What is Ice Cream Sandwich, you ask? It’s the latest version of Google’s Android operating system and, oh boy, is it pretty. Tons of things have been changed, polished, and added. So many in fact that it can be a bit troublesome to know everything your new version of Android can do. That’s where we come in. Here’s our complete walkthrough of Ice Cream Sandwich to show you all the things that have changed from previous versions of Android. Hang tight, it’s a long one.

Highlights

Lockscreen

• New additions to the ways to lock the screen; none, slide, face unlock, pattern, pic, and password.
• Now have a choice between none and slide to unlock where you didn’t before.
• Slide to unlock allows one direction to unlock and one direction to open the camera.
• You can get to notifications from the lockscreen (just cant click on them without unlocking the device)
• Can use Face Unlock (which works most of the time)

Launcher

• New launcher with widgets and apps in the same place
• Fun new swiping and floating in animations
• Tap and hold to not only add the app to the homescreen but you can also uninstall apps this way now as well

Notifications

• Shortcut to Settings in the notification bar allows you to get to settings much quicker from any open app.
• Swipe to dismiss notifications

Homescreen

• There are 5 homescreens now
• Universal search bar is now always present at the top of every homescreen
• Apps can be organized into folders by holding down on them and dragging them on top of one another
• You can name these app folders as well
• Widgets can be resized
• Trash is now at the top of the screen when holding down on an app instead of the bottom
• There is a larger shortcut bar that floats along the bottom
• You can drag and drop apps into the floating shortcut bar along the bottom

Multitasking

• Button always present on bottom right
• Thumbnail view showing the running apps current screen
• 18 apps can be open at one time
• Swipe to close an app

Stock Apps

• Phone – Incoming calls can be ignored and sent a text response immediately
• Messaging – Mostly cosmetic changes
• Gmail – Mostly cosmetic changes
• Email – Mostly cosmetic changes
• Calendar – Sync all your calendars in one place (including social, personal, work, etc.)
• Maps – Mostly cosmetic changes
• People – Syncs with all your social accounts to bring profile pictures, status updates, etc all into one place.

Text Input

• New keyboard spelling options; tap a word to get spelling suggestions
• Streaming Voice to Text added

Settings

• Data counter has been added with the ability to set limit notifications

Camera

• Faster to load
• Almost instant shutter for faster picture taking
• Panoramic moda allows you to sweep across and take one long photo
• Built in face detection
• Added camera effects / video camera effects

NFC

• Google Wallet (coming soon)
• Android Beam allows you to tap your device on another Android Beam device to share apps, pictures, videos, files, etc. without having to pair via Bluetooth

Browsing

• Sync Bookmarks with Google Chrome Desktop Browser
• Request Desktop Version of site
• Swipe to dismiss tabs

Miscellaneous

• Screen capture

In case you are just looking for information on a certain type of ROM, jump ahead in the video to:

• 0:53 for Hacked ROM overview
• 6:28 for ASOP ROM overview
• 13:06 for MIUI ROM overview

So you have a rooted device and you see a ton of different ROMs you can choose from…but you do not know what the differences are?  This is a common problem and many people feel overwhelmed when making their first few ROM selections.  We are going to discuss the most commonly found types of ROMs so you will know what to expect from each one.

Obviously we could not touch on every aspect of each but we have covered the highlights of all three major ROM types.

Hacked (or Modded) ROM:

• Modified manufacturer’s ROM
• Usually maintains same look and feel as stock device (to a point)
• Overclocking is available and performance is generally better than stock
• Limited customization and theme options in comparison with other ROMs
• The basic Hacked ROM is typically debloated (free of excess software added by the carrier or manufacturer as found when purchased)
• Click here for link to ROM used in video

AOSP ROMs (CyanogenMod):

• Built from Google’s source code
• Manufacturer’s overlay is not present (bloatware is gone of course)
• Exceptional customization and theme options built in to the ROM
• Resembles a “Nexus” device – Almost a pure Google experience
• If the build is stable, performance should be superior to stock device (even without overclocking…but of course overclocking is typically available)
• Click here for link to ROM used in video

MIUI (Chinese ROM):

• Unique ROM design which is an AOSP ROM with a custom overlay
• No app drawer in stock launcher – feels more like Apple’s iOS
• Exceptional customization and theme options (perhaps the most)
• Biggest negative – occasionally you will see Chinese text in places
• Again, If the build is stable, performance should be superior to stock device (even without overclocking…but of course overclocking is typically available)
• Click here for link to ROM used in video

The 3.1 Honeycomb update for Sony Google TV units has been out for well over a week now.  Google TV has not had the best press in recent weeks as Logitech has called their venture into Google TV with the Revue a “gigantic mistake” [source].  Logitech is not planning on releasing a successor to their Revue so you may be thinking that the Google TV platform is going away right?  We are not here to tell you that you are right or wrong, but we will show you the pros and cons of the Google TV platform after the 3.1 update. Here is a brief rundown of the pros and cons that the 3.1 update brings to Google TV:

Pros:

• Enhanced interface that is less cumbersome and easier to navigate
• Applications are available for download with the addition of the Android Market
• You can now side load apps [click here to see how]
• Search functionality is more relevant and easier to find what you are looking for

Cons:

Final thought:  If Google can reach an agreement with the major networks that results with the end of blocking the Google TV browser from accessing that content…all other internet based TVs and devices will be completely out classed.  The 3.1 update is a good step in the right direction for Google TV while the rest is up to negotiations.

