This is the short list, “for advanced users,” you might say. This is simply for “rooting” only, not flashing ROMs.
Detailed How-To

Rooting my Sprint HTC Hero

Get Android SDK
- [FILE] http://developer.android.com/sdk/download.html?v=android-sdk_r04-windows.zip
- [LINK] http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.6_r1/index.html

Get proper ADB drivers
- [FILE] http://www.anddev.org/download.php?id=449
- [LINK] http://www.anddev.org/debugging-installing_apps_on_the_g1_windows_driver-t3236.html

Setup ADB
- [PROCESS] http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/06/how-to-set-up-adb-usb-drivers-for-android-devices/
- [ADVANCED]
- Start > Run > cmd
- cd\
- cd AndroidSDK\tools\ (or where ever your AndroidSDK directory is)
- adb devices
- if a serial number shows – you’re good

Got PicMe App for Screen Capture
- Takes it via PC (USB hookup)
- Creates an IP address to view live or static feed of your screen

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Click to Enlarge

There’s a lot you can do as far as customizing the 7 home screens with your own style and productivity tools. This is my home screen, the “1st String Team”, if you will. Has the stuff I access and use most. Clock As much as I liked the big clock that the Hero is shown with in all the media photos, I felt like it was taking up more space than I wanted it too. As a good widget should, it offered configurations for smaller sizes and formats. So I shrank’er down. Weather The weather widget is great, nice interface, slick graphics. Punch in your city and you’re golden. Also offers several different sizes to suit your home screen layout. Smooth Calendar Here is where I had to go with a different app than the native app offered by HTC, but that’s the beauty of the Android Market. Smooth Calendar still had a nice interface (important to me), but allowed for showing more than one event at a time. I keep my calendars pretty full, so only being able to see the immediate next item was very confining. Apps Android Market Facebook Update: Replaced by gTasks Peep (Twitter) People (Contacts List) Messages (Text) Gmail Update: Using Gmail Unread Count Widget. Native icon didn’t show this Browser Update: Replaced by Gowalla Camera

Cons

Sometimes it reacts slowly
I’ve been having a lot of problems with the battery just completely draining out on minimal use after only 15 minutes or so.
Picmail sometimes gives me a “Media size exceeded” and I have to go back and retake the picture (if I’m able to) on a small resolution

Apps & Functionality

Text messaging
Easily the thing I use the most. I thought the touchscreen would really hinder my texting abilities (especially speed), but the word-prediction and auto-correct work REALLY well. So usually I’m still pretty quick on the draw with texting. I will say this though, it’s not quite the same as having a more tactile 10-key. I can’t text without looking nearly as well while I’m driving now. So text messages take a lot longer.

Android Google Connection
I wish that my gmail account was my main email account. Android automatically syncs with your gmail contacts. I’m still working out the merging of duplicate entries and getting everything sorted out properly, but it’s amazing
Update: Got all my old numbers & other email account contacts synced to my Gmail account and, thus, my phone!

Facebook Connection / Import
Connect contact profile pic and birthday
Update: Used a program by @koush to sync my Facebook Friends info with my Google contacts automatically.

	gTasks Google Task List works like a charm
	Gowalla (m.gowalla.com) With the native Android app coming soon, the mobile web version of Gowalla has been working great! It’s such a fun game that you can play in a moment when you arrive somewhere or make a day of it. They’re very responsive to their users and always working on new functionality and fun additions. Be Gowalla friends with me! Update: Gowalla BETA App is out	Coming Soon!
	Backgrounds Phenomenal app for backgrounds. Well categorized, easy to set your background, high quality designs and photos. Top notch, really.
	Facebook It’s ok… actually, no, it’s crap. Aside from the fact that I don’t use facebook a lot these days, you can’t click on links in this version of facebook. So you’ll get notifications about being tagged in a photo, but you can’t click to see the photos! Dumb.
	Peep It’s usually pretty slow, but it works. I’m open to other options. Update: I’m trying TweetCaster, but not sure if it’s much better. I wish TweetDeck would just make an Android App
	Monkey Kick Off
	Shot
	Brain Genius Deluxe
	GeoQuiz

Thanks to Cyrket for the images and barcodes.

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I’ve long been on the hunt for what my next phone will be. I keep up on my social media, so a decent smart phone was really the only category I was eying. But with all the advances in smart phone technology and offerings from all the different carriers, how was I to narrow it down and make the best choice? Well, here’s a brief look at some of my findings…

Really, BillShrink.com does a great job putting together the specs. Check it out below.

Personally, I’ve ruled out the iPhone because I wouldn’t be able to get a plan I liked for less than $100/mo – too much.

Palm Pre seemed nice for a while, but got nixed because of their lack of apps (although it is growing, it doesn’t have the potential of growth that Android does)

So then the HTC Hero came out – Ooo. Android OS. Full touch screen (which actually worried me because of texting ability).

The inability to have tactile keys for texting worried me enough that I started considering the Samsung Moment (slideout keyboard and full touchscreen). But my colleague at work Mike Merrell told me that the Moment was crap. And I trusted him. He even said to wait for the Google Nexus One.

So I waited til the next day – the unveiling of the Google Nexus One – Ooo Ahh. An iPhone killer if there ever was one. But the Nexus One killers, at least for me, are that it is currently only available on T-Mobile at a ~$80/mo plan. I’m sure it’s awesome, but that’s maybe more than I want to pay each month.

In the end… I think I’m probably going to be getting an HTC Hero… though, I am still eying that Nexus One. Hmm.

Find the best cell phone plans and more graphics at BillShrink.com

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