My HTC Aria was stolen last night, so I'm in the market for a new phone. I was pretty happy with the Aria, but I'm checking out some other options to see if I want to stick with it or not. I have to stay with AT&T so the Atrix is on my list to check out..
1) Is the Atrix currently rootable with the latest stock AT&T ROM?
2) What are the big issues/annoyances with the Atrix (if any)?
Thanks!
1) Current version (1.83) is rootable via gingerbreak.
2) The only problem people have is that the Atrix has a locked bootloader, therefore getting something like Cyanogen on the Atrix is currently impossible.
I don't think you'll be dissapointed by this phone. It's leaps and bounds better than your Aria was. I came from Captivate and I really love it so far.
InsaneJester17 said:
1) Current version (1.83) is rootable via gingerbreak.
2) The only problem people have is that the Atrix has a locked bootloader, therefore getting something like Cyanogen on the Atrix is currently impossible.
I don't think you'll be dissapointed by this phone. It's leaps and bounds better than your Aria was. I came from Captivate and I really love it so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure I understand.. The phone is rootable, but you can't use a custom ROM?
So will I be able to get rid of bloatware and be able to install non-market apps? (I could live with bloatware, but there are a few non-market apps that I must have..)
ShinerDraft said:
I'm not sure I understand.. The phone is rootable, but you can't use a custom ROM?
So will I be able to get rid of bloatware and be able to install non-market apps? (I could live with bloatware, but there are a few non-market apps that I must have..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone is rootable, and you'll be able to install custom ROMs just fine. The custom ROMs will obviously get rid of the bloatware for you if they are worth their salt. Check out this thread for more information to your questions.
I must have misunderstood this:
getting something like Cyanogen on the Atrix is currently impossible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought that Cyanogen was a custom ROM..
Thanks for the help!
The Atrix is fully rootable, but the bootloader is locked. So you can still sideload apps, run the apps with root access, but you cant make drastic changes to the system like alternate/overclocked kernels. This is why Cynogenmod is not possible on the Atrix at this time. The current roms that are out for the Atrix are mostly just themes.
Do it. It is a great phone and you won't regret it.
CyanogenMod isn't the only custom ROM out there and I believe too many people forget that.
You can root and have custom ROMs like previous posters have said. And coming from an Aria, you will be severely blown away.
My big needs are Swype and EasyTether. Amazon market is also nice, but not a deal-breaker.
So if I understand correctly, Cyanogen is a custom ROM that can't be installed because the Atrix's locked bootloader prevents certain drastic changes.
Other custom ROM's do not make the drastic changes which require bootloader access, so these work fine. Do these other ROM's bypass AT&T's restrictions on apps such as the three noted above? Can these be installed like regular market apps, or do they have to be sideloaded from a PC?
Well if you enable sideloading using gladenable after you root it, you can install all the third party apps you want, without needing to use your computer.
Sent from my Greyblurred Atrix
ShinerDraft said:
My big needs are Swype and EasyTether. Amazon market is also nice, but not a deal-breaker.
So if I understand correctly, Cyanogen is a custom ROM that can't be installed because the Atrix's locked bootloader prevents certain drastic changes.
Other custom ROM's do not make the drastic changes which require bootloader access, so these work fine. Do these other ROM's bypass AT&T's restrictions on apps such as the three noted above? Can these be installed like regular market apps, or do they have to be sideloaded from a PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldnt need to use a custom rom for your needs, but if you wanted to you'd download it on a computer and install it yourself as they wouldnt be in the android market.
All you would have to do is root, then run a script on these forums to enable sideloading and you should be good to go for installing Easytether and Amazon market. The Atrix comes with Swype pre-installed as an alternative keyboard to Motoblur's, so you get that without having to root.
All you need to know is that the phone is fast, has great battery life, and some pseudo custom roms that do everything you are looking for.