So I have to say I am slightly impressed with the HTC Flyer / Evo View 4G. Too be honest, what I like about it is really the fact that, thanks to it’s pen, it’s one of the few tablets out there that actually solves something. Most tablets are fun to play with but truthfully there aren’t really too many situations where they solve a need. Tablets kind of just sit somewhere between a phone and a real laptop. I have a larger screen so I can do things a bit more comfortably than on my phone, but it’s not quite as functional as a full blown laptop. Therefore, for most people, there’s no real need to have a tablet. It’s more of a luxury item, that sits nicely on the coffee table that they use when they don’t feel like picking up their actual laptop to check email or browse the web.

Here’s where the Flyer / Evo View tickles my fancy. It may not be bridging that gap between tablet and laptop, but instead it replaces another, perhaps less remembered, piece of equipment; the spiral notebook. It’s hard for a normal tablet to do this because it doesn’t have a pen that works for it (we won’t get into capacitive vs resistive screens here) and it doesn’t have software to make using that pen feel more natural, like a real pen would function. The HTC Flyer / Evo View does this pretty well, so that made me wonder; how would people who use a spiral notebook a lot in their daily jobs react to it? Would it make their lives easier or would they panic and throw it at me? Let’s find out.

Check out our HTC Flyer / Evo View 4G Review

Check out our HTC Flyer / Evo View 4G Basic How Tos

Any other uses you guys can think of?

Special thanks to the people who took the time out to share their thoughts on the tablet! Please check out their sites for more information on them, their services, and/or products!-

• Matthew Carona, VP of Product and Business Development at Qello – http://Qello.com
• Michele Ragussis, Head Chef of Dutch Boy Burger – http://DutchBoyBurger.com
• Christopher Hench, Fashion and Portrait Photographer – http://ChristopherHench.com
• Talya Neginsky, PACE University Student

Seeing as we’re all for getting your hands on the newest device, we were equally relieved to discover 5 eco-friendly ways to recycle your old devices. Besides, recycling your old phone makes it that much easier to justify buying a new one.

1. Donate to charity: You can donate your old devices to a charity like Cell Phones for Soldiers, which donates an hour of talk time to Soldiers in Iraq for every phone donated. If you’re looking for a charity close to home, most major retail parking lots now have donation drop boxes for the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

2. Take a trip to the zoo: Eco-Cell helps organizations find useful ways to fundraise by recycling mobile phones. They began focusing on zoos a few years ago to help rebuild Gorilla habitats. Eco-Cell has since raised over $90,000 for rehabitation efforts. Don’t have time for the zoo? Visit their site and they will send you a pre-paid shipping label for your electronics.

3. Home pickup service: This may be helpful if you have a couple of bulkier electronic items stored in your home or office. For example, in New York services like  4th Bin will work with residences and businesses for a small fee. The Vietnam Veterans for America also has a free pick up service for most areas.

2. Contact a local school library: Public schools often have a used cell phone drop off box ready for charity pick up. If you are looking to recycle an old computer or digital camera, most public libraries will welcome the donation, and you can benefit from the tax deductible.

1. Put your wireless retailer to work: Most wireless retailers now have pre-paid enevolpes in-store for you to mail in your old cell phone, all you have to do is ask. AT&T has a great Reuse & Recycle program open to all consumers.

After you’ve accomplished your eco-friendly act and feeling good, head over to our how to fuel your cell phone addiction for helpful tips on obtaining your next device without breaking the bank.

Good old HTC, I swear, if they didn’t manufacture phones, they sure could start a software company. They love to add their own custom software to their devices and because of Android’s openness, their Android devices are pretty customized indeed.

This latest iteration of their custom user interface for Android, called Sense, is really starting to push it. They’ve customized almost everything there is to customize, the homescreen, the framework, widgets, the stock apps, and more.

So let’s delve into the changes they’ve made and see if we like them.

Highlights

Lockscreen

• Pull ring to center of screen to unlock instead of swiping
• Customizable shortcuts at the bottom of the lockscreen to get to certain apps quickly.

Launcher/ Notification Bar

• New bottom bar of launcher with shortcuts to all apps on the left, the phone in the center, and personalization options to the right.
• Notification bar has notifications listed as normal plus a tab for quick settings, showing all of your commonly used settings like Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.
• Above the notifications a small section is designated to the latest apps you’ve opened.

Widgets

• Bookmarks
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Clock
• FM Radio
• Friend Stream
• Mail
• Messages
• Music
• My Shelf
• News
• People
• Photo Album
• Photo Frame
• Photo Grid
• Settings
• Stocks
• Sync All
• Tips for Home
• Trends
• Twitter
• Watch
• Weather

Scenes/Skins/Sound Sets

• Scenes allow you to setup your homescreen and wallpaper in a certain way with widgets etc. then save it as a scene. You can then jump between different scenes to get to different configurations quickly (i.e. one for while you are at work, one for traveling, one for social networking, etc.)
• Skins are basically themes that allow you to change the notification colors and highlight colors for all the framework through out the OS.
• Sound sets are sets of sounds (oddly enough) that you can create yourself and save. It’s a quick way to change all of your notifications and ringtones in one shot.

