Aaron Gingrich - 41/72 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aaron Gingrich

Aaron is a geek who has always had a passion for technology. When not working or writing, he can be found spending time with his family, playing a game, or watching a movie.

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Feb

For fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu Fans: Forever Alone SMS Widget For Stock Messaging App

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Off-Topic

Those of you who are familiar with F7U12 (FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU) comics will appreciate this: developer Jor dan has released a Forever Alone widget for the stock messaging app. When your unread SMS count is 0, the widget displays the Forever Alone face. When you have unread messages, it switches to the happy Forever Alone face (coincidentally, is there an official name for that?) and shows the count.

If this doesn't make sense to you because you're not familiar with the meme, perhaps the screenshots can help clarify:

^{Left: no unread messages because you're forever alone. Right: Yaaay, 2 unread messages!}

The app is free and available now in the market.

Feb

New Official Froyo ROM (DL30) For Samsung Fascinate Leaked Completely Unchanged - Bloatware And All

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Fascinate, Froyo 2.2, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

We have some somewhat good news for Fascinate owners: a new, official, very final-looking Froyo build DL30 for the Samsung Fascinate has been leaked, and it's been released completely unmolested (short of pre-rooting it). Even the bloatware has been left intact.

Obviously, the silver lining here is that we can see that Samsung and Verizon are making progress, and this could be a sign that the update is closer to being ready to roll out. (Then again, that could just be naïve optimism.) On the flip side, the only people who will find this immediately useful are the ones who are rooted, and those people are probably already running a custom Froyo ROM already (and likely one without the bloat).

Jan

[Updated: Maybe] Want To Port Your Number To Google Voice, But Don't Want To Cancel Your Contract? Call Ahead.

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Tips & Tutorials

Update: After contacting Sprint customer support a second time, they back-tracked and said there's no way to do it without incurring an ETF. The only options available are:

1. They can create an additional line on the account, then allow the first line to be pulled out - thereby cancelled. While doing so would allow you to maintain your account, you'd lose number history and would incur an ETF.

2. She also told me they may be able to work some voodoo and somehow simultaneously swap numbers, meaning that the existing carrier number is ported out to Google Voice, while the Google Voice number is ported to the carrier.

Jan

Whoa: Verizon's New VZ Navigator VX Might Just Give Google Navigation A Run For Its Money. Yes, Seriously.

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Applications, Apps/Games, Droid X (Shadow), Fascinate, Incredible, News, Verizon Wireless

Based on the press release and official video, Verizon's new VZ Navigator VX is awesome. Really awesome. Potentially better than Google Maps 5/Google Navigation - and yes, I can hardly believe I'm saying that either, since the new GMaps combo provides a hell of a punch. But check out the short (just over two minutes) promo video, and you'll see what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRV8-u7adeQ&feature=player_embedded

Two major items of note there: first, assuming everything works, then big red did a hell of a job on the app. Second, they've delivered just what we've all been asking for: more Bing! As the video proudly shows, there's a serious degree of Bing integration in the app.

Jan

Serval Project: Network-Free Communication, Or A Temporary Self-Organizing Self-Powered Network, For Android

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Applications, Apps/Games, News

Ah, the power of open. A team of people (mainly developers) has come together to develop a new communication method for times when existing infrastructure just doesn't work. They've come up with two systems:

The Serval Project consists of two systems.

The first is a temporary, self-organising, self-powered mobile network for disaster areas, formed with small phone towers dropped in by air.

The second is a permanent system for remote areas that requires no infrastructure and creates a mesh-based phone network between Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, and eventually specially designed mobile phones that can operate on other unlicensed frequencies, called Batphone.

Jan

HTC EVO Shift 4G Joins The Permanent Root Club

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, EVO Shift 4G (Speedy), HTC, News, Sprint

The title says it all, people: those enterprising individuals over at XDA-Developers (where else?) have conjured up a permanent root for the EVO Shift. As this is the first method available, the process isn't quite so easy as it's become for other devices. Still, it's not too outrageously complicated, either.

The steps:

Step 1
ok download this file and extract it to the root of your sdcard
www.thebcblends.com/shift/Shift-root.zip

Step 2
make sure you have adb properly setup on your computer before continuing
temp root using either visionary or z4root
open up command prompt and cd to your sdk platform-tools directory
then type adb shell then su
if you havent already u must press allow on your device to enable su perms

Step 3
check the md5sum of both of the files to make sure they match

Code:
md5sum /sdcard/Shift/hboot_orig.bin
Code:
md5sum /sdcard/Shift/hboot_eng.nb0
386c19451e8dd18f9b98fad6b11be4c0 hboot_orig.bin

60ec1006e6ec2e8acb370d6aad35b17e hboot_eng.nb0

if these do not match do not continue redownload the files then check the md5's again

Step 4

Flash the eng spl!!!

Jan

T-Mobile Sidekick 4G To Be Manufactured By Samsung, Rocking Android 2.2.1 In Current Iteration

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, Samsung, Sidekick 4G, T-Mobile

Been wondering when we'd hear more about T-Mobile's newest Sidekick? If so, today's your lucky day: TmoNews has some new info on the device, and a few blurrycam shots to boot. Perhaps the two most important facts: it will be manufactured by Samsung, and is apparently running Android 2.2.1.

^{You'll never guess where these images are from.}

That's not exactly great news, especially for those who had high hopes for the device. Why? Well, because Samsung doesn't exactly have a great reputation when it comes to Android updates, and for good reason. Further, T-Mobile has previously stated that they are committed to keeping their Android devices updated - and yet this phone is running Froyo.

Jan

Leaked Samsung MWC Schedule Shows Galaxy S 2, Tab 2 Presentations Planned

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, News, Samsung

It looks like a bit of an oopsie has resulted in Samsung's official Mobile World Congress (MWC) schedule leaking out. The details of the slip aren't available and aren't especially important, because this looks and sounds legitimate - especially since it (sort of) reinforces rumblings we've heard before.

Surprisingly, we have absolutely no idea what kind of hardware to expect. What I do know, though, is that if The S 2 ends up being this... boy, will my face ever be red. But hey - I still feel fairly safe in saying it won't be. (I hope.)

[Source: Electronista via Mobile Crunch]

Jan

HTC EVO 4G: Fix Music Streaming And (Maybe) Boost Your 3G Speeds With A Simple Hack

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

This morning, I noticed an interesting thread in the EVO subsection of the XDA forums that claimed to be able to fix music streaming (which was broken in some apps after the latest OTA), while boosting 3G speeds by .2 to .6 Mbps. As the process is very simple and easily reversible, I gave it a go - but decided that I was going to use SpeedTest to benchmark the changes. Unfortunately, what I found wasn't what I expected.

Before doing anything, I ran the test three times. Before the fix my average download speed was 938.67 Kbps. After I ran the fix, my speed dropped to an average of 782 Kbps.

Jan

Notion Ink Adams Start Shipping - Tracking Numbers Received, NI Posts Unboxing Photos

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Adam, News, Notion Ink

Great news for those who have pre-ordered Notion Ink's first tablet, the Adam: they're starting to ship. Notion Ink has apparently just received their first large shipment, and posted their own unboxing and hands-on photos, while some pre-order customers now have tracking numbers in their hot little hands. Very exciting, no?

First up are the shipping details, courtesy of Adam fanblog AdamLogs. Looks like the person behind the blog has found that there's now a link to "Check Pre-Order Status" on the Notion Ink website. Once you do, you can find your details and a tracking link: