Jan 31, 2012

Dolphin HD reopen a closed tab [How To]

The Dolphin HD reopen a closed tab feature is real nifty...if you can find it. Because it wasn't so obvious for me. Long press an open tab, and a menu will pop up with the option to reopen a closed tab.

Happy browsing


Jan 26, 2012

[OUTDATED] iDEN Bluetooth DUN tether for Android [Dial Up Networking]


[OUTDATED] FYI, IDEN WILL BE SHUTTING DOWN IN THE NEXT YEAR OR SO.

In this post, we will connect to Boost Mobile's iDEN network to provide internet access to our Bluetooth Android device. The speed is capped at 19.2 Kilobits per second, so we'll run an optimized internet browser, Opera Mini, to maximize the bandwidth. Cost of keeping the pay as you go plan active is $10 for 3 months of use with unadvertised unlimited internet. You also get friendly and helpful Boost Mobile customer support and $0.20 a minute pay as you go minutes. Time and time again, I've had positive experiences with their customer support. I digress...

This setup is particularly useful for those looking for a WiFi only Android device (no carrier) with basic internet capabilities to check email, text, navigation, etc. Personally, when I'm going out, I only use Google Navigation, Fourquare, and Yelp so these apps run smoothly on the 19.2K connection. I want to balance between being human vs. being a machine plugged into the net, so this way, my internet access will be limited.

(leave me a message if you're interested in linux or palm device instructions)

Tutorial

My setup:
Boost Mobile Motorola i576
HTC EVO 3D rooted
Cyanogenmod 7 ROM
Phone Requirements:
  • Boost Mobile Motorola iDEN phone (i335, i576, i776, etc.)
  • Rooted phone with a stable version of Cyanogenmod 7 or 9 with packages hcitool, rfcomm, and pppd OR stable kernel with packages hcitool, rfcomm, and pppd
  • Stable Bluetooth connection
Check to see if you have these packages by going into Terminal Emulator and typing hcitool --help, rfcomm --help, pppd --help. You should see a Version number and list of Options. If not, your kernel will not support Bluetooth DUN.
App Requirements:
Instructions:
Download and install above Apps and download the chat binary to your Android device 
Open ES File Explorer and go to Settings. Scroll all the way down and check/enable Root Explorer and Mount File System. While in Settings, go to Directory Settings and change the Home Directory to just /. Now go back to /sdcard/download/ and copy the chat file to /system/bin/ by long pressing the chat file and Copy to. 


Then browse to /system/bin/ and look for the chat file. Long press the chat file and a pop up will say Operations. Scroll down to Properties. Change permissions to rwx r-x r-x.

Pair your Android device to your Bluetooth Boost Mobile phone. Paired but not connected is what we want to see.

Go to Settings and turn off Wi-Fi

Open up Bluetooth Dial Up Network App
To get your Bluetooth Address and Channel, touch the Settings button to bring up "Search Device" and "Search Channel." Select "Search Channel" and you'll see your Bluetooth MAC address show up as XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX. Copy that down and copy the address down. Now go back to Bluetooth DUN App and paste the address and channel in.
Copy and paste the following Boost Mobile DUN Chat

ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED
'' ATZ
OK-AT-OK "ATDTS=2"
CONNECT \d\c


Open up Terminal Emulator
su
setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8 
Now you're connected. Bluetooth Tethering FTW.

For Developers Only:

Boost DUN Peer & Chat scripts for download

Boost Mobile DUN Peer Script

# This optionfile was generated by pppconfig 2.3.18.


hide-password
noauth
connect "/system/bin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/boostchatscript"
debug
/dev/rfcomm0
38400
defaultroute
noipdefault
user replace_with_your_login_name
remotename boost
ipparam boost
usepeerdns
logfile /etc/ppp/peers/ppp.log

Jan 24, 2012

Peer and Chat Scipt for Android [Bluetooth DUN]

Check out the Boost Mobile Bluetooth DUN Tutorial

A trick to get the peer and chat script is to use pppconfig in Ubuntu to create a working peer and chat script. Use software manager to get pppconfig and then run pppconfig from Terminal. Follow the onscreen instructions, then once completed, the peer and chat script will be located in /etc/ppp/peers and /etc/chatscripts

If you have Bluetooth on your machine, before transferring the files to your Android device, you can test the Bluetooth connection to your Bluetooth CDMA/GSM/iDEN phone by using Terminal to

Connecting

Here, I've named my connection 'nameofyourconnection' while using pppconfig. sudo su will give you root rights. rfcomm bind will create a new rfcomm0 connection using your Bluetooth device's address, and followed by the Bluetooth channel. pppd call will connect the Bluetooth connection. pon will set up the DNS settings.

Code:
sudo su
rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX X
pppd call nameofyourconnection
pon
Now you can browse the Internet

Disconnect
Code:
poff

Jan 21, 2012

Downloading Android Source Tree Error

While setting up my Android Dev Environment on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, I ran into some errors. No matter how many times I reran repo sync, repo sync -f, etc. the errors would continue to show up. I believe it was due to some corruption during download. Either way, the two folders I had trouble with were Gallery.git and Exchange.git.

