[537h]

I thought it'd be nice to have a thread to chronicle the sorts of things that different folks are doing with their rooted T1's. So here goes.


My set-up is intended to be rather minimalist. I'll daresay it is visually, though it could surely use some optimization on back-end memory and storage. This is my first foray into rooting and modding an Android device (one reason I got the Reader is that I wanted to learn but was hesitant to do so on my Samsung Infuse, since it's my only phone and all).


Usage wise, my primary reason's for getting the getting the T1 were as follows:

-You know, for reading ebooks. Particularly important was easy access to library eloans and public domain books as well as the ability to avoid syncing with a computer.

-As a web reading device. A lot of the reading I do involves blogs, online articles, and other web content. I wanted a way to improve my reading experience as well as offload text-based tasks from my smartphone, which I often have to charge in the late afternoon.

-Design and additional features (multi-touch, audio support, handwritten annotation) made it more appealing to me over the Nook STR (I originally leaned toward the Nook because there were more people using and hacking it, e.g. on XDA, but then I found you all on mobileread and decided to go Sony).


Homescreen (see attached screenshot): ADW Launcher with Minimalist Black theme [Edit: I've deleted the theme as I realized I wasn't using any of it anymore]. All but the home screen have been deleted and bounce has been disabled. I've also hidden the status bar (It's still accessible by down-swiping) and removed the dock. I hand drew and digitized a custom icon set, maximized the icon size, and customized row/column layout. Homescreen icons are, from the upper left:

CoolReader,
Sony Reader Stock Home,
Kindle App,
Google News (web bookmark),
Google Reader App,
InstaFetch App (InstaPaper client),
ReLaunch Home Screen,
Terminal Emulator App,
Root Explorer App,
Gmail Web App (bookmark) [Edit: Changed to Gmail app],
App Drawer, and
Stock Web Browser.

Other installed apps:

Android Market
Android Calendar (haven't used it but it started working after Market install fix)
Screenshot It
Superuser
Gallery (the Froyo 3D one that came with the minimal root; rather a pain with all the animations and background--let me know if there is a better alternative you know of) [edit: I've now switched to Qickpic]

Lockscreen/screensaver (see attached screenshot): A single image by one of my favorite artists, William Schaff.

Current bugs I'm experiencing:

-There is somewhat frequent ghosting going on with my reader (I mostly notice it on my home screen, but it crops up other places). It's not a deal-breaker for me, but I wouldn't mind sorting it out.

-As I mentioned before, the 3d gallery really does work very well on eink. I had an especially hard time with designating my home screen icon since they were black and transparent PNG and therefore entirely invisible against the gallery background.

-Whenever I connect my T1 to my computer over USB, the Sony Reader UI is broken until the next restart (when I try to use it, It's stuck on the "connecting USB" screen even after it has been successfully connected and disconnected).

-Certain apps I would like to try (e.g. Google Currents, Feedly) are not compatible in the current environment. More broadly I'm having trouble finding apps that work well or at all on the reader and are also good at caching web content for offline reading.

-My home screen icons seem a bit fuzzier than they should be since they are each 200px wide.


Well, that ended up being rather longer than anticipated but I look forward to hearing/seeing what everybody else is putting the T1's to use with, as well as any thoughts on what I've shared.