... To longer battery life, faster
performance and better apps
How to start hacking your Android phone,
and which ROMs you need to install
For the tech enthusiast the ability to install
custom ROMs is one of the great bonuses that come with owning an Android phone.
You buy your phone, use it for a while as the manufacturer intended, then,
and after the newness factor has worn off, you start hacking it to make it work
exactly how you want it to. Most manufacturers now even acknowledge this fact,
with companies like HTC, Sony and Asus providing tools to aid this process.
Hack your phone
When you flash a new ROM to your phone you
are replacing all of the software that was on it with something new. The entire
OS is wiped and a new version installed. Sometimes this might be a similar
version to what you had before, but tweaked to make it faster or introduce a
few new features. Sometimes the new ROM might remove the customizations that
the manufacturer added to help differentiate its product from the rest of the
market. And sometimes a new ROM can bring you a new OS altogether. The rollout
of new versions of the Android OS to older handsets is notoriously slow, and
the custom ROM route is very often the quickest way to keep your phone up to
date.
Taking the custom ROM route does not come
without a few implications. The main was being the effect on your warranty. If
you flash a custom ROM to your phone then it goes without saying that you won't
be able to get support from the manufacturer or your network should you
encounter software problems, or hardware problems caused by software issues,
such as problems with the camera app. Likewise, if your phone fails to boot
during the flashing process you'll need to fix it yourself (but there is excellent
community support that will help you),
In
order to flash a custom ROM you will need to have done two things on your
phone. First you need to have rooted it.
The warranty issue with regard to hardware
issues is less clear. Physical problems with your phone that have no
connection to software, such as the USB port coming loose, ought not to be
affected by routing and flashing. As a general rule if you can return your
phone to its locked, unbooted state, then you should do so before you make a
claim on the warranty.
Second,
you will need to have unlocked the device's boot loader
In order to flash a custom ROM you will
need to have done two things on your phone. First you need to have rooted it.
This is the process that gives you 'root access' to your phone's OS, meaning
you can access or replace important OS files themselves, something that is
always prevented in devices as they're sold mostly for security reasons.
Second, you will need to have unlocked the device's boot loader. The boot
loader controls what happens when the phone boots up. If it is locked when it
encounters 'unauthorized' software, such as a custom ROM, it will prevent the
phone from booting. If it is unlocked then it will allow this software to run.
Launcher or ROM
Do you need to flash a ROM, or will a
launcher work?
Flashing a ROM is a pretty straightforward
process, although once you’ve been using your device for a while the whole
backup and restore procedure for your data can be a pain. If you only want to
freshen up the look and feel of your phone then installing a new launcher
represents a good compromise. Launchers like Apex and Nova replicate the look
of a plain ICS installation, and are fast and easy to use. They run as apps, so
make no permanent changes to your system, making it a breeze to try out several
before you settle on one. Launchers still give you access to the
device-specific apps that your phone came packaged with, but not the widgets
from HTC Sense or Samsung’s TouchWiz.
Flashing
a ROM is a pretty straightforward process, although once you’ve been using your
device for a while the whole backup and restore procedure for your data can be
a pain.
Most rooting procedures - and they differ
from one handset to the next - normally encompass unlocking the boot loader at
the same time, where required. Some phones, like the Galaxy S III, have an
unlocked boot loader by default, and where they are locked manufacturers are
increasingly providing tools to correct this (htcdev.com and
unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com are two such examples, although in both cases
they come with warnings about how the process may invalidate your warranty).
There's a lot of discussion about these official solutions within the Android
madding community, with many suggesting that even if you revert your phone back
to its original state should you ever need to send your phone in for repair,
the manufacturer will have a record of you having previously unlocked the boot
loader (via the IMEI number that you need to supply during the unlocking
process! and could theoretically take a hard line on warranty claims. Of
course, if you have insurance for your phone then you'll be covered regardless.
