Android ROM

[derekwilkinson]

Hey guys,

I'm going to try making an Android ROM. It will be a bare-bones WM ROM with the necessary Android files built in.
It will run Haret at start up, but you have the choice to not run it if you don't choose to. (in case Android acts up).

I'm booting up Android right now from my ROM (not SD card).
I'll let you guys know how it goes :)

PLEASE REPLY WITH THE SIZE OF YOUR DATA IMAGE!!!!

[f4ion1]

awesome, sounds good.

[MynticeLX]

I'm definitely game. Let us know when you've got it up!

[derekwilkinson]

How big is everyone's data file?

[craig0r]

i just wanna be clear on what you're doing here. so, you could take your SD card out and still run android, correct?

regardless, this isn't really an android ROM. it's just a slim windows ROM. the only speed-up i could see, would be when winmo is loading up. once haret begun, it should be the same speed as we're currently used to.

[tatnai]

data.img is 128mb.

[mburris]

128 MB here

[KERKEDAGAIN]

128 Mb for me!

[derekwilkinson]

Okay, I think they are all set to 128MB, and then say how much is free. Right now it has space for the 128MB.

I am going to make it copy the files from the SD card to /Program Files/Android, and then have Haret start (with the option to run or not).

I am not seeing a super large speed boost, but it is a little faster, and seems to be more stable.

[derekwilkinson]

i just wanna be clear on what you're doing here. so, you could take your SD card out and still run android, correct?
Correct

regardless, this isn't really an android ROM. it's just a slim windows ROM. the only speed-up i could see, would be when winmo is loading up. once haret begun, it should be the same speed as we're currently used to.
It is a little faster (since it isn't using the SD card), and is a lot more stable for me.

[f4ion1]

Would it be feasible to run a script in WinMo to check to see if there is a newer version of the android files and prompt to update them if the files are newer?

[vilord]

what filesystems are you using for the system and data? Are you using file-backed storage or direct access to the memory device? You won't see as much of a speedup if you are using file-backed storage...
You also will want to modify initrd to change the memory settings, I can do that for you if you like...

[dzo]

Hey guys,

I'm going to try making an Android ROM. It will be a bare-bones WM ROM with the necessary Android files built in.
It will run Haret at start up, but you have the choice to not run it if you don't choose to. (in case Android acts up).

I'm booting up Android right now from my ROM (not SD card).
I'll let you guys know how it goes :)

PLEASE REPLY WITH THE SIZE OF YOUR DATA IMAGE!!!!

Are you putting a yaffs2 partition on the nand flash for data or using a loop mounted file on top of tfat. How about the system image? There should be a significant speedup from using the nand flash. Also, how are you passing the partition information to the kernel?

[vilord]

regardless, this isn't really an android ROM. it's just a slim windows ROM. the only speed-up i could see, would be when winmo is loading up. once haret begun, it should be the same speed as we're currently used to.

True, it isn't an android rom... but most of the slowness we're experiencing is due to a slow bus interface to the SD card, and slow write speeds to the SD.

If properly accessing the internal memory, there should be significant speed increases.
EDIT: By the way, if you are just using an ext2 data.img sitting on the tfat partition, you are likely to see bad things happen to your internal memory.
ext2 doesn't do wear leveling, and the internal flash controllers also don't do wear leveling. TFAT is set up to do it, but if you are just reading it as FAT, it won't do it... you want to access the memory directly and set up a yaffs2 partition.

[derekwilkinson]

what filesystems are you using for the system and data? Are you using file-backed storage or direct access to the memory device? You won't see as much of a speedup if you are using file-backed storage...
You also will want to modify initrd to change the memory settings, I can do that for you if you like...

Honestly, I just made a super small ROM so it could run the Android files more stable (since it isn't on the SD card).
How can I have direct access to the memory device?

[vilord]

well to start, how do you get to the files now?
I'm going to guess that you turned on kernel support for the internal memory, which makes it show up like a block device, then you are mounting the windows TFAT userdata partition, then mounting system.img and data.img as loop.

What you would do for direct access isn't all that different...
Right now you have a *very* small windows rom, which leaves a large space for userdata. You'd need to force the tool to leave an open space at the end of the flash, then you'd use a linux tool to mkfs.yaffs in that open space. It is similar to a hard disk (with a different partition table), except that you want to use yaffs or jffs2 to enable wear leveling.

