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Motorola Defy

Guest Sorensiim

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Guest dkSpook

Guest dkSpook

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The Motorola Defy rugged android has been official for some time, but just got it's pricing today in the US. Once this thing hits European shores, how are the odds for a custom modaco kitchen for it? I LOVE baking roms for my Desire, stripping it of all the bloated crap HTC threw at it.

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Guest Jwsail

Guest Jwsail

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The Motorola Defy rugged android has been official for some time, but just got it's pricing today in the US. Once this thing hits European shores, how are the odds for a custom modaco kitchen for it? I LOVE baking roms for my Desire, stripping it of all the bloated crap HTC threw at it.

This looks good, it will be interesting to see what sort of reviews it gets.

John

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Guest ZootHornRollo

Guest ZootHornRollo

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it has just come to my attention. I am still condisering the Orange San Francisco but the defy caught my eye. I spend a lot of time outdoors so this would be ideal.

it is listed on the t-mobile website as free from £20 a month but is also available on a £10 a month contract (£115 for the handset) with 100 minutes, 100 texts plus "unlimited" Internet - but you also get a flexible add-on thingy that can be one of a number of things including unlimited texts. £20 from Quidco and the total cost of contract is £335 - the handset is £349 simfree but can be had for £300.

Edited by ZootHornRollo
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Guest dkSpook

Guest dkSpook

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Just sold my HTC Desire to my buddy because of this... As soon as he ponies up the dough, I'm ordering the Defy and rooting the hell out of it! Fingers crossed for a Modaco online kitchen for the Defy!!

As long as I can use Titanium backup to get rid of Motoblur, Facebook etc, that'll do, but the online kitchen have made me much, much happier about my Desire :rolleyes:

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Guest Sage

Guest Sage

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Just sold my HTC Desire to my buddy because of this... As soon as he ponies up the dough, I'm ordering the Defy and rooting the hell out of it! Fingers crossed for a Modaco online kitchen for the Defy!!

As long as I can use Titanium backup to get rid of Motoblur, Facebook etc, that'll do, but the online kitchen have made me much, much happier about my Desire :rolleyes:

This will be my first Android phone.. Been using Wm5/6 for years now.

Just looking for a good place to buy one :huh:

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Guest ZootHornRollo

Guest ZootHornRollo

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Just looking for a good place to buy one :rolleyes:

you can get one on t-mobile for £115 up front, plus £10 per month for 100 minutes, 'unlimited' texts and 'unlimited' internet, 24 months. The good part is that you can get £80 cashback via topcashback.co.uk (like Quidco - not like e2save - no sending in bills or jumping through hoops required)

...or free handset for £20 per month.

You can get the cashback via topcashback on any t-mobile contract. i am not associated with them.. just think it's a good deal.

Edited by ZootHornRollo
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Guest ZootHornRollo

Guest ZootHornRollo

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i've had mine since the weekend and am very impressed. It's my first android phone so can't give any direct comparisons (having owned WM 5 & 6 devices as well a Nokia N900)

I am using the Swype keyboard and have to say it is very good once you get used to the concept and it makes typing easier than the normal on-screen keyboard-fat finger combo. The OS is very smooth in operation only slowing when there are more apps open than should be - this will be the infamous android not closing apps properly then. I have elected to delete all the Motoblur widgets in favor of the proper Facebook & Twitter apps with the exception of the calender widget that survives.

I was concerned about this being 'only' an 800mhz CPU but having used a Desire briefly (less than 1/2 hour) it is very similar in comparison. I have played a couple of demo's such as Raging Thunder II and that ran without a flaw.

It feels a little small and light in the hand when your previous was a heavy weight Nokia N900 - i do miss the keyboard but i'm sure that'll pass.

and no... i haven't dropped it in a glass of water... yet! :rolleyes:

Edited by ZootHornRollo
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Guest dkSpook

Guest dkSpook

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And I'm back! - So's my Defy btw :)

Here's the skinny on rooting and modding the Defy...

First, rooting it is EXTREMELY easy. Get "Z4Root" from the Android Market, enable USB Debugging, run Z4Root, press the "Root" button. That's all. From here, I screwed up but at 1 in the morning, I had redeemed myself and revived my phone.

