How To Jailbreak and Upgrade Old Android Phones

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Serdar Yegulalp provides an in-depth tutorial on how he rooted and upgraded his Motorola Cliq XT, one of many Android phones made infamous for not receiving further Android updates beyond 1.5. 'It turned out to be quite an odyssey, with twists and turns I describe here in order to help those who wish to embark on a similar journey,' Yegulalp writes. 'Was it worth the trouble? Yes, in the sense that learning how to jailbreak your own phone is a valuable skill, and I got much more functionality out of the Cliq, when I was expecting to simply junk it. '"

Comments

Was It Worth It?

[WrongSizeGlass]

Was it worth it? Maybe.

Was it worth the trouble? Yes, in the sense that learning how to jailbreak your own phone is a valuable skill, and I got much more functionality out of the Cliq, when I was expecting to simply junk it.

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some).

Yes, it's a good feeling to know you beat the technology. And yes, it's your phone and you should be able to do whatever you want with it. But how many times will you have to root the same phone model? Will the process be similar or completely different with your next model? Sometimes the upgraded features are worth your time & effort, and other times it's worth the cost of a better phone.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[DJRumpy]

Although the practice of rooting this phone probably wasn't worth the effort for one phone, the fact that it was documented will help others with the same model, so I can see a definite benefit to this. The beauty of information sharing...

Re:Was It Worth It?

[basotl]

Reading through his post it shouldn't have taken more than half an hour from start to loaded ROM. Any other time would have been time just spent messing with his phone. It's not like he designed his own custom rom or something.

Even on a new phone I would recommend loading CM7.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[crazycheetah]

Except this guy didn't document it at all in a way that's really going to help someone out, unless they do the same stupid mistakes that he did, like first try to root it while having an antivirus program running. Anyone with this phone will probably do a lot better off of looking at different results on a google search. He basically just says "I rooted it by following directions I found online, installed a custom ROM with Motoblur, then switched to Cyanogenmod." Except he takes three pages to say all of that, without ever really describing much of any of the actual steps required to do so (he went a little bit more in depth on the recovery or "bootloader" as he calls it, but that's about it).

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh, it took me like 10 minutes to root an old used Droid I got off eBay and I had never done it before. The rest of the time was spent playing with different ROM's, kernels and such.

Of course I made sure the phone was easily rootable in the first place before I bought it because I believe in only owning hardware that I can fully control.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[John Hasler]

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some).

The time you spent writing your comment could have been spent on a billable project. Don't you ever do anything just for the hell of it?

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some).

What time? TFA author could have rooted the XT in 1 click: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=834428

But how many times will you have to root the same phone model?

Never.

Will the process be similar or completely different with your next model?

Rooting manually is always the same: copy the 'su' binary and the 'Superuser.apk' app to the phone. It takes less than 5 minutes after doing it for the first time.

Sometimes the upgraded features are worth your time & effort, and other times it's worth the cost of a better phone.

Would you tell a Windows 95 user to not upgrade to Windows XP? Because that's exactly the level of difference between Android 1.x and 2.x.

It's astounding that some phones are still running 1.5 Android. I had an HTC G1 (the 1st Android phone) running 2.1 more than 1 year ago. The official firmware for the G1 (Android 1.6) was an awful awful experience. After updating to 2.x, many tasks, like browsing, were usually just as fast with the Droid.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[lowlymarine]

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some).

I'll admit, I don't know how long it took the writer of the article to do whatever he did. I'm not particularly inclined to read the article since it keeps referring to "jailbreaking" an Android device which indicates the writer has no clue what he's talking about (Android doesn't run in a chroot jail to begin with so "jailbreaking" it is meaningless). However, the entire process of taking my Galaxy S from stock to a custom ROM took about 10 minutes, and the process of changing from one custom ROM to another even less (admittedly the Titanium Backup restore takes about 45 minutes, but it's also a "fire and forget" process that runs in the background). If you could share with me where you're getting these billable contracts that pay in excess of $3000 an hour, I'd much appreciate it.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

That'll be $2.50. Bitcoins are fine.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[stms]

But but but.... I'm not supposed to get an iPhone because I'll have to go to a website and press a button to unlock it. I'm supposed to just get android and pay 2x-6x more and have it unlocked to begin with.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[WrongSizeGlass]

The time you spent writing your comment could have been spent on a billable project.

I was actually talking someone through changing some code while I posted. It wasn't billable but they had already paid for their project.

Don't you ever do anything just for the hell of it?

Sure, but not just to squeeze a little more functionality out of something. It has to be something I enjoy, and it certainly doesn't sound like the Cliq conversion was an enjoyable process.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you tell a Windows 95 user to not upgrade to Windows XP? Because that's exactly the level of difference between Android 1.x and 2.x.

I would tell them they should not be installing XP on hardware that came with Win95.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[brim4brim]

Was it worth it? Maybe.

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some).

Actually the time spent could have been used to try to find a freelance project, I'd say he would be lucky to get a freelance project and complete it in the time it takes to upgrade his phone with a custom rom after using an exploit to gain access.

I've rooted my phone but not upgraded it and it took me about half an hour to do it in total. I got my last windows mobile phone to duel boot android in a similar amount of time. It doesn't take effort or skill, usually someone else does most of the work and your just following their instructions. The people that learn how to do the actual hacking and actually create the custom Roms are learning skills that could be useful on future projects if they continue to work in the Android area since they will learn a lot about different parts of Android.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Where the hell do you see anyone paying 2x-6x more for Android vs. an iPhone?

I think I paid $79 for my HTC Desire with contract, which if I'm not mistaken is actually less than most people pay for an iPhone - and I didn't have to decide "Gee, do I want to buy the base model or pay an exorbitantly high markup to have more storage space?" - I just bought my phone with the only capacity it's available with (8 GB microSD) and then went out and bought a 16 GB microSD card for $19 to upgrade it - vs. paying $100 (or more!) more to get the larger iPhone - which can't have it's storage capacity increased.

Oh, and then I loaded about 80 free applications on it, and how many free apps are available through iTunes, oh, that's right - they start at $0.99 and go up, so I saved another $79+ there, too....

Re:Was It Worth It?

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

Was it worth it? Maybe.

Was it worth the trouble? Yes, in the sense that learning how to jailbreak your own phone is a valuable skill, and I got much more functionality out of the Cliq, when I was expecting to simply junk it.

