Motorola Backflip Hacks

USB Charging

You can charge the Motorola Backflip’s battery through a standard AC wall outlet or via a USB cable connection to a personal computer. The flow of energy through these types of connections differs and produces different battery-charging times. You can produce a nearly instantaneous charge using a car adapter by cracking open the USB end of the wire and soldering the D+ and D- data pins -- located on the USB connector’s circuit board -- together. Plug the phone to your car’s cigarette lighter with the modified wiring and your phone should fully charge in a manner of seconds.

Applications

The Motorola Backflip contains the Android 1.5 operating system and is programmed to only accept applications from the Android Market website. You can get around this restriction by installing the Motorola ADB 32-bit and ADB 64-bit drivers -- both available from the Motorola website -- onto the phone. Next, install the Software Development Kit application, which you can obtain from the Android development website. Activate the phone’s debugging settings by entering the “Settings” folder from the device’s home screen, choosing “Applications,” and then “Development.” From the next screen, check the “USB Debugging” option. Connect the phone to your computer and access the computer’s command prompt screen and then navigate to the ADB menu, which is located in the tools folder of the SDK directory. From the Windows command utility, enter “cmd: adb install application.apk.” Replace the “application” portion of this command with the actual name of the program you want to install. You must have your APK file in the same directory as the ADB menu for this hack to work as it should.

Unlocking

Although the Motorola Backflip was intended for use with AT&T’s wireless network, you can use the phone on any Global System for Mobile Communication, better known as GSM, carrier’s network. For instance, if you want to switch from AT&T to T-Mobile, purchase an unlock code from AT&T. Provide this code to T-Mobile to lift the device’s network restriction and to gain access the carrier’s network. Your Backflip should be fully functional with its new carrier and should not experience a loss of any of its features.

Flashing

Depending on the GSM carrier to which you switch the Backflip, you might need to install additional drivers to make the phone fully functional on another GSM carrier’s network. Your new carrier will inform you if you need to install additional software. If you do need to, you will be directed to the carrier’s website where you can download the required drivers. Typically, these drivers are best downloaded to a personal computer and then transferred to the Backflip.