Never said factory reset changed the version of android your running, just that it resets your apps and settings. Not having marketplace (app is actually called android market) is strange. Because all you would need it to do is update to google play.
As I said, I tried reinstalling whatever it's officially called from an .apk, and it installed, but would only crash upon opening, most certainly likely because I didn't change it to a system app.
In any case, I got my new phone yesterday. First thing I tried was to buy an app with my main account, and it wouldn't. Same problem as before. Oh well. My debit card expires this month, so hopefully when I update my info with Google, the new card will work. Otherwise I'll just deal with using 2 accounts.
I rooted my new phone, and set up Nova Launcher to my preferences. Basically it's the same as I had my stock interface, but with added gestures on the home screen for quicker access to things, namely pinch-in to display all windows (something so many phones have, but not Motoralas).
First thing I noticed when I brought my phone to work was that the colors were off. They seemed cool, with almost a purplish tint. At first I was disappointed (kinda pissed really). I tried downloading some apps that change color settings, but they didn't do anything that I wanted. When I got home though, I compared it to my old phone. WOW what a difference. It's not the new phone with colors that are off, it's my old one. The screen is dimmer at max brightness, and are very warm, with a yellowish tinge. I don't know if my old phone's screen was always like that, or it slowly degraded over time. Either way, I'm happy I have a new one.
The second thing I noticed is that AdAway doesn't just block the ads within games and apps, but it also blocks ads in the web browsers. This alone is worth it to me to root my phone. My browser of choice is Dolphin. Firefox has an Ad Blocker Plus plug in, but Firefox browser
sucks. Not having to deal with ads on a mobile browser is invaluable. Apart from pages loading faster, you don't have to deal with those extremely frustrating translucent overly ads. It's one thing on a desktop, because you just click the X. But on a phone, the overlay recenters itself whenever you try to move the page to find the X, making it practically impossible to close it.
I'm also really digging this app called Clean Master. It's basically a task killer on steroids. It also cleans up unused or leftover files from apps you no longer have.
I purchased Rom Toolbox Pro. It has a ton of utilities, a few of which are particularly useful for me. It's the app I use to freeze (and maybe uninstall) bloatware/crapplications. It has a rebooter widget, which is handy because from the powerbutton, I can only turn off my phone, and then I have to wait until it's done turning off before I can start it up again. The rebooter widget lets me do a fast reboot, full reboot, or shut it down completely. Saves me time. It also has a CPU control, which I might tinker with. Because my Razr Maxx has such a big battery, my juice running out usually isn't a problem. But there are times, such as a long drive, or a long bike ride (when I like to use My Tracks to trace my ride), where I might want to extend my battery life by lowering the clock speed of the processor.
And of course, I've got the free use of my data as a mobile hotspot or wired tether. Invaluable, not just for when I get a tablet, but for when a laptop needs internet access away from wi-fi. I've worked on co-workers' laptops at work on numerous occasions. One time, a some (I work at a pizza place) couldn't get a promo code for a free pizza to work on our company's phone app, so with the use of my phone's wi-fi and a laptop they had with them, they were able to get their free pizza, and I got a generous tip. These are small things, but the convenience to me is invaluable. My single favorite aspect of the smartphone is access to the wealth of the world's knowledge at my fingertips via the internet. But apply that same internet access to a computer anywhere...without paying out the nose for extra "services" (in the same way a bull is "serviced"), and that's a golden combination.