How to access USB debugging setting in Android 4.2.2

My Nexus 4 was upgraded to 4.2.2 last night. This morning, I decided to turn on USB debugging. But, I couldn't find it after searching all of the settings. Apparently, there is a good reason why: it's not there! In order to have "Developer options" added to the "Settings" menu, I had to "About phone" and touch "Build number" at the bottom seven times. After a few touches, I saw a countdown message (it was something like "3 more before you're a developer"). After "becoming a developer", I found "Developer options" 2nd-to-last in the "Settings" menu, right before "About phone".

After turning on "USB debugging", adb recognized my phone:

List of devices attached 
00839b0e89da57d7        offline

But, I can't use adb yet because of a new security feature in 4.2.2. Time to upgrade my developer kit...

How to install android debug bridge (adb)

Google is making it a challenge to use basic Android tools. The swiss-army knife of Android tinkering is adb. Where do you find it? Not in the SDK. If you download-and-install the r20 SDK, you'll find a note in the tools directory:

The adb tool has moved to platform-tools/

If you don't see this directory in your SDK,
launch the SDK and AVD Manager (execute the android tool)
and install "Android SDK Platform-tools"
[...]

I couldn't find anything named "SDK and AVD Manager" in the SDK, but I found the android tool in the tools directory. I even found a suggestion for how to get platform-tools without opening a UI. But...

jason@pinot:~/android/sdk-r20$ ./tools/android update sdk --no-ui
./tools/android: 1: ./tools/android: java: not found
./tools/android: 1: ./tools/android: java: not found
./tools/android: 110: exec: java: not found

After searching around the Ubuntu packages site, I realized I needed to:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre

Then I reran the android update command (above). Yes, I got the platform-tools (including adb), but I'm also getting tons of other crap I don't want. Maybe running ./tools/android without any arguments would have been better...

Now, the moment of truth:

jason@pinot:~/android/sdk-r20$ ./platform-tools/adb 
./platform-tools/adb: error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

You've got to be kidding me.

jason@pinot:~/android/sdk-r20$ sudo apt-get install libncurses5
[...]
libncurses5 is already the newest version.
[...]

Ah, adb is a 32-bit binary. Do 32-bit Linux installs even exist any more? Anyway,

sudo apt-get install lib32ncurses5 lib32stdc++6

Phew! What a workout! Finally, the reward:

jason@pinot:~/android/sdk-r20$ ./platform-tools/adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached 
0146B5BB04002013 device

Ah, what a lovely device number.

Android GSM Reception Icons

Since I got my Galaxy Nexus and hooked it up to T-Mobile service, I've been wondering about the abbreviations next to the mobile signal reception strength icon. Everyone knows that more bars is good, but what about "E" versus "H"? After having very poor download speeds with an "E" status, I finally did some searching to find out.

The abbreviations refer to the technology of the network you are connected to:

• H - HSPA - this is the fastest connection, with up to 14 Mbit/s download speeds (or up to 84 Mbit/s for HSPA+)
• 3G - most likely refers to W-CDMA, the predecessor to HSPA, with speeds up to 2 Mbit/s
• E - EDGE - a predecessor to 3G networks, with speeds up to 384 kbit/s (non-Enhanced)

So, even a week "H" connection can be much better than a strong "E" connection. Keep that in mind the next time you are checking reception!

Easy Galaxy Nexus Root

I recently discovered an easy way to root the Galaxy Nexus. I just got my wife a GN and needed to root it so that she'd have decent battery life. While scanning posts I had used for my previous GN rooting, I noticed a new, "simple" approach which did not require unlocking the bootloader. As noted, the major caveat is that this only works with ICS 4.0.2 or earlier. Since my wife's phone came with 4.0.4, I decided to flash it back to 4.0.2 before proceeding. See the nexus factory images page and my post on flashing to stock. I used the 4.0.2 build (ICL53F). After flashing, I re-locked the bootloader by re-entering fastboot mode (power off, then hold VOLUME UP + VOLUME DOWN while pressing POWER until you feel the phone vibrate) and issuing fastboot oem lock from my computer.

