Related
My daughters birthday is coming up in a few days (14 yrs old) and she wants a new phone as a gift. She lives with her mom 600 miles away and I don't get to see her or my youngest daughter as often as I like.
She has been bugging me about getting her an Iphone 4 as her mom has one and even though I have been telling her about my Cappy she has (as most preteen girls do) only hears what she wants. Iphone, Iphone, Iphone dad!!!!
Well, they have arrived for thier holiday visit with me and it only took about 5 minutes of tinkering with my Captivate and she is hooked. (She's a smart kid. )
So since she has an upgrade available (on my plan) a Captivate it will be.
I have been pondering whether to leave it stock or installing a custom ROM on it for her. But I want it and need it to be bullet proof since, as I mentioned, she is 3 states away and if the phone fails with a custom ROM I will not be there to fix it. If I leave it stock, I know it will be more reliable, and if it is not, a visit to her local ATT service center will get her back in business.
I have not had 2.1 on my phone for months and I have forgotten the big differences between it and Froyo. The differences I do remember are less lag, and more features like MobileAP and HSUPA. HSUPA and lag fix being the only things she will notice. I am sure the only uses the phone will provide for her will be texting and internet.
I am currently running Axura 2.5 and have had it running longer than any ROM I have used in the past couple of months. I feel like that if I put this on her phone it will give her reliable service and no need for any attention until her next visit (Spring Break) and by then 2.3 will, I am sure be in full swing and I can find a stable version of that to upgrade her phone to.
I am battling with myself on what to do. I want her to be happy with the phone and not wish she had chosen the Iphone a week after having the cappy and I believe putting something better than eclair on it will keep her happy. But at the same time I don't want it to be buggy and aggrivating for her, and again wishing she had gotten the Iphone.
What should I do? What am I not thinking of that would sway my decision one way or the other?
Thanks in advance. Happy New Year.
If it aint broke.............
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
If she played around with your custom ROM Captivate, and you give her one with a stock ROM, she's gonna hate you.
Keep it stock.. maybe do a theme or something small to change the appearance, but overall when update are available, I'm sure she just wants to download the update..not run odin and flash roms - she's a kid
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
born_fisherman said:
Keep it stock.. maybe do a theme or something small to change the appearance, but overall when update are available, I'm sure she just wants to download the update..not run odin and flash roms - she's a kid
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed... I use Launcher Pro, but maybe give her a theme-able launcher so that she can freshen up her interface once in a while. Hell... she may even like the iPhone-ish Touch-Wiz, but... blah... I hope not.
Happy New Year to you as well.
maybe its time to introduce her to XDA and the joys of rooting/flashing/custom roms. A kid that age will pick it up very quick if they have the slightest bit interest.
custom ROM.. she'll know if its stock.
why don't you give her your phone and geta new one yourself
just saying ......happy new year to you as well!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
You can't go wrong with Assonance. From my experience its just as stable as stock. I'd probably keep her clocked at 1000ghz w/ no under voltage though.
Sent from my SGH-T959D using XDA App
keep it stock. If she shows any interest at all in custom roms, direct her here.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Update to a 2.2.1 rom.
i would get her the iphone. honestly.
a.vandelay said:
i would get her the iphone. honestly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your serious, why are you on here?
Thanks for all of the replies guys. She was dead set on the Cappy so that is what she got. I made her play around with stock for almost a day. And believe me, she wore it out. She tested everything and had the phone figured out pretty quick. I then let her mess around with mine again and it was just a few minutes she felt the difference between the ROM's. Mainly the lag and speed of the modem like I knew she would. So I put Axura on it and she is over the moon.
I would love for her to get into the technical side of it but even though she likes techy stuff like her dad, she doesn't want to fix it, she just wants to drive it.
I plan to keep an update.zip (not needed I know with the built in CWM but just in case), and the Axura ROM zip, renamed "ROM_Recovery.zip" on the internal SD and show her how to reflash if something goes wrong.
To be honest I was really surprised that she chose Android over the Iphone as, like her mother, she is all about the status of something versus quality. All of her friends including her mom has an Iphone 4 and I knew that the video chat would be the deal breaker. She has put more mileage on her mom's phone than her mom has so there is a statement of how much better Android really is when a 14 year old drama queen see's the difference
Of course, my daughter has always had a type-A personality and never really been a follower. She might be trying to set a trend. If sales of the Captivate rise suddenly in her area then I would bet I know why.
Thanks again guys. HNY
Scottbg1 said:
If your serious, why are you on here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because i'm not a 14 year old girl who wants an iphone who lives far away from her dad when her phone breaks. the same reason i install windows vista on my friends computers when they ask me to instead of convincing them they need linux because i have some tricked out configuration. i have a friend who just got an android phone for a college graduation gift and didn't know how to set the wallpaper (using the orange resize box), delete old sms messages, and other common stuff. why? because no one reads manuals and there's no commercial that shows me how to use my android phone. people who never owned an iphone know more about it from watching a hand on tv than she does owning an android phone.
what if something goes wrong (defective phone) and she needs to take it back to at&t and she can't flash it back to stock? i can't imagine a 14 year old girl being happy about not having a phone for a few days, a week, or longer. and a captivate no less? it gives us fits, and we're supposed to be good at this stuff.
sure the iphone is crippled in comparison, but 1) it's an iphone, that's all kids care about, 2) the apple store will take care of her, 3) it's an iphone.
i mean no disrespect, that's just my opinion. i hope it works out for her, because if she does take the time it will benefit her .
