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Root Prevail as a tablet

76ford90lx

76ford90lx

Guest
So my son is turning 6 and I was thinking to get a prevail with no service so he can play games like angry birds, ant Smasher, hungry shark, etc.

Just to be sure, if it has no service I can still use the WiFi for the market right? Do you need service to access the market and download games? With WiFi at home I hope to download what he wants then he can play games anywhere we go. Its a small phone for his hands and he knows how to navigate through my prevail so he should be good to go on his own. I think he will get plenty of use out of it and if I root the phone I can totally delete texting and phone apps and all that stuff.


I know its been brought up before but I'm at work and don't have time to research it, I want to pick one up when I get off today so I really want to know if I can use the market without issues with a phone that has no service or activation.

Thanks guys :)
 
Without any kind of service and using wifi only you'll be able to get online and have access to the market.

If you buy a brand new phone then it might become a hassle every time it starts up because it'll call home every time and try to activate itself. If you buy a used phone then certainly do a factory reset but not a RTN reset... which will have you getting the OTA screen on every boot up.

If you do have a brand new phone you can put the latest CTMod or CM7 on it and it'll stop the phone from trying to activate itself.

If you get rid of the phone and sms/mms apps or links then let me know how you did that. Also you can download Text free or something of the like from the market and your son will have texting capabilities as long as he has wifi.
 
kolosus said:
Without any kind of service and using wifi only you'll be able to get online and have access to the market.

If you buy a brand new phone then it might become a hassle every time it starts up because it'll call home every time and try to activate itself. If you buy a used phone then certainly do a factory reset but not a RTN reset... which will have you getting the OTA screen on every boot up.

If you do have a brand new phone you can put the latest CTMod or CM7 on it and it'll stop the phone from trying to activate itself.

If you get rid of the phone and sms/mms apps or links then let me know how you did that. Also you can download Text free or something of the like from the market and your son will have texting capabilities as long as he has wifi.
Click to expand...

So brand new with Root and CTMod will work fine?

I think your saying also that you can use the internet to go to the market but you cant use the market app?

Hmmmm...Maybe if I buy it new at the store, activate it and pay for service, then just let it expire after the first month it may make it easier and smoother with less hassle???



You can delete phone and text with Titanium backup. I have deleted the phone before for kicks then used the backup to bring it back. I kept the text cause I was communicating with someone at the moment. I tried it because I was wondering if I delete everything if it would boost memory and increase my Antutu score, It was out of curiosity. I will post a screen shot of every app that was on the phone, gimme a few to get back on my phone (at pc now) and get it up.

EDIT: here it is,
screenshot-1336886311417.png
 
76ford90lx said:
Ummm, Did I mention I want to play with the prevail also? :D LOL
Click to expand...

LOL understood.

After being a lifelong Windows/QWERTY junkie, I may get an Android tablet for my next laptop. I will undoubtedly keep a desktop, but I have to admit that Google is making me rethink some things.

The price, size, specs, and usability of tablets are definately being noticed.
 
with out a doubt u can use wifi on a non activated prevail n have access to wat ever it is ur son desires, even the market aka google play! :) lol but u should for sure use a custome rom on it so that activation screen don't pop up everytime u boot up.
 
You do not actually have to activate it and pay for it.

Buy the device. Go to the Boost site, click on Activate up top and start up an account. Put in everything as you want it and when it comes to the point of asking to put money into the account just say that you'll put in money later. Put in a pin that you can remember easily. 0000?

Once the whole process is done the site will tell you that the phone is activated.

Turn the device on. Once it finishes OTA you can do with the phone as you please. Put CM7/CTMod whatever. It'll never try and call home again since the MDN/MSID is not empty anymore. No need to pay for service you'll never use. If you think you'll use it thought that's a different story.

During the activation process the site will also tell you the MSL of the device. You might want to write it down in case you ever need it later on.

On a side note. I know you said you want to play with the Prevail but Big Lots has a a few tablets that they're selling. The Polaroid one that they're selling right now is under $100 after tax. It comes with 2gb internal memory, a slot for micro SD if you want more storage and ICS. Its thin, light and good on battery (for a tablet). It's almost fully rooted out of the box and installing market on it is fairly simple. Just download the vending.apk off the net and put in in the right folder and reboot. Its not huge... just slightly larger than a paperback and a few inches taller.

Just food for thought.
 
Thanks everyone.. Wife said get used, she dont want to buy a new one cause the chances of it getting messed up by the kid are high. All the "great deals" are gone, so the best I found right now is a near new PERFECT condition (from the pics) prevail for $80 on craigslist. I will go check it out tonight after work. Its in great shape (better than mine maybe?) with a black silicone case. I will see what I can get it for.

Thanks again :)
 
Picked it up, he wouldn't take anything under the $80 that he was asking. But its in perfect shape, looks like it just came out of the box.


lMonsterl said:
if u root it or have it rooted just edit the one line in the build.prop changing setup wizard to false.
Click to expand...

Could someone elaborate on this a little more. I have never touched the build.prop before. I just leave mine on what blood has on CTMod, I've never touched it or looked at it.
 
Hey guys, on a side note this is gonna be a stupid question. But how do I create a Google account for him on the phone? Just click the market and when it asks for account, click new account and choose a name and password? I imagine so LOL. But my prevail was my first smartphone and the Guy at the store did everything for me and handed me my phone fully setup. So I've never done it before.do you have to have the Google account linked to the phone number on the phone?
 
If you want him to have access to the market then yes. You'd need to have a google account.

I'd suggest getting him his own google account with an easy to remember name and password. If you let him borrow yours he'll inherit all your contacts and your market access. If you've setup a form of payment on your market he'll inherit that too and all that involves.

