Advice For Upgraders From The School Of Hard Knocks : The Desire Z Experience

Being a go-getter is normally a good thing, but one must always keep the saying “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”. This applies most specially to gadget junkies who are stumbling all over themselves to unwrap and power on their latest acquisition. In fact, being one of these junkies, I have nothing but the highest admiration for those people who are able to control themselves in order to painstakingly film the unpacking of their newest gadget. 

Such excitement tends accompany the upgrade of the software as well. Because of the internet, upgrading a device requires little more than clicking a link, installing software, downloading the updates and you have the newest software onboard.

The updates are always a good thing right?

Well for a lot of people, it is. But for many others, it can lead them to a harrowing experience like one that I just had. So here’s my story:

When my Desire Z was new, my first impulse was to update it and lucky for me, one was available right off. This is usually the case when you buy a new device because the equipment on the market is usually a few months old and there is likely to be some sort of update in the wings. 

So I updated my DZ and the problem was that it was not so much that there were niggling things in the phone that were bothering me. It's more of I tend to go over the tech sites and forums every day and of course I would be passing some Desire Z specific forums like this: 

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916431

So I would read about some problems which other people have encountered and even if it was not a problem I was likely to encounter, once I was able to re-create the problem is my machine, it left me hungry for an update to my own device.

So embarrassing as it may be to admit it, I would generally check for updates most of my devices at least three times a week and as usual, once it's released I would be one of the first to apply them to my devices.

http://www.htc.com/sea

The good news is that being able to do so gives me something to write about on this blog. Regular readers will notice that one of the things I usually make it a point to post here have to do with upgrades and updates which I just happened to run into. That's actually a half-truth because I go searching for those updates 

Anyway that was the good news.

The bad news is that if you have such a propensity to update like I do, it would be fine if your intention is to stay with the factory updates. Meaning if it's not an official HTC, Samsung or other manufacturers update then you're not applying it to your phone. However like for my original Desire, there have been conflicting reports about the upgrade to gingerbread and while I was able to update to Froyo already, I've spent the better part of several months waiting for Gingerbread to appear while watching Desire HD owners getting their upgrades. 

Moreover the statements of HTC about the Desire (the Bravo) have not been reassuring regarding the GB release. They are referring to the problem of low memory on the Desire which might lead to the abandoning of the update altogether. So this is what led me to upgrade my Desire to the Cyanogen mod rom which was an eye-opener and has given my Desire an new lease on life. 

However, while the original Desire already had some form of protection against the third party rom installations via the S-ON protection, it was a fairly easy thing to hack. The Desire Z was a totally different story because looking at the wiki on XDA, one would notice that the last two updates where what really sealed the fate for most Desire Z owners that time. 

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916431

There was one update around December which introduced several patches which provided a higher form of protection against third-party roms and exploits. But some bypass was created by the wizards at XDA, however the 2011 update was such that it made it extremely difficult to bypass the protection in order to root and S-OFF the phone. 

Consequently, anyone who would have taken the time to read the XDA forums about Desire Z would've seen this a warning about not updating to that particular OTA update and saved themselves from unnecessary woe. Of course given my excitement, I did not bother to wait for any feedback from the forum at all and proceeded to apply the update as soon as I saw the notification on the site and on my favorite mobile phone site:

http://www.gsmarena.com/

Little did I know that I was putting my DZ in what would be the equivalent of a maximum security prison. So it was updated to the 1.84 software and to make things worse, the CID on my device was one of those that could not be readily downgraded or S-OFFed.

At that point it looked like I was probably destined to stay with the stock HTC rom for the life my DZ. I was able to take such a fate lightly for the next couple of months but when I went to Cyanogen Mod CM7 and observed my HTC desire getting much better battery life than the Desire Z I began to feel this uncontrollable urge to change my rom. At this point my Desire Z was running 2.2.1 while my original Desire was running 2.3.3 so you can imagine how difficult it was for a compulsive upgrader like myself to be in such a situation.

So there that's when my three-day saga began where I had to alternate between working and researching for the solution to downgrade my Desire Z in order to get root,  after which I was going to upgrade to the latest rom which incorporated the 2.3.3 update.

I went through no less than six gold card creation and countless sessions using ADB trying to push different software to get temporary root in order to get my Desire Z to recognize a lower rom version as the upgrade version. 

However each attempt only ended up in my DZ ignoring the zip file on the SD card which was supposed to provide the update. No amount of tinkering with the files in the SD card could make it recognize the image file. At this point it was now keeping me up at night because I just don't understand why the downgrade wasn't working.

