FutureCrüe

if you dont have an htc supersonic evo 4g phone or don’t care about flashing custom roms on your phone you can quit reading now.

a high level overview of what you need to do if you want to play around with custom roms on your htc phone:

1. get your phone rooted and unlock nand.  there are lots of guides and methods on how to do this.  google is your friend.
2. install a rom manager.  you can get that from the android market by searching for rom manager.  i’m using clockwork.
3. get a good sized (like 16GB) sd card.  put your .zip files on the sd card (roms, radio, wmax radio, kernels, themes, etc)
4. boot into your recovery screen.  this is where you can do backups, wipe caches and flash roms.  you will do this frequently.
5. follow the directions with the roms and dont get frustrated.  you prolly wont find well documented step by step directions.  you are actually going to have to learn some things and participate in forums.

the evo has tons of roms available.  currently i’m using baked snack.  i really like their choice of custom kernels and the fact that you get stable overclocking in their default packages.  i currently think this is a really good release.  i’m also adding the riptide9 theme…well that is part of the fun of rooting and installing a rom is adding really cool custom themes on the phone.

here is what i like about rooting / backed snack (in general):

• wireless tether app.  my phone acts like a wifi hotspot and i dont have to pay sprint an extra $30/month for this service.  cha-ching.
• overclocking.  i’m able to run my phone at 1.13 ghz.  and i use an adaptive scaler that adjusts the cpu frequency when the phone is idling.  the original htc rom does not do this.  it runs the phone at 1 ghz all the time.  dumbasses.
• better battery.  you will have to tinker to get the best results but they can be obtained without shutting down all the services on your phone.
• run apps that require root.  there are lots out there.  you will certainly find some uses of your own that i dont know about.
• ability to apply themes
• the custom boot screen and faster boot time of the phone
• faster phone…the menu screens are way smoother.  benchmarks run faster on these roms too.
• faster frames per second for video.  htc was limited what android can do thanks to their crap software skillz.  so instead of 25fps on video, i get 55 fps.
• ability to control your kernel
• lots of fixes for a faster / more stable phone.
• a great community of people passionate about hacking and android and cellphones.  kinda like me.  :)

what i dont like:

• nothing.  yea.  its that cool.  ok…maybe losing sleep playing with my phone all night after a drinking binge.  hey, who needs sleep.  i’ll sleep when i’m dead.

nothing to see here. just a little baked snack 1.5 with a riptide9 theme.

running at 1.1ghz. very stable and the scaling actually conserves battery over stock htc's roms. whats not to like.

i’ve been doing roms when you still prolly had a nokia clamshell with a monochrome screen.  you know the one.  but srsly, i’ve been flashing custom roms on phones before android or iphone came out.  but i’m not hardcore.  i don’t produce or customize my own roms….i’m only a rom consumer.

currently, i have the htc evo 4g (supersonic) phone.  what i find amazing is that there are LOTS of roms available for this thing.  everyone has heard of cyanogenmod but are you aware of the other 33 custom roms that are available for the device?  well get to know them.  we now follow kernels that talk about undervolting and cpu governors.

so what rom to try??  i think i’m going to try to tackle the scene in the following days.  who knows….maybe there will be a futurecrue rom for the evo with free long distance on your cell phone forever.

evo 4g custom roms

i stood in line to get the sprint evo 4g phone the day it released.  i get a new cell phone about every 6 months.  the evo is one unique phone because its the only current handset that has integrated wimax.

but would it be cooler to root it and install a hacked rom on there?  why yes it would.  a little over two weeks ago, i put the fresh rom 1.01 for the evo on the phone.  i’ve done tons of roots but this one had to be the hardest.  mostly because the tools i was using to root the phone had bugs in them.  the adb shell that someone wrote to do the hack via flash in the web browser had bugs.  i fixed it up around 4am….should have submitted it back to the community but didnt

anyway….i’ve been running the 1.01 rom for some time now.  here is what i like:

• battery life does not suck once i installed set cpu 2.0.1
• discontinued the $30/mo sprint 3G/4G wifi hot spot service.  now i just use wireless tether
• phone is faster
• i dont have to install all the sprint apps

what i dont like:

• its still android 2.1 (waiting for android 2.2)

for the future, i’m waiting on cyanogenmod.  they need to fix they 4g wimax radio and then its go time.

