1.6 Donut coming to Motorola Cliq next month?

November 23rd, 2009

You’re looking at a chat transcription between a Cliq owner and what appears to be a Motorola rep about 1.6 coming to the Cliq. The rumor seems that it’s in development and should be released next month. Of course, with no official announcement, it’s still in the rumors section. Seems about time for an update, or is Motorola hoping everyone forgot about the Cliq when the Droid came out?

Thanks Rezzenonne for the tip!

Ben Marvin

How To: Backup protected and paid Android applications for root users

November 22nd, 2009

First off, this is not a guide to pirating apps. There are legit reasons for wanting to backup your applications. Sometimes an older version of the app worked better, or had features you liked better. Sometimes new versions don’t work with specific phones and you need to revert back. Now, you can use AppManager to backup most apps, but protected apps are not included in this because they are stored in a different directory. With a rooted phone, you can access this directory and copy the apps to your SD card or to your computer. After all, you paid for it, it’s yours. If you want to pirate apps, or buy an app, copy it then return it, that’s on you, I’m not advocating that.

First method, copy with your phone to SD card:

  1. Install and open a Terminal Emulator on your phone.
  2. Enter su to be superuser (root).
  3. Enter cd /data/app-private/ to enter the protected application directory.
  4. Use ls to view the apps in the directory.
  5. Enter cp filename.apk /sdcard to copy a single app to your SD card.
    (Or to backup all the protected apps: cp * /sdcard)
  6. If you want to backup all your apps, they can be found in /data/app/

Second method is to use Android Debug Bridge with your PC:

  1. Install the Android SDK on your PC
  2. Connect your phone to your computer via USB cable, and make sure USB debugging is enabled on your phone (Settings > Applications > Development)
  3. Enter adb shell to fire up Debug Bridge and enter shell mode
  4. Enter su to become superuser
  5. Enter cat /data/app-private/filename.apk > /sdcard/filename.apk to copy the file to the SD card.
  6. exit
  7. exit
  8. And finally adb pull /sdcard/filename.apk filename.apk pulls the .apk file from your SD card to your computer.

Success? Problems? Moral issues with copying software? Let us know in the comments.

Ben Marvin

Look what I got! The Android Robot Wall Charger

November 12th, 2009

There really needs to be more Android accessories with featuring the mascot robot. Most accessories are boring these days. And if they are flashy or interesting, it’s the wrong kind, like Hello Kitty branded stuff.

This is the wall charger that came with an Android knockoff phone called the SciPhone. It will take a normal sized USB cable so it can be used with multiple phones, or any USB device really. Picked it up on eBay for 8 bucks, but I can’t seem to find them on there anymore. Oh, and the eyes are green LEDs that light up when it’s plugged in.

The CLIQ doesn’t really take good pictures in low light, does it?

Ben Marvin

How To: Root the Sprint HTC Hero and Samsung Behold 2

November 8th, 2009

Remember the excitement when the G1 was first rooted? Now there’s the same for owners of the Sprint Hero and Samsung Behold 2. For the Hero, there’s a thread over at xda-developers with clear instructions on how to Root your Sprint Hero. Not much yet in the way of custom ROMS or other goodies, but you can run applications that require superuser such as wireless tethering.

For Samsung Behold 2 owners, head over to All Droid for your rooting instructions.

I don’t have either of these handsets, so I can test myself, but if anyone successfully roots (or doesn’t), let us know in the comments how it went. And as always with hacking and modifying your phone, do so at your own risk.

[Thanks Ted for the tip on the Behold 2]

Ben Marvin

Kyocera promises Android phone next year, Nokia says “never”

October 8th, 2009

At CTIA, Kyocera has announced that they have plans to bring an Android handset to market. They didn’t get into specs or details, but we can expect it sometime next year. And it will be a higher end offering than previous Kyocera phones in the US, as they mostly stick to low end phones from smaller carriers going for quantity over quality.

