Cyanogen

There has been a lot of drama the last few days between Google, Cyanogen and the Android developer community. There has been a lot said, and just about the only one who has remained objective in their public statements has been Steve (CM's name) himself, along with a few great Android blogs...

My take is that even though the distribution of the "google experience" apps in question might have been against the license agreement, Google should have recognized that Cyanogen is good for Android, good for Google, and good for developers. I think that Google should have quietly contacted CM and offered him a limited, restricted license to redistribute those apps. I would gladly pay for a Cyanogen ROM that is super fast, instead of having to live with that laggy stock software. In the end, those apps were going to people who already had those apps to begin with. They were only replacing the bit and pieces around them...

So yes, even though Google might have been technically correct in this fight, I do believe that they hurt themselves a lot by the action they took. It could have been handled a lot better on their part. Because now, everyone that remotely is associated with CM, and those around the developer community have a bad taste in their mouths about Google. To me, even though Google was in the right here, they took a huge hit in the PR department. More than the puny 30K Cyanogen installations could have ever hurt them in any way.

Now of course its too late. CM and other will find ways around this restriction, and Google has lost a lot of face. I mean really... even the new market in Android 1.6... Wasnt I going to get that market anyway in an OTA update from T-Mobile?

Maybe it's just me... I prefer compromise...

Again, technically I will say that yes, Google was correct about their licensing... I just think that a little common sense would have gone a long way to solving this in a more amicable manner...

And in my humble opinion, if Google would have optimized Android and made it super fast like Cyanogen did, we would have never needed Cyanogen in the first place...

Of course, I will never go back to a stock phone... I will remain rooted, and will continue to try different ROMs in whatever form they might come in the future.

This too shall pass...

And for Cyanogen, keep up the great work! I have donated to your cause, and will do so in the future. Keep your chin up, and continue your great releases. No matter which form they take...

The new Hero ROMs

After several weeks on Cyanogen's latest, I decided that maybe the new Hero ROMs were worth a try. So I took the plunge and tried evlHero 2.8 and Drizzy 1.5.5. Out of the 2, I like Drizzy the best. Both were speedy, fast, and as complete as any Hero Rom out there. But Drizzy just seemed more polished. The initial boot for example were the HTC logo comes on, had no sound on 2.8, but Drizzy's was right on. The major problem with Hero ROMs is that although these are 98% functional, I do miss that 2%... And while the Sense UI is great, its not perfect in any of these ROMs... Now before i get my head chopped off, I did try several settings, such as 32, 64 and 96MB swap, with 30, 40 and 60 swappiness... And in all cases, eventually, the ROM seemed to stutter a bit... Just slightly here and there... But enough to annoy me... Especially after weeks on Cyanogen with NONE of that stuff. All in all, the best ROMs I have tried so far, and great in their own rights. But for now, its still Cyanogen 4.1.11.1 for me.

Here is a video of my MT3G running Cyanogen 4.1.11.1 and themed with Community Hero Mix theme from nabzilla1990. Very snappy, fast...

Found this really cool Promo video of the Cliq... Enjoy!

Panama

Allrighty... back in Panama for the 100th time this year...LOL Ok, it just seems like that...

Here for the CAPAC construction Expo. Starts Wednesday. Had some meetings today, more tomorrow and then the grand opening Wednesday. Show runs through Sunday, but I am leaving Saturday. John, my co-worker is here, and my boss and a few other friends from around latin america arrive tomorrow. Long days, even longer nights... Show usually runs from 1-1opm...

Will post more on that later this week. With pictures maybe...LOL By the way, American was awesome today. Both flights were way early arriving...

Cliq

Motorola and T-Mobile today introduced the Cliq with Motoblur. A nice phone, with a 5MP camera, a 3.5 jack, a slide out keyboard, and others... Curiously to me, it says it is running 1.5 Cupcake. Which tells me that Donut 1.6 is not quite ready yet, and probably a couple of weeks off... Interesting. A few people have speculated about what this means to HTC on TMO. My opinion is that HTC decided to give the Hero to Sprint, so TMO went with MotoBlur and Cliq... Who needs Sense UI? LOL

Lots of news

Wow... Lots of Android news today. Here is a recap with some thoughts...

- HTC Tatoo. Entry level android phone announced today. Big difference in my opinion is the smaller screen, and the fact that the screen is resistive, instead of capacitive. HTC says it is because the smaller screen would make the capacitive screen hard to use. We'll see, but I don't like it.

- Facebook. Official Facebook app released today. A few minutes after release, the conspiracy theorists were out in force, because Facebook was not the developer. If you have been around this cell phone world a while, you would know that Facebook was never going to be the developer. Anyway, I believe that this is official.

- TMO UK and Orange merge. So the new company will be the #1 provider in the UK

- Samsung Galaxy lite on video here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2p9sWaD46E&feature=player_embedded

- And of course, the Oprah MyTouch thingie coming on Thursday's show...

