Well, to be honest, I usually jump right into forums and start contributing. But...I'm not a phone developer, by any stretch of the term, so I thought I'd put all my cards on the table in an introductory post, so to speak 

I'm in my early 30s and have had the inernet for about 24 years, but I feel like I'm the last person on earth to get a smartphone. I had various "dumb" tracfones up until last christmas, when prices finally made it possible for the purchase of an android.

I'd describe myself as a power user, in the sense that I like to explore the capabilities of my computers to the limits of my abilities. So I bought an Alcatel One Touch Pop Icon; no rooting, 2gb memory, insane kitkat memory limitation. Frankly, I was banking on the phone being rooted sometime within like 6 months. Needless to say I did not understand that obscure pay-as-you-go phones are not the hackers' priority.

So I still have my Alcatel. Not a terrible phone, but I have cycled through the available memory at least 4 times, and running Sygic with 4 large state maps means I frequently have to delete anything else I've loaded.

So! In a word, I'm ready for a new phone, and how. I really doubt I'll be buying one of the tracfone offerings, after reading the lackluster reviews for the best options like the Sunset.

My mother still has the Pop Icon, and I'd like to improve her experience if anyone here has a flash of brilliance, but frankly I'm almost certainly going for one of the (lately) top-of-the-line Samsungs available through the BYO program. I'd still like to get the best out of this without ruining my tracfone service, so I hope I'll be able to ask you knowledgeable folks about rooting, unlocking, ROMs, etc.

Anyway, I think this is a fantastic idea for a forum, and I'll be keeping a keen eye out for people who can outsmart these devices!

Hey i need a bit of an assistance perhaps you might help.

I'm not typically computer smart thread?

I posted a thread like thing on here about my phones issues.