[derekwilkinson]

well to start, how do you get to the files now?
I'm going to guess that you turned on kernel support for the internal memory, which makes it show up like a block device, then you are mounting the windows TFAT userdata partition, then mounting system.img and data.img as loop.

What you would do for direct access isn't all that different...
Right now you have a *very* small windows rom, which leaves a large space for userdata. You'd need to force the tool to leave an open space at the end of the flash, then you'd use a linux tool to mkfs.yaffs in that open space. It is similar to a hard disk (with a different partition table), except that you want to use yaffs or jffs2 to enable wear leveling.

I took a Vogue ROM, stripped everything out, and copied the Android files from my SD card to the device.

[vilord]

Did you change the initrd and zImage at all? I would think you'd need to change them to tell the loader to look at the internal memory instead of looking at the SD card...

[fixxxer2008]

soo when will this rom be ready? also will the base system be winmo 6.1 or 6.5?

[derekwilkinson]

soo when will this rom be ready? also will the base system be winmo 6.1 or 6.5?

When I get everything running as fast as possible.
I'm about to write the scripts to make everything work easier
(like copy your current default.txt and data images to the device so you keep your data) and maybe automatic updates (haven't decided how i'll make it work yet).

[stinkbud]

awesome! I am looking forward to when android can be a day to day OS for my phone.

Bluetooth and GPS are still dealbreakers for me. Are they working yet?

[craig0r]

awesome! I am looking forward to when android can be a day to day OS for my phone.

Bluetooth and GPS are still dealbreakers for me. Are they working yet?

GPS is working. Bluetooth should be making an appearance very soon. In order to get full bluetooth functionality though, we also need some work done on the audio interface. I'm not sure how long that will be.

[jaredakelly]

is this thread/project dead or just merged with vilord's thread? very interested in an android rom!

[derekwilkinson]

is this thread/project dead or just merged with vilord's thread? very interested in an android rom!

Kinda merged... can't get it to see WM's partition... and I don't want to risk bricking my device to get it working right now ;)

[stickus]

This thread is not dead yet... just mostly dead :) I am currently looking into whether I can format the data.img and system.img images to yaffs from ext2 and whether this will be feasible to use on the NAND. Bear with me folks (but don't hold your breath :) ).

[stickus]

Looks like yaffs is a no go, as it can't be mounted from a disk image (no loopback :(). jffs may be an option however, so I'll be digging some more into this... stay tuned...

[jaredakelly]

Looks like yaffs is a no go, as it can't be mounted from a disk image (no loopback :(). jffs may be an option however, so I'll be digging some more into this... stay tuned...

looking forward to it man, keep up the good work

[stickus]

Right, I've found that there is a way to use yaffs with win mo. It's very poorly documented and somewhat out of date. There is a directory labeled wince that has source from back in 2004. I'll dig a bit more and see what I can come up with. This may lead us down the garden path or it may actually lead to Android on our internal flash.

[stickus]

Well after much more reading and digging (thank you Google!), i have found that yaffs can be used as a file system for windows mobile. I also found that the error you were getting before vilord, may have been because yaffs wants to be the only fs on the device (I think). If this is correct, and if we can get WinMo to be able to read the NAND as yaffs (using a yaffs device driver or wrapper), we should be able to cook up a custom ROM with both OS on the same fs.

In the end, it would be probably simpler to just go with Android on its own... do we need WinMo to enable any hardware before booting Android?

[sushichef]

great work!

[mssmison]

Well after much more reading and digging (thank you Google!), i have found that yaffs can be used as a file system for windows mobile. I also found that the error you were getting before vilord, may have been because yaffs wants to be the only fs on the device (I think). If this is correct, and if we can get WinMo to be able to read the NAND as yaffs (using a yaffs device driver or wrapper), we should be able to cook up a custom ROM with both OS on the same fs.

In the end, it would be probably simpler to just go with Android on its own... do we need WinMo to enable any hardware before booting Android?

I don't think so. I'd be perfectly willing to go android only. I hate windows mobile.

[derekwilkinson]

I don't think so. I'd be perfectly willing to go android only. I hate windows mobile.

We need someone who can risk bricking their device... so we can try to format the device and then put the necessary files on it. It might brick the device for forever though :D

[nabicat]

I have a spare Vogue with a cracked screen. The screen is readable but has a thumbsized area near the top that is not readable. If you like I can flash that one and report. It doesn't matter if it gets bricked.

