I’ve been reading root info and stuff for the last few weeks and all I can say is that the way these people write these things, it doesn’t seem as easy as they make it out to be. I have yet to find clear, explicit instructions for someone like me who knows very little about it. Don’t get me wrong, I can learn this stuff pretty easily – but I think it’s more of a problem with terminology than anything else. Not sure.

Anyway, there are a few helpful threads on XDA that you’d want to read through. To start with there’s the Easily Root Your SGS2 thread. It’s a good read – but to me became pretty confusing – especially when my patience was at a minimum already thanks to the days’ frustrations. And then there’s another problem… I have a Mac. It looks to me like most of that info is for Windows users.

Ya, go figure. The Apple user wants to root an Android device.

Luckily I found some help in that thread above… and it pointed me to another thread. It was time to get down to business… except for one thing: I AM IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING YOU DO TO YOUR PHONE OR ANY OTHER DEVICE. YOU FOLLOW ANY OF THESE STEPS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY. I only have to say that because people are dumb. Keep that in mind…

Also worth noting, if you currently are not rooted and have the stock software from AT&T/Samsung, these specific instructions and files will basically be exactly the same – but with root privileges. All of your data and apps should remain intact. But again, not responsible, your own risk… blah blah blah. If you somehow manage to lose everything, it’s just not my problem.

So, if you have a Mac and want to root your AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II, here we go:

1. Download:

• Heimdall 1.3.1 Command Line (OS X 10.4+)
• EZ 7z for Mac
• Rooted Stock Kernel for AT&T SGS2

2. Install on your Mac:

• Install Heimdall
• Install EZ 7z for Mac

3. Extract:

• Extract PDA.tar from UCKH7_stock_odin.7z using EZ 7z
• Extract zImage & factoryfs.img from PDA.tar using the Mac’s built-in Archive Utility

4. Move Files:

• Move zImage and factoryfs.img to an easily accessible folder (Desktop?)

5. Prepare Phone:

• Power Off your phone (pull battery if needed)
• Connect USB cable from your computer to the phone
• While holding Vol Up AND Vol Down, turn on the phone
• Press Vol Up button to Accept custom OS notice
• It should now show the Android guy and say “downloading” (don’t worry, it’s not downloading anything yet)

6. Root Phone:

• Open a Terminal window
• Change the directory to where you moved zImage/factoryfs.img
• Type the following command in the Terminal window, press Enter and wait (you should see a status bar start moving on your phone after running it):

heimdall flash --kernel zImage --factoryfs factoryfs.img

Let the phone reboot when completed. You’re done. Well, more done when it finishes booting and you click Allow on the superuser access request.

This is exactly how I did it just a few short hours ago. Now you can go download Titanium Backup or whatever other SuperUser app you want to use. And in my case, immediately go into Titantium and Freeze the AP Mobile app. POS that one is…

So just to be clear – I can’t take any credit for this. Any of it. I’ve really just put it all together and ordered it in such a way that for me, made it extremely easy (yes, even easier than it was explained on the forum). I like things simple and straightforward… I just didn’t feel like I was feeling that from the other threads and didn’t want to clog them up with even more questions.

In any case, all of the thanks goes to those guys on XDA for their hard work and providing the necessary information. Seriously, go thank them.

Where’s my Goldilocks plan?

It’s a shared data plan. And I want it now.

And now, 4 iPhones, each on the 2gb plan, we’ll be paying $100/mo JUST in data, for an available 8gb of data per month.

In the last 6 months, with 3 iPhones on the plan (paying a total of $75 per month for an available 6gb of data per month), we have used a TOTAL of 5.5gb of data. That’s all three lines. Combined. For 6 months. And in those same 6 months, we’ve used an average of 900mb per month – COMBINED – all while I’ve been paying for 6gb per month. So basically I’m paying $75 a month and using about $11 worth of data.

