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Don’t feel like waiting around for Verizon to push you the Android 2.2 update? Great, let’s show you how to upgrade manually. The process is fairly straight forward, and not very risky like rooting your phone. Also, this is the official update, so it will not harm your phone or void your warranty. Thanks to Android Forums for this great guide! Let’s get started:

What You’ll Need:
- A MicroSD Card inserted into your Droid
- An Internet Connection

1. Install Astro File Manager:
Install Astro File Manager for free from the Android Market if you don’t already have it.

(Scanning this QR code will take you to the Android Market listing for Astro File Manager.)

2. Download the update.zip file to your phone:
Download the update.zip file from one of the following locations directly from the internet to your phone:

Location 1 | My Droid Does [Tested and Verified!]

Location 2 | Dev-Mob [Tested and Verified!]

(Scanning the QR codes from above will automatically begin the download from its respective location.)

3. Move the update.zip file to the root of your SD card:
To move the update.zip to the root of your SD card, do the following:
- Open Astro File Manager
- Enter the Downloads folder
- Press and hold on the update.zip file
- Select “Edit” and then “Copy”
- Now press the “Astro Up” button once which will take the root directory
- Press the “Astro Edit” button followed by “Paste”
The update.zip file should now be in the root directory.

4. Prepare for the Update:
Once you have unmounted the phone, it is now time to prepare the Droid to perform the update. You will be accessing Recovery Mode to do this. Start by powering down the phone completely.

While holding “X” on the physical keyboard, hold the power button to turn on the phone. You may let go of the power button, but do not let go of X.

After a few seconds, an Exclamation Mark icon will appear. You may now let go of X. To access Recovery Mode from the exclamation mark icon, hold the volume up button and then press the camera button.

5. Perform the Update:
You will then open a text menu with four options. Using the directional pad, navigate to “apply sdcard:update.zip” and push the gold, center button to select it.

The update process will begin immediately and should take no longer than a minute or two. It will let you know when the process is complete.

You might get this error:
Code:
E:Can’t open /cache/recovery/command
DON’T worry about it… it just blows right past it and installs fine.

From here, navigate to “reboot system now” and select it. Your phone will shut off and reboot.

Some users are reporting a longer than usual boot time after installing this, be patient and do not be alarmed, this is normal.

6. Congratulations!
Your Droid has now been updated to the official Android 2.2 Froyo release! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns what so ever, please post them to this thread. I will be closely monitoring this thread to provide assistance to those who need it.

ENJOY!

[via Phandroid]

Thanks to the hacker that rooted to original Samsung Galaxy S, it’s relatively easy to root the US versions for T-Mobile and AT&T, the Vibrant and Captivate. Why would you want to root? Well, for starters, you can remove all that bloatware that carriers love to install. You can also now use wifi tethering applications, and other root-only applications. And it opens you to the world of custom ROMs and doing pretty much anything you want to your phone.

And as always, be aware that modifying your phone like this may or may not void your warranty, and you could brick your phone. Although this procedure is fairly simple and safe, you have been warned. Let’s get started.

For the Vibrant:

1. Download the attached zip and rename to: update.zip
2. On your device, navigate to Settings > Applications > USB settings and select Mass storage
3. Plug your device into your computer, select mount USB from your device’s pull-down window
4. Copy the update.zip to the INTERNAL SD memory (~14gb on this drive, not the one w/ Avatar if you’ve still got the 2gb SD card in)
5. Turn your phone off.
6. Hold down volume up and volume down while powering on the phone, this should get you to a recovery menu, you may have to try this a few times.
7. In Recovery menu select ‘Reinstall Packages’ (use vol_down then power to select)

And for the Captivate:

1) You may need Samsung drivers if you are on a PC, which you can learn about here: ADB Drivers at the Unlockr
For 64 bit Windows, you’ll need these drivers: http://zedomax.com/blog/2010/07/14/s…iver-download/
Don’t proceed until your phone is fully installed on Windows with the drivers!

2) Download the attached zip and rename it to update or update.zip if you are on a Mac. Scroll down the notification bar and click “mount” to allow your computer to read the internal memory. Put the file on the INTERNAL SD card of the Captivate, which won’t be tough to figure out if you don’t have an SD card in the phone.

3) This step requires the Android SDK, and Android Debugging enabled. You can get the SDK here: Android SDK. Just download the zip, extract it to something like C:\Android. You won’t need the Java dev pack or anything.
You can enable Android Debugging like this: From the homescreen, press Menu, then click Settings. Navigate to Applications>Development and check USB Debugging. Now, hook the phone to the computer. Next,
On a PC, click start>run>”cmd” (in the text box) or on a Mac, spotlight “Terminal”. Linux users, you know what to do.
The command you will use is in the tools folder of wherever you extracted it to (IE: C:\android\tools), so be sure your working directory of command prompt is in that tools location!
Finally, type:

Code:

adb reboot recovery

4) Once the phone is booted into recovery, use the volume keys on the phone to scroll to “Reinstall packages.” Use power to select what you have highlighted.