[craig0r]

We need someone who can risk bricking their device... so we can try to format the device and then put the necessary files on it. It might brick the device for forever though :D

I know Martin has a spare Vogue that he uses for dev... He says Vogues are cheap in NZ, like $100. If we need more people for testing, I could see myself ordering one from there to help out.

EDIT: Oh and on another note, yes, Android-only would be my preferred install as well, so long as bluetooth gets up and going by the time we get to that point.

[TheKartus]

I know Martin has a spare Vogue that he uses for dev... He says Vogues are cheap in NZ, like $100. If we need more people for testing, I could see myself ordering one from there to help out.

EDIT: Oh and on another note, yes, Android-only would be my preferred install as well, so long as bluetooth gets up and going by the time we get to that point.

and if GPS unlocks when you flash the rom. That would be awesome too.

[Gochris]

I also have a spare vogue that I don't care if it gets bricked. It's a parts only phone for me but everything is working on it.

[t1mman]

and if GPS unlocks when you flash the rom. That would be awesome too.

Correct me if i'm wrong, GPS is unlocked with Radio, so unless it updates the radio as well, it should'nt unlock the GPS

[TheKartus]

Correct me if i'm wrong, GPS is unlocked with Radio, so unless it updates the radio as well, it should'nt unlock the GPS

I have no idea, I guess if I'm going to flash my phone I can just flash it to one of the roms or whatever unlocks the GPS, then go to Android, but it would be nice to do in one step.

[craig0r]

Correct me if i'm wrong, GPS is unlocked with Radio, so unless it updates the radio as well, it should'nt unlock the GPS

I think that's right.

[adeyo]

We need someone who can risk bricking their device... so we can try to format the device and then put the necessary files on it. It might brick the device for forever though :D


if you want to give me detailed instructions on what you need, i can try it on my vogue (sprint cdma)...i have to send it to the insurance company in a couple days and i need specific details of what you want me to try as well as what you need me to look for. but email me if you would like...adeyo@liberty.edu

[stickus]

Thanks for the offer adeyo, but i think this is gonna take me longer than a couple of days to sort out an Android only rom image :( .

As for the rest of it, I've downloaded the SDK and will be messing with it for the next couple of weeks (right now, I'm under a time constraint as I'm moving into a new house). I did a quick and dirty test to see whether Android can activate the CDMA radio (or any radio for that matter) without WinMo activating it first. I put the phone into airplane mode (all radios off), booted into Android and tried to connect to the network... no dice. Tried turning radios on in Android... still no dice. Anyone know if we really still need WinMo to turn things on or whether Android can do it on it's own (a setting of some sort in the kernel maybe)? If we can figure that out then things could be well on the way (or not as the case may be :D ).

[tatnai]

all I know is that consistently, if I have no service/really poor service in win mo, and I start up android, I can't connect to the internet. I work in my basement a lot and have learned that I have to go upstairs to start android or internet just won't work no matter what.

[TheKartus]

Thanks for the offer adeyo, but i think this is gonna take me longer than a couple of days to sort out an Android only rom image :( .

As for the rest of it, I've downloaded the SDK and will be messing with it for the next couple of weeks (right now, I'm under a time constraint as I'm moving into a new house). I did a quick and dirty test to see whether Android can activate the CDMA radio (or any radio for that matter) without WinMo activating it first. I put the phone into airplane mode (all radios off), booted into Android and tried to connect to the network... no dice. Tried turning radios on in Android... still no dice. Anyone know if we really still need WinMo to turn things on or whether Android can do it on it's own (a setting of some sort in the kernel maybe)? If we can figure that out then things could be well on the way (or not as the case may be :D ).
As far as activating the CDMA radio, I have no idea on Ion or Cupcake but I do know that on Donut there are options for CDMA settings and stuff. That may be the thing to look at as far as a ROM goes.

[vilord]

stickus, i'll be making updates to the RIL to properly initialize the radio (right now it doesn't) so that should cover when its in airplane mode in winmo.

I also heard from another guy on the forum that he'll be getting a pile of bad ESN vogues, so we might be able to get you one to hack on if you have some ideas

[derekwilkinson]

Does anyone know if it's possible to get to the device's storage without windows mobile?
Is the boot-loader a separate partition on the device, or does it require the main storage to be intact?

