One year with Nexus One!

Yay, it’s the first birthday of my Nexus One – my first smart phone. Thanks to Google. If not for a Google phone, I would have never purchased an Android phone. I totally love my Nexus One. It opened up the Android space on this blog and some of my posts became popular on the web. It gave a new identity for myself on the web. Android is so open that you can tweak almost anything and everything on your phone. Moreover, you can learn a lot by doing so.

Popular Android Posts

• [How to] Install Android market on Emulator. Link.
• [How to] Change the DNS server on Android. Link. Link.
• [Review] IP Webcam – Turn your phone into a network camera. Link.
• [How to] Change fonts on Nexus One. Link.

Some of the aforementioned articles are quoted on famous Android community sites like AndroidPolice, AndroidCommunity, etc. Check out all my posts on Android here. If you are interested only in Android related posts, subscribe this feed.

Android development. After getting the phone, the very first thing I did was to download the Android SDK. Though I have gotten my hands dirty on Android development, I have not developed anything big enough to make to the market. But, stay tuned, there is an interesting app coming soon. Also, I have written many small scripts to automate some of my daily tasks like archiving old SMSes, etc.

Any Regrets? Though Nexus One is one of the best smart phones of its generation, it has its own set of problems when compared to other phones. The first item on the list is its Touch sensitivity – on continuous usage the screen becomes sticky and less responsive when compared to Apple devices. The device gets heated up while charging. Apart from these two issues, I don’t have any major complaints with my Nexus One. The device has no front camera and is definitely a drawback. My complete review on Nexus One.

-- Varun

Manual installation of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on Nexus One and Nexus S

As you might have already known, Google has started rolling out Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update to Nexus One and Nexus S. But, again, they have mentioned on the tweet that it will take few weeks for the OTA to complete. Some nice guys at XDA Developers have back traced the download link of the updates. In other words, you don’t have to wait for OTA updates and can now download the ROM (they are official Google ROMs) and install it manually on your device. Nexus One Gingerbread update GRI40 from FRG83G. Nexus S Gingerbread GRI40 from GRH78. Read more to know about manual installation.

Steps for manual installation

• First of all download the update from these links - Nexus One Gingerbread update GRI40 from FRG83G. Nexus S Gingerbread GRI40 from GRH78.

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

• Power down the device.

• Power up the mobile by pressing the power button, volume down key and track ball. This will take 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.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you brick your phone in the process of manual installation.

-- Varun

Nexus One OTA – Android 2.2.1 FRG83D build Part 1

I received an OTA update this morning. The update is the first one of a two-part System update. This part is required to prepare the device to receive the new Android System. The second update containing the new Android System will be received soon after. This confirms that Android 2.3 GingerBread is coming to Nexus One soon. :) Update: This has turned out to be yet another disappointment for Nexus One owners who are waiting for Android 2.3 code named as GingerBread. Both the updates are related to Android 2.2.1 FRG83D build. People who have got the second update confirmed the same. Thanks to @sreekanthnaga for the info. Apologies for the misleading information. I wish Google sends out more technical details in the OTA updates. I originally thought that the first update was for FRG83D and the next one for Android 2.3.

-- Varun

[How to] Use your Android Phone as a web cam for your laptop?

There are lots of applications available in the Android market to use your Android phone as a web cam for your laptop. Android application “USB Webcam” has been my personal favorite so far. But, the “USB Webcam” project is sort of dead now. “DroidCam Wireless Webcam” is another application which comes close to “USB Webcam”. It works over WiFi and streams your phone’s camera output to your computer. DroidCam allows you to configure the camera settings - Width, Height and Frame rate. However, the video quality of DroidCam is not as good as USB Webcam.

Steps to setup your Android phone as a webcam:

1. On your phone, install the application “DroidCam Wireless Webcam” from the Android market. The size of the application is around 100 KB.
2. On your PC, download the latest version of Windows component from here. Extract the zip file and execute the installer file (DroidCam.exe). Admin privileges are required to install and register DroidCam windows driver. Open any application (for eg Skype) that uses WebCam. This will automatically start the windows component. You may have to disable your Firewall for the application to work.
3. Open the application on your phone. Click on Connect > Add new PC. Specify the IP address of your PC and a human readable name for it. Save the settings and click on the name / IP address to connect to your PC.
4. You are all set here. Any application which uses the camera will take the video feeds from the “DroidCam” windows component.

