So glad I made my decision to buy the Captivate!

Crosseyed_N_Paniless said:

So much better than the iPhone IMHO. I've been customizing it for three hours now and haven;t even scratched the surface.

I'm glad to be a part of this forum now...

-Greg

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Welcome to the forum!

I've had my captivate for 2 weeks, and I'm still learning about it every day.

Welcome to the darkside

Welcome aboard!

yup only have had mine for a couple of days now and love it. Was watching Dexter on it and I love the gorgeous LCD screen.

I just brought one myself last night switched from the iphone to this. I love it so far just a lot to learn lol its so different

Welcome. I've had mine a little under three weeks now. Great phone. I love it. I was one of the dell streak waiters but Just couldn't wait any longer and I have no regrets. Enjoy your phone. Hope the update comes soon for the GPS.

richierich said:

yup only have had mine for a couple of days now and love it. Was watching Dexter on it and I love the gorgeous LCD screen.

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Hi richierich ... it's an AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen. ... but it is gorgeous :-D

Active-matrix OLED - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Congratulations and welcome. Hopefully everyone was able to pick up a Captivate at a discount.

My suggestions for new Captivate owners:

1. get rid of AT&T bloatware via rooting and Titanium backup (you can unroot after if you wish like I did)

2. grab a poly-urethane full-body protector, like Phantom Skinz, Gadget Guard, etc, and extra Samsung Galaxy S batteries + wall charger combo off Ebay for $15 or so each

3. get fun, free games such as Unblock Me, Abduction, Homerun Battle 3D, Bonsai Blast, Paper Toss

4. check out Shake Them All live wallpaper, it's pretty cool, and you can even change the droids

5. get a system app such as File Manager so you can create .folder and hide your naughty pics and vids in there, haha

Those are my suggestions. I'm sure others have lots of good suggestions to share as well.

Dennis_Bham said:

Hi richierich ... it's an AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen. ... but it is gorgeous :-D

Active-matrix OLED - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Indeed good sir... but you are slightly off... it is a SUPER AMOLED screen...

Super AMOLED - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Max Tempest said:

My suggestions for new Captivate owners:

1. get rid of AT&T bloatware via rooting and Titanium backup (you can unroot after if you wish like I did)

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I would not advise rooting for every Captivate user, especially not newbies to Android. Rooting is not without its risks and side-effects.

richierich said:

yup only have had mine for a couple of days now and love it. Was watching Dexter on it and I love the gorgeous LCD screen.

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Correction, S-AMOLED! this kills LCD

sremick said:

I would not advise rooting for every Captivate user, especially not newbies to Android. Rooting is not without its risks and side-effects.

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On the fence right now, but to me it seems that rooting it will give a better user experience. Can't I just root, and mess around with minor things, without getting into using the sdk, or flashing roms. Shouldn't I be ok if I am somewhat good with computers.

I do not have a PC right now, just an imac and ipad, and I use to have an iphone, but last year decided I just wanted a smartphone (blackberry), but I made it a dumbphone and just use it for call/text. I was tired of the high data price, but now I am on a family plan, so my bill will be cheaper.

To the poster above about the Ti Backup, can I just root, do Ti Backup, hide all the bloatware, then unroot? Will I be able to still get updates?

If I root and make changes, then unroot and get an update, do I have to keep making backups of everything?

I already use gmail, and last night started making a contact list, I do not want every email address to go into contacts, which I have read about. The mail app on the demo unit didn't look that good, does the gmail app show how many new messages I have in a bubble?

Sorry for all the questions, just torn between what I want. An iphone is easy as pie, and I could use it more easily for my gym ipod, but I am tired of that world. I have an ipad for my lockdown OS, and my shuffle works fine in the gym. My main fears are the GPS update, actually Samsung and the update process scares me, I have read about their past problems with updates, and having a good solid case not available bothers me. Apple is crazy, but I know they will continue to push out updates.

I am between an Iphone 3gs(which I have had), and the captivate.

Welcome to the club!

