Two days and I'm hooked, looking for the next fix of apps. Yah, all you android people knew but never said it - those app thingies are gateway drugs for the hard stuff - root kits.
It started so innocently. The old clamshell drowned in my pocket during a raging thunderstorm. I got a used Motorola Droid 2 which is a nice little entry level 'droid phone. Little did I suspect it was a needle, a drug delivery device.
A coupla days ago I knew absolutely nothing about smartphones. Did not even know how to adjust the settings or enter contacts. Searched the howard, android, and kitty forums, googled, saw youtube tutorials - there are exabytes of information out there. Needed to save battery life so downloaded a manager app. Then google star map (ooh, pretty). A bubble level? Ok. Velo app for my bike rides. Reading apps to feed the monster. Voice search. Navigation. Each hit lasted only a couple of hours and I was jonesing for the next one.
Then Linkedin. And discovered security leaks. I do not want to give Linkedin my calendar for the week!
Got security risk evaluator apps.
Tried to get rid of Blockbuster and other bloatware. Discovered it could only be done by rooting the phone. Must ... resist ... the root kit ... I will have ... no life.
I think I have made a total of 3 actual phone calls.
You mean like talk? No, no, this is a smartphone. 'Scuse me while I charge it again.
Tried to get rid of Blockbuster and other bloatware. Discovered it could only be done by rooting the phone. Must ... resist ... the root kit ... I will have ... no life.
I think I have made a total of 3 actual phone calls.
Great post. I had not rooted my Droid Razr Maxx until a week ago. I had need to and it was surprisingly quick and easy. Took less than 5 minutes. Have since found many cool apps that can only be installed on a rooted device. However, the one necessity app, IMHO, is Titanium Backup which is why I rooted my phone. You'll always see it as one of the top ten apps for rooted phones. It allows you to backup and restore all your apps, data, and system settings. Pay the $6.58 and buy the PRO version. It allows you to freeze apps/bloatware......among other things. It allowed me to freeze all my bloatware plus my updater which was forcing me to update to ICS which I did not want to do yet.
If you start playing with custom ROMS then get ROM Manager and you can kiss your life away.
'kay, I got rooted. And it was almost as painful as it sounds.
First, I tried all the "easy, one-step, takes a MINUTE! DOIT NOW!" methods. None of them worked. I learned this over hours and days of trying those methods repeatedly. Like, my eyes were bleeding from reading all that crap. I learned never, ever believe a root method works unless it has been verified against your phone model, android version ,and system version.
Discovered that Veri$on issued a system version update for the Droid2 in April 2012, 4.5.621.A955. I think the "621" update negates all root methods before July 2012. Sad but true. All of them.
Android Central posted a solution It's faster to get the disc ISO image by torrent, search for Droid2_D2G_DX_DX2-RootCD-2012.iso Burn a CD, boot from it, connect phone via usb, follow directions. Takes about an hour.
Of course I bricked the phone. I sneezed when it was loading packages, (the computer was in my lap) the cd drive jumped, lost data, and the phone said "software corrupted".
Rebooted the 'puter, reloaded the original software from the disc, rebooted again, and rooted the little D2.
Phone call count jumped to 10. App count jumped to 20.
This pattern keeps up, I'm going to be living under a highway overpass, wrapped in a blanket, obsessively programming smartphones.
Last edited by MellowDog; 08-13-2012 at 09:27 PM.
Reason: changed structure
Haha! I was enjoying the read until that last post. You're killing me. I just hope you're visiting xda for the dirt on modding your little baby up. Once you get into all the settings you can play with and all the launchers you can try... you'll never have the same desktop layout 2 days in a row!
I rooted my Nexus 7 and then after a couple of weeks went back to unrooted. It wasn't worth the headache.
It might make more sense to root the Razr HD/Maxx though, to get the latest OS, and to get rid of the skin. I haven't received my Razr HD yet, but I'm hoping the bloatware on Fido isn't too bad, and the skin isn't too much. If not, I'll just leave it unrooted. Hopefully the 4.1 update will come soon, as I find 4.0 rough around the edges. Motorola says Q1 2013 for Canada.
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Originally Posted by MellowDog
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