I have a couple old verizon HTC Droid phones we no longer use as phones and was wondering if they could be turned into mini tablets capable of using our home wifi network and google play? It would be a good way to recycle theses and keep them in use. Ive been reading about rooting and the custom roms in the forums and was just wondering if this has been done before?
Flash paranoid android rom
If available
You should definitely root the phones, but I've upgraded to the galaxy nexus and have been using my incredible as a WiFi only device for the past few months. I'm rooted on CM7 (http://get.cm/get/3j) and ADW EX Launcher.
So far this is the best stuff that I've found to do without a data plan:
Run the WiFi only script found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1217038
I use an app called Tablet Talk to transfer SMS from my gnex to my dinc over the same wifi network or via bluetooth. If you identify the dinc as a tablet in the app it works just fine. The app isn't optimized for such a small screen, but I've been in contact with with the developers and an update is due within the next few weeks that will fix the user interface.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apdroid.tabtalk&hl=en
You should be able to use Tablet Talk without being rooted, but the WiFi only script can't be run unless you have root access.
I'm interested in hearing what other people are doing with their wifi only dinc's...
Just inherited the dinc from my mom when she moved to the RAZR max. It is now my four year olds. That way he will leave my gs2 alone. Removed the dialer so 911 won't get random calls. Installed a bunch of kids games, locked play store down, installed go launcher and hid all the bloat in folders. Eventually I'll get around to rooting it and get rid of it all for real. For some reason the dinc doesn't like my cables and it keeps failing when I try to root.
First some background, running the PAC-Man ROM and rooted and stuff.
Carrying on, whenever I try to Wifi tether, it always leads me to the pay for t-mobile thing. I don't know what exactly my contract is, I know I have data, that's about it. Wifi was working for a week, but I tried to watch this video on Yahoo and ever since then it has blocked my ability to tether and always brings the pay-for T-mobile data thing.
Second problem, I haven't seen "H"/4G on my phone in weeks. Ever since I flashed my phone, I had sketchy signal(possibly due to the other version of the ROM, it's updated now) but I haven't seen 4G connection in the longest time, always see 3G. Where'd it go? What settings can I change?
Other then that, the ROM's fantastic.
I've got a two part question for some issues I'd like to address while on 4G (some I've called Sprint about, others I know you guys will have the answer since I'm rooted) that I hope to resolve.
My issues with Sprint is that if I'm on 3G and looking at images via websites, pics obviously load slower, but they're always nice and crisp. I notice that when I happen to be on 4G and go look at images, suddenly they load super grainy. I spoke to someone else who is also on Sprint w/ an LTE 4G phone (not a Note II, something else) who experiences the exact same problem. I've called Sprint about it, but I get the usual run around saying they're addressing the issues, fixing towers, etc. When I first started getting 4G in my area about 3 months ago, it was BLAZING fast, connected the second I came off the freeway and stayed on strong. I realize over time that I'm sharing the same signal with others, but damn.
My issues that I'm hoping you guys can assist with is in regards to the phone staying connected to to 4G more via changing thresholds. As I id before, it was awesome. Now it's gotten to the point where I or the phone have to be near a window, or occasionally I can leave it on the top edge of my couch...but if I happen to handle the phone to answer a text messages, it'll often drop back into 3G. The problem is that I use my phone tethered to my laptop for watching TV....Top Gear, Family Guy, etc that I stream. On 4G it's great, but once it drops to 3G it turns into a buffering nightmare and some shows/sites can't handle jumping around for time frames, so lets say if I'm 15 min into a show, go into 3G and come back into 4G, the show never recovers and I've got no choice but to restart the show. I'm just curious if there's a way to change at what point/signal strength that the phone wants to swap back and forth and basically ask it to stay on 4G more often than not when I'm at home where I actually get 4G.
As for tethering, I'm a stock rooted ROM using TrevEMod tethering because the stock tethering app won't stay turned on, I'm assuming due to using the stock ROM. What I'm curious about is a way to have the phone automated in that once I plug it on, the tethering app turns itself on and then back off again once unplugged from a power cord. At one point I'd used some app where it had me enter parameters to do this, but it only worked to turn on the stock tethering app which won't work.
