Yesterday’s news struck me as kind of odd, yet totally unsurprising. According to a report from InformationWeek, Motorola is working on its own web-based operating system. It seemed odd, because Motorola has been such a prominent Android partner. Yet it seemed unsurprising, because ti’s natural for a company to seek its own solutions. Motorola, which, as a mobile division, recently spun off from the main company, does have reasons to seek alternatives to Android, if for no other reason than to provide a plan B. But how far are they going to take the idea of a new operating system?
When we learned about Verizon’s LTE smartphone pricing yesterday, we received few surprises. A while ago we had heard that the same $30 that bought you a month of unlimited 3G data would, at least for the time being, get you LTE data. According to Verizon that will change during the summer, but chances are if you lock in your deal now you can keep that unlimited plan for the life of your contract. Though you might not want to. One interesting aspect of the Thunderbolt pricing did emerge from yesterday’s information: you can get a data-only plan for just $50 per month.
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We’ve known for a while now that the Sidekick was on its way back, and at the stroke of midnight we got official word on the new device. T-Mobile and Samsung have announced the newest Sidekick, and it is pretty clearly the best of the bunch at this point. Not only does it have the same messaging appeal of the original Sidekick, but it adds a ton of Android-based features that take the handset to the next level. The changes are wholesale, and it should lead to a device that hits its target teenage audience.
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Previously, the question was, “will my phone get Froyo?” Unfortunately, even if the answer was yes — ::cough:: Galaxy S — it might not have happened yet. That hopefully will not be the case with Android 2.3, 2.4, or whatever version of Gingerbread will hit your handset eventually. Right now there are only two handsets officially running 2.3: the Nexus S and the Nexus One. Of course, if you’re rooted you can hit up a Cyanogenmod 7 release candidate (highly recommended) and experience Gingerbread right now. But if you’re not the rooting type you might be wondering if your device will eventually get Gingerbread. Thankfully, ben_duder at xda has a good list of handsets that will ship with, or eventually get, the latest version of Android OS.
The easy title for this would be, simply, “how to root your Android phone.” But I’m not going to go over specific root instructions. For starters, each handset is going to have a different set of instructions. Also, plenty can go wrong in the process. I’ll try to lead you down the right path, though, so that you can get the best possible instructions for rooting. But first, there are a couple of things you have to understand.
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Over the last few days we’ve gone over what it means to root your Android and some pros and cons of rooting. Today we’ll continue keeping it simple by discussing what you can do once you root your device.
By now you know what it means when someone says they’ve rooted their Android, and you’ve seen some pros and cons to doing it yourself. That’s all fine and good, but we’ve left alone the topic of what you can actually do with your device once you root. Obviously there are a number of benefits, and we kind of hinted at them in the pros and cons list. But today we’ll have a few more items. As with yesterday, participation will make this list more robust.
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Will you root your Android device? Before you can answer that question, you need to know a few things. This week we plan to examine some of finer aspects of rooting your Android and what it means for you and your device. We’ll keep this as simple as possible, which means as little geek-speak as possible. We want to make it easy to understand, above all else.
Today’s topic: The pros and cons of rooting your Android device.
Yesterday I provided the bare bones definition of rooting your Android device. Now that you have an idea of what rooting is, we can move onto the features and bugs of rooting. On Wednesday we’ll get to the specific cool stuff you can do, but today we’ll continue wading through the shallow end. It’s time to examine the pros and cons of rooting your device.
Read the rest of The pros and cons of rooting your Android device…
Will you root your Android? Before you can begin to answer that question, you need to know a few things. This week we plan to examine some of the finer aspects of rooting your Android and what it means for your device. We’ll keep this as simple as possible, which means as little geeks-speak as possible. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to understand.
Today’s topic: What is rooting?
After purchasing an Android device, many, if not most, users will take to the internet and seek out the best available apps. When browsing around, the term “root” is sure to cross his or her path. It might sound like a mystery at first, but the idea behind rooting is rather simple.
If there is one virtue of Android we’ve extolled over all others, it’s the platform’s ability to work on dozens upon dozens of handsets. It’s not just one device, and it’s not a bunch of different takes on similar devices. There are different manufacturers creating devices that vary in performance. This means a greater chance that an Android handset — one of the dozens — fits your needs. Yet it’s not all about performance. Device size has become an important factor in choosing a smartphone. We’re seeing plenty of variation in that aspect, too.
Read the rest of Too big, too small, just right: the size of our devices…
The wait for Froyo on Samsung Galaxy S phones has long crossed the point of absurdity. These updates were supposed to be out shortly after the devices dropped, but after a number of false starts they’re still running 2.1 Eclair, while 57.6 percent of Android devices are running 2.2 Froyo. Now we’re seeing new rumors that the Galaxy S series will receive a Froyo update soon, but of course we’ve heard that before. Maybe this will be the time, and when we see February’s numbers we’ll see 2.2 on, say, 75 percent of devices. But it won’t be all of them, because there are a number of devices that just won’t get further updates.
