Root New Android user, have a few questions

[Dlauth]

Up till now I've been an avid iPhone user, jailbroken of course. I recently bought a samsung captivate that should be here in a few days. I have a few questions about the phone and the android os.

What are the best ways of going about the following and in what order.

I want the captivate to be on 2.2
I want to remove the AT&T apps but also be able to restore them if needed
I want to not be restricted on what apps I can install
what is the best way of backing up data on the phone? Contacts,apps etc
any cool tricks that I will be able to do on the android?

I am very knowledgable about technology but would like reassurance about what I'm doing so I do not mess anything up.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[sremick]

1) Wait until the official release. 2.2 has not been released yet for the Captivate. The only build floating around is a buggy leaked beta/devel build that will give you problems if you try to use it. Just look at all the people on here switching back to 2.1... or trying to switch back and not succeeding. The only people who should be messing with it are people who don't care about their phones and whether they work or get bricked.

2) Don't worry about removing them. If you just don't want to see them, use LauncherPro to hide them (or just don't put icons for them onto your home screens). Android isn't the iPhone: all your installed apps don't need to have icons on your home screen(s). If you want to keep them from ever being active, use Titanium Backup to "freeze" them. Actually removing them is asking for trouble. Things will break that you wouldn't expect.

3) Not an issue, using the Sideload Wonder Machine. Doesn't even require root. Sideloading - CapFAQ

4) Backup - CapFAQ

5) FAQ - CapFAQ

 

[Dlauth]

So freezing the apps doesn't corrupt the files or delete them correct? Is sideloading more convienient than rooting?

 

[sremick]

So freezing the apps doesn't corrupt the files or delete them correct?

It "deactivates" them by making a reversable change. Think along the lines of taking someprogram.exe on your Windows PC and renaming it to someprogram.EXE.bak.

Is sideloading more convienient than rooting?

I'd say they're about equally difficult. Arguably rooting might be considered easier if you use certain methods. However sideloading doesn't make a fundamental change to your phone that can cause side-effects (like updates not applying).

 

[ronaldramsayii]

1) Wait until the official release. 2.2 has not been released yet for the Captivate. The only build floating around is a buggy leaked beta/devel build that will give you problems if you try to use it. Just look at all the people on here switching back to 2.1... or trying to switch back and not succeeding. The only people who should be messing with it are people who don't care about their phones and whether they work or get bricked.

2) Don't worry about removing them. If you just don't want to see them, use LauncherPro to hide them (or just don't put icons for them onto your home screens). Android isn't the iPhone: all your installed apps don't need to have icons on your home screen(s). If you want to keep them from ever being active, use Titanium Backup to "freeze" them. Actually removing them is asking for trouble. Things will break that you wouldn't expect.

3) Not an issue, using the Sideload Wonder Machine. Doesn't even require root. Sideloading - CapFAQ

4) Backup - CapFAQ

5) FAQ - CapFAQ

I completely agree with you on this. It is buggy, and causes a few problems. My ultimate goal is to get rid of the need for Odin completely. I hope it's the goal for other devs as well. Coming from the Droid, I've had the luxury of working without the need of a installation software like Odin. If we can get the Galaxy S line to work like the Droid does.....that would be a great thing.

The leaked Froyo has given me a lot of problems. I've been trying to compile a build from it, but it hasn't been as reliable. I do hear though the official release is close....End of October is the ETA. We'll see though....

 

[ohbaby714]

I second that. Try Froyo for the last 2 day and kept running in to the GSM signal getting cut off and on after about a day.
I gave up and now back to 2.1update1. The phone is awesome and very hard to brick.

 

[Dlauth]

So what would be optimum for installing unauthorized AT&T apps? Sideloading or rooting?sideloading requires rooting on the captivate correct?

 

[ohbaby714]

Personally Rooting is very easy to learn/do, however there are also a way to do it with out rooting your phone.

YouTube - Android Application Sideload Wonder Machine


Good time.

 

[Dlauth]

What i'm understanding is that there is more than one way to root. Any suggested way to do it with the captivate?

 

[sremick]

So what would be optimum for installing unauthorized AT&T apps? Sideloading or rooting?sideloading requires rooting on the captivate correct?

Sideloading does not require rooting.

CapFAQ is your friend:
Sideloading - CapFAQ

What i'm understanding is that there is more than one way to root. Any suggested way to do it with the captivate?

Once again: CapFAQ
Root - CapFAQ

 

[reinbeau]

If I root (and I've read the FAQ, sremick, it's a fantastic resource, thank you for it!!) will I have to unroot before the 2.2 update comes in? I'm not going to go to the leaked version, I'll wait, but I'd like to get Titanium Backup going and get rid of (hide) the AT&T apps.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I've had no real issues with using the Cognition 2.2 build for the phone. It does require a root to the phone and it does install a custom ROM to the system. It will also disable Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. It also removes all of the AT&T programs that are better served using more efficient and free programs.

It's up to you to decide how you want to use your phone. The beauty of Android.

You can use ADW.Launcher or Launcher Pro to hide the apps you do not wish to be seen. Out of sight, out of clicking. The apps will still be on the phone, and they will still be running when you turn on the phone.

If you use Titanium Backup, you can backup all of your installed apps and restore them to the phone no matter which way you go. However, updating to the Cognition or Froyo 2.2 build, you do NOT want to restore system data and some apps. Doing that method requires more attention to detail and knowledge you may want to hold off on until you're comfortable.

As for backing up your data, you can have the contacts and such synced to the Google cloud. That way you can restore them automatically no matter what you do to your phone. AppBrain would be a good choice to look into as well.

 

[sremick]

If I root (and I've read the FAQ, sremick, it's a fantastic resource, thank you for it!!) will I have to unroot before the 2.2 update comes in? I'm not going to go to the leaked version, I'll wait, but I'd like to get Titanium Backup going and get rid of (hide) the AT&T apps.

The OTA update will probably install fine with just root, although it's almost guaranteed that you'll lose root and will have to re-root 2.2.

However, 2.2 is probably going to be huge so I'd recommend using something like Kies Mini which might succeed even if the OTA push install fails.

If all you care about is hiding the AT&T apps, this can be done safely and easily with the free LauncherPro. Titanium Backup takes it further and can "freeze" them, which apparently disables them while leaving them installed.