Entries Tagged 'Phones' ↓

I have been using my HTC Aria as my primary phone, and using CyanogenMod it runs android 2.2. Instead of leaving it sitting in a box, I decided I wanted to use my backup phone (a Motorola Backflip) as a wifi network camera. However, it runs Android 1.5, which isn’t supported by the Free IP Webcam software. Luckily, Motorola has released an upgrade for the Backflip, if you know where to look. Continue reading →

After gaining root access on my Motorola Backflip phone, I was (eventually) able to get wifi tethering working using the Barnacle application (version 0.5.1).

In Barnacle, I have “skip wpa_supplicant” checked, the channel set to six (6), and DHCP set up to use the OpenDNS DNS server (208.67.222.222) although the DNS server option may not be needed. (I had to also manually specify the DNS server IP on my client anyways.)

I had to pull some tricks on the client side (Ubuntu Linux) to make everything work. Specifically, setting MTU size to 1250 and setting up my own DNS name server IP.
The script I use to make this all work with ad-hoc networking on Ubuntu is as follows: Continue reading →

I have developed an application for Android Phones (OS version 1.5 or higher) that allows you to enter an ISBN from a book (or scan the barcode if your phone has a camera) and find out how many people are wishing for the book on PaperbackSwap.com. If a lot of people are wishing for a book, it’s a good indication that the book is popular, which may mean it is worth reading. (Or at least, if you decide you don’t like it, it will be easy to get a book credit for it on paperbackswap.com.)
Continue reading →

I have used a Motorola Backflip for a month, and am now trying out an HTC Aria. The Aria is a much smaller phone that lacks a keyboard, but has a newer version of the Android OS (2.1) and has a faster processor. For the rest of my comparisons, keep reading. Continue reading →

One of the best ways to allow other devices to use your phone’s data plan to get on the internet (a process called tethering) is to have your phone become a little wifi hotspot. Then, any wifi device can get internet access via your phone. To do this with the HTC Aria, follow these steps:
Continue reading →

Rooting the HTC Aria on AT&T is made trivial by the program you can download at http://unrevoked.com/

So far the only good reason I have found to root your HTC Aria is so that you can enable wifi tethering, but that requires a few more steps which you can read about in my next post.

In addition to rooting your phone, the unrevoked application adds a custom recovery image to your phone (Clockworkmod recovery – http://www.clockworkmod.com/ )

This open source recovery system allows you to backup your phone to SD-card (nandroid backup), and load other ROM’s.

I have been using a Motorola BACKFLIP as my primary phone on AT&T for the last month. It is my first experience with the Android OS and smart-phones in general (my previous phone was a Motorola Razor V3xx “feature” phone), as well as my first full QWERTY keyboard on a phone. Overall it has been a positive experience. For the rest of my review, keep reading…
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If you are looking for a 3G phone running Android on AT&T, the pickings are slim. (Mostly because AT&T’s 3G bands are not compatible with many other carriers, and most Android GSM phones work with T-Mobile’s 3G bands. If you are willing to drop down to quad-band EDGE data most GSM Android phones will “work” with AT&T, they just suffer from slow networking.) Continue reading →

AT&T and T-Mobile are the two main providers (in the USA) who provide GSM service. Below are the main cellular bands they use.

AT&T:
GSM: 850 and 1900
3G: 850 and 1900

T-Mobile:
GSM 1900
3G: 1700 (AWS) and 2100MHz

GSM bands not supported in the USA, but active in other countries: 900 and 1800.

Internationally, you may need the 900 and 1800 bands, especially in Europe and Asia (many south American countries work on the 1900 GSM band). If you have a “quad-band” phone it will work everywhere.

Sometimes these bands are called by acronyms instead of frequencies:
UMTS: 2100
PCS: 1900
DCS: 1800
AWS: 1700 (or simply AWS)

The advanced wireless system is a new block of bandwidth that has been opened up for use in the USA. AWS Overlaps with UMTS and DCS (1700/1800 and 2100) The convention appears to be labeling AWS with the number 1700, because 1800 and 2100 are already used to indicate other things.

A reader has reported that he purchased a Motofone F3 from “Monster-Cellular-Store” on ebay that came with a Cingular branded pleather case and it is set up to work correctly with the AT&T voicemail indicator system. The one I purchased however is still not working, so it appears that some setting or configuration is needed to make them work on the AT&T system. A picture of Neil’s phone and Cingular branded case is below:

Motofone F3 with Cingular branded case

I would love to know if some type of user configuration can be done with the keypad to make the voicemail work with AT&T.