Finally I ran into this tool for Desire Z on the XDA forum which offered to downgrade, S-off, root and change to super CID all in one sweep. Basically all the things I wanted to do to my phone without having to go through ADB!! 

Moreover, the feedback about the tool was most promising but the only problem that confronted me was overwhelming. I must be able to downgrade my software before I could use the tool.

Here is the link to the AMT tool:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1097977

Somehow, in the middle of burning midnight oil, I was able to figure out a solution that utilized AMT and an original factory Asian ROM which I found on XDA too. These two provided the key for me to be able to downgrade my DZ easily.

The procedure went like this:

I used AMT to alter something on the DZ to make it believe that the current rom was a much lower one, a 1.08 to enable me to flash an upgrade which was actually a downgrade to the 1.40 something version. This was the one which would allow AMT to work its magic. So since it was my third day of tinkering with the DZ, I decided to go for broke and said to myself well if it's going to get bricked then so be it. Because I wasn't going to leave this thing hanging over my head much longer. So I fired up AMT, set it up and proceeded to upgrade/downgrade my rom. Thankfully and to my amazement, it was able to go through without a hitch.

It's hard to describe the elation that overcame me when this happened. Finally I was able to proceed and root my device, install an engineering H-boot and remove the S-ON, making it S off. In retrospect, it was an extremely lucky break for me that I was able to find that particular piece of software as well as the rom for the Asian version of my phone. 

The hard earned lesson here is to wait for feedback about updates before applying them to your device. Yes it's exciting to flash all the new updates that's true,  but undergoing 3 days of aggravation trying to look for a solution to undo my hasty upgrade that effectively locked in my phone is certainly not an enjoyable experience. 

So wait for the feedback from reputable forums like XDA and read before doing any updates to your machine. 

For my part, my purpose in this whole exercise was to be able to upgrade my phone which I was able to do. But I had to go through no less than four different roms. 

I ended up with Cyanogen mod 7.03 which is in an AOSP and the story about how I went from wanting to stay with a Sense enabled rom to dispensing with it altogether and going AOSP is one for another day. I'll be posting that story after I am able to put the continuation of my buyers guide to smart phones.

In the meantime gadget junkies, I know it's hard but try to wait it out for at least one week after update is released before flashing the machine. 

That way you will be able to get the feedback from early upgraders and not have to go through their difficulties.

The Rapid Growth Of The Smartphone Market

For quite a long time, the smartphone was not that popular among mobile phone users. The high cost of the units, the perception that they were too complex and had features that were of little use to the average mobile phone user made them a specialty niche composed primarily of business users.
However all this change over the last decade and the smart phone market began to experience rapid growth. A large portion of this change can be directly attributable to the increase in the use of the Internet and the proliferation of relatively cheap mobile Internet plans. The entry and popularity of social media and its integration into mobile devices over these past 5 years propelled smartphone usage to all-time highs. Consequently, it's expected that the smart phone will soon be the unit of choice for majority of mobile users.

 

What is a smartphone?

 
Before anything else let's define what a smartphone is. In its most basic form, it's a device which combines the function of a phone and a PDA or personal digital assistant. They integrate some form of contact management, messaging, file management and other PDA functionalities. Most are capable of multitasking and task switching and have some form of connectivity. In the past this connectivity was purely by mobile WAP but this has been supplemented today with USB connectivity as well as Wi-Fi capability. These devices contain many applications that mimic those on PCs such as word processors and spreadsheets. Aside from this, they also allow installation of other applications by the user. Smartphones come with operating systems, not unlike those on desktop computers.

 

Early examples of smartphones

Some notable examples include the Sony Ericsson P800/P9xx series, Palm Treo and the Nokia 9000 Communicator series. 

 

These phones were considered essential tools for business persons specially since these phones had the ability to connect to corporate e-mail networks. Speaking of which another smart phone which rode to success on the wave of corporate connectivity is the RIM Blackberry which became popular because of the security inherent in its wireless system.

 

The big names enter the game

From then on device after device emerged in rapid succession in a game of corporate one-upmanship which benefited the consumer a great deal by bringing down the prices of the units. Eventually Microsoft entered the game and developed the Windows mobile system beginning with Windows CE. It was initially positioned to be a direct competitor to the PDAs from Palm and other operating systems.



