Fix Your G1! Read Closely

Did you soft brick your phone, if you can get into recovery by starting the phone and holding the home button. Then follow the instructions below. You can recover your phone to cyanogenmod.

Make sure you have a full charge for this.

1. Go here and download the OTA Update file.

2. Now go here for the latest Cyanogenmod update.

3. Save these zip files to your desktop.

4. Now hold down "home button" during power up. This should take you to a screen with a black background and green letters. Now go a head and choose the USB Toggle Selection, or MS USB Toggle. This will engage the USB Drive.

(The screen you are looking for looks something like this.)

5. Once connected to the PC copy the files that you saved to your desktop to the removable storage, your G1. DO NOT PUT THESE IN A FOLDER. Just drop the "signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip" and the "update-cm-4.2.14.1-signed.zip" onto the phones SD card. You can even take the sdcard out and do this manually.

6. Now that the files are on your SD card either turn off your USB Toggle or reboot the phone into recovery once again, either way works.

7. Once you are at the main recovery screen and you KNOW that the files are copied on your phone, choose "apply any zip from sd".

8. Now pick the signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip. Press the home button to apply.

9. This will finish and DO NOT REBOOT

10. Choose the "apply any zip from sd" option again and choose the cyanogenmod rom and press the "home button" to continue.

11. Once this has finished reboot your phone, if all went well you will be booting into an openbox mode.

12. If it goes back into a screen that says formatting cache just reboot again.

13. Just wait a while, it takes time to boot on a fresh install.

Hope this was helpful.

Android 1.5 SenseHERO v1.4

So I went through trying a couple different ROMs today. I tried the SenseHERO and I must say that I am impressed! It runs smooth and the effects are excellent. I love the widgets, the messaging widgets especially. Messaging and email widgets are very usable. The social networking integration is very nice. Screenshots tonight!

1. Download here.

2. Wipe data/factory, Dalvik and EXT.

3. Flash ROM.

4. Reboot.

How To Apply Your Themes

Ok, so I get a lot of questions about themes and how to apply them. So the first thing is to know what type of file is a theme file. these are usually .zip files. Just like the ROMs we apply. Well you can get all of your themes here.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR BRICKED OR DAMAGED PHONES. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS A FEW TIMES BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS. IF YOU COME HERE AND TELL ME I BROKE YOUR PHONE, i WILL LAUGH AT YOU.

So now that you have looked through the themes and found one compatible with your build. Go ahead and download it to your computer.

1. Plug in your phone and mount it.

2. Copy compatible theme file to the root of your SD.

3. Reboot your phone (Talk+Menu+Power).

4. When the phone is powering on hold down the Home button.

5. You will boot into the recovery screen.

6. Now you want to choose G1: Apply any zip from SD or myTouch: Apply SD card: Choose Zip

7. This will take you to a screen with a list of the zip files. (This is assuming you downloaded these to your SD card and did not save them to a folder)

8. Select the theme you want and press the trackball.

9. Press home to continure.

10. Reboot.

To get back to the original Cyanogen them find the default theme file or just reflash the update.

If you want a different way to apply themes you can use the Cyanogenmod updater. Just paste the zip files in the cm-updates folder on your sd. Unmout your card and open CM Updater. Now go to the screen for existing updates, touch the button in the middle and you should get a list of themes and updates.

And if you just want CM-Updater to download your themes for you,

1. Open CM-Updater.

2. Press menu.

3. Touch Configuration.

4. Choose Theme Update Servers.

5. Choose Manage Theme Servers.

6. Press Menu and Choose Update Theme Servers.

7. Select Yes.

8. Now go do a Check Now again.

9. Go ahead and download one, when it is done downloading it will ask you if you want to apply the update. Say Yes, or press update or whatever it is.

This will leave you on the recovery screen when you are done. Just reboot and you got it! Hope this helps. Enjoy!

Halfsight's Top Android Apps Pt. I

Ok, so I root a lot of phones so naturally I get a lot of people asking me what my favorite applications are. I am not going to give a top ten list or top whatever. What I will do is break down into categories the different apps i use for different things.

So lets start with my favorite apps. If you have a G1 or mytouch, then you already know about the "Google experience". I have to say is a killer app suite. Gmail, Google Sync, Google Maps, Gtalk, The Market, and all the other stuff Google offers is more than practical. So thats the basic, now for the Actual Apps I use.