You install vista on friends computers? Ouch. You must not like your friends too much.
Sent from outerspace
Long story short, I had to call att warranty department to get my phone replaced due to my speaker starting to go out. So when I called it in on the 8th (September), which was the last day for my warranty, I flashed back to stock, restored product code, backed up entire sd, and upgraded to official froyo. So since that time I have been on stock patiently waiting my new phone to come in. I've been on customs so long that I forgot how slow and unresponsive stock is. I remember that as I got spoiled with customs that I felt that those roms were starting to feel slow themselves and that although they're faster then stock, maybe it's more of a placebo that I really think it's that much faster then stock. Alas, I was mistaken. All in all I just want to say thank you to the devs of this great community. Being on these custom roms we sometime take for granted that your work, and although not always perfect, it is still far more superior then anything the stock experience can offer. If you don't feel this way right now, just go stock for almost a week and you'll feel my pain. :¬[
Thanks again xda devs.
Sent from my painfully stock SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I'm in the exact same boat; broke my captivate I got last year, almost bought an iphone (wtf was I thinking), but instead decided to call insurance and get a new captivate; amazing how big a difference the ROMs make, the stock is such sh*t (not to mention how far behind the captivate was on updates ;[ )
Finally got my replacement in. It's a 1010 so ill miss my 1007. Oh well. Time to get rid of this 3e recovery and flash.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
kisnerct said:
...almost bought an iphone (wtf was I thinking)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
God! Don't even MENTION iPhones in this company! I've spent the last several DAYS trying to get sh*t off my dad's iphone (songs and the like) so he can put them on his new Captivate.
The changes you have to go through--and programs you have to download--to be able to do what you can do with an Android just by rooting it and getting a decent file manager leaves me speechless... or at least the many words I've used would be incredibly inappropriate on a site that doesn't specialize in murder and mayhem. I've used curse words over the last three days that I didn't even know I knew.
I'm not close to be anything like a real geek, but I swear, I can't imagine why anyone would want a phone from a company that makes it so hard to adjust and take items you actually purchased off of (can you say "DRM"?). The only good news is, my Dad likes the Cappy enough that we will likely never see an iPhone in this house again.
Thank Heavens.
I completely agree with you, I try my best to remember on a daily basis how great-full I am for the Dev's and XDA.
After making sure I have a way to get back to kb2 and backing up my old phone I just half an hour ago flashed miui. Good bye slow stock . I used to stay away from this rim because I heard of bad battery. But with a galaxy s 4g 1650 mah battery I bought from a friend for 7 dollars, it's not so bad
Sent from my I897 using XDA App
kevalin said:
I've used curse words over the last three days that I didn't even know I knew.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not that you didn't know that you knew them so much as you did what I do somedays. You went thru everyone that you knew and then started to join them together in new combos and when you had done every combo you could think of you started inventing new ones. Most people do that instead of running head first into a wall repeatedly or jumping into traffic. I must say both of those would be better than an iphone
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
My husband rooted his phone, but otherwise had stock Froyo ever since he got his phone. He used to make fun of me for constantly trying new roms out. But he started getting more and more pissed off with his phone and how laggy and unstable it was, and a few weeks ago I offered to flash him a custom rom.
He uses his phone much much more, and I hear a lot fewer curse words out of his mouth now that he isn't cussing at his phone anymore.
Word that homie. I would die without my roms. To me Roms are the number one biggest reason why i like android over iPhone.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
I agree with that, after I flashed cm7 and was on that for a few days. I deleted my froyo backups. No point in going back, been flashing nightlys now. Can't do that on a non-android phone
I will always keep my stock nandroid just incase I have to warranty
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
I better get an ice cream sandwich after having to deal with your crap HTC. This device was full of flaws when I bought it. That was inexcusable after paying top dollar for it. Verizon (Ripoff Mobile, Inc.) was too uptight to do anything about it. I would not be surprised if all the official talk was nothing more than hot air in the end. At least developers are working on a version. I am so glad I finally had some time to get root permissions on this phone. Did you feel betrayed after buying your TBolt? To be honest, I would have bought a marked down model if I had of know ahead of time what was going to happen.
