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CyanogenMod 10.1 on my HTC EVO LTE

Paul Darr / 2013-06-11 / Leave a Comment

Last night I flashed the June 8th IRC build of CyanogenMod 10.1 on my HTC EVO LTE. In addition I flashed a modification that will give a transparent status bar on Android 4.2.2 devices. As a launcher I am using Apex Launcher with the dock disabled. Do actually launch my commonly used applications I use Unity Launcher with auto hide enabled. This gives my phones home screen an extremely clean look. If I need an app not on Unity launcher I have my phone configured to bring up the app drawer with a long press of the home button.

Here are a few pictures of what this configuration looks like while in use:

Screenshot_2013-06-11-09-14-45 — Default Screen View

Screenshot_2013-06-11-09-15-04 — Unity Launcher Swiped Out

It’s pretty fun to have such a minimalistic yet functional setup.

Adding in the wallpaper for those that want it:

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My Crunchbang home server

Paul Darr / 2013-05-26 / 8 Comments

I thought I would give a quick update on my home server for my fellow Linux geeks.

I currently have it running Crunchbang Linux. If you are unfamiliar with Crunchbang it is a low resource Linux Distribution based on Debian. I chose Crunchbang because of how much I like Openbox as a low resource window manager and Cruchbang comes with Openbox configured nicely. It’s much quicker to use Crunchbang as a base as opposed to trying to configure Debian to pretty much the same way.

One of the primary purposes that I use the server for is to act as a home webserver for my wife’s blog SarahDarr.org and my blog here at PaulDarr.org. The software I use to support the blog is Apache webserver, MySQL database and WordPress.

Another use I have for my home server is to act as a media and file server. For media I run Plex, which allows me to stream my music, home movies and DVD copies to my Roku boxes and Android Smartphone. I already had several Roku boxes and Plex is currently one of the best ways to stream media to them. As a file server I just connect using SFTP and do manual backups of my data.

Yet another duty for my home server is to act as a print server. That’s taken care of using CUPS and the Chromium web browser. The use of CUPS is a no brainer but some of you might be wondering why I’m using a web browser. Both Chrome and Chromium support Google Cloud Print. Google Cloud Print enables my wife to print from her Chromebook and me from my Android devices. I don’t run Chromium all the time but it does have a service running for cloud print.

On the hardware end of things my home server is running on an Acer Aspire One D255 Netbook. I upgraded my laptop in 2011 and I had this sitting around as a spare. The D255 has a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB RAM and 160 GB hard drive. I have an external 320 GB hard drive connected for additional storage. I have the laptop connected to the 32inch TV in the room for extra eye candy and the laptop is suspended on a shelf. As a father of a soon to be 2 year old son it’s good to keep the server out of his reach.

To connect with a keyboard and mouse I use Synergy to use my desktops mouse and keyboard with the Netbook.

So far the Netbook does a surprisingly good job as a multi-role home server. Even with all the extra programs I have running it uses less that 300 MB of RAM while in it’s regular use. Overall I would say I am pretty happy with my hardware and software setup. The only addition I have planned is to automatically sync the backups from my desktop.

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What would they sell at a Google Store?

Paul Darr / 2013-02-22 / Leave a Comment

Rumors of a physical Google store have appeared on many blogs and news outlets recently. Some of the topics have included what approach Google would take to a store and what pitfalls to avoid. While listening to All About Android the hosts asked what would they sell? Sure Google has some products but they were at somewhat of a loss if you could really have a whole store for products. I felt it might be interesting to look at potential products that would grace the shelves of a Google store.

Nexus 4

The Nexus 4 is Google’s fourth Nexus branded smart phone. The Nexus 4 is manufactured by LG Electronics and starts at $299. There are two models in the Google Play Store of the Nexus 4.

Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 is Google’s 7-inch tablet that set the standard for Android Tablets. The Nexus 7 is manufactured by Asus and starts at $199. There are four models in the Google Play Store of the Nexus 7.

Nexus 10

The Nexus 10 is Google’s 10.1 inch tablet that followed the Nexus 7. The Nexus 10 is manufactured by Samsung and starts at $399. There are two models in the Google Play Store of the Nexus 10.

