The G2 is easily one of if not the best Android devices on T-Mobile. No, it may not have the blinding speed of the Galaxy S Vibrant or raw speed and developer-friendly roots of the N1, but that doesn’t matter. The G2 packs a stock build of Android. That right there makes it better than the Vibrant as it will get updates faster and isn’t marred by a tacky 3rd party UI. But that argument is neither here nor there. The real sadness with the G2 is the “temporary root” problem that causes any and all custom ROM/root work to revert back to a stock, un-rooted state each and every time the phone is rebooted.
Now, if it were a phone on AT&T or Verizon, we’d here the carriers lambast us for “breaking” our devices and doing less than legal things (even though the DMCA was recently amended to make such things perfectly legal). T-Mobile however isn’t quite as douchey as the rest. Nevertheless, T-Mobile has come forward to officially address the issue as countless new G2 owners are pretty upset with the whole situation…
As pioneers in Android-powered mobile devices, T-Mobile and HTC strive to support innovation. The T-Mobile G2 is a powerful and highly customizable Android-powered smartphone, which customers can personalize and make their own, from the look of their home screen to adding their favorite applications and more.
The HTC software implementation on the G2 stores some components in read-only memory as a security measure to prevent key operating system software from becoming corrupted and rendering the device inoperable. There is a small subset of highly technical users who may want to modify and re-engineer their devices at the code level, known as “rooting,” but a side effect of HTC’s security measure is that these modifications are temporary and cannot be saved to permanent memory. As a result the original code is restored.
The fact that T-Mobile is even acknowlodging the rooting community in a positive way by calling them “highly technical” (read: talented, devoted, etc., etc.) is a huge plus in my book. I already liked T-Mo for the generally more pro-consumer tactics and overall good attitude. The argument of security is a valid one, even if it isn’t working in Android loyalists’ favor. With that said, I believe the statement made by T-Mo that G2 rooting is “temporary” and implying that it can never be made permanent is slightly flawed. Just like every other Android security feature established to prevent rooting, it too will fall. I give it 3 weeks tops. The G2 will have root just like the rest of the family…
If a 1-click root is what you seek for your Droid X, Alldroid user Sil3ntKi113 whipped up something that might tickle your fancy. The app is a Windows-only type of affair, and requires a few things such as .Net framework 3.5 (comes standard in Vista and 7), USB debugging ENABLED on your device, and the full contents of the download file unzipped/extracted. If you can manage the few simple rules, your Droid X will be cracked and golden in literally no time flat.
**Remember, this root simply gives you system file access and the ability to tweak a few other things — NOT install/flash custom roms, kernels, or any other tom foolery.
It may not be what we’re all looking for, but removing the few bits of bloatware/non-used apps that ship with the Droid X isn’t a bad thing, now is it?
Hit up Alldroid for the DL link…
- February 8, 2010 11:50 pm
The Motorola DROID may be stealing a majority of the rooted Android articles with things such as 2.1 goodies ported over or 1GHz overclocking, but it’s hardly the only kid at the playground. The G1 and MyTouch 3G may be older, slower, and generally less desirable when compared to the likes of the DROID and Nexus One, but those aging devices still have some kick left in them.
Thanks to Eugene373 over at xda-forums, the MT3G (read: MyTouch 3G/HTC Magic) and G1 have been overclocked just like their bigger, hairier chested brother, to the tune of 780MHz. When pushed further, those old bucket of bolts even managed pinging the 1GHz bell.
The DROID at 1GHz is ominous enough, running at almost 2x the rated clock speed. But that ARM A8 in the DROID is a newer, more power efficient chip. The processor in both the MyTouch 3G and G1 is an older, less power efficient ARM A11. Pushing that to 1GHz is just begging for trouble, and at the very least, melted skin.
Still, the geek in me yearns to try it out. If only I had some older Android hardware to try it on… Thats where you come in. If you don’t mind voiding your warranty and risking the life of your precious Android beauty, overclock that thing and report back to us with the results.