\space
\space
\space
I would have deleted this if the option were available.
why so pissy. My phone was perfect out of teh box, it is faster than any of my friends dual core phones, and I have true unlimited 4g, and why do you care if we get official ics, you will just use a rom anyway, not an ota
Mr._Takahashi said:
I better get an ice cream sandwich after having to deal with your crap HTC. This device was full of flaws when I bought it. That was inexcusable after paying top dollar for it. Verizon (Ripoff Mobile, Inc.) was too uptight to do anything about it. I would not be surprised if all the official talk was nothing more than hot air in the end. At least developers are working on a version. I am so glad I finally had some time to get root permissions on this phone. Did you feel betrayed after buying your TBolt? To be honest, I would have bought a marked down model if I had of know ahead of time what was going to happen.
\space
\space
\space
I would have deleted this if the option were available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easy killer. My phone has worked mostly fine since day one. Sure there were some software issues (random reboots due to the LTE radio, GPS, the most annoying), but that is to be expected when you buy bleeding edge technology. This was the first Verizon LTE smartphone, EVER.
That being said, the device is still on par with other top devices today. I haven't upgraded, because I haven't found another device I like that much better than this. The Nexus is nice, but I'm not big on the light flimsy build of those phones, plus samsung is notorious for poor reliability. Motorola screen's have been awful so far, or I would have considered the Razr Maxx.
Bottom line...why don't you cry about it...
BTW, there is nothing special about ICS. Sure it's nice to have the newest thing, but there really isn't that much to get excited about. I still don't understand why honey comb and ICS got rid of the search button. I use that thing constantly.
I have to say I've been 99% happy with this phone since release.
The 1% was the odd rebooting issue I had for 4 weeks in aprilish.
Sent from my HTC ThunderBolt using Tapatalk
Honestly I've liked this phone since I first got it, battery life sucked but that was nothing rooting and loading a rom couldn't fix. Other than that I'm still happy with my purchase.
I especially like it cause me and my girlfriend got phones from a good batch, handles low voltages and overclocking even up to 1.8 (not needed though) perfectly.
Thanks to all the developers who have been developing for the thunderbolt since day one, and all that are continuing to do so!
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
Bigandrewgold said:
why so pissy. My phone was perfect out of teh box, it is faster than any of my friends dual core phones, and I have true unlimited 4g, and why do you care if we get official ics, you will just use a rom anyway, not an ota
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's see.
1. The phone was the Flagship phone for LTE and was released with Froyo.
2. The phone was buggy at release and still shows some issues.
3. Not everyone's phone was "perfect out of teh box". Some of us had to get replacements multiple times to get a *good one*.
4. ICS does have improvements over Froyo and GB.
5. Official OTA release of ICS will allow devs to create much better ROMs for this phone, rather approaching it by piecemealing parts from other Official ROMs.
6. Lastly, this phone was sold at a premium price and VZW's/HTC's support has been lackluster to be kind about it.
Note: I don't know the OP from Adam, but your experience, like mine, is anecdotal and not indicative of all others. VZW screwed the pooch on the roll-out and
HTC screwed the pooch on the releases of updates, support and finally, by rushing the damn thing out the door before it was ready.
sonicanatidae said:
3. Not everyone's phone was "perfect out of teh box". Some of us had to get replacements multiple times to get a *good one*.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's with any phone these days. I haven't had a single smartphone I haven't had to replace for one reason or another.
On a side note, the Tbolt isn't the only flagship phone with problems. The Galaxy Nexus has really bad call connectivity problems from what I hear, and that's supposed to be the MAIN function of a PHONE. lolz
All i will buy is htc. I know updates are slow to come. I also dont care. The newest isnt always the best, there are usually a fresh set of bugs to work out. That being said, the devs here and other sites give me enough variety to satisfy me. If you dont like the process, learn to code.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Mr._Takahashi said:
I better get an ice cream sandwich after having to deal with your crap HTC. This device was full of flaws when I bought it. That was inexcusable after paying top dollar for it. Verizon (Ripoff Mobile, Inc.) was too uptight to do anything about it. I would not be surprised if all the official talk was nothing more than hot air in the end. At least developers are working on a version. I am so glad I finally had some time to get root permissions on this phone. Did you feel betrayed after buying your TBolt? To be honest, I would have bought a marked down model if I had of know ahead of time what was going to happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure HTC is reading your post right now
If you care, go call them and say what you said directly as it will do far more good for you and for the community.
I moved onto a Nexus, but I still use my Thunderbolt for development testing apps I make. Not even the Nexus is perfect though as the internal antennas are not as powerful at picking up data. My db is usually 10-15db worse than the thunderbolt. However, I would not trade my Nexus for any other phone as I got tired of having to wait on HTC and Verizon for updates on the Thunderbolt.
i just lol at this thread.
Im an HTC fan. I got my tbolt on launch day and have never had an issue (not saying some havent) but I couldn't be happier.
Still have yet to find one phone on the market that has everything the tbolt has (not including dual core, which has not really impressed me) and still think it is a top 4g phone.
I would buy it all over again. We have received everything promised so far & it would be a nightmare for HTC to not give us ICS after they confirmed it...
I also have to say that Verizon did not screw up or delay the launch. There was never an official launch date given from them or HTC until the week before release, as is the norm with their releases. All other dates were made up by the internet and people.