Go to the Dev section and read about Gladroot, Gladenable, and Gingerblur then purchase the phone and if you've got more questions, people will be here to help.
garekinokami said:
All you need to know is that the phone is fast, has great battery life, and some pseudo custom roms that do everything you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that this is a great phone, and I'm much happier leaving iOS behind, but when people say this phone has great battery life, I feel a bit confused. Does that mean that Android phones in general have worse battery life than the Atrix? I know a few people have said they get 25-30 + hours on the phone, but then again there are several threads on battery life and the general consensus seems that this is a phone that you MUST charge at night, because otherwise the next day it will be dead. 18 hours or so seems like what most people get...
maledyris said:
I agree that this is a great phone, and I'm much happier leaving iOS behind, but when people say this phone has great battery life, I feel a bit confused. Does that mean that Android phones in general have worse battery life than the Atrix? I know a few people have said they get 25-30 + hours on the phone, but then again there are several threads on battery life and the general consensus seems that this is a phone that you MUST charge at night, because otherwise the next day it will be dead. 18 hours or so seems like what most people get...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a user, but in my research I found that the Atrix had a higher capacity battery (1930mA hrs) than other phones (Inspire - 1230mA hrs, Captivate - 1500mA hrs).
My experience is that battery life depended on my use more than anything else. If I played music in the car, left my data connection open most of the day, but kept bluetooth and wifi off, I could go about 1.5-2 days between charges. By not playing music and keeping my data off most of the time, I could stretch that to 3-4 days.
Related
Well my work just got a bunch of iPhones and the CEO got one of the. He had the Samsung before so I got it as an upgrade over my crackberry.
Now I really want to install a custom rom/kernel on the phone but I am hesitating because its really not my phone and my work owns it.
What do you guys think should I stick with stock or should I root the phone and install a rom?
Stock. There's nothing like explaining to the boss how you f'd up company equipment.
I dont know if one should/should not install custom roms on a work phone, as I don't have one. But I can tell you that if you do decide to root and install one of the custom roms, it's not that hard to unroot and go back to stock later on when you need to return the phone. There are several threads here that will guide you through the process too.
jenisiz said:
Stock. There's nothing like explaining to the boss how you f'd up company equipment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess your right I just hate being stuck on 2.1 when I know I can have a nice Froyo install. It's just so hard not to do because I have done it with all my other devices.
dsf767 said:
I guess your right I just hate being stuck on 2.1 when I know I can have a nice Froyo install. It's just so hard not to do because I have done it with all my other devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you...but who's to say he won't ask for it out the blue someday?
Idk, at this point, the fascinate is practically impossible to brick. You also say you have experience rooting and customizing other phones, correct? I say go for it. The only reason I could see not to is due to security issues. Work passwords and etc.. I really don't know too much about all of that tho.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
I have a rooted android work phone. All you have to do is read what ppl are saying about the roms and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS and youll be fine.
dsf767 said:
Well my work just got a bunch of iPhones and the CEO got one of the. He had the Samsung before so I got it as an upgrade over my crackberry.
Now I really want to install a custom rom/kernel on the phone but I am hesitating because its really not my phone and my work owns it.
What do you guys think should I stick with stock or should I root the phone and install a rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Used my fascinating voodoo powers
I seriously discourage doing anything to it. It's not yours for one, and (no disrespect to the devs ofcourse, their work is amazing) there really isnt anything spectacular for this phone at the moment due to samsung's failure to provide any source code. To be more specific... our kernels suck.
And oh yea this shouldve been in the Q&A section so be ready for ashasaur to move this thread. (hes really good at doing that )
Depends on your comfort level, and of course, your corporate policies.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
I would say root your phone at the most. It's fairly easy to recover from just rooting, but flashing roms/kernels/modems is much more risky. At least with rooting, you could fairly easily freeze the bloat with TiBu and have a more functional phone. Thawing everything and un-rooting would have you a stock phone back fairly quickly, and you could also still receive OTA updates as well.
I say go for it if anything goes wrong all you have to do is odin back to stock it removes everything its as simple as plugging the phone in load the stock file and click start I've done this countless times
We pick our work cell phones specifically because of the potential customization we can do. I hate being stuck with some company's version of what they think will be useful to me in my job. I can Odin this phone back to stock/factory defaults in less than 5 minutes if need be, so customizing this phone and expanding its abilities, and recovering from those customizations quickly, were what attracted me to it.
