My experiences with CyanogenMod7 on the HTC EVO 4G

So last week a buddy of mine (who also owns an EVO) said to me, "Hey, when is Sprint going to get their act together and release a Gingerbread update for the EVO?" And I responded, "Well, actually... I just saw a leak of the Sprint ROM go up on XDA recently. Do you want to give it a try?"

And after discussing the possibilities, benefits and risks of rooting and flashing his EVO, we actually decided to ignore the Sprint leak (for now) and give CyanogenMod 7 a go.

The main reasons:
1. The Sprint leak really doesn't seem release ready. Personally, I've played around with questionable leaks in the past on my Hero, but I wasn't about to drop that onto my buddy, who is probably capable of dealing with the intricacies of a not-quite-release version of android, but likely has less free time to screw around with it than I do.
2. I freaking love CyanogenMod. Cyanogen (the guy, not the ROM) and his team has earned a reputation for putting out quality android ROMs, both in stability, performance, and added features.

So last weekend I flashed CM7.0.0 onto my EVO, and this morning I finished flashing the latest update for the EVO, 7.0.2.1.

My thoughts so far:
Gingerbread on the EVO is nice. Generally, the taskbar, menus and other android-specific UI elements have been standardized and given some nice touch-ups to improve the general look-and-feel of the OS. And my phone so far has had far better battery life than I did while running Fresh 3.5 (a Sprint-Sense-UI-based ROM).

CM really adds some nice UI tweaks as well. I LOVE the PowerControl widget in the notification/task bar. I love the new customizable lockscreen (you can set up a shortcut to launch an app directly from the lock screen).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, whenever I venture away from the Sprint Sense UI I do miss their nice calendar agenda widget. I have the CalWidget running in CM7, but visually and functionally you just can't beat the Sense UI experience there.

Some other perks of CM7:
- All of the glory of Gingerbread on the EVO
- Customizable lockscreen gestures
- An updated (stock android) camera app
- An updated (stock android) music app
- A download manager (helps if you haven't installed a File Manager app)
- Improved power management
- built-in over-clock/under-clock support
- built-in JIT compiler support



So I plan to stick with this as my daily ROM for at least a few weeks. If XDA finds a better leak of the pending Sprint update, or any of the ROM developers manage to release a nice GB + Sense-UI variant based on the Sprint leak, I may give that a shot for comparison purposes.

I got me a shiny new EVO.

At the beginning of the month my contract with Sprint was up for renewal. And the HTC EVO beckoned to me. Beckoned silently but insistently. I tried to resist for a few days, but it's allure won.

I even did a comparison between the EVO and the Epic 4G. Since I was looking for a new phone, I figured I could give it some fair competition.

The Epic 4G did have it's high points. The screen looks pretty. The flip-out physical keyboard has some appeal to it as well.

But, honestly side-by-side I felt that the EVO screen, while not an AMOLED, actually looked better under daylight than the Epic 4G. And the EVO has HDMI out, which I have actually used a few times already at home with my 720p TV to stream YouTube videos.

The nice clerk at Sprint switched over my 16GB Micro-SD card from my Hero into the EVO. Then she also gave me the 8GB card that came stock with the EVO. And then she gave me the battery from my Hero, which apparently is also interchangable with the EVO, just to have a backup battery. Woah, yeah. Very cool.

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So I've had the EVO for close to a month, and I have been loving it. It really seems in all aspects to be exactly what I was hoping for as a replacement for my Hero.

While there is a place for Cyanogen Mod in my little hacker's heart, until CM can support the 4G WiMax radio I will be sticking with the HTC Sense UI. And there really is no replacement for the agenda widget, anyway. I am loathe to lose that little piece of functionality that I use multiple times a day.

In the meantime, I wish there was a way to install the notification bar control widget without *cough* rooting my phone *cough*. Cause that is probably the #1 reason to root the EVO. If one were to do such things. Right.

Adventures in Android hacking (update)

I love my HTC Hero from Sprint. Wait, let me rephrase that, "I love running Android 2.2 on my HTC Hero from Sprint," and that is all thanks to the man (and related team) that is known in development circles as Cyanogen.

This isn't news for some of you. I personally jumped in with Cyanogen's first offering of Android 2.2 for the Hero, CyanogenMod (CM) 6.0.

However, the latest release candidate, CM 6.1 RC1 added some great functionality over CM 6.0, and now using Deca's kernel my Hero is not only running Android 2.2, but it is also getting better performance and battery life than my wife's personal Hero which is still running a stock version of Android 2.1 from HTC/Sprint.

My current setup uses the CFS #24 kernel (download and details on XDA) and SetCPU to overclock the phone to max at 633 MHz with the CPU governor set to interactive. Where CM 6.0 made my Hero seem actually usable again, 6.1 gives the Hero new life. Note, this is based on my subjective opinion that Sprint's stock 2.1 update really killed the performance of the Hero to the point of being nearly unusable as a phone.

Of course, you have to deal with the loss of HTC's beautiful Sense UI apps, but I have found some acceptable replacement apps: Handcent for IM, Winamp for music, Google's "News and Weather" for real-time weather updates, Google Voice for visual voicemail, CalWidget for viewing my agenda on the home screen, and TweetDeck for integrated social media. 

However, I still miss having HTC's integrated contact management, and their calendar "agenda" widget is irreplaceable, both functional and gorgeous. So when I eventually break down and upgrade my Hero to something like the EVO 4G, I will appreciate having a phone with enough processing power to run HTC Sense UI on Android 2.2 and actually let me answer phone calls.