HTC released about 6 updates to the phone between march and September, I think that is pretty good at keeping on top of it..
Jrocker23 said:
Im an HTC fan. I got my tbolt on launch day and have never had an issue (not saying some havent) but I couldn't be happier.
Still have yet to find one phone on the market that has everything the tbolt has (not including dual core, which has not really impressed me) and still think it is a top 4g phone.
I would buy it all over again. We have received everything promised so far & it would be a nightmare for HTC to not give us ICS after they confirmed it...
I also have to say that Verizon did not screw up or delay the launch. There was never an official launch date given from them or HTC until the week before release, as is the norm with their releases. All other dates were made up by the internet and people.
HTC released about 6 updates to the phone between march and September, I think that is pretty good at keeping on top of it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said. People are never satisfied. I guess they think HTC should put out updates as often as some ROMs get updated...
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
I got the TB for $49 bucks new when I dropped T-Mobile. Rooted it the day I got it home and have never had a single problem with it that I cannot blame on bugs in the ROM or me OCing the crap out of it.
Everyones phone is gonna be better or worse than the next guy. Did we get screwed by Verizon??? Show me where in writing the promise a full ICS upgrade and you will see thousands of TB owners lining up to sue the piss off Verizon and HTC.
If you are gonna stay up on the newest devices, Hopefully you are not paying retail for the devices, Shop around and you will be amazed at what you can find.
I have a galaxy nexus just sitting on stand-by cause i've had no problems with my tbolt, besides the dev slowing down i really have no problems with my tbolt and has been my favorite phone. while it would be nice to get ICS soon im not tripping about it, my contract for the thunderbolt ends in december much wait and see what comes out by then.
why is anyone bothering to respond to this guy? He doesn't like his phone, he needs to quit whining about it and get rid of it. No amount of "I love my phone!" posts are going to change his mind. They just bump this useless thread back to the top. Yes, I know I also just bumped this thread.
l7777 said:
why is anyone bothering to respond to this guy? He doesn't like his phone, he needs to quit whining about it and get rid of it. No amount of "I love my phone!" posts are going to change his mind. They just bump this useless thread back to the top. Yes, I know I also just bumped this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, you did.
Sent from my HTC Mecha using XDA App
The two people I know with a nexus have had quite a few issues with their phones.. biggest problems being being signal and when leaving WiFi they don't get data until turning their data off and back on... Point is what ever phone you go to there will be something that bugs you about it and the update that fixes your problem will never come out fast enough.. be happy for what you have..
Sent from my HTC Mecha using Tapatalk
i never get tired of forum drama, except that it makes me crave ham.
I haven't had a problem since day 1. I got home, rooted it and put liquid smooth on. I've always been one to have a new rom every week but this one's been so good with battery life and everything that I haven't even tried another one. I love this phone. On another note, my brother got the same phone and has had problems. Just like any other electronic item, you might get a dud.
I just wanted to post, saying thank you to everyone here.
I've had my Infuse for almost 2 years now, and while it will kinda be sad to let it go here soon for a Nexus 4, I have to say, you all turned my opinion on the phone around.
I run through AT&T, and when I got the phone, it was my first smartphone. My biggest problem was all the AT&T bloatware on it. It kept running in the background, making it hard to do anything as it lagged up my phone. It really ruined it for me. I looked up online to see when I could finally leave Froyo and maybe see if it would run faster on GB, and learned about the Kies upgrade. I started the method, and it sat there for half a day doing nothing but sitting at 30% until I finally disconnected it in frustration. Turns out, it was upgrading, but the cord wasn't good enough to do it, and I had bricked my phone. I panicked, as I was trying to find a job, and without my phone, I was screwed.
I came to this site looking for help. When I finally tried a new cord and Heimdall one-click, it worked gloriously (big thank you to qwkster for all of your help on that with your informative posts here). I was so excited to run gingerbread, but something was wrong. I couldn't save contacts, and my phone just generally didn't want to work. I didn't want to try messing with it again, because I didn't want to break it. Eventually, my phone bricked itself, and at this point, I checked to find a warranty on it. My warranty had expired 3 months after I got the phone, so as AT&T tried to run me through the hoops of either an insurance claim or an early upgrade, both of which cost me money I didn't have, I finally told them I was not doing either, and told her that the best help she could give me was telling me that I don't have a warranty. I decided to root my phone that night.
After 4 hours of searching for a one-click that rooted my phone and removed all the bloatware, I finally found one of qwksters helpful posts and got it to work. My phone was finally mine, actually mine to fully control, and it was great. It ran so fast, and it just felt amazing to use, I was so excited. I started working at a corporate radioshack after that, and thats when I started getting some nice cases for it to just make me feel more like this phone was truly my phone. The cases made people think I had a stronger phone than I did, and it just made it that much more awesome.
The night before Halo 4 released though, I had remembered that halo 4 would support smartglass, and went to download the app. M$, being the great people they are, didn't let it support GB, so I looked on here again to find a work-around, and learned about Cyanogen Mod. My night was cleared and set ahead of me, and I prepared to turn my already awesome phone into something even better.
