Social & News Screen – Best android ICS apps + widgets

This post is a part of the Best Android ICS home screens series.
Just email your best to android@all tricks 
to get featured.

Social and News screen:

  

pandora:Search for favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a “station” that plays their music

Youtube Remote: Turn your Android device into a YouTube remote control. Visit youtube.com/leanback, log in, and YouTube Remote will automatically connect!
Schemer: Discover everything worth doing, from Google. Explore a new city, check out a friend’s movie recommendation, or just find new activities for your weekends,
Vevo: Discover, watch & share your favorite music videos wherever you want, whenever you want.
Listen: Podcast search, subscribe, download and streaming app. Don’t forget to add ITConversations.
Currents: Beautiful magazine-like editions on your smartphone for high speed offline reading.
NPR News: The portable NPR and public radio station player for your Android.
Pulse: A beautiful application that makes reading news fun and engaging.
The usual suspects, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Foursquare.
And to top it off,
Any.do Widget: Easy task management. Syncs todos with gmail tasks too.
Beautiful Widgets Background: A Live background that reflects the live weather and time outside. Also, the grass waves as you twist your phone.
ADW Launcher: ADW launcher gets you back to a customizable home screen, with a buttery smooth, vertically scrolling app deck.

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1digg HOW TO Root Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360 running Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread

Samsung Galaxy Y has been announced recently and is obviously a low end Android phone, similar to LG Optimus Me P350. It’s a budget phone which comes with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with 3 inch Capacitive Display. It has a faster processor of 823 MHz which you might not get in other phones at this price. In this tutorial I will tell you how to root Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360 easily. All you need to do is follow the steps given below.  For better understanding I have also included a video at the end of the post. After you have rooted Samsung Galaxy Y you can install custom ROM and if you’re lucky, you might even be able to install Ice Cream Sandwich on Samsung Galaxy Y at a later stage.

What is Rooting?

Rooting is a process by which you can access system files of your Android OS. After rooting Samsung Galaxy Y, you can install applications which require access to these system files. It becomes necessary if you wish to customize your Android device and also install custom ROMs like CyanogenMod ROMs which are highly customizable and have a better performance than the stock ROMs.

Why Should You Root Samsung Galaxy Y?

Rooting has quite a lot of advantages. If you are a tru Geek, you would love rooting your device. A few top advantages of rooting are

• Rooting lets you customize your phone in a better way.
• Install Custom ROMs to improve the performance.
• Remove System apps which you do not need and hence free up space
• Convert the file system of current RFS to the faster ext4 file formats
• Convert Downloaded apps to system Apps

Why Should You Not Root Samsung Galaxy Y?

There are not many reasons for you not to root Samsung Galaxy Y except the fact that your device’s warranty gets void. Usually all manufacturers provide a warranty of one year for the devices and they do not allow one to root the device and access system files. However, Android is an open source OS and hence there exists rooting! Also, you can unroot Samsung Galaxy Y later in case you wish to make use of your device’s warranty.

Prerequisites

Before you root Samsung Galaxy Y, you need to back up your phone’s data. You can back up your contacts to the SD Card and to back up your Applications you can use ASTRO File Manager. In case you need to reset your phone, you can make use of the back up files to restore those applications.

Disclaimer: BlogoTech is not responsible for any damage that might be caused to your device during this process though the possibility of any damage is negligible. Try this at your own risk. Also note, rooting your phone will void your warranty.

Steps to Root Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360

Follow these steps below to root Samsung Galaxy Y:

1. Download Update.zip
2. Copy the downloaded file to the root of your SD Card via USB Cable or any other method according to your convenience.
3. Turn of your Samsung Galaxy Y
4. Reboot into recover mode by pressing Home button + Volume up button and Power button for 20 seconds.
5. When you are in recovery mode, select “Update from SD Card”.
6. Now select Update.zip (the zip file you downloaded in step 1) and execute it by pressing the home button.
7. Now your phone will be rooted after which you can select the reboot option.
8. After this, your phone is rooted. I recommend you to download BusyBox from the Android Market after you have rooted your phone.

Isn’t that quite an easy way to root Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360? Let me know if you face any issues
If you wish to buy Samsung Galaxy Y, you can buy it from Dialaphone.

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Steps to Root Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830

Root Samsung Galaxy ACE 5830

Did you know that you could easily root your Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 running on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread DDKQ5 or DDKQ6? But before we continue, let me suggest that you check your firmware version first. To do this simply go to Settings > About Phone > Firmware Version. You can find valuable information on what type of firmware version your device has by following the said procedure

What is Rooting?

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with rooting, it is like jailbreaking your phone to support neat new features normally not found on a smartphone. You can make your phone run faster, install custom ROMs, and install (sideload) applications from third-party sources once you gain root access on your device.

But you have to keep in mind that rooting your device could mean voiding its warranty. Although, there is usually the option of unrooting your device by updating it with a stock ROM. Overall, rooting can be a win-win situation.

Things to Consider Before the Rooting Process:

• Remember to back-up your files as a precautionary measure just in case your phone data, call log, text messages, and media files get erased in the process.
• Your phone should be at least 60% charged before proceeding with the rooting process.
• Enable USB Debugging on your phone by going to Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging.
• You must close all potentially conflicting applications on your computer such as antivirus software, Samsung Kies PC Suite, and firewall software, as they tend to disrupt or block the rooting process. You also need to uninstall/remove unnecessary applications that cause your phone delays.

Steps to Root Procedures:

1. Download the latest Galaxy ACE Rooting Package to your computer. Get the file here (about 925 KB).
2. Have your phone connected to your computer via USB cable.
3. Make a copy of the downloaded ZIP file to your phone’s SD card without renaming or modifying the file.
4. Turn off your phone and reboot into recovery mode by simultaneously pressing and holding the Volume Up + OK button, and pressing the Power button.
5. Your phone will boot to the recovery mode screen. From here, choose “Install zip from SD Card” and select “Choose Zip from SD”.
6. Locate the ZIP file that you just copied to your SD card (the one named “upd_1.zip”) by using the Volume Up and Volume Down keys. Press the Power button to select it.
7. Wait for about 5 – 10 minutes for the rooting process to finish.
8. Your phone will automatically reboot once the rooting process is done. If it fails to do so, go back to the main menu by selecting “++++ Go Back ++++” and select “Reboot System Now” to manually reboot your phone.

Congratulations! Your Samsung Galaxy Ace has been successfully rooted. You can now enjoy the benefits of having a rooted device.

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