I see a lot of the same questions regarding the Stratosphere's current position of root, ROM's or the fact it's an Epic 4G clone. I'm going to attempt to pool the information in one thread so hopefully those who are new to this phone have all the info they need to get started or just find out where we're at overall as of this post. Also, I did indeed cross post this from my post on Rootzwiki.
Isn't this the Epic 4G?
Essentially yes with a few minor differences. The front cam is 1.3MP as opposed to the Epic's VGA. We have a slightly updated keyboard which is less flat than the Epic. We have a VZW LTE radio instead of the Epic's WiMax. Our's shipped with Gingerbread and the Epic is just now getting their GB update. Our phone is aimed more at the corporate market rather than us regular users which is why it's security focused and missing a few TouchWiz social apps. Other than that it's mostly cosmetic. It's a Galaxy S phone meaning it's just like the rest give or take a few things like radios and screens sizes (among other things) which is why the devs from the Charge are able to help us. It's the same phone guts.
So what's up with root/ROMs/Recovery?
This is the one of the times I can happily report we have root and recovery thanks to KnightCrusader and Co's tireless work. Now we can get to ROM'ing this bad mammer jammer!
Well, would you look at that, Nagmier over on RootzWiki gives us our first custom ROM! Thanks Nagmier!
ICS por favor?
We have a recovery now, but sadly we can't do CM9 or AOSP ICS until we get the RIL for our phone, which is sadly locked up pretty tightly by Samsung. Without this your ICS ROM can't call or use mobile data. We're hoping the Galaxy Nexus may shed some light on our RIL, but as of right now, it's a pipe dream.
What about root stuff like bloat removal and tethering?
Bloat Freezer works pretty well as does Titanium Backup, but be warned, there's a lot of 'system' apps along with the bloat, make sure you only remove the bloat and nothing that that starts with 'com.' As for tethering, a lot of users are reporting ad-hoc errors and the only fix I know of doesn't have a guide and is pretty damn invasive, in fact there seems to be more to it than what you needed to do to root the phone in the first place. See this post on Android Central about it.
TL;DR?
Q&A
In order:
- A custom ROM is a custom build of Android (which is an OS). For example, Cyanogen Mod (CM) is a custom ROM developer team who creates custom versions of Android for many devices. We can root the device and get into the custom recovery now, but there are no ROM's yet so it's just stock with root which means you can remove bloat for example.
- No, the recovery mode isn't like the safe mode of a computer, think of it more like the service mode. It allows you to wipe the device, make picture perfect backups of the device, restore those backups, and flash custom software like ROM's among a lot of other things.
- What you describe here is a custom ROM, which we don't have yet. You can mess with the UI, I just recommend a doing a full backup with the recovery before you start in case something horrific happens. Essentially we're still on stock, just rooted with options that rooting your phone comes with, like whole phone ad blocking and the ability to freeze or even remove the carrier bloat.
- Yes, your warranty is gone for good. Flashing back to stock unrooted may only fool the people at Verizon, but it doesn't take much effort to see the phone was rooted at some point.
Bloat removal is a big attraction, however it's not the only reason. Rooting opens the door to a recovery which allows you to make picture perfect FULL system backups and further opens the door to ROM'ing. Stock ROM's are notorious for being the most lackluster your device can be. They're safe, bloated up and bogged down as well as being full of holes and bugs and janky optimization. Custom versions of Android like Cyanogen Mod (CM) offer SO much more in terms of speed, stability, customization, safety, security and more. We've already got a ROM designed from stock to speed up the device and make it theme-able. This is the first of several to come.
Isn't this the Epic 4G?
Essentially yes with a few minor differences. The front cam is 1.3MP as opposed to the Epic's VGA. We have a slightly updated keyboard which is less flat than the Epic. We have a VZW LTE radio instead of the Epic's WiMax. Our's shipped with Gingerbread and the Epic is just now getting their GB update. Our phone is aimed more at the corporate market rather than us regular users which is why it's security focused and missing a few TouchWiz social apps. Other than that it's mostly cosmetic. It's a Galaxy S phone meaning it's just like the rest give or take a few things like radios and screens sizes (among other things) which is why the devs from the Charge are able to help us. It's the same phone guts.
So what's up with root/ROMs/Recovery?
This is the one of the times I can happily report we have root and recovery thanks to KnightCrusader and Co's tireless work. Now we can get to ROM'ing this bad mammer jammer!
Well, would you look at that, Nagmier over on RootzWiki gives us our first custom ROM! Thanks Nagmier!
ICS por favor?
We have a recovery now, but sadly we can't do CM9 or AOSP ICS until we get the RIL for our phone, which is sadly locked up pretty tightly by Samsung. Without this your ICS ROM can't call or use mobile data. We're hoping the Galaxy Nexus may shed some light on our RIL, but as of right now, it's a pipe dream.
What about root stuff like bloat removal and tethering?
Bloat Freezer works pretty well as does Titanium Backup, but be warned, there's a lot of 'system' apps along with the bloat, make sure you only remove the bloat and nothing that that starts with 'com.' As for tethering, a lot of users are reporting ad-hoc errors and the only fix I know of doesn't have a guide and is pretty damn invasive, in fact there seems to be more to it than what you needed to do to root the phone in the first place. See this post on Android Central about it.
TL;DR?
Yes, this is the Epic 4G, and the Charge, and just about every other Galaxy S phone with a few minor differences
- Yes, we have root
- Yes, we now have a recovery thanks to KnightCrusader and Co.
- Yes, we have a ROM, but no ICS yet
- Yes, you can remove the bloat after rooting, just be careful
- Tethering is hit or miss as you'll likely get an ad-hoc error, but maybe not
Q&A
In order:
- A custom ROM is a custom build of Android (which is an OS). For example, Cyanogen Mod (CM) is a custom ROM developer team who creates custom versions of Android for many devices. We can root the device and get into the custom recovery now, but there are no ROM's yet so it's just stock with root which means you can remove bloat for example.
- No, the recovery mode isn't like the safe mode of a computer, think of it more like the service mode. It allows you to wipe the device, make picture perfect backups of the device, restore those backups, and flash custom software like ROM's among a lot of other things.
- What you describe here is a custom ROM, which we don't have yet. You can mess with the UI, I just recommend a doing a full backup with the recovery before you start in case something horrific happens. Essentially we're still on stock, just rooted with options that rooting your phone comes with, like whole phone ad blocking and the ability to freeze or even remove the carrier bloat.
- Yes, your warranty is gone for good. Flashing back to stock unrooted may only fool the people at Verizon, but it doesn't take much effort to see the phone was rooted at some point.
Bloat removal is a big attraction, however it's not the only reason. Rooting opens the door to a recovery which allows you to make picture perfect FULL system backups and further opens the door to ROM'ing. Stock ROM's are notorious for being the most lackluster your device can be. They're safe, bloated up and bogged down as well as being full of holes and bugs and janky optimization. Custom versions of Android like Cyanogen Mod (CM) offer SO much more in terms of speed, stability, customization, safety, security and more. We've already got a ROM designed from stock to speed up the device and make it theme-able. This is the first of several to come.
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