I did all the work-arounds, and got my phone upgraded to JB. At first, I worried that there were some big issues with it, such as facebook sync not working. Found out, that was really a minor issue that made me worry a lot, and it was fixable, though I've been too lazy to use it lol. Either way, I got to work to next day, and my Store Manager was dumbfounded at my phone, questioning why I didn't get a new phone at the store. I told him it wasn't a new phone, and he was surprised at what I had done to my phone, one that was discontinued and kinda forgotten about. I love what this phone does now, I love what google did with Android, and even moreso, I love the xda community for making me realize just how good an Android phone can be when the user is given control of it.
The biggest downfall is the battery life, but it lasts a day so its really not that bad. Plus, we have chargers all over radioshack, so its normally fine lol. Either way, this phone is spectacular, and I have to admit, I will hate to see it go, but I can't wait to try out an officially branded google phone.
When the day comes that I jump over to the Nexus 4 forums, I just want it to be known here that you guys made my Android experience the best it could be. The CM team and qwkster in particular are two of the greatest assets to this, and I can't thank you enough. I love this phone, and I love google even more for how well they have done with their OS and supported the community to do even greater.
Keep on doing what you are doing here, it works, it works miracles
Are you on the backorder list for the N4 as well?
Sent from my SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2
Well written. Most of us have had similar experiences with XDA community.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Absolutely. You couldn't have sucked it out of my mind any better. This entire community is awesome. I donate to everyone whose code I use, and am quite happy to do so.
The Infuse is an awesome phone and my first smartphone too. It was indeed scary to to that first rooting...but it opened the door to lots and lots of other great experiences and trials with my phone.
Whatever my next phone is, I will be turning again toothed excellent folks here, and hopefully can give some code of the my own back someday.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using XDA Premium HD app
Let us know how you like the Nexus 4
That was beautiful :'(
Yea i am also proud of the infuse and all the support it has been given.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Love the infuse. I would definitely still use that as my daily driver, but i am using a 4s just because it will not ever fail, like my phone on debloated stock gingerbread, stable as a rock. But it is on a heavily modified CM10 i made lol, still rocks. I was looking at a nexus 4, and played with the optimus G at Best Buy, and boy let me tell you, i could not slow the dang thing down! I was looking at the G, Note 2, and One X+ but something way better like the S4 will be out soon, and i might as well wait now until my contract is up in 4-5 months now.
To be honest, I have not heard one good thing about the N4 to date. Granted I haven't heard any really bad things, like the phone exploding in your hand the second you try to run it at 100%, but enough to sway me away from it.
Like you in a way, I came to these forums some time ago whilst working on what was one of my first smartphones, the HTC 8195 Wizard. Slider phone with full keyboard, halfway decent graphics, but sucky WM5.0 OS.
Next up was the HTC 8925 Kaiser, AKA "ATT Tilt", which ran WinMo 6.0 at best, but some pretty crafty and resourceful devs here on XDA ported Android to it, not just firmwares but kernels as well. L1q1D taught me a few things on kernel structure and memory mapping (really important on those phones), and the rest just seemed to fall into place; I was hooked.
The best I could do was try to port Honeycomb through use of "blind porting" from another HTC phone, but I couldn't get the kernel to fully come on line with the new memory structure, and all I could get was a really long bootloop and an almost non-functional homescreen.
Which brings me to the Infuse, which I aquired through the normal upgrade channels when contract came up. I got 2 of them, one for me, one for the now ex-girlfriend, who constantly bugs me to upgrade her phone since she's still on 2.2.1 Froyo.
Everyone here, devs and noobs, are always kind and willing to lend a kernel of knowledge, if it's something they know how to fix. If they can't fix it, they can point you to someone who can.
Lots of love and respect for everyone here on XDA, not just this forum.
There is a wealth of knowledge and information out there on just about any phone/smartphone available around the world. You can even step outside the bounds of your subscribed forum (this one) and find another phone using similar hardware, and maybe use some apps that also run on that device, even some "bloatware" from the manufacturer that you find useful, yet is not included in your favorite firmware.
Again, hate to lose another "Infuser" to the N4, but choice is choice... just don't drop it...ever.
PoXFreak said:
Again, hate to lose another "Infuser" to the N4, but choice is choice... just don't drop it...ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went the way of the N4 as well. I read many things about the phone that were bad, but after about two weeks of use I have nothing to complain about. I still use my infuse at home for browsing the internet and some games, I guess you could say my "phablet" because I can't make calls with it. I still browse these infuse forums daily! Don't think I could ever get rid of it.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
I just received an OTA update for My Galaxy S4 SGH-I337. My phone seized up and I had to take it into Best Buy in order to get the firmware re-installed so my phone would actually work! That was blissful... So now I am now running Android 4.4.2 KitKat! YAY! But not really.