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some). Yes, it's a good feeling to know you beat the technology. And yes, it's your phone and you should be able to do whatever you want with it. But how many times will you have to root the same phone model? Will the process be similar or completely different with your next model? Sometimes the upgraded features are worth your time & effort, and other times it's worth the cost of a better phone.

It'd be nice to have that option. Not everyone does.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[mldi]

Was it worth it? Maybe.

Was it worth the trouble? Yes, in the sense that learning how to jailbreak your own phone is a valuable skill, and I got much more functionality out of the Cliq, when I was expecting to simply junk it.

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some). Yes, it's a good feeling to know you beat the technology. And yes, it's your phone and you should be able to do whatever you want with it. But how many times will you have to root the same phone model? Will the process be similar or completely different with your next model? Sometimes the upgraded features are worth your time & effort, and other times it's worth the cost of a better phone.

What's wrong with fun? Freelance work is boring. This person had fun and accomplished something useful for himself in the process.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Millions bought the Droid X when it was new (and $570 w/o contract) for $0 through Amazon Wireless and other deal suppliers. It had comparable hardware to the iPhone 4. I'm sure similar deals exist now for modern Android phones.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[aztracker1]

Hoping to see a CM release for my prevail... for now using ShabbyPenguin's build, which is pretty much stock, but did nuke all the f-ing crapware on the phone.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[DeeEff]

Was it worth it? Maybe.

The time spent doing this could have been spent on a billable (or freelance) project that would have paid for a new phone (and then some).
 

I would disagree. It took me about three or four hours to root my Cliq/Dext, no previous experience. Most of that time was reading documentation or waiting for it to install the new ROM.

Besides, this is the same argument many hackers use when refurbishing a desktop. Why buy brand new when you can just format it into a server/ linux machine.

There is a way to get the most out of old hardware, and in this case can be much cheaper. (the exception being you brick your phone, in which case it probably costs around the same as a new phone.)

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you missed the "have it unlocked to begin with" part of his comment. Unlocked phones aren't subsidized by the telco plans, so of course they're more expensive - regardless of iPhone/Android-ness.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[stms]

The android phones you get with a contract are usually locked and loaded with 80 crappy apps and stupid custom UI that slows down your phone and drains your battery life. The only android phone I would consider buying would be a Nexus and last I checked it was $99.99 for a locked version with a contract or $500 unlocked.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, and then I loaded about 80 free applications on it, and how many free apps are available through iTunes, oh, that's right - they start at $0.99 and go up, so I saved another $79+ there, too....

Err, there are so many free apps for iOS that there's infrastructure built in for finding them. I've got 180 apps, 10 by me, 40 that cost money, and the rest were free.

The apps that come with the iPhone and iPod touch, especially the browser and Mail, are good enough that you could get by without ever buying one or even having an iTunes account.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh but he _did_ spend the time on a billable project! He fumbled around with other people's tech expertise, then wrote about it for Infoworld.

Using 3 pages, no less. Actual column inches comes to about 7% of the total area of all three. Great, high-value content - well worth linking in Slashdot.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Cimexus]

I must point out that there are literally ~thousands~ of free apps on iTunes. Indeed I have far more free apps than paid ones.

Other than that I agree with your post. The markup paid just to get more storage space on the iPhone is ridiculous.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

iPhone 4 with a two year contract is like $300. I bought a brand new, unlocked G2x for the same price and my phone is superior to the iPhone 4 in almost every aspect.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Oh, and then I loaded about 80 free applications on it, and how many free apps are available through iTunes, oh, that's right - they start at $0.99 and go up, so I saved another $79+ there, too....

FUD++; Credibility--;

Re:Was It Worth It?

[intheshelter]

Don't talk about the iPhone ecosystem unless you know what you're talking about. In the midst of trying to sound superior it ends up making you sound incredibly ignorant. There tons of free apps on iTunes.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember *never* seeing articles from any of the IDG affiliates (infoworld, comptuerworld, networkworld) on here not too long ago (a few years ago, at least). They're commonplace these days, however, and most of the folks that remember these times like I do find them technically vapid and non-contributory. Despite that, some of the biggest conversation threads I've seen on here are generated by these articles.

If you folks want to mitigate the number of articles from these publishers, stop responding to them. These are not "news for nerds;" they're "news for the upper management that use them."

Re:Was It Worth It?

[intheshelter]

"my phone is superior to the iPhone 4 in almost every aspect."

Sooooo, based on that statement you could also say that the iPhone 4 is superior to your phone in almost every aspect too? I mean there are some things the iPhone is better at and some that your phone is better at, so really you made no point at all with your post.

Next time just post "I hate Apple" and quit wasting everyone's time.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Vectormatic]

The result might be a more enjoyable phone though, i rooted my vodafone 845 nova (99 euro prepaid bargain bin android phone a year back) and i enjoyed it a lot more with root acces and a different launcher, even if the process of rooting wasnt exactly fun.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Vectormatic]

'in almost every aspect' pretty much means that the reverse of the statement is impossible, unless you start looking for edge cases and just being a dick (like, 2 aspects, 1 is 'almost every aspect')

Next time, just post "i'm being a annoying dick" and quit wasting everyone's time

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sooooo, based on that statement you could also say that the iPhone 4 is superior to your phone in almost every aspect too? I mean there are some things the iPhone is better at and some that your phone is better at, so really you made no point at all with your post.

Only if by "every aspect" you mean the screen resolution, because that is the only area in which the iPhone 4 is better. The G2x has a much better CPU/GPU, bigger screen, "4G" data speeds (21Mbps), 8MP main camera, 1.3MP front camera, 1080p video playback/recording, a built-in standard micro HDMI connector and a microSD card slot. And since my G2x is unlocked and rooted, I can already use it with any GSM carrier in the world, with any firmware and install any software I want.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[s_p_oneil]

I rooted my Cliq XT and loaded CM7 onto it, and it didn't take 30 minutes. It was surprisingly quick and easy.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[GooberToo]

Since you clearly work 24/7 and never do anything other than billable work, we can thankfully expect you'll be dropping dead any day now. Hopefully this happened before you had a chance to breed.

So tired of idiots who push forward a moronic concept that nothing should even be done simply because they could have worked elsewhere. Literally, the notion is idiotic. Furthermore, not everyone can readily find extra work, especially in this economy. Such a contrary notion is literally idiotic. Not to mention, not every one the skills to sale themselves or the desire to accept both the liability of freelance work. Such a contrary notion is literally idiotic.