[vilord]

yes you can get to the main storage without windows mobile...
And yes the bootloader is a separate partition. What we'll eventually want to do is create a fake XIP partition so that when the bootloader jumps into the XIP it finds our code, which would load something like uboot. But we need someone to take the time to port our kernel drivers over to uboot...

So in the mean time, a quicker option is to have windows leave a space open for android to use. I have that much working, but currently the NAND driver doesn't write properly when in block mode on the vogue, and we haven't had time to investigate why.

[derekwilkinson]

Does anyone have a Vogue they could donate me?
I think I know how I'm going to make this work, but I can't go without a phone if it screws up.

If you have one you would be willing to send me, please PM or email me :)

[stickus]

@ vilord: If you could get me one of those vogues that would rock the casbah (even if the Caliph doesn't like it). :p

I'm currently working with some of the Linux based tools (htc-flasher et al.) to try and extract the DREAIMG.NBH that is out there to see how it is put together and then try to build it back up as per a WinMo .NBH (might be as easy as making android into a pair .NB files to add to the ROM package). I'll be checkin this out some more in the next few days, but may be somewhat delayed (as I'm still unpacking into my new place).

[tallnerd1985]

I am the one trying to grab the 20 or so Vogues so I can donate em to the powers that may be but I will keep you guys posted. For the time being, you could try using the donations for an insurance claim in case your phone "goes missing or gets stolen". Also if anybody here has had this happen to them and they by chance find the missing phone, this would be a great opportunity to donate your old phone that could go to a good cause.

[vilord]

Martin has worked out some of the issues we were having with the NAND driver and we can now write to and read from the NAND... but right now it is still stepping on the windows disk... so we're getting there! We'll keep you posted if we make more progress tonight.

[aven_soulgazer]

I am the one trying to grab the 20 or so Vogues so I can donate em to the powers that may be but I will keep you guys posted. For the time being, you could try using the donations for an insurance claim in case your phone "goes missing or gets stolen". Also if anybody here has had this happen to them and they by chance find the missing phone, this would be a great opportunity to donate your old phone that could go to a good cause.

Would have to buy them off of Craigls List or Ebay if you are on Sprint. From what I hear they don't have any vogues left and give out diamonds, or touch pros if you play your cards right.

[mssmison]

Would have to buy them off of Craigls List or Ebay if you are on Sprint. From what I hear they don't have any vogues left and give out diamonds, or touch pros if you play your cards right.

I would like a touchpro :) mmmmmm, though honestly since I hate winmo so much I'd just put android on it anyways :)

[thoughtlesskyle]

i never thought i would say this, i had a touch pro for a while i sold it off those things have alot of problems (i work at a service center)

the screen blanks out
the keyboard stops working
and the battery life basicly doesn't exsist

i am much happier with my Vogue or my Treo Pro (i switch between them alot)

anyway i must say this much though, i am amazed at the headway you guys are making with android. i first tried it out when martin didnt have anything more than calling and sms working

keep up the good work

[derekwilkinson]

i never thought i would say this, i had a touch pro for a while i sold it off those things have alot of problems (i work at a service center)

the screen blanks out
the keyboard stops working
and the battery life basicly doesn't exsist

i am much happier with my Vogue or my Treo Pro (i switch between them alot)

anyway i must say this much though, i am amazed at the headway you guys are making with android. i first tried it out when martin didnt have anything more than calling and sms working

keep up the good work

There might be an Android ROM soon. Still a lot to fix, but it is running from the device.

[cointelbro]

what's the speed/crashiness like?

[katmandu421]

There might be an Android ROM soon. Still a lot to fix, but it is running from the device.

Sweet! I didnt read back, have you figured ou the filesystem issues, then?

Question: Will we be able to still launch Android from the sd card to try out new builds? Like from Android, launch the emulator with new test builds and whatnot?

EDIT: Read back, looks like NAND is writing, but still some issues persist.

[derekwilkinson]

Sweet! I didnt read back, have you figured ou the filesystem issues, then?

Question: Will we be able to still launch Android from the sd card to try out new builds? Like from Android, launch the emulator with new test builds and whatnot?

EDIT: Read back, looks like NAND is writing, but still some issues persist.

Well right now, the only issue is that it is erasing the windows mobile partition.

[craig0r]

Well right now, the only issue is that it is erasing the windows mobile partition.