Stock App Replacements

• Phone – Smart dialing was added which is great (ability to start typing in a name or number in the dialer and it will automatically find the person associated with it instead of having to search through your phonebook).
• Contacts – Using the included Facebook for HTC Sense integration you can sync your Facebook contacts to your address book and automatically link contacts of the same name to their Facebook profiles. Bringing in their statuses, Facebook albums, and profile pictures. The contacts app also can slide over within a contact to see all the latest ways you’ve communicated with them via text, email, Facebook/Twitter, and call history.
• Calendar – Calendar is just a bit more robust than the native Android calendar app. Includes weather for that day, shows more events in the view and shows meeting invitations as well.
• Camera – Adds the ability to tap to focus, a bunch of fun effects, and options like Face detection, auto-enhance, and turn on and off the shutter sound.
• Clock – Adds the weather, world clock mode, timer, and stopwatch.
• Music – Adds a different skin to the original player as well as access to their HTC Listen store to download new music and the ability to send the music to another player via the Connected Media app.
• Mail – Adds slide to get to conversation mode, mail with attachments, and unread mail which is a nice addition to the regular mail app. (This does not effect the Gmail app).
• Internet - Basically a skin over the original browser. One added feature is the ability to see your windows and bookmarks as tiles instead of text or small windows.

HTC App Additions

• HTC Hub (which is also present on their Windows Phone devices) allows you to head to a special HTC only market with all of their apps, widgets, scenes, skins, and sound sets. This is integrated throughout their personalization apps as a Get More button.
• Friend stream is a feed of all your Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr feeds combined. You can also post status updates to one or all of them at the same time.
• Connected Media allows you to share music, photos, and videos to any DLNA connected device on your wireless or bluetooth networks.
• Listen is an HTC branded music store, where you can download and purchase songs directly from HTC.
• Watch is the same as Listen but for movies.
• Task Manager is a way to see what tasks are running and have the ability to kill unwanted ones.
• Transfer is an app that allows you to possibly transfer contacts, text messages and calendar events from your old phone to your new HTC phone via Bluetooth.

HTC, in their constant need to differentiate their devices from others via custom software, probably weren’t terribly excited when Microsoft said that Windows Phone was not going to be able to be customized. I mean, from their perspective, what incentive is there for your average consumer to buy a Windows Phone from them instead of another manufacturer when the software experience is the same. Well, they went to work and said, we might not be able to customize Windows Phone’s framework etc., but we can sure as hell make some apps for it. Let’s see what they did, and how well they did it in this walkthrough of HTC Hub for Windows Phone.

Highlights

The Hub itself

• Displays the large clock from HTC Sense on Android and old Windows Mobile Devices
• Has a fun animation that displays the current weather (clicking on it actually gives you a forecast for the next few days with the ability to set multiple locations and swipe between them)
• Lists a few of their featured apps and can be used to jump to the HTC only section of the Windows Phone Market.
• Lists Games from other suppliers that I have no doubt had to pay something to get in to that section (way to get extra revenue streams, HTC!)

Compass

• Pretty accurate
• Integrated with Bing maps so you can select directions and it’ll jump into the Bing map from the compass.

HTC YouTube

• Since there is no HTML5 or Flash in the browser at the moment, this is a great way to view YouTube videos on your Windows Phone 7 device.
• Organized well and quick to load videos

Photo Enhancer

• Great auto enhance feature which is good at color and light correction with one click
• Also has a bunch of other options so you can tweak your photos

Sound Enchancer

• Option to turn SRS on or off. This increases the volume that the speakers are capable of putting out.
• When you have external speakers (something with stereo instead of mono like the device itself sadly), you can use the equalizer to adjust the sound further.

Stocks

• Great way to keep track of your stock portfolio.
• Can view stock graphs by day, week, one month, 3 months, and 1 year
• Also has a direct link to Yahoo Finance website

Notes

• Great animation
• Write notes and place them on a cork board or line them up for a more traditional view

Converter

• Robust converter app
• Converts temperature, angle, area, currency, fuel, length, power, pressure, speed, time zone, volume, and weight

Flashlight

• Interactive way to shed some light
• Uses the camera’s flash

Love

• What healthier way to obsess over a crush than to pick electronic flower petals off of your phone?
• You can even change the flower type if the fancy strikes you

Lists

• Functional app that allows you to create to do lists and then cross items off by swiping left to right

Calculator

• Do I really need to explain this one?

Attentive Phone

• Bringing back a cool feature from old Windows Mobile and Android handsets, HTC has created the Attentive phone app. This app allows you to set moving the device to control certain situations. I.e. Quiet the ringer if you pick up the phone, increase the ring volume when the phone is in your pocket, etc.

Connection Setup

• Most people won’t need to use this, but say if you travel overseas you might. It allows you choose the internet settings for the carrier you are going to be using (instead of the old fashion way of trying to learn the french way to say “access point settings” while in Paris).

Games

• Now, these aren’t HTC apps, instead they look like they are companies who have maybe made a deal with HTC to be included in their HTC Hub for increased exposure, but who knows.

So thinking about getting a Windows Phone 7 device? Before you do, you want to know what it’s all about? Well, in this wireless 101, we’re going to go over Windows Phone 7 as an operating system and list out some of the things it does super well, and some of the things it could improve on. As newer versions of Windows Phone come out, we’ll add links to this post to new runthroughs/reviews of the update to show what new features they’ve added and what they can still improve on.

