Hey there folks!
I'm a MotoMan myself (mostly by fate, not choice). I had a Droid 1 which I loved dearly, and now I'm rocking a Droid X that feels like a new phone every day thanks to CyanogenMod nightlies.
Now, thanks to Motorola's dickery, the Droid X only recently received CyanogenMod (bootloaders are awful). But as I said now that it's around, things are like night and day. Not quite as awesome as my Droid 1 since there are still no custom kernels, however I'm still a happy camper.
A few days ago however my sister bought herself a Droid Charge to lock in a 2-yr contract of $30/month LTE. Naturally, I immediately snatched it and began ROM'ing the sucker into oblivion. It's great! I love how easy it is to flash this puppy. You either use Odin, which is relatively painless... CWR, which I already spend most of my time in on my DX/Nook Color.... or the Samsung utility, which is no different than RSDlite for Motorola phones! All familiar, painless territory. And it seems like you can get some pretty customized ROMs rockin'!
So, uh... why no CyanogenMod? It seems like a lot of Samsung phones are lacking the CyanogenModz. Is there a piece of the puzzle I'm missing? Has Samsung installed something devious like a bootloader preventing it? What's going on here?
thank!
Cyanogen mods are mostly RUU mods. HTC in fact. I coming from TMO have used dozens and release a few Cyanogen custom roms. Realistically, the team releases code for phones that they can easily acquire. HTC phones are GSM phones and can be bought anywhere for about 100 bucks. VZW and Sprint phones are CDMA phones that are a lil harder to obtain and need a contract with the company. Easier to get GSM phones because you can unlock them for whatever global service you want to use them on.
The team is easy to get in touch with, but you will probably need to get a fan base together on a certain device and send to them, to get them to be able to write the code for. Hope this makes sense.
Barny Style.
GSM = Easy to get, easy to sale, no company crap to deal with
CDMA = Company needs to turn on, hard for resale since you need a clean esn. Harder to acquire.
I'm not a dev, but I think CyanogenMod uses AOSP as a base, not RUUs. It certainly looks a lot more like stock Android on my HTC Incredible than it does Sense.
That said, the point about CDMA phones being less widely available and used than GSM phones is probably a valid one, as CDMA is primarily a US thing. There is a CM port for a few Samsung Galaxy S phones.
The issue is that Samsung uses stuff that is not compatible with most of the stock CM code, and a lot of hacking needs to be done to get anything simple working. I know that there are a few Samsung phones in the pipeline for CM7 support now, but it took months of work, and there are still several bugs that need worked out. The biggest issue is primarily just that Samsung releases as little source as they have to, and trying to reverse engineer their binary files that are needed is difficult to do as well. However, I do think that there will be AOSP based ROMs for the Charge after r2doesinc starts working on it.
As far as I know they could be working on a Droid Charge port:
http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?631-WIP-CM7-for-Droid-Charge
Plus there's more than a few posts in that thread of people saying they'd send in phones for them to dev on. I've never used CM (just got my charge after a first-generation iPhone), but it looks slick as all getout. GummyCHARGED is the closest rom to it as far as I can tell.
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i thought i'd ask openly since i've done a fair amount of homework, but i'm still inexperienced when it comes with rooting these devices etc.
i used to be a symbian guy, then switched to htc only winmo phones, and joined this forum back in 04. we would flash custom roms etc etc (i really enjoyed it)
what phone do you guys recommend that's either out now or coming out soon for a US provider? i'm looking for top of the line, super fast, easily rooted, new roms flashed (no encrypted boot loaders etc)
i've been on the iphone since 07 (2g, 3g, 3gs) but the new iphone4 just doesn't impress me very much and i'm ready to finally make the move to (what i believe to be) a better device.
any opinions out there? i'm currently with at&t, but can jump ship to verizon or t-mobile (i kinda like the htc evo, but i always hear people complain about sprint here) and i read the droid x will most likely have an encrypted boot loader, so i'm not sure about verizon either.
I was in the same situation as you last week. I have no complaints about ATT's service in my area and signing a contract with another carrier didn't look too appealing since I've been out of contract since 08.
