youdoofus
Android Expert
If any of you read this and say, "well no kidding", im not trying to insult anyones intelligence by any means. I am only trying to clear up any doubts in peoples minds who might be saying to themselves "i think that a ____ is such and such" and are unsure.
Ill edit this if people have some helpful suggestions as to what to add/remove/reword as this is a WIP
Root: This can mean 2 things
1: The process by which you gain whats known as "superuser" access (similar to "admin privileges" on a personal computer). Superuser access is what you need to do many things such as, removing apps that come with your phone that the carrier(i.e. Sprint) wont let you, or installing custom ROMS/kernels.
2: The very highest level on your storage drive. Sometimes you need to put a file on the "root of your sd card" that means not in any folder. In computer terms, think of it like this. You have your c: drive, right? If you were to put an .MP3 file on the "root of your c: drive" (and the file is the song Skrillexs' "Kill Everybody") called "Kill_Everybody.MP3", then it would look like this c:\Kill_Everybody.MP3
ROM: The operating system on which your phone relies for it to work. Similar to what Windows is to your PC (God forbid youre using a mac for anything other than target practice or a paperweight LoL jk)
Kernel: The piece of software that your phone uses as an intermediary between the rom and the hardware (processor, GPU, ram, cameras, radios(wether it be 3G, LTE or even the lowly 1x) etc etc) There are many developers who solely focus on these, as they can GREATLY increase the speed/snappiness of your device, and the stock ones usually leave much room for improvement.
Recovery: The system used by your device to install things such as the operating system itself, the kernel, software to run the radios, wipe caches (both the standard cache and the dalvik cache) and bake backups which youll commonly see referred to as "nands" or "nandroids"
PRL: Preferred Roaming List. This is a file that resides on your phone that tells it which transceivers to talk to and in which hierarchy. You will see many iterations of "this is the newest/best PRL" But this info is VERY time sensitive as new transceivers are being added all the time, and if you have an old list(i.e. PRL) then your phone isnt even aware that the new hardware on the towers exists, therefore wont connect to it. (sidenote - just because its the newest PRL doesnt mean its the best one for you and where you live as Sprint can change the hierarchy with every iteration and the newest transceiver might not be as reliable as the older, heavier duty ones that have been there since Jesus walked the earth)
Transceiver: a radio device that can both send and recieve information
Radio: Google says this. The transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves of radio frequency, esp. those carrying sound messages. Only in our scenario, you want to change "sound waves" to a far more general term, such as "information" Your phone has a 3G "radio" in it. It also has the following, an LTE radio, one for WIFI, bluetooth, and 1x.
APK: APKs are the file type used in the android environment to run applications. The stuff you download from google play, like the facebook program, or youtube, or even angrybirds are all APKs. They are very similar to .exe files used in windows systems
Widget: basically a method the phone uses to have some parts of an apk always running at minimal levels to give you info from the full service apk. For example, if you have the facebook widget running, itll likely give you comment updates or friend request info even tho the full apk isnt running. The thing to remember about widgets is that they are always running partially. Yes, its nice to have the feed info always there, but it comes with a sacrifice to your battery life.
Launcher: The launcher is the touch interface that basically dictates the look/layout/feel of your operating system. Touchwiz comes with its own built in launcher that looks and feels a certain way, you can make your phone feel totally customized and look tweaked as all hell by merely installing and playing around with a combination of a launcher and widgets. Some launchers that are hot items nowadays are Nova, Apex and Go. When you install them, they basically change the entire look of your homescreens, and are easily enough removed if you want to go back to the stock look.
Theme: Themes for phones are a way to make it something unique to you. They can be made from scratch (which takes some work) or there are many in the market that can be merely applied. Go Launcher has a myriad of themes that chance the base color scheme and icons on your homescreens and they even have seasonal ones i.e. Halloween, xmas, 4th of july etc etc. Many are free in the market and are very easy to apply/remove. If you care to delve into the world of making your own for a truly custom experience, check out the online theme kitchen here http://uot.dakra.lt/kitchen/
Ill edit this if people have some helpful suggestions as to what to add/remove/reword as this is a WIP
Root: This can mean 2 things
1: The process by which you gain whats known as "superuser" access (similar to "admin privileges" on a personal computer). Superuser access is what you need to do many things such as, removing apps that come with your phone that the carrier(i.e. Sprint) wont let you, or installing custom ROMS/kernels.
