There are a coule of sense tweaks I've grown to like, though. The spot focus in the camera, and the hands-free mode (the latter is a genius button related feature, not really sense, but still part of the stock mt4g ROM.)
I guess that's what my threshold is here. I'll root the phone when there's a reason to that makes up for being able to deal with text messages through an audio only interface (for driving).
You can still get a lot of the perks from rooting without losing the factory ROM. Just simply rooting allows you to install a custom kernel under the factory ROM, boosting performance. You can also get rid of the demo games and other stupid shit while still being able to keep things you like like the Sense widgets, FFC and Genius button (I do miss the Genius button some times). There are plenty of things you can do to the factory ROM to boost performance and stability without reflashing
Having the ability to make complete system backups for those "just in case" situations is pretty handy too
Spudge on
Play With Me
Xbox - IT Jerk
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
0
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Plus you can get sense roms which build upon what's there. I can't speak for the MT4G but for the Evo at least there are roms that are essentially stock but have various tweaks for speed and convenience. Or you can overhaul everything.
Plus as said above, just using custom kernels is a good enough reason to root your phone. More power, faster, smoother, more battery life. It's awesome.
ChaosHat on
0
SpudgeWitty commentsgo next to this blue dot thingyRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Well I may have just done myself in
Installed the prerelease (official) CM7 and Grankin01's 1.8GHz kernel. Here's hoping it actually works this time
Spudge on
Play With Me
Xbox - IT Jerk
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
Would rooting allow me to reassign the genius button to act as a reglar search button without removing the genius button app?
Because that right there would get me to do it. I LOATHE the genius button, to be quite honest. Some of the software that comes with it (like hands free mode) is useful, but I dearly miss my contextual search button (I am already mourning the lack of it on my inevitable Dell Streak 7 aquisition.)
Freeing up my fourth button would be reason enough to root, I believe.
Evander on
0
SpudgeWitty commentsgo next to this blue dot thingyRegistered Userregular
So, what are the benefits fo having a custom rom these days?
I'm debating rooting my mt4g, but I honestly don't see a pressing reason why. It's already plenty fast, and there is plenty of space to install apps without a full apps2sd thing running. Also, there's nothing I've heard of in Gingerbread yet that makes it worth rushing out for 2.3.
Are there any neat rooted-only features at the moment, or should I wait for the next phone version of Android OS to be dropped?
I rooted my MT4G for the simple fact of killing all the useless crap it comes with (a lot of it that runs in the background regardless). Eventually I went to the custom MIUI ROM and now I'm not going back. My battery life has gone from manageable to awesome, it's cleaner, a reboot takes all of 10 seconds, and I make the phone what I want it to be
I tried the CM7A once. It looked real pretty but there were some glaring issues that I just couldn't cope with. Maybe once they get out of Alpha I'll try it again, but for now I'd say the MIUI is bar-none the best ROM I've tried
Any specific feature benefits?
The bloatware doesn't really bother me, because the phone has plenty of space to begin with, and I have a powerskin case, so battery life hasn't been an issue.
I just remember how amazing FroYo looked when I was on Eclair, but now I look at Gingerbread, and I think "eh, that'll be neat when there are apps made for it." I'm trying to figure out if there's anything new that I can do RIGHT NOW if I root, or if I might as well wait.
I've been wondering this same thing for my G2. The battery life is great, CPU speed is fantastic, the thing has more RAM than my last laptop, so I'm not sure I see the appeal.
OH! There's a link there to get google search on a short press and genius button on a long press, as well. This is basically EXACTLY what I've been wishing the genius button actually did ever since a genius button was unvieled on any phone.
So, what are the benefits fo having a custom rom these days?
I'm debating rooting my mt4g, but I honestly don't see a pressing reason why. It's already plenty fast, and there is plenty of space to install apps without a full apps2sd thing running. Also, there's nothing I've heard of in Gingerbread yet that makes it worth rushing out for 2.3.