The Nexus One meets all of your criteria and then some. I do not have that gadget lust anymore, I don't feel that it is incomplete like I always felt with my other devices. Hell the only thing I really felt that was missing from the stock build is waking with the trackball, I too came from an iPhone and it just feels natural as opposed to using the sleep button.
I don't think you can really go wrong with any of the top tier Android offerings right now. They all have strengths and weaknesses but the simple fact that the Nexus One gets the (official) updates first made it an easy choice for me.
thanks for the reply. i've been looking at the nexus one for the same reasons you described... the ability to get updates quickly, and the fact it comes with a vanilla rom. i wish i could get the att version with a discount... it looks like if i go with it i'll need to get t-mobile.
i was a little hesitant just because im not sure how it holds up against the latest round of android devices (due to it being out for a while now) but it definitely looks fairly solid from what i've ready.
i ditto the nexus one..IF you want to stay with ATT..but a very customizable phone is the motorola droid..plus a physical keyboard is a BIG plus for me..but the droid is a little old and you should wait for the droid 2 next month..the thing is..who knows who long is going to take for dev to start working on droid 2...droid already has a large drawer full of kernels, themes, roms..ect
yeh, i think theres just too many phones out/coming out to make a decision. the nexus multitouch problem i keep reading about seems kind of annoying... i played with an evo on sprint today and apparently sprint has extremely slow data in my area (even tho it was full bars on 3g) and the droid x might have a locked/encrypted boot loader which i read will definitely affect the ability to flash roms (so i've read)
almost as bad as car shopping.
thanks guys for all the advice so far.
I just recently joined the Android family, and I'm looking for a secondary device to pretty much use as a testing device. I've got myself a Samsung Captivate, and already went through one close call, so I'd like to have something that isn't my main method of contact to learn the ropes. I'm not looking for something like an N1 (though I'd love that, I can't spare that right now)
I was looking at stuff like the HTC Hero, the G1, Droid Eris. Something along those lines (and within that price range). Obviously it makes no difference if it will work on AT&T, I plan to just use it on WiFi. Any thoughts on other phones that would fit what I'm looking at now? Also, a good development community would be more or less required as I'd be using the phone as a testing ground for anything I'd be doing to my Galaxy S. Thanks!
Hi all,
I am just looking for some advise!!!
I have been playing with xdandroid on my Verizon TP2 for a long time, and have decided its time to switch from win mo to android. Although on the TP2 alot doesnt work, I love android!
Some I'm wondering what is the Best Hackable android phone for Verizon???
Thanks for any thoughts.
Chris Seeley
Many would argue that the droid one is best
For Verizon? Your best bet is probably the Fascinate... maybe the Incredible. From what I've read, the Incredible is more usefully-hacked today, but I believe the Fascinate is likely to have the brightest long-term hacking future.
The big difference between the two: HTC violates the GPL and builds a monolithic kernel with proprietary drivers compiled directly into it, then unceremoniously hacks them out and $hits the hollowed-out carcass on the curb. HTC's kernel source is a half step short of completely useless, and building custom kernels for HTC phones that fully support its hardware (camera, bluetooth, etc) is a never-ending challenge that begins anew with every upgrade. Put another way, HTC's kernel source isn't buildable at all (it has dependencies on files they didn't include and broken references), let alone buildable into a kernel that can be used in the phone. Samsung, in contrast, releases nice kernel source that actually builds, and neatly bundles its proprietary drivers into proper loadable kernel modules.
Put another way, more progress has been made on the Incredible since it's been out for almost 6 months now (vs ~6 weeks for the Fascinate), but the Fascinate today is roughly where the Incredible was 3-4 months after its release. The Epic4G had custom kernels built from the ground up less than a month after its release. Most month-old HTC phones are lucky to have slightly-hacked and tweaked kernels that don't break one or more major peripherals. In fact, the biggest delay for the Epic (and presumably Fascinate) wasn't building a kernel... it was building the replacement bootloader and ripping backup copies of the ROM before blowing it away (the bundled apps from Samsung, Sprint, and Google can't legally be redistributed, so the only way to get them in a new ROM is to rip them from your stock ROM and save a backup copy to restore after reflashing)
Forget Motorola phones even exist. The likelihood of ever being able to truly reflash a Droid2 or Droid X is slim. They've both been rooted, and are hackable to some extent, but with both, you're always going to have to worry about Motorola or Verizon changing the metaphorical locks on the door while you're not paying attention and seriously compromising your satisfaction with your phone.
