
MoDaCo
MIUI

Custom ROMs for various phones:
→ Samsung Moment
Radioactive Froyo
Titanium X
MeatKernel
Amstel ROM

→ HTC EVO
Caulkulin's EVO ROM
Joeykrim's ROM

→ HTC Hero
FroydVillain

→ HTC Incredible
Ruby
Skyraider 2.5
Cyanogen

→ Motorola Droid
Chevyno1's Froyo ROM
Cyanogen

→ Samsung Vibrant
{ODIN} Froyo
Vibrant Eclair

Rooting Guides:
Google Nexus One
HTC EVO 4G
HTC Desire
Motorola Droid

Will add links to more guides as phones are released/rooted. Samsung Galaxy S, Droid X, Droid 2 should be up fairly soon.

Useful Apps:
ADWLauncher - Totally change and customizer the application drawer.
AK Notepad - Standard notepad app.
Andro Zip - Support for zip, 7zip, rar and other extractable files.
Astro File Manager - Allows you to go through your phone/SD card using a folder view. Also can install apps from apk.files and extract zip folders.
Autostarts (root) - Allows you to set and remove apps to your startup.
Barcode Scanner - Scan barcodes that link to downloads.
Beautiful Widgets - Widgets with a good degree of customization, nothing super special, just looks nice. For those that want that HTC Sense clock.
Brut Google Maps - Enhanced and modified version of Google Maps. Allows tile caching to SD so it loads maps much faster.
CM Updater - Used for updating your ROM for those that use Cyanogen Mod.
Dolphin Browser HD - Browser for Android that supports tabbed browsing.
Fandango - Purchase movie tickets.
Google Goggles - Search by taking a picture.
Google Translate - Record a message and play it back in another language. Very handy.
Google Voice - Free calls to landlines and free text messages over WiFi.
K-9 Mail - Standard mail client, but uses less CPU than GMail.
Linpack - Benchmark that shows MFLOPs.
Mizxing - Media player for Android. Slightly cleaner than stock and less redundant.
Movies - View movie trailers, see Rotten Tomato ratings on movies, and check local showtimes. Can also manage Netflix queue.
N1 Torch (root) - Turns your LED Flash into a Flashlight.
PDAnet - Tethering application.
Picsay - Free and Paid (Pro) versions, basically photoshop for your phone. Better than Adobe Android app.
Quadrant - Benchmark that gives you a score based on your performance and compares your device to other phones.
ROM Manager - Manage your ROMs via a handy UI. Organize and perform backups and restores from within Android. Install ROMS OTA.
Skyfire Browser - Currently in Beta. Slightly faster than stock Eclair browser.
ShootMe (root) - Allows you to snap a screenshot of your phone by shaking it.
Swype - Keyboard that lets you type by dragging your finger over the keys.
Task Manager - What it does in Windows. Allows you to keep track of applications that are open/sucking battery and kill them.
Titanium Backup (root) - Allows you to make backups of your settings to your SD card so that you can reload them when you swap ROMs.
Terminal Emulator (root) - Terminal window for entering commands.
TTS Service - Text to speech. Allows input through voice. This is required for Google Translate.
Wireless Tether (root) - Allows you to use your phone as a WiFi hotspot for up to 8 devices. Not necessary in Froyo.
Videora - Video converter
Zedge - Ringtone/Wallpaper download app. Clean UI and can be used to find wallpapers.

Games: (Only for games that are definitely worth mentioning or emulators.)
Psx4Droid - Playstation Emulator.
Gensoid - Genesis Emulator.
Gameboid - Gameboy Emulator
NESoid - Nintendo Emulator
SNEsoid - Super Nintendo Emulator
Caligo Chaser - Side scrolling beat em up RPG
Zenonia - Action RPG similar to Seiken Densetsu
Pocket Empires - Strategy MMO
Asphalt 5 - Racing
ScummVM - An APK to run the PC version of Scumm. Can play games like Sam & Max, Monkey Island. Old school PC games.

3G Coverage Charts (US only)
Verizon (CDMA)
http://vzwmap.verizonwireless.com/do...dmessaging.jpg
Sprint (CDMA)
http://coverage.sprint.com/images/mapvoicesprintUS.gif
T-Mobile (GSM)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...mocoverage.png
AT&T (GSM)
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8...overagemap.png



Rules:
1. No Android vs Apple debates here. Take that shit elsewhere. Both platforms are great, lets leave it at that.
2. If you need help with your Android device feel free to ask here. Although, most if not all technical questions can be/are already answered over at XDA-Developers.

I'll add more to this as its necessary.


"You Captivate and Fascinate me with your Vibrant and Epic phones."
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....1277853225.jpg

[Krandor]

I would add Gameboid and Brut Google Maps (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=630887) to the useful apps part.

And pretty much any question anyone has about anything remotely technically related to Android can be answered at xda-developers if you do some digging.

[Kurokikaze]

Updated OP.

Apparently the market.android.com site is live.

