Battery usage gauge.

One of the niftiest features in cyanogens ROMs is the battery usage tool which tells you what is eating up the battery since your last plug in. Mine is almost always Bluetooth. Damn the Bluetooth!

Apps2sd installed!

I was able to partition my microSD card today with a ext2 partition. This allowed me to install apps to the SD card instead of internal memory on my G1 Android phone. This has freed up a lot of usable RAM on the device now and is faster than ever. Music and pics are still on a FAT32 partition alongside the new ext2 partition. Cyanogens ROM automatically moved my apps for me on reboot. Sweet!

G1 - Rooted!

After reading this Lifehacker article this weekend, I proceeded with something I've been holding off on for a long time -- rooting my G1 Android phone. The article highlights the top reasons to root your Android phone. The first item is "A Real Performance Boost". That had me sold! My feelings are best summarized by the first comment on the article:

UlandDexamenus commented on Five Great Reasons to Root Your Android Phone
"Rooting my G1 and installing Cyanogen's mod turned my G1 from a somewhat clunky often lagging and annoying device into a phone that is a pleasure to use."

My phone is now running very smoothly and is faster than it ever has been. It's like getting a free hardware upgrade. The root process was very easy and took less than 25 minutes. The performance upgrade is amazing. The small graphical updates make the OS more attractive and having root is very nice -- so far the best app I can run now is Wi-Fi tethering which turns the G1 into a wireless mobile access point that shares my 3G connection to my laptop wirelessly. Sweet.