Highlights

User Interface

• Slick, smooth, and intuitive
• Transitions are prettttyyyyy
• Uniform layout and design, even in most third party apps

Performance

• Responsive and smooth
• Feels natural (similar to iOS)
• Apps load relatively quickly
• Pageloading in the browser is on par with Android and iPhone
• Games are fluid and have little lag

Multitasking

• Poor if any (as of this release, called “NoDo”. Expected in next update due out this year called “Mango”.)

Contact Management

• Simple, easy to navigate contact list.
• Able to jump to certain letters in contact book quickly
• Facebook, Exchange, and Google contacts can all be synced into one contact book.
• Contact images can be grabbed automatically from Facebook
• Ability to pin contacts to the homescreen for quick access to their Facebook feed, and to contact them

Social Networking

• Integrates into contacts natively, no third party app required
• Ability to click on any contact in phone book and instantly see all of their Facebook activity or even jump to their wall to write on it.
• Using the Me profile, you can update your Facebook status directly from the native app on the phone and see all of your past Facebook activity in one place.
• Facebook photos are integrated into your picture album so you can see all of your friends latest photos in one place
• Official third party Facebook app is a little more robust than other official Facebook apps for other OS’s. (Hmm someone likes Microsoft more than Google and Apple… Looking at you, Zuckerberg!)
• Twitter official app is available at launch as well.

Phone

• Dialer is responsive and natural feeling
• Call log has large writing so easy to read, also missed calls are highlighted in blue.

Messaging

• Text messaging is simple and sorted by person.
• Text is large and legible
• Contact’s name is displayed in large font at the top of the conversation (in case you forget who you are talking to) and clicking on their name will bring you to their contact.

Email

• Exchange mail is fully supported and well organized (it’s Microsoft after all).
• Email is no exception and follows the basic, simple format of the other apps with large legible text without any fancy icons etc.
• Swiping to the sides can give easy access to all unread mail, flagged mail, and urgent mail.

Browser

• Load times are on par with other major operating systems like Android and iPhone
• No Flash or HTML5 support however.
• Browser supports opening up to 6 pages at a time
• Find on page feature is helpful
• Ability to pin specific web pages to the homescreen

Maps

• Bing maps is used instead of the industry norm, Google Maps
• Automatically switches to satellite view when you zoom in enough
• When you click on a location, details are pretty robust and easy to find what you need
• Ability to pin a specific location to the homescreen

Gaming

• Xbox Live integration allows you to link your Gamertag and profile from your Xbox to your phone. You can win additional gamerscore by playing Windows Phone specific Xbox live games and completing achievements just like on regular Xbox.
• Ability to see your animated avatar from Xbox live is novel and fun.
• All changes made to your avatar on the device is reflected on your Xbox and vise versa.
• You can access all of your Xbox Live messages on the phone as well as friend new users and view their profiles as well.
• Compete against friends in leaderboards (actual head to head coming soon apparently)
• Ability to try a demo of any game before purchasing

Entertainment

• Zune pass is great for a generation that refuses to buy CD’s, one monthly fee listen to all the music you possibly can for as long as you keep your membership.
• Video and audio playback are on par with other OS’s
• Music and video library is organized well

Apps

• 17,000 apps in the app store as of writing this
• Apps are limited but the ones that do exist are pretty decent quality and have a shared experience with the OS itself (large text, panoramic swiping, etc.)
• Needs more apps…

A cool novelty feature of Android is the ability to have a live wallpaper. A live wallpaper is essentially a background on your device that moves constantly and in some cases, actually responds to your touch. If you are looking for another way to make your device stand out, a live wallpaper can definitely cause people that use your phone to go, “What the…?”.

A few live wallpapers come on your device if it is a newer device, but how do you get new ones? Well, let’s show you. Check out the video above for all the details.

This is part of our Android 101 section. Head to the entire collection of Android 101 posts here.

So first, check out the post I did a while back if you are unfamiliar with what rooting is by clicking here. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

Ok, so now that we’re all on the same page with what rooting is and the benefits it brings, I think it’s time we put some science-y stuff to it. Aside from the customization benefits (changing your phone to exactly what you want it to look like, act like, etc.), I think there is a major benefit that everyone can relate to; performance.

How much better can your phone run once it is rooted and you load a custom ROM on it? Let’s find out.

I. CPU/GPU Benchmark Performance

So when you load a custom ROM, chances are you will see immediate performance increases from optimizations the developer of the ROM has made to the system. On top of that though, you can also see a lot more gains when you overclock the phone (another thing you can do once rooted). Overclocking the phone basically tells the CPU of the phone that it is safe to run at a higher speed than the speed it was set to when it left the factory. Some developers have gotten huge speed increases safely with certain phones and in turn the phones can perform a lot faster than normal.

So let’s test a popular new phone’s CPU/GPU performance stock from the factory, then with a popular custom ROM, and finally with that custom ROM and an overclocking mod.

First test will be using a benchmarking test called Quadrant Benchmark:

So it would seem that even just loading a custom ROM with more features than the stock ROM gives an automatic slight increase in performance. And that overclocking your phone after loading a custom ROM can give you a huge increase in performance, but even with that, the true test is user experience…

II. Real World Performance

User Experiences

Now, this isn’t quite a scientific test, but through using the phone daily people might notice differences in the way their phone responds. Sometimes it’s just a “smoother” feeling through out, other times it’s less crashes or lag time when doing everyday things.

