Unlock/Root/Flash Service (Ideal for non-techies)

cormie

So once again, partyatmygaff helped me out with my phone and getting froyo on it. He had already helped me out months ago to root my phone to get a much needed function on it that was essential to me using the phone and he also helped my friend unbrick his phone. Using a combination of MSN and http://www.teamviewer.com, the whole process is done quickly and with only very basic input required from the user. All the advanced stuff is taken care of by partyatmygaff.

Anyway, I was telling him he should start offering this as a service as I'm sure there are more like me who are a bit apprehensive about messing about with their phone and although I'm technical enough with things, I'd prefer not to have to spend hours researching how to do this and to just pop someone a few bob to get it over and done with successfully and as quickly as possible and partyatmygaff can do this.

It took us about 1.5 hours which included chit chat and me asking a lot of basic "just to be sure" questions. Letting him control my desktop over teamviewer was my biggest fear but it seemed safe enough and you don't even need to install the program, it can just run by itself and goes once you're done.

If anyone is interested I'm sure he'll see this thread but I just thought I'd put up a recommendation anyway because it's a great service!

When I said he should offer it as a service he wasn't decided on pricing so I think he still has to come up with a charging system but for the sake of saving yourself hours of research and frustration and not really knowing what you're doing and the security of knowing if anything goes wrong, you'll have somebody who knows android and these processes inside out, then it's worth it

Thanks again partyatmygaff, now running Froyo and everything seems perfectly stable and smooth

Keano

I'd agree cormie that he should start offering his services. He tried to help me root my phone and it was not successful at the time but he still went out his way to help .

Inquitus

If you can't root your phone yourself, that's a pretty compelling case to say you shouldn't root your phone.

Abelloid

Inquitus wrote: »

If you can't root your phone yourself, that's a pretty compelling case to say you shouldn't root your phone.

Rooting has become a buzz word, everybody wants to root but few know why..

Before 2.2 was widely available there were more reasons to make it attractive but not so much now - paid market access is now the only clear benefit to the average user.

thehomeofDob

and Juicedefender!!!

Mitch Connor

JustinOval wrote: »

Rooting has become a buzz word, everybody wants to root but few know why..

Before 2.2 was widely available there were more reasons to make it attractive but not so much now - paid market access is now the only clear benefit to the average user.

People on phones like the Hero (like me) would still see great benifit from rooting (which I still have not got round to doing, might do it this weekend)

cormie

I wouldn't agree with that really, initially, rooting was absolutely essential for me in order to use the phone the way I wanted to with my contacts. I only put my sim card into the phone 2 weeks after buying it as I was waiting on a solution to my problem in these 2 weeks and rooting was the only solution. Then when I got partyatmygaff to do the Froyo update, I made it perfectly clear that I wanted stability over everything else. Froyo was released about 2 months ago but I wanted to wait till any bugs were ironed out which I believe they have been now so I'm pretty confident I won't need to do any more with the phone, unless gingerbread bring some very attractive updates. I confirmed with partyatmygaff before we proceeded that if I do the update, that I won't have to keep reflashing with updated bug patches etc and now it's over and done with an I have full form and functionality with froyo

If there's even one other person in such a position and if this can help them get sorted then so be it

Besides froyo, rooting etc, I'm pretty sure he also knows how to unlock and do all other stuff to make your android phone as open as possible

Abelloid

cormie wrote: »

I wouldn't agree with that really, initially, rooting was absolutely essential for me in order to use the phone the way I wanted to with my contacts. I only put my sim card into the phone 2 weeks after buying it as I was waiting on a solution to my problem in these 2 weeks and rooting was the only solution. Then when I got partyatmygaff to do the Froyo update, I made it perfectly clear that I wanted stability over everything else. Froyo was released about 2 months ago but I wanted to wait till any bugs were ironed out which I believe they have been now so I'm pretty confident I won't need to do any more with the phone, unless gingerbread bring some very attractive updates. I confirmed with partyatmygaff before we proceeded that if I do the update, that I won't have to keep reflashing with updated bug patches etc and now it's over and done with an I have full form and functionality with froyo

If there's even one other person in such a position and if this can help them get sorted then so be it

Besides froyo, rooting etc, I'm pretty sure he also knows how to unlock and do all other stuff to make your android phone as open as possible

I remember that well, you had very definite reasons for doing it. My point is that now a lot of people want to to root their phones but aren't sure why, it doesn't unlock the secrets of the universe or anything, and with phones that have 2.2 available the reasons to root are very few.