Once you are on 4.0.2, download the simple root package referenced at the bottom of the Android Forums post. Don't forget to turn on USB Debugging on your phone (under "Developer options" in Settings). Before running the root script, I checked that adb was working properly by running adb devices and observing a (16-digit hex) device id. See my original Nexus rooting post if you get nothing or lots of question marks. I found that rooting was as simple as running the root-unroot-for-linux-osx.sh script that came with the "simple" package. Kudos to scary alien for making it so easy. Leave me a comment if it doesn't work for you---I'll try to help.

Flashing the Galaxy Nexus to Stock

After rooting my Galaxy Nexus and removing some "system" apps, I learned that once you do that, you can no longer take system updates. Also, if you install an alternative "recovery" ROM (like ClockWorkMod), my understanding is that you cannot take updates. Yet, the phone will still prompt you for system updates, attempt to install them, and then fail upon reboot, leaving you with what seems to be a dead phone (you'll see a robot on it's back with chest open and a floating red exclamation point within a triangle). Not exactly what I'd call a great user experience.

My primary goal with rooting was to extend battery life and I believe most of my battery savings came from disabling services using the Autostarts app. IIUC, using the Autostarts app does not disable the ability to take updates. So, I decided to flash my GN back to stock so that I could once again take system updates and get rid of the annoying update reminders.

To get back to stock, I grabbed the 4.0.1 (ITL41D) yakju package from the factory images page (since I have a GSM Nexus) and unzipped it.

Note that I'm running Linux---I would not recommend trying this unless you are also running Linux and are generally familiar with the Linux command line. I would also recommend that you have adb and fastboot installed in a location that is part of your $PATH. fastboot is necessary; adb will help make sure you can access your phone.

After unpacking, I checked whether I could access my phone:

$ adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached 
0146B5BB04002013        device

So far, so good. If you don't get any devices or get "???????????", see my post on rooting the GN. Next, I shut down my phone, then booted into "fastboot" mode by holding VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN buttons, then pressing the POWER button. Fastboot mode shows a large green robot with his chest open. It also says "Fastboot mode" in small print toward the bottom. Next, checked that I could access the phone:

$ fastboot devices
0146B5BB04002013        fastboot

Finally, I ran the flash-all.sh script from the 4.0.1 stock package. Well, actually, I copied the commands from flash-all.sh one-by-one. The first two "flash" commands went quickly. The last took a while as it had to copy and install the 181M image. I watched as my phone finished installing then went through its boot sequence a twice. Finally, I got the new user tutorial. My phone is back to 4.0.1 stock. Yeah!

Note: I previously tried using the 4.0.2 stock image, but found that I wasn't able to root my phone with that image.

Note: After rooting and turning off many services via Autostarts, I was successfully able to apply a system update (ITL41F) to my phone.

Note: I successfully used the manual method to root my phone this time.

CyanogenMod and Android Debug Bridge

After many tries, I finally got CyanogenMod (7.2 PlayfulGod 20110913 using ClockWorkMod 3.0.2.8) on my (old) Huawei Ascend using these instructions and the "600" CM ROM from these handy links. Note that you need to install both the CM ROM zip and the gapps zip. And you must be rooted and have ClockWorkMod installed first. It is certainly a huge improvement over stock. It's as fast as what you get by removing all the bloatware plus there are a ton of extra customization options that aren't in the regular Android release. I'm not going to go into all the details, but I will say that I found being familiar with Android Debug Bridge (adb) to be extremely helpful. Most (if not all) "mod" packages include both adb and fastboot. The adb tool can be used to put files on the phone, install applications (using the .apk file rather than from Market), and execute arbitrary commands on the phone using the shell functionality of adb. I found it educational to run the shell and poke around at the filesystem (ls and cd work).

