Saturday, September 14, 2013

Android World Update # The 10 best root apps for Android

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thumbnail The 10 best root apps for Android
Sep 14th 2013, 16:48, by Joe Hindy

Best Root Apps for Android
We know a lot of people root their devices, but only the experienced really know where to go from there. Of course most just use it to back up applications, but there are a plethora of great root apps out there for people to use. Here, we’ll take a look at the 10 best root apps for Android. If you’d rather watch than read, the video as at the bottom.


Best Root Apps

10 Full!Screen

Number 10 on our list is Full!Screen. This app takes away the soft key at the bottom of your device as well as the notification bar. The reason for this is simple. Without soft keys, the Galaxy Nexus screen was 4.65-inches. With the soft keys and the status bar, it was closer to 4.3. This app gives you that extra space back.

When you activate it, everything disappears and you get a back button on the bottom left and a home button on the bottom right. Both of these buttons can be customized a number of ways. You can add a pie menu, swipe gestures, and long press functions to turn these two little keys into everything you need to get rid of those top and bottom bars.

Get it on Google Play


09 GooManager - best root apps

09 GooManager

Next up is the official app for goo.im called GooManager. This app is a one way ticket to download and install anything you can find on goo.im. It has an easy to use interface and can help you find a lot of files that you may otherwise have to Google Search to find.

Some examples include ROM and Gapps downloads for your device. You can also use it to install TWRP Recovery if you need a custom recovery, and use the interface to reboot to recovery or flash ROMs without using the recovery.

Get it on Google Play


08 Tasker - Best Root Apps

08 Tasker

Eighth on our list is a very useful root app called Tasker. This powerful application can make your phone do pretty much anything whenever you need it to. It's a vague explanation but pertinent because it can really make your phone do almost anything.

So here's how it works. You create a task or a scene, then you define what those tasks and scenes do. It's highly recommended to read the online FAQs before attempting because there is a steep learning curve involved. A fun use for this app is using the Tasker add-on that some NFC apps have to make your NFC tags do things you created in Tasker.

Get it on Google Play


07 Juice Defender Ultimate - Best Root Apps

07 Juice Defender Ultimate

Speaking of root apps that make your phone do wonderful things, number 7 on our list is Juice Defender Ultimate. This root app can turn your phone into a battery saving machine, squeezing valuable hours out of an otherwise lackluster battery performance.

It does this by tweaking your connectivity options. For root users, you can also tweak your CPU settings as well as a number of others. When everything is combined, Juice Defender can save you hours of battery if used right and it's already being used by millions of people.

Get it on Google Play


06 ROM Manager - Best Root Apps

06 ROM Manager

Number 6 could be considered an Android relic. It's ROM Manager and for years it's been one of the best ways to install ClockworkMod Recovery. ROM Manager has a number of features and is pretty easy to use. This has made it onto more than one essential root apps list.

So here is a quick list of things you can do with ROM Manager. Do note that many of these require the pro version. You can browse ROMs for your device, flash ClockworkMod Recovery and, for a nominal fee, ClockworkMod Touch Recovery, create Nandroid backups, and more.

Get it on Google Play


05 Superuser - Best Root Apps

05 Superuser

Next on our list is the Superuser app by Koushik Dutta, who is the same guy who developed number 6, ROM Manager. Superuser is a basic app that literally all root users should have. It serves a very simple, yet very important purpose of being the gateway for apps to gain root.

So here's what this app, and apps like it do. When you open a root app you get that now iconic screen asking if you want to give the app root access. That is this app in action. With it you either give or deny root permission to other apps. With this one, you can change themes, keep logs, and turn root on or off for both apps and ADB.

Get it on Google Play


04 ROM Toolbox Pro - Best Root Apps

04 ROM Toolbox Pro

Fourth on our list is ROM Toolbox Pro. This is one of the very few all-in-one solutions for root users. It has a bunch of features that all root users could find useful and it's even designed with Android in mind. That means all you #holoyolo fans will appreciate it.