But hey, this is slashdot - why would we expect anything else.

Without fail, you know you have found a moron, who is generally so unintelligent they can only parrot, when they counter everything by simply saying so-n-so should have been working therefore x shouldn't have been done.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[mattcsn]

It was worth it because perfectly functional electronic hardware didn't end up contaminating a landfill. The obsession with having the newest gadget and junking old ones only because they're not new is disgusting, and you are disgusting for encouraging the practice.

The article could have been more thorough regarding technical details, but anything that helps people learn about the possibility of upgrading older hardware is worth posting.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Bo'Bob'O]

I unlocked and rooted my old G1 to use as my overseas phone. I travel to Italy on occasion for work. While it's a rather slow phone, even by the standards when I bought it, I can stick a local sim card in it and get my email, Google voice messages, and Google maps (which I was very much glad for when I got onto the wrong bus one afternoon) as well as a little emergency tethering. And while the speed can be a little frustrating, it does mean that I'm getting use out of it and keeping it out of the landfill a little while longer with little more investment then a $10 battery and a couple hours of my time.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you'd rather waste even more of the environment when you have a perfectly functioning device? Lock yourself in for another 2 years? Or, perhaps this person has a 9-5 job and can't spend more time on a billable project?

That's some ego you have.

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Deliveranc3]

Ironically THAT could be his billable project! Giving people speed upgrades without erasing all their data... providing a phone that has had the attention of an IT professional (automagic (Trying to get this term see mainstream appeal, it means: Having your machine do everything that might be useful without user intervention") backups, better apps, under/overclocking, additional features etc.

I know it sucks for Google but when people figure out Android phones have a 6-7 year lifespan compared to iPhones with a 3-4 year they'll... not give a crap.

Even preachy environmentalists don't remember the 3 Rs... reduce, reuse, recycle. But throw one can in the trash....

Re:Was It Worth It?

[Baloo Uriza]

Never mind it's only a few minutes...Seriously, copy some files to SD card, enter debug mode, run superoneclick, reboot the phone, flash from recovery. Easy peaszy.

Can you do it with a broken screen?

[SleepyHappyDoc]

I have an old HTC Hero that has a badly cracked screen, that I'd love to repurpose as a UPnP audio server over Wifi, but every method I've seen to root it requires touching the screen at some point (and I don't know how to get VNC access without rooting it). Is there a way, or is it garbage now?

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[scubamage]

Many older phones let you install a recovery partition, which should give you access to the phone via ADB. From there you can do most of the work (AFAIK, YMMV)

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[uvajed_ekil]

If you are really set on doing this, you could replace the screen. I don't know how to root that particular phone without using the touchscreen, but I do know you can buy a replacement screen for $30-50 or so. Or buy a non-working/broken one on ebay and swap parts? Maybe not what you were looking for, but it could work.

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get a new screen from DealExtreme for $14.

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[Anonymous Coward]

wifi keyboard should not require root.

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[Lifyre]

Go to XDA. You can do everything you need using ADB. If you don't find instructions in the Hero forum check out the Eris forum (Same phone)

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Some models, you may not even need to bother with that once you get past the initial root/ROM stage. I've slapped ROM Manager on several Android phones so I can change ROMs out when I feel like it. Since it completely backs up the ROM using nandroid, if I find the new ROM lacking in some way, a restore is just a re-run of the app away. Reloading apps is easy with Titanium Backup, so changing ROMs is very painless, other than the time taken to copy to and from the SD card.

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[mjwx]

Many older phones let you install a recovery partition, which should give you access to the phone via ADB. From there you can do most of the work (AFAIK, YMMV)

I beleive what you're talking about is called Fastboot

Re:Can you do it with a broken screen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be able to flash system and boot images with fastboot, xfer them with adb and install/restart to recovery with that as well. You might have trouble rooting it, since I believe the latest exploit relies on you enabling wireless or Bluetooth on the phone itself. Check out forum.xda-developers.org for more info.

jailbreak on an Android phone?

[MrDoh!]

Unlock bootloader/or root it. There's a linux core there, rooting seems to make more sense than Jailbreaking.

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[basotl]

I get annoyed at the overuse of the term "jailbreak" in the context of Android devices. I just feel it's not all that accurate of a description.

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

He just rooted it and installed a version of cyanogenmod on it. That's really not even jailbreaking...

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[MDMurphy]

Agree. By default Android isn't locked down like where you need to get Steve's permission to run something. I can't imagine someone familiar with Android using that term. Android phones aren't usually in the walled garden where they need to be broken out.
Rooting, and/or running an alternative OS is another thing altogether.

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[JBMcB]

It's more or less the same thing. You have to root the thing to jailbreak it, usually.

The tablet manufacturers seem to be a lot nicer about this. PanDigital released the source to their Android-based readers, and Archos lets you do pretty much anything you want with their Android-based PMP's and tablets.

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[mlts]

Jailbreaking doesn't make sense in the Android realm. It is akin to calling lockpicking something like safecracking. Similar, but what is needed to get a safe open has little to do with getting tumblers to line up.

There are also degrees of getting a phone functional in the Android realm that are not present in the iOS ecosystem. With iOS, you have the usual locked down state, a tethered JB, and an untethered JB. You also have if the phone is locked or unlocked.

With Android, you have a lot more granularity. You can get root that is read-only or vanishes on a reboot (which is useful for Titanium Backup), you can have a device with a completely custom ROM and completely unlocked, and various degrees in between (such as having a ROM that kexecs over an existing stock ROM due to signed kernels, a common way to deal with Motorola devices.)

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[Trufagus]

No, it's not the same thing.

"You have to root the thing to jailbreak it, usually."

Please explain what this 'jailbreaking' is that you do to your Android phone after rooting it?

Android can have its own problems - depending on what the manufacturer or carrier get up to - but there is no jail.

Re:jailbreak on an Android phone?

[tlhIngan]

The tablet manufacturers seem to be a lot nicer about this. PanDigital released the source to their Android-based readers, and Archos lets you do pretty much anything you want with their Android-based PMP's and tablets.

Must be a new policy. Archos was one of the worst. You could soft-root it, but it won't stick. They locked the hard drive to the bootloader (you can't replace the hard drive... it own't boot without it). Then everything's signed so you can't really replace Android on it.

