beginner - any help? - Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development

Hey guys,
I just got my mogul and am just starting to mess around with it. I am looking at custom roms, and would like to understand what they are doing, and eventually figure out how to make my own.
I am having trouble understanding how the rom file works. I downloaded one of dcd's clean rom to have a look at it, but i cant get past the 02_OS.nb file. what is this file, and how do I interpret it? Is there some program that i can use to extract it (if it even works like that)? I found the nbh extractor program on the wiki, but i cant find anything to do with the nb files on the wiki, or through the search function for that matter.
Thanks for any help,
Stuart

Sturatt,
What you are trying to do takes quite a bit of research and lots of getting stuck trying to figure things out. It sounds like you are very new to this and if that is the case I would definately do a lot more reading first. I got into making my own roms based on others roms within kitchens and it took me about a month or two to say I actually understand what I am doing and I still don't know how to do a lot of things.
Anyway if you don't want to spend tons of time messing with roms I would suggest getting a rom that has alrady been built by guys that have tons of knowledge such as DCD's roms, Custels roms, Colonels roms etc. The first two have postings on this forum, there are others at the ppcgeeks forum.
That being said if you do want to spend the time check out http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=10401 this is a discussion on what you are trying to do and there are some links to tutorials.

jjlwork said:
Sturatt,
What you are trying to do takes quite a bit of research and lots of getting stuck trying to figure things out. It sounds like you are very new to this and if that is the case I would definately do a lot more reading first. I got into making my own roms based on others roms within kitchens and it took me about a month or two to say I actually understand what I am doing and I still don't know how to do a lot of things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Start with downloading and learning to install custom pre-made ROMs. Read all relevant material as links to other discussion boards are just about everywhere. With custom ROMs, you can find a base that you like and as you develop your ROM skills, you can take it to the next level by further tweaking a ROM to suit your needs.
Research, some trial & error, make plenty of back-ups and prepare to do some hard resetting!

Awesome, thanks guys. I realize it is going to be pretty tough, but i would rather learn it and understand what is going on, so no i dont mind reading a ton of stuff, i was just having trouble finding the stuff to read.
jjlwork and xweaponx thanks for the good advice. and If anyone else has some good articles/links for a beginner in this area, or anything interesting, please post away! In the mean time ill read that thread you posted, and look for more like it.
Thanks again,
Stuart

Let me know what kind of applications you are looking for or what you would like your phone to do and I will try to get you pointed in the right direction...

Sturatt said:
Awesome, thanks guys. I realize it is going to be pretty tough
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not really, just lots of reading and testing things. i never had a ppc before august 07 or so. take it slowly, try one thing at a time.

Related

Thanks!

I just want to thank you guys for your posts and time that y'all have given on here. I have learned a LOT! I have the ATT 8525 and am reading up on flashing it...but I'm going slow because it's a work phone and not my own. Not sure yet how I want it customized, so I keep allowing myself to get sidetracked on a bunch of the other interesting threads here.
Learning a lot...Thanks! :cheers:

NEWB needing help to upgrade

I have been less than pleased with my verizon Titan ever since I have had it. It runs very slow. At least twice a week, I have to remove the battery to unfreeze. The other day, I was in a patients room and noticed that her husband had a phone just like mine. I asked him if he liked it and he said that he loved it. I expressed some of my frustrations and he directed me to this website, telling me that he had installed a new radio and kitchen etc and that it now worked great. Looking at some of the websites, I have only become confused and a bit scared to try and tweak my phone. I do not know where to start.
Will somebody give me or direct me to simple idiot proof instructions on how to unlock/unleash the powers of this phone? I need instructions written for someone who knows nothing about altering smartphones.
Thanks in Advance
Not to be rude, but did you even read the stickies on the forum? Plz read the wiki's gather as much knowledge as you can about the subject and then take the plunge. You will find that the wiki's are most helpful. I would update to DCD's latest ROM and get the latest radio.
You will also find out that alot of basic apps don't come with his ROMs. Make sure you get a list of what you need on your phone before you take the plunge. Get a backup program like PIM backup.
Do searches. Research on your own. nobody here is going to do that for you. People created these wiki's for a reason. USE THEM.
In all truthfulness you should not hack your phone unless you know what you are doing. The wikis and threads are very daunting even to those who have some knowledge of what is going on.
Not trying to be rude, but maybe you need a different phone. One that works the way you want it to work right out of the box.
Best case scenario, even if you manage to fumble your way thru the wikis and then later flash your rom, are you going to be able to recover if you get stuck in the bootloader?
The wikis have the info that you need. But like learning medicine you have to apply yourself.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=392133
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Titan
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=dcdtitanroms
http://ppckitchen.org
You may want to try this one first, to see what all this cooking stuff is all about
gc14 said:
Yes, this is the official sprint 6.1 update with 3.42.02 radio. Non sprint customers can use it to flash the radio only (if you can't via sd card), but again CAN'T let customizations run. Non sprint customers will have to wait until the custom rom is released.
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Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=402887
There are different methods to flash your rom, and different choices for rom updates. Read up on all of them. Trust me, you will need the info sooner or later.
Like it says in the DCD thread you need to unlock your phone, you need a rom, radio, and a carrier. I just flashed my sprint titan for the first time and just about cried when it got stuck in the bootloader.
oh looky what I just accidentally found in the forums.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=403866
Boomstick said:
oh looky what I just accidentally found in the forums.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=403866
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Click to collapse
What an amazing concept, you read the forum.
Unfortunately that many guides offer what I feel to be short-cuts. It may be fine if everything goes perfectly, but the problem with such simplifications is that new people can find themselves stuck in unfamiliar territory.
People should be take the time to be aware of background to what they are doing to their phones. Personally, I'd rather recommend taking care to understand the Wiki as myself and others have made the effort to cover many possibilities and recovers when flashing.
Hysterical that the poster identifies himself as a trauma surgeon. Lets hope that if any of us is ever unlucky enough to find ourselves on the other end of the scalpel from this joker, that he isn't standing at the table saying "how do you do this?", and might have taken the time to read up first.
There is no correlation between Surgeon and Computer literacy. My wife's cousin in finishing up Med school and is as bright as they come yet not computer savy beyond common tasks.
As for the actual question he needs not to worry. Using the link with Step by Step to the Verizon upgrade will go easy for you. I only suggest doing the radio via SD card and Rom via USB.
Big Dawg 23 said:
There is no correlation between Surgeon and Computer literacy. My wife's cousin in finishing up Med school and is as bright as they come yet not computer savy beyond common tasks.
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Click to collapse
Its not the correlation, its the attitude.
Interesting attitudes here
I will start of first saying thank you to those of you who actually are trying to help. For the rest of you, yes I did search the forum and yes I did read the Wiki. I still did not feel like I understood things well enough to run the risk of "bricking" my phone. (That is new lingo for those of us who don't spend all of our time on computers) Of course I could spend 10 or 20 hours or more, learning more about the phone, which would mean that some time in October I might have it figured out. My job simply does not give me the time to spend hours and hours trying to tweak my phone. I am in the hospital 110 to 120 hours a week (not a month). I feel lucky when I get a few minutes with my wife and kids. But rest assured, when you crash you car and you are bleeding to death, I am there for you just as I am for everyone else. So for the rest of you who are too cocky and to much of a smartass to help someone else out, I ask what in the world are you doing in this forum anyway. I would predict that you are only in here to take what others are here to give OR just here to try and belittle or make others feel stupid.
