Android meetup wrapup: Many lessons learned

Last night’s Android meetup was busy! And almost nothing went according to plan. In no particular order:

Did you know that 0603 resistors are smaller than the tips of most tweezers? My Galaxy Tab bricked itself last month, and the recovery procedure involves some fine soldering to make it think it’s a dev-board, so it’ll accept a new bootloader over USB. (Much software/driver fiddling remains before I know if it worked, however.) On the plus side, CarrierIQ’s evil rootkit can’t spy on me if the phone is dismantled and strewn across a workbench… (But they might still sue anyone who expresses the opinion that they’re evil, ha!)

Matt independently confirmed the long-standing theory that replacing broken screen glass is a royal pain. During that process, a cheap heat-gun failed, so the hot-air rework station was pressed into service as a glue-softener.

Attempts to share the meetup via Google+ hangout were thwarted when it was discovered that mere mortals cannot simply offer a public stream of a hangout. Apparently only accounts specially blessed by Google can do that, and work is under-way to get that done. We may try UStream next time.

Also, a wedged-up Android Market was unwedged, and a phone was rooted and had CyanogenMod flashed on it, which is the sort of warranty-voiding stuff you’d probably expect at such an event. Join us next month on the fourth Tuesday (That’s 12/27) for the next installment!