OMGB-6 WeDoDroid HTC GINGERBREAD UPDATE

You may have read my post on how to install gingerbread on a droid incredible. Well that was with version OMGB-4. OMGB-5 was released and now, OMGB-6 as well.

OMGB-5 brought a lot of needed updates.

EMMC Access For All Apps
MMS on 3g and WIFI
Microbe LWP
Nexus S LWP
Available on Rom Manager *Hopefully, need my pull request to go through Rom Manager OTA Update Capable
Slightly Modified Boot Animation (by Ocelot13)
Nano Added *Here You Go N_I_X 😛
USB Mounting Fixed! No More Gscripts!
Reverted to Kernel #18 to Fix Touchscreen Issues on Some Phones.

OMGB-6 brought a few nice updates as well.

Actual Nexus S LWP
GPS
Right Launcher Button Remapped to SMS
Moved Bootanimation to /system/media

Yes, GPS. Finally, GPS. That includes working navigation and third-party GPS support and the whole shabang. Yay!! It used to be that whenever i really needed GPS Id revert back to the stock froyo.

Now there are still some bugs:
Video Recording
Led Lights

Also, you may notice that some apps don’t work. This isn’t because of gingerbread or your phone, it’s because many apps just aren’t compatible with the brand new operating system.

Thanks xda-developers and tem WeDoDroid for developing this up so quickly and perfectly!!

XDA Incredible Gingerbread Page

OMGB-6 Direct Download

How to install the ZIP on your incredible

GUI Install Gingerbread (Android 2.3) on HTC Droid Incredible

GINGERBREAD!!! AAAAHHH!!!

Gingerbread brings some incredible but simple interface and speed improvements. Here’s a step by step guide on how to get it.

1. Root your phone

This process was described in the post about how to install froyo (Which you should have now gotten the update for) but I’ll go over the basics again.

Go to unrevoked.com and click on the droid incredible. Then, download the application and run it on your computer. Plug in your phone with the USB cable and choose to mount the phone as a disk drive. Then, go into settings>Applications>Developer and check the box for USB debugging (if it isn’t checked already). Then, click flash clockworkmod recovery (or something like that) button and let your phone and the computer do the rest.

Rooting allows for a LOT more than just reflashing operating systems (like free wi-fi tethering and other cool apps like that) but I’ll go over those in different post.

2. Download the ROM from xda-developers

A ROM is basically the operating system for an android phone.

Go to THIS SITE and at the bottom click on the OMGB-*** with the HIGHEST NUMBER for the ***. This will ENSURE that you get the LATEST VERSION from xda-developers.

3. Put the ROM on your SD Card

Once again, plug in your phone and select Disk Drive. You should see both your internal storage and your SD card mounted on your computer (to find out right click on the drive and click get info. The internal storage on your phone is about 8GB). Click and drag the zip that you downloaded from xda-developers onto the root of your SD card. Then eject the SD card and phone storage and unplug your phone.

4. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!

Open ROM manager and tap backup current rom. It will reboot and create a backup of your phone’s current state. Don’t get scared if it takes a long time on some things or if the progress bar doesn’t move, and NEVER  take out the battery (no matter how worried you are) while it’s in the middle of this process. If you if you skip this step you will never be able to return your phone back to normal.

5. Flash the ROM with ROM Manager

Open ROM manager on your phone and tap Install ROM from SD Card.

Then in the next menu tap on the ZIP file that you moved onto the SD card.

In the screen that appears check Wipe Data and Cache and click OK. The phone will reboot into a screen that looks identical to the one where you did your backup.

6. Wait while it installs

The process should only take a minute or two.

7. Congratulations!

You should see a gingerbread followed by the interface of gingerbread. Congratulations, you have installed Gingerbread on your Droid Incredible!

Chrome OS isn’t (can’t be) the new Windows

So everyone is talking about how all of our normal applications are transferring to the internet; the cloud. But if you haven’t noticed, people are still buying powerhouses and desktops and the netbook business ain’t doin so hot. The iPad is selling like hotcakes but think about it: it’s not completely web-based, you can download games and things. Why isn’t the world using just the web for everything?

Because people in the world have more to do than just email and flash games and facebook and spreadsheets. The web isn’t powerful enough. Google Docs can’t do quite as much as iWork or even Microsoft Office. Because it isn’t as powerful. And we can only diagnose this if we dig down a little technically deeper.

When we are using a web-app, for example, google docs, not everything takes place on the web. The potential is actually downloaded to your computer and then executed in this tiny little cache. The processor isn’t web-based. You are just keeping the stuff up there. And this tiny little cache where the web-app is downloaded is just too small for anything more than a very lite application. If we were going to use a full featured but “web-based” Microsoft Word, it would take 10 minutes and 2 GB of a cache to download. The web isn’t fast enough to support powerful applications. What about the video editors out there. What about the photo editors out there. As amazing as it seems, The web doesn’t have enough power bandwidth to do advanced things such as video rendering.. That’s the reason that there is no online version of Final Cut. Developers can’t make their applications to rich because they are limited by the capabilities of the web-browser, download speed, and cache. But what do we get if we eliminate these barriers? We get a desktop application. What i’m trying to say is that Desktop applications are virtually unlimited. . Lets say I’m in a taxi and I just remembered that I had to do a presentation in a few hours. If I have a computer running ANYTHING OTHER THAN chrome OS, then I can open up my handy dandy presentation creation application and whip up a quick and easy slideshow. But if I’m web-based, then there is the variable of internet access. A netbook running chrome OS is completely useless if you are in a plane (unless of course the plane has WiFi).