We can’t really put that into a test, but we’d love for anyone using custom ROMs to leave their own personal experiences below in the comments!

So I think with all that, it’s pretty evident that rooting and using custom ROMs can be a huge benefit to your device. Not too mention, Google’s already condoned it and almost all rooting methods can be undone if you ever feel like going back to stock. So why not give it a try?

To get started, head over to our How To’s section at the top of our site, then click on Android and then click on your specific phone and you’ll be presented with all the rooting procedures for that phone. Good luck and welcome to the wide world of rooting!

UPDATE: By request here is the ROM and Overclocking Kernel links so you can get them on your device too

Overclocked Kernel
Cyanogen ROM

Information on GSM vs CDMA Unlocking:

Your average user doesn’t know that there are two major different technologies used for cell phones in the world; CDMA and GSM. While the majority of the world uses GSM, there are a few CDMA carriers scattered around the world. Here in the US though, it’s about 50% CDMA and 50% GSM (one of the only countries to have such a high use of CDMA technology). Now, I won’t get into the differences between the two technologies in detail here as this is mainly focusing on how one must go about unlocking each of these technologies, we’ll save that for another post…

The main difference you need to know is that GSM uses a SIM card, and CDMA does not. CDMA has the carrier’s information they want you to use the phone on stored in the phone’s programming, whereas GSM phones have a semi-universal software security lock placed on the SIM card slot that tells the phone what SIM card is allowed to be used.

Because of this, GSM phones can be unlocked using a passcode that the manufacturer has (or that can be generated using a keygen similar to a keygen for a hacked cd rom for your computer). Once that passcode is entered the phone will allow the use of any SIM card in the SIM card slot.
CDMA, on the other hand, doesn’t have this unlocking passcode feature since it doesn’t have the GSM standard locking mechanism. Instead, CDMA phones must literally be physically flashed with different firmware that has the new CDMA carrier’s information in it for the phone to access that new network (in other words, to unlock a CDMA phone you need to literally plug it in and use a flashing software to flash the carrier you want to use’s information onto the phone).

VERY IMPORTANT: No matter what you do to unlock a GSM/CDMA phone, they will ONLY work on a network with the same technology. So if you unlock a GSM phone, it will work on other GSM networks, but it will never work on a CDMA network (since there is no SIM card to put in the phone) and vise versa.

*There is one exception to this rule. Some CDMA phones are made to be used as a dual CDMA/GSM phone. This is sometimes called “World Edition” and is used simply because if you take your CDMA phone from the US overseas (where this is very little CDMA carriers), you would not be able to use your phone UNLESS the phone is dual GSM/CDMA. Popular phones that do this are usually Blackberry devices and you can tell which they are because they have a SIM card slot under the battery.
These dual CDMA/GSM phones CAN have the GSM slot unlocked via an unlock code (just like a normal GSM phone) and then you can use it on a GSM network of your choice (and just not use the CDMA part of the phone).

Confused, yet? Ok, it’s table time:

To Unlock Your Phone:

So in order to unlock a GSM phone, you can either get the code from you carrier or you can purchase one from an unlock code supplier, once you input the code, your phone will be able to use any GSM carrier you want by just swapping out the SIM card.

In order to unlock your CDMA phone, you need to find a CDMA flasher/unlocker in your area and physically bring them your phone for them to flash to whatever network you want (you must know what network you are planning to use as they can only flash it to one carrier at a time).

List of GSM/CDMA US Carriers:

If you are curious, here is a table to show you what carrier’s in the US are GSM/CDMA:

Operator	Voice Technology	Data Technology	Subscribers (in millions)	Ownership
7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless •MVNO using AT&T and Sprint Nextel	GSM, CDMA	GPRS	Unknown	7-Eleven, Inc.
Airlink Mobile •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	Airlink Mobile
Alaska Communications Systems	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	0.130 [1] (2010 April), 0.139 [2] (2009 September)	Alaska Communications Systems
Alaska Digitel	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	General Communication
Alaska Wireless	GSM	EDGE, Wi-Fi	Unknown	Alaska Wireless
Amerilink Wireless	GSM	GPRS	Unknown	Amerlink Wireless
Appalachian Wireless	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	0.100 (2009 December)	Appalachian Wireless
ASTAC	GSM	GPRS, WiMax	Unknown	The Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative
AT&T Mobility •Includes GoPhone Prepaid, Dobson Cellular, Edge Wireless and Centennial Wireless	GSM, UMTS, HSDPA	GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA	90.130 [3] (2010 July), [4] (2010 July)	AT&T
BeyondMobile •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	Cbeyond
Blue Wireless	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	Blue Wireless
Bluegrass Cellular	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	0.130 [5] (2005 May)	Bluegrass Cellular, Inc.
Broadpoint	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Petrocom Inc.
call4care	GSM		Unknown	ASPIDER Solutions
Cap Rock Cellular	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Cap Rock Telephone
Cellcom	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	NSight Telservices
Cellular One of East Central Illinois	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Cellular Properties Inc.
Cellular One of San Luis Obispo	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	SLO Cellular
Cellular One of East Texas	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	TX-11 Acquisition LLC
Cellular One of East Arizona	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Smith Bagley
Cellular One of Northeast Pennsylvania	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	South Canaan Cellular
Cellular One Bermuda	CDMA, UMTS	CDMA2000, EV-DO, HSPA	Unknown	Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd.
Cellular One Montana	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	MTPCS, LLC.
Cellular South	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	0.700 [6] (2007 December)	Cellular South
Chariton Valley Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Chariton Valley Telephone Company
Cincinnati Bell Wireless	GSM, GAN, UMTS	EDGE, HSPA	0.523 [7] (2010 April)	Cincinnati Bell, Inc. (100%)
Clear and/or Clearw re		WiMAX	0.971 [8] (2010 April)	Clearwire (27%), Sprint Nextel (51%), others (22%)
Clear Talk	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	NTCH
CloseCall America •MVNO using Verizon and Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	CloseCall America
Commnet Wireless	GSM, CDMA		Unknown	Commnet Wireless
Consumer Cellular •MVNO using AT&T	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Consumer Cellular
Cordova Wireless	GSM	GPRS	Unknown	Cordova Telephone
Corr Wireless •Being acquired by Cellular South	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Corr Wireless
Cory’s Mobile Tech Support •Authorized Page Plus Cellular and H2O Wireless Dealer	CDMA, GSM	EV-DO, CDMA2000	Unknown	Cory’s Mobile Tech Support
Cricket Communications •Includes Jump Mobile Prepaid	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	5.4 [9] (2010 April)	Leap Wireless
Cross Communications	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Cross Communications
DTC Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	DTC Wireless Systems
Eclipse Mobile	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	New World Innovators Inc.
Einstein Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Airadigm Communications
Element Mobile	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	Element Mobile
Epic PCS	GSM	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	Epic Touch
GCI Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	0.128 [10] (2010 April), 0.120 [11] (2009 September)	General Communication
Golden State Cellular	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	California RSA No.3
GTC Wireless •MVNO using AT&T	GSM		Unknown	Atrium Wireless Partners, LLC
i-wireless •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	i-wireless
i wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Iowa Wireless Serivces
Immix	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Immix
Indigo Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Indigo Wireless
Jitterbug Wireless •MVNO using Sprint and Verizon	CDMA		Unknown	Jitterbug Wireless
Jolt Wireless •MVNO using AT&T	GSM		Unknown	Jolt Wireless
KTC	GSM	GPRS	Unknown	Kaplan Telnet
Leap Wireless	CDMA	EV-DO	5.400 [12] (2010 April)	Parent of Cricket Communications & Jump Mobile
Liberty Wireless •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	TelePlus Enterprises, Inc.
Lightyear Wireless •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA	CDMA2000	0.060 [13] (2010 July)	Lightyear Network Solutions
Locus Mobile •MVNO using AT&T and Verizon	GSM, CDMA		Unknown	Locus Telecommunications
Long Lines Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Long Lines
Lucky Wireless •MVNO using Verizon and Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	Lucky Wireless
MetroPCS	CDMA	CDMA2000	7.331 [14] (2010 April), [15] (2010 April)	MetroPCS Communications, Inc.
Mid-Tex Cellular	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Mid-Tex Cellular
Movida Wireless •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA		0.267 [16] (2008 March)	Movida Communications, Inc.
NEP Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	North-Eastern Pennsylvania Telephone
Nex-Tech Wireless	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	Nex-Tech
nTelos	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	0.445 [17] (2010 April)	nTelos Holdings Corp.
Page Plus Cellular •MVNO using Verizon	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	Page Plus Cellular
Pine Cellular	GSM	GPRS	Unknown	Pine Cellular
Pioneer Cellular	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	Pioneer Cellular
Plateau Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	0.075	PlateauTel
PlatinumTel Prepaid Wireless •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	PlatiumTel Communications, LLC
Pocket Communications	CDMA	1xRTT	Unknown	Pocket Communications
Pure Mobile •MVNO using Verizon	CDMA		Unknown	Powered by Telrite
Pure Prepaid •MVNO using AT&T	GSM		Unknown	Powered by Telrite
Pure TalkUSA •MVNO using AT&T	GSM		Unknown	Powered by Telrite
Revol Wireless	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	Cleveland Unlimited
ReadyMobile •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	HH Ventures
Simmetry	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Simmetry
Shaka Mobile	GSM, CDMA	GPRS, EV-DO	Using AT&T, Sprint, Verizon	Shaka Mobile
SouthernLINC	iDEN		0.275 [18] (2008 April)	Southern Company
Sprint Nextel •Includes Sprint Network, Nextel Network, Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile USA •Wholesale and affiliates	CDMA, iDEN, UMTS	CDMA2000, EV-DO, WiMAX	47.818 [19] (2010 April)	Sprint Nextel Corporation
Stelera Wireless		HSPA	Unknown	Stelera Wireless LLC
STI Mobile •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	STi Mobile
Syringa Wireless	CDMA	CDMA2000	0.00135	Syringa Wireless
TerreStar	GSM terrestrial and satellite	GPRS, EDGE, HSPA	Unknown	Terrestar Corporation
Thumb Cellular	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	0.037	Thumb Cellular
T-Mobile USA •Includes T-Mobile To Go Prepaid and SunCom	GSM, UMTS, GAN	GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA	33.713 [20] (2010 April), [21] (2010 April)	Deutsche Telekom
TracFone Wireless •MVNO using Claro Puerto Rico, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular and T-Mobile •Includes NET10 and Straight Talk	GSM, CDMA	GPRS, CDMA2000	15.452 [22] (2010 April), 14.427 [23] (2009 December)	América Móvil
Trumpet Mobile •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA	CDMA2000	Unknown	Affinity Mobile
Túyo Mobile •MVNO using T-Mobile	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	IDT Corp.
Union Wireless	GSM	GPRS	Unknown	Union Telephone
U.S. Cellular •Includes TalkTracker Prepaid	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	6.147 [24] (2010 April)	U.S. Cellular Corporation
Verizon Wireless •Includes INPulse Prepaid, Unicel and Alltel	CDMA, UMTS	CDMA2000, EV-DO, LTE (Late? 2010)	92.063 [25] (2010 July), [26] (2010 July)	Verizon Communications (55%) and Vodafone (45%)
Viaero Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Viaero Wireless
Virgin Mobile USA •MVNO using Sprint •Includes Helio	CDMA	CDMA2000, EV-DO	Unknown	Sprint Nextel
West Central Wireless	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	West Central Wireless
Westlink	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	Westlink Communications
Working Assets Wireless •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	Working Assets
XIT Communications	GSM	GPRS, EDGE	Unknown	XIT Communications
Xtreme Mobile •MVNO using Sprint	CDMA		Unknown	Xteme Mobile

