Tuesday, December 27, 2011

5.0.1 Untethered Jailbreak Released


The jailbreak everyone has been waiting for. Pod2G has released the untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1. No longer do you need to rejailbreak your iOS device every time you reboot. The jailbreak currently works for iPhone3GS, iPhone4, iPhone4-CDMA, iPad1, iPod touch 3G, iPod touch 4G on iOS 5.0.1.

Update: A jailbreak now exists for A5 devices (iPad 2 and iPhone 4s). It's called Absinthe.

Windows
Mac

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

OG Droid gets ICS port


This happened a few days ago, but I'm blogging about it now. OG Droid finally got a ICS port.

More info here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1393632

I tested out the first build, but I haven't tested out the second yet. You can see a video of it in action on my YouTube (imaster11000). Cheers!

Source: XDA, DroidLife

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Nexus Galaxy finally out on Verizon! GTA 3 out for Android! Flash now supports ICS!

So first off, 
  • Verizon Wireless: $299 on contract, $649 full retail. You may see it available for $249 if you are upgrading.
  • Amazon: $149 if you are a new customer, $249 for upgrades.
  • Target:  Seeing $219 for new customers, $249 for upgrades.
And yes we're all happy this phone is finally on Verizon after numerous delays.

And Grand Theft Auto 3 is now available on the Android Market!

Lastly, Flash finally support ICS, and this is probably the last major Android OS it will support, since Adobe is discontinuing flash for Android.

Source: Droid-Life

Sunday, December 11, 2011

How to make that old Android Phone fast again. Droid 1 Example.


I currently own a Droid 1, which I use on a day to day basis. (yes I haven't upgraded yet). I was running a custom rom, Cyanogenmod 7.1, which is based on Android 2.3.7. Even though I was clocked at 800 MHz, I found the phone extremely slow. I was really frustrated with it, and felt like throwing it against a wall most of the time. I was trying to find a solution to make it fast again. I deleted all my apps, but that wasn't very effective. I used Android task killers and tried several ways to free up ram, but the phone still lagged  a lot. After doing extensive research online on a faster rom, I learned about a rom called Liquid Smooth, which is also based on Android 2.3.7, which has several Cyanogenmod  features on it. Anyways, I read that Liquid Smooth was like the fastest rom for the Droid 1and several people in forums praised it for giving new life to their Droids. I went ahead and downloaded that rom, and it gave my Droid 1 new life. With this rom, I was able to clock my Droid to 1 GHz and my Droid 1 ran incredibly fast. No more lags, no more force closes, and no more crashing apps. Even with several apps installed on my Droid, its still smooth. The quadrant benchmark went up to around 1200, from a previous 800. In fact, this rom made my Droid the fastest it has ever been. Even though I'm running at 1 GHz, the battery life is still good.





So getting to the point, if you have an old Android phone that is very slow, there are several thing you can try.
For non-rooted users, try to have fewer apps installed and keep fewer apps/widgets on the launch screen. Maybe experiment with different launchers, such as LauncherPro on the Android Market. Uninstall misbehaving apps. These weren't that effective for me, but it might work for you. Maybe reformat your phone, if all is in vain.

Now if you are rooted, there are several thing you can do to speed up your phone, such as overclocking it or flashing different roms. Some roms are sluggish, while others are super fast. Uninstall Bloatware, and using advanced settings on custom roms are also other ways to make your old Android phone faster.

What I recommend doing is what made the most effective difference for me, which was flashing the a high performing custom rom, which for me is the Liquid Smooth rom. Research different roms for your phone and see which ones gives the best performance. To Droid 1 owners, if Cyanogenmod or the rom you are on isn't good enough, maybe give Liquid Smooth a try (http://liquidsmoothroms.com/). To users of other phones, research it. There are tons of great custom roms out there.

Of course, some of these tips are easier than the other. No matter who you are, there will be some sort of tweak here and there to help you out. Let me know what you did on the comments. Feel free to ask any questions too.



Friday, December 9, 2011

WebOS Now Open Source!

Great news to WebOS fans: HP's CEO Meg Whitman has announced today that WebOS would be moving to open-source! HP will also continue to develop and work with and develop WebOS. This is great news, especially since it was previously speculated that HP would either abandon WebOS or sell it off. 


