How-to: Live Wallpapers on Moto DROID running Android 2.0.1 [Update]

**Update: If you’ve installed the files outlined below and are having trouble with permissions and SU pop-ups, stop back by the 2.0.1 Live Wallpaper thread on Alldroid and download the new 1.1.rom.tgz file.

Like many DROID owners out there, I was pretty bummed when I saw the official release specs for Android 2.1 on the Moto DROID. Two of the biggest visual changes — Live Wallpapers & the new 3D app drawer — were cut from the list. Performance issues and “exclusivity” have been two of the more prominent theories as to the decision. As far as performance goes however, if you’re here, reading on how to install unofficial features on your DROID, chances are you at least know your way around a rooted DROID and what to do with .apk’s, custom ROMs, and all kinds of other “underground” goodness.

For well over a month now, DROID users running custom 2.1-based ROMs have installed Live Wallpapers and had generally acceptable performance with only the occasional bug or FC cropping up. However, for those wanting to stay on a more stable (and quicker) 2.0.1 ROM, Live Wallpapers were a no go. But, the tide has finally turned thanks to many talented developers who have spent the last several months ripping the Android OS apart, resulting in greatly improved functionality and versatility. With that said, it is now possible to install Live Wallpapers on OS 2.0.1. Want to know how? Continue on…

To start, why exactly haven’t Live Wallpapers been working so well on 2.0.1? Well, to keep it rather basic, Live Wallpapers rely on Launcher 2.1 and a few other 2.1 specific frameworks to fully work (ie: to display and interact, you have to have the 2.1 launcher installed). A few ROMs such as Pete’s “Bugless Beast 2.1″ in particular have done a rather good job of bringing Live Wallpapers to the DROID platform — albeit on Android 2.1. Even still, the bugginess of the 2.1 Launcher on 2.0.1 in the rest of the custom ROMs has rendered Live Wallpapers as “look but don’t touch”.

A new solution has cropped up however that is allowing easy installation of Live Wallpapers on 2.0.1. via a .rom.tgz method. Make note however that these are still a look-only approach. Of course, if you install the 2.1 Launcher, you can always make use of the touchy feely nature of LWP’s. Still interested?

**This solution is for deodexed 2.0.1 phones only!!!

For those wanting LWP’s on their DROID running 2.0.1, you’ll need one, maybe two things depending on if you want the LWP’s to be interactive or not. First:

• Live-Wallpapers.rom.tgz installation package courtesy of “Xeudoxus” over at Alldroid.

Again, you need to be running a deodexed/rooted ROM/phone to install!!. To install, copy the Live-Wallpaper.rom.tgz file in the link above to the root of your SD card. Boot into recovery mode and select the “Install” option, navigating to the .rom.tgz method of installation. Select the Live-Wallpapers.rom.tgz and let it do it’s thing. Once it’s done, reboot and enjoy! Simple stuff, see.

Now, if you only have the older 2.0.1 style launcher with the pull tab for a drawer, you’ll need to install the 2.1 Launcher to get the fully interactive wallpapers. (**The LWP’s will still move and stuff without the 2.1 Launcher, they just won’t respond to finger inputs without said resource**). For those wanting the 2.1 Launcher:

• Install this file, also from “Xeudoxus” of Alldroid.

Put the second file above somewhere on your SD card. Remount the card and browse to wherever you stored the 2.1 Launcher.apk file, select it, and hit “install”. Now when you hit the home button, you’ll be prompted to use either the older 2.0.1 “Home” homescreen or the newer 2.1 “Launcher” homescreen. Either way, you’ll now have at least moving wallpapers. Pretty sweet, huh?

For even more, and unique LiveWallpapers, search “Live Wallpapers” in the market. My personal favorite so far is “Starfield” — a sort of Star Wars-like “lightspeed” effect that looks pretty much like the image below (except of course, the little stars are moving). Awesome stuff! Go ahead and give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

**Credit to Xeudoxus for the files linked above.

[Image Source 1 ] [Image Source 2]

Mark your notes: Sholes.info -> DroidMod.org [Update]

**Update: Personal account of the sholes.info drama here.

Frequent the custom DROID ROM scene? If so, there’s a high probability you’ve heard of the Sholes team and sholes.info at least once. First, a quick back story…

They are an awesome custom ROM droid development team that develops one of the best custom DROID ROMs. A few weeks back, the Sholes team, together with developer Scott Anderson released SMUpdater, an awesome auto-download/install app for Sholes.info ROM users. Long story short, there was some drama and it turned out that the dev wasn’t giving any of the donation money to the devs. As you can imagine, ties with the developer were split. (And my donation refunded). After that drama a few days ago, the ship seemed to be leveling itself. Then sholes.info went down.

