root - 7/27 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

JRummy's ROM Toolbox On Sale For $2.99 (50% Off) In The Play Store – Half Of All Revenue To Be Donated To Cancer Research

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Deals, News

JRummy, the developer behind Root Browser, Ultimate Backup, BusyBox Installer, and a handful of other awesome apps, has put ROM Toolbox on sale in the Play Store for just $2.99 (a cool 50% off its usual price) and plans to donate half of all the sale's revenue to the Testicular Cancer Society.

For those not familiar, ROM Toolbox is a rooted user's dream app, combining the best parts of SetCPU, Root Browser, Font Installer, Terminal Emulator, ROM Manager, and a ton of other root tools into one 3.7MB package, providing a truly impressive array of features which allow users to control just about every aspect of their device from a single app.

Mar

[Update: v2.0] GestureControl Gives Rooted Users Universal, Customized, Multitouch Control Of Their Tablet

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News, Tablets

Last Updated: April 29th, 2012

One of the great advantages of using a tablet device is its display. Having a big, bright touch display allows for enhanced media enjoyment, browsing, and gaming. Logically, a large touch display should make heavy use of touch controls, implementing at least some level of universal functionality to unify the touch-centric interface a tablet display begs for. Looking to bring this idea to fruition, Good Mood Droid created GestureControl, an app that allows rooted users to control their tablet using a variety of multitouch gestures.

GestureControl, as you can see from the video above, allows users to hide Honeycomb's status bar in any app, at any time, and also allows basic system navigation using simple gestures.

Mar

[New App] Chainfire Brings Us SuperSU, A Souped-Up Version Of Superuser With Some Super New Features

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Apps/Games, News

"If it's not broken, don't fix it" is a wise and popular mantra among anyone who fixes anything. Developers, on the other hand, couldn't care less. Enter SuperSu. While Superuser has been a staple of root usage for a long time now, XDA developer Chainfire (who has also brought us many other fantastic apps), has taken what already works and made it even better.

SuperSU performs the usual tasks of managing superuser access, with a few added benefits, including logging superuser access, temporary unroot, and it even works in recovery. Here's the full list of features:

Features:

Superuser access prompt
Superuser access logging
Superuser access notifications
Per-app notification configuration
Temporary unroot
Deep process detection (no more unknowns)
Works in recovery (no more segfaulting)
Works when Android isn't properly booted
Works with non-standard shell locations
Trusts ADB connection
Always runs in ghost mode
Wake on prompt

The Pro version additionally offers:

OTA survival mode (no guarantees)
Full color-coded command content logging (input/output/error)
Per-app logging configuration
Per-app user override
PIN protection

One of the first examples of a reason to temporarily unroot that comes to mind is to use Play Movies, though a quick search through the thread on XDA reveals that users have tried with mixed results.

Mar

SetCPU Updated To 2.3, Brings Major UI Overhaul, Many Related Improvements

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

To any hardcore modder, overclocking (or underclocking) your CPU is one of the best ways to get the most from your device. While some popular ROMs now have the ability to control your CPU baked in, many don't - and in the earlier days, virtually none did. Enter SetCPU - the de facto standard.

The app has long been a favorite, picking up 100,000-500,000 downloads at $1.99 and over 17,000 ratings for an average of 4.5 stars. There's good reason for that: it offers a huge range of ways to tweak your CPU, including profiles, clock speed, voltage settings, and more.

Mar

[Download] HTC Vivid Gets The Ice Cream Sandwich Treatment, Rooted Android 4.0.3 ROM Available With Sense And Carrier Bloat In Tow

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Vivid

The HTC Vivid, one of AT&T's mid-range (if you can call it that) phones is getting an unofficial bump to ICS courtesy of, who else? XDA. User Pirateghost has offered up a flashable Android 4.0.3 ROM. Stock, rooted and ready to go. It even comes with all that AT&T carrier bloat intact. You're getting the 100% pure, unadulterated stock experience with this one, just rooted.