Are there any neat rooted-only features at the moment, or should I wait for the next phone version of Android OS to be dropped?
I rooted my MT4G for the simple fact of killing all the useless crap it comes with (a lot of it that runs in the background regardless). Eventually I went to the custom MIUI ROM and now I'm not going back. My battery life has gone from manageable to awesome, it's cleaner, a reboot takes all of 10 seconds, and I make the phone what I want it to be
I tried the CM7A once. It looked real pretty but there were some glaring issues that I just couldn't cope with. Maybe once they get out of Alpha I'll try it again, but for now I'd say the MIUI is bar-none the best ROM I've tried
Any specific feature benefits?
The bloatware doesn't really bother me, because the phone has plenty of space to begin with, and I have a powerskin case, so battery life hasn't been an issue.
I just remember how amazing FroYo looked when I was on Eclair, but now I look at Gingerbread, and I think "eh, that'll be neat when there are apps made for it." I'm trying to figure out if there's anything new that I can do RIGHT NOW if I root, or if I might as well wait.
I've been wondering this same thing for my G2. The battery life is great, CPU speed is fantastic, the thing has more RAM than my last laptop, so I'm not sure I see the appeal.
If I had a G2 I'd probably try to root it in order to find a way to make the charging led act as a regular notification led
I liked MIUI before, but adding GO Launcher was a good idea for me to do. An app drawer that I can hide the apps that I already have on my homescreen is just plain awesome (don't know if any of the other launchers have that). Coolio!
And the Simi Folder widget is pretty darn nice, as well. Screen.
strebalicious on
0
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Evander, you should probably just bookmark the xda-developers forum for your phone. Saves SO much time.
I've only notice Softbank's suckage on military bases. Which is truly sad because they are the only ones with kiosks on all the bases. I can't get a signal in 75% of the buildings on base (any base, really), but yet I can go four miles underground through a subway tunnel and still get a signal.
I can get a data service if I put my cell phone on the extreme corner of my desk. To make a call, I usually step outside the front of my school, because otherwise just holding it in my hand I'll fluxuate between no signal and one bar. >.<
So T-Mobile UK looks like they have pulled a fast one. They have altered their terms of service to state that the fair use internet cap is now 500mb for everyone (I think( rather than 3GB. They have said that they will still allow you to download over 500mb without financial penalty, but they will throttle the speed back drastically. I've pasted their press release below if anyone wants to read it - take a look at the last paragraph. Classy guys, really classy
I don't know a lot about it yet, as I just read the press release but as you can imagine, people are pretty pissed off. While 500mb is still quite a bit and especially if one has home broadband with wifi, it still makes for a pretty big change in service. I know that the main reason I signed up to T-Mobile myself was they offered 3GB rather than the 500MB everyone else was offering. It also is a pretty big assumption that smartphones are still primarily phones and anything but minutes and texts are an added bonus - I know in my case the phone gets more use as an internet device/streaming music player/podcast player.
According to ZdNet, who spoke to OfCom (UK regulator) this sort of material change should be at least take place after one month's notice and possibly also give the right to termination without triggering early termination penalties to the consumer.
T-Mobile is the only operator to give customers the Mobile Internet for a fixed price. We never charge our customers more than they expect for their Mobile Internet in the UK.
Therefore you'll never need to worry about how many emails you've sent, how long you've been online or the data/GBs
Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We’ve got a fair use policy but ours means that you'll always be able to browse the internet, it’s only when you go over the fair use amount that you won’t be able to download, stream and watch video clips.
So what's changing? - From 1st February 2011 we will be aligning our fair use policies so our mobile internet service will have fair use of 500MB.
What does this mean? - We’ll always let you email and browse the internet and you’ll never pay more than you agree to. We do have a fair use policy but ours is there to make sure we deliver the best service possible to all our customers. This means that you’ll always be able to browse the internet.
