One of the things I had a hard trouble finding an answer for after I got my first Android phone was: what is all this deal with rooting? I read a lot of articles on how to root my phone but I just couldn't see what benefits I would get from it. I had had an iPhone and I knew the benefits I could get from jailbreaking, but I just didn't know what I could get from rooting.

Well, rooting is in its definition a way to obtain root access to your phone. Does this still not tell you much? Good, then read on.

This was the geek definition. Now, translating this into English, it means that some applications (some of them widely available in the Android Market), require some deeper privileges to work. Applications like Wireless Tether or Quick Boot are just a few examples of these apps.

By rooting your phone, it won't become faster but it won't become slower either. What rooting means is that you'll have the option to grant some applications more access than they would normally have.

Now, as to knowing whether your phone is rooted or not, that's a quite simple task. A rooted Android phone will have an additional application (installed automatically upon the rooting process), that is called "Superuser Permissions". You don't need to use this app but just the fact alone that it sits there, gives you this possibility. If an application ever requires root permissions, you will get a notice saying that the app is requesting super user permissions. Obviously, if you trust the app you will grant these permissions - if you don't trust it, you'll deny them.

As per my previous coverage of the Apple event where several new iPods and a new iTunes was announced, I'm making this post so that iPad owners can sigh with relief regarding the iOS. Yes, we will get an update, yes it will have multi-tasking and make the iPad (even more) awesome.

Read on to get all the juicy details...We will have to wait until November 2010 unfortunately but I'd say it's a wait well worth. In the meanwhile, the current iPhones (except those for which support has been discontinued) will get the 4.1 update immediately which will, amongst other things, fix the proximity sensor issue in the iPhone 4, introduce a new revision of Safari and finally, users will be able to disable the spell checker. As a Portuguese who owns an iPad without a Portuguese spell checker, this comes as a blessing. No, Apple, I don't want you to spell check my Portuguese text with an English spell checker.

Just a couple of days ago, the good folk 'Cyanogen' released version 6.0 of their much acclaimed CyanogenMod. To my (and many other people's) sadness though, it still does not support the Samsung Galaxy S nor any of its other flavours (Vibrant, Captivate, etc).

According to a previous post by the same gentleman, Vibrant support (and hopefully all the rest, by affinity) might be coming to version 6.1. Until this version is released let's just hold onto that thought and pray they are serious about it!

In the meanwhile, maybe you'd like to give one of the Froyo builds a spin?

In case you were not aware yet, there are Froyo builds available out there RIGHT NOW for the Samsung Galaxy S. You just have to be aware that these builds are in fact beta builds released by Samsung and thus might still be a bit buggy and crash-ey. Still, it shouldn't break your phone. If anything you'll just have to reflash it back with Éclair which is perfectly possible and very safe.

So you want to give these Froyo builds a try? After all there are already three betas out there so it can't be that bad, right? Well, just read on for a walk through on how to get these builds and how to get them on your phone!For this walk through I'm going to assume you've never flashed a firmware "through the back door" before. Essentially there are two ways of flashing a firmware onto the Samsung Galaxy S. You can either use Samsung Kies which is an application very much like Nokia's PC Suite, or you can use Odin. Odin is a hacker's tool. It's not an official tool by Samsung but instead it's a tool that allows you to flash any firmware you want, as long as you have the files for it. To flash these Froyo betas we are, obviously, using Odin.

First and foremost you should obtain all the files that you need, so here's a list of what you're going to need during the process:

1. Odin - the flasher tool
2. Either the 512 or the 513 PIT file (read after step 4 to know which one you need)
3. You get both the above tools by clicking here.
4. The firmware that you want to flash.

You can get the latest Froyo build at the time of writing (i9000XXJP3) by going here: Rapidshare. Now, as far as the PIT files go, normally you need the 512 file but some firmwares will require the 513. For this XXJP3, you will need the 512 PIT file which you can get from the link on step 3.

After you have downloaded all the files, make sure you UNPLUG YOUR PHONE from your computer.

Now, here's all the steps you need to get to the actual flashing:

1. Turn off your phone and remove your SIM and SD cards.
2. Hold the following buttons at the same time: Volume Down, Home and Power button.
3. After doing the step above, your screen should say "Download mode".
4. Fire up Odin BEFORE you plug your phone to the USB port.
5. Plug the phone with the USB cord.

After step 5, Odin should detect your Galaxy S and it should acknowledge the connection where it says "ID:COM".

When Odin has recognized your phone, you need to load all the files you've downloaded. Keep in mind that the firmware has to be extracted and in it you will find three files: the CSC, the [Modem/Phone] and the [PDA/Code]. Load all the files in their respective slots on Odin and load the 512 PIT file as well. After you've done this, just press "Start" and let it rip it will take a while and DO NOT remove the cable before the process is completed. You will know once the process is completed as Odin will tell you it has finished and your phone will boot back up normally. Keep in mind that the phone will reboot at least once and you should still let it do its thing before it's come to a full stop.

After this is done, just enjoy your new Froyo phone

WORD OF ADVICE: After you've switched to Android 2.2 Froyo, the method I described in my other post on how to root and apply the lag fix on the phone no longer will work. To root and apply the lag fix you will need to use a different method so please, don't try to use that on a Froyo Galaxy S.

ALSO...!: I'm not to be held responsible if you brick your phone in the process of flashing firmwares. I'm just providing some guidance which if for some reason does not work for you, I am not to be held accountable.

Happy flashing!

[Updated - Jump to the end of the post for a detailed walkthrough]

As some of my readers may know, I have recently traded in my Maemo-wielding Nokia N900 for a brand new Samsung Galaxy S. This move was led by several reasons that I am not going to go in detail in this post now but I did it and I was very happy with my new phone. In comparison with the Nokia it was super fast and best of all, it runs Android which is, in my opinion, a great mobile operating system.

Now, all was well until I started hearing about these supposed lag issues of the Galaxy S and I honestly didn't know what it was all about. The phone seemed fast enough for me and I was generally very happy with it. Sure, sometimes it would hang for 2 or 3 seconds but nothing to worrying. I genuinely thought it was just normal hiccups like we sometimes get on our computers.

Everything changed when I decided to give one of the lag fixes a go. I thought "hey, why not?", I had wanted to root my device for a while now so I could just as well go the extra mile and apply the lag fix as well, and boy, was I missing on speed. After rooting and applying the patch everything is just snappy. There's no more hiccups at all and apps just load instantly without any wait at all. For example, when I refresh my inbox using GMail it also takes WAY LESS time than it would before, which really surprised me. Browsing also feels faster and even the benchmarking tool "Quadrant Standard" reports the Galaxy S as being twice as fast as the Motorola Droid X! Actually, with this fix, the Galaxy S is at the top of the food chain with the closest phone to provide even similar results being the Nexus One on Froyo.

So my advice is: apply this patch asap. It will eat 1Gb of your internal memory card but trust me: it's so very worth it. I'm including two videos in this post. One of them teaches you how to root the phone while the other guides you through the actual fix. Just apply them both (first root then fix) and off you go.

If you notice the phone to be faster, please drop me a comment below.

Cheers!

Update:

I know I have the videos below and they're pretty straight forward, but since this post is getting so much popularity, I thought I'd make a step by step walkthrough that will guide you through the whole process of rooting AND applying the lag fix. Let's start with the rooting, shall we?

The next steps are for ROOTING your Samsung Galaxy S (i9000):

1. Download this file: update.zip
2. Plug your phone to your computer and mount the memory cards through the notification bar.
3. Place this update.zip in the root of your INTERNAL SD card. It should be the one with lots of folders. Just place it right in the card, outside any particular folder.
4. Unmount the USB connection through the notification bar.
5. Turn off your phone.
6. With your phone turned off, press the following keys at the same time: Volume Up, Home and Power button. Keep holding them until you see the Samsung Galaxy S writings on the screen, then you can let go.
7. You will be presented with a menu, just choose the option that allows you to flash the update.zip using the volume up and volume down keys. To select the option just push the home key.
8. Wait for the phone to reboot on its own et voilà! It's done!

