Get it here: http://www.TristanPhillips.com/download/TuneDog.zip

** See the edit at the bottom **

So I ordered the Goophone i5s more out of curiosity than anything else.  I wanted to see how Android in an iPhone 5 shell would feel.  I got it a few days ago and have modded it quite a bit since.  There is little information on the web about this device (not in a readable form anyway) and some of it is wrong.  So I thought I’d blog about it.

When I got the phone, it originally had a sticker placed on the back with the Goophone logo.  Of course I had to remove that to see what was under it, and unsurprisingly found the iPhone logo:

My theory is that these phones are put together using casings that have been discarded by the quality control teams in the Apple factory in china.  Mine has a tiny mark on the Apple logo, which I would be annoyed about on a £600 device.

The phone itself feels just like an iPhone5 (because it basically is).  However as soon as you turn it on you will be greeted by an Android splash screen.

Once the phone has booted you will see the efforts they have gone to to make the OS look and feel like Apple’s.  The “Slide to Unclock” lock screen made me laugh, and is indicative of the poor quality of translation that is to be found everywhere on this device.

Anyway, I didn’t want an Android phone that was pretending to be an iPhone, so I started by rooting the phone and getting some decent apps on it.

Rooting the phone the first time round worked well.  Here is how:

1. Download Bin4ry’s Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v17 tool: here
2. Extract the folder
3. If you are on a Mac, get a mac version of adb and replace the adb in the stuff directory
4. Enable debug mode on the phone.  Do this in Settings > General > Accessibility > Developer options > USB debugging
5. Connect the phone to the PC / Mac / Fridge
6. Run the RunMe.bat or RunMe.sh depending on if you are a PC user or other.  On unix systems you may need to chmod +x RunMe.sh
7. Choose option 1
8. Follow the instructions, they are pretty good.
9. When your phone reboots, you should see SuperSU in applications. If you don’t it did not work.  This happened to me a few times.  The only thing that seemed to get me round this was to try rooting with option 2 of the rooting tool, and then option 1.

You have a rooted device!  This means you can change stuff you would not normally be able to, and start stripping out some of the Chinese rubbish.

Customising

I had some simple goals here.  I wanted to add the Google Play store, remove a lot of the Chinese apps and install my usual tools.  Here is how:

1. Download ES File Explorer here
2. Download The Play Store here.  CAUTION!!! Some sites will send you to a link that downloads a file that is not called Vending.apk.  This bricks the phone!!!! You NEED Vending.apk. It may be something to do with the naming of the apk, but use this link and it will work.
3. With the phone on, plug it in to your computer.  Select the turn on USB storage option from the slide down menu on the phone.
4. Copy over the 2 apk files that you downloaded
5. On the phone, run File Manager
6. Tap on the ES File Explorer.apk file and install it
7. Open ES File explorer and goto the settings. To do this, hold down the home button for 3 seconds and tap on the right most button, choose settings
8. Turn on the options Up To Root, Root Explorer and Mount File System - You will be asked by the SU app if you wish to grant privileges, you do
9. Leave the menu by pressing and holding home and choosing the left most option
10. Press and hold on the Vending.apk and choose copy
11. navigate up, using the tool bar and go into system/app
12. Press and hold and choose paste
13. Refresh the view using the menu
14. Press and hold on the Vending.apk and choose Properties
15. Press Change next to the permissions
16. Make sure you have 4 ticks in total, all the left column and the top middle
17. Press OK, and OK again
18. The Play Store is installed!  Reboot and try opening it

Now, lets start removing some rubbish. In ES File explorer, go to the system/app folder and remove the following (Look for the icons rather than the name, its easier):

1. Opera
2. Battery notification
3. Easy Touch
4. iFly
5. Baidu Search
6. Weather
7. Baidu Maps
8. Passbook

If you remove the iPhoneLockScreen.apk you will get a stock Android lock screen, much better!

Unbricking

Bricked it?  I know I did, quite a few times.  However, fear not. Unbricking is easy.  You will need:

1. Sadly a Windows machine (yes, windows 8 is fine but you need to turn off signed driver validation, google it)
2. The restore image: here
3. The drivers: here
4. The flash tool: here

1. Decompress the downloaded files
2. Open the flash tool
3. Click “Scatter-loading” and choose the file MT6577_Android_scatter_emmc.txt
4. Turn OFF your phone.  Yes, right off
5. Plug it in to the Winblows machine and load the drivers. Wait for the driver loading to finish
6. Unplug it (yes, really)
7. In the flash tool, press “Download”
8. With the phone still OFF, plug it in
9. The flash should run, its finished when you see a strange green circle.
10. Unplug the phone and switch it on.
11. Whats that you say?  Don’t read Chinese, only speak it?  Change it back to english by opening the settings app, choose general (same icon as settings) See the block of 4 items grouped together?  Press the 3rd one, then the top one.

Wrap-up 

So I now have an (almost) stock Android device with the form factor of an iPhone 5 :)  

OK, its not going to break any world speed records, and the camera is terrible - but I challenge you to find such a good looking Jelly Bean device for around the £100 mark.  Just spare a thought for Apple and their design team who’s hard work made this possible.

** Edit **

A new ROM was released today by Manuxo, it has Google Play and the Chinese stuff has been removed.  Get it here.  You may not need to root if all you wanted was Play and no Chinese stuff…

If you get and EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS) crash when exporting signed apks from Eclipse, try turning off Build Automatically before you export.  Works a treat.

I recently left my (rooted) Kindle Fire in a draw for about 2 months… When I took it out the battery was 100% flat, as you might expect.  However when I plugged it in, all it did was cycle the boot sequence, showing the firefirefire logo, then dying, then showing the firefirefire logo then dying etc… The charge light never came on, only the green power light, which was flashing on, and off. On and off….  After a bit of trawling there seems to be a common misunderstanding as to the cause of this.  Many people believe they are stuck in a boot loop and that their device is bricked unless they buy a factory cable.  Others think that they have to ‘hold the power button for x seconds until it shuts down fully or resets’ etc.  The device cannot be turned off, because it is off already.  The power button does nothing when this symptom is present.  

The REAL cause of this issue is that the battery is so flat the charging circuits do not get the chance to kick in and replenish the battery before the screen and boot sequence kicks in and overloads the power drain causing the device to die again, then it just tries over and over again.  The battery never gets a chance to charge.

Here is the real, free solution.  You need to repeatedly connect and disconnect the charger to the Fire.  Make sure you disconnect the charger JUST before the screen kicks in and drains it all again.  What you are doing is giving the battery little boosts, and disconnecting before the device tries to boot.  You can do this on the wall power switch, or by plugging in and unplugging the charger over and over again.  Disconnect it JUST before the screen kicks in, which will be just after the power button lights up green.  REPEAT THIS ABOUT 70 TIMES.  Yes I know, its boring.  After 70 cycles, let the unit boot.  You will see it stays on now, and after a while the charging circuits will kick in and the power light will go orange showing that the unit is charging!  :) Simples …