So remember our Mobile Broadband and internet on your phone service is best used for browsing which means looking at your favorite websites like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, BBC News and more, checking your email and looking for information, but not watching videos or downloading files.
If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband.
According to http://www.littlefluffytoys.com/ this does offer a way to escape your contract prematurely, without obligation to return your handset. I might attempt it, mainly cause I'm getting a little sick of the galaxy s.
So T-Mobile UK looks like they have pulled a fast one. They have altered their terms of service to state that the fair use internet cap is now 500mb for everyone (I think( rather than 3GB. They have said that they will still allow you to download over 500mb without financial penalty, but they will throttle the speed back drastically. I've pasted their press release below if anyone wants to read it - take a look at the last paragraph. Classy guys, really classy
I don't know a lot about it yet, as I just read the press release but as you can imagine, people are pretty pissed off. While 500mb is still quite a bit and especially if one has home broadband with wifi, it still makes for a pretty big change in service. I know that the main reason I signed up to T-Mobile myself was they offered 3GB rather than the 500MB everyone else was offering. It also is a pretty big assumption that smartphones are still primarily phones and anything but minutes and texts are an added bonus - I know in my case the phone gets more use as an internet device/streaming music player/podcast player.
According to ZdNet, who spoke to OfCom (UK regulator) this sort of material change should be at least take place after one month's notice and possibly also give the right to termination without triggering early termination penalties to the consumer.
T-Mobile is the only operator to give customers the Mobile Internet for a fixed price. We never charge our customers more than they expect for their Mobile Internet in the UK.
Therefore you'll never need to worry about how many emails you've sent, how long you've been online or the data/GBs
Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We’ve got a fair use policy but ours means that you'll always be able to browse the internet, it’s only when you go over the fair use amount that you won’t be able to download, stream and watch video clips.
So what's changing? - From 1st February 2011 we will be aligning our fair use policies so our mobile internet service will have fair use of 500MB.
What does this mean? - We’ll always let you email and browse the internet and you’ll never pay more than you agree to. We do have a fair use policy but ours is there to make sure we deliver the best service possible to all our customers. This means that you’ll always be able to browse the internet.
So remember our Mobile Broadband and internet on your phone service is best used for browsing which means looking at your favorite websites like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, BBC News and more, checking your email and looking for information, but not watching videos or downloading files.
If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband.
On the other hand it might mean I can actually use the internet on the move without some idiot hogging all the available bandwidth by streaming stuff constantly.
I've been having ok service, streaming and surfing, except where I fall outside of the high speed network, which happens a lot sadly.
Anyway, I contracted 6 months back for 3GB so I could stream video or audio as well as surf the web. There wasn't any talk of fair use or that certain types of traffic or file would be allowed and others would not be. It was a simple "we offer you 3GB because you said you were going to another provider who would give you 1GB", to which I accepted. It wasn't incidental to the minutes or the text, it was the primary reason for the contract. It seems (I'm not sure about this yet) that the only way to get back to the 3GB quota is to pay an additional fee. So it seems I'll need to pay more from 1 February to get what I already pay for.
They are not making the change because people like you are experiencing a poor level of service, or bothering to make it more palatable by offering a lesser reduction (to say 2, 1.5, 1GB). They are simply aligning their terms with the Orange terms and that is apparently that.
Well I agree that them changing the terms of contracts is a rather unimpressive. Maybe in future customers should decide that they actually want more minutes? Etc.
The thing I find is that surfing is either fine, or impossibly slow. It stinks of a small number of people hogging all the bandwidth in some areas but not others. Then again maybe TMobile/Orange should through more money at setting up a more rugged network.
Evander, you should probably just bookmark the xda-developers forum for your phone. Saves SO much time.
The problem with XDA is that it's filled with people who place far too much self value in their ability to futz with their phones, so you wind up with pages ad pages of people trying to talk other people out of rooting "just to be cool" (presumably because they think it will make them cooler if less people have rooted phones) and you ALSO have people actually complaining that they are being talked down to when some one posts detailed instructions, meaning, of course, thatthe detailed instructions that I need are hard to come by.