Inquitus

JustinOval wrote: »

Rooting has become a buzz word, everybody wants to root but few know why..

Before 2.2 was widely available there were more reasons to make it attractive but not so much now - paid market access is now the only clear benefit to the average user.

There's plenty of reasons
1) Being able to put your PS3 in debug mode.
2) To run Froyo without Sense.
3) Access the paid Market.
4) Debrand your phone.
5) Unlock your phone.
6) Avail of any of the tweaked ROMs which add functionality to the Official HTC release.
7) Apps2SD+ which is infinitely better than Stock APPs2SD and doesn't mean any apps on SD are killed when you mount your SD Card.

cormie

Yeah to be honest I'm not sure of all the tech specs but if Froyo has all the cool stuff like wifi hotspot and that then for most rooting won't be necessary. If anyone needs that contact app group option thing though, it's pretty much the only way.

Maybe partyatmygaff could do up a list of prices anyway for a root, an unlock, a debrick etc Glad to say I'm pretty much sorted now anyway

Motjida

I have to agree with Inquitus here, if you're not technical enough to root your phone, maybe you shouldn't do it.

There are very few benefits to rooting really (for a normal user), and I can't think of a single one a non techie would find useful bar access to paid apps in the Market. And that one is hardly a reason to root, since every developer out there is aware of the shortcomings of the current Market app, and will offer different options of purchasing his or her apps anyway.

So, unless you know what you're doing, stay away from rooting.

Abelloid

Inquitus wrote: »

There's plenty of reasons
1) Being able to put your PS3 in debug mode.
2) To run Froyo without Sense.
3) Access the paid Market.
4) Debrand your phone.
5) Unlock your phone.
6) Avail of any of the tweaked ROMs which add functionality to the Official HTC release.
7) Apps2SD+ which is infinitely better than Stock APPs2SD and doesn't mean any apps on SD are killed when you mount your SD Card.

If you can't figure out how to root your phone, why do you want to put your PS3 in Debug mode?

cormie

If somebody has a branded, locked phone, then spending an hour online with partyatmygaff at a reasonable rate would open it up fully. I'm sure there's plenty of non-techie people who'd require an unlock and this is probably the best way to go about it

Inquitus

JustinOval wrote: »

If you can't figure out how to root your phone, why do you want to put your PS3 in Debug mode?

I am saying there are plenty of reasons still to root your phone, I am also saying if you can't do it yourself then you should leave well alone.

Abelloid

Inquitus wrote: »

I am saying there are plenty of reasons still to root your phone, I am also saying if you can't do it yourself then you should leave well alone.

I'm agreeing with you; there are plenty of reasons, but few for the 'non-techies'. :pac:

s_carnage

cormie wrote: »

If somebody has a branded, locked phone, then spending an hour online with partyatmygaff at a reasonable rate would open it up fully. I'm sure there's plenty of non-techie people who'd require an unlock and this is probably the best way to go about it

I think it is a great idea. I tried to unlock my phone at the weekend but there was one point where I had to download some software but for some reason it was asking for a username and password to download it and there was nowhere to register on site.
I for one would definitely be interested in this idea.

Chet T16

For me the fun part is the rooting, not necessarily what you can do when rooted. This is why pretty much every piece of electronics i own has been "hacked" TV, wii, ds, psp, phones etc. Even the firmware on the car satnav was modified

jimmycrackcorm

cormie wrote: »

If somebody has a branded, locked phone, then spending an hour online with partyatmygaff at a reasonable rate would open it up fully. I'm sure there's plenty of non-techie people who'd require an unlock and this is probably the best way to go about it

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye or bricks their phone.

partyatmygaff

Cormie: My new PR Manager

Anyone who's interested can just send me a PM or make a post in this thread.

I also am familiar with the Galaxy S (Seeing as I own both phones ) so can work on that as well. If you want to ask me any questions or anything just give me a PM/Make a thread. More than happy to help, money or not

partyatmygaff

Inquitus wrote: »

There's plenty of reasons
1) Being able to put your PS3 in debug mode.
2) To run Froyo without Sense.
3) Access the paid Market.
4) Debrand your phone.
5) Unlock your phone.
6) Avail of any of the tweaked ROMs which add functionality to the Official HTC release.
7) Apps2SD+ which is infinitely better than Stock APPs2SD and doesn't mean any apps on SD are killed when you mount your SD Card.