DroidCam supports Windows XP / Vista / 7 and also 64-bit Windows. It has support for Linux as well. MAC version will be available soon. Read more about DroidCam from here.

Similar apps: USB Webcam, IP Webcam (supports multiple view options)

-- Varun

[How to] Use your favorite video as Live Wallpaper in Android

One of the coolest features of Android (2.1+) is its Live Wallpapers – richer, animated, interactive backgrounds on home screen. Android devices are shipped with few live wallpapers and you can download more from here. A live wallpaper is very similar to a normal Android application and has access to all the facilities of the platform: SGL (2D drawing), OpenGL (3D drawing), GPS, accelerometers, network access, etc. This article will help you to set your favorite video as a live wallpaper on your Android device.

Follow these steps

• ‘Video Live Wallpaper’ is the application which does the magic. The application can be installed from the market. It is available for free and it takes around 6.2 MB after installation. The application can not be moved to SD card.
• After the application is installed, open Launcher (Home). Press Menu from the Launcher.
• Select ‘Wallpaper’ > ‘Live wallpapers’ > ‘Video Live Wallpaper’. If you are not seeing this option on your device, please check if the application was installed properly.
• Select the video file or directory you want to be used as live wallpaper. ‘Settings’ > ‘Video file or directory’. You can also configure other options like Swiping smoothness from the Settings screen.
• Select the ‘Set wallpaper’ and your video will be used as live wallpaper.

If you are interested in creating your own live wallpaper, check out this sample.

-- Varun

[How to] Change the DNS server of 3G connection on Android phones

This post is a continuation to my previous post on “[How to] Change DNS Server on Android phones?”. The earlier post was about changing the DNS Server when you are connected using WiFi. For a 3G connection, a different set of properties needs to be changed and the way we change them is also little different.

Method-1 [Manual]

• Your device should be rooted. Check out these instructions to root your device with a single-click.
• Download and install the latest Android SDK from here. This comes up with all the tools needed for development and testing of your application. Make sure the driver ‘ADB interface’ is installed on your machine. In most of the cases, the driver will be installed directly once you plug-in the device.
• Connect your Android device to your PC on debug mode. Enable USB debugging on your phone. Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
• On your laptop, open a command prompt and enter “adb shell”.
• Use the command “getprop | grep dns” to know all the dns properties being used. This command requires BusyBox. Please install it if you have not done it earlier.
• ‘rmnet0’ is the interface name for the 3G connection. net.rmnet0.dns1 and net.rmnet0.dns2 are the properties to be changed to point to OpenDNS server. Since, these properties are changed after the connection is established, net.dns1 and net.dns2 also have to be changed.
• Execute these commands as root user: setprop net.rmnet0.dns1 208.67.222.222. setprop net.rmnet0.dns2 208.67.220.220. setprop net.dns1 208.67.222.222. setprop net.dns2 208.67.220.220
• Done. You can test if the settings are proper by visiting http://welcome.opendns.com. Remember, the settings will be applicable only for the current session.

 

Method-2 [Semi-Automated]

• If you don’t want to take the pain of connecting your device to laptop and then changing the settings, try out this method. It uses a wrapper script which executes on your phone.
• Download and install Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A). This has interpreters for executing your shell script (in fact, lots of other scripting languages also) from your phone.
• Download the wrapper script I have written from here. This wraps all the commands needed for changing the DNS server in a shell script.
• Move the script to /sdcard/sl4a/scripts/. (adb push change-dns.sh /sdcard/sl4a/scripts/.)
• For easy access, add the scripts folder to your home screen. Long press on the home screen > Folders > Scripts. Open the scripts folder and you should see the script (“change-dns.sh”) which you have copied in the above step. All the above steps are needed to be done just once.
• Click on the script to launch it. Grant the Super user permission when asked for. You just have to run this script whenever you are connecting to your mobile network.

If you know of any hook to fully-automate the process, please share it by commenting on this post.

-- Varun

Unix commands on Android using BusyBox

BusyBox is an utility application which executes on an embedded Linux system to provide you with a bunch of handy Unix / Linux tools. It is designed to be a small executable which makes it ideal for use with embedded devices. The application is also known as “The Swiss Army Knife” of embedded Linux. If you have a rooted Android device, this application is a must-have one. It offers some of the popular Unix tools like grep, awk, sed, etc on your Android device.

