tusing
Android Enthusiast
Here are some great root apps to get you started.
Superuser (Free)-
Usually comes with ROMs. Enables apps to take advantage of superuser permissions, allowing for you to modify stuff at a larger level.
Titanium Backup (Free and $6.58)-
Backs up your phone. Great app for fixing errors related to apps and the market, amazing for backing up and controlling apps at an elevated level.
ES File Explorer (Free)-
Allows you to explore your files (doh) and edit files at the /system level. Great for editing files such as build.prop to tweak your phone, or copy stuff from /system to /sdcard. It's an amazing free file explorer all around. No reason not to get it.
Autokiller (Free and Donate)-
Unlike other memory optimizers, this one is actually good. It automatically, gracefully ends apps when your phone needs to end apps. Do NOT use task killers such as Advanced Task Killer or anything of the sort (thanks for the tip, Isaac!). These will end up harming your phone, as they force-kill apps in the middle, which will almost certainly screw with the phone. Credit goes to Isaac for telling me about this! In real-world usage, I had better battery life, and about ~30 MB more free than any other task killer.
Adfree (Free)-
Get rid of those pesky, stupid ads in all your "free" apps, and never face ads on the web again! This actually blocks ads by blocking the IP of companies that host ads. Such a better experience, no reason not to try it out (unless you have an ad-fetish).
EDIT: Member HFC notes AdAway is a much better app, as it is free and open source, and blocks more ads. Get it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.adaway
Tasker- $6.49
I'll just pull Lifehacker's description here, since it describes the app perfectly- "Tasker by itself doesn't require root privileges to run, but some of its more impressive features do. Giving Tasker room to do what it does best is definitely a good thing, since it can practically automate your entire phone given the right amount of power. Rooting your phone is the only way to give it that kind of access." For more information on Tasker, and why it's a must-buy, click here.
SetCPU [FREE on XDA (Legit), donate in Market for $1.99 ] - If you have an overclocking kernel installed, this app will let you overclock your phone, and set up neat files that can overclock and underclock your phone in different situations (eg. underclock to 800 MHz when below 25% battery to save power).
Chainfire 3D (Free and Pro $4.27)
This app makes your phone pretend it's an Nvidia Tegra / PowerVR / Qualcomm (which it is) phone so you can play games not exactly meant for your processor (THD games, anyone?
). Plugins are available by clicking on the link: Nvidia (Tegra 2) plugin, PowerVR plugin, Qualcomm plugin. Place these files in the root of your SD card, and install them through Chainfire 3D. Then, reboot, and fire up your favorite Tegra 2 game! (Note: not all will work).
Mobile Terminal (Free)-
This terminal... is... a mobile Linux terminal. Free and useful, depending on who you are. You can go as far as to install a Linux distro with it (which is what I've done ).
adbWireless (Free)- This might be a good one for our devs out there! It allows you to access the ADB interface, wirelessly.
Hope this helped!
More to come, maybe. Feel free to add your own in the comments!
Superuser (Free)-
Usually comes with ROMs. Enables apps to take advantage of superuser permissions, allowing for you to modify stuff at a larger level.
Titanium Backup (Free and $6.58)-
Backs up your phone. Great app for fixing errors related to apps and the market, amazing for backing up and controlling apps at an elevated level.
ES File Explorer (Free)-
Allows you to explore your files (doh) and edit files at the /system level. Great for editing files such as build.prop to tweak your phone, or copy stuff from /system to /sdcard. It's an amazing free file explorer all around. No reason not to get it.
Autokiller (Free and Donate)-
Unlike other memory optimizers, this one is actually good. It automatically, gracefully ends apps when your phone needs to end apps. Do NOT use task killers such as Advanced Task Killer or anything of the sort (thanks for the tip, Isaac!). These will end up harming your phone, as they force-kill apps in the middle, which will almost certainly screw with the phone. Credit goes to Isaac for telling me about this! In real-world usage, I had better battery life, and about ~30 MB more free than any other task killer.
Adfree (Free)-
Get rid of those pesky, stupid ads in all your "free" apps, and never face ads on the web again! This actually blocks ads by blocking the IP of companies that host ads. Such a better experience, no reason not to try it out (unless you have an ad-fetish).
EDIT: Member HFC notes AdAway is a much better app, as it is free and open source, and blocks more ads. Get it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.adaway
Tasker- $6.49
I'll just pull Lifehacker's description here, since it describes the app perfectly- "Tasker by itself doesn't require root privileges to run, but some of its more impressive features do. Giving Tasker room to do what it does best is definitely a good thing, since it can practically automate your entire phone given the right amount of power. Rooting your phone is the only way to give it that kind of access." For more information on Tasker, and why it's a must-buy, click here.
SetCPU [FREE on XDA (Legit), donate in Market for $1.99 ] - If you have an overclocking kernel installed, this app will let you overclock your phone, and set up neat files that can overclock and underclock your phone in different situations (eg. underclock to 800 MHz when below 25% battery to save power).
Chainfire 3D (Free and Pro $4.27)
This app makes your phone pretend it's an Nvidia Tegra / PowerVR / Qualcomm (which it is) phone so you can play games not exactly meant for your processor (THD games, anyone?
). Plugins are available by clicking on the link: Nvidia (Tegra 2) plugin, PowerVR plugin, Qualcomm plugin. Place these files in the root of your SD card, and install them through Chainfire 3D. Then, reboot, and fire up your favorite Tegra 2 game! (Note: not all will work).Mobile Terminal (Free)-
This terminal... is... a mobile Linux terminal. Free and useful, depending on who you are. You can go as far as to install a Linux distro with it (which is what I've done
).adbWireless (Free)- This might be a good one for our devs out there! It allows you to access the ADB interface, wirelessly.
Hope this helped!
More to come, maybe. Feel free to add your own in the comments!