I will go with communication and social today. Everybody has there favorite IM client or VOIP service. or social network sight. Well, here is what I use.

1. Gtalk

This app comes in handy. All messages appear in the notification bar if that is what you prefer. In the contacts menu if you have their Gtalk set then it will show if they are online. Quick, free messages!

2. Twidgit (lite)

Ok so I twitter. I admit it. I have a pretty good circle and you want to follow me my twitter is @halfsight. I just don't think I am very interesting. But you never know. This has Twitpic built in, private messaging and re-tweet. It comes in handy when you may need some valuble info on the fly, or just have an outrageous photo or event to share with your friends. I have my twitter tied to update facebook and myspace.

3. Facebook

They finally came out with their app. It it works great. You can comment on peoples status and update your own and share pics. You can also place a widget on the desktop that shows peoples status as they update.

4. Palringo

If ever you need an alternative chat client. Palringo is the one. It even supports Facebook.

5. Meebo

Now if you don't like the look or feel of Palringo, Try Meebo.

6. Loopt

So my boy Grayden turned me on to this. I love Google Latitude. But you can use Loopt to update your Twitter with your location and in turn, for me, updates my Facebook and Myspace. Handy if your friends cannot find you.

7. Google Voice

This should really be higher on my list, but I use the other apps more frequently at this time. So Google went and started offering phone numbers, for free, in the form of Google Voice. You can take your Google Voice number and forward it to all of your phones. Or just have a separate number that rings your phone. You can also send text message via Google Voice. Right now the service is invite only.

8. Myspace

If you use Myspace this is the app to have. Come with 3 widgets and the ability to update your profile.

9. Linkedin

So if you are a professional and are looking for a way to ge yourself out there, Linkedin is a great way to market yourself to other professionals.

So I guess this section ended up being a top nine social and communication apps. Try them out and enjoy!

Tips, Tricks and Apps for the G1 and the myTouch

So now you have rooted your phone, maybe even partitioned your SD card. what now?

Well first you are going to want to be able to update. I start out on CyanogenMod 4.1.99 because you have to have that flashed to update to 4.2.2 or higher. I know I read that somewhere. But anyway, You can go here and get the latest version of CyanogenMOD. Download the latest ROM and flash it to update. Then you want to go to the Market and download CyanogenMOD's Updater and get that app installed. Now you can open that and check for Cyanogen's updated ROMs. I suggest being hooked up to WiFi, but you just download and apply! It will leave you sitting at the Recovery Screen, so just hit Reboot phone and viola! You are updated.

Applying a Theme is just like applying a zip for a rom, in fact you do it exactly the same. Different themes have different setting so you have to be careful. And certain themes are for certain rom builds. So make sure you download a theme that is speceifcally for your version. For example, if you flash a theme that was made for 4.1.99 to a rom that is updated to 4.2.2, you will have some issues and possibly have to wipe and re image your phone, or find the original cyanogen theme for your version and flash that. The best place to get themes is here. They have the name of the theme, the changelog, screenshots and download links.

So by this time I assume that you have gotten bored and installed the CyanogenROM Updater 4.5.1 on your phone and are wondering how to use it. Well, just touch the check now button and it will tell you if there is a ROM to download. then go through what i mentioned previously. Now for themes, you have to add your own servers. This is not that hard.

Open CM-Updater.

Press the Menu button.

Select Configuration.

Select Theme Update Settings.

Select Manage Theme Servers.

Press the menu button and select Update Featured Theme Servers.

This will auto populate the servers for your themes.

All of these themes will be in the XDA Forums - Dream - Themes and Wallpapers section. You can also download themes and put them in your CM-Updates folder on your SD card, then they will read as existing updates.

Apps2SD partitioning for cyanogenMOD

So, this is another one people are having trouble with. some advice that I have seen on other websites are to keep your swap under 64 megs and also to keep your ext partition under 1.5 gb.

I suggest trying ubuntu, give it a shot, it is a great alternative to Windows, and it is FREE!! I will focus on partitioning the SD card, but I will also cover how to get a simple and easy dual boot of windows and ubuntu going on your machine.

