vibrant

Samsung Vibrant x Team Whiskey Bionix NextGen V1

Team Whiskey

Well when I went to write this I realized I had an old draft of a post I meant to post after first flashing Bionix 1.2. Just a general bragging and celebrating of the goodness that was that is the Bionix. If you find yourself wondering “What the F is a ROM?” this post might not be for you but it’s nothing a little google wont fix. Anyways…

So after being on Bionix 1.2 (and loving it) for a while. I started noticing my media app kept dying so I decided since it had been a while and Team Whiskey had released a few ROMs that I would look into what these new ROMs had to offer. Out of the three current ROMs I chose NextGen V1 (there is now a NextGen V2)

Functional Stuffs

Well for starters I learned a lot with this ROM. This is the first time I ever replaced the phone.apk to get rid of the three second fade in “feature,” I added a fix to get rid of all the text messages in the call log and applied a framework fix by OldeCrow from XDA to fix a misalignment in the search button.

It is also quite snappy and has nice animations like my ubuntu netbook does. Screen transitions and all that good stuff. I thought this would cause more drain in the battery department but once I re-conditioned it I am averaging 24+ hours per charge with average use!! I have never had such good battery life. I still experience the occasional dying of the media.app but it rarely occurs so I don’t mind having to reboot the phone every now and then. With Bionix 1.2 I had to reboot daily to get any audio or video to work. I’ve also read that flashing certain kernels fixes the media.app force close problem but have yet to venture into kernel flashing.

On a not so great note my GPS is pretty shitty. Sometimes is just loses the signal and never comes back, other times it just re-routes me onto roads that are beside the road I am supposed to be on. It has overall just been pretty crappy.

Base Theme

Well it’s pretty blue. I don’t really mind and feel it’s a nice change. There are also some cool themes out there if you just can’t stand it. It comes with a themed market too which is also very blue. The only thing I don’t like is the actual launcher. It is black with a blue outline and the web icon has a lil pixel chew going on around it. I would’ve preferred it be slightly transparent like on Bionix 1.2 but beggars can’t be choosers. It also has a nice battery notification icon.

General Feelings

It is pretty friggin hot. I was skeptical because so many people post with bizarre horror stories but all in all I am much happier with Next Gen V1 than I was with Bionix 1.2. I find it is faster and gives me much better battery life. I wish the GPS worked a little better but I rarely use it so I think it’s a fair trade. I really have only tried Team Whiskey ROMs and both have been much better than the stock phone.

Links

Bionix NextGen V1 (gotta join the forums to view posts)
no fade ringer phone.apk
call log fix
framework fix for search

Must Have Android Apps

android market

So it’s been a while since I got my samsung vibrant android phone and I have come to rely on a bunch of really cool apps that make the phone even better.

For starters all the social networking apps are all pretty good. I also noticed all the companies seem to have their own apps ie: twitter app is by twitter, facebook app is by facebook, etc. All the Google apps are great too: Calendars, Gmail, Maps, Navigation, Reader, Talk (there’s many more!).

Barnacle

Barnacle is an easy way to get your wifi tether on. It turns your phone’s 3g signal into a wifi hotspot so you can mooch off of it with your laptop. There are other alternatives out there that claim to do the job better. Some are more advanced and require a lil bit more know how but this was easy as shit and worked as advertised upon installation.

DoubleTwist

It is itunes for android users. It is available for mac and pc but not linux (luhaaaaaaaame) It isn’t as nice but you’ll be fine. Install doubletwist on your machine and then download the app from the android market. Use as you would itunes. Done.

Dropbox

If you don’t use dropbox already shame on you! It is nice having a lil mini cloud with your shit on it accessible from everywhere. You can access dropbox from any browser. They also have an application for your computer so you can do everything you can do on the website but by just dropping files in folders, very nice. The android app simply adds the same function to the phone. With the app you can access all your files and download or upload to your dropbox.

ProfileChanger

ProfileChanger lets you set up schedules for your phones ringer profiles. For example I created a profile called “work” which I have set the phone to vibrate mode at 8:30 am M-F. Then I created one called “play” which I have set the phone back to normal mode at 5:00 pm M-F. This avoids me being in the office and having to not laugh when my phone goes “beeee beeeee ~ mail muthafucka!” Be sure to use the apps exit button to avoid turning off the app (it needs to run in the background)

Ringdroid

Very awesome, simple app. It’s a very basic editing app but it gets the job done. You can just use the first 5 seconds of a song rather than the whole song and save that as a mp3 and use it as a ring tone. Super handy if you have a bunch of music on your phone.

Titanium Backup

Use this to create backups and delete bloatware. Must be rooted though (go here if you aren’t rooted yet). I also believe if you purchased the paid version you can set your updates to automatically upload to your dropbox (Woot!)

I use plenty of other random apps too but these are the ones that I like most. Once I work up the balls to play with roms I will be attacking clockwork mod. Any cool apps you use? Sound off in the comments.

Labor Day Woot

All in all it was a fairly memorable holiday weekend. The Cono-Lu came down too, which is always a good thing.

I kicked it off with buying a new phone. After going thru two tmobile dash phones and relying on a beat up razor I use as a back up phone I decided it was time to up my phone game.

I wont lie I really would like an iphone but I dont even own a mac so changing mobile service providers just to own one seems silly. So I went with what for now seemed like the next best thing- the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant (It’s not an iphone)

It’s pretty nice and I really dig the android os. It’s kind of weird to always be connected to the internet.

Next highlight was the slaying of the San Diego bay. Conor and I were dropped off in coronado and rode down the strand and up past chula and nasty city before cutting thru down town and landing back at my place in city heights. 30 or so miles, felt great.

And Lu found me a sweet watch for $15.00 and the rest was history. It’s like time travel. A timex makes me feel like I’m eight years old! It is huge and has indiglo and I set it up to beep every hour 🙂

This is also my first post using the wordpress app for android.

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