traumasurg, well aren't you special?
(That is new lingo for those of us who don't spend all of our time on computers)
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Get off your high horse, exceptional ego, relax, and take the time to respectfully learn. Only a single comment here may have generalised and only slightly went over-board, but none were as bad as your absolute swipe against this community -- your second post to XDA.... ebb pegged it, as you do have a horrible attitude. You may have made a far better first impression by not posting your introduction to the forum as a request for a short-cut to flashing your phone without also stating that you had paid notice to the Wiki and current threads concerning flashing guides.... If you had trouble understanding, then why did you fail to state exactly where you went out-of-depth? If terminology is "new lingo" to you then did you at least cover the basics of basic in our Wiki's Titan for Beginners?
You come in here looking for help yet some of us were quite polite, accurate and specific in warning that you should not rush forward with short-cuts before being aware of what you are doing and how to recovery. Links to help were provided to you before in between your two posts. Your phone is possibly your critical property so you should avoid messing with it if unsure upon ensuring that you can maintain its function.
Warning for you in the future -- don't join a tech forum insult all as shut-in computer geeks who owe our life to you. This is an anonymous forum, and therefore all are potentially equal here. What distinguishes members is their decorum of respect and a display of an effort to learn.
Keystone said:
Warning for you in the future -- don't join a tech forum insult all as shut-in computer geeks who owe our life to you. This is an anonymous forum, and therefore all are potentially equal here. What distinguishes members is their decorum of respect and a display of an effort to learn.
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Click to collapse
Look, I in no way implied that everyone in here is a shut-in computer geek, although I have no doubt that some are. If you look back over the replies to my original post, there were a couple of members who showed anything but respect. In fact, two of them even posted twice to my original question without any useful information and replied only to in effect say "look how stupid this guy is." If you were on the other end of that reply, what would you think of those here in this forum? There were however several other responses, yours included, that were helpful. Yes I did read through the Wiki and I also had previously looked at two other websites given me by my patient's husband. It was mostly greek to me. That is why I posted.
I must say, I have been in several different forums, dirtbiking, cycling, climbing, trauma, as well as other computer forums and I have never met such attitudes that I met in here this week.
I'll probably just get an iphone next week.
traumasurg said:
I am in the hospital 110 to 120 hours a week (not a month)
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Click to collapse
sucks to be you...
and since there is only 168 hours in a week and you say 120 of it is for work... that leaves you with 48 hours of sleeping time... which would be a little less than 7 hours of sleep a day... how do you eat? how do you shower? how do you get laid? no wonder the attitude... if no one else understands... I do
It is tough for some to answer the same questions that are (I promise) explained in the wiki. The hope is that most people would understand and be able to follow through with the instructions, but this is not for anyone, similar to HAM radio and FTA satellite.
I encourage you to go for the iphone, it seems more your speed.
Alright traumasurg, I can understand being a noob sucks. So here is a breakdown of what you should do if you want to get your phone with a new rom and gps radio.
That stock rom wont work with GPS radio. You need a non-stock rom for it to work.
Get this rom: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=402920
Get this radio: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=403280
use this as a guide: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=TitanRecentHome
Once the rom is installed assuming you have verizon, run the carrier cab.
Get carrier cab here: http://www.lifesnotsogood.com/dcd1182/carriers/dcd Verizon Carrier 20080706.cab
Remember you will need to install the new boot loader first. Then do the rest according to instructions there.
Also, make sure you have another phone handy or a land-line handy for when u call verizon. To get it re-authenticated. You will need to do this whenever u go from a non-gps radio to a gps one. (I reccomend doing this during business hours so u dont freak and wont be able to contact them until they open in the morning)
Oh yeah make sure you backup your contacts to outlook(activesync) or use Pimbackup or your gonna be pissed off.