I'd much rather seek guidance from the friendlier people around these parts, and then dig through XDA later on, when I need to figure out things more advanced (all I'm looking to do at the moment is achieve a permenant root ad remap the genius button
So T-Mobile UK looks like they have pulled a fast one. They have altered their terms of service to state that the fair use internet cap is now 500mb for everyone (I think( rather than 3GB. They have said that they will still allow you to download over 500mb without financial penalty, but they will throttle the speed back drastically. I've pasted their press release below if anyone wants to read it - take a look at the last paragraph. Classy guys, really classy
I don't know a lot about it yet, as I just read the press release but as you can imagine, people are pretty pissed off. While 500mb is still quite a bit and especially if one has home broadband with wifi, it still makes for a pretty big change in service. I know that the main reason I signed up to T-Mobile myself was they offered 3GB rather than the 500MB everyone else was offering. It also is a pretty big assumption that smartphones are still primarily phones and anything but minutes and texts are an added bonus - I know in my case the phone gets more use as an internet device/streaming music player/podcast player.
According to ZdNet, who spoke to OfCom (UK regulator) this sort of material change should be at least take place after one month's notice and possibly also give the right to termination without triggering early termination penalties to the consumer.
T-Mobile is the only operator to give customers the Mobile Internet for a fixed price. We never charge our customers more than they expect for their Mobile Internet in the UK.
Therefore you'll never need to worry about how many emails you've sent, how long you've been online or the data/GBs
Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We’ve got a fair use policy but ours means that you'll always be able to browse the internet, it’s only when you go over the fair use amount that you won’t be able to download, stream and watch video clips.
So what's changing? - From 1st February 2011 we will be aligning our fair use policies so our mobile internet service will have fair use of 500MB.
What does this mean? - We’ll always let you email and browse the internet and you’ll never pay more than you agree to. We do have a fair use policy but ours is there to make sure we deliver the best service possible to all our customers. This means that you’ll always be able to browse the internet.
So remember our Mobile Broadband and internet on your phone service is best used for browsing which means looking at your favorite websites like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, BBC News and more, checking your email and looking for information, but not watching videos or downloading files.
If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband.
According to http://www.littlefluffytoys.com/ this does offer a way to escape your contract prematurely, without obligation to return your handset. I might attempt it, mainly cause I'm getting a little sick of the galaxy s.
Looks like they realized that and changed things around.
According to my news feed this morning, existing customers will be grandfathered in to the old limites until the end of their contract terms.
Does anyone know of a free e-mail app that works with Exchange? The stock e-mail app crashes a lot on my Captivate and I'd like something more stable when checking work e-mail.
Evander, you should probably just bookmark the xda-developers forum for your phone. Saves SO much time.
The problem with XDA is that it's filled with people who place far too much self value in their ability to futz with their phones, so you wind up with pages ad pages of people trying to talk other people out of rooting "just to be cool" (presumably because they think it will make them cooler if less people have rooted phones) and you ALSO have people actually complaining that they are being talked down to when some one posts detailed instructions, meaning, of course, thatthe detailed instructions that I need are hard to come by.
I'd much rather seek guidance from the friendlier people around these parts, and then dig through XDA later on, when I need to figure out things more advanced (all I'm looking to do at the moment is achieve a permenant root ad remap the genius button
XDA isn't that bad, at least the EVO forums aren't. The reason I referred you to XDA instead of just asking here is because phone rooting is a pretty unique process not only for every phone, but for separate models of phone. Even for my Evo, I bricked the first one using old directions from androidcentral or some site like that because I didn't realize I had to check my hardware or hboot versions. When I got my replacement phone, XDA had the new root method for hboot 2.02 and hardware 004 EVOs, so it's important that you do a good amount of research into this before you do it, and XDA is the best place to find all of that.
