Archive for December, 2009



The Path to Android 2.x

Friday, December 4th, 2009

As I’ve said before the best thing about my Hero is the development community pushing out an almost constant stream of updated ROM’s for the phone providing:

  • speed/storage improvements with kernel optimisations, swap/compcache and supports running apps from the SD Card on a range of filesystems (ext2/3/4, BFS, etc)
  • new pre-release updates showing off new Android and HTC SenseUI features
  • security software (Droidwall & Wavesecure) for protecting the phone from network attack, and locking it down/wiping it if stolen
  • software packs and updates from other phones (Motorola, etc)

The principle resource at the moment for the development of ROM’s is the Hero android development forum at XDA-Developers, ROM’s so far:

MoDaCo’s Custom ROM (www.modaco.com)

Download/Info Link:

[ROM] 02/12 3.0 – MoDaCo Custom ROM Core / Chinese with TCK featuring Wavesecure

Paul from Modaco first released his ROM in August with releases every few days/weeks ever since.  It was a breath of fresh air after the initial software release that shipped with the phone (1.76.xx), and after v1.5 most of the speed, lag issues on the phone were all but gone.

Android Version: Cupcake (1.5)

Versions: 1.0 -> 3.0 (2/12/2009)

Features:

  • HTC/Sense UI based
  • Optimised build from official HTC updates
  • Newer versions include Tecknologist’s Custom Kernel (TCK) 1.9
  • Rooted (of course)
  • Includes wifi-tether, busybox, Spare Parts, Wavesecure etc

Drizzy’s MotoBlur

Download/Info Link:

[ROM][PORT] Drizzys MotoBlur v1.0rc2 for Hero [STOPPED NO MORE DEV]

Now discontinued ROM showcasing the Universal contacts feature from Motorola’s BLUR UI.

Versions: 1.0 (September 2009) – [DEPRECATED]

Android Version: Cupcake (1.5)

behnaam’s Donut Clean ROM

Download/Info Link:

[ROM] Clean ION 1.6 for our Hero v1.0 [30/10/09]

This ROM was an attempt at a clean (no Rosie/Sense UI) build of Donut (Android 1.6) for the hero, but since the release of the Kernel source code and pre-release Android 2.0 leaks all development has virtually stopped.

Android Version: Donut (1.6)

Versions: beta

Features:

  • Clean Donut build free of HTC’s SenseUI

Lox_Dev’s AOSP 2.0 Android release

Download/Info Link: XDA-Developers [DEV] AOSP-Eclair-2.0 (version beta1) – 29-11-2009

First Android 2.0 build for the Hero

Android Version: Eclair (2.0)

Versions: Beta1 (30/10/2009)

Features:

  • Clean (AOSP) Android open source project build, with no Google Apps or HTC SenseUI

Behnaam’s Hero v2.1

Download/Info Link:

[ROM] Hero 2.1 v1.3 – It’s here by Behnaam w/ base from KingKlick [3/12/09]

Bleeding edge HTC SesnseUI based ROM with Android 2.1 and all the new 2.0 features, involves work from barakinflorida, eugene, kingklick, drizzy and a few others.

Android Version: Eclair-bugfixes (2.1)

Versions: 1.1 -> 1.3 (3/12/2009)

Features:

  • HTC/Sense UI based

Posted in Android, Eclair (2.0), Hero, Tech | View Comments

Wireless (802.11x) Congestion Issues

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I don’t particularly like wireless, it’s slow at the best of times (when compared to cabled ethernet) and can occasionally be downright unreliable.  On the other hand, it’s a great money saver especially when living in rented or temporary accomodation and is essential when using a laptop/phone on the couch, outside on the toilet etc.  My biggest problem with it recently though is complete wireless spectrum congestion in my new area (Balham, UK).

We’ve lived in a few built up areas around London already, some far more so than Balham, but i’ve never seen so many AP’s in the one residential area before, my scan’s show between 10 – 50 different networks at various times throughout the day.

sitesurvey

A ‘lean’ site survey, it’s usually 3-4x as many

Most of the time, my router appears to work perfectly, then suddenly (as much as a couple of times a day), the network connection stops responding and I need to go and change the channel.  A ping of the router looks like this:

shannon@vostro:~$ ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=945.41 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1401.52 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2788.41 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=4342.34 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=6309.23 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=10345.58 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=13424.52 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=16435.42 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=17334.73 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=18223.47 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=20994.43 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=22534.4 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=24998.25 ms

With this many AP’s in the area, short of installing a faraday cage in the external walls of the house, I may be forced to use the 5.8Ghz 802.11a band which doesn’t work with a lot of devices such as my old laptop, phones, printer, etc.

Posted in Development, Online, Tech | View Comments

Android Initiation

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

In August of this year I was adopted into the Android family sold my Nokia N95 8GB (after replacement post beer immersion) for a decent sum using the massively over-advertised service MazumaMobile.  After a fair bit of research I was attracted to the Samsung i7500 (Galaxy), but after waiting a number of months for its delayed release, went with the HTC Hero instead.


The HTC Hero with Sense UI

In hindsight this was without doubt the best decision  due to a few reasons:

  • it’s the first Droid with custom UI (SenseUI), and while slow/buggy at first has moved in leaps and bounds since (now other manufacturers have their own UI
  • the developer community supporting HTC Android devices helps with update and optimisations
  • hype around the Hero and its release (as well as an ‘award’) have made it very popular boosting community support
  • right from the start there’s been a few dedicated devs who’ve been releasing custom made and highly optimised ROM’s/kernels based on pre-released HTC and Google builds
  • did I mention SenseUI yet?

In contrast, the Galaxy has a large OLED screen with fantastically vibrant colour output and clarity, but there’s just no dev community and the hype has all but died since its initial release.


The Samsung Galaxy i7500 with stock Android UI

Stating the obvious, but one of the things that makes Android a great platform and sets it apart from the iPhones, Symbians and Blackberrys of the world is its open nature and customisability which doesn’t help when there’s no developer community to hack away at kernel compilation, optimise builds and boot process, make customised themes or cross breed apps/software accross other Android devices.

With Motorola Milestone, Sony Experia X10 and a multitude of models from Acer, Dell, HP (some big names in the computing industry there!) as well as a whole list of upcoming HTC Droids, the next few years is looking exciting.

Stay tuned for a series of posts about the Hero, and its hackery.

http://www.hd911.com/2008/01/nokia-n95-yes-the-black-8gb-one/

Posted in Android, Hero, UK | View Comments

HD911 Returns

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

An internet phenomenon is about to take place, after many requests and much anticipation the unveiling of the return of HD911.com is happening.  It’s been 357 days* since our last post and at the time I was excited by upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV.  Whilst the game is finished and forgotten in time, I’d like to think we can lift the site back to its former glory, eventually shadowing its excellence as I embrace a new design, content, topics and possibly even new writers (judging by a re-read of the previous posts, this is definitely something that could be improved).

Changes should appear swiftly over the next few weeks as I get the blog design complete, finish off the new sections and write some new content to get ready for 2010.

* actually, a few months less than this, but in the backup/restore process, some old posts went missing.

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