10. Bloatware
Also known as crapware and some other choice euphemisms, bloatware
infects the vast majority of Android phones. You’ll recognise Samsung
Touchwiz, HTC Sense, and Motorola MotoBlur as the custom UIs and feature
packages that those makers throw on top of stock Android. While some of
that bloatware is actually useful, most of it offers nothing that you
couldn’t arrange on your own with other apps, and it can bog down
performance or even block features from your device. Worse yet is that
much of the time, bloatware apps are blocked from uninstalling, unless
of course, you root your phone.
9. Overclocking
When you root your Android, you gain some control over the hardware
components, making overclocking and undervolting possible. It’s not
uncommon to overclock a 1GHz Android CPU up to 1.6GHz, of course with a
greater tendency toward instability. Several root-only apps available in
the Android Market handle both overclocking and undervolting, such as
SetCPU ($1.99) and Voltage Control (free or $US3.36 for the Extreme
version).
8. Performance
Besides mere overclocking, rooted users can gain other performance
enhancements through kernal tweaks performed by some of the apps we’ve
mentioned here, custom ROMs, or through your own means, if you know what
you’re doing. Such tweaks in combination with overclocking have been
known to increase overall performance on a Nexus S by 250 per cent.
Also, as we’ve previously reported on Maximum Tech, “most Android
devices incorporate an EXT3 filesystem with considerable overhead to
ensure safe file I/O interaction. Once rooted, however, many of these
devices can be upgraded with the faster EXT4 filesystem, resulting in
faster load times and overall smoother software performance, while
sacrificing a bit of storage stability. Yes, the less stable memory can
lead to app crashes and even data loss, but that’s pretty rare.”
7. Screenshots
For whatever reason, Google didn’t write native screenshot ability
into Android until Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). A few devices
include it as an added feature out of the box, but there’s no reason for
you to wait for a new ICS device or update if you want to take
screenshots today. If you root your Android, you can take advantage of
screenshots apps such as Screenshot or PicMe at your leisure.
6. Other Root-only Apps
Once you’ve successfully rooted your Android, you’ll be privy to
hundreds, if not thousands, of useful apps that the other suckers of the
world can’t access. Here are 10 reasons to root your ‘droid in one.
Just a smidgeon of the root-only app selection includes stuff like:
• DroidWall – Android Firewall (free) can show you any app
that is using your wireless data, so you can restrict data use that is
chewing up capacity on you plan, as well as see if there is any
nefarious and unwanted data use happening.
• Dual Mount SD Widget – ($0.99) lets you mount your SD card to both the phone and a PC at the same time.
• Hexamob Recovery Pro – ($1.39) helps you recover files that you accidentally deleted from your internal memory or SD card.
• Keyboard Manager – (free) lets you choose one keyboard for portrait view and another for landscape.
• LEDs Hack – (free) lets you turn off LED notifications.
• Root Call Blocker – ($5.98) lets you block specific numbers at the system level, so the phone never rings when they call.
• Samba Filesharing – (free) makes your Android’s files available as a Windows shared folder over Wi-Fi.
• Sixaxis Controller – ($1.62) lets you mount a PS3 controller to your Android.
• With Theft Aware – (£10), an uber-security program, you can
remotely track and wipe a lost or stolen phone, call it, and apparently
spy on the person on the other end without them knowing it.
• Titanium Backup – root (free version or $US6.58 for Pro)
provides a powerful backup tool with extensive features, including
letting you remove that pesky bloatware.
5.Custom ROMs
The general feeling among the modder community is that carriers make
their Android UIs to benefit their businesses, not the user. If you want
the best user experience, you have to flash a custom ROM that was
actually made for users.
The term custom ROM is somewhat of a misnomer, but basically it is a
customised UI for Android, and there are many from which to choose. Some
of them focus on giving you the latest version of Android before your
carrier releases an official update, while others focus on extra
functionality or speed and stability.
There are too many Android mods to cover here, but you’ll want to
determine your priorities and pick one that’s best for you. Or, you
could get Boot Manager ($2.99) from the Android Market, which lets you
choose between five different installed custom ROMs at startup.