Pre-requisites

• Your device should be rooted. Check out these instructions to root your device with a single-click. Complete guide for rooting.
• Download and install the latest Android SDK from here. This comes up with all the tools needed for development and testing of your application. Make sure the driver ‘ADB interface’ is installed on your machine. In most of the cases, the driver will be installed directly once you plug-in the device.

Installation Method-1

• Connect your Android device to your PC on debug mode. Enable USB debugging on your phone. Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
• Download the latest version of BusyBox binaries for ARMV6l from here. Rename it to just busybox and copy to the root folder of your SD Card.
• Download the BusyBox installation script from here. Copy the same to the root folder of your SD Card. Now, you are all set to start the installation.
• On your laptop, open a command prompt and enter “adb shell”. Get into super user mode by typing su.
• Move  to the SD card where the binary and the installation script are placed. cd /sdcard.
• Execute the installation script sh ./installbusybox.sh.
• Check if the installation is complete by issuing a grep command. “getprop | grep dns”.

Installation Method-2

• If you don’t want to take the pain of downloading the binary and then the installation script, try out this method-2. This method eliminates most of the manual steps done above.
• Download and install the application “BusyBox” from Android market. This is not the actual application rather it is an installer for the BusyBox utility.
• Open the application. It will list down some of the recent versions of BusyBox utility. Select the latest one and click on install. Allow the Super user permission when asked by the installer. That is it. You are done.
• This method is quite simpler when compared to the other one. But, the installer is problematic with some of the custom ROMs.

Check out the complete list of commands supported by BusyBox here.

-- Varun

[How to] Change DNS server on Android phones?

Domain Name System / Server is the one which takes care of translating the human readable domain names into machine understandable IP addresses. If you are not able to access a particular set of websites either from your laptop / phone, DNS server could be a reason for it. It happened to me recently that only few pages were getting loaded properly on my Nexus One. To fix the problem, one has to change the network configurations to use some of the popular DNS servers like Open DNS or Google’s public DNS. On Android phones, changing the DNS server is easy if you are using the static IP. You can do it from Settings > Wireless & network settings > Wi-Fi settings > Advanced (from menu) > check the ‘Use static IP’ option. After that, you will be able to change the DNS servers. However, when you are using dynamic IP (which will be the case most likely), the process is not straight forward. DNS server details will be taken from the DHCP server which assigns the IP. 

Here are the steps to be followed to change the DNS servers:

• Your device should be rooted. Check out these instructions to root your device with a single-click.
• Download and install the latest Android SDK from here. This comes up with all the tools needed for development and testing of your application. Make sure the driver ‘ADB interface’ is installed on your machine. In most of the cases, the driver will be installed directly once you plug-in the device.
• Connect your Android device to your PC on debug mode. Enable USB debugging on your phone. Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
• On your laptop, open a command prompt and enter “adb shell”.
• Use the commands “getprop dhcp.eth0.dns1” and “getprop dhcp.eth0.dns2” to know the DNS servers currently being used. There are applications like ‘ipconfig’ which will give you the same details.
• To change the DNS servers, use the command “setprop <property name>”. “setprop dhcp.eth0.dns1 208.67.222.222” “setprop dhcp.eth0.dns1 208.67.222.222”. This command has to be executed as root user.
• Remember, the above step will change the DNS servers only for the current session. You will have to repeat it when you are re-connecting to the network. Read through the next section to know about how to change the DNS server automatically when you re-connect to a network.

Changing the DNS servers automatically

• Android system chooses the DNS servers using the script located at “/system/etc/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-hooks/20-dns.conf”
• By default, /system partition is mounted as read-only. Need to re-mount the same in read-write mode. Follow the instructions here to do this.
• Take a backup of the script. Download the modified version of the script from here. The modified script has two additional lines which will override the DNS server changes. The modified script uses the Google’s public DNS.
• Changes will be applied after restarting the connection / device.

Update: To change the DNS server of 3G connection, check out this article.