As you can see, while it reads like ICS, it hardly looks like it at all. While this is a disappointment, it's also one we knew was coming. Oddly, some elements still look exactly like their pure Android counterparts (like the menu in the center shot above).

Feb

[Download] ClockworkMod Recovery Now Available For The Transformer Prime, CM9 Teased As Well

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Eee Pad Transformer Prime, News

Well, that didn't take long. Not hours after ASUS released a tool to unlock the Transformer Prime's bootloader, we get word that ClockworkMod Recovery is available for the quad-core tablet. According to the source link, the team has been working on CWM for the Prime for a while but without an unlocked bootloader, they couldn't test it. Now that the device is wide open, it's time to get your custom recovery on.

As if that wasn't enough, though, the team behind the custom recovery is also teasing CyanogenMod 9 on the tablet. No downloads are available for this one, yet, but we get a nice two-minute demonstration of the tablet running the custom ROM.

Feb

Sony Google TV Root Exploit Allows For Unsigned Kernels, Modified Flash Plugin, And More

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Google TV, News, Sony

The minds over at GTV Hacker have successfully achieved root on Sony Google TV boxes and TVs running the newest firmware version (Honeycomb 3.2). The exploit also allows for custom kernels to be loaded by hijacking the boot process. These custom kernels can, in turn, bring a number of desirable features to the device.

According to the GTVHacker blog, the following modifications are included in the custom kernel:

Modified flash plugin with random per box flash string for Content Provider Bypass.
Crippled update feature to prevent box from receiving automatic updates.
Completely RW system, cache, and rootfs partitions
Full ADB Root
Removed signature checks on kernel / init scripts / init binary
A few other surprises.

Feb

AT&T's Galaxy Note Already Rooted Via Odin

Posted by Liam Spradlin in AT&T, Development, Galaxy Note (GT-N7000), News

Today has been a busy day in the world of rooting – we've already seen root access given to the Xoom Family Edition and the LG Spectrum. The Galaxy Note, slated for official release tomorrow (but already in the hands of some eager pre-order customers) has also been granted root today, thanks to Da_G over at XDA. The method appears to be similar to the Epic 4G Touch's original root procedure, and requires just a couple of quick Odin commands.

For detailed instructions on rooting AT&T's new phablet, and to download the necessary files, just click through the source link below, and start enjoying the power of root access on your new Galaxy Note.

Feb

LG Spectrum Gets Root Access Thanks To Dan Rosenberg

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, News, Spectrum

Last Updated: August 27th, 2012

Dan Rosenberg, a security researcher and rooting mastermind, has done it again, this time making quick work of the LG Spectrum. In a post to his blog just moments ago, Rosenberg simply states "Yawn. LG loses, users win," and gives instructions on downloading the scripts he provides for Windows, Linux, and OSX.

Considering all that Rosenberg has done (and continues to do) for the community, I'd highly recommend supporting him by hitting the donate button below. Having already taken that possibility into consideration, Rosenberg has the following to say on the subject of supporting his efforts with money:

I encourage anyone thinking of donating in thanks to direct your donation to the American Red Cross or another reputable charitable organization.

Feb

Motorola Xoom Family Edition Rooted (Again) Following Latest OTA Update

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, News, XOOM

After learning that yesterday's XYBoard root (which was thought to work on all Gingerbread/Honeycomb Moto devices) didn't play nice with Motorola's Xoom Family Edition, highly respected security researcher Dan Rosenberg decided to have a look, hoping to bring root back to the FE.

In a post to his blog earlier today, Rosenberg announced that he has found a working exploit for rooting the Xoom Family Edition. Rosenberg has again beaten others to the punch, namely a developer called Evil_DevNull, who Rosenberg calls out in the post for the alleged plagiarism of a previous FE exploit.

The post goes on to explain the "stupidest root ever," making clear a convenient vulnerability that was evidently begging to be exploited: