GizMantra

Tag: reasons

7 Reasons to Root Your Android Device

To root or not to root? That is the question. Rooting your Android device definitely pushes you up a level or two in your geekdom. It requires a certain level of commitment, at least a little savvy, and even a modicum of risk. So, why would you want to trouble?

We have great reasons for ya.

What is Rooting ?

We discuss about rooting plenty around here, but here’s the high-level look for the few remaining uninitiated. Rooting signifies gaining root access to your device. When you take your phone out of the package, while there are plenty of settings you can tweak, you can only alter what the manufacturer allows you to. By gaining root access you can modify the device’s software on the very deepest level. It takes a bit of hacking (some devices more than others), it voids your warranty, and there’s a small chance that you could completely break your phone forever. But you know what? It’s still totally worth it for all the goodies you get access in order to.

1. The Latest OS Updates

This may be the most common complaint among Android users, less than half of whom have made it as far as Ice Cream Sandwich. Between the Google, the carriers, and the hardware manufacturers, there are a whole lot of shenanigans behind closed doors that determines when (or if) your phone gets an upgrade. Who has the patience?

Android’s developer community, on the other hand, is a hardcore bunch. They’re often able to get the new OS onto a phone months before the carrier releases the update, often along with a few bonus features. Once you’re rooted, you just have to find the OS version you want (optimized for your specific device), and it’s generally extremely easy to install the latest and greatest.

2. Apps Aplenty

If you’ve spent much time in Google Play, you know you’re not exactly hard-up for good apps. But why settle for good when you can have great. Once you’re rooted not only can you get more apps, but the apps you have access to can get way down deeper into your phone’s brains. In some cases you’ll be able to do things that carriers, manufacturers, and/or Google may not want you to do. Some will allow you to do things of questionable legality. For example, Network Spoofer uses your device to set up a fake wireless network. When your houseguests sign in, you can make ever image they see inverted, or all of the text fuzzy. It’s a harmless prank, but of course it could (but shouldn’t!) also be used for stealing passwords and other nefarious things.

Where do you find all these root-only gems? Amazingly enough, many of them are still in the Google Play app store. Google’s much more relaxed about rooting than Apple is about jailbreaking. Some apps, like Tasker, work for factory-shipped devices as well, but get expanded superpowers when you root.

3. Speed/Battery Life Boosts

Phone starting to get laggy? Or maybe you’re having trouble making it through the day on a single charge? Rooting allows you to install customized kernels (the software that enables the OS to talk to the hardware, basically) that are optimized differently. Some are made for low-power consumption, and some are built for speed. You can also use an app like Set CPU, which enables you to overclock or underclock your phone’s processor, and set rules for usage.

For example, you can set your processors to go into overdrive when you’re playing a graphically intensive game, but have them draw the bare minimum power when the screen is off.

4. Extreme Customization

Android is already the most customizable mobile OS out there, which is one of its big draws, but if you root your phone you can really go nuts. If you want a total change, you can download custom ROMs that look nothing like Android at all. Want your device to navigable entirely by gestures? No problem, just install GMD Gesture Control.Prefer a sliding keyboard when you’re in portait mode, but a tapping, predictive keyboard when you’re in landscape. Keyboard Manager will automatically switch between your keyboards of choice whenever you rotate your phone. You can also add features like widgets in your notification bar, or can change the way certain features look or behave, like the lock screen, or notification bar. The sky’s the limit.

5. Infinite Features

Beyond just customizing your phone’s existing features, rooting helps you pile on all kinds of wonderful new weirdness. You’ll love it.

Want to hook up your PlayStation controller to your phone for better gaming? You can. Want to set rules for callers to decide who can and can’t call you when? Why not. Maybe your carrier has blocked certain apps, or an app isn’t available for the country you live in? There are Market Enabler apps that trick your phone (and Google) into thinking it’s on another carrier or in a far off land. Nervous about connecting to the public Wi-Fi? Wifi Protector will keep you safe from all kinds of ARP, DOS, and MITM attacks. Or, you could put the new Android 4.2 camera on your non-Jellybean phone. Accidentally deleted something you wish you hadn’t? Undelete might just save your bacon. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

6. Better Backup

There are apps out there that kinda back up your phone, but generally it’s pretty surface level stuff (contacts, pictures, music, etc.). Once rooted you can go way, way deeper. Grab an app called Titanium Backup. Not only can it back up all of your apps, but it can back up all of the information stored in those apps. So if you’ve been doing great in Temple Run but you want to wipe your phone and start fresh, you can use Titanium to back up and then restore the game, and you’ll be right where you left off. It’s a nice security blanket if you’re going to be messing around deep in your phone’s brain.

In spite of all these benefits, only you know whether rooting is right for you. For some people it’s just not worth the time and effort. For others, it’s a godsend that allows them to use their phones in a better way and for a longer time. If you decide to take the plunge, read up and make sure you follow instructions carefully. After that, go hog wild. It’s your phone, after all.

7. Ditching the Skin

Android enthusiasts rightly hate the software skins that hardware manufacturers use to brand their devices. They’re often bulky, ugly, unwieldy, or just downright not as clean and functional as stock Android. They’re also a big reason those OS updates take so long. You’re almost always better off without. So root! Once you do, you can download and install any number of custom-built ROMs (different versions of the Android firmware). Some of them are highly customized and tweaked to add features, and others are basically just stock Android. Cleaning off an ugly skin can be like a breath of fresh air.

