New to android (Iphone 4 to Infuse)

[willthetech]

SO i made the change and now I am android user, so far i like it. I hear a lot about rooting your phone and I see there is a lot of knowledge available on How to but after you root then what? In the iphone wold after jailbreaking you had Cydia, what about android? can you guys help me find any information on what to do next?

Thanks

 

[Scottyb]

I'm in the exact same spot you are. I have been a long time iPhone user who just switched to the Infuse as my first Android device. I just rooted this morning and the main reasons I did this was for tethering and screen shot ability. A lot of people also use it for backup solutions such as Titanium Backup it seems, but I'm waiting until I get a bigger SD card before I start doing that. A big difference though from iPhone to Android is on iPhone you have to jailbreak to do any customization. On Android you get most of that out of the box, so the reasons for jailbreaking will be different from rooting IMO. I'm also new so I'm sure others can give many more reasons for rooting, but I thought I would give you mine.

 

[garchalex]

Scottyb: I agree.


I have also switched to the darkside of droid phones from an iPhone4.

Thus far, I am really impressed with the phone.


Some of the features I like most about my Infuse is:

- ability to d/l torrents directly on phone
- increased variety of apps
- customization
- 1.3 MP front camera opposed to a meager VGA camera that the iPhone4 provided
- street view capability in Google Maps
- navigation system

 

[Egidio]

Another iPhone switcher here, too: from iPhone 3G. I've had my Infuse for over 2 weeks and simply love it. The ability to customize it beats the iPhone world, no doubt about it. As for rooting, I wanted to root for one reason: my very sporadic need to tether. The instructions here were excellent, and going through Terminal on the Mac was a breeze. I don't miss a single app I had on the iPhone. In fact, since I'm very into music, I actually have more options with the Android, including Google Music (yes, I got an invitation earlier this month). There are several other things I like about the phone, and I'll second the street view capability in Navigation (the free Google app on the phone).

 

[Terrigno]

Welcome aboard guys. Its always a pleasent suprise to hear about Apple users that switch over to Android. Im proud of you guys. I see Apples dropping there next OS and its gonna include features that Android already had awhile ago!

Now as for Rooting. Rooting is required for doing different things on your phone that will give you super user abilities. Basically you can alter the system files in anyway you want. But of course, be careful because you can end up with a pretty nice and shiney brick. But then again, theres always ways to recover from a brick.

Ill give you some examples of what you can do with having Root Access. And these are just a couple as Im sure there are more things you can do beyond my knowledge. But heres what I do.

Grap a screenshot app. To take care of taking a screenshot on your phone, a majority of the programs that do it require root access. Thats one of them. Another. Having your phone rooted also gives you the ability to download apps from the market such as "Root Explorer" for example. That will allow you to edit the system files and you can delete or "freeze" all of the bloatware that comes installed on the phone. All of AT&Ts junk. Although I wouldnt recommend deleting them. Just freeze them. Because its possible you might not get updates since you deleted those system files. But even if so, you can always flash back to complete factory via Odin.

Most Custom Roms require root access. You root the phone, download and install Clockwork Mod Recovery and then you can read titurials on how you can flash custom roms on the phone. Basically like now theres a ROM a user from XDA made that looks like a Gingerbread Replica. In order to flash your phone to use that, You have to be rooted at first. Once your rooted, your rooted unless you unroot. Even if you factory reset, your still rooted.

SuperOneClick will Root and Unroot your phone. Plus there are other things like lets say if you wanted to Fudge some of the factory settings. Like the Battery icon at the top. If you wanted to change that to like a number to show the percentage of the battery, you would have to edit the build.prop. In order to do that, you need root access to get to that file. Once you switch the code in the build prop, you can change some of the factory settings to the way a developer has made it to look. Theres also other things you can do in the build.prop. Change the Density of the screen. Make it bigger or smaller to your taste. Change the Icon from H to 4G, 3G or whatever G you want it to say. But of course, this isnt for just anyone to do. A developer has to make the coding to have it replicate his/her work.

Im pretty sure there are other things you can do. If I was you guys, I would start checking out XDAdevelopers.com website also. They have the Developers there that know what there doing with these gadgets and some of them make must have custom stuff for these phones. But all of this just sums up a little bit of what Root Access can do. If others can chime in, please do.

And again, Welcome aboard guys. You are the most special people that roam around these forums. Switching from Iphone to Android proves to the community that Android is an extremely strong competitor to Apple. Oh, and Get used to Google. Google is your new Master

 

[Egidio]

Terrigno, thanks for the extensive intro to rooting. Wow! There's a lot more there than I will probably do -- at least for now. I might check into that SuperOneClick app. Sounds excellent.

As for deleting the AT&T bloat, I wish I could hide them and not ever see them. I know better not to delete them from a similar incident on a Mac I had years ago.

As for having sold my soul to Google, it's been that way for quite some time. The latest addition was Google Music. So, will people now say I'm bi-OS? Have plenty of Apple stuff around the house except for a working phone. My old iPhone 3G is now an audiobook player only.

 

[Terrigno]

Terrigno, thanks for the extensive intro to rooting. Wow! There's a lot more there than I will probably do -- at least for now. I might check into that SuperOneClick app. Sounds excellent.

As for deleting the AT&T bloat, I wish I could hide them and not ever see them. I know better not to delete them from a similar incident on a Mac I had years ago.

As for having sold my soul to Google, it's been that way for quite some time. The latest addition was Google Music. So, will people now say I'm bi-OS? Have plenty of Apple stuff around the house except for a working phone. My old iPhone 3G is now an audiobook player only.

lol your googlized now my friend SuperOneClick is probably easiest route to go with. Make sure you install the samsung drivers for the Infuse first by downloading Kies. Kies doesnt seem to be working for the Infuse just yet, but it will install the drivers needed to access the phone. Check out the how to thats stickied. Once you root with superoneclick, its pretty quick and painless to do it.

Even downloading a different launcher like Launcher Pro from the market will allow you to hide those apps you dont want to see. Whats good is it still leaves them there on the phone, but you can hide them from seeing them at all. If your not fond of the TouchWiz launcher that Samsung installed on the Infuse, check out Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher EX from the Market. There Launchers just like TouchWiz is and they have a lot of customizing options to change the way almost everything looks on your phone. They have free versions to download to so you can see what there like. Those 2 Launchers also do not require the phone to be rooted, to install either of your choice. Besure to download "Home Switcher for Froyo" if you decide to do it. That will let you toggle to change to the launcher of your choice and set it by default. Happy Tunning!

 

[fguertin]

I just switched from iPhone 4 to the Infuse. Honestly, I'm 99% happy with this device more than I ever was with the Iphone 4. 99% happy....1% unhappy due to a reception issue. I get alot of network failure messages when downloading apps, I get the blue no smoking sign where the bars should be, I drop down to Edge alot.... Really takes away from the awesomeness of this device. I got it yesterday so I think im ganna go back to the store today to exchange it.

Is anyone else having that issue? if so, was ther ea resolution to it?

 

[Egidio]

lol your googlized now my friend

LOL... I like that term: googlized.

SuperOneClick is probably easiest route to go with. Make sure you install the samsung drivers for the Infuse first by downloading Kies. Kies doesnt seem to be working for the Infuse just yet...

This weekend I found out about Kies and downloaded the Mac version. After I installed it, it worked just fine on my Mac. I was able to sync and do what I wanted just as when I had my iPhone 3G plugged in to iTunes.

Even downloading a different launcher like Launcher Pro from the market will allow you to hide those apps you dont want to see. Whats good is it still leaves them there on the phone, but you can hide them from seeing them at all.

And that is precisely what I want. Just hide them from view, but leave them there for whenever blessed AT&T does its updates.

If your not fond of the TouchWiz launcher that Samsung installed on the Infuse, check out Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher EX from the Market.

My Infuse did not come with TouchWiz -- or at least I cannot see it anywhere on the phone. I'll look into that at the Market.

Thanks for your tips!

 

[Egidio]

I just switched from iPhone 4 to the Infuse. Honestly, I'm 99% happy with this device more than I ever was with the Iphone 4. 99% happy....1% unhappy due to a reception issue. I get alot of network failure messages when downloading apps

Hmm, I have no reception problems with mine at all. Signal is strong.

Another thing I've noticed with my Infuse is that the call quality sounds better. I can hear my callers a whole lot better than with the old iPhone. Also, another noticeable change I noticed is with the Orb Live app. On the iPhone, I used to get these time-outs that would stop playing my music. Now with the Infuse, Orb Live plays without those time-outs. Don't know if it's the phone, the app or both.

 

[Terrigno]

I just switched from iPhone 4 to the Infuse. Honestly, I'm 99% happy with this device more than I ever was with the Iphone 4. 99% happy....1% unhappy due to a reception issue. I get alot of network failure messages when downloading apps, I get the blue no smoking sign where the bars should be, I drop down to Edge alot.... Really takes away from the awesomeness of this device. I got it yesterday so I think im ganna go back to the store today to exchange it.

Is anyone else having that issue? if so, was ther ea resolution to it?

I dont have that problem either. Never really did with any phone Ive purchased from AT&T. But if you were good with reception on the Iphone where your at, it migth be an issue with that phone. Definitely take it back and swap it out for another. I dont see why that would be happening if used normally.

My Infuse did not come with TouchWiz -- or at least I cannot see it anywhere on the phone. I'll look into that at the Market.

Thanks for your tips!

No problem bud, thats what we are all here for. Actually when your looking at your phone, your looking at TouchWiz. Its Samsungs Modified launcher for Android. Motorola has MotoBlur. HTC has Sense. Its just the way the phones system looks. You can download Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher EX to switch it up a bit. For example. The 4 Icons you see at the bottem, are part of Samsungs Launcher TouchWiz. If you download Launcher Pro and overlay TouchWiz, you will see that the default way the Launcher looks is like Vanilla Android. Little bar in the middle at the bottem with 3 icons Enjoy my friend!

 

[jasonkhowell]

I am also changing over from the iPhone 4 to the Infuse (Mainly since I had a upgrade available and to give the iPhone 4 to a family member that needs it). I am not new to Android: Had a Backflip (Sold it since it was taking too long to upgrade to 1.5 and was not the best phone in the world) and a Milestone (Pretty much a European Droid, great phone but had a locked bootloader and was limited to Edge).

Main reason I got the Infuse since it was the first phone on AT&T that resembled a Droid X and wasn't a gimped Android phone like they have been producing (Like the Atrix or the HTC 4G phone). I do have to ask: once you root the Infuse, are you able to install a TouchWiz 4 ROM or interface for the device?

 

[Terrigno]

If the ROM is made by a developer for the Infuse, I dont see why not. Although It is possible that Samsung might eventually make TouchWiz 4.0 and hopefully integrate it with GingerBread for us. If that ever happens.