freshhh android rom

just because i dont have internet does not mean that i will not be posting.  currently i’m stealing my connection from burger king.  and speaking of stealing, i ran down to spring and grabbed me one of those sprint 4g evo phones.  i’ve had the phone about a week and if you read this blog like my mom does, you would know i’m coming from about 6 android phones in the last two years.

so let me start with the radio service.  here in chicago, tmobile really sucks for data and voice.  many times calls drop or go straight to voice mail.  in the past 5 years at this location, i’ve had all the major carries.  sometimes two or three at a time.  tmobile and at&t just suck.  then sprint.  then verizon.  tmobile called me for a survey of why i left them.  i was all like “you suck.  you go to hell you die!!”  well not really but i wish a survey could fix their service.  it will take much more than that.

4g service:

so now with evo impressions.  how is the 4g network??  i’ve had 4g service here for 7 months with clear.  its about the same on the phone as it is with this dongle for the mac.  it is NOT good for moving (like in a car or train) cause when you fall back from 4g to 3g, it takes around 30 seconds.  but if you are still, you can turn it on.  when you get signal, its fast.  using speedtest on the phone it is not uncommon to see 5mb down and 1mb up connections.  and the phone/browser can handle it.  it easily blows away any non-wifi solution out there.  period.  you want fast internet and your city is lucky enough to have 4g, get this phone.  you will be blown away.

build quality:

compared to the nexus one, the phone feels cheap.  i’m not entirely convinced the faceplate will not lift off like i read about things online.  the power button is a bitch.  i dont like it at all.  i’m constantly fumbling for it.  nexus one and other phones (except original samsung galaxy) were easier.

battery:

biggest battery hog of any android phone i’ve ever had.  i still have to charge it more than once a day.  insane.  i keep things turned off too.  it definitely draws more power than other androids i’ve used.  but in all fairness, i do more with this phone than any other.  i use it for a wifi hotspot while checking mail and sending text messages and listening to music.  all at the same time.  you can surf on the phone while provide 4g service to others.  the phone never lags and easily keeps up….just keep a battery charger nearby (any standard usb cable).

5 things i like:

• screen size is just impressive looking.  it nearly fills the whole footprint.
• sprint tv.  hey its free.  i didnt think i would like it but i can watch world cup soccer wherever i am!!!
• 4g speed.  pure and simple.  this is like heroin and cocaine.  bam.
• hot spot.  yea i bought that and its handy and works great.
• 8mp camera.  the pics are impressive and the dual led do a very good job.

5 things i dont like so well

• thickness.  needs to go on a diet.  get thin and keep that big screen
• battery life.  i can (have) to live with it
• build quality.  it just feels kinda cheap.
• screen resolution.  sure its 800×480 but on this large screen….1024×600 would have ruled!!  hey, my eyes are good!
• kickstand.  i dunno…just seems kinda gay.

overall…dood, go get the phone.  its freaking fast.  4g.  nobody else has it.  did i mention its fast?

hacked nexus one vs evo 4g. fight.

holy crap.  i just realized i have 109 applications installed on my nexus one.

the cool thing is, when i thinking about purchasing the evo 4g phone this week, android will automatically reinstall all of them!!!  doing that manually seems like alot of work.

rewind 5 years ago…..

you walk into a sprint/verizon/at&t ….er cingular/tmobile store.  most of the phones you see are clamshells.  a few (like blackberry) still have monochrome screens.  there are no android or iphones.  the best pda phone might be a treo 700w.  pda’s were still popular and some phones looked more like pda’s than phones.

how far we have come!!  in just 5 years.  but what about the weight of these phones.  i take a look at my cell phone collection and compare the weights.  these are not weights off of spec sheets.  i own and carried these phones.  these are real weights…not from off some spec sheet.  my lazy ass got out a scale and weighed them.

its really weird how i accepted the treo 700w at 177g.  i wouldnt even consider a phone that heavy now.  130g is about as heavy as i will go.  by 2015 i suspect devices weighing less than 90g.  so as you roll into 2010, its not just you that needs to go on a diet….but your iphone as well.

this is no joke.  i think i’m an addict.  and for my addiction, there is not some simple cure where i can join a group that is covered by my insurance and get the help that i desperately need.

my problem?  i’m a compulsive phone buyer.  a phone whore.  i can’t seem to commit to one phone.  everytime there is a newer model, i want that one.  where the hell can i get help for something like that?  why couldn’t i be addicted to liquor and pills.  something simple and common that people can relate to!!  damn you phone companies for making such sexy phones!!!

oh yea…its a joke.  sure.  look at the picture below.  so for 2010, help me not purchase anymore phones!!!  i cant go to phone stores.  i cant hang out with friends that hang out in phone stores.  they are just enablers.  so don’t tell me about your new phone.  dont send me blog articles!!  im in recovery!!!  hehhehehhehehee.