–>How To Install A Custom ROM On Your Android <–

Jun 6, 2013
20 Reasons why ‘The Beatles’ are the ‘Greatest’ Band Ever
Every once in a while, I meet someone who just doesn’t get the Beatles, or who doesn’t even like them.
I try to keep an open mind about this, since there are some groups that I simply don’t get, either. David Bowie? Yeah, I can understand that. Bob Dylan? Sure.
But The Beatles? Come on.

Here are 20 reasons why the Beatles are the greatest band ever:
1. During the week of April 4, 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (12 in the Hot 100), the top 2 positions on the albums chart, the no. 1 position in the British singles chart, the first two positions in the British albums chart and the no. 1 position in the British EP chart, – the most complete domination of the British and American charts in history. Today, you’re lucky to have one top 10 album and single at the same time.
2. To date, the Beatles have sold over 1 billion records. That’s billion, with a B.
3. They have the most no. 1 albums in the British album charts (15), and 17 No. 1 hits.
4. They hold the record for the group with the longest span between no. 1 albums in the Billboard albums chart (36 years and 51 weeks, 1964 to 2001). In 2000 – 20 years after John Lennon was killed, their greatest hits compilation, 1, spent eight weeks at no. 1 and sold 13 million copies in its first month of release.
5. They boast 20 No. 1 hits in the United States, (19 No. 1 albums), with 24 consecutive Top 10 hits from 1964 to 1976 (six years after they broke up), a record for a group. They also have 12 no. 1 hits in Germany, 23 in Australia, 21 in the Netherlands, 22 in Canada, and 13 in Malaysia.
6. According to the United World Chart, the Beatles have 16 of the 100 most successful tracks of all time, and also 7 of the 100 most successful albums in history.
7. The Beatles recorded four of the Top 10 Greatest Albums of All Time, according to Rolling Stone magazine, and three of the Top Five. (I will ignore the fact that Abbey Road was only No. 14. Blasphemy.)
8. They were ground-breaking pioneers almost from the beginning, being the first group ever to employ feedback in 1964′s “I Feel Fine.” One of their first hits, “A Hard Day’s Night,” features an opening chord so revolutionary that people are still trying to figure out. 1965′s Rubber Soul and the follow-up, Revolver, saw more innovation, from the use of a sitar in “Norwegian Wood” to tape loops in “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Then there are the backwards vocals in “Rain” (a first) and a Moog synthesizer on several songs on 1969′s Abbey Road.
9. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is arguably the greatest album ever made (indeed, it topped Rolling Stone‘s list). While it doesn’t have the strongest material, the album was a landmark in recording. It popularized the concept album – something that would serve as inspiration to The Who and Pink Floyd.
10. “A Day in the Life” from Sgt. Pepper may have been the crowning achievement of the group – a five and a half minute song composed of two suites – one by Lennon, one by Paul McCartney – that are totally different in sound and texture, yet complement each other perfectly. The song features two cacophonous crescendos from an orchestra, the final one climaxing in a single E major piano chord that lasts 42 seconds.
11. One may not like songs such as “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude,” but they are unrivaled in their popularity, and the melodies are unforgettable.
12. Paul McCartney actually dreamed the tune to “Yesterday.”
13. “Helter Skelter” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” are considered two of the first heavy metal songs.
14. They have 23 of the Top 500 songs of all time, again according to Rolling Stone – the most of any artist.
15. Their iconic No. 1 singles notwithstanding (“Love Me Do”, “From Me to You”, “She Loves You”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “I Feel Fine”, “Eight Days a Week”, “Ticket to Ride”, “Help!”, “Yesterday”, “Day Tripper”, “We Can Work It Out”, “Paperback Writer”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Penny Lane”, “All You Need Is Love”, “Hello, Goodbye”, “Lady Madonna”, “Hey Jude”, “Get Back”, “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, “Something”, “Come Together”, “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road”), some of their best songs weren’t even on any singles or B-sides: “I Should Have Known Better,” “You Won’t See Me,” “For No One,” “Across the Universe,” “Two of Us,” “Dear Prudence,” and “Because” are all just album filler.
16. They revolutionized the science of recording, using multiple tracks instead of playing live. Producer George Martin used varying tape speeds to make Lennon’s voice sound high (“Tomorrow Never Knows”) and slow (“Strawberry Fields Forever”); he also brought in string musicians to accompany certain songs (“Yesterday”). In another session, McCartney utilized bass drums halfway down a corridor to achieve a staccato sound in “Mother Nature’s Son.”
17. In an age where other people wrote songs for the flavor of the day – think the Brill Building songwriters doing all the work for the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups – The Beatles surprised everyone by penning their own hits from the beginning. As a result, they helped usher the singer-songwriter movement that popularized the late 1960s.
18. Their ability to cross over from media and teen idols to musical innovators is one-of-a-kind. Their chart success is unparalleled; but despite their popularity, they managed to continue to improve throughout their career.
19. Their place in popular culture is unrivaled – Their movies, their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (in which they played to 74 million people), the “bigger than Jesus” comment, the refusal to play in concert after 1966, the Maharishi, the painstaking production work, the beginnings of the drug culture and LSD fad, “Helter Skelter” and Charles Manson, the “Paul is Dead” phenomenon, Yoko Ono, the rooftop concert, the cover of Abbey Road, the subsequent solo years, and the hit singles created from rough demos of the late Lennon.
20. They accomplished all this in seven years.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” by The Beatles – What they really mean !!
Feb 4, 2013