Thanks.... It just so happened that the fascinate is FREE at bestbuy today. Had to order it online, but I can deal with that.
Free phone Friday I guess....
So it is on order.
Thanks,
Chris
bitbang3r said:
For Verizon? Your best bet is probably the Fascinate... maybe the Incredible. From what I've read, the Incredible is more usefully-hacked today, but I believe the Fascinate is likely to have the brightest long-term hacking future.
--snip--
Samsung, in contrast, releases nice kernel source that actually builds, and neatly bundles its proprietary drivers into proper loadable kernel modules.
--snip--
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Click to collapse
I would think n1 being a developer phone
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
OP said they're on vzw...hence no N1 option
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Too bad u'r on verizon...otherwise it's the Nexsus One
The incredible is just as hackable as the first droid but twice the speed and way sleeker I've had both and I much prefer the Incredible.
Congrats on the Fascinate!
One other benefit of the Fascinate over the Incredible. The Incredible shares much of its design with the Desire, but the only other Desire that's CDMA is US Cellular's. Verizon has never really promoted the Incredible heavily (first they ran out of them for months, then the Droid2/DroidX came along to take Verizon's top spots), and US Cellular is kind of like Alltel was... not exactly a small company, but not exactly T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint, either.
In contrast, the Fascinate shares much of its architecture (including the GPU) with the entire Galaxy S family, and shares the most proprietary parts of its architecture with the Epic4G, which IS Sprint's flagship (or at least reigning co-champion) phone right now. So, in the long run, there won't be any shortage of AOSP-based ROMs that combine the CDMA-specific stuff from the Epic with the family-wide stuff from the rest of the Galaxy S line. Even if the Fascinate never really gets heavily promoted by Verizon or attracts a huge number of developers, the fact that it can more or less benefit directly from so many other family members is IMHO a huge plus. Oh, also... US Cellular has the Mesmerize, which IS pretty much identical to the Fascinate.
The Incredible is a very nice phone. If Verizon released it with the same form factor as US Cellular's Desire (specifically, the real hardkeys) and managed to keep them in stock long enough to tempt me, it might have been the phone that got me to leave Sprint. But knowing what I know now (6 months later) about the kernel architectures and cross-family compatibility of both HTC's phones and Samsung's, I do think the Samsungs are going to have a long, fertile life as phones for hacking.
bitbang3r said:
Forget Motorola phones even exist. The likelihood of ever being able to truly reflash a Droid2 or Droid X is slim. They've both been rooted, and are hackable to some extent, but with both, you're always going to have to worry about Motorola or Verizon changing the metaphorical locks on the door while you're not paying attention and seriously compromising your satisfaction with your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a droid2, fully flashed to cricket and hacked all to he**.. idk if verizon has something in there system that makes changes to the phone whenever they want, but I have not had any problems with the phone doing whatever I want it to do. custom roms/rooting/etc.. all work great
Droid is the best for hacking other vize try out the Nexsus one....
HTC HD2
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk
Thanks to all that contributed. Is the consesus here that the best developer support for future android builds, irrespective of carrier, is The Nexus S ?
So I chose the G Tablet in large part due to the community. My Verizon phone contract is about to end in 2 months and I'm looking at an Android phone (of course). Looking for tethering most importantly for my gtab but I guess I might find that Verizon has locked down the devices too much. I'm open to custom ROMs assuming they are as polished as the ones we have here. Anyone have suggestions?
I've got an EVO and have been quite happy with it. Large modding community, multiple good and polished roms with very active devs, both AOSP and Sense. WifiTether comes with most of the custom ROMS and is free, and speeds are actually pretty good if you happen to be in a 4G area. Phone is good, though battery life is a bit poor (but then again, most Android phones are that way).
