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i just got a 8525 through work. i basically have full reign of what i can do with the thing, so i'm looking for things to do with it. i'm running mobile 6, and basically have a clean slate right now.
** note, i still have to have access to exchange sync, and have a 2gb microsd card in it.
any ideas on what to do...?
--eric
Welcome to xda! Here's lot's & lot's of good stuff & reading to get some ideas:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=325748
Personally, I'd recommend leaving it alone for a week or two to see what it does, learn how to use it, and become friends with it.
After that, I'd make a list of the things you'd LIKE to see it do that it cannot, out-of-the-box. Some of this will more than likely be software you'll either buy, or find "free" versions of.
As you get the "bought" software, I'd make a list (a text file) on the device, to store the names, version numbers, and software keys for ... you'll be needing these as you reinstall the software after hard-resets, ROM flashes (if that's in your future), and other possible things (you might experiment with alternative software, for example, and wnat to revert back).
I would definitely recommend NOT paying for any software until after you've played with it a while, and seen if it's compatible with other software you wish to use. Most apps come with a trial period, so this is totally legal and ethical.
After you've seen what you can do with the device, and add-on apps, you might wish to start tweaking the other things ... the ROM, for instance, to see if you can find one that gives better performance, more storage space (if you think you need it), etc.
I wouldn't dive into this unless you know what you're doing. That's what this forum is for. I also suggest not to do it unless you have a real need to. No sense in possibly breaking something that isn't already "broken". I believe you'll find the device can already do quite a bit, all by itself.
If you DO decide to experiment with the more intricate workings, be sure to read up on everything before you mess with it. Read, read, READ. A lot of folks here have been using these devices for several years. Search for the answers to any questions before posting new ones here. Chances are GREAT that it's already been answered several times before.
I guess that's about all the advice I can offer. Good luck, and have a great time with your new toy.
-pvs
ps: Be sure you really have that "free reign". I am pretty sure there would be repurcussions if you go back to work needing a new device in a couple of weeks, and the warranty is quashed because you did something that invalidated it.
* Mod EDIT *
Thread closed until moderation team has had an opportunity to properly review as a result of soliciting donations.
Hey everyone,
As you may all know, there’s a fairly large demand to put Android on the Omnia. After researching it myself, I decided since no one else is doing it I’ll take the incentive and give it my best shot. Don’t get too excited, since I may not get very far. But before I begin, there’re three questions I have to ask:
*NOTE: I own a Verizon i910 Omnia*
1. How do I extract the bootloader, kernel, and rom from the device? I’ve tried all sorts of rom kitchens and utilities and the things I get are either useless or work but only with i900 roms I downloaded and therefore not very helpful.
2. I need to disassemble WM’s device drivers (for the screen, touchscreen, buttons to start), and port them to a custom Linux kernel (that’s what Android will be placed on top of). What software do you recommend (for disassembling WM drivers for ARM in PE format)? A day’s worth of google searching turned up little to nothing.
3. This will involve flashing my one and only Omnia with bootloaders, kernels, and roms that, in all likelihood, will brick my device as I test it. I read in certain places something about a “jtag” cable. Can I use this to flash data directly to the chips without any kind of software running on the phone? If so, what kind of information can you provide? I don’t really care about my warranty, considering what I’m going to do to it To rephrase the question, what options (besides returning the phone) do I have to recover it if it gets bricked?
If anyone wants to offer their support I’d really appreciate it. I need people experienced with the inner workings of a WM device and also people experienced in Linux, specifically device drivers.
it would be great if you could install the Android OS. but i think we need to wait for the official drivers for Android, even if they would be released by Samsung. i start thinking it is impossible.
I honestly doubt Samsung will go the extra mile for a single product (even one as awesome as the Omnia) and port an entirely different operating system to just one of their products. This is one we're gonna have to do ourself. It is possible to do, I'm just stuck right now because I don't know how to dump the i910's rom, which contains all the device drivers I need to make a full-featured port of Android possible. This is what I need help with. It's really not that impossible, it just takes a bit of work.