GSM/CDMA Table Courtesy of Wikipedia

On this site I get a ton of questions (most of which couldn’t be answered unless I was literally standing over you while you were doing a procedure, like, “What did I do wrong?”). But occasionally I get some questions that I can answer, like, “What is rooting?” and “What are the benefits of rooting?” So today, I decided to put together a sort of FAQ on just that subject.

If there is anything else you would like to add please feel free to send me an email.

I. What is the Difference Between Rooting and Jailbreaking?

First off, let’s explain that rooting and jailbreaking are essentially the same thing. The only difference is what device you are referring to and which term is generally associated with that device. Jailbreaking is generally used to describe Apple products like the iPhone, while rooting is used to describe most other Linux based devices like Android.

*My guess for the difference, besides just having those terms coined with their respective operating systems, is that rooting/jailbreaking an Apple product is a much harder process. Only reason really is that Apple is the only phone manufacturer so opposed to jailbreaking that they have devoted resources to resolve jailbreaking exploits whenever they arise. Because of this it might seem more “liberating” when rooting an iPhone and as such deserve a more suitable name perhaps.

II. What is Rooting/Jailbreaking?

Now that you know the difference between jailbreaking and rooting (or lack thereof), we’ll answer the next obvious question; what is rooting?

In a nutshell, when we root a phone we are actually trying to gain root access (you’ll sometimes here people say Superuser access, which is essentially the same thing). You can basically think of it in the same terms you think of a tree’s roots. The roots of a tree are the very bottom of the tree just as root access is giving us access to the very bottom or most basic files, systems, and commands on our phone. In Linux/Android, the root user is the user with all permissions to change and alter any files on the system/phone.

Why would we want access to these most basic folders and systems on our phone? Well, because these are where things like our phone’s operating systems files are contained and once we have access to them, we can change them to our liking (or we can have someone with some developing experience change them to our liking by flashing a ROM, but we’ll get to that in a sec).

Besides changing our phone’s operating system files, we can also load apps that need root access to run, by that I mean they need access to some of those most basic files and systems to do what they do. A popular example of this, would be the WiFi tethering app, which can turn the phone into a WiFi hotspot so that you can share your 3G/4G connection with other devices in the area. This app needs to access certain features in the phone that are normally not accessible unless we root the phone and then tell it that WiFi tethering has permission to use that root access (yes, even though we have root access, there are measures in place for us to determine what apps can use that privilege and what apps cannot).

III. Benefits of Rooting

An app asking for root permissions (often called superuser permissions)

So now that you know the basic gist of what rooting is, I’m sure you want to know; what are the benefits?

• Ability to use apps that require root access like:
  Wifi Tethering – turns your phone into a WiFi hotspot without you having to pay extra to your carrier for that feature
  Nandroid and other backup apps –  allows you to make backups that can literally put your phone back to the exact state it was when you backed up
  File Managers – some root required file managers allow you to access system files like icons etc and change them
  Overclocking apps – these apps allow you to overclock your phone’s processor, taking a 600mhz processor to 1ghz for example.
• Ability to change your phone’s icons, status bar, and overall look through themes/ROMs
• Ability to increase performance through optimizations (usually through flashing ROMs)
• Ability to upgrade your operating system version without having to wait for an OTA (like going from Android 1.6 to Android 2.2)
• Ability to add Flash support and JIT compiler (which makes your phone faster) through going to Android 2.2
• Ability to flash ROMs (and easily get all of the benefits above in one shot)

IV. What is a Recovery Image?

What a custom recovery image may look like on your phone.

A recovery image is basically a part that is built in to Android that can be booted into without having to load the actual operating system (this allows you to get into it even if something has gone wrong with your phone, hence “recovery” image).

Now, normally, the recovery image on your phone has two main functions; factory reseting the phone if you can’t get into the operating system, and flashing an update to either fix any issues the phone is having or upgrade it to a new version of software. In addition to these functions there are locks and limitations set by the manufacturer in the recovery image like the fact that even though it can flash new versions of software, that software must be digitally signed by the manufacturer or the phone won’t flash the software (this is important later).

