[McLabia]

So, Im curious how many phone nerds are around and what youve got!

Rooted HTC Thunderbolt: VirusROM Airborne(Fully desensed), Ziggy 5.3.11 kernel daily running at OC'd to 1.3, Darkhorse custom theme with GOLauncher.

[Bababooey]

Looking to get an Android phone sometime soon.
"Rooted HTC Thunderbolt: VirusROM Airborne(Fully desensed), Ziggy 5.3.11 kernel daily running at OC'd to 1.3, Darkhorse custom theme with GOLauncher." Whats all this mean? You've got a hacked kernel on it? What r the advantages?

[McLabia]

Originally Posted by Bababooey

Looking to get an Android phone sometime soon.
"Rooted HTC Thunderbolt: VirusROM Airborne(Fully desensed), Ziggy 5.3.11 kernel daily running at OC'd to 1.3, Darkhorse custom theme with GOLauncher." Whats all this mean? You've got a hacked kernel on it? What r the advantages?

lol. I love my Bolt. I would recommend this phone to ANYONE. When you decide to buy your phone, I would HIGHLY recommend wirefly. I bought my phone from there MAD cheap. I paid 182 for my Bolt(NO TAX) and that included the first month of my insurance(which has ZERO deductible).

https://www.androidpolice.com/2010/04/15/rooting-explained-top-5-benefits-of-rooting-your-android-phone/
^ Good read about the basics.

Rom: Basically its like the OS of a computer.
Kernel: Basically its like DoS
OC'd means that I overclocked it to 1.3 gigahertz
GOLauncher is basically a GUI for the ROM or OS.

[Bababooey]

Nice. Thanks for the tips.
I see the Bolt is one of the few LTE phones for Verizon. I'd be interested in using it as a hotspot to give my laptop internet access.
Are you concerned that it's only a single core processor? I also note in the reviews that people tend to complain about the battery life as well... If you were to get another smart phone now, would you still choose the Bolt?

[JiveBanana]

I've got an HTC Wildfire ("Buzz"). Out of the box it's awful: it's painfully slow. I rooted it, tried several custom ROMs on it and installed a custom kernel.

Thanks to the custom kernel, the CPU is now running at 691 MHz instead of the default 528 MHz. Together with a different CPU scheduler ("interactive"), the phone is finally usable.

I tried a few different versions of CyanogenMOD, and although they have a few advantages, they really lack in usability. I think HTC Sense is a necessity for Android based phones: I'd like my phone to be easy to use out of the box, I don't want to install third party apps just to make a phone call comfortably.

All in all, the Android philosophy sounds very nice: a smartphone you can customize to your needs. After 8 months with such a phone, I found that a closed source device with a well thought of interface is a lot more practical than a custom one.

[McLabia]

Originally Posted by Bababooey

Nice. Thanks for the tips.
I see the Bolt is one of the few LTE phones for Verizon. I'd be interested in using it as a hotspot to give my laptop internet access.
Are you concerned that it's only a single core processor? I also note in the reviews that people tend to complain about the battery life as well... If you were to get another smart phone now, would you still choose the Bolt?

Yep. I love this damn thing. Its super fast, has a shit load of memory and storage space. Yes the battery life is horrid out of the box, but this thing has a monster screen, and I bought three 1500 mah batteries and a wall charger from ebay for 12 bucks. I only use three batteries total(Mostly only able to go through two in a day) and I stream pandora all day while at work. Ive been reading on my android forums where people are getting 24-32 hours on the 1400 mah battery. I get anywhere between 5-12 on one charge depending on how much Ive been streaming pandora or watching videos on my phone. 4g is redic fast, destroys anything ATT has for service and the upload destroys cable. Theyre trying to do away with tethering all together or make you pay out the nose for it. They do have "Packages" but whats the point of those if you have unlimited data? lol. If youre gunna jump on a new phone and youre a verizon customer, I would suggest you do it before summer. Theyre going to be implementing tiered data which basically means youre no longer going to be paying for unlimited date, but data with a bandwidth cap. You go over and they charge your ass. Dual core phones will go the way of Betamax.

Originally Posted by JiveBanana

I've got an HTC Wildfire ("Buzz"). Out of the box it's awful: it's painfully slow. I rooted it, tried several custom ROMs on it and installed a custom kernel.

Thanks to the custom kernel, the CPU is now running at 691 MHz instead of the default 528 MHz. Together with a different CPU scheduler ("interactive"), the phone is finally usable.

I tried a few different versions of CyanogenMOD, and although they have a few advantages, they really lack in usability. I think HTC Sense is a necessity for Android based phones: I'd like my phone to be easy to use out of the box, I don't want to install third party apps just to make a phone call comfortably.

All in all, the Android philosophy sounds very nice: a smartphone you can customize to your needs. After 8 months with such a phone, I found that a closed source device with a well thought of interface is a lot more practical than a custom one.

Sense SUCKS. Ive totally removed every aspect of sense. 1. Its a HUGE hog on battery and 2. its just fugly, and not to mention, Imo, the wildfire is just a horrid phone to begin with and there was never any hope for it. lol.

Romming isnt so much about making phone calls comfortably, as much as it is to make it your OWN. he problem Ive seen with Cynogen is that it reminds me of Windows. Its never finished. Ive been looking at running it, but I just cant bring myself to it with all of the bugs.

[Bababooey]

McLabia, I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Does it have GPS and all that good stuff? I like the map feature of my iphone. What else can your superphone do? Sounds like theres not much it can't do...

[Bababooey]

Also, even if i sign an unl data plan before they move to tiered pricing, in two years when i have to re-up with verizon again, wont i be switched to a tiered plan if thats all they have? Or i guess i could be on a month to month plan, but then how do i upgrade my phone?

[JiveBanana]

Originally Posted by McLabia

Sense SUCKS. Ive totally removed every aspect of sense. 1. Its a HUGE hog on battery and 2. its just fugly, and not to mention, Imo, the wildfire is just a horrid phone to begin with and there was never any hope for it. lol.

Romming isnt so much about making phone calls comfortably, as much as it is to make it your OWN. he problem Ive seen with Cynogen is that it reminds me of Windows. Its never finished. Ive been looking at running it, but I just cant bring myself to it with all of the bugs.

I agree the Wildfire is an awful phone. That said, Sense does make Android a lot more usable. The default dialer in Cyanogen/Android is just pathetic. And the same goes for the texting application.

I know these can all be switched to better (often paid) apps, but I don't want to spend days testing every different dialer on the market. And even if I did find the magic dialer for me, integrating it into the ROM requires some tweaking here and there: if you just install the app, you'll still run into the classic dialer every now and then.

I'm considering buying a "real" Android phone, one with a decent CPU and resolution but I don't think that will automatically make the software any better. The Samsung Galaxy S II looks promising: Samsung don't try to prevent you from installing a custom ROM at all, you're just on your own when you do. Which is an approach I like.

Bottom line: read reviews and reserve free time before you buy an Android phone.

[elgwedoloco]

Droid X, Liberated(Running Liberty 2.01 ROM), OC'd to 1.22GHz, ADW Launcher EX. I don't know what I would do without this phone now that I have it. Not to mention where I live tethering my phone is my only form of internet. So for now Verizon is giving me 6-10GB of data a month through my phone.