2: The very highest level on your storage drive. Sometimes you need to put a file on the "root of your sd card" that means not in any folder. In computer terms, think of it like this. You have your c: drive, right? If you were to put an .MP3 file on the "root of your c: drive" (and the file is the song Skrillexs' "Kill Everybody") called "Kill_Everybody.MP3", then it would look like this c:\Kill_Everybody.MP3
ROM: The operating system on which your phone relies for it to work. Similar to what Windows is to your PC (God forbid youre using a mac for anything other than target practice or a paperweight LoL jk)
Kernel: The piece of software that your phone uses as an intermediary between the rom and the hardware (processor, GPU, ram, cameras, radios(wether it be 3G, LTE or even the lowly 1x) etc etc) There are many developers who solely focus on these, as they can GREATLY increase the speed/snappiness of your device, and the stock ones usually leave much room for improvement.
Recovery: The system used by your device to install things such as the operating system itself, the kernel, software to run the radios, wipe caches (both the standard cache and the dalvik cache) and bake backups which youll commonly see referred to as "nands" or "nandroids"
PRL: Preferred Roaming List. This is a file that resides on your phone that tells it which transceivers to talk to and in which hierarchy. You will see many iterations of "this is the newest/best PRL" But this info is VERY time sensitive as new transceivers are being added all the time, and if you have an old list(i.e. PRL) then your phone isnt even aware that the new hardware on the towers exists, therefore wont connect to it. (sidenote - just because its the newest PRL doesnt mean its the best one for you and where you live as Sprint can change the hierarchy with every iteration and the newest transceiver might not be as reliable as the older, heavier duty ones that have been there since Jesus walked the earth)
Transceiver: a radio device that can both send and recieve information
Radio: Google says this. The transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves of radio frequency, esp. those carrying sound messages. Only in our scenario, you want to change "sound waves" to a far more general term, such as "information" Your phone has a 3G "radio" in it. It also has the following, an LTE radio, one for WIFI, bluetooth, and 1x.
APK: APKs are the file type used in the android environment to run applications. The stuff you download from google play, like the facebook program, or youtube, or even angrybirds are all APKs. They are very similar to .exe files used in windows systems
Widget: basically a method the phone uses to have some parts of an apk always running at minimal levels to give you info from the full service apk. For example, if you have the facebook widget running, itll likely give you comment updates or friend request info even tho the full apk isnt running. The thing to remember about widgets is that they are always running partially. Yes, its nice to have the feed info always there, but it comes with a sacrifice to your battery life.
Launcher: The launcher is the touch interface that basically dictates the look/layout/feel of your operating system. Touchwiz comes with its own built in launcher that looks and feels a certain way, you can make your phone feel totally customized and look tweaked as all hell by merely installing and playing around with a combination of a launcher and widgets. Some launchers that are hot items nowadays are Nova, Apex and Go. When you install them, they basically change the entire look of your homescreens, and are easily enough removed if you want to go back to the stock look.
Theme: Themes for phones are a way to make it something unique to you. They can be made from scratch (which takes some work) or there are many in the market that can be merely applied. Go Launcher has a myriad of themes that chance the base color scheme and icons on your homescreens and they even have seasonal ones i.e. Halloween, xmas, 4th of july etc etc. Many are free in the market and are very easy to apply/remove. If you care to delve into the world of making your own for a truly custom experience, check out the online theme kitchen here http://uot.dakra.lt/kitchen/
ok, you will really see a difference in the battery life if you overclock this thing and not many other places. The processing capabilities of this device are mind numbing and i seriously doubt that the need for overclocking yet exists. No apk nor rom uses enough system resources to tap this thing out as of yet. The older phones like the evo, moto x, original galaxy s, thunderbolt etc etc etc might benefit from it due to the limitations of their single 1GHZ processors, but this thing has dual 1.5's and youre gonna be really having to try super hard to max out their capabilities man
