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Technology Stocks : Mobile Computing - OSs & Manufacturers UNMODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sylvester80 who wrote (3089)	3/1/2011 3:09:14 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 3170

Rooting an Android Phone: What it Means and Why I Did It Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck 2 hrs 6 mins ago Most people probably think that we're the smartphone companies' customers. They're wrong. The companies that make smartphones sell to the wireless carriers, first. That's because -- aside from Apple -- their phones are seen as basically interchangeable with each other. So in order to have any hope of selling to us, they have to first please the carriers like Verizon and AT&T. What does that mean? Carrier logos all over the phones, uninstallable "trashware" apps, and disabling certain features that the carriers don't like. That's why Verizon can't kill the Droid -- they need to have a "name brand" smartphone that they control, even if they sell iPhones too. Fortunately, there's a way around that for some Android phones. It's called "rooting" your phone. The root of the matter Think of how Mac OS X asks you for your password for certain actions, or Windows gives you the "confirm or deny" pop-up. These are ways of making sure that this risky thing you're about to do is okay with the person who owns the computer. Android shows you the permissions requested by apps that you want to install, but there are certain apps that require "root" (administrative) privileges, like apps that could damage the system if you're not careful. Rooting a phone means granting yourself those privileges. I wasn't planning on messing my phone up. I just didn't want AT&T trashware apps all over it. Plus I had no idea when, or if, they'd let HTC upgrade my Aria to the latest version of Android (with animated wallpapers!). So I took matters into my own hands, and rooted my phone so I could install "Froyo" myself. Don't try this at home? Rooting your phone isn't illegal. It can potentially void your warranty, though, and if something goes wrong you might end up "bricking" your phone. It's not something you should do unless you're comfortable with the technology involved, and you understand the risks and potential rewards. I'm not going to link to the walkthroughs I used, partly because of that and partly because they're only for the kind of phone that I use. I will say that rooting it and installing a "custom ROM" of the Froyo version of Android was easier than I expected ... up until I actually got it working. Confirm or deny? My first thought, once it loaded, was "Cool animated wallpaper!" But I quickly realized something: HTC had designed my phone's HTC Sense interface with normal people in mind, who just want to download some apps and then go on the 'net. But the Cyanogenmod version of Froyo put the "custom" in "custom ROM." It didn't work the way I was used to, and trying to get things back to normal required going through pages and pages of options, many more than usual. Some things I couldn't get back to normal at all, because unlike Google's open-source Android programming code they were proprietary to HTC phones. That meant Cyanogen couldn't legally include them, which left me without certain features that I was used to. I downloaded a program from HTC's website the next day that would return my phone to normal. A few days later, they finally released their (and AT&T's) official version of Froyo. It has its quirks, but they're worth it ... they have to be, because it also locked me out from rooting my phone ever again. Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

To: sylvester80 who wrote (3089)	3/2/2011 12:00:33 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3170

Apple (AAPL) iPad Wannabes: 'Hey, Can We Play Too?' (HPQ) (MMI) (RIMM) 11:43 am ET 03/02/2011 - StreetInsider There has been an overabundance of chatter from tech writers and blogosphere cynics over than last several months about what the tablet market will look like in six to 12 months, but only one thing matters presently, the coming of Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad 2 (or whatever those i-coholics decide to call the thing). Every tech company wants in on this market that Apple seemed to create overnight, but in reality there is no room for imitators or pretenders. Remember when the iPod came out, giving consumers something they never knew they couldn't live without, and the resulting flood of copycats that disappeared as quickly as they showed up. It didn't matter if a company made media player that was cheaper (or in some cases better), every rendering fell short and got left on shelves while customers continued to buy iPods in droves and in all incarnations (and they still do). Last week the Motorola Mobility's (NYSE: MMI) Xoom hit the market, and nobody cared. There were no lines around the block, no gaudy sales estimates, and the only buzz was over the ridiculous $799 price tag. The Xoom is supposedly a fine device (but good luck trying to find someone that can actually tell you first hand), which has the original iPad beat on specs in nearly every way. Again nobody cares since there that lack of etched fruit on the back. On another planet seemingly, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) are prepping their iPad "killers," but they seem more interested in fighting with each other rather than focusing on the only enemy that matters. Perhaps putting aside petty squabbling and actually getting a product to market would be a better use of company time. HP is claiming quite publicly that RIM has taken some design ideas behind the webOS powered TouchPad to create its Playbook. There are some uncanny similarities, HP s Jon Oakes told LapTop. It s a fast innovation cycle and a fast imitation cycle in this market, so we just know that we have the creative engine here to continue to build on what we have, and we ll keep innovating, we ll keep honing and those guys hopefully will continue to see the value in it and keep following us by about a year. That's an ironic end to a statement from a company that will be lapped by Apple on Wednesday when the iPad 2 is unveiled. RIM had a less than inspiring retort, saying You know, cars over time end up looking a lot alike because you put them through a wind tunnel, and when you re trying to come up with the best coefficient to drag ratio, there s one optimized shape that gets the best wind resistance, right? Well, when you re trying to optimize user experience that juggles multitasking, multiple apps open at once and on a small screen, you re going to get people landing on similar kinds of designs. This confrontation is like two schoolkids arguing over who gets to be put in detention first. There is no need to mention Microsoft, due to CEO Steve Ballmer apparently seeing no need to make enter the market. Hey, wasn't this the same approach taken by the Windows creator with smartphones. And that worked out swimmingly for Microsoft. At the end of the day all the iPad wannabes can claw and scratch their way to the base of the mountain, Apple built, scaled and for the foreseeable future dominates.