Good list but need to make a few alterations for accuracy

1) Being able to put your PS3 in debug mode. - I was part of the project so I can vouch for that

2) To run Froyo without Sense
3) Access the paid Market.
4) Debrand your phone.
5) Unlock your phone. - Not possible by rooting or software means. SIMLOCK is a function stored in the phone's RADIO and can only be unlocked if you buy an unlocking code. (Holds for most but not all Android phones)
6) Avail of any of the tweaked ROMs which add functionality to the Official HTC release.
7) Apps2SD+ which is infinitely better than Stock APPs2SD and doesn't mean any apps on SD are killed when you mount your SD Card.

8) Being able to run a chrooted Linux distro like Ubuntu => Opens up a whole plethora of Linux ARM software and linux functions. Useful for techies and non-techies alike.

9) Being able to overclock and undervolt your phone (The Desire goes up to near 1.4GHz stable)

10) Custom kernels which improve battery life and add features like CIFS which allows you to mount Windows shares on your phone.

11) Get the latest updates to Android before HTC release an official OTA

12) Running root only apps like Titanium Backup or Metamorph

13) Running custom themes like BrightSilence

osnola ibax

There are some great advantages to rooting and for heavens sake any monkey who can follow instructions can do it, you don't need to be a techie. That term has really been devalued lately.

There are a million and one guides out there, if you are interested you will find them. Once gingerbread surfaces, there will be more value in rooting. As for custom roms, they are amazing IMO and have ongoing nightly support and updates with direct access to the developers. OpenDesire is a ruddy marvel.

Motjida

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Good list but need to make a few alterations for accuracy

5) Unlock your phone. - Not possible by rooting or software means. SIMLOCK is a function stored in the phone's RADIO and can only be unlocked if you buy an unlocking code. (Holds for most but not all Android phones)

Since you have an i9000, you should know the unlock codes for those are stored on the phone itself and thus it's possible to unlock it if you have root :pac:

Inquitus

Motjida wrote: »

Since you have an i9000, you should know the unlock codes for those are stored on the phone itself and thus it's possible to unlock it if you have root :pac:

Its good that you pointed that out for the sake of accuracy, so essentially PAMG's contribution was for the sake of inaccuracy I presume :pac:

partyatmygaff

Motjida wrote: »

Since you have an i9000, you should know the unlock codes for those are stored on the phone itself and thus it's possible to unlock it if you have root :pac:

Ahem... read "holds for most but not all phones"

Motjida

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Ahem... read "holds for most but not all phones"

So in essence your "contribution" was completely irrelevant and only served to flash your "I helped beta test the PS3 Debug project" badge?

partyatmygaff

Motjida wrote: »

So in essence your "contribution" was completely irrelevant and only served to flash your "I helped beta test the PS3 Debug project" badge?

Ok i'm going to make this very plain. You like the SGS, I don't. Stop stalking me throughout threads trying to find ways to make me look bad.

I added 5 extra points for rooting and I was part of the original few who started the PSFreedom Android port. Hardly a beta tester.

Inquitus

partyatmygaff wrote: »

trying to find ways to make me look bad.

That would assume people have to actually try, with your constant rants about the SGS, and your ill-informed thread on whether the Desire or the SGS had a better CPU, I'd suggest trying is not necessary.

Motjida

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Ok i'm going to make this very plain. You like the SGS, I don't. Stop stalking me throughout threads trying to find ways to make me look bad.

I added 5 extra points for rooting and I was part of the original few who started the PSFreedom Android port. Hardly a beta tester.

Yeah because it's clearly stalking when I'm suggesting people who aren't very technical maybe leave root well enough alone?

I think someone has too big an opinion of himself :pac:

partyatmygaff

Inquitus wrote: »

That would assume people have to actually try, with your constant rants about the SGS, and your ill-informed thread on whether the Desire or the SGS had a better CPU, I'd suggest trying is not necessary.

Constant rants? Not exactly. People ask for an opinion and I give them one. Did you see me start "I hate the SGS" thread or something?
And in case you've forgotten I proved the Desire's Snapdragon outperformed the Hummingbird in native code performance.

Motjida wrote: »

Yeah because it's clearly stalking when I'm suggesting people who aren't very technical maybe leave root well enough alone?

Rooting your phone isn't exactly rocket science and the benefits aren't exactly difficult to attain.

I think someone has too big an opinion of himself :pac:

neonman

Straight forward guide here for the HTC Hero.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=645253

Takes less than 30 mins

I've 2.2 running on my Hero now. (without sense)

partyatmygaff

People seem to have gotten the wrong impression off of this. I'm more than happy to help anyone root their phones or unbrick it e.t.c. as I always have. This thread is just if you'd like someone to do the entire process for you.