I have a Family Talk plan. Where’s my Family Data plan? How hard is it to give me 3gb of data per month to share between all of my iPhones… for around $35? Need more? How about a 5gb shared plan for $50 per month?

I can think of no other reason to NOT do this other than pure greed. Why would AT&T want to simplify things and save me money when they can fuck me over every month for $100 worth of data that I’m not using? Sure, an obvious answer might be “so just use more data and get your money’s worth” … OK, but that’s not a solution. I’m not going to try to use data for the sake of using data. That’s just dumb.

So… AT&T… how about you go “above and beyond” for me and give me a reasonable, shared data plan? That is of course, if you actually mean what your website says:

“AT&T goes above and beyond to serve our customers.”

Or is that just a bunch of PR crap?

I was in the area of an AT&T store today and after yesterday’s phone debacle, I figured it best to just stop by and order the phone in person. Can’t be that bad, right?

Wrong.

The girl helping me was very nice… I explained that the website wouldn’t let me add a line and buy a new phone. I kept getting that stupid error. I even tried this morning before I went to WGI for the day. Same problem then. I proceeded to tell her that I wanted to add a line and purchase a refurbished iPhone 4.

She goes on to tell me they don’t sell them in the store (I already know this). I confirm that this is OK, and to go ahead and order one. She says they can’t even order them – you can only get them online. Puzzled, I explained that I wouldn’t be there if I could actually place the order online like I originally wanted to.

So how is it possible that there are products available online that I cannot order in an actual AT&T store? How the hell does that work? I completely understand not stocking them in the store… but for the associates not being able to order from the store, I’m completely flabbergasted.

She offered to call the Customer Service number and try to order one through them. She gets them on the phone only to eventually find out they can’t order them either! WHAT THE FUCK? I saw that the AT&T website says that particular phone is “online only” but I guess I didn’t take it so literally. I expected an employee somewhere would be able to place an order.

However… the lady on the phone was able to get into my account and see that the add a line worked. So the girl at the store hung up and was able to log in on her computer there and successfully add a line. Except then… we found out that ALL versions of the refurbished iPhone 4 were sold out.

FML.

After confirming with my brother, we finally settled on a new, white, 16gb, iPhone 4. After 2 days of crap and some extreme frustration, I finally had a phone. Even though it took multiple phone calls, a trip to an AT&T store, and ANOTHER phone call… thanks AT&T. For sucking so much.

I (did) have the 550 family talk plan and was trying to add an additional line to that – apparently that is not possible as that plan has a 3 line limit (wtf?). I was getting a message that said there was a “Unidentified Problem” with my account. O rly? How do you know there’s a problem if you can’t identify it?

Once I found out there was a 3 line limit on the 550 min plan, I changed my plan to the 700 minute family talk plan (5 line limit). I tried to add a line again – same error. Kind of annoyed now. Called 611 (customer support) and tried to go to the Sales number – they’re closed. Sorry, but if I’m on a Business plan (discount from work), you should never be closed – especially when it involves me trying to give you more money.

Found another number that said it was 24/7 – turned out it led me right back to the same 611 line. OK, let’s try something else… went to the “other account questions” option to see if they could tell me why I was getting the error on the website. First time I tried this it seemed to transfer me OK and then a message came on that said they could not answer my call due to an unknown problem and then I was just randomly disconnected. Getting more annoyed now.

Called back again… selecting the same account option. Finally got a real person. He said there was a known issue with the website and they’ve been having ongoing issues and they are working on it. OK, I can accept that… He then proceeded to tell me he couldn’t help me with adding a new line but would transfer me to the people that could. Cool. Maybe this will actually work.

Though in the back of my head, my first though was “this ass better not just transfer me to the same sales line that is closed right now” … ya, he totally did. The message came on and said they were closed and to call back and then hung up on me.

Now is it too much to expect this guy to KNOW that their sales line is closed at this hour? I don’t think so. I would be slightly less annoyed had he just said “normally I would transfer you to our sales department, but I do believe they are closed at this time – if you’d like to call back tomorrow I’m sure they can help you.”