I say GOOD RIDDANCE! ;)

[cointelbro]

just make sure you don't ever soft rest lol

[fixxxer2008]

Would have to buy them off of Craigls List or Ebay if you are on Sprint. From what I hear they don't have any vogues left and give out diamonds, or touch pros if you play your cards right.

your wrong, sprint is still giving out vogues, just used ones. they are NOT giving out diamonds as replacements at all. trust me as ive tired.

[fixxxer2008]

Well right now, the only issue is that it is erasing the windows mobile partition.

i don't get how you can make a full android rom that we can flash to our vogues? this cannot be possible, can it? :eek:

if it can be this will be the come back of the qvga vogue for sure! i can see people dumping there diamond and touch pros to buy vogues, lol!

[fixxxer2008]

do we really need a native android rom for the vogue? i was reading over at ppcgeeks that htc is working on another vogue that runs android anyways. ill have to find the link and ill post it here.

edit, here it is: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=76387

[cointelbro]

that's not a vogue?

[fixxxer2008]

that's not a vogue?

rumor has it, it will be a newer version of it running android native.

[cointelbro]

yeah but it has the same button configuration problem as the vogue

if the hardware internals are unchanged, then we'll still be roughly in the same state we are now because we'll still have the problem of not having enough buttons

unless the click is QVGA. any word on that?

[craig0r]

do we really need a native android rom for the vogue? i was reading over at ppcgeeks that htc is working on another vogue that runs android anyways. ill have to find the link and ill post it here.

edit, here it is: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=76387

Is this really relevant? If I have android running on the Vogue I already have, why would I buy another vogue.

And what do you mean, "do we really need a native android rom?" If you feel the need to ask that question, I'm kind of confused as to why you're here. I mean, we don't really NEED android on our phones at all, and if that's your viewpoint, why are you here in the first place?

[fixxxer2008]

Is this really relevant? If I have android running on the Vogue I already have, why would I buy another vogue.

And what do you mean, "do we really need a native android rom?" If you feel the need to ask that question, I'm kind of confused as to why you're here. I mean, we don't really NEED android on our phones at all, and if that's your viewpoint, why are you here in the first place?


i never said that man, calm down. i meant why go through the trouble of making a rom that may not work when htc is developing a new vogue with android on it native.

[thoughtlesskyle]

your wrong, sprint is still giving out vogues, just used ones. they are NOT giving out diamonds as replacements at all. trust me as ive tired.

about 3 months ago they were, thats how my friend got his diamond,
but that was only through asurion, as far as going to a service center for a warranty exchange they only have Vogues i have never seen one get exchanged for a Diamond.

[canyoufindben]

do we really need a native android rom for the vogue? i was reading over at ppcgeeks that htc is working on another vogue that runs android anyways. ill have to find the link and ill post it here.

edit, here it is: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=76387

Yes we do really need a native ROM. You never really know where HTC will sell the CLICK, plus a lot of us are looking to get more life out of our current vogues. While the cupcake builds (The ION and mssmison's Hero themed builds) are pretty speedy on their own, our best hope for an actual Hero build with SenseUI running as your main system would really benefit from running from the phone's ROM.

[TheKartus]

Yes we do really need a native ROM. You never really know where HTC will sell the CLICK, plus a lot of us are looking to get more life out of our current vogues. While the cupcake builds (The ION and mssmison's Hero themed builds) are pretty speedy on their own, our best hope for an actual Hero build with SenseUI running as your main system would really benefit from running from the phone's ROM.

I think the point is that NEED is a strong word. 1.5 runs awesome as is as an everyday OS. The hero builds, are all lagging a little and I'm sure everyone would love them as a flashable image. But do we NEED it? No.

I'm sure you can carry on and live without it, as if it never existed as a possibility. I'm sure too that anyone developing these, would love just as much as you would for a good one to work as a flashable image and run better. Their goal, whether for everyone or self accomplishment is for these projects to work and run great.

This really is a silly argument that need not persist and divide people.

[fixxxer2008]

so whats the progress on this, can it be done or not?

[vilord]

it is possible, but other things have been more of a priority for now...
once we get bluetooth working and things settle down a bit with the radio problems, we'll come back to this.

[fixxxer2008]

it is possible, but other things have been more of a priority for now...
once we get bluetooth working and things settle down a bit with the radio problems, we'll come back to this.

my question is, once you guys create a rom to flash, won't google order you guys to pull it by copyright? sorta like palm did with the pre themes? :confused:

edit: come to think of it android is open source linux so i guess they couldn't say much other than telling us not to call it android!