5 android phones, a windows mobile, nokia e71 import and a treo 700w from a while back. sigh.

the cure???

on january 1st i opened a youtube account for futurecrue.  i dunno, i guess i will put some lame ass videos up there and test out my lack of mac imovie editing skillz.

i did some google nexus one video reviews.  here a few things on video reviews that drive me CRAZY that i vowed not to do in my videos:

• videos with shaky cameras.  park that camera doood!
• videos where the phone is not even turned on for a few minutes.  dont show me the unboxing…..show me the toy!!  teases!
• videos that have no point….where they just scroll back and forth between desktops.  show me something!!!
• videos that plug their blog site….oh wait….thats my video!!!  argh!!!

well i think i got a whole 10 views.  sad.  i suck.  at least my other video is sitting at almost 120,000 views!!!

http://www.youtube.com/futurecrue (the channel) and one of the demos is below.

so i bought jabra halo stereo bluetooth headset some time back and attempted to use them with 3 different phones (the htc g1, samsung galaxy i7500 and htc magic–aka g2).  the headset did not work with those phones.  when i walked around in downtown chicago on my way to work, i got mostly dropouts and interference making the headset useless unless i held the phone very close to the headset.  i ended up buying a pair of bose headphones and using those.

i should have returned the headset but somehow….i knew….some sort of awesome phone with bluetooth ninja powers (not the iphone) would be in my future.

that future is today. i decided to pair the jabra halo with googles new nexus one and try the same things.  the result?  no dropouts.  i even stuffed the phone in my wool coat pocket.  worked great even in hostile rf urban environments.  and this headset looks sooooo cool.  me happy.

in fairness…i dont think my first three phones are completely to blame.  i think those pretty jabra halo’s are partly at fault.  pretty things are often high maintenance.

nexus one android plus jabra halo equals love. yea...

the jabra halo and nexus one are in love.

well it got here yesterday and i’ve had 2 days to play with it now.  i can give a few early impressions.

first, my current phone experience.  previously a big windows mobile user (until windows 6.1), nokia/symbian, android (no blackberry or iphone).  i currently own 5 android phones.    yea…i’ve got a problem.

things i like so far:

• display.  wow.  the amoled is awesome.  i have other amoled phones / devices.  it on par with them.
• form factor….it hold nice in the hand and looks good on the table.  quality feel compared to other htc i’ve owned.
• fast.  wow…the snapdragon blows me away.  everything that lagged on previous devices…no more.  its true multitasking
• battery….2 days is hard to tell….but from as hard as i’m using it, the battery seems better than any android yet (the galaxy was the worst and the magic was 2nd best)
• headphones are loud.  i’m driving a pair of bose and the volume is good.  i like my music loud.
• 802.11n….wow…hooking this up on home network to setup your apps from market…..blazing downloads and installs.  mind boggling.
• little extras….like the phone rang tonight and the trackball was blue….i was like why is it doing that for a sec and then realized it was because the call was answered with my paired bluetooth headset.  awesome!!!
• camera—its FAST.  compared to the droid….is WAY faster.

what i dont like:

• the blah reviews this thing is getting.  after buying it i did not expect much.  and after owning 4 other android phones, i’ve been through my share of getting new phones and it will take alot to impress me.  believe me, this phone is absolutely incredible.  it takes android to a whole new level.  i think its all the 2.1 interface “extras” and that crazy fast snapdragon.

now a little about the purchasing experience.  i ordered while google was giving the press conference.  i guessed a the url.  i was getting 404 errors and as soon as it was live, i ordered it with the free engraving.  they said 72 hour wait for the engraving.  but it shipped overnight that night.  i expected they forgot to engrave it.  they did not.