As the devices slowly crept into the mainstream, the prices began to enter the mass appeal segment with the entry of cheaper smart phones which were repositioned by way of changing their feature set to appeal to the non-business segment. The main strategy was to focus more on multimedia and examples of this included the Nokia N series and the Samsung Omnia. 





This emerging market was not lost on Apple so they decided to get into the game by way of the iPhone. Of course, given the cult status of Apple, it came as no surprise that the iPhone became a runaway success. While there appears to be some marketing magic being done to create an impression of hysteric demand for its units, there is no denying that the iPhone is indeed a success in this market.

 

The entry of a maverick

 
In a manner that mimicked the PC world, the smart phone market now started to become a battle of operating systems. Where the PC world has Windows, OS/X and the different Unix/Linux flavors, the mobile OS world has Symbian, Windows Mobile, IOS, Blackberry OS and Android.
Google may have been the latecomer to the party but it made a huge impression because of its open source platform which was not unlike the Ubuntu platform. This was a development which soon changed the face of the mobile smart phone market in a large way. It soon became apparent that all the old favorites such as Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian system and even IOS were losing their market share to the android system.

 

The old guard fights back

 
2010 saw the beginning of some attempts by the old guard to regain or at least protect their market share. Pretty soon, several innovations began to emerge and there was talk of major revamps to the different operating systems. So Windows Mobile 7, the new IOS, new Blackberry and a new Symbian flavor were launched. Despite the innovations, all of them, with the possible exception of Apple, were one step behind Android. Because of its open source nature and the avid developers in the Android community, the OS was continually refined, tuned and optimize while waiting for Google to release the next version.

 

How to choose?

Graphic courtesy ofhttp://simplygetit.blogspot.com/2010/12/mobile-operating-systems.html

With at least 6 operating systems to choose from, the smartphone market has been transformed from a small niche market to the fastest growing segment of the market. Couple this with the number of manufacturers and there will definitely be a sea of choices in the smartphone arena.
With such a confusing scenario it is clear that buying a smart phone has become a very complicated process. There are so many factors to take into consideration and because of the competition, there are so many good units around. Perhaps the choice might be easier if you are primarily an Apple user where it might make sense to choose the iPhone if only because of its compatibility with your desktop applications. This however is not absolute because there are some tasks which other smart phones are better able to do than the iPhone and if majority of your smart phone needs revolve around those capabilities then it might make more sense for you to go for a non-Apple smartphone since there is very little problem anyway with inter-connectivity nowadays.

 

Upcoming guide

 
In the next blog post I will put together a small guide for smartphone buyers in the Philippines. Despite its developing country status, the Philippines has enjoyed one of the highest percentages of mobile phone usage in the world. In fact it has been considered by many to be the text messaging capital of the world.
This has led to more and more competition among mobile phone service providers in the Philippines Thus we have a continuing entry of the latest and the greatest smartphones being offered here. For instance, the Sony Xperia X12, the Nokia E7 and the HTC Desire S are all offered by the telecom companies here. The dual cores have arrived in the market spearheaded by the LG Optimus 2X. The Galaxy 2 is expected in June as well, etc etc, you get the picture…. Bottom line, there are so many choices and so many variables.





So having seen the confusion in my own social circle and experiencing it myself, I will provide some tips to try to help the average Filipino smartphone buyer in picking the devices the best devices for the needs. I will publish this in my post next week.

Presenting my new, improved HTC Desire!

In my last post, I mentioned that I was finally hacking my HTC Desire.

Well I went ahead and did it. But mind you, it was an extremely long process that saw me going through no less than 4 different ROMS (or was it 6??) and even more kernels! It was there that I realized that some custom kernels left some features out and others would have it all, albeit with limited functionalities. In other words, a great deal of them, if not all, were compromises.

This brings me to the most important step of hacking an Android to change its ROM. You must make a list of WHY you want to change it, and make another list of the FEATURES you MUST have. I cannot stress this enough mainly because I failed to do this and ended up wasting time. In my 4^th attempt, I came equipped with a list which enabled me to do the second important step which is: If the ROM you want lacks certain functions, search for alternatives which you can install after hacking it.

So having said that, I finally found the best ROM for me which is ….drum roll please….. the Cyanogen Mod-7. Yes I mentioned in my previous post that this was my current ROM. At that time, I was a bit wary about the ROM because of bad experiences with the previous ones. However, I managed to get in all the functionalities I needed either within the ROM or through some third party free apps.

I suppose many would be asking at this point, what the end result is.

In a nutshell, it's like getting a brand new phone. It's not an exaggeration.

