How to Root the Padfone Infinity [How to]

Possibly the easiest Root method ever.

It's a little bit grandiose calling this a guide really, because to Root your Padfone Infinity all you need do is download and install this app, and then select the 'Gandalf' exploit. Viola! Your Padfone Infinity is Rooted. I had to try the app a couple of times before it gave me the success message, so don't be disheartened if it doesn't take first time.

Big thanks to alephzain from XDA-Developers for this exploit, his original thread is here.

Be sure and donate to him to show your appreciation.

[UPDATE] Immediately after obtaining Root I was notified of a brand new firmware update for the Padfone Infinity, just wanted to let you know that OTA Rootkeeper from the Play Store will allow you to backup and then restore Root after applying the update. Oh, and the update isn't 4.2, in case you were wondering.

[UPDATE] It seems Padfone Infinities bearing the CHT product code cannot be Rooted using this method. The only suggestion I have seen so far to address this is to download a TW product code firmware and flash it to the device, although information on how to flash it is scanty at present. More to come on this when I have more information to share.


If you haven't yet got your Padfone Infinity, Mobicity has them in stock right now and you can grab yours here.

[At Your Own Risk] How to install Jelly Bean to your Huawei MediaPad/T-Mobile Springboard

(Bonus 'beginners guide to Fastboot' included!)

In our MediaPad Rapid Review I mentioned that I was running a near-perfect CM10 build of Jelly Bean on my MediaPad. If you're a present owner of the MediaPad/Springboard, I can imagine that may have grabbed your attention. Since we're giving sorts here at AndroidNZ, you'll find the promised guide for installing the latest flavour of Android on your MediaPad just over the break. 

[At Your Own Risk] How to Root your Huawei MediaPad or T-Mobile Springboard

The Huawei MediaPad, one of the most underrated 'Droids ever made

...and here is the second rapid-fire Root 'guide' for the day. Like the guide for the AT&T SIII this isn't really so much a guide, as a pointer to where to find the Root method, because the method itself is so simple. In fact, I can safely say the MediaPad is the easiest to Root Android device I've ever used. So, if you own a MediaPad, and the thought of Rooting your Android device has always seemed tempting, but just too scary and difficult to try, then this might be just the thing you need to get your first taste.

For reference the T-Mobile Springboard is to all intents and purposes the same device, this guide will also work just as well for those of you packing the carrier-branded version of the MediaPad.

Here is what you'll need:

• A well charged MediaPad
• A microSD card
• One of either of these custom ROMs - take a little look at their threads and decide which looks the best for you - Osimood or HWMod

Once you've got those together you're virtually there, just do the following:

• Use the Huawei "AllBackup" app to back up your apps and data to the external SD card, since installing the Rooted-ROM will wipe your device (if you don't have anything you particularly need to retain post-flash, or you've just unboxed your MediaPad you can just skip this step)
• Extract the zip file the ROM came in, you'll find a folder called "dload" 
• Copy that folder to the root directory of the SD card, insert the card into the MediaPad's card slot
• Restart the MediaPad and follow the onscreen instructions to install the ROM (Note:  If the update doesn't start automatically at restart, then restart again and additionally press and hold the Volume+ button)
• When it is finished it will prompt you to remove the SD card or press the power button to exit the update utility and reboot the device - use the remove SD card option (everytime I've been in set-up, even including when it came fresh out of the box, it has crashed during set-up, and if the card is still in that will cause it to re-do the ROM install)
• While the SD card is removed delete the dload folder before putting it back in the device, that way if you do happen to get a random restart on your MediaPad you don't re-flash the ROM and wipe everything again (!)

Congrats, your MediaPad is Rooted.

Yes, it really was that simple.

Honestly, you're finished. All done here.

Are you still here? 

Well, in that case let me recommend installing this custom kernel, which lets you do two great things for your MediaPad. Firstly, it allows you to overclock the MediaPad CPU cores to 1.5GHz, which gives performance a really nice bump (Sensation users, on the same SoC the MediaPad possesses, have demonstrated this is a very safe long term clock speed). It also fixes the difficult touch screen sensitivity of the MediaPad on its stock kernel, probably the most vexing fault on an otherwise excellent Android tablet.

