Month: July 2011

Hey ma look what I got, gingerbread on my HD2!

Yep, that video above shows my HTC HD2 running Android Gingerbread (v2.3.4)! I came back home, and not having much to do thought I’ll give android another try. Sometime back I had tried running android from SD card but it didn’t work, later I found out that it was because of an older radio version on my device, so I had to update the radio version to fix it but it all looked like too much trouble and I put the HD2 back in its box. This was 6 months ago.

Today I thought I should take it for another spin. But this time we go all in, erase Windows Mobile 6 and flash the ROM with all the android goodness! It is pretty simple really, all you need is some patience to read all those articles on XDA a little carefully :)

The basic steps I followed are,

  • Check your radio version and update to 2.08.50 (if you’re running an older version)
  • Install MAGLDR 1.13 on your phone
  • Install Clockwork Mod on your device
  • Select an android ROM of your choice and flash. I chose the stock android gingerbread ROM version 2.3.4.

Here are the posts on XDA I referred to androidify my hd2,

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=893948 (read this fully first, very important!)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1044830

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=609477

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=905060 (this is the android rom I installed)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10206031&postcount=2 (faq)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=929324 (a list of all the rom’s you can choose from)

To all the guys at XDA, thanks for all the posts and how-to’s for noobs. You rock!

A quick update: Mango on my HD7

IMAG0001

This is going to be a quick post. Just over 2 weeks ago I got the Windows Phone Mango invite I was waiting for; my HD7 has been running mango in full glory since then. The installation took a long time but went pretty smoothly, backing the data up takes most of the time. I am really liking the Mango update, this is what windows phone should have been when it launched. Multitasking, IE9, better facebook integration in people’s hub and a plethora of other features. The voice command integration in mango is exceptional, and I find myself using it quite often. Being able to listen to an incoming message, compose a reply and send it, all using only your voice, is really amazing (or magical, as some might call it) and works really well.

Strangely, I am not using the multitasking feature all that much. Somehow I have an obsessive compulsion to keep the backstack clean all the time. Whenever I am done using the phone, I keep pressing the back button just to make sure there is nothing on the stack. I have a feeling I’m not alone.

In other news, AppHub gets some new features and Windows Phone is expanding to new markets. More importantly, Microsoft’s pubCenter, finally, will be available to developers outside of US of A. According to Todd Brix’s post, pubCenter should launch to new markets (including India!) before the end of 2011. I can’t wait to try out adCenter. You can read Todd’s post here,

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/07/20/windows-phone-developers-get-new-app-hub-features-mango-app-submission-just-one-month-away.aspx

Windows Phone Mango 7.1 SDK Beta 2

The developer tools for Windows Phone Mango were updated to Beta 2 a few days ago. You can find the bits here,

Web Installer – http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26648

ISO file – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=220415

You can read this WindowsPhoneGeek article on installation instructions.

On June 29th, Microsoft also released Mango for developers,

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/06/29/developers-get-goody-basket-full-of-mangos.aspx

I am still waiting for my invite. Looks like they are sending out invites starting from the list of supported countries, which unfortunately, India is not a part of. I’ll write when I get the invite and let you know how the installation goes on my HD7.