SigSays - All Things Reviewed

I was having some issues getting my devices recognized in fastboot/adb on Ubuntu.

“fastboot devices” just returned back to the terminal prompt, without showing any connected devices, so I tried using the -i option to specify a usb vendor ID, like “fastboot-linux -i 0x413c reboot”. This just hung on “waiting for device”. I kinda ignored it, since I actually use my mac for most fastboot/adb, but tonight I was bored and fucking off on the CyanogenMod forums shoutbox, and someone was having the same problem. I did a bit of googling and found a solution that worked for me (and M.P.)

As usual, I’m not responsible for fucking your phone up or accidentally dividing by zero or going back to the future or hacking the gibson or anything else that happens. I’m not an expert. I wouldn’t listen to me, I’m kinda an asshole, I have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m usually just guessing. Proceed at your own peril, etc, etc, etc.

Here’s the step by step fix, assuming you’re running ubuntu 10.04:

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Log in as root.

sudo -i

3. Create a UDEV rule file.

cat > /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

This should give you a blinking cursor at the very beginning of a blank line, it’s waiting for you to tell it what the file needs to contain.

4. Enter this AFTER YOU REPLACE “XXXX” WITH YOUR VENDORID:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="XXXX", MODE="0666"

(You can find your vendor ID on this page.
For example, for my Dell Streak, I would use:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="413c", MODE="0666")

5. Press CTRL + D to save, it should return you to the terminal prompt

6. chmod the new file

chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

7. Try fastboot. It should work now.

fastboot devices

Hopefully you get “Attached devices” with your devices serial number, if so, you’re good to go, fastboot should no longer hang at “waiting for device”. To be sure, try

fastboot reboot

If your device reboots, you win life.

This isn’t a windows device, it’s open source, come off the Kernel Source, chickenfuckers!

After a few hours of pulling my hair out digging around in the system files in an attempt to find a way to determine if someone’s HTC Desire has an AMOLED screen or a Super LCD screen, I realized there was a much easier way to tell the difference.

An AMOLED screen doesn’t actually display the color black at all, it simply turns off any pixel that is supposed to be pure black.

An LCD screen, on the other hand, does actively render the color black.

As such, an AMOLED screen displaying a black pixel looks exactly the same as an AMOLED screen that’s “turned off”, while an LCD screen looks decidedly different.

So, if you open photoshop/paint/whatever, and make an image that’s totally black, (hex code #000000), or just use this one I’ve so helpfully provided, it will look a lot different on an AMOLED screen than it does on an LCD.

This is black.

This is that very same image displayed on a Nexus One, with an AMOLED screen (left) and a Dell Streak, with an LCD screen (right), in the dark.

And both off, in darkness.

Note the AMOLED Nexus One looks the same, where it’s obvious when the Streak’s screen is on.

Now in normal light. Both powered on. Nexus One on the left, Streak on the right.

And again powered off.

Again, you can clearly tell when the Streak’s LCD screen is powered on, but the Nexus One’s AMOLED screen looks the same. This should be a pretty easy indicator as to which screen you have.

Seems the 2.1 O2 rom has 720p quality, woot.

But for now here’s some pics. Yes, it’s huge, yes, I already have 2.1 on it :p

Off to go play

And the new Homescreen Tips are awesome

Find it HERE.

Edit – Just noticed this in CyanogenMod Settings, there’s a “Render Effect” setting that allows you to do this to greatly increase battery life:

As detailed on Engadget in THIS ARTICLE.

Obviously not something you would leave on all the time, but if you’re away from a charger (and won’t be near one for a few hours), and you’re down to 30%, it could be a real life saver. Great stuff from CyanogenMod as usual.

Edit 2 – Just tested the battery saver red screen mode. I just enabled screebl to keep the screen on, propped the phone up on my laptop, and swiped down, then up to unhide, then hide the notification bar every 5 minutes to keep screebl’s fail safe from turning the screen off.

I charged my phone fully, then started the test, and the stopwatch, and stopped when the battery level reached 90%.

In full color mode:

I then hooked my phone to the charger and fully charged again. I put it in red screen mode, unplugged it, and started the clock again, also hiding/unhiding the bar every 5 minutes.

I’m sold. I’ll keep it in mind when I need to stretch my battery life.

I was googling for information and kinda stumbled across it. I’m not going to link it, because it’s very much a dev build, and you don’t honestly want it anyway. It has no gapps, etc. It’s not at all a usable rom for the average person, I just thought I would post it for shits and giggles.

It lives! Now go donate so they feel obligated to finish it faster

Note – If anyone involved in CM6 wants me to take this down, email me, and I will.

Well, at least initial thoughts. I have one more piece to go, and I’m holding out on a full review until I give it a day or two to set fully and all.

My initial impressions are positive. The skins are very fairly priced, and the instructions on the website are detailed and accurate. The screen protector, was, at first, a huge disappointment. I applied it according to the instructions and got a hazy, terrible screen for my troubles. I decided to give it a while in hopes the moisture still under the screen would evaporate, and a couple of hours later, it was obvious that it was clearing up. After 6-7 hours, it was perfectly clear. It’s much, MUCH less prone to scratching than the Case-Mate Screen Protector. Seems a lot more substantial too, like it might offer at least some level of protection if dropped,where the case-mate seemed very thin. To my surprise, there doesn’t appear to be any difference in touch screen sensitivity.

On the other hand, I’m less enthusiastic about the rest of the skin. The piece for the battery cover went on easily for me, as did the little strip for the metal part.

The bottom piece is the problem for me. No matter what I do, I can’t get it to sit right on the corners. Move it one way and it bubbles out at the bottom. Move it the other way and it bubbles out at the top. I even used an Xacto Knife
to trim some excess, in hopes it would keep it from binding around the corners and get it sitting flush, didn’t seem to do a lot of good though. I’m still giving it a shot, as they say it gets tackier as time goes on.

Tomorrow I’ll update this post and show some pics of the front, as I have yet to install the peice that goes around the trackball, front, and sides. As it stands, I can suggest the screen protector without any reservations. Jury is still out on the full skin.

www.bestskinsever.com

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