CM 6 update/teaser:


CM 6 Music Mod update:

[Odesseiron]

Okay since this is the official Android thread, I have a related question. I PM'd Krandor the other day about rooting, and he has yet to get back to me *cough* But anyway, it seems easy enough following the guide above. Got an Evo the other day.

A couple of questions

1) Does rooting void the manufacturer's warranty?
2) Should I care it voids it?
2b) Can I restore the phone so it doesn't look like I rooted it thus restoring my warranty?
3) With rooting the phone, can I update to 2.2 when it comes out? Or will I have to update it manually. Bricking issues etc, from rooting.
4) How do I configure wireless tethering once I have rooted?
5) Root only apps: Are they available on Marketplace, or must I get elsewhere?
6) How is battery life so extended after rooting?

Sorry if some of you find these questions dumb, I just want to make sure about a few things before I do it. If there's a guide to more of this stuff, by all means point me to it. I looked around and found some answers. Just prefer to hear straight from the mouths of you guys.

Thanks!

[Kurokikaze]

1. Yes Rooting will void your warranty if the bootloader stays unlocked. If there is a way to re-lock the bootloader then you can root and just make believe you didn't.
2. It depends on you really. Are you not careful with your phone? If you feel like you will be needing a replacement in the future due to physical damage I would advise against it. If you're careful and read everything thoroughly before performing any modifications to your phone you should be fine. Personally, I void my warranty Day 1 with Android phones. If you're not sure about something - ask first. Wouldn't want you to have a brick.
2b. That goes back to the issue of the bootloader. On the N1 theres a silly "unlocked lock" image when you're booting up the phone. This means that you have modified the phone and have no warranty. Not sure what its like on the EVO.
3. When you root your phone you will not receive OTA updates. You must instead wait for someone to dump a ROM on the net (that shit happens fast >.>) so you can update. Any big updates for ROMs - I plan to post about here. It'll be like BG's mini-XDA thread.
As far as 2.2 goes... I'm pretty sure theres already a custom Froyo ROM floating around for the EVO. Cyanogen is targeting the EVO with his next update, CM 6, so I'd wait on that. I've never encountered a more stable, feature packed, and quickly updated ROM.
4. Download the application from the marketplace. Or if you have Froyo it should be in your settings menu. Whichever route you choose - it'll ask you to create/modify an SSID and assign wireless security. Pretty straightforward.
5. Yes root-only applications are available in the marketplace. Make sure to turn on "Unknown Sources" under Application settings.
6. Rooting gives you much more control over the device. You can kill battery sucking bloatware apps that carriers like to stick on the phone, or prevent them from even loading to begin with. It's not a magical Battery Duration +50% buff, you need to work on it and get the right settings that will give you the most unf out of your phone.

The questions weren't dumb... I should probably add them to the initial post. lol

Hope that helps. :D

[Odesseiron]

Damn, that was quick. Thanks Kuro! I'm always careful with my phones, I never dropped my Iphone, furthest it's ever fallen is from my bed to the heavily carpeted floor with case. I don't care so much about the warranty as I'm not really accident prone. Once CM 6 does his thing for the Evo, is there an easy forum to find it on? I've not a clue where to look. Unless we include it in here. Installing the custom ROM, I'm not sure how to do, but when it comes up, I'm sure you helpful guys will be more than willing.

Thanks again.

Also! Very OT Kuro, but myself, Kearns, Rumari, Falcor and Rawk are probably doing a get together on a Sunday in July. You down?! Possible Olive Garden! I'll PM you with details when we have em :D

[Kurokikaze]

When CM 6 is released you will be able to find it on his website (link at the top). I'll be posting links here for the goods as well.

Haha that sounds like fun. Gimme a PM in advance when you guys decide on a day. lol.. hanging out with Kearns. Was supposed to go with him and Ceph to Grease Trucks a long time ago but that fell through. Random. XD

[Krandor]

Kuro threw up a link in the OP for Cyanogen, so you can find it there.

Once your phone is rooted, ROM manager from the market can smooth over the process of installing custom ROMs until you get used to it.

[Atreides]

btw I'm like 99% sure the game is called Caligo Chaser, not Calico Chaser

[Kurokikaze]

Android 3.0 Gingerbread getting revamped UI, Froyo living on for lower-end phones?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....erbread-sm.jpg

Last we'd heard, the next major release of Android -- codename Gingerbread -- was scheduled for a fourth-quarter launch, but the always-entertaining Eldar Murtazin has apparently just spilled a few details on what he knows of the release on a Russian podcast. Most notably, the dude says that we can expect an entirely revamped UI -- the first that the platform will have undergone since its introduction -- and will take cues from the fancy 3D Gallery app launched with Eclair. There's said to be a new 1280 x 760 resolution available for devices larger than 4 inches, which would dovetail nicely with Verizon's desire to bring a bunch of Android tablets to market. Like Windows Phone 7, Murtazin claims that Google will be laying down the law with some hardcore hardware specs to run 3.0, demanding a minimum of a 3.5-inch display, a 1GHz processor, and 512MB of RAM -- so what about cheaper devices? Well, those will apparently continue to run Android 2.1 or 2.2, which sounds like yet another serious recipe for platform fragmentation from the outset. We'll apparently see the first devices launch in time for the holidays following an October introduction, which lines up with what we've heard so far. Needless to say, we'll be keeping a close eye on this one.

