desire z - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

HTC Adds Bootloader Unlock Support For More Devices - Desire Z, Aria, Droid Incredible, T-Mobile G2, Status, And ChaCha

Posted by Brandon Lancaster in Aria (Liberty), Chacha, Desire Z (Vision), G2 (Vision), Incredible, Status

If you didn't know, HTC has promised to provide bootloader unlock support for all devices released after September of 2011 as well as many others released before, and they have been keeping good on that promise with added support for many devices over the last few months.

They're still going strong, and added several more devices to the list earlier today.

There you have it, the newly supported devices are the HTC Desire Z, ChaCha, Aria, Droid Incredible, Status, and T-Mobile G2. If you own one listed above, you can head on over to the HTCDev website to unlock your bootloader now.

Jul

HTC Releases The Source Code For Several Devices, Proving That The World Is Coming To Its End

Posted by Cameron Summerson in HTC, News

Since the beginning of time, there has been but one rule among men: release GPL source code on time. For those who choose to ignore this rule, terrible things ensue; most of which are so horrific, I dare not speak the details. The code has always been upheld by the law, but one foul beast has found a way to circumvent the system and hold the source for weeks, even months, too long: HTC.

I've always wanted to give some sort of dramatic introduction like that. Joking aside, though, HTC released a whole gaggle of source code to its developer repository this morning, encompassing devices both new and old:

Salsa
EVO 4G Gingerbread
Droid Incredible 2 Gingerbread
Sensation
EVO 3D
ChaCha
Desire Z

And we all know what that means: full custom kernels are on their way!

May

Sense 3.0 ROMs Starting To Pop Up, Fully Functional On The Desire Z/G2 And Desire HD/Inspire 4G

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Desire HD (Ace), Desire Z (Vision), Development, G2 (Vision), Inspire 4G (Ace, Stallion), News

The newest version of Sense UI has been somewhat of a hot topic amongst HTC owners, as HTC itself said that certain aspects of it has been reserved for newer devices only. Naturally, the dev community over at XDA was not about to stand for that, and shortly after the Sensation ROM leak, got to work on spreading the Sense 3.0 love.

Fast-forward to today and what do we have? Sense 3.0 working perfectly on the Desire HD/Inspire 4G and the Desire Z/G2. These ROMs seem to be mashups of a variety of leaked firmware for other devices, but rest assured that they are both Gingerbread, so you won't be downgrading your OS just to upgrade the skin.

Feb

HTC Desire Z: Long-Term Ownership Hardware Review

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Desire Z (Vision), Devices By Manufacturer, G2 (Vision), HTC, Phone Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Take a look at the top tier of Android phones right now and you might notice something. They all kind of look the same. Black front fascia, large touchscreen, minimal waistline. Boring, right? Well that's just the way things are going. Alternatives to the slate way of living are becoming increasingly rare, which puts the HTC Desire Z with its hardware keyboard in an intriguing light. With its metallic accents and suave grey pallet, the Desire Z cuts a different path. So how do I mean rare? If you want a top-level QWERTY Android phone in the USA you have a fairly limited selection to choose from: Sprint has the Samsung Epic 4G, Verizon the Motorola Droid 2 and T-Mobile the HTC G2.

Nov

HTC Desire Z Review Roundup: The Best Of Both Worlds In One Not-So-Light Package

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Desire Z (Vision), HTC, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Vodafone

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

After the positive impact HTC's T-Mobile G2 made on American reviewers, it's no wonder the company has decided to try to impress their European colleagues with a similar phone, the Desire Z. The phone is available now from Vodafone, 3 Mobile, Virgin Mobile, O2, Talk Mobile, Orange, and Tesco Mobile if you want to take the leap; the question is, should you? Read on to see what four expert reviewers from TechRadar, CNET UK, Pocket-Lint, and PhoneArena had to say on the subject.

TechRadar

TechRadar's review, detailed as always, covered just about everything Desire Z-related, from its camera to its sturdy and sexy aluminum construction to HTC's new Sense UI in a span of only seven pages.

