/system - 2/2 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

[Instructions] How To Root The Verizon Samsung Droid Charge

Posted by Justin Case in Charge (i510), Development, News, Samsung, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: May 7th, 2011

Neither z4root nor SuperOneClick is currently working on the Charge (though I'm sure someone will come up with a one-click method soon enough), but guess what - Gingerbreak sure does. Follow these instructions, and you should have root and full /system unlock on your Droid Charge in a few minutes. Credit goes to the Exploid Crew and unnamed testers.

No custom recovery, such as ClockworkMod or RA, is available yet, but it is surely going to arrive very soon.

Pros

Permanent root
Read/write access to /system
The bootloader is factory unlocked, so no additional fiddling is required
All Droid Charges survived testing
No data wipe is needed

Cons

Voids warranty
Could brick your phone if you aren't careful

Android Police and Team AndIRC disclaim all liability for any harm that may befall your device, including, but not limited to: bricked phones, voided manufacturer warranties, exploding batteries, etc.

Apr

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup, Part 2] 5 Excuses To Reboot More Often

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

It has been almost a month since our last bootscreen roundup, so we decided it was time to give you another opportunity to pimp your power up process (I don't normally use the word "pimp", but I just couldn't resist the alliteration). After spending a few hours and literally digging through hundreds of pages, here are five more most kickass boots animations that I could find.

If you have never changed your boot image before, check out our tutorial on the matter.

Android Particles

From the same creator who brought us Smooth Ring the first time around, this is a super-elegant image of Andy appearing from what can only be described as fairy dust.

Mar

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup, Part 1] 5 Bootscreens That Will Really Turn Your Phone On

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Let's face it: It sucks waiting for your phone to turn on. It takes too long, and you're forced to watch what is essentially a commercial for your carrier and hardware manufacturer. Well, no more! Here are five bootscreen animations that will make rebooting your phone a much celebrate event! Have your friends gather round and watch at the spectacle that is your phone powering on! Gasp at the twists and turns of pretty images on your screen before your device has even turned on!

If you have no idea how to modify your bootscreen, check out our bootscreen primer.

Feb

Sonos Controller App For Android Coming To The Market In March, To Be Demoed At MWC

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Sonos, a company that develops wireless speaker solutions, announced today that the official Android app was almost ready to rock your speaker setup and would be available soon.

Fully supporting multi-room configurations, the app will let you control music that is flowing to your Sonos speakers, sync all rooms to play the same song (hey, that's actually pretty cool), search your collection, control individual speaker volume, listen to online radio, and play music from a variety of services, such as Napster, Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, and LastFM.

The Sonos setup is not cheap - the flagship S5 wireless speaker costs a whopping $399 and the multi-room setup goes all the way up to $1000.

Sep

14 Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Static Wallpapers Leak Out

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Droid 2, Motorola, News

Hot on the heels of yesterday's live wallpaper leak for the Droid 2 R2-D2 edition, today MyDroidWorld continued the system dump disassembly by releasing 14 static JPG wallpapers that will make any Star Wars fan feel nostalgic (and some maybe teary-eyed).

Non-Star-Wars-fans will find these boring, weird, and psychedelic at times - although, what are you doing with the R2-D2 edition anyway?

Download

You can download these wallpapers as a single zip archive from our mirror: AndroidPolice mirror or hit up individual ones below (right click > Save Link As...).

Install by unpacking and copying the files to your phone, then selecting Menu > Wallpaper > Gallery.

Sep

[App Of The Week] Multicon - Reclaim Your Home Screen Real Estate

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications

Even though I have 7 home screens on my EVO 4G, I still sometimes find myself cramped for space. I have a whole bunch of apps and shortcuts that I would like to have instant access to. Enter Multicon.

The function of Multicon is to make widgets that pack in a number of downsized icons in the space that would normally be occupied by only single ones. This enables you to pack a large number of app shortcuts onto a home screen that only fits 16 by default (on most handsets).

Multicon is especially useful for devices with larger screens, such as the 4.3" EVO 4G, Droid X and the 5" Dell Streak because it's much easier to click on icons several times smaller in size on those devices than on ones with smaller screens.

Sep

Exclusive: Samsung Fascinate Live Wallpapers Leaked, Available For Download

Posted by Justin Case in Applications, Development, Exclusives, Fascinate, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

Today, Jamezelle and I ripped apart the leaked system dump from the yet-to-be-released Verizon Samsung Fascinate and patched together six live wallpapers that are not present on other Galaxy S devices.

Like the previous Galaxy S live wallpapers, these must be flashed from a custom recovery, which also means you need to be rooted.

Download the zip below and flash it through your recovery menu like any other flashable zip. Depending on your device, the flashing process may take a minute, so just sit back, relax, and let your phone do its thing.

Do NOT try to unpack the zip and install the .apks manually - they rely on a special library packaged within the update.

Jul

[2x Polls] Should AndroidPolice Implement DISQUS Or IntenseDebate Comment System? Please Cast Your Votes

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Off-Topic

The team here at AndroidPolice wants you, our readers, to have the best time while visiting the site, which is why we are constantly listening to your feedback.

This week we are trying to see if you would prefer a new comment system, such as IntenseDebate or DISQUS - those are the 2 biggest ones, in place of the current threaded comment system.

Please see below for more info on the options and then cast your votes in the following 2 polls.

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Jun

Droid X Internal Files Leaked - Boot Screen and Keyboard Ports Follow

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News

Some lucky new Droid X user has leaked a Droid X system dump (the phones internal files). As a result, you can now download anything found on the Droid X – wallpapers, ringtones, apps (such as the video editor, backup assistant, and photo app), and boot animations. Not only that, but the legion of Android hackers is hard at work porting various features from the X – such as the multi-touch keyboard (which has already been ported to the Incredible) and the boot screen.

Nicely done, everyone. Looking forward to seeing some of that stuff ported to the original Droid.

[Source: AndroidCentral Forums]

Jun

Achievement Unlocked! EVO 4G Now Fully Rooted, NAND Protection Defeated, Full Write Permissions To /system. Incredible Next?

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, News, Sprint

Problems Gaining Root On The EVO

If you've been following the EVO 4G root progress, you would know that the current root status is incomplete:

the unrevoked method allows granting root to apps but doesn't allow writing to the /system partition, which means you can't remove applications added by Sprint and do any kind of useful hackery, such as installing custom recoveries or ROMs
toastcfh's original method (now known as Part 1), which grants write access to /system but only in recovery mode, which means you need to reboot your phone into a special recovery console to gain those write permissions.