Cyanogen CM7 snap from Steve at borough11.co.nz

So it was only a few months ago when I got my A8183 Telstra flavoured Desire to use on Telecom XT, and like many people the first thing I did was flash it with a pre-rooted stock ROM, mainly to upgrade to Froyo, and secondly to remove all of the Telstra branding/apps that served no purpose outside of Aussie.

Now Gingerbread has been out in developer circles for quite some time, and the people over at CyanogenMod have released their first RC for the Gingerbread version of their mod; CyanogenMod-7 (CM7).

As per usual, there is a basic set of instructions which I followed with minimal issues, I’m just going to elaborate on that in the hope that someone who was 50/50 on doing it gives it a go (And also so I can remember how to do it next time…), as really, there is no reason why everyone shouldn’t be doing this to their phones.

First off, a note to those who are paranoid with the A8183 850MHz versions of the Desire (Like I was) and this or any other mods breaking their reception. As far as these modifications are concerned, there are only two different types of Desire, the GSM (Bravo) and the CDMA (BravoC). Even though the Bravo GSM A8183 version uses a different frequency, it still uses the same radio files as all of the other Bravo GSM phones, so you don’t have to worry about breaking the radio by doing these upgrades.

Secondly, this ROM is based on vanilla Gingerbread. Not only will it completely remove your phone of HTC Sense, it contains a lot of extra features and enhancements. If this is a worry for you, then don’t do this mod. After having used CyanogenMod for a couple of days myself now, I can’t say I really remember what I got with HTC Sense that I don’t have now, and I’m starting to wonder how I would do with out the extra features.

Make sure you check out their website and are happy with the extra modifications before installing this on your phone. They also support a lot of other devices, not just the Desire. Also last but not least, this will completely wipe your entire phone, so make sure you have your contacts/etc backed up or synced somehow.

Alright, if you don’t already own a Desire (uh..) or you haven’t rooted your device, make sure you follow Step 1 and Step 2 of my earlier post.

Step 3 – Flash your Desire

1. Download CM7-RC1 for Desire from here, and the latest stock Radio from here (Original locations here and here respectively).
2. Rename the CM7 download to “cm7.zip” and the radio download to “radio.zip” and copy to your phones SD card.
3. Turn off your Desire, and turn it on holding down the Volume Down button, which will boot you into the Clockwork Recovery screen, which looks like this.
4. Backup your phone.  Using your phones volume buttons as up or down buttons, scroll to the “backup and restore” option, and do a backup. If for what ever reason the rest of the process goes horribly wrong, you can go back into this screen and do a restore to get it back to this point.
5. Scroll to “install zip from sdcard” and locate the ‘radio.zip’ file that you placed on there earlier. After this has installed, scroll to “reboot system now” – This will return you to your old phone OS, but with the upgraded radio file. Confirm that you still have reception, and reboot into recovery mode again.
6. Factory reset/wipe your phone by using the “wipe data/factory reset” and “wipe cache partition” options.
7. Scroll to “install zip from sdcard” and locate the ‘cm7.zip’ file that you placed on there earlier. After this has installed, scroll to “reboot system now” – Your phone should reboot with the CyanogenMod 7 splash screen into the Gingerbread initial phone setup screen.

That’s it!

Now, there are a couple of issues that I’ve noticed that are worth mentioning in case anyone else has the same;

1. On first boot, phone has no menu bar, and no apps appear to work. This happened to me straight after I had flashed the phone, all that is required is to reboot into Recovery and repeat step 6 above.
2. Overnight, the battery appeared to run dead. There is a known issue with the RC build regarding the Wireless Sleep Policy, which appears to have fixed the problem:
   1. Set “Wifi Sleep Policy” to never
   2. Browse to Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Wifi Settings
   3. Press Menu -> Advanced and set Wifi Sleep Policy to Never
   4. Press Menu -> Save

I’ll update this post with any other issues, as/if they happen.

Another day another GoPro vid. The first one is my first recording with them in/around water. Needless to say I’ve made several others, that all turned out shit. Lesson to anyone who is wanting to do any recordings that involve water, you need the AntiFog inserts. For an extra $30 it’s not a big deal, but it’s something that really they should just supply with the cameras in the first place…

The second one is a multi-angle picture in picture monster. Pretty much murdered my computer trying to edit/render this thing. The video isn’t going to be for everyone (15 minutes of a race car going around in circles), but it’s still pretty cool.

Without further adieu:

So, I purchased two GoPro HD cameras from Vision Up not that long ago, and I am amazed at how much better these cameras are than the original GoPro, considering the relatively short life of the company and when they brought out the original GoPro camera.

Having owned the original GoPro (Footage here and here), I was never too impressed with the footage. It was better to have something rather than nothing, but due to the relatively small field of view if you didn’t have the camera mounted exactly right and in a vibration free environment, it created unusable footage. The wide angle version produced a much better field of view (Footage here), and the GoPro HD extends on that, while adding HD recording capabilities, all the way up to 1080p.

While 1080p recording is nice to have, that’s a bit excessive for what I’ll ever need, plus there are added advantages too recording in 720p. One, you get a wider field of view, two, and the most important, is the option to record at 60 frames per second. Unfortunately both YouTube and Vimeo don’t support 60fps footage currently, but it can only be a matter of time from now.

Anyhow, down to the vids. Having just come back from Taupo/Rotorua and combining forces with another mate who owns two GoPro HD cameras and Premieres awesome Multi-camera feature, we’ve made some pretty epic recordings. Check them out below. Be sure to click the HD button and full screen it to get the best quality.

