SYNAPSE
CIRCUIT IS ROOTING FOR YOU! PART 4
Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! I hope the weather is good for you like it has been for me! At 19:17 the Sun is still blazing! Whoohoo!
Good news! More reviews are coming very, very soon... In the meanwhile here’s a recap on the ‘Rooting’ theme of blogs...
HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION?
Rooting or jail-breaking allows you to get to the core of your Android (or iPhone if you have one) handset. You are able to download specific root apps to enhance the way you interact with your phone in many ways... Boost the CPU performance; utilize apps that can turn off and on certain aspects such as the Wi-Fi – it can be turned back on automatically when you are at home; enhance the audio and more!
You can then install a custom version of Android that is often better than the one that comes with manufacturers. Basically, you lose the skinned interface and therefore utilize a purer version of Android. There are quite a few custom ROM developers – notably Cyanogenmod! I trust Cyanogenmod’s work in that they put out versions of Android (for many different handsets) that functions well... I used a custom ROM based on Cyanogenmod (not supported by them) for the ZTE Blade 3 and Bluetooth wasn’t functioning. I had to find another custom ROM where Bluetooth worked!
Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! I hope the weather is good for you like it has been for me! At 19:17 the Sun is still blazing! Whoohoo!
Good news! More reviews are coming very, very soon... In the meanwhile here’s a recap on the ‘Rooting’ theme of blogs...
HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION?
Rooting or jail-breaking allows you to get to the core of your Android (or iPhone if you have one) handset. You are able to download specific root apps to enhance the way you interact with your phone in many ways... Boost the CPU performance; utilize apps that can turn off and on certain aspects such as the Wi-Fi – it can be turned back on automatically when you are at home; enhance the audio and more!
You can then install a custom version of Android that is often better than the one that comes with manufacturers. Basically, you lose the skinned interface and therefore utilize a purer version of Android. There are quite a few custom ROM developers – notably Cyanogenmod! I trust Cyanogenmod’s work in that they put out versions of Android (for many different handsets) that functions well... I used a custom ROM based on Cyanogenmod (not supported by them) for the ZTE Blade 3 and Bluetooth wasn’t functioning. I had to find another custom ROM where Bluetooth worked!
Rooting can also go
beyond the limitations of the hardware i.e. storage! You can get apps that will
allow you to store to mircoSD!
THE DOWNSIDE OF ROOTING
What I purposely left until now is this: If you mess up the rooting process by not following the instructions to the letter you could be left with a ‘bricked’ phone whereby you can’t get it to reboot. You can get around this... It looks like a desperate situation but you can reverse it. You can also brick your phone by trying to upgrade it through the manufacturer software when the network hasn’t sanctioned it.
If you ever decide to sell your rooted handset some exchange shops won’t accept it because some think it’s illegal. But it’s not... Rooting has become illegal in the States (I think) but here in the UK it is not...
ROOTING ISN’T A MIRACLE CURE
What I have learned is that a crap phone is exactly that: CRAP! Have you read my blogs on the ‘False Economy of Budget Android handsets’? You should! In a nutshell I have tried my best to warn my friends about purchasing what is often sold as “Great value for money handsets...” that retail anywhere from £50 to £120. Don’t bother! What makes these handsets practically useless are that many apps to do with social networking and free calls / texting are over 5MB and such apps are demanding on the CPU and the nonexistent RAM – usually 512MB of RAM! Again, it’s a calamity regressive aggravating and pointless = CRAP!
You will be able to improve the performance somewhat and solve some storage issues but there will come a time when you have to face the facts like I have... Lol! I have pushed my crap handsets as far as I could possibly take them so, what did I do?
COMPUTER EXCHANGE
Yes, I took the handsets to the Computer Exchange – I had to go to two branches: one locally in Enfield and the other in Wood Green or Turnpike Lane North London. Here’s my little story...
I took a few phones that I had lying around the house:
LG L3 E400 – Rooted
ZTE Blade 3 – Rooted
Samsung Genio
LG Viewty
The latter two hadn’t been used for years – pre-smartphone era... I have to say that I was a little reluctant in letting the Viewty go as it was my first touch screen and it was quite a good one too! Never mind... I was going to start a museum for handsets!
I have said it many, many times that these Recycle Your Phone organizations just rob people with what they offer for your old phone! The mobile phone shops are just as bad! I was really surprised that the Computer Exchange shop offered a reasonable price for my handsets! However, not without going through some bother!
I forgot the take off the lock code on the Viewty and therefore it failed the test. Oddly the Genio had a tiny weeny crack on the battery cover... I didn’t see it before... Maybe it was there all along... Who knows? My handsets are kept in pristine condition! Fortunately, the Genio came with an alternative battery cover!
The LG L3 E400 failed the test because it “kept rebooting...” that’s can’t be right as it never did that in my possession. I don’t know what happened there... Maybe I will take the time to unroot it – if I can be bothered – and present it again!
But all in all I got a pretty good £89 for the other three in exchange credit! I think cash is more of a rip off! I think that would have been something like £70 in cash!
I took the LG L3 E400 to the Wood Green / Turnpike Lane branch to get a second opinion... Maybe, just maybe the L3 E400 would pass the tests... When I returned for the test results the young man who served me mumbled something to me...”Mumble, mumble uh lo...” “What?” “Mumble, mumble break...” “Huh?” What he was trying to tell me was that because my phone had been rooted they couldn’t resell it because, “It’s illegal mumble, mumble...” Kids, huh? Lol! Barely intelligible!
