Top Droid X 2.2 Apps, Top Root Apps

Now keep in mind, my phone is rooted running a custom ROM, and I am not against paying for applications- some of these applications only work for rooted Droids, and some of them do cost money. The two biggest things I use my Droid for: games, and work productivity such as calendars, email, and schedules.

If you would like to learn how to root your Droid X 2.2 click here!

Here are the apps! Click an item in this list to be taken to a description, screenshot, and an additional link to the application.

• AK Notepad
• Angry Birds
• AnyRSS Reader
• AppBrain App Market
• Armored Strike Online
• Astro File Manager
• Bank of America
• Barcode Scanner
• Barnacle Wifi Tether
• CacheMate for Root Users
• Craigsnotifications
• Documents ToGo
• Dolphin Browser HD
• Handcent SMS
• Jewels
• Lightning Bug
• Mabilo Ringtones
• Mint.com
• MotoTorch LED
• Flixster Movies
• NFL Mobile Live
• Pandora Radio
• RoadSync
• Robo Defense
• ROM Manager
• ShootMe
• Slacker Radio
• Speedx 3D
• StumbleUpon
• Superuser
• SystemPanel
• Terminal Emulator
• Titanium Backup
• Touchdown
• Twitter
• Uninstaller Pro
• Wallpaper Rotator
• Winamp
• Wordfeud
• WordPress
• Zedge ringtones and Wallpapers

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All of these screenshots were taken by me, but I claim no credit for any of these mobile applications. All credit and thanks to the application author. More information can be found by clicking the application title below.You can then download each application from the linked site using Barcode Scanner (Click Install on the linked page, and scan the square barcode that appears) or by searching the Android Marketplace.

