JFv1.41-RC33 released: Multitouch, auto-rotate and all RC33 goodies

[Smalls]

just do a wipe smalls, its worth it, you know you can back everything up first!

nah, risk it for a biscuit

[constellanation]

As for the radio update, I don't exactly understand how to do that. Can someone explain?

rename it update.zip and do it just like your planning on doing the other update, which you had correct.

or you could risk it for a biscuit in the words of smalls

[Smalls]

i am running the updated rc8 and i appear to have none of the included changes that should have (mark spam etc.).

bad times

[constellanation]

oh right you're a brit.

i don't think it'll work for you. I suspect you could still get around using the rc33 update, but i think you'd lose some functionality. there was a thread about the update for non u.s. the other day. I wonder how it got along.

[smojo]

So the autorotate only works in the browser or am I doing something wrong?

[constellanation]

on the jf version that is the only thing preinstalled with autorotate. That i know of.

[XDViPeR]

Yes, smojo, the browser is the only one that auto rotates. You can use Droidsans to enable auto rotation for the whole OS, but I'm not too sure if there is a version that works with Rc33 yet... Anyone confirm?

[pixelDesK]

Can someone educate me what is JF RC33? Is it different from the official RC33 update from TMobile? What about this radio update thing? Is it important to have radio update or not? Sorry for being so naive but I'm kind of new to all these. Thanks!

[VValdo]

Can someone educate me what is JF RC33? Is it different from the official RC33 update from TMobile? What about this radio update thing? Is it important to have radio update or not? Sorry for being so naive but I'm kind of new to all these. Thanks!

Basically it's like this-- Google keeps updating the firmware (containing the Android operating system and various applications) with new bugfixes and features. From time to time, they give it to T-Mobile who gives it to you via an OTA ("over the air") update.

The thing about the official firmware updates that come through is that they keep certain functions and features of your phone "off limits"-- they allow 3rd-party applications to run, for example, but only within "sandboxed" (ie, safe & secure) areas of the phone. But if you think about it-- the G1 is basically a mini-laptop with a built-in phone that can run all kinds of applications. The problem is that the firmware limits you to running only certain types of applications that are restricted by Google/T-Mobile.

So while Android is very powerful and allows developers to create all kinds of cool applications, the G1 won't let you run just any kind of program. (see below for examples of this)

T-Mobile's Android limits you for a few reasons-- security (they don't want you to run an application that can do any damage to data or other applications, or steal your information, or mess with their network, etc.), stability (limiting the functionality of phones means less likely things will go wrong), and support (keeping the phone fully "open" means poorly written 3rd party programs could go nuts, which could lead to more headaches to their support line).

Enter the custom firmware. Thanks to a flaw in the security of firmware release RC29, the G1 user is able to give themselves "root" access to the phone, which allows one to bypass all the built-in restrictions. One of the restrictions is the inability to install a new non-official firmware. Once the root exploit was discovered, it allowed anyone to re-flash their firmware with a custom version....

Any explanation of the official firmware vs. JF's version should probably mention the idea of "signed keys" -- the official firmware is designed to only allow itself to be replaced by another firmware that has been digitally "signed" with a key that is recognized to be from T-Mobile. In other words, your T-Mobile firmware was designed to update *only* T-Mobile firmware, and any attempt to update from T-Mobile firmware to another firmware, say one that didn't have all the restrictions the official one did, would fail. The root exploit in RC29 allowed this to be circumvented, so that you could install ANY firmware you want. JFv1.41-rc33, which you can think of as "RC33 Plus" because of its extra features, is such a replacement that is not officially from T-Mobile.

So JFv1.41-RC33 is basically the RC33 version PLUS a lot of extra stuff that ordinarily is not included in RC33. For one thing, a root shell is provided which allows you to add, delete, or modify files to do such things as add a unique theme to your phone, to "tether" your computer to your phone (and share your g3 wireless internet to say, a laptop), to remove unwanted applications (like that useless Amazon mp3), to run applications off your sdcard (which has significantly more room) instead of your phone's built-in storage, to turn on hidden functions like auto-rotate in the browser, to add new features like two-finger zooming in the browser, etc. etc. Basically you have full control over the phone.

The JF1.41 firmware also allows you to load and run 3rd party applications via the Android market that further enhance your phone in ways not intended/permitted by the regular system. You may have seen such applications in the market that say they "require root". Such programs may let you do things like toggle hidden settings or shut down other running applications to free up memory.

In fact, once you have root, you don't have to run Android on your phone. You can even run entire alternate operating systems such as debian linux. Having root is really the key to doing anything you want with your phone, so for technical geeks, this is a big deal- it's like having the ability to open the hood of your car so you can mess with the engine.

A JFv1.41 "recovery image" is also included with the firmware. JF's recovery image has to do with the "emergency mode" you can run by holding down the power and House key when you first start up. The custom version adds new features like being able to back up your entire phone (including applications, settings, and data) to your sdcard. So that's kind of a useful plus too.

As for the radio update-- this is an update to the radio part of the phone. The update may help with reception issues for some users- it may also have something to do with reducing battery consumption... who knows. The radio update is normally built-into the stock T-mobile rc33 firmware and is activated once when you update to RC33. Jesus Freke decided to break off the radio update into a separate file from the regular JFv1.41-RC33 firmware. Apparently, he did this so that if he decided to re-update the firmware, it wouldn't waste the time re-updating the radio every time. (Updating the radio is a one-time process. But maybe he was tweaking his firmware and needed to update several times until he made sure it was right. So he broke off the update to the radio so that he didn't have to keep re-updating that part, which takes some time).

Anyway, hope this is somewhat clear.

W

[DaYuMu6ft7]

WOW! VValdo..

I hope that was a cut & paste

Very informative none the less

Cool!