But if you were paying attention you’ll know that what the Computer Exchange person was mumbling is incorrect! Rooting handsets is legal in the UK! Now, if he had said that the handset couldn’t be sold because the Computer Exchange cannot verify the integrity of the custom ROM then it would be a different story! Some people think they know it all! Lol!
One thing is for sure... NO MORE BUDGET ANDROID HANDSETS FOR ME! And that should be the same for you too!
I am saving up my exchange credit to purchase a decent handset with at least a 1.5 dual core! As I have said before... If you want a decent handset you can either go monthly rental or second hand! Oh, the RAZRi from Motorola is available on T-Mobile for £149! That’s a pretty decent deal! I’d go for it! Check my review on it! You can probably add another £10 to get it unlocked to any network!
THE DOWNSIDE OF ROOTING
What I purposely left until now is this: If you mess up the rooting process by not following the instructions to the letter you could be left with a ‘bricked’ phone whereby you can’t get it to reboot. You can get around this... It looks like a desperate situation but you can reverse it. You can also brick your phone by trying to upgrade it through the manufacturer software when the network hasn’t sanctioned it.
If you ever decide to sell your rooted handset some exchange shops won’t accept it because some think it’s illegal. But it’s not... Rooting has become illegal in the States (I think) but here in the UK it is not...
ROOTING ISN’T A MIRACLE CURE
What I have learned is that a crap phone is exactly that: CRAP! Have you read my blogs on the ‘False Economy of Budget Android handsets’? You should! In a nutshell I have tried my best to warn my friends about purchasing what is often sold as “Great value for money handsets...” that retail anywhere from £50 to £120. Don’t bother! What makes these handsets practically useless are that many apps to do with social networking and free calls / texting are over 5MB and such apps are demanding on the CPU and the nonexistent RAM – usually 512MB of RAM! Again, it’s a calamity regressive aggravating and pointless = CRAP!
You will be able to improve the performance somewhat and solve some storage issues but there will come a time when you have to face the facts like I have... Lol! I have pushed my crap handsets as far as I could possibly take them so, what did I do?
COMPUTER EXCHANGE
Yes, I took the handsets to the Computer Exchange – I had to go to two branches: one locally in Enfield and the other in Wood Green or Turnpike Lane North London. Here’s my little story...
I took a few phones that I had lying around the house:
LG L3 E400 – Rooted
ZTE Blade 3 – Rooted
Samsung Genio
LG Viewty
The latter two hadn’t been used for years – pre-smartphone era... I have to say that I was a little reluctant in letting the Viewty go as it was my first touch screen and it was quite a good one too! Never mind... I was going to start a museum for handsets!
I have said it many, many times that these Recycle Your Phone organizations just rob people with what they offer for your old phone! The mobile phone shops are just as bad! I was really surprised that the Computer Exchange shop offered a reasonable price for my handsets! However, not without going through some bother!
I forgot the take off the lock code on the Viewty and therefore it failed the test. Oddly the Genio had a tiny weeny crack on the battery cover... I didn’t see it before... Maybe it was there all along... Who knows? My handsets are kept in pristine condition! Fortunately, the Genio came with an alternative battery cover!
The LG L3 E400 failed the test because it “kept rebooting...” that’s can’t be right as it never did that in my possession. I don’t know what happened there... Maybe I will take the time to unroot it – if I can be bothered – and present it again!
But all in all I got a pretty good £89 for the other three in exchange credit! I think cash is more of a rip off! I think that would have been something like £70 in cash!
I took the LG L3 E400 to the Wood Green / Turnpike Lane branch to get a second opinion... Maybe, just maybe the L3 E400 would pass the tests... When I returned for the test results the young man who served me mumbled something to me...”Mumble, mumble uh lo...” “What?” “Mumble, mumble break...” “Huh?” What he was trying to tell me was that because my phone had been rooted they couldn’t resell it because, “It’s illegal mumble, mumble...” Kids, huh? Lol! Barely intelligible!
But if you were paying attention you’ll know that what the Computer Exchange person was mumbling is incorrect! Rooting handsets is legal in the UK! Now, if he had said that the handset couldn’t be sold because the Computer Exchange cannot verify the integrity of the custom ROM then it would be a different story! Some people think they know it all! Lol!
One thing is for sure... NO MORE BUDGET ANDROID HANDSETS FOR ME! And that should be the same for you too!
I am saving up my exchange credit to purchase a decent handset with at least a 1.5 dual core! As I have said before... If you want a decent handset you can either go monthly rental or second hand! Oh, the RAZRi from Motorola is available on T-Mobile for £149! That’s a pretty decent deal! I’d go for it! Check my review on it! You can probably add another £10 to get it unlocked to any network!
Happy Rooting and
Phone Shopping!
Take good care!
Please enjoy the video below! Feel free to leave some comments and subscribe!
Take good care!
Please enjoy the video below! Feel free to leave some comments and subscribe!
Thank
you for watching and reading!
Please check out the Synapse Circuit website for video, i-PDF and more!
Synapse Circuit Dot Com
Please check out the Synapse Circuit website for video, i-PDF and more!
Synapse Circuit Dot Com
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