The only thing you can do is run apps - everything else is pretty much locked down, at least the last time I checked out their 2.2-running devices.

At best you could get a soft root that was lost when you rebooted, but no kernel swaps (signed kernels) and no userland swaps (signed kernel checks signed userspace).

MY GOD MAN !! EBAY AND BUY A NEW ONE !!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is nonsense !! Spending two months "jmailbreaking" outdated gear for what ?? Waaay too much time on his hands !!

Bootloader

[skjaidev]

So he rooted and installed cyanogen? And he wrote a technically inaccurate article about it? Wow!

This is just a sampler -

        Another addition -- that, again, isn't immediately visible -- is a new bootloader. This
        lets you perform all sorts of low-level functions with the phone: wipe the user data,
        back up the currently installed version of Android, or install a modified version of
        Android

Re:Bootloader

[JBMcB]

Hey - I wrote this comment with LILO.

Maybe he was getting confused with OpenFirmware - a firmware bootstrapper that lets you write bootloaders, or just about any other app, in Forth.

Er, probably not...

Re:Bootloader

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to be an engineer who designed Android phones (1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2). We incorporated all of that functionality into our bootloader, not the recovery partition.

It is worth it.

[w0mprat]

I rooted my HTC Magic, a long time ago and have been running aftermarket ROMs on it.

It's kind of cool that I have current generation Android running on 2008 spec hardware which was abandoned by carriers at version 1.6 and the community has lost interest in updating Android for such decrepid hardware (CyanogenMod has stopped supporting this past 6.1). It's a testament to how awesome the OSS & modding community is.

Was it worth it? The phone works fine for calls and texts, has 90% of it's battery life, and is still working flawless after some horrific abuse that would have seen a iPhone 4 shatter into dust. (They don't make Droids like they used to). But increasingly many new Apps just don't work on such a old phone, let alone run acceptably. Many crash due to lack of RAM unless I enable a swap partition on a SD card (yes it's linux after all, can do that easily).

Ultimately I learned a lot about how the OS works, and learned quite a lot about how an OS should be done. Innovative multitasking and memory management and security too. Puts desktop OSes to shame. Somehow, it's Linux, yet you can make a lot of changes to your OS above and beyond installing apps without ever having to punch in a password to elevate to root. After decades of desktop OS practice, this is refreshing security practice.

It is always worth it for the learning and the insight.

Re:It is worth it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Similar experience with the even older G1/HTC Dream, but found that going from 1.6 to 2.2 (BiffMod) actually increased performance and battery life. There is still the issue with some of the newer apps being too resource hungry, but all in all it's running a lot better than I would have considered given the age of the phone. It's really a shame that a lot of this 'old' hardware doesn't get taken advantage of more often.

Re:It is worth it.

[Anonymous Coward]

An HTC Magic is not a Droid, it's an HTC Magic.

Re:It is worth it.

[Xacid]

So it's not the Droid you were looking for?

Re:It is worth it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I rooted my HTC Magic, a long time ago and have been running aftermarket ROMs on it.

It's kind of cool that I have current generation Android running on 2008 spec hardware which was abandoned by carriers at version 1.6 and the community has lost interest in updating Android for such decrepid hardware (CyanogenMod has stopped supporting this past 6.1). It's a testament to how awesome the OSS & modding community is.

Was it worth it? The phone works fine for calls and texts, has 90% of it's battery life, and is still working flawless after some horrific abuse that would have seen a iPhone 4 shatter into dust. (They don't make Droids like they used to). But increasingly many new Apps just don't work on such a old phone, let alone run acceptably. Many crash due to lack of RAM unless I enable a swap partition on a SD card (yes it's linux after all, can do that easily).

Ultimately I learned a lot about how the OS works, and learned quite a lot about how an OS should be done. Innovative multitasking and memory management and security too. Puts desktop OSes to shame. Somehow, it's Linux, yet you can make a lot of changes to your OS above and beyond installing apps without ever having to punch in a password to elevate to root. After decades of desktop OS practice, this is refreshing security practice.

It is always worth it for the learning and the insight.

The HTC Magic actually has an official 2.2 Froyo ROM. There actually is no need to get a custom ROM if all you want is a modern Android core.

Re:It is worth it.

[LanMan04]

OK, I'm pretty sure T-Mobile updated the MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic) all the way to either 2.1 or 2.2

Also, CM supported that phone up to 2.2! And I had 2.3 running on it via YoshiMod.

It was my daily phone up until 2 months ago, great little device!

Re:It is worth it.

[dunkelfalke]

You know what really is cool?
There is a Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM for my old HTC Himalaya, so I am able to run the last Windows Mobile version (6.5.3) from 2009 on 2003 spec hardware which was abandoned by HTC at Windows Mobile 2003 - not even WM2003SE And it even works well.

Not to speak of my HTC HD2, which came with WM6.5, currently runs Android and can also run Windows Phone 7, Ubuntu or MeeGo.

All hail XDA-Developers.

Re:It is worth it.

[solferino]

You might like to try putting Replicant on it.

Re:It is worth it.

[humblelearner]

OK, I'm pretty sure T-Mobile updated the MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic) all the way to either 2.1 or 2.2

Also, CM supported that phone up to 2.2! And I had 2.3 running on it via YoshiMod.

It was my daily phone up until 2 months ago, great little device!

I also have a MyTouch 3G running Cyanogen 2.2. I notice that it has become a lot slower than the older Android version. Maybe I installed too many apps?

Re:It is worth it.

[humblelearner]

I also want to learn more about Android OS and I have a Magic (Tmobile MyTouch 3G) that I can play with. Can you point me to some good references as starting points? I haven't had much experience with the Linux kernel and OS, but I really want to learn. Thanks!

Yes it was worth it.

[ArhcAngel]

I had to do the same with my wife's Cliq. I was told when I bought the phone it would get 2.1 in less than 2 months. I told them I wouldn't get it if it wasn't going to get the update. 10 months later and Motorola is telling me 2.1 will not work because it only has 256 Mb RAM. Well XDA and Simply-Android to the rescue. I was rocking Gingerbread in no time and with a little tweaking the phone is stable and fast. Somebody handed me a stock G1 yesterday and I'm thinking it's just not fast enough or enough RAM. 2 hours later I have it rocking a custom Gingerbread ROM and it is quite snappy. My son replaced his dumbphone and is enjoying Android goodness via WiFi.