Since I’m not actually in the Sholes team, I don’t know the full story. All that needs to be said however is that the site went down yesterday at some point and has stayed down. However, when searching for some answers, I came across this thread at AndroidCentral that pointed to a “new” sholes.info page — DroidMod.org.

This post is purely informative, put out there for all of the DROID users wanting to know at least a little bit about where sholes.info went and where things are headed. Look for continuing sholes ROM updates in the near future.

DroidMod

Official DROID 2.1 OTA leaked?! [Update]

**See update below…

Want the “official” Motorola DROID 2.1 update before it’s actually live? Thanks to Pete from Alldroid, now such things can be had. As is customary with manual updates and ROM trickery, you assume all responsibility if your DROID implodes into a cloud of smoke. So be careful. With the safety fluff out of the way, I’ll add that I can’t contain my excitement. Though it’s worth noting that the custom DROID ROMs currently floating around are at least 50% better (fact) then the dumbed down and gutted official 2.1 release that’s coming out soon. So as I wait for all the 1′s and 0′s to make their way down into my computer and begin their trek across the almighty USB river into my phone, you make sure you queue up your own download at the link below. Ya, that was stupid…

I’ll let you know more as soon as I can get it flashed.

Update: Wow, two whole minutes…that’s the fastest follow-up update ever. Ok, so, the ROM was posted by “Pete” of Alldroid (who by the way has an amazing custom 2.1 ROM that’s been out for several days now). The file itself isn’t an “update” in the typical update.zip style that the previous early leak of 2.0.1 was. Instead, the only file included is the system.rar file. The real excitement here is for developers to make their current custom 2.1 ROMs even better and more stable. Normal people seeking a Nandroid or update.zip method, you’re going to need to wait just a little bit longer.

• Download system.rar file for official Moto DROID 2.1 update

DroidForums > AndroidOverdrive
Droid-Life > Alldroid

The green cubicle starts here? CubeTubes.

It isn’t too often we see a corporate minded gadget get us all hot and bothered. I mean, the differences between the corporate world of gadgets and the consumer world of gadgets are like comparing the a horse and buggy to flying cars. But every once in a while, a gem makes it’s way past our visual receptacles and excites us. In this case, it’s the CubeTube.

Everyone knows what a solar panel is and what it’s main function in life is — to recycle solar particles into usable energy for whatever plugs into it. An office uses a ton of energy but has generous amounts of worker bees crammed into tiny cubes, away from the outside world (and sun) meaning any solar advancements have to typically be thrown outside or on the roof of the business costing eye bleeding amounts of money. And we all know how giving your typical business is with modern tech. That’s where CubeTube comes in.

Taking solar recycling and giving it back to the people, the CubeTubes sit atop your cubicle or desk and actually draw the ambient light from indoor lighting — not solar/sun light — to recycle into usable energy. Color me thoroughly impressed yet skeptical. I mean, even the best solar panels have a pretty paltry efficiency rate with real sunlight let alone a few fluorescent lights. Are the photovoltaic cells really that good at their job? I simply don’t think so. Michael Trei of Dvice thinks the same too. Also, if these photo cells are so efficient with light (and can run off of indoor lighting no less), I’m pretty sure we would have seen a much larger media presence and more implementations already, wouldn’t you say?

In the end, I’m highly intrigued though still a fence sitter at this point. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until “sometime next year” before getting our hands on some. What do you think: Do these seem plausible or do you see “late-night infomercial” written all of this?

Dvice

Star Wars Soap: The ultimate call to bathe.

I’m not trying to knock the true geek’s basement living, rarely venture up for air lifestyle (I’ve done it plenty myself), but sometimes you just stink. Plain and simple. Not to mention, for someone who is constantly multi-tasking and taking in information from all over the place, standing in place, staring at a blank wall, and scrubbing just doesn’t seem very exciting. So, why bathe?