Nov

EVO Shift 4G Specs Leaked, Could Be Sprint's Desire Z

Posted by Nate Kimmey in EVO Shift 4G (Speedy), Froyo 2.2, Knight, News, Sprint

Last Updated: January 4th, 2011

XDA-developers, who originally leaked details on the phone under the codename HTC Knight, have now provided more information on this bad boy, now known as HTC EVO Shift 4G (model number PG06100). Most of these specs aren't too surprising, but do leave a lot of room for questions:

Android 2.2

Sliding QWERTY Keyboard
3.7″ Screen
800Mhz Processor or 1Ghz Dual Core Snapdragon according to a different source
512MB RAM
5 MP Camera or 8 MP according to a different source
Sprint 4G

Assuming the 800 MHz processor and 5 MP camera are correct, then this is almost definitely Sprint's version of the Desire Z (the same as T-Mobile's G2).

Nov

CyanogenMod 6.1 RC1 Now Available For T-Mobile G2/HTC Desire Z

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Desire Z (Vision), Development, G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

Exactly a week after getting rooted and only a few days after getting its very first CyanogenMod nightly release, HTC Desire Z and T-Mobile G2 owners can now upgrade to RC1 (release candidate 1), bringing it up to speed with the rest of the devices supported by the CM team. Apparently, these guys move at light speed.

G2/Desire Z owners should consider themselves lucky, as Cyanogen himself owns a G2 and maintains this CM branch - that's when you know you are in good hands.

Not much has changed in terms of installation instructions, so I'll jump right into it:

This version is a release candidate, but you will find it stable for everyday use.

Nov

T-Mobile G2 Overclocked To 1.9 GHz, Hitting 2800 In Quadrant

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Desire Z (Vision), Development, G2 (Vision), News

Who says the G2's processor is slow, eh? While its stock 800 MHz clockspeed didn't break any benchmark records, it's showing itself to be nicely capable of overclocking. Unlike the QSD8250 in the original Snapdragon, which gets rather unstable anywhere past the 1.13GHz (+15%) mark, the MSM7230 in the Scorpion of the G2 sails right on past +100% with apparent stability. The kernel was posted on XDA-Developers by member Flippy125, with the usual "NOT MY FAULT IF-" disclaimers, but also noting that the kernel runs stably for him.

The scores posted are quite remarkable: between 2700 and 2800 in Quadrant and 55-60 in Linpack.

Nov

T-Mobile G2 And HTC Desire Z Get Their First CyanogenMod 6.1 Nightlies - Download Away

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Desire Z (Vision), Development, G2 (Vision), HTC, News

After getting rooted four days ago, the T-Mobile G2 and its European counterpart, the Desire Z, finally joined the ranks of fully unlocked Android phones, which give us the freedom to replace the ROMs on these devices with something better and more custom.

It took the CyanogenMod team a few days, but the very first CM 6.1 ROM is now available for download. It will work on both the Desire Z and the G2 due to the similarities between the 2 phones. Keep in mind, this is the first nightly build and not a final version in any way - it's not even a release candidate; therefore, bugs should be expected.

Nov

Exploit Found Allowing Permanent Deletion Of Files On G2's /system Partition (NAND Memory)

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Desire Z (Vision), G2 (Vision), HTC, News

You're probably aware of one of the slightly more irksome facets of the G2 that is stymying attempts at custom ROMs, namely the locked down /system partition, where the OS is kept. Heretofore it has been impossible to tinker with this internal memory in a permanent fashion. All alterations were reverted on the next boot, leading to solutions like Paul O'Brien's VISIONary soft-root.

Well, Mr. O'Brien isn't the kind of fellow you can restrain with NAND lockdowns, and with a flourish today he unveiled his latest hack. His program, G2 Google Goggles Remover, is a proof of concept which he says will permanently delete the Google Goggles application from your G2.