Bottom line is I'd like my phone to stay connected to 4G more often than not, turn on tethering when plugged in and turn it off when not.
as for the tethering, if you are running the stock deodexed rom, there is a mod you can flash to make the native hotspot work then you will be able to use Tasker or however you automate it turning on. if you are running stock odexed you could always flash stock deodexed, if you were intent enough on making it work.
here is the hotspot mod: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2232553
I truly don't know if the stock ROM is odexed or deodexed, I just did a simple rooting procedure and nothing more so I could install a tethering app. Maybe I'm just being naive, but coming from my Epic days where I rooted, ROM'd, kernal'd, OC'd, etc days where I removed tons of apps, added others, etc I never was able to get battery stats/calibration to work correctly, which in turn wrecked havoc on that phone...phone would get super laggy, bog and stumble, then I'd reset the phone and I'd go from 20% battery life to 3%, then realize why the phone was freaking out. Now that I've got this Note II, it works great, I've never felt the need to OC or anything (I wouldn't mind removing stock apps but the SDX Stock App Removal Tool doesn't work), so I'm kinda hesitant in flashing any sort of ROM for fear of reliving past experiences...right now the phone simply works great, I'd just like a few simple features. Any input to sway my decision?
i hear ya, i too like a nice stable setup with everything working. your system is probably odexed if al you did was root, but if you have a file explorer app, when you go into /system/app, you will see each .apk also has an associated .odex file. the deodexed rom has the odex part added back into the apk, but otherwise is exactly the same, no tweaks or anything, every bit as stable, and with nothing removed, but it is easier to make mods for a deodexed rom, such as the hotspot mod!
the decision is yours. it is always a bit of work to flash a rom, but this is defintiely a way to keep the stabilty and reliability, and have the hotspot working the way you want it to! the rom is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2241930, if you choose to go this route. this is exactly my setup, with the hotspot mod, and it runs great.
I'll read the thread, thanks for the link. Any suggestions for something that will enable the tethering app automatically based on being plugged in, and I've had no luck finding anything in regards to people changing thresholds for the 4G connectivity.
m5james said:
I'll read the thread, thanks for the link. Any suggestions for something that will enable the tethering app automatically based on being plugged in, and I've had no luck finding anything in regards to people changing thresholds for the 4G connectivity.
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no problem. the app Tasker from the market does things like that, i think it costs a few bucks but it's well worth it. and perhaps there are others.
for the 4G thing, i don't see any setting for that. there are other people who know a lot more about network stuff than i do. there might be a dialer code menu where you can set to receive LTE only, but sorry i can't be of more help there. good luck and have fun!
Read this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2407286
In HDR menu there is a LTE only mode..... beware you wont receive calls or texts so if you have google voice set up then perfect
So after putting up with my phone for some time now, I finally rooted the beast at the behest of my 5 year old ("Dad... I really, really want wifi on the tablet in the car..."). So I am on stock 4.3, but rooted (getting rid of knox was a bit of a pain in the rear). Now I need to get my wifi hotspot on... so reading around the forum, I see at least 3 viable options (and there's probably more...) to get wifi. Without bringing in a new ROM (which I will probably do in a week or two, but I want to spend some time reading up on them first), can anyone out there give me some advice on the best way (mod flash or just an app... whatever) to do it?
Again... I'm on 4.3 stock, but rooted.
Heh... so cool to see all the same names that I used to see in the old epic forums... heh.
Not sure if anyone is even reading posts on the Note 8 but here goes
I've had this phone for a few years. It was running stock Android 9. I have the base unlimited plan from Verizon on this phone which means no tethering. So I thought.... I'm in the market for a new phone so if I brick this one, no big deal. I read that once rooted, you could enable tethering with any unlimited plan so after some Googling, I found a site that walked me through installing a rooted copy of Nougat.
Once it was on there, I was able to enable tethering and I attached my kid's iPad and away she went..............at 0.20Mbps. I remember a LONG time ago that you could bypass this artificial speed limit on tethered devices by messing with the DUN/TTL stuff but I think Verizon caught onto that. Then I tried a NetShare and PdaNet and while they DID solve the speed problem, some apps on the iPad (Roblox for example) give me a network error (guess it doesn't like going through a proxy that those 2 apps set up?). I also read that using a VPN connection can solve this problem too but a friend of mine messed with VPN stuff on his phone and I just remember him complaining about connection problems with apps from time to time so I'm trying to avoid that scenario.
At this point, I'm thinking about just going back to Pie and using NetShare and telling my kid that only YouTube will work when tethering unless somebody can point me to some settings I can mess with, now that I have root access, to speed up a tethered device.
TLDR: With my fancy root access, can anything be done to speed up a tethered device THAT DOES NOT involve having to mess with buying a VPN account?
PS I can't help but feel Verizon is intentionally slowing down my network speed on this old Android phone. In the 2 years I've been using my Note 8, surfing the internet on 4GLTE has gotten noticeably slower as time goes on. My speed tests always come back around 5Mbps and my wife's iPhone 11 (or 12?) FLIES when she's surfing the internet.