What is rooted? - it s gaining 'root' access to the phone, like 'admin' rights on a computer, it means I can do anything I want to the phone without the usual safety measures.
Why rooted? - in my case I wanted speed and more features, which means a new ROM (a version of the Android operating system) put together by, someone else.
Which rooted? - Cyanogen ROM, basically because I saw it having consistently very positive reviews online, it looked good, so I did it.
How rooted? - some instructions HERE, which uses some software via an exploit that has been announced as fixed, I received an update on my phone last week (tuesday 18th august 09) that people were saying fixed this exploit, but I rooted by this method in the early hours of sunday (23rd august 09) so it seems it's still doable.
See the above instructions on how-to, and use the latest cyanogen ROM, currently 'CyanogenMod-4.0.2'.
So far I've noticed the phone is a little faster, which I like, has more settings to fiddle with, and now has 5 home screens (which is cool as I was struggling with 3).
Below are screenshots of my current screens.
The far left screen isn't shown as it's currently empty, I've been using it for testing widgets.
2nd screen (1st shown here) is my 'web' screen, google searchbar, links to some websites and some web-based apps for travel, as I travel every day for my work.
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3rd screen (2nd shown here) is my main screen, being the one in the middle, I'm using Weather Forecast Widget & Pure Calendar, which fits 2 or 3 days of calendar agenda plus weather forecast onto my main screen, below that my most used links to sms (handcent), gmail and email. And Powertime Widget for monitoring battery life with a prediction of how long it's got left.
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4th screen (3rd shown here) is an apps screen, with the 'retro date' widgets at the top and some commonly used apps below, and a link to the market (for more apps!).
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5th and final screen is full of notes by 'sticky note', you tap them to open fullscreen and I have notes for a few things there, as I have a rubbish memory!
The icons on the screens are mostly from the Glasklart icon pack, some I made and some I modified. They were changed using Bettercut.
So far I'm liking the more responsive interface and extra home screens, also apps are now on the SD card which means I won't run out of room, more internal memory available means more of my emails can be held there. More digging may find more good stuff.
Problems?
I had to download and apply the update to the Cyanogen ROM manually as something went wring using the updater, I think I just didn't know how to apply it when it rebooted so I put it on the SD card, rebooted and did it manually.
Also the autorotate doesn't work, I saw some 'fixes' online but when I tried them to delete some files they were 'not found', so I've turned it off for now and it rotates when I open the keyboard and then back again when it closes (the problem was it'd rotate into landscape and get stuck there).
Someone warned me that battery life could be adversely affected, so far I've not noticed a change, will see how the week pans out in a normal useage pattern.
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