Android and Me » guide

How to take screenshots of Google TV over WiFi with ADB

Clark Wimberly — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:37:52 +0000

A few days ago, my Logitech Revue received its long-awaited update to Android 3.1 and with it came glorious, glorious access to the Android Market. The main category I’d been longing to fill was a solid media player with decent codec support. I finally found that in Plex so I wanted to review the app, which meant I needed a way to capture screenshots. Which, of course, I had no idea how to do.

Turns out it’s not a terribly complex process, but there are definitely a few gotchas that you should watch out for. You don’t even need to physically connect to the device, since the entire process is completed over WiFi via the Android Device Bridge (or ADB).

It’s called remote debugging and it’s something I’m sure the seasoned hackers out there are familiar with it but it’s not something I spent much time on myself. Also, after I got it working, I tweeted about my success, where @trsohmers chimed in and mentioned that remote debugging isn’t allowed on the Sony Google TV products, so this guide is exclusive to the Logitech Revue for the time being.

Update: As Cole points out in the comments, this method DOES work for the Sony Blu-ray player, so at least there’s that. It seems like only the Sony TV users are left in the cold here.

Prerequisite: Install the Android SDK

To complete the steps I’m about to lay out, you’ll need the Android SDK installed on your computer, the explanation of which is outside the scope of this tutorial- but fear not! There is ample explanation in other areas of the web, including a fairly old version right here on our site. If someone has a better basic SDK guide, please post it in the comments.

Another extremely important step is to set your Revue to display in 720p. The first few times I attempted this I was met with errors and it took finding an obscure post in a GTV Google Group to learn that 1080p is too large and will overrun the buffer. So for now, 720p is the way to go!

Once you’ve got the Android SDK installed on your workstation and a Logitech Revue powered up and on the network, you’re ready to connect and start debugging. If you’re Revue is in another room, you might want to make note of your workstation IP before we begin (example: 192.168.1.106).

Step 1: Enable Remote Debugging on the Revue

Before you can do anything, you’ll need to enable Remote Debugging on your Logitech Revue. You’ll find the option in Settings > Applications > Development and all you need to do is check a box:

While you’re here, you’ll also need to enter the IP address of your workstation computer. It’s basically a whitelist which allows your computer to connect- if you don’t enter the correct IP address here, you’re ADB command in the next step won’t work. I’d imagine this is for security, and I guess I appreciate it because I especially don’t want some goober peeping on what I’m watching.

Step 2: Retrieve IP address of GTV device

To connect to the device over WiFi, you’ll need the IP address of the Logitech Revue, which you can find in Settings > Network > Status:

Step 3: Connect to the GTV device via ADB

Once the Revue knows your workstation IP and you know the IP of the Revue, you’re ready to connect with a simple ADB command. Open up the command promt, and type:

adb connect

replacing with the actual IP we retrieved in the last step. If the command works, the prompt will return connected to and you’ll be able to proceed as if you’d physically connected the device like you’ve done with a phone hundreds of times in the past.

Step 4: Capture screens using DDMS

Once you’ve got you’re GTV device connected (which you can verify by typing adb devices into the command prompt), you’ll be ready to capture screens using DDMS (the Dalvik Debug Monitor Server). Simply type ddms into the prompt and you’ll be on your way:

You’ll notice in the bottom of the DDMS window that you’ve got a ‘Log’ pane, which should be flashing all sorts of activity from your connected GTV device (this should let you know you’re on the right path). From there, just select Device > Screen Capture and you’ll get a nice capture of what’s going on on your Logitech Revue:

I should point out that the screen capture won’t work correctly if you’v got live TV currently displayed. Apparently they’ve used some sort of black magic to scrub the picture out, but almost every other app captures just fine.

In conclusion…

Now that I’ve got this new-found, TV-app-capturing capability, I plan on trying to do some more Google TV app reviews. Since I got the upgrade I’ve really been using the hell out of my Logitech Revue. My wife even just bought me a second one for Christmas (she even let me open it early because I guessed what it was). I opened it tonite and the upgrade came as part of the initial setup, so I see the Revue being at the center of my entertainment world for the foreseeable future.

I’d say my current favorite app is easily Plex for Google TV, which is a full-feature media player that feels close to what I thought I’d be getting with GTV the first time around. I can play all of my network media with ease, along with custom channels from around the internet. I’ll be working on a full review of Plex, but I was curious what other apps you GTV users have taken to. Is there anything else out there I totally need to check out?

