Phone Phun Fone Fun

*cracks knuckles* let the flood gates open.  Pending pent up posts pour profusely.  I have had a lot to post, but I haven't felt the itch to write them down.  Here I go

I got a new smartphone about 3 weeks ago! and I've kind of become obsessed with it.  Whenever I get a piece of electronic that is highly tweakable, I spend countless hours scouring forums and tinkering with it.  The phone I picked out was the 1 year old HTC Hero for Sprint.  Why didn't I go for the beautiful HTC Evo 4G? because Sprint charges up the wazoo with a $10/month/phone fee just for using that phone, even if you don't use 4G.  That's just criminal... I say stick it to the man!  Sprint was also smart enough to deny the Froyo update for the HTC Hero, so that it might sway people to spring for the Evo and the silly fee.  Good thing theres a huge online community of Hero tweakers; there is now a custom Froyo Rom for my phone :)

This is what I've done to my phone so far:

1. One-Click Root: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=743289
1. This unlocks the phone so that you can do anything you want with it. 
2. CyanogenMod 6.0 Custom Froyo Rom: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731659
1. This gives you the sought after Android 2.2 update
3. Uncapped Kernel http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=756774
1. This let's you overclock your phone's CPU (528Mhz to 768Mhz)

Why did I do all this? Because the stock HTC Hero is kind of outdated and sluggish.  I couldn't stand the lag, so I rooted it within two hours of getting the phone.  Now it zippity doodah's along yay.  And the development community has made it so easy, you don't even need a computer.  Thanks XDA-Dev. 

My Favorite Apps: 

1. Swype Keyboard - An Innovative and really effective way to type.  so cool
   
2. Wireless Tether App (needs root) - Ever see that Droid commercial where you can create a wireless network with your phone? Done and Done!  Can you imagine Sprint charges 30 bucks a month to do this? 
3. Handcent SMS - much better than the stock messaging app
4. SetCPU - Overclocked my CPU to 710mHz.  For some reason my phone is unstable at 768mHz
5. CraigsNotification - great for sniping those Kaskade tickets
6. Mileage - Now I can update my gas mileage data using my phone yay.
7. NewsRob - downloads all your newsfeeds into one spot, I get all the blogs I follow from this.
8. Google Voice Actions (needs Froyo 2.2) - Yep, it's that easy, and pretty damned accurate.
   

Addictive Games:

1. WordFeud: Yes, the infamous scrabble game that consumes your life.
2. Alchemy: Unique game where you start off with 4 basic elements Earth, Air, Water, Fire and create up to 300 different things.  Weirdest thing I've created? I gotta say it's a toss-up between 'A Walking Tree' and 'Ectoplasm' (bonus points if you know what ectoplasm is)
3. Math Workout: It's like the Brain Age games, but you get to see how well you match up against the world. 
4. Trivial Droid:  Trivia about anything, and you get to compete against the world
5. Wordoid: boggle like game
6. Live Holdem: only 5 players at a table, but good time killer. 
7. GeoQuiz: more Trivia
8. Bit: haha its simple, but I love it.  It's the Bit from Tron that answers Yes or No.
   

Well thats that, if you're looking for a new phone, I highly recommend AndroidOS.  HTC is a good brand too.  Just don't get the Hero if you don't wanna spend time tweaking it so that it actually runs decent.