I am somewhat blown away at this very moment to realize that I have just combined Android OS with a most memorable hardware qwerty in my unlocked HTC Touch Pro 2!!
After a simple installation of two cab files to the device, it should have been a simple matter of starting the Project Android app and letting the boot screen take its course...I was wrong. I didn't anticipate making a wrong move, but I did just that by accidentally messing up touch calibration the first time around and not realizing that a hour and 45 minutes was TOO long for booting up. After discovering that I had neglected to finish the touch calibration after mistakenly pressing previous squares in the wrong manner, I tapped remaining squares to bring up the XDAndroid setup screen. This was when the trouble was just beginning! Due to the calibration debacle, the touch screen feedback was inaccurate and prevented me from being able to start the Android setup. Closing out the Android program and starting it again didn't allow me to have another opportunity to correct the calibration procedure, so the only solution was to uninstall/reinstall it to start with a clean slate. As I expected, the calibration target blocks appeared onscreen to await the central tapping of the stylus. Upon executing this correctly, all was well and I was able to continue setting up the Android system with accurate touch feedback.
For a long while after jailbreaking a first generation iPhone in years past and not really getting anything out of it, I resisted the urge to hack anything. I was recently toying with the idea of hacking my Nexus One to enable the HTC Sense interface, but I have a fear of messing something up in even the slightest bit. Then came the day of the iPad and I was stuck in my home just 2 blocks from the nearest Apple Store with an increasing temptation to buy what I could not afford...even if I had NO use for it!! To temper this, I looked to my unlocked Touch Pro 2 sitting on my desk and wondered if I could install Android onto it. After watching YouTube video of hacked XDAndroid interface being run on a Sprint Touch Pro 2, I took the chance. During the first hour of playing with Android on a resurrected Touch Pro 2 that had been collecting dust for two years, I was excited beyond belief! In addition to typing with a great hardware qwerty, I was able to also take my mind off of the temptation of the Apple iPad launch day.
There was of course an initial honeymoon period of being impressed and proud of myself, but the reality of hacked software began to sink in with its flaws as well as its benefits. Going through the interface felt a bit slow, but I figured that was to be expected from the CPU running on the unlocked TP2. I noticed there was no backlight activation for the sliding qwerty or the Caps Lock/Function lock keys, and access to the camera was not possible. Switching screen orientation took place with sufficient speed when the sliding qwerty was opened, and the accelerometer seemed to be intact for the most part. The absence of bluetooth was not a huge issue, but the absence of sound and a YouTube app really surprised me! Essentially, the Touch Pro 2 on XDAndroid was in perpetual silent mode and seemed to offer no alert for incoming messages. Fortunately, incoming calls were given a vibrate alert. Even though calls could be successfully taken and given, the volume was WAY too low over the earpiece and could not be changed with the volume rocker keys. The visual image of the volume progress bar going left or right with each press of the rockers was in plain sight, but nothing changed the low sound coming from the earpiece. With this silent mode preventing the speakers from working at all, the Music and Pandora apps were utterly useless. Other apps proved to be inoperable such as Google SkyMaps, Barcode Scanner, Google Goggles and the full version of Docs to Go. While some of this could be attributed to the lack of camera and possibly processing power, I still couldn't understand the problem with not being able to get the key to unlock full version Docs to Go. I had already purchased it on the Nexus One, so I assumed I was good to go on the Touch Pro 2...I was so wrong. I was stuck with only the free viewer version, and every attempt to get the unlock key sent me right back to the Docs to Go listing on the Android Marketplace page showing that the app was already installed. In frustration, I simply settled for a couple of basic text editing apps and I was immediately reminded of my time with Nokia N900...good times! The lack of 3G was not so bad considering that there was no YouTube application anyway, and browsing the web on EDGE wasn't a bad thing as long as the signal was suitable. However, weak spots did make me grateful for my wifi access at home! The notification light was utterly confusing and difficult to figure out...and I still haven't done so. Overall using the Touch Pro 2 with XDAndroid as a main phone was like walking a fine line between a basic feature phone and a unlocked smartphone with incompatible Euro 3G bands. Through all of that first exposure to something so new for me on that HTC device, the COMPLETE syncronization of Google account backup data impressed me the most!! Once my Google account was signed on without a SIM card, my contacts, calendar events and email were ALL synced to my old phone within minutes!! That benefit of having cloud service integration made me a firm believer in the Android OS for LIFE!!!!!
Would I choose the Touch Pro 2 Android hack over the Nexus One for everyday use, not really. But it was definitely a worthwhile experience that can never be thought of as even half bad. True, there were a number of quirks to be tolerated, but for the most part the fundamental functions of a smartphone did work flawlessly in the refreshing guise of the Android interface whether in EDGE or wifi. In this day in age of living in excess with countless apps and luxuries on mobile devices, I guess using that crippled Touch Pro 2 can teach me the importance of going back to basics on a smartphone...which isn't such a bad thing. UPDATE: Docs to Go full version is finally available with the unlock key on the Touch Pro 2.
TRENT
Sent from my XDAndroid Touch Pro 2
TRENT SENSE blogger/netcast host
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