-- Varun

[How to] Change fonts on Nexus One

Few days back, I had rooted my Nexus One using the article I had posted about rooting the Nexus One. One of the main reasons behind that move was the inability of Android to render the text in my mother tongue (Tamil). The plain vanilla Android 2.2 does support only a limited set of fonts and it has no support for Unicode yet. DroidSans is the default font used on Android devices. Fonts are placed inside /system/fonts folder of the Android system. After rooting my device, I tried installing few fonts which support Unicode char-set and my Nexus One is able to render Tamil characters now. However, some special glyphs of the Tamil language are not getting rendered properly. This is something to do with the position of the characters. Anyways, now I can read my favorite Tamil blogs on my dearest Nexus One.

  

Nexus One displaying Tamil characters!!

Here are the steps to be followed to change fonts:

• First requirement here is that your device must be rooted.
• Find out the font which supports Unicode char set. I have used “Arial Unicode MS” for rendering the Tamil characters.
• Download and install the latest Android SDK from here. This comes up with all the tools needed for development and testing of your application. Make sure the driver ‘ADB interface’ is installed on your machine. In most of the cases, the driver will be installed directly once you plug-in the device.
• Connect your Android device to your PC on debug mode. Enable USB debugging on your phone. Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
• On your laptop, open a command prompt and enter “adb shell”.
• By default, /system partition is mounted as read-only. Need to re-mount the same in read-write mode. Follow the instructions here to do this.
• Take a backup of the DroidSans font in super user mode. “adb shell”  > su > mv /system/fonts/DroidSans.ttf /system/fonts/DroidSansOriginal.ttf
• After that, you have to push the Unicode font you have selected by executing the command “adb push <path to your font file> /system/fonts/DroidSans.ttf” So, we are just replacing the DroidSans font with the new one. The font you are choosing should support the characters originally supported by DroidSans. Otherwise, this is what will happen.

-- Varun

One-Click root for Nexus One

If you are a tech savvy person, probably the first thing you will try to do on your Android is rooting it. Rooting is the process of gaining root privileges on your Android device. It enables an user to override protected features of the Android Operating System. After rooting the device, one can install the unofficial firmware images. There are different ways of rooting the device. The common method is to unlock the boot loader using the fastboot command. Remember, this will void the warranty. You will even see a warning from Google before doing this. Our friends at XDA have developed lots of tools to ease the rooting process. Quick rooter for Android 2.2 is one such popular tool. It does not install a full ROM, but, meant to be flashed over an existing Froyo installation. Rooting gets further easier with the new application “Universal Androot”

One-Click root

• Universal Androot is the application which does the magic. The beta version of it can be downloaded from the developers site. Open the application after installing it.
• Just click on the “Root :-)” button to unlock your device. Kudos to the developer. It works. “SuperUser” application will also be installed after you root your device. This is used to allow / deny when someone request for root access.
• The application also provides an option to unroot your device. It is working with minor issues.

Supported devices
Google Nexus One (2.2), HTC Hero (2.1), HTC Magic (1.5), Dell Streak (2.1), Motorola Milestone (2.1), Motorola XT701, Motorola XT800 (2.1), Motorola ME511, Sony Ericsson X10 (1.6), Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro (1.6), Acer Liquid (2.1), Vibo A688 (1.6)

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you mess up your phone trying this application.

(via xda-developers)

-- Varun

Nexus One Twin (HTC Desire) reaches India

The wait is finally over. HTC announces the launch of the Nexus One twin (HTC Desire) in India. The phone has the similar configuration as that of Nexus One in terms of the processor, memory, camera, resolution, etc. HTC has tied up with Tata DoCoMo to launch the phone in India. The cost of the phone is R 28,900/- which is quite reasonable when compared to the cost of iPhone 3GS in India. Trust me, it is powerful than iPhone 3GS. The new HTC Desire will be available starting today at all authorized HTC resellers across the country.   Few differences

1. Optical trackpad instead of a trackball which I have hardly used on my Nexus One.
2. FM radio. Though the Nexus One uses the same Broadcom BCM4329 WiFi/FM transmit/receive chipset, Google has not enabled it officially. Need to use a modified kernel and ROM for listening to FM Radio on Nexus One.
3. No dual microphone to cancel the noise in HTC Desire.
4. HTC Sense UI.
5. Android 2.1. Froyo update will be available soon.

If you are planning to buy an Android based smart phone in India, this is the best phone available. The next version of it, HTC Desire HD HTC Ace, has already been spotted on Engadget.

