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Hard to fix a hardware problem with software.

This phone has provided me with no end of frustration. It's a $500 phone that I'm paying another eight bucks a month for warranty for over my two year contract, meaning I'll wind up paying a total of $700 for a phone that doesn't work right. And t-mobile wants to give me a $150 clique in replacement.

Some links follow.

It's a hardware problem in a number of phones:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878970

http://pocketnow.com/android/hardware-fix-for-vibrants-gps-problems

T-mobile did push out a patch:

http://pocketnow.com/android/samsung-vibrant-gps-fix-finally-being-pushed-out-by-t-mobile

But it didn't actually do the upgrade. No, you have to turn off your computer's firewall and virus protection to apply software patches to hardware problems...

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00026061&fm_seq=26229

for a patch that doesn't work anyway...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=988076

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1661605-Vibrant-Problems-Please-post-all-here-so-Samsung-Google-Engineers-can-see-them/page4

That was the phone line that had the broken GPS that never really got fixed; it was a hardware issue that they tried to kludge together a patch for that didn't work well never went out over the air, and for which you had to take down all your firewall and virus protection to apply via Kies.

Oh, and t-mobile won't honor warranties on those $500 phones. Even when you pay $8 a month, bringing the effective total to $700 over the course of a two year contract. Unless you define the word honor as the offer of a $150 clique as a replacement.

But - I'm not bitter. Really.

That was the phone line that had the broken GPS that never really got fixed; it was a hardware issue that they tried to kludge together a patch for that didn't work well never went out over the air, and for which you had to take down all your firewall and virus protection to apply via Kies.

Oh, and t-mobile won't honor warranties on those $500 phones. Even when you pay $8 a month, bringing the effective total to $700 over the course of a two year contract. Unless you define the word honor as the offer of a $150 clique as a replacement.

But - I'm not bitter. Really.

Oh and for reference here is a forum post referring to a flashlight application that somehow made it into the market place by using undocumented assembly calls.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19188975

Is doing just fine. Like Windows Mobile devices before...

http://www.xda-developers.com/category/windows_phone/

It's faster than any official Samsung ROM, has good battery life and everything is working (apart from Wi-Fi tethering, which too will probably be fixed soon).

Details here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1398223.

(I'm not affiliated with it of course, just a happy user).

I'm not the same AC, but I found this with a cursory Googling. I'm not surprised it's laggy because that ROM has no hardware acceleration, probably because the phone itself can't do it. The U8150, for example, is only using a 500MHz ARM11 CPU, 256MB RAM and doesn't have a GPU. Huawei phones, in general, are complete garbage.

You can download the apk from xda-developers (i know its located here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1363593
scroll down in the first post and youll see the link.
I cant use it as the build 9 of cyanogenmod 9 has a distorted output from the front camera, which the face lock will keep bitching part of your face is missing

http://developer.sonyericsson.com/wp/2011/12/15/ice-cream-sandwich-alpha-rom-available-for-unlocked-xperia-phones/#more-4706

was followed by

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1393738

Irrelevant. The kernel isn't the issue,

Oh really?

Then why are most of the bugs I see with new Samsung releases kernel related[1] bugs?

I understand the crapware that vendors integrate into ROMs takes time, but to dismiss the kernel as irrelevant part of the process is naive. Samsprint started working on their Gingerbread update for the Epic 4G early this year (I think around May) and barely released it in November, and due to issues are now working on a new update.

[1] I say this as someone who has had to patch my own kernel to prevent the broadcom chipset driver from spontaneously rebooting my phone.

"Currently I have an Samsung Epic 4g. The processor is overclocked to 4.3ghz ..." How could this post be rated insightful when it is a transparent lie. News for nerds my ass. http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1194840.html

Had it for about a month now in UK.

Large screen is very comfortable, it also smudges a lot less than the N1.
I got the unlocked version for £530 and have a £17.5/m plan (1 month rolling) so the phone should pay for itself in 16 months.