Mods, could you move this thread to "development and hacking"? It would probably be seen by the people I want it to be seen by there. Thanks.
hey..dude.. checkup this from this group of ppl @
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=431329
may be u can join ..
Hey Guys, I've got an Omnia as well and really really want Android on it. Although I am unable to script. I thought of a way to contribute a bit as well. I set up a website to raise money for the first person or organisation that pulls it off to run Android on the Omnia.
Have a look here:
I chipped in a €100 myself as well to make a start. I hope you guys can contribute some money as well so that it motivates the developers even more.
For the developers out there: "We know you can do it!"
* Mod EDIT *
Link Removed
How can an project be real. If Basics are unknown?
Qualcomm, QCT Tools, Firmware structure etc...
For study:
http://www.4shared.com/file/108584795/bb49ee52/I900_090226.html
Big thanx to barisyalcin.
For Android on Omnia. Good Luck.
The way is the Destination.
Best Regards
Why even bother installing a shell?
the android on the omnia only installs a shell compound, it does not actually convert the omnia into a full fledged Android phone.
I would just scrap it and pick up an actual android phone.
There are a few reasons why we aren't going to port another os to this phone and why we aren't going to see Apps on this phone.
1. How many SKILLED programmers/developers do we actually have willing to put the time and effort into this phone. Not many, if any at all.
2. We are lacking some type of structured development process. Everyone running around trying to do things on their own isn't going to work.
3. Lack of Kin owners. How many people honestly own a Kin? Not too many.. Most likely explains the lack of programmers/devs who want to put work into this. None of them own this phone.
Honestly I love this phone, and as much as I'd hate to see it die, we should admit defeat to Microsoft and give up. Unless some skill gets into these communities I'm throwing in the towel.
Also, the developers that we do have don't want to brick their phones... it seems that even a used gen 1 Kin is $100+ on ebay... I don't understand why
Yeah, I'd hate to brick my phone...but my goal isn't to replace the OS...that is what I like about the phone...I would like to be able to develop for the existing OS...how can we make that happen (does anyone know anyone who knows anyone inside Microsoft to hear our plea)? Would be nice to have an SDK or at least upgrade to WP7.
Hi
I'm pretty sure this hasn't been covered off already - well - not to the level of detail I need anyway.
I came to the xda forums after a friend of mine suggested that there were hacks available.
It's clear that 'something' is available, but what I am not finding is:
A) A SIMPLE guide that shows us people totally new to phone 'hacking' how to do it, from start to finish, with minimal lingo and acronyms.
B) An clear and simple explanation on the different 'hacking' options available
C) The reason you would want to do it? From what I can see, the only benefit seems to be a few pointless homebrew apps that you can download - and for the risk involved...why would you chance it?
Don't get me wrong, tinkering in itself is the reason you would want to do it - it's fun - but I can't help thinking that the WP7 side of 'hacking' doesn't offer much reward.
Would really appreciate any advice/help/links with my questions.
Thanks
Did not know whether to bother answering or not but okay. First welcome to XDA, uhhh in easy laymens terms hacking is not for the inexperienced and it is not totally idiot proof so you should have some fair knowledge of the systems and what they do. Don't hack if you need a kindergarten book to explain it all out for ya simple as that. WP is closer too iOS than Android main point being it is the most secure as far as I personally care of the 3, and the system is just as smooth and fluid as iOS. No there are not alot of Homebrew available at the moment, but if you happen to have a phone able to be fully unlocked then you have the option to use many functions that were not available before.
Device specific is where you should such that search block is your best friend, nobody here is going to write a full guide to the whole forum section for every single new hack and crack that comes out. If you want to you are more than welcome.
Thanks pal
I'm ok with the concepts of hacking, just not specifically this OS.
I'm technically minded and do a lot of similar stuff elsewhere, but when it comes to the phone that I use daily, and comntracted for another 12 months with and have no experience with tinkering WP7 - Im slightly more nervous.