-- Varun

Building Android apps using your favorite scripting language

Android market is growing day-by-day with lots of cool new applications. Google is trying to make the application development as easy as possible by launching a WYSIWYG designer for Android apps – Android App Inventor recently. However, the developers were restricted to only one language Java. There is an interesting project hosted on Google code named as Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) which will remove this language restriction. The project (which was formerly known as Android Scripting Environment) allows you to build applications using any of your favorite scripting languages like Python, Perl, Javascript, etc.

 

Some interesting facts about Android Scripting

• Android Scripting works on the principle of cross-compilation. Interpreters are written for different scripting languages which will interpret the scripts and execute them as native Android application.
• APIs are available for Python, Perl, Javascript, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell, Tcl and Shell. These APIs are simplified interface to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android development. API Reference.
• The scripts can be run as background task or from a terminal.
• Install the application ‘SL4A’ from here. The application has a script editor and a terminal interface. Check out the advanced topics here.
• The project is hosted on Google code. Anyone, who wants to support their own scripting language, can write the interpreters for the same.

I wrote a Hello, World application using Perl. What are you waiting for? Get your hands dirty. Start building apps using your favorite scripting language. Enjoy scripting!! :-)

-- Varun

[How to] Fix the 3G issues on Nexus One

You can’t get everything right on the first go. Even the most successful products enter with minor defects. Google’s first attempt to launch a smart phone was no different. First version of Nexus One (T-Mobile compatible version) shipped had issues with 3G connectivity. The connection was getting lost often. Though Google claims to have fixed this issue with an OTA update (for the pinch-to-zoom capabilities), some of the users continue to suffer 3G connectivity issues. I have this problem on my Nexus One – the mobile network connectivity continues to hop from 3G to Edge and to 2G even with the same signal strength.

 

How to diagnose the problem?

• Its pretty easy. The network notification bar jumps from 3G to Edge and back to 3G often (even from the same location). However, one can not conclude just by this. There may be actual signal problems in the place. But, there is a technical way to diagnose this problem.
• Android phone has a number of hidden interfaces (interfaces which can not be launched by a naive phone user). ‘Phone info’ is one such interface which gives you information about your phone connectivity as well as the mobile network.
• As the ‘Phone info’ interface is hidden, there is no straight way for the user to launch this interface.
• How do I launch these interfaces? Any application available in Market? ‘Any Cut’ is an awesome application which comes handy here. ‘Any Cut’ allows you to instantly create shortcuts for nearly any function that your phone has to offer. Install the app from the Android market.
• Open the ‘Any Cut’ application. New Shortcut > Activity > Phone Info. A new shortcut will be created on the home screen. (Organize the shortcut using folders)
• Open the shortcut ‘Phone Info’. This will open the hidden interface ‘Phone Info’.
• ‘Phone Info’ shows information like the IMEI number, Current network, Signal strength, GSM service, Network type, etc. Monitor the signal strength. Whenever there is a network hop, check out the difference in signal strength. If there is no significant change, then there is problem on your mobile.
• ‘Phone Info’ can also be launched by dialing “*#*#4636#*#*”

Fix for the problem

• Open ‘Phone Info’. Follow the above steps.
• Set the preferred network type to ‘WCDMA only’ (3G). This will force the device to use 3G networks only. The default option will be ‘WCDMA Preferred’.
• But, this fix comes with a cost. Your phone will not have receive signals in places without 3G network.

I will be on WiFi 90% of the time, the remaining 10% of the time I have been using this fix. It is working smoothly in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. However, when you travel inner parts of the state, you will not have 3G network everywhere.

Are you guys facing the 3G connectivity issue with AT & T compatible version also? Have you figured out any other solution for the same? Share them on comments.

-- Varun

[How to] Control Powerpoint presentation with your Android phone

Ever had the pain of asking someone to control the slides when you are giving a business presentation? Here is an awesome solution for you -- an application in Android market to help you control your presentation from your Android phone. While there are lots of applications available in the market to control your PC from the Android device, Gmote stands out from all of them in terms of the features offered. Using Gmote, you can control the presentation on your PC / laptop, play media files, browse through the contents on your laptop, etc. Gmote application requires a server to be up and running on the PC side. Gmote client runs on the Android device and communicates with the server on your PC. Gmote client can talk to the server over WiFi as well as the mobile 3G network (which not many applications support). Another good thing is Gmote has support for Windows, Linux and Mac.