For reference:

• VOLUME UP + SEND/CALL + POWER: boots the Ascend into "recovery" mode
• VOLUME DOWN + HANG UP + POWER: boots the Ascend into "fastboot" mode (only "Huawei" screen will display---remove battery to turn phone off)

How I Rooted my Samsung Galaxy Nexus

After seeing my battery in the "red" barely more than 24 hours after a full charge, I decided it was time to take action. I had previously rooted two phones and managed to significantly extend the battery life from 1-2 days to 5+ days. So, last night I sat down to root my Galaxy Nexus. Rooting the Nexus is a bit different from other phones I had rooted. Instead of running a special app (like Gingerbreak), the idea is to unlock the bootloader, then boot to a special image that gives you read/write access to /system, and install the su binary and Superuser app.

I used scary alien's HowTo as my guide. The first thing I did was to see whether I could run the adb utility. I downloaded the sdk-tools.zip package, and made the linux versions of the tools executable. But, when I ran ./adb devices, I got "???????? no permissions". I found that I could make it work with "sudo", but searched for and found a better way---give myself USB permissions to the device. Information can be found under "Configuring USB Access" in the Initializing a Build Environment document. (After editing "<username>",) I copied the two "Galaxy Nexus" lines to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules (new file), disconnected and reconnected my phone, and was then able to detect my device with ./adb devices.

The next step for me was to unlock the bootloader. This was as easy as described by the HowTo guide. I booted my phone into "fastboot" mode by powering down my phone, then holding down the VOLUME UP, VOLUME DOWN, and POWER buttons. Once I was in "fastboot", I confirmed that the fastboot utility could "see" my device, then issued the ./fastboot oem unlock command from my computer. At the bottom of the phone's screen I could see that the bootloader had been unlocked. From there I had a decision to make---what method to use? After realizing that the essential file for the "manual" method was missing, I decided on the ClockworkMod method.

I downloaded the su.zip and recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.2-maguro.img, then soft-booted into the ClockworkMod: ./fastboot boot recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.2-maguro.img. I followed the instructions to ensure that /sdcard was mounted, but kept getting the error message: "E:can't mount /sdcard/". I read that restarting might fix the problem, so I opted to reboot ClockworkMod (under "advanced" menu). Bad idea. I ended-up with my phone in a frozen state---a green robot on its back with its chest open with a red triangle with exclamation point floating above. I had to remove the battery and leave it out for appx. 60 seconds (until the screen went blank) before I could then restart the phone.

The restart took a while. As the HowTo describes, it goes through the startup sequence, then restarts and goes through the startup sequence again. When it was done, it led me through the new phone tutorial I got when I first turned-on the device. All my settings had been reset (as expected). After going through the tutorial, I tried the ClockworkMod method again. This time I did not get the /sdcard errors and the su.zip install appeared successful. But, when I restarted back into "normal" mode, I couldn't get root privileges.

My phone otherwise seemed to be fine, so I moved on to the Superboot method. After downloading the superboot package and unzipping it, I booted my phone into "fastboot" mode, checked that the fastboot utility recognized my phone, and ran install-superboot-linux.sh (from my computer). My phone restarted and I checked that I had root privileges by trying to change settings via the Autostarts app. Yes! It worked!

I used Autostarts to turn off a ton of automatic startups, being careful to avoid things like "Contacts", "Phone", "Android System", "Calendar Storage", "Download Manager", "Media Storage", "SIM Toolkit", "System UI", "Google One Time Init" and "Google Services Framework". However, I may have turned-off too many services since I later lost my ability to get root (the error message was something like "Superuser has stopped running"). But, a fix wasn't difficult. From "Settings", I went to the "Apps" menu, selected the Superuser app, cleared its data, "Force Close"d, then restarted Superuser. After that, I was able to get root privileges via the Superuser app as usual.

P.S. In addition to modifying auto-start settings, I also removed a few apps using Titanium Backup: Music, MusicFX, Videos, YouTube, and Voice Search.

