After a long wait, Motorola Cliq owners, like Droid owners, can say they have rooted phones. Thanks to the hard work of the guys at ModMyMoto (Big thanks to TheDudesAndroid), they figured out an exploit to gain root access. If you’re a fellow Cliq user, watch the video and follow the step-by-step instructions below to root your Cliq. This is a n00b friendly writeup based on the original posting by TheDudesAndroid

YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BRICK YOUR PHONE!

Prerequisites:
Download and install WinRAR
WinRAR for 32 Bit Windows
WinRAR for 64 Bit Windows

Before starting, you must have ADB setup on your computer. View the blog post on Setting up ADB in Windows

Step 1: Installing the drivers
If you haven’t done so, download the Windows drivers for the Motorola Cliq so your computer will recognize it.
32 Bit Version of Windows
64 Bit Version of Windows

After you’ve installed them, connect the phone to your computer.

Step 2: Installing RSD-Lite
Once you have that set up, you will need download RSD-Lite 4.5.7

Go to the folder it downloaded to. Right click on the file and click “Extract to RSDLite_457\”

You should now have a folder named “RSDLite_457″

Open the folder and double click on installation file to install

Step 3: Download the .shx file
Next, you need to download TheDudesAndroid’s .shx file

If there’s an issue with that download, you can try one of the following mirrors:

http://thedudescupcake.googlecode.com/files/tmo-morrison-viper-1.1.31-P3-rootedbythedude.zip
http://penncdl.org/CROOT/tmo-morrison-viper-1.1.31-P3-rootedbythedude.zip
http://tech-burrow.com/cliq/tmo-morrison-viper-1.1.31-P3-rootedbythedude.zip

Step 4: Unzipping the shx file
Go the folder where you just downloaded the file. Right click on the file and then click “Extract totmo-morrison-viper-1.1.31-P3-rootedbythedude\”

You should now see a folder named “tmo-morrison-viper-1.1.31-P3-rootedbythedude”

Step5: Superuser
Download Superuser

Go the folder where you just downloaded the file. Right click on the file and then click “Extract to Superuser\”

You should now see a folder named “Superuser”

Step 6: Using RSD-Lite
Start RSD-Lite

Select the shx file that was unzipped (in the tmo-morrison-viper-1.1.31-P3-rootedbythedude folder)

Select your phone from the list

Click “Start” and your phone should go into the bootloader and flash the phone. Once completed, it will reboot the phone again into the Setup Wizard

Step 7: Applying Superuser
Open the Superuser folder that you unzipped.

Double click on the “Install.bat” file

Your phone is now rooted!

Popularity: 100% [?]

Below is an instructional video on how to setup ADB (Android Debug Bridge) in Windows. The video was done in Windows 7, but the process should be similar on Vista and XP.

Step 1: Download the required files.
Download the latest Android SDK
If you you have a Motorola Android Phone you will need to download drivers.
Motorola Drivers for 32 Bit Windows
Motorola Drivers for 64 Bit Windows
Once the drivers are downloaded, go ahead and install them.

Step 2: Unzipping the zip file
Go to the folder where the Android SDK file was downloaded and locate the zip file. Click on the file and then click “Extract All” as shown in the video.

In the box that says “Files will be extracted to this folder:” delete everything except “C:\” and make sure “Show extracted files when complete”. Now click the “Extract” button.

Once extracted, you should see the “android-sdk-windows” folder. Double click on the folder. You should now see a “tools” folder. Double click on that folder.

We will need the path to the tools folder shortly. Click on the address bar, highlight the path, and then right click and copy.

Step 3: Setting the Environment Variables
Click “Start” then right click on “Computer” (My Computer on XP) and click “Properties”

In the properties window click on “Advanced System Settings”

Click on “Environment Variables” in the Advanced tab in the System Properties window.

Locate the “System Variables” section and scroll down until you see “Path”. Click on path, then click “Edit”

Change the “Variable value:” box to the path of the “tools” folder that we copied by right clicking and clicking “Paste”

Click ok on the remaining windows and close the last window.