You see the Cyanogen mod or CM7 dispenses completely with HTC Sense. While others might bemoan this omission, it is one that I welcome because while Sense is an attractive interface, whenever I open the running applications section, I am dismayed at all the processes that need to run for Sense to do its job. That spells "battery eaters" to me and that is one commodity that is extremely scarce in most Android phones. In the Android world, gone are the days of a weekly charge because an "every two days" charge is cause for celebration.

Aside from the new interface, the CM7 ROM comes with so many tweaks that it's enough to make a grown geek cry. I know I almost did. There is nothing that makes phone geeks happier than to know that they can adjust things to their hearts content. Then given the fact that Cyanogen is one of the most popular 3^rd party ROMS developer in the Android world, you can be sure that there is always help at hand if you manage to mess up your phone.

I originally thought that a compromise was the lack of tweaks to the camera interface which was something I was willing to live with. But after further research, I came across several excellent camera apps that came with even more tweaks than the original HTC camera so at this point in time I can state that there are no compromises in my CM7 setup compared to the original HTC sense.

The very best parts about this hack are twofold. One is that I no longer fear the low memory message because with close to 30 apps installed, my Desire still has 120 MB of space. Moreover, it is not likely to be used up because of the judicious transfer of apps to sd card. Second, whereas prior to the hack I was getting barely 24 hours of run time from my battery, today, I get about 2 ½ days! It's amazing that I was able to get this much additional battery life while using my phone just as much or even more. With wifi or mobile networks left on, I get a little over 2 days, like 50 hours.

Of course, these are my personal results and yours may vary. There are too many variables that can affect the ROMS performance but the important thing is to know the benefits that are achievable. Let me say again that hacking a phone is not for everyone and it will most likely, void your warranty. My phone is almost a year old so I had no problems losing the warranty.

Lastly, keep in mind that you must evaluate and select 3 important bits of software for your phone. These 3 determine the overall benefit you get from the hack. These are the Kernel, the main ROM and the Radio. Read up about your choices and select them very well.

Here again is the link to my CM7 ROM on XDA:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=957344

 

 

 

 

 

Hacking my HTC Desire

It was bound to happen. The memory was running low and it seemed that my 1^st Generation Desire was consuming it's battery at an alarming rate. I was lucky to make it through a full 24 hours on a single charge.

The Sun Elite Plan 1.5 is partly to blame. After all, with a trio of unlimited services, there was no reason not to stay connected to the internet even when I was away from my office / home wifi network. Then I would think age is a factor too since my Desire is pushing a year already. Time to upgrade maybe (wink wink).

However, its back to school time so there is no money for upgrade yet. The costless alternative is to hack it and see if some of the newer custom ROMs are better for power management.

So my saga began with rooting my phone, doing an S-off, messing around with the H Boot and flashing an endless stream of radios and ROMs.

My guide through all this was mainly the XDA site and rather than repeat what I went through, it would be easier to just post the links to the excellent resources I ran into.

So here are the resources. In my next post, I'll give some feedback about my adventures in ROM land.

 

Here is the link to the noob proof guide, with video to boot, from XDA:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1016084

 

Did someone say rooting? These guys made rooting a painless experience:

http://unrevoked.com/#desire

 

You'll have to do something called S-OFF to your Desire. This group fearlessly went ahead into the unknown so that your Desire can be set free:

http://alpharev.nl/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=794314&page=247

 

Everything Desire is purported to be in this compilation. Very useful:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=809328

 

A more technical guide to Desire upgrades can be found here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=696189

 

My current ROM can be seen here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=957344

http://www.cyanogenmod.com/

 

Their Wiki is here:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=HTC_Desire_%28GSM%29:_Full_Update_Guide

 

A pair of excellent tools that saved me from a lot of work:

S2E which is app2sd for the CM7

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=917377

Fastboot Commander – made reflashing Hboot an easy process

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=823315

 

You'll be needing the new radios so here is where you can get more info about them:

http://www.mofirouz.com/wordpress/2011/03/htc-desire-radios/

 

That's it for now.

Remember, you can easily brick your phone doing any of the stuff above.

READ AND UNDERSTAND THE MATERIAL BEFORE PROCEEDING.

I am not responsible if you end up bricking your precious Desire, so proceed with caution.

 

 

HTC Desire Z Update

 

Been making it a point to visit the HTC SEA support site ever since I got my HTC's.

Lately, I have been burning with anticipation over the statement by HTC that the Desire family will be getting Gingerbread.