Give him an easy to remember user and password and he'll be set. You can either do that through a computer or the phone itself. If you want to setup a few contacts (mom, dad etc) then you can do that from the computer and it'll be easier to type in. Doing it through the phone is also an option.

Once you have the account you can link it to his phone number... only thing is since the phone number is not really going to be active someone else will get it down the road and that might become dicey.

As far as editing the build.prop goes, since it's a used phone it will not matter. The phone will not try to call up Boost since its already activated.

Have fun!
 
Thanks kolosus, thanks to everyone actually.

Well he is rooted with CTMod 3.68 and ill be a son if a b!t@h..... his phone overclocks :-( mine has never overclocked Lmao. I just need to split his sdcard and get the market and stuff going. I guess the 2 gig is more than enough to split in half and load with games. If need be I have my old 8gb card but it seems like a waste of card I bet.


I hope the KK and data swap is easy. When I did mine it took 2 weeks to figure out to get to work. If. not I will use a 2 point CTMod and use the old school darktremors A2SD method for now to get him moving I really don't think what I use matters cause its just a game player so I doubt CTMod 3.68 really makes much difference then say 2.2 or something like that he will be stoked I bet. I'm gonna "try" to find a green case for it and he is going to get grave digger (the monster truck) wallpappers and he is absolutely in love with mine or my wife's LG optimus slider android phones
 
3.68 is all setup, with stock 2gb card split in half running KK on data, gmail account is setup and everything is working flawless with WiFi except it wont remember the WiFi so I have to enter the password everytime. I will get that fixed,if I remember correctly my phone did the same thing the first couple times.

He has a newer CTMod than me and his phone will overclock lmfao!! Little dude is doing better than dad with a phone that is in better physical condition too :D rofl.....

Later today I will delete most all the apps and start loading games. People think I'm crazy and said why don't I just get him a PSP or a Nintendo DS lite I think they're called? But what can I say.... he's addicted to android games :D he can also have internet and watch his monster jam videos on YouTube! I hope he likes it on bday, I'm sure he will though :)
 
76ford90lx said:
3.68 is all setup, with stock 2gb card split in half running KK on data, gmail account is setup and everything is working flawless with WiFi except it wont remember the WiFi so I have to enter the password everytime. I will get that fixed,if I remember correctly my phone did the same thing the first couple times.

He has a newer CTMod than me and his phone will overclock lmfao!! Little dude is doing better than dad with a phone that is in better physical condition too :D rofl.....

Later today I will delete most all the apps and start loading games. People think I'm crazy and said why don't I just get him a PSP or a Nintendo DS lite I think they're called? But what can I say.... he's addicted to android games :D he can also have internet and watch his monster jam videos on YouTube! I hope he likes it on bday, I'm sure he will though :)
Click to expand...
the future is android phones for every and anything that they can or will be able to do. look back 5-8 years ago they didn't even exist. so might as well have the little guy learn what is going on and the future of what is to come.
 
In a few years you should give him a laptop and the android SDK installed on it. He can make stuff and (after testing) put it on his phone to see what really happens.

With Odin there is a very slim chance of him actually bricking the device.

Wonder where it'll go... He might come up with the next Titanium Backup! LOL
 
cwhatever said:
the future is android phones for every and anything that they can or will be able to do. look back 5-8 years ago they didn't even exist. so might as well have the little guy learn what is going on and the future of what is to come.
Click to expand...

I thought pretty much the same thing. Might as well get them started right :D

kolosus said:
In a few years you should give him a laptop and the android SDK installed on it. He can make stuff and (after testing) put it on his phone to see what really happens.

With Odin there is a very slim chance of him actually bricking the device.

Wonder where it'll go... He might come up with the next Titanium Backup! LOL
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm not worried about him bricking it at all, a backup and he will be good to go :)

I bet I would brick mine before he ever bricked his LOL. Phones don't brick themselves, people brick them by doing things wrong. He just wants games and such. The only thing I worry about is him getting into ES file explorer and deleting a folder or file. Maybe after I finish it up I will set it back to start at /sdcard/ instead of starting at /
 
76ford90lx said:
I thought pretty much the same thing. Might as well get them started right :D



Yeah I'm not worried about him bricking it at all, a backup and he will be good to go :)

I bet I would brick mine before he ever bricked his LOL. Phones don't brick themselves, people brick them by doing things wrong. He just wants games and such. The only thing I worry about is him getting into ES file explorer and deleting a folder or file. Maybe after I finish it up I will set it back to start at /sdcard/ instead of starting at /
Click to expand...
the bricking thing or messing up thing, LMAO. really every time i drink on the weekend and then mess with the phone i mess it up sometimes bad and say it was running great why did i even mess with it. and redo everything and then one weekend mess it up all over again. WHY????
 
76ford90lx said:
The only thing I worry about is him getting into ES file explorer and deleting a folder or file. Maybe after I finish it up I will set it back to start at /sdcard/ instead of starting at /
Click to expand...

Or set it to "deny" (sad face) in su settings and/or set es to mount /system as read only
 
cwhatever said:
the bricking thing or messing up thing, LMAO. really every time i drink on the weekend and then mess with the phone i mess it up sometimes bad and say it was running great why did i even mess with it. and redo everything and then one weekend mess it up all over again. WHY????
Click to expand...

Lmao! Yeah, I've passed out drunk and woke up with my phone in my lap plugged in the charger hung up on a black screen or sitting there chillin in CWM :D
 
LOL. At my job everyone who has phone issues brings them to me. Anyone trying to get a cheaper plan comes to me too for advice.

I have no idea why! My phone is "messed up" every other week. This not working, that not working. I rarely have my phone in a perfectly working condition. Something is always borked! But they still bring their phones to me to tell them what's wrong with it.

I think I just realized... I need to start charging by the six pack for my services! :smokingsomb:
 
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