Long version: After rooting the phone, I installed Titanium Backup and started importing my apps w. data from my Desire. My locale setup is pretty complex and I've put too much time in Angry Birds to let that go to waste. Naturally I installed ADW.Launcher as well and used TB to get rid of that AWFUL pile of molasses that is Motoblur. I then continued to poke around in pretty much everything and everything on the Defy, knowing that I could always do a factory reset. Which I did, after a few hours. Now I wanted to do the "real" setup of my phone, just the way I like it. Come first reboot, I am greeted with the "Sign in to motoblur" and immediately press the "Skip setup" button. Nothing happens. I press it again. Nothing. I try setting up an account, but it never finishes. I have a friend call me, he is immediately disconnected...

Then it dawned on me: Using Titanium Backup to dropkick Motoblur the hell out of my phone, it was gone from the ROM. And some bloody nitwit had just done a factory reset, wiping all settings - and apps. Including ADW.Launcher. So now, that nitwit had no launcher on his brand new Defy... Crap. My head met my desk more than once when I realized that. Ah well, booting to recovery was the same procedure as my Desire: Volume Down, Power On, hold both. Now I was greeted with the Android "!" warning. And nothing else. No bootloader, no recovery, no nothing. Much yelling took place here.

I scoured the net and finally dug up a complete rom dump, got a hold of it, renamed it to "Update.zip", put it in the root of my SD card and booted to recovery, fingers crossed. Nothing happened. Even more yelling took place. After A LOT of googling and surfing forums, I found a set of .SBF files, the original ROM for the Defy and a program called "RSD Lite" that I needed to use in order to actually load that ROM onto my phone. Success! Joy! Dancing in the streets! I plug my phone into my pc, watch as the drivers are installed and RSD Lite recognizes my phone. I start flashing the .SBF to the phone and it reboots to "USB Flash Mode", looking all sorts of spooky in the process. And then RSD Lite tells my that either my phone is no longer connected or the flashing failed. Much yelling again. Looking in my Device Manager (Windows 7) showed an unknown device: "S Flash OMAP 3630". Great. Moto's own drivers don't recognize the phone when it's in USB Flash Mode. Many more hours were spent googling and plowing through forums and Android developer sites before I found the winning combination: Just the EXACT right drivers, RSD Lite 4.7.1 + a mysterious patch and BAM - My Defy was now being spoon fed a stock rom.

Naturally, I rooted the phone the second I had wifi connection again after setting it up. This was now 12 hours after first unpacking the phone...

So in case any of you screw up as bad as I did; here's the files you need. I'm hosting them myself, so please post mirrors if you can:

The stock UK rom for the Defy: Http://siimnas.dyndns.org/stuff/defy/JRDNE..._Service1FF.sbf

The *only* drivers you need: Http://siimnas.dyndns.org/stuff/defy/Motor...nect_1.1.31.exe

The *right* version of RSD Lite: Http://siimnas.dyndns.org/stuff/defy/RSDLite-4.7_patch.zip

And just because I would LOOOOOVE a custom modaco rom:

The SBF Depacker: http://rapidshare.com/files/386624716/Moto...alpha3.rar.html

Go ahead Paul, download those roms and start poking around - You know you want to B)

Don't let my experiences scare you away from the Defy, it is an AWESOME phone as soon as you replace Motoblur with ADW.Launcher. Just don't screw up as badly as I did :)

Edited by dkSpook
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Guest dkSpook

Guest dkSpook

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Nicely done!

B)

P

Thanks! :)

Crossing my fingers that you'll cook up a nice rom for the Defy some day - I have the full system.zip files, boot loaders etc. as well if you need them. The only thing I miss about my Desire is the Modaco R9 online kitchen... :)

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Guest dkSpook

Guest dkSpook

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I probably won't buy a Defy in the near future (bit gadgeted out atm), so not sure a kitchen is likely, sorry...

P

What if a bunch of Happy Modaco users and Defy owners pooled together the ~ £250 needed for buying you a Defy sans contract? I know I'd be happy to pay something like £10-£15 for a Defy kitchen to be made B)

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Guest crown77

Guest crown77

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Thats interesting i thought the Defy does have a signed Bootloader like the Stones so there are no custom Roms possible? Could somebody explain how this works with the signed bootloader? Maybe the mysterious Patch is a Kernelpatch? I dont own a Defy now but its an interesting Device so at the moment i just ask for interest:D best regards Crown

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Guest Liao Chou

Guest Liao Chou

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And I'm back! - So's my Defy btw :)

Here's the skinny on rooting and modding the Defy...

First, rooting it is EXTREMELY easy. Get "Z4Root" from the Android Market, enable USB Debugging, run Z4Root, press the "Root" button. That's all. From here, I screwed up but at 1 in the morning, I had redeemed myself and revived my phone.