Android is Android, whether it's Samsung's stock version or one of the dev's version of it. Your phone is still going to perform the same tasks you need it to for your job. As long as you are both competent with the technologies involved and confident in your ability to restore to stock, I don't see why you should hesitate from exploring the options that are out there, especially when Froyo source drops and we see an explosion of dev-created customizations/enhancements.
Really? If your asking for advice on whether to mess with a business owned phone, it makes me wonder are you the ceo's mail clerk?
SuperClean2.9.1vNitroDark
Personally for a work phone, I'd update it for better usage in my work.
Increasing battery life usage duration.
Less irritating buggy glitches.
Removing the idiotic TW/BING/VZW craps. (too many add-on hacks from google default causing reliability and dependability problems)
Adding Backup and Restore nandroid for possible failures and migrations.
I suggest DJ05 + SuperClean + Blaze v2.3.1R2.
Dear community,
I've rooted my TFP using the guide from xda. To be honest, I didn't mean to, I read the guide and got carried away with it . Finally the root is good now. As a windows guy and with slight understanding of linux I'm pretty new to android.
My question is, now that my tablet is rooted, how can I take advantage of it? What are the recommended apps? Any known tweaks?
Please enlighten me
Search 'root' on android market.
Titanium Backup is useful, Ghost Commander or EZ file, there are also apps to remote control your tablet, you can use new launchers - trebuchet launcher or nova launcher on rooted devices.
You can also delete system files, so be careful.
The biggest bonus to rooting is being able to flash different roms like many of us do with our android smartphones. Flashing roms is currently not an option on the Prime but should or could be available in the future. Right now I don't think there's a whole lot to do with a rooted Prime.
While I haven't rooted my Prime yet, I'm only in day 6 and waiting until the "send it back" period elapses I rooted my moto Atrix2 almost immediately. I installed Titanium Backup as well as System Tuner, and a couple other root only apps. The primary reason for rooting the Atrix2 was to freeze Carrier ID as I don't care for ATT snooping on me with without so much as a by your leave. In any case I'll probably root the Prime just to get more control over what the device is doing when it's in standby. For instance I am hoping to be able to use Tasker to shut off the wifi after 5 or 10 minutes in standby in order to save battery power and turn it back on,when I wake up the tablet. Maybe find a way to create different, more detailed power profiles for different activities. I've done a lot of this on the Atrix2 and seen some significant increases in battery life because of it.
Q
coogrrr94 said:
The biggest bonus to rooting is being able to flash different roms like many of us do with our android smartphones. Flashing roms is currently not an option on the Prime but should or could be available in the future. Right now I don't think there's a whole lot to do with a rooted Prime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incorrect, Rooting has nothing to do with flashing ROMs. Unlocking the bootloader on the other hand, has everything to do with flashing ROMs.
Swiftks said:
Incorrect, Rooting has nothing to do with flashing ROMs. Unlocking the bootloader on the other hand, has everything to do with flashing ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right. i don't think that any ROM can improve the already very good existing one from ASUS.
I haven't rooted my TFP, but I'm seriously considering doing so. The main reason is that most of (good) adbockers require root access. Loading all this rubbish adds, many of them being large flash animations, slows down browsing experience significantly. I want to get rid of them and the only way I know is by rooting Android.
For me about the biggest thing is "AdAway" or any other app for updating host file.
Never see one single ad on your device again. Less anoyance, faster loading times in browser, less data consumption ...
Neter67 said:
right. i don't think that any ROM can improve the already very good existing one from ASUS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've never used CM7 then... soon to be CM9.
Sent from my CM7 Atrix 4G
for some time now i'm planning to get my first android phone. atrix was my first favourite, but it's pretty expensive. in the meantime, google nexus s caught my eye, and i've been trying to find it, but it's almost impossible to find in my country. so, i decided to save some more money and go for atrix. reading a lot about it on the internet, i have some concerns.
1.) i've been reading a lot of opinions that atrix, despite its impressive hardware, often lags, has a lot of bugs; all in all that user experience is not smooth as it should be with phone this powerful. i'd like to hear your opinions.
2.) how is battery life? would it last a whole day with this scenario: brightnes on max, 1 hour wi-fi, 5-10 minutes talk, 30 minutes gaming/using apps, half an hour reading, watching one movie.
