Tag: xda developers

Hacking My HTC Thunderbolt

LK5 Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes I have to say the process for cracking HTC’s most locked-down phone to date isn’t nearly as difficult as some of the online walkthroughs may have you believe. Contrarily, the process is fairly simple when you follow directions and understand exactly what you’re dealing with.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Got the Thunderbolt this week and have been hard at work researching and familiarizing myself with unlocking and rooting. Those of you who follow my Twitter page saw that I successfully rooted a couple nights ago. And, I have to say the process for cracking HTC’s most locked-down phone to date isn’t nearly as difficult as some of the online walkthroughs may have you believe. Contrarily, the process is fairly simple when you follow directions and understand exactly what you’re dealing with. Since there is no (and likely won’t be a) one-click root method by unrevoked due to the complexity of this phone, the process is broken down into multiple steps that involve using ADB Shell.

After thoroughly reading the official guide on xda’s forum, I began with nat3mil’s youtube video, How to Root the HTC Thunderbolt, Setting up ADB – Step 1 to familiarize myself with ADB Shell and make sure I got the correct drivers for the Thunderbolt set up. The walkthrough nat3mil provides is thorough and very easy to follow. I hacked the driver file to read the Thunderbolt, and moved on to his second video, How to Root the HTC Thunderbolt – Version 2.5. In this walkthrough, nat3mil shows you step-by-step how to crack the seal on the Thunderbolt and root. As advised on xda, I decided to keep the official guide pulled up as a fail safe fallback if something explained in the video didn’t make sense or differed at all from what they recommend. I was pleasantly surprised that there was only two instances when I questioned the video.

The first was during the temp root downgrade, right around the 5:23 mark. To save time, nat3mil transitions from the SD card reading the files and jumps straight to the update complete mark where you restart the phone. What he fails to mention is that his transition skips the step of H-Boot restarting before the actual update installs, which left me wondering if I had done something wrong or if I should go ahead and reboot the phone as he advises. Thankfully, H-Boot reads the SD card a second time and THEN proceeds to install the update after which you restart the phone. I point this out because it left me a bit confused for a second. If I had gone ahead and restarted during the short interlude I might’ve bricked my phone. I’m not sure if this happens every time or if it was an incident isolated to just my experience. Either way, be advised it could happen and if so continue to wait it out until H-Boot actually tells you the update is complete and gives the option to restart. DO NOT pull your battery thinking you messed up and this will restart the process for you — BRICK.
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Hacking My Droid Incredible – Part 2

LK5 Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes So, I decided it was time to give the DINC another upgrade. It still has plenty of potential when one knows how to unlock it.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

So, I decided it was time to give the DINC another upgrade. I still have nearly a year left on my current agreement with Verizon and the Incredible continues to serve me well. Verizon’s super 4G LTE network is still at least a good year away from being available in Louisville, if not longer (though recent unofficial reports claim it is being rolled out right now, stay tuned). Not much reason to run out and slap down $500+ for a full-price HTC Thunderbolt when there’s absolutely nothing to gain save for a slightly bigger screen. Besides, the ol’ DINC still has plenty of potential when one knows how to unlock it.

Can’t say enough about the good guys over at xda-developers.com. The man known only as ihtfp69 has done it again with his latest masterpiece, SkyRaider 4.0 (w/Sense). With version 4.1 already on the way, ihtfp69 takes Android 2.2 above and beyond it’s OTA limitations and blends in 3.0 (Gingerbread) elements to sweeten a near-perfect rom.

Just before I wiped and installed SkyRaider 4.0, I took the time to upgrade the DINC’s radio to the unofficial EVO version, 2.15.00.11.19. I had read some things about it boosting download speeds and locking in on GPS locations instantly. I flashed it and yep, it’s pretty badass though I hear it varies by area. Next, I wiped and installed SR4. Then, I sweetened in a nifty blue theme, created by MicroMod777.


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Hacking My Droid Incredible

LK3 Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes I grew tired (and tired) of waiting all the while being forced to carry a smartphone that only utilizes half of what it’s capable of. I did some vast research and took it upon myself to unlock the true power of my Droid Incredible by upgrading to Froyo on my own.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For all you Droid users out there, this is a follow up to the subject I addressed on LK Shoot 64.

If you’ve been waiting patiently (or seething) for the long-awaited, and yet still unfulfilled long-promised Froyo update to be pushed out by Verizon, you don’t have to keep sitting here with your fingers crossed, hoping that the almighty powers-that-be will grace you with the courtesy of actually following through on what the hell they promised they’d do sometime soon, or otherwise forevermore.

I grew tired (and tired) of waiting all the while being forced to carry a smartphone that only utilizes half of what it’s capable of. I did some vast research and took it upon myself to unlock the true power of my Droid Incredible by upgrading to Froyo on my own. Read more “Hacking My Droid Incredible”