Long version: After rooting the phone, I installed Titanium Backup and started importing my apps w. data from my Desire. My locale setup is pretty complex and I've put too much time in Angry Birds to let that go to waste. Naturally I installed ADW.Launcher as well and used TB to get rid of that AWFUL pile of molasses that is Motoblur. I then continued to poke around in pretty much everything and everything on the Defy, knowing that I could always do a factory reset. Which I did, after a few hours. Now I wanted to do the "real" setup of my phone, just the way I like it. Come first reboot, I am greeted with the "Sign in to motoblur" and immediately press the "Skip setup" button. Nothing happens. I press it again. Nothing. I try setting up an account, but it never finishes. I have a friend call me, he is immediately disconnected...

Then it dawned on me: Using Titanium Backup to dropkick Motoblur the hell out of my phone, it was gone from the ROM. And some bloody nitwit had just done a factory reset, wiping all settings - and apps. Including ADW.Launcher. So now, that nitwit had no launcher on his brand new Defy... Crap. My head met my desk more than once when I realized that. Ah well, booting to recovery was the same procedure as my Desire: Volume Down, Power On, hold both. Now I was greeted with the Android "!" warning. And nothing else. No bootloader, no recovery, no nothing. Much yelling took place here.

I scoured the net and finally dug up a complete rom dump, got a hold of it, renamed it to "Update.zip", put it in the root of my SD card and booted to recovery, fingers crossed. Nothing happened. Even more yelling took place. After A LOT of googling and surfing forums, I found a set of .SBF files, the original ROM for the Defy and a program called "RSD Lite" that I needed to use in order to actually load that ROM onto my phone. Success! Joy! Dancing in the streets! I plug my phone into my pc, watch as the drivers are installed and RSD Lite recognizes my phone. I start flashing the .SBF to the phone and it reboots to "USB Flash Mode", looking all sorts of spooky in the process. And then RSD Lite tells my that either my phone is no longer connected or the flashing failed. Much yelling again. Looking in my Device Manager (Windows 7) showed an unknown device: "S Flash OMAP 3630". Great. Moto's own drivers don't recognize the phone when it's in USB Flash Mode. Many more hours were spent googling and plowing through forums and Android developer sites before I found the winning combination: Just the EXACT right drivers, RSD Lite 4.7.1 + a mysterious patch and BAM - My Defy was now being spoon fed a stock rom.

Naturally, I rooted the phone the second I had wifi connection again after setting it up. This was now 12 hours after first unpacking the phone...

So in case any of you screw up as bad as I did; here's the files you need. I'm hosting them myself, so please post mirrors if you can:

The stock UK rom for the Defy: Http://siimnas.dyndns.org/stuff/defy/JRDNE..._Service1FF.sbf

The *only* drivers you need: Http://siimnas.dyndns.org/stuff/defy/Motor...nect_1.1.31.exe

The *right* version of RSD Lite: Http://siimnas.dyndns.org/stuff/defy/RSDLite-4.7_patch.zip

And just because I would LOOOOOVE a custom modaco rom:

The SBF Depacker: http://rapidshare.com/files/386624716/Moto...alpha3.rar.html

Go ahead Paul, download those roms and start poking around - You know you want to B)

Don't let my experiences scare you away from the Defy, it is an AWESOME phone as soon as you replace Motoblur with ADW.Launcher. Just don't screw up as badly as I did :)

Good job. OMAP 3630? Not 3610? Amazing!

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Guest ascot17

Guest ascot17

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I probably won't buy a Defy in the near future (bit gadgeted out atm), so not sure a kitchen is likely, sorry...

P

Paul,

Understand that you have a lot on and that a kitchen might be too much to hope for as yet but....

Can we please have a dedicated Defy section on Modaco so that users can share information? I have just got a Defy for a family member and he would love to join the Modaco community..

ATB

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Guest Paul

Guest Paul

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Posted
Paul,

Understand that you have a lot on and that a kitchen might be too much to hope for as yet but....

Can we please have a dedicated Defy section on Modaco so that users can share information? I have just got a Defy for a family member and he would love to join the Modaco community..

ATB

Absolutely.

P

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Guest Liao Chou

Guest Liao Chou

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Posted
Paul,

Understand that you have a lot on and that a kitchen might be too much to hope for as yet but....

Can we please have a dedicated Defy section on Modaco so that users can share information? I have just got a Defy for a family member and he would love to join the Modaco community..

ATB

Hope for that.

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