A couple of things you may want to know about the GN:
Lack of menu button is not an issue as it does appear for most apps. The only one that takes a little getting used to is the stock browser app that for some unknown reason accesses the menu via a different mechanic (make sure to go to Labs and turn on Quick controls, makes life much easier).
The software buttons at the bottom of the phone move to the top when the phone is rotated clockwise, makes for a much nicer experience IMO.
Camera MP is not an issue at all, you really cant see the difference between S2 and GN in terms of quality (white balance/iso choice will differ for the same composition due to different software).
The phone does not feel plastic at all. There is zero flexing or bending and the main chassis feels metal due to the paint used. My only gripe is the back cover, which sort of 'sticks' on and is very fragile looking once off. However, since the phone has no internal SDcard slot the need to take the cover off is greatly diminished.
There is no Flash support, yet. Adobe has not updated their mobile app, but its on the way.
Some apps have not updated to ICS (no Swype for instance).
The phone is a lot more responsive than N1, whether thats due to ICS i dont know.
Orientation changes are very slow (maybe slower than N1) which really gets up my nose, but some people think thats normal. You can read more here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1389748

Lack of expandable memory is an issue, but not a big one. The advantage is you can download ALL your apps without making a dent. I can see add-on docks coming out soon that will let you plug something in at the bottom for extra space.

Would that be the Sprint epic 4g? If so, allow me to point you to this thread, it's been my daily driver for a few months now with the only **major** issue being resolved a few days ago (911 didn't work). If it's the vibrant, some models are supported

Well, Microsoft said they had "no obligation to return data" to their customers.

You have to be both grossly overconfident and very naive to do business with that company.

And to all MS-apologists: No, it is not the case that "everybody does this". Most companies do provide guarantees to their customers, especially when it comes about handling data. What is the point of storing something in "the cloud" when the company boldly tells you that they have "no obligation" to even give you the data back? Of course there are some things where MS cannot be avoided, but it is your choice to minimize or maximize your exposure.

So when MS screws you over, don't complain. Also I just don't get the philosophy to shut down all servers when some deadline runs out - it would cost MS practically zero to just keep the servers running - but no, they must turn everything off to inflict maximum pain for their (hopefully ex-) customers.

The vast majority of Asus Transformers sold today are locked down.

The only Transformers that are rootable are Transformers using the SBK1 key. The vast majority of Asus Transformers sold today use either the SBK2 or SBK2 encryption key to lock down the OS.

So to those people who have a rooted Transformer. Good for you. You have one of the early ones. But the rest of us are stuck with Android until SBK2 or SBK3 are discovered. So for the time being the Transformer isn't an option (unless you can find an earlier model). You cannot install Linux on a Transformer without the correct SBK. Here's a link of Asus Transformers that cannot currently be rooted.

It's not a normal, full jailbreak AFAIK. See this.

Was there not a time when Slashdot used to recognize and auto-link URL's? Gahhhh! Annoying. Anyway, here's the links;

Motorola Atrix
Motorola Atrix Lapdockx
Webtop2SD
Ubuntu on Webtop
Atrix Multimedia Dock
BMW Performance Center Delivery

As an aside; Moto is just about to release the Atrix 2 which does apparently make it faster with more memory, thus fixing the couple of issues I do have with the Atrix. However, I don't know how long it'll be before all these hacks are available... I figure not long given XDA-Developers turnaround time on this stuff :)

Was there not a time when Slashdot used to recognize and auto-link URL's? Gahhhh! Annoying. Anyway, here's the links;

Motorola Atrix
Motorola Atrix Lapdockx
Webtop2SD
Ubuntu on Webtop
Atrix Multimedia Dock
BMW Performance Center Delivery

As an aside; Moto is just about to release the Atrix 2 which does apparently make it faster with more memory, thus fixing the couple of issues I do have with the Atrix. However, I don't know how long it'll be before all these hacks are available... I figure not long given XDA-Developers turnaround time on this stuff :)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1158260

It does. I have one of the original TF101s, and Ubuntu runs relatively well on it, though it's worth noting the kernel port is still in development.
The Transformer (Prime) has a full keyboard, so if you're buying it as a laptop replacement, just dual boot Ubuntu. If you only have the tablet half, then you might want to go with Gnome 3. Android is rather limited, so I can guarantee you'll get frustrated with it the moment you want to do anything non-trivial.

