Samsung Galaxy Tablet Rooting (and Stuff)

Let's be serious - I've had the damn thing for months now.  Nothing left to do but root the device (and stuff).

Actually my decision was based upon rooting my original Droid, boredom, an app that flatly refused to uninstall, and the desire to break something beyond recognition.

I became an unwitting fan of Slacker when I discovered the Jeff Beck channel.  I became a detractor of Slacker when I noticed the application was always running for no practical reason I could divine.  No matter how many times I killed it, it came back like a good zombie (ten points for the gratuitous zombie reference).  So it had to go.

I tried uninstalling but Slacker was having none of this.   Don't ask me why but for the first time in my three year Android experience, an app claimed it was uninstalled and remained available.  I got so frustrated that I let this be the final shove toward rooting, as Android refused to let me simply delete the app from its directory.

Rooting, by the way, has come a long way from the days of my original Droid.  One was required to perform all sorts of technical and command line gymnastics to root back then.

Let me pause to say a nice word about the HTC Sensation 4G.  This little speed demon does whatever I want and quickly.  I can't come up with many reasons to root it.  I wish I could say a nice word about its provider, TMobile, but I can't think of one.  Eight years of solid service from Verizon and then my company switched to TMobile.  Arrrrrrrrrgh!

I looked around a bit for different sets of instructions on rooting and settled on this page.  There's no point in going through the minutae, as the site has step-by-step instructions.  The important prerequisites here are that the tablet is running Gingerbread and is the correct model (else you'll do Bad Things to it).  Updating from pre-Gingerbread is certainly doable but is beyond the scope of this entry.

You will need to download three files to accomplish this: Odin (sends file from pc to tablet), the correct Samsung USB drivers, and the rooting file.  Links are provided.

NOTE:  this procedure requires Windows.  While there's probably a way to do it with a real operating system (or a Mac), this was the path of least resistance for me.

You install the USB drivers, run Odin and point it to the root file, put your tablet into download mode (power and volume down buttons), then GO.  You'll know almost instantly whether it worked or not.

This method of rooting does not destroy data (but a good back up is always recommended).

NOW WHAT?

Now you can use all of the marketplace apps that require root.  Titanium backup is a long-time favorite which won't run without root (all programs I mention here are free from the market).  After you install, make sure to allow superuser permissions and tell it to remember this.

Here is where the real fun starts.  Titanium gives you an exhaustive list of everything on your tablet/phone.  It will allow you to back up each and every app and also to delete them.  Since I decided to fly blind for the most part, I made sure to back up everything I wanted to delete first.  The app will also allow you to schedule backups.  There are a few valuable features available in the paid version; you should check it out.

Because you are rooted, you have an awful lot of power.  In fact you have the power to completely mess up the device if you're not careful (so be careful, ok?).


Having said that, there are several ways to recover if you manage to brick your tablet.  Google is your friend but with the rooting comes Clockwork, which can back up and restore your device for just such emergencies (user generated or not).


Slacker uninstalled permanently, via deleting its files.  You could always browse the files but rooting allows you to modify and delete the important ones.  Try not to delete any really important ones, ok?  One of my greatest joys here, after Slacker, was deleting the social media garbage that accompanies most if not all devices.


To save you some time, here's a list of apps I deleted (remember: Tmobile provider, ymmv):

• AllShare
• Android Live Wallpapers
• AngryGPS
• ChocoEUKor
• Pulse
• Digital Frame
• DRM Content
• DRM Content Launcher
• DRM Protected Content Storage
• Feeds and Updates
• Kobo
• Live Wallpaper Picker
• Maps
• Mobile tracker
• Mobile tracker settings
• Music Visualization Wallpapers
• News & Weather
• Perso
• Readers Hub
• RoseEUKor
• SNS 1.0  (social/Facebook)
• SNSAccount (Facebook)
• Social Hub
• Talk
• TwWallpaperChooser
• Y! Finance Clock

Less fine print:  My idea here was to make the tablet a lean, fast machine, completely without crap I don't use.  The device will run fine without all of the above apps.  If you like blinky lights and flashy wallpapers, adjust your pruning accordingly.  While there are still a few apps I need to research, this is the great majority of them.  Again, Google is your friend (or better yet, Ixquick or Duck Duck Go, which don't track you).

