[ale] Moving my phone into the 20th Century

[Jim Kinney]

FYI: The (fairly) new Motorola Razr M model at Verizon uses a SIM card.
It's not listed at cyanogen so I haven't worked on replacing the default
load (love the idea of making room by dumping the facebook app!). The razr
maxx uses a different chip than the razr m so a reflash may be an issue.


On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 9:55 AM, Charles Shapiro <hooterpincher at gmail.com>wrote:

> A year ago I was in exactly your position.  I went to the CyanogenMod site
> ( http://www.cyanogenmod.org) and looked at the phones they said were
> compatible with the current release version. Then I went to the Verizon
> site and did an inner join. That brought the choice down to 3 models.  I
> wound up with an HTC Incredible 2 which I rooted & installed CM 7 on in a
> weekend or two.  It's been a rock ever since, and I have no crapware
> installed by Verizon on it.  Most 3rd-party ROMS will allow you to do
> tethering or personal wifi right from the OS; Verizon's build of Android
> has this feature disabled.  In addition, there have been security scandals
> related to software installed on proprietary Android builds -- another good
> reason to beware of them.  (
> http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/01/carrier-iq-what-it-is-what-it-isnt-and-what-you-need-to/,
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/ftc-orders-htc-to-fix-its-reasonable-security-failures-on-android/
> )
>
> You should get a dual-mode (GSM/CDMA) phone if you can.  GSM and CDMA are
> two competing mobile phone protocols; GSM is open, but CDMA is proprietary.
> Alas, Verizon uses CDMA technology, so any phone you use with their network
> must talk this protocol.  CDMA doesn't use the little smartcard gizmo (
> "SIM card"), which means that a CDMA-only phone is tied to its carrier --
> you cannot easily use it on any other cell phone carrier. With a GSM phone,
> changing carriers is usually as easy as getting a new SIM card.  Most
> European carriers use GSM , so if you're planning an overseas trip the GSM
> capability is very handy.
>
> Be aware that your spiffy new smartphone is a significant security risk.
> US law is still in flux over whether the police can confiscate and search
> your smartphone.  As long as it is turned on, it will give anyone
> interested very strong clues to your location, even with the GPS feature
> turned off.  OTOH, watching my brother navigate with his smartphone in a
> strange city was one of the things that persusuaded me to get one.
>
> As for development, your Development environment should be separate from
> your production environment.  It's easy to pick up a used smartphone for
> next to nothing -- they're even surprisingly easy to repair.  The dev tools
> are all free and easy to find, and linux seems to be the environment of
> choice  for using them.
>
> -- CHS
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 3:41 PM, JD <jdp at algoloma.com> wrote:
>
>> On 04/17/2013 03:30 PM, leam hall wrote:
>> > We have Verizon as the wireless carrier. Would like to get an Android
>> based
>> > phone on the chance I start doing programming on it. What phones are
>> the best to
>> > have for programming purposes?
>> >
>>
>> Whatever Google sells, like the Nexus4.  Don't know if that is available
>> unlocked for Verizon or not.  Mine is GSM.
>>
>> By stating with google devices, you prevent the network-provider delays in
>> getting updated OS releases.  It also means you run the reference
>> platform for
>> Android.
>>
>> If you plan to run other firmware, then I don't know.
>>
>> Programming for Android isn't really performed "on the phone" - most devs
>> use
>> Eclipse on Linux or Windows for development and only use any specific
>> phone for
>> testing purposes.  While it shouldn't be necessary to have any specific
>> Android
>> phone for most application development and testing, there do seem to be
>> phone
>> that are modified by the cell companies which appear to introduce very
>> noticeable incompatibilities.  Some programs don't work on some phones
>> and I
>> can't think of any reason beyond vendor customizations or terrible
>> drivers for
>> that to happen.
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>
>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
*
*Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
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