3.) is blur ui really that awful? i see a lot of people complaining about it. is it removed from custom roms?
4.) what actions cause phone brick? i've red that downgrading an os causes bricking, so it means if i install custom ics rom, and don't like it, i'll be stuck with it because i can't roll back to stock gingerbread or i'll brick my phone?
5.) coming from WM, i've seen a lot of compatibility problems with apps/games. how is the situation here? will atrix run every (or almost every) app/game?
6.) how does it cope with demanding games like shadowgun, backstab, nova...?
7.) can rooting cause any problems?
8.) anything else, you'd like to add.
thanks in advance.
at this point in the atrix's life... pretty much all of your questions/concerns have been addressed.
read the noob guide that's pinned in the general atrix forum.
take some time to search and read through the atrix forums.
like I said... the answers are out there.
Look at this thread i made when i was considering buying the atrix:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1478124
Lots of usefull infos and opinions.
Im very happy with my Atrix. After installing custom roms, the perfomance bumps A LOT. Im using Nottachtrix 4G right now, and my phone is flying.
1.) I believe that it's not as bad as people say, things got better with GB, and really it's just the launcher that's laggy, which can be replaced easily through the market. My favorite is ADW EX, very smooth, very clean
2.) that depends on a few things, typically i believe the stock and blur based roms are the best in terms of battery, then CM7 roms are close behind, and CM9 is not so great. Not sure for those exact uses, but i believe the atrix is above par for android phone
3.) There not really much to blur IMO, just some widgets and app replacements. Without any rooting or unlocking you can get make the launcher look relatively stock. And of course any CM7, CM9, or MIUI based roms aren't going to have blur at all
4.) I'm pretty sure this just referrer to downgrading from Stock 2.3 GB back to an early stock 2.2 froyo rom, which honestly i don't see why anyone would do that at this point, after you get to GB and unlock it you can move to any custom rom and back to stock 2.3GB if you'd like. Bricking usually happens when don't thoroughly follow directions, i haven't bricked my phone yet and this is my first android phone as well
5.) Very few to none really, there are a few games that require, certain chipset, like OMAP, tegra, etc. but this can be fixed by install chainfire 3d. So when you get your phone it'll be compatible with 99% of apps out of the gate there aren't any i've run into yet
6.) Quite well, many apps are specifically tuned toward tegra, and it's capable as it is
7.) I think i read that, if your on stock with root permission, you can't receive OTA updates, but on any custom rom it's not a problem
8.) I believe the Atrix has a relatively strong dev community, just a quick look at the number of posts on this site, the Atrix has one of the top.
Im using atrix for 7 months now...its my first android phone and after a lot surfing in net i bought this one....believe me its the best.
With the usage like u mentioned it surely lasts for one day...it has d powerful battery 1900mAh! Blur UI is really good (in 2.3.4)...those all might be related to 2.2.1 but after the update its good...
It takes really good HD vdos...great pics(xcept night shots)....touch and rest is awesome
Go for it.....!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
The Atrix is a good investment. Look at the phones coming out today. What do they have over this phone? Pretty much nothing. They usually have higher stock CPU speeds but other than that they are similar. This phone is a year old and still had enough specs to run with phones coming out. Until the 4-plus-1 chips start showing up in phones you can't get much better. Unless you want a bigger screen.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Once I moved to Atrix from my iPhone 3G I could never go back. This thing is a powerhouse. It replaced my computer for me. The battery is pretty good for a dual core device. So long as you know not to keep useless apps running in the background (which there are apps out there that automatically take care of that).
I have experienced several bugs here and there but it's nothing major. Extremely fast browsing experience as well.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone. Especially once you root this thing, it turns into a super powerhouse
Surprised myself and after two weeks of ownership I am still on the I717 Note's stock ROM. This was after constantly ROM flashing on my prior Android Samsung Infuse and iPhone4 & 3G (Jailbreak of course).
Stock battery life is decent and launchers like GO, ADW, etc. give plenty of ability to change icons, UI behavior, etc.
So far I haven't found any annoying problems that would require me to fix via rooting.