1. Install Wubi, get it here, May take some time, depending on how fast the download goes.

2.When you restart your PC, it will prompt for the basic Ubuntu setup, (time zone stuff like that.)

4. Now go to the ubuntu apps menu and there is something along line of Add or Remove Applications, open this.

5. Use the search bar at the top and search for "gparted". Install this.

6. Now that Gparted is installed go to the apps menu>accessories>command Line. Open command line.

7. Type "sudo gparted" without the quotes. when you type sudo gparted you will be prompted for your admin password, the password will not show as you type it.

8. Click the drop down box to select your sd card. (NOTE - make sure to select your card and not your computer hard drive. Easy way to tell is if you have a 8 gig card choose the one that is 8 gigs. Common Sense)

9. Your sd card will now be displayed. If you already had it partitioned you will see the partitions. Or if it is a brand new card it will say unallocated.

10. If you already have a partition or partitions on it right click each partition and choose unmount. Do that for every partition until you see the keys gone beside the partitions.

11. Right click every partition and choose delete until all partitions are gone and it says unallocated.

12. Right click unallocated and choose new.

13. A box will appear to create your first partition. Create your Fat32 partition first. Click the drop down box and click Fat32. Choose the size you want to make it (I just subtract 1000 from the number to save for my ext partition). And leave it as primary. Now click apply.

14. You will now see your Fat32 partition and unallocated.

14. Right click unallocated again and choose new.

15. This time we will set up our ext partition. Click the drop down box and choose ext2 or ext3. You can leave the size alone and make sure it is also on primary. Click apply.

16. If you are wanting to you can create the linux_swap partition to but it is not necessary.

17. You are now back at the box with Fat32, ext2/3, linux_swap and unallocated. Now click apply. A confirmation box will appear and click apply again.

18. It will format your card and then you are done.

19. You can now click the power icon in the upper right hand corner to turn off Ubuntu and restart into windows.

How to root your myTouch

Just like the G1 your mytouch will probably come with a stock Android 1.6 version that blocks the recovery flasher. So once again we must downgrade.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR BRICKED OR DAMAGED PHONES. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS A FEW TIMES BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS.

Downgrading for the myTouch:

This is very close to a G1. But with a couple of variations. Once again you will need the original image. This will be called the sappimg.nbh file. You can get this here.

1. Press Menu>Settings.

2. Select SD card & phone storage

3. Unmount SD card

4. Format SD Card (YOU MUST FORMAT THIS FROM YOUR PHONE).

5. Connect the phone to your computer.

6. Pull down Notifications ans choose "Select to copy files to/from your computer"

7. Select Mount.

8. Now copy the sappimg.nbh file to the ROOT of your SD card! Do not put it in a folder!

9. Power off your phone.

10. Power the phone on by holding down the volume and power buttons.

11. This will take you to the fastboot HBOOT screen.

12. Press the trackball and wait for it to detect the sappimg.nbh.

13. Press the trackball again to apply the sappimg.nbh.

14. Once this is completed reboot the phone.

Now your myTouch is downgraded to android 1.5 CRC1 or RC29 or whatever, go to the market and make sure you have the Linda File Manager installed on your phone(or any other file explorer). Now you want to get the FLASHREC app here. You can navigate to this from you linda file manager and install it.

We are going to be using the Aman Ra recovery image. Get this here.

So use the linda file manager to install the Recovery Flasher.

Now open the Recovery Flasher and select "Backup to flash Cyanogens Recovery 1.4"

once this has finished you will want to type "/sdcard/recovery-RA-dream-v1.5.2.img"(no quotes).

Now restart the phone and hold down home to verify that the recovery image has installed correctly. Once again you should see a screen with green text and a black background.

Now you will need to flash a custom rom to gain root access. You can get the rom that I use to start with here. You want the DRC83 Defanged. Get this zip file into the root of your SD card (DO NOT PUT THIS IN A FOLDER!!). You also want to get the CyanogenMOD rom here and place it into your root also.