Rooting the LG Optimus M

I convinced my wife to let me root her LG Optimus M (stock Android 2.2.1). After the struggle I had to go through to root my 2.2.2 Ascend, rooting the Optimus was a breeze! Here's what I did:

• Turn on the following phone settings under "Applications": Unknown sources, USB debugging (under Development).
• From your computer, search for Gingerbreak and download APK v1.2; here's a Gingerbreak link that currently works.
• Connect your phone to your computer; on your phone, pull down the top menu, touch the "USB storage" message and turn on USB storage.
• You should see notification on your computer that your phone's SD card has been mounted. Copy the Gingerbread APK to somewhere on your phone (e.g. the "downloads" directory).
• On your phone, install the ES File Explorer (or your favorite file explorer/browser) app via Market
• Open the file explorer, find the Gingerbreak APK and install it (make sure "USB debugging" and "Unknown sources" settings are turned on)
• Run Gingerbreak, touch the option to root your phone. Your phone should reboot by itself in a few minutes. If it doesn't reboot by itself, Gingerbreak probably didn't work. After the phone reboots, you should see a "Superuser" app in your list of apps.
• Install Titanium Backup (free version is fine) from Market.
• In Titanium Backup, touch "Backup/Restore", select an app you want to remove, then select "Un-install". Be very careful about which apps you remove! Removing the wrong one can brick your phone. Here is a list of "safe" apps to remove for LG Optimus M.

Here are the apps I removed. I'd recommend that you stop Boingo WiFi before trying to remove it---I kept getting error messages after removing it and had to reboot the phone before I could continue. Also note that some of these apps provide basic functionality; if you ever think you'll use that functionality or aren't sure, don't remove that app.

• Boingo wifi (had to reboot after removing)
• Gameloft free games
• Loopt
• Mail@metro
• Metro backup
• Metro 411
• Metro navigator
• Metropcs easy wifi
• Mocospace
• Myextras
• Pocket express
• Uno
• Virtual card
• Music
• Sns
• RSS reader
• Voice dialer
• Voice search
• Weather

Rooting the Huawei Ascend and Upgrading to Android 2.2.2 (Froyo)

Upgrading was the easy part. MetroPCS has a page of instructions on how to upgrade. I took the "Self Upgrade" option. Note that the actual download is from the Huawei Devices site. One thing I was a little confused about is that after you connect your phone to your computer, you must mount the SD card via your phone. I kept trying to run "mount" commands from my computer...

The hard part was obtaining root. First I tried z4root, the app that rooted Android 2.1 for me. No luck. After some searching, I learned about Gingerbreak. I tried v1.2, then v1.3, then v1.1. None of them worked. Argh! And now my battery is draining like crazy! I'm I relegated to a life of recharging my phone every day?!?! Lots of Google searching just turned up more and more references to z4root/gingerbreak. And, I couldn't seem to find anyone with my problem; until...

...I found this post. tokill88 was stuck in a similar situation... had recently upgraded to 2.2.2 and Gingerbreak wouldn't work for him. The thread was dead---3 months old. I registered and added my sad situation. I looked back a few minutes later and there was a reply from "Senior member" ShinySide suggesting SuperOneClick. Seriously? Could that be it? I had a little trouble downloading it and figuring out how it worked, but this video helped a lot. Note that I couldn't run SuperOneClick on XP, but it worked on Vista (yes, it requires Windows).

After rooting via SuperOneClick, I wasn't sure whether I actually had root. I tried Titanium Backup, which is how I removed bloatware from Android 2.1. It couldn't get root. Huh? I found threads talking about this problem and how to fix, but TB didn't even have the same interface. Somewhat randomly, I tried setting TB to "Force System BusyBox". I then restarted via Menu->More->Reload Application. Viola! But, that wasn't all. TB couldn't find the applications I really wanted to remove, like MetroPCS Easy Wifi. This problem was easier to solve (but more expensive). Install Root Explorer via Market and delete everything in /cust/metropcs/us/app. Done!