Furthermore, some phones have autorooting programs you can use via usb connection to your phone. XDA is probably the best place to look for that.
AT&T says that any replacement phone they give me for the Captivate shut-down issue (which is a known issue) will cause my original phone to go to samsung, who, according to this guy, goes over the phone with a fine tooth comb to check for "physical damage" which includes things like water damage but also any scratch where "if you run your fingernail over it, it will catch." Which is what, basically any scratch ever?
So I can't return my defective phone and get a replacement because I have an unrelated cosmetic issue.
They have a service center down in Irvine, where the guy on the phone told me to go so they could check out my scratch. If they say my scratch doesn't count as physical damage (though with that criteria, how could they not?) they will do the replacement on the spot.
Is the best way to back up my text messages to just go ahead and pay for Handcent's VIP access? It's a one time fee of $4.99 but gets you a 30 day trial of their online sms and mms backup services and also does things like permanently remove ads, so I believe it is basically just getting the "pay version" of Handcent.
I guess I need to figure out how to back up everything else too. This phone is not rooted.
if I do root my phone does anyone have any experience with Titanium Backups "freeze" option
like is it the preferable way to get rid of bloatware without doing anything permanent?
Yes. This post from XDA seems to sum it up best:
If you're particularly paranoid about what you can or cannot remove, use Titanium Backup's "Freeze" functionality. It'll effectively disable an app from being usable and if you start experiencing FCs, simply unfreeze.
Or instead of outright deletion, move/rename apks you want to disable.
Did anyone ever create a non-silly (and non root) way to grab a screenshot of your phones home screens? I've used the method with the SDK but good lord it's cumbersome (and fickle). Dude's phone on the last page reminds me how fun it is to show off and see everyone elses setups.
I just realized that if I root my phone I ought to be able to uninstall the outdated pre-installed swype that came with it, and install the newer beta version instead.
Man, this is going to be awesome.
Evander on
0
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Yep! Rooting is awesome! You'll also want to find a good smartass kernel. You basically don't gave to bother with set cpu and it gives you great performance and battery life.
We also want to let you in on an experimental feature that’s still in its earliest stages—Conversation Mode. This is a new interface within Google Translate that’s optimized to allow you to communicate fluidly with a nearby person in another language. You may have seen an early demo a few months ago, and today you can try it yourself on your Android device.
Currently, you can only use Conversation Mode when translating between English and Spanish. In conversation mode, simply press the microphone for your language and start speaking. Google Translate will translate your speech and read the translation out loud. Your conversation partner can then respond in their language, and you’ll hear the translation spoken back to you. Because this technology is still in alpha, factors like regional accents, background noise or rapid speech may make it difficult to understand what you’re saying. Even with these caveats, we’re excited about the future promise of this technology to be able to help people connect across languages.
You'll have to use some method to root your device (like Unrevoked, see the XDA sticky threads in the forum of your device), which installs a superuser app that can grant root access to applications and a custom 'recovery' ROM like for example clockworkmod.
While booted into recovery mode you can do things like make complete image back-ups of your phone and 'flash' files to your system directory (this directory is otherwise protected while you're normally booted), which is how you flash custom ROMs to replace the default installation.
Quick, phone monkeys! I have need of your vast wisdom.
The samsung vibrant! Worth getting?
If you don't want to wait for a 4G phone, then yeah. I personally haven't used any of the Galaxy S phones, but aside from Verizon customers complaining about Bing, everyone else seems to love their respective version.
Quick, phone monkeys! I have need of your vast wisdom.
The samsung vibrant! Worth getting?
If you don't want to wait for a 4G phone, then yeah. I personally haven't used any of the Galaxy S phones, but aside from Verizon customers complaining about Bing, everyone else seems to love their respective version.
Well, considering where I am, I'll be lucky if 4g is even available in these parts by the time the contract is up. Doesn't seem worth the wait. Vibrant it is!
