Video Tutorial - How to Root, Install Recovery, and Install Custom ROMs on LG Optimus T / One

In order to supplement my previous blog post where I provided general information and links on how to root, install a custom recovery, install a custom ROM, and overclock your LG Optimus T / One, I have created two new videos. Please use this video in conjunction with my previous blog post (http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/lg-optimus-t-rooting-recovery-rom.html). Please do this at your own risk as there is the possibility of bricking your phone (damaging it). I am NOT an expert or a developer, just someone who struggled through this process and thought people could really benefit from a more clear and concise guide on how to do this (instead of random information from different sources that is hard to follow). If you have problems or comments PLEASE post them in this blog and go to the XDA developers forum and search/post there!

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/user/canadabboy?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/WEu6vK1vVLE


Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/user/canadabboy?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/jD5tevq4dg4

Motorola Changing Their Stance on Locked Bootloaders?

Motorola has apologized over facebook for it's terse comments made to a youtube user relating to their locked bootloader and installing custom ROMs (http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/motorola-confirms-locked-bootloader-not.html)

"We apologize for the feedback we provided regarding our bootloader policy. The response does not reflect the views of Motorola. We are working closely with our partners to offer a bootloader solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform while still protecting our users' interests. More detailed information will follow as we get closer to availability."


This sounds to me like desperate attempt to quench the backlash they were receiving. Lets hope that they stick to this new ideology involving the development community, because the Motorola Atrix (http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/motorola-atrix-even-though-i-would.html) looks VERY nice.




http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/21/motorola-ready-to-make-sweet-love-to-rom-devs-and-rooters/

Triple Display Android Based Concept Phone Revealed -

Designer Kristian Ulrich Larsen has released a design concept for an Android phone composed of 3 foldable and re-arrangable touch screens. This is strictly a concept video / art project, but it's great to see people apply creativity and high design to a field like smart-phones that have a very 'cookie cutter' approach to their design (i.e. a brick with a touch screen). Like the Microsoft Courier, I doubt this phone will ever make its way into production, but at least it will get people thinking. What do you think?

Here is a video of the Microsoft Courier "vapourware" tablet that was supposed to compete with the iPad 1, but was never released. Some of the cross-screen talk reminds me of this Android concept phone.

http://idkul.com/presentation/flipphone.html


http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/01/20/video-this-triple-display-flip-android-concept-phone-is-the-best-one-yet/

Mobilicity Launching Google Nexus S in March, Blackberry Playbook When Released

Mobilicity CEO Dave Dobbin announced at a press meet-up today that they will be launching the Google Nexus S (official Google Android developer phone) in March alongside other major carriers, and they will also be getting the Blackberry Playbook whenever RIM decides to release it. This is great news for Android fans and Wind Mobile customers, because Mobilicity and Wind phones are compatible with each other and use the same AWS frequency bands. I personally find the timing to be non-ideal, because by that point there should be quite a few dual core Tegra 2 Android handsets on the market. 

http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/01/11/want-to-meet-mobilicity-ceo-dave-dobbin/

LG Optimus T / One Video Review - Performance When Rooted With a Custom Overclocked ROM

Here is a video review I did to give everyone a look at how quick and snappy the LG Optimus T is after rooting, installing the custom ROM 'Megatron' from the XDA forums, and overclocking. Check out my other blog post on how to do this yourself, and I will post a video in the next few days giving a visual overview on how to do this yourself.

http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/lg-optimus-t-rooting-recovery-rom.html

Please check out the source video at youtube for the HD version of this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC3zNMP3NrM

LG Optimus T - Rooting, Recovery, ROM Installation, and Overclocking

EDIT - I have added a video review of this phone with these modifications made.

http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/lg-optimus-t-one-video-review.html

I have also added a video tutorial on how to do the following to your own phone. This video should be used as a supplement to this guide. Again, proceed at your own risk as I believe this voids your warranty. 

http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/video-tutorial-how-to-root-install.html

In my WIND Mobile phone buying guide, the LG Optimus T  came up as the best valued phone. I purchased two of these phones from ebay for around $250 each (canadian, including shipping, duty, tax, and unlocking fees). I've been told by other users that they have paid upwards of $300, but I guess it depends where you get it from. I'm going to go over how you can root your phone, install custom ROMs (custom unofficial versions of the firmware/operating system), and overclock your phone. Remember, this is not official and I believe voids the warranty of your phone, and there is a risk that if something goes wrong you can brick your phone (essentially destroy it, although sometimes recovering it is possible). The sites I am going to link you to give detailed walkthroughs and should outline the possible risks. I have done the following with two different LG Optimus T phones with no problems, but there is a risk i'm told. This processes can be a bit frustrating and challenging to figure out and it can be hard to find everything, so i've consolidated everything you need to this one post and provided links for each part. Remember, work carefully and proceed at your own risk!

