Day 4
ROOT ENABLED..
The one thing android and windows mobile were never short on was developers. I researched and read up on what it would take to root the Atrix the past few days and when I finally rebooted my mac into windows to root it. As I went back to xda-devlopers to download the files I found a new thread for mac developers! win..
Some new functionality
Root Explorer
Titanium Backup (going to test out the wifi one too)
Launcher Pro
Rather than install a custom rom, I decided to just hack my way through this one. I already have a nexus one with gingerbread rooted, and I'm not all that impressed with it so I didn't want to install that on the Atrix. I removed
all the default widgets, got rid of some other crufty at&t crap. And noticed little to no speedup.
At this point, I would not trust either my mom or dad to use this phone in this manner, we've gone out of the realm of consumer to the realm of prosumer.
I really do like the idea of Titanium Backup. This was one of my biggest pet peeves on windows mobile. I'd install a new rom and have to go through and re-install EVERYTHING on the phone. I haven't tried reflashing and using the restore mode yet, but if it does what it claims this is a huge win for android.
I still can't get ADWNotify to work and Launcher Pro doesn't show me the unread messages in a folder on the widget screens.
Day 5
So much fail.. so annoyed. Jury duty day.. I brought my Atrix and my iPad with me to sit around all day. I ended up reading magazines on the iPad most of the time (again, no zinio on android!!!)
I used google maps to navigate to the courthouse and it worked pretty well. I noticed that it was still in beta, but as-is the feature set was pretty complete and being that it is FREE on the android vs TomTom which costs $60 on the iPhone. I was mighty impressed. Until I tried to get home that is.. Android bugginess be DAMNED.
It's pouring rain and I'm in downtown oakland. I leave the garage to get signal and type in my address to get home. Google maps responds back to me with a blank screen. I give it some time and slow get back out to the main street. Still nothing. Close the app and try again.. NOTHING.. I'm now driving around in east oakland trying to find my way home and still the nav won't come up and won't even SHOW ME A MAP. WTF.
Luckily I have a pretty damn good sense of direction and was able to get myself to the main roads to get home. Had I not, this note may never have been written. Complete and utter FAIL.
This is what I mean when I say I expect things to work properly on my phone. Many people rely heavily on their smart phones to be smart. When I needed the phone to work properly and get me home it failed me. On a day to day basis all of the ESPN apps fail at one point or another, other apps lag or stall randomly, and I don't want to diagnose and fix each feature for the developers.
Apps fail and stall on the Iphone as well so don't get me wrong I expect this to happen. But with something like google maps which is built specifically for android phones and SHOULD work I expected much more. If google can't even get their own apps bug free how can they expect developers to do the same?
On a positive note, I'm beginning to love swype.. SO FAST....
Still, I have 2 days to work out the bugs and explore more of the unlocked potential of the phone.
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