When I got this phone, it was loaded with Android 4.3 Firmware, and for the first time in my life, I have not been able to Root my phone. I looked through all the methods out there, but none of them worked. Some people claim this one and that one, but for me, I couldn't get it to do a darn thing. Well, no big deal, it's not like I really need to root my phone.
Except that you do. YOU NEED TO ROOT YOUR AT&T PHONES!
I noticed that the OS on this 32g model uses an unprecedented 7g of space!!! That's aside from the apps that come with the phone that I will never use. Leaving me with only 21g of space on my phone, which claims to be a 32g model. Again, this is not a big deal, right? You can throw an SD card in there if you need more space...
FINE
Now comes the issue of the AT&T and Samsung Exclusive Applications that are loaded on to the phone when you get it, and ARE IRREMOVABLE! These apps are here to stay. It doesn't matter if you don't use them, or like them, or want your disc space back, screw you AT&T customer, you HAVE to have these apps.
The sickening part about all of this is the mandatory obligation you are put under when getting your new phone. No one tells you that AT&T is going to shove all of this crap down your throat. And it wouldn't be so bad if these apps were removable... it wouldn't be so bad if you could root your phone an remove them yourself... it wouldn't be so bad if you could a custom firmware on the device you just dropped $700 on... I mean, it is your phone, isn't it?
But Samsung & AT&T have gone so far out of their way locking this device down to a point where it is next to impossible to unlock and do anything with!!! Is it really that big of a problem? Someone always seems to find a way around it eventually, so why do it?
Regardless, It looks like I should have bought the Nexus 5, that way my OS wouldn't take up 7g of my 32g of space, and I wouldn't have a bunch of bloatware filling up my phone. I'd love to hear that someone has found a way to root this new NB1 baseband, and allow for custom firmware installation, because I'd like to take this phone back to AT&T and shove it down their throat.
Shibblet said:
I just received an OTA update for My Galaxy S4 SGH-I337. My phone seized up and I had to take it into Best Buy in order to get the firmware re-installed so my phone would actually work! That was blissful... So now I am now running Android 4.4.2 KitKat! YAY! But not really.
When I got this phone, it was loaded with Android 4.3 Firmware, and for the first time in my life, I have not been able to Root my phone. I looked through all the methods out there, but none of them worked. Some people claim this one and that one, but for me, I couldn't get it to do a darn thing. Well, no big deal, it's not like I really need to root my phone.
Except that you do. YOU NEED TO ROOT YOUR AT&T PHONES!
I noticed that the OS on this 32g model uses an unprecedented 7g of space!!! That's aside from the apps that come with the phone that I will never use. Leaving me with only 21g of space on my phone, which claims to be a 32g model. Again, this is not a big deal, right? You can throw an SD card in there if you need more space...
FINE
Now comes the issue of the AT&T and Samsung Exclusive Applications that are loaded on to the phone when you get it, and ARE IRREMOVABLE! These apps are here to stay. It doesn't matter if you don't use them, or like them, or want your disc space back, screw you AT&T customer, you HAVE to have these apps.
The sickening part about all of this is the mandatory obligation you are put under when getting your new phone. No one tells you that AT&T is going to shove all of this crap down your throat. And it wouldn't be so bad if these apps were removable... it wouldn't be so bad if you could root your phone an remove them yourself... it wouldn't be so bad if you could a custom firmware on the device you just dropped $700 on... I mean, it is your phone, isn't it?
But Samsung & AT&T have gone so far out of their way locking this device down to a point where it is next to impossible to unlock and do anything with!!! Is it really that big of a problem? Someone always seems to find a way around it eventually, so why do it?
Regardless, It looks like I should have bought the Nexus 5, that way my OS wouldn't take up 7g of my 32g of space, and I wouldn't have a bunch of bloatware filling up my phone. I'd love to hear that someone has found a way to root this new NB1 baseband, and allow for custom firmware installation, because I'd like to take this phone back to AT&T and shove it down their throat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Switch carrier, or be grateful that you have this powerful smartphone. xD
Moderator Edit - Profanity Removed , that is well known. But the majority of AT&T clients don't know what root is, even, and locking bootloaders is business oriented.
"Oh, you want an unlocked bootloader? Why not get our Google edition S4?"
I'm from Bulgaria, and a friend of mine was on a student brigade in USA, and he got an S4, which I bought from him.
Little did I know it was from AT&T...
I am running Kitkat on it right now.
Bootloader locked, no root yet.
But root will be found, and in time the devs are gonna come up with some really sick ROMs.
Be patient, and when the devs do their magic, don't forget to thank them.
sirobelec said:
Switch carrier, or be grateful that you have this powerful smartphone. xD
Moderator Edit - Profanity Removed
"Oh, you want an unlocked bootloader? Why not get our Google edition S4?"
I'm from Bulgaria, and a friend of mine was on a student brigade in USA, and he got an S4, which I bought from him.
Little did I know it was from AT&T...
I am running Kitkat on it right now.
Bootloader locked, no root yet.
But root will be found, and in time the devs are gonna come up with some really sick ROMs.