So when google is trying to launch their Chrome OS, keep in mind why you are getting this computer/netbook. For some people, it may be fine. Maybe they just want to have a simple lite computer to use when in a meeting. But remember, if you opt for this the web is your only option, therefore you are limited in power, features, and accessibility.

Why I’m not upgrading to the official 2.2

So the official OTA 2.2 Droid Incredible Update is finally live.

But I’m not upgrading.

So to install this, I would have to unroot my phone. There is no way to root this version of 2.2, so I won’t be able to use my beloved Wireless Tether.

Now I already have a leaked version of 2.2 so I get everything of 2.2 other than the 720p video recording, but I get my wireless tether. So it really becomes a tradeoff between the wireless tether and 720p recording. Now I know that 2.2 has the built in 3G mobile hotspot, but that holds me at 2GB and costs me another $20/mo. Riiiight.

So I’ve decided to stay how I am with a partial 2.2 update and stick with my Wireless Tether until they find a way to easily root this version of 2.2.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts, I have a few more coming soon. 🙂

My thoughts in OS 4.0

First, the iPad was released. And now, this? This has been quite the hectic week for apple.
iPhone OS 4.0 brings more features That everybody wanted. Now, there’s no reason not to get an iPhone (in fact apple has announced a CDMA phone, and you should’ve seen what happened to my stock!), but more people are going to find more features that they want.

So what does it do?

1. Multitasking
There was a cheer from the crowd when this was announced.
You can now multitask and run multiple apps at the same time, and voip apps can run in the background with a bar on top of the app you are running.

My thoughts:
It’s about time.

2. Change the wallpaper behind the home screen!

My thoughts: Okay, very nice…

3. New mail application
Now you can have multiple exchange accounts. You can also merge multiple accounts into a singe inbox.

My thoughts: Cool! Now I can merge my podcast, max, support, and everything else into one inbox.

So these are the things that some people might care about.

The OS will be out for second generation iPod touch and iPhone 3G in the summer, but multitasking won’t be supported. At the same time it will be resealed for the third generation iPod touch and iPhone 3GS and will support multitasking. The following fall it will be released for the iPad. Yay!

Comments are desired.

Snow Leopard: Released into the wild

Well, here it is. Snow Leopard, 10.6. Although, to a standard casual user, it’s more like a snow cover, because most of the work is internal ad under the hood. But if you are sensitive to speed and power, you will definitely feel quite the speediness with snow leopard compared to the previous operating system leopard. This is due to a new technology called Grand Central Dispatch. This bridges the gap from Leopard in multi-core processing because it is able to take full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central Dispatch also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems. Also, Snow Leopard is now completely 64-bit compatible, and all of the built-in apps (Mail, iCal, Address Book, Quicktime, Automator, Photo Booth, Finder, etc.) are all 64-bit. So there isn’t much else going on under the hood, but there are a couple of new features in Snow Leopard compared to Leopard. So the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard was much much much less of an upgrade than from Tiger to Leopard. There is no full interface change, just that under the hood stuff and a new wallpaper and some little new features. These new features include:
A new wallpaper (Yay!)
A new Quicktime (Yay!)
New stack features (Yay!)
A super fast Finder with new features (Yay!)
Compatibility issues (NOT Yay.)
So, yup! a New Wallpaper!
Here’s a screenshot. Hey, also it calls screenshots Screen shot [DATE] instead of Picture 1,2 etc.

Do there’s your pretty new wallpaper!
Now Quicktime. They are now calling the version of quicktime in snow leopard Quicktime X. It has some of the features as Quicktime pro, and it also has a SWEET new borderless interface.
Here’s a screenshot of the interface.

When I hover my mouse back over the window, it looks like this.

Also, Quicktime X has movie trimming and now you can record with amovie with your webcam in Quicktime and even record your screen with Quicktime.

The new Finder does not have too many visual changes, but it definitely is much snappier. The changes are a sider in the bottom right to control thumbnail size when in thumbnail view, and video and document previews right in the thumbnails. Below, you can see I can flip through the pages of a PDF right in the thumbnail.

Also, finder now features video playback right in the thumbnail! As you can see, I can pause the video anytime I would like, and If I move my mouse away from the thumbnail the pause button will disappear.

Also, I can even reduce or enlarge the size of the thumbnail with the slider while the video is playing in the thumbnail. I must say, I do like the new Finder!

Other than that, the only other big improvements are new stacks features and a fair amount of work on Exposé.

The new stacks is great. Remember those days where you could only view so many files in stacks, ad for the rest you would have to open it in Finder? Now anymore!! Now you can scroll inside of a stack while it is in grid view.