I HAD to root my prior Samsung Infuse because it had software bugs that required root to fix BUT I am real PROUD of my Note's ability to run strong and solid as a stock ROM. I haven't been forced to reboot yet in 2 weeks of ownership! Yeha!
For myself the KEY is to make myself to NOT TO LOOK AT Applications:Running Services...it makes me sick to see all those unnecessary apps loaded up.
I simply wanted to see how the Note behaved out-of-the box...and so far real impressed.
Will I ever ROOT - Probably, just to get rid of bloatware AND I will need to tether occasionally once I start traveling again.
Will I ever replace the ROM? Not sure, depends on features but definitely not interested in ROMs that just change icons, startup screens and colors.
anyway, this is just post to say how satisfied, thus far, with the Note's performance...as is.
Anything I'm missing that needs root to fix?
andrawer said:
Surprised myself and after two weeks of ownership I am still on the I717 Note's stock ROM. This was after constantly ROM flashing on my prior Android Samsung Infuse and iPhone4 & 3G (Jailbreak of course).
Stock battery life is decent and launchers like GO, ADW, etc. give plenty of ability to change icons, UI behavior, etc.
So far I haven't found any annoying problems that would require me to fix via rooting.
I HAD to root my prior Samsung Infuse because it had software bugs that required root to fix BUT I am real PROUD of my Note's ability to run strong and solid as a stock ROM. I haven't been forced to reboot yet in 2 weeks of ownership! Yeha!
For myself the KEY is to make myself to NOT TO LOOK AT Applications:Running Services...it makes me sick to see all those unnecessary apps loaded up.
I simply wanted to see how the Note behaved out-of-the box...and so far real impressed.
Will I ever ROOT - Probably, just to get rid of bloatware AND I will need to tether occasionally once I start traveling again.
Will I ever replace the ROM? Not sure, depends on features but definitely not interested in ROMs that just change icons, startup screens and colors.
anyway, this is just post to say how satisfied, thus far, with the Note's performance...as is.
Anything I'm missing that needs root to fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can stop those with Autostarts (free in the market), and requires root. It prevents them from opening at all. If you end up checking it out, use the "after startup" disable option.
- Root required apps (there a lot of really good ones - this alone would be enough for me to root).
If you're not interested in theming, or a lot of modifications, then stock is cool. Features, changes, and modifications from custom roms can be patched to stock roms; the only advantage of using custom ones is that they're baked in for you.
I am sticking on stock rom for now, just going to root so I can restore a lot of my old apps, nothing more.
I've already flashed Da_G's root/over clock kernel, which got rid of the lag I was seeing. As soon as cwm comes out of beta I'm going to check out saurom. The Note's out of the box experience is one of the best I've seen, but there is just too much improvement to be had to stay stock, IMHO.
Synner12 said:
I've already flashed Da_G's root/over clock kernel, which got rid of the lag I was seeing. As soon as cwm comes out of beta I'm going to check out saurom. The Note's out of the box experience is one of the best I've seen, but there is just too much improvement to be had to stay stock, IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CMW b3 seems to be flawless so far!
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA
I think it is a good idea to stay all stock until ics update comes out and we apply it. (I expect them to want us to be all stock when applying the ics update that is why)
Underground_XI said:
I think it is a good idea to stay all stock until ics update comes out and we apply it. (I expect them to want us to be all stock when applying the ics update that is why)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough but there will be several ICS Roms months before official AT&T. (I am typing from my ICS Captivate right now for example). Plus you can always flash back to stock.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA
I was stock from best buy to my house and that's it and I can't wait till I can get a sub 100mb ROM onto here. The bloat is sickening and even after removing down to mid 100 it's still not performing to it's non touchwiz potential.
Just to throw in my two-cents, I am fairly impressed as well with the Touchwiz 4.0 interface. Coming from an Atrix (blur) and Inspire (sense), touchwiz is a big step up imo. It feels like gingerbread done right to me. Although it isn't without a few issues, like the slight but noticable lag (to be fair all stock roms seem to stutter a bit occasionally), the no wallpaper scrolling and no landscape mode for the touchwiz launcher.
I think it will be interesting to see what devs or even Samsung/AT&T come up with to merge Touchwiz and ICS. It's gonna be a good year in the ROM community on this phone I can feel it.