Warning! This should only be performed on an LG Optimus T / One that has Android 2.2 froyo, NOT Android 2.2.1 froyo. Also this does NOT work with the Optimus S phone. You cannot root with Android 2.2.1 froyo firmware, and if you wish to continue to must DOWNGRADE to Android 2.2. Check "Settings - About Phone" and it should say 2.2. See the following link for more information on downgrading. The following thread also says that 2.2 is faster and more stable anyways, and suggests you use a class 4 or higher microSD card either way.


http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=901247


The first step is to root your phone. Luckily the program Z4root works as a 1-click rooting solution for the LG Optimus T. This application is no longer on the android market, but you can find it with a quick google search, or even better you can get it from the source at the XDA developers forums here.


 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833953


The XDA developers are going to come up a lot, because they do a lot of the work in making custom ROMs, rooting phones, etc... 


Step 1) Download Z4root onto your computer and load it onto your phones microSD card.


Step 2) Download an APK manager/installer from the Android market. This program will allow you to find the APK file that you just downloaded from the web and put onto your SD card, and install it onto your phone.  


Step 3) Run Z4root and root your phone (permanent rooting option).

Step 4) Install custom recovery.
Now, once you've rooted you need to install a custom recovery program, found here.

 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=844483


This program allows you to boot your phone into 'recovery mode', which enables you to flash (install) custom ROMs (like version of the operating system),  custom kernals (custom settings that enable overclocking), and perform backups of your entire system and all your apps (using titanium backup and NAND backup). Don't worry about these details for now, just follow the link above and walk through the guide. I downloaded a terminal emulator on my phone from the market in order to enter the commands they have listed. When you download the terminal emulator, open it up and then type "su" without the quotation marks. It will then ask you for superuser/root permission, and click YES. Now you will have a # sign and you can go ahead and type all of the commands listed on the website I linked above. Keep in mind that you do NOT type the # symbol for each command line. The # symbol just indicates that you are in the root directory of your SD card. Keep in mind this command (# mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak) did NOT work for me, but as i've read it isn't supposed to. If you read through the questions and comments in the walkthrough thread for installing this ROM, someone asks about this step not working. The developers response is...


"You don't want that file (referring to install-recovery.sh) there as it keeps recovery from "sticking" its not in all roms usually there ater you do an ota update. That command removes it. If its not there move on to next step."


So as you are going through and entering the commands, keep going even if this one gives an error (check the thread in the link and you'll read cases of other people who have had similar problems, and how they fixed them). As long as you're confident that you've typed in the commands as they are given, just keep going through them and hopefully it will work. Remember these are syntax sensitive, so make sure to copy them VERBATIM.  


Now keep in mind, I found installing the recovery to be the hardest part of this entire process. Also remember, all of these ZIP files you download (kernals, roms, recovery, etc...) must be copied over as the ZIP file. Do NOT unzip them and copy the contents to your SD card, this will NOT work. Once you have your phone rooted and the custom recovery install, you can quite easily install ANY ROM you want. This means that when people start releasing their custom 2.3 gingerbread ROMs (which usually come out long before the official firmware update is released) you can be the first one on the block to be running it.

Step 5) Download a custom ROM and flash it to your phone using the recovery you just installed. Now BEFORE you do anything, make sure to run a full backup. In the backup/restore section of the recovery, you want to do a full NAND backup. This custom ROM made over at the XDA forums will really make your phone fly. This one is called the Megatron ROM, and I really like it because it's really fast and pre-overclocked to 730 mhz. It has hardware acceleration enabled and a bunch of other fancy features that are NOT enabled with this phone stock. You will find window transitions, animations, and programs running much faster after installing this ROM. There are LOTS of different ROMs available to install, so head over to the XDA developers forum and check out what there is. I'm sticking with Megatron until android 2.3 gingerbread is released, but there are also other great options. There is even an alpha release of 2.3 gingerbread out right now for the Optimus T / One, although it isn't fully functioning and stable yet.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=870640

Step 6 (optional)) Install custom kernal to enable greater overclocking. The Megatron rom is plenty fast and is overclocked to 730 mhz without the need for any programs like SetCPU. If you want to go a bit higher, you can download a custom kernal here.