[Notes: There is a more up to date version of the boot.img file out there, but it'll be a couple of days before I can get a download link for it - this version is perfectly functional though. Secondly here is the original thread at XDA, just be aware that the dev has now narrowed the kernels focus to CM9/AOSP builds for the MediaPad, so you shouldn't try and flash the downloads currently in the thread]

To install the kernel you're going to need to be able to use Fastboot, but that's a matter for another guide on another day (and hopefully another editor, if I can twist his arm hard enough). If you want to widen your Android-horizons in the meantime, why not make a start on some reading about Fastboot here, and here. You might even feel empowered enough to try it on your own!

How to Root your Nexus 7

It's been with us since last Thursday.... Of course it was Rooted day one!

UPDATE 22/7/12 - Official ClockworkMod Recovery available, read on for details

It seems that the Nexus 7 will be arriving to peoples doorsteps at any minute, with shipping having already started on select pre-orders. Users after our own hearts here at AndroidNZ will no doubt be wondering how they can Root the device as soon as it comes out of the box, and like usual we're here to tell you how to do it. Make to jump to see how to makes your Nexus 7 truly yours...

[At Your Own Risk] ROM Release: AndroidME v1.2 Galaxy Nexus GSM

Hi everyone!

This is pretty exciting day here at AndroidNZ, not just because we've posted a great guide to Rooting your brand spanking new Nexus 7, and will be posting the first part of our "real-user" review later tonight, but also because we're able to announce that we'll now be hosting some custom ROM goodness right here at the blog. If you've been living under a rock it may have escaped your notice that a talented ROM developer joined our writing crew a little while back - none other than CdTDroid of AndroidME ROM fame! [Sorry Chris, I know you'll be squirming at being praised publically like that when you get to reading it, but your many fans will back me up here - Ed]. Anyways, without interfering with his ROM post any longer, make the jump to grab yourself AndroidMe v1.1 for your Galaxy Nexus!

[At Your Own Risk] How to play Dead Trigger with ALL Tegra 3 graphics on your Galaxy SII, Note, Nexus, or SIII (Bonus Dead Trigger Sixaxis profile!)

Screenshot from Dead Trigger taken from my SIII, but where did those 'Tegra 3 exclusive'
water effects come from? Read on, you know you want to know how...

We're always up for providing a quick how-to here at AndroidNZ, particularly when it lets us work around artificial restrictions placed on our devices. Naturally in this instance I'm talking about those Tegra-3 'exclusive' graphical extras that we're meant to miss out on in Madfingergames latest zombie frag-fest Dead Trigger, despite having perfectly capable hardware.

If you read part two of our Galaxy SIII review you'll know exactly how I feel about Tegra-exclusivity, and you'll also be aware that even with Root and Chainfire 3D, Tegra-3 versions of titles aren't working with our Galaxy SIIIs (and if you haven't read the review piece you'd better make a start, part two is nearly 9,000 words long and you want to finish it before the next part goes live, right?!).

Or at least, that's how things were when I wrote that part of the review.

You see, as of now we can avail ourselves of those lovely Tegra-3 graphics in Dead Trigger. I wish I could report that this was via an update to Chainfire 3D, as that might give hope of unlocking those other Tegra-3 exclusives for us, but sadly the news isn't quite that good. Nevertheless, it is still quite good news, since apart from actually working, the method for enabling the extra graphical touches in Dead Trigger is, well, dead-simple (many thanks to SnakeHaveYou at XDA for bringing this to light for us).

In fact, it's so simple that there isn't really much to the guide that follows at all. That being the case I thought I had better add a sweetener, and this time it's a Sixaxis Controller Touch Emulation profile for you to download...

Oh, and if you saw the [At Your Risk] moniker and wondered what risks might be involved here, you can exhale now - the worst you can do is wipe your present game progress (and even then only if you're a muppet).

Read on!

[At Your Own Risk] Galaxy SIII video demo & guide for how to play NOVA 3 with a wireless PS3 controller

So, as promised here is that little video demonstration and guide for how to play NOVA 3 (or almost any game that doesn't natively support gamepads, for that matter) with a PS3 controller over bluetooth.

Naturally as this one comes with the [At Your Own Risk] moniker, Root privileges are required. If you haven't Rooted your Galaxy SIII yet, it's super-easy, and we even have a wonderfully easy to follow guide right here. Before you do that however, be sure to familiarise yourself with our standard weasel-words disclaimer at the beginning of this piece. If you can't be bothered reading the disclaimer, and want to foolishly plow into things without understanding what you're up to, be aware that our disclaimer is fairly dire, and we mean every word of it (even the bit about pointing and laughing at you, Nelson styles). That said we don't publish any guides requiring Root privileges here at AndroidNZ that we haven't personally road tested, so there is that.