Re:Yes it was worth it.

[Skuld-Chan]

It's a case of - it won't run Motorola's custom ui bloatware with only 256 megs of ram.

Re:Yes it was worth it.

[phorm]

Interesting. Motorola similarly held off 2.2 for *YEARS* on the milestone. I eventually got custom firmware on it, but that was only once somebody figured out how to get past the locked down/signed bootloaders.

What *really* pissed off a lot of people was that the phone was advertised as being flash-ready, but that features wasn't even available until 2.2

Of course, it also ran like crap on 2.2 until I replaced the stock launcher with "Go Launcher Ex"

Re:Yes it was worth it.

[mcvos]

Motorola just sucks when it comes to support. My Milestone came with 2.0 and only got an update to 2.1, and that's it.

I heard that the bootloader has finally been cracked, so I guess I can finally try to get my own update.

Motorola makes awesome hardware. Too bad they choose to suck at policy, support and software.

This is exactly what the manufacturers don't want.

[Thantik]

They would much rather your phone become so unusable as time goes on due to advances in software, that you have to buy a new phone every 18 months. This is why Verizon never carried the Nexus One. Another good example is that Samsung Galaxy S 2; it's not available in the United States yet because of the stranglehold the US carriers have on the market.

I am not sure

[renzhi]

I am not sure if that's worth it. I have an HTC Touch Pro, I love the keyboard, it's only 3 years old, but I don't feel like abandoning it yet. So I grabbed the xdandroid code, and built a custom bundle to run on it, spent a lot of time making it work the way it is now (but still a lot of crashes), so I think it would be probably better off to work on something else to earn the money and buy a new phone. But what a waste to give it up, the hardware is perfectly fine, just that the software/platform has been abandoned.

So I am really wary about locked-down phone. I looked at the new Moto Droid 3, really like the hardware, but I don't think I'll get a phone that is so tightly locked down. The manufacturers and the service providers conspire to obsolete the phone every two years, so that we are on a spending treadmill. And the problem is, there is not a real open phone. OpenMoko is pretty much dead. After my N900 was stolen, I am back to my TP, and I think I'm going to use it until I find something open enough, and with a nice hardware keyboard. Not that TP is an open platform either.

Re:I am not sure

[mlts]

I'd look at the next generation HTC offerings. HTC does not lock bootloaders anymore, so you can install what you wish.

Re:I am not sure

[jonwil]

The #1 reason I refuse to buy from HTC is because they continue to violate the GPL, releasing kernel sources months after the phones release, often kernel sources that dont match whats on the phone.

Re:I am not sure

[Anonymous Coward]

At least they release *something*, unlike any of the other people. It may not be the right kernel source, but it can be used. Other phones, you have to figure out what drivers are in use and hopefully get that working for your ROM to be even remotely useful.

Re:I am not sure

[SpaceLifeForm]

Well, yes, that is not a Good Thing(TM).

But once you install your own firmware, say CM, do you really care anymore?

Sometimes, you make your decision based on the hardware, and you throw away the bundled software.

An example: an OEM box preloaded with crap from Redmond.

Re:I am not sure

[NJRoadfan]

The last true "open" phones were believe it or not..... Windows Mobile based devices like your Touch Pro. No locked boot loaders, an active custom ROM community, and easily modded. I was hesitant on going with another touch screen only phone after having a Samsung Omnia (small screen + failing/drifting digitizer made it impossible to type), but the newer phones with 4.3" screens made it much easier to type.

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Anonymous Coward]

This is something that has bitten the phone makers in the derriere. Yes, they did get some more churn on Android phones, but what it has done is made people start drooling over the iPhone, especially now that it has a CDMA version.

The iPhone doesn't have the hardware specs an Android phone does, but for the average user, it will have a current OS and run current generation apps for at least one year, maybe two. If Android device makers allowed older devices (like the Motorola Cliq) to be able to keep up with 2.2 or even 2.3, maybe there wouldn't be this wholesale shift away from Android to iOS as the platform of choice.

Android phone makers need to start doing cool stuff so they are not viewed as the phone for someone who didn't get an iPhone (think how people's attitude was about the Zune.) Instead of 3D capabilities, maybe some basic but more useful stuff should be put on Android devices:

Better Exchange support. Without this, Android remains a consumer level curiosity in the IT sector.

Encryption of on board storage and the SD card. Easily done with LUKS and EncFS. This would make Android devices a lot more welcome in businesses.

Better Facebook support. Like it or not, the iPhone FB app is a nose better than the Android one. HTC Sense and MotoBlur are steps in the right direction, but ideally, there should be a unified effort.

Ability to back up securely. I would like to see phone makers embrace apps like Titanium Backup and nandroid to allow for backups to be done either to the SD card, or even to a cloud provider where the data is encrypted on the device before being sent up. Android makers either should see about a common cloud, or start making deals with Dropbox. Other than classifying music, Dropbox does pretty much everything one would need.

Ability to sync music. DoubleTwist is a solid step in this direction, but maybe Android phone makers should see about making something that does similar function to iTunes, but is much lighter in weight? Perhaps work on MediaMonkey?

i thought

[smash]

android was open, and all this jailbreaking malarkey was something only iphone users trapped by steve jobs had to deal with

Re:i thought

[alostpacket]

The difference is Jailbreak an iPhone = install any app. Most Android phones already allow you to install any app. Root=replace the ROM/kernel/OS and get superuser permissions so you can work outside the normal Dalvik sandbox permissions.

Re:i thought

[renegadesx]

Its not really jailbreaking, to 'root' your phone only really gives you the ability to install custom ROM's (version of the OS) on the phone. Jailbreaking was different and nessecary if you wanted applications that are not on the iTunes store. Rooting your phone is only nessecary if you want the latest version of Android and Samsung, Motorola, HTC, etc cant be bothered upgrading.

Of course you can just get a Nexus phone if you really care about having the latest Android.

Re:i thought

[DeeEff]

Rooting actually has nothing to do with replacing the ROM, kernel or OS.

