Under a Gibbous Moon

After having spent several months being teased by Verizon’s promise to release the Android 2.1 update for the Droid, I decided that I was done waiting and rooted my phone.

What is that you may ask? Rooting refers to root access (administrative privileges on Windows machines). With root access you are free to do essentially anything you want to the phone. For the rooting process, I used DroidMod. I won’t get into the exact details but instead point you to the tutorial that I used.

After I was done with that, I had a brand spanking new rom on my phone. So far, it has been excellent. I have all the promised feature that were coming with the 2.1 update (live wallpapers, 3D photo gallery, voice dictation, etc…) plus some nice extras.

I have overclocked my phone’s processor from 550 MHz to 1 GHz. I also have the option to tether my phones 3G connection with another device(s) via WiFi. The number of home screens went from three to five, giving me more room for the various widgets I have placed everywhere. I installed a new theme which, unlike the non root themes, actually replaces the old one and does not simply run on top of it.

Some of the tweaks are more minor. The YouTube application now defaults to the high quality video. The old unlock screen is back and it gives you the ability to turn on vibrate with the wheel instead of just silent. I also pulled off the Verizon Visual Voicemail app that I was never going to use but couldn’t otherwise uninstall.

So, in conclusion, was it worth it? Hell yes. Was it without risks? No. There is always the risk of screwing it up and bricking your phone but the improved features and added functionality made it worth the relatively small risk that something would go wrong.

Related (maybe) posts:

1. Android Phone is for Porn!
2. On the new Android licensing system
3. Did Android force Apple’s hand?