Three Product Reviews

I decided I'll review three products in one. The first, and simplest, is the widget for Android 3.1+ devices known as "WiFi High Performance Mode". Some of you who've seen me tinkering with my tablet lately have seen me get frustrated with its frequent wi-fi disconnects. I finally googled the issue, and pinpointed the problem. It wasn't my antenna, or even the tablet. Android 3.1+ and many 2.6+ devices added a power saving feature to power down the antenna when it was not in heavy use. Most routers cannot properly use this and lose connection frequently while the tablet is connected. Well, research turned up the free "WiFi High Performance Mode" widget. I installed it, turned it on, and promptly ran to another room to test it. I still lost connection once or twice, but that's probably due to the number of walls between myself and the router. However, it no longer disconnected every 3-5 seconds. Widget Rating: 10/10

Second is Asphalt 6 Adrenaline. I am a huge fan of the Burnout: Revenge and Burnout: Paradise City titles. Asphalt 6 is, in my opinion, a mobile version of Burnout. The key differences are graphics and the fact that the Asphalt titles use actual cars (such as one of my favorites, the Lamborghini Murciélago). It has a healthy selection of 42 cars and bikes, decent gameplay, and is fairly fast paced. The race tracks range from exotic to mundane, with difficulties from absurdly easy to fairly challenging (the Shanghai and New York maps come to mind). The take downs and AI need some work, as you are almost always the winner if you collide with another car- even if its in a way that would normally result in them being taken down, except against you. However, it was an enjoyable set of hours I spent playing. Cars range from the Mini Cooper S to the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport. In addition, it looks excellent on my tablet's 10.1" 1280x800 screen. Amusing note- Gameloft's site lets me install it, but the Android Market claims its incompatible. Game Rating: 9/10

And finally, my LG Optimus V. I recently made the purchase of one from Virgin Mobile USA. While its processor is only 600MHz, vs the Samsung Intercept's 800MHz (the OS on the Intercept is now, for the record, 2.2), it also sports a 400MHz graphics processor. The Optimus has a superior display resolution (and some sources claim color quality, too). The Optimus also has 512MB of RAM, against the Intercept's 256MB. Both are, for the record, nearly the same price. Overall, the phone is pretty nice. It isn't perfect by any means, nor is it supposed to compete with other phones, such as the Motorola Triumph and Samsung Transform. It runs Pandora fairly well, as does most other apps. Keep in mind that this is my first smartphone. Battery life is average, for what it is. Call quality with the Optimus V is a level above my old phone's, the Samsung Intensity, even if the network isn't as good. Low-End Android Phone Rating: 7/10 (pre-rooting)

Now, this part is my personal action and not my endorsement in any way, as it voids your warranty and can 'brick' your device. I rooted my Optimus V using GingerBreak 1.2 while it was charging. To 'root' an Android device is to gain root/superuser access, which is the administration account required for system changes on Linux-based systems. After a painfully long reboot process (which only happened once), I checked to make sure the Superuser app was installed (packaged with GingerBreak). Titanium Backup was next- the phone is much friendlier after I removed most of Virgin's built-in software with it, and backed up all the apps (including the ones I removed). In fact, it freed up roughly 25 megabytes of space on the phone. The removed applications, for any people who want to know, will follow this paragraph. At any rate, it works nicely with the Barnacle WiFi Tether and ES File Explorer apps, both of which can use root/superuser permissions. Take note that you must use Barnacle's "Skip wpa_supplicant" in order for it to work on this phone. It also lets me take screenshots. Low-End Android Phone Rating: 9/10 (post-rooting)

EDIT: Removed Applications:
airG Chat 1.0
com.lge.ers
Downloads 2.0.1
News & Weather 1.3.03
Poynt 1.3.8
SCNVNGR 3.5.7.SPR
SSA 1.0.27
UberSocial 7.2.1
Virgin Mobile Live 1.0
WHERE 3.0.4
Home screen tips 1.0