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Applications
App Name	Description	Screenshot
AK Notepad	Simply the best app for note taking, it provides very acute control over notes by allowing reminders, sync, save, and home screen posting. I do not use  any of the “extra” features, but I do use it for all of my note needs.
Angry Birds	A VERY addicting and fun game- you must shoot various types of birds out of a slingshot in an attempt to slay the pig king and his henchmen. Tons of  levels available.
AnyRSS Reader	A simple RSS Reader. Can access Google Reader. The reason I like this app is for the widgets, which display very nicely on the homescreen with  transparency, which matches all of my other apps.
AppBrain App Market	This is a market “replacement”. Recent changes have caused the app to actually link you to the market, but their sync all apps feature is amazing. With  it, you can factory reset your phone- then you install the AppBrain app first. Log in, and install all apps, and all of your old apps will be restored. Also lists “recommended apps” which is a very useful way to find apps that go well with the apps you already have.
Armored Strike Online	A very well designed graphical tank game. You use a tank and factors such as pitch and wind speed to kill oponents. Play is online, against other players  around the world. There is a lite (free) version available here.
Astro File Manager	A very nice file manager which gives you more control and access than the defaul file manager. With it you can reach normally hidden folders such as  system, root, and sbin. Very useful for copy and paste operations, as well as rooted phones.
Bank of America	I wont plug this, but if you bank with Bank of America, get the app.
Barcode Scanner	I do not use this to scan in barcodes when I am shopping, etc. I DO use this to download apps quickly from online, by scanning my screen- which takes me  directly to the app download on the market.
Barnacle Wifi Tether	This app comes pre-installed on many custom ROMS, including Apex Focused which is what I am currently running. Not as nice as Wifi Tether, but it does  come with a ton of great options, controls, and security. Turns your phone into a mobile hotspot for free if your phone is rooted.
CacheMate for Root Users	This app frees up cache used by processes running on your phone. I know it works because I monitor my CPU usage with another app. For rooted phones, good  app to keep battery consumption down. There is a lite version but it seems it was just taken off of the market.
Craigslist Notifications	A browser for Craigslist- the best. You can set up searches by filter or keyword, and have your phone notify you when a new item is added. I got a  snowboard last week because I was the first person to call, thanks to this app.
Documents ToGo	While the default document previewer on Droid is ok, this one is better. With the paid version you can create edit, share, and print documents from your  Droid.
Dolphin Browser HD	What I consider the best browser for your Droid. Quick, sleek, customizable with many plugins and themes. Uses tabbed browsing, pinch to zoom, etc.
Handcent SMS	A text message replacement app. Offers themes, color customizing, font packs. Make sure to disable your phone default notification for text messages if  you use this app, otherwise you get two for each message. Love the bubble style and bubble color changing.
Jewels	A classic Jewels game, with online play. I love that you can drag the jewels, where some other versions of the game require clicks. An amazing lack of  some of the bonus features and items, but meh.
Lightning Bug	I use this for the rain setting to sleep when the traffic or construction is bad. Not necessarily the best, but the sound starts when I click the app and  the sleep times shuts it off without messing with my alarm.
Mabilo Ringtones	download user made ringtones, they have a ton. I use this as a backup ringtone finder for things I can’t get from Zedge.
Mint.com	An app that displays your Mint.com account info on your phone. Great if you use Mint.com.
Mototorch LED	A flashlight app for Droid. Has a strobe light which I never use. It can also do morse code in case you ever get lost in the dark, on a mountain, but  have a decent charge going on your phone.
Flixster Movies	The best app for movies. Can show local theatres, all theatres, release dates, rating and Rotten Tomatoe ratings.
NFL Mobile Live	The link is not for a download. This app (this version of it) is for Verizon customers only. Go to your Android Marketplace and look under the Verizon  filter.
Pandora Radio	Plays online radio stations, can be set up to use customized stations using your account and the web site.
RoadSync	An adon for Documents ToGo. Do not download this app, it is very difficult to remove and the application does little.
Robo Defense	Tower Defense. Best. Game. Ever. Pay for it, it’s worth it. Free version is here– you can also read one of my other posts on  how to hack the configuration file to cheat. I do not suggest this- beat the game first.
ROM Manager	The best app for a rooted Droid. It allows you to backup, restore, download, and install custom ROMS that are supported by your phone in seconds. To  support the author, buy the premium version here.
ShootMe	This is what I used to take the screenshots for this article. There is no picture, and this is only for rooted phones. Much better than Drocap.
Slacker Radio	this is a radio app, with more options than Pandora. I use it only to get news radio (ABC News), and i pay $2.99 a month for this station.
SpeedX 3D	A fun game, though not one of my favorites. I mostly use this game to show off my phone, as the accellerometer and graphics are nice.
StumbleUpon	An app that displays StumbleUpon items. Sign up here, set your recomendations, and start viewing some awsome  content based on your likes and dislikes.
SuperUser	For rooted phones- this allows you to grant applications and proccesses su permissions, which enable editing of the OS and root. comes packaged with ROM Manager as well.
SystemPanel	The best monitoring and task killing app I have found. Shows usage trends, statistics, etc. Available for free here.
Terminal Emulator	For rooted phones only, allows you to access your phones root through a Linux terminal. # su –
Titanium Backup	A comprehensive backup program, which allows you to backup application states. For rooted phones only.
Touchdown	An email/calendar/task/contact interface that works well for Exchange connectivity. Better than stock Android Corporate Sync. Find directions on how to  get this for free on my blog here.
Twitter	I am not a fan of Twitter, but to stay connected, use Twitter’s application.
Uninstaller Pro	A fast way to uninstall applications, removes some that the stock system can’t handle. Quicker than navigating to the stock application.
Wallpaper Rotator	Rotates your wallpaper on a customizable time frame. Can use Flickr pics or pics stored on your phone.
Winamp	A music player. I prefer the stock music player, but got this one to mess around with Winamp sync features to play music remotely from home.
WordFeud	Scrabble, played online across the world. Can play a bunch of games at once, with no timers, Tons of fun. Free version here.
WordPress	A nicely designed app to manage your WordPress blog or site. I use it to monitor this site. rooting my phone broke the ability to view site stats.
Zedge Ringtones and Wallpapers	In my opinion the best ringtone and wallpaper app out there. Lot’s of updated content.