 

Installation procedure & Configuration

• On your android device, download and install the application ‘Gmote 2.0’ from the market.
• Download the Gmote server from here. Need to have admin privileges to install the same.
• Start the server on the PC which you want to control.
• Gmote server will prompt you to set a password to your PC. The same has to used while connecting from the phone.
• After that it will show the Media Path selector. Choose the location of media files which you wish to run remotely.
• Start the client on the Android device. It will prompt you for the server details and the password.
• Done. You are all set to control your PC from the phone.

Controlling the presentation from the phone

• Make sure you have done all the configurations mentioned above.
• Select ‘Browse’ from the menu and navigate to the power point file (.ppt / .pps)
• Choose the option ‘Play on Computer’ from the file browser.
• Click on the power point file to launch it on your PC.
• Once the presentation is launched, Gmote remote control screen will be shown.
• Press the play button to start the presentation. Use the left and right keys to navigate through the slides.

What else I can do with Gmote?

• Use your Android phone as a remote mouse / keyboard for your PC.
• You can play the media files on your PC from the phone.
• Streaming of media files on your PC to the phone.
• You can control the DVD drive on your PC.
• Browse through the shared files on your PC.
• Open a web page on your PC from the phone.

Check out the help page of Gmote. The only other application which comes closer to Gmote is RemoteDroid.

-- Varun

Watching live TV on Android

Lots and lots of applications are being added to Android market everyday and the market is growing rapidly. The count of apps on market has just crossed 100,000 and more than a billion downloads. You can find application for doing anything and everything with your smart phone. Here is the list of cool apps which will help you watch live TV on Android:

 

• Apalya TV. This application is built by a Hyderabad based startup “Apalya Technologies”. Apalya’s Mobile Video Delivery Platform seamlessly streams video content to Consumers, integrating Mobile Operators, Content owners and Mobile advertisers. The app brings most of the regional channels in India to your smart phone. Channels supported: IPL, Zoom, SVBC, Raj TV, Time TV, Makkal TV, E TV, etc. The audio and video quality are quite good if you have a descent internet connection. Download the app from Android market.
• SPB TV.This application is built by SPB Software which is long known for building Windows mobile applications. SPB TV offers 100+ international channels. The application costs $9.95 from the Android market. There is a free version of the same “SPB TV Lite” with limited channels.
• Sky+. This application is for the users from UK. It is not really a live TV app but will allow people with Sky+ and Sky+ HD boxes to record their channels on the move.

-- Varun

‘Quick Settings’ for Android

The word simple proves to be powerful yet again. Though Android has a nice consolidated Settings menu, you have to take the pain of going through the entire menu even for some of the frequently used ones. Here is an awesome application “Quick Settings” which will help you in changing the settings really quickly and from a single place. It is a nice all-in-one application. Simple but a very useful one.

Some of the interesting features of the application:

• Quick access to brightness, volume control, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, APN settings, etc.
• Battery meter and the phone memory usage indicator.
• LED Flashlight. You can use your camera LED as flashlight. This was earlier available only on rooted devices. This application brings the feature to non-rooted devices as well.

Try it out yourself. I am sure you will be amazed with this. Thanks to @psam for the tip.

-- Varun

[How to] Get a Google Nexus One

Ever since I have posted my review of Google Nexus One, lots of people have been asking me how and where to get one. And, based on my review, at least 8 of my friends have bought this killer device in the last few months. With Google having shutdown its web store, tech enthusiasts are trying hard to get the device from the Internet giant.

Here is a set of options for  you to own one:

• The Nexus One is available for purchase directly from Vodafone in these listed countries: Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK. You will have to buy it along with the Vodafone contract.
• The next option is exclusively for the registered Android developers. Though Google has stopped selling the phone online, it will continue to sell the phone for the developers through its partner. Registration for a developer costs $25. If you are ready to pay extra money for the smart phone, you can go for this. Register here. This option is not yet live. Shall update once it goes live. Update: Nexus One is officially the developer phone now and the unlocked phone is available for all the registered developers.
• Get it from gray market. :-)
• Google is expected to get into partnership with more retailers depending on the demand.

-- Varun

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