Step 4: SDK Setup.exe (Motorola Users can skip this step)
Go back to the “android-sdk-windows” folder and click on “SDK Setup”. Remove all options except “USB Drivers”. If this doesn’t work for you, download the driver from this link

Step 5: Enable USB debugging on your phone
To enable it, hit the Menu button on your phone, then Settings > Applications > Development and put a check beside “USB debugging” if there isn’t one

You can now connect your phone to your computer.

Step 5: Making sure it worked
With the phone connected to your computer, open the command prompt.
Vista/Windows 7: Click start, then click on the search bar at the bottom of the menu and type in “cmd” and hit enter.
XP: Click start, then click “Run”. In the Open box, type in “cmd” and click “Ok”

Once the Command Prompt opens, type in “adb devices” (without quotes) and hit enter.

You should see your phones serial number. If you do, that means you’re done!

Popularity: 41% [?]

There has been a lot of exciting information and pictures to come out on the Nexus One in the past couple of days. I’ll compile everything I am able to find on it in this post. I can nearly guarantee that douche Steve Jobs took a massive dump in his pants after this news.

Phone Specs:
An unofficial list of specs has been found by Android 1 at the These are the Droids blog. He didn’t have access to the phone itself, but had access to the leaked ROM. By going through the ROM’s system and library files, he was able to compile a list of hardware.

Snapdragon: As whats been reported before, the Nexus One has the powerful 1 GHz Snapdragon processor by Qualcomm. This is a big upgrade from most of the processors in the market. Even the Motorola Droid only has a 550MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3430.

Light Sensor: Like the Motorola Cliq, the Nexus One includes a Light Sensor. Don’t know if there’s anything different with this on the Nexus One. All I’ve noticed it do on the Cliq is turn the screen off when you have it to your head. Which is nice, because it prevents you from accidentally pushing numbers on the sensitive screen.

Accelerometer & Compass: As with most Android phones, the Nexus One includes an Accelerometer & Compass. Don’t believe there is anything different on them from other Android phones.

Noise Canceling: There are some reports that it will have 2 microphones. One for talking (obviously) and the other will listen to background noise and cancel it out. This same microphone may also be used for the speaker phone when flipped over like the HTC Touch Pro 2.

Radio Hardware: If true, the Nexus One will not be lacking in the Radio Hardware Department. They state that it includes the Broadcom BCM4329. This radio has impressive feature set which includes the following:
802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
FM radio receiver and transmitter


[Source] Android 1 via These are the Droids Blog

Pricing Info:
There is no official pricing info from Google, but there is a report of it being $199 without contract and there will be a $100 rebate for people who have had a Google account for a while. Not sure how true this is, but it will be awesome and I may get two phones if this pans out

[Source] Android Guys

Network Info:
As you can see in some of the photos of the phone, its on T-Mobiles network(I saw some photos.. Still trying to find them). Reports say that T-Mobile is on board to help sell the device, but Google may still sell it online. All I know is that it’s about time that an awesome Android phone is available to use on T-Mobile’s network. It does not use AT&T’s 3G frequencies as you can see in the chart from the FCC below.

[Source] All Things Digital

Boot Animation:
In the leaked Nexus One ROM exists a file with the boot animation. A video of it was uploaded to youtube and I must say its quite stunning as far as boot animations go.

There is also a video of the Motorola Droid booting up with the animation

Pictures:
I’ve uploaded all the pictures I could find from various sources and they’re available for viewing in the Gallery
[Sources]Engadget, Boy Genius Report, @coryobrien

[[UPDATE]]
Things are looking more official by the minute. Pictures of the Nexus One box are out.

[Source] thenexusone.com

Popularity: 37% [?]

The rumours are now confirmed to be true! There will be a Google Phone! Google confirmed that they have given a device for employees to test out and as you can see in a tweet by @CoryOBrien, it looks like he got his lucky hands on one.
While I do love my Motorola Cliq, I’m happy that this phone is made by HTC and not Motorola. This is mainly because all of HTC’s phones have been rooted thus far and while the Droid has been rooted, there has been no significant progress with the Cliq.

