Anyone NOT root their device yet?

[ElasticNinja]

Modding your Android phone (not just rooting) can make your phone last you a lot longer and remain relevant in the fast paced world of Android
For me, I was able to double the size of my /Data partition, get HSPA support, improve my wifi, make my processor run faster and smarter, theme my phone, get rid of the bloatware filled Orange 2.1 ROM and replace it with a great Android 2.3.4 district... and so on

Basically I can play decent games lol

My phone basically is a HTC Desire on stock 2.2 (ex ARMv7 and decent camera) for a third of the price

 

[mikedt]

Shocking how you guys don't consider it important to do a NAND backup,

Maybe I'm missing something here. But can someone tell me why NAND backups are important? As I understand the purpose of this, it's to backup applications on one's PC. Surely any applications one may have on an Android device are linked to one's Google account, and so can be downloaded again from the Market.

wifi tether, screenshots (important for me to document my phone's state and back up some data such as screenshots of web pages / notes / web purchases), or titanium back up of some factory apps / data like voicemail. Missing out fellas!

I always thought voicemail was handled by the carrier, and was not on the phone at all. Obviously if one needs screenshots, or if one has a phone where tethering is disabled, then these are very good reasons to root it. My phone could tether out of the box, as it wasn't supplied by a carrier, and I've no need for screenshots.

I hear your rationalizations. Kind of like the nervous new guy with a sports car not wanting to do any mods to it. That's ok, but you're missing out fer sure!

Maybe some are just happy to drive and enjoy their sports cars the way the manufacturers designed them? Plus if one doesn't know about or is incompetent at modding cars, one could end up with all sorts of problems, invalidating warranties and type approvals, possible civil and criminal liabilities, or may even end up killing themselves and/or other people. e.g. making changes to the ECU in an attempt to increase power, but then blowing up the engine as a result, or causing illegal emissions.

However there is another major difference between phones and cars. Is that car dealers never screw around, change and cripple them, in the same way that wireless carriers do with phones.

 

[ElasticNinja]

Maybe I'm missing something here. But can someone tell me why NAND backups are important? As I understand the purpose of this, it's to backup applications on one's PC. Surely any applications one may have on an Android device are linked to one's Google account, and so can be downloaded again from the Market.

a NAND backup clones your NAND memories partitions (/Cache,/Boot,/System,/Data,/Recovery) and your SD's EXT partiton and android_secure folder,thus allowing you to restore your phone to the state you backuped exactly

 

[EarlyMon]

A nandroid is an exact image backup of your phone, goes to your sd card, can be safely stored on a pc from there.

If catastrophe, restoration time warps your phone state to precisely that at time of backup - settings, everything.

Useful if you screw something up while tinkering - but more useful if you get an update pushed to you that breaks something important because it allows perfect regression.

 

[esthernrob]

I have not rooted. Have had my Droid X for probably 8 months or so.

Just don't see what would be so great about it.

stick around these forum's and read some more... you'll see how GREAT it is...

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Maybe I'm missing something here. But can someone tell me why NAND backups are important? As I understand the purpose of this, it's to backup applications on one's PC. Surely any applications one may have on an Android device are linked to one's Google account, and so can be downloaded again from the Market.

as explained earlier it's a COMPLETE back up EVERYTHING on your phone. This means you can really mess up your phone, and you can still restore to the exact image. Kind of like a Vmware image, but much more robust and bullet proof. No other kind of back up comes close to this, not any of the marketplace back ups, not Titanium backup, nothing. Stock ROMs can get messed up over time, and if you don't have a NAND back up, you have to do a factory wipe and reset up everything again. A big hassle. A NAND back up brings back to the exact state that everything was working earlier. Like going back in time.

I always thought voicemail was handled by the carrier, and was not on the phone at all. Obviously if one needs screenshots, or if one has a phone where tethering is disabled, then these are very good reasons to root it. My phone could tether out of the box, as it wasn't supplied by a carrier, and I've no need for screenshots.

if you do a factory wipe you lose all your downloaded voicemails that are stored longer than the carrier's time frame. Which may happen if you have issues with your ROM, especially buggy factory ROMs. Titanium back up and NAND back up saves all your voicemails without having to do a thing.

Maybe some are just happy to drive and enjoy their sports cars the way the manufacturers designed them? Plus if one doesn't know about or is incompetent at modding cars, one could end up with all sorts of problems, invalidating warranties and type approvals, possible civil and criminal liabilities, or may even end up killing themselves and/or other people. e.g. making changes to the ECU in an attempt to increase power, but then blowing up the engine as a result, or causing illegal emissions.

However there is another major difference between phones and cars. Is that car dealers never screw around, change and cripple them, in the same way that wireless carriers do with phones.

Maybe if you are foolish in your mods. But the rooting is almost fool proof in the ways they are instructed. It's like the manufacturer put a electronic speed limiter in your sports car to keep it under 60 mph. With rooting you remove the speed limiter and can go above 60mph.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

stick around these forum's and read some more... you'll see how GREAT it is...

It's still funny to see people rationalizing not rooting.

Once they root, they'll realize how much they missed.

 

[mikedt]

Maybe if you are foolish in your mods. But the rooting is almost fool proof in the ways they are instructed.

I'm sure there are many examples in the 'Galaxy S' sub-forum, where people attempted to root and irreversibly bricked their phones. Maybe because they didn't follow instructions correctly, or the particular instructions where wrong, buggy software, or because the power went out, or because the lead fell out, or the because the computer crashed, etc. My Galaxy S is not something I can easily replace with like for like, because of location.

It's like the manufacturer put a electronic speed limiter in your sports car to keep it under 60 mph. With rooting you remove the speed limiter and can go above 60mph.

Although I'm sure no manufacturer would voluntarily fit speed limiters to vehicles. There are many countries where speed limiters are required by law, and it's illegal to tamper with or disable them. e.g. trucks in Canada, buses in the UK, even if they're privately owned. BTW I always love discussing vehicle analogies.

What happens if rooting made changes to how a phone's radio works, like say increasing the transmitter power, which must have FCC approvals if one is in the USA. Those FCC approvals are invalidated and the phone becomes illegal to use.

 

[EarlyMon]

The justification is simple enough - if rootings not for you, it's not for you.

Please don't spread fear about radios. Typically the rom (the os+kernel+apps) doesn't include the radio firmware - that is upgradeable/replaceable, but that's a completely separate operation - and performed not at all commonly.

Rooting means one thing: getting the equivalent of admin access on a PC. That's it. Nothing more.

Customization - because you have that access - can go from beneficial to idiotic.

It's very hard to brick a device following instructions - but it is not at all impossible.

If in doubt, or if risk cannot be taken - do not root.

Therefore - rooting is not for everyone, for a host of reasons.

The argument has now turned tangential and non-productive - but the conclusion is really simple: rooters know why they root, non-rooters know why they don't.

This horse is hereby beaten and dead.

/thread