The next steps are for APPLYING THE LAG FIX onto your Samsung Galaxy S (i9000):

Ok, so I cheated. I'm not going to give you steps for this because.... it's the same as the steps above! So, if you have already rooted your phone, repeat the steps above BUT with this update. WARNING: The name of this second file is update1.zip. You MUST take the "1" off before you copy it to your phone, otherwise it will NOT work! You also need to know that possibly you won't see the ".zip" extension. This is fine! If you don't see it, DON'T add it! It just means Windows is hiding it for you and that's perfectly fine.

I'm still leaving the videos below and in case you have doubts or need more help, drop me a comment below. No registration required! (The comment might take a few minutes to appear as I need to approve them manually)

Rooting the Galaxy S:
~

Lag Fix:

I went into an O2 store today. I was merely looking to handle the new iPhone 4, to see how it looked like in person, to see how it felt in my hand and... obviously, to test the death grip, or, more correctly, the death touch. Yes, you don't really have to grip it like Steve J. suggests, you really just have to touch it on that joint point on the bottom left corner of the phone and the signal goes all the way down to just two, and then one bar. You can clearly see the effects of the new firmware though, it no longer goes into no signal, it will still tell you that there's some signal, while in fact it's probably impossible to make any calls at that point. But anyway, I was there, I tested it. I didn't grip the iPhone, I merely pressed my index finger against that tiny little spot and the signal instantly started dropping from the full five bars to two bars and ultimately to just one bar. Similarly, as soon as I raised my finger from that spot, it gained back the signal to full strength. This is why I'm dubbing this issue not "death grip" but "death touch".

Not all is bad about the iPhone 4 though. The screen is amazing, tantalizing, fabulous, ridiculously fantastic and I might just have ran out of adjectives to describe how "real" it feels to look at such a screen. It's like there's no screen at all and you're just looking at something "real". If you've read my blog, you'll know that by now I loathe Steve Jobs. He's an arrogant prick who bullies his employees and he might as well have been the one who gave the order to go ahead with this design, despite having been warned about the issues it could have. Still, the screen of the iPhone 4 is just... fantastic. It's something that has to be seen in person to be wooed by it and trust me, you will be.

Anyway, enough beating the dead horse with a stick and moving on to more serious matters. I've had my eye on the Samsung Galaxy S for a while now and based on the reviews and videos I saw of it, I was pretty much convinced on getting one. I had a few deals on eBay that I was keeping track of  and I was just waiting for my own phone to sell to then buy the Galaxy. However, what was not my surprise when on the O2 store, I saw the Samsung Galaxy S for sale and it had actually been one of the motives for me to go up to the store: I wanted to try the phone in person just to get the feel of it. I asked the lady if she had one other than that one on display as it had no battery and she went to get one, a BNIB handset, just for me to try. I was impressed with her amiability with this and I had the chance to take a glance at the price tag - £319 it read. I thought to myself that it was a really nice price but it was probably locked to O2, which isn't desirable at all for me. I'm at a point in my life that I might have to move to God knows where and having a phone that's locked to a British network is anything but ideal for me.

The lady came back with the handset and she let me mess around with it a bit. I tried (and failed) to enable Swype, and on a casual chit chat with the O2 lady, I asked her whether the phone was locked and she told me she didn't actually know. Those phones were supposed to be sold on contracts and those are usually unlocked, but she didn't know. She also told me that she was fairly sure they were unlocked, as the box had no O2 branding whatsoever, but she didn't know for sure. After asking a few of her colleagues, none of them seemed to be sure either but at some point, one of them assured me it was unlocked to all networks, and I just knew it: I have to buy this phone. And I did. I made an excellent deal, better than any of the deals on eBay because I get 1 year warranty and in the end it's actually cheaper than anything on eBay.

So, to everyone who's wanting to buy a Samsung Galaxy S, I say try your local O2 shop. Maybe they have a few units like this!

Everyone who follows the technology world would know the name Gray Powell. This is the name of the lad who lost his prototype iPhone 4G at a German beer bar. Well, guess what? Lufthansa is offering him a business class flight to Munich for him to "pick up where he last left off".

Image of the letter after the jump.

So! It's been a while and I come back with nothing but sad and unhappy stories.