Be patient, and when the devs do their magic, don't forget to thank them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an absolute.
I was running a GS2, with ShoStock3 on it. That rom worked great, stable, smooth, no issues. My son is using that phone now, and he still has had no problems running it.
I guess my biggest problem with AT&T is what they do to a perfectly good piece of hardware. Add all their little apps to it, lock the bootloader, lock the carrier, and bloat the OS to 7 times it's original size (Not an exaggeration). I guess I'm a minimalist. The OS doesn't need to be any larger than it has to. AOSP Roms prove that. 500meg footprint instead of 7gigs!
BTW, the newest upgrade put Beats Music on my phone, and I can't remove it.
Shibblet said:
That's an absolute.
I was running a GS2, with ShoStock3 on it. That rom worked great, stable, smooth, no issues. My son is using that phone now, and he still has had no problems running it.
I guess my biggest problem with AT&T is what they do to a perfectly good piece of hardware. Add all their little apps to it, lock the bootloader, lock the carrier, and bloat the OS to 7 times it's original size (Not an exaggeration). I guess I'm a minimalist. The OS doesn't need to be any larger than it has to. AOSP Roms prove that. 500meg footprint instead of 7gigs!
BTW, the newest upgrade put Beats Music on my phone, and I can't remove it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good sir, can you tell me why AT&T have clients at all? Their devices and fees cheap?
sirobelec said:
Good sir, can you tell me why AT&T have clients at all? Their devices and fees cheap?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Their coverage area in Alaska is great. Their customer service and prices are good too. There are not a lot of options for service in the area that I am in, so I tend to go with AT&T, because when I do go out of state, I have usage where I go with no roaming fees and the like. We do not have T-Mobile or Verizon available in Alaska, unless you sign up out of state.
Could be worse. They could put the entire beats audio apk on the phone instead of it just taking up 8k since it links to the play store. While I do agree the os is over bloated at least we can disable apps we don't use and speed it up some.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
1. you can disable any at&t and most Samsung bloat app via the app manager.
2. all bloat combined adds up to a few hundred megabytes, barely making a dent. its the features that differentiate the s4 from lesser devices that take up this extra space. motion controls, smart screen, air controls... these are what take up the space.
3. who keeps data on the device anyway? devices break, devices brick, etc... SD cards are fairly robust and can be removed in the event of a failed device. my music, photos, downloads, etc is on my 32 GB SD card. cloud sync'd data is on internal to save space on the card but that's stored elsewhere anyway.
I love root for one very simple reason: AdAway. I used to just flash new roms immediately upon getting a phone but vanilla is boring. OE stuff is getting pretty good. I used to automatically install Titanium backup and freeze everything that way but the app manager allows us to do this now.
Actually, can we have a thread, for example this one, for general ranting, complaining, hate and such (NONE of it towards fellow xda members)?
I mean, ranting over stuff we can't do much about. AT&T politics, bloatware, etc. Call it stress relief.
And rehab sessions for flashaholics who updated to this locked Kitkat, but now their booze is taken away.
Shibblet said:
I just received an OTA update for My Galaxy S4 SGH-I337. My phone seized up and I had to take it into Best Buy in order to get the firmware re-installed so my phone would actually work! That was blissful... So now I am now running Android 4.4.2 KitKat! YAY! But not really.
When I got this phone, it was loaded with Android 4.3 Firmware, and for the first time in my life, I have not been able to Root my phone. I looked through all the methods out there, but none of them worked. Some people claim this one and that one, but for me, I couldn't get it to do a darn thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you mean you were also unable to root 4.3 mk2? I have rooted.a dozen or so mk2 devices for people with safe root.
If you meant kit kat. Then it was just released be patient.
Bloat ware can be removed once the root is obtained.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I feel your pain......
CAG-man said:
Did you mean you were also unable to root 4.3 mk2? I have rooted.a dozen or so mk2 devices for people with safe root.
If you meant kit kat. Then it was just released be patient.
Bloat ware can be removed once the root is obtained.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a safe root method for 4.3. It's the same as the method for Verizon. My 4.3 S4 is rooted right now. However, I'll only have this thing for about another week. I am fed up with Samsung and AT&T. I still have AT&T grandfathered unlimited data, and that's the only reason I'm still with them. This is my first Android phone and it is FAR from the open experience I expected coming from iPhone (jailbroken of course). Jailbreak was easier than initially rooting this model S4. Then I learned of the locked bootloader.........Knox was the final straw. Samsung can keep their forced security BS. I ordered a 32 GB Nexus 5 yesterday and am jumping off the Samsung ship. Love the hardware, hate that I can do anything I would like to with my device. And no offense to Devs working on it, but I've never waited as long for an iPhone jailbreak to happen on iOS as the bootloader unlock on this thing is taking for somebody to figure out. I'm not sure if it will happen, so I'm not going to worry about it. From here on out, it's only unlocked open phones for me. If I'm up for contract renewal, I'll get the most popular phone at the time from my carrier, sell it, and buy a Nexus/ Google Play Edition device. Camera maybe better on S4, but that's not my primary use anyway. Nexus 5 camera is good enough for me. And I don't have to buy additional parts to get Qi wireless charging.
