My $20 Android Phone

[Joel Crane]

A few months ago I began toying with the idea of hacking Android onto a WinMo handset before discovered how inexpensive T-Mobile G1's were on Craigslist. Someone in a city 2 hours from my home had a G1 with a cracked screen for $40. I offered him $20 because it was so far away. The seller accepted and offered to deliver it to me! Score!

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p200/joelacrane/T-Mobile%20G1/CIMG0016.jpg

Upon receiving it, I found that while the digitizer was destroyed, it still worked. I immediately obtained an unlock code from T-Mobile, slapped in my AT&T SIM card, and flashed the phone to Cyanogenmod 6 RC2. After the first boot I immediately shut of data: I don't have or want a data plan. A few issues later, CM6 Stable was released and all the bugs were squashed.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p200/joelacrane/T-Mobile%20G1/CIMG0017.jpg

Now, I'm in the process of replacing the digitizer, which I purchased for $30 on eBay.

I'm stoked to be rocking an Android 2.2 phone that I paid $20 + $30 for! On top of that, I weaseled my way out of a data plan, which saves me another $30 a month. WiFi is plentiful, so I can perform most functions except things that require data on the move, such as navigation.

Digitizer swap results coming soon.

[Jon Westfall]

Quite Cool! I haven't had the best of luck getting CM6 on my Nexus One (Always hangs during boot for some reason), great to see that you've got it running!

Let us know how your replacement operation goes.

Jon.

[Joel Crane]

Unfortunately, the digitizer swap didn't go off without a hitch, but check out the results!

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p200/joelacrane/T-Mobile%20G1/CIMG0040.jpg

The first digitizer was bad, but the eBay seller was happy to cross-ship me a new one, which meant going back to my Nokia 6200 for a week or so. The new digitizer works great, and the phone seems to be working nearly flawlessly.

[Jon Westfall]

Great to hear Joel. I did manage to get Froyo on my G1 (had to update the SPL), however I haven't had a chance to really play with it. Great to see someone excited to use a G1 on the week the G2 drops. I must admit, the G1 is still a heck of a phone, despite it's low powered nature.

[Joel Crane]

Yes, it's a little slow by today's standards, but I'm very happy with it. I am finding that a few programs do give up and crash consistently (Navigation, for example) but for all the essentials it's flawless.

I think it is also very cool that the community is still hacking the latest iterations of Android onto it, despite the fact that it was the very first device to hit the market. I saw the opposite happening back in the Windows Mobile days.

Some aspects of the upgrade were daunting, particularly flashing DangerSPL. I did lots of progress bar watching and finger crossing!

Funny G1-related story: I teach a third grade boys Sunday school class, one kid saw me pull out my phone and said, "Hey, I have that phone!" Sure enough, he pulled a flawless G1 out of his pocket, complete with CM5 and a data plan.

[Jon Westfall]

Funny G1-related story: I teach a third grade boys Sunday school class, one kid saw me pull out my phone and said, "Hey, I have that phone!" Sure enough, he pulled a flawless G1 out of his pocket, complete with CM5 and a data plan.

3rd Grade?!? :eek:

I teach 6th grade CCD and none of my students have pulled out a phone... yet. Although last year when I taught teens, I did see some gadget collections that almost topped what I had in my bag.

almost...:D