Two GoPro cameras. One mounted on the top rear of the passengers window with the included suction cup, the other mounted just beside the Honda emblem on the bonnet.

Four GoPro cameras. Two mounted on helmets of riders with included suction cup mounts, one mounted on the GoPro “Chesty” Chest Mount, one mounted in several locations including on a rider pointed backwards, sideways and on a static sign, all with included suction cup mount.

Before I get into story mode, this in theory will work for ANY model HTC Desire, but for reassurance for people with or looking to buy the A8183 version that operates on WCDMA 850mhz (e.g. Telecom XT), this will also definitely work for you. I found conflicting reports when I was searching, but as I said, this process worked for me, it should also work for you.

So, I’ve been a foundation XT customer, and despite some “teething issues” – On a whole I’ve received better coverage and speeds on XT than I did before I ported from Vodafone. What I haven’t been happy with, is the phones. Even though they’ve finally moved to WCDMA, the frequency they are using is less common, therefore phone manufacturers tend to be playing catch up.

I had nearly purchased an iPhone 3GS, and then I heard rumours of the Telstra Next G network getting a version of the HTC Desire. The good thing about this is the Next G network runs on the exact same frequencies as Telecom’s XT, so in theory, any phone that works on Next G would work on XT.

Fast forward nearly 9 months; Telstra did indeed get an 850mhz version of the HTC Desire, and they are in fact unlocked and will work out of the box with a Telecom XT sim card. That of course leaves you with all of the Telstra/Big Pond customisations (Which are HORRIBLE), and Eclair rather than the latest and greatest Froyo. After nearly biting the bullet and getting an iPhone4, I got pissed off with how they were being sold in NZ and ended up ordering a A8183 Desire, and a few days later it arrived.

I had it in my hand for about two hours and with the help of a mate and some Googling, have rooted the phone and am running vanilla Froyo. By following the below, you can have the same.

Step 1 – Purchase a Desire

As I said above, in theory, this will work on any Desire. Myself and a few mates have purchased off www.mobicity.co.nz, and have had pretty good luck. The only downside is some of the time their stock levels are incorrect. Mine didn’t ship from Aussie for 4 days even though they said it was in stock and ready to go. They made up for it by shipping it priority and including a car charger.

Telecom XT Version: http://www.mobicity.co.nz/htc-desire-nextg.html
Other NZ Networks: http://www.mobicity.co.nz/htc-desire.html

Step 2 – Root your Desire

This is simple as. There are multiple methods for this, however I chose the Linux LiveCD way of doing things due to running Win7 64bit, which apparently can cause some problems. Either way, you need to root your Desire. If you have another way of doing it, all good, this is what I used, and it worked amazingly easily.

I followed the instructions found here: http://myhtcdesire.com/modding/how-to-root-your-desire-easily-method-1 – Which I’ve changed slightly and stuck below

What You’ll Need

1. Your new Desire.
2. Slax Linux Live CD

The Guide

This guide is written assuming that the computer you’re using to do this is connected to the internet via an Ethernet cable. If you’re connecting over Wireless, Slax may not be able to connect to the internet. That’s ok, just do step 5 in your normal OS, and copy the file to a USB key or your phones storage, ready to be copied onto your Slax desktop.

1. Burn your Linux LiveCD to a blank CD using your burning software.
2. Keep the CD in the CD drive and restart your computer.
3. You should see Slax starting to load up – if not you may have to change your boot sequence so that the CD boots before your hard drive.
4. You’ll see a Slax start screen – select “Slax Graphic Mode (KDE)” then wait for Slax to load up.
5. Once you get to the Slax desktop, open Firefox using the icon in the taskbar at the bottom, and go to: http://unrevoked.com/recovery/. Click “Download for Linux” and save to your desktop.
6. Extract the file you download.
7. On your Desire go on Settings > Applications > Development and make sure “USB Debugging” is turned on.
8. Connect your phone to your USB cable.
9. Run Unrevoked (file’s called reflash) and wait a couple of minutes whilst it roots your phone. It’ll tell you what is going on, and your phone will be doing stuff.
10. When it returns the success message you know you’ve successfully rooted your phone! This also installs the Clockwork Recovery mod, which allows us to flash the phone.

Yes, really, it is that simple to root your Desire.

Step 3 – Flash your Desire

This again is pretty easy.

1. Download Stock ROM with Radio from here (link to originating forum thread).
2. Copy that file to your phones flash card and rename it to “update.zip”
3. Turn off your Desire, and turn it on holding down the Volume Down button, which will boot you into the Clockwork Recovery screen, which looks like this:
4. From there, you want to select “wipe data/factory reset”
5. After that has completed, select “apply sdcard:update.zip”
6. All going well, your Desire will reboot into its new vanilla HTC ROM

That, in theory, is all you need to do.

Now you have a pre-rooted HTC Desire, running Vanilla HTC Froyo.

So on the 11th we got asked if we wanted to go Heli Biking at Kirwans Track just up by Reefton on the 12th. It’s not generally something we had to think about, so an instant yes was given.

Having previously done the Croesus Track by Helicopter and buckling my wheel half way down while trying to overtake a mate while making race car noises (Some people would call that Karma) and having to pretty much walk the rest of the way out, I was pretty keen to make the most of this trip.

The track was pretty awesome, with only minor unridable bits due to logs across the track or wash outs, and only very minor uphill. I managed to destroy my largest chain ring in a minor off I had and replace two rear tubes, but aside from that it was awesome. Would definitely plan to do this again during Summer.

Kirwans Track