And just for good measure, here is one more captured screenshot:

Get to know your Motorola DROID Bionic; One-click Root and Teardown Guides

Edgar Cervantes — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:30:52 +0000

Many of you have probably purchased one of the (literally) most awaited devices in the history of Android. After being announced at CES, the Motorola Droid Bionic took over 8 months to be released. It went through its fair share of delays and revamps/upgrades and now it’s in your safe hands. Of course, one is never content with just owning the device; real fans want to get to know it very intimately.

Teardown^[1]

Now that the Bionic is out roaming the streets, iFixIt has come back with yet another teardown. This time the victim is the brand new Bionic, and it looks just like it should–gull of metal, cables and plastic. It’s always helpful to learn how to tear a device apart, just in case you ever need to replace a screen or other piece of hardware.

Even if you’re not the adventurous type and would rather send a device back to be fixed, it’s always interesting to see what’s inside that shiny phone. Those who want to check out iFixIt’s teardown can do so on their site, which also houses a collection of teardown tutorials and videos for many other devices.

One-Click Root^[2]

Now that you know what the Motorola Droid Bionic’s insides look like, you can start playing around with them. Root users know that the full potential of a device is only reached through the help of rooting. Playing around with the software and root apps is always the most exciting for Android/tech enthusiasts, especially with powerful devices like the Motorola Droid Bionic.

The root method was actually discovered before the device’s release, which is quite remarkable. It seems people are getting faster at this every day. There’s now even a one-click root method available; it’s very convenient for those who fear not being “tech-savvy” enough.

Of course, there are the disclaimers. If you so happen to brick your device, it is no one’s responsibility but yours. Do stay away from this if you prefer being on the safe side. Currently, there’s no way to un-root the Motorola Droid Bionic, so you would be rooted permanently (until/if a method is discovered). Motorola might want to patch this in a future update, so stay away from those if you want to keep root access.

If you still want to be able to use root apps, overclock your already awesome processor, try out custom ROMS and do other cool things like that, you can check out this guide. The guide is also good for most Motorola devices (list included in the guide), so others can use it as well.

Wrap-Up

Now that you’ve gotten cozy with your Bionic, we’d like to know how things are going for you. Has anyone tried either of these guides? Did you root your device yet? Will you? Are you enjoying your Droid Bionic? Let us know about your experiences, and enjoy your well-awaited device!

References

Source: iFixIt Via: Phandroid ↩
Source: psouza4 Via: Android Central ↩

Update your Nexus S to Android 2.3.2

Taylor Wimberly — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:35:45 +0000

Today Google started pushing out an update for the Nexus S that brings the firmware up to 2.3.2. The file is only about 600 KB big and the build number goes from GRH78 to GRH78C, so all signs point to this being a minor update. Samsung tweeted that it fixes the SMS bug that has received a lot of attention lately and that’s about all we know. There is no word on if it fixes the random reboot bug, but we will be testing it out and report on our findings.

You can wait for the update to hit your phone over-the-air, or you can download it from Google and manually install it now.

To install the latest Nexus S build GRH78C, follow these steps:

Download the update file from Google’s server: GRH78C-from-GRH78.zip
Copy the file to your phone’s internal storage (/sdcard). Tip: The Nexus S can flash any file so there is no need to rename it update.zip
Power off your phone.
Hold down the VOLUME UP button and power it back on.
Use the volume keys to navigate to recovery and press POWER to select it.
When you see the “/!\” symbol, hold the POWER button and then press the VOLUME UP button.
You should be presented with the Android system recovery menu. Select the option “apply update from /sdcard”
Find the update file (GRH78C-from-GRH78) on your sdcard and then press the POWER button to flash it.
Wait for the update to complete and then select “reboot system now”

The whole process takes about five minutes and I did not encounter any issues when I flashed it on my phone. If you run into any problems, just leave a comment and we will try to help out.

How to turn YouTube videos into ringtones for your Android phone

Taylor Wimberly — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:00:35 +0000

Have you ever wanted to create your own ringtones, but you just didn’t know how? Anyone with an Android phone can easily create their own ringtones from YouTube videos in only 5 simple steps. Full instructions after the jump.

Follow these simple steps to turn you favorite YouTube videos into ringtones:

Find a cool YouTube video. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEWkDQI0jN4
Convert the YouTube video to a MP3. Suggested tool: http://www.listentoyoutube.com/index.php
Copy the MP3 file to your SD card.
Go to Android Market and install Ringdroid
Load up MP3 file in Ringdroid, edit it to your liking, and hit the save button
Repeat

If you need extra help with Ringdroid, check out the following walkthrough below:

Having problems? Leave a comment and someone will try to help you out.