If you’re a geek who doesn’t see the need to bathe, take note. The Star Wars Logo Soap is your soap. Everywhere in society we see geeks being tied to some sort of Star Wars/Star Trek background as the science/space stuff gets our gears grinding. Well, now you can take that geeky, space loving obsession and turn it into a squeaky clean dermis.

The Star Wars Logo soaps retail for $6.50 each. To some, that’s a bit pricey for a single bar of soap. But these are a labor of love, created one at a time. Surely you can appreciate that.

[Product Page: Etsy -- SoapLane]

Geeky-Gadgets > Nowhere Else

Win7 browser ballot goes live next week, shows it’s face now.

Folks in Europe who have so far been plagued with the lack of browser options in Windows during setup can breathe a sigh of relief today, for the much talked about “browser ballot” will officially go live next week. But today, we get to actually look at it. The ballot isn’t anything special — just a random ordering of the five top browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari) with two basic options: “Install” or “More Info”. While I don’t see the big fuss with IE coming standard on Windows, having choices provided from the start seems beneficial on paper at least.

Then again, I keep thinking this entire fight picked by the EU is stupid. Is it me or does this mountain-over-a-molehill fight regarding browser choices on Win7 seem a bit excessive? I’m hardly a Microsoft fanboy (or any fanboy really), but forcing Microsoft to offer other browsers from the get go while the EU fails to say anything about Apple’s bundling of Safari seems a bit one-sided and ridiculous. The outcome of politics and politicians getting into areas they don’t understand I suppose.

Mashable

Touchscreen based universal Xbox/Nintendo/Sony controller being developed by…Sony?

Video games are a wonderful thing. They increase your hand-eye coordination, entertain, and pass large amounts of time that seem to drag on forever. For most, the entertainment factor is the most important. Getting into the console gaming scene specifically, choosing what platform you want to use can at times be difficult. Do you want the eye candy and more hackability of the PS3, the expansive online gaming world of Xbox Live, or the get up and move nature of the Wii?

If you choose all three, dealing with the onslaught of controllers, adapters, and cables isn’t exactly the poster child for a great time. For cords, controllers are now coming wireless — problem solved. Adapters — well, you’re still stuck there. Though you can get switches to make moving back and forth between consoles as easy as the push of a button. Controllers however are a completely different beast.

When a new console is released, manufacturers spend millions of dollars and resources developing and designing these new controllers as they are literally the way you interact with the entire platform — clearly an import matter. But those different controllers can mean headaches for end users. For that, Sony may have a solution.

For now, this is pure rumor, but documents reportedly belonging to Sony show a universal game controller that would allow users to use the same controller on PS3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. If the controller truly designed well, this could be a huge thing for the gaming world. I wouldn’t mind giving a universal controller a try if it didn’t make me curse it’s name five minutes after picking it up as so many previous attempts have. If they can concur that, they are well on their way. According to the patent:

“A game console controller includes a hand-holdable housing and a touch sensitive liquid crystal display (LCD) on the housing. The LCD is caused to present, depending on what type of game console a user has selected, a controller key layout for a first type of game console or a controller key layout for a second type of game console. A key layout includes plural keys selectable by a user to input commands to a game console.”

One potential roadblock I see however, is Microsoft and Nintendo either not getting on board with this universal controller idea or devising some sort of software patch that would “authenticate” peripherals and render non-official ones useless — much like Microsoft did with 3rd party memory cards. If that happens, consider it a kick in the pants to the gaming population and another appearance of greed making it’s dirty mark on the world.

Also a potential hurdle, the patent mentions the use of a touchscreen for a fair helping of the buttons. That’s cool and all, allowing the layout to be customized more than a physical layout could ever allow, but many hardcore gamers (and myself included) won’t be too keen on hours upon hours of buttonless mashing. There are some things touchscreens just don’t accomplish too well yet. Sometimes feeling the button is the very thing that makes it desirable.

The real question is simply: Would you use it, or would the more touchscreen based interface turn you off and do you think there’s any real weight behind this rumor?

**Bonus question: Sony, long known for their proprietary lifestyle, is now secretly developing a universal controller that plays well with the other kids on the block? Why the change of heart?

Gizmodo > GoRumors