How to Root Your Android Device & Why You Might Want To

You’ve probably heard of people “rooting” their Android phones. If you’ve ever wondered how to do that yourself – or wondered why people would bother – you’re in luck. You can root your Android in just a few minutes.

After rooting your device, you have full access to the entire system and can run special types of apps that require root permissions. These apps can disable bloatware, control app permissions, enable tethering, and do lots of other cool things.

What is “Root,” Anyway?

Android is based on Linux. On Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, the root user is equivalent to the Administrator user on Windows. The root user has access to the entire operating system and can do anything. By default, you don’t have root access to your Android device, and certain apps won’t function without root access.

With root access, you can disable the bloatware that comes with your phone, manually deny app permissions, run a firewall, access the entire file system, or tether your device, even if tethering functionality has been disabled. You’ll find many apps that require root access in the Google Play store (formerly known as the Android Market), although they won’t function until you root your device.

Rooting isn’t mandatory – you only need to root your device if you want to do things that require root access.

The Best Tips and Tweaks for Getting the Most Out of Google Chrome

Recently, we gathered the best tips and tweaks for Firefox. Google Chrome is another very popular browser, and we have collected some very useful tips and tricks for Google Chrome here. You’ll learn about built-in features and extensions for expanding Chrome’s functionality.

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Bookmarks and Toolbars

Add the Home Button to the Toolbar

By default, the Home button is not on the toolbar in Chrome. However, it’s easy to add it. Simply click the wrench button and select Settings. On the Basic page, in the Toolbar section, select the Show Home button check box. Now, you can easily go to your home page with one click.

Show Only Icons on the Bookmarks Bar

If you bookmark a lot of sites, wouldn’t it be helpful if you could displays the bookmarks on the toolbar as only favicons? This is easy to accomplish. First, make sure your Bookmarks bar is always showing. To do this, click the wrench button, select Settings, and then select Always show the bookmarks bar in the Toolbar section.  Then, it’s easy to reduce your bookmarks in Chrome to only icons.

NOTE: You can also list your existing bookmarks easily by entering “chrome://bookmarks” (without the quotes) in the Omnibox and pressing Enter. Then, you can right-click on a bookmark and select Edit.

Here are some additional tips about toolbars and bookmarks:

• How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Bookmarks in Chrome & Firefox
• Bookmark Sentry Scans Your Chrome Bookmarks File For Bad Links and Dupes
• Convert Bookmarklets Into Chrome Extensions
• Context Is a Lightweight Tool for Decluttering and Organizing Your C

Jelly Bean Xperia boot animation available to download

Want to install the latest boot animation for your Sony Xperia? Well you’ve come to the right place, the new boot animation for the Jelly Bean Xperia update has leaked. You can download the necessary zip file here. If you want to install this to your Xperia, you’ll need to make sure it is rooted and follow the instructionshere. See a video of it in action below.