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Many moons ago, while Windows Mobile still reigned supreme and Android was still getting out of its shell, XDA member chetstriker released a very controversial app called Phone Creeper, which was basically a spy program for you to place in someone else's device. It was very difficult to see as it didn't show as a running process nor did it show in the installed apps list. However, this little program was very real and would allow anyone to peek into other's devices and their usage. You could intercept sms, phone calls, mms, browsing history, and really anything you could think of. Well, over half a year later, the dev is back with a new version, but this time for Android and under the name of OVERVI3W. The app has very similar functionality as its predecessor with the added advantage of being able to view everything through a simple web browser.
One of the biggest hurdles and constant "inconveniences" that we have always faced at xda-developers is that there is a need to have our devices SIM unlocked so that we can rip the benefits of getting a new device without having to jump hoops with other companies, sign up new contracts, or flat out rip the benefits of a new device with tools that may utilize the network capabilities of your carrier a bit better altogether. In fact, many online companies have emerged from our site and either charged a fee for the SIM unlocking services they offered, or had some sort of deal with xda members. The SGS2 is one device that, despite it just coming out, it already got involved in this. Luckily, thanks to the efforts of XDA moderator Chainfire, there is now a simple and free way of getting this famous code without having to go through a carrier or other 3rd party companies. SGS 2 SIM Unlock Code Finder is based on the work of XDA member Odia. In essence, the program will look in your device for the unlock code and give it to you. Once you write it down, simply turn off your device, insert a different SIM card (from a different carrier) and enter the code when prompted. There is a possibility that this code may not work. If it doesn't, DO NOT run the program again as this may freeze your device. Should a "freeze" happen, the program comes with a tool to find a code that will "unfreeze" it. However, it is not guaranteed to work. All in all, use this at your own risk.
JTAG has been, since the early days of phones, the surefire (and in most cases) the only possible way to bring a device back to life after a flash gone wrong (used to be really common back in the WM days). Nowadays, Android devices are actually rather sturdy in the sense that you can flash virtually anything to these devices and would be easy to revive. This happens to be the case for a lot of Samsung Galaxy phones. However, there are still ways to turn your shinny Galaxy into a shinny paperweight. However, JTAG boxes are usually very expensive and you will likely not be able to make one yourself, or so we thought until we saw this thread made by XDA member AdamOutler. Apparently, the dev is rather familiar with electronics and has taken it upon himself to revive his dead Captivate. In this process, he created a very informative thread in which he includes a design for a circuit, which will enable this functionality. The key thing about this is that because of the proximity of the pin connectors, in order to make this, you had to have very good soldering skills. Thanks to a rather ingenious circuit design, this is no longer the case. The dev has also provided the most recent pin outs for you to try this out yourself.
New phones (as well as old ones) get root privileges almost immediately these days thanks to many of our wonderful devs out there. However, there are still people who will not get close to a rooting procedure or app for several reasons such as warranty being void, fear of bricking, etc. By not getting the best out of their devices, they are missing out on apps that could potentially make them enjoy the device much more. Cleaners in general are a good example, since many cleaners that empty caches normally require the device to be rooted. For people like these, XDA member caotiantupi decided to try and bridge the gap for people who are too scared of the whole rooting concept and released 1-Click Cleaner. The app is very straight forward and will allow you to clean several parts of your device that are just accumulating stuff, slowing down your device in the process. The app is very simple to use and the dev has shared it with the community.
We all love tools and apps that are useful when customizing our devices. Sounds for the overall use of the device are always fun to mess with and ever since the days of Windows Mobile, we have been able to modify this to our liking (those of you who used A_C's S2U2 will know exactly what I am talking about). XDA member beanfarmer has made an app to make the changing of the sound made by the device while unlocking, something easy. The only two requirements of this app are that you are rooted and that whatever sound file you choose as the replacement, must be in ogg format. Other than that, if you were longing for your favorite catch phrases from Monty Python to be uttered by your device when you unlock it, now is the time to hear about how your hovercraft is full of eels.