I'm glad they're working on the stock UI. The software is already plenty fast after Froyo. They need to work on making the Android interface accessible to non-nerds/tech savvy users.

The writer does make a point... They are indeed setting themselves up for massive fragmentation. Its pretty sad when I look at someone else's Android phone and notice they are still running Donut and complaining about not having key features like pinch to zoom/multitouch that came with Eclair 2.1 update.

Who else is excited about having 1280x768 resolution on their device?!

[Sythe]

I am extremely excited but also a lil sad because i know HTC is going to take a while to get it running on the EVO

[Krandor]

My major concern with requiring beefier specs for a new version (not to mention apparently making the UI 3D) would be the possible battery life hit it could give the phones. After tweaking I don't have any complaints with my Evo's battery life, but the Android OS on a whole is a bit of a battery hog, especially compared to the iPhone4.

[Kurokikaze]

Yeah I see your point. They might just need to start pushing phones with bigger batteries. 1500mAh is not cutting it anymore.

[Korietsu]

As of this point, anyone running the last two leaked releases of Froyo on a motorola droid cannot usb tether.

[Kurokikaze]

Rom:
http://kanged.net/mi...pha1-signed.zip
444e5e446ed99208fd262a54ce4b3180 update-cm-6.0.0-N1-alpha1-signed.zip

Google Addon:
http://www.mediafire...F85B-signed.zip
Or
http://kanged.net/mi...F85B-signed.zip
e7ca0ec5e9f0e8bd031bd02fec29039f gapps-passion-FRF85B-signed.zip

Teaser Bootanimation:
http://www.mediafire...php?ylq5ogaanzm
Rename to bootanimation.zip and place in /data/local/

nstructions:

1) Nandroid backup
2) Flash FRF50 Radio if you haven't already
3) Flash CM 6 Alpha
4) Flash FRF85B Google Addon
5) Reboot
6) Post all discussion to this forum
7) Post all bugs to the Bug Tracker (check for duplicates first!)

CM6 just went into Alpha Test 1 for the Nexus One. Dumping it on my phone and giving it a spin. If you're an N1 using jumping in from another ROM, wipe first. If you're using a CM rom at the moment you wont need to wipe but make sure you flash the radio.

Pics coming soon.

Edit: Very very buggy as you would expect from an alpha build. Market not working, Camera and Music player keeps crashing.

[Krandor]

Some other apps to suggest.

Picsay - Free and Paid (Pro) versions, basically photoshop for your phone, which is ironic because Adobe's own Photoshop app for Android is crap. Very useful for cleaning up pics if you don't have a computer around, or if you're in to adding captions or other stupid shit onto pictures.

Movies - View movie trailers, see Rotten Tomato ratings on movies, and check local showtimes. Does other things too like managing your Netflix queue but I mostly just use it for showtimes.

Zedge - Ringtone/Wallpaper download app. Has a very clean interface and just looks like an altogether well made app. Haven't bothered with the ringtone portion since I prefer my soundbites from SNES Zelda, but found lots of good wallpapers on it.

Beautiful Widgets - Widgets with a good degree of customization, nothing super special, just looks nice.

Oh and ADWLauncher, live it love it.

Screenie of some Beautiful Widgets stuff (Clock/Weather, Vibrate and Screen Brightness toggles), ADW, plus a wallpaper I snagged off Zedge. Yes I liked that Prince of Persia, alot.

Spoiler: show

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31...701_000708.png

[Kurokikaze]

Added your extras. The wallpaper is pretty slick too. ;o

So CM 6 didn't like when I upgraded from CM 5.0.8 so I had to do a full wipe and then reinstall. Afterwards shit was so cash. I logged into my gmail account and the phone automatically started downloading every single app I owned before. Just had to change some settings. The phone is very spiffy now as you would expect from a Froyo build.

ADW question: You see how you have 5 buttons on your dock. Is that part of ADW or part of the ROM you're using?

Edit: Nvm figured it out. It is. So sweet to be able to put Browser/Phone/Contacts/Text/ on the dock.

[Krandor]

It's part of ADW, you can kill the side dots for changing screens and expand the dock to include to 2 more app buttons. I was using LauncherPro before because I liked having the 5 buttons on the dock, but once ADW added that feature in I was all over it since it has so many more tweaks available.

And sorry Kuro, Vibrant isn't 330 w/o contract

http://images.androidcentral.com/sit...t-preorder.PNG

[Kurokikaze]

Yeah ADW is just all sorts of win.

;____;

[Krandor]

Does the performance gain in Froyo work across most apps? Specifically asking for emulators since those are the games I can think of that are the most CPU dependent.