Now, since we have root access we can generally flash our own custom recovery image on to the phone. Why? Well, a custom recovery image has same added features including:

• Ability to use Nandroid backup (and save the entire memory of the phone to the sdcard so you can restore the phone with ease if anything goes wrong)
• Ability to use certain tools like partitioning the memory card (used for saving apps to the sdcard, adding more virtual swap memory to phones that are low on RAM, etc).
• Ability to flash updates that are not digitally signed by the manufacturer.

The last one is probably the most beneficial. Once we have a custom recovery image that allows us to flash updates that are not digitally signed that means we can load custom ROMs.

V. What are Custom ROMs?

Some custom ROM screenshots.

So if you are looking into rooting your phone, you have probably seen the term ROM somewhere and are curious as to what is all the fuss about ROMs.

ROM literally stands for Read Only Memory and in a nutshell it is the portion of the phone’s memory that contains the operating system, apps, and software that come preloaded on the phone. This memory can (normally) not be altered and is what the manufacturer or carrier wants you to have on your device when you first turn it on. If you factory reset your phone it would simply erase all of the changes you made and reload the ROM to get you back to how the phone was when you first opened it.

Now, when we talk about loading or flashing ROMs onto our phones, we are referring to custom ROMs that developers in the Android community have made either for themselves and decided to share, or made with the intention of sharing for others’ enjoyment.

Basically, these developers created their own ROM with their own operating system (say Android 2.2 vs Android 1.6), their own preloaded apps that they think should be included (including ones that replace the original apps on the phone, like the dialer, camera app, gallery, etc)., and their own performance or appearance tweaks.

For most people rooting their phone, flashing a custom ROM is the ultimate goal. It is the easiest way for them to get all the benefits of rooting mentioned above on to their phone without having to alter the code in their phone manually.

V. Cons of Rooting

Average person reaction when speaking about rooting/jailbreaking.

Now, with all those benefits, I’m sure you’re saying, “What’s the catch?”

1. Rooting and flashing ROMs technically voids your warranty – This is kind of the big issue with it all. Manufacturer’s have a pretty strict stance on rooting your phone (some more so than others) and they will generally not honor the warranty on any phones that come back to them with root access enabled. Now, this isn’t the manufacturers just being evil (in most cases) and there is some reasoning behind this concept. For example, let’s say that you flashed a ROM that didn’t have Bluetooth support working properly (the developer just hasn’t gotten it to work right yet) and then you try to send it in for warranty claiming that Bluetooth doesn’t work and you want a new phone. Well, that wouldn’t make much sense, right? Why should the manufacturer honor the warranty when the fact that you changing the software on the phone is what caused the issue?

Now, where manufacturers go wrong here is that they sometimes won’t honor the warranty when a rooted phone comes in for something that has nothing to do with the software. An example of this would be say the trackball fell out of your phone and you sent it in for warranty and the manufacturer said they won’t honor it because you rooted the phone. That’s not right because you changing the software of the device has nothing to do with the faulty trackball falling out.

Regardless though, since we are just altering software, it is relatively easy to “unroot” most phones and get them back to factory spec without it showing any trace of it ever being rooted in the first place and therefore “reinstate” our warranty (which makes sense because if we bring the software back to factory spec and the issue still persists, then it has nothing to do with the software changes we made and should be the manufacturer’s responsibility, right?)

2. You can harm your device – Now, while it is true that rooting your phone and changing things and potentially stop your phone from working (anyone that tried to flash the wrong ROM on their phone can tell you about getting stuck in a boot loop). But the truth of the matter is that Linux (what Android is running on top of) is pretty hard to mess up. This is because it has fail safes in place for just such an occasion. Two of these fail safes are the recovery image, and bootloader (aka Hboot mode). Even if you flash the wrong ROM on your phone, the recovery and hboot partitions of your device are untouched and so long as you can boot into one of those two modes, you can flash a different ROM and get the phone working again.

I would like to point out, that in all my time doing this,  I have yet to see a completely unrecoverable phone.

VI. Difference between Unlocking, Rooting, and Jailbreaking

Another big question I get, is, “If I root my phone, can I use it on another carrier?” The short answer is no but I’ll explain.

Rooting and unlocking are two completely different procedures. Rooting your phone does NOT unlock it. In order to unlock your phone and use it on a different carrier, you must either purchase an unlock code (if you have GSM phone), flash a new carrier’s firmware manually through a cable (if you have a CDMA device), or you have to alter the phone’s baseband (as with the iPhone unlocking software).
Now, this seems to become a very confusing thing for people because of the iPhone I think. Sometimes people get confused with jailbreaking and unlocking by thinking they are one in the same (understandably with a name like jailbreaking you might think you are “setting it free”). But this is not the case. The iPhone has software to unlock it but that software is not automatically installed if you jailbreak your iPhone. The reason for the confusion, I think, is the fact that in order to use the unlocking software for the iPhone, you must have jailbroken it first (as the unlocking app needs root permissions to change the baseband, etc).

I hope that this helps some people who are new to rooting/jailbreaking their devices. For instructions on how to root and/or load a custom ROM on your phone, feel free to check out our How To section of our site and choose your device. Good luck and happy rooting!