We are positive that at this point in time, you are pretty familiar on how to install apps on your Android device. Downloading an apk is always a good alternative, using the market is another, and there is always the sure-fire way of using ADB to push the apk into the device. As the devices come more and more locked down from the manufacturers, getting apps to install in our devices becomes increasingly more difficult. With this in mind, XDA member enzola created Android Injector. This will allow you to install apks directly from the computer via USB (just USB, not ADB). The best part is that the device does not need to be rooted for this to work. You can install one at a time or just pick a few and have them all installed together. It is worth mentioning that you will need USB debugging enabled on your mobile device as well device-specific ADB drivers installed on your computer for it to work. Thankfully, you will not need to use any commands yourself (thanks Will for the correction).
Hacking at its best is what this community is all about. The more technology advances, new challenges arise and developers across the globe step up to the plate to try and tackle the obstacles that manufacturer's put on devices, thus, preventing us from using them to their full potential. XDA moderator Chainfire brings us a slightly modified version of Gingerbreak, which was developed by The Android Exploid Crew. Chainfire basically modified it in such a way that the whole exploit would be installable via apk. This tool will remount /system read/write, install su binaries and superUser.apk in your system, regardless of the device. In case the apk fails to do this whole process for you, the moderator also provides instructions on how to do this by hand.
So, you got yourself a 32 GB microSD card that you just filled with everything you have on your computer (as far as media in concerned). Everything goes well, but you cannot help and notice that your Class 10 card should be, or at least feel a bit faster than what it is when it comes to loading pictures in your gallery. There are a quite a few guides on how to fix the speed of your SD card, and they will all help, but for this particular reason, there may be a much simpler solution at hand. Normally, the gallery applications for Android will scan your whole device for pictures. This means that along the way, it will pick up icon folders, background folders, thumbnail folders, and anything that is not what you would like to show up in your gallery. For instance, you may have a folder with icons for your current custom theme in the heart of your card. These will be picked up during the scan.
I am sure that you have seen the launch of the ever popular SPB Shell 5 for Android platforms. This old timer has finally made its way from the world of Windows Mobile all the way to the little green guy's door step. However, we are all very much used to seeing paid apps in Android that are in the US$1 to US$3 range. SPB seems to have been left in time because they are charging roughly the same as they used to charge for the SPB MS Windows Mobile versions (close to US$20 in case you were wondering). You want the nice 3D effects, the smooth scrolling, and all the different goodies that this UI has to offer, don't you? Well, XDA member syrenz has pointed us to a very nice alternative that will give you all the 3D goodness that you (and your device) can handle. Regina 3D is a new UI for Android devices that offer widgets, 3D transitions, task manager, new drawer options, and much more. An interesting option is that you can give each one of your screens a different background, which is a nice alternative in case you are tired of the scrolling background that Android normally offers. Best of all? The UI is free!
If you want to get be most out of your battery right after getting a new rom on your Android device, you should always calibrate it. However, this process, depending on the device that you are using can be cumbersome as it will force you to boot into recovery several times. Well, worry no more because XDA member marosige has developed an app that will allow you to do just this, without having to go through the hassle of rebooting a bunch of times. This app will require you to charge the battery to 100% charge, and then let it drop top 0 after flashing a brand new rom. It requires root access.
It looks as if lately our devs have been focusing a lot on the looks of our devices. You may remember not too long ago, a great CM7 boot animation that was created by XDA member adam2010. Well, if you liked it but are currently using the other famous AOSP rom known as MIUI, you will feel great to know that the dev has prepared a boot animation for this rom as well. Big Bang starts just as that... a big bang of light and dust (think of the beginning of our galaxy). After all the dust dissipates, you see the birth of this rom. Very clean and nice graphics and it is bound to run rather well on higher end devices. The animation has no audio, which is actually nice for those late night flashing runs when you are trying not to wake up the dog.
Surely, you have seen battery monitors of all shapes, sizes, and kinds out there, but this one has to be one of the most complete stand alone battery widgets I have seen for an Android device. Battery Monitor Widget (BMW), was created by XDA member ccounotte and it will provide you with any and all the information that you have ever wanted to get out of your battery consumption patterns. The app will monitor voltage and current consumption, provide plots, monitor temperature, provide trends to estimate battery life, and much more. The app's widget will give you all the basic information and there is a paid version that will provide you will graphical widgets as well.