Some of the greatest news on this phone is that it will be unlocked and sold directly from Google without any carrier intervention (Although T-Mobile is usually pretty good about not restricting stuff unlike Verizon). Pricing info has yet to be released and it is not known whether this phone will be sold exclusively online or in stores as well. While I usually don’t buy phones that lack keyboards, the Nexus One may be the exception (provided that its GSM rather than CDMA)

Popularity: 9% [?]

My good friend OctoberRiot sent me a link to Time Magazines “The Top 10 Everything of 2009” and take a look at the Top 10 Gadgets

As you can see the top 2 devices are Android devices and the phone we all love to hate comes in 4th place. So what beat the iPhail in the number 3 spot you ask? A FUCKING FAN!! Thats sad (not unexpected) that a fan beat the iPhail. Thus begins the downward spiral of MacFags. Enjoy your future of fail and sucking of iCock.

Popularity: 12% [?]

A ROM for Android 2.1 has leaked and is available here. Theres also a youtube video of a EU Version of the hero running it. Hopefully there will be an update for my damn Motorola Cliq soon

Mute your speakers.. Unless you like horrible music

Popularity: 8% [?]

There are a number of IRC clients for Android (fIRC, AndIRC.. etc) that are available in the market. There is an alternative method of using IRC on Android that will give you more control. There is a terminal IRC client for Linux called irssi. Being a terminal client, irssi allows you to use it remotely via SSH. There is a SSH client for Android called ConnectBot that will allow you to SSH into your Linux box at home and use irssi on your Android powered device. I will give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this below

Step One: Hopefully you already have Linux (Ubuntu is a good one to have). If not, DOWNLOAD IT!! Windows Sucks and if you have a Mac YOU SUCK

Step Two: In order to SSH into your Linux machine you will need to download SSHD (Secure Shell Daemon). To do this (In Ubuntu) open up the terminal and enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

It should now be installed

Step Three: SSH runs on port 22 and hackers scan for that port, so you may want to consider changing it to something else.

To do this you want to edit the sshd_config file in the /etc/ssh/ directory with pico

pico /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Look for this line in the file

# What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
Port 22

Change the port number in the file to whatever port you want to use.

Save the file (In pico this is done by hitting CTRL + X then Y when it asks if you want to save changes) and you’re done with this step. However, don’t rely solely on this for protection. Always use a strong password to prevent people from getting in.

If you have a router, you will also have to forward whichever port you use in your routers configuration page. Visit http://portforward.com/ for instructions on how to do this from whichever model router you have.

Step Four: Now we want to download irssi. Type in the following in terminal:

sudo apt-get install irssi

Step Five: Lets test SSH!

Download Connectbot from the Market if you havent yet. Scan the following barcode with the barcode scanner app to be taken to the market download.

Once that is downloaded, you need to figure out your WAN IP. To find this visit http://www.ip-adress.com/
Once you have that, open Connectbot and it will prompt you to enter your info as shown in the example below:

Enter it in the format that is shown (username@hostname:port)
username = Your login name on your Linux machine
hostname = You WAN IP that you looked up online
port = The port that you set up SSH to use earlier

Hit enter once the information is entered to connect. Enter in the same password that you use to log into Linux. You should now see a Linux prompt.

Step Six: Start irssi by typing in the following:

irssi

You are now in the irssi IRC client. You can now connect to a server by typing in the following. (I will use the one I use a lot as an example)

/connect irc.geekshed.net

Once the connection process is complete, you can join a channel of your choice.

/j cupcakehax0r

Enjoy!

Popularity: 22% [?]

Check out this chart I “borrowed” from another site

Aside from the magnitude of equally useless apps.. the Android doesnt appear to be lacking much of anything compared to the iPhone. The iPhone has been around longer and every big money corp has jumped on the bandwaggon, but give it time… Androids on the prowl!

Popularity: 9% [?]

Check out the new Motorola Droid Commercial.. Epic

Popularity: 8% [?]

A new Commercial for the Motorola Cliq with MOTOBLUR aired during one of todays football games. Looks much better than the previous one I posted earlier. Check it out below

Popularity: 8% [?]