Hasta La Gadget!

Aside from shipping without Adobe Flash Player preloaded, the Motorola Xoom also has the ignoble distinction of having a non-functioning MicroSD card slot. We’re assured by the company’s reps that the update to make storage expansion work is imminent, but if you have to have it right this very minute, there’s now a kernel for you. It goes by the name of Tiamat, originating on xda-developers (as most good things do), and has recently stepped up to support MicroSD card storage. You’ll find download links and instructions for Tiamat at the source link, plus a few happy reports of it working as advertised.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Xoom sees MicroSD card support enabled in latest version of Tiamat kernel originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 06:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  xda-developers  | Email this | Comments

The latest CyanogenMod release (7.0) is based on Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread).

Android phone owners stuck on older versions of the operating system know the frustration of seeing newer versions with features they can’t get.

Good news for them: A new, hacked version of Android delivers many of the features of the latest Android OS without the wait.

The gang over at CyanogenMod dropped a new stable release of their popular Android OS ROM, CyanogenMod version 7.0.

In the hacking community, a custom ROM (which stands for “read-only memory”) has come to refer to a image of the operating system that comes on your phone when you buy it, aka a stock ROM. Customized ROMs are exactly that — tweaked versions of an OS that are manipulated, often containing firmware upgrades that come out faster than official updates from the makers of the OS.

After gaining root access to your phone, you can run the custom ROM on your phone using an app like ROM Manager.

The new release functions on more than 30 devices, now including two tablets — the Barnes and Noble Nook Color and the G-Tablet.

Version 7.0 is available free for download at the CyanogenMod website.

Installing CyanogenMod 7 brings major updates to the keyboard and texting tools, reducing problems with selecting text for copying and pasting that frustrated users in previous versions of Android. The reports on battery use by app are much more detailed in the settings menu compared to Froyo. A number of minor updates include a list of all the apps you’ve downloaded on your phone, as well an update to the camera app that makes it easy to switch between front- and back-facing cameras.

Along with access to Gingerbread’s finest features, CyanogenMod 7.0 comes with a number of cool perks, including built-in CPU clocking (over or under), the ability to install more apps to your phone’s SD card, custom wallpapers and themes, and some tweaks to the music-playing app that allows you to use the camera button to pause.

Some of the different features in the update aren’t grandiose in nature, but the new CyanogenMod release highlights what Android enthusiasts love about the platform — the ability to customize a phone through subtle tweaks and flourishes, making what would otherwise be one of many manufactured handsets into a personalized (or hacked) device.

Have you downloaded and tested the new CyanogenMod 7.0? Let us know what it’s like in the comments.

See Also:

• The Droid Has Been Rooted — Now What?
• Droid X Debut Leaves Hardcore Android Fans Leery
• Hack Brings Multitouch to Nexus One Browser

Well, after all the talk of TROs, tweets, and YouTube user info, it seems that the SCEA vs. Geohot litigation has come to a rather uneventful conclusion. According to Sony’s Playstation Blog, the case has been settled, and Hotz has agreed to a permanent injunction preventing him from distributing his PS3 jailbreak hack ever again. Of course, while this settlement has cowed the man who did the initial distribution deed, the jailbreak genie’s out of the bottle, and no court order can ever put it back.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

SCEA vs. Geohot: Sony wins a not-quite flawless victory originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a unique bit of technology for the paranoid and forgetful. A developer has written an application for PCs that locks your computer if you’re not at your desk. Now, most of the time this is accomplished through timers and the like, but this one is a little different. Using an IR heat sensor, it monitors your body heat. When it sees that it’s no longer there, it locks down the system, ensuring that nobody can see whatever super-secret data you had been working on. You can set custom delays before locking and the temperature at which the lock will trigger.

The application itself is free, but the sensor that developer Dider Stephens used costs about $90. Hack-A-Day suggests that it can work with any USB temperature sensor, so you might be able to save some money by finding a cheaper one.

Click through the break to see a video of the app in use.

[via Hack-A-Day]

Meet any seasoned techie, and they’ll likely spin whimsical tales of computing’s early days, and the challenge of finding a practical use for a device with seemingly limitless potential (you know, like feeding your cat while you sleep). A new product from SparkFun promises to bring this old-school awesomeness into the smartphone age: introducing IOIO (pronounced yo-yo), a breakout box that enables any Android 1.5+ device to control electronic circuits from within Android’s applications. Designed in collaboration with Google, Spark’s PCB connects to your phone over USB, working its magic through a Java library that hooks into your apps. This DIY paradise will begin shipping in a few weeks, and can be yours for $49.95 on pre-order. We’ve already witnessed some clever mods with IOIO, and when it sent a real alarm clock ringing, we couldn’t help but smile. Crack one yourself after the break.

Continue reading SparkFun intros IOIO for Android, a hack-free breakout box to get your mind spinning

SparkFun intros IOIO for Android, a hack-free breakout box to get your mind spinning originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 04:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Microcontrollers, Electronics & Robotics, Android Community  |  SparkFun  | Email this | Comments