Tutorial: Making your WordPress blog Android and iPhone friendly

Clark Wimberly — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:17:56 +0000

A few weeks ago we launched the new Android and Me mobile site to almost unanimously positive reviews. The outpouring of support for my first major mobile build really got me excited and to return the favor I wanted to try to share some of what I learned.

This article is intended for those who already have a web or WordPress background. If you don’t quite understand how to put together your own templates, this might not be for you. For a long time we used the excellent plug-in WPtouch, which is a great solution for those uncomfortable with building from scratch. This isn’t a simple fix, we are going to get our hands dirty.

Let me start by saying that the following advice is a random collection of things I picked up while building the Android and Me mobile site. I’ll also start by saying I’m not a professional mobile developer. I do, however, bring years of traditional web and WordPress experience to the table and have recently been dropped head first into the mobile world. I’ve been enjoying it immensely. These are my findings:

Detecting mobile devices

The first step in creating a mobile site is detecting the devices trying to access your pages. The newest version of WordPress (2.9+) has made this a rather simple task with a new, built-in in conditional tag: is_iphone. Documentation on the function is hard to come by (it isn’t in the WordPress conditional tag list) but so far it’s proved to be an extremely elegant solution to selectively serving mobile templates to mobile users.

I found is_iphone on accident while digging through the WP core files and tested it on our development server and it returns true for Android as well (I’m guessing because it’s looking for the webkit browser agent). And using it is easy. The basic structure is like so:


     // mobile template

     // regular template

So, for example, if you wanted your single entry template (single.php) to check the device and serve the proper template, you could do so like this:


     

     // entire contents of your regular single.php template

The above code is rather simple. If WordPress determines the browser is run on an iPhone (or Android device) it will know to use your specific mobile template (I’ve put all my mobile templates within a /mobile folder). Within your mobile templates you can use WordPress functions the same as you would in any other template. I’ve even got my mobile templates broken down into smaller pieces (as is customary when templating) like a mobile-specific header, footer, etc. In a regular template to call the header you can use the function:

My mobile header is a completely different beast than the desktop header. It contains far less scripts and contains many key pieces needed to complete my mobile layout. So I created a new header, located within /mobile and within my mobile templates I can call it like so:

At the time, the is_iphone conditional seems to only return true for iPhone and Android users. Palm and BlackBerry users appear to be left in the dark. If that bothers you, there are many other ways to detect mobile users but for our purposes Android and iPhone cover our target audience. If that offends you as a Pre user, prove me wrong and show up in our analytics.

Also, since it’s an official WordPress function, hopefully they will expand it in the future to cover other smartphone platforms. In fact, I propose we change the tag’s name while it still fresh to is_smartphone.

Making things looks right

The great thing about designing and coding for a mobile device nowadays is just how awesome smartphone browsers have become. There are almost no differences between your markup for desktop and for mobile (with the exception of target device screen size). It’s the same site, only lightweight and smaller. Cut out whatever extra jazz you can, but for the most part the Android browser can handle the load.

The main concern is screen real estate. I’ve collapsed our three column desktop site into a single column for mobile. The site retains the same look and feel but is much more efficient on smaller screens.

Also with a small screen usually comes content that is much too large for the device, which is why smartphones have something called a viewport. The viewport is a screen sized looking glass that lays over a much larger page. Everything you see on the screen is within the viewport. Everything you can’t see is not.

With Android 1.6 came support for different screen resolutions (and thus different viewport sizes). To level the playing field we can add a custom meta tag to our mobile site’s header (/mobile/header.php)

The viewport will be sized automatically to screen width (320px, 480px, etc) and will be zoomed to a scale of 1.0 (preventing the site loading waaaay zoomed out with everything very tiny). We’ve also set the viewport to not be user-scrollable, which will give our site a much more app-like feel. If you’d like the users to be able to zoom in and out, this would be the time to decide such.

When a phone is rotated and the orientation switches, the viewport resizes. Because of the ever changing screen widths, it’s important for your layouts to be fluid. When I first got my Nexus, I was worried the wider screen width would lead to odd layout challenges (images aren’t as easy to make fluid) but setting the scale and zoom to 1.0 makes the images appear the same size on all devices.

Here is where it gets really get confusing, though. On a Nexus (or Droid, for that matter), an image that is 300px wide will span the entire width of the screen. The result is a 300px image filling a space with considerably more pixels and you get a nasty upsampling effect (for lack of a better term). My layouts were rectified but my images on the high density screens just didn’t look good.

Luckily, the webkit image sizing engine came to the rescue. In the past (and on desktop browsers), if you rendered an image on-page smaller than it’s native size you’d see be able to tell. Images would get pixelated during downsampling. Not so on mobile devices. So for post images, for example, I call up a slightly larger image than I need and then downsize it right in-page (just using the width and height properties on the img tag). On the high resolution devices the result is a super crisp and properly sized image. I try to use this effect minimally though, on a page that lists a bunch of post thumbnails I just display an actual thumbnail at native size (the negative effect is less obvious on smaller images).

I’m sure calling up slightly larger images (less than 200px larger) will increase load times a tiny bit but I couldn’t live with launching a fresh new mobile site and having muddled images on the high res devices. And with ever-increasing network speeds I hope in the future it becomes even less of an issue.

Now we build

That’s basically it. Once you’ve got your conditional check in place and your viewport settings correct you can start the process of rebuilding all your templates on a mobile scale. Like I said, I put all my mobile templates within a single folder, /mobile. In the folder I’ve got any and all the files I need to make the mobile site tick (templates, images, scripts, etc).

To make a mobile page template (or archive template, for that matter), you simply open your current template and add the conditional at the top. Since a mobile layout tends to be much simpler, you can even cheat and use one mobile template to cover many desktop templates (on the mobile site I’ve got a single archive.php template that covers all my categories, tags, authors, etc, which I found much easier than creating a new template for each).

The thing to stress here is this isn’t some magical fix. We aren’t just changing a width here and there and calling it a mobile site. This is a ground-up rebuild that is creating new templates for mobile use. It’s a labor-intensive process but the result is more than worth it.

Bonus points

Along with making your layouts mobile-ready, there are numerous other tweaks you can make to enhance your mobile presence. In the header you can add a link to an apple-touch-icon (which will also be recognized by Android). When a user bookmarks the site and adds the link to the home screen, he will be presented with your custom icon.

Setting an icon lets your site have a very specific and branded look on a user’s home screen. Icon are usually sized at 48×48 but again you can use a large image for a crisper result. Even Google does this, some of their icons are 57×57.

Another good practice is using minimal javascript touches to add native-looking functionality to your site. On the Android and Me mobile site I built a small menu that slides in and presents the user with navigation options (search, categories, etc). I’ve also done things like not display the comments by default, waiting to reveal them only when the user wants to see them.

The webkit engine also supports some new CSS properties I wasn’t accustomed to using at a production level. CSS3 makes it possible to generate drop shadows and gradients on the fly (whereas in the past you might have needed an image). Adding gradients is pretty easy and there are even online generators to make it even simpler. Using the new CSS properties at your disposal allows you to create a quicker loading and more dynamic layout (code changes are always easier than image changes).

So what’s next?

In addition to layout changes, there are some pieces of content that just don’t need to be displayed the same on the desktop and mobile site. One example are YouTube embeds. On the mobile site it displays a very large object that hangs way outside the viewport. To remedy the situation I’ve created a custom, mobile-aware shortcode. This allows our authors to add something like and the site will automatically spit out a full YouTube embed on the desktop site and a neatly formatted link to the video on the mobile site. I’ve also done the same with market downloads. On the desktop site you get a QR for scanning, on the mobile site you get a link for clicking.

I’ll be taking a look at WordPress shortcodes in a future article but I wanted to check with you guys to see if there are any mobile-specific questions you want discussed in a future tutorial. Anything you see on the current site you want explained? See something I’m doing that could be improved? Let me know!

PS: I’ll be speaking tonite at the Austin Android Users Group meetup. If you are in Austin and interested in Android, come on by!

How to setup a secondary Google Apps email for Android

Clark Wimberly — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:36:49 +0000

Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom domain names with Google services. Android allows you to use a Google Apps email as your primary account, but this guide is for setting up a secondary account. Many people have different email accounts for work and wish to keep them separate from their personal email.

Watch this video as we take you through the steps of setting up an alternate account using the Android app Email.

Beginners Guide For Rooting Your Android G1 To Install Cupcake

Taylor Wimberly — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:41:19 +0000

This guide is outdated and a newer version if offered. Please visit How to root a T-Mobile G1 and myTouch 3G.

I first wrote this guide several months ago, but decided not to post it. After all the cupcake builds were released and people kept asking for help with upgrading, I decided to touch it up and put it out in the open. If you are interested in rooting your phone and installing one of the latest cupcake builds, please read the entire guide before getting started.

If you are nervous about upgrading or want more information on the pros/cons read our article about the different flavors of Android.

This article serves one purpose: demonstrating the easiest method possible to root your Android device. It is currently intended for the T-Mobile G1 and will be updated when other hardware becomes available. If you do not know what root access is, then you most likely should not attempt to modify your phone. Having a rooted phone is mostly for power users.

Preparing Your Phone For Root – Important Disclaimers

Before we begin to root your phone, let’s cover a few basics.

This guide is intended for US phones. If you are in a country other than the United States, please visit the xda-developers forums for more information on rooting your Android device.

If you do not read and follow instructions, you will have trouble. We are trying to make this guide as fool proof as possible, but if you do not follow instructions, you will have problems. I suggest reading the entire guide before you start. This way you can become familiar with the entire process. Thankfully, most upgrade problems can be resolved by flashing the RC29 downgrade and starting over.

Make sure your battery is fully charged. We do not want your phone to die out in the middle of an upgrade flash. Go plug it in now while you read the rest of this guide.

Set aside at least 60 minutes to root your phone. The entire process can be completed in about 30 minutes, but I suggest you plan on it taking longer. We do not want you to get half-way through and then stop. If you start the root process and do not complete it, you might be unable to use your device and make phone calls.

If you install a non T-Mobile build of Android, you will be missing T-Mobile apps like MyFaves. You can still update your MyFaves online, but will be missing the app for now. If this is a problem for you, then do not upgrade. Also absent from the Android Developer Phone builds are several of the messaging clients like MSN, Yahoo, and AIM. If you need these apps, there are many replacements available in the market.

A WiFi connection will greatly reduce the total time required and I highly suggest it. You will be downloading several files with some as large as 40MB. Connect to a WiFi network when possible. You could attempt this over 2G/3G but I do not recommend it.

The first time you root your phone, all data will be wiped. Any data you want to keep must first be backed up before you begin. Most of the important information on your phone is synced with Google, but there are other things you might want to backup. Call logs, SMS history, and phone settings are the most commonly backed up items. Thankfully, there are several applications in the Android Market that can backup most data on your phone. MyBackup Pro from Rerware allows you to backup your data to your SD card or online.

Part of the root process requires you to format your SD card. After you have backed up data to your SD card, be sure to copy it all over to your PC before formatting. If you have an extra microSDHC card, I suggest using the spare for the root process. Also note it takes several minutes to format your micro SD card to the FAT32 file system, so I suggest using the smallest sized card to speed up the process.

After you root your phone, you will not receive system updates from T-Mobile. Part of the root process blocks T-Mobile from applying updates to your phone. This is done on purpose to prevent a future update from removing root access. The good thing is you can manually update your phone to a new custom version of the operating system. T-Mobile tends to roll out new updates over the span of several days, but when you have root you can apply the update as soon as its available. This update process for some root users has been simplified with the application JF Updater. See the end of this article for more information on keeping your phone up to date.

If you run non supported software, T-Mobile will not offer technical support for you. This can be a make or break issue for some people. Instead of turning to T-Mobile when you have problems, you will turn to the community for help. There are many ongoing efforts in the community to help people and most questions can easily be answered via Twitter or several Android forums. You can of course, return to the official T-Mobile version of Android whenever you choose.

Part 1. Downgrade Your Phone to RC29.

Before we begin, let’s check the current build of Android you are running. From the home screen, press the Menu button and select “Settings”. From the settings menu, scroll to the bottom and click “About Phone”. At the bottom of the about screen you will find the “Build Number”. Look for the part that says “RC##”. The numbers after RC indicate the release canidate you have installed. If you have RC30 and above, you will need to downgrade back to RC29. The purpose of this downgrade is to exploit a security hole that existed before RC30 was released.

In order to apply updates to your phone, we must first format your micro SD card to the FAT32 file system. As noted above, when you format your SD card, it will erase all data. Most micro SDHC cards are already formatted for FAT32, but some are FAT16 and I suggest doing it again if you are not sure. Instructions for Windows users:

Hook your phone up to your PC using a USB cable.
Click the notification on your phone that says “USB Connected”. Select the “Mount” option.
Once the device is mounted, you will see a removable disk show up on your computer. Right click the device and select Format.
Pick FAT32 for the file system and click start. Do not perform a quick format.
When the format is complete, you can disconnect your phone by clicking “safely remove hardware” like any other USB device.

Now that your SD card is formatted, we can start the root process. For this guide we will be using the root application created by Mike Moussa. His app simplifies the process by including download links to the required files you will need. It also scripts some of the commands to prevent you from making typing errors.

Download the root app here: http://www.androidactivity.com/root/root.apk

You can either download the file on your PC or directly to your phone(I suggest phone). Before we can install the file, we need to tell your phone to allow non-Market applications.