"It is a remarkable technology that we didn't want to waste," CEO Meg Whitman said in an interview.


This is a great move by HP and maybe this move will give WebOS another chance, since it can now be tweaked and ported to other hardware.






iOS 5 and 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak almost out

According to pod2g, an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 and iOS 5.0.1 will be out soon. This is very reassuring news to a lot of iOS jailbreakers. They are yet to try it on the newer A5 devices. Pod2G has also released a teaser trailer here.



Also if you plan on downgrading later, it is a good idea to use iFaith to backup your SHSH blobs and APtickets.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

First Official ICS Android Tablet: NOVO7; Endorsed by Andy Rubin and it is only $99 Bucks!

I’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market. Low cost, high performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android’s openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world.

Source: 
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/185952-first-official-ics-android-tablet-novo7-endorsed-andy-rubin-only-99-bucks.html


First Official ICS Android Tablet: NOVO7; Endorsed by Andy Rubin and it is only $99 Bucks!

I’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market. Low cost, high performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android’s openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world.

Source: 
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/185952-first-official-ics-android-tablet-novo7-endorsed-andy-rubin-only-99-bucks.html


HP offering limited refurbished $99 TouchPads on 12/11 via Ebay

Good news for those of you that weren't able to snag a Touchpad at firesale prices: December 11 marks the beginning of another round of $99 HP Touchpad tablets for sale, well as long as you don’t mind refurbished models. According to this internal memo snagged by TechCrunch, HP will be making 16/32GB Touchpads available on the HP eBay store at $99 and $150 respectively. The tablets will be available for purchase at 6 PM Central Time.


Source: TechCrunch

Friday, December 2, 2011

Droid 1 looses Cyanogenmod support with Cyanogenmod 9

Yes folks. With Cyanogenmod 9, the Droid 1 is no longer supported. Very sad indeed. Reason? Probably because the Droid 1 doesn't run ICS that well. It only has 256 MB of ram after all. Fear not though, I bet there will be other ports for ICS. They may or may not run well, but at least you will have ICS.


Source: Cyanogenmod Blog

Android Gets First Offical Store

No, this is not a photo of the Android Store. I don't have one.

Apple Store, Microsoft Store, now Android Store? Yes, the residents of Melbourne, Australia are lucky to get their own first ever Android Store. The Australian network operator Telstra has been working closely with Google to start something like this. The first ever Android Store is called AndroidLand.

Inside Androidland, customers will find a wide selection of phones to play with, a huge Google Earth setup, and Angry Birds galore. Something like this should open up in the US too.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Cyanogenmod 9 work starts now that the Source Code is Out!



Now that the Ice Cream Sandwich source code is out, Steve (AKA Cyanogen) has announced that the development for Android 4.0 (Cyanogenmod 9) has began! He wrote on twitter to check back in two months. Maybe nightlies will show up even sooner! Time will tell. 

Monday, November 14, 2011

Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) Source Code is out!!!


That's right folks! The Android Team has finally released the ICS source code. Earlier today, the source code was rumored to come out on the 17th, but the source code has become available today!!!

What does this mean? This mean that developers can finally create custom roms for various Android devices and official OTA updates will start rolling out soon! I am looking forward to some tasty custom roms for my phone! Are you?

Source: Google

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Update on the iPod Nano recall

According to Mashable, who claims to have talked to an Apple representative over the phone, has confirmed that Apple will only be replacing your 1st gen iPod Nanos with another refurbished 1st gen iPod Nanos with a new battery. Sorry to let your hopes down folks! I am pretty sad myself. I have been silently hoping for a brand new iPod nano of the latest model.

Source: Mashable

Apple recalling 1st Generation iPod Nanos


Apple has recently emailed Apple fans in the US about a recall on the 1st generation iPod Nanos. This isn't the first recall on the 1st generations Apple has done, it has already been recalled in Korea, Japan, and some other countries. Anyways, turns out the 5 year old 1st generations have a potential battery problem. In rare cases the battery may overheat and may leak toxic battery juice or explode causing harm to the user. Right now, Apple is offering a replacement program free of charge. More information about this can be viewed here. From there you can verify your serial number to see if you qualify and to initiate the replacement process. The 1st generation iPod nano has a white or black plastic front with a silver metal back.