Some of the most popular custom ROMs include
CyanogenMod,
which focuses on maximizing performance over flashy looks, but does let
you choose themes. Based on Gingerbread, it gives you a Touch to Focus
feature in the camera, custom gestures, permission management and much
more.
MIUI, a Chinese-developed ROM, is also based on Gingerbread and
provides a very distinct look. It only supported 16 devices at the time
of this writing, but it’s updated every Friday and presumably will add
more device support as its ICS-based ROM becomes more stable.
To find a ROM for your device, you can drill down to your device in the
XDA-Developers forums, or check out this list on
Theunlockr.com.
4. Upgrade Android on Your Own Schedule
Are you incredulous that you still don’t have a Gingerbread update
for your Froyo phone after more than a year? By the time the carrier
gets around to updating it (if it does at all), you may have a perfectly
stable ICS update waiting for you if you were to root your phone.
Android custom ROMs allow you to get the latest Android OS before it
is ordained from up on high by the company you’re paying a monthly bill
to. At the time of this writing, there were even a variety of Android 4
ICS ROMs hitting the interwebs, although in general, stability is still a
factor with them. It won’t be too long before those ICS ROMs are
working as smooth as baby food, and it’s likely to happen before a whole
lot of native ICS devices and sanctioned ICS updates come out.
3. Increase Battery Life
Many of the custom ROMs available aim to improve battery life through
internal efficiency settings, app and network activity management, and
the removal of bloatware. There’s also an experimental app in beta right
now called Superpower, available on the Android market in a free and
paid ($4.25) version. There are plenty of other battery-saver apps out
there — many not requiring root access — but SuperPower goes to the
extreme, aiming to provide automatic management of your data connection
and radio bands, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, CPU speed, and more. that management
is based on factors such as screen state, Wi-Fi connection state,
download speed, foreground application, tethering state, sleep mode,
charging state, etc. There’s no reward without risk, however; the
developer wants you to know that the app is still buggy in beta and that
you use it at your own risk.
2. Zap Carrier IQ
By now you know what Carrier IQ is, and you may have a rough idea of
who’s using it. For example, Sprint has since
vowed to stop using it. But trying to get a straight answer about how
the information Carrier IQ extracts
is being used could you take you down a long a frustrating road, ending
in a dead end of paranoia. It would be faster and less mind-numbing to
just trash it from your handset.
Thanks to Trevor Eckhart, the very man who discovered Carrier IQ on
his Android phone, you can do just that. He posted a free .apk called
Logging Test App
over on the XDA-Developers forums that can show you if a program like
Carrier IQ resides on your device. If the test comes up positive, head
over to the Android Market and support this modern-day hero by plunking
down a measly buck for the
Logging Test App Pro Key,
which enables you to remove Carrier IQ or other offending software. Of
course, none of this is possible unless you root your Android phone
first.
1. Because You Can
Finally, just like building your own PC, there’s a subjective sense
of satisfaction and independence you get from rooting an Android device.
Even beyond that, there’s a hint of a more rare intangible attached to
it: duty. In some way, it’s your duty to flip the bird to the
manufacturers and carriers that pay you lip service but not nearly
enough real service. It’s your duty and your privilege to root, because
you can. Google made Android open source, and thousands of good people
are working on apps and ROMs for you to enjoy, giving you the
opportunity to wield the most powerful smartphones available. Passing up
the ability to root is akin to missing that opportunity.
You may not be a car enthusiast, but imagine you’re cruising on a
German autobahn in a fresh Porsche Boxster with nothing but open road
and perfect conditions in front of you. Do you keep it to a conservative
75mph? No, you jack it up into triple digits… because you can. You may
not be an incorrigible drunk, but if you’re on a long weekend in New
Orleans, you pour some booze into a plastic cup and stroll down Bourbon
Street… because you can.
You bought an Android phone, which probably means that either 1) you
know diddly about smartphones and just got whatever was free on contract
or looked cool, or more likely 2) you’re somehow attracted to the
flexibility and customisation freedom of Android that you don’t find in
other mobile operating systems. So here you are. Live a little. Void
that warranty! Root your Android, for all of the above reasons, and also
just because you can. It’s not that hard to do, it’s kind of fun, and
just like in a clichéd rom com, you’ll discover the value of what was
right in front of you all along.