If you're like me, you'll want to disable any of the tracking, GPS, or location-based features.  Yes, I know they're terribly neat and awful convenient, but they're not called tracking for fun.  And no, this won't stop a determined law-enforcement agency from warrantless spying, but it will make things that much more difficult for them.

After you're rooted you can also experiment with overclocking.  This is where you can make your device faster (or slower to save resources) with software.  I used an overclocking widget, available in the market, with my original Droid.  I installed it on the Galaxy but have to experiment a bit more with it before I can recommend it.  It had some nasty side-effects which may take it out of the running.  Research is best before overclocking anyway, so my screwups work for your benefit.  Then when you're done, you can overclock your home pc [insert evil laughter].

Go for it - you'll enjoy the power and freedom to set up your device the way you want it.  If you have any questions, ask!

HTC Sensation 4G Early Review

My employer (the Twilight Zone<tm>) made the decision to go from expensive and reliable (Verizon) to less expensive (T-Mobile).  This has caused some rumbling, as T-Mobile doesn't have the best reputation for coverage.  It will likely cause a lot more rumbling.

Some of the folks in my department went by a recommendation and opted for the HTG Sensation. 

I come from a different cell phone point-of-view.  My most recent phones were a Treo 650, Treo 700, and an original Droid.  I still fondly remember my Treos - they simply did what I wanted to, worked, and didn't give me a lot of grief.  I have little to no use for The Cloud, preferring instead to sync locally.  It's a privacy and security issue, which means it's pretty silly to use a Google (Android) phone, but here we are.  They're still the best phones for my money and purposes.

My Droid, like the phones before it, was getting long in the tooth and I was looking for a larger screen and faster processor.  Both criteria were met with the Sensation.

The screen appears to be one of the biggest and clearest available.  The default clock is so large, blind people and Space Station residents can read it.  The performance is beyond snappy, leaving the Droid in the dust (as well as the Samsung Galaxy).  It's even a hair faster (subjectively) than the Xoom I used for a while.

The phone isn't has heavy as the Droid.  I don't really care about weight so this is for reference.  Although it's lighter, it feels every bit as sturdy, although the rep cautioned me against driving nails with it (he also didn't know what ROOTING is, so I'm taking his advice with a grain of salt).  It fits nicely in the vertical pouch I used for the Droid, saving a few bucks.

Thus far there have been no coverage issues.  4G is very nice, where available.  The phone has wireless and wired tethering available, which is good, as the company paid for it.  The upgrade from the Droid was seemless, even though I'm not fond of storing data in The Cloud.

I have no serious gripes (yet, but it's early).  The volume available from the internal speaker isn't as loud as the Droid, which I liked.   Charging through a usb port took forever (the phone has a micro-usb connector).

Trying to use my own ringtones was a hemorrhoid.  I located where the ringtones were in the phone's directory hierarchy and attempted to copy mine there, which failed.  That aside, mine became available shortly after.  No idea how to make my notification tones work instead of the horrid existing ones but all things in time.

A token complaint is that I can't stand moving things into a circle to operate or answer the phone.  I will live.  A slightly more serious complaint is that I saw email sync even though I had all sync turned off.  This might be a result of some security software we use at work but I'm not sure.


A STRANGE KIND WORD

Just for fun I tried out Slacker Radio.  I have had really poor luck with these kinds of services, where I select one or two artists I like and allow the service to recommend more.  How anybody gets from Jeff Beck to Joe Jackson, I'll never know (and I don't want to know).

So I typed in Jeff Beck and got a lot of suggestions, number one being Jeff Beck Radio.  As big a shock as that was, the next few artists out of the box were Gregg Allman, Little Feat, and Joe Walsh.  Boy, the quality of the algorithms must have gotten much better - I'm liking this.

THE ROOT ISSUE

I rooted my Droid and never looked back.  One of the happiest days with that phone was removing Facebook, Twitter, and the other detritus that Verizon shipped with it.  T-Mobile shipped its own stuff with the Sensation but none of it is a deal-breaker (nor is it removable without root).

Since I've had the phone for less than twenty-four hours at this point, I'll leave rooting for further consideration.

DON'T TRACK ME, BRO

I try to minimize my visibility.  To their credit, HTC or T-Mobile put the tracking screen up front in the setup.  You might not call it the tracking screen but I do - the GPS and location services.  OFF, I say!

All in all, I like this phone.  I'm hoping for good clean fun until the next phone arrives.  Now if I could only remember which one that is and when...

[stay tuned for the Samsung Galaxy review]