Tips and Tricks for the T-mobile Android G1 Smartphone

Saturday 27th of July 2024

Tips and Tricks for the T-mobile Android G1 Smartphone

How To Tether the G1 for 3G Laptop Browsing

There is finally an option  to use your G1 connection with your laptop.  Its not the best solution but its better than nothing. I'm posting this from my laptop using the G1, so I can confirm that it works.

The url to the site is http://graha.ms/androidproxy

Here is a copy of the instructions

  • Install the app on your android phone, by clicking here (from your phone browser of course)
    You might have to change your settings to permit apps that don't come from the Google Market by going to your home screen and choosing MENU > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources.
  • Turn USB debugging on on your phone
    On your G1 go to the home screen, press MENU > Settings > Applications > Development, then enable USB debugging.
  • Follow the instructions here to install the Android driver - you'll need to do this on Windows & Linux but apparently not on the Mac.
  • Download and install the Android SDK for your computer platform. Alternatively if you are on Windows and don't want a 100 meg download, just get the ADB utility from here
  • Plug your phone into your computer
  • Choose Proxy App from your phone's menu
  • Press the "Start Proxy" button on your phone
  • Move to the directory that has the adb utility, using inside the Sdk Tools folder and run

Windows: adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy
Linux/Mac: ./adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy

  • Now you should have a proxy server running on port 8080 of your own computer that will relay the information over the Android Debug Bridge to the Proxy App which will relay it on to the internet.
  • Set your firefox proxy : Options > Advanced > Network > Manual Proxy Configuration

HTTP Proxy: localhost
Port: 8080

Leave the others blank
  • Enjoy the slow slow EDGE network, or let me know if you have glorious fast 3g coverage!
  • Remember to disable your proxy settings in firefox if you want to stop using your phone.

I had to install the Proxy.apk manually using the following code, but ymmv


How to Manually Update the Android Firmware

If you’re constantly glancing at your G1 to check if T-Mobile has graced your handset with the oh-so-slow-to-roll-out RC29 update (”By November 11th”? Pah!), you might be glad to find out that there’s now a way to expedite the process. Earlier today, a user over at the T-Mobile forums Yesterday, a user over at xda-dev worked it all out (That’s the earliest post on it we could find - let us know if credit is due elsewhere). All you need is a computer, internet connection, a way to transfer the firmware to your Micro SD card and half a brain.

Mandatory warning: Updating firmware can be a delicate procedure, so continue at your own risk. Always back up everything. Unless you’re able to check the hash or otherwise verify a firmware’s source, downloading it is your own risk and not the responsibility of anyone else. Whenever possible, download it directly from Google (as you will in this tutorial). Also make sure that your battery is charged so as to keep it from fizzling out mid-update, and that you don’t have the G1 hooked up to your computer while updating.

1. Grab the RC29 update from Google here.

2. Rename it from signed-kila-ota-115247-prereq.TC4-RC19+RC28.zip to update.zip, and place it in the root of your Micro SD card.

2.5. If you added the file to your microSD card by connecting the handset to your computer via USB (rather than using a microSD card reader), make sure to unplug it now. (Thanks for the tip, Cole!)

3. Turn off your G1, then turn it back on by holding the Home+End keys until you see an icon popup after the T-Mobile G1 logo.

4. From the icon screen, open the keyboard and hit Alt+L. This will display the log saying what is happening (although you can skip this step).

5. Now press Alt+S to begin the update. Remember, the update needs to be in the root of the Micro SD card and needs to be named update.zip.

6. Once it finishes, just follow the onscreen instructions and press Home+Back to finish.

7. The G1 will reboot a few times to flash different parts of the firmware.

If all went well, you should now be running the latest update, RC29. To make sure all your hard work wasn’t for nothing, hit Menu > Settings > About Phone > scroll to Build Number. You should see RC29 in there somewhere. Congrats!

Notes:

  • According to this post, some folks are having issues with the microSD card which came in the box, while it works for others just fine. If you have mounting issues with one card, try another.

Update -T-Mobiles official word on the matter:

While I understand that many of you have downloaded this update and seem to have it working, T-Mobile cannot support you in doing so. If you download and attempt to install this or any other update (regardless whether its from Google or not) to your device, and it is rendered unusable, you are out of luck. Even if we do exchange it, you will be without a device for several days (or possibly even weeks).

 

1. Dial by Voice
The G1 supports voice dialing, and you can easily call a friend by stating their name if you press and hold the Send key on the G1. Bonus Tip: If you want to add in another caller while you’re on the phone, press the Send key while in a call.

2. Use an mp3 as your Ringtone
We’re not big fans of people using mp3s as ringtones, since the music selection is often pretty awful. Nonetheless, we’ll tell you how with the G1. Open Music > Songs > and hold your finger on your song of choice. Next, select “Use as phone ringtone.”

Read on for more.


3. Access the Applications Menu from Anywhere
If you’re surfing the Web and want to quickly bring up your music player to switch songs, you can quickly do this by holding down the Home button on the G1. This will quickly bring up your Applications menu. If you want to go directly to the desktop, just press the Home button once.
 

4. Turn on Wi-Fi
Phones don’t just automatically have Wi-Fi capabilities turned on. To do this, press the Menu key while you’re on the home screen.

Next, click Settings > Wireless Controls and select Wi-Fi
Open Wi-Fi settings to force the G1 to search for available networks.

5. Place your phone in silent mode on the fly
You just walked into a movie theater a few minutes late, and you want to quickly put the phone in silent mode without browsing through menus to do so. Avoid this by toggling silent mode without opening the G1. Simply press and hold the End key to put the phone in silent mode.