help me help myself

hi all,
so ive been using pdas for a few years now, had a kaiser loved it learned loads ie how to flash different roms to it apps etc great stuff,
moved over to the touch pro, wow amazing device again rand some roms on it found one i loves (we miss you Romeos!)
now im deciding that i want to learn a little more about the under the hood actions in terms of cooking, the os, all the weird terms ive read in different posts which totally overwhelms me with info,
now allot of people will say "search the forums" which indeed is the way i need to go, my only problem is working out where to begin, again the wiki is a great place to start, but unsure of what to read up and understand first
could some one give me a few pointers, i come from an IT background mainly networking but have done a few different things so im pretty confident i can pick it up quite quickly (i run linux at home at managed to pick it up really quickly)
so my question is. for some one trying to learn about the operating system in terms of cooking one for them selves, where would be the best place to start?
if any one of you amazingly gifted people could point me in the right place that would be amazing,
thank you very much
mousey
Download a kitchen and start playing. I used Proven kitchen the first time. It was very easy to use. I have also used Da_G's kitchen. Again, very easy to use and both contain many packages to get you started. It's just a matter of playing with the options then.
thanks for that yeah am now looking to do that however i was looking for maybe threads discussing it i see things like aku mentioned and builds etc and dont really understand, im a reader and like to read up and understand technical info before playing however sometimes you just need to do it so will take your point
thanks
@annonymouse:
I assume you have a GSM Raphael. I would suggest starting with the following Wiki page(s):
HTC Raphael
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Raphael
I started off with the following kitchen:
Da_G's Simple ROM Kitchen
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Da_G's Simple ROM Kitchen
I put a tutorial together for that kitchen to help other newcomers "ramp up" quickly. The tutorial includes several links to important threads that will help you get better acquainted with some of the aspects of Windows Mobile.
HTH,
hi thanks for the links ive read the wiki page earlier but am at work so mearly glossed however thats not enough so will sit at home and divulge,
will also check the link out for the kitchen
thanks allot i appreciate the help

