Boost your Droid

I’ve been an android user for the past several years, I recall that I purchased my first Android based cell in the late 2009. With time the Linux-based operating system has improved vastly and given Apple’s iOS a run for its market. The features that I most adore on my Android based phone is the way I can store my contacts, calendar events, tasks, emails, and much more, all this information is stored on one single Gmail account which saves me from losing my important data as well as been connected to the world 24/7.

My initial remark to Android was at time high and as well as low, my initial first two mobile purchases with Android OS were a terrible experience. One fine day Samsung released their hand set called the Galaxy SII, which took the market as a Storm. The Galaxy SII was a revolution for the Android market, any ways that’s an entirely different story.

I want to share information on how you can enhance your Android phone as I have done. You might be wondering without hardware addition on the phone how could the phone do more. Currently all Android phones in the market come with a few limitations; these are actually safety mechanisms put in place to ensure inexperienced users don’t mess up their device. For people who see out of the box, these limitations are means of limiting how the person gets to use their owned device.

The process of lifting such limitations is termed as rooting your Android phone; all android based phones can be rooted. Rooting will help remove the limitations put in place by device manufactures. Two years back people rooted their phone to bring in features like multi-touch, Wi-Fi-tethering and Apps2SD. Now Google has included these features with their newer versions, since then rooting has lost its charm but defiantly not all. The ability to install powerful applications like “SetCPU” which lets you speed up or slow down your chip for more performance/battery life, “ProxyDroid” help connect to Wi-Fi networks which have proxy settings, “Market Enabler” helps in accessing Google Play in other countries, “ROM Manager” to manage Custom ROM’s, “Chainfire3D” helps run NVIDIA Tegra games on other unsupported phones, etc.

The best thing I like about rooting; Android built in backup and restore functionality is weak in comparison to available third party alternatives. I would suggest trying out “ClockworkMod Recovery” help take nandroid backups which are complete images of each and every thing on your device. Restoring nandroid backup means going back to your configuration with nothing lost.

It’s time to root your phone:
The example below is for Samsung Galaxy SII, but the same procedure can be done on any Android phone. The Tools mentioned below would be different based on the device.

Points to be noted before Proceeding:

1. You may brick your phone, if you don’t follow the instructions carefully.
2. Warranty will be void by rooting the device but you can get it back by unrooting the phone. My suggestion is to perform root only after lapse of device manufacture warranty, which is normally one year.
3. Downloads all needed Tools/software.
4. Samsung Galaxy SII should be updated to the latest version of ICS 4.0.3. (This can be done by Samsung Kies)
5. Battery of the phone had charged properly atleast to the half level.
6. You may lose all the device data, so make a backup of all the data like messages, call history, pictures, etc. before performing the rooting process.
7. Save the APN Setting, it will be needed after the root process to surf the internet again.
8. The updated USB driver of device should be installed on system to communicate properly with the device.

Tools Needed:

• Odin : http://www.4shared.com/rar/74D8ERjO/odin_v185.html
• Siyah Kernal: http://www.gokhanmoral.com/
• Superoneclick: http://shortfuse.org/?page_id=2
• Download Samsung’s KIES: http://www.samsung.com/in/support/usefulsoftware/KIES/JSP
• USB Data Cable.
• A Desktop or Laptop.
• Internet Connectivity.

Procedure:

• Step one: First of all make sure that you have download all the needed tools. Then, Put device in USB debugging mode: Settings ->Applications -> Development -> USB debugging.
  
• Step Two: Reboot your device to the download session mode. To get to the download mode on your Samsung Galaxy SII. Switch off the device and turn it on again by holding Volume down button + Home button + Power button simultaneously. It takes about 4 seconds, and a warning message is show on the screen, press the Volume up button and you should be on the download session mode. See the image below to verify if you are on the download session mode.
  
  
• Step Three: Extract the downloaded Odin Zip and run the Odin executable file.
  
