(UPDATED!) Motorola Fire XT/ XT530/ XT531 all in one guide to rooting, Increasing Phone memory, Applications, Tweaks and resources – Compiled

I own a Motorola Fire XT myself and I thought it would be of good help if I compiled the resources for this phone together in one page with links for other people to use.

All tweaks and methodologies mentioned are because of the hard work of a number of developers. I do not claim any ownership or responsibility to the stuff that I list here. They are not mine. I just happened to search the internet for my own phone and found these links. Respect the Devs. Thank them. I just compiled all the resources here. Now that we have this information across, let’s get started.

The following links worked perfectly for my Motorola Fire XT.

Rooting Motorola Fire XT:

It's just that some users made a claim that their phone soft bricked when trying to factory reset after rooting. Am adding it as a caution. You can still flash SBF files to revive your bricked phone, yet am just saving you tonnes of worry.

Update your phone to Android 2.3.5 first if you have not from here. Instructions are available here: http://androidadvices.com/update-motorola-fire-xt-latest-gingerbread-235-firmware/

After updating, I used this link to root my phone: http://www.techclap.com/9571/root-motorola-fire-xt-easy-super-one-click-superoneclick-tool/

Note: Rooting will void your warranty, unless you unroot back.

Increasing Phone memory on Motorola Fire XT: (using Link2sd) to be done after rooting

This guide is written for Xperia, so skip directly to "4. CREATE SECONDARY PARTITION" section and follow the instructions from then.

Remember: You have already rooted your phone, don’t do the rooting method of Xperia phone again and brick your phone. Have some common sense.

 Follow this link :  http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/12/12/link2sd-guide-never-worry-about-internal-memory-limits-again/

Use the Auto-link feature of Link2sd and automate moving the apps to SD cards second partition. This will act like your internal memory. Good luck.

Increasing Phone Memory without rooting for Motorola Fire XT or any Android Phone

Don't do this if you are using Link2sd. If you don't want to root your phone but still want to free some space, do this trick.
Follow this Guide at : http://safeguardplus.blogspot.in/2012/05/how-to-increase-internal-memory-space.html

Best Applications for Motorola Fire XT or any android Phone for that matter:

Launcher:

Use Launcher Pro. Simple and Light weight and extremely powerful.
Also try HOLO Launcher.

To Do / Task management:

Use Do it tomorrow. You'll like it.

Video Player:

Use MX Player. It plays all formats including VOB files, very smoothly. Just make the soft decoder as the default decoder in the decoder settings and you are done!
Alto try QQ Player.

EBook/Audio book Reading/Listening:

Aldiko for reading and Smart Audio Book for Audio books.

Browser :

Dolphin browserMini. Simple. Light Weight. Powerful.
Opera Mini for fast browsing.
File Manager:

Xplore. Simply the best. I've been using this application right from my Nokia 6600 to Nokia 5800 to Motorola Fire XT. Really great app. Thank you Lonely Cat Games for such a powerful application. 

Widgets and Phone Management:

ZD Box.

Freeze Unwanted applications on Motorola Fire XT

I do not recommend uninstalling Google maps or other stock applications once you root the phone. Your internal memory problems should be taken care by link2sd.

Use App Quarantine to Freeze applications. Link2sd also has an inbuilt freezing option in it.

If you want the some apps to stop running in the back ground, you can freeze them. Freezing makes the app appear as if it is not present in the phone. The space occupied by the software will remain the same. It won't appear in the app drawer. Again USE COMMON SENSE. Do not freak out and freeze every application that you don’t find necessary. Some apps like notification LED and Battery monitoring utility need to be run on the back ground to serve you, they keep the phone stable. If you have doubts as to whether to freeze an unidentified process or not, better not freeze it. Run away and never look again. Take responsibility for your phone.

Backing up Contents on your phone

Should I actually write this? Duh?

Use Titanium Backup to backup all the applications and their settings and data on a folder into the SD card.

Also Make an Update.zip file for Titanium Backup, so that you can backup and bring titanium Backup alive after a flash or some mishap.

On a final Note: In case you soft brick your phone

In case you have soft bricked your Motorola Fire XT, you can revive it back by flashing the SBF available here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=24998745.

Update 1: Enabling GPU in Motorola Fire XT:
Check out this link to enable rendering of UI with the GPU. All credits go to the person who found this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25390142#post25390142

You'll get the old school TV switch off animation while locking the device (similar to that of defy+). Some drawbacks include the screen turning white for a while when you launch apps. And yes, the notification section becomes white too!

Update 2 : Increasing the resolution to 822 x 548 in motorola Fire XT
Install Busybox (Stericson) and then open the app and install busybox (the app is an installer)
Install LCDresolution app from play store.

Set the dpi value to 140.
Apply and you are done!

One problem which I have noticed so far in the LCD resolution app is that, the Tether and Hotspot settings are not displayed in the settings menu for some weird reason when you have the lcd resolution app set to custom resolution.

So, when you want to access these settings just restart your phone and the phone will come to normal resolution and you will find the Tether and Hotspot settings back.

Hence, I advice against the Apply on boot option in Motorola Fire XT phones.

Update 3 : Clockworkmod (CWM) for Motorola Fire XT

Finally with the help of some developers, CWM is available for Motorola Fire XT:
Follow the steps here to get it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1997638

With CWM, we can now backup the stock rom and also install custom roms. Expecting custom roms to appear soon for Motorola Fire XT. I'll update them once they all come up here. Stay tuned.

Update 4 : ROM for Motorola Fire XT

Ice Cream Jelly is a new ROM for Motorola Fire XT.

Follow this link : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076460 for the new ROM. 

All credits go for the XDA members who developed this ROM, I am just posting it. 

Exercise caution and read the instructions carefully before installing this ROM. I am not responsible for any errors in the process. 

Update 5 : Increase SD Card speed by using SD-Booster app: Enjoy better video playback

Download SD-booster app from market and set the cache size to 1024 kB(for class 4  cards). Try higher cache values for higher class cards. The video playback ability has significantly increased after boosting SD card speed. Less lags in players. Also, applications which run from SD card run faster.
I recommend MX player and QQ Player. Use both in combination.

Update 6 : Apps to freeze to save battery


DO NOT FREEZE:
Android System
Low memory checker
Battery Protection


You can safely freeze the following apps:
Weather.
Live wallpapers.
Multi-touch Keyboard (make sure you have at least one more keyboard, Eg, Swype)
Gallery - If you dont use it.
Voice search - If you dont use voice searches.
News and weather
Email
Google search
Calendar
Browser
FM radio
input methods which you don't want (other languages which you don't use)
Magic smoke wallpapers
The default launcher
Google calendar sync
Calendar storage
voice dialler
calculator
Voice Note
Sound Recorder
TTS Service
Notify LED (If you find it annoying to see the light blink in your face)
Pico TTS
and any other bloatware which you don't use!
The Navigation girl wont be talking anymore after disabling all voice services!

Using Link2sd is better as you don have to have another app just for freezing.

Also any application which I haven't listed here can be frozen, just use common sense.

PS : Check out, The Royal way to use an Android Phone - How and how not to use your phone here.