Hit that Reset

Ever since I got my WP7, i've been tinkering with it. Installing lots of app in the marketplace just to see how far can I push the platform. It held itself pretty well untill recently where I felt the scrolling in apps and app-switching was just not good enough. I must admit I forced NoDo and a lot of other updates in between before Mango which also I did not wait for an official push so I am guessing somewhere somehow things got corrupted. I am not a big fan of factory reset unless I am selling one of my devices but today I decided I should go for it (also because my primary phone is iPhone so it wouln't hurt). I took the necessary backups and then boom. I am amazed how responsive the phone is now. It's almost like I bought a new phone. Super smooth. I also noticed how the unofficial update to Mango did not bring some of the stuff like Local Scout and Vision in Bing search. I am enjoying this a lot now. New born WP7.

Edit: Also I noticed my battery life has significantly increased from 8-9 hours to well about 15-17 hours per day. Not bad considering it has a huge 4.3" screen.

If you want to do a factory reset, it's simple. Just go to Settings> about and there is a reset button. It will warn you twice before flushing it.

Windows Phone 7 Toggle Apps

WP7 natively does not have a way to pin shortcuts for quick access to things like wifi, bluetooth, data connection etc. but thankfully three apps on the marketplace helps you achieve these most needed actions and they are absolutely free.

-Toggle
-WP Shortcut Tiles
-Network Dashboard

Each of them are able to do the desired but after having used all, I'd say Network Dashboard and WP Shortcuts Tiles are probably the finest of them all. All of them also provide Live Title status of your connection. Handy stuff.

Test blog from WP7

Testing BloghuB app on WP7.

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This is a sentence that is long enough so I can test the text alignment. Just a few more words and more and more.

/Xuggs

Windows Phone Feature Suggestions

Microsoft is taking WP7 seriously and why should it not, it has the potential to be a great platform (if it's not already). The WP7 team is collecting feedback on the most desired features one would like to see and would be great if everyone could just vote or add a feature you see as a must. More the merrier.

Head on and vote on an existing suggestion or add one of your own:
http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions

Edit: You can vote on my suggestion here: http://uservoice.com/a/n9G8G

SIP is so required. Almost all of Nokia's E-series (Symbian) and even the Nokia N900 (Maemo) has native support for SIP so it's only just that WP7 incorporates this if it wants to stand against the mighty iOS and Droids.

/Xuggs

Moving on from Nitdroid

So I am moving on from Nitdroid since I got an iPhone as a gift and a WP7 from the workplace. I still have the N900 but not actively using it. For all Nitdroid help refer to the forum here.

I might start writing about something completely different, maybe about the iPhone or WP7 but seeing that the web is infested with all that info already I might just post about WP7 since 'Mango' seems like a very interesting update.

"Au revoir" (no I am not French).

/Xuggs

Installing updates to NITDroid Gingerbread

Since quite a few are having trouble installing updates that are released, here is a (simple) way of applying those updates:

Download the updates and transfer them to /home/user/MyDocs/:

-gingerbread_update1.tar.bz2
http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/gingerbread_update1.tar.bz2
-gingerbread_update2.tar.bz2
http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/gingerbread_update2.tar.bz2
-gingerbread_superuser.tar.bz2
http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/gingerbread_superuser.tar.bz2
-LatinIME.apk
http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/LatinIME.apk
-gps.nokia.so
http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/gps.nokia.so

Follow these steps first to uncompress the bz2 files:
# root
# bzip2 -d gingerbread_update1.tar.bz2
# bzip2 -d gingerbread_update2.tar.bz2
# bzip2 -d gingerbread_superuser.tar.bz2

Now mount /and change directory to /and:
# mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /and
# cd /and
# tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/gingerbread_update1.tar
# tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/gingerbread_update2.tar
# tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/gingerbread_superuser.tar

You will notice the files getting copied after every tar command above that you execute.

The last 2 are not tar files so u can just move them to their respective location:
# mv /home/user/MyDocs/LatinIME.apk /and/system/app
# mv /home/user/MyDocs/gps.nokia.so /and/system/lib/hw/

Finally change directory and unmount:
# cd
# umount /and

I will try and update this post as and when new updates are released or best is to check and ask on NITDroid forum.

Installing NITDroid Gingerbread 2.3.1

Happy New Year people and specifically Nitdroiders who couldn't have expected better getting into the new year. Gingerbread *Experimental* version has been released. As always all credit goes to @dunkdebugger.Let me explain in my own words what Experimental means: "You should stick to 0.0.8/0.0.9 if you like listening to music, if you understand that voicecalls are still not possible/ready." If you are linux savvy then play around, thrash, install, uninstall as you please.

The steps for the light heart are pretty much the same as posted for NITDroid 0.0.9 xMasDroid:

# sudo
# cd /home/user/MyDocs
# wget http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/gingerbread.tar.bz2

# bzip2 -d gingerbread.tar.bz2
# mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /and
# cd /and
# rm -rf * (this removes all the files from the old installation)
# tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/gingerbread.tar

# cd /home/user/MyDocs
# wget http://downloads.nitdroid.com/nitinstaller/Packages/nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-06_final1_armel.deb

# dpkg -i nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-06_final1_armel.deb

Note: If you had previous installation on emmc then mount partition accordingly. Beware if you have just copied previous contents to internal /home and modified EXT to INT in item file then rm -rf * will wipe maemo folders as well.

Warning: Only and only follow the above instructions if you have a separate partition on emmc for /and or if you have it intsalled on sdcard.

For all discussions and help refer to the forum http://forum.nitdroid.com/

Overclocking NITDroid 0.0.9

Overclocking in NITDroid 0.0.9 is a touch different in terms of steps.

Instructions to overclock are at the forum:
http://forum.nitdroid.com/index.php?topic=116.0

The only difference is that there is no power.conf file in 0.0.9 so you will either need to create one and populate it or use one of the preset profiles in the /and/system/etc directory by renaming it to power.conf

oc-profile-250-500.conf
oc-profile-500-700.conf
oc-profile-500-750.conf
oc-profile-500-750-1000.conf

An example if you wish to use one of the presets:

# sudo
# mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /and

# cd /and/system/etc
# mv oc-profile-500-750.conf power.conf
# cd
# umount /and

or create a power.conf with a text editor like leadpad etc and copy the contents of your desired OC profile to it, save and reboot. The power.conf has to be in /and/system/etc

Note: OC'ing to 1000mhz will make your device unstable and generate more heat. Best to avoid that.

NITDroid 0.0.9 xMasDroid

Thanks to e-yes and crevetor we have a new NITDroid version. A complete change log is still due. Check NITDroid forum for news and announcement.

The following will help you install NITDroid 0.0.9 on sdcard with the old kernel while we all wait for a new kernel to be released.

# sudo
# cd /home/user/MyDocs

# wget http://downloads.nitdroid.com/e-yes/NITDroid-0.0.9.tar.bz2
# bzip2 -d NITDroid-0.0.9.tar.bz2
# mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /and
# cd /and
# rm -rf * (this removes all the files from the old installation)
# tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/NITDroid-0.0.9.tar

# cd /home/user/MyDocs
# wget http://downloads.nitdroid.com/nitinstaller/Packages/nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-06_final1_armel.deb (yes you have to reinstall the old kernel again till the new one is released)

# dpkg -i nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-06_final1_armel.deb

If you have it on emmc then change EXT to INT from item file. I will do the emmc install after when the new kernel releases.

Warning: Your current installation will get wiped out. You can backup data folder if you want to restore later.
Update: DO NOT restore /data folder from 0.0.8 installation to 0.0.9.