• Step Four: With the help of USB Cable connect the device to the computer while keeping the Odin application open and wait for a few seconds till Odin notified you that the device is connected to the computer.Caution - Please do not detach the device from the computer until I mention to do so.Select the checkboxes next to “Auto reboot” and “F. Reset Time”. Click on the “PDA” Button and select the “Siyah-sx-vxx.xxx.tar” file which you should have downloaded.
  
  
  Finally click on the “Start” button. Now Odin has started to flash the kernel and after flashing; the phone will reboot automatically.
  
  
  
  
• Step Five: Once the device has restarted on its own, Unzip “SuperOneClick” which you should have downloaded, run the executable “SuperOneClick.exe” file and press the “Root” button.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Notification - It’s now safe to detach the device from the computer.

Congratulations you have successfully rooted your Samsung Galaxy SII device and now you can gain benefits by using Custom ROM’s and apps built for Samsung Galaxy SII without any hesitation or restriction.

Being a Samsung Galaxy SII user and nearly completing my 2 years of usage with this phone, initially it came loaded with Android Gingerbread; Samsung did come true with their promise of releasing Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for this phone. What if I say it’s time to try out the latest version of Android called Jelly Bean even though Samsung has not released one for this phone. I am currently running Android version 4.1.2 with the help of a Custom ROM’s community called MIUI.

What are Custom ROM’s for your device, it refers to erasing or overwriting the old Android software or system files, and replacing with a new one to alter the behavior of Android and the device. If you’ve ever reinstalled your computers operating system (Windows 7, OSX, Linux), this is pretty much the same procedure. Wipe the disk or ‘memory’, then give the computer some new software for it to boot into.

From my personal experience I have tried out several Custom ROM’s and really appreciate the work and effort people have put in to create these Custom ROM’s. The difference I have noticed while using the MIUI Custom ROM’s is the Smoothness, Stability, Customizability and has a great battery life from any other Android version I have used on my phone till date.

It’s time to install a Custom ROM:
The example below is for Samsung Galaxy SII, but the same procedure can be done on any Android phone.

Points to be noted before Proceeding:

1. It’s better to have an SD Card for your phone.
2. Your device should be rooted.

Tools Needed:

• MIUI Redefining Android - http://en.miui.com/
• Download the latest MIUI Custom ROM for your phone - http://roms.miui.us/
• USB Data Cable.
• A Desktop or Laptop.
• Internet Connectivity.

Procedure:

• Step one: First of all make sure that you have download all the needed tools. Then, Put device in USB debugging mode: Settings ->Applications -> Development -> USB debugging.
  
• Step Two: With the help of USB Cable connect the device to the computer and copy the latest MIUI Custom ROM to your device SD Card.
  
• Step Three: Reboot your device to the recovery console. To get to the recovery console on your Samsung Galaxy SII. Switch off the device and turn it on again by holding Volume up button + Home button + Power button simultaneously, be patient it will take a while.
  
  
  
  Note: It is advised to back up your pervious running Operating System. By selecting on backup and restore.
  
• Step Four: Wipe data from the phone: (To scroll through the list displayed above use the Volume up and down key, to select an item press the Home key)
  Scroll to - “Wipe data/factory reset” . Scroll to Yes .Scroll to - “Wipe cache partition” . Scroll to Yes .Scroll to - “advanced” . Scroll to - “Wipe Dalvik Cache” . Scroll to Yes .Scroll to - “advanced” . Scroll to - “Wipe Battery Stats” . Scroll to Yes .
  Note: To go back to a previous screen Scroll to - “+++++Go Back+++++” .
  
• Step Five: Installing the ROM; Scroll to - “install zip from sdcard” . Scroll to - “choose zip from sdcard” . Select the MIUI Custom ROM from the location where you have stored on the SD Card. Scroll to Yes . Scroll back to the main menu and Scroll to - “reboot system now” .

Congratulations you have successfully installed your first MIUI Custom ROM and you can enjoy with your mobile.

In case you face any issue in rooting your Samsung Galaxy SII or any other android based device, please feel free to communicate via comments or electronic mail.