Overclocking your HTC Magic 32B / HTC G1 / MyTouch3G to 550MHz

Google Fodder: These simple steps let you make the current version of Cayogen Mod (v4.2.14.1) do the normal range of CPU frequencies while making 550MHz the top speed instead of 528MHz.

I'm posting this here, with some admendments and more detail, as stuff tends to get lost in XDA's forums as the volume of activity is high.

From XDA-Developers (Thanks BoomBoomPow!):

How-to for Cyanogen Mod v4.2.14.1:
(These instructions assume you already have this version of CM running on your phone!)

1. Download Pershoot's kernel image (2.5MB - I'm also seeding it on bittorrent: "kernel-2629-dp_mem-xtra.zip"- Thanks Pershoot!) and place it in the root directory of  your SD card.

2. Download and Install CoolBHO's SetCPU app (from Android Market)

3. Create a plain text file called setcpu.txt and place it in the root directory of your SD card. This only text in it will be:

128000,245760,384000,550000

(SetCPU looks for a "setcpu.txt" in the root of the sdcard on startup or when you choose "Custom" from the bottom of the device settings menu)

4. Boot your phone into recovery (Home + Power) and flash Pershoot's kernel image. You should already have a decent recovery installed. I recommend Amon-RA's recovery. I'm seeding it here for HTC Magic 32B only. (For G1/Dream, go to the xda-developer forum for that phone).

5. Once you have booted your phone to the Home screen, open SetCPU. Allow the SU Request, and scroll down to Custom Frequency Config at the bottom of the device list if SetCPU hasn't already picked up the setcpu.txt. If it has, the version will be something like "SetCPU v.1.4.6 custom" as in the screenshot here.

6. Have fun!

I've done this on my phone and it works perfectly. Here is a screen shot. This solution allows for the usual set of frequencies to be available, except the top one is 22MHz faster than before, an improvement of 4.16% on the original top speed.

Every little bit helps!

At 550MHz, your phone will now be as fast as a Motorola Droid / Milestone....and you can use SetCPU's profiles to wind the speed back when you're not using your phone (in standby) or charging your battery (keep the heat down).

The additional speed doesn't seem to have any big impact on heat. It's only 4% over normal.

Android Multi-tasking on HTC Magic 32B

Playing a song, downloading a folder full of songs from my FTP server over 3G, and playing an mp4 video.....at the same time. Plus I'm using the GDE Home user interface to make it happen. It all looks pretty smooth to me. I'll try to think of some better tests. Here is my first cut:

Installing Updates for Google Maps & Voice on Cyanogen Mod

I've worked out a way that let's me get the latest Google apps and then install them on my HTC Magic running Cyanogen Mod. It's so simple it hurts me that it took me a couple of days to work it out.

I have an image of the original load on one of my two HTC Magic phones. But even if you only have one phone, if I want the latest update of a "problem" app (Google Maps, Google Search by Voice...etc...), all I would (likely) need to do is:

1. Restore the original un-rooted image to phone, then update the relevant app.
   
   
2. Once updated, I then use "adb pull" from /system/app to grab the apk I want off the official load onto my linux PC.
   
   
3. Then put the phone in fastboot mode and fastboot Cyanogen's recovery image (cm-recovery-1.4.img) and use that to restore Cyanogen Mod onto my phone from a nandroid backup taken previously.
   
   
4. Then boot the phone normally and use "adb push" the push the new app into /system/app of the CM version of the phone.
   
   
5. The app will then crash...as maps did (instant force close - every time)....but I found I could THEN uninstall it (couldn't do that to the real one)...and just install the real Maps.apk from the market, over the top.....on Cyanogen...with no signing issues.  

I hadn't expected it to work out that way....but that's what happened. The issue I was trying to get around was obtained a copy of the new Maps.apk to transfer to the other phone.

I'm sure this isn't the easiest, most direct way.....but it is another way...and it worked for me.

Now I just have to work out where the VoiceSearch.apk is located.