Development - 73/86 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

Motorola Droid 2 Rooted

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Droid 2, News, Verizon Wireless

Looks like a dev over at XDA-Devs (where else?) has managed to root the Motorola Droid 2. As this is the device's first root and it was just released, it's not surprising that the method is still dependant on manually typing a number of commands. The process requires adb and Motorola drivers to be installed, and involves pushing and executing the root file with ADB. While it doesn't look overly complex, it's probably not something suitable for more novice rooters.

Setup:
- Install adb (here) and Motorola drivers (here)
- Download attached archive
- Extract to a directory, I used c:\Droid2Root
- Make sure you have USB degugging enabled
- Change connection to PC Mode

Process:
- Open command prompt
- cd c:/wherever-your-sdk-tools-folder-is
- adb devices (to verify the connection)
- cd c:/Droid2Root
- adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
- adb shell
- cd data/local/tmp
- chmod 0755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
- ./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin

- let the process run until it returns you to c:/Droid2Root
- cd c:/wherever-your-sdk-tools-folder-is
- adb devices (to verify the connection)
- adb shell (you should now have a # prompt)
- exit

- cd c:/Droid2Root
- adb push Superuser.apk /system/app/Superuser.apk
- adb push su /system/bin/su
- adb push busybox /system/bin/busybox
- adb shell
- chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
- chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox
- exit

I'm sure there are certain steps that could be streamlined or eliminated, so please feel free to make a suggestion and I'll edit the post.

Aug

Response To A Response: More On Google's Android Licensing Service

Posted by Justin Case in Development, Editorials

Today I awoke to see a response from Tim Bray on the Android Developer's Blog regarding my previous article on circumventing the Android License Verification Library, and I almost completely agree with him. The License Verification Library is a very good start - above and beyond what, if anything, Google owes developers. Copy protection is and should be the responsibility of the developer. Google has given us a great tool, provided thorough documentation, and even open sourced the project.

However, what I don't agree with in Mr. Bray's post was his calling my article a "how-to-pirate piece," as this was not my intent at all.

Aug

When It Comes To Ads, Android Users Are 80% More Valuable Than iPhone Users

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Development, Games, News

Dan Ruby, Research Director for ad firm Chitika, just pinged us to share his latest Android research findings. The research compared the Apple and Google mobile platforms to determine which is more profitable for advertising, and the answer is overwhelmingly Android. When we say overwhelmingly, we mean by 80%:

As usual, this is based on Chitika's ad network - so while the numbers are likely pretty accurate, they're not necessarily official.

All of the studied platforms have an equal pay-out rate, but Android users have a significantly higher ad click rate - nearly 1.2% of ads displayed are clicked on, versus about .65% for the iPhone.

Aug

Modder's Monday: Hacking Without Hacking - A Guide to Customizing Your Android Device Without Voiding Your Warranty

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in App Reviews, Applications, Development, Editorials, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Modder’s Monday is a weekly column about rooting, hacking, and other forms of modifying Android written by Jaroslav Stekl, a man who spends his days coding, hacking, hiking, and of course, writing for Android Police.

One of the many things that I love about Android, especially after spending several years with an iPhone, is how customizable it is - right out of the box. You can change your keyboard, tweak the status bar to make it work any way you like, change apps’ icons, and even install home replacements that alter how your homescreen works. The best part about all this?

Aug

[EXCLUSIVE] Report: [UPDATED] Google's Android Market License Verification Easily Circumvented, Will Not Stop Pirates

Posted by Justin Case in Development, Exclusives, Videos

Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

[Update: 8/24/10 @ 7:45 PM EST by Aaron] Tim Bray responded to Justin's article, but seems to have misunderstood the goal. Thus, Justin has written a follow-up article here.

Preface

This article was not written to teach people how to pirate or ridicule Google's Android License Verification Library (LVL) that handles communication with Google's Android Market Licensing Service.

I am very much against piracy, and very much pro-Google. I have spent more time researching copy protection for my applications than development of the applications themselves.

