Team DIRT AOKP for Evo 3D

This review is long overdue, as it has been over two weeks since my CM10 review.  It's been hard to find time to change ROMs, but I finally was able to switch this afternoon.  This review will cover Team DIRT's build of AOKP for EVO 3D. Keep in mind that this ROM was intended for the Sprint phone, but I am using an EVO V on Virgin Mobile, and my results may not be indicative this ROM's behavior for Sprint devices.  Version 3.5.2 was used in this evaluation.

Pros

• Working video camera, camera and photo sphere
• Highly configurable
• Stock keyboard supports swipe gestures
• UI feels like AOSP
• Working Maps and GPS

Cons

• Sluggish UI
• Wi-fi connectivity issues
• Keyboard swipe animation lag badly
• In call volume too low to hear in moderately noisy environments
• No MMS support
• Battery life not as good as CM10 or Sense
• Wake locks keep phone awake more often than it should be

AOKP for EVO 3D,  while not an awful ROM, never felt production quality.  There was an ever present lag throughout the whole UI, which was only amplified as I switched between applications or copied files to the phone.   The keyboard worked fine fine when using swipe gestures, but the floating word preview was always laggy, and the font used for the word preview gave the keyboard a hacked up feel.  

In addition to UI problems, on several occasions I needed to pull the battery from my phone.  After pushing the screen-on button, the backlit capacitive buttons would glow but nothing would appear on the screen.  Even after multiple attempts to wake the phone, nothing would display on the screen.  There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason for this to occur.  Apps also crashed on numerous occasions, usually the System UI or messaging following heavy usage.

Battery life was nothing stellar either.  While I was able to make it through normal usage every day, I usually ended up with 30 - 40 % remaining.  Most days usage consisted of 10 -20 minutes of talk, 40 -50 texts (sent and received) and very light web browsing (two or three Google searches).  

Wireless connectivity was also troublesome with this ROM.  Even after connecting to a wi-fi network, the phone would become stuck using the 3G connection, which was too poor in most cases to even transmit data, resulting no Internet connectivity at all.  I experienced this issue with multiple wi-fi networks in multiple cities, therefore, the issue lies with the ROM, not the wi-fi access points.

This ROM suffers from too many issues for me to consider using it on a permanent basis.  Its benefits are far outweighed by its alpha quality feel and behavior.   Anyone who values speed and stability over new features and customization should not use this ROM.

Cyanogenmod 10 for EVO 3D

For the past two weeks I have been using an unofficial version of CM10 on my EVO 3D.  (I used it for two weeks because I didn't want to flash my phone while on vacation.)  The build I have been using is the one from December 5th.  Keep in mind that my findings are now slightly out of date.

Pros

• Interface is very smooth
• GPS and  navigation works well
• 4G works (I was in San Francisco)
• Video camera records
• Calls and SMS work fine
• Built in tethering works beautifully
• Battery life is good with moderate usage

Cons

• MMS is totally broken on VM
• Video playback of recorded videos does not work
• Wake locks keep phone awake more than it should be
• No 3D (I don't care)
• Maximum in call volume is often too low
• Stock keyboard blows

After using CM10 for my EVO 3D for two weeks, I would consider keeping it permanently on my phone.  Despite all of it's flaws, CM10 is very stable and smooth.  In over two weeks of use, I have yet to experience any issue too severe to live with.  

Battery life is very important to me as a smartphone user.  Typically I care more about idle battery life; I am a fairly light user on most days.  On most days, my battery life was over 50% by the end of the day (15-20 hours on battery.)  The only time when I came close to running out of juice was during a trip to San Francisco when I used Google maps and 4G all day long.  Even though the build of CM10 I was running seemed to have a wake lock issue, it never seemed to cause excessive battery drain.

Some other thoughts about the ROM:

• The stock keyboard was so irritating to use that I installed my old favorite, Swiftkey.
• Many time when I had to take a call in a loud(ish) environment, I couldn't hear the other person talking because I couldn't turn the volume up loud enough.
• Although I could shoot video on my phone, I couldn't play it back later.  Even MX player failed to play back my videos correctly. However, I could play back all the videos on my computer.
• Since MMS doesn't work on this phone for non Sense 3.6 ROMS on VM, I've just been telling people to email me pictures instead. 

