Sorry to hear about your issues.
I would be more than happy to take it off your hands.
Boot Manager
Okay... Follow up and answering a few questions....
1. The OP was made when I had spent all day with my phone crashing/rebooting/locking up. I had 4 calls die from the phone locking up. Each reboot, lockdown killed the phone for up to 10 minutes and no less than 6 minutes. This has been my typical day since the GB OTA. These annoyances are just the most recent in the long line of issues I've had with this phone/phones.
2. Rooting is an OPTION, not an ANSWER ( and I will use CAPS AS MUCH AS I WANT TO EMPHASIZE A POINT!!!!) The phone, at the price they charge for it, should work without hacking it. I am very computer literate and have been using, hacking and working on computers and computer related items since the Commodore 64, TRS-80 and Timex Sinclair. I've even hacked previous flip phones to use them as modems and email clients. Rooting it, if I WANT to do it is one thing, but HAVING to do it to get the phone to function all day the way it should out of the box is ridiculous.
3. This is my 2nd T'bolt. I had problems with my first one, performance issues and a crappy earpiece speaker. They replaced that one. Earpiece worked, software issues continued. Issues that I consider software issues: Battery life. GPS slow start/lock-on. Reboots. Lags. Force Closes. Lock-ups. All of these are from various updates that have been pushed out OTA. Each OTA creating an new problem over the one before.
4. Bloatware: Bloatware (including mandatory home replacements/UIs like Sense) effects performance by running in the background, launching when you don't want it to and taking up space that could be used by WANTED apps. HTC may create the firmware/OS and front end but Verizon selects the bloatware that will be installed on each phone as well as mandates whether bootloaders will be locked. Verizon receives a subsidy from all the apps they preinstall in the form of advertising revenue. Then the Verizon brand apps are just plain crap that you can't get rid of that should be optional. If they want to sell the phone with all of it preinstalled, that's fine, but they should NOT lock it to the phone and not let you uninstall/delete it.
5. OS versions: Verizon also tells HTC/Manufacturers which phones they want to keep upgrading and which ones they don't , therefore they DO control the firmware by controlling what they are willing to push out. They control this so they can force customers into upgrading. If all the phones were upgradeable by just being able to upgrade the core OS when Google releases the source, then there wouldn't be as much incentive to upgrade. By locking out the upgrade path to the software at a certain point, Verizon forces customers into buying new phones. My primary gripe about Android is that Google lets the OEMs fragment it so much. ALL phones should come with the option of reverting to base Android and the core firmware should be upgradeable by Google with "Sense" or "Blur" or "Touchwiz" or whatever being a home replacement app that can be updated separately. Having Google release a new OS but then having to wait 6 months for the POSSIBILITY that HTC and Verizon MIGHT decide to let you update IF they get around to it is annoying (again, rooting CAN solve this but you shouldn't have to root to take advantage of the fact that Android is "Open Source")
6. Replacing the phone with another T'bolt: I had spoken with the store about replacing it but no luck in the store. I did get on the phone with VZW and I'm getting ANOTHER T'bolt to give it one more try. Hopefully my anger will subside with a new handset. When it works I do really enjoy the phone but I've really come to LOATHE the sound of thunder since I hear it so many times a day now. They are sending a replacement phone and SIM card so that gets taken out of the equation. I really do hope it works so I can enjoy this phone again. Also, the people I spoke with on the phone were nothing but professional and were really pleasant to deal with. I will give VZW Kudos for that.
Between issues there are things I really do like about it. When it's working right it's fast, fun and things like the kickstand are things you don't think you want on a phone but once you have it, you have trouble doing without it. For a few days after the GB update, I did have an outstanding phone. It was fast, responsive phone that actually got through a full day on a single charge. Then, out of the blue, it started locking up and crashing and rebooting. Everyday it's gotten a little worse. I did a backup/factory reset/re-install and it didn't help. THAT is when I snapped. It's bad enough that we have to sign a 2 year contract to get a deal on a phone to make it affordable (even though they could retail it for the same price as the "subsidy" and still make a killing) but being locked in for 2 years with a phone that doesn't work like a phone of this caliber is supposed to makes it all the more frustrating.
In my opinion, HAVING to root it to get a decent phone is like buying a new Shelby Mustang Cobra at full price, that is sold with an 8 cylinder super-charged engine that the dealership has put a governor on the engine so that you don't go faster then they want you to and painted logos all over it and redecorated the interior because local businesses paid them to and THEN being told I can't remove any of it or I void any warranties they may offer on it. Sure it IS still a Shelby Mustang Cobra even if it has been hamstrung by the dealership and is tacky as hell because of the logos and décor. If I know what I'm doing, I can take the governor off and go as fast as I want then drive away from the dealership and get some repaint/redecorate it but I void the warranty. So I'm faced with this question, Do I go ahead and "fix the Mustang" and get the car I THOUGHT I was buying and take the chance it won't have problems that need the warranty. To finish the analogy, the dealership SHOULD leave the engine alone but give you the option of seat covers that give it "their" look while the logos are static-cling stickers and paint. They get their advertising dollars and they get to show you what they think the car would look best like but nothing is permanent so the person who PAID for it, me, can still strip off what I don't want, without penalty, and get to open the car up to it's full potential and enjoy it much more.
Some people might like buying something and immediately hacking it and changing things around and that's cool, but it really shouldn't be a preferred option for getting the full use out of what they purchase. IF I get a T'bolt that actually works the way it's supposed to THEN I might start playing around with ROMS and rooting and tweaking, but I want that to be my OPTION, not necessity.