I would like to thank:

the author of Star Hunt for allowing me to use his application in my demo video
the author of Tasker for allowing me to use his application, which has the best implementation of LVL I found, in this article

Both of these applications are available in the market - I highly suggest you give them a try.

Aug

Coming Soon: Stock Android 2.1 For Samsung Galaxy S

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Eclair 2.1, Galaxy S, News, Videos

It seems a few community developers (@barakinflorida) have been inching towards releasing a functional, bone stock version of Android 2.1 for the Samsung Galaxy S (That is, without Samsung's TouchWiz interface). Their efforts are paying off, as this video shows.

The only big issues remaining lie in getting the camera/camcorder to actually, well, work. A relatively minor inconvenience, and a problem many developers have struggled with when developing full-ROM releases for phones with UI overlays.

Android 2.1 is starting to seem a little dated to be utilizing for development of ROMs - maybe a stock FroYo update will follow? But now that members of the CyanogenMod team are working on a CM6 build for the Galaxy S, it's hard to say if there will be much demand for a stock Froyo.

Aug

Android On HTC HD2? That’s So Last Month - Try CyanogenMod 6 On HD2

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, HD2, News

Ok, so this is technically “so last month” too - it’s from July 30, and we just happened to miss it the first time around. Luckily for us, good ole’ ChiefzReloaded tweeted (or retweeted?) some pictures of CM6 running on the HD2. After doing a little poking around, I found that there’s a pretty solid build out there - it’s even CM6 RC1. As a result, nearly everything works on the device: GPS, camera (with flash), torch (for the camera LED), Adobe Flash, and so on. Nice.

At 15 steps, installation is far from simple - but it’s pretty comparable to manual rooting/ROMing on Android.

Aug

[Updated With Mirror] Motorola Droid X Update Leaked - Requires Root & Stock Recovery

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Froyo 2.2, News, Verizon Wireless

MyDroidWorld has scored a big one today: they’ve hosted the Droid X Froyo ROM, thanks to the hard work of P3Droid, Birdman, and rootzwiki. Installation seems relatively simple, and boy is it a popular download: their server was bombarded with 15,000 download requests shortly after posting it.

Installation seems rather simple, assuming you're rooted and are running stock recovery:

They’ve hosted the file with MediaFire since it seems to have crashed their servers.

Unfortunately, we don’t really have any details at this point since this just happened, but we’ll update as needed. If anyone takes the jump, be sure to let us know how it goes!

Aug

Vodafone Officially Rolling Out Froyo To HTC Desire On Monday, August 23

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), Development, Froyo 2.2, Vodafone

This morning on Vodafone’s forums, a VF employee announced that the Froyo update for the HTC Desire would be rolling out on Monday. We knew it was coming soon - on August 12, we relayed that they expected it to roll out in 7-10 days - sans crapware. The update is rolling out a bit later than expected (August 23 would be 11 days) because they wanted to make sure they’d worked out all the kinks. Vodafone is hoping to roll out the update to all customers within a two-week timeframe.

In what seems to be an attempt to appease customers who are still pissed off over the Vodafone 360 crapware debacle, they’ve even provided instructions for how to remove it:

Instructions for users who downloaded and now want to remove the Vodafone 360 update (1.24.161.3)

If you have downloaded the Vodafone 360 update and want to remove it from your device, you will need to follow one of these two approaches, depending on whether or not you have accessed and updated the “360 Updates” or “Shop” apps pre-installed in the 1.24.161.3 update.

Aug

Awesome App For Rooted Users: adbWireless

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

If you’re a rooted user, you’re probably familiar with the ADB command, and that it requires you to connect your phone to your PC with a cable. Enter adbWireles, which allows you to - wait for it - use ADB over WiFi.

The specifics of how it works are pretty technical, but here’s the laymans version provided by the dev (and translated from Spanish by the Goog):

adbWireless is a simple application to enable the wireless interface debug Android. After enabling the connection works as if we had the phone connected via USB. If you do not know which is the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) this program probably is not for you

Anyway, here is information on what it does and how it works.