6. Add songs to a playlist
When you’re playing co-pilot on a long road trip, the music selection is up to you. Make the song selection smoother by creating a playlist ahead of time. On the G1, open up Music > Songs, and then touch and hold any song that you want to add to a playlist. A menu will pop up, and you’ll want to select Add to playlist.

7. Install a microSD card
You can install a microSD card for adding more storage or using your phone as a portable hard drive (see tip 9), and here’s how. First open the keyboard. Next, look for a small memory card cover below the Send key on the G1. Take your microSD card and slide it forward with the gold teeth facing down.

8. Typing Tips
Insert special character: Press ALT + Spacebar
Delete entire line of text: Press ALT + Delete
Turn on all caps: Press Shift Twice
Move cursor to end or beginning of text: Press Alt while scrolling Trackball
Insert a Tab space: Press Alt + Q
Highlight text: Press Shift and roll Trackball

9. Use your phone as a portable hard drive
The G1 supports high capacity microSD cards, which means you can add up to 16GB of storage to it. That’s as good as carrying a portable hard drive around with you. To treat your G1 as a portable storage device, you need to turn on mass storage.

Plug your G1 into your computer using a USB cable. Navigate to the home screen and select Menu > Settings > SD card & phone storage. Next, select Use for USB storage. Now a folder will pop up on your computer, and you can drag and drop music, videos, or any file of your choice onto the phone.

10. Cut, Copy, and Paste Text
Copying, cutting, and pasting text from Web sites or documents is easy with the G1.
To Cut, press Menu and x.
To Copy, press Menu and c
To Paste, press Menu and v.

 

Source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/ten-t-mobile-g1-tips-and-tricks

Hack connects T-Mobile G1 to iPod Dock

Article originally from: http://www.webnetta.com/2008/12/27/hack-connects-t-mobile-g1-to-ipod-dock/

The first thing we thought of, was making the T-Mobile G1 send the audio to an iPod Speaker set we have.

There is a sea of iPod accessories, so naturally the dock connector has a well known pinout.

Figuring out the pinout for the HTC ExtUSB connector wasn’t too hard, I just split open my hands free adapter I got with my T-Mobile Dash.

Most of the wires were labeled, “L” “R” “M” ect. It took a bit of fiddling to discover that connecting pin 7 to the audio ground ( pin 8 ) turns on the external audio. Sparkfun sells 30 awg (Gauge) wire wrap wire that is perfect for soldering to the ultra tiny pins on both the HTC ExtUSB connector and the iPod Female connector.

ipod-female

We used pins 1, 2, 3, 4, 16, and 23 on the iPod Female connector. If you gently bend the pins out it makes it much easier to solder, but be careful the pins break easy.

1 & 2 are Ground -

3 is Right Audio +

4 is Left Audio +

16 is USB Ground -

23 is USB Power +5

It is important that you do not mix the audio and power grounds or you can get a nasty hum.

g1-connector

On the G1 side of things the upper half of the connector is a standard mini-usb pinout, the bottom is very different.

We used Pins 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10.

1 is USB Power +5v in

5 is USB Ground -

6 is Left Audio +

7 is marked “AG” on the T-Mobile Dash headset board, connect this one to pin 8 to enable audio.

8 is Audio Ground -

10 is Right Audio +

Now we wire the two connectors together like so:

iPod pin - HTC ExtUSB pin

1 ———— 8

3 ———— 10

4 ———— 6

16 ———— 5

23 ———— 1

Don’t forget to solder together pins 1 & 2 on the iPod side and pins 7 & 8 on the G1 side.

When its done it looks like this:

droid-dock

So we have audio from Audio player and YouTube, and the speaker dock charges the G1 too.

Have fun!

Active your T-mobile G1 Android Phone WITHOUT a contract

This is really only useful if you have a brand new phone (unactivated, and never used it)

So you have yourself a brand new G1 in your hand. it's not activated (and is essentially not usable) until it connects to google's server and you setup your gmail account (a free google account IS needed even if you DON'T have a G1 Internet Service , or are not on T-mobile)

The normal G1 Setup goes as follows:
1) You place your T-mobile SIM chip with the G1 internet option ($25/month) in your Gphone and you turn it on.
2) You'll be asked your Gmail account (you can create one at this menu.
3) Using the $25/month G1 internet service from t-mobile it will connect to google and activate the phone.
4) you have a phone you can do anything you want with (see tricks and unlocking above)


Here's the issue as to why a T-mobile SIM Chip WITHOUT the G1 internet service will not work.
The "APN" on your regular t-mobile internet enabled chip will be wap.voicestream.com or internet2.voicestream.com (sometimes even internet3.voicestream.com)
The G1 has the new APN: epc.tmobile.com by default setup and you must change this.

HOW TO DO IT.
1) put your T-mobile with SOME KIND of internet on it. (T-mobile Web, T-zones, T-mobile unlimited $19.99/month internet or T-mobile $9.99 new unlimited internet plan)
2) Try to activate the phone as normally.
3) It will fail. SO... click on the Menu button. There you will either see a list of "APN"'s or be able to choose Wireless Controls -> Mobile Networks -> Access Point Names
4) Press menu again and "ADD A NEW APN" make the "name" of your new APN start with A (say "A new APN")
4) put the "APN" you need for your server (start with wap.voicestream.com, it usually works for most services)
5) Press Menu again and choose "Save". 6) Try "activating again" and everything should be working.


Unlocking your T-mobile G1 Android gPhone



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