[natefish]

it is possible, but other things have been more of a priority for now...
once we get bluetooth working and things settle down a bit with the radio problems, we'll come back to this.

Take your time. You guys have done so much already, we can wait till you're ready.

[vilord]

they won't even tell us not to call it android :) yay for open source!

The more android roms out there, the more people using android, the more people will sign up for gmail and google calendar and maybe google voice and will switch to using google search as their primary provider.

This all equals dollar signs for google, since they make money from their advertising.

I think they also make money from people buying stuff in the marketplace (they take a percentage iirc), so more people with android devices == $$$

So in short, no they won't tell us to pull it.

[jaredakelly]

they won't even tell us not to call it android :) yay for open source!

The more android roms out there, the more people using android, the more people will sign up for gmail and google calendar and maybe google voice and will switch to using google search as their primary provider.

This all equals dollar signs for google, since they make money from their advertising.

I think they also make money from people buying stuff in the marketplace (they take a percentage iirc), so more people with android devices == $$$

So in short, no they won't tell us to pull it.

besides google being extremely user friendly i think thats why i like google so much, it's a great business plan.....they provide TONS of free services (most of which are better than ones you pay for) and they make billions on non-intrusive advertising. i'd rather see a small add at the bottom of app or on the side of my search engine results than to have to pay for it.

but back to the subject.......yay for android rom! :D

[fixxxer2008]

meh...after playing with android, i think i may go with the palm pre as my next phone. android just doesn't really cut it for me right now. good work to all of you out there though!

[jaredakelly]

i love android....keep up the good work devs! always itching for a new update!

[natefish]

meh...after playing with android, i think i may go with the palm pre as my next phone. android just doesn't really cut it for me right now. good work to all of you out there though!

I used to want a Pre REALLY bad...but then I found out how inflexible that plan is. I have a retention plan right now and there's NO way I am giving that up. I can keep it with a TP2. Plus, I'm all for webOS working out for everyone, but the Pre is only getting a 43% satisfaction rate from customers right now and that's only a couple months after its release.

[hexto]

I used to want a Pre REALLY bad...but then I found out how inflexible that plan is. I have a retention plan right now and there's NO way I am giving that up. I can keep it with a TP2. Plus, I'm all for webOS working out for everyone, but the Pre is only getting a 43% satisfaction rate from customers right now and that's only a couple months after its release.

My friend has the Pre and after playing with it for over an hour I am not as impressed as I have been with Android overall. Its nice but I think WebOS is just not as nice as Android. With the exception of running multiple apps I can't think of anything that I am missing in Android.

[craig0r]

My friend has the Pre and after playing with it for over an hour I am not as impressed as I have been with Android overall. Its nice but I think WebOS is just not as nice as Android. With the exception of running multiple apps I can't think of anything that I am missing in Android.

Android totally runs multiple apps. Maybe you're thinking of the iPhone?

[fixxxer2008]

I used to want a Pre REALLY bad...but then I found out how inflexible that plan is. I have a retention plan right now and there's NO way I am giving that up. I can keep it with a TP2. Plus, I'm all for webOS working out for everyone, but the Pre is only getting a 43% satisfaction rate from customers right now and that's only a couple months after its release.

ummm you do know when the iphone first came out the numbers weren't good either. the pre is brand new and in time i think it will really give apple a run for the $$. after much research i think the pre will be my next upgrade. i still might go with the hero but ill wait to see if htc can speed up the phone first. the vids ive seen of it make the phone overall look to run super slow.

[craig0r]

ummm you do know when the iphone first came out the numbers weren't good either. the pre is brand new and in time i think it will really give apple a run for the $$. after much research i think the pre will be my next upgrade. i still might go with the hero but ill wait to see if htc can speed up the phone first. the vids ive seen of it make the phone overall look to run super slow.

Actually, HTC has just announced an update to the Hero that speeds it up quite a bit. Check it out: http://gizmodo.com/5340981/upcoming-software-update-fixes-the-htc-heros-only-real-problem

(The cat came back the very next day...)

[tallnerd1985]

ummm you do know when the iphone first came out the numbers weren't good either. the pre is brand new and in time i think it will really give apple a run for the $$. after much research i think the pre will be my next upgrade. i still might go with the hero but ill wait to see if htc can speed up the phone first. the vids ive seen of it make the phone overall look to run super slow.