I've had mine for 2-weeks now and also came from an iPhone. I highly recommend Launcher Pro to replace the Touch Whiz interface. But, try them all and see what you like best. That's the beauty of Android. If you don't like something, replace it. It's your choice.

Max Tempest said:

4. check out Shake Them All live wallpaper, it's pretty cool, and you can even change the droids

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How did you get that? Side loading? It is not in the Market.

yeah oops I know it has AMOLED but was too distracted by all the great comments about the Captivate, lol

I've had my Captivate since they came out and never once thought about taking it back, i'm new to android to and i'm glad i gave up my Iphone

Welcome! I have had mine since it came out last month and I love it.

getDange said:

How did you get that? Side loading? It is not in the Market.

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Yah, requires sideloading. I used this method which does not require any rooting and is pretty easy to do: Sideload Android apps all you want with the Sideload Wonder Machine | Android Central

Aspenator said:

On the fence right now, but to me it seems that rooting it will give a better user experience. Can't I just root, and mess around with minor things, without getting into using the sdk, or flashing roms. Shouldn't I be ok if I am somewhat good with computers.

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That pretty much describes me too. This is my first smartphone, first time rooting, and I am okay with computers. I rooted the phone, removed bloatware with Titanium Backup, then unrooted. I did not mess around with sdk or flashing roms. Phone runs better, more memory and screen space with AT&T gone. I'm not an official Captivate guru or whatever, I am just giving my suggestions based on my experience. Everyone is free to consider or ignore my input of course.

Aspenator said:

To the poster above about the Ti Backup, can I just root, do Ti Backup, hide all the bloatware, then unroot? Will I be able to still get updates?

If I root and make changes, then unroot and get an update, do I have to keep making backups of everything?

Click to expand...

I do not see any reason why you would not be able to update after unrooting. Iphones that have been jailbroken/unlocked can still update OS. But since there has not been any updates yet, until next month, I do not know for sure what will occur.

Aspenator said:

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I already use gmail, and last night started making a contact list, I do not want every email address to go into contacts, which I have read about. The mail app on the demo unit didn't look that good, does the gmail app show how many new messages I have in a bubble?

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Check out LauncherPro. It's a UI that replaces TouchWiz. There are lots of customizations in LauncherPro and one of them is to show missed callc counts and unread counts for email/messages. It puts a little "bubble" in the corner of the app icon.

Also check out Handcent. It's an awesome text messaging application. I like it much better than the stock app.

Congrats and welcome aboard. You'll love this thing.

Crosseyed_N_Paniless said:

So much better than the iPhone IMHO. I've been customizing it for three hours now and haven;t even scratched the surface.

I'm glad to be a part of this forum now...

-Greg

Click to expand...

lol I know what you mean, when I got it I was so overwhelmed with having to customize it. It actually made me anxious. Luckily I got over that .

Crosseyed_N_Paniless said:

Thanks everyone! Especially Max! can't wait to get home from work and customize my Captivate for hours! Just starting to get a good grasp on the device...

Question...

If I root my phone, what is the worst that can happen? Is it like jail-breaking an iPhone? Let's say I may or may not work for a company that sounds like "AB&T" Can I get in trouble with them for doing this? They made a stink about the whole jail-breaking issue...

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I don't think you can get in "trouble." I talked to a floor rep who was using a jailbroken iPhone. It will void your warranty, and the absolute worst that can happen is bricking your phone. So if you do it just be careful. There is a great support community here and at xda-developers to help if you have problems. I like the comfort of having the stock ROM out there that I can flash if something goes terribly wrong.

As far as bloatware goes, if you load up Launcherpro (free home app from the market), you can just hide it so it's not in the way. After that, your main reason for rooting would be to enable sideloading or removing AT&T's market restrictions. I have enjoyed testing beta apps and using PdaNet.

Must have apps (that you may not have heard about already):
Quick Settings
MortPlayer (for audiobooks)
Astrid Tasks
TapeMachine
SystemPanel

And P.S. Don't use an automated task killer. http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/