This next week I will test Team Dirt AOKP. I did plan to test Paranoid Android, but the dev has been banned from XDA and the thread was closed as well.

A smart phone for the cheapskate: LG Optimus V

Is it an iPhone? No.  If it's not an iPhone, why would I want it?

Having to pay your own cell phone bill is a double-edged sword.  Finally I can get whichever phone I want on any network I choose.  Oh darn, all the good phones are on the Big 4 carriers with plans starting at an organ donation per month.  So what did I do?  I chose option three.  Virgin Mobile.  For only $25 dollars a month, yes that says $25 a month,  I get unlimited text and data along with 300 minutes.  Did I mention that it's only 25 dollars per month?

"Surely a prepaid carrier can only have the bottom bin of crap phones" was something I used to think all the time.  I was wrong.  Finally catching up into the 21st century, VM is offering two Android phones on their network.  I selected the LG Optimus V to be my new phone for two reasons: Price and usability.  Firstly, the Optimus V was cheaper than the alternate Samsung phone offered on VM by at least 50 dollars.  Second, the LG Optimus received much better reviews for usablility than the Samsung phone. 

Android tablets the hackers way: Rooting a Nook Color

We all have those sudden urges to buy some hot new piece of technology.  Most of us don't however immediately void the warranty by hacking it.  I don't happen to be one of those people.  Having contemplated my purchase for a week or so, there was no way that I wasn't going to hack my Nook Color as soon as I had the wrapper off.

I don't feel any need to dive into an unboxing here, so I will save it.  After having opened the box and tossing it aside, I went online and downloaded the version of autonooter for my Nook.  The ten minutes that it took for autonooter to download was literally all the time that I spent using the stock Nook color.  The rooting process is quite simple and took me less than fifteen minutes to do.

iPad Review

I always thought that I had a phobia to Apple products due to their incompatibility to most enterprise and professional programs on the market. I have especially criticized the iPad for being just a large iPod with no added functionality. But recently, I was looking for a portable system to take with me between my house and college. Someone suggested the iPad, and I laughed at the notion. However, I looked into it and decided I would go ahead and take the plunge. In no time, I had the iPad ordered.

Managing multiple email accounts with Thunderbird

If you are like me , then you probably have more than one email account.  And really, who doesn't these days.  You may even have more than one Gmail account, which can be hard to manage unless you have multiple sign in enabled in you Gmail settings.  But by far the easiest way to manage all of your email accounts in one place is with Thunderbird.  Thunderbird is an email client by Mozilla, the makers of Firefox.

Whether you run Windows, Mac or Linux, Thunderbird will work for you.  The newest version of T-Bird makes setting up accounts really easy.  You don't have to enter the name of your email servers anymore.  When you go to make an account, it will ask for your name, email address, and password.  Thunderbird figures out all the rest and finishes setting up you accounts.  It also has a feature called unified folders.  This  lets you view all your in-boxes, sent mail, trash, and archived mail from all your accounts together.  Of course you can still view them separately if you prefer.  Another handy feature of T-bird is the search feature.  Most other email clients have the search buried in some menu, but T-bird puts it right on the main page where it's easy to get to.  You also don't need to choose filters anymore before searching.  And, just like Firefox, Thunderbird has an extensive library of extensions if the vanilla program doesn't do everything you need it to do.  There are lots of extensions which add all sorts of functionality, including calendars, contact management, and news reading.  I use the Zindus contact sync extension to synchronize my contacts back and forth between my Gmail accounts.  This is useful when I have to log into the Gmail website from another computer, because all of my Thunderbird contacts will show up in Gmail.  Of course, these are just a few noteworthy features of Thunderbird, but there are many more.

If you are looking for a better way to read your email, try Thunderbird.   It is available here at Mozilla's website.