Frankentablet Lives

A few years ago I found a deal for a Samsung Galaxy Tab from AT&T,   they were offering a refurbished unit for $199 with no contract.   I bought one.   It came with Android 2.2, at the time Android 3.1 was the latest available and I figured they might update it at some point.  I used it and used it.   I rooted it so that I could add the Amazon App Marketplace.   About 8 months later the battery would not take a charge anymore.   A little research and I found a battery on amazon for $30.   Ordered it and had to get a “special” screwdriver from Fry’s to get the tablet open.  Back in action I got a new SIM card from AT&T using the 250mb for $15 a month deal, I used the data so seldom that I cancelled that after a few months.   Low and behold 8 months later the battery went out again.    Off to Amazon again for another battery.    2.2 android is quite old so I loaded CyanogenMod 9 ROM on the device.   Now running 4.0.3, T-Mobile announced 200mb of data for free!   The hilarity of getting AT&T to unlock the Galaxy Tab was crazy, after being transferred and escalated 4 times they finally had to send the information to still another person and they would email me later.  Each time they said they could not unlock the device if I was still in a contract and my account was in good standing.  Hmm. never had a contract, account has been closed for almost a year.  But over and over they would state that.    Finally got an email from them with my unlock code and it worked.   During the holidays T-Mobile had a deal for a free SIM card, which I ordered right away.    Got the card, all setup and working!    As if I had not done enough to the unit I decided I wanted to try Android 4.4 Kit Kat. loaded it up and after some adjusting its good to go.   Kit Kat actually performs better than any other version of Android I have had on this tablet.   The 1ghz single core processor was overloaded with the previous versions but now is quite smooth.

So the before and after, started with  Android 2.2, Expensive AT&T data now I have  Kit Kat tablet with FREE T-mobile data service and a new battery.   Frankentablet Lives!!