1. Now boot into the recovery screen by holding home and power buttons and choose "Wipe data/factory reset"

2. Now choose "Apply sdcard: choose zip".

3. Select the DRC83_base_defanged.zip with the trackball that you have already pasted in there.

4. Press home to apply.

5. STOP AND DO NOT REBOOT YOUR PHONE

6. Now go ahead and choose "Apply sdcard: choose zip".

7. Select the update-cm-4.2.9.1-signed.zip(or current version) with the trackball and select home to apply.

8. Reboot

9. When this is finished go ahead let the phone power all the way up again and make sure to reboot twice.

There you go, you should be rooted and ready to enjoy the perks of a rooted phone now.

How to root your G1 the easy way.

So I have been all over the internet gathering info on rooting my G1. Androidspin.com, Androidandme.com and mostly XDA Forums. I have found several guides and now I use a mix of those guides to root peoples phones. This is the least complicated method I can bring to the table. So I hope this helps a lot of people.

So there is a hole in the bluetooth programming in Android 1.5, I guess, that lets you take root control. That is what they are exploiting. That is beyond my knowledge. So most phones you come across are going to be on stock Android 1.6. This is where you run into a problem. Someone came out with a 1 click root app, but it does not work on Android 1.6. so you must downgrade.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR BRICKED OR DAMAGED PHONES. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS A FEW TIMES BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS. ALWAYS DO A NANDROID BACKUP!

Downgrading for the G1:

Downgrading for the G1 is simple. Just get the DREAIMG.NBH file. You can get this here. It will download a file called DREAIMG-RC29.zip. Unzip this with Winrar or 7zip or winzip or whatever fits your fancy. You will have a file called DREAIMG.NBH.

Now that we have that down. you want to on your g1.

Backup any info on your SD card that you want to save.

1. Press Menu>Settings.

2. Select SD card & phone storage

3. Unmount SD card

4. Format SD Card (YOU MUST FORMAT THIS FROM YOUR PHONE).

5. Connect the phone to your computer.

6. Pull down Notifications ans choose "Select to copy files to/from your computer"

7. Select Mount.

8. Now copy the DREAIMG.NBH file to the ROOT of your SD card! Do not put it in a folder!

9. Now power off your phone.

10. Now power your phone on by holding the Camera and Power buttons down as it powers on.

(Assuming the previous steps were done correctly you will see a rainbow screen and then it will cut to a blue screen.)

11. Press the power button to start the update. Which is actually a downgrade to Android v1.5 RC29.

12. This will take a moment. when it is finished it will ask you to press the action button to finish.

13. The TrackBall is the action button.

14. This may take you back to the Rainbow screen. If this happens, press the Call+Menu+Power (The 3 Finger Salute) to force a reboot.

Assuming you did this correctly you will boot into an earlier version of android.

Ok so now that we have downgraded the G1, we get to the easy part.

Files/Apps you will need for the G1:

Linda File Manager (On the market)

Recovery Flasher

HTC Android Image (signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip)

CyanogenMODs Latest Release

1. Go to the market and make sure you have the Linda File Manager/AndExplorer installed on your phone.

2. Now you want to get the FLASHREC app here. You can navigate to this in your download folder from you linda file manager and install it.

3. We are going to be using the Aman Ra recovery image. Get this here.

4. Open the Recovery Flasher.

5. Select "Backup to flash Cyanogens Recovery 1.4"

once this has finished you will want to type "/sdcard/recovery-RA-dream-v1.2.3.img"(no quotes) assuming that you have save the recovery image to the root of your SD card and then select 'Flash Recovery'.

6. Now feel free to verify that this flashed correctly. Power off your phone and boot into the recovery screen by holding down "home button" during power up. This should take you to a screen with a black background and green letters. Now go a head an choose the top selection and reboot the phone.

7. Copy the HTC Android Image and the CyanogenMOD rom to the root of your SD card. (DO NOT PUT THESE IN A FOLDER)

8. Now reboot your phone into the recovery screen by holding down "home button" during power up.

9. OK, now that we are in the recovery menu you want to choose "apply any zip from sd".

now pick the signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip. Press the home button to apply.

10. This will finish and DO NOT REBOOT

11. Choose the "apply any zip from sd" option again and choose the cyanogenmod rom and press the "home button" to continue.

12. Once this has finished reboot your phone, if all went well you will be booting into an openbox mode.

14. if it goes back into a screen that says formatting cache just reboot again.

Ok, now we are done, you have root access to your phone. YEA!!!

Coming soon:

How to root the myTouch

How to Partition your SD card for Apps2SD