The email tell you if you got any questions about it, you can visit the Apple Store, but from my experience yesterday, they were no help as the employees had no idea there was are recall. I seen some comments on other websites with people saying employees from other Apple Stores told them to go home and initiate the process online as they have no replacement stock handy. There is no use calling Apple Support either because I just did and the support guy did not sound sure at all when he answered the questions. He asked me if the email I got said it was free... Nothing better to do but wait.

Since the iPod Nano model is currently on the seventh generation and Apple has discontinued the 1st generation for several years now, it is unclear what model Apple will send as a replacement. The replacement process will take about 6 weeks. If you have a personalized iPod nano, you will get a non-personalized replacement.
 

Friday, November 11, 2011

Droid Razr root out!



Instructions:
1.  On your Windows PC, make sure you have Motorola USB drivers installed. [Downloads]
2.  Download the root file from above to your computer and extra the goodies from it.
3.  On your RAZR, turn on USB Debugging and check the box for Unknown Sources.
*You can find both options in Settings>Applications
4.  Connect your device to your computer and make sure it is set to “Charge only.”
5.  Cruise into the folder that you extracted above, and run the .bat file.
6.  Your phone will reboot when when it finishes. Enjoy being rooted on day 1.
*Reminder – There isn't a SBF file or any form of recovery at this point, so be very careful once you have rooted. If you break something in your phone, you could be stuck for a while until some safety files are out...
Source: Droid-Life

Droid Razr is out as of 11/11/11 11:11 AM!



It is priced at $299.99 with a two-year contract with Verizon, but only $111.11, for today on Amazon, for NEW CUSTOMERS only.

Source: Droid-Life

Thursday, November 10, 2011

iOS 5.0.1/iPhone 4S unlocked version are out!

iOS 5.0.1 brings out bug fixes, multitasking gestures for the iPad 1, battery fixes, security fixes, and improved Voice Recognition for Australian users...maybe more. An untethered jailbreak for 5.0 maybe coming soon, so hold of on upgrading to iOS 5.0.1 for now.

The unlocked version of the iPhone 4S is also out.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

OFFICIAL! Adobe Stops Development of Flash for Mobile Browsers!

It's official. Last night rumors were going around that Adobe was going to stop making Flash for Mobile Browsers. The rumors are unfortunately true and have been confirmed by Adobe. They will still continue to push out security fixes for current builds, but they will no longer be developing Flash to work with new devices/configurations. In other words, Flash isn't going away for good. It just  won't be developed anymore. I think this is pretty disappointing. Personally, I think having flash on your mobile browser is pretty cool and I really don't want it to go away. Sad right? 



Here is what Adobe said:


Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.  We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.  We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations.  We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.


Via: DroidLife

Thursday, November 3, 2011

HTC Rezound November 14 - For VZW -- $299 w/contract



Today, HTC annonced the HTC Rezound for Verizon. It will be available November 14. It is a LTE device. Here are the specs: 
This Phone is now available.
Chipset:
  • 1.5 GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm MSM8660
  • Qualcomm MDM9600 LTE Radio
Sense Version:
  • Sense 3.5
Camera:
  • 8.0MP w/ auto focus, f/2.2, 28mm wide angled lens
  • 1080p video recording
  • 2MP front-facing camera
Memory:
  • 1GB DDR2 RAM
  • 16GB Memory
  • 16GB microSD
Screen:
  • 4.3″ super LCD WVGA 1280×720
Dimensions:
  • 5.1″ x 2.6″ x .54″ (LxWxT)
Battery:
  • 1620 mAh
HDMI Out:
  • Yes
Compatibility:
  • Bluetooth 3.0 + Headset
  • Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n
  • Wireless Charging
  • Compass
  • Light Sensor
  • Micro USB
  • G-sensor
Audio:
  • Equipped with Beats Audio Technology

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

iOS 5.0.1 beta

Apple has released iOS 5.0.1 beta citing bug fixes. The final (public) version should come out in a few weeks

The jailbreak for 5.0.1 is still tethered though and won't work on the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S. Keep in mind that when an untethered jailbreak does come out, you will need to start out fresh (most likely). I myself have held off on updating to iOS 5 until an untethered jailbreak is out.

