03
Aug
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A common complaint leveled against Android is that it’s too technical or too difficult to use. This is especially the case when it comes to hacking around on your phone. While the command line may be the interface of choice for some Android users, it’s not exactly the most user friendly of solutions. Enter one-click rooting, something that iPhone jailbreakers should already be familiar with. One click. Can’t get easier than that, right? All it takes is downloading a simple Windows application, a click of a button, and BOOM (to use an Apple phrase) you’re all SuperUser-y.

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For those of you who consider use of a computer beneath you, there is still a solution.

26
Jul
300px-US-LibraryOfCongress-Seal.svg

If you’ve cruised the blogosphere today, you’ve probably noticed a number of articles talking about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Library of Congress having decided to add a few exemptions to the sweeping piece of legislation’s authority. Why is this a big deal? And is it a big deal at all?

On the latter, in some ways yes, and I’ll explain why only some later. For the former, it signifies a change in attitude over what constitutes infringement of digital copyright for two major pieces of technology, one of which we’re interested in here at Android Police (take a guess at what sort of technology that is).

22
Jul
droid x

This article discusses rooting your device. THIS BREACHES [VOIDS] THE TERMS OF YOUR PHONE’S WARRANTY AND YOUR VERIZON SERVICE CONTRACT. Proceed at your own risk.

For those of you who have been wondering if the Droid X would ever be rooted, you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The folks over at AllDroid just posted that Verizon’s biggest and baddest Android device has been rooted!

So those of you new to Android and/or the DROID X, you might wonder what this “rooting” business is all about. We have published an article just for you: Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting Your Android Phone.

03
Jun
unrevoked

Well, this is fun. Minutes after I completed and published my post further detailing how to root your EVO, I catch a teaser for ‘unrevoked’ - a ‘painless’ EVO rooting method that’s to be released tomorrow. Unrevoked is the work of Matt Mastracci, who gave us our first sneak peak at a rooted EVO, and one of the developers who contributed to the hack.

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As Matt details here, there are several critical security flaws present in the custom Sprint software included on the EVO, and these flaws were the driving force behind releasing an easy ‘anyone can do it’ rooting method for the EVO.

03
Jun
evo4ghuge

This article mentions rooting and the flashing of non-stock roms. If you’re unfamiliar with either term, hit up our primers here and here for additional information

Good news for those of you that were hoping to root your EVO the minute you tear it free from the box: the instructions and files needed in order to root the device have been officially released online.

User ‘toastcfh’ over at XDA-Developers, who’s been providing us with teaser images and video of his rooted EVO for the last couple of weeks, has come clean with detailed instructions on how you can get sweet, sweet root access on your EVO.

01
May
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Last Updated: August 20th, 2012

Introduction

Ever wondered what the whole Android custom ROM scene was about?

What is all this talk of installing "aftermarket", custom upgrades on your phone?

Who needs it? Why do it? Is it safe?

Don't fret - I'm here to explain - the AndroidPolice Academy is now in session.

By the way, the word ROM means Read Only Memory, but has migrated in the modding community to mean an actual custom OS image that you install into the ROM area of your phone.

Also, the word kernel essentially means the heart of the OS - it's the barebones operating system components.

28
Apr
HTC Desire
Last Updated: April 2nd, 2011

Yesterday, we reported on an exciting announcement for all HTC Desire owners - @PaulOBrien managed to root the device and promised detailed instructions to be posted today.

Well, he's backed the promise up with action and as of this morning, full instructions have been posted.

Paul notes that HTC made it much harder to access key partitions and write any data to them, compared to, say, the Nexus One. This made the process of rooting extremely complicated and left it a quite crippled (he's still working on uncrippling it).

The current set of instructions (29/Apr r3) is below - get ready to do some reading:

Read this whole topic - it contains a ton of useful information as well as the instructions and downloads!

15
Apr
Android root
Last Updated: July 6th, 2012

In this article, I will discuss all kinds of aspects of rooting your Android phone and the benefits that come with it.

Maybe you've heard about "rooting" a phone from a friend or read about it somewhere on the Internet.  Maybe you even *kind of* know what it is but aren't sure what you can do with it. Or maybe you are already running a rooted phone and looking for more ways you can utilize it. Whatever the case may be, this article is for you.

What Is Rooting?

First, for the newbies, let me clarify what rooting is. Getting root or rooting your phone is the process of modifying the operating system that shipped with your device to grant you complete control over it.

03
Apr
OpenEclair

We have some great news this morning for the rooting/ROM fans out there - a new milestone of OpenEclair has been reached and version 1.3 is now available for download here.

If you are interested in the discussion around this release, head over here.

What Is OpenEclair?

OpenEclair is a community ROM based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) 2.1 source code (with lots of Cyanogen mixed in).

The goal of OpenEclair is to bring to the community a fast and stable Eclair 2.1 ROM, with contributions from numerous ROM developers.

To clarify what may not be obvious on the OpenEclair site, the ROM is aimed at 2 devices specifically:

  • HTC Dream - T-Mobile G1
  • HTC Sapphire - T-Mobile myTouch 3G

OpenEclair is actively developed (just look at the number of filed and fixed bugs), maintained, and tested by the community which means frequent releases, attention to users and testers, $0 price tag (of course), and all the great stuff open source software development brings with it.

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