But no… he transferred me right over there and I accomplished nothing. Now I have to wait until tomorrow and try all of this all over again.

Thank you AT&T. For nothing.

The story goes like this: People that have jailbroken their iPhone can use certain apps to enable tethering/hotspot features for free. The very same features that AT&T would like to charge its users for.

Up until now, it didn’t seem like they cared too much about it (publicly at least, internally they probably wanted to smack these people in some way). Well, that smack down appears to have come in the form of text messages and emails stating that these people are using these services without having an appropriate data plan.

It goes on to say that if AT&T does not hear back from you by 3/27, that they will automatically enroll you in one of those appropriate data plans (DataPro + Tethering) for what amounts to an additional $20/month.

From my perspective, there are 2 parts to this…

AT&T wants to be compensated for features that it provides that people are not paying for. This is understandable but there is also the argument that if I’m already paying for my 2GB of data (or whatever) that I should be able to use up that data anyway I want to. If that includes tethering or mobile hotspot or whatever, that should not be AT&T’s concern. I think this is pretty sound logic and comes down to AT&T wanting to nickel and dime everyone to death to save their bottom line.

The other side is that people are purposely using these “unauthorized” methods of tethering and hotspots for the sole reason of avoiding paying those fees. Now if there is a correct service offering for what you’re doing, and you’re not paying the fee for that service, that’s kind of stealing (in a VERY broad sense of the term). So regardless of the correctness of AT&T wanting to nickel and dime people, those people should be paying for the service they’re using – if there is a legitimate offering for it.

I happen to not use this service in any way, authorized or unauthorized… but my first thought is that these people who are using the “free” services that are going to be super pissed at AT&T should actually do something about it. Don’t like their policy? Don’t want to pay the fee they’re about to force you to pay? Drop your service. Leave the carrier. Go get a Verizon iPhone. Do something.

Whining about how much you hate AT&T for doing this will do NOTHING to fix it. Show them that you really don’t like what they’re doing by not giving them anymore of your money. If you continue to go along with something that you don’t like, the ONLY message you’re sending is that it doesn’t bother you enough to actually do something about it – instead just enough for you to be a whiny bitch on the internet about it.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to do a little comparison between the two. What would it cost me to move all 3 of my lines (and text messaging, data plans, etc, for an iPhone 4 and 2 iPhone 3GSs) to Verizon from AT&T. Worth noting: Those two iPhone 3GS users would require an upgrade. I’m not factoring that into this comparison though, because I’m looking specifically at the bill.

First… differences. With AT&T, I’m on the lowest FamilyTalk plan of just 550 minutes. We may occasionally come close to this, but really don’t need to pay the extra for a higher plan yet. That is $50/mo. Add 2 additional lines at $10/mo each and we’re at $70 just for voice services at 550 minutes. Verizon, on the other hand, does theirs a bit differently. They have family plans… and then they have family plans with text. So you can get a Talk plan or a Talk & Text plan. Obviously we’d go for the T&T plan. Unfortunately for comparison sake, these start at a whopping 700 minutes. And with 3 lines, it works out to $110 (which, again, includes unlimited text).

Text messaging with AT&T is surprisingly easy. It’s just $30/mo for unlimited texting for the whole plan. So throw that in with the voice service and we’re at $100 for AT&T…

That $10 difference gets you another 150 minutes per month… if you need/want them. We don’t.

Data plans… These vary a bit as well. We don’t use a ton of data – but always more than 200mb. So with AT&T, we are in the 2GB/mo plans for all 3 devices. At $25 each, that’s another $75, bringing the total up to $175 at AT&T. Worth noting here: 2 of us could have been grandfathered into the unlimited data plan at $30/mo – but after analyzing our usage, it was worth saving the $10/mo to step down to the 2GB plan for both. The third device was too late for the unlimited and was required to get the 2GB plan. Again, not a problem.