I think Samsung wants to move to Tizen eventually anyway........so they have full control of EVERYTHING......just like Apple. Not for me.
- Jeremy
Shibblet said:
I just received an OTA update for My Galaxy S4 SGH-I337. My phone seized up and I had to take it into Best Buy in order to get the firmware re-installed so my phone would actually work! That was blissful... So now I am now running Android 4.4.2 KitKat! YAY! But not really.
When I got this phone, it was loaded with Android 4.3 Firmware, and for the first time in my life, I have not been able to Root my phone. I looked through all the methods out there, but none of them worked. Some people claim this one and that one, but for me, I couldn't get it to do a darn thing. Well, no big deal, it's not like I really need to root my phone.
Except that you do. YOU NEED TO ROOT YOUR AT&T PHONES!
I noticed that the OS on this 32g model uses an unprecedented 7g of space!!! That's aside from the apps that come with the phone that I will never use. Leaving me with only 21g of space on my phone, which claims to be a 32g model. Again, this is not a big deal, right? You can throw an SD card in there if you need more space...
FINE
Now comes the issue of the AT&T and Samsung Exclusive Applications that are loaded on to the phone when you get it, and ARE IRREMOVABLE! These apps are here to stay. It doesn't matter if you don't use them, or like them, or want your disc space back, screw you AT&T customer, you HAVE to have these apps.
The sickening part about all of this is the mandatory obligation you are put under when getting your new phone. No one tells you that AT&T is going to shove all of this crap down your throat. And it wouldn't be so bad if these apps were removable... it wouldn't be so bad if you could root your phone an remove them yourself... it wouldn't be so bad if you could a custom firmware on the device you just dropped $700 on... I mean, it is your phone, isn't it?
But Samsung & AT&T have gone so far out of their way locking this device down to a point where it is next to impossible to unlock and do anything with!!! Is it really that big of a problem? Someone always seems to find a way around it eventually, so why do it?
Regardless, It looks like I should have bought the Nexus 5, that way my OS wouldn't take up 7g of my 32g of space, and I wouldn't have a bunch of bloatware filling up my phone. I'd love to hear that someone has found a way to root this new NB1 baseband, and allow for custom firmware installation, because I'd like to take this phone back to AT&T and shove it down their throat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even when we do get to root the phone, you will not be able to reclaim any of that space.
Sorry.
It's not the OS...
joeybear23 said:
Even when we do get to root the phone, you will not be able to reclaim any of that space.
Sorry.
It's not the OS...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's lame... but can you explain why? Is this area set aside as a cache or something?
Also, I have searched for the answer, but I can't figure out why they would go through the trouble of locking the bootloader and kernel down with a chastity belt. Any idea why they did that too? I'm just a firm believer that "rooters gonna root" regardless of how difficult they make it.
It just makes me think of things in terms of games like Oblivion and Skyrim where the developers don't really care how many mods people make for their game, they don't lock it down and keep people from doing it.
Shibblet said:
That's lame... but can you explain why? Is this area set aside as a cache or something?
Also, I have searched for the answer, but I can't figure out why they would go through the trouble of locking the bootloader and kernel down with a chastity belt. Any idea why they did that too? I'm just a firm believer that "rooters gonna root" regardless of how difficult they make it.
It just makes me think of things in terms of games like Oblivion and Skyrim where the developers don't really care how many mods people make for their game, they don't lock it down and keep people from doing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The space is locked down for use by the ROM, and it is just written that way for the device, and devs have not been able to unlock it.
As for locking the bootloader, I am sure ATT is sick of eating up the expense of replacing phones as "defective" due to user ignorance. People brick phones left and right and then turn it back over to ATT and have to give a new phone in exchange. ATT can certainly repair them and reflash them, however they can only then be sold as refurbished units which hits them financially, not to mention the man-hours needed for reflashing them. Each device maybe takes a few minutes, but multiply that by thousands of returned devices and it is a compelling case for keeping future users from doing the same.
I have rooted every Android i've owned, so don't get me wrong... but if I break the thing I wouldn't be one of those trying to make ATT pay for it.
"As of 7 June 2013, the 2000th Aventador, an Aventador LP 700-4 with Nero Nemesis (black) body colour, was built and destined for the United States owner Thaddeus Arroyo, Chief Intelligence Officer of AT&T."
- via Wikipedia.
sirobelec said:
Switch carrier
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a heads up on this note..
It appears that the Galaxy S5 will have a locked bootloader not just on Verizon (the original basturds) and AT&T (the follow-up basturds), but also T-Mobile now (the new basturds).
Supposedly, only Sprint will have the "unlocked bootloader". Though they will likely still have KNOX.
So if anyone wants an S5 and AOSP, they need to go with Sprint or wait and pay full price for the Google Play Edition.