My shiny new Google Android Dev Phone 1

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Black God

Today, I have got my Google Android Dev Phone 1. It is powered by Google Android Operating system which is an open source OS. This phone is SIM unlocked and boot loader unlocked. This version of phone is meant for developers to play with the real device. For more information on phone you may please visit this site.

I am living in India. Right now I am in San Jose, USA on a official work. Since shipping cost is too high to order this mobile from India, I ordered here in USA to save this cost. The phone costs $399. To order this phone, you should register with Android Market as a developer. This registration costs $25. In this market site, you can download both Paid and Free applications for Android mobile.

Here are the photos of my Open Source Android phone, powered by mighty Linux Kernel.

android1

Android Phone on Home screen

android2

Android Phone with QWERTY keyboard slided out

android3

Android Phone's rear side fancy art

Officially to activate the phone, you need to have a SIM with data plan. I don’t have mobile connection here in USA (short term visit). So through google, I found this link to activiate the phone using android debugger tool, USB cable and Wireless internet connection. It was activated by following that post. Any way for archival purpose, let me give the steps here also, thanks to that link.

The configuration of Phone is:

Hardware Features

  • Touch screen
  • Trackball
  • 3.2 Megapixel camera with auto focus
  • Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth v2.0
    • Handsfree profile v1.5
    • Headset profile v1.0
  • 3G WCDMA (1700/2100 MHz)
  • Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
  • GPS-enabled
  • QWERTY slider keyboard
  • Includes 1GB MicroSD card (Can be replaced with up to 16GB card)
  • Included in the box
    • HTC Android Dev Phone 1
    • USB Cable
    • AC Adapter (with US plug)
    • Stereo Hands-Free Headset
    • Battery
    • Getting Starting Guide
    • 1G Micro SD Card (inserted into Device)

Software Features

  • Real web browsing
  • Customizable home screen
  • One-touch Google™ Search
  • Android Market
  • Full-featured Google applications:
    • Google Maps™
    • Gmail™
    • YouTube™
    • Google Calendar™
    • Google Talk™
  • SMS and MMS
  • Music player

Development Platform Features

  • SIM unlocked – Put any SIM in the device
  • Hardware unlocked – Rebuild the Android operating system, and load it onto the device
  • Test out your apps on real hardware before publishing them to the world

How to activate without SIM, using wireless internet?

You should have installed Android SDK in your machine downloading from here. And follow this page to setup your device properly connected and configured with your workstation.

  • Go to the command shell (prompt).
  • Connect the device to your computer using the USB cable. You should be able to see a listing for your device if you run adb devices. Then execute the following commands.
  • $  adb shell
  • $ su
  • $ cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
  • $ sqlite3 settings.db
  • INSERT INTO system (name, value) VALUES (‘device_provisioned’, 1);
  • .exit
  • $ reboot

After reboot:

  • $ adb shell
  • am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings

Go ahead and setup your wireless and then sign up using your Google account.

Now it is time to explore the device, keep watching this site for more Android stuff!



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  • Karthik

    Nice. Would be happy if we have lot of technical stuff.

  • http://www.lesnett.com Stuart Lesnett

    I kind of fell into your karuppuswamy.com looking for webcam drivers for linux but specifically video conferencing. I have been on SKYPE for a couple of years in the windows world but have gotten involved with UBUNTU Linux, my servers are 5.06 and desktops 7.10, as old unix user I’m trying to remember to many things.

    I have just purchased new Head Gear tracking camera and found that linux, i.e. ubuntu doesn’t seem to like it. I have also started looking at EKIGA video conferencing and comparing it to SKYPE.

    I’m going to try your skype fix to night with one of my old webcams that work on EKIGA but not skype. I have also been investigating some collaboration software but I’m working that issue.

    In reading your page/blog I dropped into the ANDROID write ups. You continue to use the term “mobile device” which leaves many questions such as what types? I did notice the hardware specification but no brand mentioned. I would appreciate some more information. I’m currently using a pay as you use cellphone provider.

    I have noticed that UBUNTU did not change the video drivers upon update from 6.10 and am not sure why, one of my systems is running PIXART Ubuntu 7.10 and the other is running a camera driver package. any information on that would help. You can reach me on SKYPE at wsl3rd or EKIGA at wsl3rd or twit me at the same address. Thanks for the write ups, now I have even more to understand.

    Regards, Stuart Lesnett

  • http://www.lesnett.com Stuart Lesnett

    I have attempted to implemented your fix for skype’s webcams but it did not work. There are no such directories in “usr” however there is a directory “usr/lib/PTLIB-2.4.1/devices/videoinput/v4l_pwplugin.so. After attempting to use this string nothing still happened, I would appreciate some insight.

    There is a directory /home/slesnett/noname:Flexcam100Camera.drc which is the camera’s name. I also noticed that EKIGA uses Flexcam 100 Camera(PTLIB/V4L) and not /dev/video0(PTLIB/V4L2) which also doesnot work.

    The only reason I mention the above that should select the second one the camera stops working on EKIGA. SKYPE seems to have simular type of problem because is looking for /dev/video0.

    Once again any assistance would be appreciated.

    Stu

  • andrei

    Hi,

    Do you know how skype lite can be installed on android dev phone? I cannot find it on device
    Market.

    Please help.

  • http://www.karuppuswamy.com swamytk

    >Do you know how skype lite can be installed on android dev phone? I cannot find it on device
    Market.

    It is available through Market application in Android Dev Phone.

  • rk

    I tried but I had a problem in detecting my Wi-Fi network.
    So I disbled the sigin by following the steps in
    http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/9eaf7ce331287158?pli=1

    • http://www.karuppuswamy.com swamytk

      Thanks for this work around. But what about the functionality of phone without registering with Google services? I hope it should be smooth.

  • http://josephsblog.foreverhomes.org/ numInsemsbing

    Waow loved reading your post. I submitted your rss to my blogreader!

  • Sakthi

    Ponnai virumbum poomiyile…
    Android phone-ai virumbum oor uyire!!!
    Puthaiyal thedi…
    Alaiyum ulagil!!!
    Arivai thedum en uyire!!!