Following on from a number of email requests from people looking for custom ROMs for specific handsets, we’ve started collecting together information on the best of the custom Android ROMs for different handsets. This is very much a work in progress and we will continue to update this section as and when we hear about new ROMs.
There are only a few pages in there at the moment, but more will be added as time allows.
The new Custom ROM pages can be found using the navigation bar under the site banner.
If you use and like one of the custom ROMs, please consider making a donation to it’s creator where possible. These guys and girls invest a lot of time in making our Android experience that little bit better.

Most HTC Hero owners should have their phones updated to the latest ROM by now (stock or otherwise), but a recurring complaint I’ve heard from a number of people is that, after the update, they see a lot of force close issues and even the odd reboot for no obvious reason.  The good news is, there is a fix.  Apparently this issue can be caused by data which has been cached by some or one of the applications on the phone prior to the update.  There are two methods for …

This week, I decided to take a look at the Android SDK, to see how straightforward it is to develop applications for Android. Now, my programming skills are pretty basic; I’ve not had to do much in the way of programming, other than simple scripts, since my university days, so I don’t expect to be knocking up anything particularly spectacular, or publishing anything to the market, but I would like to get a feel for how the development process works.I’ve found a few excellent resources for new Android developers …

I’ve updated the Best Deals section to reflect a couple of new HTC Hero deals I heard about this week, including one superb deal which sees you potentially getting a contract Hero at an overall cost (after cashback) that’s a good £40 cheaper than buying an unlocked, SIM-free Hero outright!Check my findings out here.

One common gripe among new HTC Hero/DROID Eris/G2 owners is wi-fi connectivity.  Some folks find that they just can’t get their shiny new Android smartphones to connect to their home wi-fi setup at all.  Considering how data hungry Android phones are, and how stingy some carriers are with their data allowance, wi-fi issues could be a major headache.  I thought I’d collate together some of the troubleshooting tips I’ve come across to help narrow down the cause of the problem.
First off, if you use a wireless N router or access …

If you ever feel the need to capture a moment from your Android phone for posterity, you’ll want to be able to grab screenshots from it.  Here is the method used for taking screenies on your Android smartphone-

If you’ve not done so already, install the Android SDK.  Make a note of the install location (for detailed instructions on installing the SDK, check out this link, it’s not as daunting as it first appears, honest!)
On your phone push the menu button (or tap the Settings widget if you have one) 
Tap Applications 
Tap …

***UPDATED- 2nd October 2009***
Looking for the best price for an Android phone or device?This is the first of what I hope to be a regular feature for the blog.  I’m going to have a scout around for pricing on Android devices and post up the best deals I can find.  Please feel free to let me know of any deals you’ve heard of that you feel are better than I’ve listed, or even let me know if you’d like an Android device added to the best deal list.  (for phones, …

This guide discusses the method for adding your own music or sound files to the phone for use as a custom ringtone.

Every so often I seem to find out about some tip or minor feature that I previously wasn’t aware of on my Android phone (tips and features I probably would have known about if I’d bothered to read the manuals).  So I thought I’d start to compile a list of these useful little tips and I’ll update it as I go along.  If you have any suggestions, let me know and I’ll add them in.
Copy and Paste- To copy text (this doesn’t work in all apps, but should work in …

I decided this morning to test the Exchange ActiveSync connection on my HTC Hero.  I went through the account settings and authenticated with the server successfully, specified the data I wanted to sync, and then, when it came to finalising the settings on the phone, it failed -
Error
Failed to create the account.  Please try again later.
Great.  Well, it definitely authenticated fine, so what’s the problem?  A little further digging and I discovered that this was down to a security setting I use on my Exchange server which forces mobile ActiveSync …