All in all I'm pretty pleased with it, though there are plenty of good options out there.
Thanks, I'll have to look into as many as I can. I have a Blackberry now and have done diddly squat for customization of it. Originally planned to flex my development skills a bit but just never got around to it.
Sprint HTC Hero rooted w/ Froyo.
Lg Optimus S (Rooted w/ froyo)
Nexus One on AT&T.
Have been tethering my gtablet since the day I took it home.
Att Samsung captivate great phone except for lousy GPS Samsung should stick to tvs... rooted 2.2
I'm Tethering using Samsung Fascinate. Sucks cuz of no 2.2, still 2.1. In 2 Months many Good Phones will be out So you could try those but Ive had This phone and Droid Incredible for Verizon and both tether fine. Just need Root.
Im using the good ol Droid Eris that is rooted.
I'm Rocking a Droid (Original) with Cyanogen as of now... a few weeks ago it was another flavor.. I love the android phone dev. scene.. Changing Mods is like changing socks.. ;-)
Looking forward to the HTC Thunderbolt Upgrade in FEB
Stuck on the Moment with 2.1. Rooted, customized kernel with Froyo-like JIT enhancements, wifi tethering, and other good stuff. It's reasonable, but so far, no one has made much progress with getting true 2.2 working on it. They released the source for two phones (Acclaim and Intercept) that are very similar to the Moment, but the only community that develops for the phone (SDX) hasn't gotten anything working. It's beyond my skill level, sadly, or I'd try my hand at it.
I'm able to change my phone in April, so I'll probably see what options are available then or coming shortly thereafter.
The droid 2 is a nice phone when it is rooted and you can use it as a mobile hotspot for free if it is rooted, although the droid bionic looks very promissing when it comes out and it has the same tegra 2 processor as the gtablet but it an actually fit in a pocket.
Nexus One running stock 2.2 on t-Mobile with the famous grandfathered 6.99 data plan. Tethering works great. But I've been having issues with the power button not working, so I might finally root it when the warranty runs out so I can assign the power button to the trackball or something.
yellowdragon said:
Nexus One on AT&T.
Have been tethering my gtablet since the day I took it home.
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Click to collapse
+1 It was simple to tether a connection between the two (2) devices and it works well.
Google Nexus One on Bell Mobility (i'm a canuckia resident), modded as per my sig. Bestest phone I ever had. I'm planning on getting a Tegra2-based or a Nexus S as soon as those hit Vidéotron in Quebec though.
So My Vibrant finally got CM7.1 running on it! Most everything works and it runs pretty smooth. But honestly, I feel burned. I was thinking this whole process would take a month or two, it took almost a year. And while I don't fault the crazy hard working guys at CMSGS(who seriously worked their butts off getting me this far), I've learned that community development can be unexpected.
So this time around, I am not going to jump ship without know that the phone I am about to buy runs CM7. I am eyeing a dual core phone, a qHD display, support for the 1700Mhz band, and, of course, support for CM7.1.
Hell of a tall order isn't it? The closest thing I can think of is the G2x which only has an unofficial CM7.1 port and no qHD display. There is also the Sensation, but, with the whole locked bootloader, the CM team does not seem too hot on getting a Sensation port for Cm7 out any time soon.
I am willing to pay sticker and order out of country if I have to, but first I need to find a phone! So any suggestions, something under the radar that I have missed?
AlphaRevX isn't far away for the Sensation for S-OFF, I believe. I'm sure someone will port CM7 to it
That was sorta what I was hoping for, but I am not sure how it will take. Community support for the evo3d/sensation has not really grown like it did for the SGS lines and definitely not like some of the more big name htc phones (like the desire Z and HD2)
I worry that someone will start an unofficial port and when they get bored, just give up on it. Unlike devices that have official CM support, which see continued support long after the device stopped being exciting (Like the droid1).
In any case, it looks like I am just going to have to wait it out and get a phone after it stops being cutting edge.
This is why T-Mo needs the SGS II...
Easy Choice
Its very easy choice there is only one Phone = Galaxy S2