Was the pain worth it? Yes. I feel like I have a new & improved phone. Everything is faster. Settings->Applications->Manage Applications is useful; it shows me all running applications, not just the ones I started and lets me "force stop" ones I don't want to be running. I still use Advanced Task Killer, but the "Manage Applications" gives me more control and "force stop" really works.

The one thing I don't like about Android 2.2.2 is that I can't control end button behavior. I used to be able to hit the "end call" button to put my phone to sleep. Now I have to hit the power button. Annoying, but I'll live.

P.S. In case you brick your phone, I bet this post would be useful.

P.P.S. This seems to be a good article on task killers. As noted, CPU is more precious than memory; killing and restarting an app uses precious CPU. So, if an app you don't use restarts itself every time you kill it, what you really need to do is root your phone and remove that rogue app.

Mapping Android Version Names to Numbers

I get confused about what Android release names map to what Android release versions. So, I created this post. I got the list of names from this post. I got some of the numbers from Google search; the last two are the obvious guesses. As you might expect, you can also find this information on Wikipedia

• 1.5: Cupcake
• 1.6: Donut
• 2.0/2.1: Eclair
• 2.2: FroYo
• 2.3: Gingerbread
• 3.x: Honeycomb
• 4.x: Ice Cream Sandwich
• 5.x: Jelly Bean (?)
• 6.x: Key Lime Pie (?)

Using Compass and GPS While Hiking

My wife and I hiked up West Tiger Mountain #2 and #3 today. #2 is an elevation of approximately 2700 feet. The most popular route is to take the West Tiger 3 Trail (WT3T) up to peak #3. But, we decided to do a loop, following the Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT) up to peak #2, over to peak #3 and then following the West Tiger 3 Trail to get back to the trailhead. Here is a nice map of the trails around where we hiked. Purple is the TMT; green is the WT3T. I printed out a guide with latitude/longitude and brief descriptions of intersection points and we drove to the Tradition Lake/Plateau Trailhead

The reason I'm telling you about this on a mobile blog is that the Compass app was extremely handy for the hike. I used it for (1) latitude/longitude to match with the guide, (2) compass to make sure we were headed in the correct direction, and (3) elevation to know how far up or down we still had to go. I'll definitely make sure my phone is fully charged for my next hike.

Another reason I'm glad I had the Compass app is that our planned hike was interrupted. Half-way up the mountain, we saw a sign telling us the TMT was closed ahead. It told us to use the K-3 trail (purple dashed line on the map) to access the peaks. The Compass helped me figure out where we were on the map I printed and how close we were to the planned trail. The K-3 turned out to be a great alternative as it took us up to the old Railroad Grade (black dashed line) which reconnected with the TMT. Fortunately for us, the trail signage was quite good, providing trail names, directions to peaks and even distances, occasionally.

I can see why most people stick to WT3T. The TMT was somewhat narrow, steep and overgrown, but it wound through some gorgeous parts of the park, including across two ravines via wooden bridges with streams below. We were pleasantly surprised to find many foxglove plants which we learned about in our daughter's Fancy Nancy books. In contrast, the WT3T has wide, well-defined trail and is never particularly steep. They even had stairs built for the one steep portion. In contrast, the TMT had a number of steep sections with switchbacks built to make it easier to climb. There were a few parts where it took leg strength to pull myself up. We never saw anything like that on the WT3T. We didn't see a single other hiker on TMT; we saw 20+ other hikers on WT3T. Of course, we started the TMT at 8:20am and started hiking down the WT3T around 11:30am. Overall, I like the TMT better as it seemed like an interesting hike versus the WT3T which was more like an exercise walk.

Huawei Ascend Android 2.2 Upgrade

Finally!  It's out.  Here's the official MetroPCS Android 2.2 Upgrade announcement.  But wait.  I've rooted my phone.  Is the upgrade compatible with a rooted phone?  I'm skeptical.  This post describing a bad experience with upgrading after rooting worries me.  'course, it's possible this person wasn't super careful, or the Cricket upgrade is somewhat different from the MetroPCS upgrade.  Does anyone have experience trying to upgrade after rooting?  How did it go?  Which process did you follow: (1) using the App, (2) Self Upgrade, or (3) in-store Assisted?