Here's a quick summary of what's working so far:

• repartitioning requires a closed source tool (an alternative is allegedly in the works)
• wifi (requires closed source driver)
• touchpad and touchscreen (no gestures yet)
• battery meter
• hardware acceleration is experimental
• uboot (a bootloader capable of providing a menu) is experimental
• bluetooth should work, but is untested
• camera doesn't work yet
• external speakers don't work yet

More info

Admittedly, it's a work in progress, but if you want an ARM tablet which runs GNU/Linux* then I'd say the TF is your best bet. It's also worth noting that all the ARM devices (or at least ones using the Tegra series chips) use different GPIOs for the peripherals, which means that the kernel is device specific. Consequently, if you're planning to run GNU/Linux on it you're going to want one with a strong developer following.

* I don't normally bother with the pedantry, but the distinction is very relevant here. Android is Linux; it uses a GPLed derivative of the kernel, which is why it didn't take long to get Ubuntu running on it (once the partitioning tool, nvflash, was available). Ubuntu is GNU/Linux; it has grep, sed, CUPS, OpenOffice, X, and everything else you want.

Users would not be so angry about delayed upgrades if we were allowed to test betas. Also, if carriers ran beta tests properly, users would be less unhappy with carrier firmwares. (For example, the data-eating AP Mobile widget on AT&T-originated Samsung devices would either be fixed or gone.)

There's a problem with this. Beta testing is something many people do willingly for applications, less people do for operating systems, and very few people put up with on a device where a single wrong step could turn it into a paperweight. While I'm currently running a beta of Ice Cream Sandwich on my phone, there's no way in hell I would have flashed this without past experience showing that this particular model of phone is hard to brick. There's no way I would attempt this on a phone that doesn't have a proper recovery system, a documented hardware dongle for activating download mode in case the bootloader is screwed, or if the phone has a heavily locked bootloader.

The other issue is people in generally expect their phones to just work, whereas the sad state of our world is they expect computers to be buggy and crash every once in a while.

Samsung have made zero attempt to lock down the system (which is why I buy their phones). Firmware for all variants of all Samsung phones released around the world are available at www.samfirmware.com. I remember when Gingerbread first came out of the Galaxy S it came out in the Netherlands. I flashed that firmware over my phone without problems. The carriers in Australia released their copies some SIX MONTHS LATER.

The XDA-Dev page should give you a good indication of what Samsung phones are capable of and requires nothing more than downloading one of the two flashing utilities for Samsung phones. Personally I run a beta of IceCream Sandwich on my Galaxy S.

Samsung have made zero attempt to lock down the system (which is why I buy their phones). Firmware for all variants of all Samsung phones released around the world are available at www.samfirmware.com. I remember when Gingerbread first came out of the Galaxy S it came out in the Netherlands. I flashed that firmware over my phone without problems. The carriers in Australia released their copies some SIX MONTHS LATER.

The XDA-Dev page should give you a good indication of what Samsung phones are capable of and requires nothing more than downloading one of the two flashing utilities for Samsung phones. Personally I run a beta of IceCream Sandwich on my Galaxy S.

Not at all. I'm using this build (the one including google talk) from this post. It's a small variant of the beta2 build of ICS by onecosmic with working TTS and fixed DPI, along with a compatible phone firmware for ICS included.

That's in the main thread about this ICS build, which has the vanilla beta2, as well as instructions on how to flash. Note, it does require rooting and installing a custom kernel, and you will need to back up your apps and data (i.e. phone call records, sms etc) using titanium or my backup pro if you want to put them back after flashing ICS. There are also a couple of scripts you need to run to make the external microSD writable, and enable USB mounting after flashing; sorry, don't have them bookmarked, will try and find them later. They're not essential though. You may also need the right kernel from the first post if you have a variant of the i9000, i.e. the i9000b or the like.