CyanogenMod 6 for the Hero

For fellow Hero modders like myself, you probably already know that Sprint and HTC announced that they would not be pursuing an official, Sense-ified version of Froyo for the Hero. So I have been running CyanogenMod on my Hero for several weeks now, and I must say it has been a very satisfying experience.

The basic facts:

CyanogenMod is based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project)

CM6 is a stable build of Android 2.2 (Froyo)

My configuration preferences:

JIT enabled

SetCPU overclock capped at 614Mhz (roughly 16% OC)

Froyo native apps2sd support enabled, moved non-essential apps only

I have been running CM6 for a while now, and while I managed to find a respectable config for SetCPU to overclock the Hero processor, my battery life was unpredictable, and unfortunately I could burn through a freshly charged battery in as little as 6 hours, even though I kept my cap at 614Mhz and used profiles that should have scaled down based on battery charge.

Tonight I am switching away from SetCPU to the Collin_ph battery tweak to see if I can solve some of the battery issues I have been experiencing. If anyone else has some recommendations for customizing the collin_ph settings, so far I am sticking with my original cap of 614Mhz, both for stability and for battery life, but if there are any other setups that are considered "stable" I am open to suggestions.

Other observations:

- One of the first things I missed was the agenda view from the HTC Sense calendar widget. I did find that CalWidget was a sufficient functional substitution, albeit ugly as dirt. 

- I also am running FancyWidget to replace the beautiful clock/weather widget that is the signature of the HTC Sense UI improvements.

- The stock Android camera/camcorder UI is uglier than Janet Reno. (Does anyone have a recommended alternative?)

- Google Voice integrates nicely to replace the HTC Sense visual voicemail, and the Froyo-only GMail is also rather slick.

- JIT on Froyo actually works. (I realize that others may be successful at enabling JIT in an Android 2.1 rom, and actually got a performance boost out of it as expected, but in my experience it was a waste of my time even trying.)

When Flipz releases a Fresh ROM update based on the latest Sprint update I may nandroid my current setup and switch back for a bit, just to see what Sprint has come back with to fix the dialer issues, but for now I am very happily enjoying Froyo on the Hero, and recommend it for anyone with a little time and the willingness to tinker.

Thankyou's go out to:

Cyanogen and team, for bringing us the awesomeness that is CyanogenMod

darchstar, for porting CM6 for the Hero CMDA

XDA Developers, from which I have learned nearly everything I know about modding

Jesus Christ, for saving my soul from sin and death, and freeing me from the fear of voiding the warranty on my Hero

Android 2.1 JIT compiler a waste of time

So I have been experimenting with a JIT compiler in Android, and I have to say, it is really frustrating when the HTC Hero runs out of internal memory because of the memory requirements of JIT, and Android 2.1 automatically reboots itself. Besides that "feature", it works great.

I have read that Android 3 will have built-in support for JIT, and I imagine that phones newer than the HTC Hero will come with more built-in memory, so until then I think I will switch back to the standard Dalvik VM and get my geeky kicks elsewhere. (Such as with OC'ed kernels.) For now.

A list of my favorite apps for Android

I have an HTC Hero from Sprint which is currently running Android 2.1. It really is a great phone (and one of the first true geek's answer to the iPhone).

I am making this list for posterity sake... and in case I decide to wipe my phone or someday upgrade (the EVO looks pretty sweet, doesn't it?)

Abduction!

This game looks simple at first, but it's enjoyable (and a great way to distract children in a pinch). Use the accelerometer to help bounce cows and other farmyard animals to freedom from UFO's.

Bible (YouVersion)

Has NIV for free, but it's web based. I only have this because CadreBible doesn't have the NIV (yet...)

CadreBible

Has a host of free and paid bibles, commentaries, references, etc. I especially like being able to switch from a verse in an english translation straight to that verse in another translation or language (greek, hebrew, latin, etc). It also includes some nice study guides if you are looking for that sort of planner.

demoPlayer (RockPlayer beta)

Plays most any video format you would want on the Hero. Currently the beta is free.

Dice Bag

For RPG enthusiasts, if you forget your die-20 at home, no worries!

Dropbox

Free (up to 2GB) file depository that lives in the cloud, sync files between your home PC, work, and now your Android phone, too!

ES File Explorer

E-Strong's file explorer. It lets you explore the file system on your phone. Self-explanatory.

Evernote

Free universal note-taking that backs up to the cloud and syncs between your phone and PC, too.

gStrings

A chromatic tuner for guitars and other instruments. Great!

KeePassDroid

A secure database for remembering your passwords. Functional and free.

Google Listen

I know, it's a stock app, but I use this literally every day on my walk to and from work to listen to podcasts. And it sync's with Google Reader, too!

Google Maps with Navigation

Google maps added walking, biking and public transportation directions; Google Buzz for finding local hotspots; and free turn-by-turn directions with GPS navigation.

Ringdroid

You have an audio file. You want a ringtone (or a notification sound). Also does cropping.

Robo Defense

The free version is a pretty fun strategy game, or pay for additional maps, difficulty levels and tools. This is the only app I have paid for.

Shazam

I use this for those times when I hear an awesome song on the radio and simply need to know who and what it is.

Google Shopper & ShopSavvy

Comparison shopping by scanning bar codes.

The Weather Channel

I use this every morning to determine the weather is appropriate for walking to work, or requires some alternative method to transportation.

twicca

At the moment, my favorite twitter client. Does everything it needs to do, and it's free.

Wifi Analyzer

Helps to find wireless access points on the road, and at home to plot which channel has the least interference in my condo building.

xda

Gives me mobile access to the xda-developers.com forums, for all my Android news and hacking updates ;)