so they got the order, processed it and engraved it in a few short hours and then overnighted it from indiana.  all for free.  incredible.  i was VERY pleased with the purchase experience.

i really think they have a winner here.  i’ll give more impressions over the next few days with various hardware and things.

to say i’m enjoying this phone would be a huge understatement

they gave these phones to the google chicago people that i used to work with in december and they have also been well blogged about.  one guy at google that i know was a die hard iphone user.  he converted.  yea…the phone could be that good.

everyone always says iphone killer.  dumb term.  its america.  you use what you like and enjoy it.  and i will use what i like.  different phones for different people with different needs.  if market share dictated the “best” device…well then windows computers are the BEST!!  windows does not work for me (except gaming) and i’m a ubuntu / mac user.

anyway…..the point of all this retarded speculation????

I BOUGHT ONE!!!

blinking text required…yea….thats what i needed to do….i have too many cell phones already (this makes 5 android phones that i own).  i am alone responsible for 8% of the android market share  HA!!!

before the press conference was over, http://google.com/phone was live and i bought it and had it engraved for free.  talk about being a fan-tard.

first off, i’m not iphone hating.  in fact, i think apple rocks.  after all, they brought passion to the cell phone industry and excited the masses as to what is possible.  shame on nokia, htc, samsung, toshiba, lg, rim/blackberry, motorola and all those other incumbent cell phone makers that made crappy phones  for years.  those nasty clam shell phones and candy bar phones with tiny lo res screens that dominated the market before the iphone.  and then apple…a newbie in the market showed them all.  and now when i walk in the store, the iphone knock offs are all the rage.  apple changed the industry and created technology that has people talking.  as a technologist, i think that ROCKS and as consumers, WE WIN because they raised the bar and redefined the industry.

but i have to laugh at the “there’s an app for that” commercials.  because the app i’m gonna show on android….there is no app for that on iphone.  thats right, there is NOT an app for that.  hehehhehehhehe.

i want to talk about turning your 3g phone into a wireless access point that anyone with wifi (or bluetooth) can connect to and share your broadband connection.  imagine having a wireless router in your pants pocket!  sound interesting or slightly perverted?  read on!!  there’s an app for that (but not for the iphone) 

what you will need is really any android phone, but it must be rooted.  thats the catch.  there are prolly lots of ways to root an android phone, but for me, cyanogenmod literally rooted my phone in just a few minutes.  or if you have a unlocked dev phone, you should be good too.

one you have root, you just install android-wifi-tether from google code.  then just start up the application.  it supports wep and also a very easy to use MAC address filtering mechinism.  you can turn the access point on and off in an instant.  so cool.

the only thing i could not get working with it was vpn (i’m using vpnc on my linux laptop).  i think there is a way to do it though.  i’ve been using the program about 3 weeks and i just had to post about this kick ass app.  in fact, i’m writing this post on the train while i’m using it.

my final comments….the software is solid.  it has not crashed on me or “mysteriously” stopped working.  it is a battery hog though which is kinda understandable.

oh and also, i know apps like this are not a new concept.  i ran things on my nokia and windows mobiles for quite a few years.  oh and if there is an apple iphone app for a rooted iphone, my apologies. its a shame cell phone companies try to block us from using our data plans.

a screenshot showing the application. its easy to use and see traffic going through the accesspoint.

this was just a speed test that i did using the app. i was just sitting in my house. my service is tmobile. this is definately usable.

one goal of this site is all original shit, all the time.  so i try not to repost shit from other sites.  so what was my original experience today?  i got to hold and use the new motorola droid.  i won’t bother reposting specs or prices or dates.  you can find all that all over the pipes.  i guess its some kind of big deal.

i only used the phone for about 60 seconds so it was hard to really get any real impression.  things that kinda shocked me was  its big.  big as in footprint.  and the thing has a huge screen that is very high res and sharp with i nice dpi.  i liked that.  the big screen anyway.  it was VERY solid feeling compared to the htc g1/g2/samsung galaxy phones that i have.  it was also surprisingly solid and heavy feeling.  the slider keyboard has a real solid feel when you open it.  the slide out part of the screen is killer thin.  it looks cool….kinda like the psp go that i just picked up.  that left an impression.  i did play with the menus a bit.  it did NOT have smooth menu animations.  they were typical in what i see in other android devices.  it could be a developer/debug build running on the phone too.

