On the fence, please help.

[furbearingmammal]

New phone, new plan. Existing phones, not customers, keep the unlimited data plan rates, at least as far as I researched it. If I'm wrong, well, I'm wrong and I apologize. Grandfathering the current phones in is good business. Grandfathering customers who buy the new phone you designed the plan for isn't.

Rooting is hacking your phone, plain and simple. It violates your warranty and allows you to do things that violate your TOS. :icon_ banana:

Like what you ask?

Wireless tethering, overclocking, themeing, full-image backups in case something goes blooey and your data gets corrupted, backup programs that let you save your apps in case an update wipes them out or makes then unavailable in the market even though they still function, full-on ROM images compiled from source by various developers that offer even more functionality and features/options than you thought possible, and more of a laundry list than I want to put in here. Should all Droid users root? No. Most of the people shouldn't, and don't. Just like some people don't realize their iPhones can take pictures, most Droid users have no need for what rooting can do, and it's still a potentially risky procedure. As with a lot of things, if you don't know what you're doing, don't!

However, this isn't a rooting discussion thread, so for more information on that look around.

If I were in your shoes I'd jump on Android platform (just not right this second and maybe not Verizon) for one reason and one reason only -- there are more Android phones coming out than you can shake a stick at. They all have their strengths, their weaknesses, benefits, drawbacks, etc. However, there's only one iPhone, and that's not going to change. Any problems you're having with it you'll continue to have, and if there's anything you don't like about it you'll continue not to like it. Look around and see what you can find. The Evo 4G is awesome, the Nexus One rawks, and Motorola is releasing new phones in the next month that might fit you/your wife to a T, and that's not counting the LG Ally, HTC Eris, Droid Incredible, Motorola Devour, Motorola Backflip, Samsung Galaxy, etc.

In short, while the iPhone might not be for everyone with its one-size-fits-all approach, a little looking might fix you right up.

Is there an app for that? No. But there might be a phone for it.

 

[kodiak799]

if you want a phone...get ANYTHING BUT an iPhone

lmao, fixed it for ya

 

[Trash Can]

Yeah, I don't think I'd be into the rooting thing. And you're right.... there's almost too many to choose from. I am going to go with something on Verizon though - just a matter of which one. Sprint doesn't work for me. Verizon was great before and I hear nothing has changed.

Oh, and thanks for the wirefly.com tip! I just went there and they still are selling Droids for $20. My sister has been looking for a deal, so I sent her the link. She's stoked!

Thanks again for your input! You guys are great! I'm going back to lurker mode for a little while to try learn some more about these devices. Hopefully, I'll have my hands on one soon. When I do, I'm sure I'll be back with more questions!

 

[kodiak799]

The "learning curve", and I throw it around a lot myself, is a bit overblown on the Droid.

I, too, am a widget whore and can't imagine owning a smartphone without them. Having to physically launch an app to see email, RSS feeds, weather, etc.. is an inconvenient extra step that, IMO, defeats the entire concept of a smartphone.

I'm guessing most who spend any time on this board eventually end-up rooting. Took me a month or two. Warning: Droid can become a nearly infinite time waster. I started out with new home launchers, then rooted, more home launchers, and now I'm considering diving into themes. But I love my set-up and for functionality, speed and ease of use I'd now put it up against any phone.

The main advantage of rooting - ignoring getting new OS updates months before stock - is far and away faster performance while simultaneously improving battery life (counter intuitive, but it's because of underclocking the processor when not under load). There's also some ram mgmt tweaks that help overall performance.

Widgets are where it's really at. With widgets my Droid also has near Blackberry mail/calendar functionality. Tethering is nice in a pinch for the business traveler. I haven't been able to perfect free VoIP, but others have. Just so much that Droid does that you can't really list it all in a single post. And, truthfully, most of the value-added cool stuff does not require root (I don't get the craze over themes and the OCD obsession with tweaking stuff like boot animations). But to really take advantage of everything you will have to spend some time searching, reading and tweaking because a lot of features and apps are new and every Droid is a little different.

Bottom line is out of the box Droid is pretty much on par with IPhone, but with a little time invested there is no comparison. Great example is IOS4 now gives users the ability to create folders for apps - a stock feature on Droid launch 9 months ago. Most of us have long since moved on to live or tagged folders, custom trays and/or hidden pop-ups.

 

[furbearingmammal]

Yeah, I don't think I'd be into the rooting thing. And you're right.... there's almost too many to choose from. I am going to go with something on Verizon though - just a matter of which one. Sprint doesn't work for me. Verizon was great before and I hear nothing has changed.

Oh, and thanks for the wirefly.com tip! I just went there and they still are selling Droids for $20. My sister has been looking for a deal, so I sent her the link. She's stoked!

Thanks again for your input! You guys are great! I'm going back to lurker mode for a little while to try learn some more about these devices. Hopefully, I'll have my hands on one soon. When I do, I'm sure I'll be back with more questions!

We're here to help! If you look around you'll find other people who swore they weren't going to root but did it anyway. I'm one of them. If you choose to, we'll help you out, and if you choose not to, please ignore the root-fanatics who bash anyone who doesn't want to risk bricking their phone.

Personally, wifi tethering was a must and one of the reasons I got the phone, so I had to root.

You're quite welcome about the Wirefly tip. The hardest part of ordering online is waiting for it to arrive, though!

 

[eliassami5]

Just an FYI...Amazon is selling the DROID for $0.01. And no im not joking, its been like that for a while tho lol

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-A855-Android-Verizon-Wireless/dp/B002UUTCKC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1277534967&sr=1-2]Amazon.com: Motorola DROID A855 Android Phone (Verizon Wireless): Cell Phones &…[/ame]