Just like the initial iPhone jailbreaks, rooting, or hacking your Google Android phone was a scary process at first. If you screwed up, you’d have to do a hard reset at best, if you really blew it, you had a broken piece of hardware.
However, several posts over at Lifehacker have shown us that the rooting process has been vastly improved upon, and is now relatively safe to perform. (By the way, this article is pretty much a rewrite/reiteration/combination of these LH posts, but I agree whole heartedly with every point, and had to share my paraphrased version.)
Still not convinced you should take the leap? Here are some pretty darn good reasons to have a cracked Android phone.
A noticeable performance boost. Most of the complaints from Android users is the lag experienced when navigating through the phone’s interface. Having to wait any noticeable amount of time after hitting a button for the action to perform gets to be a drag real fast. It’s reported that using the CyanogenMOD ROM makes things really snap into place.
Extremely easy cell tethering via WiFi or Bluetooth. android-wifi-tether is a free application that allows one click tethering of your cell connection for use on your computer. Run the app on your phone and you will be able to connect to your phone and access the internet. (WiFi SSID/Bluetooth Device: G1Tether)
Improved on screen keyboard. Cracking your Android phone allows the use of the on screen keyboard designed for the HTC Hero, instead of the standard, sometimes problematic, Android keyboard. You can enable it by navigating to Settings, Locale & Text, then turning on the “Touch Input” feature. You can also adjust its spell, suggest, and feedback settings.
Multi-touch web browsing, baby! It might not feel as suave as the iPhone experience, but it still improves the flow of browsing just as much. You might never see this on a regular Android phone, unless the Big Apple wants to share.
Specifically, all the build specific Android apps! If you choose to root your Android phone, you will have access to all the different applications available from any Android build, including applications not available in the United States, such as the apps on the HTC Hero, and the apps from the Android Donut build, which isn’t even distributed by wireless carriers yet!
So, there you have it. Several pretty solid reasons to nudge you over the edge and persuade you to hack your Google Phone!
Recent Comments