how did i get this great honor?  well a couple of the lead motorola devs were nice enough to attend the chicago android group which i attend regularly.  if you make it there, look for the guy with the sony vaio with futurecrue.com engraved on it.    the next one will be hosted at google (where i used to work).

i felt good for motorola.  its a chicago based american company with a great history.  i would really like to see them succeed in either the phone market or in another market as a company.  and of course besides working at google, i also used to work at motorola.  so a part of me is still a motorolan.

in any event….android devices are popping up all over.  and as a fandroid and an android developer, i think that rocks.

really?  yes.  really.  i heard they fight h1n1 so i bought ALOT of them.  you cant be too safe.

ok...so theyre all display models i stole from walmart.

so the idea is to stream mp3 content from my server to my android phone.  since android has applications that can receive shoutcast/icecast streams, its just a matter of prototyping one up on my ubuntu home server.

i’m using ubuntu 9.04 64bit and i decided to go with ezstream and icecast2.  ezstream has an easy config that takes my mp3 files and streams them and then icecast2 serves it up.  and then i can tune in my android phone to my stream.  i promise i will put up some configuration info when i finalize configuration and give the link so everyone (me+my mom) can listen to the stream.

right now, the only thing playing on the stream is Linkin Park – Wake. over and over again.  but i’m listening to it on my android phone. 

i’m sure there are easier ways to stream and places on the web you can configure up stuff very easily.  i just like the idea of having total control.  next stop is to move this off to a vps.

i can listen to my own streams over the tmobile 3g network. cooool.

you’re still storing music locally on your cellphone?!?  wha?  either you’re amish, have no network bandwidth, don’t listen to music or you’re stuck in 2008.  streaming to cellphone has come a long way in the last 5 years.

if youre fortunate enough to live in a 3G area and have an android, then you can start streaming icecast & shoutcast channels with an awesome app for free right now!  so get on your techno/trance/country/r&b mojo and take a look at the free application a online radio over in the market place.

here’s what i like about the app:

• it has LOTS of icecast and shoutcast servers preconfigured and ready to go
• it does not kill the battery.  i listened last night for 45 minutes after my battery gauge was in the red.
• quality very good but this depends on the feed
• its free as in beer!
• i use it in the car and i can listen to music for long drives without interruption

try it out!!

shoutcast has tons of music you can listen to. and yes, adulto is a category. its gonna change your life.

i overclock everything else so why not my tmobile mytouch.  i’m using overclock widget that you can get for free in the market.

my advice….do it.  and here’s why:

• does not drain the battery.  i feared it would drain my battery faster.  not the case.  when the screen is off, it steps the mobile back down to a slower speed.
• menus and things are no longer jerky.
• apps are running faster.  its incredible.  market, maps, pandora. everything!!  even stupid things like the dialer are faster!
• stable.  i was worried it would not be stable.  not the case.

you do have to have root.  you are using cyanogenmod right? 

a screenshot of my desktop. the overclock utility is just a desktop widget.

if you are considering buying this headset to work with tmobile mytouch or samsung i7500 galaxy…. DONT DO IT!!

this headset just does not work well with these phones for a2dp.  when i’m in the city i get TONS of interference.  and that means dropped audio.  baah!!  it even occurs around the house.  quite annoying.

i’m looking at what kinds of hacks can be done to overcome this and what things are causing it.  stay tuned.

oh the battery life still sucks.  it just can’t last a full day.  sucks when youre talking and you hear the low battery beep.  dooooh!  ok…i put it back in the junk heap and mabye evaluate it in another month when much more rom progress is made.  cyanogenmod on this thing would be cool if it ever gets supported.

the fun of being a new phone adopter.  looks like pandora is very phone model specific!!  why!!!

first, pandora is not available on market for the i7500.  and then to make think worse, if you get the 1.0.0 apk file and install it, you get the nice error message Sorry, you device is currently not supported.  Model: GT-I7500.

i wonder if there is a hack for this.  joy.

really? i just wanna stream some music.

headphones that connect with wires?  how 2006.  i just bought a pair of bluetooth jabra halo headphone.  they sell them at bestbuy (and other places) and might get you to forget about having headphones with wires.

i’m not new to bluetooth headphones.  this is my second set and while i like my previous plantronics, they were a bit bulky.