 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=866774


For the kernal you download it, move the zip file onto your SD card, boot into recovery mode, and then flash it from zip. Then when you reboot your phone you will be able to overclock past 730 mhz up to a stable 806 mhz. I've tried going higher, but 806 mhz seems to be the best stable speed to go with. Now in order to do this, you need the program SetCPU from the market. I had to buy this for 2-3 dollars, and it was worth it because I feel like my phone is a little bit more snappy at 806 mhz vs 730 mhz, but it's your choice. SetCPU also gives the option to scale back the CPU's clock speed when it isn't being used (i.e. when it's idle in your pocket), so I have mine set with a max of 806 mhz, and a minimum of 250 mhz.

EDIT - BIG news!!! You can go through that same process for step 6 to install the kernal for OC'ing, but a new kernal has been released that FIXES THE TOUCHSCREEN BUG!!!! So all of that crazy lag and slowdowns in games when you touch the screen (the CPU usages would spike to 100%) has been mostly fixed. This new kernal also allows overclocking the same as the one posted above at the start of step 6, so I would strongly advise to use this one instead!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=929941

Step 7) Here is a link to a thread at the XDA developers forum that was made as a central resource for all things LG Optimus T/One (these two phones are identical). You have the option of installing other ROMs and kernals you find, but these are the ones i've personally tried and that have worked well for me. Also, when a 2.3 gingerbread ROM is released, you can download it, load it to your SD card, boot into recovery, then flash the zip file and BOOM, you'll be running 2.3 gingerbread. Remember, before you do anything with new ROMs and kernals, always do a full NAND and nandroid backup from recovery, and do a full backup from Titanium backup. 

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=901247

Step 8) Unlocking. I found this website to work perfectly for both of my LG Optimus T phones, and I got both codes within 12 hours.

http://theunlock.ca/html/pricemodels.php


An anonymous poster gave the following type in the comments section on unlocking.


"Also I suggest you add this in ur unlock section: this megatron rom is developed based on LP500, which is identical as LP509 but used by t-mobile in U.K. There is a possibility that the unlock code enter screen does not show up even you have the WIND SIM in place after reboot. Inorder to load the unlock code you'll need to type in: 2495#*500# instead 509, while other ROM developed based by other version require change the 500 to 510/507/511 etc. Mode number can be accessed by click "setting->about phone-> model number..

hope this helps.

make sure the unlock code is 16 digits no more no less...

i wasted four tries by entering 17 digits."

Step 9) Some benchmarks for my phone running the Megatron ROM, overclocked to 806 mhz.

With only Megatron ROM (730 mhz overclock built into the ROM):

Neocore - 48.1 FPS

Quadrant - 1221

Linpack - 8.767

With Megatron ROM and 806 mhz overclock:

Neocore - 51 FPS

Quadrant - 1350

Linpack - ~9.1

Stock phone out of the box with no tweaks:

Neocore - 44.0 FPS

Quadrant - 447

Linpack - 3.931

Overall I thought the phone was very nice and smooth stock, but it feels much smoother and nicer now! The menus and transitions are REALLY smooth, everything is great. Games stutter a bit here and there probably due to the touch screen bug, but hopefully 2.3 will fix that! I have angry birds which runs pretty well, just a bit choppy sometimes when my finger is on the screen. Again, this lag is caused by a problem in the Android code, which is supposed to be mostly fixed in Android 2.3 gingerbread.

Hope that was helpful, I will be following up with a short video review of my LG Optimus T, showing off the speed when using the Megatron ROM and 806 mhz overclock as discussed above!