The other option, especially if you're not already a veteran rom flasher on the galaxy S, is to go with the cyanogenmod9 version from here; it's caught up with onecosmic's build in terms of what's working, and is a bit easier to get working.

In both cases, you'll need to copy the rom (and maybe the kernel) zip to the internal SD, via USB mount for example, then install a gingerbread custom kernel via odin to give you clockwork mod, that then lets you go in and flash ICS from the internal SD from recovery mode.

If you've not done that before, best to flash this kernel (cf-root) using odin - instructions and links for it are in the post, just follow the guide on flashing via odin/download manager. That roots your phone, along with giving you clockwork mod in recovery while still keeping the rest of your stock rom intact. You don't need to faff about with ext4 or flashing a custom gingerbread rom, as you'll be going straight to ICS. Once you have clockwork mod though (which is included in the ICS builds), you don't need odin again, you can always flash new updates via recovery mode which makes life simpler.

Finally, make sure you're already on gingerbread (2.3) official or custom rom first; going from froyo to gingerbread updated the bootloaders, and I don't think a gingerbread kernel will work on a froyo stock.

Not at all. I'm using this build (the one including google talk) from this post. It's a small variant of the beta2 build of ICS by onecosmic with working TTS and fixed DPI, along with a compatible phone firmware for ICS included.

That's in the main thread about this ICS build, which has the vanilla beta2, as well as instructions on how to flash. Note, it does require rooting and installing a custom kernel, and you will need to back up your apps and data (i.e. phone call records, sms etc) using titanium or my backup pro if you want to put them back after flashing ICS. There are also a couple of scripts you need to run to make the external microSD writable, and enable USB mounting after flashing; sorry, don't have them bookmarked, will try and find them later. They're not essential though. You may also need the right kernel from the first post if you have a variant of the i9000, i.e. the i9000b or the like.

The other option, especially if you're not already a veteran rom flasher on the galaxy S, is to go with the cyanogenmod9 version from here; it's caught up with onecosmic's build in terms of what's working, and is a bit easier to get working.

In both cases, you'll need to copy the rom (and maybe the kernel) zip to the internal SD, via USB mount for example, then install a gingerbread custom kernel via odin to give you clockwork mod, that then lets you go in and flash ICS from the internal SD from recovery mode.

If you've not done that before, best to flash this kernel (cf-root) using odin - instructions and links for it are in the post, just follow the guide on flashing via odin/download manager. That roots your phone, along with giving you clockwork mod in recovery while still keeping the rest of your stock rom intact. You don't need to faff about with ext4 or flashing a custom gingerbread rom, as you'll be going straight to ICS. Once you have clockwork mod though (which is included in the ICS builds), you don't need odin again, you can always flash new updates via recovery mode which makes life simpler.

Finally, make sure you're already on gingerbread (2.3) official or custom rom first; going from froyo to gingerbread updated the bootloaders, and I don't think a gingerbread kernel will work on a froyo stock.

Not at all. I'm using this build (the one including google talk) from this post. It's a small variant of the beta2 build of ICS by onecosmic with working TTS and fixed DPI, along with a compatible phone firmware for ICS included.

That's in the main thread about this ICS build, which has the vanilla beta2, as well as instructions on how to flash. Note, it does require rooting and installing a custom kernel, and you will need to back up your apps and data (i.e. phone call records, sms etc) using titanium or my backup pro if you want to put them back after flashing ICS. There are also a couple of scripts you need to run to make the external microSD writable, and enable USB mounting after flashing; sorry, don't have them bookmarked, will try and find them later. They're not essential though. You may also need the right kernel from the first post if you have a variant of the i9000, i.e. the i9000b or the like.

The other option, especially if you're not already a veteran rom flasher on the galaxy S, is to go with the cyanogenmod9 version from here; it's caught up with onecosmic's build in terms of what's working, and is a bit easier to get working.

