The Age of The Geek

Editors Note: The title for this post was inadvertently published yesterday.  This has been corrected.

After I bricked my Flyer by downgrading from Honeycomb to Gingerbread, I needed to gain S-Off and root my Flyer. I did not like the idea that Honeycomb did not use the built in softkeys that came with the Flyer. So I downgraded my recent Honeycomb installation to Gingerbread.

STEPS TO ROOT:

1. Download the HTC fastboot drivers. I found them here: http://goo.gl/v75PR and install them on your PC.

2. If HTC Sync is installed, then uninstall it from your computer.

3. After that, connect your Flyer to the computer, enable USB debugging by launching Settings > Applications > Development > Enable USB Debugging.

4. Now go to the Revolutionary.IO portal, http://www.Revolutionary.io. I recommend that you read through the documentation, and click on “Download For Windows”.

5. By doing that download, the download should start immediately and a form with different fields will open.

6. IMPORTANT: Do not close the webpage. Wait for the download to complete.

7. Once the download is complete, extract the archive and double click on Revolutionary.exe.

8. You will get a serial number which needs to be entered in the web form along with other device specs required. You will then be given a beta key which you need to copy.

9. The next step is you need to paste the beta key in Revolutionary console window and follow onscreen instructions to unlock bootloader.

10. In the end you will see the message “SUCCESS – Life gave us lemons, we didn’t make lemonade!”.

You have done it! If you follow the instruction correctly then now your HTC Flyer device should be successfully unlocked with S-OFF.

If you follow the instructions, it will ask you if you want to install Clockwork. I strongly advise that you do this. What you get is a REVOLUTIONARY branded version.

That’s OK,

To test this, power off your Flyer. Press the Volume Down button and Power button at the same time. You will boot into HBoot.

For more details, and How to get Root, go to Roming My Droid

I woke up yesterday to no Internet signal on my Droid Charge.  I was surprised, because when Verizon is down, it is usually in the evening and fixed by morning.  I rebooted, pulled the battery on the phone, but no luck.  I had been running Humble 5.0 Rom (with very happy results) so I thought I would try Infinity Rom.   The install was very easy since it just took CWM (Clockwork Mod Recovery) to install it.  When I brought it up, I noticed the battery did not show the % of charge on the indicator.  That is a critical item for me.  I had just recently installed App Manager and Busybox Installer by JRummy16.  So I had not backed them up with Titanium Backup.  When I went to install them from the Market, I noticed Ultimate Backup Pro bu JRummy16.  After looking it over, I thought I would give it a try.  The Pro version was $2.99.  So I installed it, and backed up all of my apps.

The interesting feature is that Ultimate Backup Pro backs up your new apps as you install them.  No more incremental backups to catch up.  NICE FEATURE.  After running this rom for a few hours, I went back to look for a way to get the battery to show the %.  I found an actual battery patch by the rom developer.  So I downloaded and installed the patch.  Now I had just recently bought ADW Launcher for $0.10 and was giving it its maiden voyage.  After installing the patch, I was back on the Touchwiz launcher with several stock apps missing (The Market being one of them).  So I Wiped and Reinstalled the Infinity Rom.  Easy enough.  After installing Ultimate Backup Pro from the Market, I started restoring apps.  Here was where the trouble started.  It would ask me to Install and  then click Done after each app.  When I was done, I looked on the Market and the Developer’s site for clues.  None.  After about a minute, it occurred to me that it did not ask for Superuser (root) access.  I uninstalled and reinstalled Ultimate Backup Pro.  It immediately asked to enable root access and I clicked do not ask again.  After Superuser asked me to Allow, I uninstalled an app.

To restore an app, you click MENU, then the RESTORE button on the left.  It will say at the bottom SWITCHED TO BACKED UP APPS.  Click on an app and a Restore, Delete, Send buttons appear at the bottom  This time, when I clicked Restore, a pop up window asked Manually Restore Apps (non root), Auto restore apps (root) and Auto restore apps + data (root).  If you don’t allow root, you only can do manual restores and it does not ask you about the other choices.  I clicked Auto restore apps + data and it was as smooth as butter.  A few seconds later, a message appeared and said App Restored.

The tabs at the top show many options including Missing Backups, Frozen apps, Can Move to SD, Clear Cache and many more.

Final Verdict: A highly recommended app.  Thanks JRummy16

Friday was the delivery date for my Nook Tablet.  Now if you don’t know, I already own a Nook Color.  It runs nicely, has a great screen and will run ROMS.  I have run Cyanogen, Phiremod and Phiremod MIUI roms on it.   The newest MIUI has an APP Drawer (The mosted hated thing about MIUI to me was no App Drawer)  It runs at 800 mhz and is overclockable to 1.1 ghz easily.

So when I read about the Nook Tablet–I was cautious.  I was in no hurry to get one.  Then last week, it was announced that it had been rooted.  Off went my order and I was very excited.  Where I work, my coworker brought in her Amazon Kindle Fire for me to look at.  The Kindle Fire was very snappy.  A clear, but glossy screen.  If you have viewed many movies on a glossy screen, it is very distracting.  We discussed how the Kindle Fire puts all of your books and movies right on the home screen.  So anyone who looks at your Fire will see what you have looked at easily.  We both decided that this was not good.  And the other Kindles and Nook Color have folders and locations other than the Home screen for this.

Strike 1:  Since I ordered the Nook Tablet on Sunday, I expected it on Wednesday.  The UPS tracking number showed only “Label made” on Monday. Tuesday showed a location in Illinois.  I can have it by Wednesday then.  Wednesday morning showed it in Fort Wayne (my closest UPS hub) and out at 6:23 am.  When the UPS man arrived and left at 11:30 am, no Nook Tablet.  I looked online and saw Delivered to USPS for delivery.  USPS??!! A UPS truck comes to my work every day at 11:30?  Why USPS.  With the Thanksgiving holiday, I was off for Thursday and Friday.  So I came to work Friday to pick it up from the mailbox  (Insert many unhappy faces here)

Strike 2:  After the Tablet being out for a week or so, I discovered that the bootloader was locked.  Unlike the rommable, hackable Nook Color, Barnes and Noble chose to lock the bootloader AND set it up so that it did not boot from the SD card.  The Nook Color did this easily.  The Nook Tablet is more silver in color, but weighs about the same as the Color.  The Color is more gray.

Strike 3: I opened it up and installed my account.  I surfed several web sites and looked at a few of my books.  I really could not tell a significant difference in speed.  I kept telling my self that it would have better battery life.  But the Nook Color already has great battery life.  Then, I closed my books and there it was.  Like the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet puts all of your books and magazines right there on the Home screen.  I like to see icons, apps not my books or the samples that they gave me.  This was it.  Goodbye Nook Tablet.  Back to my very satisfied Nook Color with its roms.