This is my first post to androidforums and it is a guide for tethering the Samsung Intercept on Virgin Mobile on 2.1 and other fix's I've discovered. I've noticed the answers haven't been easy to find. Use at your own risk, but these steps worked for me.
1. - The Intercept's data connection drops.
Very annoying, but a workaround has been found. Turn on airplane mode by holding down the power button and select to turn on airplane mode. Wait about 10 seconds. Turn airplane mode off, or use bobbysweatpant's method below (comment #10, work's great) and get the Quick Settings app to toggle data.
2. -The notification bar stops working
Hold down the home button until the previous apps box appears, then hit the back button. It should now work.
3. -Tethering, especially on Windows 7 64-bit! What a joke, no drivers from samsung and the phone & pc recognize when they want to or need a crapload of steps involving rebooting. Here's the easiest freaking way to tether. Note: Involves temporary root.
a. (NO LONGER WORKS ON 2.1, see #6)Go to 4shared.com and search z4root on your phone. Pick the most popular choice. Then run z4root and hit temporary root. Wait for it to finish, and remember that if you want to remove the root, just restart. My icons took a second to reset, so just wait it out and don't panic.
b. Go to market and download the Barnacle wireless tethering program. Run the program.
c. Barnacle will prompt you saying your don't have the proper net filters, hit ignore, it still works.
d. Basically that's it. You can go into the settings to set up a ssid name, and the default will show up as barnacle. Note: this is not for mounting your sd card, just for getting online through your computer.
4. Intercept capacitive screen is glitching out - Make sure the screen is very clean and this seems to go away.
5. - Intercept slow and what are some good apps? Well this is all opinion on the apps. If your Intercept is slow I would absolutely recommend Advanced Task Killer. Also if you do a temporary root using z4root get Titanium backup manager and you can freeze those pesky built-in apps from ever running. I wouldn't uninstall the apps just because some of that crap needs to run.
6. Rooting the phone - Delete stupid built-in crap and bloatware, load custom ROMs and get administrative access. Check this method out, it worked for me and was sooo easy, and involved no messing with ROMs or .sh stuff. Check out http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...asiest-rooting-method-vm-intercept-2-2-a.html for a simple root.
If you want a prettier looking phone setup, launcher pro (I use LP Sense) can add 3d effects and more features.
Better keyboard? SlideIT is awesome. Better then swype in my opinion. I've even got emulators for snes to run great if you map the buttons to the keyboard.
Want to run flash videos in your browser? Get Skyfire. It's a little slower than google's but converts flash on the fly.
I've been able to make my phone very zippy with titanium backup and advanced task killer.
I don't know why but I figured since wireless tethering app didn't work, Barnacle wouldn't either, but it does. I just got this phone going about 4 days ago and will update this thread with tips as i go. Thanks for reading!
1. - The Intercept's data connection drops.
Very annoying, but a workaround has been found. Turn on airplane mode by holding down the power button and select to turn on airplane mode. Wait about 10 seconds. Turn airplane mode off, or use bobbysweatpant's method below (comment #10, work's great) and get the Quick Settings app to toggle data.
2. -The notification bar stops working
Hold down the home button until the previous apps box appears, then hit the back button. It should now work.
3. -Tethering, especially on Windows 7 64-bit! What a joke, no drivers from samsung and the phone & pc recognize when they want to or need a crapload of steps involving rebooting. Here's the easiest freaking way to tether. Note: Involves temporary root.
a. (NO LONGER WORKS ON 2.1, see #6)Go to 4shared.com and search z4root on your phone. Pick the most popular choice. Then run z4root and hit temporary root. Wait for it to finish, and remember that if you want to remove the root, just restart. My icons took a second to reset, so just wait it out and don't panic.
b. Go to market and download the Barnacle wireless tethering program. Run the program.
c. Barnacle will prompt you saying your don't have the proper net filters, hit ignore, it still works.
d. Basically that's it. You can go into the settings to set up a ssid name, and the default will show up as barnacle. Note: this is not for mounting your sd card, just for getting online through your computer.
4. Intercept capacitive screen is glitching out - Make sure the screen is very clean and this seems to go away.
5. - Intercept slow and what are some good apps? Well this is all opinion on the apps. If your Intercept is slow I would absolutely recommend Advanced Task Killer. Also if you do a temporary root using z4root get Titanium backup manager and you can freeze those pesky built-in apps from ever running. I wouldn't uninstall the apps just because some of that crap needs to run.
6. Rooting the phone - Delete stupid built-in crap and bloatware, load custom ROMs and get administrative access. Check this method out, it worked for me and was sooo easy, and involved no messing with ROMs or .sh stuff. Check out http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...asiest-rooting-method-vm-intercept-2-2-a.html for a simple root.
If you want a prettier looking phone setup, launcher pro (I use LP Sense) can add 3d effects and more features.
Better keyboard? SlideIT is awesome. Better then swype in my opinion. I've even got emulators for snes to run great if you map the buttons to the keyboard.
Want to run flash videos in your browser? Get Skyfire. It's a little slower than google's but converts flash on the fly.
I've been able to make my phone very zippy with titanium backup and advanced task killer.
I don't know why but I figured since wireless tethering app didn't work, Barnacle wouldn't either, but it does. I just got this phone going about 4 days ago and will update this thread with tips as i go. Thanks for reading!