I guess my main issue was the d&h forum for WP7. Every sticky/thread is far too long and they all contain a lot of acryonyms that a new WP7 hacker wouldn't understand. So my forum instinct is to look for the sticky that says "start here - everything explained" - but there isn't one?!
It's almost like "where do people start if there is no starting point"?
As far as covering a good amount of info, this post is a good one:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134
Don't really think there is a way to avoid all the jargon though, if there is something that isn't explained well it should be simple to find information to fill in the gaps. The terms used are very specific to the environment, so anything returned in a search would probably be relevant.
The most common homebrew option is Interop Unlock, Samsung models of phone are the easiest to unlock. This allows you to use native code that has not been wrapped in a tidy c# class.
The benefit of all this is that your phone is a full fledged computer that by default is locked down like an appliance. Developing additional homebrew apps allow you to get further phone customization out of your device, and therefore the most value out of your purchase.
I for myself thought about unlocking my device considering the risks involve. but I weighed the consequences. Thus, I end up now, having a fully unlocked HTC 7 Mozart with a custom rom. I am happier with my device now, I can do BT transfers, explore the folders within my device, install more applications than the usual apps/games from the marketplace, and tweak my device. One more thing, when my device was still running on stock rom, battery life is shorter, now I have 1.5x the battery life.
MY CONCLUSION: unlock your device's potential
as for the guides, yes it is not really like spoon feeding, but contents of the guides/tutorials are somehow progressive. one can learn from them, so that on the next development, we can do the "hacking" easier since we understood how the process goes. This is why it is called development. Cheers!
before i can give you advice on what hack that you can use, what is the name your device that way there are more specific hacks that we can talk about.
Hi
Thanks for the helpful replies.
I have a HTC Trophy. I'm doing the SD card upgrade next week to start with, so I can finally put all my music on it, so thought i'd look at hacking it at the same time.
Cheers
Sent from my 7 Trophy using Board Express
look at the HTC part of this guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1271963
lovenokia said:
look at the HTC part of this guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1271963
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like a good guide but how am I meant to know if I have a first or second gen phone....there's no definitive list?! And I can't remember what updates I have.
This is a nightmare - I'll give it a miss
check your processor, as far as i know, if your phone has 1.5GHz then it's a gen2, otherwise, it's just gen1
Let me at least give the "legitimate" talk about unlocking your phone:
For $99/year, sign up for a developers account with Microsoft (create.msdn.com). You can unlock up to 3 separate devices officially for app development. Then you can build and deploy all kinds of .xaps to your phone. To top it off, you can get the betas and early OS upgrades (had Mango almost 6 months before my friend got it from his vendor). Ultimately, you can even release your own apps to the marketplace for sale or for free.
sounds like, since this is a phone you use every day, this might be an investment worth considering. Its an easy and legitimate way for someone not too experienced with the phone's innards to get it unlocked and get exposed to how things work. Plus if you back up your phone vefore you unlock it, and something goes wrong, you haven't done anything thats voided a warranty. If the OS crashes, try returning to the "pre-unlocked" backup and bring it back to the store saying it crashed. They'll replace it. Nice deal, considering most Windows phones run around $500 to replace.
Now as for unlocking it via other means: maybe you dont want to sell apps. Maybe you dont really want to give microsoft a credit card for $100 every year. Maybe you want to just do more than a developer unlock will get you - like load a whole new aspect of the operating system. Or maybe you just dont want to pay to unlock your phone. Understandable, i suppose (though for MOST people, a developer unlock is more than sufficient). There are options, but they will require a lot of time and investigation (maybe even translation) to get it right, because the WP7 is new. The devices are many - its not like having a single hardware baseline to crack - like the iPhone. And to throw another monkey in the wrench, they did a full-fledged update to the OS not 6 months ago. So - no - not a a lot of "beginners" guides out there. Even for experienced people, an unofficial unlock is still a tricky feat. Take a look at the number of posts that have to do with phones randomly "re-locking" themsleves. Hell, I'm a legit developer and my phone "re-locked" itself last night. (turns out MS has a "lease" on deve unlocks that you need to physically update every year by un-registering and re-registering the device)
hope this was informative and helps.