Windows Phone 7 hacking and modding seems to be slowly taking off and as such, we start seeing stuff like this flying around the forum. XDA member kuerbis2 has updated his famous XAP installer for Windows Phone 7. This app allows you to load most apps on Windows Phone 7. Under normal conditions, you would only be allowed to install things straight from the marketplace and not from your phone like you are used to with cabs (thinking back to Windows Mobile). Among some of its improvements, you will see that the app does not need to be uninstalled in order to install the newer version. The other big thing in this new release is that Phone Dev Tools are no longer required, which is a big plus.
It has been many years since the release of pda devices with removable batteries. Older PDAs would hold charge for a while for a wide variety of reasons, but the biggest one was that the devices were not equipped with any kind of radio (thinking back to my old HP Jornada 520). As times evolved, so did these devices which started getting more capabilities (wifi, bluetooth, phone, FM, GPS, etc). However, the batteries were always kept the same or at least they did not grow at the same rate as the device's power requirements did. Take for instance the HTC EVO, which is the device I currently have as my daily driver. When I first bought it, if the battery lasted for longer than 15 hours, it was a miracle. The device basically had to sit idle and be used solely for phone calls (and heaven forbid that your GPS was on). Shortly after, I decided to root it and installed a custom rom and kernel, which made this battery last for a full day with usage. Everything was fine and I was ok with its performance, but lately the battery has been draining a bit faster than before, which makes sense as batteries lose charge capacity over time.
There are several all in one widgets out there in the market that will provide you with information about your city's weather and current time. XDA member joey3002 wanted something a bit more compact, so he created Maximus Clock. The widget can provide you with time, weather, and battery information, all in a single widget. However, unlike others of its kind like Fancy Widget, Sense, etc, this one has everything encased in the analog clock itself, so the widget itself is rather small, and as such will leave you with the ability to use the remaining real estate in your home screen for other shortcuts/widgets that you may want to have instead.
You may remember a while back, we talked about an APK tool called... well, Apktool by XDA member Brut.all. If you thought that was good, then wait until you put your hands on what XDA member Anoniem100 has prepared for us. Using Brut.all's tool as a base, the dev created a GUI to make the use of this tool much, much easier and user-friendly. APK Edit will allow the end user to change things like the application's icon, the text, and even the app's name. The interface is rather intuitive and straight forward, so if you are pressed for time and need to quickly change something in the apk, this will help greatly!
Do you like Android's stock app manager? If the answer to that question is no, then you should certainly take a quick look at what XDA member leducbao has prepared for you. AntTek App Manager Root is an app manager replacement for rooted devices that is packed with extra options not found in the regular app manager. This will allow you to not only do basic functions such as add/remove apps, but will also allow you to freeze/unfreeze apps, clear cache's, backup and restore data, and much more. In case you are wondering what freezing an app actually is, it is the process of hiding it from Android's memory, so that no resources are used on it. The inverse process of this? Yup, you guessed it... defrost.
Unless you have been internet impaired for the last couple of years, you will probably have heard about Megavideo. Just in case you haven't, Megavideo is a site, much like Youtube, where you can upload videos to share with the rest of the world. Megavideo gives you options to download videos among other features, but aside from it being available on Android via other players, there was no Megavideo specific app, like Youtube. Well, thanks to XDA member RotxeD, the Megavideo app just became a reality. While the app is not officially released by the people behind the website, it is fully endorsed by them, providing support for the devs in order to make the app better.
If you enjoy physics simulation apps, you may want to try out what XDA member mirceanis has brought to the table. Many scientists and engineers use CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to model and predict behavior of certain fluids under certain conditions. These simulations normally end up being used as important data to determine the feasibility of a project without having to build too many prototypes. This app does none of that, but it uses CFD in order to render models of fluids that will be affected by external influences and such (your touchscreen).
Have an Old BT Mono Headset Laying Around? Listen to Music Through it with BTmono for Android
As the title states, if you have an old BT mono headset laying around and you want to put it to good use, you could certainly use XDA member bedoig's newest application. BTmono allows streaming of music and sound to BT mono headsets, which are otherwise not fit to serve the same purpose as their stereo counterparts. This is a practical app if you really don't like having wires all around you and yet don't feel like shelling out the money for a stereo headset.