i’ll give an update after i have them a while but my first impression are:

• wow these things are light.  my scale shows 3.2 oz.
• easy to take on and off.  usually over the ear are kinda hard to slip on and off with one hand.  these are not.
• controls work great with my android phone.  good luck with current apple devices.  give apple a break.  at least they finally got a2dp.  give them a chance to work out the bugs.
• bass is better than i expected.  after reading reviews that it not so good, i was really impressed.
• volume is good.  i love loud headphones (huh? what?) and these are not bad.

i’ll give more details later like battery life and interference.  i work in chicago and there are lots of bluetooth devices that interfere so we will see how they hold out.

if nothing else, these headphone look great

battery and bluetooth leds that are tucked away inside the headphones

oh i just wont let it die.  there is a rom update for the galaxy i7500 that is supposed to fix some of the firmware issues and the battery life problems.  so of course i have to load and try it.

i also have a found a new version of new pc studio.  its version 1.3.0.IH4 and you can get it here.  although even with the new version, i’m not able to recognize the phone.  the app shows the SD cards but can do anything with the phone.  samsung makes this software and i think it kinda sucks.

if you want the new i7500 rom, you can get it here.  it flashes fine with odin 3.95.  if you need to put it all together, here is a great post on what to do.

so i was playing around with themes for cyanogenmod.  they are really easy to get, you can look for a few here.  what would really be cool if somebody was like the hosting source.  a job for futurecrue??

here are a few screens of gChrome theme that i’m using.

the home screen on the left. on the right is the locked screen.

left: the cool menu system. right: vpn connect to my cisco vpn at work. not really part of the theme though.

if you dont have or know what an android phone is you can stop reading now.  but if youre an android fan and your curious about hacking your phone then read on!!

i’m an android nut.  i used to work for google.  i have three different android phones.  and i love to hack them.  so now that you know i’m a freak, let me tell you about my latest fun with android.  its called cyanogenmod.

cyanogenmod is pure cool.  its what happens when you release the source code for an operating system and you attract smart, creative and passionate people.  so what is it?  its a replacement rom for you android phone that focuses on increased reliablity and performance.  you can learn some more things about it here and here and here.

what you can learn here is that this mod works great on the tmobile mytouch that i picked up a few weeks ago.  cyanogenmod is a project that is very active.  i recommend that you use the stable version and not the latest release.  i can also tell you that all you need is two files and about 10 minutes to install this.  and its super easy even for the beginner.

sorry that i’m not going to write a procedure because other sites can do better at that.  i can tell you where to start.  you need these two files from these sites.  You will copy them both to the SD card on your phone.  Once both files are on their, you can run the flashrec.apk (as i say in step  1

1) get the latest flashrec.apk from this site and run it on your phone.  follow their directions.

2) get a stable cyanogenmod rom file in zip format from this site and copy it to your phone.  i’m using version 4.04

while i found no official site on exactly what to do next, this site was most helpful.

sorry i can’t write a step by step.  i suck.   here is what i like most (so far) after having this one day:

• 5 virtual desktops (instead of three)
• the main menu has the icons spaced together.
• the phone has all the developer extras that tmobile got rid of (special gui effects, dev tools, etc)
• battery seems to last longer (hard to tell after one day)
• vpn is built in
• phone now is rooted
• phone has things from the upcoming release of donut

what you might not like:

• you risk bricking your phone … it could happen.
• you wont get over the air updates from tmobile ever again

what i’m doing next:

• try out theming
• it has built in tethering
• explore bluetooth…i think it has way more profiles

stay tuned…

cyanogenmod lock screen. nothing extremely special.

More menu items is one of the many better things in this mod

it sucks.  been using it for about 3 weeks.  i’m going back to the tmobile mytouch.  here is the scoop:

• battery life.  its very short.  shortest of any smart phone ive ever owned and the worst part is that its not accurate.  it will show 40% left when its really just about dead.  ive seen it go from 40%-ish to 0 in just a few seconds.  and then shut down.  when you turn it back on, it shows 100% until it shuts down a minute later.  in fact, the battery is dead.  firmware updates might be able to help this but software cant make up enough for bad hardware design.
• the lock button on the side.  just awful.
• the user interface.  too many buttons and they dont light up when your in a dark place trying to answer the phone.
• extra size and weight.  this is relative term.  if you carry a heavier then this is not a problem.  i’m comparing it to the mytouch.

bottom line, i was always used to recharging my phone every day.  but this thing needs it several times per day.  there are times when i travel or go places that i just cant do that.  so it goes to the bone yard for now.

maybe with software fixes this phone can get in shape.  if not, the mytouch is a rockin phone you can enjoy today!

yes, i own three different android phone models. i think have a problem.