Google TV

Google TV is a Smart TV platform that can be integrated in a home theater as set top box or in the TV itself. Google does not currently sell Google TV devices in the Play Store but a physical store would be an ideal location to display Google TV devices.

Nexus Q

The Nexus Q was a media streaming set top box introduced and canned by Google in 2012. If Google brought back the device at a lower price point, it might also do well in a store location.

Google Chromebook

Google currently carries three models of the Google Chromebook on Google Play. The Acer C7 comes in at $199, the Samsung Chromebook at $249 and the new Chromebook Pixel is 1,299. A physical store might be an ideal location to display the differences between the three models.

Google Glass

Glass is Google’s augmented reality eyewear that will be released in 2013. They will be sold for less than $1,500 and sound like something out of a science fiction novel. Google Glass could justify a physical store on it’s own just so users could see the technology displayed.

Accessories

Google has several accessories for each of these products and if they had a store, I would expect more.

Looking over the various Google Products I could easily see them filling a small store with display models of all their products and some inventory on hand for sale. I could see a physical Google store as a great place to show case some of their newest products and really give a consumer an idea why they need to buy the product.

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CyanogenMod 10 On My HTC EVO LTE

Paul Darr / 2012-10-07 / Leave a Comment

Anyone that knows me understands that I can’t sit with a stock Android device for long. So far I have had a Barnes and Noble Nook Color that I rooted the first night of owner ship and installed CM7 as soon as the community ported over the code to it. I later Owned an LG Optimus S and I rooted it and installed a custom recovery and ROM. I went with CM7 on that device as I enjoyed CyanogenMod on my Nook and after trying other ROMs on my Optimus, I found myself longing for the tweaks and style that the CyanogenMod team provides.

Last August I upgraded to an HTC Evo LTE. I decided to go with that as opposed to a Samsung S3 due to my brother having one and the fun of working on the same phone and because I liked the hardware of the EVO. It looked and felt like it was really well built.

After getting my EVO I immediately rooted it using the files and directions at this thread on XDA:

How to Root/Unroot HTC Evo 4G LTE! [Windows/Mac/Linux][One-Click][<=1.22.651.1]

I then waited until this month to root because most of the mature ROMS available were Sense based. If you are unfamiliar with HTC Sense it really gets in the way of an enjoyable Android experience. The biggest issues being the limited multitasking, app associations defaults being messed up and the camera refocusing constantly while I took videos or pictures. I wanted to get as far away as I could to Sense.

So this morning I prepared my phone for loading a custom ROM by first achieving S-Off with LazyPanda. The information on the Unlimited.IO website made the process very easy. As a note my phone was on Hboot 1.12 (I never upgraded my phones software). Others with an Hboot higher than that will need to use HTC Dev Unlock to install a custom rom. With HTC Dev Unlock a person can do most everything S-Off can but it takes a few more steps.

After achieving S-Off I installed a custom recovery. For this I went the easy route of downloading the GooManager App and installing Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) through that. More information about TWRP can be found at this XDA thread:

[RECOVERY][EVO4GLTE] TWRP 2.2.2.0 with on-screen keyboard!

So at that point my bootloader was unlocked and I had a custom recovery installed. I was then ready to install a ROM. At this point I went to the CM10 thread on XDA. Reading the comments it seemed Jelly Bean for the EVO was stable enough for my use. Your opinion or results may differ so please read the thread there. I downloaded the zip file for CM10 along with a separate zip for Google Apps. I then backed up my applications with Titanium Backup. This made some setup later easier. I then rebooted into recovery and another backup in TWRP. You can’t have too many backups! I then did a factory reset, cleared cache and installed the zip. After resetting the phone kept booting into recovery. I ended up flashing the rom three separate times before it loaded properly. I honestly don’t know what made the difference. After successfully loading CM10 I recovered my apps using Titanium. One of the individuals in the Freenode IRC chat for #htc-evo-4g-lte recommended clearing Dalvik Cache after loading my apps so I did that. So far everything has been running great and my phone is looking much happier!

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