Hero ROM

Here is a video of the Modaco 1.5 ROM in action on the MT3G

I flashed Hero last night

Ok, so last night I finally did it and flashed a Hero theme... First impressions? Nice, but not impressed.
First, let me say that I have tried 2 ROMs and no blurry screen at all. I first tried JacHero. I did not repartition my SD card, as it was already partition. I just wiped and flashed. Interestingly, it automatically re-installed about half my apps, which took forever to boot. But it booted, and worked.
The one down side? laggy... I assumed it was because I didnt start with a fresh clean SD card. So I played with it, re-did my card (with 64 swap and 512 ext2), and reflashed.
MUCH better, but there was one annoying thing... Every time I tried to go back to the home screen, it had to reload the it. WHOA... I was NOT going to put up with that for long...LOL
So I followed Break's advice and flashed Modaco's ROM. I must say, the difference is incredible. No lag, no loading of home screens, and overall smooth and well, its HERO... By far the best out of the 2 that I have tried.
My overall thoughts? Ehhhh... Yes, the 7 screens and the widgets are awesome! Having that Sense UI, and those widgets is absolutely nice. Especially the Twitter widget. But other than that, its really no different that CM ROM with a Hero theme...The overall look is IMHO actually better with the Hero theme on CM...
The only big difference is the widgets. Honestly, if I could get those widgets on Cyanogen, there would be no need in my opinion for Hero....
As a matter of fact, my LEDs dont work now, so its actually functionally worse.
If I sound disappointed, its because I am... Is it nice? Yes, its very nice. Is it that much better than CM with a Hero Theme? Not in my opinion...
Now, Once the Hero update comes out, and gets cooked into a ROM that is as fast as Cyanogen, and functions 100%, then maybe yes...
For now, I am sticking with this Hero ROM, until this coming week to see what Cyanogen puts together with the donut code he is cooking...

Back

Finally got home yesterday. Flight from Ecuador was 2.5 hrs late. They arrived the night before from Miami late, and due to crew rest restrictions, we had to leave late yesterday morning. Not too bad, but I only had about 3 hrs layover in Miami. So we arrived at 210pm, and my flight was leaving at 305pm. Thankfully, I am registered with CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) as a US Government Trusted Traveler, so I sign into the Global Entry kiosk and skip the lines at immigration. I was at my gate at 235pm, and boarded my flight to Tampa with no problems. So after leaving late, I arrived on time at home. Now, catch up on Forums, twitter, and cell phone gossip of course...LOL. Next week, I am considering flashing a Hero ROM on my phone... We shall see...

Market

Out of all the Android news today, I found this one more fascinating than others... A new market app... Now with screenshots. Not too far off I would say. Cyanogen posted on his Tweeter account that Donut code was dropped today, so its coming sooner than later...

Check out this video.

Hero

HTC and Sprint have announced the Hero on Sprint, starting Oct 11 at 179.99 with contract. I must say, my first reaction is I am a little disturbed by this announcement. I am glad that Android is expanding as that only means good news to all Android users. But I am a little bothered at T-Mobile at the moment. This announcement will surely make some people think about the Android offerings out there and might choose that other network. I just hope that TMO has some big announcement on Sept 10 with Motorola, because at this moment, the Morrison is just not going to cut it...

One interesting thing though is that Sprint did not mention that the Hero is exclusive to them... Hmmmm

Hero ROM

I am considering flashing my SPL next week and flashing a Hero ROM next week. If I do, I will do step by steps and maybe video.

One thing I dont like about Hero ROMs is that they all have some flaw. It's either the LEDs, the wifi, the BT, the fuzzy screen, etc etc... Something is always not working...

Maybe by next week we can have a stable one...LOL

Changes

Today was hectic... Meetings were tightly scheduled. Then around lunch, got a request from a customer in Colombia with a deal in Panama that was asking if I could go there tomorrow. So I said sure, scheduled it all, then he called to tell me his partner was not in town....LOL Trip scrapped. i was going to go in the am, meet him,, and come back to Quito in the late afternoon. This way I wouldn't have to change the American ticket. I know they don't like changes, but as a business traveler and Executive Platinum, they should have a special circumstance for just this occasion. They wanted 300+ for the new ticket, PLUS $200 just to change it... Needless to say, that was not good. Well, in any event, it didn't happen.

One great thing is that AA brought back the double elite miles promotion, so I should be ok to make EP again... WOOHOO

Quito

Here is a view from my hotel window... Trip was excellent. I got one of the upgraded 757 planes from American for my flight to Quito. It had the upgraded business class... Sleeper seats with it's own entertainment system. It was fabulous. Lots of meetings yesterday. God ones though. Business is good here for us right now. Good thing...LOL