I found exactly the same problem. Today I saw this post in the HTC Titan forum which helped me understand all the different unlocks that you hear mentioned on the web.
Hope this helped
Greetings everyone!
Well, this being my first post here I suppose it's most apt to begin with a general hello and that XDA came with a golden recommendation as being perhaps the safest place online to ask questions of the nature of which mine are. It's unfortunate that I don't have much to give back to the community, but I'm hoping to be surprised. In either case I suppose it comes down to the questions now...
Having searched extensively following up reports of the assorted programs that apparently allow Root without the loss of data however research turned most of these miracle apps into hidden landmines of spyware. My history with phones, tablets, and the like involve the technical expertise of having followed a step-by-step guide to jailbreak an apple tablet. I have a vested interest in rooting both of my devices, I would rather not lose any data in rooting my phone. I'd also enjoy if someone could explain what the negatives of rooting really are. Am I able to update? Use the android store fine? So many unknown elements.
I was hoping that there might be a method to change the default install / save location over to my SD card because my phone memory is garbage small. I can manually move apps over, but it takes forever and I'm a bit of a pack-rat so I've a fair amount of apps so keeping up with updates involves updating a few, moving them back to the SD, moving more, moving to SD. It's a nightmare. I am hoping that there is some kind of work around. I'd tried one in the past recently, and unfortunately it failed in such a glorious fashion that I had to look up another guide on how to undo the damage. lol
I suppose I only have the two different directions. Sadly I've memory issues, both short and long term. Ideally, I wouldn't mind making friends with someone who knows this stuff better than myself. Oh well. At least I've discovered a community I can trust amidst so many scams and things like that. I'm a pretty quick study though, so I'm hoping a bit of direction and the like will help.
If you've read all the way down here, you're awesome and I want to thank you for your interest and time. Here's hoping I can figure these issues out. Anyway, cheers for now!
Critta Kill said:
Greetings everyone!
Well, this being my first post here I suppose it's most apt to begin with a general hello and that XDA came with a golden recommendation as being perhaps the safest place online to ask questions of the nature of which mine are. It's unfortunate that I don't have much to give back to the community, but I'm hoping to be surprised. In either case I suppose it comes down to the questions now...
Having searched extensively following up reports of the assorted programs that apparently allow Root without the loss of data however research turned most of these miracle apps into hidden landmines of spyware. My history with phones, tablets, and the like involve the technical expertise of having followed a step-by-step guide to jailbreak an apple tablet. I have a vested interest in rooting both of my devices, I would rather not lose any data in rooting my phone. I'd also enjoy if someone could explain what the negatives of rooting really are. Am I able to update? Use the android store fine? So many unknown elements.
I was hoping that there might be a method to change the default install / save location over to my SD card because my phone memory is garbage small. I can manually move apps over, but it takes forever and I'm a bit of a pack-rat so I've a fair amount of apps so keeping up with updates involves updating a few, moving them back to the SD, moving more, moving to SD. It's a nightmare. I am hoping that there is some kind of work around. I'd tried one in the past recently, and unfortunately it failed in such a glorious fashion that I had to look up another guide on how to undo the damage. lol
I suppose I only have the two different directions. Sadly I've memory issues, both short and long term. Ideally, I wouldn't mind making friends with someone who knows this stuff better than myself. Oh well. At least I've discovered a community I can trust amidst so many scams and things like that. I'm a pretty quick study though, so I'm hoping a bit of direction and the like will help.
If you've read all the way down here, you're awesome and I want to thank you for your interest and time. Here's hoping I can figure these issues out. Anyway, cheers for now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For rooting. I am not sure if there is a technique available. However to move apps to sdcard try this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buak.Link2SD
Or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd
I used it a long time ago. It may or may not require root permission.