Rooting is the act of installing the superuser.apk file into your phone's flash memory. Basically, giving you admin/superuser permissions in your own phone.
This sort of thing is normally locked via bootloaders by carriers or manufacturers because superuser permissions can be just as dangerous as they are useful. It's not necessarily just Dalvik permissions that do it, but normal users are denied su permissions on the default install because they don't have either the knowledge or the attention span to bother learning how to use and restrict those kinds of permissions. (imagine your grandmother seeing the su permission request pop up, and hit yes every time. For everything. Ever.)

Note that some people often mix up this process with flashing a custom recovery, or even installing a custom ROM. These are both very different and separate procedures that require a rooted device to work.

Also note that you can't install a different kernel if you plan to use android (what comparable alternatives would work on an android phone anyways?) and installing a different operating system (OS) means you're not using android at all. Remember: ROM = version/instance of android OS, OS = an entire entity of a system of core utils, kernel etc that work together to form the components of what you see when you use your computer/ phone.

I'm not trying to sound like a smartass with this post either, just trying to clear things up a little.

Re:i thought

[ThatsMyNick]

Android does not have a walled garden (in the sense that you can install apps from non just the official Andorid Market, but from anywhere you please). You still dont get root access by default (atleast most phones done), and the ability to modify the bootloader or kernel is not guaranteed. But yeah the source code is available, and people do build custom roms, though they still have to get past the locked bootloaders (Only a few motorola phone had the bootloader locked I guess).

I cannot believe people still keep asking about.

Re:i thought

[gl4ss]

rooting also gives you a way to mess with apps you installed from android market(for example, copying them to another phone, messing with their settings and "private" files).

Re:i thought

[alostpacket]

I think maybe you're missing my point? I dont see where this idea comes from:"Rooting actually has nothing to do with replacing the ROM, kernel or OS." If they require root, then they are related, no? I know they are separate processes but rooting is the "enabler" -- akin to jailbreaking's enabling of non-App Store app installs.

  I only threw in Dalvik because a rooted device can use apps that have su permissions beyond that of typical apps. Another one of the things it enables.

By kernel I mean people have flashed kernels that have been modded, often to allow overclocking the CPU. This was pretty popular with the Droid 1.

Anywho, you dont sound like a smartass or anything, that was a perfectly respectful post :) But I think maybe you're confused about what you're clearing up :)

Re:i thought

[NJRoadfan]

Most people root their phones to delete the crapware their provider loads the phone up with. That alone can provide a nice performance boost.

once again

[fermion]

I ask why do we need to jail break an android phone? Wan't the point of Android that it was supposed to the alternative to the evil Apple phone that trapped people in a walled garden. Doesn't it seem that android is the worst of both world. No benefit of the security of the walled garden, but no benifit of automatic upgrades and protection from the telcos.

Re:once again

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not really "jailbreaking", just rooting it so you can access the bootloader and rom bits.

Re:once again

[the_humeister]

Having an iPhone doesn't guarantee automatic upgrades, etc. either. Apple really likes dropping hardware support as soon as they're able to get away with it, just like any other manufacturer. Try putting the latest iOS on the 1st generation iPhone. Good luck. However, you can put the latest Android on there.

Re:once again

[jedrek]

My iPhone 3G won't take the latest iOS, it was also released before the first Android phone came out.

Nothing like some good old freetard FUD.

Re:once again

[the_humeister]

Thank you for illustrating my point.

I did more or less the same thing..

[toonces33]

I too have a Cliq, and I got tired of the overall sluggishness and instability of the thing. Yeah, I could have gone out and gotten a new phone, but I still have 8 months to go on the contract, and I would have to buy my way out. The installation of Cyanogenmod was kind of an experiment to see if I could make the thing more tolerable. Worst case, I brick the thing and go out and get something else.

The only thing time consuming for me was to back things up ahead of time. Using different forms of backups that most people have never even thought of. Including

a) First use Sprite Backup (a paid app) to backup things like text messages and so forth.
b) Back up all of my contacts out of MotoBlur, and then import them into Google. I would never buy another Moto phone again, so I would have needed to do this anyways..
c) Use "Astro" to back up all apps installed on the phone.
d) Root the phone. Cyanogenmod instructions for my phone were pretty clear, and this was easy.
e) Then back up the recovery partition. Basically use the "dd" command to back up the partition to the SD card.
f) Install custom recovery code "ClockworkMod".
g) Use the custom recovery to again back up the phone - this backs up the MotoBlur version of software currently running.
h) Download and install the new ROM. There were a couple of other important steps I needed to do as well - flushing caches to make sure things are stable. The Cyanogenmod instructions were pretty clear as to what needed to be done in which order.

After that, I was done. And it was like a new phone. Quite responsive, and it seems quite stable.

Re:I did more or less the same thing..

[Lluc]

Why pay for Sprite Backup when you can use "Call Logs Backup & Restore" and "SMS Backup and Restore" for free? They backup to files on your SD card, and allow you to restore after you've rooted, wiped, and updated your OS.

Re:I did more or less the same thing..

[dogmatixpsych]

"I would never buy another Moto phone again, so I would have needed to do this anyways"

The new Motorola Triumph for Virgin Mobile does not have MotoBlur; it uses stock Android (2.2 right now but should be upgraded to Gingerbread, or at least it can be rooted and manually upgraded to Gingerbread).

Re:I did more or less the same thing..

[toonces33]

Good point - there are numerous apps out there that can do this. I happened to have a copy, but any tool that can backup call logs and text messages would really do the job.

Re:I did more or less the same thing..

[Anonymous Coward]

On my Nexus One, I didn't have to do b) and c). Contacts were auto-synced with my gmail account. Apps were also restored after factory resetting (asides from the Mario Live Wallpaper that was pulled from the market).

What's a Jailbreak?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that's a term used in the iWorld... it's rooting from what I understand....

Re:What's a Jailbreak?

[intheshelter]

You say potato. . . . .

Re:What's a Jailbreak?

[Vectormatic]

you say tomato?

jailbreaking is not functionaly equivalent to rooting

T-Mobile G2

[Anonymous Coward]

I rooted and installed an alternate kernel for my handset, and have it clocked up to 1ghz. To be honest it handles everything I throw at it just fine, so all these dual core and tegra stuff really have no appeal to me. If I want emulation or to play games I have my psp for that (also by having custom firmware on it, which was easier than my handset).

Re:T-Mobile G2

[renegadesx]

I was performing an update for my Desire Z (unbranded G2) and it managed to completly corrupt itself, now its sitting with the warrenty guys where they have been twiddling their thumbs for three weeks saying they haven't been able to fix it. Personally I intend on rooting this phone the minute I get it back. Any good mods for Desire Z / G2?