AndroidCommunity
If you’ve spent any amount of time here, you probably already know that I’m an Android junkie. In fact, I’d even say that I love the Android platform. I’m a huge tinkerer and tweaker. The beauty of Android is it is a modern tweakers dream — the customization features of Windows Mobile with added style and features that are a mash up of BlackBerry, webOS, and even the iPhone. Being such a geek at heart means I’m always checking DROID forums looking for new apps, services, ROM’s, themes, etc. Well, tonight we have a new one for ya. While a couple of weeks ago we touched on the amazing “Smoked Glass” ROM/theme from Adamz of AllDroid, tonight’s ROM is a tad more feature filled.
If you’re anywhere close to remotely serious about custom DROID ROM’s, you’ve no doubt come across the sholes.info website and sholes developers. Their first custom ROM wasn’t too bad and was actually pretty stable. More important than the stability however was there unique built in options picker when installing the ROM that allowed you to easily tweak the ROM to your liking at the time of install — greatly reducing end user involvement. Today the Sholes team kicked it up several more notches with the release of the latest sholes.info 2.0.1 ROM.
Looking at the time stamps on sholes.info shows that a good week and a half has gone by between ROM updates. To some this would be discouraging and depict a lack of interest. Such an assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. The sholes team was actually hard at work creating one of and possibly best custom DROID ROM’s on the market.
Like the 1.x sholes.info ROM’s, the 2.x.x series continues with the unique installer during ROM installation. Only this time, there are even more options to comb through in order to make the ROM the best that it can be. Everything from removing stock system apps that many don’t use to adding features such as the Motorola Milestone’s multi-touch browser to even installing AdamZ’s Smoked Glass theme which now comes bundled with the sholes.info ROM’s can be controlled by the user without the need for a computer.
Speaking of that last point, the Sholesmod Updater is an ingenious little app available in the Android Market that allows you to download cusotm ROM’s over the air as well as taking care of flash new boot images and other system files. So again, while the Sholes.info team seemed to be taking a week or two off, they were actually creating the best ROM/app combo on the planet. I should know, I purchased the $5.00 donate version tonight and have been running the new 2.0.1 sholes.info ROM for a good hour and a half. I’ll certainly need a couple days to put it through it’s paces and get a better picture of the ROM’s performance.
One thing that I want to make mention of from the get-go is JiT. The N1 features JiT and is a software tweak that allows optimized UI navigation. In sholes 2.0.1, JiT is included as an option to install, though disabled by default as it is extremely buggy with several users testing out the waters saying their phone was pretty unusable. Why include it if it’s so buggy? How will these things get fixed and optimized without being tested? Hopefully upcoming releases have this little gem fixed sooner rather than later. If you’re a developer looking to get into Android, now is better than ever…
For those looking from the outside in to this world of rooting and custom ROM’s, flash new ROM’s overclocking, swapping flash images, and other geeky tasks may seem a bit daunting at first. Even more daunting and even mildly frustrating can be the fact of inevitably having to wipe the data partition from time to time, wiping out all of your settings. Of course, if you’re a smart geek, you’ve got at least half a dozen nandroid backups to pick from. In regards to various partition restores/backups, the sholes.info 2.0.1 is the easiest ROM to work with so far. I’ve generally stayed away from data restores atop new ROM, instead employing clean wipe and reinstalls. After all is said and done, the data partition preservation is but another reason to give the sholes.info 2.0.1 a try.
Flashing custom Android ROM’s isn’t hard nor is it rocket science. I’ve only been on the Android scene since November and already am what I would consider, “well versed”. If you’re on the fence, why not let sholes.info 2.0.1 be the deciding factor that kicks you off that fence and into the real world of custom DROID ROM’s?
A perfect analogy of the sholes.info ROM’s and team for current Android users on another device is sholes.info is to DROID what Cyanogen is to HTC Android devices — they’re that awesome. I’ve talked enough. It’s time for you to tweak that DROID…what are you waiting for!?
Sholes.info ROM information
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