, and never looked back. I do not know what I would do without a smartphone now. Apparently there was a time in the past where if you had a question that the people you were out with couldn't answer, you would have to wait until you got home to look up your question. By that time, more than likely, you would have forgotten your question until next time you were out, and the cycle would repeat..jpg "First Gen iPhone") |
| The original iPhone in all it's glory |
, but being the first smartphone that had mass consumer appeal, was lacking in key areas. First was the actual data service, which at the time was 2G data, AT&T EDGE, which was about as fast as dial-up internet. Compared to the data service I had previously, nothing, this was fine, but it made doing things like searching for quick answers far longer than was feasible in many situations.When I managed to drop my iPhone face-down onto rocky asphalt and shattered my screen, I figured it was time to upgrade, so I sold my old phone on eBay and purchased the second generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G
. This was a marked improvement over my original iPhone since it had 3G service, but was not functionally any faster due to slow hardware. |
| If my memory serves me, this is what my iPhone 3G looked like. |
Its hard to pinpoint exactly when the phone became unusable, but at some point, after a couple iOS updates, the phone became so slow that just typing a search query could take several minutes. I would literally turn on the screen, open Safari, click into the search box, let the keyboard pop up, type the first letter of my search, and wait. Sometimes it was ten seconds, sometimes five minutes. It got to the point where I had to put all my mental effort into not throwing the phone into the nearest hard surface. It was an unusable brick. I had to get a new phone again.
After my four-year foray into Apple products, my wife and I decided to give the Android platform a try. One because I felt constrained by how Apple controls their software, and another because a new Android phone was $0.99 versus a new iPhone at $99. Well, it isn't actually $0.99, it's $36.99, due to AT&T's $36 phone transfer fee, but that fee is standard for all their phones. Meanwhile, I made good use of my iPhone 3G by turning it into a television remote and baby toy.
I ended up getting a Samsung Infuse 4G
, which is sort of a the bastard stepchild of the Samsung Galaxy S II
that came out around the same time. (You may remember theInfuse from the commercial where the phone gets smashed because the picture of a spider on it is so lifelike) |
| Samsung Infuse 4G |
Rooting Android
That was until I finally decided to try and fix it by rooting the phone. By rooting, I was able to uninstall all the useless AT&T and Samsung software and just use the apps I wanted. I essentially have a new phone now. There is little lag, almost no crashes, and I have only had to restart the phone a handful of times. The keyboard can keep up with my typing now, and frankly, it is finally a useful piece of technology.What is Rooting?
Rooting is Android speak for gaining administrator access to your phone. Without it, you are stuck with whatever software the phone was bundled with it. In my case that was about a dozen or more apps including several AT&T apps that require an extra monthly fee to use, a number of social networking apps from Samsung that are just terrible, and Facebook. Yes, Facebook. When I got the phone, I was unable to uninstall Facebook. Why? I have no idea. So while I still have Facebook on my phone now, if I choose, I can uninstall it. That just makes me more comfortable.
Why Root?
I rooted for phone performance. The relatively small memory of the phone (512 MB) was getting used up, little by little, by these apps I was not using, which was causing the lag. Just like a desktop or laptop, if you are low on memory, program performance suffers. In the case of the Infuse, it was unusably slow at times.
Other reasons to root would be to gain access to features you would have to otherwise pay for, like wireless and USB tethering. Doing this is of course a violation of your contract with your carrier, so I do not recommend doing this.
Why Not to Root?
Rooting your phone voids your warranty. If you are the type of person who cares about that, don't do it. You also run the risk of "bricking" your phone, that is making it unusable. This is quite a rare occurance, but it is a possibility, so proceed with caution.How do You Root?
To root, you have to actually replace your operating system, commonly referred to as the ROM. For me, I found the stock ROM that had been rooted. That means it is the same version of the Android operating system that Samsung developed for the Infuse, but allowed me root access. There are also many custom ROMs that people have developed, but for my phone, they were buggy.Smartphones Lessons Learned
The number one lesson from all this is don't be cheap. When I bought my iPhone 3G, the 3Gs had already been out for about six months, with the iPhone 4
only another six months or so out. It worked fine at first, but as Apple added features, the phone got slower. Plus they eventually stopped supporting the 3G in their iOS updates as the phone became too old to upgrade.
This is even more important when buying an Android phone. There are plenty of smartphones out there for $0.99, but as features become more data and processor intensive, these phones struggle to keep up. Maybe you are the type of person that just uses your phone casually, in which case a free phone is probably sufficient. But if you are like me who relies on it to run my mobile digital life, get something that will do everything you want it to and more. You won't have to replace it as often, and you will always find another feature you can use to digitize your life further.
The number two lesson is rooting your Android phone is definitely worth it. There are some possible risks to rooting, and I take no responsibility if you break your phone in the process, but the advantages are definitely worth it. My phone now runs at least 10 times faster than before. If you have ever had a laggy phone and had to wait to just reply to a text, your mind fuming as you just want to get this tiny little message out of your brain and send it, you should do it. My stress levels over the past two weeks have dropped significantly now that I can read a message, reply to it, and continue on with whatever task I was doing on my phone previously in a matter of seconds and without the phone freezing. Maybe I have just had particularly bad luck with my phones, but I cannot be the only person.
Helpful Links
If you are interesting in finding out what it takes to root your phone, and you haven't already just googled it, here are a few links to help you get started. NOTE: I TAKE NOT RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR PHONE IF IT BREAKS IN THE PROCESS OF ROOTING.
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