Monday, December 26, 2011

Rooting 101 - Everything you need to know about rooting

In the Android world, there is a term known as "rooting". For those first time Android users, rooting is a very high reward-low risk hack you can do to your phone.  It's fairly simple, and reaps many benefits to your already incredible Android smart phone. I will list a a few pros and cons to rooting, to help make your decision easier.




PROS

1. Extend Battery Life Significantly
Rooting your phone gives you control over things you normally wouldn't be able to control. One of the things you gain control over is the ability to control the speed of your CPU. Imagine your phone is like a car. Most cars have a governor in them that only allows them to max out at a certain speed. The same is with an Android device. A non-rooted device is preset to only allow the CPU to hit a maximum speed. For example, lets say you own a Droid RAZR. A droid RAZR has a 1.2 Ghz dual core processor. So, in a non rooted phone, at any point in time, your processor could be running anywhere from 300 Mghz to 12000 Mghz. However when a phone is rooted, you can control and set the maximum and mininum speed of your phones CPU. For example, my own personal phone (Droid RAZR) my CPU  is set to run from 300 Mghz to 1200 Mghz when my screen is on, but when the screen is off, the CPU will only max out at 300 Mghz. Essentially, a non rooted phone with its screen off's CPU is consuming 4x as much power as my own personal rooted phone when it's screen is off. This CPU control, along with Juice Defender (see previous post) can drastically improve battery life.

2. FREE WIFI HOT SPOT (with 4G LTE/3G)

1. Another big bonus of rooting your phone, is the ability of turning your phone into a hotspot for your computer/tablet/xbox/anything else that uses internet to connect too. Now I know what your thinking.. "Why would I root my phone, when I could just pay an extra 30 dollars a month and get it from my phone service provider". The answer to that is quite simple, why pay 30 dollars a month (30 dollars a month x 12 months x 2 year (typical contract length) comes to a grand total of 720 dollars spent on the ability to have wifi tether. Now i will leave you with this question, which is cheaper, free wifi over two years, or 720 dollars of wifi over two years? :)

http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/list

^ that is a list of the app used to get free wifi, its not in market anymore

3. ABILITY TO FLASH CUSTOM ROMS

Flashing custom roms is a very distinct feature that android has over the iOS. It is the ability to pretty much customize your phone, anyway to your liking. One of the coolest features of Android is the ability to customize the phone to your own liking. Every single iPhone is exactly the same. Every single Android is different. And you can take that many steps farther when rooting your phone. Whether it be changing your notification bar, to changing the icon that measures your battery, you can literally almost change everything. Here is a small forum explaining more in detail how this is all done...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=591329

CONS OF ROOTING

Well, there are a few cons, but they arent very likely too happen, and there are alot of people out there who can help you fix whatever problems you encounter. You may brick you phone in the process (highly unlikely) (bricking means what it sounds like... your phone becomes a brick)

I realize I put much effort into the CONS, but there really arent enough reasons to not root your android device. Every droid i have ever owned has been rooted, and i have yet to regret it to this day. I hope this helped, feel free too comment any questions or concerns.


How to Maximize your Droid Razr Battery Life

For those of you who bought the Droid Razr, i'm sure your as happy as I am with your new best friend. However, like most 4G LTE phones, the battery life can be less than sub par at times. That is why I have decided to give you a clear cut method on how to really maximize your Razr's battery life.





There are two applications you will need to download in order to achieve greater battery life. The first is Juice Defender and the second is 4G Toggle for RAZR.

The next step in the process of getting great battery life is setting up a few rules using the Smart Actions app pre-downloaded on the RAZR. I have 2 rules set in place on my Razr. The first is my (Battery 35%) rule. When the battery hits 35%, the RAZR will automatically launch the 4G Toggle for RAZR app. When this happens, you will want to change your network from LTE/CDMA to just CDMA. This will put your phone into 3G mode, saving alot of life compared to being in 4G. The second rule in effect is my (Battery 10%) rule. When the battery hits 10%, the phone turns the brightness to 0%, changes display timeout to 15 seconds, disables backround sync, and disables cellular data. Essentially after this rule, your smartphone, becomes a regular phone. You wont be able to go on facebook, or tweet or browse the web. You will strictly be able to call and text which will really prolonges your last 10% of battery.

The next step in achieving greater battery life, is setting up Juice Defender. In my own opinion, Juice Defender should come pre downloaded on every single droid. I've had this app on every one of my Droids since the OG Droid. This app is amazing in saving battery life. What Juice Defender does is it essentially controls your phone's internet when your not using it. For example. When my screen shuts off, my internet also turns off. However, It turns on for 1 minute every 15 minutes to check and see if I have emails, facebook, tweets, ect. You can customize what apps connect to the internet when your phone is locked. This app is a life saver, and a must have on every Android Device. Hope this guide helps, Please comment with any questions or concerns and I will get back to you as soon as possible.


Application Download Below


Juice Defender Download

4G Toggle RAZR Download

About Me

My name is Joe Smith, I am a 19 year old college student, and if there is one thing in my life I am certain of, it is Android. I started my journey when I was 16, when for christmas I received the first Motorola Droid. At first I found the phone very confusing, and regretted my decision of not getting an iPhone. However, after tinkering around, I grew to love everything about my Droid. After breaking my OG Droid (original droid) I moved on to my next phone, the HTC Droid Incredible. This phone was even better than my last, but after a while, I finally became a big boy, when I recently purchased the Motorola Droid Razr. I have created this blog to dedicate all of my being into helping new Android users (700,000 a day) to becoming acclimated with there new device, and showing the world why Droid Does. :)