Reviews, tutorials, and all around shenanigans when it comes to Android, mobile phones, technology, and nonsense! Feel free to step into my world of interests...
If there's one thing a an avid fan of, it's themed apps. Just another way to separate your device from the rest. From inverted apps to transparent widgets... the list goes on and on.
Now with that said, when an app is updated to a new version, I'll actually keep the older version on my phone for a bit in the hopes that a modified version of the app will surface on the forum. In regards to the Google+ most recent update (v2.2.1) that day had arrived. Android Themer, B-boy, has taken the Google+ updated app and made 4 versions of the app which are Inverted, Transparent, Stock Icons Inverted, Stock Icons Transparent. ((con't)
Ever since my laptop crashed with Vista, which also happened to bork my recovery, I've been running Linux (Ubuntu 10.10) on it. Since I was now running Linux natively on my laptop, I decided to try to cook a ROM just to do it. With that said, I'd like to introduce to you my very first attempt at cooking with Android... Ginger_FauxICS (v.Alpha3.1).
So as we all know or may not know, an official alpha build of CM7 has been released for the HTC EVO 3D. Unfortunately since it's still ALPHA, there are some issues that still need to be worked out such as the battery not charging correctly, the camera not working, bluetooth etc. Now I've been a huge fan of AOSP builds of android, as opposed to manufacturer overlays (Sense, Touchwhiz, Blur, etc.) since my original G1. With that said, I also need my daily driver phone to have all of its features working. I flashed CM on my EVO 3D and boy was it fast. It was nice to finally see an AOSP ROM in all its heavenly glory being backed by a dual core Snapdragon processor but. That lasted for about an hour before I flashed back to my trusty sense ROM. The sense ROM that I've actually been rawkin' for the past month. Different builds of it anyway. Which brings me to this review.
The sense ROM that took me away from all others which I believe to be the most stable, battery efficient, and cleanest looking EVAR is Warm TwoPointThree by Myn and Team Warm ROMs. I don't even think official builds have been released as of yet, however, if you scour the official discussion thread on rootzwiki, I'm sure you'll find one. That's where I first got a taste for this ROM goodness. Even more so, if you set up an SVN program on your computer, you'll be able to download every revision made to it by tapping into their ROM repository. Isn't that just convenient. Let's get to the ROM shall we?
I originally learned how to SVN by following, XDA user, LiquidSolstice's tutorial on using the Window's application, Tortoise SVN, in order to utilize SVN for the Synergy Nightlies. With that said, however, I never actually used it for Synergy because I was pretty stuck on the Absurd ROM at that point which is what I had used SVN for. Either way, I eventually stuck with KushDeck for a bit, which doesn't actually use SVN. That was until I discovered the wonders of Warm TwoPointThree by Myn and the rest of team Warm ROMs.
I had been lurking the Warm Discussion thread on Rootzwiki and lucky for me someone had posted a link to an already zipped Warm Nighty. From there, I was hooked and knew I would have to rawk the SVN myself in order to stay somewhat current with how the build was progressing.
I love me some AOSP ROMs! Especially when it came to my Sprint HTC Hero since that phone didn't have a lot of system space. HTC Sense just seemed to weight it down over time. Couple that with the fact that the device was left high and dry with only Android 2.1-update 1 and a now archaec version of sense. Due to this limitation, ports of AOSP-based ROMs had flooded their way onto countless Hero's so that many were able to rawk Froyo and even Gingerbread. Being able to rawk Froyo on my Hero was an awesome achievement for me. Besides, my G1 days had made me partial to a vanilla Android experience anyways so this was a win-win for me!
With that said, just because I tend to lean more towards AOSP ROMs, doesn't mean there aren't people out there that prefer HTC Sense based ROMs. In fact, I'm willing to bet the majority of HTC handset owners probably prefer HTC sense over a vanilla Android experience. Unfortunately, as I had mentioned earlier, since the Hero never officially got past Eclair (Android 2.1 update 1), most of the Sense ROM ports rawkin' Android 2.2 and above weren't as stable as I would've liked them to be on my Hero. That is... at least in my experience.
Now for those of you that still rawk this phone as their daily driver but are not fans of the vanilla Android experience, I'm assuming your choices are limited as to what ROM you could use on your phone. There's always Fresh ROM which I ran on my Hero for a long time due to its stability and customizability but again, that's still based off of the stock Eclair ROM. What if you want your Android OS to be relevant by today's standards?...
So you updated your PRL and all of a sudden... BAM!!! You're stuck with that annoying 1x and your download speeds have dropped from 1.2Mbps and above to about 0.12Mbps and below. You can always call Sprint, wait on hold for hours, and then finally get a rep that's going to tell you that you have to reset your phone, update your PRL (which you already did), go into a Sprint store, or basically that you're just plain SOL.
With that said, if you have a rooted handset, there is another options which I've written a step by step tutorial for. Click the "Read more" link to check it out...
This tutorial is a general How-To for flashing a Custom ROM on your fully rooted Android device using the Clockwork Mod Recovery image. Keep in mind that this video was made using an Sprint HTC EVO Shift 4G and that the exact details may vary depending on the ROM that you're flashing on your device, the version of Clockwork Mod Recovery that you're using, the specific device you're attempting to flash, etc. With that said, remember to do as much research as possible for your exact setup, device, and what your attempting to flash. Google is your best friend when it comes to things of this nature and more.
This tutorial will not only Perma-Temp Root your Sprint HTC EVO 3D, but will also give you the ability to watch HULU from your phone's browser. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, if followed correctly, you will also be able to overclock your EVO 3D to 1.8g. Keep in mind that this is still only a temp root. Essentially that means that if you were to reboot your phone, you would lose root along with any changes you had made to the main partitions of the phone.
