rooting

At 10:30 in the morning a few weeks ago I hopped into a plain white van, a mysterious briefcase carefully laid out on the passenger's seat abuzz with phones.

Into the afternoon, the driver answered my probing questions about long hours on the road, awkward run-ins with the cops, and flashed guns. This was no police surveillance ride along; my driver was merely sharing a day in the life of an independent cell phone network tester.

Meet RootMetrics A few miles away from Microsoft, a small company called RootMetrics (formerly Root Wireless) sends out a tiny squadron of … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--Theoretical speeds are one thing, but the majority of smartphone owners will agree that real-life data speeds are what count.

Comprehensively charting each carriers' data network is the subject of RootMetric's quarterly report.

So far, the company scouts have systematically combed 42 urban and suburban markets to compare 3G and 4G data speeds.

Their methodology includes test calls, data downloads, and texting. Scouts record how easily they could get onto the network and perform tasks, and then run diagnostic speed tests through RootMetrics' automated software. They never use jailbroken devices.

On the LTE front, RootMetrics found that AT&… Read more

Unleash the hacks! Details on a working procedure for root the dual-screen Sony Tablet P came out yesterday.

A forum post on Pocketables describes how to root the Tablet P, which would take a few minutes at best for those fluent with technical instructions (seriously, its uber easy). Those desiring full control over Android 3.2 on the Tablet P merely need to download a few files: ADB Installer and Sony Tablet Root Program. … Read more

Midway Arcade offers classic games from the '80s arcades and gives you touch-screen options that work pretty well, but it's not perfect. This 99-cent game features Joust, Defender, Rampage, Spy Hunter, Arch Rivals, Root Beer Tapper, and then some other more-interactive games one would usually find at classic arcades, like air hockey, basketball quick-shot games, billiards, and Roll Ball (a skee-ball clone). You have the option to buy two more 99-cent packages of games through in-app purchase. The Adventure Game Pack includes Gauntlet 1 and 2, and Wizard of Wor. The Action Game Pack comes with NARC, Total Carnage, … Read more

One of the great things about having grown up with video games and then writing about iOS apps is that all my favorites seem to eventually be playable on my phone. I wrote about Atari's Greatest Hits some time ago, but even though I liked seeing some of the old classics on my phone, the controls were flawed. Though they were playable, most of the games didn't really live up to my memory of them.

Yes, I know I'm probably looking at my youth through rose-colored glasses, but in this case it's true--the control issues really took away from the games.

Today, another group of classic arcade games were made available on iOS, and this time they might have the control schemes (mostly) worked out. Midway Arcade (99 cents), out today, takes a lot of those classic games from the '80s and gives you some touch-screen options that work somewhat better, though it's still not perfect (Rose-colored glasses again? Maybe). This 99-cent game features Joust, Defender, Rampage, Spy Hunter, Arch Rivals, Root beer Tapper, and then some other more interactive games one would usually find at classic arcades like, air hockey, basketball quick-shot games, billiards, and Roll Ball (a Skee Ball clone). You have the option to buy two more 99-cent packages of games through in-app purchase. The Adventure Game Pack includes Gauntlet 1 and 2, and Wizard of Wor. The Action Game Pack comes with NARC, Total Carnage, and APB.… Read more

If you're a city dweller who dreams of moving beyond growing mint on your kitchen windowsill, you can impress your friends with something more: oyster mushrooms.

As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their DIY mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.

The pair developed a "grow it at home" kit where the soil is made from used coffee grounds and mushroom spawn, or seed, gets mixed in. Co-founder Nikhil Arora tells SmartPlanet how the idea grew and about … Read more

As CyanogenMod skates past 1 million active users, making it by far the most popular custom flavor of Android around, one of its main developers has asked the Android community if there's interest in creating an app store for Android modders and their fans.

Koushik Datta suggested a marketplace designed for apps, ROMs, and emulators that Google refuses to host and carriers refuse to allow. Not surprisingly, the answer he got was resoundingly positive.

Dutta, also known as Koush, said in a Google Plus post earlier this month that the time was coming for an app store that specialized in rooted Androids. … Read more

Unlocking the bootloader and rooting an Android device can be a bit intimidating, if not overwhelming, for those who don't feel comfortable with both the jargon and using the command line to carry out the process.

Even with the most thorough of guides, sometimes the easiest thing to do is wait for a streamlined solution to be released.

In the case of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, an automated method for unlocking the bootloader as well as rooting is now available. Wug's Galaxy Nexus root toolkit was released earlier in the week, affording Galaxy Nexus owners the ability to … Read more

The browser Silk may be native to the Kindle Fire, but one Android developer has discovered a way to transplant it to any rooted Android device, an XDA forum post from the end of December revealed.

If you're an Amazon.com addict but don't have a Fire, Silk could become your go-to browser. Silk is unique because of its "cloud acceleration" ability, which renders Web sites extremely quickly using a combination of the SPDY protocol developed by Google and computing power provided by its own cloud-based servers. Silk is also known for the ability to learn … Read more