g2 - 2/6 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

T-Mobile G2 On Sale For Just $49.99 On Contract

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Deals, G2 (Vision), HTC, T-Mobile

The T-Mobile G2 is a great phone that would, no doubt, make a fantastic Christmas gift. But up until now, we haven't been treated to many deals on the device (with the exception of Amazon Wireless' Black Friday sale) - obviously not something holiday shoppers are enthusiastic about. That ends today, however, as T-Mobile itself has just trimmed the G2's price tag by $150, making the final price $49.99 on a new two-year contract. Note that since this is a web exclusive, in-store buyers will still have to cough up $199.99. Nonetheless, if it's shipping you're worried about, fear not, for transportation fees will be nonexistent until December 20th.

Dec

Sprint's EVO Shift 4G Shows Off Its Sexy Keyboard

Posted by David Ruddock in EVO Shift 4G (Speedy), Knight, News, Sprint

Last Updated: January 4th, 2011

Yet another picture of the still unannounced EVO Shift 4G has been uncovered, this time with its stylish slider keyboard fully revealed in what looks to be a press-release quality action shot.

The device is likely Sprint's iteration of Verizon's also unannounced HTC Merge. I've got to say, though, that the Shift 4G looks like it received a far better treatment from HTC's design department. The blue brushed-metal around the keyboard looks great, as do the EVO 4G-style capacitive touch buttons. Verizon's space-age aluminum overtones on the Merge, while streamlined, just don't look as cool as the Shift.

But maybe that's just a matter of taste.

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

Nexus One Learns A New Trick: T-Mobile's WiFi-Calling Now Possible Via Community Hacking Effort

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Apps/Games, News

The Nexus One may be growing long in the tooth, but it's still surely one of the most active phones when it comes to development. Hence this hack should come as a surprise to no-one: T-Mobile's WiFi-Calling functionality has been extracted from one Vanilla Froyo running device (the G2) and injected into another, the one and only Google Phone. While this will obviously only work on N1s on the T-Mobile network, it comes as a welcome distraction to those of us waiting for the imminent Gingerbread OTA.

XDA-developers member Rsotbiemrptson has put together a short guide on installing the hack yourself, reprinted below:

Instructions:
1.

Nov

Rumor: T-Mobile G2 Getting WiFi Calling OTA Tomorrow

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

It's always been interesting to me that although the $29.99 Optimus T ships with tethering capabilities, the G2 has no such feature. Of course, it's been rumored several times before that the feature is on its way, but as of today, G2 users are still in the dark.

That may all be changing soon though, as a recent leaked screenshot from TmoNews indicates that an OTA update that will begin rolling out tomorrow and finish its trip on November 8 will not only grant you tethering, but will also bring about WiFi calling. Interestingly enough, T-Mobile seems to be expecting users to discover tethering on their own though, as the screenshot instructs employees to tell customers that T-Mobile does not currently offer a tethering plan.

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.

Nov

HTC Releases Source Code For T-Mobile G2, Desire Z Along With Maintenance Release Source For Droid Incredible

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

Fresh on this HTC's servers this morning we have the source code for the latest G2, DZ and Dinc kernels, along with source code for their respective WebKit browsers. While this news may not be much help to those still desperate for a G2 perm-root, it should come in handy once an easy solution for that is achieved, as it will facilitate the creation of custom ROMs for the G2 (and Desire Z). While you wait for that happy day, feel free to peruse the freely available source code for HTC's pair of landscape sliders.

Source HTC Developer Center via AndroidCentral

Oct

Gauntlet, Thrown: Costco Drops Price Of T-Mobile G2 To $50 With New Contract, No Activation Fee

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

It's certainly a good time to be in the market for a new flagship Android device, isn't it? Amazon is selling the Motorola Droid 2 for just $.01, and the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G for a cool $100. Lately, Amazon and Costco have been in a price war over the T-Mobile G2; Costco struck first, dropping the upgrade price to just $100 - to which Amazon replied by dropping the new contract price to $80. Now Costco has shot back by lowering their own new contract price to just $50 without any rebate.