• unlocked developer g1 (htc dream)
• tmobile mytouch (htc dream)
• samsung galaxy unlocked (i7500)

i’ve had the mytouch for about 1 month and the galaxy for about 3 days.  so which phone is the best??  well it is definitely not the g1.  that is the worst of the bunch.  i hated the idea of “screen” keyboards and swore like a religion i would always have a physical keyboard.  well i think i can type faster on the soft keyboard.  the htc dream keyboard was not that great.  maybe the buttons are too flat and too far spaced apart.  i dunno.  but i do know in terms of battery life, size, weight….its the worst android phone of these three.

the best of the three?  well the jury is still out.  i gotta say i love the 5MP camera and great flash the galaxy has.  and that amoled screen is impressive although most people dont notice it.  the display just doesnt have the drop dead awe that you would get if you look at e-ink screen on an ebook.

thoughts on galaxy so far:

• battery is awesome.  it took about three days to get it in its rhythm.  i dont think its as good as the mytouch though.  watch out for reviews that say battery suck.  you cant write a review after having a phone for one day (or 3 days for that matter)  i will update in a couple weeks on if i still like it.
• screen is awesome.  the contrast, color richness and viewing angles are way better than lcd.
• buttons SUCK ass.  there are like 14 buttons on this phone.  wtf!!
• they have a button on the side of the phone to lock it.  fck my life this SUCKS.
• 3.5mm headphone jack…if you like wires on your wireless phone.
• speed.  overall, the phone just seems faster.

and now the mytouch:

• best battery ever.  2 days on a single charge doing fairly heavy voice, data, pictures, mail, txts, tweets.  2 days!!
• smallest size and really light.
• 8 buttons and a huge track ball (simpler interface than the galaxy)
• everything else…kinda like the g1.  too much like the g1.

for now….i will be carrying around the galaxy.  so i guess that means it wins.  android is less than one year old.  i think the phones are making good progress and i’m hooked.

why come i own three different android phones?? cause i have "sick thoughts"

i bought an unlocked samsung i7500 galaxy phone and i’m operating it on tmobile in the united states. 3G data works fine but you have to make sure that you add your tmobile apn.

so if you want tmobile 3g on that sweet ass unlocked galaxy, then do this:

Settings->Wireless Controls->Mobile networks->Access Point Names
Menu: New APN

Name: T-Mobile US
APN: epc.tmobile.com
Proxy:
Port:
Username: none
Password: none
Server: *
MMSC: http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
MMS proxy:
MMS port:
MCC: 310
MNC: 260
APN type: internet + mms
Authentication Type: None

for password and username, really put in none. dont just leave it blank.

have fun with your new phone and 3G data!!!

yay.  this is my 100th post on futurecrue.  go figure i bought another phone.

i went out and got the tmobile mytouch with is the latest USA android phone.  i’ve had it for two weeks and here is what i like about it

• much smaller than the G1 and lighter.  i was surprised how much of a difference this makes
• best smart phone battery life ever.  it can go two days without a recharge!!!  and i’m a heavy talker/user.
• keyboard.  i thought i was a “must have a keyboard” kind of guy.  but i dont miss it.  the landscape keyboard is that good.
• trackball.  its huge and solid.  and it lights up

what i dont like:

• tmobile in chicago and michigan.  the coverage and service is much worse for both voice and data than at&t.  i get dropped calls way more frequent and sometimes when i travel in indiana and michigan, data server is not available at all!!!  insane.

aside from the service, this is the best smartphone i’ve ever had.  and i’ve had about six (including nokia, countless windows mobile phones and palm).  oh, i kinda refuse to own a blackberry or ipod.  i’m not hating those phones, i just dont find they make something that compels my interest yet.

mytouch (4.2oz) on the left and g1 (5.6oz) on the right. after a full day at 10:30pm, i still have > 80% of charge on the mytouch. incredible.

i’ve been getting some damn good 3g speeds on my ubuntu laptop on my train commute to chicago.  somewhere i heard that at&t was supposed to have the fastest network but i used them for a while and their 3g coverage was not too good.

below is a chart showing a speed graph while moving.  keep in mind that we are cruising at nearly 3Mb/sec in some areas of this graph.  by the way, i’m using ubuntu 9.04 and the card is the verizon v640 aircard.

with speeds this fast i'll have to do more posts.

so i have a hacked android that is i’ve been running google internal release of cupcake from a while back.  i’m using an at&t sim card and i noticed that i was getting errors whenever somebody sent me a mms picture messages….which is quite a bit.  annoying enough that i decided i wanted to fix it.

so here is the fix.  all you have to do make sure your apn is setup correctly.  in the case of at&t, look at  the mms setting in the picture below.  you want to make sure you have mmsc, mms proxy, mms port all setup correctly.  remember this is for at&t.  this will not work for tmobile or some other carrier…or at least i can’t test that.

apn settings for at&t will fix my mms picture messaging problem....but will it help you??

i can receive picture messages again. victory is mine.

so here are the rest of my settings:

settings->wireless controls->mobile networks->access point names->cingular 410 (the selected apn)

• Name: Cingular 410
• APN: wap.cingular
• Proxy: <not set>
• Port: <not set>
• Username: wap@cingulargprs.com
• Password: CINGULAR1  <–this is all upper case
• Server: cingulargprs.com
• MMSC: http://mmsc.cingular.com
• MMS Proxy: wireless.cingular.com
• MMS Port: 80
• MCC: 310
• MNC: 410
• APN type: <not set>

i have one of the developer phones that you can buy on the android site for $399.  it has a special back and it is not setup with a carrier (unlocked).  i have an at&t sim card installed and it cannot do 3G (only 2G – a know issue with).  also, i am responsible for my own updates of the phone software.  since i worked at google, i would put on the latest cupcake builds.  i no longer work at google but i’m installing their latest build and it will be the last build i put on for a while.  cupcake is very nice.  there will be more android phones coming and they are worth checking out for sure.  cool things like the ability to shoot video with a 3.2mp camera and directly upload to youtube with no cumbersome conversions.  or stereo a2dp wireless bluetooth headphones profile (hey, apple is finally putting this on their player.  +1 apple.  yay apple)

oooh…for the andoid boot screen its no longer a pulsing android but like a metalic logo that reflects as it boots.  very cool.  sorry no pics….my bluetooth obex crap is acting up at the moment.

they are learning.  they’ve developed emotions.  they’ve leared how to use tools and are coordinating attacks on me!!  this is how skynet started.  actually, i dont know why i have so many of these phones.  i’ve flashed the latest versions of cupcake on them and its looking good.  today on engadget somebody said that cupcake will be released on the tmobile g1 phone in april.  its about time.  its looking sweet.

why come i have so many android phones?

its been 30 days since i first posted about cupcake.  i’m under non-disclosure to really talk in detail about the features but i can say i have access to the nightly builds and i decided to try out their latest build.

they should just release this software.  i can say that from a month ago, this product looks finished.  but what do i know.  i’m going to use it for my phone.  it seems that good.  in fact, its awesome! there are two major things i love…cough…video recording….cough cough a2dp.    those you can see on the roadmap page so i dont think im giving away the huge secrets.

of course now they released latitude which i could not talk about last month.  all i can say is next week is mobile world congress and we should get to see some new hardware running android.  and while i dont know for sure, they should just release this new update to the masses.

flashing the latest rom images

updating the phone with fastboot

that did it.  i’m officially an android developer (gman16k).  i just forked over 25 american bucks to google to get registered on android marketplace.  look for my debut release tomorrow.  full source code will be provided.

how can you send a shitload of sms messages to a cellphone? easy. look at this

then use a linux box to write a simple shell mail wrapper script that blasts emails. here is a snip of what your script should look like:

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#!/bin/bash
echo "Testing" | mail 6505551212@tmomail.net -s "Testing" &
echo "Testing" | mail 6505551212@tmomail.net -s "Testing" &
echo "Testing" | mail 6505551212@tmomail.net -s "Testing" &

if you have 100 lines in a script file, they will run in the background and in parallel so you will send 100 sms numbers real fast. this will even crash phones.