Verizon, so far, is offing a 150MB and unlimited plans. Like AT&T was, the Verizon unlimited plan is $30/mo. So that would cost me another $90 total, per month, to cover all 3 devices. If you’re following along, that brings Verizon up to a grand total of $200 per month. Ouch.

So let’s take a step back… before taxes/fees, AT&T: $175. Verizon: $200.

Thing is, you’re not just paying another $25 for nothing with Verizon – so this is not an absolute “apples to apples” comparison. That would include another 150 minutes per month and unlimited data vs 2GB per month. However… in my situation, neither of those are necessary. So to me, it would be paying another $25/mo for things I do not need.

One last side note… I get discounts from work on both providers. To put at least one side in perspective, my monthly AT&T bill with the 3 lines, text, and data, after fees/taxes and after my corporate discount is $174.01. Not bad.

Sadly, I cannot make a direct comparison to Verizon on final price because I don’t know exactly how the math would work out or how much the taxes would be. That’s all really kind of irrelevant anyway though considering I have no plans to switch. But there you go.

Someone wake me up when the iPhone 5 comes out…

This phone really is phenomenal too. The screen. The speed. The design. It’s all there.

Let’s be honest though, you know that already. That’s probably why you’re going to get one. Even if you’re not going to get one (I’m sure you have your reasons) you have to respect the fact that this is an awesome device.

One thing I didn’t really think about until today when I was activating mine was what a potential nightmare tomorrow might be for AT&T to activate these tons and tons of new phones people will still be buying. One would guess that was part of the reasoning behind them not holding pre order deliveries for launch day (and why I’m using mine this very evening).

I hope the rest of you are able to enjoy your new toy as much as I am tomorrow without the potential nightmares that may be in store with activation. Good luck and Steve bless you! Hah!

I don’t remember having this much trouble last year when I bought my 3GS but this was certainly what I would label an “ordeal” … if there ever were such a thing.

It’s just a preorder, right? How bad could it be? That bad.

It seems the iPhone 4 went live in the Apple.com store around 4am ET this morning and apparently from then on, Apple’s and AT&T’s servers both just bent over and gave up. Both sites were up and down most of the morning. So much so that when I woke up at 7am and tried to order (unaware they were already up 3 hours earlier), I got the usual “Apple store is down” post-it note. I assumed they just hadn’t gone live yet (most people were expecting 8am ET).

A little bit after I got to work I had been periodically checking apple.com and the store finally opened again around 8:30am. Now was my chance.

Go all the way through with the order to the Add to Cart button… fail. “Oops, there was an error.” WTF do you mean “oops” … I’m trying to buy your shit, let me have it. No “oops” necessary.

This happened a couple times actually – never actually going through. Eventually it just got worse. I was lucky if I was able to enter my AT&T account info on the Apple.com store. Usually got some sort of session error after that.

I had read that a lot of people had better luck ordering through AT&T… thought maybe I’d give it a try – if even hesitantly. My biggest reason to order directly through Apple is that I know you can “pre-sign” for their FedEx deliveries so you don’t have to be home to sign for it. A risk, I know… but I am NEVER home during the day when these things deliver – so that is a nice option for people like me.

Anyway, logged into my AT&T page and was able to get to the upgrade page. Selected the 32GB model for preorder and was even able to get to a checkout page. Then it just hung there. I think it was the absolute last page that I had to click on and it did nothing. I don’t mean for 20-30 seconds… I’m talking 10-15 minutes. I eventually gave up and closed it – having not seen a confirmation number or confirmation email or anything from them. Safely assuming (so far) that my order did not complete.

I continued to try through the morning always with the same shitty results (both at&t and apple.com). I even went through our Employee Purchase Program link and it failed there too – though I did end up ordering the dock and an orange “bumper” for it without any issue (though they are not set to deliver until after 7/3 – which will probably be when I’m in Salt Lake City).