UPDATE: I had some trouble with my phone, and had to do some major surgery- remove root, restore to 2.1 with SBF, upgrade to 2.3, re-root, etc. It was a pain in the neck But I downloaded and installed a new custom ROM, and so far I am VERY impressed! Check out: Liberty ROM for Droid x/2, courtesy of Kejar and Jrummy. Thanks guys! Here are some screen shots.

Homescreen, Liberty ROM, ADW Launcher, Minimalist Text

Notification Blind

 

Liberty Built In Theme Menu

How to Root a Droid X Running System 2.2 Using Android SDK and RomManager

Check out all the apps I run on my rooted Droid X, with a few additional homescreen shots!

This took me seriously 9 hours to do. All of the information on the process is spread out over 1000 pages of forum post, with every poster explaining a different way to do it. With that being said, this is what worked for me- it might be slightly different for you. I tried to do the on-phone root process using Android Terminal, which did not work. I also had to repeat a few steps in here seriously 20 times. All told, I think I performed 19 device wipes resetting all my apps, I erased my SDcard, and rebooted my phone over 50 times. Hopefully you will not have to do the same things, it should be straightforward.

At the end of this post I will also go over a few things that I have learned in doing this, so that you might be saved the effort of searching through tons of forums for a bit of information here and there.

This has nothing to do with SBS 2008, or even Windows. But it’s cool, so I thought I would share my excitement. There will be steps that I glaze over, and instead provide links to walkthroughs. this is not because I am lazy, but because it is already so well explained by the software providers and others that it seems redundant. You might also think- why follow this guide, when these other guides are already written and well put together. Go for it- but it took me a long time, as there was a few steps missing from these guides that I did not pick up on. I will also be keeping images thumbnail size because this post might be long and complex. Please click the images to see full size.

Lets root the Droid X, running 2.2.

Credit where credit is due. I rooted my Droid using this site, from Droid-Life.com.

Go download AndroidSDK (Instructions Here). To Install it extract it to an easy to navigate to directory. I extracted mine to D:\Android

Download and install Java JDK SE (Instructions Here).

If you are running XP, you might have to download Motorola Drivers. If you are running Windows 7, Windows should automatically find the correct drivers for you by searching the system and Windows Update.

At this point you have Java JDK and Android SDK installed.

Open the folder that you extracted Android SDK to.

Double Click SDK Manager.exe.

On the Install Packages page, make sure to install Android 2.2, Android 2.1, and USB Driver Package.

AndroidSDK

I just installed all of the packages, I got the space.

After that is installed, you can exit out of the program. At this time plug in your Droid X. Hit the Notification bar, and click USB Connection. Then select Charge Only. Your computer will install drivers, anywhere from 2 to 6 of them. It can take a while with Windows Update- let it finish. They all need to be successful, if they are not then you need to download them elsewhere, here is a link: 32bit or 64bit.

I did not install the packages, I let my phone do the work. What I DID do though was install the Motorola Connect Utility, and let it do its work.

That download is here: http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Support/Experiences/Global_Drivers/USB_Drivers_bit_4.7.1.zip

This install is also done automatically at some point, I prefer the package.

Unplug your phone. Click Menu from the home screen, settings, applications, development. Enable USB Debugging.

Now plug back in your phone, making sure it’s still on Charge Only. It will install another bout of drivers.

At this point, on your PC, download this package: http://www.kimete.com/droid/beta/DoRootForWindows.zip

Extract it. Inside the folder you will see 5 files. Copy these into the TOOLS folder in the Android SDK folder.

Double click doroot.bat.

Now this is where I had trouble.

It will go through some configuration:

Welcome to DarkOnion Root

Presented by: darkonion and facelessuser

Special thanks to: Sebastian Krahmer at http://c-skills.blogspot.com/

If the following command takes too long to connect, close your terminal.
Disconnect your phone and make sure debugging is enabled, and you are set to PC
mode

Checking for devices...

