Android 2.2 Froyo installation issue

Google has been rolling out the latest version of Android 2.2 (Froyo) to all the Nexus One users over the air. However, the installation does not seem to be smooth for all the users. The installation went on smoothly on my phone which is T-Mobile compatible Nexus One. Some of the users of AT & T compatible Nexus One seem to be suffering from some installation issues. Friend of mine (Sreekanth) became one of the victims and here are his experiments with Froyo installation.

Froyo installation issue haunts Nexus One users

What is the issue?

Yesterday night, my Nexus One got the latest release of Android 2.2 Firmware through OTA.  I started the download process which took about 2 minutes to complete. Once the download was complete, the mobile got restarted to perform the installation process. The installation process ran for the next few minutes followed by a restart for the initial boot.

Unfortunately, the initial boot didn’t proceed after the “X” logo followed by a series of restarts for every 2 minutes for quite a long time. I left it as such the whole night.  When I saw the device the next morning, it was still the same. Upon Google search, I found out that few other people also faced similar issue with this OTA update.  Also I found that this issue is happening for the AT&T version of Nexus One mobiles. With no other option left, I decided to apply the firmware update manually.

Manual Update

• First download the manual update from the internet.

• Power down the device and remove the memory card.

• Rename the downloaded file as update.zip and copy it in the root directory of the memory card

• Load the memory card into the device

• Power up the mobile by pressing the power button, volume down key and track ball. This way of starting the device leads you to the boot menu.

• A screen would 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 “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.

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

• This initiates the installation process and the phone gets rebooted automatically once the process got over.

Downloading the correct update file is the tricky part here. After few unsuccessful attempts, I finally found out this particular update which worked perfect with me.

-- Sreekanth

Google, please look into this and fix this as soon as possible before it is blown up like an iPhone 4 reception issue.

Android 2.2 Froyo – What do I like about it?

Google has been rolling out the Android 2.2 (code named Froyo) update to all the Nexus One users over the air. I got the update yesterday and have been trying the new things on Froyo. Trying to reconcile what they said it will have and what it has.

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Here is a list of things I liked about Froyo:

• Performance improvement & enhanced browser speed. Performance improvement is one of the main features used to advertise Froyo. But, I could not notice it clearly as I never had to wait for any operation even with the older version of Android 2.1. Search seems to be very faster than the previous version. Rendering on browsers seem to be faster with the V8 Javascript engine.
• Flash Player 10.1. Flash player seems to be friendly with the browser. I have tried out few flash gaming sites like miniclip.com and I was able to play some of the most addictive PC games on mobile. Played for around an hour and Flash player managed to run without any crashes. Now, I can play TED videos directly from the browser. :-)
• Improved Camera and Gallery. Camera interface has been revamped and it looks cleaner now. It has been made easy to control zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging, focus and exposure with the new interface. Another cool stuff with the camera is the flash mode for videos which means that videos can be shot at night as well.
• Android Cloud to device messaging. Android Cloud to device is a  mechanism which allows sending messages from cloud to your device. I tried sending some bookmarks from Google Chrome to my phone using ChromeToPhone extension. Once the message is sent from the Cloud, it will open the browser / Google maps on your phone with the web page / location. This is an awesome feature. 
• Apps on SD Card. Though Froyo supports installation of applications on SD card, most of the developers have not implemented this so far. Little disappointed over that.
• Improved User Interface for GMail, GTalk, Calendar applications. Changes have been made with the objective of improving the accessibility. 
• Misc. Other noticeable features include Tethering & Wi-Fi Hotspot, Contacts grouping on Call log, Enterprise support, etc.

Froyo is not a major update but has a set of significant new features. I am loving it. The next major version of Android 3.0 (code named as GingerBread) is likely to focus more on the User Interface to avoid the fragmentation problem.

-- Varun

USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot on Android 2.2 Froyo

Android 2.2 Froyo has come with built-in tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot support. You can share your phone’s data connection with your laptop / other devices without having to install any other third-party application. On the Nexus One, you can share your phone’s data connection with up to six devices at once, by turning your phone into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot. USB tethering

• Turn on the USB tethering from Home > Settings >  Wireless & networks > Tethering & portable hotspot > USB tethering.  No additional application is needed for Tethering.
• After the USB tethering is turned on, connect your Android device to the laptop.
• Once the Android device is connected to your laptop, you will be asked to install the driver.
• Download and install the driver "Android USB Ethernet / RNDIS” from here.
• You are all set here. Enjoy your phone’s data connection on your laptop.

Wi-Fi hotspot

• Turn on Wi-Fi hotspot from Home > Settings > Wireless & networks > Tethering & portable hotspot > Portable Wi-Fi hotspot. No additional application is needed for this.
• You can configure the name and the security type of the network from Portable Wi-Fi hotspot settings. At most, six devices can share your phone’s data connection.

For USB tethering on Android phones before Froyo, check this out. More details about USB tethering & Wi-Fi hotspot can be found here.

-- Varun