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nofam:Asrafrate:nofam:
All good questions, and quite important to have your head around! Rooting and flashing are completely different things: rooting means granting yourself root permissions to the operating system of your phone (in this case, Android). It's the highest level of access you can have in a linux-based O/S, giving you the ability to read, write and execute anything in the O/S. If you're famailiar with Microsoft Windows, it's analogous with being an Administrator. It's important because Android, in it's unrooted form, prevents you from doing a lot of things, such as even seeing parts of the filesystem. Without root access, you can't even back up your applications properly.
Flashing is the act of putting a ROM on your phone to replace the current one. It must be done while the O/S is unloaded, which is why you either do it from ClockworkMod recovery (on the phone itself before the O/S loads), or through Odin (phone connected to your PC, with the phone in a special download mode). Custom ROM's offer a multitude of advantages, such as better performance, better battery life, a modular approach whereby you can strip out all the apps you don't want, the ability to customize the look of the phone etc etc.
In terms of reviews, both Android Market and Appbrain user reviews are a pretty good indicator of quality. In terms of themes, keep an eye on the following - more themes will be released over time:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1059
Hope that helps!
Thanks nofam :)
I definitely want to root (the phone version, since I can't talk about the OTHER version in public) I guess next question is how do I go about it safely. Also does it void the warranty of the phone?
As for flashing, take it thats what we do when we get updates for the firmware? Or am I getting it confused?valtam:Asrafrate:
I want to understand the difference between rooting & flashing, why I should do them... and most importantly... HOW.
Thanks!
I gotta get a screenshot of just that line, you have made my day lmao (double entendre)
LOL! I wondered if I was opening myself up for a few ribs there :P
And I did tweet recently (after first reading this forum infact) that a lot of tech terms are quite naughty!
Ha ha yeah, some of the terms would raise eyebrows in polite company!! Yes, rooting does void your warranty, which is why having a 'exit strategy' of getting the stock ROM back is a good idea.
To be honest, I'd just enjoy your new phone once you get it; the development scene is still very young for the SGS2, and to be honest, it sounds like the phone is quite funtional out of the box - the SGS suffered from quite bad lag within days of getting it, so the need for "intervention" was a lot greater.
In terms of flashing, the official updates you get through Kies are technically a flash, but it's a pretty invisible process, whereas the other two methods I mentioned are quite hands-on.
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