27
May
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So You Want To Know About Bootloaders, Encryption, Signing, And Locking? Let Me Explain

Posted by in Android OS, Development, Devices By Manufacturer, Tips & Tutorials

If you were ever wondering what bootloader encryption, signing, and locking actually meant, this post is for you.

My name is Ivo, and recently I posted this write-up on Reddit (check out the Android subreddit while you’re there!). The post gained quite a bit of traction, and to spread the word further, I'm now posting it here at Android Police. I hope it helps out those of you who are confused.

It’s necessary, if you want to talk about these issues, to get some cryptic terms out of the way, so we actually know what we’re talking about! If you want to find out more about these topics, just click on through to their respective Wikipedia articles.

25
May
htc_thunderbolt

Urgent: Leaked Thunderbolt Gingerbread Radio May Cause Hard Bricks - We Advise You Revert To Froyo

Posted by in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Tips & Tutorials

When we leaked the official ROM and radio image for the HTC Thunderbolt's Gingerbread update last week, users were understandably excited. An official Sense, Gingerbread ROM was probably highest on the list of demands for Thunderbolt users (aside from better battery life, perhaps).

Unfortunately, at this time, we have to officially advise anyone using any ROM based on this leak to revert to a Froyo build or to CyanogenMod 7 as soon as possible. This includes any and all third-party Gingerbread ROMs for the HTC Thunderbolt not based on CM7.

We don't take announcing this lightly, but we do so erring on the side of caution because of the extent to which this problem bricks the phone.

23
May
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Miro 4 Allows for Torrenting, Video and Music Syncing, Podcasting and Everything Else Under the Sun

Posted by in News, Tips & Tutorials

Miro is an open-sourced, free solution to your media problems with Android. It's touted as an all-in-one solution, and with its feature list, I'm not about to disagree. It offers a media player, BitTorrent client, video encoder, music store and device sync component all wrapped up in a single program, which covers some of the problems Android has run into without its own downloadable client.

With your phone connected to your computer, you can use Miro to sync music and video to your phone. It maintains a library by scanning folders, and can even import your current iTunes library on first load.

21
May
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[Tip] Search The Android Web Market A Lot? Do It Straight From The Url Bar Like A Boss With This Handy Trick (Firefox, Chrome)

Posted by in Apps/Games, Tips & Tutorials

If you liked my speedy QR code tips before, you're going to love the tip I have for you today. Ever since the Android web Market was launched, I found myself loading the homepage just to make a search approximately 17 million times a day, give or take a few. As you know, the web Market homepage is quite heavy, so loading it just to make a search, especially while tethering on a slow connection, was starting to get kind of annoying.

In an effort to save both time and clicks (hello, Carpal Tunnel), I've created a much handier way of firing up a search with only a few strokes and without the need for any tools outside of Firefox or Chrome.

20
May
HTC-Flyer-at-Best-Buy

Confirmed: HTC Flyer On Sale At (Some) Best Buy Stores Right Now

Posted by in Flyer, HTC, News, Tips & Tutorials

That's right, folks - HTC's much-anticipated first Android tablet is up for grabs at Best Buy stores across the U.S. right now. You can pick one of the Wi-Fi only tablets up (note: no stylus included) for a mere $500. A stylus will costs you $80 (yikes), should you so desire one. But consider yourself warned - the Flyer doesn't support handwriting recognition at this point in time, though you could still presumably do all sorts of fun artsy things with it.

How do we know it's on sale? Our man on the street (or in the building, rather), Brad Ganley, snapped a shot of a Flyer demo unit at his local Best Buy:

wm_IMG_20110520_172946

What's the Flyer packing?

19
May
ab8695b880rbreak.jpg

Motorola DROID X2 Rooted Via Gingerbreak - Well, That Was Easy

Posted by in Development, Droid X2, News, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

Well, that's the easy part done. The DROID X2 has been rooted, huzzah! The device was found to be vulnerable to one of the known root exploits out there (Gingerbreak) - apparently Moto couldn't be bothered to patch up the hole (the fix has been backported to 2.2 from AOSP, according to our own Justin Case.) This hasn't been fully confirmed yet, but it seems plausible, given that all previous Motorola Froyo builds have been susceptible to this exploit.

droidx2-root

Next on the list: cracking open that bootloader (good luck.)

Droid-life

19
May
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[Deal Alert] Amazon Drops Price of DROID Charge To $199 On New 2-Year Agreement

Posted by in Charge (i510), Deals, News, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless
Last Updated: May 20th, 2011

So, I'm probably not the best person to write about anything that might encourage someone to buy a DROID Charge (I sure as hell wouldn't, and our friends at Droid-life agree), but here we are. Amazon's offering the Charge for a slightly-more-reasonable price of $200 on a new 2-year agreement or eligible upgrade, down from the absolutely absurd price of $300 you'll get it for everywhere else.

charge

I still wouldn't call it a deal. But hey, it's $100 cheaper than it was, and if you were thinking about buying one (for whatever reason), now is probably a good time.

18
May
26-Android-security_thumb

[Updated] Google Rolling Out Fix For Wi-Fi Security Vulnerability To All Affected Android Devices

Posted by in Android OS, Development, News, Tips & Tutorials

Well, that only took one media firestorm. Google, in response to widespread reports of a potential credential security hole in Android (which not only affects Android, but any OS using authTokens), is starting to roll out a fix for the public Wi-Fi vulnerability to all affected Android devices today. Google's statement, below:

Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.

The vulnerability could only be exploited on public Wi-Fi networks - either by a sniffing attack, or SSID spoofing (a much more common method), and allowed an attacker to take a user's authToken for a particular service (eg, Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and then use it to log in to the respective service and engage in whatever unscrupulous behavior they so desired.

17
May
Web

Mega-Music App Comparison: Google Music v Amazon Cloud Player v Subsonic v PowerAMP v Winamp

Posted by in Android OS, App Reviews, Applications, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Listening to tunes on your Android device is serious business - no doubt about it.

It's so serious that many of us are pretty well set in our ways for what we consider the "choice" Android music-listening application, and we aren't willing to budge on it.

PowerAMP users, for example, swear by the application's seemingly endless list of customizations and options. On the other hand, Subsonic devotees like myself are advocates of what is probably the most configurable music streaming experience in existence. But the big boys have come to play, and with Google Music Beta entering the foray, along with Amazon's still-somewhat-new Cloud Player, the war for musical dominance on Android getting louder by the minute.

13
May
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[How-To] Got The Android 3.1 Update On Your Motorola XOOM 3G Or Wi-Fi And Lost Root? Here's How To Gain It Back

Posted by in Development, Motorola, News, Tips & Tutorials, XOOM

The Android 3.1 update that's been rolling out to Motorola XOOMs all week (yes, including the Wi-Fi versions) contains quite a few improvements to the Android experience, such as better stability, resizable widgets, and an extended app switcher. However, one thing this update does not contain (and actively cleans up if you had it before) is root.

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

Whether you want to regain root on your 3.1 XOOM or root the whole thing the very first time, publicanimal from xda has you covered with full instructions of unprecedented clarity and presentation.

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