Both my notes are on stock. I have no need for a rom.
Sarius24 said:
Both my notes are on stock. I have no need for a rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but... stock IS a ROM, too.
I think it is a great thing that this phone is so good that we can use it stock. Haven't got mine yet but I only plan to Root it and use stock for a few weeks, at least.
So far yes
Right now there really aren't that many roms for the galaxy note lte so I'm going to wait until ICS comes out play with that for a while then I'll be flashing away!
I think people obsess over nothing rather than actually use their devices. That said, I'm not bothering to flash anyone's cooked ROM until there's an ICS update from Samsung.
burhanistan said:
I think people obsess over nothing rather than actually use their devices. That said, I'm not bothering to flash anyone's cooked ROM until there's an ICS update from Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^That, less the o/c kernel. The performance boost isn't exacted necessary, but you WILL notice it.
I was going to try and stick with the stock ROM as long as possible. However, my addiction got the best of me, and im now laying in bed at the end of my first full day with my Note, and I'm running TPC2 with Da_G's OC kernel. Go figure. Haha.
Not that I was having troubles with the stock ROM, as it was actually really smooth and lag free for the most part. On the other hand, now my Note is an absolute beast. The Note is definitely the first Android I've been happy with out of the box, but I would still rather be running a custom ROM, if not just so I can tell people it's running custom software when I show them my phone.
Samsung really hit it out of the park with this phone. I will never look at a smaller phone the same way again. Forever ruined! And I find the SPen to be really comfy for just navigating my phone and precision of selection. Swyping is fun with it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
I think it's not necessary for me to do anything yet. But don't get me wrong, I will root the phone eventually. I have a real problem with ATT telling me that I "have" to suffer software I don't want on MY phone. That in its self encourages me to root. But, I am waiting to see if ICS is really going to be available soon.
I wonder though if Rooting would affect the upgrade process--perhaps someone could answer this for me. If not, I would be tempted to root my Note after the thirty days (window of time for return) is up.
I flashed roms daily on my Inspire, but I am stock now and planning on staying that way forever or at least until If leaks. the only thing I've done is root to disable ads and remove bloatware.
I'm still stock. I've rooted and jailbrake-ed other phones. I really like this one the way it is. The bloatware etc don't bother me much. I may root after ICS. For now, my Note rocks pretty hard just the way it is.
Roger_15 said:
But, I am waiting to see if ICS is really going to be available soon.
I wonder though if Rooting would effect the upgrade process--perhaps someone could answer this for me. If not, I would be tempted to root my Note after the thirty days is up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you asking if root will affect upgrading to ICS? The answer to that is no. If you flash a custom ROM then that answer is yes. You would need to go back to stock ROM for the ICS update from ATT. However, there will be ICS ROMs here well before ATT releases it.
What's the 30 days thing? Not getting that part. What happens in 30 days? Maybe you mean the window to return your Note. I agree you might want to wait for that to expire before root. But you can also un-root if you want.
I'm on stock rom and don't plan to root anytime soon for both of my devices the note and gnex!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I feels good to be on a phone platform that isn't stagnant. After owning an LG S-Class phone and a Bada phone, having Android feels like Christmas has come early. However I am left majorly confused as to my options on various things.
I have tried to read and understand the benefits of rooting my phone. I've only found one negative in that Google Play movies won't work. Other than that it seems like a great thing to do. However after reading and trying to understand everything, I was left more confused than ever before. So far I've found 4 different methods to root a phone. Which method does one go for? Then there's the super user access, busybox, yellow triangle, again it's confusing.
I would like to root my phone to achieve the following:
- Be able to shutoff various services and things to get better battery life.
- Get access to all of the cool rooted apps out there, like the ones from Chainfire etc.
- Play some of the Tegra games.
- And I'm sure other things I havn't yet discovered or am aware of.
I would like to also know what are the options for being able to install copied paid apps etc. On the iPhone it was easy once you jailbroke a phone, but on Android I'm again confused on this part. I know there is an option to be able to install apps from an untrusted source, but it seems there has to be more to this than that.