Edit - Video is up! Go to the youtube page to view this video in HD!


http://tablet-crunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/lg-optimus-t-one-video-review.html

Android Honeycomb 3.0 - Tablet Specific Operating System Demo on a Motorola Xoom Tablet

Here is a 10 minute video that was shot at CES 2011 where the upcoming Android 3.0 Honeycomb, tablet specific OS was demonstrated. I've been using android phones for the last 6-8 months and I LOVE the widgets and notifications bars, but just as iOS was/is not ideal for the iPad in a tablet form factor, Android 2.2 froyo and 2.3 gingerbread are not ideal for a tablet either. When I use an iPad, it makes me think of a gameboy. There is a huge disconnect between running each app, which has only been mildly improved with iOS 4 and the introduction of multitasking. The widget system and notifications bar in Android really helps to make the system feel more unified, and helps to bring a lot of information to your fingertips very quickly. Instead of having to open 10 different apps on the iPad (calendar, music, twitter, facebook, email, music, weather, alarm clock, news feed) I can have them all on my home screens with Android. Honeycomb seems to be really pulling this all together with a UI that is really fitting for a tablet. I'm really hoping this competition stirs Apple from it's slumber and prompts them to really come out with something fantastic for iOS 5. We've already been seeing in rumours that Apple is responding to the hardware competition with the iPad, and here in this video you're seeing the software competition it needs to respond to. The great warranty support, fast updates (no fragmentation), and the fantastic app store (lets me honest, the Android market is terrible) makes the iPad squeak ahead no matter what, but it's still nice to see them competing.

Below is a link to the Engadget article about Android honeycomb 3.0.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/googles-android-3-0-honeycomb-for-tablets-a-guided-tour-of-the/

Motorola Atrix - Even Though I Would Never Buy a Motorola Product, This was the Coolest Thing at CES 2011!

The Motorola Atrix is a new generation of smart phone, with tons of power and some cool new features. This phone sports beefy hardware with a Tegra dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and support for up to 48GB of memory, a 4-inch QHD display (or 960 x 540), a front-facing VGA camera and 5-megapixel with an LED flash, a 1930 mAh battery, fingerprint login security, and Android 2.2 froyo. The most amazing thing is watching it plugged into a dock (with a large LCD monitor, keyboard, and mouse attached), or a laptop dock (essentially a laptop screen, keyboard, trackpad, and battery, with the Atrix phone acting as the actual computer). Seeing this in action really makes me think of the future when cell phones will totally replace computers for most people. 

Now the one problem with this phone is that it looked great at the CES tech demo, but in the real world I can see it starting to slow down a bit. This is the first time a smart phone is really trying to pull double duty as a desktop/laptop computer, and although these dual core Tegra 2 phones are insanely powerful for mobile phones, they are a bit sluggish for a regular computer. The other huge problem is that there aren't really any good apps out right now on the Android market that would take advantage of a keyboard and mouse setup like this. I would wait another year for the next generation of these phones that will be even more powerful and more ready to step into the role of a laptop, and by then some great apps will hopefully have come out. In the meantime i'd focus my attention on a good tablet (the iPad 2 is shaping up to be pretty skookum, at least in the rumours) and just get a decent phone that works well as a PHONE (the LG Optimus T/One is my favourite). Oh, did I mention that Motorola is notorious for NOT updating their phones to new software? Have fun being stuck at android 2.2 for eternity on your brand new Motorola Atrix phone (did I also mention that motorola locks the bootloaders of their phones, so you CANNOT install custom roms?). Android is great and I love my LG Optimus T, but Android is in what I would call an 'advanced beta' stage, and at this point updates are mandatory for an overall good experience. This is the one major reason (aside from the awesome app store) that I think Apple is winning the smart phone / tablet war (I will make a detailed post about this coming up).

(Motorola Atrix phone, shown docked to it's laptop accessory)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/motorola-atrix-4g-hd-multimedia-dock-and-laptop-dock-hands-on/

Apple iPad 2 - Rumours are Buzzing

In the last week we've gone from 0-60 in terms of the iPad 2 rumour mill. The consumer electrons show (CES) 2011 just finished off a couple of weeks ago, and all we saw were android phones and tablets. There were some awesome Tegra 2 based hardware (dual core A9 ARM CPU's with Nvidia graphics chips), and some impressive demo's of Androids new Honeycomb mobile OS, and RIM's new Playbook.

The only thing relating to the iPad 2 at CES were some early case designs from 3rd party manufacturers, that contained some interesting fake iPad 2 models that seemed to confirm a slimmer iPad with dual cameras, and a large speaker port (or possibly SD card slot?)