Thanks~
Silven on
0
SpudgeWitty commentsgo next to this blue dot thingyRegistered Userregular
Once you're rooted, install Rom Manager and Clockworkmod recovery (there's a button to do this in RM). From there you can boot to recovery and make backups of your ROM. I'd do this immediately after rooting, just to be certain you have something to go back to if you accidentally fuck it up.
The kernel you want is right here, just make sure you get the one for "Stock and Stock-based ROMs"
Spudge on
Play With Me
Xbox - IT Jerk
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
Quick, phone monkeys! I have need of your vast wisdom.
The samsung vibrant! Worth getting?
If you don't want to wait for a 4G phone, then yeah. I personally haven't used any of the Galaxy S phones, but aside from Verizon customers complaining about Bing, everyone else seems to love their respective version.
Well, considering where I am, I'll be lucky if 4g is even available in these parts by the time the contract is up. Doesn't seem worth the wait. Vibrant it is!
Thanks~
I have the vibrant and while I like it a lot I would definitely get the Nexus S if I was picking a phone right now. Samsung has been absolutely terrible with updates (we're still officially on 2.1) and while XDA has been picking up the slack, getting updates straight from google would be much better. Vibrant dev on XDA has also slowed significantly since the nexus s came out and there's no stable cyanogen mod for any galaxy s phone yet.
I liked MIUI before, but adding GO Launcher was a good idea for me to do. An app drawer that I can hide the apps that I already have on my homescreen is just plain awesome (don't know if any of the other launchers have that). Coolio!
[IMG][/img]
What's the signal strength widget on the left side of this screencap?
Posts
it's benchmarks are like off the scales.
You can still get a lot of the perks from rooting without losing the factory ROM. Just simply rooting allows you to install a custom kernel under the factory ROM, boosting performance. You can also get rid of the demo games and other stupid shit while still being able to keep things you like like the Sense widgets, FFC and Genius button (I do miss the Genius button some times). There are plenty of things you can do to the factory ROM to boost performance and stability without reflashing
Having the ability to make complete system backups for those "just in case" situations is pretty handy too
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
Plus as said above, just using custom kernels is a good enough reason to root your phone. More power, faster, smoother, more battery life. It's awesome.
Installed the prerelease (official) CM7 and Grankin01's 1.8GHz kernel. Here's hoping it actually works this time
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
Because that right there would get me to do it. I LOATHE the genius button, to be quite honest. Some of the software that comes with it (like hands free mode) is useful, but I dearly miss my contextual search button (I am already mourning the lack of it on my inevitable Dell Streak 7 aquisition.)
Freeing up my fourth button would be reason enough to root, I believe.
If you need Root Explorer, feel free to ask
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
I've been wondering this same thing for my G2. The battery life is great, CPU speed is fantastic, the thing has more RAM than my last laptop, so I'm not sure I see the appeal.
OH! There's a link there to get google search on a short press and genius button on a long press, as well. This is basically EXACTLY what I've been wishing the genius button actually did ever since a genius button was unvieled on any phone.
Alright, I am won over.
(edit: now what do I do to root this thing?)
If I had a G2 I'd probably try to root it in order to find a way to make the charging led act as a regular notification led
And the Simi Folder widget is pretty darn nice, as well. Screen.
Man, softbank sucks so much
Wait, because of the launcherpro thing? That's your phone's manufacturer's UI, not softbank.
But yeah, otherwise they pretty much are an incompetent form of AT&T for Japan. *shrug*
I'm using my unbranded HTC Desire with softbank
According to http://www.littlefluffytoys.com/ this does offer a way to escape your contract prematurely, without obligation to return your handset. I might attempt it, mainly cause I'm getting a little sick of the galaxy s.
Well I agree that them changing the terms of contracts is a rather unimpressive. Maybe in future customers should decide that they actually want more minutes? Etc.