Re:T-Mobile G2

[Anonymous Coward]

My O2x is buttery smooth at everything that it does. I never want to use a shitty single core Android phone again.

Re:T-Mobile G2

[Anonymous Coward]

I just run cyanogen's baconbits kernel with stock everything else after "s-off"ing it. Then SetCPU from the xda forums/marketplace to overclock. Then LauncherPro. I mean I could run a complete other baked rom, but what I have suits my purpose just fine~

How about other devices?

[antdude]

Can old Palm Treo (680, Vx, etc.) be jailbreaked/hacked?

Re:How about other devices?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but old HTC WinMo phones (Touch, Touch Pro etc) can be converted to Android pretty easily. It's all about the drivers and the kernel...

Re:How about other devices?

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, you don't need to jailbreak a Treo as it doesn't have any restrictions really. There were some people putting Linux onto various Treo/Palm models if that's what you mean, but probably not all the device features will work.

Re:How about other devices?

[antdude]

Ooh, where can those Linux ones be found for those Palm devices?

Custom roms are the best!

[trunicated]

A few weeks after the Captivate (Galaxy S i897) 2.2 update got pushed back several times, I decided to take the leap into custom roms for my phone. I found XDA, which had a decently understandable guide on how to root your phone, and a list of roms that one could use, along with tons of different kernels and modems one could use to make various tweaks to your phone. I tried a few different roms, and settled on an older, slightly more stable 2.2 rom names Firefly.

The hardest part of the whole process was rooting the phone initially. Once you can put Clockwork Recovery on, you're set.

More to the point, I lucked out and the Cyanogen Team started development of their lovely AOSP based rom for my device. Even better, it was based off of version 2.3.4, and the group has a great track record for getting updates made, stabilized, and out eons ahead of carriers. I took the dive, and dropped a nightly build of the rom onto my device, and have loved every minute of it. Besides having Netflix on my device, I can customize tons of aspects of the OS, and all I give up are some of the proprietary things that Samsung/AT&T bundle with the phone (like codecs and video players that utilize the graphics hardware to play video).

Outside of very minor complaints that are easily worked around (Hello Rockplayer, and soon VLC), it's the best thing I could have done with my phone. If you don't find yourself using any of the bundled stuff from your carrier or manufacturer on your android phone, I suggest you head over to XDA to Cyanogen and try out a couple of roms until you find out one that works for you.

Standard Disclaimer: YMMV, follow instructions closely so you don't brick your phone. While hard bricks are rare, they happen, and all of this stuff voids your warranty!

A Bit Contradictory

[Anonymous Coward]

He justifies his rooting of the phone by making a song and dance about manufacturers not providing updates and then drops this in:

Since jailbreaking involves exploiting security holes, there's constant tension between those who create jailbreaking strategies and the phone or phone OS manufacturers. Not long after a hole is discovered, it's usually patched by the phone maker.

If the manufacturers aren't providing updates then the holes will never be patched. If the manufacturers are providing updates, what's the incentive for rooting the phone - beside getting the telco's skins and bundled apps out of the way?

Re:A Bit Contradictory

[toonces33]

Exactly. The Cliq update to 2.1 was so painful to Moto, that they decided to leave the Dext (non-US name for Cliq) at 1.5 "for the best experience". Part of the problem I think is that Moto did an excessive amount of customization which made future updates more painful.

It isn't just Moto however. When you get a phone, the manufacturer really isn't guaranteeing anything with regard to updates of any kind. You might get them, you might not. But the carrier makes you sign up for a 2-year agreement, and lack of updates isn't a valid reason to break the contract.

I've done the Cliq/Dext, Don't use /. to brag!

[Nemo's Night Sky]

but i hear the XT is similar just less powerful hardware. it was easy with instructions on xda developers forums. as well as many roms ready for flashing. there is no reason to do this on your own unless its to brag that you cracked something thats already been cracked. this isn't news. its not even a discussion. why is this on the front page? this guy is using /. to tell everyone how cool and smart her is.

Re:I've done the Cliq/Dext, Don't use /. to brag!

[toonces33]

In a way I agree. I guess the unspoken point of the article is to say how common and how good the firmwares are becoming - that it is less and less bleeding edge all the time..

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Anonymous Coward]

Given that you subsidize new phone purchases via contracts, why wouldn't they want you to keep a phone for 3 years rather than 2 and waste a year's worth of subsidy?

Motorola I1

[Anonymous Coward]

At Mexico Nextel have motorola I1 like one of their betters smartphones, but the reality is that use android 1.5 and motorola don't have plans of update, somebody can't help?

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[gl4ss]

it's the usa carriers buying in huge batches in advance, thinking they get a better deal that way. they don't.

Jailbreak != Root

[mjwx]

I ask why do we need to jail break an android phone?

You dont, you can do everything you can do on a jailbroken Iphone on an un-rooted Android phone.

You only root when you want to properly tinker with the OS itself, not the programs running on it.

Make sure you understand the distinction between jailbreaking and rooting:

Jail Breaking: Getting around the manufacturers restrictions on what you're allowed to install on your phone. Hence you're "breaking" your phone out of its "jail".
Rooting: Gaining root level access to the OS itself allowing you access to change (or break) every part of the OS.

Jailbreaking does not grant the level of access Rooting does.

Most people root as a precursor to installing a custom ROM, last time I checked there were not custom IOS ROMs out there.

Re:Jailbreak != Root

[Anonymous Coward]

The discussion is on jail breaking, not rooting. If we are talking about rooting, then people should use that word, not jail break.

Re:Jailbreak != Root

[mjwx]

The discussion is on jail breaking, not rooting. If we are talking about rooting, then people should use that word, not jail break.

Actually Mr AC,

The discussion is about Rooting as you cant "jailbreak" an Android phone (because, as I pointed out it's not in jail to begin with).

The author of the (terrible) article thought he'd use that word instead of Rooting, which is what he was actually doing.

Re:Jailbreak != Root

[vuffi_raa]

last time I checked there were not custom IOS ROMs out there.

it would certainly be awesome if there were - though the whole monopoly on the hardware thing is what prevents it, most ROMs are compiled from other base ROMs and tweaked or rebuilt - as there is only one iOS and one line of hardware you don't really have the diversity of base developer ROMs to work from.

