It’s August… Update? or Flash?

Unless… in my little self-inflicted exile from the blog-techno-world, I missed an update to the Android OS on my HTC Dream we are still waiting on an update to fix that annoying SMS problem. Or it’s fixed and I haven’t noticed, which is a possibility… although you think I’d have noticed an update.

This annoying-ness has got me thinking about flashing my phone with another Android build. So what to use? Is it worth it? Am I putting my nice new phone at risk by messing with it? Probably… does that mean I won’t do it? Debateable.

Seriously though, the SMS text thing is just getting amazingly irritating. I don’t even really text much anymore… and while that may be because I tend to have Twitter conversations now, I will bet that part of it is because it’s annoying. I use that word a lot today.

So… if I was to attempt this. Which build will I use? Cyanogen was suggested to me by @Bytey, and seeing as word of mouth is how I make most of my tech-related choices there’s a good shot I’ll go with that one. That is, assuming I do this.

First step is to confirm a release didn’t happen while I wasn’t looking, which will be as simple as finding someone at Rogers who knows what I’m talking about. One second thought, this may be insanely difficult. Actually it’s not usually that bad, it’s worse when they call me asking where my payment is only to notice the second they pull up my account info that the payment was made in full, on time. Oh yeah… they are awesome.

Decisions, choices, what is a geek to do?

Wait out the update? or take this opportunity to flash my ROM with something different?

A few things I want to figure out first. Does doing this totally void my warranty? Can I go back? What are some problems with unofficial builds? Anyone with any insight is really encouraged to reply!!

New Google Phone Apps!

An update of my Useful Google Phone Apps Page!

Ok, I’ve had the HTC Dream for a while now. And guess what? I still love it! Really, it only gets better the more things you find out it can do. For those who follow the world of open source probably heard about the release of Google Latitude. (More on what I think about this later!)

Between my grandpa and I we have come across some neat little programs. So what am I using right now?

NEW!

Google Maps +Latitude
The ultimate in any stalker’s arsenal! hehe. Don’t worry, your location isn’t given out at random, you invite your friends to join your network. Even there you have many privacy options. From letting certain friends see your exact GPS location to only showing others which city you’re currently in. You can turn it off whenever you like to prevent anyone from seeing where you are.

There’s also two methods for determining your location. Wifi/3G which is not as accurate, and GPS which is dead on.

3G Watchdog
I don’t have unlimited data plan, but 500MB is actually a lot when it comes to mobile phone data. However, with using programs such as Latitude I do want to keep an eye on how much bandwidth I’m using. This program tracks the uploaded and downloaded data (you can define what your quota is and when it refreshes). It also tells you useful information like how much bandwidth you will have used given your current rate when your quota ends.

NewsRob
Because a girl can never have too many RSS feeds to follow hehe. Seriously though it’s a nice light application that syncs with Google Reader so you don’t have to set up all your subscriptions again. You can star and share posts right from your phone!

Firmware Update for Android Phones!

In an effort to keep all 5 of you my dear readers  in the loop as to what’s going on with the Android SMS Time Stamp Issue I spoke again with Tech Support this morning.

A message has just been released to all Android Tech Support agents this morning regarding this issue. There is a scheduled firmware update for mid July. Apparently this will resolve the SMS Time Stamp being locked onto EST for all received messages. Good on them for staying ontop of it, although waiting til July so I can finally have properly threaded txts? Bah.

Guess we’ll just have to deal with it til then. Be sure that as soon as that update is available I will tell you where to get it and walk you through the install!

The Journey Begins!

Hello! Welcome to my blog. After meeting some neat people over a writer’s website I’m involved in I got to know them better. Well actually, I stalked them and they didn’t seem to mind… either way. They’ve inspired me to explore the world of Open Source, something I’d been interested in for a long time.

With the purchase of my HTC Dream (oohh yeah baby) I decided to make it official! I’m about to install linux on the partition on this machine, if I like it, it’ll become my main OS.

This could all be a disaster, if it is I will hold @darkliquid and @lostprocess responsible, why? Well because I can. @Drux73 will support me on this one I’m sure, us geeky chicks gotta stick together.

I’ve got Ubuntu 9.04 (otherwise known as Jaunty Jackalope) burned onto a CD and I’m ready to go. Please, please don’t let this be epic fail…