New Android user. few questions

[chuck67]

Hello everyone! I recently decided to order the samsung captivate today, and this will be my first android phone. now a few noob questions that i hope you guys dont mind answering. first off what does it mean to root your phone? does it get rid of all that at&t preloaded crap, and also does it give you access to anything special? like hidden settings, etc. Also i saw a video on youtube showing the interface, and is there anyway to go from the samsung default interface setup to regular android interface without a lot of hassle? hmm also how is listening to music on the captivate? is the sound quality good? on par with an ipod or better>>? Also does this phone web browser have adobe flash? and can someone tell me if mkv videos will play on the phone? one last question, will a 32GB microsd card work in this phone or is there a limit of 16GB? thanks for your help.

 

[Intervenient]

Hello everyone! I recently decided to order the samsung captivate today, and this will be my first android phone. now a few noob questions that i hope you guys dont mind answering. first off what does it mean to root your phone? does it get rid of all that at&t preloaded crap, and also does it give you access to anything special? like hidden settings, etc. Also i saw a video on youtube showing the interface, and is there anyway to go from the samsung default interface setup to regular android interface without a lot of hassle? hmm also how is listening to music on the captivate? is the sound quality good? on par with an ipod or better>>? Also does this phone web browser have adobe flash? and can someone tell me if mkv videos will play on the phone? one last question, will a 32GB microsd card work in this phone or is there a limit of 16GB? thanks for your help.

Rooting gives you super access to your phone, meaning you can uninstall bloatware, install apps that you normally couldn't (tethering apps, TiBackup), run customs ROMs and things of that nature.

Use either ADW Launcher of LauncherProBeta to get rid of the Samsung TouchWiz interface. Both of these are pretty close to stock Android. I prever ADW as it made my phone a lot faster and more battery friendly than LauncherPro.

Music is very good, especially when you select the 5.1 audio channel. I'd say definitely better than an iPod.

The web browser does not support flash at the moment, but that will come with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and will be released when either a.) Samsung releases it in September or b.) The hackers over at XDA port it over.

The Captivate does support MKV formats.

I believe that 32GB cards work, but please don't quote me on that.


Hope this helps

 

[dontshakepandas]

Hello everyone! I recently decided to order the samsung captivate today, and this will be my first android phone. now a few noob questions that i hope you guys dont mind answering. first off what does it mean to root your phone? does it get rid of all that at&t preloaded crap, and also does it give you access to anything special? like hidden settings, etc. Also i saw a video on youtube showing the interface, and is there anyway to go from the samsung default interface setup to regular android interface without a lot of hassle? hmm also how is listening to music on the captivate? is the sound quality good? on par with an ipod or better>>? Also does this phone web browser have adobe flash? and can someone tell me if mkv videos will play on the phone? one last question, will a 32GB microsd card work in this phone or is there a limit of 16GB? thanks for your help.

Rooting doesn't, in itself, get rid of the ATT loaded crap, but it will make it very easy for you to do it. Rooting basically just gives you permission to access/change files that you otherwise would not be able to access. There are several advantages to this, such as removing the ATT stuff, settings you can change to speed up the phone, as well as the ability to flash custom ROMS once they are available.

You can get rid of the Samsung interface by switching to LauncherPro or ADWlauncher. I use LauncherPro and it has made my phone feel much faster.

The music on the phone seems just as good as my Iphone was. The stock music player would not recognize all of my files (around 17GB) but I have switched to an app called cubed and prefer it over the stock app anyways due to the really cool interface.

From what I have read 32GB cards will work on the device, but you will have to format the card on your computer since the phone will not be able to. I have seen this confirmed in a few different places, and am planning to buy one soon since my 16GB card and my internal card are already approaching capacity.

Hope this helped. If you have any other questions read around on here an xda-developers for awhile, just about everything you can think of has been answered before.

 

[chuck67]

Rooting gives you super access to your phone, meaning you can uninstall bloatware, install apps that you normally couldn't (tethering apps, TiBackup), run customs ROMs and things of that nature.

Use either ADW Launcher of LauncherProBeta to get rid of the Samsung TouchWiz interface. Both of these are pretty close to stock Android. I prever ADW as it made my phone a lot faster and more battery friendly than LauncherPro.

Music is very good, especially when you select the 5.1 audio channel. I'd say definitely better than an iPod.

The web browser does not support flash at the moment, but that will come with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and will be released when either a.) Samsung releases it in September or b.) The hackers over at XDA port it over.

The Captivate does support MKV formats.

I believe that 32GB cards work, but please don't quote me on that.


Hope this helps

Ok! thank you for the clear simple answers. just what i was looking for. really looking forward to next friday. cheers

 

[BigCiX]

i plan on rooting myself once i learn enough not to mess up this phone.

 

[Graceflanger]

i plan on rooting myself once i learn enough not to mess up this phone.

Look on the xda-developers forum under the Samsung captivate. There is a link for a captivate wiki that will explain it too you very well.

 

[GaryStebbins]

I just got my Captivate yesterday, and have a lot to learn. This is my first Android phone. I can't seem to play YouTube videos with sound through the speaker. Is this a restriction, or have I just not figured out the magic incantation yet?

 

[thewall388]

Hey guys... im also new to the Droid world. I love the potential for customization here over the palm pre (my last phone). Can someone please point me in the right direction for how I can root my Samsung Moment? It already has Android 2.1 pre loaded and I want to root it so I can install a tethering software.

I read that rooting the phone needs maintenance as whenever an update is available I have to "flash" the phone? I am no stranger to computers but this does sound a little tricky. Can someone help me out to how to do this the easiest possible way?

Is there anything I have to know about the rooting process like for instance does it erase my phone when I initially do it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[sremick]

Can someone please point me in the right direction for how I can root my Samsung Moment?

I'd imagine you'd have better luck in the Samsung Moment forum. This is the forum for the Captivate.

Samsung Moment - Android Forums

And specifically:

All Things Root (Moment) - Android Forums

 

[GaryStebbins]

Regarding my question about the using the speaker with YouTube... I have found that my speaker randomly quits working, then some time later will start working again. All speaker functions - notifications, ringing, application sound - are affected. I suspect a hardware problem and am taking the phone back. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

 

[Ruben Cisneros]

Hello I am also a Noob to Android and the Captivate. I have a question if I try Launcherpro or ADW Launcher, I do not like them. How do I go back to Touchwiz?

 

[mwxiao]

Hello I am also a Noob to Android and the Captivate. I have a question if I try Launcherpro or ADW Launcher, I do not like them. How do I go back to Touchwiz?

You can uninstall them and press home button to choose Touchwiz.

If you don't want to uninstall them, you can use one of the following

(1) go to setting - application - ADW/LP - clear default. And then press home button to choose Touch wiz.
(2) the best way, is to download Home Switcher from market.