JAILBREAK = IPHONE; ROOTING = ANDROID

[Anonymous Coward]

People..Please learn the differences between iPhone and Android before posting to the entire world.

There is no such thing as "jailbreaking" an android phone and anyone who regularly messes around with flashing custom roms will know that there is major differences to jailbreaking and obtaining root.

This guide was obviously written by an iPhone user FOR iPhone users.... please stick to your iPhail

Re:JAILBREAK = IPHONE; ROOTING = ANDROID

[Koutarou]

Actually there IS an analog to jailbreak in android. Some carriers disable the "Unknown Sources" checkbox in Settings -> Applications. The act of re-enabling this is almost exactly the same thing as an iphone jailbreak.

Re:JAILBREAK = IPHONE; ROOTING = ANDROID

[thunderbox666]

The act of re-enabling this is almost exactly the same thing as an iphone jailbreak.

But thats not what this article is about. The author is writing a guide on how to Root a phone. I agree with one of the commentors in the link "I can't take an article about rooting an Android phone seriously when it has "Jailbreak!" in the title and throws "'Droid" around. "

Re:JAILBREAK = IPHONE; ROOTING = ANDROID

[intheshelter]

Well the good news is that most people don't care and they just want to use their phone with the latest OS installed without having to root their phone. So the only "fail" would appear to be on the part of Android phones that are unnecessarily locked out of OS updates. On my iPhone I always get the latest OS update, and I don't have to go through the process of rooting the phone. How's that walled garden you're living in there pal?

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Cimexus]

The Galaxy S2 is pretty awesome. A friend of mine has a shiny new one that I played around with last week. Even as someone that's a firm Apple/iPhone fan, I must admit it's got me thinking about Android next time I am due for an upgrade. The larger screen is a real selling point and makes me wonder whether Apple might actually increase the screen size on the next iPhone to compete, even though they've said in the past they aren't interested in increasing the current model's screen size.

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Cimexus]

I dare say an iPhone will run 'current gen' apps for a lot longer than "a year, maybe two". A lot of people out there are still using the (3 year old) iPhone 3G, and that still runs ~most~ current apps just fine. Maybe not some particularly resource-intensive games or graphics software, but most other stuff. I can't imagine apps on ~any~ platform (Apple, Android or otherwise) becoming unusable in so short a time frame ... most people keep their phones for 2-3 years at least.

Interesting that you mention the FB iPhone app being better ... I always thought that the iOS Facebook app was nothing more than an HTML rendering wrapper around their standard mobile site. It's not really an 'app' at all, is it? Just their mobile site viewed in its own (non-browser) window? In which case it should behave the same on all platforms. Or am I completely mistaken...

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes, you can get a new phone when you renew your contract early(and stay on the carrier-locked treadmill).

Phones? Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

All of this incessant chatter about phones really makes me reconsider having ever become a nerd. It's not even cool anymore.

Security

[muridae]

Given the capabilities of these phones, and the complaints on /. about rogue apps tracking people; who keeps an eye on these roms? What prevents a rom from, lets say, enabling GPS and logging data and transmitting it to some server, or turning on the microphone and acting like a bug? I know the Android source is available, but these roms are not the stock code. Not all of these roms have sources available. So, does anyone check the available code or the roms to look for things like this?

Re:Security

[toonces33]

The Cyanogenmod source tree is open and can be browsed and downloaded..

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Anonymous Coward]

So they're probably really pissed at me, because I'm still using my Palm Treo 755p, without a data plan.

um ok, we aren't preteens with imacs

[Anonymous Coward]

I figured this out in one evening without ever laying a hand on an android handset. I run cm froyo on the cliq XT. It was worth it. Motoblur/1.5 were a nightmare, I would have continued to use my old nokia if a cm 2.x wasn't available. I have a pocket computer/gps/wifi device with no data plan. Gmail calender sync is the killer app. Not bad for free. I have about 4 "apps." Apps are ridiculous. Playing games is even more ridiculous. Get off my lawn. This whole smart phone crazy is absurd. I would feel royally screwed had I paid one cent for the device or a plan upgrade.

Got a small company - Help/Instructions

[Deliveranc3]

Doing just this. It's recently gotten a lot easier with signed kernels and radios hitting the scene. Which means you don't need fastboot, very useful when you're doing multiple phones on a windows machine. For some reason the google usb driver breaks after each phone requiring a full reinstall. It's easier on Linux of course.

I also put a VOIP number/unlimited long distance forever with no bill on it :) Calling the company payoncephones(.com).

Anyway the community for the G1 (and many of the Android phones) is FANTASTIC. One of the best I've seen since my WRT-54G, (Tomato btw). They've got my phones up to 2.3.4, 5x the original battery life. 30% more available ram. 40% more on phone application space. Much faster storage thanks to EXT4... they've been FANTASTIC!

Anyway I'm offering reasonable pricing (both for upgrading and pay once phone forever VOIP). My website is phaistoscommunications.com, send me an email if you're in Toronto and need your phone upgraded. I ship phones all over Canada too.

Oh, and the upgrades you want are: HBOOT 1.33.0013d, Radio 27.08, Pershoot Kernel, Ginger Yoshi 1.2.1/ Beatmod/Lazlo(2.2)/AOSP(1.6).

Watch out for the unlockers, there's about 15 of them, 3 just take your money, some take your money and promise a refund (which I think they deliver but I think 1 doesn't).

Anyway I've chosen the G1 for it's amazing form factor but if you want any of these... http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices bought cheap on Ebay and upgraded, I can do that too.

It's getting easier which is great! And Android 2.3.4 is AWESOME! Much much better than my GF's iPhone 4 for the hardcore! Best of luck all of you Android Modders!

P.S. sorry about the crappy website... info's all useful though!

Re:This is exactly what the manufacturers don't wa

[Deliveranc3]

"Better Facebook support. Like it or not, the iPhone FB app is a nose better than the Android one. HTC Sense and MotoBlur are steps in the right direction, but ideally, there should be a unified effort."

This is exactly why Android is going to be better than Apple. Apple is going to get in bed with Facebook and only support their app. Android has Bloo, an alternative app.

You can replace all the Google apps easily (not sure about Apple apps on iPhone) . Interestingly you can't remove them, but that's a "look and feel" branding effort that I support since selling used phones without a browser or email would really hurt their brand.