I'm looking forward to the "Enhanced Processor Management".  Can't wait!

Rooting the Huawei Ascend

I just root-ed my Huawei Ascend. It was surprisingly easy. Tokenpoke at Android Forums provides an easy step-by-step guide to customizing the Ascend. I found it easiest to do everything from my phone. Here's a quick summary of what I did:

• Download the Skyfire browser from Market
• Use Google to search for ascend customization guide; click on the link without a page number.
• Download MetroStockRecover.7z and z4root.1.3.0.apk
• Follow Tokenpoke's instructions for rooting your phone and deleting apps.

I chose not to delete the Metro Web and Android Keyboard apps. I may delete the Metro Web app if I decide I like the Skyfire app better. But, AFAIK, I don't have a keyboard app other than the Android Keyboard and I don't want to be stuck without a keyboard! Is there a build-in keyboard that Android would use if I delete "Android Keyboard"?
As Tokenpoke notes, deleting Boingo and MetroWifi are probably the largest benefits since they will run in the background and you can't permanently shut them off (without rooting your phone). I'm already seeing benefits to rooting my phone and deleting apps. When I play Angry Birds, the animation is much less choppy. Also, interaction with the phone seems to be snappier.
Note that you delete applications from the "Titanium Backup" app. Click on an application, then click the "un-install" button. For reference, these are the apps I removed:

• Boingo wifi
• Loopt
• Mail@metro
• Metro backup
• Metro navigator
• Metro 411
• Metropcs easy wifi
• Mobile Im
• Mocospace
• Myextras
• Pocket express
• Swype
• Uno
• Voice dialer
• Virtual card
• YouTube

I didn't see the Google Skymap app.

Update 7/6/11: MetroPCS has released the Android 2.2 Upgrade.  If you've tried this on a rooted Ascend, please let me know by leaving a comment.  Thanks!

Daylight Savings Time

I got my wife an LG Optimus M when she decided to switch over to MetroPCS with me. Except for the slightly smaller screen size, it seems to be better than my Huawei Ascend especially with respect to responsiveness. The hardware specs aren't too different, so I'm guessing the difference is Android 2.2 (vs. Android 2.1).

There has been one serious disappointment, though. When Daylight Savings Time rolled around on Sunday, the LG Optimus M was still stuck in Standard Time. I checked Date and Time Settings, but there was no option for controlling the clock at all (not even whether the clock should be updated automatically or not). Fortunately, I found a thread on the DST issue where someone suggested rebooting and briefly pulling the battery when the phone is off. I'm not sure why I didn't think of that earlier. But, the good news is that it worked. Now the LG Optimus M is finally in DST. I wonder what the problem was. Did the phone receive a DST update, but it couldn't be applied until a reboot? Please comment if you know.

AndroidForums

AndroidForums seems to have a nice set of threads on the Huawei Ascend.

P.S. After searching around on the Huawei web site, I've learned that the Ascend is also known as the M860.

Mounting Android and User Manual

I suspected it must be easy to mount the microSD card as a "hard drive" from Linux. I didn't find any devices with "usb" in the name the first time I connected it, so I didn't pursue it further. Today, I had /var/log/messages tailed and noticed an sr1 device message when I attached my phone. Sure enough,

$ sudo mkdir /media/android
$ sudo mount /dev/sr1 /media/android

gave me access.

After poking around a bit, I noticed

/media/android/document/user guide_en.pdf

Ah hah! The missing manual. I figured out most of the details already, but the manual did provide me one useful piece of information---how to upgrade. See sections 12.8 and 12.9. Note that I'm referring to the Huawei Ascend manual...