Source: http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-5.0.1-ios-semi-untethered-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-using-redsn0w/

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Droid Razr out for Pre-Order!

The Droid Razr is out for pre-order today, for Verizon. Both the Galaxy Nexus and Droid Razr will be released on November 10th!


Second custom rom for the Bionic: LIBERTY! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1320919

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

HP Releases 3.04 For Touchpad

HP has release webOS 3.04 for the touchpad. This update includes several new features including a camera app. If you installed Cyanogenmod on your touchpad, after updating :


  • Connect your TouchPad to a PC and tap the icon to enter USB Drive mode.
  • Create a directory on the TouchPad called “cminstall” (without quotes).
  • Copy the moboot_0.3.3.zip file to the cminstall directory.
  • Exit USB drive mode.
  • Restart your TouchPad from the Device Info app in the Settings panel.
  • Hold the Volume Up button as your device reboots.
  • Once you see a big USB icon on the TouchPad, you’re ready for the next step.
  • Open a terminal and navigate to the folder on your computer where you’ve already installed Palm Novacom (and make sure the ACMEInstaller file is in the same directory).
  • Type the following (without quotes) and hit enter: “novacom boot mem:// < ACMEInstaller”
To get the Cyanogenmod dual boot option back.

Droid RAZR and ICS event

First off, the Ice Cream Sandwich event, which is being held at Hong Kong, will start at 7 PM today. It can be seen live here: http://www.youtube.com/android

Also today, Motorola unveiled the Droid RAZR, which has a 1.2 GHZ dual core chip, is ultra slim, LTE, possibly, GSM, and has a better screen resolution. Sadly, it has a locked bootloader, probably due to Verizon.


Update: Just saw ICS and the new Nexus. Both are great! ICS just blew me away. I think it is amazing and finally has all the features that have been missing on Android.
Source: Droid-Life

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Google and Samsung Event for October 19th in Hong Kong



Few days ago, I wrote about how the ICS event by Google and Samsung had been postponed due to Steve Jobs death. Now that event is set to take place in Hong Kong on October 19. It's official.

When the event takes place it can be watch here: youtube.com/android.


So this event will be live TUESDAY OCTOBER 18 AT 10PM EASTERN (7PM PACIFIC).


Here is a pic of the ICS statue at Google: 


Source: Droid-Life

Cyanogenmod Team Releases CM7 Alpha 1 for the Touchpad!


After a month of waiting, the CyanogenMod Team has finally released CM7 Alpha 1 for the Touchpad. Flash at you own risk!

More info here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/10/13/cyanogenmod-releases-cm7-alpha-1-for-the-hp-touchpad/

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

iOS 5 Finally Released



The wait is over! Apple finally released the final OS 5 version today for end-users. iOS 5 has several new features including a new notification system. (More info here: http://www.apple.com/ios/).

iOS 5 is compatible with the iPhone 3Gs and iPod 3rd generation and above.

As for jailbreak, yes there is a jailbreak available. The bad new is its tethered for now (which means you need to plug your iDevice in your PC each time you want to boot it up, which can be a pain). The untethered jailbreak will probably be released soon. So jailbreakers may want to hold off on upgrading for now.




Sunday, October 9, 2011

Cyanogenmod 7.1 Stable Finally Released!!!

CM 7.1 is stable is finally out! It brings a whole lot of new features and Android 2.3.7. In addition, a handful of devices have gotten support!
These include the:
  • HTC Desire S
  • HTC Incredible S
  • HTC Incredible 2
  • LG Optimus 2X and T-Mobile G2x
  • Motorola Backflip (Motus)
  • Motorola Cliq / Cliq XT
  • Motorola Defy
  • Motorola Droid 2
  • Motorola Droid X
  • Samsung Captivate
  • Samsung Fascinate
  • Samsung Mesmerize
  • Samsung Showcase
  • Samsung Vibrant
  • Samsung Galaxy S
  • Samsung Galaxy S2 (multiple carriers)
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia X8
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
  • ZTE V9


I currently run Cyanogenmod 7.1 stable on my OG Droid.

Source: http://www.cyanogenmod.com/blog/cyanogenmod-7-1-released