The thing I find is that surfing is either fine, or impossibly slow. It stinks of a small number of people hogging all the bandwidth in some areas but not others. Then again maybe TMobile/Orange should through more money at setting up a more rugged network.
The problem with XDA is that it's filled with people who place far too much self value in their ability to futz with their phones, so you wind up with pages ad pages of people trying to talk other people out of rooting "just to be cool" (presumably because they think it will make them cooler if less people have rooted phones) and you ALSO have people actually complaining that they are being talked down to when some one posts detailed instructions, meaning, of course, thatthe detailed instructions that I need are hard to come by.
I'd much rather seek guidance from the friendlier people around these parts, and then dig through XDA later on, when I need to figure out things more advanced (all I'm looking to do at the moment is achieve a permenant root ad remap the genius button
Looks like they realized that and changed things around.
According to my news feed this morning, existing customers will be grandfathered in to the old limites until the end of their contract terms.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
as of the last time I was looking for one (over the summer), nothing was free
XDA isn't that bad, at least the EVO forums aren't. The reason I referred you to XDA instead of just asking here is because phone rooting is a pretty unique process not only for every phone, but for separate models of phone. Even for my Evo, I bricked the first one using old directions from androidcentral or some site like that because I didn't realize I had to check my hardware or hboot versions. When I got my replacement phone, XDA had the new root method for hboot 2.02 and hardware 004 EVOs, so it's important that you do a good amount of research into this before you do it, and XDA is the best place to find all of that.
Furthermore, some phones have autorooting programs you can use via usb connection to your phone. XDA is probably the best place to look for that.
So I can't return my defective phone and get a replacement because I have an unrelated cosmetic issue.
They have a service center down in Irvine, where the guy on the phone told me to go so they could check out my scratch. If they say my scratch doesn't count as physical damage (though with that criteria, how could they not?) they will do the replacement on the spot.
Is the best way to back up my text messages to just go ahead and pay for Handcent's VIP access? It's a one time fee of $4.99 but gets you a 30 day trial of their online sms and mms backup services and also does things like permanently remove ads, so I believe it is basically just getting the "pay version" of Handcent.
I guess I need to figure out how to back up everything else too. This phone is not rooted.
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
like is it the preferable way to get rid of bloatware without doing anything permanent?
Yes. This post from XDA seems to sum it up best:
I just realized that if I root my phone I ought to be able to uninstall the outdated pre-installed swype that came with it, and install the newer beta version instead.
Man, this is going to be awesome.
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-look-for-google-translate-for.html
While booted into recovery mode you can do things like make complete image back-ups of your phone and 'flash' files to your system directory (this directory is otherwise protected while you're normally booted), which is how you flash custom ROMs to replace the default installation.
The samsung vibrant! Worth getting?
If you don't want to wait for a 4G phone, then yeah. I personally haven't used any of the Galaxy S phones, but aside from Verizon customers complaining about Bing, everyone else seems to love their respective version.
Well, considering where I am, I'll be lucky if 4g is even available in these parts by the time the contract is up. Doesn't seem worth the wait. Vibrant it is!
Thanks~
Once you're rooted, install Rom Manager and Clockworkmod recovery (there's a button to do this in RM). From there you can boot to recovery and make backups of your ROM. I'd do this immediately after rooting, just to be certain you have something to go back to if you accidentally fuck it up.
The kernel you want is right here, just make sure you get the one for "Stock and Stock-based ROMs"
PSN - MicroChrist
I'm too fuckin' poor to play
WordsWFriends - zeewoot
I have the vibrant and while I like it a lot I would definitely get the Nexus S if I was picking a phone right now. Samsung has been absolutely terrible with updates (we're still officially on 2.1) and while XDA has been picking up the slack, getting updates straight from google would be much better. Vibrant dev on XDA has also slowed significantly since the nexus s came out and there's no stable cyanogen mod for any galaxy s phone yet.
steam | xbox live: IGNORANT HARLOT | psn: MadRoll | nintendo network: spinach
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