Also, one of the most asked for features in stacks, one that it was lacking–Looking inside of folders without having to launch finder.

All I did to get to this folder that was in the stack two pictures up was click on it, and there is not a window in sight!

Now for some awesome new features in Exposé:
Now, it organizes the windows into a neat grid. Now, it shows the minimized windows below a small but noticeable divider. And now, you can click and hold any application’s dock icon so that Exposé is activated for that application’s windows only, and that the windows of other applications fade away. No, people without a right click mouse, it still does show the options to hide and quit, but it does Exposé at the same time.
In the below picture, you can see that I have many windows open. Many from the Mail application and many from Safari. What a cluttered desktop…

As you can see, I have a Mail window and a Safari window minimized. Now, I will click the Exposé icon in the dock, or press F3, or do a four finger swipe down (all depends on your machine) to activate Exposé for all windows.

As you can see, it organizes the windows into a much more orderly grid fashion unlike the previous version of 10.5. Also, the two windows on the bottom are minimized, and you may need to click on the image to enlarge it so you can see the small but noticeable divider separating open from minimized windows.

In the below screenshot, I click and held the Safari icon in the dock.

As you can see, it did it’s showing all of it’s windows thing, and still has the divider to separate minimized windows. Also, the dock icon is lit up, and there are options to Quit, Hide, and putting your mouse over Options lets you choose if you want to keep it in the dock, open at login, or show the applica
tion in Finder. The same thing will apply for all other applications when activating Exposé on them.

Now for those incompatibilities. The list of confirmed compatibilities is too long to list here, so click right here to go to the Snow Leopard wikidot page.

Snow Leopard Homepage

iPod Touch OS 3.0


Well, this is sadly not free. But the extra (and very desired) features are worth the 10 bucks. There are new features in pretty much every default application. Better stability as well. Here are the new features:
1.
A new default application! It’s called Voice Memos. Everybody has been waiting for this, but there are $0.99 apps in the app store, but I really wanted something straight from the Apple HQ, not some third party paid app. For the iPod touch, you need to have the headphones with remote and mic, which I do. To start recording, simply touch the red button and start talking. There is a little volume meter that goes up as you speak. Try to go in the middle. If you go too loud and the meter goes into the red zone, a small red light comes on telling you that you are talking too loud. Now, since this is for voice memos and talking 8 inches away from the microphone, it is not god at all for recording room conversations. Then again, it’s meant for leaving yourself notes such as, “Remember to reply to the important email from Google” or “eggs, milk, butter, bread batter, oranges” etc. Basically this is not meant for recording convorsations. To listen to your voice memos, click on the button that looks like this:
Then, you can listen to, delete, and even share voice memos. by share, I mean email it as an m4a file. Overall, it’s good for making voice memos, and voice memos only.
2. Calendar. Not a new one, and nothing big, but the events have now changed colors. eh.
3. Mail! FINALLY! a landscape keyboard! and landscape viewing of messages! This has been so wanted and everyone can be really happy now. 🙂
4. Contacts. Now you can view/edit them in landscape.
5. YouTube! Now, you can sign in and comment, rate and flag videos! Check it out.
Sorry, The order is kinda opposite.

6. Stocks! Same kind of interface, but where you see the graph at the bottom, you can go left or right to view news, extra info (high, low, open, vol, P/E, etc.) and of course the original graph. But then, rotate it landscape. Finally! Landscape graph, with a little more info. When in landscape view, the graph now also shows volume in the form of bars at the bottom. Check it out:

Extra Info

News

Landscape

7. Maps! Now uses a small blue dot to find your current location. Also can now try to estimate the current address, which for me got it exactly. Also, Maps is able to track your current location even without a WiFi connection. It simply finds the latitude and longitude of the networks around you (without connecting to the WiFi network) then locates it on the map. Sadly, since it doesn’t actually connect to the WiFi, It can’t load the map around your current location. But if you are using directions, it saves all of the needed map images to the RAM. Sadly, on the highway,there isn’t always a WiFi network around. Therefore, the Not quite GPS tracking is very unreliable on the highways. The feature works a lot better when traveling around the city.
New Current Location Marker
8. Notes. You can now use the landscape view and keyboard to make your notes.
9. Settings. Fetch New Data has been replaced with Notifications. Apps from the app store can now take advantage of that. Bluetooth capability now. Before the 3.0 update, there was no bluetooth. Get the 3.0 update, and there it is. I am convinced that the bluetooth hardware was there all along, but no software to drive it. now the 3.0 can! You can use the bluetooth to connect with certain compatible stereo headphones.
10. App Store. A little change in the interface while browsing through categories. Also, you can now view your iTunes account information.


Other than all of that, the only new thing is a Spotlight Search.
Overall, the 3.0 update rocks. It was worth the $10. The update went really smoothly, too!
But what it doesn’t tell you to do (and it should!) is to restart your iPhone/iPod touch after the update completes. I mean hold the power button, slide, then hold the power button again.
Thank you Apple for the update!!