5) Give yourself a pat on the back. You are now rooted. You should see a Superuser application now.

Sources: [xda-developers and xda-developers]

Just shy of two weeks since it was released, the T-Mobile MyTouch Slide has been rooted. Superuser access is here, now bring on the custom ROMs and ports. A big thanks to the community on xda-developers and all members of the Android community.

Credit goes to eugene373 for posting this:

The HTC Hero that was released in Europe and other parts of the world, the GSM verson is one of the oldest Android phones around. It was the hottest thing when it came out and seems to be neglected in terms of software updates, leaving a lot of owners upset. With no word from HTC or carriers on a 2.1 upgrade, the hackers have come to the rescue. The upgrade was actually released by Chungwa Telecom in Taiwan, but I think the majority of Hero users don’t live there, so it’s been released as a rooted ROM for you. Head over to xda-developers for all the downloads. And as always with these sort of things, be aware you could brick your phone. And if you’re not experienced at reflashing your phone, please do some research.

There’s currently no schedule for when the Motorola Droid will actually get the Froyo 2.2 update, but if your phone is rooted, and you’re feeling frisky, you can upgrade now to the latest version of Android. The only thing that isn’t working is the wifi, which seems like a small price to pay for all the new features. This was done to protect the source of the leak, as it is likely someone that works closely with Google or Motorola. Head on over to MyDroidWorld for full instructions and download links.

[via Android Guys]

Don’t feel like waiting around for Verizon to give you Android 2.1 for your Droid Eris? Well now you can do it yourself. Verizon supposedly says that it will void your warranty, but there’s no way they can tell, it’s the exact same file they will be releasing. Just follow the instructions below and you should be fine. Just don’t pull your battery or anything if you think it’s taking too long. This method does not require rooting your phone or any special tech skills either.

Download the Android 2.1 firmware for Droid Eris straight from Google.

Rename the file update.zip and copy it to your microSD card via USB. [Note: make sure the file is named update.zip and not update.zip.zip.]

Power down your Eris.

Hold down the “Volume Down” button as you power the phone back on.

A screen should appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.

When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Home” buttons at the same time.

From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”

When the screen displays “Install from sdcard complete” select “reboot system now” and wait for the phone to power back up.

[via Phandroid]

A friend of mine was having problems with her HTC Sync, and this solved the issue right away. While I’m not sure many people use HTC Sync, hopefully this will help out anyone that’s having problems.

[from xda-developers forum]

Download HTC Sync 2.0.18
1. Install HTC Sync 2.0.18
2. Connect phone to computer (via USB)
3. Let the computer install the drivers
4. Go to “Devices and Printers,” Find “Android Phone”, right click on it, then “Properties,” then “Hardware” tab. You will see “HTC Dream” or “My HTC” there.
5. Click on it, go to “Properties.” Then click the “Driver” tab. Do “Update Driver.”
6. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\HTC\HTC Driver\Driver Files. Select either Vista or Windows 7. Choose “androidusb.”
7. Once its done, unplug your phone and plug it back in. “USB Sync” should pop up on your phone, select it. Your phone should be connected to your computers HTC Sync now, make sure the app is running .
8. Anytime you want to sync now, make sure HTC sync is running on your PC, then plug in your phone, then select the option on the phone.

It’s been out a while, and you know the developers and hackers have been working hard at it, and now the Droid Eris has finally been rooted. Super user access will now allow Eris owners to do all kinda of cool stuff to their phones otherwise not allowed. Android 2.1 rooted will be available soon, but for now it seems to be just 1.5. The process is for advanced users, and you shouldn’t attempt it if you don’t know what you’re doing, but if you’re ready to make the leap to root, hit the link and start doing some reading.

[xda-developers]

It’s only been out a few weeks and root access has now been obtained on the Motorola Milestone, the GSM version of the Droid on the Telus network. Fairly similar to the rooting procedure for the Motorola CLIQ, but a bit more complex, this procedure is recommended for advanced users only. Something could always go wrong and you could brick your phone. But the benefits of rooting such as removing preinstalled apps, installing custom ROMs and WiFi tethering have encouraged many users to root their Android. Head over to AllDroid for the instructions if you wanna take the leap.

So you got your new Motorola Backflip then found out that AT&T locked it down so you can’t install apps from the SD card? Or maybe you knew that and went ahead and got it in hopes of rooting very soon. Well, rooting hasn’t happened yet for the Backflip, but we still have the solution for you.

1. First you will need to install the Android SDK, which you can download here.
2. Then download and install the Motorola USB drivers for 32-bit or 64-bit, depending on your OS.
3. Once everything is installed, on your phone go to Settings > Applications > Development > Enable USB Debugging.
4. Back on your PC, with the phone plugged into USB, copy the .apk files to the /tools folder where you extracted the SDK.
5. Then from a command prompt, navigate to the /tools folder and type adb install application.apk where application.apk is the file you want to install.
6. Congrats, the application should now be installed.

For more information on Android Debug Bridge and other cool stuff you can do, check out this guide at xda-developers.