[Q] Comment about terminology and process

I am a new Xperia Ultra owner and whilst not planning to do any flashing just yet I thought tonight I'd take a quick look at threads discussing steps that would be involved in doing this.
Let me qualify what I'm about to say by stating that I appreciate people on this site who develop tools which allow us to hack our devices so we can make better use of our phones. They are incredibly skilled, gifted and generous with their time. I would love to be able to spend the time learning how to do this but I simply don't have the time. So please don't take what I am about to say as a criticism but more as an observation, considering the effort contributors put into this it would indeed be incredibly foolish of me to criticise anyone here.
I can probably safely say that none of the contributors are also trained technical writers and a fair number do not have English as their first language. Its my first and only language and I often have difficulty getting the meaning across succinctly not to mind getting the spelling right . And I know even for large software houses support documentation is not a priority.
I want to approach hacking my phone with confidence this time round. In the past I've reflashed several phones for myself and friends and simply followed steps and not really understanding completely what the hell I was doing. Lordmanhattan I know I sent you an email regarding a contradiction on your thread. And you very kindly got back to me very quickly.....amazing, thank you. And then there is the "TA partition", WTH is that? I did very briefly google this to find a quick answer but no joy....grrrr (also looked in the XDA Wiki acronyms) I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd find it. It's mentioned everywhere but nobody seems to be offering an explanation what it is or what it does or why it's important or what it stands for !!!!
Very often I find threads on here describing how to do something hard to follow and this is often for the following reasons:
It could be that there is more than one way to achieve something so its a case of different people offering varied procedures, this can be confusing
A process may be described but then to the newbie the author seems to miss out on a step that to the experienced is obvious
The level of English used leads the reader to scratching their head wondering ...did he/she mean this or that
Threads not being updated or corrected even after feedback
Okay I won't go on.
So I have decided my time might be well spent doing some background research before delving into messing about with my Xperia Z Ultra and saving you guys from having to deal with daft questions from me.
Now does this mean I have to spend time reading through threads and trying to piece it all together to find the best way through and possibly getting the wrong end of the stick or reading superseded posts?
OR
Are there a couple of sites that will get me up to speed understanding the terminology, hardware, memory management, etc for my phone?
I have a feeling it's going to be a bit of both......your suggestions please
Oh, I stumbled across XDA University but got the impression it wasn't being maintained???
Some of the pages I visited....
A New User’s Guide to Android.......unfortunately none of the images for this page loaded
Video guides .................................had flash presentations which didn't load
Ferg8080 said:
I am a new Xperia Ultra owner...
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Click to collapse
A good and detailed post, and it's not just the dev's and support that could take note. Some of the people that ask questions really need to read your post and think about what they are trying to say, get help with -- we aren't mind readers either.
I always try and help anew user by using as few TLA as possible in a reply to them. I also try to do the steps as #'d lists with as many steps as possible.
I do think LordManhattan's guide needs a little love as a few things are a little out of date - but it is as comprehensive guide as you could get, and most vagaries are covered in the thread.
TA = trim area, where your unique DRM keys are stored, and god only knows what else.
Thanks for your well written post! First I want to say - like Blueether just did, that we are not mind readers, so we can't possible know people's skill level or what they want to do. That's why I've started to ask them straight up what they want to do and where in the process they are. That way it'll be easier for me to help the other person, and hopefully write a short but complete step by step guide. It won't happen that often, but if I got some time to spare, why not.
My guide is a little out of date now, and I have planned to update it for quite some time, but things are moving so god damn quick around here that even I will get outdated if I take a short break. I recently sent my Ultra in for repairs, and 12 days later when I got it back and ready to get back in the game, a new firmware had been released with a new rooting method. I knew everything one day, and nothing on the other. It's really hard to balance real life and being kept updated at all times. Don't forget that you must be sure about what you know and write when you make a guide, because you don't want to brick people's devices. One slipup and the consequences might be ugly.
There are (of course) one or four ways of doing things around here, and you'll probably get different ways of doing things if you ask me or blueether about rooting or flashing custom ROMs. I guess it's just the way it is. New methods also pop up once in awhile, so some people will adopt these new methods while some other people will stick with the old school method, thus making things a little more complicated for new people who are looking for reliable information.
The TA partition is, like blueether already said, your device's unique DRM keys which makes X-Reality (and other minor things, I guess) work. It's important to make a backup of this partition since you'll lose it when you unlock the bootloader. Why would you unlock the bootloader? You have to unlock it if you want to flash custom ROMs, or if you want to make rooting easier. The problem is that you need to be rooted to back it up, so you'll have to spend some time reading and researching before you start.
Just keep your Ultra stock for now, and just casually read and soak up stuff from different threads around here. Walk around like you do in a new city and check out the locals and see what they do and say. You'll pick up a few things here and there and things will start rolling from there.
Sent from my C6806_GPe using Tapatalk
blueether said:
A good and detailed post, and it's not just the dev's and support that could take note. Some of the people that ask questions really need to read your post and think about what they are trying to say, get help with -- we aren't mind readers either.
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LordManhattan said:
a new firmware had been released with a new rooting method. I knew everything one day, and nothing on the other. It's really hard to balance real life and being kept updated at all times. Don't forget that you must be sure about what you know and write when you make a guide, because you don't want to brick people's devices. One slipup and the consequences might be ugly.
some other people will stick with the old school method, thus making things a little more complicated for new people who are looking for reliable information.
Just keep your Ultra stock for now, and just casually read and soak up stuff from different threads around here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can see some people just rush in with questions without giving serious thought to what they want to achieve. I think its people who don't often understand the process properly, haven't thought it through and are following what seems like a straightforward step by step process. Understanding what you are doing requires patience and TIME.
XDA I think is an unrivalled repository of amazing contributions from amazing people on a technology that is constantly evolving. Its also a jungle. One doesn't go into the jungle unprepared
Thanks for the fantastic advice guys and I will heed but I can't promise I might come out with some corkers
One last thing, how on earth do you find the time to lead a normal life? You obviously love what you are doing. It might be easy to assume everyone who contributes here is in IT. I imagine there are plumbers, electricians, mechanics, office workers, retired folk.....