In both cases, you'll need to copy the rom (and maybe the kernel) zip to the internal SD, via USB mount for example, then install a gingerbread custom kernel via odin to give you clockwork mod, that then lets you go in and flash ICS from the internal SD from recovery mode.

If you've not done that before, best to flash this kernel (cf-root) using odin - instructions and links for it are in the post, just follow the guide on flashing via odin/download manager. That roots your phone, along with giving you clockwork mod in recovery while still keeping the rest of your stock rom intact. You don't need to faff about with ext4 or flashing a custom gingerbread rom, as you'll be going straight to ICS. Once you have clockwork mod though (which is included in the ICS builds), you don't need odin again, you can always flash new updates via recovery mode which makes life simpler.

Finally, make sure you're already on gingerbread (2.3) official or custom rom first; going from froyo to gingerbread updated the bootloaders, and I don't think a gingerbread kernel will work on a froyo stock.

Not at all. I'm using this build (the one including google talk) from this post. It's a small variant of the beta2 build of ICS by onecosmic with working TTS and fixed DPI, along with a compatible phone firmware for ICS included.

That's in the main thread about this ICS build, which has the vanilla beta2, as well as instructions on how to flash. Note, it does require rooting and installing a custom kernel, and you will need to back up your apps and data (i.e. phone call records, sms etc) using titanium or my backup pro if you want to put them back after flashing ICS. There are also a couple of scripts you need to run to make the external microSD writable, and enable USB mounting after flashing; sorry, don't have them bookmarked, will try and find them later. They're not essential though. You may also need the right kernel from the first post if you have a variant of the i9000, i.e. the i9000b or the like.

The other option, especially if you're not already a veteran rom flasher on the galaxy S, is to go with the cyanogenmod9 version from here; it's caught up with onecosmic's build in terms of what's working, and is a bit easier to get working.

In both cases, you'll need to copy the rom (and maybe the kernel) zip to the internal SD, via USB mount for example, then install a gingerbread custom kernel via odin to give you clockwork mod, that then lets you go in and flash ICS from the internal SD from recovery mode.

If you've not done that before, best to flash this kernel (cf-root) using odin - instructions and links for it are in the post, just follow the guide on flashing via odin/download manager. That roots your phone, along with giving you clockwork mod in recovery while still keeping the rest of your stock rom intact. You don't need to faff about with ext4 or flashing a custom gingerbread rom, as you'll be going straight to ICS. Once you have clockwork mod though (which is included in the ICS builds), you don't need odin again, you can always flash new updates via recovery mode which makes life simpler.

Finally, make sure you're already on gingerbread (2.3) official or custom rom first; going from froyo to gingerbread updated the bootloaders, and I don't think a gingerbread kernel will work on a froyo stock.

The build I found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1338636 with the kernel for the SGS Vibrant works 99%. Only thing that doesn't work is the camcorder, but I never use that anyways. It's well past alpha quality, and is usable as a daily driver. I've been using it for easily a week now. Keep a 301kOHM jig around though, can't get into download mode otherwise.

By "Carrier IQ", I was meaning the software, not the company. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

In my defense, I want to quote, ipsi literis, the article I linked where I understood and used myself "Carrier IQ" as the software, not the company:

To be clear, the “information” I’m talking about are the Android intents logged by Carrier IQ, discovered by TrevE, which include your location, when you open an app and what app you open, what media you play and when you play it, when you receive an SMS, when you receive a call, when your screen turns off or on, and what keys you press in your phone dialer.

That article referenced another one, where the term "Carrier IQ" is explicitly used meaning a software:

And the spy and invasion of privacy saga continues, but this time XDA Recognized Developer TrevE seems to have hit the very core of most of what is happening with devices. You may recall from a few articles back that we started talking about something called CIQ or Carrier iQ.

My rationale is that If the thing logs something, they must first receive it from somewhere.

Google Analytics ANALyses every keystroke on your computer? Because Carrier IQ receives every dialer keystroke on the device.