So when I saw this FOTA update for the Desire Z today, I immediately downloaded it and I was all over myself trying to check the software version after the upgrade.

Unfortunately the software is still Froyo as the version is still 2.2.1.

That's the bad news. But the good news is that this upgrade is supposed to "improve system performance and Camera feature enhancements"

Oh well, I guess it will make the waiting for the official Gingerbread update more bearable…

Here is the link for those who wish to update their Desire Z's

http://www.htc.com/sea/support.aspx

Here we go again…Samsung Galaxy S II

Guess it really is true that good things come to those who wait. I mentioned just a few posts down that I wasn't really keen on the Nexus S because I was expecting the dual core phones to be coming out.
This is way back in December 6 and at that time there were rumors of the LG dual core that was due to come out soon which did come to pass. It was released sometime in January and created quite a bit of excitement being the first dual core Android Smartphone. However the rest of the phone wasn't really much of an improvement over my current stable of phone so I wasn't really tempted into getting a new phone just yet.
I was given the chance to get an Iphone 4 at a really great price because our company is a good client of Globe, but I just couldn't get myself to want the Iphone 4 particularly when I know that the Iphone 5 is coming out soon. Let me say that contrary to what some people say, the HTC or the Galaxy are most certainly not the poor mans Iphone. I could have bought any of these phones but the usability of Android, particularly my HTC Desire is way beyond the capabilities of the Iphone 4. Am I an Apple basher? Most certainly not. In fact I have been pining for a 27 inch iMac with an I7 which I hope to get this year. I am just not blind to technology and price/performance. I don't mind paying premium price as long as I get value. I hate paying just for the name of a product, perhaps I've never been a label kind of guy.
Anyway, I digress. So there were rumors floating around about the second iteration of the Samsung Galaxy and sure enough, it was just released along with the Galaxy Tab II as well. While both of them are big news, the Galaxy S II is my primary interest (my family has to eat too) because it is quite an improvement over its predecessor. It's got a bigger screen, 4.3 inch, Gorilla glass super AMOLED Plus display which exceeds the display on the Desire HD. Furthermore it's got a 1 GHz DUAL CORE processor and it's quite thin as well at 8.49 mm which gives it bragging rights as the thinnest smartphone as of this date.
I did get a respite from gadget envy of about 3 months but its officially over and the biggest problem for me now is which phone will be replaced. You see I was able to get most of the bugs from my Galaxy S ironed out. I upgraded the software and am now using Doc Rom from Docs kitchen. I am using the Speedmod kernel which took care of a lot of the phones problems from lag of the phone all the way to some tweaks including backlight modification.
I have to admit that despite the upgrades in all my phones softwares, the most usable phone for me, hence my main phone, is still my HTC desire. I couldn't bring myself to purchase a Desire HD because technically it wasn't a better phone than my Desire. Secondly I was able to upgrade my HD2 to a NAND based android so for all intents and purposes it's like I have a Desire HD since I am running a Desire Z ROM with the new Sense interface.
So I guess I'll wait a little bit more and see what HTC has in store for us in the coming months. Personally though if I get an offer from my local telco about the Galaxy II I'm afraid I may just spring for it without thinking twice. After all, the dual core and the big display alone are enough to win me over, but on top of that, it's also got an eight megapixel snapper, an LED flash and it has a two megapixel front facing camera!
Obviously this is truly an endless parade of gadgets and it there will always be a new one coming. Yes it can be quite expensive but then it always gives you something to look forward to. Furthermore, it also gives you an incentive to save your hard earned cash. After all, you can spend 10 thousand pesos on a night out, or you can keep that and know that you are one third of the way to the cost of a new Galaxy. Then you get a new toy and someone will be happy to get your hardly used hand-me-down.
I am once again looking forward to this new phone and I can't wait for the Galaxy S II to make it to Philippine shores.

 

Surprise Interim Galaxy S Software Update

I was a bit surprised tonight when a dialog box suddenly appeared in my Samsung Kies program saying that an update was available for my Galaxy 9000 S. Since I had already upgraded to FROYO 2.2, I felt an adrenaline rush thinking that this might be the gingerbread update. So without even bothering to locate more information about the upgrade in the change log, I backed up my contacts and proceeded to upgrade.

Sadly the firmware version is still 2.2, and the build number is: FROYO DXJPE

I haven't seen any changes yet, but rest assured that I'll post back on this thread as soon as I come across these changes.