As perhaps some of you knew, my team was one of the UK finalists in the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. As fate wanted, we did not win. We came home, not empty-handed but in a way, empty-hearted. Maybe it is for the best; my team is composed of Master's students and the workload isn't comparable. I did not expect to have enough time to make it through to the finals, so maybe it is indeed for the best that someone else won.

Still, we got some loot from this competition! We won a magnificent Microsoft LifeCam HD and a superb Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000, with the new BlueTrack technology! Last but not least, we also got a diploma signed by Bill Gates himself! Quite good huh?

Unfortunately I cannot post many details from this visit to Microsoft's campus in Reading as we were all forced to sign an NDA to prevent us from leaking the latest details. All that I can say is that I've tried a Windows Phone 7 and it's amazing. It's a complete break with Windows Mobile and it is definitely a great break. From my experience I can say that the OS still feels a bit unpolished on certain aspects like image handling, but that's to be expected as it hasn't even been released yet. I also got to try a Microsoft Surface in person and whoa.... it's quite an amazing experience and I quite like the applications they have to showcase it. Perhaps the only disappointing factor is that it doesn't use either resistive or capacitive technologies, but instead it resorts to a projection and five cameras to detect touches. That is why it is such a tall device.

We also got a nice presentation by a gentleman from Lionhead Studios but unfortunately they had really strong feelings about the NDA and I am really not supposed to say anything about that!

Moving on to the next topic there's... volcano ash! Namely Eyjafjallajökull's ash. This is the name of the very nasty Icelandic volcano that has stopped me from going back to Portugal for my well deserved holidays. I had a flight booked for the 16th which got cancelled, then I rebooked it for today (the 19th) and again it got cancelled, and right now I have it booked for this Friday, hoping that things will look better in a few days.

The latest news on this is that the volcano comes from the UK Met Office (check image) and they tell us that it has actually stopped erupting and that maybe now the skies will start clearing.

The so much awaited Apple Tablet has finally been announced by good ole Steve Jobs. My first impression? Meh. Put it this way, I was very very excited about the Apple Tablet, I was amused that the name could have gone the iSlate way (is late, get it?), but even the name is a total and uttermost failure. iPad... what's with the easy iPod pun?!

Those of us who read Gizmodo and other technology-oriented websites have been showering in mockups of how the iPad would look like and truth to be told, most of them look better than this chunky piece of an eBook reader. What's this supposed to be anyway? A phone? But it has no 3G... An eBook reader? But it costs $1000... An MP3/video player? BUT IT COSTS $1000!

Come on guys, who does not sincerely believe that Apple has just shot themselves in the foot please raise your hands and drop me a comment with sound reasoning. As for me, if I had Apple stock I'd be hitting the sell button as hard as I could right now... poor move Jobs, poor move...

Photos after the break (courtesy of Gizmodo).

UPDATE: Alright, alright, it only costs $500 after all. My point still remains: it is ugly and it only allows one app running at a time... $500 for a giant iPhone? Meh.

Oh oh! No, not Santa, this is actually a juicy story. Mark Wilson at Gizmodo brings us an issue with the latest Apple's iMacs. According to said person, some of the latest iMacs randomly display a yellow tinted screen, turning the whites into... well... yellow. Manufacturing issues like this happen you say, and I would agree; that's not really the issue in this case.

The issue is the fact that Mark's iMac was exchanged but the replacement computer is also icteric. So what's the deal? Well, I'm not a fan boy for either side, I'm not fanatic so this brings me no special joy; despite that, I share Mark's opinion on the issue: multi-thousand dollar computers, computers that are known for being overpriced for their specifications, shouldn't have issues like this. Moreso, the issue should never happen again on a replacement computer. This can only mean one of two things - either the issue is happening on a large percentage of iMacs or Mark has just been extremely unlucky. Considering Apple's previous rapport with manufacturing issues and faulty parts, I would go with the former.

Right now Apple has been creepy and resorted to shady backstage data mining to flag Mark's Apple account to disallow any other exchanges; apparently his computer will now be repaired instead. Mark isn't happy and he's trying to spread the word; this is my attempt to help him and to get Apple to change this behavior. This would be acceptable from a cheap computer brand but not from Apple, THE most expensive computer brand, whose flagship is to produce computers with above-par quality. This sure as hell isn't above-par.

[via Gizmodo]