(I'm not saving Google's face here)

The article you linked to doesn't say anything about that. It just speculates that a future Google product might collect a bunch of data about you. Google does not ship any products with Carrier IQ. That is something added by your phone company or whatever.

Isn't it interesting that the only OS that sent the info out by default was Android? iPhone didn't. While they were there too, Carrier IQ was disabled by default.

So interesting as the fact that only Noth America seems to have Carrier IQ on their Android devices...

And after all, Carrier IQ was just Google Analytics to mobiles. [...]

Google Analytics ANALyses every keystroke on your computer? Because Carrier IQ receives every dialer keystroke on the device.

(I'm not saving Google's face here)

I guess we are talking different languages. I said nothing about installing another OS on the iPhone nor do I believe that all that can be accomplished requires me to insert custom code into the kernel.

I guess the reason I make the distinction in this case is that, when we're talking about something like Carrier IQ that is buried deep into many libraries throughout the system (see this post from March in XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11763089&postcount=3 ), performing a complete OS wipe and installing an open-source OS from the ground up gives me a much better assurance that no one is tracking what I'm doing. (Yes, aside from the issues you mention such as chipset and firmware code).

But yes, for many/most cases that users actually care about, gaining root privileges is "enough".

So yes the "android is open mantra" is a pretty big deal to myself and many others, it's not just lip service.

This is where we really differ. I support open source (professionally on occasion) yet my support doesn't rise to the level of zealotry. I do not disqualify any product solely on the basis that it's less open then other options.

Thanks for your contributions to the kernel. But please don't assume that support of openness is "zealotry". Myself and many others are very pragmatic about this and realize there are many places where it doesn't make sense or isn't feasible. If you read comments from the CM devs they aren't on some Free Software crusade, they just enjoy hacking their phones and having a (more) open platform to do that on makes a big difference. I don't care that the GPS or 4G drivers on my Nexus are proprietary binary blobs as long as they're supported by Google and they work well.

But when this is a device that basically holds all the most personal details of my life, and we see stories every day about Carrier IQ and shopping malls tracking cell phone users and everyone else who wants to know more about me than I want them to, you bet I'm gonna support more open devices and support the companies that promote them. Yes there's a lot of zealotry out there but in this particular case it's very relevant.

There's the full answer here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19888836

There are people on XDA forums working on getting Ubuntu on there. Apparently, it works really well at this point: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1191141

Just because someone compiled a kexec kernel module doesn't mean the kernel booted from the signed bootloader will allow it!

This prevents hope of booting something else:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19707511&postcount=275

See below - Nook bootloader unlocked: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1354002

1/2. The guy who discovered it wrote an app that will detect CIQ (among other things), though you need to have root for it to work. It'll also remove it for you if you donate a dollar. Alternatively, use a ROM that has it removed.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1247108

Three things.

Firstly, your statement that my name is "annoyingly" l33t-speak is an expression of opinion, not fact.
Secondly, you don't think that the main contributor to a custom ROM package being an employee of one of the companies involved in this story is at least interesting, at worst a conflict of interest?
Thirdly, and this is related to the second point, Cyanogenmod 7.1 on the Desire HD does not have any of the CarrierIQ components. To check your own ROM, go to this xda-developers post and download the Logging Test App. Requires root permissions to check for CIQ logging, amongst others (Google, HTC).

Rooting a Verizon Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is incredibly trivial and consists of doing a special boot sequence to be able to install one very tiny app on the system called "Superuser" which consists of one tiny file. There are no major flashes to the system, alterations of the boot loader, nor changes to the kernel or any other core components of the system. As far as I know installing this tiny app does not void the warranty, and even if it did it would be trivial to simply remove the app.

See the instructions at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1202320
and:
http://alaya.net/blog/?p=5807

http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1196125.html

Granted they haven't locked the kernel, but showing a willingness to clamp down on a platform after release is untrustworthy at best.

