G2 (Vision) - 3/8 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Nov

T-Mobile G2 Now Has Permanent Root, Desire Z And Desire HD Come Along For The Ride

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

People want to own their phones. Try as they might to frustrate their customers, networks and manufacturers are fighting a losing battle against the hacking community. The latest victory is an enormous one: the HTC Vision, better known as the T-Mobile G2 and Desire Z has finally been defeated. That pesky eMMC chip locking up the /system of the G2 has been circumvented, and full, glorious, permanent root has been attained:

12:04 < scotty2> -rw-rw-rw- root root 0 2010-11-09 03:00 test

Yep, that's full read and write permissions there, and it's permanent too. The #g2root channel has had an idea of the method to use for almost a month now, but have only just finalized the solution.

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.

Unfortunately, the upgrade and add-a-line prices are still $100 after $50 MIR.

Oct

T-Mobile G2 Overclocked To 1.42GHz, "Basically Blows Every Retail Android Phone Out Of The Water" - Here's How To Do It

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

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

The G2 may have a next-gen MSM7X30 processor, but unfortunately, HTC and T-Mobile have decided to clock it at a paltry 800MHz.

Oct

T-Mobile's HSPA+ "Not Ready In All Areas"

Posted by Brad Ganley in G2 (Vision), T-Mobile

Allen Kiehl over at AndroidSpin has recently posted a pretty unbelievable tale about his experience with network issues on his G2 and what T-Mobile recommends he do about them. The story starts out pretty commonplace: he was experience network issues such as dropped calls, not receiving calls or text messages at all, and a finicky data connection. All of these are symptoms of a bad device, right? Wrong.

What happened next blew both Allen and myself away. T-Mobile recommended he swap it out for an entirely different device or leave their network. Here is what they told him exactly:

I would recommend that you take advantage of the buyer's remorse program as we do not have an ETA when the issue will be resolved.

Oct

Amazon Steps Up Again: Drops Price Of T-Mobile G2 To Just $80 For New Contracts

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

We swear, we're not gradually converting from news to deal-watching - but hot damn, how can we ignore this: Amazon Wireless is continuing its aggressive price-leadership strategy, and has now dropped the T-Mobile G2 to just $80 for new customers. Better yet, the deal includes free two-day shipping and there's no mail-in-rebate (MIR). Oh, and Artem would want me to point out that there's no sales tax and no activation fee - both of which are fast becoming standard fare (hell, he probably also thinks the title should have some metaphor for how this price is on fire or something).

Oct

Deal Alert: Existing T-Mobile Customers, Upgrade To The G2 For $99.99 At Costco

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

The sad part about being a mobile customer, at least in the US, is that you almost never get the same perks when upgrading your phone with your current carrier, compared to switching to a new one. For example, if you're an existing T-Mobile customer, you will need to shell out $200 if you upgrade with T-Mobile, Amazon, or even Wirefly.

Thankfully, we were just tipped off about a deal in Costco that offers the G2 for $99.99 to both new and existing customers renewing their contracts as well as those adding a new line. There is only one difference - existing customers pay $149.99 and send in a $50 mail-in rebate instead of getting the $99.99 price right off the bat.

Oct

[How-To] Disable System Apps On Devices With NAND Protection (Like The T-Mobile G2)

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

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Much has been made of the T-Mobile G2's current rooting situation - in case you've been living under a rock for the past few months, it's currently rootable, albeit not permanently just yet.