There are simply too many things this app can do and we only have a limited time here so I'll tell you the highlights. With this you can download ROMs, install recoveries, manage your applications, and it even comes with a built in root enabled file browser. Count in the stuff for more advanced users like kernel tweaks, and you have a valuable app for any root user.

Get it on Google Play


03 Greenify - Best Root Apps

03 Greenify

We have reached our top 3 and the first up here at the top is Greenify and it is truly a must-have application as a root user. Sometimes applications run away with themselves and you're the one who suffers. Apps can wake up devices, drain battery, and cause all sorts of problems. Greenify fixes that.

So here is how it works, the app will analyze your applications and tell you which ones are running, were recently run, and how many times they ran. Using this info, you can put apps into hibernate mode where they will only work when you actually use them. This can save you hours of battery life and effectively solves a long time problem of rogue apps keeping your phone awake.

Get it on Google Play


02 Root Explorer - Best Root Apps

02 Root Explorer

Our long time YouTube fans are probably sick of hearing me talk about Root Explorer. To them I apologize, it's not my fault this app is awesome in so many categories. Root Explorer uses root access to let you browse files on your entire device.

For root users, this is an essential task. There are a plethora of activities that require you rummaging through the root of your device and Root Explorer helps you do it. It has a clean interface, plenty of features, and is one of those essential tools for all root users.

Get it on Google Play


01 Titanium Backup - Best Root Apps

01 Titanium Backup

We are aware that putting Titanium Backup as number 1 on this list is anti-climactic and for that we apologize. There simply isn't a better application out there for root users. For those new to rooting, Titanium Backup is the essential app for dealing with your applications.

So here are the two biggest tasks this app accomplishes. You can freeze apps, preventing them from running, and backup apps which anyone who has experience with rooting will tell you is important. It then offers over 3 dozen other features, like syncing backups to cloud storage, uninstalling system apps –which is essential to get rid of bloatware- and multi-user support.

Get it on Google Play


Best Root Apps Leaderboard

Best Root Apps Leaderboard

If you check out our leaderboard, you can see how all these root apps stack up. To be perfectly honest, a leaderboard is kind of worthless here, since most of these apps perform different functions. For best results, you should download most, if now all, of these apps.

The great thing about root is there are far more root apps that perform a variety of different functions. These are simply the highest rated, most popular, and they perform the tasks most often sought by rooted users who are experienced and novice alike. If there's another one you'd like to mention, let us know in the comments.


The Video

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Android World Update # Gadget of the Week: Cyber-shot QX10

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Gadget of the Week: Cyber-shot QX10
Sep 14th 2013, 17:00, by Kris Carlon

We've seen so many new devices this week: Sony Xperia Z1, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1, LG G2, Acer Liquid S2, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, Xperia Z1 Mini (sort of), Galaxy Gear and the list goes on. But when I started to think about my favorite gadget of the week – and more than that, the best gadget in terms of impact – it was a pretty clear choice: the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 and QX100 attachable lenses for smartphones. Want to know why? Read on, friends.

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Gagdet of the Week: new Sony Cyber-shot lenses. / © Luc Kersten/Red Bubble

(This is a preview - click here to read the entire entry.)

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Android World Update # [Opinion] I’ve had enough of custom ROMs, it’s now Nexus or nothing

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[Opinion] I've had enough of custom ROMs, it's now Nexus or nothing
Sep 14th 2013, 17:24, by Raveesh Bhalla

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HTC ONE X ATT

Warning: I’m writing this after having spent nearly 24 hours trying to fix a few issues with my AT&T HTC One X, a period in which I went from a semi-functioning device to losing S-Off state, all the data on my SD Card (yes I did have a backup), and now having no ROM whatsoever on my phone, with installation attempts failing.

TL;DR: I’ve had enough of spending time getting my phone to work the way it should out of the box.

My first Android device ever was the T-Mobile myTouch 4G, which I purchased back in December 2010. The phone I really wanted was the Nexus S, but due to a few reasons I couldn’t wait for it to hit the market. Settling for the myTouch 4G wasn’t much of an issue, however, since it was a pretty solid device built by HTC that topped the benchmark tests at the time. It had a decent back camera and a front-facing one, which wasn’t in vogue at the time.

