Getting my Hero tomorrow... anything I need to do to heighten my experience?

[andyacecandy]

Just wondering if there's a sticky as to things a new Hero owner should do to have the best experience with their device.


I've researched rooting it, but is it worth it? I jailbroke my ipodtouch but mainly for the apps...

Anyway, just getting my first post in and if anyone would like to give any kinda insight, that'd be nice. (or the usual, "go search the forum for the answer")

 

[Kelmar]

Rooting comes down to a personal decision. I previously DID have my phone rooted but then decided I really didn't need it.

Why root: For me, to delete the bloatware Sprint apps that come on phone, to put apps on the SD card and to allow further customization of the phone (some claim that the phone speeds up, etc).

I'll go ahead and let you know that the Hero is not nearly as intuitive as the iphone (or ipodtouch) is and will take a little bit more getting used to.

Very first thing you should do with your phone is check to make sure the firmware is up to date!!!

 

[lekky]

Check out the thread in my sig, it has a couple of tips you should do straight away.

A note to say that rooting invalidates your warranty too, although you can easily unroot to re-validate it

 

[popozou]

Just wondering if there's a sticky as to things a new Hero owner should do to have the best experience with their device.


I've researched rooting it, but is it worth it? I jailbroke my ipodtouch but mainly for the apps...

Anyway, just getting my first post in and if anyone would like to give any kinda insight, that'd be nice. (or the usual, "go search the forum for the answer")

Rooting the phone, as stated in previous posts, allows for a greater range of cusomization. Allowing you to remove such things as Sprint TV, Sprint Nascar, Sprint NFL, Sprint Navigator (some of the applications that are prone to opening on their own both at boot and randomly, taking away from available system RAM). The process for rooting also allows you to make backups of system software just in case something odd happens (well, guess this in a case of you deleting something that wasn't supposed to be removed through rooting =D)

Rooting also allows the phone to be tethered to a laptop (or pc...but really?)
*Side note: It is recommended to avoid suspicion, using google chrome on your computer while tethered*

I have rooted my phone, and I can attest to the following:
It feels slightly faster, not incredibly so, but a tad faster navigating through the phone.
Battery power has improved so much so that I can now use pandora for about 2 hours a day (sporadically while traveling), send text messages, email, and browse the web for tasty food and still have 30% of my battery power at the end of the day when I plug it in to go to bed.

Hope this helps!