The Errors:
computer@ubuntu:~/WORKING_DIRECTORY$ repo sync
Fetching projects:  75% (166/221)  fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/computer/WORKING_DIRECTORY/.repo/projects/packages/apps/Gallery.git'
Fetching projects:  76% (168/221)  error: unable to resolve reference refs/remotes/aosp/ics-factoryrom-2-release: No such file or directory
From https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Exchange
 ! [new branch]      ics-factoryrom-2-release -> aosp/ics-factoryrom-2-release  (unable to update local ref)
...
...
error: Cannot fetch platform/packages/apps/Gallery
error: Cannot fetch platform/packages/apps/Exchange

error: Exited sync due to fetch errors


Solution/Fix

I went to WORKING_DIRECTORY/.repo/projects/packages/apps/Gallery.git
and Exchange.git and deleted them.

Then I reran repo sync, and the dev environment completed successfully.

Jan 6, 2012

Custom Desktop User Agent String for Android's Dolphin HD

Ever want to view websites in their Full Desktop display mode? How about watch The Daily Show or Colbert Report on your Android device? Comedy Central is an example of a site that automatically switches to their Mobile site, which doesn't allow viewing full episodes. We want full episodes because our Android hardware is fully capable of viewing full Desktop sites including Adobe Flash content. In this post, we'll go over how to view all websites in full Desktop mode on Dolphin HD Browser.

When we visit a website, our web browser's User Agent lets a website know the capabilities of our browser. Then the website serves up the page in a readable format suitable for our device whether it be on a PC, Mac, Android, or iPhone. The problem with Dolphin HD is that it's built in User Agent still shows Android in the User Agent String, so some sites we visit still serve up their Mobile site.

To fix this, we're going to paste in our own Custom User Agent String:

Go to More => Settings => Dolphin Settings => User Agent => Custom

Then Copy and Paste the following User Agent

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:8.0.1)

Then go to Data Storage Settings => Clear data

Check Clear cache
Check Clear history
Check Clear all cookie data

Press OK

Exit out of Dolphin HD

Open up Dolphin HD, and now any site you visit will display in full Desktop Mode.

If you're curious what the User Agent String above means, then this is what websites see when you visit:

Mozilla/5.0Web Browser
Windows NT 6.1Operating SystemWindows 7
WOW64Web Browser32-bit Internet Explorer running on 64-bit Windows
AppleWebKit/535.7Rendering EngineWebKit Rendering Engine
KHTML, like Gecko
Apple WebKit is based on KDE KHTML
Chrome/16.0.912.63Web BrowserGoogle Chrome Browser

Enjoy

Jan 4, 2012

[OUTDATED] Unlimited Free Text Messaging :: GV :: Boost Mobile iDEN


So by now, you're having a blast with your GPS tracker/free internet boost mobile phone. Well, we're going to kick it up a notch with free unlimited text messaging through Google Voice.

Here's how it works:
We're going to use the Boost Mobile iDEN Pay-As-You-Go phone network to access the internet--this is free and we do not need a data plan. Then we'll use Opera Mini Browser to visit http://voice.google.com. Once logged in, we're free to make and receive text messages through the browser.

The cost breakdown is $10 every 3 months for unlimited free text messaging/GPS tracking/free internet/tethering/emergency phone.

Jan 3, 2012

Ultimate VOIP Android Phone Guide

The goal of this post is to educate new Android owner's on getting the most out of their device. Also, we'll go over turning your Android phone into a dedicated VOIP WiFi phone without signing up for any service contract.

Turn your Android phone into a Google Voice Phone - GrooVe IP will turn your phone into a full blown VOIP phone by using your Google Voice number to make and receive calls. As long as you have WiFi access, you'll have a fully functional phone to make and receive unlimited calls free to the U.S. and Canada. To kick it up a notch, download the Google Voice App for unlimited free text messaging.
$5 GrooVe IP App


ROMs
Visit XDA Developers Forum to learn more about ROMs, and why they're useful. You'll find many ROMs developed by talented and creative developers and also by the developer community. Within the sub-forums, there's all the information you'll need to root and change your phone's ROM. If you want to supercharge your phone with some advanced modifications, you will need root access.


Battery Tips

  1. Turn off Live Wallpapers as they eat batteries like the cookie monster eats cookies
  2. Lower the brightness of your screen.
  3. Airplane Mode Wi-fi App disables the radio to your service provider while giving the option to enable WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS use thus saving a considerable amount of battery power. This is especially helpful for VOIP only phones that don't need Sprint/ATT/Verizon network access. My extended battery can go for 2 days of heavy use and still have some juice to spare.
  4. Disable 4G and mobile radios
  5. More battery tips: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1141221&page=5

Useful Free Applications


Browser (Install Adobe Flash 11 first)
Dolphin HD browser plays flash natively after installing the Flash plugin. On my EVO 3D, I'm able to watch 720p HD flash on Youtube without any issues.
Dolphin HD Browser App
Dolphin Companion Battery Saver

Video Player
MX Video Player App

File Sharing between PC and Phone
WebSharing Lite App

RSS Reader
gReader

Offline GPS Navigation
Navfree USA

For All Rooted Phones
Boost your phone's speed and RAM management
-=V6 SuperCharger=- FIX RAM & Launchers by zeppelinrox