Then the thing that confuses me the most is the huge amount of custom roms. Then you have kernels thrown in as well. I've gone into information overload trying to get up to speed with everything and this part seems too large a scope to get my head around it so quickly. I don't have any problem with my stock ICS really, but then I don't know what I'm missing on the custom side of things.
I'm sure I sound like a complete noob. That's ok, I am when it comes to Android. For my previous phones I was flashing custom roms, and doing all kinds of things. Maybe it's not all as confusing as I think, but right now I'm having a hard time getting a good picture on things when it comes to my new Galaxy S2 phone.
I would greatly appreciate someone being able to help me with some of these questions rather than telling me to gtfo or use the search function. I've tried, but now after overloading on stuff, I've taken a step back. I've been trying to find a website, page or post that might answer my questions in a way that I can get my head around it all. In the end I choose an Android phone because of the customizations, and for the community that is doing great things. I'd like to join the party :good:
Superuser access, busybox, and yellow triangle are not root methods. Superuser is what you get when you root the phone, and it allows root apps to get superuser access to do certain root things, if you grant the app those permissions. Busybox is some sort of utility (I don't know much about it, actually. Shrugs) that you can only get on Android once its rooted. Required for titanium backup and some other root programs. I think it was originally on linux. The yellow triangle is a Samsung only thing, basically it counts how many times you have flashed custom firmware and kernels onto your phone. The app triangle away resets the counter so you can claim a warranty if the phone breaks without the triangle giving you away. You can choose your root method, some are one click and others are the traditional method.
Installing the .apk of a paid app? That's a no-no. To answer your question, you can install a non market app without root and there isn't really another side of that. (Maybe you're talking about license verification?)
Custom ROMs are firmware (you know that, since you said you've done it before. The advantages are usually a later version of Android that your manufacturer stopped on, a stock non skinned Android experience (your S2 has touchwiz), and tweaks/other features to make it faster/cooler. For example, ParanoidAndroid allows you to switch between tablet and phone modes easily, and the entire cyanogenmod series has a built in theme engine as well as many options in the CM settings.
Custom kernels (or just kernels) manage the CPU and GPU. Different kernels allow overclock/underclock better battery saver and performance settings, and simply CPU management.
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gagdude said:
Superuser access, busybox, and yellow triangle are not root methods. Superuser is what you get when you root the phone, and it allows root apps to get superuser access to do certain root things, if you grant the app those permissions. Busybox is some sort of utility (I don't know much about it, actually. Shrugs) that you can only get on Android once its rooted. Required for titanium backup and some other root programs. I think it was originally on linux. The yellow triangle is a Samsung only thing, basically it counts how many times you have flashed custom firmware and kernels onto your phone. The app triangle away resets the counter so you can claim a warranty if the phone breaks without the triangle giving you away. You can choose your root method, some are one click and others are the traditional method.
Installing the .apk of a paid app? That's a no-no. To answer your question, you can install a non market app without root and there isn't really another side of that. (Maybe you're talking about license verification?)
Custom ROMs are firmware (you know that, since you said you've done it before. The advantages are usually a later version of Android that your manufacturer stopped on, a stock non skinned Android experience (your S2 has touchwiz), and tweaks/other features to make it faster/cooler. For example, ParanoidAndroid allows you to switch between tablet and phone modes easily, and the entire cyanogenmod series has a built in theme engine as well as many options in the CM settings.
Custom kernels (or just kernels) manage the CPU and GPU. Different kernels allow overclock/underclock better battery saver and performance settings, and simply CPU management.
Sent from my LG-C800 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply gagdude.
The custom roms thing is indeed confusing lol. You have files for modems, kernels, and it goes on. How does one even know if they need a new modem file I wonder. I imagine people probably flash their phones on a daily basis. What to speak of choosing a new kernel.
At any rate, being that this is my first android phone, and my second Samsung one, I'm quite happy with the Touchwiz interface as it's familiar.
I understand more now what a kernel does, unless I'm mixing in some things I've seen that look like a completely different UI. I might look at that at some point, but for now my stock ICS 4.0.3 on the S2 seems quite ok. So really it's now just choosing a method of rooting it.