(iPad 2 model in a preliminary case shown at CES 2011, suggesting dual cameras are coming)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/ipad-2-case-shows-up-at-ces-packing-a-mockup-ipad-2/

Now shortly after CES, the rumours about the iPad 2 are FLYING, and I have to say i'm really excited. Apple is known for underwhelming in the internal hardware specs department, but backing it up with a massive and robust application store (the app store), a rock solid and smooth interface with their iOS mobile operating system, and their top quality and very stylish hardware. Based on previous doings by Apple, I would have expected the iPad 2 to have a slight processor bump and the addition of a front facing camera in order to use their video chat program Facetime. These recent rumours are ONLY rumours, nothing has been or will be confirmed by Apple until it's official release, but things are looking REALLY good.

(A4 SOC from iPhone 4 / iPad)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/17/more-details-emerge-on-apples-a5-chip-for-upcoming-ipad-2-and-i/

Rumours first started coming in about Apple adding a Retina display to the iPad 2, but many people dismissed this based on the hardware that would be needed to run this. Image files found in a new version if iBooks that came with the developer release of iOS 4.3 suggested an increase in screen resolution on the upcoming iPad 2. A 'retina display' is just Apples marketing buzzword for a high resolution display with a high pixel density so that text and images appear very smooth and crisp (like the iPhone 4). When doing this, the easiest way is to just double the current resolution (as was done with the iPhone 4 from 320x480 to 640x960) so that developers can easily scale up existing applications and not have to completely re-write everything from scratch. Doubling the existing iPad resolution from 1024x768 resolution (at 132 ppi) to 2048x1536 (at 260 ppi) would quadruple the number of pixels on screen and make everything much more crisp and sharp. Also as you could imagine, this would drastically increase the demand on graphics processor (GPU), ram, and CPU. As I mentioned before, Apple isn't known for leading the industry in hardware specs, but rather of the software and design side, and so these rumours seemed dubious.

(iPhone 3GS left, iPhone 4 retina display on right)

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/15/apple_ibooks_app_indicates_ipad_2_will_quadruple_resolution_to_2048x1536.html

Now, to back up the increased screen resolution, reports are coming in that the iPad 2 will sport a new dual core powerVR SGX543 GPU (two GPU cores, VS the single GPU core found in all current phones/tablets, and in the recently announced Tegra 2 tablets and phones). This will supposedly give approximately 4 times the graphics processing power, which conveniently could handle the 4 times increase in pixels on the new high resolution screen. Apple is also said to be including their own custom dual core CPU based on the A9 architecture, which most likely will contain 512 or 1 gigabyte of ram. On the CPU front we will most likely see two 1 gigahertz A9 cores, which would more than double the CPU performance of the iPad 2. Most competitors are including 1 gig of ram, so if Apple is going 'all out' on the CPU, GPU, and screen, they might just go for a gig of ram. This, coupled with the already lingering rumours of dual cameras for Facetime video chatting, the iPad 2 is really shaping up to be a killer.

(The original iPad)

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/16/apple_expected_to_pack_ultrafast_dual_core_sgx543_graphics_into_ipad_2_iphone_5.html


To summarize the currently rumoured iPad 2 specs.

• Dual core custom SOC based on A9 architecture, probably 1 ghz (two CPU cores each running at 1 ghz vs the single CPU core of the first generation iPad running at 1 ghz)
• Dual core powerVR SGX543 GPU (two GPU cores)
• Probably 512 megs - 1 gig of ram
• Dual cameras
• 10 inch 'Retina display' - double resolution and quadruple pixel screen at 2048x1536 (at 260 ppi)
• Possibly upgraded speaker
• Possible addition of a new port (possibly SD card slot and/or microUSB port)
• Possible smaller and lighter case

In comparision, here are the specs for the RIM Playbook.

(RIM Playbook)

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/27/rim-introduces-playbook-the-blackberry-tablet/

• Dual core cortex-A9 architecture 1 ghz CPU
• Signle core GPU (possibly Tegra 2 chipset)
• 1 gig of ram
• 3 megapixel front facing camera, 5 megapixel rear camera
• 7-inch 1024x600 display

The Tegra 2 based tablets such as the Motorola Xoom will have similar specs to the Playbook, but with 10 inch screens like the iPad. So if the rumours are true, the iPad 2 will beat the competion in terms of specs, it will beat them in terms of fashion and design (as always), it will beat them in multimedia and applications (the app store trumps the android market), and depending on how Android Honeycomb turns out, could also beat them in terms of software. I just went from wanting an android honeycomb tablet to wanting the new iPad 2, very badly.

(Motorola Xoom - Android honeycomb based tablet)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/05/motorola-xoom-becomes-official-on-motorola-site-joined-by-unann/