The first thing I did with the device (after unlocking it so I could use it in India) was throw on CyanogenMod 7. It was pretty straightforward, and the device even went on to run CyanogenMod 10 for some time (I reverted back to CM7 for more stability). I really enjoyed the phone, and never missed out too much on the new stuff Google was putting out thanks to the amazing developer community.

Last August, I finally felt it was time to move on, so I went out and bought an AT&T HTC One X. The choice was between HTC, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Nexus. I was leaning towards the Nexus, but in the end decided to go with the One X for its better camera. I thought I’d live on custom ROMs again, and get the best of both worlds. And I succeeded for a little over a year, before everything started going downhill.

It started a week ago, when I woke up to find my device switched off, and failing to boot up either normally or into the bootloader. I managed to get into recovery after connecting to my laptop and using ADB, but since my ROM had been acting up a bit, I felt it was important to change to something more stable. What followed to my current state as of now can probably be the inspiration of an Oatmeal comic.

  1. Found a ROM that I felt would suit me best on XDA.
  2. The ROM requires me to update my phone’s radios and HBOOT, for which I needed to get the latest 3.18 RUU.
  3. RUUs only run on Windows. I don’t have a Windows device (I use a Mac and a Chromebook Pixel that also runs Ubuntu).
  4. I downloaded VirtualBox and Windows XP on my Mac.
  5. To get everything to work properly, I downloaded HTC Sync. For some reason, the RUU still doesn’t detect my device.
  6. Searching around, I found a couple of undocumented drivers that should fix everything. They did, and the RUU began working.
  7. The RUU failed, stating an “image error”. Redownloading the RUU (from HTC’s own site, which I did so the previous time too), I tried once more.
  8. Still no luck, and things got worse: I was now S-ON, and after reinstalling my previous ROM, my home and multi-tasking buttons stopped working. The phone wouldn’t ring or even show an incoming call when someone dialed my number.
  9. I tried a different RUU (2.20) hoping that maybe that would work. It didn’t.
  10. I factory wiped my device, and adb-pushed my previous ROM on to the phone. It wouldn’t install anymore, failing to mount storage.
  11. I tried fixing things with the storage, but still no luck. Tried the 2.20 RUU once again, no luck.
  12. I’m writing this as I try the 3.18 RUU once again. Pretty certain it’s not going to work.

I’ve wasted an entire Saturday on this. While I know fully well that I must have made a mistake or two here or there, possibly the previous times I changed ROMs or something, I can’t help feel horribly tired by it all. I’m not a n00b, yet I feel absolutely helpless right now. If things don’t improve soon, I’m looking at using a busted old iPhone 3G for a while, and I can’t imagine anything worse than that.

My biggest fault, of course, is not going with a Nexus. I relied on the community which, while it does some amazing things, can get a bit tiring. For example, can people please be a bit kinder on XDA?

The biggest change, however, is that Android on the whole has gotten so good, that the specs race is over (yes I agree with Quentyn, though I’d give props to the Nexus 4, and not Motorola). My biggest issue with the Nexus devices is the camera quality, but if the Nexus 5 doesn’t end up having one that meets my expectations, I can always thrown money at Sony’s QX10 lens. And considering the cost of a Nexus, I would probably only spend as much as an unlocked Galaxy S IV, if not less.

This is the end for me in terms of using non-Nexus devices. I’m tired, sleepless, cranky at having wasted a weekend, and I just never want to have to install a ROM on my own ever again.

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Android World Update # Verizon says Sense 5 coming to the Droid DNA

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Verizon says Sense 5 coming to the Droid DNA
Sep 14th 2013, 15:57, by Jerry Hildenbrand

Droid DNA

Not a lot here that isn't in the headline. Verizon has listed the Sense 5 update page for the HTC Droid DNA on their site. There is no date mentioned, or no inkling of exactly which version of Android we'll be seeing (though HTC has said they are working to get 4.3 on the DNA this month), but if you want to know all about Sense 5 features like Blinkfeed or the new smart dialer, it's there.

If you're a Droid DNA user, keep an eye out for that update notification.

Source: Verizon; Via: Android Central forums


    






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