As for installing the .apk of a paid app, yes that was what I was referring to. It was possible on jailbroken iphones installing .ipas, but I don't know if it is on Android. When you say a no-no, are you referring to it can't be done, or that it can, but it's a topic that cannot be discussed here?
KrazyKong said:
Thanks for the reply gagdude.
The custom roms thing is indeed confusing lol. You have files for modems, kernels, and it goes on. How does one even know if they need a new modem file I wonder. I imagine people probably flash their phones on a daily basis. What to speak of choosing a new kernel.
At any rate, being that this is my first android phone, and my second Samsung one, I'm quite happy with the Touchwiz interface as it's familiar.
I understand more now what a kernel does, unless I'm mixing in some things I've seen that look like a completely different UI. I might look at that at some point, but for now my stock ICS 4.0.3 on the S2 seems quite ok. So really it's now just choosing a method of rooting it.
As for installing the .apk of a paid app, yes that was what I was referring to. It was possible on jailbroken iphones installing .ipas, but I don't know if it is on Android. When you say a no-no, are you referring to it can't be done, or that it can, but it's a topic that cannot be discussed here?
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No prob.
Some people do flash quite often, yes, but I don't believe they completely change everything. Usually they flash a different ROM because hey - ROMs are the fun part. Each one is unique and its fun to play around.
Touchwiz is a pretty nice interface IMO but its personal opinion, some people hate it. Either way, your choice on that. I do believe some skins are big resource and RAM hogs, especially Sense (despite it looking very nice) and the old Motoblur. That's when flashing a vanilla Android ROM really helps.
The S2 should be getting a JB upgrade in the next few months, so if you plan on staying stock and taking the OTA, make sure to only freeze bloatware (not uninstall) and do NOT install a custom recovery. Rooting these days are pretty easy, its just that some old timers dislike one click root methods because you don't know what you're getting into and you don't fully understand what you're doing to your phone. Little secret: I've only rooted with one click root methods
Yes just like a jailbroken iPhone you can install the .apk however it is available without root.
When I say no - no I mean we can't discuss it on xda. It's against the rules
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gagdude said:
No prob.
Some people do flash quite often, yes, but I don't believe they completely change everything. Usually they flash a different ROM because hey - ROMs are the fun part. Each one is unique and its fun to play around.
Touchwiz is a pretty nice interface IMO but its personal opinion, some people hate it. Either way, your choice on that. I do believe some skins are big resource and RAM hogs, especially Sense (despite it looking very nice) and the old Motoblur. That's when flashing a vanilla Android ROM really helps.
The S2 should be getting a JB upgrade in the next few months, so if you plan on staying stock and taking the OTA, make sure to only freeze bloatware (not uninstall) and do NOT install a custom recovery. Rooting these days are pretty easy, its just that some old timers dislike one click root methods because you don't know what you're getting into and you don't fully understand what you're doing to your phone. Little secret: I've only rooted with one click root methods
Yes just like a jailbroken iPhone you can install the .apk however it is available without root.
When I say no - no I mean we can't discuss it on xda. It's against the rules
Sent from my DROID2 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Yes I was aware the S2 would be, or should be getting JB in the next few months. I'm more than happy to wait for that. I have found one program that enables you to one click root the phone, but it's a bit misleading as you have to first flash a file using ODIN, thus it's not one click on that sense. What is the program you use for rooting may I ask?
Maybe I got lucky but my phone is unbranded and only contains 2 apps. Both can be uninstalled. As for freezing the bloatware, I'll have to read up more on what services and things I can freeze safely.
SuperOneClick is by far the most popular one click root solutions. It doesn't support all devices, however. If it doesn't work on your S2, that method you found (flash a file via ODIN first and I'm assuming the next step is a one click root?) seems pretty simple. As long as you don't mind doing a few extra steps, there are many methods for the SGS2 because of its popularity. Make sure the instructions to root are for your specific model, becaused there are many variants of it.
The reason why I said not to uninstall bloatware and only freeze is because when you update, you have to have all the apps the phone came with (if its uninstallable stock, then it should be fine), unroot, then update for it to work correctly. Having a custom recovery like Clockworkmod also causes problems when updating. You'll have to stick with the stock recovery.
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