[Droid X General] ForsakenVR4:
I've been a lurker here for a while now, still debating about the whole P3 Droid deal, wireless teethering, rooting, etc, and I have a few opinions. I am by no means an expert or will try to come off as one, and I have just recently gotten into the whole android scene (bought a Evo for xmas for my wife and I, decided to bail out on Sprint when the T-Bolt came around.)

Anyways, here are my experiences.

With Sprint and the Evo, I never rooted. I never really had a desire too, I found the phone functioned fine for me, it was quick enough etc. I did use teathering. A lot of teethering. I downloaded/bought PDA net for the phone, and had been using it nightly as I bring my laptop into work, and use my phone to teether the net to it. I've played games, downloaded tons of info, etc. I could easily EASILY consume a massive amount of data. I bought unlimited data on my plan, and never had a email, nasty-gram, or anything from Sprint to tell me I was doing something wrong.

As with Verizon. I've been a Verizon customer for two+years now, I actually held my Verizon contract while I was a Sprint customer. My previous Verizon phone was a LG Env Touch. I did the .DUN hack with it, (not sure how the .dun hack works compared to PDA net or some other type of wireless/wired teather;) anyways I have consumed a ton of data with that line. In March alone I had over 14gigs of information downloaded. All the previous months would have online gaming, game updates, etc. Never once in the entire 2+ years have I gotten a nasty-gram, telephone call, or anything else. I never experienced throttling (at least that I've noticed) or any type of "data cap". When I renewed my contract at the Verizon store, all they said was that I had to adjust my data plan to make use of the 4g and the t-bolts.

What does this all mean? Well, it could be that I work nights, and on the east coast there is not really that much data going through at 11pm-7am on the cell network so they never really gave two ****s about how much I consumed. Maybe its because I am using 3g as my current area does not have 4g available, so I am not killing it at the speeds that 4g are capable of (granted I doubt that really matters, data is data regardless of how fast your getting it, but I guess in congestive times they would throttle everyone back to save the network.) Anyways my point is, from first hand experience (and take it how you will from someone you have never seen around here before.) Verizon has never once bothered me in the 2+ years of downloading well over 5gigs a month, and playing games suchs as cod, bad company2, wow, aoc, steam games, dawn of war, etc... Now, with 4g available and all these systems coming up, and that they have already announced tiered data plans, I dont think it will be a huge concern for the most.

Oh, and I will leave with this. No matter what Verizon or these phone makers think they can do to lock down and make our phones/devices "unhackable". It will never work. The power of the masses will always over come. Corporations make their networks "unhackable" all the time, and constantly have to hire people who broke the network because they found something they did not account for. Where there is a will there is a way, and it's just a matter of time before the people beat them at their own game; and if they do set up precautions and all that other fun jazz, the most they could ever do is not warranty the product, just like every other manufactored item that has this same problem. Apple tried their lawsuit and it got crushed in the Supreme Court decision. Car makers cannot stop you from modifying your car, all they can do is not warranty the car after you make the modification.

Eh, I guess that's all I have to say. I'd probably be argued with, but considering there is no real data to prove or DISprove what he said, you really have to come to your own conclusions. Me personally? I'll root eventually, I'll still teather, and I will deal with the consequences if I should have any. I pay my bills, the phone is mine. I understand that the "bloatware" is making things cheaper for us because thats calculated into the costs of the phone as ads and all that, but when I feel the need, I'll do what I want and just deal if something happens. Hell, I can always go back to Sprint, they use Verizon towers for roaming anyways. =)

And the whole pushing update thing, whats to stop me/you/who ever is rooted from unrooting, accepting the update, then reroot? Thats a stupid method of trying to "track" these rooters, and even then, they have to be really careful with how and what they track and what the capabilities of their tracking software is. Because all it will take is some one who is bored and break the code (and it will happen) and Verizon/HTC/Who ever will be in a whole heap of trouble for having software that can be broken so easily, and can track and follow so much information, and considering the whole ISIS program and how everything is going to be set up with this mobile network and mobile banking etc. Its easier and cheaper in the long run to just let us have our fun and play with our phones.