On the other side of the coin over at the Nokia booth, a Nokia rep was overheard as saying that Nokia will never put out a handset with Android. Nokia has a lot invested in Symbian and Maemo, but their recent attempts to penetrate the US smartphone market have been “just the tip” at best. Maybe as Android grows bigger in the coming months they may change their attitude.

Ben Marvin

Just in time for the holidays, T-Mobile and Fender add fake wood to the myTouch 3G

October 8th, 2009

Perfect for the music lover, the T-Mobile® myTouch™ 3G Fender™ Limited Edition is the newest in the T-Mobile myTouch franchise. Anticipated for later this year, the myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition has a guitar-inspired wood-grain finish and provides access to the growing Android Market, which now offers more than 10,000 applications. In addition to offering the vast personalization options and integration of Google™ services available on the myTouch 3G, customers can also enjoy a more complete mobile media experience with a 3.5mm headset jack, pre-installed 16GB microSD card, and exclusive pre-loaded video and audio clips by iconic musicians.

[Read]


Ben Marvin

Samsung Moment coming to Sprint packing 800Mhz

October 8th, 2009

Samsung and Sprint announced the latest Android offering from both companies, the Samsung Moment. Available November 1st for $179.99 on a two year contract, undercutting Samsung’s latest offering from T-Mobile, the Behold 2, by $20. This is the device previously thought to be called the InstinctQ, but obviously they wanted to differentiate it from the Instinct lineup. Featuring a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, slideout 4-row QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5MP camera with a flash, proximity sensor and accelerometer. But one of the most important specs is the 800Mhz processor, which makes this one of the best spec’d Android handsets to date. At least until the rumored 1Ghz HTC Dragon or the Sony Xperia X3 come onto the scene.

Anyone planning on passing on the HTC Hero to get the Samsung Moment?

[Read via BGR]

Ben Marvin

Motorola CLIQ hits Ebay

October 6th, 2009

Hungry for the new Motorola CLIQ and don’t wanna wait for it to actually be on sale? Well, it isn’t your lucky day, because one lucky person already scored their new Moto CLIQ from Ebay. And they had to dish out $799 for that honor, well over the retail price. What do you guys think? Is it worth the hundreds of dollars over retail just to be able to say you were the first person to get one?

Personally, I can wait. Maybe if I was told the phone wouldn’t come out till next year sometime it might be worth it, but a few more weeks isn’t going to make much of a difference.

[Ebay] [via TmoNews]

Ben Marvin

HTC Hero theme for your Blackberry Bold, Storm, Tour or 8900

October 6th, 2009


Perhaps a bit steep at $6.99 just for a theme, but Elecite has a HTC Hero, Sense UI theme for your Blackberry Bold, Storm, Tour and 8900 series device. But if you’re locked into a Blackberry for the foreseeable future, this might be the only way to get your Android fix. Here’s the full details on the theme, and check out the video below for a full demo of what you’re dishing out 7 bucks for:


The massive homescreen allows for 5-6 customizable icons, profiles/manage connections buttons, a Today page with hidden today items for phone log, messages and calendar icons, a Media page with quick access buttons to music, media and pictures, and finally, a dedicated menu for quick access to your options, contacts, and more.

[Product Page] [via CrackBerry]


Ben Marvin

Motorola Droid/Tao/Sholes announcement on Oct 30th?

October 5th, 2009

BGR got their hands on a supposed Verizon marketing/merchandising calendar that shows a Oct 30th being a potentially important date for the first Android powered phone coming to Verizon. Not sure the difference between the “marketing” and “merchandising” dates, but we’ll keep an eye out for the Verizon Blackberry Storm 2 on October 14th and the HTC Imagio on the 20th to see what happens. But this is still in the rumors section for now. What do you think? Is the announcement coming this soon? Are we still believing the supposed December release date?

Ben Marvin

Get Equifax Score Power