Feel free to ignore this post if you're not into Android phones. ;) I finally got my replacement Eris on Friday, and I've been playing with it off and on since then. If you're familiar with Android phones, you'll know that Android 2.2 (Froyo) has been released and is rolling out on most phones. Unfortunately, the Eris is not one of them. Too old, too slow, not enough power... even though it could benefit immensely from the improvements in Froyo. I haven't been very happy with HTC's "Sense" UI, either... so I decided to take the plunge and root my phone so I could install Froyo on it. I followed this easy, step-by-step guide to rooting any Eris (this includes anyone who'd installed the v3 leak), then installed the engineering bootloader to take it to stock rooted. If you don't know what any of this means, it's not important unless you want to do it yourself. The fun part, for me, was picking a ROM to use. I tried a couple of 2.1 ROMS (including EvilEris 3.0 and ErisLightningBolt), but I really wanted to try Froyo. Currently there are only a few Froyo ROMs for the Eris, and the most complete one seems to be KaosFroyo. The stock camera isn't working at the moment, and there are a few other little bugs, but holy crap... I love it! I've overclocked it, and it's running silky smooth. MUCH better than it was running before I rooted it. The battery is lasting at least 30% longer, which is a huge deal... these little phones suck battery juice like it's crack or something. I put my phone on the charger every single night, because it won't make it through an entire night and a day. I didn't charge it on purpose last night, and I think if I babied it I could make it all day today on what's left. Impressive. Conclusion: If you have an Android phone, root it and overclock it. If you can get Froyo on it, even better (try CyanogenMod if you have a Droid). If you have an Eris, by all means do this. It's a huge improvement. Disclaimer: I am not responsible for what you do to your phone. This possibly brick your phone, void your warranty and/or kick your cat. If you do not understand any of the instructions I've linked above, read them until you do understand them, or do not root your phone. Rooting your phone may lead to terminal happiness. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where prohibited.

I have stuff I need to do. Serious stuff. Like go to Target and buy toilet paper. The earlier in the day I get my errands finished, the better off I am. Going into town wipes me out... my little trip to Verizon the other day was a very painful rest of the day. It was worth it, since I got to have lunch at Chipotle, but damn. I hate that. The longer I wait, the more these trips hurt. So why am I not going yet? FedEx and Verizon. I have a replacement phone coming from Verizon via FedEx 2nd day air. The problem with this is that the package will require a signature from someone here, or I'll have to drive all the way out by the airport to pick it up. Unfortunately, my dogs have not yet mastered signing for packages, so I'll have to be here. I'm sure they'd help if they could, but the no opposable thumbs things makes it really hard for them to learn to hold a pen. See? Ares is sad that he can't help, and Apollo just wants me to teach him. That's the kind of dog he is. He just wants to help as much as he can. That's the most awesome thing about Border Collies. Even though they have enough energy for five dogs, all they want to do is help, if you could just show them what to do. This picture also reminds me that it's Friday, which means it's time to vacuum again. It's a never ending task. It's a shame there's no way to get the hair out of the carpet separately, so I could spin it into some yarn. I could make miles of yarn with the amount of hair I get out of my carpet. Updates to come: If my phone has the right bootloader on it, I'm going to root the damn thing. I really don't like HTC's "Sense" UI. I want plain vanilla Android on this phone. Here's hoping.

My poor phone has been having a bunch of issues lately... it won't ring when someone calls, the dialer lags so bad I can't even make a call, it'll freeze up when I'm trying to do stuff. Annoying, definitely. I really like my phone (it's an HTC Eris), but the problems it's been having lately are driving me nuts. As you can see, it's a great little phone. Compact, but it has a ton of features. Have I mentioned I love Android phones? Because I do. I was hoping to talk them into upgrading me to a Motorola Droid, which seems to have far fewer problems than the Eris. Unfortunately, they wouldn't do it. They did test my phone, and it misbehaved properly... which is nice, because for some reason it was working perfectly this morning when I got up. I hate it when you try to demo a problem and the problem disappears. She tried several things to get it to stop acting up, but it's just not working right. So... no Droid for me, but I do have a new Eris on the way. They didn't have any in the store, so they're shipping one out FedEx for Friday. All I have to do is put my old phone in the box and send it back when the new one comes. All in all, the Verizon Store experience was pretty good. I had to wait a while; it seemed that they were understaffed, and the store was moderately busy. I had a low blood sugar episode while I was there, but popping a glucose tablet got me through it. When I was finished, I went next door to Chipotle and had an awesome chicken salad. Blood sugar crisis averted, and I had a delicious lunch to boot. Yum.