Android, And Freedom Unrevoked

I must once again take my hat off to the nearly godlike hackers over at Unrevoked for renewing my path to rooted Android, hackery-goodness.  I put off dealing with this update for the last month because as you probably know by now, I went to Afghanistan for a short spell.  I tried to avoid any smart phone drama until I returned but was rather unsuccessful as chronicled here.  Aside from some of the minor annoyances mentioned in the previous link, you can’t go wrong with Android because it is not only free (as in freedom, not as in beer) but there are tons of things you can do with it whether it is rooted or not.  The following describes my latest, if not earth-shaking, customizations.

In any case, the coolness of Android and the interesting things an adventurous individual can do with this phone OS continues to amaze me.  First I had to decide if I would wait for HTC to push a Froyo update (v2.2) or to download a custom ROM.  Since HTC was offering this update as I returned, I opted for the former.  This is a stark contrast with Apple which rarely if ever pushes new features to its devices.  Apple customers get security updates (most of which are designed to thwart jail-breaking) but when they make improvements, they want you to buy them by purchasing a new device the following year.  Google’s approach is 1000 times better even if they get short-sighted and inexplicable comments about version-based confusion caused by frequent updates.  I can’t imagine Google holding new features until some far-off keynote at a convention next summer.  Shockingly, Apple fans claim that they prefer Apple’s method of holding advancements for a year to avoid “confusing its customers.”  If I had an iPhone, I wouldn’t say that loud enough for anyone else to hear it.

The 2.2 update failed several times because I had too many programs installed.  The update requires 25MB free space of phone storage in order to complete and I had a mere 23.7 MB.  This means I had to delete 1.3MB worth of apps in order to proceed.  I chose 2 apps I have used very little and deleted them, freeing up just over 2 additional megs.  This was worth doing in either case because one of the issues that Froyo addresses is the need to store installed apps on your SD card rather than in phone memory.  It is silly to run out of space when you have a 16GB card that is mostly empty.  This was a terrible oversight by Google’s Android team in the beginning but at least it’s been remedied.

Next, I downloaded the latest rooting tool from Unrevoked.  Since I already had the HBOOT drivers installed from rooting Android 2.1, all I had to do was connect my phone to my desktop USB port and then download and run the latest ClockworkMod Recovery program.  The program detected my phone immediately and asked if I was sure that I wanted to proceed.  After confirming, it rebooted the phone 3 or 4 times while giving progress updates in the program window.  When it finally said “Done,” the phone was already booting into it’s rooted 2.2 config.  It’s that simple. ["Simple" being a relative term. I've pointed out before that rooting is not for the average grandma.  It's for danger seekers. ]

Note:  If you installed the keyboard mod for the mic mentioned in my Android Primer and then later update to Froyo, remember you have to uninstall the keyboard mod HTC_IME mod or you will get errors.

On top of Froyo I’ve found some great new Android tools that I think you should try.  First up, Drop Box.

I mentioned how I hate Google’s lack of native support for their own productivity software Google Docs.  Even if you use the app GDoc, you have more limitations than anything else, not the least of which is that it functions as little more than a text editor.  Drop Box can help you get around this in conjunction with another productivity app like Documents to Go (for example).  The version of Documents to Go that can write files (the free version is crippled) costs $14.99 which is outrageous considering they were too lazy to implement .rtf support.  I didn’t buy it for that reason alone.  But if you need it…nuff said.  You can place all your needed documents into a Dropbox storage area that you share with your desktop or any number of other devices (get an extra 250MB storage by using this link to register). Any file placed into the dropbox (not to be confused with Al Gore’s lock-box) is automatically synchronized between all linked devices.  If you edit and save a Word doc for example, in the dropbox on your computer, you will automatically see the same updates on the phone copy and vice versa.  If only someone would make a productivity app that understands .rtf format, all would be golden.

Dropbox

Documents to Go

Another killer app is Awesome Drop.  Awesome Drop is similar to Drop Box in that you can get files to your phone through the cloud.  What it’s really useful for is pushing files to your phone without needing a cable.  I found this one day after accidentally leaving my USB cable at work.  I needed a file on my phone so I searched for more efficient ways to do that rather than emailing them to myself.  With Awesome Drop, you drop the file on a green box in your desktop browser window and like magic, the file starts downloading to your phone.  You can watch the progress on either device.  This works great for photos, mp3′s, videos, etc.  The only limits are your available space and how much bandwidth you are willing to use.  Usually, the bandwidth only matters when using your 3G network or phone data plan.  If you are using Wifi, then send till your heart’s content.

To use Awesome Drop, first install it on your phone and then go to the website on your desktop.  On the website you will get a 4 digit code that you need to type into the app on your phone.  This is how the two are associated with one another.  After the link is joined, you get a green box in the browser window.  Just drop 1 or more files on that box.  Multiple files will queue one after another.  You can find them in the “drop” folder on your sd card.  This is probably the most useful app I’ve installed in quite some time.

Awesome Drop

Here are a few other apps that are immensely useful to me.  YMMV.  Just take a look.  You may need to take a half hour or so to experiment so you can see how these can be useful.  I think it will be well worth your while.

Bubble

Use your Android phone as a level. Great for the handyman on the go.

LookOut Security

Security and Anti-Virus. Locate your phone if lost with GPS or emit a burst of sound. Backup your data.

Currency Converter

Fantastic 2-way currency converter. See latest exchange rates on 1 screen.

Star Translate

Ever wanted a Universal Translator like on Star Trek? Well here it is. Translates spoken AND written words.