From the home screen, press “Menu”.
Go to “Settings” first then “Application Settings”.
Check the box that says “Unknown sources”.

Now that we can install non-Market applications, we need to find the file on your phone and launch it. If you are in the Android browser, you can go to menu > more > downloads. If you have a file manager like Linda installed it should be located in “/sdcard/download”. Click the file called “root.apk” and hit install.

Update: Some users have reported the DREAIMG.nbh file gets corrupted when downloading over 3G/Edge. To avoid this just download the file to your PC and then copy it to the SD card.

When the root application is installed, launch it from your application tray. Click on “Step1: Download NBH file” to start the first download. This file “DREAIMG.nbh” is what will downgrade your phone back to RC29. Wait for the download to finish, then complete the following steps.

Power off your phone.
Holding down the camera button, power the phone back on.
Wait for the bootloader to come up all the way, and press the Power button to begin the update.
When the first part completes it will prompt you to hit the action key to continue. The trackball is the action key.
Once the update is finished, you can reboot your phone by pressing TALK+MENU+POWER.

Stop and Verify: When the phone reboots, you should be greeted by a fresh install of Android. Go through the setup process again for signing into your Google account. You can double check that the downgrade was successful by checking your build number as explained earlier. Press “Menu”, then “Settings”, and click “About Phone”. Your version after the downgrade will read RC29.

Part 2. Install New Bootloader.

Now that we are running RC29, we can exploit the known security hole to gain permanent root access. The next step involves replacing the SPL or secondary program loader. This new bootloader is what allows us to load a custom build of Android. Note that the SPL is independent of the Android build that runs on top of it.

Since the downgrade wiped our phones, we will need to reinstall the root application we used earlier to finish up the process.

Download the root app again here: http://www.androidactivity.com/root/root.apk

Follow the previous instructions to install the root app and launch it. We will now perform “Step2: Download IMG and HardSPL files”. The security hole we will be exploiting requires you to type a command on the physical keyboard. After you click Step 2, wait for the download to complete and then perform the following steps.

Go to the home screen and open up your keyboard.
Hit enter, pause a second, then hit enter again.
Type “telnetd” in all lower case minus the quotes. Ignore the contact search that comes up.
Press enter again.

After typing the “telnetd” command return to the root.apk app and press “Step3: Protect your root”. This step runs a script that will perform the SPL upgrade. If you see any errors, it means the telnet session is not open. Return to the previous instructions and try launching telnet again. If you are still having problems with Step 3, reboot your phone and try again. After the script runs, we need to reboot the phone to apply the update file.

Power off your phone.
Hold down the Home key and power the phone back on.
When you see the triangle with the ! inside it, then press Alt+L to display the bootloader options.
Press Alt+S to apply the update.zip file.
When the update is finished, you can reboot by pressing TALK+MENU+POWER.

Part 3. Upgrade the Radio Image to support Android 1.5

Before we move onto the last part, we must upgrade the Radio Image to the latest version that supports Android 1.5. The new radio image has been posted on HTC’s support website for download. In order to apply the Radio update, we must download the file “ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip”.

Update: If the HTC download does not work, here is an alternate link to download ota-radio-2_22_19_26l.zip.

Once the file is downloaded, it must be renamed update.zip and placed in the root directory of your SD card. This means to place it in the main directory and not inside any folder. If there is an update.zip file already present from the previous steps, it is ok to overwrite the file or delete it. When the radio image file is renamed as update.zip and placed on your SD card perform the following steps:

Power off your phone.
Hold down the Home key and power the phone back on.
When you see the triangle with the ! inside it, then press Alt+L to display the bootloader options.
Press Alt+S to apply the update.zip file.
When prompted, hit Home+Back to write the image file.
When the update is finished, you can reboot by pressing TALK+MENU+POWER.

Stop and Verify: You can check the version of your radio image to make sure it updated. Go to Settings > About Phone > Baseband version. The version number should end in 2.22.19.26l just like the original name of the update file.

Part 4. Install Custom Android Build.

Now that the hard parts are over, we are ready to install a custom build of Android. There are many to choose from, but I suggest the most recent build from JesusFreke. His version includes multi-touch support in the browser and a host of other features. I have chosen the JF build because it was voted the most popular and has been downloaded the most times. There are also custom builds available from Haykuro and The Dude that we will explore in a future post. For this last part, we will no longer use the root.apk application. It links to an old version of a JesusFreke build that we do not want to install. Instead, we will download the latest build from his blog http://jf.andblogs.net.

The file we want to download is JFv1.50 ADP1.5.

Please note that this cupcake build along with the others is based on the ADP version of Android and is different from the RC builds that T-Mobile offers. The Android Developers Phone version is the build given to developers and lacks the T-Mobile branded apps. The Release Candidate builds are approved and released by T-Mobile. You can swap back and forth between build types, but you will need to wipe your phone each time.

Once you have downloaded the update file JFv1.50 ADP1.5 it must be renamed update.zip and placed on your SD card like before. Make sure the file is named update.zip and copied to the main directory of your SD card. The most common problems I have seen are Windows users who name the file update.zip.zip by mistake and others who place the update.zip in the wrong place. After the file is in place we need to reboot and apply it:

Power off your phone.
Hold down the Home key and power the phone back on.
Wait for the bootloader to display, then press Alt+L to display the bootloader options.
Press Alt+W to wipe the data and cache folders. You must wipe when going form a RC to ADP build.
Press Alt+S to apply the update.zip file.
When the update is finished, you can reboot by pressing TALK+MENU+POWER.

After the phone loads back to the home screen, you are now complete. One of the first apps you should download is JF Updater. This will make getting updates in the future much easier and you will not have to repete all these steps.

Stop and Verify: Look at the list of programs you have installed. You should now see Terminal Emulator. This means you are now running a custom build. Launch Terminal Emulator and type the following command to display what version you have: “getprop ro.modversion”. It should read JFv1.50.

More To Follow:

Creating an ext2 Linux partition on your SD card
Moving your apps and cache to your SD card
Installing and using a WiFi Tether app

I could keep typing forever, but I will stop and let people check for errors. Will update in the morning.

Blackberry To G1. Migrating Contacts From Outlook To Gmail.

Christopher Earle — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:00:37 +0000

One of the advantages of a G1 with Google is that contacts are synchronized seamlessly between the G1 and its associated Gmail account. This means that the contacts are available both on the handset and on virtually any computer connected to the internet.

This can pose a problem for people migrating from BlackBerry to the G1. One solution is one of the many synchronization utilities for Outlook and Gmail, such as gSyncit or GoodSync. These are good solutions, however many people simply switch from using Outlook to using the Gmail web application for email. For people who are migrating, there is a free and simple way to move your data from Outlook to Gmail.

There are three basic steps to accomplish this:

Export your existing Outlook contacts to a .csv file.
Decide if you want to keep your existing Gmail contacts. If you already have a lot of contacts in Gmail, it is probably a good idea to keep them. If most or all of your Gmail contacts are duplicated in Outlook, deleting the existing Gmail contacts might be a good idea.
Import the .csv file from Outlook into Gmail.

Export a .CSV File From Outlook

Exporting your existing Outlook contacts is easy. Do the following:

Click the Contacts tab in Outlook
Go to the Import and Export command under the File Menu
Click Outlook…
Select Export to a File in the dialog box that pops up
Click Next
Make sure that Comma Separated Values (DOS) is selected
Click Next
Make sure that Contacts is selected in the tree view
Click next
Browse to where you want to save your .csv file
Click next
Click Finish to export the .csv file.

Decide On Deleting Existing Gmail Contacts

Once you have the .csv file, you need to consider whether or not to delete your existing Gmail contacts. One consideration is the number of existing Gmail contacts in your account. Another is whether there is extensive duplication between Gmail and Outlook. If you are a new Gmail user, you probably don’t have many contacts, so you can skip this consideration.

There isn’t an easy answer to this question. If you have extensive contacts in both systems, importing the Outlook contacts over the top may cause duplication of records. In this case, you will need to go through and delete the duplicate records. If you don’t mind losing your Gmail contacts, you can delete all of the contacts in Gmail before importing the Outlook contacts. This works well if Outlook was your main repository of contact information.

If you want to delete ALL of your Gmail contacts before importing the contacts from Outlook, do the following:

Please Note: ONLY do this if you are SURE you want to start with a clean slate in Gmail before importing the Outlook contacts. This WILL remove ALL of your current Gmail contacts! You are not required to delete all of your Gmail contacts. If you don’t, and you have duplicate names in Outlook, those records will simply be duplicated.

Click “Contacts” on the left side of your Gmail screen
Gmail will not allow you to delete more than 500 contacts at a time; if you have more than 500 contacts in Gmail, click the first contact then scroll down a bit and shift-click some distance below; the number of contacts selected is in the information pane to the right
To delete the contacts, click “Delete contacts”
Repeat this until all of your contacts are gone.

Import Outlook .CSV to Gmail

Once you are ready to import your Outlook contacts in to Gmail, open Gmail and do the following:

Click Contacts in the pane to the left of the messages
Click Import in the upper right hand screen of the Contacts pane
Choose the .csv file you exported above
Click Import.

This procedure worked well for one user with over 1,000 contacts in Outlook. The only problem that occurs is this: Outlook contacts with only a company listed, with no name of a person in that company, will appear as expected in Gmail; however, they will appear as phone numbers only on the G1. The way to fix this is to copy the company name as the name of a person on the G1 and re-save the contact.

Three Tips for New Android Users

Christopher Earle — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:37:56 +0000

Three Tips for New Android Users is a new weekly segment from Christopher Earle. Each week he will focus on helpful hints for beginners as he learns Android. If you have any suggestions for tips or need help with your G1, please contact us. Read on for this week’s edition.

How to Delete an Email Account on the Google G1

A question that has come up for a new user is how to delete an email account from the G1. If you need to delete a POP or an IMAP account, the mechanism isn’t readily apparent. You might want to delete an email account if that account isn’t used anymore. This particular person decided to have Gmail poll the account instead of the G1. Here is how it’s done:

I can't make pop3 work with Gmail

Go to the eMail application by finding it in the docking panel and touching the icon
Click the Menu key and select Accounts
Press and hold the account that you want to delete
A selection box will pop up, simply select Remove account

The G1 will ask you if you are sure you want the account removed. Press OK and the account will be gone.

Touch-Hold, The New Gesture for Smart Phones

Some things on touch screen smart phones may not be intuitive at first. One of those things is the “touch-hold” or “touch and hold” gesture. A gesture is a sequence of physical actions like a single mouse click or a double mouse click. Single clicking an icon on a computer desktop selects the icon. Double clicking launches the software or document. Click-hold is similar. If you can’t find an action, like the one to delete an email in a list or to move an icon to a new position on the desktop, the action is likely a touch-hold action. For example, to move an icon to a new location on the desktop:

Drag an icon to the trash for removal

Touch the icon. Don’t let up, wait a moment
The G1 will vibrate, indicating that the icon can be dragged to a new position on the desktop
Drag the icon to its new position or into the trash bin if you’d like to remove the icon from the desktop entirely.

If you touch-hold items in a list, like a list of emails or accounts in a finance program, a menu of commonly used actions will often pop up. For new users, this is a little confusing. After a few days, it will be as intuitive as single and double clicking a mouse button.

Adding New Applications to the Desktop

Now that you know how to move icons and delete them from the desktop, it would probably be helpful to know how to add an application the desktop. To add a program to the desktop, do the following:

Adding an Application is Easy

Press the Menu key just below the screen
Select Add in the menu that pops up
Select Application to see a list of all of the applications
Scroll through the list until you see the application you want on the desktop
Select that application by touching it.

The application will be placed in the first available position on the desktop. Touch and hold the application’s icon to move it to the desired position.

Automated Dialing For Calling Cards Explained

Christopher Earle — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:54:37 +0000

Do you use a calling card for international long distance with your G1? Want to program in the access number and pauses so that all you have to do is press a button to dial the sequence? It isn’t hard. With most cell phones, the G1 included, a comma in the phone number field adds a one second pause. The first thing to do is gather some information before creating the new dialing sequence. You will need to know the following:

The access number for the calling card (usually on the back of the card)
The number of seconds before the calling card service asks for your PIN
The PIN for the calling card
The number of seconds before the calling card service asks for the number you are dialing
The destination phone number.

Once you have the information, it is simply a matter of entering the numbers with commas between them to delay the dialing of the next numerical sequence. For example.

The access number is 800 555 1212
There is a 4 second delay (it is a good idea to add one or two seconds more than the actual count)
The PIN is 123456
There is a 3 second delay before the service asks for the destination telephone number (again, add another second or two to this count)
The destination telephone number is, including your country’s international access code, 001 886 35 555 555.

Based on the above information, you would enter the following into your G1:

8005551212,,,,,123456,,,,00188635555555.

Please note the addition of an extra second to each pause sequence. This mimics the time a person might take to look up the number that follows. Some services might need to have an additional two seconds added, which would look like this:

8005551212,,,,,,123456,,,,,00188635555555.

This technique isn’t limited to calling cards. It can help automate the checking of your home or office voicemail or any other situation where you might need to navigate through voice prompts. Some people use this as a quick and easy way to reach their cellular carrier’s customer service.

Remember that voice prompts sometimes change. What you program today may need to be changed if the sequence of prompts is changed by your carrier.