If you happen to be making your first steps in the world of Rooting, modding, hacking and generally making your Android device truly yours, you should probably also check out our guide to backing up your shiny toy before getting any further.

Anyways, make the jump and join us after the break where we have the video demo and guide, and also a download link for the Sixaxis Controller touch emulation profile that I use in the video to put directly on your device if it all seems a bit much.

[IMPORTANT UPDATE - DO NOT UPGRADE TO ICS - RISK OF HARDBRICK] Samsung Galaxy Note: ICS installation guide, detailed impressions with video walkthrough [At Your Own Risk]

Up until a few days ago I was really beginning to worry that Samsung wasn't on track with it's release schedule for bringing ICS to the Galaxy Note. I'd been watching leaked ICS ROMs come to the Galaxy S II with an alarming frequency for weeks and weeks, but nothing for the Note. Given Samsung seem to be as leaky as a sieve when it comes to keeping their firmwares in-house, this just made me think the Note might have been getting a bit neglected. Fortunately those fears have proven unfounded, as an ICS build for the Note leaked a couple of days ago. Naturally I flashed it ASAP, I mean, what's a self-respecting Android geek to do?

The video above is a walkthrough through some of the highlights and lowlights of this early build [Spoiler alert: it's nearly all highlights]. After the break I throw down a few more thoughts, and, possibly more importantly, lay out how you can flash this onto your own Note.

...and trust me, you'll want to.

[How To] fix push notifications in Facebook for Android

But it doesn't have to!

Hello friends, did you know that Facebook for Android includes push notifications for wall posts, comments, and event invites? Did you know they don’t work properly?
I’m willing to bet that most of you, dear readers, are familiar with the reasonably bare bones official Facebook application provided for Android devices and its fundamentally broken notification system, so today I’m going to tell you how to make it a whole lot better.

The solution is rather unorthodox, but it gets the job done. Turn to page 2 to find out what happens after the jump, because we’re going to get a little help from a Blackberry.

[At your own risk] How to get ICS bar buttons on the ASUS eee Pad Transformer

Pre-requisites:

• Rooted device
• CWM recovery
• External storage (Micro SD card)

More and more ICS "stuff" is becoming available, and today I found the guys (and girls) at XDA had found a way to get ICS bar buttons on the ASUS eee Pad Transformer. Reportedly for every 3.x iteration of Honeycomb.

The following image might be what you have right now, depending on whether you've reverted to the Xoom buttons or have a different ROM:

So what's involved you ask? Follow along for the instructions, it's fairly easy and painless.

[At your own risk] How to get Gmail for ICS on your Honeycomb device

If you saw our coverage of the Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0 and you were wondering how you can get that fancy new Gmail app on your Honeycomb tablet, you've come to the right place.


Thanks to some folks over at XDA you can now get the brand spanking new Gmail app which allows you to swipe between emails as well as sync up to 30 days of emails to make it available for searching offline.

If you want to install this bad boy on your tablet then keep reading.

Swype updates to 3.26 – and [How To] get it on your Galaxy S II

Ah, Swype. Some swear by it, others hate it with a passion. It’s been in the news lately, what with being acquired by Nuance for over 100 million US dollars and all  and today the beta program made the jump to version 3.26. If a run-down of new features and a how-to for the you-too sound like your bag, read on after the jump.

[How To] Use a mail forwarding service to have electronics shipped to you anywhere in the world

Strep throat sucks. Especially man-strep throat. I couldn't get to sleep because of a fever, so I thought I would post something. Fingers crossed what follows is coherent, and not just febrile raving.

I know this piece is really only peripherally Android related, but I thought a guide on how to circumvent US shipping restrictions by online retailers might be appreciated by our readership, given that those restrictions most often apply to electronics. 

I tend to do this quite a bit, for example it's how I got my Sandisk 64GB micro SDXC card from their US online store. It's also how I made a tidy profit selling an N900 that I'd purchased from Amazon at a crazily cheap pre-order price. Bottom line: sometimes it's cheaper to get things from the States, and sometimes you can only get things from the States. When either of these circumstances is the case, it's nice to have the option.

Everything you need to know is past the break.