It Works

My suspicions were correct. I noticed that my phone was reporting the incorrect phone number. One digit was missing from "Settings"/"About phone"/"Status"/"My phone number". Standard MetroPCS customer service wasn't willing to help me until 72 hours had passed since my number port. Today, I finally got them to help me (but only after they tried to transfer to the porting department which was closed at the time and they didn't believe me when I told them this!). They helped me edit the settings on the phone and enter the correct phone number. And, voila! Google maps worked immediately and after I re-entered my gmail password and turned on synchonization, gmail worked too. I just downloaded the ITA OnTheFly application which I'm excited to try out since I know one of the developers.

I wish MetroPCS had separate "smart phone" agents (not to mention a less crappy automated voice menu navigation system). The agent that helped me gave me instructions which often were somewhat confusing or unclear because I have a smart phone. One example is when she asked me to dial a number to put the phone into setting-editing mode. She just told me what to dial without indicating that I needed to open up my phone's dialer. Of course, I quickly figured out what she meant, but dealing with customer service is hard enough as it is---having to translate from normal phone terminology to smart phone terminology just makes it more difficult.

Android User Guide

It sounds like there is no general purpose Android user guide. But, the Nexus One User Guide is a good approximation to an Android User Guide. Of course, all the hardware details are different, but once you're past that, there is a lot of useful information. In particular:

• Page 36 provides the basics of how to use the touchscreen
• Pages 50-51 list the meanings of all the notification icons
• Page 62 gives you ideas for how to maximize battery life

P.S. I'm guessing that the Google Mobile Forum is a good place to get help for Android-based mobile phones.

How to lock the screen without waiting for the timeout

Android locks the screen after I hangup a call which is usually what I want. But, when I'm doing other things and wanted to put the phone away, I felt that I had to wait a minute for the screen to timeout to ensure it didn't interpret putting the phone in my pocket as (e.g.) dialing random people in my contacts. I didn't want to set the timeout to a shorter value since I found 30 seconds to be too short when using GMail on the phone. Shouldn't there be a way to force the screen to lock. A Google search didn't help---I mainly found articles on how to secure your phone in case of loss or theft. Next, I started browsing settings. Under "General info & options", I found "End button behavior" with options like "Go to home" and "Go to sleep". "Sleep" sounded like it might give me the screen lockout I wanted. I chose the "Home, then sleep" option and found that with two clicks of the end button, I'd have a locked screen. Woo hoo!

Update (3/16/11): I've learned that for Android phones without an "end call" button, you can usually make the phone go to sleep by quickly pressing-and-releasing the "off" button. You have to hold the "off" button for a few seconds to shut the phone down.

Huawei Ascend: Welcome to Android

Last Friday, I bought a Huawei Ascend and signed-up for MetroPCS. Over the past few days, I tested it out. There didn't seem to be any show-stopper drawbacks, so yesterday I ported my number from T-Mobile.

Pros

• For an extra $15/month, I get unlimited text, talk, and web.
• I can use GMail and Google Maps on the go.
• Android auto-synchronizes my GMail contacts so I don't have to enter anyone into my phone or worry about losing my contacts. Also, I can manage my contacts from a desktop computer.
• It's fun to be able to reply to Google Talk messages on-the-spot.

Cons

• Voice quality ain't as good as T-Mobile. Voices sound metallic, volume is somewhat erratic, voices occasionally break-up even with decent reception (2/4 bars).
• Android 2.1 is slow. Part of the problem might be crapware that MetroPCS included. I may try rootkit so that I can clean-out such stuff. I've heard it may be possible to upgrade to 2.2 which is supposed to be much faster...
• I currently have no data access. MetroPCS CS thinks it's due to the number port which involved switching me to a new account number. We'll see. They said I could see problems up to 72 hours after the port (last night).

I'm also excited about making better use of Google Voice. I've heard that you can switch off VM on the phone and just let GV handle it (after you've moved everyone to your GV number). I've heard that MyAscend.org is a good place to get tips on the Huawei Ascend.