Eventually I logged into my account on apple.com to check my order history and cart. Maybe I was missing something… and bam! Two iPhones in my cart waiting to check out. While my first thought was definitely “WTF?!” … my next one was “CHECK OUT!”

Of course I had to remove one of them from my cart (1 phone limit per available line) but was then able to complete checkout and have my 32GB iPhone 4 preordered. Again… what an ordeal.

Now I just have to wait another week + to get it. Then I can even sell my 16GB 3GS. Hopefully still being able to get $200+ for it.

In an event that is surely one of the craziest things I’ve followed and read about, a possible “prototype” for Apple’s 4th generation iPhone (casually dubbed iPhone 4G or iPhone HD), surfaced in the real world. In a bar. From a drunk guy’s pocket.

Thing is, not only did it surface there… he LOST IT THERE. Even doing “real world testing” … why you would be drinking enough to lose a phone while you have such a ridiculously high profile device in your possession is beyond me. For those of you who don’t know… Apple is really super secret about it’s products and leaks and such. And with this… wow… there is no bag anymore. The cat is just sitting there mocking what was left of the bag that it just destroyed. Click that More button to keep reading… it’s quite fascinating.

iPhone 4G/HD via Gizmodo

Here’s the timeline as things unfolded (I think, there’s a lot happening here). Saturday evening, Engadget posts possible images of said iPhone. They’re skeptical. So is the rest of the internet. I mean, come on… the secrecy in Apple’s products? And this just happens to be laying around somewhere for someone to pick up? Chinese knock off? Controlled leak? Doubtful.

The next morning… Gizmodo drops the bomb. They have the alleged iPhone in their possession, with more pictures and video even. Rumor around the internet is that they paid somewhere around $10k to get this from the guy that found it in the bar. Who knows.

Strange thing was this wasn’t just a random prototype sitting around either – it was incognito. It had a custom case/shell to appear that it was a 3GS. Gizmodo even tore it open and found Apple labeled components inside. Nothing like the 3G or 3GS. Front facing camera. Higher resolution screen. Regular camera flash. Completely different case design. The chances of it being real increased significantly with the internal components though…

Later in the day, Engadget found even more possible “proof” that it was the real deal… in a photo leaked the night before the iPad launch. “WTF?” right? Looking better and better, right?

From here (and mostly from the Gizmodo story) there was a LOT of internet chatter. Was it actually “lost” or was it “stolen.” Who did what? Was it an intentional leak? Blah blah blah. Most of that is really irrelevant. Someone had a device. It looked very much like it was the next iPhone or a very-close-to-finished prototype of it. Apple probably wanted it back.

This really creates a dilemma as just about everyone else has pointed out… if Apple sends of a Cease and Desist letter or asks for it back they are basically verifying it’s authenticity. If they do nothing, are they playing it cool or what?

They wanted it back.

At this point, pretty much every news source on the planet had picked it up. CNN, the Today Show, even the fucking View. It is just crazy.

So as speculated, this thing is pretty much real. And if it does look like that and has the supposed features (plus who knows what else) that we’ve seen, I’m in for one, how about you? And it is looking like a June release is just around the corner.

To further bolster support for Haiti relief workers, AT&T is waiving wireless usage charges for customers in Haiti who make/receive voice calls, use wireless data services or send text messages, in order to show our company’s support for those helping with relief efforts. The billing relief will be retroactive to Jan. 12, when the earthquake hit, and will be in effect until Feb. 28.

All of the fee relief will be automatically applied and customers do not need to take any action.

Seems pretty cool of them. Ya, I’m sure they can manage to find some other way to screw people if they wanted to. But there are a lot of people out there who want to go help. Would be pretty lame to be off in another country doing a service like that and then come home to a crazy phone bill just for trying to help some people out – especially if that is more money you would be able to use to help (if you find yourself in such a position that is).

I don’t know how many of you know, but international phone bills can get totally out of hand. Using data and voice in another country usually racks up HUGE bills. Like hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on where you are and what you’re doing.

Thumbs up AT&T.