Rooting an Android device.

What Is Rooting?

Android rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's subsystem.Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system, usually with a more recent release of its current operating system.

For rooting purpose visit the website: http://www.androidcentral.com/root

Setting up the Phone

Setting Up the Phone
When you first start up the phone, you’ll find that, unless you only want to call emergency services or you just enjoy staring at the Android logo, you’re required to associate your phone with a Google account. If you don’t have a Google account yet, you can set one up from the phone itself.
In the case of the G1, you are asked to touch the Android logo. Then you see a brief screen describing the need for the Google account. After reviewing the page, touch Next. You can choose whether to use an existing Google account or create a new one.

Using an Existing Google Account
If you already have a Google account, simply touch the Sign In button. Enter your username and password, and then touch the Sign In button again.
That’s really all there is to getting started using an existing Google account. You should receive a notification that your account is now associated with the phone, unless you typed the wrong password. In that case, you are told that you typed the wrong password, and you have to retype it. If everything is set up properly, the phone notifies you that your Google account is now linked. 

Creating a New Google Account
You need to create a Google account if you don’t already have one, or if you just want to start fresh with a new account. (We’ll show you how to switch from one account to another in the section,“Resetting Your Phone,” in Chapter 13.
No matter why you might want to do it, it’s easy to configure a new Google account with your phone by following these steps:

1. Tap the Create button.
   
2. Enter the appropriate data in the First name, Last name, and Username fields. Tap
   Next.
   
3. If your choice of a username is unavailable, you can type in a new username or select
   from some automatically generated alternatives.
   
4. Either enter a new name or pick one from the alternative list by touching the visible alternative and then sliding your finger up and down the list to scroll through it. Tap the alternative you’d like to use, and then tap Next.
   
5. Enter a password, and set up a security question to answer if you forget your password in the future. When you’re done, tap Create.
   Your password needs to be eight characters long at a minimum. A good password is a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, isn’t a real word, and has both numbers and special characters in addition to letters. The password aaaaaaa% is a weak password, whereas Th3_g0VrD5! is a strong password. If you choose a pass- word that’s too weak, you’ll be asked to enter a different one later in the setup process.
   
6. Read through the Google Terms of Service, and then touch I agree. Tap Next. (If you don’t agree, you might want to return the phone, because without the Google account, your Android-powered phone will only be able to make emergency calls.)
   
7. After the phone communicates with Google’s servers, you’re presented with a CAPTCHA. Enter the text displayed, and touch Next.
   

8. If you end up back on the password selection screen, the password you selected proba- bly was too weak. Choose a stronger password, and tap Next.
   
9. Touch Finish, and your initial setup is complete! 

What is android?

What Is Android?

Mobile phones, like your computer, have an operating system. It can be something simple, with few to no graphics and no color, that just allows you to make phone calls. Or it could be extremely powerful, letting you do almost everything you can do with your desktop com- puter.

Android is an operating system for your mobile phone and definitely falls into the second cat- egory. Not only does Android offer you a powerful Internet experience, but tools are also pro- vided via the Internet to let people write their own applications for the phone.

In addition to Internet connectivity and programmability, Android has been released under the Apache v2 open-source license.

How It All Comes Together
Suddenly, you have the perfect operating system for mobile devices. And you have a community of developers ready and willing to create applications for the device. Now all you need is the device. That’s how the T-Mobile G1—the first Android-based device—came onto the scene.

         

Figure I.1
The T-Mobile G1.

The G1 is a simple device that many criticised for not being sleek or flashy when it first hit the market. Still, it didn’t take T-Mobile and HTC long to rectify the mistake. Less than a year after the release of the G1 a sleeker, sexier Android-based phone—the T-Mobile myTouch—made its appearance. The myTouch has all the great function- ality of its predecessor, just in a prettier package.