Can't wait for a new phone on the 8th. I'd like to wait but can't. Was wondering if we will be able to tether or create a hotspot with 4g? It sounds like you can if you root the phone but is it possible to do without rooting. I have an OG droid but never tried rooting it so I don't know anything about it. Thanks.
I'm sure it's possible with apps like that. Hate to ask this, but is there a certain reason why you've never rooted?
Just never did or had a need to. Don't know how. A friend did and said it really slowed down his og droid. Is it a big difference?
With all due respect, rooting a phone cannot speed up OR slow down a phone. Period! Your friend doesn't have a freaking clue. That's kinda like saying, "I got a new key for my car and now it's slower.". My Bionic will be rooted by noon on Thursday and I'll be tethering the same day ... I guarantee it.
He's an idiot then. You don't slow your phone down from rooting. It is basically just unlocking certain extra parts to your phone. It is like saying "My car runs really fast stock locked, but then when I drive with the doors unlocked it is so much slower!" No. Wait one second. Didn't motorola / verizon stop tethering with gingerbread? Even rooted tethering did not work on my locked droid-x with gingerbread. That is until I used 2nd-Init to get CM7 and other 2nd-Init ROMs. Then I was able to tether. Am I missing something? For some reason I feel you can't tether on gingerbread unless you are running a custom ROM that is 2nd-Init or you have an unlocked bootloader. Please correct me if I am wrong as I'd love to know the facts.
The only "fact" I know is that I've been able to tether to my OG DROID for the past 18 months or so ... always keeping up with the latest CM ROMs. Honestly, I don't ever remember a time when I couldn't tether.
Verizon/Moto blocked all tethering when they released their 2.3 gingerbread builds. The phone monitors root and stops the tethering apps such as wifi tethering from working and redirects you to a landing page that tells you to pay. Droid X got around this with CM7/2nd-init ROMS. (or any other custom ROM not running on the 2.3.3 base) but Bionic is not going to be so lucky. This has been confirmed numerous times, I'm not sure why everyone is saying that free tethering will be a definite for the Bionic when it comes out - it won't. VZW may throw in some other road blocks as well, given that the phone is 4G and can be abused much worse than 3G can. Verizon Enables New Wireless Tether Block, Asks That You Purchase a Plan - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog
I have a question regarding the paid mobile hotspot feature: I currently have a CDMA iPhone 4 with Unlimited Data, and I also pay $20/mo for the 2GB hotspot feature. If I switch to the Bionic, if I understand correctly, I will be able to keep Unlimited Data, but what about the hotspot? Will my hotspot feature go up to $30/mo, but will also have unlimited data?
Well that sucks. But don't forget the note at the bottom of that page: Maybe there is a chance. https://market.android.com/details?id=net.szym.barnacle&hl=en Not that I'll need tethering anyhow.
So the Bionic is a Hotspot for up to i think what 5 devices....So ,my laptop will connect to it right, via wireless or bluetooth. Whats the difference between hotpot and tether? I guess the question is: is it a 4g hotspot? I thought I read in the specs that it was a 3g hotspot....... BillD
Just connect via bluetooth, it's simple. I'm on an unrooted DX and have tethered every device I own, including my ipad, via bluetooth. I don't see why the Bionic would be any different?
How do you tether via bluetooth? Is there a specific program or do you just pair your phone via bluetooth to whatever device needs internet access, and it gets internet access?
If you want tether, than root ... it's just that simple. My OG Droid is running GingerBread and it tethers flawlessly. See the screen-shots I just took from my phone and laptop.
@ messenger13, I hope we can rely on you to post a new thread with a step by step rooting of the bionic after you get yours done? Please? Can I prompt you to do so after a time? I rooted my OG Droid once just to get the feel of it and returned it to OE happy knowing I could do it if I need to. I will be needing to on the Bionic for sure with tethering and to find a night theme that has absolutely no face lighting screens. I do surveillance work and need to keep the light down.
No problem. Though I'm sure others will beat me to the punch. The D3 is rooted and it's said to work on the Bionic. One-click to root!
@ messanger13 Well, after asking you to be sure and get back with rooting the bionic............ Arghg! I had a really serious soul searching change of mind this AM and am going to wait for the Prime. I know you will see this in other threads. Just wanted to say thanks.
I just wanted to clear up what some of the others were saying, just more kindly. They're correct in saying that being rooted doesn't slow the phone down. All in all, being rooted just grants you super user permission to change the software on your device. In doing so, you can place custom ROMs and kernels on your phone. Some ROMs and kernels like certain phones and not others. They're temperamental. Also note that some ROMs are more memory intensive than others. The OG Droid was never meant to run Android 2.3, and some of us are too darn stubborn to run anything but the latest version of anything . So yes, my phone lags more often than I want it to. But I just refuse to go back to Froyo. lol
Yes but you are using the original droid on gingerbread 2.3.5. Motorola + Verizon don't expect this. Thus you can tether. My phone has 2nd-Init to get through the bootloader being locked. Thus I can tether. Original droid - unlocked bootloader. Thus you can tether. I'm 90% sure you can't tether* stock rooted. You have to be running a custom rom that supports tethering. (At least for Droid X, and I think it'll be like that for the bionic.) I guess we'll see what happens when you get the bionic!
I'm on stock Gingerbread and tethering via bluetooth works just fine. In fact, we currently have a power outage here due to Lee so I'm actually running my laptop off of bluetooth now. Just pair your devices and connect. The range is limit and you can only connect one device at a time, but there's no need to root your phone and it's stupid simple to do.