Thanks for the link. Yeah, I don't like that behavior either. That said, Samsung and HTC have been friendlier than most.

class 10 micro SD card

Um, no. Do NOT get a class 10 SD card if you are planning to boot from the SD card. Class 10 is optimized for sequential read/write of large files. It will have very poor random access performance. It is an unavoidable trade-off. Running an OS is mostly random small read/writes. Get a SanDisk class 4 card, or any other card with high scores on the "4K Random Write" benchmark. See this thread for more details (the thread refers to WP7 but the same is true for Android)..

http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1196125.html

Granted they haven't locked the kernel, but showing a willingness to clamp down on a platform after release is untrustworthy at best.

I cannot speak for the upcoming Transformer Prime, but its predecessor TF101 can be rooted extremely easily (no time wasted here).
OTA updates keep working and the rooting can easily be undone (actually, the device gets automatically un-rooted every time you do an OTA update).
The super simple rooting procedure is discussed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1198303
You basically just download a jar to your computer, connect the tablet via USB and follow the instructions on screen. It takes less than 5 minutes. I cannot guarantee that it does not invalidate the warranty, but I would say it doesn't.

Nobody has posted on this yet, but even iPhone, Nokia, and Blackberry phones; not to mention Android phones, get "Carrier IQ" in their stock ROMs: http://www.xda-developers.com/android/the-rootkit-of-all-evil-ciq/

Because the article is about what it's like hacked and you can't hack the Nook Tablet?

That may just be a matter of waiting till someone cracks it.

The Nook Tablet has been rooted: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1354487

The problem is you have a lot of oldschool ROM cooks from the WinMo days, colliding with the open-source crowd, such as the Cyanogenmod team, and in my experience most of the better kernel hackers are the ones that post full git commit histories because they have nothing to hide AND believe in peer review. A lot of kernels are barely GPL-compliant (e.g. no source for betas, when source drops it's a megatarball) and when I read the threads for those, I see that whoever it is seems to have broken all sorts of things in the pursuit of ShinyUselessFeature that everyone asks for despite it not really being that useful and having major potential negative side effects.

Believe me I know. I made a few enemies yesterday int he Epic 4G dev forum.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19454556#post19454556

His (the guy distributing the kernel) excuse was that he had trouble getting git to work.

Rule #1: If you can figure out how to get git working, you shouldn't be mucking around with kernels and you sure as hell should not be distributing them publicly.

I have a Samsung Galaxy SII with the current Australian firmware. Based on the information at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11763089 CIQ is not installed. I don't know if the standard Samsung firmware as supplied is the same, but it's one of the things I like about my carrier, Virgin. Their phones really are. With Optus or Telstra YMMV.

1. Ask around basically.

2. a guy on xdadevs whomped up an app to detect (requires root) and remove (requires root and 99 cent donation) CIQ, among other things. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17612559&postcount=109

"A guy"? You're talking about TrevE, the "guy" who discovered this.

I have a ROM for the Epic4G with Carrier IQ removed. The first person who figured out how to remove CarrierIQ, posted the fixed jar files for all ROM developers to use.

I think the part of the reason why some of these mods don't come with guides is because they involve modifying those smali files, of which the stricture tends to very wildly from device to device.

Since I have tons of other mods on my ROM that affect the same files that CarrierIQ removal affects, I had to kang the changes by decompiling the stock jar/apk files and CIQ removed jar/apk files and comparing them with WinMerge.

The carrierIQ removal was actually fairly trivial compared the most challenging mod I integrated - adding a reboot and reboot to CWM recovery to the power menu. I followed an excellent guide on how to do it, but the guide was for a different device, were the structure and layout of the smali files was significantly different than the those that were on my phone.

You are right about devs not always sharing though. It's a giant rat race with everyone trying to integrate the latest hack or mod first.

Some guy messaged me asking to trade the code to the power menu mod in my ROM in exchange for something [that I didn't need]. I thought it was silly and offered to help him for free. I told him about the guide I followed, but advised him to decompile my jar/apk files and rip the changes, but he said he would just follow the guide. It's been a week and still no power menu mod in his rom.

There is definitely a culture clash over at XDA. A lot of devs don't seem to get the point of open source.