[Q] flashing android,risks with safestrap

Hello,
I recently got a HDX 7" and had it rolledback to 13.3.2.7 and got it rooted and safestraped with a backup of stock on my pc and a image i am messing around with.
Whoever i would like to flash normal android on,my question is how do i do that and what are the compatibility issues and risks i face if i flash it with safestrap.
Thanks in advance
wow
Davengerr said:
Hello,
I recently got a HDX 7" and had it rolledback to 13.3.2.7 and got it rooted and safestraped with a backup of stock on my pc and a image i am messing around with.
Whoever i would like to flash normal android on,my question is how do i do that and what are the compatibility issues and risks i face if i flash it with safestrap.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow sorry bud but that's just way too much information to just drag over here to your thread it all depends on if you're capable of doing the job correctlyI would highly recommend going over to the development section and just start reading that is the only way you are going to know for sure is 250 peoples experiences not just one that comes over here to your thread and decides to give you a quick easy information. It is what it is.everything you dreamed of knowing about this device is here if you're willing to look for it...there are a bunch of very very recent development items that you're going to want to do your own homework on anyway not just one guy that thinks he knows it all come over here and help you screw up your device...good luck and enjoy your new Kindle
to sum it up there are risks with everything depending on ability to do proper research, comprehension level and ability to follow directions. .hell for some wiping their ass and tying their shoes have more risk than safestrap does when used properly.
@jimyv : I look around some similar thread, I can see many of your comment, you always typed many many things, but mostly no useful information for newbie point of view, even an useful link.
If you can not help them, just get out and no need to comment.
Sorry, but it is a little bit annoyed here.
lupin87 said:
@jimyv : I look around some similar thread, I can see many of your comment, you always typed many many things, but mostly no useful information for newbie point of view, even an useful link.
If you can not help them, just get out and no need to comment.
Sorry, but it is a little bit annoyed here.
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Click to collapse
well I'm sorry that you haven't found many of my comments useful obviously you haven't read very many of them but obviously some of my more aggravated ones have caught your attention you're welcome to look at my profile and check out my activity for the last year and a half I helped over a dozen people fix their bricked devices and contributed and many many helpful links which resulted in nothing but people trolling and being lazy and lazier and lazier I am simply trying to get people to do as I did and research and find their own information before adding additional clutter tothe forums...it's fine to be a noob everybody has been a noob at one time. And when you spend enough time here and with enough devices you will figure out that you just cannot help lazy people that are unwilling to find their own research at least to an extent. You're welcome to spend hundreds of hours of your time running around the forums cutting and pasting links to help the lazy ones but soon you will figure out that's all you are doing is enabling a growing problem. in other words the more I have helped them the less they actually knew orlearn because of not doing something the long way.
as some would say anything worth having is worth earning it yourself for the hard work / research. I noticed that most of the folks that do exactly these kinds of threads all of a sudden think they know everything. And then brick because they don't know near as much as I they need to because somebody came over to their one thread and gave them a little information or a couple of links. that they only partially read anyway. And then they are starting another thread. Titled PLEASE HELP I BRICKED MY DEVICE!!! identical to 30 threads that are dealing with the identical situations and .I have personally been up for several hours at a timetrying to help these types of people and they just simply cannot follow directions. And or most the time trying to translate it and screw it up in the translation somehow and then run away and start another thread because they still cannot get it right no matter how many people are trying to help them or how many links you give them. It's a waste of resources and everybody's time.it's just unbelievable to me that all this information is here already if they would just go and find them. they just choose not to. or believe they do not have the time to read them and expect special treatment and or catered to for some reason...I'm sorry I made the time and I'm a busy man and it seems disrespectful to me for anybody else to think they deserve different treatment
so to sum it up you are welcome to spend even half as much time in these forums researching reading and dragging pasting and copying links and see if you don't get a little bitter when you like to come here and find stuff yourself and its all cluttered up with repetition and threads starting with a question that was answered in the thread that was right below theirs READ THE THREADS and learn from other peoples experiences. Then you will adequately realize the risk that you are taking. You are not getting enough information when you start one of these threads to go doing the modifications that people are doing. All the information is here .
that's annoying it happens way too often and a lot more often than my snappy comments..
i vote @jimyv for moderator
grin
aaronkatrini said:
i vote @jimyv for moderator
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Click to collapse
Roflmfao
glad somebody still has a sense of humor lol I know from experience you can tend to get a little jaded hanging around here too much. I can't help but lurk though..I do own three HDX devices and development has been pretty much a dead fish.( until very recently I must say very cheesy) Compared to the other 15 devices that I maintain for myself and family. As a full-time mechanic and father I spend way too much time in here I know. and to those that have been insultedby what I have had to say I am probably speaking directly to you ,others probably just get a kick from me watching get aggravated. And many more out there that are silent know exactly what I am speaking of and refuse to help anybody anymore because said issues (much of the true talent) unfortunately,and that is the true loss.

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