Thenh it will list a device, a string of numbers and letters. This is good, means your device was identified.

It copies files over, superuser, busybox, and su.

You will get pop ups to grant superuser permission to a few apps: namely ROM Manager and the BootStrapper.

SU

Then you will see a message, asking you to restart the adb server and re-login. If you let it sit there for 20 minutes nothing happens. If you go to task manager and restart the process, it just starts over. If you unplug the cord from your Droid, it starts over as well. This is where it takes patience. What finally worked for me was unplugging the USB cord from my computer, for a fraction of a second- I didn’t even take it out. I just broke the connection long enough for it to restart.

If it does not work the first time, just keep trying- it will keep rebooting. After 5 tries you might try to reboot your PC and droid, then repeat this process.

I rebooted and it does half of  a yellow bar in restore mode then boots normally- not rooted as far as I can tell.

Go to the Droid Market and download Android Bootstrapper. It costs money, but it makes boot work. Open the app, and click the top button.

Eventually, it will work, and you will get to a stage that says press any key to exit.

Droid X Bootstrapper

Reboot your Droid, and you are rooted. Yet you won’t really be able to tell. At this point, back up anything you need to. Copy your pictures and music to your PC, use Google and your backup apps to back up your system.

Go to the Android Marketplace, and download ROM Manager. I bought it, because it is one fine piece of work. Once you install that, open it up. Click Flash ClockWorkMod Recovery.

RomManager

Your phone should reboot and enter recovery mode, and you will see the text backing up your system.

Then it reboots again. Enter the Rom Manager again. Click Download ROM.

Because I paid for the app, I went to premium>Fabulous> and downloaded ApeX V1.0 for Droid X. You can look through the other choices, there are not a lot of mods for the Droid X in the ROM Manager.

Once your ROM downloads, it asks if you want to reboot. Check off both wipe data and backup. Let your phone do work, and when it comes back up you will have the new Rom installed.

Here are some things I did not know, going into this.

1. There are not a ton of ROM’s for Droid X.
2. ROM’s replace features of your phone, they are not the same as themes.
3. While some roms might come with backgrounds, you can change to your own if you wish.
4. Some ROM’s change features of your phone, such as the color of notification bar and the entire font system. (Apex’s bar and font both look nice)
5. Once you install a rom, backup.
6. After the ROM is installed and rebooted, then apply themes and add-on packages, the same way you added the rom.
7. Keep your ROM’s organized, not on the root of the SDcard. The only zip file there should be update.zip.
8. Once you apply the rom, packages, add-ons, themes, THEN customize your apps and desktop. I had to reinstall rom manager about 10 times.
9. When adding themes or addons, you do not generally need to wipe data.
10. Once you have added all of your apps, you can then further theme your phone with a home screen replacement.
11. I use Launcher Pro with ApeX ROM, which I have also installed REVOlution theme on, REVOlution battery icon, and REVOlution font.
12. As much as you hear all about it, and wish you had Cyanogenmod, it does not work on your phone without some serious programming. I tried several versions in several different flavors to no avail
13. You can download roms from the internet, save them to your phone, then install them with ROM Manager.
14. While overclocking is a possibility, I personally feel that the risks outweigh the gains- it is already a fast phone. Undervolting however…

THERE ARE OTHER SUPPOSED WAYS TO DO THIS. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DOING THE ONE BUTTON ROOT, AS THOSE OFTEN DO NOT WORK OR WORK TO A LESSER DEGREE. THERE IS ALSO THE ANDROID TERMINAL, WITH THE STEPS DOCUMENTED HERE. THIS DID NOT WORK FORM ME, GIVING ME AN EXPLOID ERROR WHICH I COULD NOT SOLVE.

All credit to Droid Life, XDA Developers, DarkOnion, Motorola, Android, The developers of Rom Manager, Droid X Bootstrapper, and all the forum post that I read through.

A screenshot of my current setup.

Droid Screenshot