You all should take a look at the Motorola Sholes. If I what I heard is right, its going to be running a 600 mhz OMAP processor, 288mb Ram and a more advance VR GPU chip than the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre and it supports full OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware acceleration. The only bad thing is that its launching on Verizon so I hope they don't cripple it any kind of way because if everything is correct, that phone should be a killer of the Pre and iPhone. Best part of the Android platform, we can take the Hero rom and flash it in case the Blur UI is not great.

[plemen]

You all should take a look at the Motorola Sholes. If I what I heard is right, its going to be running a 600 mhz OMAP processor, 288mb Ram and a more advance VR GPU chip than the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre and it supports full OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware acceleration. The only bad thing is that its launching on Verizon so I hope they don't cripple it any kind of way because if everything is correct, that phone should be a killer of the Pre and iPhone. Best part of the Android platform, we can take the Hero rom and flash it in case the Blur UI is not great.

Oh man - Sholes looks soo nice... this is on my droolworthy list right beside the touch pro 2... and with Android yet! Here's hoping Bell carries it...

[craig0r]

Oh man - Sholes looks soo nice... this is on my droolworthy list right beside the touch pro 2... and with Android yet! Here's hoping Bell carries it...

And then of course there's the Sony XPeria x3. I believe it is running on a 1Ghz snapdragon. Here's a video of the UI. All I can say is wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UwcVlF5EUM

[canyoufindben]

You all should take a look at the Motorola Sholes. If I what I heard is right, its going to be running a 600 mhz OMAP processor, 288mb Ram and a more advance VR GPU chip than the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre and it supports full OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware acceleration. The only bad thing is that its launching on Verizon so I hope they don't cripple it any kind of way because if everything is correct, that phone should be a killer of the Pre and iPhone. Best part of the Android platform, we can take the Hero rom and flash it in case the Blur UI is not great.

I've been watching the Sholes for a while, even when they thought that it was going to be the Calgary that was coming to Verizon. Since I'm on Verizon, I too pray they don't cripple it.

Also I've been really interested in the Custom UI Motorola is "supposedly" developing for the Sholes called "Blur" a la "SenseUI". From what I've read, the processing and 3d capabilities will be better than the PSP or the iPhone. So in addition to having a great functional Android phone, it should allow us to see more advanced apps and set the bar higher for power android users.

[thoughtlesskyle]

except that since its a motorola phone it will do the following
- lock up
- freeze
- shut off
- and not hold a charge after like a month

[canyoufindben]

except that since its a motorola phone it will do the following
- lock up
- freeze
- shut off
- and not hold a charge after like a month

+1 To that. But I still hold out hope. Maybe Motorola's departure from WinMo will speak of better design too.

[TheKartus]

except that since its a motorola phone it will do the following
- lock up
- freeze
- shut off
- and not hold a charge after like a month

Do newer Motorola phones still have that ridiculous low battery beep that you cannot disable? My old phone would come off the charger, think it had low battery, and beep very loudly every 5 minutes all day...

[cointelbro]

yes
also please open a new topic to moan about motorola, just sayin :p

[fixxxer2008]

lets stay on topic here guys. devs whats the status on this rom? are you actively working on this or not?

[derekwilkinson]

lets stay on topic here guys. devs whats the status on this rom? are you actively working on this or not?

I'm not... I'm either at work or at school :( :rolleyes: I have to pay for my new car ;)

[fixxxer2008]

I'm not... I'm either at work or at school :( :rolleyes: I have to pay for my new car ;)

i hear ya but that's really a damn shame as i know alot of people here and over at ppcgeeks were looking forward to it. maybe another dev can pick the project up?

[tallnerd1985]

Hey Vilord/Jesse,

How is work going with the partitioning of the NAND? Haven't seen any posts from you lately so I was guessing you are hard at work with this project or your playing with the Touch Pro.

[fixxxer2008]

i think it's safe to say this project is dead as of now.

[stickus]

Well now that I'm back and will have some time km devote to this project, I'll be making an effort to get this going again.. time will tell if I can make it happen.

[hexto]

Well now that I'm back and will have some time km devote to this project, I'll be making an effort to get this going again.. time will tell if I can make it happen.

Maybe we can start a bounty. I'd pledge $25 for a ROM:)